A Ninja's Dance
Chapter 44
NB: Rough translations for conversations in Japanese will be in the Authors notes
The phone was ringing.
It was a surprise to feel the little thing vibrating urgently in her pocket as the train clacked it's way along the underground tracks.
It had made Karai jump, something she scolded herself for. She should have been on guard here in the subway of all places, should have been on high alert.
She did not like the subway, with its crush of people and unyielding din. There were too many dark corners. When Karai herself was not in a dark corner, she wondered what enemy would be lurking there in her place.
Usually her focus did not stray so far in public, but there was a child having an argument with her father several seats away that had drawn her attention. The little girl was demanding pizza for dinner and was wholly uninterested in her fathers assertions that they had food at home.
Karai had found herself wondering what it must be like to feel as secure as that little girl did.
To be able to throw a tantrum like that in such a public place, in any place at all, and expect nothing but firm words and light handed discipline. It made her think of her own childhood. When she was the same age as the little girl, perhaps no older than seven, she had been a street urchin with no home. No family and no hope of a real meal unless it was stolen or gifted by a sympathetic stranger.
She found herself very suddenly drowning in the memories of her fathers rescue.
Karai drew a deep breath, centering herself back to the present and answering the phone by it's third insistent ring.
"Hai."
"Konbanwa. Oroko-san desu ka?" The voice on the other end of the line greeted her calmly and Karai felt a swift rush of heat swim up her neck.
It was not the voice she expected, but she knew it all too well. She knew it from rooftop encounters. From a few smiling, compassionate conversations. From an old man who oozed more kindness from the tip of his mutant rat tail than her master had possessed in her entire body.
She had not expected to speak directly with the Jonin of the Hamato clan.
While she recognized that they she was now a leader herself, that they stood at the same level of importance within their respective organisations, she felt like an impostor next to his instantly clear and easy authority.
"Hai. Dochira sama desu ka?" She felt disrespectful, asking who he was despite knowing all too well. But she had to remind herself that he was the one being impolite not to lead with his own introduction.
Reminding herself did not help her to feel an less stable on her suddenly uneven footing.
This should not shake her so much as it did.
"Ah, sumimasen. Watashi no namae wa Hamato Spinter desu. Izen oai shitakotoga arimasuga oboete imasuka?"
Karai frowned, her free hand curling into a fist. How could he ask such a thing.
Did she remember him?
Did he honestly think she would have forgotten a giant mutant rat that fought with the dexterity and skill of a trained master? A creature so hated by her father that his name became infamous amongst even the lowest ranks of the Foot?
A creature who offered her, his enemy, kindness.
"Hai, oboete imasu." She kept her voice steady, turning her head to glance around the train carriage. The little girl was still wailing, the father now reaching the end of his patience. There were others too, no one of note and no one was close enough to hear her conversation, but it wasn't exactly tactically sound to talk on a train with stagnant people around to overhear.
She would need to get off at the next stop and keep her voice down until then.
There was some mumbling going on on the other end of the line, she could vaguely hear what sounded like Leonardo's voice, followed by his rat master humming in agreement before he spoke again.
"My son has reminded me that not everyone involved in this matter speaks Japanese. My apologies to our honored guest. We shall continue in English then, if it suits you Oroko-san."
Karai did not like being called by her fathers name. Technically, yes, she was Oroko Karai. But that didn't mean she wanted to be called after him.
It should have felt honourable to carry such a name but instead it pinched like a shoe that did not fit. Karai made a conscious decision not to dwell on that particular feeling at this very moment.
"It does." She said quietly, standing and moving to the doors as the train began to slow. She was several stops away from the one she initially intended to get off, but this would have to do. Japanese provided some blanket of anonymity, English was not so secure a language on a train in New York.
"I am told you have a plan to help us stop this sickness." Hamato-san seemed quite intent to speak freely and directly. It was a welcome change to the haltingly difficult conversation she had just had with his sons.
"I do." She replied with a lie, of sorts. She had an outline of a plan, the details of which would need further input from other parties before they were cemented.
"And it involves endangering an innocent woman, while my sons place their trust in their enemy?"
The way he said it was not condescending so much as matter-of-fact. Karai kept her features carefully arranged into nonchalance, not giving into the desire to wince at the implications that lurked behind his words.
"Yes."
The train stopped and Karai stepped off, heading for the stairs with long even strides. She took them two at a time and immediately regretted her choice of jacket when she reached the still bustling street. It had cooled further since the sun began its decent into night and her meager layers did little to fend off the now heavy snowfall.
"Then I should like to hear the details." Hamato-san said simply, his tone still filled with easy assurance that his request would be heeded. Karai remained silent for a time, pausing to cross the street away from the busy line of cafes that were packed with people avoiding the cold. "Or, would you prefer to chase two rabbits?"
She could hear his smile and it made her feel...strange.
She should have been angry, offended perhaps, but the ease and warmth of his words left with neither of the two acceptable responses.
This was not the way enemies spoke. It was not the way they bargained.
She had been faced with people who used kindness as a weapon, she had been broken by such people before and she refused to let herself become vulnerable again.
So why then did his easy manner feel so...real. So unscripted. Without malice.
"Hun has contracted me to kill your sons. If I do this, he will allow me to bring the bodies into the main building." Karai spoke without truly thinking, caught in her contemplation. She paused to draw a breath, pinching the bridge of her nose to center herself.
"A fair plan. Though it would require my sons to die, which is something I find myself rather in opposition to. You understand, of course."
She did, but once again she was surprised by how light hearted his response was. She had just admitted to being contracted to kill his children. Surely that should not have been taken so lightly.
Was she such a joke to them that he would dismiss the threat?
"I do not intend for them to be dead when they are delivered." She explained tersely, shoving her free hand back into her pocket and hurrying herself along the pavement. It was very, very cold. She would need to keep moving to stay at least a somewhat warm.
"Ah, yes. Much better then. How shall they be immobilised?"
Karai was starting to understand where the Hamato clan had learned their flippancy and penchant for humor during battle. This was the longest she had truly spoken to their Jonin and it was a strange experience thus far.
She was unsure if he was baiting her, truly enthusiastic of her plan, or considered himself so above her that she posed no threat in his mind.
Karai snapped her mouth shut, wondering if she should say anything further. She was becoming more an more sure that Hamato-san was somehow making fun of her.
"Oroku-san?"
She sucked a long breath through her teeth and forced down her pride.
It didn't matter if he was dismissing her as a threat. It didn't matter if this was simply his way and his friendly nature was the truth. In order to preserve the many they needed to coordinate their few, and she had swallowed her pride in more demoralizing circumstances for the betterment of her organisation.
"There is a powerful analgesic my clan developed when we were hunting monsters for Winters. If modified, it would mimic death. We can reverse the effects when inside the building, allowing your chonin access alongside me."
"And Miss Judith, will she also be made dead alongside my sons? Is she to be forced further into this life by more violence and danger to her person?" His voice dropped slightly and for the first time since they had started talking Karai sensed some concern.
She could not understand how attached they had become to the girl so quickly. She knew that they were sickeningly good, but what benefit did they see in opening themselves so easily to strangers in need?
"As I told your sons, Hun's intelligence gathering has limits so no true harm need be caused. But he will not simply accept that you surrendered without good reason."
Karai dodged a young woman trying to wrestle her groceries into a taxi, stepping around a couple who were strolling arm in arm along the sidewalk at snails pace. The clouds had intensified, blocking the sun from view completely and leaving the world wrapped in cotton wool. Karai was beginning to lose the feeling in her nose.
She tucked her scarf closer around her neck as she walked, hunching her shoulders up against the wind that swirled lazily around the city's occupants.
"Once you are in the building, what plan do you have?"
Karai swore under her breath, the sound thankfully lost in her scarf. What plan did she have? This was her problem, her concern. She had no inside man, no eyes within the building.
Hun had secured his fortress with his enemies in mind and she had found little information about his intentions on even the most deplorable and darkest of sources. If she had more time, perhaps several months, she would be able to get the information she needed to offer a proper plan of her own making.
But the body they had found, hollowed by sulfur and broken so completely, did not allow her months. At best, she foresaw them having mere weeks. Any longer and they would be risking lives and the health of the city she now relied on to outfit and feed her people.
"I take your silence to mean that you need my sons for more than just their lifeless bodies."
There it was again, that jovial, lilting tone that so threw Karai.
"I have limited information in regards to the interior of the building and the scope of Huns operation." She said, casting her eyes around at the faces that were passing her. The people were thinning now as the weather became more intense. She crossed the road for a second time, glancing behind her to see if anyone followed her to the other side of the street.
No one did.
"Oroko-san, correct me if I am wrong but it appears that you would be relying very heavily on my family. What assurances do we have from you that you will provide what we tell you is needed? That you will not harm my sons or their young companion after they commit to stemming the tide of this plot?"
It was a fair question and once again something Karai could not answer. What could she provide? There was such animosity between them, years of scars and unhealed festering wounds. All she could offer now was honesty.
"I have little to offer you and little time to build trust. Equally we are going into combat. I cannot promise they will not be harmed. All I can offer is my word, that they shall not die by my hand." Karai paused in front of a shop window, her eyes tracing the dresses and bags on display with false interest. The words she needed to say next were important ones so she allowed herself a moment of stillness before she said them with conviction that she hoped was conveyed through the phone line.
"Meiyo ni kakete. Watashi wa nimaijita wa tsukaimasen."
There was a moment of silence, this time from the Hamato clan and Karai let her words hang in the air. To promise that she would not go back on her word, to swear it on her honour, still meant a great deal to her.
She could only hope it meant something to Hamato Splinter as well.
"Do you make this promise to me as Jonin of The Foot?"
For the first time in their conversation, Hamato-san sounded serious. There was no joke in his voice, no levity and Karai matched his tone with her answer.
"Hai." She said with calm conviction, giving a nod she knew he couldn't see but felt right to offer up anyway.
"Then, it is settled."
This announcement shocked Karai and she was left blinking in a stunned sort of stupor for a moment. I couldn't be that easy.
Could it?
Apparently it was, because Hamato-san barely paused for breath before he continued speaking, his attitude once again returning to calm confidence as he announced what would happen moving forward.
"We shall sign a truce, I will have it sent to The Daimyo of the Battle Nexus to be witnessed. He is a good friend to me. You may know of him?"
Karai sucked in a breath and choked on it, further knocked from her foundations by such a flippant mention of a figure she knew only from legend and vague mentions in darkened rooms of dangerous people.
Surly he was not being serious.
"I...have heard whispers. I thought it a fairy tale." She said eventually, trying to organize her thoughts and by extension her expression back into some sort of neutrality.
Why did this rat succeed so easily in upsetting her stability? Especially with nonsense.
"No, I am one of the champions in his competition, as is my son, Michelangelo." Hamato-san said this happily and Karai could once again feel the smile and pride in his words. "I can assure you he is very real. He makes a wonderful pot of sencha tea. He is not kind to those who break truces sealed by his witness."
This could not be so. The competition he was speaking of was not real. Yes, she had heard talk of the Battle Nexus, of competitions held to find the greatest of the great. After all of her years fighting mutants and aliens she was assured in the truth of different dimensions, but to hear a rival Jonin so casually declare a legend, a being responsible for introducing Ninjitsu to feudal Japan, as a friend?
The rat was either senile, mad or more terrifyingly, telling the truth.
"I...see." Karai ventured slowly, turning on her heel and beginning to walk the pavement again. "I did not realise your family held such mystical friendships."
Hamato-san hummed good naturedly.
"Yes." He said, his tone suddenly pointed amidst his joviality. "It is odd isn't it, the lifelong allies that can be made when you are honourable and kind."
Karai felt the jab like a knife in her side and couldn't help but grimace. That was a pointed and undermining comment on her own state of being if ever she had heard one.
She had little time to rally her anger however, before other voices joined Hamato-san down the line.
"Ooohh. Two burns in one day, good thing it's snowin'." She recognized Raphael and let out a sigh, pressing her fingers once again to the bridge of her nose.
"Yea. Cause she gonna need some ice, ice, baby." That was Michelangelo, his assertion quickly followed by several muddled voices mumbling into song of all things. Somewhere amongst the juvenile vocals of 'dun dun dun du-du-dun dun', Karai found herself speaking.
"Are they always like this?" She asked in a moment of unguarded frustration as the singing continued in the background.
Through the now enthusiastic background noise Hamato-san offered his answer, his own long standing frustration becoming abundantly clear.
"Annoyance is only as deep as the mind allows, Oroku-san. Though some days...some days it runs very deep."
Judith was so far past hungry she was pretty sure her stomach was trying to eat itself.
The pizza had kept her going through the emotional roller-coaster ride of the last few hours, but as the conversation with the illusive Foot Clan ninja Karai petered out the gnawing feeling in her gut was coming back with a vengeance.
They were at the details stage, and while there was some back and forth about hypothetical and possibilities, there seemed to be a limit to what the boys were willing to discuss until their interdenominational peace treaty was signed.
Judith rubbed her temples as her stomach grumbled again.
She had no idea what a Daimyo was, or a Battle Nexus. She was fast realizing it wasn't a skating contest like Mikey had told her but past that she was lost. Hell, she wasn't even sure she was ready to accept that other dimensions existed, let alone rely on the ruler of one of them to make sure her friends didn't end up double crossed and dead.
It seemed crazy to her, but what was crazier was the confidence it inspired in the boys. They still didn't seem happy about it, but there was a lot less arguing or vengeful looks after Splinter had made the decision.
They seemed...more relaxed. Relaxed enough for a short rendition of Vanilla Ice, which only served to make the whole situation even more surreal.
Judith wasn't sure what she had hoped to gain by sitting in on the conversation with Karai. She wasn't even sure her brain could absorb any more information after the info dump on super-viruses and population culling plots. All she really wanted to know was if all this talk meant she was still going to be bait. She felt like the answer was probably yes, but a solid confirmation would have helped her make a start on the mental psyching up actually doing it was going to take.
Being brave with words was the easy part. It was the actions that came after that would take her some prep work to actually follow through on.
But it would be fine. She was fine.
Freaked out. Insecure. Neurotic and Emotional.
Fine.
"Miss Judith?"
Judith jumped as Splinter's voice floated into her peripherals, her focus coming back to the room as five sets of concerned eyes honed in on her.
"Yes? Sorry, yes?" She could feel her cheeks going red as heat crept up her neck into her face.
She'd missed the end of the conversation. They'd already hung up on Karai.
Shit.
"Are...you OK?" Mikey was at her side in two steps, dropping a hand to her shoulder and giving it a little squeeze. Judith offered up her best attempt at a smile. It wasn't that great of an attempt really.
"Yeah, yeah. Sorry. Just..." She trailed off and her stomach growled again, louder this time, as if keen to provide an answer to Mikey's question when she couldn't manage it.
"Oh! Crap. Food. Eating. That thing we're all meant to do to stay alive. You must be starved." Mikey shot her a grin that seemed to light up the room and shifted so his good arm was comfortably draped around her shoulder. "Anyone want pizza?"
There were murmured agreements in a variety of enthusiasm levels and everyone began hauling themselves up from their chairs and benches.
Judith chewed her lip.
"About that." She cut in, causing the shuffle of turtles to stop in its tracks. "I ate all the pizza. Which is a little weird for me, not gonna lie. I'm more of a grazing person, lots of snacking through the day, you know? But the pizza is all gone, and you guys finished yours last night so there's...there's no more pizza. Is what I'm...trying to say." She was rambling, fiddling with a loose thread on the cuff of her jumper as she glanced at each of the rooms occupants.
They all looked a little confused. It wasn't until her eyes landed on Don, her stomach rumbling angrily again, that realization seemed to dawn in his intelligent brown eyes.
"You...came to the lab for a reason, didn't you." He asked slowly, tilting his head just a touch as he stared her down.
Judith nodded, squirming a little under the intensity of his gaze.
"Yeah." She mumbled, then gestured a weakly to the scanner. "I think I might have encountered another side effect of the biosites, I was hoping you could...take a look?"
Don nodded, "Yeah. Yeah, I'll get it fired up." He said, turning back towards his main bank of computers. "Just let me run a diagnostic first, I've been ignoring it for the last couple days so..." He trailed off and Judith offered another grimace as the scanner hummed to life, its blue light casting shadows around the lab.
Mikey hadn't moved his arm from her shoulders and Judith found herself leaning into him just a touch as he rubbed her arm.
"You know, I'm hungry too." He declared suddenly before the silence could get too heavy. "I think we've got some bread in the freezer and the eggs are still good. Scrambled eggs for the Jay-bird? Or is that cannibalism?" He grinned at her and Judith smiled back.
"That sounds amazing." She said, wrapping her arms around herself to try and stifle her stomachs loud agreement. Mikey laughed and patted her back.
"You got it pretty lady. Eggs on toast coming up." So saying he gave her a thumbs up and turned to leave the lab, all the heaviness of the past hour seeming to slip further away from him with each step.
"Yeah, so. On that note." Raph cleared his throat, rolling his shoulders as he stood from his chair. "Imma call Casey for a grocery run. If all we got is eggs and freezer burnt bread we're gonna need te restock."
Without any further ceremony, Raph followed the same path as his brother to the lab door. He hesitated as he passed Judith, dropping a big hand briefly onto her shoulder in a surprisingly comforting gesture that was there and gone before Judith could properly respond. She watched as his shell disappeared around the corner into the lair, letting a little bit of the comfort he had just offered seep through her skin and into the tangled mess inside her head.
Splinter hummed.
"A good plan," He said with a nod, hopping up and tapping his walking stick to the floor a few time to orient himself. "Perhaps he can get me some of those cream filled cakes as well. What are they called, the ones I like?" He turned slightly to ask this of Leo, who was hovering in the shadows near the corner of the lab.
"Twinkies." Leo answered quickly, his voice still strained. "They're...you like Twinkies, father."
Another hum from Splinter, this one filled with something like delight.
"Yes. Twinkies." He swished his tail back and forth and smiled to himself in a way that left Judith thinking he might have been imagining one of the little cakes. "However, for now, Leonardo and I have some work to do. We shall be in my rooms if you are in need us. Come, my son, we have a truce to write. We must be careful. I do not want any loopholes for wriggly Feet."
Judith couldn't help the little giggle that bubbled in her chest at his phrasing and she hurried to hide it behind her hand, inclining her head respectfully as Splinter followed his sons path out of the lab.
"Yes, Sensei." Leo was hot on Splinter's heels, his head bowed and his eyes locked on the floor as he passed Judith. Judith's fingers busied themselves with the threads on her cuff again as she watched him leave.
She would need to talk to Leo at some point.
Some point being later. One thing at a time.
Judith turned back to the lab, casting her eyes over the tech strewn benches and low lit computer banks where Don was currently typing away on one of his keyboards. Wandering over to lean on the desk next to him Judith let the new quiet wash over her.
It took a few deep breaths but with some forceful pushing against the white noise in her head she managed to carve out a small space in the moment that was detached from the havoc they were all facing. It was easier to do in the familiarity of the old train carriage, alone with the hum of the machines as she perched next to Don in the quiet.
Her stomach still hurt, the new information rattling around in her head was still overwhelming, but even if she'd only been here a month the lab felt like some sort of strange safe harbor.
Though she wondered, vaguely, if that was actually what it was. Was it the space that made her calm? Or was it something...someone else?
Her stomach growled, interrupting her spiraling thoughts and drawing Don's attention. He looked over at her, smiling sheepishly and pausing long enough to rub his neck in a nervous sort of gesture.
"I, ah, spaced out there, sorry." He said softly, "This won't take too much longer. I know it's not really food but that draw there is full of protein bars." He pointed to a cabinet near the end of his desk and Judith tried her best not to launch herself at it.
"Yes please and thank you." She blurted out as she pulled the indicated draw open and stared at the mess inside. Don hadn't been joking, it was quite literally full of every type and flavour of protein bar ever known to man. Judith didn't pause to wonder how Don had amassed such a huge collection. She figured with his tendency towards single minded focus and the accompanying all nighters, these were probably here for some kind of fuel to get him through.
Whatever his reasons for such an extensive stash, Judith couldn't have been happier about it. She rummaged her way through them, selecting a basic chocolate one that was loitering near the top before digging a little deeper.
"Ooh, mint choc chip!" Judith, despite knowing Don had been the one to load the draw up, held her find up to show him before flipping the little bar over to read the ingredients list. "I didn't know they made it in this flavour."
Don gave a distinctly disgusted little grunt, making a face and turning back to his computer screens.
"Please, please, eat all of those." He said emphatically, giving a dramatic little shudder. "Mikey bought them for me as a joke and I just can't make myself throw them away."
Judith frowned at him around a mouthful of protein bar, having already opened the first one and consumed nearly all of it in one go.
"You don't like mint choc chip?" She asked once she'd swallowed enough of the bar to be able to speak again. Don shook his head.
"No. I think it tastes like soap and chewing gum."
He sounded legitimately grossed out and as Judith took a moment to look more closely at the mint choc chip package in her hand. As if observing it would unlock the reason behind his dislike.
She had always really liked mint choc chip.
"Not even as ice cream?" She asked eventually, with a certain amount of disbelief. Don laughed, shaking his head again with more force.
"Especially not as ice cream. Why would you ruin perfectly good ice cream?" He'd stopped working so he could face her now, obviously deciding that this was a very important topic of conversation. Judith propped a hand on her hip and waved the last protein bar at him.
"Well OK, Mr Mint hater, what do you like?" She said it like some weird kind of challenge and Don rose to the occasion with almost haughty confidence.
"Cookie dough, hands down. You literally can't go wrong with cookie dough flavoured anything. Even just straight cookie dough. There's a shop called DŌ on LaGuardia Place that sells it like ice cream." He lent back in his chair and Judith wandered over, propping herself once more on the desk next to him.
"Really?" She asked, opening the mint choc chip bar and taking a big bite. It tasted good to her, but she had to admit cookie dough hit her right in the nostalgia. She hadn't baked cookies in a long time, not since her Nona had flown across the country to see her in an attempt to cheer her up after the accident.
"Yeah, April brings it around sometimes." Don was smiling, turning back to the desk just enough to rest his elbows on it and drop his chin onto his interlocked fingers. Judith considered this some more.
"When this is all over do you think we could get some together?" She asked suddenly, seizing the warm feeling she got when she thought of eating cookie dough with a friend in a little shop somewhere in New York. It felt kind of good to talk about after. To make plans for normal things. Even if part of her knew that Don wasn't very well going to be able to walk into the shop himself the idea was still a nice one. "Do you think they do mint choc chip cookie dough?" That last bit was just to rile him up, and Judith smiled cheekily at the look of absolute horror on Don's face as he processed what she had said.
"DŌ is a respectable establishment, Judith! They have taste." He was grinning at her through his protests, so Judith feigned insult with a dramatic eye roll and heaved sigh. That got him laughing in a gentle kind of way and Judith smiled along with him, not really minding the soft kind of pause that hung between them before Don spoke up again. "But, ah, yeah. Yeah it would be nice, when this is all over."
Judith wasn't sure if it was a trick of the light, but she was almost sure she saw his cheeks go a slightly darker shade of green. She didn't get a chance to really think about that though, because Don's computer beeped eagerly into their conversation and a little of the weight she had been ignoring fell back onto her shoulders.
"Is this the part where I get on the scanner?" She asked as Don tapped a few more keys on his computer. He nodded.
"It would be that time." He sounded about as enthusiastic as Judith felt, his tone tired and just a touch sad. Judith didn't like the idea of Don being tired or sad. While she knew it wasn't her fault, some part of her struggled with a little hiccup of guilt. She wondered what he would be doing if she wasn't here right now taking up time he could otherwise be using for more important things.
Forcing that feeling away into the 'deal with later' box, Judith headed for the scanner, crawling up onto the cold surface and flopping onto her back.
The machine whirred under her, the blue light running from the top of her head to the tip of her toes in long easy sweeps. As the last sweep ended somewhere near her feet the whirring was replaced with muttering. Specifically, Don muttering entirely to himself.
Judith let this go on for a minute or so, waiting for the muttering to be come actual words and sentences directed at her. They didn't.
"Don?" Reasoning it was time to draw a little attention to herself, Judith sat up, resting on her elbows as she called out to the shape behind the bank of computers. "Donnie?" Her second try yielded better results and Don's face appeared above the screens. He looked equal parts concerned and enthralled and said nothing, instead gesturing for her to join him.
She did, jumping down off the scanner and shuffling in beside him at his desk. She was a little surprised when Donnie offered her his chair, getting her comfortable before he leaned down over her shoulder and started pointing to certain figures and scans on his screens.
"OK, so this scan here is the one I did when you arrived." He said simply, pointing, "...and this, this one was right after we got back from your apartment. See the difference?"
Judith looked over the numbers, recognizing what they meant from either her gym days, reviews with her dance instructors or the study she had done at university.
"My vitals look better." She started with a nod. "Lower heart rate, blood pressure is good. My weight is down a bit. Don't really like that but not surprised."
Don nodded his agreement. "I wasn't surprised either. I thought it was because you hadn't eaten a lot since you got here and the biosites had to be using something for fuel. But look at this, this is you now."
He indicated another screen and Judith turned to it, reviewing the numbers there with what quickly developed into shock.
"Holy shit." She mumbled, leaning forward in the desk chair to re-read the figures just in case she'd hallucinated them the first time.
She hadn't.
Don was talking again, his voice a low rush similar to the mumbling he had been doing before she'd joined him behind the wall of screens.
"Your muscle mass has increased...exponentially." He said hurriedly, his tone laced with concern. "You've dropped body fat by nearly four percent in under twenty four hours, which is just..." Don trailed off and Judith filled in the blank.
"Impossible." She mumbled, dropping her elbows to the table and resting her head in her hands.
"It's no wonder you're so hungry. The biosites are literally eating you to sustain you." That little sentence from Don was perhaps not phrased in the most comforting of ways and Judith reeled a little at the implications. With a few deep breaths, she did her best to work way through a sudden onset of panic that was bubbling in her chest.
It wasn't something she regularly talked about with people, but she had had a complicated relationship with her body over the last few years. There had been a dramatic change in the way she lived and functioned post broken leg and along with the mental hoops she had thrown herself through in an attempt to reestablish some kind of purpose, she'd had to deal with a body that no longer responded or looked the way it had before.
It had taken a long time for her to become comfortable in her skin again and work through some bad habits she didn't even realise she'd developed when she was still dancing.
Now...now it was all changing again.
Judith blinked back tears, sucking in another deep breath. Most people would be excited by this sort of physical change. It was something you saw out of montages and super hero movies. But to Judith it felt more like the plot of a horror film.
"I don't want them to eat me." She whispered to the desk with a pitiful little intake of air that sounded borderline like the beginning of a sob. She was not going to cry.
She refused to cry.
Don's hand slipped onto her shoulder, his warm fingers rubbing small circles at the base of her neck. He didn't say anything for a moment, just stood next to her as though he knew she needed a little bit of time to work her way through the jigsaw puzzle in her head.
It helped. It helped a lot.
"We're not going to let them." He said eventually, smiling at her when she raised her head to look up at him. Judith forced a smile back, rubbing her eyes and pushing out a shaky breath and a nod as Don spoke again. "Come on, Mikey will probably be done burning the toast by now."
This got a little laugh as Judith pushed herself up and out of Don's chair.
"Ah, charcoal bread. My mum's specialty." She said approvingly, getting out of the way so Don could step in and shut everything down.
"You're mom didn't cook?" Don asked curiously as the scanner wound down and stopped humming. Judith shook her head.
"Not well. She has moments, but we used to eat a lot of salad and deli meat sandwiches when dad was away. He did most of the cooking." She swayed back and forth on the balls of her feet, waiting for Don' to finish up before following him as he made his way towards the lab door. "It's weird I suppose. Mum was obsessed with being 'healthy', but that never really translated into actual food. It was more what supplements and super foods we needed to eat, what we needed to avoid." As they stepped out into the lair, Judith pulled the metal door of the lab closed behind them. Don paused on the stairs, turning back to look up at her.
"So who taught you to cook then? Your dad?" He asked, stepping off the stairs when she joined him and taking a meandering route towards the kitchen.
Judith was still feeling a little shaky from everything that had happened in the last few hours, but as she fell into step beside him she again found herself relishing the little moment of calm that normal conversation evoked. It was a tiny hint of stability in an otherwise churning washing machine of a month.
"Not really, no. It was my Nona. I used to spend the summers with her doing all the stereotypical things grandmothers are meant to do with their grandkids. I still can't smell fresh bread without getting flashbacks." She felt herself smile and relished the warmth the little skerricks of memories filtering back to her brought along with them.
Fresh pasta in day old sauce, oat cookies with chocolate chips instead of raisins because Nona didn't like raisins, lazy afternoons in the hot Australian sun with home made lemonade that was more sugar than lemons. Judith cherished those moments.
"Do you have memories like that?" She asked Don, turning to look up at him as they walked. "Memories that come on hard and fast when you smell something, or a certain song plays?"
Don frowned, eyes squinting as he thought over the question carefully.
"I do, yeah. But they're not as...normal as yours? I guess?" He trailed off here and didn't expand further until Judith nudged him with her hip and grinned encouragingly.
"No one's normal, really." She said with a light laugh, pushing her hair out of her face. Don shrugged, smiling back with an odd sort of unfocused look in his eyes.
"Ok, well. The smell of books. Old ones," He started slowly. "Sometimes my brothers would help me hunt down books that had been thrown away or left out by the libraries to be donated. I can buy my books now, but sometimes when I get a second hand book delivered I open the box and it takes me back to when we were small and we all piled up under blankets. I'd be there with my flashlight reading out loud..." He trailed off, his cheeks going that darker shade of green again as he cleared his throat.
Judith fixed him with an incredulous look.
"You're more normal then you think." She said with a grin, shaking her head. "The smell of old books? You sound like the leading man in a romance novel."
"A romance novel?" Don raised his eye ridges at her, seemingly shocked by the very suggestion of such a thing. "More like science fiction."
He gave a self deprecating little chuckle and Judith made a face.
"They write science fiction romances too, you know." She countered quickly, eyeing him. Don offered a one shouldered shrug and little half smile in return.
"True, but I doubt they had mutant turtles in mind when they were imagining the hero sweeping the leading lady off her feet."
Judith felt something tug at the inside of her chest as he looked away from her, rubbing at his neck as they walked the last few meters to the kitchen.
"Don't sell yourself short, Don." She said, stepping in closer so their shoulders were touching. "You're already a real life hero to me. All you need is some sweeping practice and I think you'd have a real shot at the part." She smiled up at him, nudging him playfully and watching as his big brown eyes widened at her.
It was in that moment, as Don recovered enough to smile shyly back at her, that Judith found herself wondering if she had just been flirting with him a teensy, tiny bit. She wondered if he minded, if she meant it, where it came from or why it felt altogether easy to do.
But that was all something she would have to work out later, think about later. Right now she didn't want to address what it meant or might mean.
Right now she just wanted to keep hold of this little moment of normal.
This little safe harbour.
It was when Don bumped her shoulder back, the comforting warmth of his big hand grazing her lower back as he guided her into the kitchen, that Judith was forced to admit to herself that the calm she had felt in the lab had nothing to do with the beat-up metal space. She would be fooling herself to think it was.
No. If she was being really honest, perhaps even a little brave...
It was all Don.
Authors Notes: Ta-a-da. I wrote some more. This chapter would probably have been finished earlier but as I fail when it comes to single goal focus I decided to throw another creative project in the mix and make myself a TMNT themed handbag.
My puny brain didn't know how to effectively split the time.
But hey. Should it take your fancy, please read and review.
It makes me smile.
Oh, also. I am still at the very beginning of my studies into the Japanese language. I did my best, but if anyone can correct me please do. The below is what I was aiming for:
Hai
(Yes)
Konbanwa. Oroko-san desu ka?
(Good evening. Am I speaking to Oroko-san?)
Hai. Dochira sama desu ka?
(Yes. Who is this?)
Ah, sumimasen. Watashi no namae wa Hamato Spinter desu. Izen oai shitakotoga arimasuga oboete imasuka?"
(Ah, I'm sorry. My name is Hamato Splinter. We have met before, do you remember?)
Hai, oboete imasu.
(Yes, I remember)
Meiyo ni kakete. Watashi wa nimaijita wa tsukaimasen.
(On my word of honour. I will not go back on my word.)