Coming to terms: Part 1 Karma

Prologue

I stagger into the lair, exhausted. My teeth are clenched in pain and my brow is set in a deep frown. My red mask hangs loosely around my head, like it's gonna fall from my eyes to my neck at any moment. Blood smears my body, probably from the bullet wound in my left bicep. Christ, it hurts. My arm, it just dangles there, limp and useless.

I pause and look around. Thankfully, none of the others are back yet. Small mercies. Slowly and painfully I make my way to the bathroom. I'm not looking to completely treat my injuries, I just need a quick fix so I can get rest. I put the lid down on the toilet; grab a bandage roll and a hand towel. Wetting the hand towel, I sit down on the lid, and gritting my teeth I begin cleaning it. The bleeding has slowed to just a dribble but when I start to clean it, the pressure makes it worse. Not matter how gentle or careful I am it bleeds more. I know not matter what I did it was gonna hurt but nothing I did helped. I let out a hiss of anger as I throw the blood-soaked hand towel aside.

Don would be able to do this. He would come in clean it as if it was the easiest thing to do without causing this much pain. But Don isn't here; he's probably with Leo, bandaging him up in the gentlest of ways. Stupid Leo.

I pick up the bandage roll, and stop. How the hell I was gonna to do this? My left arm just won't move. I put the start of the bandage in between my bicep and my body, pinning it. Slowly I manage to bandage the wound up.

Shit, shit, shit, shit. I can't believe I let this happened. The pain was worse now I had bandaged but it was better than it being uncovered.

That would have to do for now. Need sleep. I stand up to go to my room when a wave of dizziness hits me. My vision blurs and I feel like I'm gonna fall over. My heart, god it feels like it's gonna explode or something. I grab the wall to steady myself. Soon my vision comes back to me but my heart still hurts. Definitely time for bed.

I make my way to my room. It's pretty simple; I never really wanted to do up. Probably had something to do with the possibility of having the lair destroyed again. Every time I got it just the way I wanted it the lair was destroyed or trashed by Mikey.

If Mikey was here he would be making one of his concoctions for me to eat. To make me "feel better". But from the look on Mikey's face tonight, I doubt he would ever do something like that again.

Finally, my room, my bed. I shut the door to be hidden from prying eyes. Master Splinter's eyes. I don't think I can handle another look of disappointment just now. The sadness that I had brought to my father's eyes was more than I could bear at the moment.

The effort just to get to my room makes another dizzy spell hit me and my vision blurs again. I sag against my bedroom wall suddenly feeling like I had run all the way home instead of slowly walking. I feel like I can't catch my breath, my heart won't stop thumping like mad, I feel hot; I'm sweating like crazy.



Tonight's disaster of an adventure has taken so much out of me, more than I realised. The pain from my injuries was almost at the point of being unbearable.

I slide down the wall until I find myself on the floor, and then one more small mercy is given to me. Unconsciousness comes suddenly bring numbing darkness. But while it takes away the physical pain, it brings back the emotional pain of tonight's disaster...