Chapter Twelve
"We shouldn't part in the lot." Cherise advised as the Battle Shell neared the hospital. "Casey never told me when he would go see my dad and I haven't seen him at all today. So there's a possibility he might bet there right now."
Donatello nodded in agreement. "Right. Wouldn't want him to know we're here and then call up Leo on us." He turned the large vehicle into an alley that was within walking distance of the hospital and turned the ignition off.
"However…if Leo found out then we wouldn't have to owe Raph anything." Michelangelo pointed out.
"I think I'd rather deal with Raph blackmailing us over confronting Leo." Donatello admitted. "Somehow it just feels safer that way."
"Why are you guys worried about what Leo will do to you?" Cherise inquired. "It's not like you were lying to him about where you were going."
"What do you mean we weren't lying to him?" Donatello snapped. "Of course we did. I mean here we are at the hospital."
"Yeah." Cherise answered. "But you're only dropping me off. Then you guys can go to the junkyard like you told him."
"Wait a minute." Michelangelo interjected. "If you think we're going to let you go in there by yourself, you have another thing coming."
"You're not talking about coming in with me are you!" Cherise exclaimed with wide eyes. "No way. Uh uh. For-get-it" She shook her head fiercely. "There is no way I'm not going to let you guys come in with me."
"And why not?" Michelangelo asked. "We want to see Marcus too."
"But this is a hospital full of people." Cherise replied sternly. "If they see your green skin they are going to think something is wrong with you. And if they find out you're not human it could mean a one way trip to some laboratory."
Donatello turned around to face the young girl. "Relax. We've been out in public before." He told her. "We'll just keep our faces covered with our scarves and hands in our pockets."
"Besides we're ninjas. Invisibility is our middle name." Michelangelo added.
"I…dunno." Cherise said as she looked at the two turtles skeptically. "Are you sure about this?" Their replied expressions were full of assurance. "Alright then, let's go."
Three climbed out of the Battle Shell and walked up to the hospital. When they go there Cherise asked a man behind the reception desk where she could find out where her father was. He smiled kindly at her before looking up Marcus in the computer. When the man found the room he offered to have someone show her where it was, but Cherise politely declined. She saw how he was curiously looking at her companions and didn't want to give anyone else a chance to get a close look at them.
After getting lost a few times the small group managed to find the section and room where Marcus was. Cherise stood in the doorway, building up the courage to enter. A passing female nurse happened to see the young girl and friends standing there. "Excuse me, but unless your family you can't stand here."
"My dad is in there." Cherise told the nurse. "I'm just trying gather up the guts to enter."
"Oh?" The nurse said with a cocked eyebrow. "Your uncle had just left here not too long ago. But I'm sure he isn't out of the building yet. If you like, I could have the front desk keep an eye out from and send him back up here so he can take you in."
"No!" Cherise shouted, causing the nurse to look at her suspiciously. "I…uh…know my uncle has somewhere important to be. I don't want to detain him. Besides, I have my friends here for support."
The nurse nodded. "Well if you need anything, just let me know." She said before going on her way.
Cherise took a deep breath while entering room. "Here we go." Not being prepared to see the state her father was in, the young girl's legs automatically lock when she set eyes on him. Had the two turtles not been behind her and caught her when she became suddenly light headed, Cherise would have hit the floor. They helped the young girl onto a couch that was near the end of the hospital bed before looking over at Marcus.
Seeing the man whom they considered their rescuer, Donatello and Michelangelo felt like passing out as well and quickly had to sit down on the couch with Cherise. Never in their life had they seen such a thing in real life, only on television or in a movie. But this…this was real and it scared them, because the man in the hospital bed looked nothing like the man they once knew.
Marcus was tucked tightly in and had a ventilator tube was taped into his mouth so that he could be kept breathing. His brown hair was at least neck length, not shoulder like it once was. (It was probably shaven off when surgery had to be done on his head and it was just now growing back.) And the hair looked to be brittle enough to break at the slightest touch. The middle aged man's body, being deprived of proper nutrition, seemed a little smaller and flabby from lack of exercise. With no sunlight Marcus's skin was a ghostly pale, almost as white as the sheets that covered him. Coming out from under the sheets were two other hoses, one was a catheter and the other was a feeding tube.
Donatello was the only one able to speak after a few minutes. "…wow." He was glad nothing had come up with he opened his mouth.
"But…he was so big, so tall." Michelangelo stammered. "He was like…a giant."
"That was back when we were nine." Donatello pointed out. "We've grown since then."
"But even so." Michelangelo replied. "He…he had these big strong arms and…he was able to pick us up with such ease, remember?" The orange clad turtle sounded like was trying to convince himself as well as his brother. "And…and…remember when he tossed up? Remember how high we went?"
Donatello shook his head slight. "Again, we were little, so of course it felt like we were miles from the floor." He wanted to agree with what Michelangelo was saying, but some sickening feel told him that his brother was not right.
Cherise began rocking back and forth while hugging herself tightly. "It's not him. It's not him." She said in a trance like state. "It's not him. It's not him."
"She's right. We have the wrong room." Michelangelo said in agreement as he jumped up from the couch. "And she ought to know, cause this is her father." He quickly pulled the young girl up from the couch. "Let's get outta here and find the right one."
That argument would have convince Donatello that maybe a mistake had happen, if it were for the fact that he spied a chart at the end of the bed. "Mikey…" He picked it up and showed the name on the chart to his brother, it said Marcus Bard. "It's him."
Cherise continued to chant, 'It's not him' while Michelangelo looked at the chart. "No…" He shook his head. "Casey…Casey must have the wrong guy." Practically supporting the young girl on him, he tried to drag her out of the hospital room.
However the young turtle could not get far with someone blocking his path. "I thought I made it clear she ain't suppose ta be here." Casey said sternly as he stood in the doorway with arms crossed.
Michelangelo put a nervous smile. "Casey." He gave a small chuckle. "We…uh…thought you were gone by…(ahem)…now."
Casey closed the door with a small slam. "I was on my way outta here, but someone at da front desk said dat dey got a call from this ward askin' if I could come back." He answered heated. "I thought dat maybe da guy woke up, but no. I get told dat my niece was here and da nurse who called for me ta come back thought I should be in here with her, just in case she couldn't handle it." Casey glanced at Cherise angrily. "Turns out dey were right and so was I." He took hold of the girl's chin so that she had to look him in the face. "I told ya dat ya couldn't handle sumpthin' like dis. But ya had ta have yer own way, didn't ya?"
Cherise slapped Casey's hand way from her face. "You had no right to deny me seeing my dad! And had you let me seen him in the first place, I could have told you that that man…" She pointed to the guy in the bed. "…that that man is not my dad."
Casey's angry glare was replaced with a sympatric one. "But it is." He took the picture Cherise had used to help find Marcus. "I've spent all day in here starin' at dis and at him, comparin' 'em see if maybe I was wrong…hopin' dat I was wrong."
"And you are wrong." Cherise cried while tears trickled down her cheeks. "You are wrong."
"But I'm not." Casey told the young girl. "I had dem bring up all his affects dat dey took from him da day he came in and found da tie he had in da picture."
"So." Cherise snapped. "There were many ties like that. This poor man has to be someone else's dad, cause he's not mine."
Casey took hold of Cherise's shoulders. "I even called Belinda, yer father's secretary." The girl looked at him with wide eyes, she didn't remember even telling the dark haired man her father was a veterinarian. "April looked up yer father and found a number to call. So I did and she came in. At first she didn't want to admit it, but she did."
"NO!" Cherise shouted while smack Casey's hands off her. "That not him! It's not him!" She sobbed while beating on the man's chest. "It's not! It's not! It's not!" He let Cherise beat on him until she wore herself out and caught the girl when her knees suddenly buckled.
Casey took Cherise over to the couch. "Dis da reason I didn't want ya ta come here." He said quietly as he had a seat next to Donatello and helped the girl sit down next to him.
Cherise leaned on Casey. "Why?" She cried into the man's chest. "Why did this happen to him? He's a good man, never went out to hurt anyone. So why did someone do this to him?"
"I don't know kid." Casey replied as he hugged the girl tightly. "Some people just ain't got no hearts." He rested his chin top of her head as she continued to cry.
Michelangelo, finally accepting the fact that the man in the bed was Marcus, leaned up against the wall next to the couch. He folded his arms across his plastron while pressing one foot onto the wall. Donatello put his elbows on his knees and his hands clasped together. He bent forward a little so that he could press his lips on his folded index fingers.
It was quiet for a while, save for Cherise's sniffling every now and then, until a male nurse came into the room. "I'm afraid I have to tell you that visiting hours will be over in a few minutes."
"I…I want to stay here…with my dad." Cherise said hoarsely. "I know I'm allowed to stay, so that's what I wanna do."
"I should tell you that it could be very uncomfortable." The nurse warned. "There are no beds that can be placed within this room. You'll just have the one chair by the bed and couch."
"I don't care." Cherise replied. "I…probably wouldn't be able to sleep anyway."
"Alright, if that is what you want." The nurse answered. "I'll get you some pillows and some blankets just in case you want to try though." He left the room and closed the door behind him.
"I call dibs on the couch with Cherise." Michelangelo said as he tried to push his way next to the girl.
Cherise looked at the young turtle like he was crazy. "You're not staying." She told him sternly.
Michelangelo looked back at the girl with raised eyebrows. "Say what?"
"There's no way we're leaving you here by yourself." Donatello replied.
"Right." Michelangelo agreed with a nod of his head. "If you're going to spend the night here, then so are we."
"No." Cherise said firmly. "No you are not."
"You can't make us leave." Donatello answered heatedly. "If we want to stay, then we're going to stay."
"If you don't go, I'll call Leo on you two and tell him that it was your idea to trick him." Cherise threatened.
"But you're the one that wanted to sneak out." Michelangelo reminded.
"And it was supposed to be just me." Cherise replied. "You're the one that wanted to take me here and insisted that Don had to help get us out."
"Well it's not like she can really call Leo." Donatello stated knowingly. "She doesn't know the numbers to the Shell Cells. So her threat is an empty one."
Cherise showed that she had a Shell Cell in her hand. "I picked this off Casey." She told everyone. "And I know how to use it." Casey patted himself down and was surprised that the girl was right.
"Now this is just not fair." Michelangelo complained. "We should be allowed to stay just as much as you."
"Will you think about things for a moment?" Cherise scolded. "What if something happens that will make you guys show what you really are?" She looked over at Don. "What if your hood falls off?" The girl looked over at Mike. "What if you get too hot for that jacket and take it off while a nurse or doctor comes in here?" Cherise pointed over toward her father. "Six years ago he rescued you guys from an abandon apartment building and brought you to our home so you wouldn't be discovered by anyone else and end up as some science experiment. How is putting yourself at the exactly same risk now repayment for what he did then?"
Michelangelo opened his mouth to counter, however he didn't know what to say. He looked over at his brother for back up, but Donatello had nothing to counteract with either. "She's got a point." The purple clad turtle admitted.
Casey stood up and stretched. "Come on, I walk with ya out." He waved a hand to beckon the two turtles onward.
"Is she going to be alright being here by herself?" Michelangelo questioned as he stepped out of the room behind the young man. "Maybe you should stay with her."
Casey shook his head. "Nah. I have a feeling she'll be just fine." He answered. "She's much older den I was when I had ta see my dad like dat."
Before leaving the room Donatello observed Cherise sitting down in the chair next to her father's bed. He watched as the young girl undid the tucked covers so that she could take her father's hands out from under them, clasp it in both of hers, and touch the bony knuckles to her lips. "See you tomorrow?"
"Yeah." Cherise said with a sigh into the hand she held.
Donatello put up a hand while leaving the room. Then he and Michelangelo followed Casey out of the hospital. From there the three gave a wave goodbye before splitting up to leave. At first the ride home in the Battle Shell was quiet until Michelangelo says, "Looks like Raph can't blackmail us anymore."
"How do you figure?"
"We're going back home with no Cherise and Leo is going to wonder where she is. That means we're going to have to tell him that we took her to the hospital so that we can also tell him that we left her there to sit with her dad."
"Er…oh yeah."
When they got back to the lair and parked the Battle Shell, the two turtles took the elevator down to the lair. The alien double doors open to reveal that the place was dark except for a solitary lit candle on the coffee table over in the television area. Light from the candle illuminated an armchair that was behind it, the one belonging to Master Splinter.
However candle could not show who was in the chair. "S…sensei?" Donatello stammered. "Is...that you?" Whoever sat in the chair did not answer with their voice, but rather with the sound of a whetstone running alone steel. "L...Leo?" Again the sound of the sharpening steel was made.
"Why does this feel like something outta a movie?" Michelangelo joshed nervously, hoping to ease the tension.
Donatello gave his brother a shove. "Getting Cherise outta here was your idea, so you go talk to him."
"Me?" Michelangelo squealed. "You're better at keeping people calm, you go talk to him." Once more the sound of the whetstone on steel rang throughout the lair, sending a chill down the spines of the two quarreling turtles and it got them to stop fighting.
"We'll both go." Donatello said and Michelangelo nodded in agreement. From the elevator to the television area, the purple clad kept a tight grip on his young brother so that orange clad turtle couldn't ditch him. Then the two turtles had a seat on the couch across from the armchair. Donatello swallowed hard before saying, "Now Leo…I know you're mad, but…you see…" A katana edge entered the yellow-white orb the candle produced and the light hit the blade in such of way to show how sharp it really was. "Um…why don't you say something Mikey."
All Michelangelo could do was stammer. "Um…uh…see…"
Suddenly the blade swung through the air with such force that a swift wind could be felt coming from the action. Both of turtles yelp with fright other as the katana swung by, missing them by mere inches, and took out the candle. Then there was a clap, making the lights come on to reveal Donatello and Michelangelo hugging each other.
"Bwahahahaha!" Raphael laughed. "Oh man, ya should see each other." He dropped Leo's katana blade as he doubled over in the armchair.
Leonardo stood up from behind the armchair. "Wish I could have seen it." He held his other katana and a whetstone.
"Don't worry." Raphael choked through his laughter. "I set up a camera with night vision so we could capture dis."
Realizing that they were still hugging, Donatello and Michelangelo pushed away from each others. "That was not very funny." Donatello said sternly.
"Yeah, well neither was the stunt you pulled earlier this evening." Leonardo retorted as he came around the chair. "I could expect something like that from Mikey, but you Donnie?" He put both his katanas back in their sheaths.
"Cherise really wanted to see her dad." Donatello explained. "If you and Casey couldn't convince her otherwise, what makes you think Mikey or I could."
"Well I would think that you would have at least tried." Leonardo replied.
"If it really was that big a deal about not letting Cherise go, don't you think Master Splinter would have also order her not to go?" Michelangelo questioned. "You know he didn't say anything either way."
Leonardo went to say something, but realized that his youngest brother was right. Master Splinter did not agree or disagree with Casey's decision on letting Cherise see her father in the hospital. This also made him realize that he hadn't seen his sensei before or after coming near Donatello's lab that evening. "I guess you have a point there."
"But should ya guys have left her der?" Raphael asked.
"She wanted to stay." Donatello answered with a shrug. "Maybe it's her way of deal with the situation."
"Well whatever the reason for having to go see her dad, she's accomplished it." Leonardo said. "So since is nothing else we can do for right now, I suggest that we all go to bed."
Agreeing with the idea the turtles filed up the stair for their rooms starting with Michelangelo and ending with Raphael. But before they got too far Michelangelo turned around to look at Leonardo, who was behind Donatello. "How did you know that Donnie and I played you anyway?"
"I heard Raph make the blackmailing call." Leonardo replied nonchalantly. "He wasn't really being none to discreet about it.
"Oh." Michelangelo turned back around and went up the rest of the stairs with Donatello close behind.
"Yo Leo." Raphael whispered while grabbing the back of his brother's shell. "Want ta watch a late night horror flick?" He asked while pointing a thumb towards a camera with a grin going from ear to ear.
"Sure…why not." Leonardo answered before match the same grin his brother had.
Somewhere about 3 or 4 in morning…
The sound of a Shell Cell goes off in one of the turtles' room. (Ring Ring) However it is not answered right away. "ZZZZ." Again it goes off, (Ring Ring). Covers are pulled tight around the head. "…." (Ring Ring) The head digs under the pillow it once laid on. (Ring Ring) The pillow and blankets are thrown off. "I'm up…." And a hand reached for the clock, tilting it up to look at the time. "Meh…" (Ring Ring) "It had better not be Casey, that's all I have to say." The ringing Shell Cell is finally answered. "What!"
"I…I didn't mean to walk you." Cherise whispered. "It's just that…I've been talking to dad for a while and now I wanted…rather…I need to talk to someone who will talk back."
The turtle let out a yawn before rudely saying, "And you picked me, because…"
"I just pushed a button and you were the one I got." Cherise cleared her throat a bit. "But if you don't want to talk to me, that's fine. I'll…um…"
"Nah…talk to me." The turtle rubbed one of his tired eyes. "What's on your mind?"
"I dunno." Cherise answered timidly. "Nothing…everything…questions I guess."
"What kind?"
"One actually…. Why?"
"Why what?"
"I dunno. I guess I'm still wonder why my dad? I mean, of all the people in the world why target him? When I haven't been trying to converse with my dad, I've been wondering what he did that was so bad that it made someone hate him enough that they would try to kill him."
"I can't really answer that."
"I know. It's just that…" Suddenly Cherise let out a gasp.
The turtle straightened up in the bed. "What? What is it?"
"Daddy?" Cherise whispered. "Daddy!" There was a sound like Cherise jumping up out of her chair. Another sound that followed which was maybe the Shell Cell hitting the floor. "Daddy!"
The turtle jumped out of bed while yelling into the cell. "Cherise? Cherise what is it? Tell me what's going on. Cherise?" He pressed the ear piece of the phone as close to his head as possible, trying to hear anything that could clue him in as to what might be happening. "Shell it Cherise, answer me!" But no answer comes, because the line was dead.
A/N2: Uh-oh, something has happened. Hopefully you'll believe me when I tell you that I didn't mean for this chapter to end like this, but maybe it's good thatit did.
BTW: Bet you can't guess who Cherise is talking to.
