Chapter 9
"Impaled"
Hot water cascaded down soft, blushing skin pushing soft, bubbled, suds over delicate curves as Arayah turned about in the shower letting the water cleans her of the stress of the day. Tight and stressed muscles coming to relax under fading bruises, paranoid thoughts of being followed by large black SUVs being pushed to the back of her mind as she let herself get lost in the steam that filled the bathroom.
Slowly she stretched her neck letting the warm water caress one side and then the other and slide its liquid fingers through her hair and down her back.
Suddenly the curtain was ripped to the side with such ferocity that it pulled the curtain rod tumbling to the floor leaving the shocked Arayah exposed and startled grabbing the closest weapon she could find.
Raphael stood there looking at her in all her naked glory. He was unable to move or speak as he beheld her wet, soapy body. Steam floating about her like she was some water nymph come to beckon him to join her in sultry play amidst dark waters. He felt his body heating as if he was standing in an oven set to broil. His mouth watered at the remembrance of her strawberry lips, his fingers tingling with the desire to run along every curve, every tantalizing, delicious morsel of beautiful flesh that she had left exposed in her surprise at his intrusion.
She just stood there holding out a bar of….soap…in a defensive manner.
"Raph? Wha.. what are you doing?" she finally stammered out as she started to recover from her shock.
His eyes snapped up to look at hers as the sound of her voice broke through the carnal thoughts that had flooded his mind. "Why the hell are you naked?!" He snapped.
Arayah looked down at herself as if she had just realized this fact. She snapped her arms around herself to at least cover her breasts. Narrowing her eyes at him she growled, "I'm in the shower!"
"Raph!" Leo called from the living room.
Raphael looked at his brother then back to Arayah as he remembered why they had come there. "We need your help."
Hastily he walked from the bathroom his cheeks about five shades darker at the embarrassment of his surprise, thoughts, and behavior. 'What the hell did he think he was going to find? her standing in the shower wearing a burka?' He mentally kicked himself. The truth was he hadn't been thinking. He had only been determined to get Donatello the help he needed.
Arayah leaned out of the shower and peered into her living room/ bedroom and blinked at the other three large turtles and Casey. She knew Raphael had brothers but only after seeing the other large turtles, did it really sink in. The one in an orange mask was staring at her, blushing with a goofy smile on his face.
Quickly she yanked a towel off a hook on the back of the door and wrapped it around herself. Blushing at the fact that now Raphael AND one of his brothers had seen her naked either fully or in part. Taking a deep breath she tucked her wet hair back behind her ears and hurried across the living room, gave Casey a small but polite smile, and stepped around the turtle in blue to investigate the purple masked turtle's injury.
Carefully she cut away the pant leg that was obstructing her view of the injury with a pair of scissors, which had been in a side table drawer. Then making sure her towel was still tight around her, Arayah moved to get a close look at the injury.
The curtain rod had gone through the leg cleanly, which was good. And though it was bleeding it wasn't profuse. So, Arayah felt fairly confident that the rod could be removed without too much worry. Though she wished she had some of her more high tech equipment from the office to be sure, it was currently not an option.
Mikey watched the Veterinarian as she wrapped some gauze on either side of Don's impaled leg while trying to maintain some modesty on her part. Smiling a little at the sight of the lovely woman in a towel he leaned in close to Raph. "Man, you weren't exaggerating when you said she was hot."
"Shut up, Mike." Raph growled. It was bad enough he was having a hard time controlling where his thoughts were trying to run with the image of her naked and currently sparsely dressed form. He sure as hell didn't need to have Mikey's imagination running in the same direction. Matter of fact the idea of it was really pissing him off. He might not be able to have her and he had no right to be jealous but damn it he wasn't ok with the thought of anyone else even considering touching her.
Arayah tried to control the blush that returned to her face at Mike's whispered statement feeling even more uncomfortable being clad in only a towel and surrounded by males. It was honestly like some sort of bad dream where she would show up to work naked and all her patients could suddenly talk and point out the miss hap to her. Taking a deep breath Arayah focused on the task at hand. "What happened?"
"He fell…" Leo started to explain
"I wasn't asking you." Arayah interrupted, then turned back to the turtle that was lying on her bed. She didn't mean to be rude but she needed the injured turtle to answer so that she could assess his mental state, which wasn't typically apart of her job description but seemed like a good thing to assess. "What happened?" she repeated.
Not used to taking orders from anyone, other than Splinter, Leonardo narrowed his eyes at her but snapped his mouth shut.
Momentarily pulled from his brooding, Raph grinned smugly at the fact she had shut Leo up before he could give his account of what had happened, no doubt he would have included all the details that Raph would have rather were left out. Donny would only stick to the important stuff and leave out the 'who was at fault for what' bit.
Donatello betrayed his hopes, however, with his answer.
"Raph kicked Leo," Don started. "who ran into me and knocked me back over the roof ledge…"
Arayah's attention snapped up to the turtle's face. "You fell off a roof? How tall was the building?"
Suddenly the woman was close to his face, her bright apple green eyes scanning his for signs of concussion and her hands ran over his head feeling for any injury to his cranium. Don's heart started to pound at the woman's close proximity and he found himself having a hard time focusing on her question.
Taking a couple of breaths, to squelch how nervous she made him, he answered slowly. "About, um, three stories. I landed on my back on some… discarded trash bags." Taking another deep breath he continued his answer with more confidence. "I am pretty sure any injuries I sustained were primarily to my shell and leg."
Arayah frowned. A broken shell could be as bad for a turtle as a broken back could be for a human. She looked up at Raph as her hands continued to make their way down the injured brother's neck looking for any possible damage there. "You shouldn't have moved him."
"What would you have me do, leave him there?" Raph snapped back defensively. Never mind that the others could have waited with Donatello. But Raph was typically one to act first and think about the consequences later.
"You should have called and had me come to him." She scolded Raphael as her hands began to run along a long crack in the injured turtle's shell. Honestly Raph's brother was lucky his injuries weren't considerably worse.
"I broke my phone." Raph crossed his arms and scowled at the admittance.
Arayah sighed and moved her attention back down to the purple masked turtled. "What's your name?"
"Donatello." Don swallowed hard when Vet smiled down at him.
"Well Donatello, I am Arayah, and this is what we are going to do," she began to explain. "We are going to turn you over and get the pressure off you carapace. Then I am going to remove the rod from your leg, clean the wound, and stop the bleeding. Then I am going to have a look at your shell. In the mean time I want you to stay as still as possible. I am going to need to give you a tetanus shot. Do you want a local anesthetic before I remove the rod?"
"Yes, please." Don answered softly. Though he had had his fair share of injuries he was usually on the other side of this equation and the woman having run her hands over his skin and shell had him feeling both helpless and overly warm.
"Since he's not going to die, maybe you should get dressed first." Raphael suggested after elbowing Michealangelo harshly for trying to get a better look at what Arayah's towel was covering.
Arayah was very much in agreement but needed to see to a couple of things first. "While I throw something on would one of you please get the medical bag from the kitchen it's under the silverware drawer?"
Welcoming the distraction from his frustration regarding at least two of his brother's behavior and the half dressed woman, Leo headed for the kitchen.
Arayah looked to the others and continued with her instructions. "I need you guys to turn Donatello over, CARFULLY. Do not twist or pull. And keep his leg off the bed. The crack doesn't feel like it went through to the spinal column but I don't want to take more chances than we need to."
After receiving nods of compliance from the three still in the room she grabbed some clothes from a dresser and disappeared into the bathroom.
After the latch to the door clicked Raph lashed out, smacking Mike in the shoulder.
"Owe. Stop hitting me." Michealangelo demanded.
"Stop staring at her."
"Why, did the impervious Raph finally get had by a pretty girl?" Mikey waggled his eye brows teasingly.
"Fuck no." Raph scoffed.
"Bull shit." Casey said in a pretend cough as he moved to Don's side.
"I will kick your ass, Casey." Raph growled. He had withstood about all the embarrassment he could take in one night without hitting anything… again.
Leo dropped the medical bag next to the day bed. "Knock it off." He ordered. "Stop acting like a couple of kids and help get Don turned over."
Giving each other a couple more shoves Mikey and Raph moved down by Don's legs.
"You know guys I think I can turn over just fine on my own." Don protested.
"Sorry Don, Doctor's orders." Leo looked over the situation and considered how to best position his brother with the rod still sticking out of his leg. "Raph, move the bed away from the wall. So his leg can hang over on the other side I think it will be easier to manage from there.
When Arayah returned from the bathroom, hair pulled back and wearing a pair of jeans and a black button up shirt, she found her apartment rearranged and Donatello lying face down and looking none too happy about having been moved around.
Bringing with her a couple more towels Arayah knelt down next to Donatello's injured leg. She spread out a towel on the floor under the leg and the other one across her lab in case she needed it. Then pulled some items out of the bag and slipped on some latex gloves.
"You sure we can trust her?" Leo asked Raph in a quiet whisper as he watched Arayah draw anesthetic from a bottle, with a long needle.
"Absolutely." Raph answered with such complete confidence that Leo didn't doubt his judgment on the matter.
Don hissed as Arayah stuck the needle deep in his leg pushing the liquid out of the syringe as she pulled the needle back out.
"Want me to hold your hand?" Casey teased Don when he hissed again as the needle was pushed into his skin again.
"Go away Casey." Don answered with a groan.
He was stuck six more times. Four deep pokes on each side.
While they waited for the anesthetic to sink in Arayah began to inspect Don's carapace. It was while she was doing this that Raph noticed the stitches in her had Casey had mentioned back at the garage. He also noticed light bruising across her cheek and throat and wondered why he hadn't noticed it before. "What happened to your hand?"
Arayah looked up from cleaning and gauzing Don's carapace. She didn't have any fiber glass strips so she was going to have to use the old American go to, Duct tape. It wouldn't be pretty but it would hold till she could meet back up with the turtles with better supplies and honestly the crack wasn't as bad and she had been worried it would be. "My hand?" She stalled as she ran a piece of tape over the crack and gauze. "Umm… I got in a fight."
"A fight?!" Apparently Casey had been wrong about her being in an accident and who ever had heart her was going to suffer for it.
When Arayah didn't offer up any more information Casey prodded before Raph could start demanding answers. "A fight with who?"
Ignoring the question, Arayah moved back to the rod sticking out of Don's leg. "Ok, Don I'm going to pull this out now. You'll feel some tugging and it might hurt a little but it shouldn't be unbearable. If you think you need more anesthetic say so."
"Ok." Don answered as he turned his face into the bed taking in deep breaths of the honey ginger sent that lingered there, using it as a distraction from the hurt that was about to come.
"Arayah!" Raph snapped drawing a smoldering glare from the woman.
"We'll talk about it in a minute. Right now I am busy, Raphael." Honestly she wasn't sure she should tell him. That first night she had wanted to. She hadn't wanted to carry the burden by herself but now, a couple weeks after the incident, the burden didn't seem so heavy.
After having Leo, since he was closest, support the lower half of Don's leg, Arayah wrapped her fingers around the rod making sure her grip was tight. Then counted, "One, two, three." Pull.
She hadn't lied the pain wasn't unbearable but that didn't mean it didn't hurt like hell, and Don couldn't help the unhappy groan that escaped him his fists balling up in the comforter in a white knuckle grip.
Mikey had to turn away so he didn't lose his stomach.
Raph's guilt at his brother's condition came bubbling back up. Not knowing what else to do he reached out a placed his hand on his brother's shoulder if for nothing else but to let him know he was not alone.
Arayah adjusted her grip. "One, two, three." Pull.
There were not words to express the cool relief Don fealt when the rod came loose from his flesh. A feeling he expressed with a long sigh as he let out the breath he didn't realize he was holding.
Arayah held out the long piece of metal and without hesitation Casey took it.
"Want to keep it as a souvenir?" Casey grinned at Don as he held out the bloodied metal rod where the turtle could see it.
"Get that thing the hell away from me." Donatello frowned at the object that had caused his most recent suffering. He took in a sharp breath as cold saline and betadine were pushed through the wound intermittently with syringes to flush out and clean the wound.
"The biggest thing with this, boys, is that it is kept clean. I can't stitch it up because with a wound like this there is more of a risk of bacteria getting trapped and thus infection. I am going to send this stuff with you and I want you to flush it out twice a day for the next 48 hours then just once a day for the next two days after that." After cleaning the wound thoroughly Arayah pressed gauze to both sides of the injury to help stem any bleeding. Then placed clean gauze over the entry and exit points and taped it down with medical tape.
"You did good, Don." Leo praised from his seat on the floor.
"Well," Donatello corrected. "I did well."
Mikey chuckled from the kitchen. "Guess this means I can't turn your lab into my comic room."
Don looked up from the bed at where his brother stood in the kitchen. "Nope, Mike it looks like I'm gunna make it at least one more day, owe." Don looked over at the needle that had been poked into his shoulder.
"Don't want tetanus." The pretty Vet smiled sweetly as she pushed the vaccine into his shoulder. "I'll send you with some pain meds too."
"We have some." Raph informed her. Though it was always good to stock up on such things, he didn't want to take anything else from her.
Arayah nodded as she put the items needed for keeping the wound clean into a bag and held it out to Leo.
Leonardo took the bag and stood then giving the Arayah a small bow thanked her. "We will pay you when we can, if that is ok."
Arayah waved off the offer. "No, you don't owe me anything. I am glad to help. Besides that's what friends are for, right?" She asked the question as she flashed Raphael a small but hopeful smile.
Raph shifted, his heart tightening as he struggled with the knowledge that he had just been shoved even further into the 'friend box'. He knew he had never really been out of it but the push hurt just the same. Swallowing down the hurt he gave her a small nod.
Leo watched the emotions flash across his brother's face, understanding the feeling of rejection his brother was no doubt wrestling with he decided he would not be giving him the lecture he had planned on. They had all been there. All behaved foolishly for the attention of a woman at one point or another. It had just taken his stubborn brother longer to find the cliff worth jumping off of, so to speak. And considering the modelesk woman that had his brother's heart beneath her feet, it could not be argued that when Raphael decided to jump off a proverbial cliff he picked the highest one possible. It was much like and ant reaching for a star. Something so bright being obtainable only if it were to fall.
"We should be going." Leonardo said as he turned and helped Don to his one good leg.
Mikey and Casey helped Leo get the sore and complaining Donatello out the window. Then stared helping Don down the ladder.
Raph reached out through the window catching Leo's arm. "I'll meet you guys back at the layer."
Leo studied his brother's face for a moment, deciding if he should advise his brother to just let it go or let him venture down this path of disappointment. "Raph…" He started to advise.
"Don't." Raph said. It was obvious by the pathetic sorrowful look that Leo was giving him that Leo had figured out everything Raph hadn't wanted to tell him. In his own shame and embarrassment Raph couldn't hold his gaze any more. So, letting his eyes fall to watch the dark alley below he willed Leo to just leave and not say anything more. He just couldn't listen to any lecture brother might have had for him.
"Ok." With a sigh and a slow nod of understanding Leo turned from the window leaving Raph to walk down his chosen path.
Hope you all are enjoying the story so far. Thank you for reading.
