AAAANNNNNNNDDDD HERE IT IS! The next installment!
Are you not pleased? I know I am. You guys should really like this one. I promise that you will like it to a certain extent or the next chapter is absolutely free! Oh wait, i already do this for free. Sorry bout that.
Disclaimer: I don't own these wonderful guys of the TMNT. I only own Sarah, her family, and Llyonell. Pity.
SO.
ON WITH THE STORY THEN.
Sarah's POV:
I woke up to the sound of the phone ringing. I figured it would go away if I waited for a moment. After four rings, it stopped. I was right.
I just love being right. I mean, who in their right mind doesn't?
Then the phone started ringing. Again.
Just ignore it. Ignore it and it'll go away.
It didn't.
"Xander! Jacob! Will somebody please get the freaking phone? It's..." I paused to look at the clock on my desk across the room, "It's only 10 o'clock!"
The phone continued ringing. I growled, irritated that my brothers wouldn't let me sleep in. Throwing back the covers, I got up and went into the kitchen to get the phone.
I was so irritated that when I picked up the phone I accidentally flung it over my shoulder. It landed on the floor with a loud bang that resounded across the walls of my empty home.
Empty. There was no one here. No one but me.
My mind reeled at the images that came flooding back to me; Stockman, the experiment, my family, the turtles.
The turtles!
I whirled around, but the living room was exactly how it was four years ago.
How did I only realize this now?
I rushed from room to room, calling for the turtles, calling for Llyonell, calling for my family, but...
... no one answered.
No "HeySarah, here I am!", no "What's going on, why are you yelling?", no "Will you stop yelling, I'm right here! Sheesh!"
Nothing.
All the while that stupid freaking phone kept ringing and ringing and ringing! Finally I stormed over, snatched up the phone and snarled, "What?"
Nothing.
But suddenly, I was frozen in place, frozen to the spot where I stood, frozen by the sound of music. It was quiet at first, but then... it slowly became louder.
"Let Us Break Bread Together" by... ah hell, I didn't know who it was by. I don't think I was ever told. It was the classical song he would always play for me.
Xander.
I remember being on the roof with him and the twins one night, roasting marshmallows with a longneck lighter, when he played that for the first time.
"You've never played a song like this before." Albert said, "I quite enjoy it."
"I quite enjoy it." mimmicked Jacob in a fancy accent, sipping his soda with a pinky extended.
Albert snorted and stared at his twin. Jacob smiled and sheepishly shrugged, "Well... okay, I guess it is nice, but Al's right bro', you've never played a song like this before. It's... weird."
I had found the song beautiful. In many ways it had and still does remind me of my eldest sibling. The softness of it, the simplicity and overall sillyness of its melody... and, never one to be left out of the conversation, I told my brothers my opinion.
They thought I was silly, saying something like that, but not Xander.
"That's so weird! That song actually reminds me of you, little sis." he said, continuing to play, "You're always so quiet, but you're a constant. You're always there for me; like Albert and Jacob are there for each other."
"Xander, if that line was any cheesier, I could put it between two slices of bread and grill it!" Jacob chuckled.
"What?" I said in mock-surprise,"You know how to make grilled cheese? Who else knew this, and why was I not informed? All this time I've been making you guys lunch and I didn't even know!"
"What? No! I don't know how to make grilled cheese!" Jacob sputtered, "No no no, really, I don't! You should still cook for me, 'cause I can't cook for myself, really! I'd die of hunger if you didn't."
It was then that our conversation dissolved into playfighting and laughter, but before I went to bed that night, I asked Xander something.
"Hey Xander? If I ask you to, will you play that song for me?"
He smiled warmly and said, "Anytime sis. Anytime."
And he had; whenever I was sad he played that song, whenever I was angry he'd pluck those familiar chords. Even if I didn't want to hear it and left the room to escape it, he'd play it anyway. He always knew when I needed to hear it.
I never even had to ask him to play it.
Not once.
Now the song was playing, low and strong and soft. Instead of easing my hurt, the song was now piling on the pain with every note. With every chord a sharp pain would throb in my chest. A pain that made me want to scream in agony! What had once seemed so comforting was now killing me. I wanted to stop hearing those notes, I needed to stop hearing those notes. I was going to go crazy if somebody didn't stop the music!
And then... it stopped.
The song ended abruptly, as if it had never been played at all.
It was so quiet. The heavy silence was almost as agonizing as the song.
I still couldn't move, but it didn't matter because a voice spoke to me. A raspy, weak voice called to me from the phone.
"You're not seeing the whole picture."
What?
"You're missing something. Something important. You need to pay attention to everything around you. You must focus. Listen."
Listen? Listen to what? Oh, it was so frustrating being unable to talk!
"Listen."
To what?
"Listen"
"TO WHAT?" I roared, sitting up in bed.
I grunted as pain wracked my body. I heard thudding noises and Raphael slammed open the door.
"What's wrong Sarah? Why'd you yell?" he said, panic causing him to grab me by the shoulders. I roared in pain as he let me go, realizing what he'd inadvertently done.
"Ah jeez, I'm sorry Sarah. S'just that... you freaked me out, yellin' like that." he murmured, concern furrowing his brows, "You really hafta stop doing that."
I looked up and saw his brothers beside him. In all the hubbub I hadn't noticed them come in.
Slowly, I reached out my hand to him and he took it. "Hey," I said softly, "It's okay. I just... I had a bad dream s'all."
"Another one?" Don asked, equally as concerned as his brother.
"Was Xander in it? Did he talk to you?" said Leo, "Maybe some kind of clue, perhaps?
I shook my head slowly and murmured, "There was a song. And not just any song. The song. The one my brother always played for me. The apartment was just like how it used to be, but no one was there except me. Me and that song."
I got quiet. "Then there was this... voice. It was a voice I've never heard before. It sounded like someone... someone who couldn't get enough air. Raspy. Weak. It told me I was missing something and I needed to... to..."
Suddenly I couldn't remember what the voice had said. Every time I tried to focus in on what I'd been told, it floated out of my grasp. The details that I thought were crystal clear became cloudy, and then dissolved in my head completely.
"Damn. Now I can't remember." I said, frowning.
"Must not've been as important as you thought it was, huh?" Mikey said, smiling a little.
I shook my head, "I guess not. C'mon, help me up, I need to get out of bed and stretch my legs."
Slowly, Raph and Leo helped me get out into the living room and onto the couch. Then Mikey assisted Donnie in changing my dressings.
I've never liked being laid up. Not when I'm sick and not when I'm hurt. I just get so... restless.
Oddly enough, with the turtles around me, just laughing and talking, I didn't feel so restless.
Raph's POV:
One really had to admire her spirit.
'Really? How so?'
Even with all that's happened to her, she's just remained so... hopeful.
'She has, hasn't she?'
Mmm.
Damn it all, I don't want her stayin here! This place... it's like some warped version of her home, it's not good for her!
'And what can you do, drive her to the nearest manhole, carry her down a ladder, carry her back home and force her to sleep where, on the couch?Yeah, that wouldn't be detrimental to her health or anything. You guys really need to make a guest bedroom or something.'
...
I watched as she wandered into the kitchen and started examining the contents of different drawers and cabinets. She carefully navigated the area with such familiarity, it was like she had always been there, cooking amazing food, laughing, smiling...
Happy.
She then wandered over to the closest bedroom. I wanted to be there for her, regardless of whether or not she wanted me there. I wanted to support her.
The first room was probably the largest the four and filled with boxes, some falling apart and, most of them overspilling with junk. The walls had old faded posters of different rock bands and one lone painting.
"Al was a real artsy-fartsy type." she said quietly, "He never liked showng off his work. He was always so embarassed when we praised his work or goaded him into entering an art contest. He'd say that art wasn't something to be judged and awarded... it was something to experience."
I took a closer look at the painting. It was a fairly large canvas with deep wondrous swirls of color spanning accros it. It was a nighttime landscape with twinklin stars and a glowin moon and everything. A field of yellow flowers swayed next to a lake.
Sarah came and rested her head on my shoulder, leanin' into me. I carefully wrapped an arm around her waist, enjoying her presence.
She smiled warmly, "His favorite poem was "Daffodils"... and so this painting came to be. It's funny. Albert would wander through the apartment reciting it, and soon I knew the whole dang thing by heart. I began to love those silly flowers because of it too."
With a chuckle, I said, "From the looks of this, your brotheh seems really talented."
She laughed, "Seriously. Oh, but Jacob, now Jacob was beyond clever. He had this amazing way of pulling pranks in a way that they would make you laugh instead of hurt. He was most definetly a jokester, but he was nobody's fool. Nope. And when your birthday rolled around? He come up with something absolutely fantastic. Beyond words. I remember..."
Sarah stiffined, and her face took on a look of sadness.
"You don't hafta..." I started quietly.
She shook her head, "No. I want to tell you. It's such a wonderful thing, what Jacob did. Becase I loved daffodils so much, and because they bloomed in the Spring and my birthday was in the Fall, he spent a whole week making paper daffodils in secret. All by himself. Hundreds of them. When I woke up on my birthday my room was covered in paper daffodils and he was standing in my doorway looking absolutely dead tired, but really pleased with himself."
"He said, "You know what makes these better than silly old real daffodils? These ones will last forever." I was so moved by it that I started crying." she chuckled as a single tear slid down her cheek.
I tilted my head as she pulled away from me and drifted out of that room and into the next. There were white tarps on the bed, the two chairs, and all of the rest of the furniture in the room. Judging by the amount of dust in the room... no one had occupied it for a very long time.
She paused for a very long moment before she spoke, "Now my parents... they were really an odd couple. My dad was eleven years older than my mom, and he'd alwas joke around and ask her where she was when he was sixteen. She would laugh and respond that she was in Kindergarten. Oh, and he was such a goofy romantic that whenever Mother's Day or her birthday or their anniversery came around, he'd buy a bunch of cards and hide them. She would find one on her bedside table, one next to her morning coffee, one in her car..."
"I..." she began, "I've never seen love... quite like that."
Moving closer to her, I noticed her shaking a little. Her skin was pale, and her eyes looked so tired. If not for her injury, I woulda wrapped her in my arms and just held her. Instead, I took her face in my hands and looked her straight in the eyes and said firmly, "I promise... that you will always have Masteh Splinter, my brothehs, Casey, and April to be there for ya. And you will always have me too. Especially me."
The look in her eyes when I said that squeezed my heart until I felt it was going to burst. I kissed her, slowly but passionately, filling it with every feeling I felt and had felt since I'd met her only a short time ago. When we parted, I said, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry you've been though this... that you've experienced this. I'm so sorry."
Slowly, she gave me a wry smile, "But I like your kisses. They make me happy."
The look of surprise and confusion on my face was apparently so evident that she howled with laughter, thus breaking the tension that had settled so strongly upon us.
Pulling on my hand, Sarah said, "C'mon, I want to see how Llyonell has changed my brother's room."
It seems that my brothers were thinking the same thing. As we went to exit the room, I saw all three of them standing in the doorway.
Mikey's lower lip was wobblin and even Leo looked sad, but Donnie spoke up with a smile,"I really like that poem too. Wordsworth, right?"
As we all moved with her to Xander's room, she nodded and talked with him about poetry.
Now, poetry's not really something I get. All that flowery speech and really really large words. S'not that I can't understand large words, I just don't like reading all that much. I once tried to read Donnie's unabridged copy of Dracula, but after the first few chapters, I was really tired.
'Bored you mean.'
I think it was kinda long-winded, and that's probably why I got so tired.
'You were bored.'
Well, when you put it like that it seems kinda rude.
'So?'
...
Damn brain.
Sarah entered the room and said, "What is all this?"
I came in and saw the room was covered in papers. Newspaper clippings, articles, charts, maps with big red circles and exes through most of them. I wasn't suprised to find the bed was covered in papers. Alla those wires and cables led into here and were pugged into three large computers. There were stickynotes almost completely covering one of the computers.
Donnie moved to the closest papers on the wall next to us, "Sarah... look at this, it's an article about the night your family was taken."
She moved to him, eyes wide with... fear. Fear and somethin else.
"Family of four dissapears while fifth family member dies. ... father found on scene dead of a gunshot wound... remaining members of family believed to be in hiding for fear of pursuers or... culprits of the murder?"
"But it wasn't them, it was Stockman's goons!" Mikey said, getting angry.
Leo put a hand on his shoulder, "We know that Mikey, but no one else does."
He paused, then said, "Look at all of this research. All of these newspaper articles and notes. These maps. Obviously Llyonell didn't believe Sarah or anyone in her family could've murdered her father. He's been searching."
"Yeah, I sure have."
We all whirled about and saw the creep just stride into the room like he owned the place, which he technically did, but that was beside the point.
He came right up to Sarah and looked her straight in the eyes, sayin, "When I heard the news... I could't believe it. I was sure that something else had happened to you, that you guys had to in some sort of serious trouble. I... I searched for such a long time... I was getting really close to giving up too. None of my leads seemed to go anywhere, but when you mentioned Stockman earlier... I didn't even think to go that far back into your parent's past. I'm sorry."
"About what? That you didn't find us?" she said, as serious as death, "What could you have done if you did find us? Call the police? They would've never believed you over him. The would've sent you off to jail or locked you up in an asylum!"
She looked pained, strainin to keep herself from getting too upset. I wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close. She looked at me an gave me a brief little lopsided grin.
Sighin, Sarah said, "You tried to find us Llyonell. That's the most important thing. You didn't believe the papers when they called us murderers. Look at all this! You cared about us that much. you have nothing to be sorry for."
"If nothing else, I should thank you." she started, but then she smiled, "But since you shot at one of my friends and got me hurt, I don't think I absolutely have to."
And then, she laughed.
ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?
(oh how I've always wanted to say that)
Didn't you guys just love it? I know I did. I had a lot of fun writing this one! Especially the painting. And the paper daffodils. I wish I had a sibling like that. SIGH.
Well? Review already and tell me what'cha think, kay kay? Okay? Okay. Okay? Okay...
