A/N: I know, I can be a bit evil when it comes to good cliffies... I can't help it. I have a talent that way. Anyway, here is chapter eighteen, and yes, you will probably be yelling at me about this chapter too, but another onew ill be on it's way. I mean, it is only ten days to Christmas, and I have a sequel to put out. Please keep reviewing, and I love you all!

Chapter Eighteen: I Wish I Told You

"NO!" Eros's call echoed through the underground room as she saw the sword lowering toward her best friend's head.

Delaney never felt the impact of the katana and looked up to see Michelangelo standing between her and Yukio. He held his nunchakus above him, the chain blocking the blade of Yukio's katana. She blinked a couple of times trying to make sure what she was seeing was for real.

"Hitting an unarmed girl while she's down," Michelangelo grunted under the pressure of the katana, "Not cool, dude."

Michelangelo pushed against the katana and made Yukio take a few steps back from the force. Yukio took a look at him and smirked at the sight. It was the same freak in the mask that he beat pretty well about a week and a half ago. He was still wearing Delaney's ring around his neck on the black chain. So, this must be Michelangelo. This is why he fought so savagely last time. He cares.

"You really ready to go against me again, Michelangelo?" he brings the katana up to his side, "I won't stop myself from killing you this time."

"I won't give you the chance," Michelangelo stood tall over Delaney's form on the ground, "If I were you, I would run."

"From what? You?" he laughed a bit, "That's ridiculous. What has changed?"

"My reason for fighting," he looked down at Delaney who was struggling to keep pressure on her wound. He turned just in time to catch Yukio's katana with his nunchakus and flipped him over his head.

Yukio looked back at the turtle, leaned back on his elbows and looked at Michelangelo as if he had grown two more heads, "You've gotten better."

"No," Michelangelo started to walk toward him, "I'm just protecting something that is worth protecting this time. This time… I promised that I wouldn't die. I'm going to keep that promise."

Yukio turned his head toward the metal doors and started to yell, "Attack! Attack on clan!"

Suddenly the metal doors fly open with a few dozen ninjas flowing from the other room. They quickly surround the grounded Yukio and brandish their weapons. Michelangelo did a back flip from the advancing ninja swarm and stood strong in front of Delaney. She watched as the forces began to march toward them, signaling that they would not survive.

"It was a mistake to come on your own, Michelangelo," Yukio smiled and stood up.

"Who said he came alone?" a gruff voice came from the staircase with a ninja following it. The ninja flew toward Yukio from the staircase and hit a few more of his comrades down to the ground.

Soon enough Raphael and Donatello walked out from the staircase and threw a few more unconscious ninjas on the ground next to the entranceway. They stood next to Michelangelo and brandished their own respected weapons. Leonardo jumped down the boxes and crates, watching his step while carrying Eros in his arms to reach the floor and stand with his brothers. Eros ran over to her injured friend and held Delaney's head in her lap, hoping to calm her and distract her from her wound. Callista and Amity appeared from the stairs and went over to Delaney as soon as they saw her on the floor.

"Well, I should thank you," Yukio looked at the group of eight, "You not only brought me Delaney, but her friends as well. That saves me a lot of time in trying to find them."

"Who ever said we brought them to you?" Raphael stared him down, challenging him to make the first move.

"Well, what ever you did… I promise by the end of this they will either be dead or belonging to one of the clan members. To do with as they wish. I have already claimed Delaney, but if I were one of the other clan members the one with the black hair looks very nice. How about it, Callista?"

"No one touches Callista!" Raphael almost charged at Yukio, but Michelangelo put his hand out in front of his brother and shook his head.

"He's mine. Have fun with the rest of the ninjas. I have a score to settle."

"Mikey, revenge is not the answer," Leonardo whispered.

"This has nothing to do with revenge, Leo. It's concerning honor. He hurt Delaney, and now he has to face me," Michelangelo stepped forward toward Yukio and stopped midway letting a smile cross his face, "Unless he's chicken."

"You dare to call me a coward?" Yukio crossed his arms over his chest after putting his katana back in its sheath.

"That's what it sounds like," Michelangelo grinned wider, "You ready for this, or are you too scared?"

"Let's get this over with," he unsheathed his katana once again and turned his head slightly to the side to address the ninjas, "Kill the other three guys in costumes, but leave this one to me. No one kill the girls. We will handle them later."

The group of ninjas ran from behind Yukio and rushed toward the other three turtles. The guys rushed forward taking on at least four or five ninjas to each one of them. Raphael could have said that he liked the odds, but he couldn't say the same for his brothers. Michelangelo began to advance on Yukio and they began to fight each other once again. The only section of the room that was not engaged in battle was the circle of three girls who were trying desperately to save their friend and leader who was bleeding in the middle.

The girls gathered around Delaney who was trying very hard to keep her blood with in her own body, but failing miserably. The cut was seen through her now torn shirt and blood made the black and gray colors of her outfit look slick and sickly. The dark red socked through her clothes and onto the floor, covering the knees of the other girl's jeans and pants. Callista looked over her friend and shook her head slightly.

"He did a job on ya, didn't he?" she looked around the small circle that wasn't engaged in fighting for anything that could help. Amity dug in the bag still draped over her shoulder, pushing the laptop and microphone out of the way and brought out a large first aid kit and handed to Callista.

"Looking for something like this?" she smiled. Callista smiled back and started to get to work on cleaning and dressing her friend's major injury.

"My god, Amity. If I wasn't in so much pain and bleeding like hell I would kiss you," Delaney smiled as she saw the first aid kit. Callista began to take out the proper cleaning instruments and Delaney felt the sting from the major disinfectant. Amity let her grab her hand to squeeze when the pain got too bad. She tried to stay still for Callista, but she never was a very good patient.

"Shouldn't Donnie be helping you?" Eros asked Callista anxiously from behind Delaney's head.

"If you haven't noticed, he's kind of busy right now," Callista nodded toward the fight where Donatello was spinning his bo-staff like crazy knocking a few ninjas to the ground and then moving on to the next bunch.

"Besides, Callista knows what she's doing. She's a certified EMT, for crying out loud," Amity rolled her eyes and kept a firm grip on Delaney's hand.

"I'm done cleaning, but we got to lift her up so I can wrap her midsection. I hope it will at least slow down the bleeding," Callista nodded to the other two girls.

They nodded and each took a side of Delaney and sat her up so her wound could be dressed properly. Callista worked fast and tried her best to stop the bleeding, but from the look of it, most of the damage had already been done before she even got there. They set her back down on the cold floor of the basement room and Eros tried to get her head back on her lap.

"So what's the prognosis, doc?" Delaney smiled up at Callista trying to make a joke out of it, "Am I gonna make it?"

Callista looked gravely at her friend, totally jumping the joke, "I hope so."

"That bad, huh?" Delaney squinted and felt the material that was now wound tightly around her midsection.

"Yeah, why? Do you feel that much?"

"Oh, I feel a hell of a lot of pain. I was just hoping it was a little better than what I feel like."

"To tell you the truth, you've lost a lot of blood. More than you should loose. In all aspects you should at least be out like a light."

"Thanks for your vote of confidence," Delaney grumbled and shut her eyes for a moment or two.

"Oh no, if you are awake, you're staying awake," Callista patted the side of Delaney's face to wake her back up, "You can't go to sleep on us, D. If you do, I'm not sure if you'll wake up."

"Okay, okay… but I am so sleeping in when we get back home," Delaney said half in a daze.

"If we get home…" Eros whispered to herself, but all the girls heard it.

"We will get back home. We just have to have faith in the guys," Amity looked at the fight and saw a few ninjas hit the ground from Raphael's last kick.

"Hey, wish me luck," Callista stood up and started to walk toward the fighting.

"What are you talking about?" Eros looked after her with Delaney's eyes following her movements.

"The guys need help. Delaney is out of commission and out of the three of us left, I think I'm the only one who has some fighting experience."

"What?"

"I took kickboxing for the last six years," she shrugged, "Didn't Delaney tell you?"

Delaney shook her head, "They never asked."

Callista shrugged again and tilted her head from side to side making her neck crack, "Time to clear some way, huh?"

"Be careful," Amity warned.

"Hey, Yukio told them not to harm us, right?" she winked.

"Isn't that cheating in some respect?"

"They don't know that," she smiled and started to go after the first ninja she saw.

"Eros? Where's Mikey?" Delaney asked with heavy eyelids. If Callista was right about her not waking up she wanted to tell Michelangelo she was sorry. That everything that she told Yukio just a few moments ago was true. She did love him, and there was going to be Hell to pay if she didn't get to tell him how she really felt.

"He's kind of busy, Delaney," Eros looked up at the fight and searched for Michelangelo in the fog of the ninjas. She finally caught him toward the back of the room with nuncuckus spinning wildly and Yukio staring him down with his katana gripped tightly in his right hand. She squinted as the two bodies raced toward each other and Michelangelo went sliding to the floor.

"Is he okay?" Delaney tried to sit up to see, but Eros kept pushing her back down.

"Well, let's say he's managing."

"This is the last time you stand in my way," Yukio stood over Michelangelo with his katana at his side, ready to slice Michelangelo in half. Michelangelo looked at the edge of the blade, at Yukio's face and then over at Delaney who looked like she was struggling to stay awake now. Eros had her head in her lap and tried to keep her down. She was straining to see, and probably suffering from it. The katana began to rise again over the young man's head and he wanted to make sure he didn't miss his target this time. Michelangelo closed his eyes and quickly did a back flip to land on his feet in a defensive stance.

Yukio was caught a little off balance from his katana strike and tried to stable himself. Michelangelo moved and did a hard palm hit to land square in Yukio's chest. The man fell back, dropping his katana and landing on his back. He pushed off from his hands and stood back up in a stance. Michelangelo looked him over, hoping to find some kind of weakness, some kind of soft spot. After only a few seconds Yukio rushed forward attempting to catch Michelangelo in mid-concentration. Michelangelo leaned to his side and sent the young ninja into a few dozen crates and heard his head crash into a thick, metal pipe. After a few moments of silence and no movement from Yukio, Michelangelo made a straight dash for Delaney, picking up his nunchakus along the way.

"Mikey, thank God," Amity breathed, "She can barely stay awake. Maybe you can keep her awake for us. Keep her here."

Michelangelo knelt right next to Delaney almost completely entranced with her and completely ignoring Amity's comment. He took hold of her hand and looked into her face. Her eyes were squeezed closed in pain as she moved to look wherever Eros was looking to find Michelangelo. He could see that her complexion was growing paler from the loss of blood and she couldn't hold on much longer if they didn't get her some real medical attention.

"Hey babe," he whispered and Delaney turned back to him and opened her eyes, "I'm over here."

"What makes you think I'm looking for you?" she smiled to tell him it was a joke and then her face slowly changed to one of sadness. She looked as if she wanted to cry, "Mikey… I am so sorry."

"Shhh, it's going to be okay," his voice cracked a little from seeing her condition. He wasn't even sure if he believed himself, "I won't let him take you away. I won't."

She stared at his face and found a tear slowly fall down his cheek, "Somehow, I don't think that he will be the one to take me away. I can barely stay awake anymore."

"And you're going to stay awake until Donnie can look at you. Or Splinter, or… some one who knows exactly what they're doing. Come on, babe. You got to stay awake."

"I wish I could, but it's so hard," she slowly blinked and held a hand to her wound taking a deep, shuddering breath.

"Fight it," he said strongly leaning toward her and squeezing gently on her hand, "Fight it… please. Don't leave me. I've lost you for four days now, I don't want to lose you forever…"

The words struck home for Delaney. He wanted to make things right between the two of them as much as she did. All the suffering that she had gone through probably hit him ten times as hard. She was the closest thing he had to a best friend outside his brothers, April, Casey and Master Splinter. For the past four days it was as if they were both strangers, walking along the sewers as if they were in their own worlds. Not bothering to give the other even a passing glance, until the other was not even aware of it. She could have cursed herself for being so stupid. He was everything to her, and she let the last four days- that she could have spent enjoying his company- fall to waste. How stupid did she have to be to let an opportunity like that pass her by? She would do anything to get that time back and set things right. She was angry, and so was he, but it didn't matter compared to how much she felt for him. She let out a hard breath and looked into his eyes.

"Hold on to me," she asked him softly, "Please… just hold on to me."

"I don't want to move you. You can get even more seriously hurt. I don't want to take the chance."

"I don't care," she let her own tear fall down her cheek, "I just want you to hold me. To lean on your shoulder and know that everything is going to be all right. Please…Mikey."

He looked at Eros who only nodded at him and began to lift Delaney's head from her lap. Michelangelo took her head and wrapped his arms around her torso, trying to be careful not to irritate the wound anymore than what it has been. Despite his tries he heard a hiss of pain coming from between Delaney's teeth as she settled into his embrace. She laid her head gently on his shoulder and tucked her arms tight between her chest and his plastron. This was the only place that she felt safe. The only place that she could completely let everything go and know that everything will be okay. With the steady beat of his heart thumping underneath her ear, she was slowly slipping toward unconsciousness. She felt his chin lightly touch the top of her head and ask if she was okay.

She could barely hear him and softly nodded her head. She felt better; the pain seemed to be melting away from her. Her eyelids slowly dropped closed and she heard some fearful shouts from Eros and Amity. They were asking her to come back

'What are they talking about? I'm right here…' she asked herself.

She felt the arms around her loosen and two hands cup either side of her face. She felt something touch her forehead and the cold ground beneath her head. Wet drops began to splash on her face; she could barely taste the salt from the ones that made it to her mouth. She could only conclude that they were tears.

"Don't you dare leave me! Don't you dare! I won't let you go! You can't leave- you… can't…"

It was Michelangelo… he was screaming. He sounded so far away. Like a fading echo ringing through the vastness of her mind which was beginning to fade into blackness. Those were his tears that were falling on her face. He was crying. For her. She fought within herself.

'I'm not going anywhere!' she tried to push back the emerging black. It was overwhelming her and no matter how much she fought, it kept advancing toward her. It started to shroud her whole mind. Her whole thought process was starting to expire. All she could think of was Michelangelo… and three simple words that she longed to say to him. But somehow she knew she never would get the chance.

'I love you.'