-Silence 10

After making a decision, Casey decided to head to the surface. He didn't tell the guys in case they wanted to join him. No offense to the other turtles, but the human knew that the red-banded brother didn't always get along well with the other. Since they seemed to have been getting along pretty well, he hoped he might be able to help Raph. He just hoped everything would be alright.

Splinter was the only one who knew of Casey trip out. When first noticing the human boy leave, he had questioned him on it. Of course, him still having a fear on rats immediately told the master what he was planning. Splinter only nodded and wished him luck and safety. The boy only nodded in return before running out of there.

Now, the question was, where to find his friend. The first places he would try would be where they would normally hang out. Casey doubted Raph would make it that easy for him, but he didn't see many other choices.

When making it to the surface, first place he decided to try was the pier. There was this great roof top that gave a good view of a pier and water. Casey doubted this was where he would be, but he wanted to check to eliminate all possibilities. Making it to the pier was no problem, since it was not far from where Casey had emerged from the sewers. The roof top they always went to did not give positive results.

That was one place out of the way; now there were like a million more to go look through. Regardless, he would not give up. Minutes turned into hours as Casey continuously searched high and low for his turtle friend was, only God knew, where. It seemed hopeless as the night dragged on. It would be morning soon and there was still no sign of the red-banded turtle.

"Where could he be?" Casey wondered to himself.

He then looked to his right and saw an older part of New York. An old building resided there where a clock tower used to be. It was still there, but no one went in since it had been deemed unsafe. Hanging out somewhere unsafe sounded like something Raph would do. Not only that, but no one would think to look there.

"It's worth a shot." Casey mumbled as he jumped from roof to roof to get to his location hopefully quicker.

The trip did not take too long as Casey snuck his way through caution tape that had been placed along the doors and windows of the lower floor. Darkness seemed to fill every corner of this old building. Cell phone light helped make it easier to maneuver through the dust and cobwebs as he slowly made his way up the creaking staircases. This place was considered unsafe, and for good reason. The more Casey traveled through the dark halls and stairs, the more nervous he became that one of the floor boards would break under him.

Despite all this, he finally made it to the upper floors. Casey knew Raph would never have been stationed near the bottom so he had not bothered looking. Whether he would admit it or not, Raphael always liked his views.

When opening the door to the upper floors, he called out, "Raph?"

He continued to walk through the dark open space, but suddenly felt nervous for some reason, which never happens because he was Casey Jones. However, something was off here, something was wrong. Despite the tension, he kept pushing forward. He called out again with no response.

A couple yards away, he then noticed something. A grunt of pain was heard, but it was so quiet. If it weren't for the desertion here, the human would never have caught it.

He took a few steps forward to where the noise came from before calling out yet again. "Raph!"

It was silent for a moment before he heard an almost silent reply, "Casey?"

Casey was filled with relief and was about to run over when he suddenly felt a large gust of wind blow over him and a window mysterious flung open. That caused the human to freak out a little. It was easily forgotten when he noticed the increased in light coming from the moon outside that now filled this space in the church and saw Raph laying against a wall, seemingly out of it.

The human ran over and crouched down by the, what almost seemed like slumbering, turtle.

"Hey, wake up Raph." The turtle only grunted and moved his head away from the voice. "Come on bud." Casey then shook one the green shoulders a bit before that seemed to do the trick and awaken him.

"Huh?... Casey? Was goin' on?"

"I don't know. You tell me."

Green eyes scanned over the dark room momentarily before he seemed to slowly remember the events that took place before coming here.

"I never wanted you to know."

"Why not?" Casey asked.

"Cause I wanted to forget myself."

Silence stretched between them for what seemed like forever. The human helped his turtle friend to his feet and gave him a shoulder to rest against.

"Come on bud. Let's get you home."

*Hello! I know I just posted a chapter yesterday, but I had a few of these done before I left, and I was gone a long time, so I figured I'd post another. Enjoy!