Disclaimer: I don't own the TMNT

A/N: Thank you to all who reviewed. I know that this story isn't incredibly popular but I appreciate you guys sticking with me! This chapter is a little bit bloodier than the others and contains medical stuff. You are prewarned in case you are uncomfortable with the subject.

Hope that you enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 7

Triage

I was up as soon as I heard it. Apparently I had been asleep for quite a while, almost eight hours, which is why the others were so worried. They continuously repeated to themselves that Donny was the last turtle who would do something like this to them. They got ready in a flurry of motion, I must have seemed slow compared to them. I wondered why they were bringing me in the first place, a crippled husk of a man. Almost as if reading my mind Splinter answered that everyone had something to commit, even if we didn't know what it was.

Me and my slow butt was ready by the time the four others were and immediately we headed to the elevator. This was the first time that I'd been in the thing, it moved a lot smoother than the ones that I've been on. It didn't jerk me on my crutches at all.

Their vehicle was impressive, I must say. I recognized it as some sort of armored truck, obviously stolen from some unknown source. Probably a 'bad guy' source. It was souped up and carefully camouflaged, probably done extensively by Donatello. I got into the back of the thing, I could feel the sheer weight of it. I wonder what kind of gas mileage this thing gets on the street?

Apparentlytheir decision to head out was compelled by a worried call from April saying that he hadn't gone to meet her like he said he would to pick up supplies. This is straight where we headed. They piled out of the truck in a haste. I patiently waited for them to scatter, knowing that I'd get in the way if I tried earlier. Once the way was clear I hoisted up my crutches and slowly hobbled off the back of the truck. The turtles had already sprinted to the shop that I suppose was April's and were talking with her urgently. Or at least I think that that was her. She was a slim, attractive redhead that seemed to have no problem showing a bit of skin. Strange sort of 'sister' for four martial arts trained talking turtles.

Realizing instantly my lack of use in the situation I leaned against the truck as they pulled out their little phones and scattered, trying to trace the signal from Donatello's little phone. Neat little gadgets he comes up with.

Rubbing her shoulders against the cold, April spied me lounging and approached. I shifted uncomfortably. Most of my recent encounters with women usually involved squeals of pitty about the 'poor wittle soldier' who got a 'great big boo boo in the war' and I wasn't really in the mood.

She approached nonetheless and I steeled myself. She looked me up and down briefly before looking away and said nothing at first. I looked at her curiously. She grinned nervously. "Sorry for staring, usually I don't do that but I guess that I'm kinda nervous about Donny. The guys want me to hang around the shop in case he returns."

I nodded, looking out onto the street. Looks like the nightlubs were opening, people were starting to wander out onto the streets like harried animals. I grinned at the comparison.

"I've heard some about you from the guys. You sure are a help to Donny. He doesn't really get to interact with a lot of people, most aren't intellectual types." She continued.

"Mmm. He's a good guy."

She smiled at me and I relaxed a little. I put a point in the guy's book for not making friends with a ditzy woman. The phone rang in her shop. Politely she excused herself and went inside to answer it. I took a breath and looked up. Pity you couldn't see any stars in a city like this, even with all the lights out and everyone asleep. Well, perhaps the light doesn't have anything to do with it; wonder how much smog is clogging the sky's pores up there?

I don't know why, but for some reason something caught my eye. A big something. I jerked my head. A woman could be seen walking down the opposite sidewalk, chatting energetically with five or six friends. She was in typical club gear, and her platinum blonde hair swayed out by her hips. The dark stillness of the night kept me from making out too much, but the very sight of her made my heart skip several beats. My palms sweated in the handles of my crutches and my breath quickened. It was something about her, something that I'm sure I would've recognized no matter what the condition.

Emily?

She didn't notice me at all, just kept on walking, talking with her friends. One of her male friends stepped next to her and wrapped his arm around her waist in a comfortable, relaxed manner. Like he'd done it before.

Instinctively my grips on the handles of my crutches tightened to the point that I couldn't feel my fingers. Why was he doing that?

Calm down, Joe. You can't see her that well. That might not even be Emily. But it could at the same time, couldn't it? I'm sure that there are millions of blonds in New York, both real and fake. What makes you think that this one is the one that you've been searching for all this time?

My brain spoke this calm, rational thoughts. Tried to reason it out. Nonetheless I heaved myself off the truck and felt myself moving forward. What was I doing? I shouldn't be doing this! She had to have a reason for doing what she did, didn't she? Well, maybe I should just mosey on over and find out that particular reason...

My blood was pumping an my heart was racing, so I didn't notice them come up behind me until Mikey grabbed me roughly on the shoulder. "Joe! C'mon! Let's go! The cops are out!"

I shook my head, breaking her spell, and looked at Mike. He looked so nervous, why? It was then that I looked over his shoulder and saw the commotion in the back of the truck. One of the figures was on the floor, lying still as dead, the others were working frantically over him.

Donny!

With speed quicker than I thought that I could manage on the sticks I used, I propelled myself into the truck. No sooner had I touched the metal than the driver hit the floor. We sped out of the area burning rubber. I could see the lights of the policeman's vehicles flashing in the distance before I heard a thing. I tried to sit down but the vehicle swerved into a tight turn. The floor was slick and I fell the the floor heavily, slamming my body against the forward wall just away from Donny. I gritted my teeth in pain as the familiar agony shot through my body, forcing all my muscles to tense convusively.

I didn't really get anywhere else, the floor was slick, wet and the driver was halfway insane. I couldn'thave gotten up even if I had full use of my legs. The floor was what bothered me. It wasn't supposed to be slick. And the smell, the all too familiar coppery acrid taste of blood. I couldn't see a thing, it was too dark.But I could tell by the somewhat quiet, frantic way that his brothers worked on him that it wasn't good. If only I could get there...

The truck sped into the warehous and screeched to a halt. Immediately the doors flew open and the turtles and their master snatched up Donatello and sprinted across the floor. The doors flapped lazily behind them, ignoring the frantic heat of the situation completely.

I lay on the floor for a moment. They had completely forgotten about me, but that was alright. I probably shouldn't have come in the first place. Now that the truck was in partial light I could see the blood pooled at the floor of the truck and it tied my throat in a knot. I had to get out of here.

I tried to get up but slipped in his blood the first time, landing on my chin and splattering crimson everywhere. My second attempt was more successful, but I still slipped and slid everywhere like a gangly colt.

The difficulty of it disturbed me. Was there that much blood? I tried to reassure myself by acknowledging that the floor was slick in the first place, and it was flat enough that even a small amount of blood would spread.

Was I just kidding myself?

I reached over and dragged my crutches across the bloodied surface, balancing on my one foot. Propping them under my armpits I swung over to the elevator. Punching the button furiously, I hopped in and began my descent.

I knew from the moment that I got out of it that there was trouble. The turtles and the rat were huddled around their fallen brother, talking uselessly.

"What do we do!"

"I wish April were here, Don's going to die!"

"He's NOT going to die! We had to leave April there to confront the police. Don used April's card to get in and they found it..."

"My sons, we must make some sort of action quickly!"

I swung over to them and peered over their shoulders. What I saw made me gasp and involuntarily I shoved the turtles aside. I knew that they didn't know what they were doing.

"Hey! What do you think that your doing, Joe! He's hurt!"

No shit, sherlock, I muttered in my head. They went silent as they saw me scan Don's body. The first thing that attracted my attention was his chest. He had a puncture in the right side of his pectoral, or his plastron. It had obviously reached either the lungs, the pleural sac, or the lung cavity because blood was bubbling out of the wound slightly, but not as much as it was getting sucked in. The air, once inside, was making less room for his lungs to expand. His breathing was shallow as it was he didn't need that added stress.

On top of that he had a bleeder on his arm, it was spurting some bright red blood. My shirt was off and pressure was applied before I fully realized what was happening. Snatching Splinter's hand so quick that I surprised him, I ordered him to apply heavy pressure.

Without fully realizing it I demanded some tape. I'm not sure if it was the tone of my voice or the way I asked for it, but someone went scampering for it. Then I demanded all the emergency medical supplies that were avaliable.

Reaching into my pocket I yanked out my wallet. Picking out the first plastic card my fingers came in contact with I slapped it on his chest. At that moment my tape arrived. Taping three edges of the card down, I created a good suction to the open chest wound. At that moment he breathed in and air frothed out of the untaped corner of the card. Once he breathed out, the now wet section of card kept the suction up, allowing no air to get in. No air in, air gets out. Just the way that I wanted it.

I looked at Splinter. My shirt was already getting soaked in bright red blood. The blood spurt, although obviously arterial, wasn't nearly as big as it could have been. With luck that meant that the brachial artery wasn't completely severed, only nicked.Hurriedly I looked through the medical kit. I needed something with more pressure. I ordered Leonardo to take Splinter's place, he has more strenght behind him. Quickly selecting some clean gauze I quickly shifted the shirt out of place and the guaze in it's place. The blood quickly started to soak through. Holding it with as much pressure as I could muster, I quickly stacked several more pieces of guaze on. Each in turn showeda growing red stain in them until finally, the stain's growth slowed with I'm not sure how many guaze.Leo's hands clasped over mine, lending his wieght to the pressure. Swiftly I wriggled my hand out and snatched up some tegaderm. Careful to maintain pressure while allowing Leo to slip his fingers out I quickly wrapped it around his bicep. Taking a second to check to make sure that I didn't put it on so tight that it completely cut off the blood flow, I moved on.

Now that that was temporarily taken care of I did a quick scan of his body. Hishead had a contusion on the left side. Quickly I opened his eyelids and peeked at the pupils. They were equal and round, at least he doesn't have any intercranial pressure from the blow. So no leaking into the brain: good.With nimble fingers I palpated his neck. I fingered over his jugular. The pulse was weak, but at least it was steady. His blood pressure was probably dropping considerably. Damn!

His breath was still extremely shallow and was coming in faint gasps. Wishing to God for a good stethescope I saw none and ended up putting an ear to his chest. His breathing sounded good in the left side, but on the right it didn't sound so good; especially on the upper lobe. God I hope that the bulled is only in his pleural space, not in his lung.

His other arm was in good condition. His chest and abdomen were covered in blood. Naturally I couldn't tell if he had any morewounds because everything wasbloody. AndI didn't want to stick my fingers in it.Frustrated, I glanced through the kit. Snatching a bottle of sterile saline, I uncorked the lid and splashed it on his stomach. The blood washed off and finally was able to view it. He had a gash around where a human's belly button would be, but it wasn't deep. I don't think that it went through the plastron. It could wait.

Then I saw something that made me groan inside. There was an impaled object in his leg. Or more accurately, his left thigh. It looked like a peice of reebar. Touching the flesh around it lightly I felt for fluid buildup. Then I saw a pair of green turtle hands grab the bar. Immediately I slapped them away. Raph glared at me.

"What do you think you're doing!"

I glared right back. "What has that piece of metal punctured, Raph? For all we know it could be clean through the femoral artery, and if we remove it the pressure will be gone and he'll bleed to death. Or it could be close to one of the main nerves running through his leg. What if you pull it out incorrectly and damage the nerve? What then? There could be somany things that pulling it out could start right now, I'd say that we take care of his other more serious issues first. What do you think?"

His mouth worked and then it clamped shut. He pounded off like a spoiled child. Damn I'm too old for this.

Slowly I turned to the others. They looked at me with expecting eyes. Damn. I sighed and looked at the medical kit.

"Y'all wouldn't happen to know his blood type now would you?"

A/N: Sucky place to end? I know. I'm sorry! I'm just about to fall asleep dead! I can't help it! Besides, this chapter's pretty long, I hope that you guys enjoyed it despite what it is.

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Toodles!