CHAPTER 8

JESSICA:

"Hey, teach me how to drive this thing," Raph grinned as we walked to my car.

I cringed at the thought before it even fully registered. "Don't you know how to drive?" I asked as I threw my backpack into the back seat. It was a stupid question, because I knew he did. That wasn't his point.

"Van, motorcycle, yes," he smiled, grabbing my wrist before I got into the driver's seat. "But not a stick shift."

I glanced down at the car. "It's not easy," I warned him. "And I don't want you getting all pissy on me."

He took both of my hands and kissed my cheek. "I won't," he whispered in my ear. "I promise."

He embraced me and I sighed, giving in. But I knew he would. "Get in," I relented.

"Are we leaving already?" he questioned. "I'm not sure everyone is ready to..."

"Don't worry about it," I grinned, opening the passenger side door. "It'll take you fifteen minutes to pull out of the parking space."

DONATELLO:

"Um," Leo started. I stood up, away from the engine of the van, and followed his gaze across the parking lot. Jessica's car jerked and lurched before stalling, half out of the parking spot.

"Jessica forget how to drive?" I grinned, putting the dipstick back into the motor oil. I couldn't find anything wrong. Maybe, if we were lucky, this would be an uneventful trip. We rarely left Manhattan. But when we did, something always seemed to go wrong.

Michaelangelo craned his neck and smiled faintly before looking away. "That's Raph."

I looked again, more interested this time, and chuckled. "So it is." I glanced at Leonardo. "Think we should go harass him?"

Leo smiled at the idea, but shook his head. "I don't think that's wise."

"{How far away is this place?}" Yukio demanded.

"{Quite a long way,}" Leo answered. "{Jess said it was in Michigan, and that's a couple hundred miles away, at least.}" He turned to me just as I closed the hood of the van. "{You think it would be faster to go through Canada?}"

I considered the idea, and shook my head. "{Even if it was, you think they'd let four mutant turtles out of the country?}"

He smiled slyly. "{Good point.}"

Squealing tires caught our attention and we turned to see Jessica's car hurling toward us. "Geez!"

There was more squealing as he slammed on the brakes, and the smell of burning rubber surrounded us in a cloud of blue-gray smoke. I looked up slowly. The first thing I saw was Michaelangelo shielding Rei, and Leo standing in front of Yukio. I turned my gaze toward the car. Jess was white as a sheet. She reached over and shut the ignition off, then slowly pried Raphael's hands off the wheel. He was talking, probably to the car. I knew whatever language he was speaking in was bound to be riddled with expletives. But I couldn't hear him.

I slowly relaxed, as did my brothers. The car was about three feet away from Mike and Rei. "{Everyone okay?}" Leo asked.

A chorus of "yes" answered him. I glanced back and saw Jess turn Raphael's face toward her. She said something, and he nodded, then she got out of the car. He leaned back and closed his eyes. I smiled at her. "You alright?"

"Think I just lost about twenty years of my life but yeah, I'm fine."

"It's a manual transmission?" I assumed.

"Uh huh," she mumbled, running her fingers through her hair.

"Maybe you'd better drive," Leonardo suggested. "I'd hate for Raphael to total your car."

She smiled. "No, it's... it's okay. I just... I'm alright."

I grinned, but there was no more to that conversation. "How many hours we gonna be driving?" Michaelangelo asked.

"I don't really remember," she answered. "It's been a long time since I've been out there. But we should be there before dawn. I hope."

"You sure your parents will be okay with this?" Leonardo questioned.

She laughed. "My parents are in Paris right now. And they'll be there for another week at least. Besides, they hardly ever go up to that house. They spend most of their time at the house in Florida."

Yukio closed the door to the van. "{If we are ready, I would like to leave now,}" he pressed. His nervousness was evident.

"What did he say?" Jess asked.

"He wants to leave," I answered. "Are we ready?"

"Yeah, sure," she smiled. "Let me look at a map first though, okay? Do you guys have one? I think mine is buried in the back of my car."

I relayed the message to Yukio while Leonardo retrieved the atlas from the front of the van. She opened it on the hood of the car and we stood back as she outlined our trip, running her finger along the roads. At one point, she veered away from the interstates and traced along a highway that looked to be much smaller.

"It's fifty miles shorter to take this route," she explained. "But it's a lot of back roads. We'll be miles away from civilization." She smiled. "Of course, with you guys riding shotgun, that's not necessarily a bad thing."

I smiled.

KIN:

"{They have taken essential supplies,}" I observed as I walked through the quiet room. "{They will not be back.}"

"Iie," the figure next to me agreed, eyeing an empty pizza box on the coffee table. "{They will not.}"

"{Where could they have gone?}"

He thought for a moment. "{Their resources are limited,}" he thought out loud. He turned and our eyes met. "{I will check the house of the woman the one was talking to. She was likely their method of escape. You check the apartment offices to see if she has a car registered. And get the security cameras of the parking garage. Perhaps we can find approximately what time they left.}"

I stared at him. "{They won't get far,}" I reminded him. We had been prepared for such attempts.

"{They will not,}" he nodded. "{But we must know in which direction they headed if we wish to intercept them.}"

YUKIO:

"{Something is wrong with the vehicle.}"

Donatello sat up and rubbed his eyes. He crawled into the passenger seat. "{Where are we?}"

I gave him the name of the route. We were the only ones on the street, and the car in front of us. I had not seen another vehicle in the past hour. It was two in the morning. The van lurched and Donatello flew forward into the dashboard, catching himself on his arms. "{Pull over,}" he yawned. "{Flash your lights first so Jess will know something's wrong.}"

I did as he ordered, and we came to a stop at the side of the road. We were in a wooded area, the full moon the only light for miles. Leonardo appeared from the back. "{What's going on?}"

"{Something's wrong with the van,}" Donatello answered. "{And I'm hoping it's not serious because it looks like we're in the middle of nowhere.}"

We opened the doors and were met with a rush of cool air. I looked around the darkness, scanning the area for any sign of danger. We were alone here. Jessica's car stopped, and began to back up. She and Raphael joined us at the front of the van. Jessica asked something in English, and Leonardo replied. The other turtle slowly emerged, yawning and stretching.

After a few minutes, Donatello stepped back and sighed. He relayed his findings in English, and the crowd around him conversed for a moment, then simultaneously groaned. "{What did you find?}" I demanded.

"{Somebody put water in the gas tank. Or some kind of liquid. Since we filled up the gas tank right before we left, we really didn't notice it until now}"

"{It was probably our guests at the lair,}" Rei answered. Her voice held a biting tone.

Splinter emerged from the van. "{What has happened?}" he questioned.

Donatello explained the situation to him. Raphael broke away from the crowd and walked to Jessica, putting his arm around her shoulders. She leaned into him, arms clenched over her chest. I crinkled my nose in disgust. "{How do you propose we get out of here?}" I demanded.

Donatello sighed. "{Ordinarily, you could flush the gas out. But... I don't know.}" He walked to the driver's side. "{We've still got a quarter tank.}"

"{What difference does that make?}"

"{The foreign substance separates itself from the gas. Kind of like oil and water. That's why we didn't have any problems earlier. There was enough gas in the tank to where the engine only took in pure gas.}"

"{So what must be done?}" Splinter asked.

Donatello glanced at the van. "{I can siphon out the water from the tank, but then we need gas.}"

"{I saw a gas station about fifteen minutes ago,}" I relayed, "{but it was closed.}"

There was a moment of silence. "{What do we do, Master?}" Leonardo finally asked of Splinter.

The rat closed his eyes for a moment then opened them again. "{We have no choice but to stay here until it is light. Then Jessica can return to the gas station and retrieve fuel.}"

I tensed. I did not like the idea of staying here. This smelled of a trap. But no one else seemed to notice that. "{We'll go back into the woods,}" Leonardo informed. "{We all have sleeping bags. And it'll be safer away from the road, if this was some kind of a sabotage.}"

"{I don't know how I feel about leaving all our equipment here,}" Donatello protested.

"{Well, I don't know how I feel about leaving you with it,}" Leonardo replied. "{If someone wanted us to break down, they could be following us. And if they were interested in the equipment, they would've taken it when they put water in the gas tank.}"

"{Leonardo is right,}" Splinter agreed. "{Let us go into the woods where we will have a place to hide should there be an attack. In the morning, we will leave here.}"

I glanced toward Rei. She leaned against the driver's side door of the van and stared down at the ground. I wondered if she felt as uneasy about this plan as I did.

REI:

A nightmare awoke him. I could tell by the way he bolted upright, looking around in a frantic attempt to figure out where he was. He didn't see that I was awake, and I didn't say anything, only watched him in the flickering remains of the oil lamp. Leonardo had been opposed to the idea of a campfire, citing that it may start a larger fire in such a wooded area. Aside from that, he did not want to attract attention. But he allowed the lamp, with the hopes of keeping animals away. Still, he slept with his katanas at his side. And I was grateful.

Michaelangelo hunched over, bringing his knees to his chin. He hid his face for a few minutes, and I watched him silently. I wondered if I should tell him I was awake. I decided against it. He probably wanted to be alone, as he usually did. Though he had begun to open up a little bit more in the past few days, he still kept high walls around his emotions. I rested my head on my arms and studied his form in the pale moonlight. I was almost afraid to admit it, but he was actually quite attractive. Though not in nearly so good of shape as his brothers, and clearly a different species than I was, there was something about him that commanded my attention.

I considered that for a moment, and sighed. My interest in him had at first been purely professional. Well, perhaps "professional" wasn't the word for it. But I had cared very little for him as a person. I knew that the only interest I had in him was because he had reminded me of Taro. I had perhaps thought that if I could somehow help him, it would be like helping my friend. My heart still ached over the loss of him, and the fact that I had done nothing to prevent his death.

But things had changed, over this past month. I had begun to see Michaelangelo as his own person. Deeply troubled, yes, but also increasingly interesting to me. Underneath the mask of silence he wore, was a person just like who I had forever wished to be. The person I may have been, in another life, had I not been born into the formal, serious and rule-abiding family I was.

Michaelangelo kicked the sleeping bag aside. I sat up as he stepped over his brothers, his back turned to me, and headed deeper into the woods. I followed him. I don't know why, exactly. Maybe it was just because I couldn't sleep. But whatever the reason, I got up and walked after him. I knew it was dangerous, but I didn't realize just how dangerous until I lost sight of him. I walked a little faster, hoping I'd catch up. But after a few seconds of that, I realized that it wasn't going to happen. I stopped, and looked back, and realized I wasn't entirely sure how to get back.

"Why are you following me?"

The voice made me jump, and I spun around. I saw only darkness around me. "Michaelangelo?" I asked hesitantly. Was I hearing things?

"Up here."

I looked up, and saw his figure outlined against the limbs of a tree. He was about fifteen feet up, leaning against the trunk, one leg hanging down and the other bent. For a moment, I wasn't sure what to say to him. "I… I'm sorry."

"For what?" he asked.

"For… following you."

The pale light on his face shifted as he smiled. "If you were sorry, you wouldn't have done it."

I considered that for a moment. He was smiling, and I doubted that he was mad. I sighed and hung my head. "And I'm sorry that you have to be here," I mumbled. "That I'm causing you all so much trouble."

He was quiet and I looked up to see him lean his head back against the tree, staring up at the sky through the leaves. "It's not your fault, Rei," he reminded me.

I approached the tree, but couldn't see an easy way to climb it. "Over there," he directed. I looked up and over to where he was pointing. It was a nearby tree. I stared at it for a moment, not sure if I was that daring. He didn't move, and I decided I didn't have much of a choice.

I left my flip-flop sandals on the ground and pulled myself up the branches, one at a time. When I reached his level, he smiled and held out a hand to me. I took his invitation and he pulled me in front of him. I was a little surprised. "You're stronger than you look," I mumbled. "Now that you've taken up the hobby of eating."

He laughed quietly, pulling me backward against his plastron. "I started running again about a week ago," he informed me. "And lifting weights."

I smiled. That was a step in the right direction. "I'm impressed," I grinned.

"Actually, it's kinda depressing," he mumbled. "I used to be able to do ten miles easy. Now I can't even go one without getting a stitch in my side."

I took both of his hands and guided them around my waist. He took the hint and held me tightly. "You'll get back there, Mike," I assured him. "I guarantee it."

I leaned back against him, my head on his shoulder. Suddenly, without warning, he jabbed his fingers into my sides. I cried out, instinctively trying to pull away. But his arms were crossed over my stomach. I was trapped.

"Ack! Mikey! Quit it! You're gonna make me fall!"

I lost my balance in my struggle to find a less vulnerable position. He pulled me back, but almost overcompensated. He gripped the tree to keep from falling. Once we were steadied again, I turned and shoved him back against the trunk. "You're gonna get us both killed, you know that?"

He raised his hand, curling his fingers like claws, and began advancing slowly, humming the theme from "Jaws". I turned as quickly and carefully as I could, holding my hands out in front of me defensively. "No," I warned, wishing I could stop laughing. "Mikey? No." He didn't stop. "Come on, please? Don't…"

His hand shot out and I shrieked as I tried unsuccessfully to grab his wrists. I laughed loudly, unable to control it. "Miiiikey," I whined, still giggling. "Knock it off! Come on! I'm…"

Suddenly, he was kissing me. My eyes widened in shock and I almost pulled away from him reflexively as my whole body tensed. Oh my god! Where did this come from? I was totally unprepared for the rush of emotions and confused thoughts that washed over me. My first thought was that this was wrong. Yukio would shoot him if he knew of this. But he didn't know. It didn't matter. Yes, it did matter. It was wrong for me to like him in the first place, but it was even worse to give into that. He was a different species, for crying out loud. And I knew I'd better pull away from him now before I started to really like this.

But I couldn't. I'd already waited too long. I felt myself melting into him as he licked my lips, probing for entrance. I could feel my defenses slowly slipping away. Why did it matter what he looked like? Why did that bother me? It didn't bother Jessica. I paused in my train of thought. I'd never considered that before. It had never occurred to me that I wasn't the first one to fall for one of them. Fall for him. I was falling for him, even if I didn't want to admit it. I was falling faster than I could stop myself. And maybe it was okay… Jess sure seemed happy enough.

I draped my arms over his shoulders as I opened to him. He pulled me close, the rough bark of the tree scraping my legs below my shorts. His arms circled my waist and he held me as our tongues met. He was hesitant, cautious. I was still recovering from the shock. He hadn't given me any warning that he thought of me this way. I hadn't had time to sort through all these emotions with any kind of seriousness. Sure, I had thought of him. But I chalked up my fantasies to another teenage crush, like every other "love of my life" that never seemed to evolve into anything. I had never expected this.

Our lips parted slowly, but we remained close for a few seconds. I felt a rush of cool air as he breathed in deep. His hold on me released and his eyes opened slowly. I felt a tension wash over him and he swallowed hard. "I…" he started. He pulled away, a look of horror on his face. My suspicion was confirmed. He'd surprised himself as much as me. "I'm sorry."

For a moment, I panicked. He was going to pull away again, and get quiet and depressed over this. I did not want that. "No," I cried, perhaps a little more eagerly than I meant to. I raised a hand to the side of his face, drawing his darting eyes back to mine. "No, don't be sorry."

He studied me carefully. I smiled, running my hand down to his neck. "It's okay," I whispered. "It's…" Cautiously, I leaned into him again and kissed his lips lightly. He didn't move. "It's good," I assured him. "I like it."

His eyes lit up. "Really?"

I smiled and nodded. He relaxed, but continued to search me as if he didn't totally believe my words. Finally, a faint smile crossed his lips. "Well, um," he mumbled. "I kinda liked it too." The smile abruptly fell. "I don't know if anyone else is going to like it, though."

I traced the edge of his mask. I'd already thought long and hard about that. "Does that bother you?" I asked him.

He considered that for a moment. "No."

I grinned. "Me neither."

His arms slipped around my waist as we kissed again.

MICHAELANGELO:

We were driving again by ten, and we reached the house by noon. I knew I wasn't a very good liar, and I tried to avoid eye contact with everyone. Especially Rei. But it was hard. Part of me was terrified by how fast this was moving. Part of me wanted to make it go faster.

The house had five bedrooms and a loft, which was like another room, a family room over the garage, three bathrooms, living room, dining room, and a kitchen. Sliding glass doors looked out onto the beach, and the living room was filled with tan leather furniture. The staircase leading upstairs was behind the sofa, and the banister was held up by thin, clear pillars that caught the light and separated it into a rainbow of colors. "My god," I whispered as I stepped inside.

Jess showed us around, and we figured out where we were going to sleep. One of the rooms was downstairs, and Splinter would stay there. Leo would sleep in the loft. Rei and Yukio offered to share a room. Well, it wasn't really an offer. It was a decision made by Yukio. Rei didn't protest.

They all talked. I retreated. I pried the window open in my room and stared out at the beach. The hiss of the waves was a totally unfamiliar sound, but certainly not an unpleasant one. It was sort of calming.

"Whaddaya doin'?"

I spun and saw Rei in the doorway. I smiled at her. "Shouldn't you be downstairs discussing the future of our happy crew?" I sighed, only mildly sarcastic.

She laughed quietly. "Shouldn't you?"

"Probably."

"But you're not."

"No, I'm not."

She took a few steps toward me and I felt her arms circle my shoulders as she spun in front of me and pressed her lips to mine. Instinctively, I slipped my arms around her waist as I kissed her back, slow and deep. Her fingers ran lightly over my neck, silently urging me to continue. With one final, slow breath in, I pulled away. She stared up at me, her eyes dancing. I brushed her hair out of her eyes and behind her ear. "You're so beautiful."

She leaned into me, resting her head on my shoulder, and kissed my neck. "I love you."