~ Hello an Happy new year to everyone! This was work I was almost crying at the end of this chapter, whew! Thanks for the reviews everyone and I hope you like this chapter.
The first thing that the turtles noticed was that the air around them was freezing cold. Looking around they were able to see some tree's through a white blur and something that looked amazingly like a pond. Past the pond was a house, close by to a creek that ran along side it. Staggering over to the house Leonardo reached it first and knocked. There was no answer. As his brothers got to the front door they looked around to try and figure out what to do. Their beaks were starting to go numb as well as their toes and fingers.
"Where the heck are we?" Raphael questioned loudly.
"In the middle of a snowstorm," Donatello yelled back. It seemed easier to yell because of the wind howling in everyone's ears.
"Dudes, we have got to find cover," Michelangelo yelled then felt a tug on his hand. Turning he saw a girl with light blond hair indicating to follow her. Grabbing his closes brother, they all turned and followed the girl into one of the houses. Once she closed the door she ran and got blankets for everyone.
"I thought your mom told you not to…" The girl paused as she looked over the guys. "Wait a minute you're not my cousins, who are you?" She handed each of them a blanket and waited.
"We got lost," Leonardo said covering himself. "Where are we?"
"If you don't know what state your in, you're even more lost than you think." Thinking for a minute, the girl ushered the guys into a living room where there was a fire going and turned the heat up a little. Turning back to the guys she looked them over and sighed.
"Well sit down and get comfortable, I'm not going to make you go out in that weather again." Sitting next to Donatello she started to rub the blanket over his shivering person. "My name is Danielle, what's yours?" The turtles introduced themselves when another girl walked into the room as Danielle was checking each.
"What did you find in the snow?" She asked. Danielle grinned and hugged Michelangelo the turtle she was closer to.
"Aw, they followed me home, can I keep them?" Danielle asked playfully. "Please Jessica?"
"Only until the storm is over with and the roads are cleared," Jessica said disappearing back into the kitchen.
"Now you don't have to worry about freezing to death," Danielle exclaimed happily. "That's my older cousin, she's watching me," Danielle made a face, "Until my parents get back home, which might be awhile." Jessica came in and gave the guys all hot chocolate to help warm themselves up.
"Danielle, your parents are not going to be home tonight because of how harsh the storm is getting," Jessica said now looking outside the window. "I just got off the phone with them, before it went dead and told them about our unexpected visitors and they said they could sleep in the guest room." Danielle nodded as Jessica left the room again. Turning her attention back on the guys, Danielle flooded them with questions.
"Where are you from, how old are you, why are you out here, and how did you get out here?" The turtles looked at each other for a minute then Michelangelo thought of an answer.
"We decided to vacation here and got a ride out here to try out some snow boardin then got caught in the storm." Michelangelo sat back looking please with himself.
"But you still didn't answer three of my questions." Danielle pointed out.
"Oh, well, uh, " Michelangelo stammered until Donatello cut in.
"We're from Manhattan, New York and about eighteen years old," more or less Donatello finished to himself.
"Oh, well…"
"Danielle, get our guest some blankets and get to bed," Jessica called from the other room. "Your parents said that they would stay in town tonight and then come home tomorrow if the roads clear. If we need anything we are to go to gram's and gramps."
"Kay, Jessica, got it," Danielle yelled back. "Sheesh." Danielle got up and looked at the guys. "I'll be right back with some blankets." And left the room. Danielle returned with several comforters and the guys decided to stretch out on the floor. Raphael claimed the couch, the other three took spots on the floor. After Jessica was in bed, Danielle snuck out of hers and peeked in on the guys. Looking at them, she saw one bundle on the couch and two bundles… wait one was missing. Stepping over to the entertainment room, Danielle found the missing one, playing on her play station.
"What are you doing?" Danielle asked then laughed as Michelangelo jumped in the air.
"Don't sneak up from a dude like that," Michelangelo said putting a hand over his heart. "Give a dude a heart attack." Danielle covered her mouth to keep from laughing loud and went over, sitting next to Michelangelo. "Wanna play?"
"Sure," Danielle said and soon got caught up in Mortal Kombat. "This would be killer to be able to do in real life, don't you think?" Michelangelo smiled at that, keeping his eyes on the screen.
"It is, my brothers and I can do stuff like this." Danielle put the controller down and looked at Michelangelo. "We grew up studying martial arts, ninjitsu to be exact."
"Wow, show me," Danielle told Michelangelo pushing him to get up.
"Uh, okay." Michelangelo pulled out his nunchukus and paused. "You can see these, right?" Michelangelo held them out to Danielle.
"Of course I can," She replied. Michelangelo nodded and started to do a combination of tricks Master Splinter taught him along with some he can up with on his own. This fascinated Danielle. His face and body did a complete transformation. Sure he was still the friendly funny guy that she started to play the play station with but something was different. When Michelangelo finished he grinned at Danielle who gave him silent applause. Putting the nunchukus away Michelangelo turned and looked out the window.
"Snow stopped," he commented. Danielle went up beside him and looked out. A blanket of white covered the ground, giving it a winter wonderland look. "This is great."
"Yeah," Danielle said not too impressed. "Until it turns to ice and the power goes out and you're stuck in your house for days on end." Michelangelo looked over to Danielle. He never thought about that before. He never had a reason to. Then Danielle's face brightened. "But it gets me out of school." Michelangelo had to laugh at that.
"That's cool," he commented. "So who's houses are over there?"
"That's my cousins house over there they have a camouflage four wheeler and they also have a zebra striped one, our family is four wheeler crazy," Danielle paused as Michelangelo laughed. " I have a red four wheeler but my parents took that to town, so you can't see it now.
"This is just a really little town where there's at least six churches and everyone knows everyone, can't get away with anything," Danielle said and blew on the window making the glass fog up. "I should probably get back to bed," Danielle said still staring outside.
"Yeah," Michelangelo nodded. Neither one moved until Michelangelo knocked an envelope over from a table. "Oh sorry on that." A few pictures fell out and Michelangelo picked them up. He recognized Niagara Falls and the girls in the pictures.
"Those are some of my friends," Danielle commented. "I was suppose to go with them, but my ticket for some reason was no good and they wouldn't let me get on the plane. So they sent me pictures." Michelangelo nodded and handed Danielle the pictures before he commented that he already knew who the girls were. Michelangelo then turned and asked Danielle a question. "Do you have a jacket I can borrow, I want to go play in the snow." Danielle looked up at him and smiled.
"Okay, yeah, hold on I'll be right back." Danielle ran to the closet and pulled one of her dad's extra coats out. She handed it to Michelangelo and in a few minutes they were outside. Danielle started a snowman and Michelangelo picked up some snow and started to pat some one. Once they had the head ready, Michelangelo went to put it on, the snow man was almost taller than Michelangelo. Danielle watched from the other side as the head went up, then came crashing down on top of her. Michelangelo went around to see if she was okay. All he found was legs and arms moving around trying to get up. Brushing the snow away, Michelangelo pulled Danielle out of the snow.
"Giant snowball on unsuspecting victim, no fair." Danielle sputtered snow in her mouth.
"At least it wasn't yellow snow," Michelangelo said and started to laugh seeing that Danielle was all right. She gave him a disgusted look and stuffed some snow into Michelangelo's open mouth. Danielle laughed as Michelangelo pretended to gag and stumbled around. Michelangelo then fell over and shook for a minute then lay still. Danielle was laughing at him.
"Okay, Mikey get up we should probably go inside now." No response. "Mikey, this isn't funny anymore." Danielle walked closer to him, Michelangelo was laying face down in the snow, it didn't look like he was breathing. "Mikey? Michelangelo?" Danielle knelt next to him getting worried and started shaking his shoulders.
"Oh my gosh, Mikey!" Danielle got up intending to run to the house to get help when an arm from nowhere pulled her into the snow. Looking up there was Michelangelo a huge grin on his face. "Danielle belted him with snow until he ran away yelling.
"I surrender!" Michelangelo ducked behind a pine tree. He peered back around and didn't see Danielle. "Hey dudette, where'd you go?" Danielle came up from behind and pushed Michelangelo down into the snow. As dawn started to approach, Michelangelo suggested that they go inside before the others got up. Danielle shrugged but went in anyway, dried off and went back to her room. Michelangelo was in the kitchen drinking some hot cocoa looking outside. Finishing his cup, he rinsed it out and went back to sleep.
Sunshine shining in the window woke the four sleeping turtles from their slumber. Michelangelo rolled over shielding his eyes from the sun while Leonardo and Donatello stretched their stiff limbs. Raphael simply turned over groaning at his brothers, but got up after being prodded for a few minutes. Michelangelo on the other hand was back asleep, until Leonardo woke him up.
"Come on we need to practice, we haven't done that for a few days." Michelangelo looked at Leonardo with red eyes, but got up anyway.
"So where do we practice?" Raphael asked.
"The garage should be empty or outside," Donatello suggested. They agreed outside would be good, for an hour, and the snow would soften any falls. Danielle and Jessica got up while the guys were outside. The only reason Danielle was up, was because Jessica insisted and didn't go away when stuffed animals were thrown at her. As Jessica cooked Danielle looked out the window and saw the guys practicing. Michelangelo saw her peering through and waved. He was sparring with Raphael who took that chance to take his feet out from under him. Getting a face full of snow, Michelangelo managed a grin as Danielle laughed.
"Hey Danielle, call your friends in if they want to eat," Jessica called from the kitchen. Danielle yelled out that breakfast was ready and jumped out of the way to not get run over. In the kitchen Jessica had made biscuits, poached eggs, toast, bacon, coffee and orange juice and even had cinnamon rolls out.
"Why don't you cook like this everyday, Jess?" Danielle started to grab some bacon and eggs.
"Because by the time I'm up your parents are already gone out or doing what ever it is they normally do," Jessica replied. "And you can't eat all this by yourself.
"Uure u cun," Danielle said with a full mouth. This made Raphael laugh while drinking his orange juice, which he promptly snorted up his nose. He got up dashing around the kitchen while Danielle and everyone else laughed. Getting a napkin Raphael sat down and started to stuff his face instead of commenting. Once breakfast was done and the turtles helped clean up Danielle ushered them out the door.
"I want you to meet my cousins," Danielle said.
"But we already know Jessica," Donatello commented.
"I mean the rest of my cousins," Danielle said pushing the guys forward. At the cousins house the guys were quickly overwhelmed and didn't remember one name from the next. Michelangelo jumped into the mix laughing and joking while the rest of the guys were getting the hang of being around so many people at once.
"Let's go ice fishing!" One of the cousins yelled. The rest booed him down until Danielle jumped up.
"I want to go, come on." The turtles were fine with it and the cousin who suggested it, Jacob got some gear and headed out towards the river.
"Hold on I'll be right back," Jacob said running back into the house. Coming back out he had a big smile on his face.
"You didn't invite," Danielle started.
"Yes I did," Jacob interrupted. "Bobby and some friends of his are headed over right now." Danielle's face flushed but it wasn't from happiness.
"Why did you do that, they always find something about me to pick on and I have such a hard time standing Bobby and his so called friends!" Danielle clenched her fist. Jacob shrugged.
"Oh well, they're already here," Jacob pointed to the group of four people walking up. Bobby helped cut the ice, while the rest helped everyone get their hooks ready.
"Hey Danielle, this looks like you," One of Bobby's friends said, holding a worm up. Danielle let out a frustrated growl and stamped away.
"That was not nice," Raphael said.
"She can deal, we always talk like this," Bobby said, Jacob laughed. When Danielle came back it was about an hour later. Pushing some of Bobby's friends aside, Danielle sat next to the turtles on some chair's that were brought out earlier.
"We're you guys more over that way?" Danielle pointed closer to the middle of the river.
"Yeah, but we though the hole was too big and thought it's be safer closer to shore," Donatello said. Danielle nodded and watched the poles. Leonardo was not really paying attention and almost had his pole pulled out of his hand.
"I got one!" Leonardo got a better grip. Danielle went over to him to get a better view. "Have you ever caught one like this Danielle.
"Mine usually get away," Danielle said.
"Here, take the pole," Leonardo offered. Excited Danielle grabbed the pole and Leonardo helped her pull the fish out and place it into the bucket Jacob pulled out. "There you go Danielle." Danielle beamed at him.
"Yeah, now you get to gut and clean it," Bobby laughed. Danielle quickly lost her grin and made a face of disgust.
"Eww, no way," Danielle said.
"Or Danielle you could rub the fish over you it would be an improvement," One of Bobby's friends yelled.
"Guys," Jacob said.
"Or you could use it as an air freshener to cover your room smell," another piped up. Danielle looked ready to cry.
"Stop it!" Danielle cried out.
"I know," Bobby added in. "When Danielle goes on her first date, we'll tell the guy that she has a fish fetish."
"If she can get a date!" The last guy laughed. Danielle had enough and turned to walk away from the group, almost running. Bobby and his friends were laughing so hard that they were in tears. Jacob and the turtles stepped up to them not too happy about what they did.
"That was low," Jacob said. "I think you need to leave."
"Aww, come on it was only…" Bobby was interrupted.
"He said leave," Michelangelo stepped up to Bobby. Bobby looked at Michelangelo and to the others.
"Fine, come one guys, we got better things to do then fish with losers," Bobby stated leaving with his friends trailing behind him.
"Losers are guys like you who pick on nice, pretty girls," Michelangelo yelled. His brothers stepped up patting him on the back.
"Good going bro," Raphael said.
"I'm proud of you," Leonardo and Donatello put in.
"Thanks for standing up for her," Jacob added. "I knew better but thought the more the merrier."
"At least you didn't go along with it," Donatello said. Jacob smiled at them.
"Where did Danielle go," Raphael turned looking for her.
"Maybe she went back to the house?" Jacob suggested.
"No she walked…" Michelangelo looked towards the first hole they cut.
"To the center of the river!" They all exclaimed in unison rushing over. The only thing they found was Danielle's scarf caught on the edge of the ice.
"Quick follow the river!" Donatello yelled. Running down the thick ice, Jacob was able to get ahead, used to the ice.
"Danielle!" Jacob screamed falling to his knees. The turtles got to where Jacob was and saw Danielle under the ice, weakly pounding on it, as she moved slowly further down the river. Leonardo went a little a head of her and started trying to cut the ice, but it was too thick. Michelangelo watched as Danielle's movements got slower and slower.
"For crying out loud, Danielle no!" Michelangelo grabbed his nunckus and started to pound at the ice. Slowly it started to crack then he broke through. Danielle reached up to the opening but her hand didn't make it. It slowly started to drift back down when Michelangelo reached in, almost falling in himself and grabbed Danielle's hand. Pulling her out, her body was limp in his arms as he gently shook her.
"Danielle breathe, breathe," Michelangelo laid her down. Leonardo knelt on the other side and started CPR. After a few minutes there was no results.
"I'm sorry Mikey, Jacob," Leonardo sighed trying not to cry. "We just didn't get her out in time."
"No!" Michelangelo shouted pushing Leonardo away. "No! I was not sent here to see her die, your suppose to live!" Michelangelo started to beat on her chest until a familiar tingle started in his arms. His brothers looked at each other knowing what was going to happen.
"Maybe we'll go back in time," Donatello said quietly.
"There is no going back," Oberon's voice echoed in their heads. Michelangelo was crying openly as he cradled Danielle in his arms. Jacob saw a light start shining around the turtles, but they were still boys to him. As the bright flash reflected off the ice, Jacob covered his face then looked to Danielle. Walking over to her, he brushed her hair out of her face when she coughed. Seeing that, He helped her to her side as she spit out water and took in a long needed breath.
"Wha, what happened?" Danielle looked around. "Where's the turtles?"
"What turtles Danielle?" Jacob asked puzzled.
"The guys were turtles, I watched him pull me out of the river," Danielle tried to get up but her limbs were too stiff. " I saw them cry I have to let them know I'm all right."
"Danielle, stop!" Danielle looked at Jacob who had tears rolling down his face. "They just disappeared. They're gone."