Leonardo found himself unable to sleep very much past dawn, despite another late night. If there was one thing the turtle really hated, it was lying awake in bed without any hope of falling back asleep. He only gave it about half an hour of waiting, before choosing to get up entirely. When he came out to the hall, he instantly noticed that he wasn't the only early riser that morning. A glance downstairs confirmed that one of his brothers was already awake too.
He padded quietly downstairs, where the sight of Michelangelo with his requisite cereal bowl made the older turtle smile. Some things really never changed. The youngest turtle loved to cook, but rarely did only for himself. If he was reduced to only meeting his own hunger, he had his old stand-by that he predictably turned to both day and night.
The orange masked turtle looked over when he heard him coming. "Morning Leo. What's happenin'?"
The blue-banded turtle sat down by him, shrugging slightly as he did. "Not much. Did you sleep okay?"
"Probably about as well as you did." His brother answered, as he set his bowl down on the coffee table. "Are you hungry yet? I'm guessing nobody's gonna sleep late today. I should start thinking about breakfast soon."
"I'm good, don't go to any trouble yet just on my account." Leonardo told him, and then paused for a few seconds before going on. "Mikey, did Donny happen to mention to you what was bugging him the other day?"
"Uh, yeah, we talked." The younger turtle replied a little uncomfortably. "It wasn't...um..he didn't...I don't think--"
"It's okay Mike." Leonardo said quickly. "I wasn't going to ask you about specifics, I just wanted to make sure that he talked to somebody."
He almost laughed at the relieved look on the orange-masked turtle's face. "Y'know, it's not absolutely necessary for us to spill our guts about everything. Everyone deserves a little space when they need it. For instance, Raph didn't mention to you that I tried to sneak out the other night, did he?"
"What'd you do that for?" Michelangelo asked.
"I was planning on going back to that club, trying to canvas the neighborhood."
"You were gonna chase after those people on your own? Leo! Have you completely forgotten everything from this last year? How many times do you have to be locked up, before you figure out how much we all need each other?" The orange-masked turtle ended up being a lot sharper than he'd intended, and had to let out a slow breath to steady his own tone. "You have no idea what it was like to lose all three of you." He said more quietly after that. "You've gotta promise me, none of these suicide missions, okay?"
Leonardo nodded seriously, but then suddenly smiled again. "The phrase 'me and my big mouth' is coming back to haunt me right now."
"For real Leo. Those guys are no joke, and they don't have any reason to want us alive. What did Raph say to you? He must have given you the riot act."
"Surprisingly, no. He was actually pretty rational about the whole thing."
"Unlike my reaction you mean."
"Hey..." Leonardo trailed off slowly, reaching for his brother's shoulder. "I don't know how hard it was to be the only one of us on the outside. But I am promising you that I won't do anything to jeopardize myself...at least not without everyone else present." He finished wryly.
The orange-masked turtle shook his head in bewilderment. "Raph's rational, you're joking, and I'm exploding. Did we enter some parallel dimension, and everyone forgot to tell me? I'm not sure I wanna know what Donny's like in opposite land."
Calley was terrified when she woke up, and had no idea where she was. The overwhelming anxiety gave her the sensation that she couldn't breathe, and instant panic ensued. Tim's first move was to ram the button for the nurses' call station, but his second was to try and prevent his disoriented daughter from ripping out her own IV, and taking off running out of the hospital room.
Her brown eyes were open, but didn't seem to be truly focusing on him. As he tried to prevent her from injuring herself, she recoiled from his touch and attempted to lash out at him.
"Let me go - LET ME GO!" The scream that came out of her mouth was almost earth shattering in its' resonance.
"Calley, honey, it's me." He told her as calmly as he could manage. "Stop fighting, I don't want you to hurt yourself. Look at me Calley - you're safe. Nothing's going to happen to you. You're safe."
The name is honestly what got her attention first. Shirou had his own terms of "endearment" for her, and she'd run under a different label with the Dagos too. Her own first name was something she hadn't heard spoken out loud by someone else in literally years. She was just starting to loosen her death grip on the side-rails, when a nurse rushed through the door prepared for action.
Tim was still breathing a little hard himself, but motioned for the woman to stop. "I think it's okay. She seems...I think it's okay." He told the nurse haltingly.
"There are several things that we need to look at sir." The woman reminded him, and Tim took a step away from his daughter so that he could face her directly.
"Please. Ten minutes. I haven't seen or heard from her in...please, just give me that."
The woman hesitated, and glanced back over at the door. "You have ten minutes. But I'm staying close by. Another outburst like that one, and visiting time is over."
"Thank you, thank you." He said swiftly, and returned to the young woman's side.
Tim pulled his chair closer to the bed, and sat down slowly, as if trying to maintain the semi-calm state she seemd to be in now.
It was then that Calley looked at him, and actually appeared to see the man for the first time. A note of disbelief entered her expression, as she worked to sit further upright. "Dad?" Her voice was almost inaudible from where he sat, but he didn't miss the word.
"Yes Calley," He said reassuringly. "It's me."
"You're here?" She asked, as if she couldn't accept the fact that he was actually sitting there.
"Yes Calley." He repeated, and then reached for her hand with some hesitation. "I've been here all night, waiting."
"You waited for me? All night?"
"I'd wait my whole life if I had to, but I think seven years was plenty long enough." He was trying hard not to get emotional again, but couldn't prevent it entirely. "Calley. I've missed you so much."
She cocked her head at him a little strangely, the look in her brown eyes still somewhat fuzzy. "Why did you miss me?" She murmured.
"Because I love you, I never stopped loving you. And I never stopped looking for you, when so many people thought I just needed to face facts, to believe that you could be dead. I couldn't accept that completely."
"I am dead." She stated. "I've been dead for so long, I don't know what it's like to breathe."
Tim swallowed hard, not sure at all how to respond to that. "Then I'm going to help you remember." He finally told her. "You'll never be alone. I promise you're going to get through this, and I'll be here with you the entire time."
Brandon James had been waiting in an impossibly long line inside the Manhattan Civic Center for what had felt like half the morning. He'd come down in person, because he'd been told that his license could be transferred faster by going in physically. No one had thought to mention that half the city of New York liked to show up here on Monday mornings.
He'd tried to have a good attitude about it, keeping himself busy by flipping through the extensive information packet he'd received on P.S. 112. A somewhat secretive yet excited smile kept creeping onto his face, as he imagined surprising Katherine and Karina again. They had no idea he was already in New York, let alone that he hadn't renewed his teaching contract in Sacramento.
Brandon had arrived in the city three days earlier, to finish the interviewing process that had started weeks ago, only days after his sisters had asked him if he could find his way out to New York when the schools let out in California. They hadn't asked him if he was willing or thinking about moving all the way across the country, but they also had no way of knowing how long he'd been considering doing just that. Brandon had felt virtually cut off from the two of them for long enough. There was nothing left tying him to the West Coast, anymore than it had them.
He'd been reading the same paragraph over and over for the last five minutes, distracted by the sensation that someone was watching him. Brandon finally glanced over his shoulder, and saw what appeared to be a slightly familiar man standing behind him. The individual gave him a somewhat sheepish smile.
"Sorry, I uh...I don't usually forget a face. I feel like I should know you, but I'm having a hard time placing you."
Brandon shook his head, taking in part of what appeared to be a badge. "You're familiar too. Are you FBI?"
"Matthew Kelley." The man offered him a hand.
"Oh! Oh yeah, you're my sister's boss, or were I should say. Katherine Barrows, though she says people around the Bureau never got around to calling her anything but James."
"Some names just tend to stick. You're um...Brandon? We met a couple of years ago, didn't we?"
"After the 'Terelli' incident, yes."
"Never forget that, huh? Some Thanksgiving." Kelley remarked. "So what brings you to our fair Civic Center?"
"Transferring my teaching license. I got a job in the city."
"Congratulations. Made the coastal jump, huh? That's a big step, hope everything transitions smoothly for you. Your sisters must be thrilled."
"I haven't actually seen them yet. The plan was to surprise them, whenever I get the heck through here." He added a little morosely.
"Well, let her know that we're still thinking about her. It was hard to let your sister walk away, but I can understand wanting the opportunity to live life while you're still young enough to enjoy it. I guess that hit home especially hard after the year she's had."
"You mean with Luke's abduction? That was rough." Brandon acknowledged. "It was hard to hear her in that position, so helpless to do anything about it."
"And then you add in that recent ordeal she and her partner went through. I think it could have been the straw that broke the camel's back for both of 'em." Kelley said regretfully.
Brandon stared at the man unspeaking for a long instant. "I'm sorry, which ordeal?"