AN:My thanks goes out to everyone that has taken the time to review my fic so far. I've had the longest case of writer's block recently and your words gave me a well needed confidence boast. Thanks again and enjoy!
Disclaimer:OC's are mine, everyone and everything else isn't.
Chapter 4
Half asleep and barely conscious, Raph could hear what was being said outside the infirmary.
"Look Leo I don't know wha to say!" Casey shouted, "One sec he was fine, and da next he totally spacin'! It was like da lights were on but nobody was home!"
"But right in the middle of a fight Case…" Another voice, "Mikey"Raph thought. It was the only thought he could manage to form in his hazy mind.
"I ain't lying to ya!" Casey defended.
"Are you sure he spaced out before he was hit by the baseball bat?" That was a different voice, Donnie.
"Honest! I'll swear it on a bible if I hafta." Casey defended.
An awkward silence followed. No one had any idea what to make of it, but after a few moments Leo said,
"Alright. Here's what we're going to do…"
Raph's tired mind stopped listening. "Of course fearless would come up with something…"Raph smirked as everything started fading away.
……………………………………………………………
The sky was orange. It was an hour until sunset, but the summer season made it unreasonably warm. People were everywhere, strangers but friendly people.
He was on the sidewalk, in plain view, but no one was afraid of him. However, that wasn't the only thing wrong with this picture.
The city… The city wasn't the same. The buildings looked older. They were the kind of houses you'd see in an old photograph, a really old photograph, and the people…
They stuff they were wearing reminded him of that movie April made them watch. What was it now…? Oh yeah, Titanic. That was it.
It was like he was in an old movie, or a time capsule.
Two women, talking to each other, were walking down the sidewalk. He couldn't hear their voices. That's why he didn't notice them until it was too late to step out of the way.
He looked up. Saw them, but didn't bump into them. The women just went through him, like ghosts. Or… Was he the ghost?
He started walking up the street. Didn't know why, it was like his feet had minds of their own.
Everything passed through him while he walked, but he didn't mind. He was used to being invisible.
When his feet stopped he stifled a gasp. Standing before him was the house. The same house he crashed into and the same house that's been haunting his sleep….
….
He stood on the stoop, looking up.
He knew something bad was going to happen. That bad sinking feeling had returned, and he continued to stare at the door.
"Please."
The little girl's voice was so quiet, and scared. He barely heard it, but that did it. He marched up the steps and defiantly went through the door. Kids drove him nuts, but he wouldn't stand by when one was in trouble.
"Marie would you get the turkey ready?"
"Yes mother."
"Peter set the table please?"
An older woman, their mother most likely, was racing around the house. She was doing odd jobs, preparing dinner, getting ready for a guest from what he could gather from their conversations. While all around her, her kids where running around doing odd jobs too.
"Where's Peggy?" One of the girls asked.
"Still upstairs." Peter replied motioning towards the stairs.
"She's playing pretend while we're working down here, and father's sick." Another girl, an older one, criticized, "How RUDE."
"Don't be mean Kate." Marie told the older girl, who only shrugged her off.
"Peter," The mother began, "would you take this tray up to your father? If he keeps something down he may be able to sit up for dinner tonight."
"Of course mother." Peter agreed. The boy kind of reminded him of Leo. So he followed Peter upstairs, besides none of the girls downstairs sounded like the girl who had called out for help.
At the top of the stairs he froze. It was the same hallway, newer, but the same one.
'Of course it was da same hallway!' He scolded himself, 'It's apart of da house, duh!'
Peter opened the fourth door on the left. "Hello father I brought some of mother's chicken noodle soup." Peter went in the door but he didn't follow the kid.
Instead he headed for the second door on the right, and opened it.
He was right. It had been a child's room. The red wallpaper with its little yellow flowers was new. A white canopy bed was up against one wall, and a matching dresser against the other. A dollhouse and little toys were scattered on the floor.
Sitting in the middle of the floor, hugging her knees, the little girl. The girl from before, the one he saw before, reflected in the doll's eyes.
Her brown curly hair covered her face, hiding the tears that occasionally fell on her pink dress.
"Hey." He whispered gently, and to his surprise she looked up.
"The bad thing is going to happen again." She whimpered.
"What bad thing?" He asked kneeing down next to her.
"You'll see." She whispered, and downstairs a window was smashed in.
…………………………………………………………………
The lair was ghostly quiet. Leo was out checking the convince store for any clues. While Mikey and Casey were going through every step of the route Raph had taken, and Don…
Don waited in his lab. Being the only one of the guys with a hint of medical knowledge, a subject he'd taken up after Leo's poisoning during the Battle Nexus tournament, Don was the only one who could watch over Raph.
"Not that I can do any good" Don mumbled.
He had already ran a toxin screen, nothing. A physical examination proved nothing, and his attempts to CAT scan Raph's head yielded nothing out of the ordinary. Well, except for data concerning an over stimulated portion of Raph's brain, but that particular section governed one's dreams. So…
So Don could only hope that Raph's dreams were good ones, and pray that one of his brother's came home with an answer. Since he certainly couldn't find one.
"beepbeepbeepbeepbeepBEEPBEEPBEEEP!!!"
Raph's heart monitor was going nuts. He started writhing on the bed, sweating buckets, and punching at the air. As if he was fighting off an enemy.
"Get away! Get Lost! STOP! Leave Her Alone You Fucking Bastard!" Raph snarled.
"Raph! RAPH!" Don screamed. He grabbed Raph's shoulders, but the turtle struggled harder than before.
"Raph wake up! It's just a dream!" Don yelled, "It's just a dream!"
"DON'T! Don't! Don't. don't." Raph repeated, becoming quieter and quieter each time. He stopped thrashing too, and slowly sank back into the bed. The heart monitor, however, was still racing, though a little slower than before.
"Wake up Raph." Don said, still holding on to his brother's shoulders.
"…"
Don waited, and, slowly, Raph opened his eyes.
"Thank God." Don sighed. He had never been one for religion, but times like these always left Donatello with the urge to thank some celestial life-creating being.
Raph sat up, brushing aside Don, and plunged his face into his hands.
"Am I seeing things," Don thought, "or is Raph shaking?"
"Raph…?" Don asked.
Raph sprang from the infirmary bed and marched into the lab.
"Whoa! Raph take it easy." Don protested, but Raph didn't seem to hear him.
On the main supercomputer Raph pulled up a search engine and typed in three words.
"'Peggy MacInshire 1913.'" Don read.
He clicked on a link and Don saw Raph visibly stiffen as the old newspaper article popped up.
AN: I know it's a slow chapter, but an essential one.