Chapter 21
Some Feelings Never Change
Two years had passed since the Swat Kats interaction with Marsha and Donatello. A lot has happened since then. Donatello and Marsha had gotten married, after receiving Splinter's blessing and Marsha was a few months pregnant. Meanwhile...
Jake Clawson tossed and turned in his bed that night, seeing the one person in his dreams that he wished not to see. Marsha was standing on a rocky cliff and Jake was on the other side of the cliff, which had a twenty-foot space between them and below them was nothing but darkness. He knew he had to get over to her and help her out, but he didn't have any weapons! "Aw crud," he muttered.
"Jake, help me!" Marsha screamed out with a huge look of fear on her face.
He clenched his teeth and walked back a few feet and then ran launching off from the cliff he was on towards her, but he didn't make it. He landed on the side of the cliff but was too far away to get her hand. Jake gripped the side of the cliff, but the rock was giving away and he started to slide down a little further; grunting in frustration, he tried to keep his position on the cliff. He looked up at her, then over a little and saw a huge dark shadow approaching her. "Marsha, watch out!"
She looked back, saw the dark shadow as well and she started to panic even more. "Hurry! Get up, Jake!"
"I'm trying!" he screamed out, gripping at the rocky cliff trying to find a foot hole; bits of rocks were falling down from him into the chasm below.
"Get up, Jake! Get up!" Marsha screamed again, the shadow was now right over her, tears were streaming down her face in terror.
Then suddenly everything started to fade as he heard a voice calling to him to get up. He immediately woke up and sat straight up in fear. Breathing really hard, he looked around and saw Chance staring at him with a puzzled look on his face. "Are you okay, buddy?" Chance finally asked, placing his hand on Jake's shoulder.
"Wha-Yeah I'm fine," Jake replied kind of high-pitched, still terrified from the dream, panting some to catch his breath.
"What kind of nightmare were you having, buddy?" Chance asked with concern.
"Oh, um, I don't remember," Jake lied, knowing on how his friend would react if he said it was about Marsha.
"Well I think it's about time for breakfast," Chance announced, suddenly changing the subject and took off for the kitchen.
Jake looked around at his room, the dream felt so real to him. He started to ponder. What if it was a warning dream? What if Marsha really was in trouble? Cupping his face with his paws, he sighed deeply, then stood up and followed his friend into the kitchen.
"We would like to wish Miss Briggs a get well soon and to our viewers, have a good evening," Ann said on the news that afternoon.
Chance walked up and turned the television off. "Man, poor Callie. Having the flu like that...she was just fine a few days ago," he murmured, then looked back at Jake, who was sitting on the couch. "Why don't we go pay her visit at her apartment?" he suggested.
Jake snapped out of his trance and looked at Chance. "Huh? Where are we going?"
"Jake, I'm going to visit Miss Briggs since she's sick," Chance answered. "You wanna come with me?"
"Um, I don't think so. I think I'm just going to do some tinkering in the garage. But tell her I said hi," Jake forced a smile as he stood up from the couch and walk towards his the garage, clearly out of it. Chance watched him, confused about his behavior, then left for Callie's apartment.
Jake sighed as he stepped inside the garage, closing his eyes for a few minutes and taking a deep breath. "I can't stop thinking about her...why is this happening to me?" He muttered. He picked up a wrench and started messing around with the TurboKat when he heard it.
"Jake, please help me! Ahhhhhh!"
Jake looked around the garage. "MARSHA!" He shouted. Sorry, no one's answering, Jake. No one in this house but you, now, buddy. You're starting to hallucinate now. "Dammit," he hissed.
"Jake, what's wrong? I heard you scream!" Chance declared, rushing over to him.
"Marsha...I have to go see her, Chance," he whispered.
"Jake, you're starting to scare me, buddy. You have to calm yourself."
"I had a nightmare last night, Chance. Marsha...she was being attacked, and I was just standing there, looking helpless! What if it's a warning? What if she really could be in danger?"
"Jake, it's been two years since you've seen her. She's probably married to Donatello by now. I don't want to see you get hurt again, Jake," Chance argued.
"I just want to go to their dimension for two days...to make sure she's okay, Chance, please," Jake whispered.
"Whatever you say, buddy."
Jake put in the coordinates to the Turtle's Lair that he found lying beside the Television set. Picking up the new remote control he made to activate the portal earlier than he needed to he said softly "Here goes nothing," as he pulled the lever making a portal appear. With one last look to the garage, he stepped through the portal and appeared in the workshop of the Lair. As he approached the living room area, his heart started to pound faster. How he longed to see her.
Leonardo was sitting on the floor, meditating when he felt another presence in the room. His eyes snapped open and he saw yet another humanized Kat walking towards him. "Um, Donny? I think you better come here," he called out to his younger brother as he stood up.
"What is it, Leo?" Don asked as he stepped out of the kitchen to look at his elder brother. Leo pointed in the direction of Jake; Don glanced over and his eyes grew wide.
Jake now felt kind of uncomfortable approaching them; he rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Um, hi, Don." He noticed that Donatello looked a little older.
Still puzzled, Don asked, "What are you doing here?"
"Do you think we can sit down and talk about it?" Jake asked, still kind of nervous, not really sure on how to talk to him.
Minutes later, Jake explained the images and dreams that were affecting him to Don and Leo. "And that's why I'm here. I promise I won't stay long, I just wanted to make sure that she was okay."
Don looked over at his brother with sadness, stood up and walked over to the work bench, gripping the edge of the desk, hoping that he wouldn't break down.
Jake looked over at Donatello, puzzled. "Look, I know it must hurt you to see me again and believe me I don't want to take her away from you, Don. I just want to make sure she's okay. Then I promise you that I'll leave and never bug you again."
"I think I should show you something, Jake," Leo started, taking a glance at his brother. He walked over towards the door of the Lair and beckoned for Jake to follow him. As they were leaving, Jake could have sworn that he heard Don crying.
Totally lost on his conversation with Donatello and Leonardo, Jake looked around at the surroundings of the sewer curiously, he didn't understand what was going on. Why was he showing him something? Where was Marsha? And why on earth were they going to a cemetery? "I don't know what on how else to tell you, Jake, but here," Leo spoke softly, facing Jake, then stepped aside, showing what was behind him. There in the ground, right next to Splinter's grave site, was a small granite cross with Marsha's choker necklace...the black choker necklace she always wore laying beside it.
Jake's heart almost stopped, choking already from the tears that were emerging. "I-is that…?" Leo nodded his head solemnly, closing his eyes and sighing. "No, please. It can't be…" Jake fell to his knees, tears pouring down his face. He reached over and gripped the cross in his arms, crying loudly.
Leo looked back towards the entrance of the cemetery and saw Donatello looking over at them with tears in his eyes. Leo placed his hands on Jake's shoulders. "I'm sorry, Jake. She was brutally murdered by Shredder. He basically beat her up to death and Donny, he witnessed it all, being unable to do anything until it was too late."
Everything felt so woozy to him. Jake stood up and felt everything spinning. This couldn't be happening! His dream came true as a nightmare! He had to get out of there! "I'm sorry to impose on you guys. I'll leave you now." Reaching for the remote control the portal, he pressed the button and stepped through the portal to return to his dimension again.
Hearing sizzle and cracking from the reappearing of the portal, Chance ran towards the garage, knowing that Jake had only been gone for about a hour. Jake walked towards the entrance of the garage, staggering a bit, his face was twisted in great pain and sorrow. Holding the sides of the garage entrance, he couldn't help but to let the tears fall from his eyes. Confused on his behavior, Chance asked, "What's wrong?"
"Marsha…" Jake announced sadly as he started to cry hard. Chance ran over to him and held him tightly in his arms to comfort him.
Weeks had passed since Jake had returned to his dimension in a sadden state, but since that time he had retreated to the garage and never came out that much. When he did, it was only for a short time. Chance looked very troubled by his peculiar behavior for he would be working on something in the garage from sunrise to midnight and when he did stop for a break.
Hearing Jake hammering loudly in the garage, Chance turned the television off and threw the remote down, grumbling under his breath. "Can't he take a short break...just this once?" he whined as he stormed off towards the garage.
Seeing the garage filled with connectors and cords, Chance spotted Jake wearing some protective goggles as he was crossing some wires over in his control panel of the portal. "Can't you take a break, Jake? You've been at this thing for hours now!"
"Sorry, Chance, diligence never rests," Jake answered, dryly and returned to his work.
Chance sighed and looked over Jake's work "So...what exactly does this thing do, Jake?"
"I thought you'd never ask!" Jake declared.. "Well, I built my own dimensional portal, to make even more useful to us! I don't have a flux compacter, but I reset the dimensional portal to where we could set a dimension to a specific time no earlier than 100 years ago and bring someone from that time to here or go to that dimension in that year! It's kind of a time trans dimensional machine if you want to get technical."
"Let me guess, you made that so that you could go to your girlfriend's dimension whenever you felt like it?" Chance asked, unenthusiastically.
"Exactly, Chance!" Jake grinned wildly and returned to the control panel.
"Um, Jake? Are you sure this is a wise thing to do?" Chance asked
"Of course I'm sure," his brother replied as he kept his attention at the control panel, typing in some information. "I'm typing in the coordinates to the Lair that I found by the television set. Then I set the date to the time when they left for their dimension."
Chance sighed and grabbed Jake by the shoulder, spinning him around to face him. "I have to talk to you before you do this."
"What's wrong, Chance?" Jake asked, getting kind of frustrated. But his friend just stared at him, not knowing what to say. "Look, I know what you're thinking. I'm not trying to interrupt her and Don's relationship. I'm not going to steal her away from Donatello. I just want to alert her about what's going to happen to her if she's not careful later on."
"I know you mean well, Jake, like you always do. Sure, your mind says that now but when you're actually there with her, what will your heart say?"
Jake rubbed the back of his neck, not knowing on how to answer Chance's question. "I-I guess it will be the same."
"Jake, you're still young. You shouldn't put your entire life towards one girl. I mean there may be someone else out there who's even better than her."
"No one could be better than Marsha!"
"Come on, Jake. Even you, used to like Miss Briggs, then you liked Felina...and it was back to liking Callie again.You shouldn't think that Marsha is the only person who'll ever love you back."
"I don't think that! I mean I used to, when I first met her but it feels different now."
Chance sighed and placed his hand on Jake's shoulder, looking straight at him. "Just don't try to force to make things work out for you and her. Let her decide on her own okay?"
"Chance, I'm not going make steal her. I'm just going to tell her to be precautious and then I'll come back home. Simple as that," Jake stated as he turned back around to prepare the opening of the portal.
Chance shook his head as he walked out of the garage, glancing back once more at his friend and softly whispered, "I wish it would be that simple, Jake."
Jake pulled the lever and saw the portal open, crossing his fingers, he took a deep breath and jumped through the portal.
Marsha had just put on a new set of clothes Donatello had bought for her, when she saw a familiar looking green portal open up in front of her in hers and Don's bedroom. "What the shell?" She jumped back, upon seeing Jake fall out of the portal. "Jake?"
"Um, hi, Marsha," Jake smiled, getting butterflies in his stomach.
"What's going on?" she asked looking at him with a confused look on her face.
"It's a long story and I think you should sit down. I have some uh...news to tell you," Jake replied looking at her with a worried look on his face.
"I'm what!" Marsha yelled out, flabbergasted on what Jake just told her.
Fear of Donatello overhearing or one of his brothers coming in the room, Jake quickly put his paw over her mouth. "Shh, pipe down. I don't want them to come in here."
"But I don't believe this! Is this a joke, Jake," Marsha asked once Jake removed his paw.
He sighed and shook his head. "No, it's not. Listen, I didn't want you to perish like that, Marsha. So I wanted to see you again to alert you."
Sighing heavily, she held her head and walked away from Jake to the opposite side of the room. "Well what if you stayed here with us for a few days? This is all so much for me...and I'm sure Donny wouldn't mind..."
"Ok, I'll stay with you," Jake replied as he walk towards her, studying her and noticed she gained a little weight. "You sure have changed..."
Marsha stared at him, then noticed that he was staring at her slightly bulging stomach and blushed. "Oh...I'm sure you've already figured out that Donny and I are mates...I'm carrying his child..."
His ears drooped a little, yet he forced a smile. "Oh, I'm very happy for the both of you, and I'm...sure you'll have a beautiful child, Marsha."
Marsha smiled softly, looking into his eyes. She reached out and touched his hand. "Thanks, Jake."
Her touch gave him goose bumps and Jake quickly pulled his hand, nervously."You're welcome," he mumbled, his cheeks slightly red.
"Uh, Marsha, who are you talking to?" Michelangelo asked, poking his head in the doorway. His eyes rested on the tomkat. "Uh-oh...you're the Kat Donny's been talking about..." he poked his head back outside the doorway. "You'd better split, dude."
Marsha shook her head. "It's okay, Mikey, I'll talk to Donny about it."
"Whatever you say, dudette...think of something fast, here he comes..."
"Mikey, just what do you think you're doing? Are you bothering Marsha?" She could hear Donatello's voice just outside the door. She looked over at Jake who stood completely still.
"Dude, I would never bother my sister like that!"
Don shook his head and stepped inside the room, stopping dead in his tracks upon seeing Jake. "What are you doing here?"
"Now, Donny, before you get any ideas, he only came by to warn me about something," Marsha started, carefully walking over to Don's side and taking his arm.
"Well, did you tell her?" he asked.
"Yeah..." Jake stared at Don.
"Well, then...aren't you going to leave?" he asked in a sour voice.
"Donny...I was thinking he could stay here for a few days...three at the most. He can have my old spare room."
"Marsha..."
Jake stepped forward. "I swear, Donatello, I'm not going to take her away from you. I only want to protect her."
Don looked from Marsha to Jake, then back to Marsha. "All right, he can stay..." he gave Jake a glare. "But if you try anything funny with my mate, you'll be going back to your dimension before your three days are up, buddy."
to be continued...
