"Raph! Raph!" Leo shouted frantically into his microphone. All he received in response was static. "Raphael answer me!"
"Leo, that shot . . . ." Don began.
"Stay on the brother," Leo tersely ordered. "Casey, can you hear me?"
"I'm here Leo," Casey answered. "I left the bar as soon as I heard the shot."
"Find Raph," Leo snapped. "Be quick, his headset's out. Mikey, where's the kid?"
"One of his buddies joined him," Mikey answered quickly. "I'm on my way to Raph."
"No!" Leo said sharply. "Get to Don now. I'll join you as soon as I stop this woman from killing herself."
Even as Leo issued crisp directives to his team he was swiftly making his way across to the building opposite him. Once he was on the roof of his target's building, he used hand holds in the uneven brick wall to descend to her fifth floor apartment, hoping he'd be in time to stop her from swallowing too many pills.
"Don, sit rep," Leo hissed, swinging from one window ledge to the next, the kitchen window in his sights.
Heavy breathing sounded in his ear, then the uneven cadence of Don's voice, telling Leo that his brother was moving fast. "I yelled . . . warning," Don answered, words cutting in and out as he spoke. ". . . running. He chased . . . into an alley . . . lost sight . . . almost . . . ."
"Don, wait for backup. Don!" Leo exclaimed, too worried to keep his voice down. He was at the window now and looking through, saw the woman was lying on the floor, broken glass and an empty pill bottle next to her.
"Shell," Leo muttered, grasping the bottom of the window and pushing it up, happy that it wasn't locked. Springing through, he darted over to the woman and felt for a pulse.
Her eyes fluttered open as Leo touched her. "Anthony?" she whispered hoarsely.
"Shh, hang on. Help is on the way," Leo told her in as soothing a voice as he could muster. "Don't go to sleep, okay?"
"You're here," she murmured. "My Anthony."
Glancing around, Leo spotted a wall mounted phone nearby. "That's right Mom," he told the woman, realizing that she was hallucinating. "Promise you'll stay awake and visit with me."
"Of course," the woman slurred, the corners of her mouth curving into a smile.
Leo watched her eyes as he grabbed the receiver off the hook and dialed 911.
"911. What is your emergency?"
"The woman who lives at this address just swallowed a bottle of pills," Leo said. "She's on the kitchen floor, barely conscious. Send help immediately."
He set the phone on the counter rather than disconnecting the call, ignoring the remainder of the operator's questions. Although sure they would respond rapidly, Leo couldn't leave until he saw that help had arrived.
Tearing off a wad of paper towels from the roll hanging nearby, Leo ran cold water over them and proceeded to apply a compress to the woman's neck and upper chest. Her eyes had started to close, but when the chill hit, she blinked up at him.
Leo knew that hearing his voice would help her focus, but he didn't necessarily have to talk to her. What he needed more than anything was to know what was happening with his brothers and Casey.
"Mikey, report in," Leo said into his mike, continuing to minister to the prone woman.
"Just coming up on the address on Don's list," Mikey said. "I don't see him. I don't see or hear anyone.Where did they go?"
"Did you try Don?" Leo asked impatiently. "His signal kept cutting out on me but you should be close enough to reach him."
"'Course I tried," Mikey replied, sounding harried. "I'll start yelling until he yells back."
"Do that," Leo said, resisting a sudden need to be moving, to be doing something other than waiting in an apartment far from the action. "Casey, have you reached Raph?"
"There's people out here where he last reported from," Casey said. "They're milling around yelling stuff. I don't see him yet and he ain't answering."
"Keep looking," Leo said. "Call me as soon as you find him."
The wail of a siren reached Leo's ears as he spoke the last words. Tossing the soaked paper towels into the sink, Leo ran to the front door of the apartment. Taking the chain off, opening the deadbolt, and unlocking the door, he then went back to the kitchen.
Glancing through the window, Leo saw a police cruiser and an emergency services vehicle slide to a stop in front of the building.
Kneeling next to the woman, Leo gave her cheek a couple of sharp pats to get her eyes open again. "Help is here. Stay awake like you promised," he told her.
"Don't go Anthony," she wailed in a trembling voice.
"I'll always be with you, Mom. You mustn't ever try to hurt yourself though, okay? Say you'll never do that again. Say it for me," Leo crooned.
"I miss you," she whispered.
Leo felt his heart break a little for her, but knew he had to go. "I miss you too. I have to answer the door now. Do what the doctors tell you. I'll be watching."
Her eyes followed him as he stood and left the kitchen. Leo could hear voices in the corridor and dashed across the apartment to the woman's bedroom. The windows there gave onto the alley side of the building and Leo quickly pushed one open and climbed out.
Once he was on the roof of her building, Leo didn't take even a second to catch his breath. Moving with purpose, Leo turned in the direction that Raph had last reported from and began running.
"The woman is safe," Leo announced to anyone who was listening. "Casey, I'm on my way to you."
"Nix that!" Casey said sharply. "Stay off the street Leo. That crazy ass woman that Raph was following is standing here with a squad of cops telling 'em she shot some dude."
"Shot some . . . ." Leo trailed off as the worst possible thought crossed his mind. "Raph?"
"They ain't got him, if that's what you're asking," Casey answered. "I ain't got him either, but I did find the mike he was wearing, at least parts of it. It was lying next to some trash cans.There's a set of stairs going down to one of them basement apartments and I'll bet that's where he was hiding.The way the cans were knocked over gave me a good guess which direction he went.I'm about two steps ahead of the cops."
"Where are you?" Leo asked, increasing his speed.
"Five thousand block of Lamont, going east," Casey responded.
"Towards the lair," Leo said. "I'll come in from the opposite direction."
"Sing out if ya' see him," Casey said.
"I think I hear Donny." Mikey's voice sounded suddenly in Leo's ear. "I went the wrong way. I'm doubling back.It sounded like he was shouting."
For a moment Leo was struck with indecision and he slowed down. He hadn't stopped to consider that his choice to go to Raph was selfish rather than in his team's best interest. "Do you need backup?" he asked.
"Leo, I . . . think he . . . got the guy!" Mikey exclaimed. From the way his breath puffed between words, Leo could tell he was bounding onto roof tops as quickly as he could. "There's an echo . . . can't tell where . . . ."
"I've got a blood trail!" Casey cut in, sounding excited. "It's Raph's, I'm sure of it!"
"Leo, go to Raph!" Mikey yelped.
"Mike, are you . . . ." Leo began.
"Find Raph!" Mikey barked.
Leo had started running again, his subconscious having already decided that Raph was his priority. "Casey, are you on the same course?"
"He turned down the alley next to the ice cream shop," Casey said. "I can hear the cops behind me, but the blood's hard to find if ya' don't know how Raph thinks. He's trying to staunch the blood flow somehow, maybe with his hand, and he ain't going for the roof tops."
"There's a way down to the sewers behind the printer's building on Becker," Leo said. "Two blocks northeast. That's where he's going. Run."
"Already am," Casey told him.
Knowing that Raph was mobile and had the presence of mind to hide his trail should have eased Leo's anxiety some, but it didn't. He knew his brother was hard headed enough to travel even if he was critically wounded. Having it drilled into their heads since they were little more than hatchlings that they must avoid humans at all costs made it a subconscious act of self-preservation to hide no matter what condition they were in.
Leo adjusted his course so that he was going in a northeasterly direction. His and Casey's paths would converge at some point, hopefully wherever it was that Raph had gone. They had to get to him before the police got close enough to have a good look at the guy that woman had shot.
He'd lecture Raph later for having allowed himself to be seen by his target. Leo knew that his brother had gotten bored and probably a bit too curious as to why the woman was wandering aimlessly around. Don's warning that she might be trying to lure the mugger out may have sounded implausible to Raph, but he should have heeded it anyway.
As he ran, Leo kept expecting to hear from Mikey that he had connected with Don. He wasn't overly concerned about it, figuring that Mikey wouldn't report in if things were okay. Mikey would know that Leo was trying to focus on locating Raph and only an emergency would cause the younger turtle to pull Leo's mind off of that task.
Casey's voice abruptly sounded in Leo's ear. "Leo! I found Raph.He made it into the sewers but he's down and he's too damn close to the tunnel opening.I could drag him, but I don't want to make his injury worse."
"Do what you can for his wound but don't move him. I'll be there in two minutes," Leo said. "Mikey, if you can hear me, Casey found Raph and I'm about to join them. It's going to take both of us to move him and I need Don back at the lair."
"Right." Mikey's response was short and clipped. If Leo's thoughts weren't wholly with Raph he might have noticed and realized it was cause for concern.
Leo reached the printer's building and glanced down to make sure the police hadn't also found the spot. Seeing that the alley behind the building was clear, he jumped onto the top level of the fire escape and then swung from platform to platform until he was on the ground.
The manhole cover was still off of the tunnel entrance and after he was inside on the ladder, Leo reached up and secured the heavy metal disk into place.
"That you Leo?" Casey asked cautiously, his voice coming from around a bend in the tunnel.
"Yes," Leo answered, hopping down from the ladder and sprinting to where Casey was waiting.
As he rounded the turn, Leo saw that Casey was on his knees next to Raph. Casey was shirtless, his tank top pressed to a spot on Raph's upper torso. The golf bag Casey carried his weapons in lay on the ground beneath Raph's shoulders and the big turtle's eyes were closed.
When Leo drew closer he could see blood covering one of Raph's hands and rivulets of it coating his side.
Squatting beside Casey, Leo asked, "Where was he hit?"
"Looks like it went into his boxer's muscle," Casey said. "Just nicked his plastron. I didn't see an exit wound, so the bullet's probably embedded in there someplace. He was slumped against the wall when I found him, so I laid him out to get at the injury. It started bleeding like a bitch when his hand fell away and I'm just trying to get it to stop."
"Raph, can you hear me bro'?" Leo asked. When he received no reaction he tried again. "Raph!"
Raph's eyelids twitched and then opened enough for the gold of his iris' to shine through. "What?" he muttered belligerently.
"Casey and I are going to have to carry you home," Leo told him. "Don't try to move on your own or you'll start bleeding again."
"Where's Donny?" Raph asked, opening his eyes a bit wider.
"He and Mikey are headed back to the lair," Leo said, hoping he was telling the truth. "He'll be waiting in the infirmary for you."
"Fuckin' turtle luck," Raph murmured, his eyes sliding shut.
Leo began removing his belt, telling Casey, "We'll use my belt to tie your shirt into place and then we need to get him away from here. We can do a two man carry; you get his legs and I'll support his upper body. When we get to where he left his Shell Sled I'll take it back to mine and come back with that one since it's big enough to hold the three of us."
"Gotcha," Casey said, lifting Raph enough so that Leo could slide his belt underneath his brother and secure it tightly around the covered wound.
Once that was done, Leo traded places with Casey, pushing Raph into a seated position so that the vigilante could retrieve his golf bag. After he had it slung over his back, Casey stepped into a spot between Raph's calves, facing away from him, and leaned down to grasp the turtle beneath his knees.
With his arms under Raph's and his hands intertwined around his brother's chest, Leo lifted Raph off the ground. As he came up so did Casey, the pair holding a semi-conscious Raph suspended between them.
Leo wasn't exactly sure where Raph had parked his Shell Sled but he could take an educated guess. Issuing directions to Casey, Leo guided him towards that spot, the pair jogging slowly so as not to disturb Raph any more than necessary.
It was a relief to see Raph's Shell Sled come into view and they set Raph carefully on the ground once they reached it. Leaving Casey to watch over Raph, Leo drove the sled swiftly through the tunnels to where he'd hidden the largest of the sleds.
Trading rides, Leo rushed back to Casey and Raph. The twist of a knob expanded Leo's sled so that Raph could lay prone on it, with Casey supporting him in order to keep him from sliding around.
Leo drove faster than was prudent, his concern for his brother overriding his normal caution. He heard Raph cough a couple of times during the trip, but other than that Raph did not complain about the rough ride. Either he was too out of it to notice, or he'd decided to be stoic so that no one would fuss over him. Considering Raph's personality, it was probably the latter.
When they reached the lair, Leo and Casey lifted Raph from the sled and resumed their two man carry to get him inside. Entering their home, Leo was dismayed to discover that all was quiet, a good indication that his other two siblings hadn't reached there yet.
"Master Splinter!" Leo called out as they took Raph into the infirmary.
The note of desperation in his tone was clear enough to bring their sensei out of his room at a fast clip. "What has happened?" Master Splinter asked worriedly as he rushed towards them.
Before Leo could answer, the sounds of his brother's voices reached him. As he and Casey laid Raph down on a cot, Don came running into the room.
Leo had only a second to notice that Don's expression was pinched and then his brother was elbowing him aside. "Move," Don ordered sharply, his hands reaching for the belt tied around Raph's wound.
"The crazy bitch he was following shot him," Casey said somewhat unnecessarily. "From what I can tell, the bullet's still in there."
Rather than stand around doing nothing while Don examined the injured turtle, Leo pushed a rolling cart over to the main medical supply cabinet. Placing a metal tray atop the cart, he began filling it with the items he thought Don might need.
Master Splinter entered the room and displaced Casey, forcing the human to back away from the cot. "I will assist you Donatello," he told his son in a steady voice.
When Leo rolled the cart up next to Don, his brother glanced up at him. Leo was taken aback by the animosity he saw in the genius' eyes.
"Get out," Don said between gritted teeth.
As much as he wanted to address the clear anger that Don was displaying, Leo decided that this was not the time. With a curt nod, he backed out of the room, knowing that if more help was needed, his father would call for him.
Standing just outside of the infirmary, Leo watched as Don began to work on Raph. It was very much out of character for Donatello to be quite so antagonistic, especially when there was an injury requiring his care. That was when he usually became dispassionate and focused.
"Leo."
Turning at the sound of his name pronounced in such a low tone, Leo saw Mikey waiting a little ways off. He appeared grim rather than simply worried and it was clear that he wanted to talk to his brother out of earshot of those in the infirmary.
"Raph was shot in the chest," Leo said as he walked over to Mikey.
"The chest?" Mikey asked, his eyes widening.
"Here in the muscle," Leo said, pointing to his own serratus anterior muscle. "It's still in there and he lost some blood."
"He's gonna be too sore to box for a while," Mikey said without his usual situational humor.
"What happened with Donny?" Leo asked, cutting right to the chase.
"It's not good Leo," Mikey responded. "In fact it blows. When I caught up to him, Don had cornered that weirdo mugger, but the guy already had a hold of his victim. Don was trying to talk him into letting the man go, but the mugger had pulled the poor man back up against him. He had an arm around the man's chest and a hand on the man's throat, choking him. He wouldn't even answer Don; just kept backing away from him."
"Is Don upset because the mugger got away?" Leo was studying Mikey's face, trying to read his expression.
"He's upset because the mugger killed the man," Mikey said bluntly.
"Killed . . . ?" Leo gaped at Mikey as he tried to wrap his head around the news. "He's never killed anyone before."
"We thought he'd escalate," Mikey said. "Don knew that statistically they always escalate, but he's blaming himself. He's also second guessing himself. Now he thinks he should have charged the guy instead of trying to rationalize with him."
"How?" Leo asked.
"How'd he kill the man?" Mikey huffed, his own frustration coming through in the sound. "He squeezed hard enough the crush the man's throat. Never took his eyes off of Don the whole time he was doing it. When the man's face started changing color, Don decided to move in on them, but it was too late. I got there just when that part started to go down and waited for Donny to call the play. He said attack as soon as he realized the mugger was squeezing too hard but he didn't know how strong that guy was."
"Could you see his face? Would you recognize him?" Leo asked.
"No," Mikey said. "He was wearing a long cloak and had a hood pulled up over his head. In that getup he looked like the grim reaper. As soon as he killed that man he just dropped him like a sack of potatoes."
"And you two rushed him then?" Leo's brow furrowed, wondering how the mugger had escaped.
"Shell yeah we did," Mikey said. "Remember when I said the guy was strong? Leo, he was strong enough to throw me and Don half the length of the alley. At the same time."
Speechless for a moment, Leo stared at his younger brother, thinking that Mikey was exaggerating. From the look on Mikey's face though, it was clear that he was serious.
"That's not possible," Leo finally said. "He'd have to be Shredder strong to do that."
"He wasn't an Utrom in an exoskeleton," Mikey asserted. "After all this time I can recognize them. The guy was flesh and blood and strong enough to toss us onto our butts before making a getaway. Did I mention that he was fast too?"
"So you couldn't catch him," Leo concluded.
"Don stopped to see if the victim was okay and I waited for him. It didn't take more than a couple of seconds to tell that he was dead but by the time we went after the mugger, he was out of our sight. You called right about then saying we should come home. It took me a minute to get through to Donny, he was pretty upset."
"Yes, I can imagine," Leo said softly, glancing back towards the infirmary.
Silence descended on them, broken when Mikey sighed and asked, "What's our next step? We can't let the guy get away with killing someone, he'll do it again."
"Our plan tonight worked," Leo replied. "We know how he chooses his victims and we can find him. The problem is determining which of the potential targets he's going after. A one on one approach is obviously a bad choice, and he's too fast for us to be able to wait for backup. We have to make an educated guess and have our entire team prepared to attack as soon as we spot him."
"The entire team minus Raph," Mikey corrected. When he saw the thunderous look on Leo's face, he quickly added, "He'll be all right, we both know that. I'm only saying it's gonna be a while before he can start fighting again. A bullet in that muscle is something that has to have time to heal and until then, he won't be able to swing a punch with that arm."
"Why did that woman have a gun?" Leo asked rhetorically. "Why was she wandering the streets carrying a weapon? Was she hoping to be attacked? Raph was only following her, he didn't try to get close. Why would she shoot him?"
"All good questions," Mikey said, even though he knew Leo wasn't expecting any kind of an answer. "She's a hysterical human female. She saw something hulking and green and shot at it because she's gun crazy. She could just as easily have shot one of those teenagers who dress up as giant hot dogs and stand on street corners."
"I hope the police take that gun away from her before she does," Leo said.
Even though Mikey had raised as many questions as he'd answered, Leo was somewhat relieved by their discussion. Mikey had a unique grasp of battlefield tactics and a natural understanding of why people did what they did that Leo had often found very useful. His observations of their opponent would help Leo come up with a new strategy for catching the killer.
Movement from the direction of the infirmary pulled Leo's attention back that way and he saw that Casey was coming towards them.
"I'm about as useful as a hangnail in there," Casey said. "Don won't let me do anything and I'm getting fidgety. Raph's sled's still out there, how about I go and get it?"
Leo nodded, knowing that Casey was barely holding back from a full blown temper tantrum over Raph's condition. Better he have a chore than go on a rampage inside the lair that would leave them with broken furniture and busted electronics.
"Mikey will give you a ride to where I left it," Leo said, exchanging a look of understanding with his brother.
The pair left together after Leo told Mikey where Raph's Shell Sled was parked. Once silence descended on the lair, it was all Leo could do not to rush into the infirmary and demand an update on Raph's condition. Feeling so disoriented was foreign to Leo, he could normally remain composed and meditative in the worst of times. But then he'd never been struggling with an abnormal attraction to one of his brothers before either.
With no idea of what to do with himself, Leo began pacing. He tried to focus on what he now knew about the mugger and using that knowledge to figure out a way to trap the man, but a mental image of an injured Raph kept rising in his mind's eye and disrupting his concentration.
The sound of Don clearing his throat pulled Leo to a stop and he spun around to see his brother standing nearby.
"He's resting," Don said in a tight tone of voice. "I removed the bullet and sealed the wound. He's receiving a blood transfusion right now because he lost so much. Master Splinter is monitoring him while I speak to you."
"Thank you Donny," Leo said warmly. "Casey is really the one who . . . ."
"He shouldn't have been shot," Don said, interrupting him. "As soon as you heard him say that woman was just walking around you shouldn't have left him out there alone."
"We've all been in those types of situations before," Leo said. "Raph himself wasn't concerned."
"I don't care, you should have gone to him," Don insisted. "You should have gone or sent one of us as soon as he said she was behaving oddly."
Leo stared at him, surprised at the vehemence in Don's voice. "Who could I have sent? Who would you have had me put in harm's way?"
"Anyone but Raph!" Don shouted. "He's not disposable!"
Don's face was suffused with color, his rage obvious in both his delivery and his attitude. Leo couldn't recall ever seeing Don so upset and certainly not to the point where he would lash out with such fervor.
"I've never considered any of you to be disposable," Leo said, remaining calm. "What we do is hazardous at times and Raph knows that better than . . . ."
"Shut up!" Don exclaimed. "Just shut up! You and your two cent excuses. A man died tonight and Raph is lying in there with a bullet wound and a bag of spare blood flowing into his veins. I'm not magic, I don't know if he'll make it, I never know if he'll make it when he's that injured. I'm sick to death of always having to carry that fear."
"It was not your fault that man died," Leo said, holding Don's eyes with his own. "That's on the mugger and you can't lose sight of that fact."
"Oh make no mistake, it was my fault," Don said. "I hesitated, thinking that I could get him to talk to me, that I could reason with him and he'd release that man. You don't reason with a crazy person and I screwed up in thinking that I could. Mark my words, I'm going to find him and when I do, he'll pay for what he's done."
"We'll find him," Leo stressed. "Mikey told me about him, about his strength and speed. We aren't going to take any more chances, we'll hunt him together."
"Because we've taken enough chances, right Leo?" Don asked sarcastically. "Just keep pushing until one of us is down, usually Raphael, then change tactics."
"I would never put Raph in harm's way on purpose," Leo hissed, starting to let Don's temper get to him. "I resent your intimation that I would do something like that to him. Do you think that he's not important to me just because we have disagreements? You're wrong Donny, completely wrong."
When Leo finished his sentence he noticed that Don was trembling and at first thought it was from anger. Then he noticed that his brother's attitude seemed to have shifted and that Don was struggling with another emotion altogether.
"I know you're attracted to Raph," Don said, his voice suddenly low.
Leo's expression turned dead pan as he stared at Don. "I have no idea what you're talking about. Raphael is my brother."
"You don't understand," Don said, as though Leo hadn't spoken. "If something happened to Raph, I don't know what I'd do. I can't survive without him."
For a moment it felt as if all of the oxygen had been sucked out of the air and Leo couldn't breathe. "Don, what are you telling me?" Leo asked, his words precise.
"Just what I said," Don replied. "If this family loses Raph it's going to lose me too."
Before Leo could question him further, Don spun around and stormed off. His attitude made it clear that Leo shouldn't try to follow him, and so Leo didn't. Instead he remained motionless as Don disappeared back into the infirmary.
For the next fifteen minutes until Mikey and Casey returned to the lair, Leo remained in that exact spot, barely blinking as he struggled with the ramifications of Don's disclosure. He did not want to misconstrue what Don had said and so he analyzed it, every single word.
Such deep thought got him exactly nowhere. Leo's heart refused to accept the conclusion that his mind kept trying to reach. The internal battle concluded with a stalemate when Leo decided he wasn't going to jump to conclusions, he'd make Raph supply him with an answer.
When and if the hot head woke up.
TBC….
