Disclaimer: Gee, you think I own 'em NOW? Nope. Never in my life have I had a ninja turtle at my beck and call.
A/N: (kicks self in butt) I'm such a bad updater! I swear I am! (bites and chews thoughtfully on Lharom's tail) Lharom: "Get OFF." (flings LN into the wall) Thanks a lot, you big chicken! Anyhoo…you guys may thank Askre and sunnysunshineRM from Stealthy Stories forum for needling me into a fourth chaper…and the angst commences! Thanks ever so Jessiy Landroz, Ramica, Chibi Rose Angel, Mewfem, and my honorable mentions who reviewed on Stealthy Stories but not ff dot net,Askre, and sunnysunshineRM. Thanks for giving me a kick in the pants, guys!
4.
The first thing I remembered when I woke up was quite frankly, fear. My memories had stopped their brutal assault, but it didn't mean they wouldn't come back. Fighting a growing headache, I moaned and buried my head in my pillow, hearing voices outside the door. One was angry and stern, tenor by the sound of it. A nice voice to listen to. The other one, rough and quiet, had a hard accent to it. That was…oh, what did Mikey call him? Raph. That was it.
It all came back in a rush. The look of protective fury in Mike's eyes, his tense body language, his scrapes. The fight. My arms weakened. I had hit him in the head with a tea cup. Raph. Fighting off a wave of nausea, I turned over in the warm bed and shivered, feeling horrible. I had caused this by coming down here. If only…if only I had just told Mike off. But no. I couldn't do that. Not to him. Not to those kind brown eyes that held the world inside them.
I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair, combing the snags out carefully. I really shouldn't overstay my welcome. Carefully easing myself up, I swung my legs out of the bed. I would have to crawl if I was to do anything like walking. I reached my bare toes down for a floor I thought for sure I could find simply by touch, but I couldn't reach it. Braving myself, I slid off the bed, grabbing for the nearby nightstand when I found that the floor was a little lower than I would've liked. Unintentionally, I let out a cry of pain when my right leg screamed from the impact. I hope I didn't break it! Stupid! I berated myself, not in the least surprised when somebody flung the door open, shedding light on the dark room.
"Hey, are you alright?" asked the tenor voice. A gentle but firm green hand took my arm in it, lifting me up and setting my on the bed. "You really shouldn't try getting out by yourself like that." I looked up at him, my deep red hair falling into my eyes.
"Leo, did you wake her up after I gave you strict orders not to?" came Don's cross question from the door. He was leaning on his bo heavily, ankle bandaged.
Leo smiled and shook his head before straightening. "No, Donnie, she fell out of bed."
He snorted, "A likely story. And if she did, please bring her to the lab so I can check for breaks," before hobbling away. I grimaced when my leg reminded me of its near fracture.
"Here, let me help," he offered.
"Thanks," I croaked, surprising myself with my own dry tone.
"I suppose you'll need water too." He gathered me in strong arms and heaved me up. "Do you ever eat?" he asked seriously, staring at me with twinkling gray eyes. "You're light as a feather." Without waiting for a reply, he carried me out in a stately walk. On the far side of the large mat in the center of the Lair, I saw a gray-maroon figure standing by a pillar, talking to the very person I had practiced my softball throwing skills on with a tea cup. He looked a bit tired as the person reprimanded him. "Don't worry about Raph," Leo said nonchalantly, as if sensing my thoughts. "He's just that way sometimes. He doesn't take well to strangers."
"So I noticed," I replied weakly.
I felt Leo shift, as if he was uneasy with something. "You'll get used to him." As I was about to ask what he meant by that, he ascended a short flight of steps into a cluttered subway car. "Alright Don, she's all yours." He set me down on a conveniently located cot and winked at me. "If he pulls out a needle, run like mad."
The aforementioned turtle popped out of a pile of books and wires and scowled at Leo. "If you weren't so bent on hurting yourself with various sharp objects, I wouldn't have to fight the infection!" he growled, wrestling something out of his pile. "Now beat it, Leo, I've got stuff to do." The other turtle's eyes crackled with indignation but he left in a huff. "Everybody's on pins and needles these days," Don grumbled, hopping on one foot towards the cot.
As he set up his equipment, I tried to get a better look out the half-curtained window to my left, seeing nothing but smooth tan stone. Heaving a sigh, I let the muttering Donatello run a bulky machine over my leg and heard him snap something on it. "Well, that's it. You cracked it," he grouched, stuffing the thing into a box nearby.
"Sorry," I whispered.
He rubbed his face. "S'not your fault anyways. I just wish Mikey had thought to bring your wheelchair so we could've avoided this." He looked me straight in the eye, a dry smile on his lips. "Just make sure you don't overexert yourself when you try to get around. Ask one of us for help, alright? Brittle bone disease isn't something to sneeze at." I nodded silently, staring into empty space. I wonder how he found out…I thought. Where was Mikey? Did Raph hurt him? I hope I didn't offend anybody, I thought, cringing inwardly. That teacup looked like it was - "You okay?" he asked, frowning now.
Fumbling for an excuse, I looked down at myself, seeing various splotches of sewer grime on my jeans and sweater from when Mike had set me down on the cement before. "Oh, um…I was just thinking that I…um," I stammered, blushing hot red.
"Need a shower?" he suggested. I went an even brighter tinge. How could he ask that so casually? This is a house full of…
"Donnie! Get yer butt out here! April's got that…thing you wanted!" Raph bellowed.
"Knock it off, Raph, he lives in the same district as you do!" somebody feminine said with a laugh. "You don't have to yell." Raph grumbled about not being appreciated before saying, "He's in the lab," and falling silent. Light footsteps came towards the subway car and finally, a woman of twenty-eight appeared in the door. After pursing her lips at me, she smiled. "Hello, who are you?"
"Anna."
The woman winked at me and said slyly to Don, "Getting serious about your love life, Donnie?"
Don stood up and grabbed his staff, giving her an overly sweet smile. "I'll see you later April," he muttered, hobbling out the door.
"He's grouchy today," April told me with a slight smile, setting an angled bag on a nearby table. "So, how did you get dragged into their pitiful lives?" she asked.
"I heard that, April, and we do not live pitifully!" somebody randomly shouted. It was hard to discern whose voice it was.
She chuckled lightly. "Kidding, Leo," she called impishly. Another person snorted. "You don't look like the normal injured folks they bring down here for recovery," April observed quietly. I shook my head slowly. They took others down here for medical assistance? I guess that would explain the various apparatuses on Don's desk. "They've had quite a few lately," the pale-skinned woman continued. "There's so much gang activity above ground it's scary." She looked thoughtful.
Suddenly a red bandanna-wrapped head popped in through the door. "Hey! Lunch's ready for anybody who's alive in here!"
"Oh, is Mikey back?" April asked eagerly. Something stirred angrily within me at the comment, but went back to rest when she said, "If he made pizza, I think I'll have to leave Casey at the apartment for a little while longer. Are you coming?" Her next question was directed at me. I sat where I was on the cot, blinking at her.
"Oh, Ape, I'll take care of it," Raph said gruffly. "Just get your butt in the kitchen. Leo's shoveling it down like you wouldn't believe."
"So he did make pizza!" She exited the train car and could be heard squealing at Leo to leave some for the starving people.
Raph diverted my attention when he cleared his throat. With nobody else in the room, my heart started racing with fear. Images of his rage and the look of animalistic murder in his eyes flashed. He started toward me. With every step, he transformed into the one man who had nearly killed me. The green skin on his head morphed into wild brown hair. Piercing green irises took on drunken fury in bloodshot blue. The memories started flooding through the crack in the dam that had been erected in my mind to keep them in.
Before any could take hold on my and throw me into a state of paralytic shaking, two warm hands grabbed hold of my arms and gently squeezed. The contact with my limb was established in my mind as a threatening gesture. After all, that man who had sired me did it many a time with his only intent being to hurt me. Red flashed in my vision as I saw blood spatter on the floor.
"Mommy!" I cried. "Mommy, no!" Her body tumbled to the floor, motionless where it landed. No spasms, no rise of the chest. Nothing that proved she was alive. Blood gushed onto the carpet from the large cut in her stomach. Those lovely gray blue eyes that had always comforted me stared at the ceiling in macabre fascination. I clutched her pale white arm and sobbed where I lay, my drunken father somewhat shocked out of his stupor.
"Outta the way," he growled, calling me a name as he pushed me aside. "She ain't dead, she jus' bleedin' a lot…" he slurred, tottering toward the phone. My heart blazed angrily as he dialed for the police and mumbled into the mouth piece, saying his wife had just slipped and fallen on a knife. He kicked me as he passed, going for his room to lie on his bed while mommy lay on the floor. That walking pile of dung just slashed my mother open with a knife.
I took her lifeless hand in mine and cried until it hurt to force out the tears.
"Anna! Anna! Snap out of it!" Somebody was shaking me just under the category of roughly. Almost sickeningly fast I popped out of the horrible prison that is my mind and saw a green face looking down at me through my tear-blurred eyes. It was Raph.
I couldn't help it. Struggling to banish the last of the flashback, I shrieked as he held me down.
There were yells of surprise, some indignant as they fell out of their chairs with the volume of my outburst. I writhed in Raph's hands, sobbing. He was coming. He would find me and kill me, just like mom. And he would do anything to get me where he wanted to do it. Clearly confused, my would-be comforter tried to hold off my hysteria, firmly gripping my wrists but not so tightly it hurt.
"What the shell did you do, Raph?" somebody shouted. I saw Don's face pop up from behind him through salty tears.
"You just shut up, Anna! Can't you do anything right?" he roared, backhanding me across the face. I fell onto the floor, hot pain lancing up my arm as I broke the worst of the impact. He cursed. "I ask you to do one simple thing and you can't even accomplish that?" He picked me up and shook me by the shoulders.
"But…but daddy…" I whimpered as he slammed me into the wall and held me there. "I w-would've done what y-you said b-but y-you t-told me you changed your mind and – "
"Quit puttin' words in my mouth, you idiot!" With frightening strength he threw me across the room, thankfully landing me on the couch. My back still protested at the rough treatment. I cringed. Why was he so angry? It was his fault he forgot what he said within five minutes of spouting it from his mouth. It was simple enough. A trip to the electronics store across the street from our apartment. He wanted a few batteries for something or other. But just as I was rolling out the door in my wheelchair he grabbed me and asked me where I was going. It went downhill from there.
I started breathing faster, the enormity of my panic reaching full scale. I couldn't see anything but my mother's murderer's ugly face leering at me from the depths of my eyelids. He grinned maliciously and brought a gun up. "Die," he said coldly, and pulled the trigger. There was no boom as the nonexistent bullet tore my flesh open. I cried out as agony ripped up my shin.
"What do we do? She's gonna break more than a leg if she keeps this up!" I heard Raph say.
A firm voice paid no heed to the turtle but instead commanded, "Move!" Coolness erupted on my temples as pressure eased away my worries. The black abyss that had opened before my eyes slowly closed off, taking with it all of his lasting poisonous effects. Blurred shapes took form in front of me. First was the utterly surprised face of Raphael. To his left (or my right) was Mikey, looking scared as heck and concerned as a mother hen. Then was Leo, his expression unreadable. April hung close by. Don stood on the other side of Raph, then a gray rat in a maroon kimono.
I finally realized that the thing that had cut off my panic attack was the rat's dexterous fingers. Then, as if loathe for me to forget I had it, my leg screamed pain at me, which I voiced in a whimper. Don was the first to break the uncomfortable silence. "You gave us a scare, Anna!" he said, furrowing his eye ridges. My heart started to slow back into its normal pace.
Leo's eyes were steely. "Mike, I think we as a family need to have a talk about something," he said quietly. "Splinter, may we use your room?"
The rat paused to look at me. "No need to ask, my son, for I shall be joining you. Donatello, you may tend to the young lady before joining us. Miss O'Neil…though I feel you must be included, I must ask you stay with Miss Anna for the time being."
April bowed. "Yes, Master Splinter."
"Come, my sons," he said to the three who weren't staying. "Let us go." They exited the car. Mikey lingered at the door, staring at me, before muttering an angry phrase and leaving.
Don massaged his temples and sighed. "This'll be fun," he said with a sigh, rattling off to April the things he'd need for a cast.
Aaaaan that's all, folks! Tune in next time to find out what Splinter and the gang talk about...Council of Elrond...REBORN! BWAHAHAHAHAHA! (evil laughter as LN runs away to start burning a random lizard with a fire brand)
Ashite Imasu,
LN