*Disclaimer: I do not own the characters Donatello, Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Raphael, Splinter, April O'Neil, or Casey Jones.  The rest of them are mine; please don't borrow them without permission.  Thanks!

Chapter 10

Leonardo:

I lay awake in that bed for a long time.  I was tired, but there was too much on my mind for sleep.  I could tell my brothers were sleeping though.  Michaelangelo had practically fallen asleep while he was being examined.  Poor guy, being the most emotional of the four of us, I'm sure this was taking an extra-hard toll on him.  I wished I had gotten more time to talk with them alone.  There was still a lot I didn't understand.  How had we even ended up here in the first place?  None of them seemed to remember, and neither did I.  Oddly none of us had asked our rescuers either.  I wanted to look at those files they took as soon as everyone was awake again.  Maybe they would provide us with some clues.

Everyone back home must have been so worried during all of this time.  I was sure Master Splinter had aged another 5 years as a result of this.  I worried about him a lot.  He wasn't getting any younger.

It was hard to believe that we were on an island in the middle of the Pacific.  I wondered how much we didn't know about the "goddesses" of the house.  I was sure there was much more to them than we had been told.  I wanted to meet the rest of them.  They didn't look very old, but they acted like they were.  If it weren't so impolite to ask a woman her age, I would have.  I knew that everything that had happened was for a reason, but as usual it would drive me crazy until I knew the reason.

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Iris:

Panaceia was downstairs giving our guests a virtual tour of the place; the boys wanted to see the place, but they still weren't ready to be up and about just yet, so Panaceia gave them the next best thing.  I trusted her to know enough to leave certain rooms out of the tour.

I looked up as the doors slid open for Athena.  Psyche and Nemesis had just arrived and would be up to report at any minute.

"Panaceia's still playing tour guide."

I returned her playful grin.  "So it would seem.  She certainly has taken a liking to them."

"You would too if you spent time down there.  They're quite the charmers."

"Mmm…well, in that case, maybe it's better if I don't; one of us should keep her head."

"Does that always have to be you?"

I stared to reply, but Psyche and Nemesis entered at that moment.  Despite having worked non-stop for the last five days, Psyche was as usual the picture of energy.

"Hello darlings!"  She cooed.

I didn't waste any time, I wasn't really in the mood.  "What did you find?"

Now it was Neme's turn.  "Well, so much for hello and how are you?"

"Sorry, it's been a long 48 hours around here.  I told you, they're all up now."

"They're all up?"

"Yes, the last one woke yesterday."

Psyche sighed heavily.  "That's just great; so we've got to stay up here and do the boring stuff while Panaceia's downstairs having fun with them."

Athena broke in.  "Yeah, it's been a regular bowl of cherries keeping them alive."

"Sorry, Athena.  I know it's been stressful, but now's the fun part!  I can't wait to meet them now that they're all in one piece again!"

"You will, but this is important for them too."

Nemesis:

"Alright, here's what we got, which I'll warn you, was basically nothing."

"The visit to the original site got us zip, zero, nada.  Hey, what can I say, we're a little too good at our job.  There wasn't so much as a 1-inch piece of that place still intact.  So, we went to the other lab in California that you wanted us to check out.  No leads.  We combed that place and couldn't find one way to connect one to the other.  So, back in New York, we watched the reporter for a while.  Nothing."

"Yeah, I definitely didn't get any vibe off her that she was connected in any way.  Her boyfriend's kinda cute though."  Psyche grinned.  She could be such a ditz.

"So, anyway, without knowing the location where they were taken from or why or how, we've basically run out of leads.  We've got nothin'.  So we came back here."

"Oh, but we did make one other stop before coming back…"

"Which was…?  You know you're not supposed to take detours without letting us know."  Iris was giving us one of her signature 'stern' looks.  Whatever.  At first I thought Psyche's idea was stupid, but she did have a point.

"Well, see, I was thinking that our guests have always had their shells as clothes and now they don't have them and we don't exactly have much that would fit them, or that they would want to wear…so we went shopping!"

"You bought them clothes?"  Athena looked at me with wild amusement.

"All kinds!  I wasn't sure what they would like, but Panaceia had told me their approximate size so I guessed on that, but I think they'll fit, and I really hope they like them.  Speaking of which, what have they been wearing in the meantime?"  Psyche had that mischievous glint in her eye that always signaled trouble for someone.

Panaceia:

I entered the room just in time to hear about Psyche's little shopping spree for the boys.  I had to admit it was a good idea.

"They've been wearing shorts made of the synthetic material our suits are made from.  It's the only thing I can create on-site, so I had to make it work.  They don't seem to have noticed or cared that they're just walking around in underwear.  They've got more important things on their minds.  Besides, underwear was apparently the only clothing required down in the med area last night."  I shot a devilish look at Athena.

Psyche's eyes got wide.  "Oh, there is definitely a good story here!  Please share!"

I laughed as the color rose in Athena's face again.  "Oh, Athena can tell you about it in the lift on the way down.  We'll go pay them a visit right now.  Are you done in here?"  I directed the question at Iris.

"Yes, I suppose we should all go down and introduce ourselves.  Oh, and I don't want you two…"  she shot warning looks at Psyche and Nemesis, "saying one word about following the reporter or being back in NY for any reason other than shopping."

"Aye, aye, captain."  Psyche gave a dramatic salute with her right hand.  She was obviously bursting to go see them.

Psyche:

I was so excited to see them!  Our whole lives had become all about them for the past two weeks and I'd never even said hello!  I knew they would wake up while we were gone, but oh well.

As we walked into the med room I could see that they looked so much better than the last time I had seen them.  They had beautiful eyes!  I gave them a big smile as Panaceia introduced us.

Leonardo was the one that I hadn't really seen much of.  He looked like he was doing pretty well though.  I couldn't believe Athena had been down here in her underwear!  I guess it was pretty fair though; we certainly knew what they looked like under their clothes…

Michaelangelo:

I couldn't get over the five of them; it was like I hadn't noticed, before they were all standing there together, how incredibly beautiful they were.  Ok, well, maybe I noticed last night when Athena was running around half-naked…

I couldn't believe our luck that we'd been rescued at all, but to be rescued by probably the five most beautiful women I'd ever seen…man, we must have done something really good to deserve this.

Panaceia was talking away, and then Iris took over, explaining everything that Psyche and Nemesis basically hadn't found out.  I was sort-of half listening, I knew somebody would explain it to me later if I had a question…I was just trying to burn the five of them into my memory for future reference.

Panaceia was the shortest of the five of them, but not much shorter than Psyche.  She had the warmest brown hair that was probably pretty long, but I wasn't sure because she'd had it up in a bun every time I'd seen her.  I wasn't sure, but I think her eyes were blue.  I liked the way her mouth moved when she talked.

Athena was taller than Panaceia, but shorter than Iris.  I was betting about 5'5" or so.  She had long, straight dark hair with vibrant red highlights.  She had a great facial structure and really warm golden skin.  I wondered if she didn't have some Asian blood in her veins, and there was definitely something exotic about her.

Iris was the tallest and there was no question that she commanded respect.  She stood there straight, like Leo would in front of Master Splinter, watching us with eyes like a cat.  I'd never seen eyes the color of hers.  They were almost gold and they stood out against her dark skin.  She had jet-black hair that was cut really short.

Nemesis was between Athena and Iris' height.  She had pale skin, reddish brown hair that was cut short and wisped out in every direction, and the brightest green eyes.  I'll admit there was something about her that was just a little scary.  When she put those eyes on you, you'd swear she could burn a hole right through you if she wanted.

Psyche was obviously the fireball of the group.  She had blondish hair and deep blue eyes that reminded me of the ocean.  Her skin was warm and brown, and she looked like she'd spent a lot of fun days in the sun; I was a little jealous.  She caught me looking at her and smiled.  I smiled back and looked away.

"Well, I must return upstairs.  I have some things to take care of."  Iris nodded at all of us, and dismissed herself.  Mental note: I didn't want to get on her bad side.

Athena:

"Well, I know Panaceia said you guys are pretty much still confined to your beds for a little while longer, but Neme and I brought you some stuff for later when you need it.  Hang on just a minute, and I'll go get it!"  Neme followed Psyche out of the room, mumbling about her never being able to get it all in there by herself.  The boys looked curious and I gave Panaceia a knowing grin.

"Clothes!"  Psyche squeaked as they piled the bags on the floor.

"You bought us clothes?"  Michaelangelo stared wide-eyed at the bags on the floor.  It did look like they'd bought out half the stores in New York.

"Yes, well, we didn't know what you'd like so we just got some of everything!"  Psyche looked so proud of herself; it was adorable.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome!"

Panaceia:

"Well, if you keep progressing at the rate you're going and if you're feeling up to it tomorrow maybe you could join us upstairs for dinner."  Psyche looked far more excited about it than they did.

"For now though, we'll keep you on the liquid diet."  Raphael shot me a less-than-enthused look, but I ignored it. 

"Panaceia?"

"Yes, Leonardo?"

"Do you suppose we could call home again?  I'd like to talk to our sensei."

"Absolutely.  Your brothers know where the phone is and how to work it; you're welcome to use it anytime."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome; we'll be going now and give you some privacy."

Psyche looked disappointed, but didn't argue.

Leonardo:

"Can somebody dial home?"  I looked over to see that Donatello had a huge grin on his face. 

"I was hoping I'd get to do this!  Computer: Phone."  

There was a short pause and then the computer replied, "Number."

Donatello gave the number and within seconds there was ringing.  We waited, but after 8 rings Donatello told the computer to hang up.

"He must be meditating or something.  Let's try April; we didn't get to talk to her last time."

After three rings, April answered.  She didn't exactly have the reaction I was hoping for.

"Oh my god, I am so glad you called!  I don't know where you are or if you're in any shape to get back here, but that's exactly what you need to do!"

"What is it, April?"

"It's Splinter, you've got to get here as fast as you can…"