Disclaimer: I do not own any characters of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles except for my OC.
A/N: Hello readers! I hoped you enjoyed the previous chappie... so here's a new one for y'all!
Enjoy!
~Indigo Tides
"NOOO!" I cried out and ran to the edge to the bridge. Chloe's body was almost lost in the blinding snow, but I faintly saw her splash in the unforgiving water.
Ralph came over to me and announced,
"Why the heck did he just drop her? We need to-"
"Get her," I growled, unstrapping my katana belts and placing them gently on the ground. "She's gonna get pulled down!" cried Mikey, his baby blue eyes searching the surface of the water.
"Well, let her drown," said Ralph bitterly. "If she's working with the Foot than she is no ally of ours."
Michelangelo and I both looked at each other in shock.
"B-but Chloe said she didn't know anything about this project!" stuttered Donny. "You heard her by the shop; she was clueless!"
Ralph opened his mouth to protest, but closed it from a dirty look from me. If only looks could kill, my younger brother would be dead on the spot.
"Let him go, Ralph. But if Chloe drowns, you need to recover her," warned Don.
And with that, I turned and jumped over the bridge into the swirling, dark water, trying forgetting about what my hothead brother just said.
On first impact, I knew this was cold. Beyond cold. But when I was underwater, it felt like the water set my skin of fire, numbing my bones. My sluggish brain could only process one thing; air.
I struggled to get topside, but from the heavy snowfall from past weeks, the current was strong, pulling me deeper and deeper into darkness. At last, I pulled through the surface, gasping the sweet, sweet air and dived under again. The gloom of the water was hard to see through, but being a turtle I had experience underwater before. I tried to move through the current, but it forced me down farther. Looking around, I spotted something, a bit of white against black rock. Excited, I swam over to see if it was Chloe, and turned out to be a piece of garbage instead.
With every moment passing, I felt my heart growing heavier and heavier with dread. If I didn't find her soon…
I broke the surface again and heard yelling. Mikey stood by the bank, now several hundred yards away pointing to something to the right of me.
"Leo…she's…says…gotta…gone!" cried Mikey, his words catching the blowing wind.
I turned and saw an unconscious figure floating in the frigid water several feet away from me. Chloe! Swimming fast and furious, I reached her, and could taste her blood mingling in the water. I grabbed her and towed her towards shore.
My three brothers were already waiting for me when I dragged Chloe on the bank and laid her gently on the snowy ground. With shaking fingers, I put two fingers on her neck-and to my relief- found a heartbeat.
"I-I-I've got a weak p-p-pulse, and her b-breathing is r-r-really shallow," I announced, crossing my arms for warmth.
Chloe's face was drained of all blood, her lips blue. And what was once dry, Chloe's clothes were plastered to her body and she shivered violently. My stomach churned uncomfortably. Most of the pain she was in right now was my entire fault, but I thanked my lucky stars that she was out so she didn't feel it.
"What do you think that was that Shredder injected in her arm?" questioned Donatello.
"I d-d-don't k-know," I answered. "But we d-do need t-t-to get her out-t of this-s-s weather."
Mikey crouched down and picked her up bridal style, and I didn't comply. After all, my shaking arms would drop her before we reached the sewer. Ralph had my belts and katanas, and strapped them on my shell for me.
"Thanks R-raph," I stuttered.
As we started towards the nearest manhole, the snow was falling so hard that I couldn't even see Mikey in front of me. A couple of steps later, a scraping sound of metal against pavement indicated me that Donny found one, and I followed them underground. Once my feet hit the sewer floor, my knees buckled under me with exhaustion before I knew I was falling. Then an arm guiding me upright, supporting my weight. I looked, and it was Raphael, smirking down at me.
"Come on, Fearless. We're almost home."
Step by heavy step, my feet found their way through the underground tunnels until finally a soft light lighted my path. Home.
Our sensei, Master Splinter, had gone with our human friends Casey and April to their Grandmother's cottage to help with decoration. April had said that they'd be back by mid- December, and now I really hope they're right.
By the amount of blood on Mikey's arm from Chloe's wound, the flow had started to increase at an alarming rate.
"Mikey!" ordered the purple masked turtle, "get her on the bed in the spare room, but lay an old blanket down first. This will be a long, messy night."
The youngest turtle nodded and tramped up the stairs, me hot on his heels. Quickly, I grabbed an old sheet and draped on the bed when Mikey put Chloe down. He made a face at me, showing me his bloody arm from where Chloe's head lay. I wanted to throw up. Poor Chloe.
Suddenly, Donatello burst into the room wielding a first aid kit and knelt by her bed. He unzipped her winter coat and set it dipping wet on a vacant chair. Her black shirt was equally wet, but wasn't soiled in blood. Her broken arm, on the other hand, lay twisted at her side with dark bruises spotted near the skin.
As the doctor opened his first aid container, Mikey and I backed away from the bed. We knew well enough to not get in the way of Donny when he was working. I sat down on the chair with Chloe's coat on the back and put my head in my hands. Watching Donny work captivated my attention. He worked so swiftly, disinfecting the wounds, wrapping the arm with gauze. Although when he started to clean the gash on her head, Chloe moaned in pain and weakly tried to push the cloth away. My heart twisted painfully and I looked away.
Then Raph walked in carrying some blankets. He draped some over my shoulders, and it was then when I could finally feel the coldness seep into my bones. I shivered, pulling the cloth tighter around my frozen body.
"How's she doin'?" he mumbled with a frown.
"We don't know yet," replied Mikey, "but Donatello will tell us. He's always right." His voice sounded confident, but behind his ocean blue eyes was worry.
Donatello took the blankets from his brother without a word and spread them over the shivering girl. Raph sighed and said,
"Come on, Leo. You need to get somethin' to eat. Let's go downstairs."
My youngest brother stood up at this invite and dashed downstairs. We all knew what he was going to cook, and in no time the aroma of cheese, tomato sauce and pepperoni wafted through the lair.
"You comin'?" Raph asked
I shook my head, having the sudden urge to puke from the pizza baking downstairs.
My brother shrugged and started towards the kitchen.
"Raph, while you're downstairs, get some old towels. The blood flow is starting up again," called the doctor. Raph nodded, dashed out of the door and returned again with an armful of dirty rags.
I knelt by Don as he hastily took the towels. He handed me one, and I pressed it against Chloe's temple which was know slick with blood. Wordlessly, my brother finished wrapping Chloe's splint and washed his hands.
My heart rate quickened when I glanced down again at the towel I was pressing on her head. The whole thing was scarlet red- and this was after about a minute's time- with blood and dripping onto the sheets.
"Uh, Donny? Her head wound is bleeding really badly," I commented, forcing my voice to keep from rising.
"Just press another one to her head. I need to find my needle and thread," Donatello answered, and ran out of the room to his laboratory.
I threw the bloody rag on the floor and replaced it with a clean one. What surprised me was the fact that Chloe stayed still since the wound on her head gotten worse. It was as almost like she was in a long sleep, coming from her ragged breathing, I thought.
An invisible choke hold grabbed my throat as I realized a horrible thought. What if Chloe was so badly injured that she would never wake up? Who knows what was injected into her arm on the bridge- it could've been anything. Poison, mutant antidote…
And secondly, I failed. I failed as a friend, a protector and a warrior. Chloe was thrown off a bridge because I was too slow. I should have seen Shredder come up from behind me! If only I stopped him, Chloe would be in a better state than she is right now.
Donny walked in the room, snapping me away from my thoughts. Needle and thread in hand, he pulled the cloth away from Chloe's head and wiped the long gash down with disinfectant. All blood cleared away, I could see that the cut was deep- no doubt from one of Shredder's blades. Don started to stitch together the skin, his brows scrunched together in concentration. Little bits of blood kept on seeping through the stitches, but I wiped them away. It felt like I was doing this for hours, but soon Donatello cut the end of the thread and wrapped around the wound in bandage.
"Well? What's the verdict?" I asked anxiously when Donny was packing up his medical gear.
"Her arm is set, the cut on her head is deep, and we'll need to keep an eye on that. There's some fluid in her lungs, but that's something we can fix once she wakes up," recited my brother, but he looked apprehensive. "When Chloe hit the water, I don't exactly know what happened. Either it was from the coldness or the shock of the blood, she lost consciousness and isn't appearing to regain it anytime soon. Whatever Shredder injected into her arm is delaying her recovery. I've tested her blood and it appears to be okay, but we'll need to check it again later."
Suddenly, Donny looked like he aged a couple years. I put a hand on his shoulder even though my head was spinning from the recent news.
"You did everything in your power to help her. She'll be okay," I whispered, my voice hoarse.
He nodded and said,
"I'll hook up a heart rate monitor just to be sure," added Donny and dashed downstairs again.
Weariness overtook my body and I sat down hard in the chair again. Donny came back up with his machine and hooked her with her left arm. Once he was done, he turned to me.
"It's 2:34 in the morning. You want to go to bed?"
I replied,
"No, you go. I'll take first shift," I mumbled, pulling the blankets tighter around me.
Then Mikey popped in, his hands greasy from the pizza.
"How is Chloe doing?" he asked, walking over the bed. And his eyes bugged from his head when he saw the bloody towels and bandages.
Donny shared the news to him, and Mikey's smile slowly faded away.
"Is she gonna make it?" he questioned softly, glancing looks at the heart rate monitor.
The doctor just sighed and exited the room.
"Dude, you missed an awesome pizza," announced the youngest turtle to me once Donny was gone.
"Yeah Mikey, I'm sure I did," I answered, an eye on Chloe's sleeping form.
Mikey grinned his famous goofy grin and sang,
"You loooove Chloooooeeeee!"
I ignored him and got in a more comfortable position in the chair.
"Get ready for an early wake up call, little bro. You're on next shift," I muttered.
He stuck his tongue out at me, but bid me goodnight anyway. Then I was left alone in the quiet room with the only sound was Chloe's breathing and the beeping of the heart rate monitor. I found this disorientating and couldn't clear my mind of today's events. Whenever my eyes slid shut, all I could see was Shredder holding Chloe's battered form over the furious water. And of course, my eyes flew back open again to the dark room. I think an hour later, I finally let my mind rest into peaceful dreams.
In the dream, I was standing on the top of a building, Chloe running in front of me. She was in perfect condition, no signs of cuts or broken bones. I tried to catch her, but she danced out of my grasp, laughing. Her voice sounded like ringing bells- as if it was cutting through the night air- and bouncing in my head.
Come get me, she teased, a glint sparkling in her eye.
Then the city's lights went out all at once, only the moon throwing shadows all around us. Chloe's eyes changed from a kind, fun look to downright sinister. Four will journey to the Maker of Darkness to seek the one who holds the heart, battle will rise amongst the fiends, and one's soul on Earth shall part.
Wait! I said as the wind picked up around us. What will we find?
But she kept staring at me, her hazel eyes slowly turning red until they were glowing with crimson.
Chloe's voice still sent chills down my neck, and a frantic beating started. It was my heart; beating faster, and faster, and faster…
A/N: Thanks for reading! Remember that reviews are always welcome! :)