Cure

Gabriella watched Raphael support Michelangelo while his brother picked Nao back up in his arms. She sighed and turned to where Ian was supposed to be, and found the Vampire was already up and actually outside, holding the doors open. She narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips. The Russian Roman woman was not going to go easy on the man, whether he was her leader or not.

Lese followed everyone out. Don and Lily were by the trio. They were torn and hurt. Rae was quiet, had been through the whole ride. When she got off she practically stayed in the vampire's shadow. Andrew gently nudged Ella, "Let him strain himself, it gives us a reason to say 'told you so'."

"True, true," Ella smiled, "Alright that sounds like a plan." She got off the Battle Shell and her nose twitched. She scowled, abut eventually the sneeze took over and she coughed up a black ball of goop, "Gross! Damn it…Andy, you should check everyone's breathing, I think we all took in a bit too much soot…" she took out her own cloth and coughed up a bit more before blowing her nose.

He laughed and nodded, "I should." That was too true to even say words to. Ian shut the doors behind them and walked along with everyone inside the warehouse.

Lese quickly guided Mikey into the other den, the privacy den no one was using, "Set her on the couch, Michelangelo." She told him, "And settle yourself." Mikey nodded numbly, gripping Nao tighter. Ian watched as his wife quickly went away from the den and up the stairs, obviously going for her own medical kit.

"Mikey? Would you like some tea? It'll help…" Ella said softly as she watched Raphael leave to find Rachel and Andrew checked over Mikey.

"No thanks." Mikey said hoarsely. He didn't want anything, besides seeing Nao okay.

"Alright…If you change your mind just say so," Ella rubbed his arm soothingly, "She'll be ok," she smiled.

He nodded blank of emotion for the time being. Ian knew how he felt, and knew the feeling well. Deciding to leave them alone since Andrew was doing everything he could to help Nao, he left. Andy was carefully was looking at every angle that he could. "Breathing…she had a cold…" He murmured to himself. "Her pulse is weak…too much smoke…but I don't think that's so."

"She's…pale, not normal sick pale, but…gosh I can't describe it, but it just strange," Ella mused nibbling on her lip.

"Strange…" Andrew murmured, "Her breathing's lowered, pale like…someone not having a lot of blood…did she get hit recently?" He couldn't find any wounds that suggested that she had been hit. At all…

"No, just thrown around," Mikey said shaking his head, "She didn't get hit though."

Lese came back down the stairs, her arms full of some supplies that she might need. Andrew looked up, slightly grateful that the vampire had been a nurse back in her time. "Fresh eyes?" He offered stumped.

Lese nodded and looked over at Ella, holding a bag of white and red colored herbs. "Stew this in hot water." She told her quietly. "Three pinches a cup."

"Got it," Ella smiled and took it. She went over and whispered to Andy, "Watch her, you used to do what she does. Maybe you can remember a bit more?" she smiled and then quietly left the room to do her own job.

Lese gently nudged Andrew aside and placed herself next to Nao. "Michelangelo," She soothed, "All shall be fine." She gently ran her hands to her wrist and then to her neck. "Pulses are weak…" She gently felt the ribs and other places for broken bones that might work when she sensed something was out of place.

Carefully she stopped her hands from moving and felt her arms and then somewhere on her throat. There was something amiss. She could feel something underneath Nao's skin that wasn't right.

Lese gently ran her hand up and down her arm. Something was missing, something. She reached up and touched where Nao's heart located. It was beating slow……as if it was low on something.

Something……vital…

Gabriella came into the room, "Lese, I got the water ready, what do you want me to do now?" she asked. She saw the frustrated look on the Vampire woman's face, and then she knew she had been deep in thought about something just before she came in. "Oh, I'm sorry…I should've stayed quiet…"

"No it is fine." Lese said, "You got the water ready? Pour a cup and put in three pinches." She nodded over at Mikey who was only focusing on his thoughts and trying so hard not to break down again.

"Oh, alright, I wasn't quite sure, so I came to double check," Ella nodded and backed out of the room, disappearing once again.

Rachel quietly had walked away from the downstairs and went up. Her mind was doing three rants at once, ranting about her stupidity of not letting Kimiko tell anyone about how severe the cold could get, ranting about how selfish she was for hiding it, and ranting about how much better it would have been if she did tell them. Her counterparts weren't helping her at all.

Lynx was providing one rant, Kimiko was practically screaming 'I told you so' through a rant, and Rae……Rae was doing the beating up and couldn't believe rant. The three rants all coming from each and every one of them. "Yeah this made my day." She muttered sarcastically.

"Rachel?" a gentle voice asked, unsure, from behind her before she entered their borrowed room.

"No." Rachel said softly, "I'm frustrated but I'm not sure if this is the part that I start ranting and have you hate me or I stay silent and we……fight…either way it ends in a fight. God!" She groaned. "This is stupid! I'm an idiot, this is pathetic, none of this would have happened……god damn it!" She couldn't think straight.

Raph frowned and took her hand, leading her into their room. He rubbed her arms, "Why should it end in a fight?" he asked carefully.

"Because I did something very stupid…very, very idiotic," She started to comb her hair with her fingers almost frantically. "I hurt him, Raph. I hurt them both. Kimiko's practically strangling me and Lynx is supporting her every damn move."

"Hurt who? How? Rant it out, it's ok…" Raph soothed.

"I hurt Mikey and Nao!" She almost screamed. She couldn't believe how stupid she was, how idiotic she was how anything. "Kimiko told me." She got out of his arms and sat down on the bed. The worse idea, yet the best one she had. "She told me everything. How badly Nao can get sick…what she needs to survive, she told me everything and look at what I did to them."

She bowed her head and placed her hands on her forehead. "Yeah, Kimiko's practically raving and screaming. I should have enforced Mikey to tell Nao to stay here. I should have told Mikey what would have happened. I should have done something. Some damn Seer I am. I can barely get us a fucking win!"

"You helped us know what was going to happen," Raph said timidly. He then asked, "How bad can it get?"

"She can die." She said simply. "She can stop breathing…suffocate actually. Death is much more merciful that the horrors that she would have to face if untreated. And look what I did!" She groaned. "As if it wasn't enough to ruin our relationship, I go off and ruin theirs. What a fucking Devil's child I am. My father would have been damned proud of me. Maybe he would have laughed in my face for this."

"She can die, she can suffer, and she can do so much with that cold. That's how bad it can get." Rachel looked at the ground. "I knew what she needed; Kimiko knew what she needed from the damned start. Did I listen? Did I have the mind…the right mind to say 'oh hey, guess what? Nao's dying and this is the cure?' NO!"

"You're not a Devil's Child," Raphael pursed his lips, not knowing what to say for the rest of it, but he did ask another question, "What other horrors?"

"Do you want the details?" Rachel demanded harshly. "Oh well that's an answer." She muttered to herself as she brought her legs up slightly protective. "Let's see. Death by suffocation, death by blood loss, death by fever, death by pain, death by idiocy, death by seizure, death by stroke, heart attack, do you want the whole damn list?"

"No, no, I get it, I was just curious…" Raph held his hands up defensively, "Wait……death by blood loss? She wasn't hit or inured in that way…"

"Okay……okay." Rachel tried to soothe herself. She knew that she was the one that was being in an argument mood. She had a feeling though, just a feeling… "Nao……has some blood in her that's…not normal." She stressed out the last two words, like she was talking to a child that didn't understand the difference between a girl and a boy.

"What do you mean 'not normal'? Of course it isn't, she's a Hybrid…or were you talking about before she even became that?" Raph blinked.

"Lese can explain in more detail of how this works." Rachel said with a clear wave of her hand. "But there's always something called a 'touch'. Every person in the world has a 'touch' of the supernatural. For an example…Lisa…Shy, quiet, she has the touch of a Faerie. For Nao, she's polite, kind, gracious and a hybrid. She has a touch of Vampire. Maybe more than 'a touch'…"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute," it clicked for Raph now, "So you're saying Nao needs blood to survive?" he blinked.

"Just the same as I need touch to survive. If you hadn't noticed already I have a 'touch' of dog in me." She snorted to herself. "Yes she needs blood. She doesn't need a lot and not frequently like full-blood vampires."

"Just enough so she stays healthy, right?" Raph wondered. He went to her and kissed her gently, "Come on, let's go tell them then," he grinned and stood her up again/

"Lese's going to figure it…oh alright." She sighed, "It's a way to redeem myself yes?"

"Yeah," Raphael smiled and kissed that special spot behind her ear, "Let's go," he reached for the door and opened it for her to go first.

Lese listened to what Rae had to say and nodded. That was what the heart lacked from the beginning. She carefully pressed her wrist to her teeth and sharpened her fangs and bit through her tough skin. Blood started to sweep through. She held it over Nao's lips, carefully so that none spilled over. She held a cloth just in case Nao couldn't get it all and it did spill.

Nao stirred. She felt something warm and yet had a small tingle of ice drip onto her lips. She felt her dry mouth part and she felt her body lift towards the source, her hands numbly moving to hold it in place and so she could balance with it. Her mind refused to waken, though she knew her physical being had at least enough to do this.

Her lips and tongue sucked and licked at the fascinating liquid coming from whatever she was drinking of. It felt so refreshing, made her veins tingle, and her breath hitch now and again with surprise at the sharpness. Her body shook, but it was from the sudden changes happening to her. She tasted fascination, worry, hope, affection, a lingering bit of frustration, and the call telling her that she needed to recover.

She finally stopped drinking whatever it was she had obviously needed to recover in the first place, and once she was settled back down against what felt like pillows, her body joined her in the blankness of her unconscious.

Lese pulled her hand away from her and smiled. "That's a good one. She's fine, Michelangelo. Why don't you take her up to your room and rest for the night? If she needs more, I'm always ready to give."

Mikey smiled at her, "Did you get Ian's permission to do it?"

Lese laughed, "I don't ask permission from my husband unless it's going to get a stake through my heart." She stood up, "Give her rest, and get some yourself too." She gently used her non-bleeding hand to ruffle his hair and left the den.

Gabriella was staring in surprise at Nao who Lese had just fed. "Andy, look at her skin tone. It's not quite as pale," she nudged the man next to her, "Why would someone need blood to be healthy? Does it have to do with what's in it, maybe Iron?" She was really excited and curious about this whole situation.

"Iron could happen." Andrew said to her, "It also could be from vampirism or something else that she has a touch of. I have heard of people that are Iron Deficient. It's possible that's what she has."

It helped, it worked, and true to Lese's word she was going to be fine. He carefully stood up and picked her up as well to bring her to their room. She was going to be fine, as long as he believed that, Nao was going to be fine. Nothing more was going to happen. He was actually……happy that she was going to be okay. Relieved enough to start crying again, but he held his own. He wasn't going to break down going up the stairs and possibly hurt her more than ever.

He opened the door to their room and he placed her on the bed. He covered her as well as he could and lay down next to her. Sleep wasn't going to come for a long time, but he was content in just lying here……awake.

After a few moments Nao stirred again and this time she had enough ability to shift around and face Michelangelo, burying her face in his chest, sighing and smiling contently, "Arigato…" she whispered in her more than half-asleep state.

"Any time," Mikey said softly. "You're welcome."