Disclaimer: See Chapter 1
Chapter 4
Whole again
I stood next to Leo's bed as Raph told us all about his conversation with Jake, Sam not too far from his side, Don sat in my vacant seat with his hand resting on Leo's, I could see the concern on his face, after he lost his wife he became more open about his feelings for us, I think he doesn't want us to forget that he cares for us all and he is frightened to lose us. I could understand that, there was a brief moment that I hadn't told them about during Leo's treatment that we came close to losing him and that scared me.
Adrian was there to see it and I know that he felt it too, after all, he was very close to Leo, almost like a son, Leo had been the one who found him when he was ten, suffering the changes of the mutation. Half human and half wolf, Leo said he was draped over his mother's dead body and refused to leave her but after some soothing words and promises, he let her go and Leo took him home. For weeks he refused to leave Leo's side, he was so scared of everyone and everything that Leo was the only person he felt he would be safe with.
Those days were the worst, the initial few weeks when people were changing, the lucky ones died when the wave hit, some were unlucky and died weeks later, the effect of the change overwhelming them, forcing them to give up their lives. I remember the four of us trying to help as many as we could but we couldn't help them all, it seemed like we were forever burying bodies, the first body we buried was Splinter's, he died instantly, there was no way he could have survived, his age was against him, he didn't suffer, not like the poor souls topside.
I don't think we truly mourned the loss of our Sensei and father, we didn't have time, I know that that sounds cold hearted but it's the truth, if we wanted to survive then we had to carry on, we had to try and put this city back together and live our lives again.
That's what we had set out to do, those who were strong enough physically and mentally learned to fight and defend the place that they now call home. There were days when we would go out and hunt for supplies, food, water, weapons and anything we could use to help Donny create a safe and livable home.
"Don?"
I turned quickly to the hoarse voice and noticed Leo looking at Don, blinking at the bright light and trying to focus on him, I spin around and point to the light switch, silently asking for Adrian to dim the lights, he does and I turn back to my brothers.
"Leo, hey, how you feeling?" Don asks quietly, his hold on Leo's hand tightens.
"Mmm, thirsty" he replies. He reaches his other arm over to pat Don's hand and I smile, now that he was awake a ray of hope fills the room, I really don't know how he does it and I don't care, I move towards Raph and pat his shell.
"The brothers four once again" I say poetically, Raph frowns at me but even he couldn't hold off a smile for that long, I move to the table and pour Leo a glass of water from the jug left there for our use, Don and Raph help Leo to sit up a little and I hold the glass for him and put it to his mouth, he cups his hands around mine but I still guide it, he wasn't that strong yet, even if he thought he was.
After a few sips he signals with a nod that he has had enough and I place the now half empty glass on the table by his bed, he closes his eyes for a moment to compose himself then glances at us all and smiles.
"Look at your faces, anyone would think that you were worried about me?" he jokes lightly.
We chuckle at that and Raph playfully swats his arm, "Why would we be worried about you? You think everything's gonna fall down without ol' fearless there to hold the place up?"
I gently slap Raph's arm and he turns to me, "Hey, give the guy a break will ya? He's just woke up and you come in here and start beating on him?" I add smiling madly.
Raph shrugs then turns back to Leo, "Good to have you back bro'"
Don stands and wraps his arms around him, "Don't do that to me again Leo"
Leo weakly hugs him back, for a brief moment, everything else fades away and we enjoy the moment of happiness.
I really think now that Leo is the worst patient I have ever had to treat, he refuses to stay in bed and take it easy and I am getting ever closer to tying him to the damn thing, if that isn't bad enough, Adrian is fussing over him and I know that Leo is getting a little frustrated with all the attention.
"Leo, will you please just sit down?" I ask sighing heavily, he didn't take long after he woke to question about current events and Raph obliged, which in turn put Leo on high alert, he hasn't settled down now that he knows he is in the Phoenix compound.
At the moment he is pacing around the room trying to put the strength back into his legs, he sways every so often and Adrian reaches out to help him but Leo bats his hands away, Adrian simply shrugs at me, we both know how Leo can be, he has never liked being fussed over, when we were little Leo wouldn't stay down with the strongest of viruses hitting him, it was a sign of weakness and Leo doesn't like to be seen that way, we don't blame him for it, it's just the way he is.
"Leo, maybe you should..." Adrian starts.
"Will you two stop it? I'm fine" Leo replies lightly, chuckling at our concern.
I have to smile at him, he is strong, either that or very good at hiding any pain that he's going through right now, or maybe he doesn't want us to add him to our already long list of worries.
A knock on the door and I walk towards it, pulling it open, it's the bear from the truck, we found out later that his name is Galen, he is Jake's second in command, I step back from the door so that he can enter.
"So you finally made it back to the land of the living, huh?" he says sarcastically.
Leo stiffens slightly, not willing to show any weakness, "Yes, thank you," he replies calmly.
"Good. Jake sends his best and asks that when you are feeling well enough, he would like you all to have dinner with him, to discuss the scavenger threat. He feels that there is little time to waste"
Leo nods, "Tell Jake that his invitation is accepted," Leo turns to me, "tomorrow night?"
I nod my approval, I'm still his doctor after all.
"Very well" Galen replies then he turns and leaves. I close the door behind him and walk to Leo.
"Bed"
"Mike..."
"No Leo, tomorrow you can move about as much as you want but for tonight I want you to sleep" I order gently, he tries to protest but I continue, "Leo, either you sleep of your own free will or I will have to make you, it's your choice"
"Okay okay," he moves towards the bed and climbs into it, pulling the covers over himself, I chuckle lightly, it was fun to have this much power over my brother.
The next day Leo had asked for all of us to meet before the dinner, he wanted to make sure that everyone knew as much as he did about the scavengers and his secret communications with Jake.
We sat around one of the small tables in the med lab, Leo at the top of it with Raph and me either side, Don sat opposite him whilst Adrian and Sam stood by the door.
Raph didn't give Leo a chance to start, "So what's the deal about keeping your little chat with Jake secret from us? Why did I have to hear it from him first?"
Leo rested his arms on the table, "I didn't intend to keep it secret from you and I only spoke with him once, the next day I was attacked"
"Which raises another point, how did that cat manage to get to you in your own room?" Raph asked.
"To be honest, I don't know," Leo looked around the table, "It was late and I was tired, I walked into my room and didn't bother with the lights, then I heard something and before I knew it, there was a cat clinging onto my shell"
That cat was well trained, she had managed to take Leo out and it took six of our security guards and Carla and Sam to take her down, there was no doubt that she was on a suicide mission, the question is, who wanted to kill Leo so badly?
"Do you think the scavengers sent her?" Don questioned, "Or have we walked into a carefully planned Phoenix trap?"
Leo sighed and leaned back in his chair, "That's what we're going to find out"
Our escort knocked quietly on the door and moments later it opened, the six of us moved inside the room. It was a large room with a long rectangular table positioned in the middle, jugs of water and glasses, plates and cutlery were scattered about on it's top and seats lined the edge. Jake sat at the head of the table, facing the door, he stood and gestured for us to sit. Leo sat at the opposite end of the table with Raph next to him, Don on Leo's other side, Sam sat next to Raph, I was with Don and Adrian sat on my other side. After some moments the door opened again and Galen and Blake entered, filling the vacant seats.
With the table now full the servants presented the food and poured the water for us all and Jake started to eat immediately. We followed suit.
As we ate, we talked, with Jake leading the conversation, "I am pleased to see that you are alright, Leonardo"
"Thank you Jake, I think I speak for all of us when I say that we are grateful for the assistance" Leo answers formally, "However, I am curious at your willingness to be so forthcoming with both information and medical supplies"
Jake nodded, "Hmm, yes I can see how this can unnerve you but had you not come here, this conversation would not be happening," he leaned forward and took the food from his fork, and slowly chewed, focusing intently on each of us before swallowing and continuing, "I heard that at one point during your treatment, your heart stopped, luckily your brother and my team were able to revive you"
I cringed as Don and Raph glared at me, obviously upset that I had kept that from them, Leo patted Don's arm and he looked at him, Leo smiled reassuringly at Don and nodded at me. I nodded in return, grateful for at least his comforting look.
"I think we are drifting away from the point of this meal, I thought you wanted to discuss the threat of the scavengers not attempt to upset my brothers with unnecessary information" Leo retorted.
Jake smiled, "You're brief moment of death is 'unnecessary information'? That's extremely cold hearted Leonardo"
"Just get to the point Jake" Raph snapped, he never was one for long conversations.
"Yes, the point. Well it seems evident that you were attacked by a scavenger assassin, who, I'm pleased to say, had failed in their mission. I believe that now would be the ideal time for a peace treaty whilst the scavengers are still cautious in their attempts on your life" Jake answered.
Raph leaned towards Leo and spoke quietly in his ear, Leo nodded every now and then, when they had finished, Raph leaned back again. Leo straightened.
"If everything you say is true Jake, we would like to find out ourselves before we could agree to this union. Which means that we must return to the community as soon as possible" Leo said.
Jake smiled as if he knew, I wondered for a moment if those hyena ears of his caught Raph and Leo's conversation.
"Very well, we can allow you the use of one of our less protected vehicles, I'm sure you can understand that vehicles are difficult to obtain and we cannot risk losing one of our trucks" Jake gestured to one of the servants who came close, leaned into him and listened as Jake spoke in his ear then the servant nodded before disappearing out of the room, "Your transport should be ready within the hour but first please finish your meals, the chef did spend quite a bit of our reserves on this dinner tonight and I would be displeased if the food went to waste"
The rest of the meal went quietly, at the end we left the dining room and headed towards the loading bay, our vehicle awaited, it was a smaller truck with only a small amount of armor surrounding it, I thought to myself as we climbed inside that we would be better off walking back.
AN: I'm quite pleased with myself at the moment, this is the third update in two days on three of my stories!!
Warning: Chapter 5 is going to contain action and angst in a major way, you all remember the journey to the Phoenix faction, well now we have the journey back to deal with! Remember this place is a nasty place to live, no one hardly ever goes outside! It's dangerous!
Reviews:
IN THE CLOUDS: Definitely plenty of questions, which is okay for me because I know all of the answers, I love keeping everyone guessing :) When I received your review, I jumped straight to ZEROHOUR and I have to say that it was a fantastic read, you are absolutely right, thanks for pointing it out for me and thanks for the review! ;)
SPOOTYCUP: Leo's awake and in charge, leading the team again! If you keep pushing me like this I think my fingers are going to fall off LOL ;) Thanks for reviewing :)
LIONESS-GODDESS: LOL (Good Weird! Good Weird!) I like it! One of the best? Really? I'm sure that there are better ones out there! Thanks though, that means a lot! :) I think that Jake is a little freakier in this chapter but wait for it, soon you will see just what Jake is like ;) Ahhh, you'll have to wait for the history lesson I'm afraid but fear not, all will be revealed ;) Thanks for reviewing :)
PRETENDER FANATIC: It was a slow chapter but I think this one is too, next one's gonna be good though ;) I don't seem to be having too much trouble with Raph's character in this story but cripes am I having trouble with Don's!! Oh well, practise makes perfect I suppose, thanks for the review :)
ALIVEINTHEDARKNESS: Wow, what a pen name, that's tricky to write without instinctively wanting to hit the space bar ;) You like Mike's character? I think he has been more serious than anything else at the moment but can we blame him? Thanks for the review :)
REV: As always, your reviews are greatly appreciated and accepted, thank you my friend :)
HAZLOV2004: Sneaked over from the 'Drome eh? Thanks for reviewing :)
REINBEAUCHASER: Behind? Don't worry about it, we all get it from time to time ;) I'd like to say that I watched anything to write that chapter but it was purely from my head, I do however have a liking for such films, recently 'Band of Brothers' tickled my fancy but no, that chapter came from the depths of my brain, funny enough though, I have never seen Saving Private Ryan or Behind Enemy Lines, two films I have wanted to see but had neither the opportunity or the time, I'll get around to it someday! Oh and you were absolutely right about Sarah Brightman, Absolutely fantastic, a shear delight but I won't comment too much, or I'll never stop! Thanks for the review :)
GIJINKA RENAMON: Many thanks and as requested, another chapter, thanks for reviewing :)