Chapter Two: Fear
Hey everyone, sorry about the wait. I meant to update sooner but was delayed by school stuff and writer's block. Hopefully I can update quicker in the future.
Disclaimer: Still don't own them *sighs* but I can dream...
"RAPHAEL!" Mikey, who was nearby at the time was horrified as he stared at the pile of rubble that had collapsed onto his older brother. He had seen the whole scene unfold; he saw the black clad ninja throw the Kama at Leo before slamming him into the wall, he felt the tremors as the wall began to collapse and watched as Raph ran towards him pushing him out of the way just as the structure came down on top of him. Mikey saw all of this but was too far away to do anything about it. With a sudden burst of strength that only the peril of a loved one can produce, Michelangelo let loose a barrage of furious blows that left all surrounding Foot ninja unconscious and the others wary to approach him and then ran full force towards his fallen brother. A quick glance around him showed that Donatello had done the same and Leonardo was still half kneeling in his place, staring dazedly at the collapsed wall. The remaining Foot ninja backed away and retreated as the two brothers made their mad dash toward the fallen one.
Both Michelangelo and Donatello reached the wall at the same time and began to work furiously to uncover their brother. It took what seemed like an eternity to remove most of the brick, cement, and other debris from his body but they finally did and let out a simultaneous gasp of horror at what they saw.
Leonardo was still in the same position, staring at but not truly taking in the chaos ensuing around him. His brain was on lock down and his thoughts cycled around in it. 'Oh God, Raph…what happened? Where is he? What have I done? Oh God!' He was finally jarred out of his thoughts by the voice of his baby brother.
"LEONARDO, wake up and get your shell ova here and help all ready!" Now whether it was the urgency of the situation or the harsh tones of the normally bubbly and gentle Mikey's voice that finally snapped Leo out of it is unsure, at any rate he managed to focus on what was occurring in front of him and jumped up to help. Leo ran over to where his three brothers were and skidded to a halt at the sight of Raphael's broken body.
'Oh no Raph…' The red banded turtle was a mess of cuts and bruises, both his eyes were blackened, there was a crack in his plastron where it was struck with a brick, and from the angle of his left arm (which he had fallen on) it was obvious that it was broken. Most troubling however, was the large bloody gash stretching from his right temple to the middle of his forehead. Leo had to physically shake himself from his horror induced stupor as he removed more of the debris covering his brother and readied himself to pick up his unconscious form.
"Wait Leo!" Donnie's strained whisper halted him in his movements. "We have to be very careful when moving him. We don't know what types of internal injuries Raph may have and moving him too quickly or forcefully could exacerbate any existing problems."
"Okay so what do we do?" Mikey's voice was small and fearful.
"I'm gonna have to check him over here first and then we'll take him home and fix him up… Don't worry Mikey, he'll be alright."
"Kay"
Leo and Mike stood silently and watched as Don gently poked and prodded and felt over every inch of Raphael's body. He visibly winced as his finger hooked into the crack on Raph's plastron and his frown deepened as he pressed into the wound confirming his fears that at least one of his brother's ribs was cracked.
"Alright, I think it will be okay to move him now but we have to be very careful not to jar him in any way… He already has at least a couple of broken bones as far as I can tell and I don't want to make it any worse."
"I'll carry him." Both the orange and purple banded turtles jumped at Leo's declaration as these were the first words he had spoken since before the fight began.
"I don't know Leo, Raph is pretty heavy. Do you think you can handle him on your own?" Leo simply nodded a defiant scowl firm on his face and Don sighed but gestured for him to proceed Mike only scowled, his arms crossed tightly across his chest. It was no use arguing about it, Leo was the strongest of the turtles after Raphael of course and neither Don nor Mike wanted to risk causing further injury to their brother by attempting to carry him.
"Just be careful" Mike said shortly, though his look softened as he helped lift Raph's body into Leo's arms. He gently tucked Raph's injured arm close to Leo's plastron to protect it from flapping around as they ran.
The trip back to the lair seemed to take forever; despite Leo's best care, Raph seemed to get paler and paler by the minute and Don kept making everyone stop to check him over periodically. But finally after what seemed like an eternity, they made it back and found Master Splinter waiting for them on the other side of the elevator.
"My sons, I felt a disturbance in your life force while you were out…" He began and immediately stopped at Mikey's troubled face as he led the pack into the lair. Splinter's ears folded back to his skull and a small almost inaudible whimper escaped his lips as he took in the sight of Raphael's body. "Raphael…" He breathed. "My sons, what happened to Raphael?"
"Long story short Master Splinter, a brick wall fell on him." Donatello stated bluntly over his shoulder as he followed Leo into the infirmary. Splinter walked into the room in time to see his blue clad son placing the injured one gently on the bed inside the infirmary and his other two sons instantly crowding around it. "Okay Mikey, you're gonna have to back up a little and give me room to work."
"Fine," came the reluctant answer as Michelangelo moved a couple of feet away from the bed where he stood and fidgeted as he watched his older brother flit around the table anxiously. After a few moments of examining, Don straightened up and turned to the other occupants of the room with a worried scowl on his face.
"Um Master Splinter would you mind giving me a hand here?"
"Certainly my son, what do you need?"
"Mikey and Leo, Master Splinter and I will probably be in here for a little while. Why don't you two go on out for the time being and I'll call you once Raph is cleaned and bandaged up."
"But Don…" Mike's near whining voice was cut off by Leo's worried one.
"Wait is something going on? What's wrong with him Donnie?"
"Just go for now please. I promise that I will call you guys if anything happens."
Mikey and Leo, after a lingering look at their fallen brother, both turned to exit the room. As they did so, the sound of Donatello's voice spouting off a menagerie of medical jargon that neither of them understood reached their ears. Both knew that whatever was going on inside of the infirmary was not good. Leo turned towards Mikey and placed his hand on his shoulder, clearly intending to offer words of comfort to his baby brother but was silenced with a look. Mike shrugged off his brother's hand turned his back to him and stalked over to the entertainment area where he sat down heavily and stared blankly at the television. After a couple of minutes of watching his brother, Leo just sighed and headed toward the dojo, hoping to clear his mind by meditating.
