"I don't know how I'm going to stitch this," Donnie muttered as he struggled to hold Sammy to the gurney while also trying to clean off her wound through the tremors and spasms.
Sammy shuddered violently, her heels smacking against the gurney noisily. "S-Sor-ry," she bit out.
Donnie shook his head. "You shouldn't apologize for something you can't help, Sammy." Holding her head in his hands to prevent her from hurting herself even further, Donnie glanced about the infirmary for something that could be of use. "Perhaps," he began when his eyes landed on the temperature-controlled storage unit in the far corner, "we could try a sedative-."
"No!" He jumped at the force of her refusal, looking down at her in confusion. She shook her head the best she could, pleading to him with her eyes. "No-o s-sedat-tives."
Frowning, Donnie looked between her and the storage unit several times. "I, well, I… O-Okay. Okay." He pressed closer to her while he considered his other options, using his arms and chest to cage her as a particularly nasty tremor wracked through her body.
If she wouldn't allow sedatives, he could… Donnie winced. He could strap her to the gurney but… That didn't sit right with him in any way. So, what could he possibly do-.
"I need my brother's help," Donnie told her, looking down at her imploringly. "If we can't do sedatives, I gotta be able to hold you still." His eyes flickered up to the wound oozing blood into her hair and ear. "I can't wait for your tremors to subside to stitch your head." He dropped his gaze back down to her pain-filled eyes. "And I refuse to strap you to the gurney."
He waited anxiously for her response. He didn't know what he'd do if she refused the help of his brothers. It was against everything Donnie stood for to leave her bleeding and in pain. He wished she'd allow him to use sedatives…
"F-Fine," she agreed with a pinched expression.
Donnie sighed. "Thank you," he breathed. Standing straighter, Donnie turned his head to the infirmary door and yelled, "LEO! RAPH! MIKEY! INFIRMARY NOW!" There was a loud clatter from the front room and a few curses before he could hear thundering footsteps racing their way.
"Donnie?!" Leo called, the first one to round the corner into the hallway. "What is it?! What happened?!"
Mikey vaulted over their eldest brother, skidding into the infirmary first. "Yo, dude! What's wrong - Oh shit! Sammy!" His baby brother's eyes went comically wide, his expression one of abject horror as he watched Sammy tremble violently underneath him.
"Sammy?" Leo had stopped in the doorway, his own face mirroring Mikey's. "Donnie, what-?"
"What the hell is goin' on?!" Raph growled as he shouldered past Leo. "Donnie - holy fuck!" The hulking turtle jerked to a stop a few feet from Donnie, his eyes locked onto Sammy's leg. "Th-That's-."
"A scar, I know," Donnie finished for him.
"S-Scar?" Mikey questioned, his voice squeaky. "What scar?!"
"It doesn't matter!" Donnie snapped, grunting as Sammy jerked in his arms. "Right now, I need your help!"
Leo stepped up to the end of the gurney. "What do you need, Don?" he asked, his tone the no-nonsense one he used on patrol.
"What's wrong with her?" Mikey whispered in a tremulous voice.
"She's suffering from an episode of tremors and spasms, Mikey," Donnie answered, sounding just shy of impatient.
Mikey blinked down at Sammy, his eyes uncharacteristically shiny and his voice tight. "T-Tremors and spasms? What does that mean?"
"It's from nerve damage," he explained quickly. "She fell in the shower during the episode and hit her head. I gotta stitch the laceration."
"Oh, man," Mikey moaned, finally noticing her head. "That looks really bad!"
Donnie huffed. "It'll be fine once I can stitch it."
Leo reached over and put a hand on Mikey's shoulder, stopping him from saying anything else. "What do you need us to do?" he asked again.
"I can't stitch it with her like this, so I need you three to hold her down while I do it." All three of his brothers stared at him as if he'd lost his mind.
"Why don't you sedate her?"
"Or strap 'er down!"
Donnie glared at Raph. "I'm not strapping her down! That's barbaric!" Then he turned his eyes to Leo. "And she doesn't want sedatives."
Leo considered his words for a short second before he nodded. "Alright. How do you want to do this?"
"Okay. Leo take her legs. Mikey take her torso. And Raph, this is important." He met his brother's eyes, his expression serious. "I need you to hold her head still."
The red-banded turtle looked especially uncomfortable with that request. "Are ya sure?" he asked in a quiet voice. "I don't wanna…hurt her by accident?"
Donnie nodded. "She's a lot stronger than she lo-oks!" As he spoke, a rather nasty spasm jerked her entire body in Mikey's direction who yelped and stumbled back. "See?" They were getting better - less frequent - but he couldn't risk her doing that while stitching her head. "Now come on," he told his brothers. "Let's get this done."
Leo was the first to do as he'd been asked, draping his arms over Sammy's thighs (making sure the towel was preserving her modesty, of course) before carefully leaning over her just enough so that her legs had no room to move. Surprisingly, Mikey was the next to do as Donnie had instructed him to. He murmured a quiet apology to Sammy as he leant over her, taking hold of her biceps and keeping her arms tucked against her sides. Sammy just gave him a wobbly grin. It was Raph that hesitated though.
He was staring down at Sammy, his brow ridge downturned enough that it cast a shadow over his eyes. "I, um, I don't - Donnie…" he stuttered, shaking his head.
"Raph. Please."
The big turtle sighed. "Y-Yeah. Yeah. Okay." He took a moment to work himself up to lift his hands to either side of Sammy's face the moment Donnie pulled away. "I got it," he whispered, cupping each side of her face gingerly.
This time Sammy gave him a shaky grin. "You won't h-hurt me," she told him, her head jerking in his grasp.
"Yeah, sure" Raph breathed, barely even a whisper. He was not convinced of that, not at all. If he so much as twitched too hard he might accidentally bruise her or something. But…he was already here, so…He rested his forearms against the top of the gurney and tightened his grip just enough so that she couldn't turn her head.
This felt so wrong! To be holding Casey's cousin down like this? Why couldn't she have just allowed Donnie to use a sedative?
"Okay. Let me just get a suture kit." Donnie scurried away from the gurney to one of his many cabinets in the room and rummaged about for a moment, gathering the supplies he needed on a clean rolling cart.
"Alright," he muttered, wheeling the cart beside the gurney. He used some gauze and peroxide to clean off Sammy's wound the best he was able to, apologizing for the sting when she hissed. It wasn't as…clean as he wanted but it would do.
Peeling open the suture kit and threading the needle, Donnie asked, "Alright everybody, ready?" He met each of his brother's eyes and waited for them to nod before leaning back over Sammy, giving her a questioning half-smile.
"Ready," Sammy muttered in a thick voice.
Donnie nodded. "Alright…" And then he began to stitch her up.
She didn't so much as blink when the needle pierced her flesh. Sammy laid there quietly except for the odd sharp, involuntary jerk as he stitched her up. She just…stared past him, lost in her thoughts. It was a little unnerving honestly, how at ease she was with this. And by the time he was done - seven stitches later - her tremors had nearly completely subsided.
"Let me just clean you up a bit more and put a dressing on." Donnie dropped the needle and scissors onto the rolling cart in favor of picking up fresh gauze and the peroxide again. "You guys are fine to let her go," he told his brothers as he poured a bit of peroxide onto a swatch of gauze.
The moment Raph stepped away from Sammy's head, Donnie was there, wiping up the excess blood from her skin. He couldn't get all of it out of her hair and ear, she'd have to shower for that, but he cleaned up what he could. After he'd taped the bandage down over the wound, Donnie stood up and sighed.
"Alright, Sammy," he muttered. "It's good for now. I'll have to change the bandages in the next twelve hours or so, though. Do you need any pain medication? Tylenol or Ibuprofen?"
But Sammy shook her head. "No. I'm alright."
Donnie wasn't all that convinced. She was obviously in some amount of pain if her tight expression was anything to go by but he couldn't force medication on her.
"Okay," he acquiesced. "You should get some rest though. Sleep would do you good."
That didn't seem like that pleasant of an idea to her either. "Yeah… I guess," she murmured. Holding the towel to her chest, Sammy made to sit up. Mikey, who still had a hold of her arms, helped her. "Thanks," she told him with a soft smile.
His answering smile was dull. "No problem, girl," he whispered.
"I got your bag." Everyone looked up to find Leo coming back into the infirmary with Sammy's bag in his hand. "I thought you might like to get dressed."
Sammy was just as surprised as the rest of the turtles. "Oh. Thank you," she said as Leo set the bag on the gurney by her feet.
"Of course." Leo cleared his throat and averted his eyes, dropping his face just enough to hide it, but Donnie could still clearly see the faint shade of darker green on his brother's cheeks. "Let's give her some privacy," Leo muttered, gesturing for Mikey and Raph to follow him out.
As his brothers left, Donnie took Sammy's hand and helped her off the gurney. She was shaky on her feet so he kept a loose hold on her. "Feeling steady enough?"
"Um, I think so," she answered with a nod.
"Good." Donnie slowly released her, watching for any sign that she would collapse or her knees would give out. When neither happened, he stepped away from her. "I'll be standing right outside. Just holler if you need help."
She whispered in the affirmative as Donnie scurried from the room, pulling the dark curtain shut behind him. He stood there with his arms crossed, shifting his weight from foot to foot as he listened to Sammy shuffle and move about. The sound of her towel dropping to the floor with a wet thud seemed much too loud to him. Donnie frowned as blurry images of her trembling, naked body on the shower floor flashed before his eyes. Her scars were…gruesome. There wasn't an inch of her back that hadn't been marred. He wondered how old they were… And her leg! Donnie's frown turned into a grimace. As bad as her back was her leg was worse. The amount of damage! It was no surprise she suffered from nerve damage and debilitating spasms. Donnie shook his head.
"Donnie?" Sammy called as she stumbled through the curtain and right into his back.
"Oh!" Donnie turned to catch her. "You okay?" He stared down at her, noting that she was covered from head to toe in an oversized hoodie, sweatpants, and fuzzy socks; not a single inch of skin apart from her hands and face exposed.
Sammy nodded, the movement a little sluggish. "Yeah, thanks." Even her words were a mite slower than normal.
"You need to rest," he told her in a gentle voice. "Let's get you to bed." He tucked her into his side, taking most of her weight easily so that she didn't have to put much weight on her bad leg.
Sammy didn't speak until they were right in front of her room. "Um… Could, could I nap on the couch instead?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper, sounding a bit embarrassed to be asking.
The purple-banded turtle blinked in mild surprise. "Oh, um, yeah. Of course." He heard the two brothers already sitting on the couch get up, one popping down on the floor and the other in the recliner beside the couch. "Let me just get your blanket for you."
Donnie made sure she could stand on her own before going to her bed and removing the bunched-up blanket from the foot of it. He draped it over one arm as he returned to Sammy, placing his hand at the small of her back and directing her towards the couch. At the couch, Mikey couldn't seem to help himself as he reached for her hand from his place on the floor. Sammy smirked and shook her head, but let him take her hand and help her onto the oversized couch. She moved a couch pillow against the armrest and reached out for her blanket.
With a shake of his head, Donnie indicated Sammy lay down before draping the blanket over her. Sammy curled up under the blanket, tucking it under her nose and closing her eyes with a sigh.
"Thank you," she murmured.
"Of course," Donnie told her, perching on the armrest of the recline that Raph sat in.
"No problem," Mikey muttered at the same time.
The three turtles in the room discreetly watched the woman out of the corner of their eyes. She jerked and trembled a few times over the next thirty minutes before she finally settled, all her muscles relaxing in sleep. The occupants of the room let out a collective sigh of relief. It had been a…struggle for them all to see Sammy in such a way.
"How does she fare?" Splinter's quiet, concerned voice drew the boy's attention towards their father who was shuffling towards their makeshift living room, Leo following close behind him.
Donnie shrugged, the motion a bit listless. "As okay as she can be," he told his father.
Splinter sighed. "Such a tragedy."
"Do you know what happened to her, Sensei?" Leo questioned, moving to sit on the other recliner on the other side of the couch. He peered at Sammy with a curious sort of sadness.
"No," their father said with a sad shake of his head. "She told me very little but whatever it is that happened to her, it has left her scarred in more ways than just physically." The turtles and their father watched the small woman on the couch with varying expressions.
"What happened in the shower room, Donnie?" Leo asked after a moment, his voice quiet so as not to disturb Sammy.
Donnie pushed a sigh out through his nose as he took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes with the pads of two of his fingers. "Well, I was just gonna get washed up in the infirmary when I heard something fall as I walked by the door. I knocked and called out for her but she didn't answer." He slipped his glasses back on and dropped his hands into his lap. "I tried again but she still didn't say anything, so I…went in." Those flashes of her shaking, convulsing body returned and he closed his eyes against them. "She was just…laying there, convulsing on the floor. Her, her scars left me frozen for a good minute or two. I, um…"
"That giant one on 'er leg?" Raph mumbled. "It's pretty damn gnarly." It had stopped him in his tracks too.
Donnie nodded and then shook his head with a grimace. "H-Her back," he gasped. "They're all over her back too." He squeezed his eyes shut tighter. "There isn't…an inch of her back that isn't covered."
"Her back?" Mikey whispered, his voice unnaturally anguished. He shifted to look over his shoulder at the woman not even half a foot from him.
"Yeah," Donnie whispered. "It's… Whatever happened to her had to be…horrific."
The weight of Donnie's recounting of the events hung heavy between the mutant family.
"Who would do something like that to somebody?" It was Mikey who asked the horrified question that cut through the silence.
"A monster," Raph growled, getting to his feet and stalking away. They could hear him haul himself up into their home gym and stomp around for a few moments before they heard him pick up the dumbbells. His aggressive grunts echoed throughout the Lair.
Leo rose to go talk to his hot-headed brother but Splinter held up a hand, stopping him. "Let him work out his frustration. I believe I shall do the same by pruning my bonsai trees." Their father rose to his feet and shuffled away, his hands clasped in front of him.
"I think I'll, um, be in the lab for a little bit," Donnie said, getting up from the arm of the recliner. "Let me know when she wakes up." And with that he was gone.
Mikey turned to Leo, expecting him to find an excuse to leave as well, but Leo settled back into the recliner and turned his gaze to the muted TV. The youngest turtle nodded as he leant back against the couch, close enough that he could feel Sammy's warm breath against the back of his neck. He was pleased that Sammy would at least have himself and his eldest brother for company, even in her sleep. She needed the comfort… Or maybe he needed the comfort. Either way, he wouldn't be moving for the foreseeable future.
As they sat there, watching TV, Sammy mumbled wordlessly in her sleep and curled tighter into herself, her knees pressing into Mikey's shoulder. The orange-banded turtle pressed back against her, dropping his head back onto the armrest. Sammy sighed softly at the contact and relaxed just the tiniest bit. He glanced out of the corner of his eye at her, grinning at how cute she looked all burritoed up like that, but then his expression soured.
What happened to you, Sammy?
Who did that to you?
Why did they do that to you?
The questions circled about not only Mikey's head but his brothers as well. They would get the answers this time, they were sure. But did they really want them anymore? Did they really want to share in Sammy's nightmares?
Author's Note:
Hi Everyone! I'm so sorry for such a delayed update, but I'm working hard on my own novella (which is so close to being done!). Also, I know this chapter is a little short, but the next one won't be! It might just take me some time to get it out there while I'm wrapping up my novella project. Thank you all for your understanding!