Chapter 3 - Out of Body Experience
Back at April's apartment, Donatello was pacing nervously around the small kitchen table, his attention never leaving the silent phone that sat in the center. After trying unsuccessfully many times to call all three brothers, it was becoming obvious that something was not right.
"Still nothing. Oh man, oh man…" Donnie exhaled.
"Please sit down, Donnie, you look like you're going to fall on your face!" April pleaded again.
"What were they thinking?!" He exclaimed, reluctantly letting himself slump onto the nearby couch. "Why is Leo so stubborn? We tried to warn him it was a bad idea!"
Just then the phone finally rang. April's playful midi-file ringtone filled the room and Leo's 'Ichiban turtle' avatar lit up on the screen, both seeming too light-hearted in contrast to the dread that filled the air.
They both jumped up, lunging for the phone left sitting on the table. He made it to her side as April snatched it up and switched it to speaker, holding the device between them. "Leo, is everything alright?"
"We had a… a bit of a tussle, but the situation is under control now." Leo said in his best stoic voice.
They stood around the open phone between them and gave a sigh of relief, but Donnie's brow was still scrunched up in concern. "What do you mean 'tussle'?" He asked.
"Let's just say it didn't take long for your body-snatcher to give up on the act." Leonardo replied.
Donnie let out a long sigh, wondering just what had transpired and how beat up his body might be at this point, before he heard Leo speak up again.
"This guy is no ordinary Foot soldier, Donnie, he's… he's dangerous." The line went quiet after he spoke. A sense of foreboding washed over Donatello.
"Is everyone alright?" April asked, a hitch in her voice causing her to sound afraid of the answer.
"We managed." Leo coughed as though not really wanting to talk any more on the subject over the phone. "Anyways, we need to get him out of here. He's unconscious, tied up and ready for transport. Any idea what we should do with him?"
In the short amount of time that they had waited to hear back from his brothers, Donatello had already considered at least part of this answer. They would haveto move him, the risk of him escaping the lair and divulging their secret location was too high. And between the earlier explosion during the rescue mission and now the 'tussle,' he was fairly certain that his body would require medical attention. They would need somewhere to temporarily keep this guy while they scoped out the brain-switching device and got it operational. And now that he knew where his body was, he had no intention to let it far from his sight.
First and foremost, he already had a plan to keep this guy unconscious for a while and broke into an explanation. "Leo, in my lab, the third drawer down on the center of the far wall. You'll see some syringes marked 'sedative'. Give him one of those, the alcohol wipes are in a box on the counter above the drawer. We can't risk him waking up as you move him."
Leo released a scoff on the other end of the line, clearly a bit taken back by this unfamiliar Donnie barking orders at him. "Gee Don, anything else I can do for you? Before I lug your body across the city again?"
"Actually," He answered. "I'm going to need you to bring a few supplies."
XX
April shook her head in defeat. Even after all the times she'd asked him to stay seated, Donnie still paced around the small kitchen while he talked. It was a nervous habit that he was completely unable to sit still once his stress hit a certain level. Despite the fact that the body he was in seemed to be limping in pain, he kept moving around the room. He rattled off a list of supplies for his brothers to bring along. The list mostly consisted of medical equipment and a few items that she wasn't even sure what they were.
Once he'd gotten that out of the way, he went over a brief plan of bringing his body to April's place to patch-up before prying his brother for more information over what transpired during the 6 min that they had been unable to reach them. April was trying her best to interpret his one-sided version of the conversation, but all she had really been able to grasp from Donnie's reactions was that it had not been good. A bit of news seemed to shock him enough that he had stopped pacing at a spot in the kitchen. Though he kept his voice low, she could hear him ask "how bad was it?" and "Is he okay?".
She continued to eavesdrop while the sense of dread slowly filled the pit of her stomach. Until finally, with a sigh he hung up and slid into the nearest kitchen chair, wincing a little as he moved.
"This is a disaster." He mumbled to himself while leaning his forehead into his hands, propped up on the table by his elbows. Peering over to April from between flayed fingers he added, "Leo finally admitted that the guy held Mikey hostage and hurt him bad enough to require stitches. But he wasn't really up to sharing much more. From the sounds of it, this guy really shook them up."
"Oh no." April gasped quietly and reached over to rub his shoulder in a consoling manner. Her touch was soft, but she saw him flinch. As much as he was trying to ignore it with a brave face, it was clear that the body he was currently inhabiting was in rough shape.
Sensing his discomfort, April offered in her best mother hen type voice, "It's going to take a little while for them to collect everything and get him over here. Let's get you patched up while we wait."
"We don't even know what we're going to do with him once they get here! We can't keep him sedated forever and it's not like we should be walking an assassin into your apartment." Donnie leaned back and raised his hands in defeat.
"Well, maybe we can find a place to keep him down in the store...or the storage area in the basement?" April suggested, trying her best to sound optimistic.
"Yeah, maybe." Donnie mumbled.
"We can brainstorm while we fix you up," April gestured for him to stand and follow her. "C'mon, we can't let this guy die while you're still stuck inside him."
Donnie slowly stood back up, wincing at her comment. "There's got to be a better way to say that."
April shook her head at him and put an arm around his middle, slowly leading him down the hall and through her room to the attached bathroom.
"Can you tell where else you're injured?" She asked with concern in her voice as she plopped him down on the edge of the bathtub before digging the first aid kit out from under her sink.
"I don't know, everywhere?" He deadpanned. "I don't think this guy is in very good shape." He rolled his shoulders, to test his muscles.
"Take your shirt off." She ordered while digging out supplies from her kit and setting them out on the counter.
"Oh." Donnie sounded surprised by her request. "Ok."
April noticed his cheeks flush as he reached down for the hem of his shirt and paused. She could only assume that the idea of removing clothes for the first time was probably a weird feeling, after all he regularly walked around in the buff. But it wasn't like he needed to feel embarrassed, he wasn't even in his own body.
After a brief moment of hesitation he reluctantly pulled the black shirt over his head, grimacing as it seemed to stick and pull in places. April held a cotton cloth and soaked it with some iodine, watching as the shirt was pulled awkwardly over the man's head. He was definitely beaten up. It was no wonder that he felt sore all over. There appeared to be at least three good cuts around his abdomen that had bled a bit before it had dried the shirt to the wound.
It was also abundantly clear that this man was the exact opposite of out-of-shape; his body was chiseled and each muscle was prominent. She doubted he had more than 5% body fat.
Knowing what they knew now, it made sense. If this guy was some kind of a super-ninja, they should have expected nothing less. It really spoke to how injured he was, if he was feeling this weak.
Donnie managed to get the shirt over his head, but caught his collar on his ear for a moment, obviously not quite used to the technique. He tossed the offending object beside him on the floor and glared at it. Looking back he met April's eye as she looked him over.
As she watched his muscles flex in front of her and the soft brown color of his concerned eyes, she had to admit, the guy wasn't bad looking. There were certainly worse bodies he could have been stuck with. Realizing that he'd seen her staring, she quickly darted back to the subject of his injuries.
"You've definitely got some shrapnel over here and a few bad cuts. Looks like this guy lost a fight." She gestured at the angry marks, noticing several scars mixed in with the fresh wounds. "Apparently this was not his first fight either." She reached out and gently traced one of the more prominent ones.
Donatello looked down at his own chest as best he could, but then stood up to get a better view in the mirror. As he stood, April moved over to the other side of the small room to give him the space.
"Yeah… I'd say this guy trains more than he sleeps, judging by the looks of him." Donatello added while examining his own body in the mirror. "Guess I was wrong about him being out of shape."
April chuckled and Donnie turned around with an inquisitive look at the sound. "We 'mere mortals' wear out a little faster than you mutagen-enhanced guys do." She commented in a teasing tone.
"I'm going to have to remind Leo to go easy on you and Casey, because you two are obviously keeping up with us even better than we thought you were."
"Much appreciated." April winked. "Now this is probably going to sting a little, but I'm going to pull this little bit of metal out from this wound and get these other ones cleaned up."
"Ow!" Donnie let out a startled gasp before he could stop himself.
"Sorry!" April's hand jumped back from him.
"No, no. You're good. Just, wasn't quite ready for that. Go ahead." Donnie grimaced at how un-manly that must have sounded.
After she was able to pull the small pieces of metal free from his skin, April continued to clean and work away all the dried blood to get a better idea of how bad the damage was. Donatello gripped the countertop in front of him, surprised at how much the seemingly small wounds hurt. It made him wonder how humans managed to evolve as far as they had, with how delicate they were.
He stared into the mirror and scrunched up his eyebrows, watching the unfamiliar face across from him mimic his movements. He drank in the appearance of this man whose body he now occupied. He would guess he was in his early-to-mid 20's, though he was terrible at judging human ages. He looked to be of Asian heritage, which was not surprising since Shredder brought many of his clan straight from Japan. His hair hung just past his ears, shaggy and jet-black, and his eyes were a dark brown. The man was built like a brick wall, broad shouldered and all muscle, much like he'd imagine Raph would appear as a human.
He took one hand and ran it down the center of his chest, from his collarbone to his navel. Perplexed, he watched as the skin shifted under the pressure. It was strange to say the least. Using a couple of his many fingers, he poked at his abdominal muscles, noting that he could indeed count them. Then curiously, he ran his hand back up and touched one of his two small nipples watching the skin contract, a little surprised at how sensitive they were.
During his examination, he hadn't noticed that April had stopped cleaning a scrape on his back and was now watching him in the mirror.
"What are you doing?" She asked, making him jump.
"Wha?! Um… nothing… I just" He took a breath to decide how to explain himself. "This is SO WEIRD!" He locked his eyes with her in the mirror and gestured to his chest again. "I'm part turtle April! This is where my shell is attached to me! I don't have abs, I don't have nipples!"
Suppressing a giggle, April hid her reflection back behind him, apparently amused by his shocked expression. "Sorry, but you have to admit, flipping-out over suddenly having nipples is kind of funny."
"Don't laugh at me!" he said, exasperated, but then catching his reflection again he suddenly appreciated how much of a looney he must have seemed, poking at himself.
He let out a big sigh. "Ok, fine. I'm calming down." He closed his eyes and took in a slow steadying breath.
"Now that was an unmistakable 'Donnie-ism'." April chirped from behind him with a tight-lipped smile.
He raised an eyebrow at her, wondering if he'd heard her correctly. "Huh?"
"Seeing you freak-out like that. I mean, I know that is you in that body, but it's actually comforting to see you act like the guy I know so well."
Frowning at the comment, he grumbled. "I'm just thrilled that 'freaking-out' is the trait I'm so well-known for."
He saw April's reflection stick out her tongue before she swiped one last iodine soaked cotton ball across the largest of the gashes along his back. The sting caused Donnie to jolt. He squinted his eyes and glared in her direction through the mirror, knowing darn well that it hadn't been by accident. But she kept her face hidden from view.
Rolling out some gauze, she started to tape up the largest patch on his back. With his eyes still closed he let his head fall forward and relaxed.
"What are we going to do with the guy in my body?" He asked into the room.
"Well, whatever we do, we better lock him up to avoid another 'tussle'." April answered, using Leo's term.
Donnie let his mind think over their options as she ripped a piece of tape and stuck it in place.
XX
Together, they had generally agreed that the O'Neil family's antique store below her apartment would be the most suitable place to house his body-snatcher for the time being. Her Aunt had closed up the shop when her dad had first gone missing and hadn't yet reopened it, guaranteeing them a space with some privacy. April and Donnie had gone down to investigate once they had finished bandaging him and it was then that they discovered the small janitor's closet in the back of the store.
The room was small and dirty, but it could serve the purpose of a temporary holding cell. The walls were solid brick and the only window was the small square opening in the heavy metal door which marked the only way in or out. There was even a floor drain in the corner for mop buckets that could be made into a makeshift bathroom of sorts. Though the idea of having to keep him in there long enough to need basic living amenities was worrisome.
The room had been used as extra storage over the last years and had several stacks of boxes already filling the space, but with the help of a dolly, they could get it cleared out relatively quickly and the two set to work doing so.
April had been reluctant to allow Donnie to do so much heavy lifting, after now knowing the extent of his injuries, and had voiced her opinion on it. However they were both well aware that there was no way he would sit this out, nor could she accomplish it on her own in the little time they had left.
A distinct tapping at the back door of the store indicated that his brothers had arrived. As Donnie was moving the last heavy box to the back corner of the store, April ran over to answer the door, letting in a slightly perturbed Raphael, weighed down with several large bags.
"UNNNGH!" He grunted in an exaggerated manner dropping the bags into a pile by the door. "I've got a delivery here for 'Don'." He joked.
"Hey, watch it! Some of that stuff is fragile." Donnie walked over to scope the goodies Raph had brought. One step forward and he stopped at the sight of his toughest brother standing his ground, hands on his sais.
"Hey Raph." Donnie grinned sheepishly, realizing again how weird it must be for everybody that he was not himself.
"Is that you, Genius?" Raph asked. "Because that certainly wasn't you back at the lair."
"It's me. At least temporarily." He shrugged, noting that even in his new body he still stood taller than his brother.
Raph squinted his eyes looking unimpressed with Donnie's reveal. "What name did I call you until you were 8?"
"Really Raph?" He asked quietly, with a small flick of an eye, gesturing to April standing beside them.
"Yeah, really. I just carried your heavy ass all over for the second time tonight!" Raphael smirked, his satisfaction at making him flustered was evident.
Donnie let out a sigh and rolled his eyes. "Dork-a-tello." He mumbled under his breath.
"Ha! That's my bro!" Raphael laughed heartily and smacked Donnie on the back, making him wince a little in pain. "So how's it feel being stuck with that ugly mug?"
April rolled her eyes at the exchange between the two brothers, Raph's idea of ugly was apparently far from her own. Glancing over towards the empty doorway, she realized nobody else had followed him in.
"Where are the others?" She asked.
"Leo's got Donnie's body out in the van, I was just dropping off this stuff and scoping the place out before dragging him in here."
Grateful to move past any further teasing his brother had up his sleeve, Donnie pointed to the storage closet on the far wall. "We cleared out this old storage locker to put him in for now."
Raph gave him a look as if to question his plan, but just shrugged and walked back out the door. "Don't worry, I'll go get him!" He hollered over his shoulder sarcastically.
Donnie took a step to follow him, but April stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. "They've got it."
He knew that she wanted him to sit down and take it easy. Even after the pain killers it was hard for him to hide that it still hurt to move around. He appreciated that she was being nice about it and could tell she was trying to politely distract him.
"I'm going to go hang a sheet over the front store window. Can you make sure that the closet is ready to go?" She suggested.
"You mean the 'cell'?" Donnie corrected with evident distaste. Something about having to turn a closet into a makeshift prison cell felt so fundamentally against the whole 'being a hero' thing.
"You know what I mean." April glared back, walking away with the sheet.
Donnie sighed and crouched down to dig through the bags Raph had brought, smiling to himself when he found the items he was looking for: a large shackle sized to fit their over-proportioned turtle ankles, as well as a relatively short chain.
Within a few minutes he was able to crudely attach the chain around the thick water pipes running to the mop drain, preparing for the new guest of honor. He didn't really like the idea of chaining up his own body, but the extra security provided a sense of comfort. Just as he was finishing up, he heard the bell ring as his brothers entered through the back door of the tiny shop, and hustled to meet them.
"How's Mikey doing?" He heard April ask just before he had caught up with them.
"He'll be fine. He's pretty shaken, but Splinter is getting him stitched up right now." Leo answered, a look of guilt obvious on his features.
"It wasn't your fault Leo." April stepped forward to lay a gentle hand on his arm. "We had no idea who this guy was."
"I should have listened to you guys. Now Mikey's hurt and we still don't know this guy's intentions." Leo berated himself.
"And if Donnie hadn't gotten himself body snatched, we wouldn't even have this problem." Raph griped from behind them, not quite yet in the door. "What's done is done, let's just focus on fixing this."
Donatello opened his mouth, ready to argue with Raph for placing the blame on him for getting captured as though it had been his fault. He was forming his rebut when Leo stepped further through the doorway and Donnie suddenly realized his brother in blue was carrying his true body by the feet, with Raphael trailing behind holding his upper half. As he slowly approached them he was taken aback by how strange it was to stare down at his own figure, hanging there limp between his two brothers. It reminded him of something he'd seen on TV, where a character had died and their floating soul had stood above, gazing down on their own lifeless body. To say it felt weird was an understatement.
He was so caught up in watching them carry his body through the door that he had forgotten about his own temporary one until Leo lurched in surprise at seeing him. Donnie plastered an apologetic smile on his temporary face, knowing it was a disconcerting sensation for any of them to be approached by a "stranger".
"Donnie?" Leo questioned, sounding slightly shocked. "I mean, I know it's you, but still… it's weird."
"Yes, it's Donnie!" Raph complained from behind. "Now can we please put down the heavy shelled-variation of Donnie before chit-chatting?"
"Here," April moved past them, further into the store towards an old pool table near the front. "You can lay him down here." She had picked up another sheet and was hastily covering the table before Raph and Leo laid him down unceremoniously. His hands were still bound behind him causing his body to tip onto its side.
For the first time, both Donnie and April had a good look at his turtle body. His mask had been long since removed, revealing a bruised eye almost sealed shut from the puffed up cheekbone below it, along with a deep gash above his right eye. His arms and legs were littered with scratches and bruises, some more serious than others.
"This guy thought it'd be fun to try and kill us all as he escaped." Raph growled, the anger in his voice not at all restrained.
Having found himself transfixed with his own battered and bruised body laying on the table in front of him, Donnie looked up at what he heard. "So what was this guy's plan?"
"We were just collateral." Leo spoke seriously, his eyes on Donnie's body as he continued. "He said something about how the 'rat' was the only one he had to leave for Shredder. He tried to avoid a fight with him earlier, but we had him cornered. Splinter stopped the confrontation before it even really began."
April and Donnie simply nodded to that dark information. They had seen Splinter in action many times and knew that he was quite capable of ending a fight.
Leo looked back up and turned to Donnie, subtly eyeing his new form. "So what now, Donnie?"
"Well, those sedatives will keep him unconscious for the rest of the night. That should give me time to apply some first aid and get him squared away. Tomorrow we can commandeer the switching device and get it recalibrated to switch us back." Donnie offered as a place to start.
"You sure it's a good idea to keep him here?" Leo said, his voice laced with uncertainty.
"It's only temporary. Once we have the machine ready, we'll need him there for the swap. It's easiest to keep him away from the lair for now."
"And we can't honestly think of anywhere better. The lair is too dangerous, if he were to escape, he could reveal the lair's location." April helped explain their reasoning to the brothers.
Leo nodded in return and Donnie could tell by his expression that he had considered the risks and accepted their solution. Now it was time for him to take charge.
"Raph and I will make sure the building is secure. You have 15 minutes to apply any first aid," Leo gestured to the unconscious turtle on the pool table. "I want him locked up sooner than later."
XX
Donnie retrieved his medical kit from one of the several large bags that Raph had carried in and he and April went to work patching up his body as best as they could.
"I wonder how much of this damage was from the fight, and how much was just from the explosion?" He asked aloud, feeling a mixture of resentment and genuine curiosity.
He ran his hand softly across his shoulders, gently tipping his head to one side, to inspect behind his ear cavity.
"I'm sure they were concerned for Mikey's well being," April explained. "And they still obviously restrained themselves."
"How can you tell that?" Donnie asked skeptically. Unable to look past the obvious damage.
"Well for one, he still has all of his limbs and there are no three-pronged holes in his abdomen… your abdomen." April finished, obviously not really sure how to refer to him.
Donnie let out a huff through his nose. April was partially teasing, but she was also right. He could only imagine how challenging it must have been for his brothers to fight off an assassin without being able to mortally wound him. The weapons each brother carried had the ability to do substantial damage and he was grateful that they had kept his body in one piece.
After removing the ropes that had bound his wrists, he noted a substantial gash in his body's right palm and remembered how Leo had described him using a shard of glass to attack Mikey. Either this guy had little qualms about pain, or he just lacked any concern over hurting his temporary body. Both thoughts left Donnie feeling equally uneasy. He pulled out his suture kit and went to work stitching up the worst part of it.
They were both working along in silence when April heard Donnie voice an amount of surprise.
"Huh." Donnie let out the small sound from his side of table, with his body up on its side, the shell acting like a sort of barrier between the two of them.
"What is it?" April asked, looking up from the gash on his leg that she had just bandaged up.
"It's just weird to see my body from this angle. I had no idea how roughed up the back of my shell had gotten. Some of these scutes look like they were damaged a long time ago."
April shook her head to herself, hearing his response. She wasn't sure how he was able to be so detached from the situation. It had to be difficult to see yourself in such bad shape, but he almost seemed to approach it more like some strange experiment.
Their time was quickly running out, but it seemed like they had managed to clean all the cuts and bandage up the more serious ones. She moved up to the head of the table, lowering herself to look more closely at the face of her dear friend. Logically she knew that his mind was inhabiting another body at the moment, but she couldn't help that she felt so drawn to the familiar reptile-human form she had come to know so well. The body that currently she was not able to do much to help.
Briefly, she was pulled back to another memory of Donnie's lifeless body laying on the living room floor of the farmhouse. His consciousness then had been trapped in the dream world with his life energy being drained from him. And just like this time, there was very little she had been able to do to fix him. She had feared that he was going to die that day, laying in her arms and she had never felt so helpless in all of her life.
April opened her eyes again, stepping away from that nightmare. Logically, she knew that Donnie was alive and well and that at least they had recovered his body so that they could switch him back, but emotionally, it was still hard to see him like this. She brought a hand up to softly trace the contours of his cheek, up and over the ridge of his beak-like nose to the other side, and cupped the opposite cheek in her palm.
In general, the boys pretty much always wore their masks, and it had only been on a few occasions that she had seen Donatello without his purple fabric in place. And even then, it's not like she'd ever really had the opportunity to study his features so unabashedly. It amazed her that something which had originally seemed so foreign could now be so familiar.
They really weren't all that different from non-mutants when you drilled down to details. Eyes, nose, mouth, the features were all there. Aside from the green tone and pebbled texture of his scaled skin, lying there with his eyelids closed, he looked so… normal. Handsome even, if she was willing to admit it.
"Okay, time's up." Leo announced from the other side, causing April to spring back from the table, feeling uneasy for having almost gotten caught admiring her friend's features so closely. The two ninjas has entered silently and she hadn't noticed them approach.
Donnie's temporary face popped up from the other side of the table, having still been patching up a spot behind his shell. "Already?" He asked.
"Leader says it's time." Raph nudged his way next to the table forcing both Donnie and April to reluctantly step back.
They watched on as the brawny one roughly slid his arms under the armpits of his lanky brother's form and lugged the front half of him off the table, with Leo running around to the other side, to grab his legs before they fell.
"Hey! Take it easy Raph, I'm going to need that body back!" Donnie glared at his short-fused brother.
"With the crap day this guy has put us through, I think you should be thankful I'm being this nice."
Leo glared over the body they carried at Raph, a look April had seen many times that was clearly a challenge towards his brother to shut his mouth.
"Just a second," Donnie dug around in his bag of medical supplies. He pulled out a small bracelet looking device, and attached it around his true body's wrist with an audible click. "It's a vitals monitor. Since it won't be safe to go in to check on him." He explained. "It's an old fitness monitor that connects to an app on my phone. I suped it up to track pulse rate, and a few other things. It's not ideal, but it should work to at least keep a basic eye on his vitals, let me know if anything falls out of normal ranges. And when he's regained consciousness."
The eldest brothers stepped into the small closet and laid the body down in a heap upon the old hand-sewn mattress April had found in the back of the store. Donnie crouched down and locked the shackle around his left ankle, giving a tug on the chain to verify it was firmly attached. Walking out, they closed the door and Donnie sealed it shut with a turn of the lock. Even while knowing that the chain would keep the prisoner far from the door, Donatello still made a mental note that perhaps he should consider adding an extra bar across it for good measure.
The three brothers all stood crowded together, peeking in through the door's small window at his motionless body.
"We better head back, I'd like to check on Mikey." Leo stated, stepping back.
"And we're already gonna have to hustle to beat the sun up." Raph added with a snark.
"Are you going to stay here?" Leo asked, his eyes locking with Donnie.
"Yeah. I don't think I should let this body see where the lair is, just in case. Plus, I want to keep an eye on this guy." Donnie replied, motioning towards the closet. "Nor do I want to leave April here alone with an assassin locked up beneath her apartment."
Aside from the slight weirdness of leaving Donnie alone at April's apartment in a strange body they didn't recognize, the brothers generally agreed that his plan made sense. They said their farewells, exchanging hugs with April and awkward handshakes with Donnie before heading out into the last little bit of nightfall.
Rummaging around to find a more suitable place to sit, Donatello unburied an ornate couch tucked away in the back of the store. April honestly didn't know much about antique furniture, but noticed the legs boasted elegant woodwork that complimented the faded damask print of the upholstery. She verified from their inventory listing that it was probably okay for them to use, and helped him drag it up towards the front of the store near the makeshift cell.
"Ufff." Donnie let out a groan as he sunk down, a puff of dust swirled up around him as the ancient piece of furniture creaked under his weight. "Guess comfort wasn't really the selling point of this piece." He mused, as he shifted around. Ultimately draping one leg across the side, his foot hanging off the edge.
April smiled at his comment, finding her own seat on the stool she had pulled out from behind the front counter. Donnie had already poured himself into the small couch as though his body was made of liquid and she didn't really feel the need to squeeze in next to his strange body.
"So what now?" She asked as a yawn took over.
"Go get some sleep, I'll keep watch." Donnie suggested, slouching back into the curved arm of the couch, trying his best to find a comfortable spot.
"I think you could use the sleep more than me." She pointed out what she felt was rather obvious.
Letting out a yawn of his own, he explained. "He's still got at least a few more hours of sedative coursing through his system and the vitals monitor will alert me when he wakes up. So, I'll probably doze off for a little bit."
"Raph brought your T-phone right?"
He nodded, and patted his pocket where it was apparently housed. "I'll call you if anything changes."
April stood from her stool and stopped to study the strange man that had entered her apartment only hours earlier. His shaggy black hair was mussed in all directions and his dark brown eyes were heavy-lidded with exhaustion. After tending to his wounds, he had redressed in the same black shirt he had arrived in, the fabric frayed and matted with dried blood. They would need to get him cleaned up if they wanted to be able to move about the city without drawing attention to themselves.
His head lulled back and it was apparent that sleep had finally taken over. She could only imagine the day this guy, both Donnie and his current body, had gone through. Smiling at the soft snore already coming from his chest, she picked up the last of the sheets and shook one out to lay over him.
Flicking on the warm glow of the beautiful Tiffany lamp that sat on the store counter, she then turned off the harsh overhead lights while closing the door to the stairway behind her.
End Chapter 3 - Out of Body Experience
A/N - Thank you so much for reading! We hope you are enjoying Donatello's experience of suddenly being human.
We would love to hear: what was your favorite part? Is there anything in particular that you'd like to see?
Stayed tuned for more adventures in being human!
Your Co-Authors, Queequegg and Poleepkwana/Suthnmeh
(With a special thanks to FeatherArtist for the beta review!)