Hey Readers!

MichelleAngela here! Just one quick word! My Master Splinter isn't the best so just work with me. lol.

Thanks to those for taking the time for reading or reviewing


Chapter Seven: Flick of Hope

Donnie stared at him. His shell bumped against the side of the van as Leo swerved onto another lane of the deserted back streets of New York. He could barely register the words spoken to him from Raph, but he completely ignored them. The only thing that captured his attention was the teen. Michael, as April called him was bundled up in a white wool blanket, the blood from his wounds seeping into the fabric. His sweating skin growing paler in an alarming rate, the only visible coloring being the orange bandana tied round his forehead. Donnie swallowed around the lump in his throat as he tore his eyes away from the familiar color he had long since seen.

"I have to get out the bullets and the then stitch up the wounds." he said suddenly. "Depending on his progress, he either may need blood or just rest with plenty of fluids to get his strength and color back."

It was his only guess at the moment. His results would be more accurate once they arrived home. Yet, something in his gut told him that Master Splinter was not going to like this situation at all. If April was at all right at her assumption about the teen they had reluctantly brought along, then this meant trouble for the family. Things had just been smoothed over by Mikey's death and now it was shoved in their faces that he was brought back? It was just impossible. Donnie recalled the small funeral and the burying of their youngest brother in his favorite part of the sewers. In fact, Donnie had visited Mikey's grave a few days ago and saw nothing out of the ordinary. A few things had been moved, but he passed it as the rats scurrying through the tunnels passageways. I mean, it was a deep part of the sewers a few tunnels away from Leatherhead's sanctuary. He was sure if anyone had tried to dig around the site that Leatherhead would have intercepted immediately.

He continued on, "But, I won't know for sure until we get back to the lair."

"So, Mikey will be fine?" April asked. She was treating a minor cut on Casey's head.

Donnie turned to look at her, holding onto the bench seat of the van as it jumbled along the road by Leo's driving. He could see the sincere worry in her eyes as she gazed at the teen or who she believed was their brother, Michelangelo. It wasn't that he didn't trust April, in truth, he actually held a genuine feeling that there was a past behind this boy that would soon unfold and have some sort of connection to them. A connection that he feared would have a huge impact on their lives from here on out.

He wasn't sure what caused him to think it, but he knew he wasn't the only one that tried to remain in denial. Leo and Raph dared not show any emotion of the situation, but he could tell that there was a flicker of hope that April was somehow right of the identity of the teen. Her tone released a sense of doubt in her accusation, but it somehow held a strong determination to make proof of it.

"Uh..." Donnie blinked, trying to regain his voice as his mind twirled.

Instead, it was Raph who spoke for him, but not in the way he would have.

"You can quit callin' that kid, Mikey, cuz it ain't him!" He barked from the passenger's seat. "So, get that outta yer head right now!"

April pursed her lips at the comment. Instead, she rolled her eyes in an annoyed manner and returned to nursing Casey. "Fine." she muttered.

Leo who had remained stone faced and silent, slowed down as they approached their destination. "We're here." he announced in monotone. He pressed lightly on the brakes as he drove into the abandoned warehouse, shutting off the engine once the garage was lowered behind them. "I'll go ahead. Master Splinter will need to be alerted that we have a visitor." he glanced over his shoulder at the teen before he stepped out of the vehicle.

"I got Casey." Raph mumbled, climbing into the back of the van as April and Donnie were opening the back doors. "There ain't no way I'm touchin' that kid more than I got to."

"Lay him on the couch in the living room." Donnie informed him as he watched Raph lift their human friend. "He should be waking up within a few hours."

"No prob, brainiac." he grunted as he carefully made his way out of the van and towards the elevator that led to the lair.

Donnie turned back to April, motioning towards Michael as he readjusted his bag. "We have to be careful, alright?" at her nod, he bent down, took one of Michael's arms and placed it behind his neck. April grabbed hold of the other, mimicked his movements and together they shared the teen's weight and hefted him between them into the waiting elevator.

"Into the lab." Donnie huffed once they reached the lair.

Entering the lab, Donnie and April carefully laid Michael on an examination table before slowly unwrapping the blood soaked wool blanket. "Oh my - "

"April... I need stitches, a sewing needle, and tweezers." Donnie instructed, applying pressure to the bullet wound on the teen's hip. "This might take a few hours."


Leo stopped before the double doors of the meditation room. The conflict of the situation was becoming a raging battle in his head. When April had said that the teen was actually Mikey, a flick of hope had crashed through his heart like waves lapping across the beach sand. He'd seen the orange bandana and acknowledge his name that April called him by. Michael. The coincidence was uncanny.

Then, Donnie - Donnie seemed to believe in April after crouching to take a look at the kid. His eyes. Donnie had said they were his eyes. Mikey's eyes. Out of the four of them, Mikey was the only one with any coloration in his eyes while he, Donnie and Raph simply had brown eyes. Wide, crystal blue eyes that sparked with mischief and glittered with a childlike spirit. They had been the windows to his soul, easily read within a glimpse and hard not to recognize with years of living with him.

Though, he didn't deny any of it, he still had a hard time believing it. He would have to see and hear the teen for himself. It was the only way he could tell.

"My son, you have lingered much too long outside of the door. You are disturbing my concentration with your emotions." Master Splinter spoke loudly from inside the room. "You may enter."

Leo opened the door and let himself in. The smell of soft incense washing over him and immediately calming his nerves as he stepped lightly towards the elderly rat, meditating in the center of the room. He bowed in respect, receiving a nod in return before he sat down on the ground in front of him. There was a pregnant pause until Master Splinter slowly opened his eyes and motioned for Leo to talk. "April and Casey were attacked by Bishop's men tonight."

Master Splinter perked his ears, his eyes widening. "Are they injured?"

"April's fine, but Casey's unconscious." Leo replied quickly. "Donnie says he'll be alright. Just a slight headache when he awakes."

"I shall make some tea." Master Splinter said. "but I do believe there is more, am I right?"

"Hai, Sensei."

"What is it, my son?"

"We brought home a teen boy by April's command. She refused to leave him." Leo confessed, lowering his head. "He was severely wounded in the attack. They had been after him. She was scared because..." he trailed off, wondering how to put the situation into words for his father.

"Leonardo." came the foreboding tone.

"April thinks the teen is Mikey - our Mikey - Michelangelo." Leo said in a soft voice. "His name is really Michael, he looks our age and he wears an orange bandana around his forehead..."

Master Splinter stared his mind momentarily blank as he let the words sink in. This was not what he had been expecting from his oldest son. He had no idea how to react to the news that was spoken and quite frankly he hoped it were half true. The loss of Michelangelo had hit him hard and though he did not show it much, he hurt just as much as any one of his sons, if not worse.

"Master Splinter?" Leo called.

"You say that Miss O'Neil found a... boy who..." he trailed off, not sure if he had heard right and raised his eyebrows at his son.

"...She thinks may be Michelangelo - yes." Leo finished, nodding his head.

"My son, this makes no sense." Master Splinter said, his eyes slowly narrowing. "We held a service in honor of your brother and buried him. I'm afraid that Miss O'Neil might be mistaken."

Leo sighed, "Sensei, I agree with the reasoning, but he really does - I mean, it's too much of a coincidence..."

Master Splinter opened his mouth to reply when he remembered something that he had kept from Michelangelo's shrine. He slowly stood from his spot on the ground and made his way over to the stand where the incense candles were burning. Blowing them out, the elderly rat picked up an old sketch pad and quickly thumbed through the colorful drawings created by his youngest son. He glanced at each one of them briefly, but came to a sudden stop on a penciled sketch of a teenage boy. It was the same one from a few days ago that left him pondering why Michelangelo had drawn it.

He believed he knew the answer. It was a quick sketch of what Michelangelo imagined he might have looked like as human.

"Master Splinter, that looks - that looks just like the kid..." Leo stated, slowly taking the notebook from his grasp.

CRASH!

"I'm goin' out!" Raph could be heard shouting.

"That's right, you walk away when things get too much for you to handle, Raphael!" a voice that sounded much like April screamed back.

Leo stepped out of the meditation room just in time to see Raph storm out of the lair and April mumbling angrily under her breath as she stomped off towards the lab, where she and Donnie were nursing Michael back to health. Casey was up, looking around with a confused gaze as he rolled his eyes and fell back onto the couch with a pained groan.

"I shall make some tea for Mr. Jones," Master Splinter then turned to Leo. "Once Donatello and Miss O'Neil are done in the lab I want you to go after Raphael before he does anything too drastic. I will want some alone time with this boy - I want to know the truth."

Leo nodded in understanding before making his way towards the main room where Casey was lying, face up and staring at the ceiling. "You were knocked out pretty hard.. Do you want any pain killers or ice?"

"Nah, it's cool." Casey mumbled, wrinkling his forehead. "I guess Raph didn't take it so well."

Master Splinter returned with a cup of steaming tea and sat down beside Casey. "Mr. Jones, I need to know how you came across the boy."

Casey sat upright, setting down the tea on the table to cool. "..'iight, well I was sleepin' when... "

When he reached the end of his tale, Casey let the silence consume the lair once more as the other two dwelled over his words. There wasn't a doubt in his mind that the kid he and April had found out by the trash was Michelangelo. He'd been apprehensive at first by the sudden arrival of his deceased friend and the mystery behind it all. I mean, it was either a very weird dream or he was transferred into some sort of twilight zone. Then again, being friends with the turtle brothers did bring in strange happenings. Who says this wasn't one of them?

He remembered when the teen had awoken. The kid - human kid, anyway, had Mikey's personality in a nutshell. His voice, laced with that memorable surfer accent, the mannerism, the phrases. It was all him! Yet, he had some sort of darkness about him, not evil darkness, but a darkness that screamed he was lost within his own heart and mind. His blue eyes that yearned to know things that were beyond his understanding and beyond his reach, but destiny had taken his course and led him to them.

Questions buzzed non stop in his head that needed answers, but the only way to solve them was located in the care of Donnie and April, wounded and unconscious.

Casey switched his eyes back to where Master Splinter and Leo had once been standing. He never noticed them take leave. He sighed, closing his eyes for much needed rest. As he drifted into slumber, Casey thought up ways to make his remaining mutated friends believe and hold onto that flick of hope, if only for just a little bit.