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Mending
A long, drawn-out sigh left Cassie's lips as she shifted for the fifth time in as many minutes, trying to ignore the sensations going through her back as Michelangelo carefully cleaned off the dried blood from the deep criss-crossed gashes. She was straddling one of the kitchen chairs and resting her chin on her arms, which were folded on the back of said chair while she quietly contemplated the rather unattractive pattern on the table in front of her. Alex was sitting across from her, her wide eyes never leaving her despite the fact that Donatello was trying to get her to tell him exactly how bad her cold was affecting her asthma.
Aw, hell. I know that look. "Alex. Stop it." Her low mutter drew the gazes of the two turtles, and she frowned as she turned her full attention to her sister. "You stop looking at me like that right now. This isn't your fault."
Alex shivered a little and glanced away. "But--"
"Hey, no 'but's'. Your sister's right," Donnie said, his voice soft yet stern as he hesitantly reached out to brush her tears away. "You're not to blame for the evils of another."
"There, see? Two against one, you're outvoted. Now go with Donnie so that he can see about making you better, okay? I'll be fine." Cassie told her, taking a moment to watch the two leave the room before glancing back at Mikey, who hadn't said anything since he had taken on his self appointed task of patching her up, despite his obvious unease. "You don't have to do this, you know. Considering how it feels, it's probably not a pretty sight."
He met her gaze and shook his head. "It's not that," he muttered, frowning as he glanced back at the infected and bruise framed gashes that adorned all of her back. "I just.... I can't understand how someone could do this to their own kid."
"I think it's one of those mysteries in life. Like why socks vanish into the dryer."
"Why do you do that?"
"What?"
"Turn things into jokes."
She paused, then turned away from his deep brown gaze and rested her chin on her arms again. "Because if I don't then I'm going to have a complete and total emotional and mental breakdown. And I can't let myself do that right now. For one thing, I think a hysterical female would seriously freak you guys out.... and if I do let myself lose it.... I'm fairly certain that I won't be able to stop."
"....sorry."
"Don't be. It was a fair question." Silence fell over them then, and she revelled in it as she closed her eyes and tried to force herself to relax and ignore the feeling of a damp cloth running over tender wounds. Needless to say it didn't work. All it was doing was giving her time to think, which really wasn't something she wanted to do. Footsteps made her look over towards the doorway, and she smiled a little when Leonardo walked in. "Hey. Um.... could you do me a favour?"
He exchanged worried glances with Mikey when he heard her voice waver and moved over to take a seat next to her. "Of course."
"Talk to me. I don't care about what. Sit there and babble about dust mites if you want. I just.... need a distraction."
Leo frowned at her, but nodded. "How about the uncondensed version of our story?"
"I'm all ears."
~*~
"Ow ow ow!"
"Would you stop squirming?"
"I am not squirming - ow! - I'm.... well alright, fine, I'm squirming. But that bloody stings!"
"You are such a baby."
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"Am - ow ow ow! - not!"
Leonardo rolled his eyes as he watched Cassie try to dodge the peroxide soaked cloth that Mikey was using to disinfect her wounds, which really was a useless thing to do since she was still straddling that chair. Somewhere along the last half hour, the combined mood in the kitchen had taken a dramatic shift from depressing to something more normal, and while he was glad to see that Mikey was acting a little more like himself, he knew that it was mostly that. An act. But he suspected that it was more for Cassie's benefit than anything else. The look in her eyes when he had joined them.... he had never seen such emotional pain in someone before. He had almost been unable to meet her gaze.
"Leo, blink."
Startled, he frowned and met Cassie's amused gaze. It's like the pain was never there. She's adept at hiding her emotions when she wants to. "Huh?"
"Blink. You've been staring off into space for a minute now without blinking. It's weird."
"Nah. Leo does that all the time," Mikey told her as he sent a grin at his brother. "You'll get used to it."
"Will I now? I wasn't aware I'd be here that long."
"It's obvious that it's not safe for you and Alex to head back up to the city. You said so yourself that Murdock has people everywhere," Leo told her. "You can't seriously think that we'd just let you risk your lives. Not after we've seen what he's done to you."
She jerked a little in surprise, feeling Mike rest his hands on her shoulders to steady her when the motion threatened to topple her from the chair. "Holy shit, you're serious! You'd.... You don't even know us, why--"
"Hey, it's what we heroes do," Mikey grinned, winking at her when she leaned her head back to look at him. "'Sides, you're growin' on us. Anyone who can make Raph speechless is an automatic guest."
Leo hid a smile at that. "Anyway, Cassie, you're in no shape to go anywhere. And neither's Alex. Donnie thinks she might have bronchitis."
"What?!"
"Whoa, whoa, easy there!" Being careful not to hurt her, Mikey firmly kept her from leaping to her feet and running from the room, worried at the near panic in her eyes. "She'll be okay! Donnie's good at this sort of stuff. And I think Master Splinter's got some herbs that'll help her."
She frowned but let herself sink back into the chair. "He's the one who raised you, right?"
"Indeed I am, child."
The soft yet rich voice drew her gaze to the doorway, where the one the turtles referred to as their 'sensei' stood. True, she knew what to expect and had readied herself to meet a giant rat, but she was shocked at the seemingly timeless wisdom and strength in his eyes, a startling contrast to his obviously elder age. She saw Raphael standing behind him, and met his gaze for a moment before returning her attention to Splinter. "Um.... hi?"
He smiled a little and approached her, glancing at each of his sons before meeting her gaze again, frowning when he saw an almost life-weary tint to them. "Raphael has told me what he knows of your past, and of the ones that are chasing you," he told her, raising an eyebrow when she tensed and shot a wary look at his usually more hostile son. It had surprised him when Raphael had come to him to ask that the two girls be allowed to stay, and while the fiery anger was still present in the turtle's voice, it had taken on a more protective edge. Now that he saw the girl, he was deeply horrified at what had happened to her, easily noticing the scars that not only adorned her body, but her spirit. "May I?"
Cassie tensed a little as he gestured to her back and felt Mikey give her shoulders a reassuring squeeze before she nodded, shivering when the turtle broke contact to step aside. A feather-light touch nearly made her jump out of her skin, and she curled her fingers around the back of the chair, struggling to keep still.
A sorrowful sigh escaped the sensei as he averted his gaze from the ghastly wounds and stepped around to meet her gaze again. "When were these inflicted on you, Cassie?"
"About three days ago," she murmured as she looked away to stare at the tabletop, unable to handle the very real concern in his eyes. "Though I'm fairly certain some of the half-healed ones got reopened. I don't know how long I had those... days, weeks...."
He nodded as she confirmed his suspicions, then lightly touched her left arm, drawing her gaze. "My sons will protect you and your sister, Cassandra. You are safe here." When he saw her eyes fill up with tears, he sighed and rose a hand to gently smooth her hair back from her face, feeling her tremble at the touch. "Wait here, my child. Michelangelo and I will prepare a herbal poultice to help heal the infection in your wounds. Leonardo? Could you please go and check on Alexis?"
"He did that on purpose," she muttered after the three had left, and she quickly wiped at her eyes before glancing at Raphael.
"Yea well.... he knows I don't do this shit often," he mumbled in reply as he leaned against the archway and folded his arms over his plastron, glancing away from her as he did so. "Hey, look.... I'm sorry, alright? What that bastard did ta ya. It ain't right. I didn't mean ta--"
"It's alright. Really. You were protecting the ones you care about, I can understand that." She paused for a moment, then smirked. "Besides, I probably shouldn't have lost it on you like that. Makes us even."
Shaking his head, Raph pushed away from the wall and walked over to the fridge, seeing her eyes widen as he pulled out a beer, used the edge of the counter to pop the cap off and set it in front of her. "You'll need this. That stuff they're gonna put on ya, it gets the job done but it burns like hell for the first few minutes."
"Figures. This week is seriously kicking my ass," she grumbled as she snatched the bottle and took a long drink. "Ugh, this is Lite, isn't it?"
"S'all I could manage ta sneak in," he smirked, seeing her grimace again before she took another drink. "Probably gonna get yelled at now. Splinter doesn't approve of me bringin' beer into the lair."
"Oh. Well... thanks." A chuckle left her then, and she grinned a little as she rose her gaze to meet his. "Don't think I've ever thanked people as much as I've thanked you guys--"
"Is that beer?!"
"Mine!" Cassie growled, holding the bottle close to her as Leonardo moved to snatch it from her. "No touching."
He rolled his eyes and looked over at Raph, who was doing a grand job of trying not to laugh himself sick. "You know what Splinter told you."
"Aw, give it a break, Leo. 'Sides, she'll need it. You know what that herbal stuff is like."
"That's not the point. You're not even legal age--"
"Technically, neither am I," Cassie added rather cheerfully before taking another drink, snickering at the look of 'you're not helping' that Leo was giving her. "Take notice of how that's not stopping me. Now if it was Alex, then I'd agree with you."
Raph smirked at Leo before looking at her. "Yeah? How old are ya?"
"M'eighteen. Alex is fifteen tomorrow, speaking of which, someone's gonna have to show me the way out of here, I'm gonna need to go to a pharmacy or something."
"Not an option," Leonardo told her, raising a hand to cut her off when she started to protest. "Your picture was on the news, Cassie, everyone's going to be looking for you. And besides the fact that it's too dangerous for you to be seen, you're in no shape to go anywhere."
She grumbled and lowered her gaze to glare at the bottle in her right hand. "Fine. You win, for now."
"Look, if it's that important, we have a friend topside. Her name's April. She's done errands for us before, I'm sure she could go get the stuff you need," he paused when she looked up at him hopefully and put emphasis on the end of his sentence, "tomorrow."
"What about April?" Mikey asked as he rejoined them, looking from an amused Leo to Cassie as he set a tea kettle on the table, his eyes widening when he saw what she was holding. "Ack! Hide that bottle before--"
"Raphael."
"Uh..." He turned at the call and met Splinter's disapproving frown. "I figured she'd need it, Sensei. It'll calm her nerves enough so that she doesn't try ta deck one of us when ya slap that stuff on her."
Splinter shook his head and walked past him. "Ten flips. Now." he ordered, ignoring the groan from Raphael as the turtle headed for the dojo.
"Hey, wait! Wait, wait, wait! I haven't finished that yet!" Cassie yelped, groaning when Splinter took the bottle from her hands and poured the rest of it's contents down the kitchen sink. "Aw, man..."
Rolling his eyes, Splinter ignored her annoyed grumbles and set a mug in front of her before pointing to the kettle. "Drink some tea. It will have a better calming effect than Raphael's alcohol."
"Y'all do realise that this is probably gonna knock me out right? I've been runnin' on nerves for over two days now. If I relax, I'm gonna fall asleep," she muttered as she obediently poured herself some tea, wrinkling her nose at the herbal smell.
"So be it then. You will need the rest to heal," Splinter told her as he watched her sip at the tea, chuckling a little when she made a face at the taste of it.
"That's my reaction to it too," Mikey grinned as he laid out a large square of gauze and started to spread some of the herbal paste onto it, the rather odd coloured poultice making her edge away. "How'd you like to look like a mummy?"
"How about not?"
"Spoilsport."
"Michelangelo, that is enough. Cassandra, I'm afraid that this may be rather uncomfortable--"
She sighed and pushed the mug away from her, shaking her head a little before glancing back at Splinter. "Don't worry. I can handle it. Can we just get this over with please?" When he nodded, she twisted around to face forward again and blinked at the green hand that thrust itself in front of her, making her look up to meet Leonardo's gaze as he sat down next to her. "It's okay."
"You'll need the support," he told her, managing to muster up a reassuring smile as she took his hand, mere seconds before Splinter pressed the poultice-covered dressing onto her back, the action making her clench her eyes shut in agony and loose a rather deafening scream of...
"Jesus fucking Christ!!"
~*~
"Well, looks like I'm not the only one here who's well versed in swearin'," Raph grumbled half an hour later as he leaned back on the couch and looked over at Leonardo who was still trying to shake feeling back into his hand. "She break it?"
"I'm not sure yet. I can't feel my fingers."
"Wuss."
"Cassie's out," Mikey announced as he joined them at the 'living room', sighing in relief as he threw himself down onto a couch. "Alex's asleep too. But I'm surprised, Raph. You must be going soft if you let Cassie take over your room."
He growled in response and folded his arms across his plastron. "Shut up, Mikey. 'Sides, I'm usually out here all night anyway."
"Which is why you're always late for practice," Leo pointed out, ducking the TV Guide that flew his way as Raphael snatched up the TV remote and started channel surfing. "Where's Donnie? Is he still with Alex?"
"Naw. Brainiac's gone back into hiding." Mike jerked a thumb towards Donatello's lab as he spoke. "Said he wanted to try to find out some more about D'Amico and his goon squad."
"We'd learn more if ya just let me go out and track down a few o' them," Raphael said grimly, his glare fixed on the TV. "I'd get ya some answers real fast."
"And you'd probably get killed in the process." Not wanting to get into another fight, Leonardo got to his feet and snatched up the extra blanket and pillow he'd taken gathered for himself since he had given his room to Alex. "I'll be sleeping in the dojo."
"Well, that went better than expected," Mikey commented dryly, ignoring the annoyed glare that Raph threw at him. "Hey, Raph? Can I ask you something?"
"What?"
"....why do humans do that? Hit their kids?"
The sorrowful tone made Raphael turn his gaze away from the TV to look at Mike, frowning when he saw a complete lack of the wild cheerfulness that his brother usually exuded. "Dunno, 'bro. Not all'a them do it. I guess that ones that do are just fucked in the head or somethin'." He shook his head at his own words and turned back to the TV, lowering a hand to play with the prongs of one of the sais hooked into his belt. "Don't you worry 'bout those two girls, Mikey. No one's gonna lay a finger on 'em."
That brought back the old Mikey charm. "I knew it! You are going soft!"
Raph rolled his eyes and chucked a pillow at his already retreating brother. "Get outta here already! Geez!"