The Bedtime story
~ Chapter 1~
"Daddy?" Carolee peered at her father on the other side of the room, from under her worn pink comforter.
Donatello looked up from his latest project that he had been obsessing over and looked at his daughter. "Hmm? Pumpkin?" he said trying to focus on the squirming bundle a few feet away
"Daddy will you tell me how you and mommy met?" She asked this almost every night, practically since she could talk.
Donatello sighed as he stood up, and weaved his way to her through his projects, finally he got to the "edge" of his lab, and the start of her "vary own special place." Really it was just a section of his lab that had been converted into Carolee's room. Tip-toeing through her many dolls that had been left out after a very loud game of ninja's verses zombie dolls, Donatello made it to his daughters bed and sat down. "Again? You could probably tell it to me better than I could tell it to you." He looked at her, hoping that this time she would just give up early. Instead all he saw was the pleading in Carolee's eyes that a doting father had no power against. There was a long pause, sighing he said, "Scoot over."
"Yay!" she exclaimed moving her legs and plumping up her pillow.
Donatello settled in and let the memory wash over him: the sights the sounds and the feel of hard concrete beneath his pounding feet.
The turtles had been on a nightly patrol somewhere over in the south end of the city, jumping from rooftop to rooftop unnoticed. Leonardo was naturally in the lead, followed closely by Raphael and Michelangelo. Donatello came in last because he had stayed up late the night before on a secret project that had consumed all of his free working hours and most of his sleeping ones.
Leonardo had stopped and was bent over the side of a building overlooking a dark alleyway. He held up a fist telling everyone to stop, they all crouched and crawled over to him surveying the darkness. The alleyway was dark, and the shapes were hard to make out. However, a voice rang out which drew the attention of all four turtles immediately. It was Dragon Face—not a particularly smart thug, but he had presence and all of his gang feared him.
The four brothers could see that Dragon face had cornered two young girls. One stood about 5'5/ 5'6 and the other slightly shorter at 5'3/ 5'4. The taller one had shoved her companion behind her against the alley wall in an attempt to shield her. Her companion didn't like that, she looked like she was struggling to get out from behind the woman in front of her.
Dragon face had just finished breathing out the kind words that would've made anyone's hair stand on end. "Wha're ya two ladies doin' alone on a beau'iful nigh' like ta'night?" He brushed the back of his hand against the taller girl's cheek. Dragon Face laughed cruelly, closely followed by chuckles and muffled laughs emanating from his pack of goons.
She let go of her companion and swatted Dragon Face's hand away looking straight at him. The movement allowed just enough space so that her companion could "escape".
The shorter of the two girls shoved Dragon Face back a few feet in defiance, to his surprise. "Don't touch her you creep!" She spat at him.
Slightly stunned that a girl had just shoved him and called him a creep, he looked at her for a second or two while everyone held their breath waiting to see what he would do. Recovering quickly he backhanded her across the face, knocking her to the ground, "Shut up!" he bellowed.
Her companion gasped and knelt next to her. "Mike, are you ok?" she asked whispering, putting a hand on the girl's shoulder.
Donatello glanced over at his brother in orange. Strange name for a girl… he thought.
The girl that had been knocked to the ground nodded to her sister's inquiry and slowly stood up. Looking straight at Dragon Face she practically growled at him, "I'll forgive you for that just this once seeing how you don't look all too bright. You have no idea who you're messing with, so let me enlighten you." She stalked forward into the light of a street lamp that was casting its glow down the alleyway. "You know I never thought that I would meet someone so stupid in my entire life, what's your plan? Take my money, beat me until I can't fight back, rape me and then leave me to die? That's all well and good accept you never would have guessed that I am a double black belt in karate, and my sister is the third time national champion in street fighting. Touch me again and you won't have time to yell for mommy because you will have already been dead for minutes. Got it, punk?"
"Tough words for a girly, you're bluffin', you don' have a double black bel' in nuthin, you're just a short scared little whelp." Dragon face said a little less confidently. He had obviously never been spoken to like that, or threatened by his prey before.
During this exchange, Raphael who was squatting beside Donatello whistled quietly saying, "That's a pretty bold bluff. They are either who she says they are or she is hoping that the threat will scare them off. Is she stupid or smart?"
Michelangelo looked over at him grinning, "She kinda' reminds me of someone, eh Raphael?
"Guys quiet!" Leonardo shushed them, then he continued, "Smart or dumb, I won't take the chance they might be able to handle themselves. And besides, who leaves two girls to fight by themselves? How about we give them a hand?"
The answer to his question was the silence as they all sprang into action surrounding and making their way down to the two cornered girls. Michelangelo and Leonardo boxed in the whole crowd and started to take them down from the outside. Donatello took the inside pushing his way out, and Raphael jumped in between Dragon face and his prey.
The taller girl took advantage of the distraction, without really having seen their rescuers. She grabbed onto her sister and dragged her back to the safety of the wall hissing, "Are you nuts! Mike, that wasn't funny or brave! You're officially insane, what if these guys hadn't showed up? We'd be in serious trouble, we can't fight worth squat."
Her sister wasn't paying any attention to her at all she was watching the fight intently. "Don, shut up for a minute and take a look at the guys who are saving us! I'm freaking out here—they aren't supposed to be real!"
"What are you talking about and don't change the— look out!" She shoved her sister out of the way just an unconscious goon came flying through the air knocking her into the wall hard.
The smaller girl had landed on the ground from the shove, and she rolled over, glancing at her sister and realized she had been knocked unconscious, she crawled over to her and tried to roll the thug off of her but the guy must have been four time her size. When that didn't work she tried a different tactic, placing her back against the wall she shoved the guy slowly off of her sister with her legs. She checked to see if her sister was breathing and if her pulse was strong, satisfied she was just unconscious she looked up. The four turtles had by now pummeled almost all of the gang members into a pile in the middle of the alleyway. They still battled with a few of the stragglers.
"Hey!" she yelled at the four turtles, "would you watch were you are throwing your trash! For people who aren't supposed to be real, you are strong. Steroids are really bad for you, you know!" Her voice was steadily climbing into hysterics as what was happening slowly sunk in. She and her sister were being attacked by New York's most wanted, and being saved by creatures she grew up watching in cartoons!
Looking down at her sister she tried to breathe evenly and focus on keeping them both alive at the moment. She could deal with the rest later.
Donatello fought his way over toward the two girls, something that the shorter sister had said bothering him. "What do you mean 'for people that aren't supposed to be real'?"
His brother's hadn't heard him.
"Well that's gratitude for ya." Raphael said with a grunt, as he parried a blow from a pipe with his sai.
"She is just scared; look at her she is paler than any one I have ever seen!" Michelangelo chortled ducking a side swipe from a baseball bat and roundhouse kicking a thug in the face sending him reeling.
"That and it didn't help that you dropped three hundred pounds of fat on her sister, way to go Raph" Leonardo chimed in as he bashed a guy in the head with the butt of his katana, putting him out cold.
The shorter sister yelled, "Uh she has a name, and that name is Mike, so stop calling me she, and don't talk about me like I'm deaf, I hate that."
"Whoa, Raph you might have a little competition, she—I mean Mike has a fiery mouth." Leonardo said with a grin on his face.
"Ok that's really weird… Has anyone else noticed their names? It's creeping the shell out of me. Anyone?" Michelangelo raised his hand like he was voting.
Donatello got over to the injured and scared girls just as the last thugs were being piled together. He could see a pool of blood next to the unconscious girls head. Lifting it up he found broken beer bottles and bricks, she was bleeding pretty badly, and it wouldn't be easy to stop the bleeding. Head wounds bled bad, this one was no exception.
"HOLY COW!" she yelled as she looked down at all of the blood. "What the heck happened? She wasn't bleeding a minute ago! Don, do something, quick!" She yelled desperately as her hands fluttered uselessly at her sisters head.
Donatello took off his thick hoody that he had been wearing and shredded it tying it around the girls head.
"That's the best I can do here, we need to get somewhere I can see her, and I don't have the right tools with me, she needs stitches." Looking up at Leonardo, Donatello waited to see what his brother wanted to do
"We will drop them off at the hospital, that's the best we can do for them." He said looking back towards the street.
"Oh no you don't." The shorter girl said, "Look, we are in a strange city, and we don't know how we got here. You are the only people who aren't strangers to us, and I trust you completely. My sister is hurt, we have no money, and we need your help getting home. Please, please...Don't leave us at a hospital."
The brothers glanced at each other wondering the same questions. What do we do with them, and how do they know us?
"Don?" Leo said Donatello's name like it was a question.
Donatello knew what he had meant, "I can help her, and we need to move fast, she won't last very long even with my makeshift tourniquet."
Leonardo nodded in agreement, "Raph take the girl Mike, and Don carry… Don." He said wrinkling his nose.
"Everyone jumped into action, and a few minutes later we were all down the closest manhole."
An untimely gasp interrupted the storey.
"You had mommy with you right?" Carolee burst out, already knowing the answer but still checking to make sure.
Donatello chuckled. Then he opened his eyes really wide in mock-shock. "Oh no! I think I left mommy behind this time!"
Carolee looked horrified, "Daddy!" she squealed.
Donatello held up his hands and laughed, "You're right. I didn't forget mommy."
Carolee blew out her breath and melted back into her pillows. "Daddy I was scared, that wasn't very nice."
"I know, I'm sorry," he said, turning stern, "Now pumpkin, I might have to finish the story tomorrow night, unless you promise to be quiet."
Carolee copied her father's serious features, "I promise." With that she mimed zipping her mouth shut, locking it, and throwing away her invisible key.
Donatello smiled at his daughter and heaved a great sigh, "Ok, so where was I…?"