A/N: HAPPY NEW YEAR! HAPPY EPIPHANY!
Whoa...we are at chapter 13? When did this happen?
(Leo: Now.)
(Rachel: *slaps muse*) ((Sidenote: Rachel RPs as Leo on Tumblr.))
Annnny way... Renee and I were thinking about working on two stories at once. We are thinking about posting a Human!AU story with the turtles and Bernadette. If you are interested, please let us know! (And if you hate the idea, let us know a good reason why, please. Constructive Criticism. No flames, this will be Renee's first solo story.)
ANNNND without further Adieu, welcome to Chapter 13!
Warning: Prepare yourselves for feels.
Chapter 13
The next morning, after breakfast, Cyprian had grabbed Lucy and turned on the TV, wondering if they got any cool shows over here. At first, it was mostly static, but Sebastian moved the antenna around and, voilà! The static cleared to reveal a rather cheesy looking cartoon.
"Wizardess! Gra! Ride!" A yellow haired man said in an odd accent.
And from that moment, the two were hooked.
It was a goofy show, Crognard the Barbarian, but it was funny.
Claire, in the meantime, had gone on to explore some more of the house. Vincent, not wanting to be left behind, followed her as far as he could (meaning to the stairs) and then cried a bit before his sister picked him up and brought him with her.
She already knew most of the rooms in this house, since April had given the older four and Bea a tour of the place, but there were some rooms she wasn't sure of their location. So, after some trial and error, she finally found the room she was looking for.
She wasn't sure whose room this had been at one time, but there was a small shelf full of books. Setting Vincent down beside her, she pulled out one of the books and opened it. It was not very big, and had a bright colors on the front. There was a picture of a turtle swinging on a clock.
"Look, Vincent! It's a turtle!"
Vincent smiled and clapped his hands together.
Liz picked Gabe up and looked outside. While they had been driving to the farmhouse, it had started to snow, just light flurries, but none of it was sticking. Just looking at the fluffy cold ice made Liz shiver. Making a face, she took her brother up the stairs and started filling the tub with warm water.
Gabriel watched his sister, his eyes narrowing with each passing second as the tub filled with steaming water.
Elizabeth stood and grabbed two towels and a soft looking brush and placed on a nearby stool. Then she turned to where Gabriel had been just a moment before…only to be met with empty floor.
The smaller turtle was crawling as fast as he could over to the door.
Sighing, the larger turtle walked over to the child and picked him up. "You know, for a little guy, you are fast." She said to the squirming turtle before almost tossing him into the warm water.
Gabe dipped under the water for a moment before coming to the surface on his carapace, staring up at her with a scowl on his face.
"I know. I know. But you are filthy."
The baby turtle crossed his arms, mimicking his father, as his sister climbed into the tub with him, grabbing the brush as she did so. Crossing her arms in a no nonsense way, she stared at her brother, green eyes meeting green eyes. "Well, are you going to turn over?"
The little turtle kicked at her, splashing her face and mask. The turtle's second eye lid covered her eyes as the water hit her face before blinking away. "That's not going to get you out of here any faster."
Gabe held up the face for a long moment before turning over and swimming over to her and turning his back to her.
Smiling in victory, Elizabeth brought out the brush and started brushing his carapace, surprising the little boy. At first he was shocked and then, begrudgingly, allowed himself to be brushed.
"Thought you'd like that." Liz said with a chuckle, causing her brother to pout some more, which lead the older turtle to laugh even louder.
Several days passed and adventures in the farmhouse continued. Sebastian had taken residence in the barn and had found several older machines. He was currently trying to take the pieces of those machines and turn them into more useful things for the house, namely a basking lamp.
The upcoming winter wasn't that kind for cold-blooded turtles like himself, his sister, aunt and cousins.
Each night, without fail, they would receive a skype or phone call from New York, ranging from a "hi" to an update, depending if there was any progress on the Kraang plot.
At least…until one Monday.
It was about a week after April had left the turtles had left the farmhouse…and Bea, Claire, Sebastian, Elizabeth and Cyprian had gone the whole day without hearing one thing from New York.
At first, Bea brushed it off, saying that they were probably working on something important and would call later.
But later eventually became midnight…and even Donnie would have made sure to contact them before then…
So, while all the other turtles were asleep, Bea pulled out her T-phone and called Donnie T-phone.
At a gas station on the way to the farmhouse, April and Casey had decided to switch drivers.
Once she was in the driver seat, an odd thought crossed her mind as the lights from the gas station faded into the night. "Oh gosh… We didn't call Bea…"
"What?" Casey asked, rubbing his tired eyes.
"We didn't call Bernadette!"
"Oh man! She's going to kill us…" Raph said from the back, his voice tired, but hadn't slept a wink since they left New York.
The sleeping octopus, aka: Mikey, in Raph's lap had fallen asleep almost 10 miles back, but only after Raph had promised to wake him should something happen to Leo.
Leo hadn't moved once, save for the rocking of the van as they drove, since they left New York. And that troubled Donnie. The purple masked turtle kept a steadfast vigil over his eldest brother, checking his breathing and pulse regularly.
There had already been one scare. About 5 miles back, Leo had stopped breathing audibly, forcing Donnie to perform CPR. Needless to say, the incident had scared all of them, and they all promised silently not to tell Mikey, who had slept through all of it, or Bea.
"Well, who's going to call her, then?" Casey asked.
As he spoke, Donnie's T-Phone rang.
"Oh…shoot…" Four voices chorused.
Donnie picked up his phone, to see that it was, in fact, Bea calling. Looking between the phone and Leo he tossed it towards Casey. "Jones, can you answer this for me?"
"Why can't you?"
"Because I'm making sure that Leo's heart doesn't stop…again."
"Hm…Good point." The hockey player replied before answering the phone. "Hello."
"WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED TO YOU!?"
Casey had to hold the phone at arm's length away from his head…and could still hear every word clearly. "How do you know that word?" He asked rhetorically.
"Put her on speaker." Raph ordered, which Casey did, if only to save his ears.
"Are you guys gonna answer my question, or am I going to have to beat it out of you?"
Casey gave Raph a look. "Through the phone?"
"Don't tempt me, Jones."
Casey held up a hand in surrender.
"We're on our way to the farmhouse, Bea." April answered the turtle girl's question.
The other end was silent for a moment. "Should I celebrate…or be worried?"
"Probably worried." Casey replied, receiving a smack from Raph a second later.
"What. Happened." Bernadette ordered from the other end of the phone, her voice as scary as Splinter and Leo on a bad day.
Donnie finally spoke up. "The Kraang found the lair. They destroyed the place and chased us all over New York. We had to split up…and The Shredder found Leo…"
There was silence on the other end.
"I'm not going to sugar coat it for you…He's in bad shape. But Leo's alive, and that's what matters."
"How long until you get here?"
"As long as we don't run into any delays," April took over. "I'd say 6 hours. We have to drive a bit slower to account for Leo's injuries."
Silence on the other end for a long moment. "What should I tell Claire?"
Silence filled the van. What should they tell Leo's daughter? Vincent was too young to understand…but Claire definitely would understand.
And that was scarier than anything Bernadette could throw at them.
"Is she awake?" Raph asked, breaking the silence.
"Not right now. I just checked."
"Ok. If she asks, tell her that we are on our way to the farmhouse for a visit." Raph said firmly, looking down at his unconscious brother.
"I'm not sure she'll buy it…but ok." Bea said, sounding much calmer. "How is he, right now?"
"He's alive." Donnie reported once more.
There was a sigh of relief on the other end. Followed by a warning beep coming from Donnie's phone. Casey looked at the device to see a red battery bar flashing. It was empty.
"Bae, we are going to have to hang up now. Donnie's phone's about to die," He yawned. "And I need to grab a nap if I'm going to relieve April before we get to the farmhouse.
"It's Bea, Jones."
"Same letters."
"Call me that again, and I will kill you through the phone."
Casey rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say, Bae."
A loud fwap sounded in the car as Raph's hand collided with Casey's skull. "That's my sister you are talking about, buddy boy."
"Alright, alright, geez." The boy said, rubbing his head. "Goodnight, Bea."
"Night, guys. See you in the morning."
Light from the dawn streamed through the windows of the farmhouse. Claire was the first awake, rubbing her eyes and making her way to the window, expecting to see more snow…only to see green grass! It was warmer out today, and the flurries were nowhere in sight.
Holding in a laugh of glee, Claire grabbed her turquoise mask and tied it on before hurrying as quietly as she could down the stairs and out the door.
Running out to the field between the barn and the house, she took a deep breath of the dewy warm air and slipped into one of the katas that her jiichan had taught her before she, her cousins and aunt had left the comforts of the sewers. She barely noticed the sound of the door opening as Bea came out and sat on the porch, nor did she feel any of the distress that hung over her aunt.
Enjoying the sun after several days of cold was simply heavenly.
But one sound did grab her attention.
The sound of a vehicle pulling up.
"Claire." Bea called, as the girl in question ran up from the yard to where the very familiar van pulled up.
Claire smiled as the door opened, hoping to tackle hug her father…
Only to be met by a rather somber looking Mikey, who held out an arm towards her, telling her to stop.
Looking around her uncle, she saw Donnie and Raph rush out of van with something dangling between them. "Did you get the tub ready, Bea?" April asked, making her away around the van.
"Just like you guys asked."
Claire tried to move around Mikey to see what was going on. She couldn't make out the shape of the thing hanging between her uncles…but she couldn't see her father anywhere. "Otosan? Otosan?" she asked.
Mikey knelt down and held his niece. "He's here. He's…just not in the best shape right now, Claire-bear."
She tried to struggle out of Mikey's arms, but her uncle was strong. She managed to wiggle a bit to see Donnie and Raph heading into the house…and there was a third arm dangling between the two.
Leo's lifeless arm almost dragging on the ground.
She began to struggle even more. "Otosan!"
A/N: Sorry about the feels.
By the way, we were inspired by a similar scene in Warner Brothers Movie Quest for Camelot for the final scene. For copyright purposes, we do NOT own that idea. That belongs to Warner Brothers.
As a warning: The feels continue into the next chapter.
Please leave a Review! Thanks!
~R&R