(One Week Later)


Raphael and Karina had only been walking around Central park for about forty minutes, but the woman was already tugging at him a little to leave.

"I know how much you love your 'freedom' and all, but it's honestly cold out here Raph. I told Doc I'd keep an eye on you." She finished a little coyly.

"As if he doesn't have enough to do with Donnie - he's gotta invent more stuff to worry about." Raphael scoffed.

"He's always worried about the four of you - he can't help himself Raph. I think it's in the genes."

Raphael rolled his eyes. "Alright, we can head back already. Geesh, it was warmer for a couple of days there, but I guess winter was bound to rear it's ugly head again."

"There are plenty of things we can do underground that you still might have fun with." She teased him a little.

He hooked his arm more firmly around hers with a crooked smile. "I know. I just like havin' you all to myself. Feels crowded down there sometimes."

"I think your brothers have been pretty respectful of the two of us." She countered with a playful smile of her own.

"No, they've been fine. I'm just still kinda uncomfortable showing everything, do you know what I mean?"

"I get it completely. You want me, you just don't want them to see any part of it."

He tugged lightly on her coat sleeve. "It's kinda embarrassing is all. Not that I'm ashamed of you or nothin', I just don't know what I'm doing."

"You're cute when you're bashful."

"See, you gotta stop saying stuff like that. I'm not supposed to be cute."

"You can't help what you are." She said maddeningly, snapping a gloved hand around his wrist.

"Just don't say anything like that in front of the guys, 'cause they--"

Raphael cut himself off, as a cracking sound resounded over the path, echoing as if it'd come from a slight distance.

"What the shell was that?"

"Could have been ice." Karina told him. "News said that the freeze took a beating from the sun the last couple of days. Things hadn't been completely solid yet anyway."

The red-banded turtle hadn't so much as stirred him his odd position, now cocking his head slightly too.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

"Listen. Do you hear that?"

The woman focused on trying to pick up whatever faint sound he was referring to, a voice registering in her ears a few seconds later.

"That's a person." She stated.

He suddenly seized her arm again. "Remember we walked by that pond? C'mon!"

Raphael pulled her firmly to get the woman moving, and they started running back in the direction they'd originally come from. Karina had felt a lot of adrenaline in her lifetime, but being half-dragged by the turtle through the trees was a feeling she couldn't remotely compare to anything else.

It took roughly five minutes to get back to the incline where'd they'd originally noticed the moonlight glinting off the surface. From the same vantage point now, Raphael could make out a fissure in the ice, as well as a long piece of red material that stood out like a sore thumb against the white backdrop.

Karina's mind was racing with possibilities, but Raphael was already in motion again, stripping things off as he went.

"Raph--"

"Kari, I've gotta at least have a look. Stay here, stay away from the edge, alright?"

"But you--"

"I can hold my breath, I'm a turtle, remember?" He yanked off his belt, and let the woman take it from him. "I'll be back." He assured her.

Raphael crouched low over the surface, working his way out further as carefully as he could on the uncertain ice. He winced at the sound of cracking beneath him, taking a sharp breath at the same moment. There was really only going to be one way to do this. He calmed his mind, sucked in deeply, and forced his way through the existing fissure into the water beneath.

Karina paced just off the edge, fingering Raphael's cell phone. She mentally started counting the seconds from the time that he'd gone under. The woman waited poised, searching for any sign of him. Karina started taking deeper breaths to keep herself calm, forcing herself to count the seconds in real time, and not the rapid passage of time that her mind feared had already passed.

Karina was fairly certain it had been almost three minutes, and she couldn't stand still in this spot any longer. She had to do something, even attempting to clear a further path would be better than waiting uselessly. The woman glanced around swiftly at her surroundings, searching for something that could help her to further crack the surface of the ice closer to the bank.

Her eyes fell on a round barrel style trash can, and it instantly clicked in her mind. She hurried to yank the bag and debris out of it, and shoved it over on it's side to roll it back to the edge. Then she hefted it back into the upright position again, bringing it to bear hard on the ice. Nothing happened the first time, so she repeated the action twice more, not even feeling the rusted edge digging into the skin on her left hand.

Taking a bigger breath to compose herself and gather strength, she hurled it into the surface a fifth time, and actually felt the ice give somewhat underneath her. With a cry of triumph she brought it down one last time as hard as she could. The instant the ice gave way, she lost her own footing and fell into the water, gasping as it took her breath away. The sensation was something like being stabbed with a hundred knives at once, piercing every part of her.

Karina swiftly scrambled upright at the edge, clawing her way back onto solid ground. She'd lost all track of time now, but didn't have to wait but a few seconds more before she saw a disturbance in the water, what was clearly bubbles approaching. She sat up further on the ground as Raphael surfaced with a gasp of his own, heaving a bedraggled form over the surface with him. The woman quickly moved to help him, and he shot her an angry look.

"I told you...to stay out."

"It's too late for that now." Karina informed him, as she helped support his victim from the other side.

Between the two of them they got his dead-weight to the earth. Karina flung dark hair back out of her face, as she bent over the stranger to look for signs of life.

"He's not breathing." She said tightly.

"Can you help him?"

"I'm gonna try." Karina replied, swiftly positioning both hands firmly over his chest.

"Where's my phone? I gotta call my brothers."

"Over by the your other stuff Raph!"

Karina was almost impervious to the temperature, as she worked feverishly to try and force water out of the boy's lungs. Raphael made a little bit of a shaky phone call to Leonardo for help, and then returned to wait by Karina as she performed CPR, just barely trembling in the wind. His amber eyes went wide as the young man choked, and a raspy breath entered back into his chest. Raphael backed out of his line of vision, while Karina tried to help him force the rest of it up.

"Kari, I'll call 911, but I don't know how they're gonna find us!"

"Give them a good description of what you can see from the path!" Karina called after him, as he used his remaining remnant of energy to get back up the hill.

With halting words, he tried to describe his surroundings to the operator who picked up, grasping just a little to make sense of all the shapes in the distance. Raphael stumbled on the incline coming back down, nearly falling twice before Karina came over to him.

"Raph, you've gotta get some of your stuff back on."

"What?"

"You're too cold, you need to get under some layers."

"I'm okay Kari. I don-I don't need..."

He trailed off, as she lightly pulled him down onto a flat rock. The woman was clearly torn over who needed her more at this particular moment. Grabbing his heavier coat, she draped it over his shell, and then crouched down to his level.

"Raph, you have to stay awake, understand? I'm going to keep talking to you, and I need you to answer me."

With that, she hurried back over to the teenager, who was convulsing on the ground. She spent the following ten minutes watching the kid's breathing and pulse, while also calling out random things to Raphael to make certain he was still turtle wasn't sitting upright anymore, his posture so bent that it almost looked like he was curled up in a ball.

Karina heard doors slam, but she hadn't heard sirens. She leaped to her feet off of the ground, desperately relived to see the two familiar forms at the top of the hill. Leonardo and Michelangelo hurried down, and Karina ran to meet them.

"Is everyone alright?" Leonardo got out first.

"Kid wasn't breathing when Raph pulled him out - we got him back, but he's still not doing great, Raph called 911 for him. I don't think he's doing all that well either!"

"That water can't be above freezing, and it's been at least twenty minutes since I got off the phone with him! Mike, go give him a shot of the adrenal-heat, I want a quick look at this kid!" Leonardo said swiftly, and Karina led the way.

"Raph?" Michelangelo said questioningly, tugging his brother's arm hard to get him to open his eyes. "Hey, don't freak out on me, okay? I'm going to give you something to make you warmer."

The epi-pens not only made Donatello's formulas easier to transport, they were also easier to use than standard needles. Raphael didn't even seem to notice the prick from it.

"Hey Raph, talk to me." Mike urged him. "Are ya in there?"

His brother's chest shuddered slightly right before he pitched forward, and Michelangelo wrapped both arms around his chest to keep him off the ground. "LEO!"

The blue-banded turtle was already moving his direction, carrying what was a semi-conscious teenager in his arms. "Oh shell, can you get him to the van Mikey?"

He nodded, shifting his brother's weight with only a little difficulty. Karina tried to help steady him back up the incline, and then ran ahead of him to get the back of the van opened. While Michelangelo was getting Raphael inside and going for the scanner as Luke had instructed, Karina hesitated out on the path with Leonardo and the stranger.

"Are those sirens?" She asked. "You guys need to go, you need to go now."

"What about you?" Leonardo asked.

"I'll stay, I'll stay with him! EMS has to be closing in, they should be able to find us more easily up here. I'm serious Leonardo - GO!"


"It was what?" Luke's voice seemed to carry much louder over the cell phone than usual. "Mikey, you need to go ahead and give him another shot of the adrenal right now."

"I thought you told us never to do that!"

"I remember what I told you, but don't question me. Just do it!"