Thank you to those who left kind reviews...I know, Raph IS a bully, hey? I'm away for the weekend, but here's a chapter to tide you over, and please feel free to review I love hearing from my readers :D
"Mikey!" the brother's screamed, their voices gripped with panic. They rushed to the water's edge, but there was no sign of him. Leo leapt into the swelling water.
"Be careful!" shouted Donnie. They had climbed out of the water pretty quickly before. It was a thrill to jump into, but the waters were rough and swimming was difficult to sustain. Leo fought against the current on the surface, took a deep breath, and dived down. Raph and Donnie stared intently, and a few moments later Leo resurfaced, gasping.
"I don't see him!" he yelled, his body beaten by the hard rush of water. Fear gripped him. Mikey was the weakest swimmer among them.
"I'm comin' in!" said Raph, and braced himself to jump in, when something caught Donnie's eye further down the tunnel. The top of a shell, pressed up against a grate about twenty feet away.
"There!" he said, taking off at a run. Raph came behind and Leo swam, propelled by the swift current, kicking rapidly to increase his speed.
They came to the end of the tunnel, where the water rushed through a grate and down even further into the underbelly of New York. Mikey was pressed up against the slimy bars, face down in the water. Leo grabbed him and dragged him to the ledge, where Raph and Donnie hauled him out. Laying flat on his shell, Mikey was motionless, his orange mask swept off somewhere in the tide. Donnie pressed an ear against his plastron.
"He's not breathing!"
"Do something!"
Donnie began CPR, but the stiff, protective plastron made it difficult. Donnie pressed hard and was soon covered in beads of sweat. He breathed into Mikey's mouth and pressed harder.
"Breath, Mikey, breath..." Leo urged. Raph's eyes were wide with fear, and his lip was red from where he bit it hard.
Another agonizing minute passed, each second a painful eternity, but just as Donnie was becoming exhausted, Mikey finally coughed. Water choked him and Donnie rolled him onto his side, the water in his lungs pouring out and pooling on the cement. It seemed Mikey had inhaled a river himself. He wheezed and took ragged breaths that sounded like metal dragging against razor wire.
"Mikey, oh my god, Mikey?! Are you okay?" Leo pressed, moving forward as Donnie sat back, breathing hard. Mikey rolled back onto his back, dazed, his chest heaving and beginning to bruise. Raph felt waves of relief as he watched his brother breathe.
"Mikey, come on...speak to me..." Leo said, holding Mikey's hands in his. Mikey still looked confused, and they watched as realization hit him. Mikey began to sob.
"No, no, it's okay...it's alright..." Leo said soothingly, placing a hand on Mikey's cheek.
"You're safe now," said Donnie, leaning forward, although tears had pricked in his eyes too. Raph stood, not knowing what to do. The initial feeling of relief had passed and now he felt guilty and angry and scared again. Mikey seemingly couldn't stop crying. He seemed like he was trying to talk, but every time his voice was stolen by another sob.
"Mikey?" Raph asked, nervously. Something wasn't right. The fear knotted again in Raph's stomach.
"What is it, what's wrong?" Leo asked, confused.
"M-my...my leg!" Mikey wailed. The brother's, still clutching Mikey's hands and head, turned, and Raph looked down, Mikey's right leg was badly broken, sticking out at a painful looking angle below the knee. The boys gasped, they hadn't even noticed at first!
"Hold him down!" Donnie ordered. Leo placed Mikey's head in his lap, and pressed down against his shoulders, trying to stammer that it would be okay, but trembling himself. Donnie looked at Mikey's leg. He was still learning about medicine, but it didn't take a genius to know that Mikey's shin bone was almost completely snapped.
"We have to splint it," he said, above Mikey's crying. "Raph!"
Raph had been completely numb. He blinked.
"Don't just stand there!" Donnie snapped. "Find something to help me bind it!"
Raph stood, dumbounded as Donnie rushed past, looking around for any debris to hold Mikey's leg still.
"You are useless!" Donnie growled. Raph gave his head a shake and snapped out of it.
"Here," he said, weakly. He began unwinding the fabric support strips that bound his hands, that he had left on after training. He thrust them into Donnie's outstretched hand, and knelt down next to his brother's injured leg, which was turning a sickly shade of red and purple at the break site. Donnie had found a few pieces of metal and plastic, garbage that had washed down from the surface and through the falls and was stuck on the grate where Mikey had been caught. Mikey's cries had quieted, although he now whimpered pitifully.
"Leo, hold him real still, 'kay?" Donnie said softly. "Raph, when I say, wrap his leg, and do it quick." Raph nodded, and Leo grabbed one of Mikey's hands.
"Squeeze real hard, little bro," he said.
"Brace yourself..." Donnie said. He grabbed Mikey's leg and pulled it back into alignment.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Mikey wailed, his eyes wide with pain. He kept screaming, squeezing Leo's fingers so hard Leo winced.
"Now, Raph!" Donnie said, holding a straight piece of debris on either side of Mikey's shin. Raph wrapped one fabric strip above the break, and the other below, tying them tightly and trying to ignore the heartbreaking sound coming from his brother's mouth.
"OOOOOWWWWWWW!" Mikey wept, voice hoarse. He tried to sit up, thrashing, to stop his brother's from touching it, but Leo kept him down. Donnie then tied Mikey's whole leg to a wooden plank, damp with sewer water.
"It's okay, bro, we're done," said Donnie, but he sounded hollow. Mikey had gone quiet, and he trembled violently. Donnie looked grave. "He's going into shock. We have to get him home."
"How're we gonna do that?" asked Raph, incredulous and worried. Leo bit his lip, but set his face, determined.
"Carefully," he said, looking older with his serious demeanor. "Raph, grab his good leg, Donnie, hold up the other one. I'll get his arms. One, two, three...lift!"
The three of them lifted their youngest sibling, who made no sound. In fact, he had closed his eyes, grimacing, but seemed to be lapsing into unconciousness. They couldn't climb with him, so they'd have to take the long way back. Leo nodded to the other two, who nodded back, and they started.
Slowly and as gently as possible, they made their way down the labarynthine maze of sewers and tunnels. They connected up to the subway line, and crept onwards, Mikey out completely cold in their arms. All the better, really, as despite their best efforts, Mikey was jostled between them, Donnie half-crouching as he walked to keep his leg steady. They carried him through the damp and the darkness, the lair seeming impossibly far away. By the time they reached their home, they were sweating and exhausted.
Master Splinter, worried by the late hour of his sons' return, was waiting by the abandoned turn stiles, flourescent lights behind him leaking pale white light into the tunnel. He looked angry as he saw the shadowy figures of his sons shuffling home, and opened his mouth to begin to berate them, when he saw them carrying the injured turtle.
"Help, Sensei!" Leo called. Master Splinter ran towards them, and they slumped down, the dead weight of Mikey finally bringing them to their knees. Mikey groaned.
"What happened!?" he demanded, inspecting Mikey with worried eyes. Explanations began tumbling out of his three eldest sons.
"We were at the waterfall-" "-we tried to tell him to go home-" "-he hit the water bad-" "-nearly drowned!" "Sensei, his leg is-" "-it's all Raph's stupid fault!-" "-is not!-""-is too!-"
"SILENCE!" Master Splinter roared. The boys immediately shut their mouths, and bowed their heads, and waited for Master Splinter to give them a verbal lashing, but it didn't come. Master Splinter scooped Mikey up in his arms.
"Michaelangelo, can you hear me my son?" he asked gently. Mikey moaned and opened his eyes. He looked up into his father's face, and cried, too exhausted to wail. Raph turned his head away even more. The tiny, soft cries were almost worse than the howling screams from before.
"It...it h-hurts, Daddy," Mikey whispered. Master Splinter, his face full of sympathy, nodded and shhed him gently and stood up. He walked, cradling Mikey carefully, towards the lair entrance, saying nothing except to signal Donnie to follow him. They turned the corner and disappeared from view. Leo and Raph stood in silence. Finally, Leo spoke.
"Well. I hope you're proud of yourself."
Raph looked up, gaping. Leo stared at the ground in front of him. He couldn't bring himself to look at Raph, he was so angry.
"Leo, I-"
"Save it," Leo growled. "You nearly got him killed."
"Hey! He didn't have to jump!" Raph yelled defensively. "This is NOT my-"
The slap landed on Raph's cheek with a loud snap. Raph yelped and clutched his cheek, stunned. Leo clenched his fist by his side and glared at Raph, dark blue eyes cold and shimmering with anger.
"And why do you think he jumped, hm? Because of you! To prove to you he could! So you wouldn't HATE him! Can't you see how much Mikey looks up to you!?" Before Raph could speak, Leo stormed off to go and check on his brother, leaving Raph holding his stinging cheek, standing alone in the darkness.