A Ninja's Dance

Chapter 25

Despite all his whinging, wining, moaning and loud declarations of conspiracies on the matter Mikey actually liked patrols.

Well. Not so much the patrolling side of it. Leo was always on about being quiet and staying hidden and blah blah blah. Mikey was a ninja. All that junk came with the territory.

No, what was really amazing about patrols was the freedom of it; being out topside, feeling the wind rush by him as he leapt, spun and catapulted himself across the rooftops of New York. There was a beautiful release that came without the confines of the sewers or the lair. The feel of the cement under his feet as he pounded across the skyline, the sound of his breath in his ears and his heart thrumming in his chest that drowned out everything and anything in his head.

He loved to just stop thinking and let his muscles work for him, seeing his path over, up and through obstacles without actually having to see them.

What made it even better was that after a good clean, uneventful patrol run a lot of the family tension melted away. Usually, around the two hour mark when they were starting to round back for home everything just sort of…lifted.

Key word. Usually.

Right now there was some serious voodoo tension going on between Leo and Raph. Mikey didn't know the argument details since he and Don had retreated from the blast zone by boy oh boy it must have been ba-a-ad. Not even that tasty-tasty spagbol had forced his bros teeth to stop grinding.

Mikey vaulted an air-conditioning vent, slid under a curve pipe and whistled to Don who was sprinting alongside him. Don glanced his way, barked out a 'yep' as they approached the roof edge and slid to his knees, bracing a foot against the raised cement brink and pushing up as Mikey boosted off his shell.

Air rushed around him and for a brief moment gravity had no hold as he rocketed up over the four story drop and landed with practiced ease on the fire escape of the opposing building. He curled to a halt on the railing and turned to look back over the New York Skyline, taking a pause to catch his breath. There was a scraped clunk two ladders below him as Donnie made the jump and swung himself up to perch next to Mikey.

"So…" He huffed out, sounding a little winded. "How are the gloves holding up?"

Mikey flexed his fingers in the leather binds and nodded.

"Good. Recon you got them sorted Don."

Don quirked a smiled, no doubt pleased. Whenever Don had some free time he worked his way through a back log of requests to help his brothers get through the tougher things that came with being a mutant turtle. Like cold.

The gloves were leather, lined with a thin layer of some fancy, sciencey fabric that retained heat super well. They'd had problems with the gloves getting slippery and grip-free so tonight Don was trialling new ones with little sticky bits on the finger pads and palms.

They were awesome.

"Now all we gotta do is convince Raph to try them so he can stop complaining bout how cold he is all the time." Mikey said with a sideways grin. Donnie barked a laugh as though his brother had just finished the punch line of a joke.

As if on cue Raph cleared his throat and peered out over the roof ledge, eying off his two brothers with a slight smirk as they craned their heads back to look up at him.

"Good luck with the 'convincin' bro's" Raph smirked some more and Mikey stuck his tongue out at him, trying to figure out how on earth his brother had not only snuck up on them, but out-run them. He and Leo had been behind them by a few blocks at least.

Mikey was about to question which route Raph had taken to circumnavigate them when Raph sneered suddenly and pulled back, disappearing from sight just as Leo bounced his way around the buildings corner and landed one ladder up from them.

"Whats wrong?" Leo asked quietly. "Why have you stopped?"

Don hazarded a small smile and rolled his shoulders. Mikey knew that move. It had been a new one since Leo had gotten home. It meant 'I'm totally not going to take that badly, because you didn't mean it like a snarky hit at our ability to keep up'. Mikey smiled wider and patted Don on the shoulder.

"Don was just asking me bout the gloves bro."

Leo's shoulders relaxed and Mikey's smile got wider. There it was. Leo wasn't trying to stir or be a bossy-boots-leader, he was just worried. He spent a lot of time being worried these days and it wasn't that big of a problem until he started worrying at someone instead of about them.

There was a big difference.

At someone was sharp and pointy and came out like you were trying to run someone's life for them.

About someone was like a massive, warm bear hug that reassured you that no matter what there was a big brother who had your back.

"We should keep moving" Leo nodded at both of them and disappeared onto the roof, no doubt trailing Raph's path towards home. Mikey watched and pursed his lips when he caught the slight wince from Leo when he hefted himself up over the roof ledge. Mikey had thought it was a bad idea for Leo to come out tonight with his shell messed up the way it was, and now he was thinking it was an even worse idea because he had to watch his elder brother wince, flinch and hiss his way through the run.

"Better follow him" Don sighed before casting one more glance over the rise and fall of the apartment buildings and skyscrapers that made up their city. He flexed his fingers, eyed off the fire escape twisting above him and in three swift moves had himself balanced on the edge of the roof. "You coming?" He called down, adjusting his bō so it was more secure across his back.

Mikey nodded.

"Be up in a sec" He gave a thumbs up and watching Don disappear.

Everything went quiet.

Well, as quiet as it was ever going to get in New York. Funnily enough the soft hum of traffic and the electric buzz of so many city lights was better than silence in so many ways he couldn't begin to list them all.

Taking a deep breath Mikey drank in the cold night air, puffing it out again in a cloud of mist that reminded him of early days when he and his brothers would pretend to be dragons, roaring their misty breaths into the darkness and flapping their arms like wings. All the time wishing they were topside so they could look up into the nothingness of the sky and pretend they were really flying.

Letting out a soft sigh of appreciation for this place, for its memories both good and bad and all the sights, smells and experiences it had to offer, Mikey revelled in the moment of stillness…

This was promptly ruined by a huge clatter and a scream so loud it could have been a fog horn.

Mikey's attention snapped to the noise and commotion, which seemed to be coming from right below him in the alley. A young man dressed in a grillers apron and sensible shoes was scurrying his way out of the backstreet as fast as his feet could carry him, yelling for someone to call 911. Well, specifically he was yelling:

"Holy fuck! Someone call the fucking police! Or the fire department! Or the fucking CDC! Someone fucking call somebody!"

This, while not obviously stated, was what Mikey liked to call a 'polite request for assistance'. One he was more than happy and capable of providing. From his previous experience with hysterical people in New York he knew it would take the kid at least five minutes to get the words out in the right order to make anyone care enough to pay attention.

Probably six or seven minutes in this particular case since this gentleman seemed unable to complete a sentence without infusing it with fuck; which had to be confusing when he talked fast enough that all you heard was the 'f' at the beginning and the 'k' at the end in-dispersed between nonsensical rambling.

Psyching himself up to a suitable state of suspicious Mikey made his way quickly and carefully down into the alley below, readying his nunchucks at his sides as he slipped from shadow to shadow until he arrived at the spot he presumed had sent the kid running and wailing onto the street.

For most, walking in the direction the screaming person had come was a resoundingly bad idea. But for someone like Mikey, who had saved the world about four times and was the battle nexus champion, the idea seemed perfectly logical. Right up until he got within smelling distance of the dumpster just outside the door of the burger joint the alleyway joined onto.

Now, Mikey had smelt plenty of dumpsters. He lived in the damn sewer, so it wasn't like he hadn't grown accustomed to his fair share of stenches. But the smell curled up and over the dumpster was more abhorrent than anything Mikey could remember from his recent years in New York. Like rotted pork sizzling on a fire made of old plastic bottles and discarded carpets.

As he crept closer a sudden sense of dread filled him. It was the kind of dread that trickled down your spine like ice water and pooled in your gut until you were sure every hair on your body was standing on end. Well, you know…if Mikey had had hair.

Knowing that if he kept shivering and shuddering he was going to miss his chance Mikey sucked in a breath and took the last step to the dumpster, peering over the edge.

Inside the dumpster was the usual assortment of garbage. Week old Chinese food, big bags of restaurant junk, a few pizza boxes.

…and a dead guy.

The man, if you could still call him that, was gaunt and hollow looking. Though not the kind of gaunt and hollow looking you would expect from someone who hadn't eaten well enough for a while. This was the kind of emaciated that left his skin sagging heavy against his face, wasted neck disappearing into his suit jacket like a needlepoint sticking into the fabric.

Like someone had jabbed a big syringe into him and sucked out everything inside.

There were tear tracks burned down his face from hollowed out eye sockets, curls of slowly solidifying black goop dripping over his skeletal cheek bones and slurping from his ears. What Mikey recognised as burn marks littered the guys face, framing his eyes and mouth with blotchy red scabs.

His clothes hung off his bones and his remains were contorted and set in rigamortis, his hands stretched out like he was desperately reaching for someone…or clawing at them.

Mikey reeled back, feeling the spaghetti roll around in his stomach like a jumble of twisting tentacles.

"Holy fuck!" He burst out, suddenly understanding why the kid who had gone running down the alley. "Holy crapsicles, Holy fudge muffins! Holy Sewer Apples!"

"Mikey. What's wrong?"

Mikey jumped, turning quickly to find Donnie hanging from the fire escape ladder, bō staff out and focused face on. Mikey pointed at the dumpster, jabbing his finger at it and trying to compose himself so he didn't puke his guts up.

"Dead guy." He reported quickly.

Donnie did what Donnie always did in moments like this; he went into crisis evaluation mode. Dropping into the alley with a near silent 'tick-thump' he made it to the dumpster in two steps, and then took another one back as he recoiled from what was inside.

"What…" Don said it like the sentence was meant to finish with the fuck and he momentarily forgot how to speak. Mikey nodded.

"Ye-p." He popped the 'p' at the end and chewed the inside of his cheek. "That's some messed up dead person."

It was Donnie's turn to nod.

The sound of sirens in the distance jolted them from their collective shock and someone inside the restaurant went to open back door. Mikey jumped for it, leaning his whole weight against the door so it only rattled on its frame instead of flying open.

"Better be quick Don!" He stage whispered over his shoulder. Don nodded, bracing himself on the edge of the dumpster before jumping in, steadying himself, and snapping a bunch of photos on his shell cell. The flicker of light from the flash cast shadows around the alley and reminded Mikey of a horror movie. Now all they needed was the dead guy to jump up and try to bite Donnie's face off.

Leo picked this moment to arrive. He was about to ask what his brothers were doing, hanging around while Mikey held a door shut on someone who obviously wanted to get into the alley, but something stopped him.

His eyes flicked to the dumpster where Don was still taking photos and he took a long drag of air through his nose. His jaw clenched so hard Mikey was pretty sure he could hear his bro's teeth grinding.

"We have to get out of here." Leo muttered, eyes darting to the alleyways mouth and out onto the street. Mikey grunted his agreement as whoever it was on the other side of the door decided he was just going to use the front entrance to get around back.

Don didn't say anything, just nodded and worked faster. He'd pulled on latex gloves from his duffle bag at some point and was taking swabs of the black goop. He cut hair samples, scraped skin from the guy's mouth, swiped out whatever was under the dead man's fingernails and searched his pockets for identification. He took samples from the bottom of the man's shoes, fibres from his jacket and did a once over check with his hand held scanner thing-a-me-jig.

Footsteps clunked around the corner just as Don finished and there was a screech of tires from somewhere down the road.

"We're leaving. Now." Leo grunted, disappearing up the fire escape. Mikey boosted Don once he'd thrown his stuff back in his bag and vaulted out of the dumpster and the three of them were out of the alleyway just in time to watch a rather rotund man in an apron come jostling towards the dumpster. He checked inside, gasped, and struggled back the way he had come. Two minutes later the uniforms arrived.

They observed in silence, silhouetted as a line of whited out eyes blinking down from the rooftop as the police cordoned off the alley and started taking statements. It was Raph who chose to break this silence by arriving back on the scene. Took him long enough to realise they weren't right behind him.

"The fuck are you guys standin' around for?"

"So" April smiled and took another sip of her wine, leaning back in her chair and settling her eyes on Judith. "It's probably a question that's getting old fast but how are you doing?"

Judith looked up from her own glass of wine and shrugged.

"I'm ok" She paused and contemplated how to answer a question she didn't have the answer too. "It's a lot easier to get used to than I would have thought. All this I mean" She gestured out to the lair and pursed her lips. "But then I'm just kind of rolling with it."

Casey Jones let out a barked laugh, grinning over his shoulder at her as he finished washing another bowl. He had been relegated to dish duty and had gone about it with minimal fuss.

Talk about domesticated. Judith couldn't imagine anyone in her family washing dishes with so little complaining. Dishes back home tended to be dishwasher friendly of unused.

"Rolling with it is the best thing to do." April nodded her approval, as though vocalising the though behind Casey's laugh.

Judith wasn't sure she agreed.

She'd never been good at rolling with it. She tended to overthink things. Small details that shouldn't have bothered her bothered her and right now trying not to think about all the details she didn't have was exhausting.

She didn't know if the Purple Dragon gang was still looking for her, she didn't know if she was going to suddenly drop dead from the biosites and she had no damn clue when she was going to be able to go back to her apartment.

If she even had an apartment to go back too. Rent was debited from her account automatically but she wasn't sure how long her landlord would 'not notice' that she hadn't come home and go snooping. He had a key, he didn't like her and she wouldn't put it past him.

Judith took a deep breath, finished her wine and put all those questions in a neat little box in her head marked 'Don't open'.

Casey finished off the last dish and stretched, yawning wide and scratching his head.

"I'm beat" He declared, attempting to be subtle about his desire to go home and failing. April frowned at him and Judith got the distinct impression she was planning on hanging around until the guys got back. Probably driven by equal parts concern for her wellbeing and concern for the lack of supervision. Master Splinter was still here of course but he had retreated to his rooms, most likely to sleep.

"You guys can go. I'm just going to head to bed." Judith interjected before April could offer to stay. "I'm really tired anyway."

That was a lie. She wasn't tired at all. Her head was muddled and fuzzy but the rest of her felt like it could have run a marathon and still be buzzing.

April eyed her then seemed to decide she was telling the truth.

"Ok" She nodded. "But if you need anything our numbers are in your Shell Cell. Don't hesitate to call."

Judith assured both of them that if something happened she would defiantly call and then followed them out of the kitchen to a huge decorative semicircle in the wall. Apparently it was an elevator because it opened up, April and Casey stepped in and after it had closed again there was a rumbling noise and it disappeared slowly up into whatever was above the lair.

It left a huge empty cavernous space that glittered with some sort of crystals.

Judith stared for a full minute as the elevator rumbled back down and clicked into place, considering the implications that came with an obviously alien technology that just happened to be in the home of a bunch of mutant ninja's. Her brain stuttered over this new discovery for a bit before she came to one startling realisation.

It was a way out of here.

Judith was struck dumb with the enormity of this new thing. Previously she had no idea how in hells name anyone got in and out of this place. It seemed like people just appeared and disappeared and she'd never actually seen anyone come in or leave.

She contemplated getting into the elevator. She contemplated leaving. She wondered where it led and if she would have enough time to get to her apartment and maybe book a flight back to Australia before anyone noticed she was gone. She thought about what she would find up above the lair and realised she didn't even know where the lair was in relation to her apartment.

Her palms got sweaty and it became suddenly harder to breath as she stared at the intricately carved space of wall that stood out like a sore thumb against the rest of the brick. She was healed, she was better, she could just…go. If she wanted to. Did she want to?

No. No, actually, she didn't. As scary as the thought was Judith realised that knowing this elevator was here did nothing to change the fact that she wasn't ready to leave this place, leave these people. She trusted them, she liked them, she wasn't going anywhere and the thought of being up there on the street, alone, in the dark, not knowing where she was going or how she was going to get there terrified her.

Breathing got easier the further away from the elevator she got so she headed to the lounge room, flopping onto the couch and letting out a long sigh. The old couch was comfy and she curled up on it, pulling her legs to her chest and resting her chin on her knees.

After a few long moments of quiet as the strange panic settled Judith got the sudden feeling that she was forgetting something. Something she was supposed to have done or sorted out or followed up on. She figured that feeling was ridiculous because as it stood she didn't have anything to do down here in the lair that wasn't staying alive and not being an idiot. So why did that itchy feeling persist?

She tried to shrug it off and reached for the TV remote, pressing buttons until one of the screens came on and setting her Shell Cell on the table so it wasn't sticking into her hip as she got more comfortable on the couch. She channel surfed for a bit before her eyes landed on the phone again and she made a little choking noise.

She remembered what she hadn't done.

She hadn't called her mother again like she said she would when Leo had burst into his room.

Shit balls.

Judith wondered why her mother hadn't called her back then remembered Evelyn still lived with an old wall mounted monstrosity of a phone that must have been installed in the late 70's. That thing was too old school for caller ID and Judith hadn't given her mum a number if she ever needed to get in touch.

Judith checked the time. Her parents would be at work by now.

Even so she snatched up the Shell Cell, muted the TV and dialled her mum's mobile number. It went to message bank and she left her new number along with an 'I love you, don't worry about me'. Next she tried her dad and wasn't at all surprised when he didn't answer either. She left pretty much the same message for him before typing in a third and final number and settling back as the line connected and rang a few times. There was a click as someone picked up on the other end.

"Hello. Who's this? Are you the same 'private number' person who keeps calling?" Judith frowned as Dia's voice whispered out of the little speaker. Dia usually answered the phone with too much enthusiasm, quiet Dia was concerning.

"Dude. It's me. I left messages, don't you check them?" There was a pause on the other end before Dia made a noise like a startled banshee that Judith knew from experience was an excited squeal.

"Judith! Oh my god it's you! Where have you been? You haven't answered any of my Facebook pokes or messages or texts and I've tried calling you, like, a million times! I thought you'd been kidnapped by those guys who answered your phone!" Judith didn't have time to question which guys Dia was talking about before someone who wasn't Dia started making a lot of angry noise on the other end of the line. Dia swore badly. "Shit-fucker. Look, dude, I'm at work so I can't talk on the phone or my boss will keep freaking out. Find a computer and log on to Facebook so we can chat without him noticing." Then she hung up. Ah, so she was at work, that explained the whispering.

Judith smiled. That tended to be how her conversations with Dia went unless it was a serious problem, and even then her friend had a habit of hanging up without notice only to arrive on her doorstep ten minutes later declaring that real issues needed face to face discussion.

She missed Dia so much.

Dia was currently working as a secretary for a psychiatrist who (according to Dia) was just as unstable as his patients. While usually her job involved twiddling her thumbs in between taking bookings and allowing people to make payments of exorbitant sums of money for her boss's services she seemed to get yelled at a lot. Dia always said that is was a good thing she was so well adjusted or she'd take serious offence to some of the junk her boss came out with.

Judith had mentioned maybe she should get another job but Dia had pointed out working for this guy was great for her Uni cred. Plus if she stuck it out long enough she might make herself enough connections to open her own practice when she finished her degree. Judith wasn't sure someone could just open up their own practice straight out of uni but Dia hadn't ever been one to do things by half.

Anyway, now Judith had a goal. Computer, Facebook, talk to Dia.

She wondered if the guys would have a computer floating about in the lair that they wouldn't mind her using. Donatello had a whole bunch of them in his lab but other than that she hadn't seen any laptops or tablets or smart phones around.

Really she only had a few options. Option one was she could wait until they the boys got back. She didn't know how long they were going to be and she was in real need of Dia's counsel right now. She wasn't planning on spilling what was going on but she could still talk about some of the bits and pieces. Dia was great with advice; she kind of had to be if she wanted to be a good psychiatrist.

Option two was to simply use the computers in Donatello's lab without asking. That wasn't going to happen. Judith had manners and it was pretty obvious that was his private space and work area. She didn't think him coming home to find her sitting in there messing with his equipment would be appreciated.

Option three was to text Donatello and ask him if he minded her using his lab, and if not there had to be something he could point her too that would give her access to Facebook. Option three was defiantly the best plan. After a moment's hesitation to wonder if she was going to put someone in danger with a phone buzzing Judith bit the bullet and tapped out the message.

"Hi Donatello, sorry to bother you but would it be ok if I use one of your computer to go on Facebook? A friend of mine wants to talk. If not that's totally ok. Just thought I would ask. Hope you're patrol is going well." She read it a few times, surprised at how nervous she was about asking, and then sat there staring at the little phone in her hands once it had been sent.

Honestly if the boys were bailing across rooftops and scaling buildings as Mikey had insinuated they did Judith didn't think she would be getting a reply any time soon so she un-muted the TV and continued flicking through the channels. They had a lot of channels. Over a hundred, she didn't know how or why they had them all. Most of them were infomercials about exercise equipment or cookware. Judith found herself watching one, brows furrowed in confusion as she tried to figure out what they were actually selling. It was just a lot of attractive women and men jumping around in bikini's and tiny brief shorts. Two minutes later she realised it was for a series of fitness DVD's (not porn as she had started to think) and just as she was about to roll her eyes and explore more of the copious channels the Shell Cell buzzed.

"Sure. Use main hub as other comps op systems aren't user friendly. PW is 'stmsMRL14'. Headed back now. How are you?" Judith did a little victory fist pump at Donatello's reply and turned off the TV, jumping up and heading for the lab as she replied to his message.

"Good. Discovered the elevator. Crazy shit." She wasn't sure why she told him that. She'd always been an oversharer, even when she was little her mum would ask her how her day at school had been and Judith would painstakingly take her through every little thing that had happened. From the cat someone had bought in for show and tell barfing on the carpet to the boy next to her eating glue.

She'd never gotten out of that habit.

Don's lab hadn't changed from the last time she'd been in there that morning and his main computer was already on, humming softly in the dull light of the re-purposed train car. Judith sat herself down in front of it and wiggled the mouse.

The screen burst to life, chiming like it was greeting whoever had woken it up and displaying a small box requesting a password. Judith typed in the one Don had given her and wondered for a moment how and why he had come up with it before she was distracted with a familiar windows desktop filling the monitor. She opened up a web browser and directed it to Facebook just as her phone buzzed again.

"Will you be there when we get back?" She chewed her lip at Donatello's question, realising her previous message might have sparked a whole lot of 'what if's' for the turtle brothers.

It wasn't a far stretch of the imagination to assume her request to use the computer was for purposes other than talking to a friend if she'd figured out how to leave the lair. The internet had maps; the internet could show her how to get home. It could book her flights and order her taxi's and give her the means to run away.

"Yes. Thought about leaving, decided I liked you guys too much :P" She thought the smiley face at the end would help to reassure him. Smiley faces always helped her figure out the tone of a message. That was the trouble with texting, you could send something intending it to sound one way, then have it blow up in your face when someone took it to mean something completely different.

Judith set the phone down as Facebook loaded up then paused and frowned. She had gone to log in, expecting the initial page asking for her email and password. Instead she found herself looking right at her own page, logged in and sitting on her news feed.

A message from Dia popped up in the corner of her screen bemoaning how long it had taken her to get to a computer and Judith replied with a quick hello and a request for Dia to hold on for a second. She sat back in the big computer chair and looked over her page as though expecting it to suddenly shut down and request her to log in again. Like this had been a mistake. Had she logged in here before? No, no she would remember that and she was damn sure she hadn't just logged in without thinking about it and somehow managed to black the last few minutes out.

Judith typed a quick message to Dia saying she just had to check something out real quick before she closed the browser and waited a few minutes, scanning the screen while her stomach tied itself in knots. The guys had mentioned they had looked over her Facebook page, they'd never said anything about logging into her Facebook page. Would they do that? Could they do that?

What a stupid question. Donatello would be able to without breaking a sweat. He was a walking encyclopedia of tech knowledge and Judith had a funny feeling he'd be able to hack something crazy like NASA if she asked him to.

Despite knowing what she'd just seen a moment ago Judith was hoping it had been a trick of some kind and when she re-opened the page it would do its customary request for her information. That had been the thought. Close the page, re-open it and everything will be ok.

She was just about to open the browser back up when her eyes landed on a folder in the top right hand corner of the screen hidden amongst a myriad of others. She wouldn't have noticed it at all with it lost amongst the hordes of icons but this particular folder was labelled 'JACarter'.

Judith's palms started getting clammy again as she stared at her name printed under the folder. It had to be her name, if it wasn't it was a damn huge coincidence that Donatello had another JACarter he needed to make a file for. She wondered if she should open it. She wondered if she should know what was in it or if she even wanted to know.

She hovered the mouse over it so it was highlighted and chewed on the inside of her cheek, a sick kind of feeling twisting in her gut as she considered what she might find in that harmless looking little picture on the computer screen.

A few tense moments later Judith decided she needed to know.

She swallowed and double clicked, opening it just as her phone buzzed with another message from Donatello.

"We like you too"

Authors Notes: Sorry for the late update guys. However, here is Chapter 25.

To everyone who is still reading this fic thank you so much. I really appreciate all the follows, favourites and reviews. It makes me smile.