-

"…Well, it looks like the cats and dogs have decided to give us a break, but I wouldn't put away the umbrella just yet…"

The weatherman's too-cheerful voice was cut off by the ringing of the phone on the coffee table. Raphael reached out quickly, picking up the receiver before it was halfway through its second ring.

"Hello?" he said. "Oh, hi, April… Yeah, Leo told us. How's she doing?" Raph cracked a smile and gave his brothers a thumbs-up signal. "Great… Yeah… That's fine. Hey, if you don't mind, me and the guys thought we'd drop by later tonight… Okay, see you in a while." He hung up the phone and sat back on the couch. "Oyuki's fine," he said to the group around him. "I guess April still doesn't know that we know what's going on. She didn't say anything about it, anyway."

"That's going to be an awkward conversation," Don said. "I volunteer Leo to do the talking."

"Gee, thanks," Leonardo said. "So, when are we going over?"

They all looked at Mike, who shrugged. "In a little while. I have a couple things I need to take care of first," he said, then stood silently and walked to his bedroom.

They all watched him go, then Raphael rose to his feet, as well.

Don cleared his throat. "You going to talk to Mikey?"

"I forgot to return something I borrowed from him," Raph said, leaning on his cane.

"Could you tell him to come and see me in a little while? I need to go over a few things with him."

"Sure," Raph looked closer at the concerned expression on Donatello's face. "You okay?"

Don glanced over at Leo, then back at Raph. "I'm fine," he said, pretending to smirk. "I just wanted to talk to him and I didn't really want to bug him if he's busy. So, if you could just let him know that whenever he gets the chance…"

Raph nodded. "Yeah. No problem," he said, then turned and made his way to his own bedroom. He hobbled to his nightstand, opening the drawer and pulling out an old, tattered book. He opened the cover, flipping through the pages until he came to a dog-eared page towards the middle. Good a time as any to give this back, he thought, smiling.

-

Mike heard a knock and lifted his head. "Yeah?"

Raph pushed the door open and made his way to the bed, helping himself to a seat beside his brother and resting his cane against the bed stand. "You still not ready to talk to her?" he asked as Mike leafed through Oyuki's book.

"I'm ready," Mike said. "I'm just not ready ready."

"Geez, you're as stubborn as I am."

Mike smirked. "Is that an insult or a compliment?"

"Either. Both, maybe," Raphael looked down at the book in his own hand, then set it on Mike's lap. "This is yours."

Mike put down What To Expect When You're Expecting and picked up the old hardcover. "Wow," he said flatly. "You actually remembered to return something. I'm impressed."

"Yeah, sorry it took so long to get it back to you, but I was kinda' enjoying it," he tapped his foot and let out a breath. "I especially liked this one thing in there by this Japanese guy… and I can't say his name right, but…"

"Tsuboi Shigeji," Mike said, looking down at the stained cover.

"Yeah, that's him," Raph said. "Anyway, I noticed you marked it... so I'm guessing you like that one, too."

Mike shrugged. "I think I used to," he said. "Don't know why, though."

Raph took the book out of his brother's hand and flipped it open again. "Well, I know why I like it," he said. "It's something about listening to stuff you can't really hear. Just because you don't say everything, it doesn't mean that you aren't saying anything."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Mike said.

"That's okay, neither do I," Raph chuckled, closing the cover and handing the book back to him.

"Thanks for returning it, anyway."

"Thanks for letting me borrow it. It came in handy." Raphael stood up, grabbing his cane. He hobbled to the door, then stopped and turned around. "Oh, almost forgot," he said, waving a finger at Mike. "Donny wants to see you when you get the chance."

Mike rolled his eyes. "Yeah, fine."

Raph grinned, then walked out the door, pulling it shut behind him.

Mike stared down at the book in his hands, then opened it. He didn't need the fold to remind him where the poem was; he knew just by the way the pages felt as he flipped through them. He knew just where to stop, because he had stopped there so many times already. He ran his fingers down the page, staring at each word. It was such a short poem, yet it had taken him so long to read it the first time, back when his blindness was fading and the blurry shadows were melting away. He closed his eyes and remembered the darkness... remembered the light beginning to break through.

…

Nobody understood how hard that was for him, to be unable to look at the words. He'd always loved reading, but even he didn't realize how much until he couldn't do it anymore. But it was so close... he could touch the books, he could flip through the pages, he could run his fingers down them and feel the indentations the printing press had left behind. He was so close to this thing he loved so much... it was so unfair, so wrong.

But not anymore. He wouldn't let himself be held back from something that meant so much to him. Already he could see shapes, light and dark, hues. Reading could not be so far behind. He was going to see clearly soon; he was going to read again, and he was determined that this was the day he was going to do it.

He felt the books on the case and grabbed one, pulling it out… it felt old and smelled like must. He didn't know what book this was, but it didn't matter. He carried it to his bed and sat down, then opened the cover. He flipped through it, landing on a page somewhere towards the middle.

Then he stared at it. He squinted and strained his eyes, trying to see the words clearly. At first, there was only a wash of white; then, slowly, blocks of gray began to appear. The blocks divided themselves into strips, and the strips darkened into black lines. Spaces of white appeared, shattering the lines into fragments. The fragments became letters and, for the first time in far too long, Mike was able to read:

I… I may… be…

…

But now, so long after returning to the light, Mike didn't need to read the words; he knew them by heart. He closed his eyes and spoke them softly to himself.

"I may be silent, but
I'm thinking
I may not talk, but
Do not mistake me for a wall."

Silence... quiet peace amid harsh reality. Like the reservoir. It had once been a town, but men had flooded it. They made a dam, giving the water place to gather while it waited to be used by even more men. There were highways on all sides of the lake, just beyond the woods, atop the cliffs, over the hills; but the only road that could actually be seen was the washed-out gray one that was crumbling back into nature. Once in a while sunlight would reflect off a far away passing truck, but it would be gone in an instant. Then all that could be seen was the gray road, the woods, the water, and the old, rusty bridge that had left its usefulness far behind.

It had been nice out there, without distraction, without interruption... without brothers constantly keeping tabs on him to make sure he wasn't going to do something stupid. The only people they had seen at Colebrook were fishermen standing on the far shore or trolling by in their little aluminum boats, but they had been few and far between. The people would wave at them sometimes, not knowing that the two far away strangers were exiles of their own making--and that one of them wasn't even human--then they would move along and he and Oyuki would be alone again. Just the two of them.

The three of us, he told himself, looking over at Oyuki's book. I wish she would've told me about the baby sooner, I wouldn't have kept her out there as long as I did. I would have taken better care of her...

But now she was too far away from him. He could almost touch her in his mind... but she wasn't near enough. Why had it been so easy to convince himself to read again, but so hard to convince himself to go to Oyuki and tell her that he was sorry? He loved reading, but he loved her more. He loved her so much...

A sudden spasm in Mike's arm sent the book tumbling to the floor. It felt as if someone had jumped on his shoulder and was still there, pressing down. He rubbed his arm, trying to chase away the heaviness that had settled there, but the pressure intensified and began coiling itself around his bicep.

"Damn it," he said, standing. He reached into his jacket and pulled out the bottle of aspirin that Don had given him earlier that day. No, it doesn't hurt that bad, he thought, returning the bottle to his pocket. It's just a little cramp, that's all. It'll go away.

Trying to ignore the sensation, Mike picked the book up off the floor and carried it to the bookshelf, sliding it into an empty spot. He let his eyes work their way over the titles on the spines of his collection and shook his head. Raph was the one that put the books back into place, but he had done it all wrong. I'll have to reorganize this some time, he thought. Stephen King doesn't belong next to Emily Dickinson, and they sure as hell shouldn't be on the same shelf as my graphic novels.

He turned back around towards his bed and stretched out his arm, noticing that the pressure in it was subsiding slightly, then his eyes fell to where a touch of blue peeked out from between his mattress and box spring. Mike made his way over and pulled out his old notepad. He sat down and opened the cover, going through the pages one-by-one, but on the seventh turn, he stopped, then flipped the rest of the pages at once. Mike smiled and reached over, picking up Oyuki's book.

-

Oyuki poked at her taco and sneered. "Do I have to eat this?"

"You have to eat something," April told her, taking a bite of her own taco. "Doctor's orders."

"I'm not hungry."

"Oh, then… by all means, skip it," April rolled her eyes. "It's not like you had an IV stuck in you today or anything. Of course, you could always go back to the hospital if you faint again. I'm sure they wouldn't mind keeping you there overnight this time."

Oyuki gritted her teeth. "Pass the sour cream."

April smirked and pushed the carton over to the younger lady. "Good girl."

"Oh, shut up," Oyuki grumbled, spooning the sour cream onto her taco. She picked it up and eyed it for a moment before taking a tentative bite, then glanced up at April. "So… who answered the phone?"

"Hmm? When?"

"When you called the guys earlier."

"Oh," April grinned. "It was Raph."

Oyuki nodded and took another small bite. She could feel April staring at her.

"He said that they're planning on coming by in a while," April went on.

Oyuki looked up suddenly. "All of them?"

"Sounded that way to me."

"Cool," she said with a slight smile.

April leaned her elbows on the table and drew her eyebrows together. "Can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead."

"What was going on with Leo?"

Oyuki dropped her taco. "What?"

"Well, this morning you kinda…" her cheeks started turning pink. "I mean, you weren't exactly being modest…"

Oyuki rubbed the center of her forehead. "I thought he was Mikey, okay?" she interrupted.

"Oh…" April said. "I should have figured it was something like that."

"Then why'd you ask?"

April shrugged. "I guess it's the investigative journalist in me."

Oyuki pushed her plate away and sat back, staring at the overcast sky outside the window. "Uh… Ape? About last night…"

"Yes, I know. Sorry for being nosy, it'll never happen again," April said, waving her hand.

"No, I mean…" she started rubbing her temples, trying to chase out the growing headache. The action didn't help, so she stood and looked down at April. "I'm gonna go take a nap."

April tapped the edge of Oyuki's plate. "You should finish eating. You're going to pass out again."

"Then at least I'll be someplace soft."

Oyuki nearly sprinted to her bedroom, then shut the door and flopped down on her bed, screaming into her pillow. Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! she yelled in her mind. How hard is it just to tell April that it was Leo last night? She rolled her eyes. Yeah, then that whole naked hugging thing would seem completely innocent. Why the hell do those guys have to look so much alike?

She sighed and rolled over, staring up at the ceiling. Well, at least Mikey will be by later. We can finally get this whole mess straightened out.

Oyuki closed her eyes and yawned, then quietly drifted off to sleep.

-