Chapter 25: T - 2 Cirlets and Counting?

Raphael was already writing a mental list of supplies they might need. He was not sure of the best place to look for the supplies and figured that he could ask Kermit later. Generally, he saw the frog around after lectures. If not, there were several other people he could ask.

Leo sighed as they finished up theirKvilethiacianux 'lesson' for the day.

"Come on, Mikey," he said. "We've got three clarets to get you to the hospital for your appointment.

It was Michelangelo's turn to sigh. "yeah, yeah, Leo. I know." With that, the two bid adieu to Raphael and made their way to the hospital.

Raph did not immediately leave the lecture halls, instead he searched for someone to point him in the right direction for supplies. He had been looking for Kermit, but the first person he found was Jake, the busboy from the restaurant.

"Hey Raphael," Jake greeted, "long time, no see. Where have you been?"

"Around."

"Around? That's good, I guess. I thought you'd disappeared, maybe gone home."

"Yeah, about that," Raph saw his opportunity, "We're getting ready to head out, and need a few supplies. Think you can help me out?"

"There are an awful lot of cylinders, and they're not tuned very well. It's possible that you could get the same amount of power with fewer cylinders. Reducing the number of cylinders can also make it more fuel-efficient." Don explained to one of his coworkers.

"How would we fix that? Change the compression ratios?"

Don frowned a moment. "That's one way to do it. Raph's really better at this sort of thing than I am." Only then did he realize what he'd said, and he quickly shut his mouth.

"Raph? Your friend Raph?" The man he was talking to asked.

Donnie was just about to answer when Merle called him into his office. Saved by the bell, he thought before giving a quick shake of his head, hoping that the questioner would take that as a negative answer, and excusing himself from the conversation without answering the question. He headed up to his supervisor's office and shut the door behind him as instructed.

"I am disappointed to hear that you did not turn in your Gorijan forms, Donatello. I thought engineering interested you."

Immediately Don got the impression that he was walking on very thin ice. The wrong response here could easily earn him another yellow bath, and that was not something he wanted to do again.

"Why didn't you turn in your forms?" Merle asked.

"I'm sorry, sir." Don responded. "But I'm afraid that I don't really know what Gorijan is."

"You don't?"

"No sir, I am not from around here." Donatello responded as innocently as he could, doing his best impression of Michelangelo trying to get out of trouble.

Merle sighed in disbelief. "Gorijan is the premier engineering institute in the world. Only the best of the best are accepted, and you have the opportunity to go. With your unique expertise you have a distinct advantage over your competitors, though your strength is also your weakness as you don't understand our technology as well as would normally be required. All the same, I think you will do well there."

"Will?"

"Yes, your hesitance to fill out the necessary forms will not stand in the way of your going to Gorijan. I figured you wouldn't fill out the second step forms so I did it for you as I did the first stage forms. You leave for Gorijan immediately after work this evening.

Donatello nodded, smiled and gave Merle a slight bow as he left the room. That's what you think.

"Oh come on, Mikey. They did a whole lot worse to you a few days ago, what's the big deal now?" Leo asked as Michelangelo tried to get away from the syringe the doctor wanted to use to get a blood sample.

"I was delirious then, Leo. I'm not now." He snapped his attention around to the doctor and did everything in his power to scramble away from the syringe. "Keep that away from me!"

"Michelangelo." Leo said in an imitation of Master Splinter's warning tone. A tone that immediately had his brother's attention and caused the orange masked turtle to hold still for a moment. It was a brief moment, but just enough time for the doctor to get the needle in.

"You tricked me!" Mikey objected, shooting a glare at his brother.

"Yeah, well, you forced me into it." Leo responded quietly.

As soon as the blood sample had been taken and analyzed the doctor pronounced Mikey cured and sent the two turtles on their way.

"Leo!" a now familiar voice called out, causing Mikey to groan.

"Aw, man, not him again!" The orange masked turtle commented quietly to Leonardo.

"Why don't you go on back to the apartment, Mikey? I'll take care of this and be back as soon as I can."

Mikey only made a noise in the back of his throat before heading off

Raphael heard the old but still familiar bleep of the TurtleCom he carried in his belt. Oddly the noise seemed more ominous now than it had all those years ago when they had played with the items as kids. The sound caused him to freeze in his tracks and Jake was quick to notice.

"Hey, you alright?"

"Uh, yeah." Raph responded quickly before pulling the TurtleCom from his belt and answering it.

"Raph, how are you doing with the supplies?" Don asked in a voice that seemed subdued as though he didn't want someone to overhear.

"Almost done, I think this should be the last stop. Then I'm heading back to the apartment." Raph could not keep the suspicious tone out of his voice. Something was up on his brother's end of the plan, otherwise Don would not be calling.

"Good, that's good."

Raphael couldn't help but notice that Donnie seemed distracted. "What about you?"

"I've got..." a long pause followed the statement, but Donnie eventually picked it up where he left off. Raphael had a feeling that his brother had nearly been caught "I've got a bit of a situation here. Merle didn't send those papers in yesterday, he sent them shortly after he gave them to me. I'm supposed to leave right after work. You guys can do whatever needs to be done, but I need to be gone by then."

"Somehow I wouldn't put it past those guys to hunt the rest of us down if you don't cooperate, Donnie." Raph said.

"You're probably right. We need to get out of here this ASAP. See if you can get a hold of Mikey and Leo. I'm going to try to slip out of here without anyone noticing, but I need to be sure that you're going to be ready to go before I do. Once I'm out we won't have much time." There was another brief pause before Donnie's voice came over the line again, this time his words were rushed. "Gotta go, Raph. I'll call back when I can."

With that the connection was cut and Raphael was holding a silent TurtleCom.

"What is that thing?" Jake asked.

"It's a communicator." Raph answered. "My brother made them when we were kids."

"A communicator? You don't need wires?"

Raph was surprised by the question. Wires? "No."

"How does it work?" Jake asked, holding out his hand in hopes of getting to hold the small device.

"You're asking the wrong guy." Raph responded quickly. "I just use 'em, I don't know how they work."

"No wires..." Jake seemed positively amazed by the device that Raphael considered so mundane. Don had built these years ago. This place had always seemed to far ahead of the technology that had been designed on Earth, and yet they didn't have wireless communication! All the same, Raphael opted to put the TurtleCom away instead of letting Jake see it.

"I've really got to get this done and get home." Raph said quickly by way of explanation, rather hoping to draw Jake's attention away from the TurtleCom, and he was successful.

"Right." Jake said as he grabbed the last item on Raph's list and tossed it into the basket the red-masked turtle carried.

Rushing to the front of the store, Raph made his purchases the hurried back to their apartment. He stuffed the items into Don's bag as best he could and ran off in search of Leo and Mikey, who he expected should be just about finished with Mikey's appointment .

The bag was slung awkwardly over his shoulder as he ran through the city in an attempt to find his family. Raph was annoyed to find that with every step the bag smacked him in the back of his left leg. Somewhere in the recesses of his mind he wondered how Donnie managed to fight while carrying the stupid thing.

"You're leaving?" John asked despondently when Leo had explained the situation to him.

"We have to go, we all do John. My brothers and I, we don't belong here. You have to let us go. You have to let me go."

"but... but we're clams. You can't just leave me, Leo!" John threw his arms around his clam and started sobbing on Leo's shoulder. He relished the feeling of the scales under his cheek and soaked up the slight movements as Leo tried to react to the impromptu hug. The feeling of Leo's muscles sliding beneath the scaly skin was bittersweet to John. He soaked up every bit of it he could and prayed that this wouldn't be the last time he ever felt it.

Leonardo could feel his resolve beginning to crack. What the shell is wrong with me? He wondered to himself as he awkwardly returned John's embrace.

"I- I don't belong here, John. This is your world, not mine. I can't stay here with you. I'm sorry, but I just can't stay."

"Leo, you're the first clam I've ever had. The only clam I'll ever want. Please, don't leave me!" John wailed. "You're the first person who's ever accepted me for what I am, for who I am. Don't leave me, Leo. Please don't leave me." He begged. Tears poured down his cheeks as he spoke.

"There's a big world out there, John." Leo told the man who was still wrapped around him and threatening to pull them both to the ground. "You'll find another clam, a better clam, someone you can stay with forever. I can't be that person, John. I have to go back."

"But you aren't accepted there. You're accepted here, I accept you here, others accept you here. You don't need to hide. You can just live like normal people."

The turtle shook his head. "Staying here means that I would have to lose one of my brothers, John. We've talked about this. Family is very important to me, that's just the way we were raised. Losing one of my brothers would be like losing a part of myself. I can't let that happen. For my family to stay together, we have to go home, that's all there is to it. I have to go, John. I can't stay."

Leonardo spotted Raphael as Raph spotted him, and he was surprised to see his red-masked brother here, and even more surprised to see him closely followed by Mikey. He didn't miss the slight rolling of the eyes he got from both his red and orange masked brothers. Obviously, things had not gone according to plan. Just as Raph was beginning to explain his and Mikey's presence the TurtleCom bleeped again.

A/N: There, nice long chapter, are you appeased for the time being? (looks hopeful) Well, it has been a while for this little missive. Hopefully updates for both this and Amiah will start coming a little faster. I have several more chapters written for each of them, but editing takes a bit more motivation and a lot more time than I have had lately. Don't forget to leave a review on your way out!