DragonChild157: (Responding to Chapter 36 review) I love me my cliffhangers! And I'm glad you love them too! :D
Insanity21: You have to find me first! :)
Leeannardo11: I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. Thank you for your kind words. I thought it was beautiful too. Tragic, heartbreaking and grieved but beautiful. Give your Leo Build-A-Bear a kiss and hug from me, and tell him I'm sorry.
LP: Sorry! So really, very sorry! A three-year-old mutant with a sixteen-year-old mutant in his head versus a catastrophic flood? Hm... Doesn't look so good. I'm happy to know that you've been with the story for as long as you've been. Your reviews are always welcome, and thank you. :)
Ariana Gorman: I'm glad you liked it. :)
Rain in the Dark: Fair point. It definitely was the shock that kept the boys from thinking straight: they had almost died but they survived, they had just saved seventy-two people who may or may not spill the beans about their existence (and thus alert their enemies), and they had also almost lost Splinter. Losing Leo, not being able to even find a body, was the final straw for everyone. In my head, Splinter was going to meditate just to calm down but he decided not to because his sons needed him. They didn't need sagely advice or calmness, they just needed him to be with them so he was. That's my excuse as to why no one thought to meditate. As for the rescue coming back to bite them...probably won't. Yes, the reports varied but you could also call it playing smart because varying reports only confuse officials. You also have to take into account the fact that no one out-right said "three green dudes and a rat". Some might not have been able to properly identify what our turtle boys were but everyone would recognize a rat. For once, I think, this good deed will go unpunished. :)
AlessandraDC: Apparently no one is giving up hope, and I guess I can see why. Even trapped in a three-year-old body, Leo has done some extraordinary things.
WrenchWielder: *pumps fist and clicks heels* I MADE SOMEONE CRY IN PUBLIC BECAUSE OF SOMETHING I WROTE! MY LIFE IS COMPLETE! Ahem. Sorry. *somberly* Forgive me for making you cry in public. But I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter. :)
karizmasimon1234: I love cliffhangers! It's a disease, really. I'm sorry.
flikaroo: Thank you for reviewing all those chapters consecutively! A lot certainly happened very quickly. Hopefully things will slow down some. :)
TheMaskedTimelord: I really wanted the guys to be able to do something to help, and I also wanted the people to accept the help and not freak out. In times of disaster, people are more receiving of aid in whatever form it comes. As far as the bros looking for Leo goes... Not going to happen. Sorry. They made their choice and now they're mourning. It's tough, I know. :(
hi09: Yeah...turtle luck sucks. Sorry. :(
Turtlecrazy714: If Leo does survive, he will undoubtedly not be okay. Sorry. The guys sure know how to evacuate people in an emergency, don't they? Mikey's allowed to fall apart but he does know that his family will help him pick up the pieces. :)
Kitsune1818: That is so kind of you to say! Thank you! Trust me when I say that the direction this story is taking is very different from the one I had originally planned but I'm thrilled that you're enjoying it. :)
DragonChild157: Yeah. I know. Try not to hold it against me. ;)
WhoAmI659: (Responding to Chapter 36 review) Uh...they're harmed. They've definitely been harmed. Sorry. :( But thank you for the compliment! :)
Leo's Baby Sitter: That's a really good idea, if Leo survives, that is. :( I'm glad you've enjoyed the last couple chapters. I'd say they're 'page-turners' but, you know, it's a screen... :P
Author's Note: I have now reached 78 followers and 71 favourites with 146 reviews and 1 community. You guys are awesome! (Chapter 37 received the most reviews of any chapter posted at 15 reviews so thank you!) On another note: Yes, I know it's not Sunday (it's Saturday where I am) but I can't leave you lovely people wallowing in apparent distress and horror, so here. On yet another note: this chapter's short but necessary. Enjoy. :)
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter 38
Mikey didn't remember falling asleep. He was still on the porch swing, a light blanket draped over him, and even though the porch light had been turned off, he sensed his family nested in the living room. For a moment, he tried to remember what had woken him in the first place but then he heard it again: a series of shrill yips coming from the woods. Klunk's head snapped up, his ears erect and fur fluffed out, and then he bolted for the cat flap, disappearing inside.
Wolves? he thought, tensing, but then the sound came again and he relaxed. No. Coyotes. Casey had said there weren't many wolves around here. It sounded like a small pack of maybe five or six, and they were hunting.
He sat up slowly, not wanting to awaken his family but also not wanting to miss seeing a wild animal. Birds, rats and strays didn't count, and he'd never been able to see out the window to scan for deer on the roadside on the trip up to the farmhouse. It'd be cool to see a coyote. Even cooler to see more than one. Coolest of all to watch them in action.
As his eyes eagerly scanned the trees, there was a flurry of movement straight ahead. A black shadow burst from the darkness and zig-zagged desperately across the lawn when five, lithe shapes peeled out of the trees and chased after it. Mikey leaned forward, peering into the gloom. Overhead, the wind dissipated the clouds, revealing the luminous three-quarter moon which threw the hunt into spotlight.
The hunters were amber-eyed with creamy-tan fur in the moonlight, lean and swift. The prey was bi-pedal and dark-skinned, bulky and obviously wounded from the way it clutched an arm to its chest and limped even as it ran to evade death.
Mikey's breath caught in his lungs. It couldn't be…
One of the coyotes pulled ahead of its fellows, lunged, jaws snapping, and landed on the prey. Claws and teeth scraped against hard shell. Mikey would recognize that sound anywhere; and it was that sound that shattered his stunned shock and propelled him off the swing, off the porch and had him reaching for his nunchaku.
"DAD!" he shouted as he slammed one lethal end of his weapon into the head of the dog that tried to go for the turtle's throat. "DONNIE! RAPH!"
The coyote he'd hit slumped to the ground, motionless, and its packmates flattened their ears and bared their teeth at him, growling, yipping and snarling. He swung again, this time at the animal still trying to mangle the little turtle's shell, and he heard the door behind him bang open; someone flicked on the porch light and it spilled across the grass, illuminating the scene better than the moon. Mikey distinctly noticed the splashes of dark red in the grass around Leo's body.
"Mikey! What the shell?"
The coyote he aimed for snarled and jumped back, dodging the blow, and Mikey rushed forward, scooping Leo from the ground, one-handed. The four coyotes bristled at the loss of their meal but beat a hasty retreat at the approach of three more mutants.
"Am I dead?" a weak and solemn voice whispered in his ear.
Mikey tucked the nunchaku into his belt to hold his brother with both arms. "No," he replied, eyes brimming. "No, bro. You're not dead."
"Then…" Navy eyes blinked up at him, and the orange-masked ninja saw the fever-caused daze there, "you're alive?"
It occurred to Mikey right then that it was not the toddler that spoke to him now, but his elder brother. He did not stop the tears that spilled down his cheeks. "Yeah, and we're alive together."
"Mikey? Care ta explain why ya were beatin' the shell outta some animals?"
He turned at his name and at the same time answered the question without saying a word.
"Holy Fate! Leo!?"
"How in the shell…?"
"Bring him inside!" Splinter interrupted the shock firmly and fiercely. "Raphael, get cloths and a large bowl of warm water. Donatello..."
"On it, Sensei. Here, Mike. Give him to me."
"Please, Don, don't," Leo begged, freezing everyone. "Mikey's okay for now. My elbow's dislocated. I can't feel the pain anymore but I don't think handing me around is going to help."
It dawned on everyone that this was the first time that they'd heard Leo speak in full, complete sentences. It was their Leonardo.
Don was the first to recover and immediately stepped back. "Okay. All right. Let's just get you inside, okay? Come on, Mikey. Gently now."
Mikey bit back his retort – You say it like I don't know! – and followed his brothers inside, Splinter bringing up the rear.
Casey and April awaited them in the living room. Their wide eyes went wider when they spotted Leo who looked even worse under the room's comfortable fluorescents. Bruises and deep cuts littered his body, and a particularly nasty gash on his leg still oozed blood.
Splinter rounded on the two humans, with quiet but commanding eyes. "Ms. O'Neil, some blankets please. Mr. Jones, would you build a fire? We must keep Leonardo warm."
"Sure thing." Casey ran out the back door for the wood pile while April ran upstairs to the linen closet.
A small hand on his neck made Mikey look down.
"I saw you slip," murmured Leo. "You were reaching for me and just before I went under, I saw you slip. I thought… Mike, I thought…" He trailed off, fever, pain and relief overwhelming him.
Mikey tightened his grip just the littlest bit, pressing his brother's head into his plastron to let him hear his heart beat not only with life but with rising joy. "It's okay, Leo," he managed to say. "It's all going to be okay." He could say it now. He could say it was going to be fine. Everything was going to be all right because, now, it really would. It was not a lie anymore.
-:-:-:-
It did not pass Splinter's notice that he, Michelangelo and Leonardo were now the only ones in the room. He stepped forward, unable to help himself, and cupped the tiny face in his furry hands.
"Kon'nichiwa, otosan," Leonardo whispered, sick and shaking and smiling a little and alive.
"Kon'nichiwa, my precious kame," he replied. Taking one hand from Leonardo, he cradled Michelangelo's cheek and used his thumb to wipe away the tears running down his ninja's face. "It is all right, my sons. It is going to be all right."
"I know, Dad," the orange-masked turtle murmured, an exhausted and fragile smile curling on his mouth.
Donatello returned with his medical duffel over his shoulder and Ms. O'Neil hard on his heels. "Put him there, Mike," he ordered. "April, can you help Raph?"
"Sure thing," the woman answered weakly, her green eyes wide as she deposited the blankets beside the couch and rushed into the kitchen.
Splinter stepped back to let his son work, though he hovered at the head of the couch Michelangelo settled the child on, and work Donatello did. His deft hands cleaned off the worst of the dirt and grime, set the elbow, disinfected and sewed up the leg wound, and applied Band-Aids to the more minor cuts (though those also got a small iodine bath). All this happened while Mr. Jones brought in wood, built up a fire and then took up position beside Ms. O'Neil, both pairs of human eyes wide and tear-filled. It struck the rat in that instant that there had been a similar experience not too long ago, all of them grouped around an ailing Leonardo in an old farmhouse with a fire merrily crackling and mocking their anxiety and fear. He shut his eyes and willed the memory away. His son had lived then. He would live now.
It felt like hours later when Donatello pulled back with a relieved sigh. "That should do it. Now, let's check that temperature." He reached into his duffel, the one with most of the medical supplies Splinter really hadn't thought they'd need, and pulled out a thermometer; thank goodness, his son hadn't listened to him and taken everything anyway.
A low beep a few seconds later.
"How bad is it?" Leonardo asked sleepily.
It eased his heart and soothed his soul when his second eldest child smiled. "Not bad at all. Just a degree and a half above normal. I'm not worried. I am more concerned about the pain you'll be feeling soon."
"Nothing I can't handle" was the automatic reply. But then Leonardo frowned. "Little Leo. I won't be able to hold him back once he regains consciousness. He'll feel all of it."
"Morphine's safe to give to kids in small doses," Donatello supplied knowingly.
"Don't tell me ya've got shots of morphine in that bag, Donnie," said Raphael, his eyes wide at his brother's ability to prepare.
Splinter had to smile when his purple-masked son extricated a packet and a new syringe with a flourish and a quiet "Ta da! What do you think I gave you as soon as we got home so I could stitch you back up?" he added. "I just didn't drug you enough to make you sleep – though I should have. Sit down, Raph."
"How is this now 'bout me?" Raphael demanded.
"You heard the doc, Raphie," Michelangelo inserted, taking his brother's arm and guiding him to the armchair. "Just sit. It's not like Leo's going to get up and walk away."
"With the dose I'm about to give him? Shell no!" said Don with a chuckle.
Leonardo smiled dizzily up at them, basking in the joyful and relieved glow, and Splinter tenderly stroked his son's head as Donatello administered the morphine.
"It'll take a minute to kick in," he said, sitting back on his heels at last and yawning.
Sidestepping around the couch's arm, Splinter laid a hand to his genius son's shoulder. "Go to bed, my children. I will watch him for the remainder of the night," he said, his eyes flicking up to meet the two humans' and two other turtles' gazes.
"Are you sure, Sensei? I mean, we're all exhausted."
"I will be fine, for I know you are not far away should I need assistance. Sleep."
His son blinked blearily before returning to the nest of blankets on the floor, his younger brothers (as well as Klunk) following suit with Michelangelo helping Raphael from his chair. Mr. Jones poked one more log onto the fire then settled in the armchair Raphael had just abandoned while April fell onto the second couch. Soon, the only sounds in the room were slumbering breaths and the fire's spitting.
Splinter tucked a blanket's edge in more tightly and rested a gentle hand on his son's crown. "Sleep, my Leonardo," he urged. "The danger is past."
To his horror, tears leaked from those navy eyes. "M'sorry f'r m'king you worry." The words were slurred from the medication slowly taking effect.
The aged father closed his eyes for a moment, then knelt on the floor, rubbing his child's tiny brow. "It was not your intention to make us worry," he decided to say.
"I br'ke my prom'se t'him, to Li'l Leo. We prom'sed no fighting but…t'save us, I had to. He was in shock, Se'sei. I had t'do something or we were going t'die."
"Hush." The word came out of his mouth broken and strained. Clearing his throat did not help but he said anyway, "Hush, my shisoku. You did right."
"But…my prom'se."
"You broke no promise. You acted bravely. He will understand. Sleep. All will be better in the morning." He resettled the warm quilt around his boy and watched Leonardo's eyes flutter closed. "Sleep," he soothed in Japanese. "Father will watch over you."
Leonardo cracked an eyelid and smiled. "When have you ever not?"
Splinter gave a low, strangled chuckle and kissed the little forehead.
-:-
Please review. Also, feel free to bask in the knowledge that, no, this is not a dream. You're welcome. :)