*A particular comment referring to April in this chapter refers to the storyline that I grew up on, relating to the first movie's version of how the woman made her "initial trip" underground.
The three turtles shuffled around Luke's Brownstone in Chelsea, as they waited for some kind of verdict from the doctor on what was actually going on with Calley, and for the phone call from Marcus at the hospital that would update them on Tim's condition as well. Luke's part didn't end up taking very long - it only required a simple blood test that he analyzed with the use of one of Donatello's scanners that always remained in his own use.
While she was still basically passed out in a bedroom, the man went down the hall to the upstairs sitting room, where no one was sitting.
"What's going on with her Doc?" Leonardo asked, the moment he saw him in the doorway.
"She's got heroin in her system, definitely a recent injection." He replied. "While that isn't good news, it at least explains why her heart rate slowed down so much." That said, the man cast a glance back toward the hall, and then looked back at the turtle's again. "She needs to get help. I'd keep her here in a heart-beat, if I honestly believed she'd stay. I know she won't want to go back to the hospital, so the other alternative is to get her out of the city, and into a rehab program like the original plan was."
"She said 'they' were coming after her Doc." Leonardo said quietly. "The people who attacked Tim...do you think they actually could have been going after her?"
The man walked further into the room, and sat down in one of the chairs. "It's certainly a possibility. Her physical body bears witness to abuse. If someone was hurting her, they're probably afraid that she'll talk."
"Then she's in danger too." Michelangelo proclaimed, as he sat down on the couch across from him. "She needs protection."
"I think that getting her completely away from here would be the best thing for her." Luke said to all three of them.
"But we don't even know how they got to 'em so fast to start with." Raphael volunteered. "They only left the hospital a couple of hours ago, right?"
"She has to go somewhere." Luke emphasized strongly.
The words had hardly left his mouth, when Katherine's slightly urgent tone carried from down the hall.
"Luke? I need your help in here!"
With a sharp breath he rose and hurried back down the hall, to be met by the sight of his wife blocking the young woman's path from leaving the bedroom.
"Let me out!" Calley's own voice echoed this time. "Move, I have to go!"
"Where do you have to go Calley?" Luke asked evenly, as he carefully maneuvered past his wife to get into the bedroom.
"Away." Her voice was haggard, and her terror at waking up in an unfamiliar place was obvious.
"I know you're scared, but no one's going to hurt you." Luke told her. "Sit down, you're honestly safe here."
"Who are you people? What do you want with me?"
"My name is Luke, and that's my wife Katherine by the door. Nobody wants to hurt you." He repeated.
"Why am I here?" She demanded.
"Because we're trying to help you. We know your father Tim, we're good friends with him."
"I need my father - where is he?"
"He's back at the hospital, he...he's getting the attention that he needs." Luke said carefully.
Her brown eyed gaze fell on the doorway again. "I can't stay here. They'll find me."
"Who Calley?" Luke came over to kneel at her level, as she collapsed back on the mattress. "Who's looking for you? Who hurt your father?"
She shook her head somewhat violently. "I have to go."
"You're safe here," Luke told her again. "And I think it's better from a medical standpoint as well. Your body's been through a lot, and--"
"Are you a doctor?" Her tone was somewhat flat.
"Yes, that's why I thought that--"
The woman drew both legs off the floor onto the bed, and backed against the wall. "No, don't touch me, I don't want it!"
"I'm not giving you anything Calley, I'm not doing a single thing. I'm just sitting here." He replied calmly.
"Then let me leave - let me go!"
He hesitated for a few beats. "I can't. If you walk out that door, we won't be able to protect you."
"I don't want your help, I wanna get out of here!"
As her voice rose another degree, Leonardo knocked on the partially closed door. "Doc, c'mere." He hissed through it.
Luke showed up a second later, and stood parallel to the door so that he could keep one eye on Calley at all times.
"Let me try and talk to her." The blue-banded turtle suggested. "You responded to me somewhat before."
"If she's already seen you, I guess there's no point in hiding." Luke said wearily, and let the turtle into the room.
Leonardo came inside slowly, stopping about a foot from the bed where Calley was presently cowering.
"Hi Calley. Everything's going to be alright, I promised you, remember?" He said to her.
She stared at him unspeaking for a few seconds, and then made a hesitant move his direction. "You're still real?"
He repressed a smile because of the severity of the circumstances. "Yup. And I said I'd keep you safe. But if you go running off, I can't do that. Do you understand?"
"You brought me here."
"These people are friends Calley - they only want to help you."
"All I want is my father - what's going on with him?"
"I don't know, but I'll find out for you. In the meantime though, you need to stay calm."
She settled back down on one of the pillows, but never took her eyes off of him. "Who are you?" She asked again.
"My name is Leonardo."
Calley pondered that for a moment. "That's an interesting name."
"It works for me." The blue-banded turtle cracked a smile for her that time. "But now I need to talk to my brothers and my friends. Can you stay here quietly while I do?"
"Don't leave me with them." The anxious quality returned to her voice.
"I'm not leaving entirely, just going down the hall. I'll come back in a little bit, I swear."
"I can't go back to that hospital." She said fearfully.
"You're not." He assured her. "I'm going to go figure a couple of things out, and I'll be back."
Luke was waiting on the other side of the door for him. "I just got off the phone with Marc. We need to talk about more than one thing, but let's get in with Raph and Mike first."
The turtles looked at Luke expectantly, once they were all in the sitting room together again.
"Tim's in surgery." Luke told them. "He had a badly ruptured spleen, and they're going in to try and repair it. If they can't, it'll have to come out. Prognosis is a little bit shaky considering all the factoring injuries. The best Marcus could tell me is that they're giving him about a 60/40 ratio right now."
"And that means what in english?" Raphael asked bluntly.
"It means he has a 60% chance of survival."
"You're saying he could die?" Mike asked in a small voice.
"He's in the right place Mikey, don't get too swayed by those numbers. When Greg showed up at the hospital a couple months ago, they only gave him about a 20% chance on the spot."
"You failed to mention that." Leonardo said flatly.
"There was no point at the time." Luke answered him. "Knowing wouldn't have helped anyone. The fact right now is that the odds are with Tim, but he isn't here with us to make this decision."
"Which means you're going to make it for him?" Michelangelo suggested.
"We're going to make it," Luke clarified. "My vote would still be for taking her directly to rehab. The problem is...these places aren't prisons. They can't lock her up, or hold her if she doesn't want to stay. And I have a distinct feeling that she isn't going to be cooperative."
"Then where does that leave us?" Raphael asked him.
"We're all thinking it, why doesn't somebody just say it?" Michelangelo wondered aloud. "She needs to come down with us, we can protect her."
"Sure we can Mike, but rehabilitate her?" Raphael was the first to respond. "I don't think any of us are prepared to deal with this. Not to mention she seems kind of like a loose cannon. We've got absolutely no guarantee that she won't talk."
"We had no guarantee about Jenna either, or Luke, or anyone else for that matter!" Mike argued. "You're the one who dragged April down sight unseen, without even talking to anyone about it!"
"I was a dumb kid." Raphael said morosely. "Look, I ain't sayin' I don't want to help her. I'm just pointing out the risk factors." He cast a glance over at Leonardo. "Why aren't you saying anything Fearless?"
The blue-banded turtle shook his head. "I feel like Luke's right about rehab. It's where she needs to be, but no one can force her to stay. And if she's left to her own devices...if someone else doesn't kill her, she might just do the job herself. She needs to be protected from herself, as much as from anyone else that would want to hurt her.
The real question that we have to ask ourselves, is how far are we willing to go here? It could end up requiring us to do what the abuse center won't - which is to hold her back, no matter what she says." Leonardo sighed, and cast a pointed look at Luke again. "What do you think Tim would want us to do?"
"He would never ask you guys to do this." Luke replied. "But the more that I think about it...I'd feel better having her where we can keep an eye on her ourselves."
"So are we doing this, or what?" Raphael asked.
"I think I should talk to Calley about it first." Leonardo said to all of them.
"You mean you're gonna ask her permission to take her captive?" Raphael suggested sarcastically.
"I don't know what I'm going to say. Give me a couple of minutes with her, and I'll figure it out."
The woman was obviously having to fight a little to stay awake; Leonardo had to call her name a few times before she actually seemed to focus on him. Leonardo had already bent down to her level, and gave her a reassuring smile when it was clear that she was looking at him.
"Leonardo?" She murmured sleepily. "You're still here."
"I told you that I wouldn't leave. But now I need to ask you something pretty serious, about what you said before. You said that you didn't want to do this anymore. Did you mean it?"
"I don't want it." She whispered. "But I don't know if I can stop."
"But you want to stop."
"Yes." Her voice actually rose a little that time.
"Are you going to be able to let us help you?"
"I don't...I can't go back to those doctors."
Leonardo couldn't help chuckling slightly. "As shocking as it might be, I can't exactly go to the hospital either. If we're going to help you ourselves, it means you have to enter our territory. The thing is...people don't know about us Calley, at least not very many of them. Our home is sort of the last frontier, and we'd rather that you didn't have to be responsible for its' location."
She sat up partway on one elbow. "You don't trust me." She said softly.
"I'm sorry, I don't mean to offend you--"
"No, it's fine. I don't trust me either." She slurred slightly. "I don't know if I can do this."
"I can't tell you that I have any experience with it." He said honestly. "But you don't have to do it alone. For your dad, for yourself, are you willing to give it a shot?"
The woman nodded after a moment. "But you have to promise me...you're going to have to stop me from doing anything stupid." Like I already did, she added silently only in her own mind. "When I'm desperate enough, I'll do just about anything for a fix. You can't let me."
She had inadvertently given him the permission he was looking for.
"Are you willing to trust us Calley?"
She held her breath slightly as she gazed into dark eyes that were similar, and yet so unlike Shirou's. Calley considered the question for a long moment, as thoroughly as somewhat muddied thoughts would allow. She didn't know why she felt more at ease with this creature than anyone else in conscious remembrance. She had a strong sense that he wouldn't let anyone else hurt her, and that he wouldn't do anything to her himself. In that instant it was as if a small light came on in the back her mind,
"I trust you."