The next day, Holly and April went back over to the lair in the morning. They met up and went to the store again to grab some stuff for the guys, and had discussed what they thought their next steps should be. They both agreed that they should not be going into a military base without some reconnaissance of what was going on and who all was involved. Holly had managed to find some information online, the base had been unused for decades, and was on a square mile of bare land. Next to the base, was a recycling center, which would be the perfect place to be gathering parts with out it making the news.
Donatello and Leonardo were awake and waiting for them when they arrived, as was Splinter, who had already made tea and coffee for everyone.
Donatello was on his PC looking over some of the same information Holly had been the previous night.
They all sat around on the couches and spoke in low voices to make sure they didn't wake up the others. Splinter listened to the little group in their discussion and was so proud. He smiled softly to himself. His boys were beginning to start thinking like real strategists and April and Holly were doing everything they could to help despite the danger it posed to themselves. He was so grateful for the friendship they had offered his boys. He had always tried to give them the most normal life he could, but there are some things that a father just can't do for his sons.
April and Donnie adjourned to the kitchen to start making breakfast for everyone. She had decided that she wanted to make pancakes so dragged Donnie away to help her.
"I can't believe none of you guys have even tried cooking yet" April commented as she grabbed some bowls and the closest thing they had to a whisk.
"I make the stuff we need to live, the least they can do is use it." Donnie shrugged.
"I mean, that's fair." April agreed, He had built them a whole bunch of stuff she took for granted from scratch.
They busied themselves mixing a huge bowl of pancake mix and doing a fair amount of flirting in the mean time. Aprils giggles could be heard by by everyone else and they all just rolled their eyes and carried on their conversations.
Fairly soon after, the smell of fresh cakes had dragged Michelangelo out of bed. He practically floated into the kitchen, and immediately began devouring a short stack without hesitation. Leonardo and Holly joined them and soon they were all happily munching away on fresh fruit and powdered sugar covered pancakes.
"They're not as good as pizza." Mikey said when April asked how he liked them.
"Yeah, but you can't just eat pizza forever." April said with her arms crossed in annoyance. They had worked hard on making all these pancakes, there had been a ton of batter.
"I bet I could!" He shouted back in defiance.
"You need to eat fruits and veggies too, you know"
"Pineapple and mushroom pizza!" Mikey said triumphantly. "It has both"
"Just let it go April," Leo chimed in, "You'll never convince win an argument with him"
"Well, pancakes are pretty much just sweet pizza anyway" Holly offered as a compromise. "Tomato sauce is a savory fruit pastes." She shrugged as Mikey was nodding along in agreement while April raised an eyebrow at her. "I'll just shut up."
"See!" Mikey yelled happily.
By the time they had saved a plateful for Raph, and tidied up the kitchen, it was almost noon.
"Does Raph often sleep this late?" Holly inquired as casually as she could. They hadn't spoken at all since her freak out the previous day.
"If he's sulking, he does" Leo said
"Oh." Holly shrank down in her seat a little.
"Just leave him be for now" Leo said.
Holly sat up straight again. "No". She stood and wheeled around on her heal and marched straight at his closed door.
"Oh boy." Leo rolled his eyes.
Holly knocked on Raphs door and waited for an answer, when none came, she banged a little harder.
"If you don't answer the door I will come in anyway." Holly decided to give him a moment to decide, she turned and leaned against his door. "We need to talk about what happened yesterday and what we're going to do in the future." Still no response came. "We can't make a plan without you."
"Sure we can, we all know that all he's gonna do is shout and punch things" Mikey yelled over to her.
Holly just shook her head, "OK, I'm only going to wait for another minute, and I'm coming in" She stood again in case the door opened behind her. Finally it did, and a mildly irritated looking Raphael stepped out of his room. "Hi!" She said as bubbly as possible.
He just nodded at her as he stepped past her. Holly frowned, but followed him over to the rest of the gang. He grabbed his usual cup of coffee and retreated back to the outskirts of their group. Holly sat back in her spot with a slight frown, but chose to let it go for now.
They spent most of the rest of the day going over information and strategies. Mikey only had the attention span for short bursts, so they let him dip in and out of the discussion as he pleased. Donnie and Holly traded back and fourth going over all the information they had discovered about the base its self and the surrounding area. Once they had gone over all the info they already had, they started discussing what, and how, they could find out more. Everyone agreed that they wanted better information about the facility, and if they could get it, the most current blueprints.
"I actually had an idea about that" April said happily, she pulled out a micro drone. "This has a little camera on it and we could fly it around the are to get a look at...Hey!"
Michelangelo had snatched the little quad drone out of her hands and was already syncing it to his T-phone. The display went blank for a moment, then he saw his own smiling face peering back at him. "Cool".
"You're welcome" April said sarcastically.
Mikey began flying the little drone around the lair, making it do loopedey-loops and barrel rolls. "This is amazing!"
"Yeah, well. If we can get it inside the building we may be able to get live information. Maybe even find my dad." April had hope glinting in her eyes.
"I have been building a vehicle that will allow us to go further into the city, or out, in this case" Donnie said, "We can use it to get to and from the base with any supplies we may need."
"Donnie, that's amazing!" April said and hugged the tallest turtle, "Can we see it?"
"Of course" He was ecstatic to share his newest creation with everyone.
The group all stood and followed Donnie to his Lab, Raph was still hanging back and away from everyone else, and had barely spoken during their whole conversation. Donnie threw back the giant barn door to his room and there was a huge van covered with a giant cloth. Donnie cleared his throat as though preparing for a lecture. "Gentlemen, and ladies" he added with a eyebrow wiggle at the girls "I present to you, The Turtle Van!" He whipped the cloth off of his creation.
Michelangelo was excited "Dude, it's awesome!" He immediately jumped in the back and began looking at all the cool gadgets Donnie had packed into it. The rest of the group was less enthusiastic.
It wasn't that they weren't impressed, but his creations always seemed to have the theme of having a shell like design about them, and the to of the Turtle Van was no exception. It was a giant yellow and green windowless van that had graffiti art all down the sides of it. Holly and April looked at each other.
"You hate it" Donnie said with a scowl.
"No!" April jumped in immediately "Its amazing you were able to build it, its just..." She trailed off, not knowing how to break the news to him gently.
"Its a bit conspicuous." Holly finished for her.
"I had to build it out of junk!" Donnie said defensively.
"And it really is impressive, but we need something a bit more discrete to do recon work." Leo continued for the girls.
"I guess," Donnie finally caved, "I just wanted to test it out and see if it worked."
"Who says we can't do that?" Leo asked and jumped in the back of the van with Mikey.
"Why don't you guys give us a ride home?" April said happily. It would be nice to not have to walk all that way for once.
Donatello's face lit up, "Really?"
"Of course" April beamed.
"Maybe we should wait until its fully dark out at least, just in case something happens" Leo poked his back out of the van, "In the mean time, why don't you show us all the stuff you put on this thing." Donatello and April also hopped into the van and Donnie began to happily go over everything for them.
Raph just stood in the doorway with his arms crossed over his plastron. He shook his head and turned to leave as they heard Donnie smack Mikey's hand as he was about to touch something.
"Don't you want to see what your brother has made?" Holly asked before he got too far.
"Not really" Raph shrugged without turning around.
"Alright, what is going on? Are you mad at me?" Holly asked with genuine worry in her voice.
"No" He replied shortly.
She snorted in disbelief, "Then what is it? You haven't said more that three words combined since yesterday."
"It doesn't matter." He said and continued to leave.
"It does though, doesn't it?" she was getting annoyed with him now. He hadn't been this distant for a long time. "Can you please tell me?" She spoke lower so the others wouldn't eaves drop, but the chatter from the van had already died down to a suspicious level. Raph didn't answer her, he just continued out of Donnie's lab into the main area of the Lair. Holly followed him, not quite ready to give up yet. "Raph."
"What do you want?" He turned on her, emotion blazing in his green eyes. She couldn't tell which one though.
"I want to understand what happened between yesterday and today to make you so hostile." She looked hurt, and Raph hated himself for making her feel that way, but after her freak out yesterday and revealing that she didn't think the six of them could deal with everything that was going on, he couldn't let her get any more involved than she already was.
"What happened is you stopped trusting us!" He almost shouted at her.
"Wha..what?" She stammered, she felt like he had just punched her in the gut.
"You don't think we're going to be able to handle everything and you wanted an out. Well you got one, so just take it now and don't look back". He turned on his heel and stomped off. He couldn't look her in the eye anymore. Her eyes had gone so wide and bright as tears started to form in them, especially since she didn't have her glasses to hide behind.
"Whoa" Mikey said softly from the lab door.
Holly turned and took a breath. She was not going to cry, not this time. She took a couple of steps away from everyone, then realized something else was going on here. "Hold on a minute, you're so full of crap!" She turned back around and stomped right after him "How dare you take out your own issues on me. I had a moment of panic, which I think I am entitled to every once in a while, but I have never doubted your abilities."
"Excuse me?" Raph spun around again and was surprised to find her glaring at him rather than the tears he had been expecting.
"You're just trying to push me away. Why? If I'm such a traitor, why even let me back in here at all?" she gestured around at the lair, "You know I can help you guys, so this has something to do with you and me."
Raph was stunned into momentary silence, she had figured him out far too quickly. "No it doesn't" he came back at her lamely.
"It does," she gawked at him, "so what is it?"
He finally snapped "You shouldn't have to deal with our problems! Neither of you should! You keep risking yourself and your homes for us and all we do is bring you trouble. I can't bring anything good to your life, only problems and I don't want to see you get hurt or miss out on a normal life because of me."
"You don't get to decide how important you are to me." Holly said dangerously.
"Just go home and forget we exist." He turned around again and was about to stop into his room.
Holly sprinted across the room and put herself between him and the safety of his room she wasn't much taller than Raph, but she towered over him in her fury. "Don't you date tell me to forget you! I have chosen to be involved and you know damn well that I would never just abandon you, or the others. My mother was taken by those bastards too so this is as much my fight as it is yours. I had one moment of weakness and you try to push me away to what? Protect me? Or is it to protect yourself?"
Raph was equally furious, she was exposing all his weaknesses so effortlessly, "I don't want you to see you get hurt!"
"I don't want to see you get hurt!" She threw back at him.
"This is pointless" He shouted in frustration
Holly took a deep breath, and all the fight went out of her "Are you so afraid of the uncertainly, that you won't even give me a chance?" She asked sadly.
He couldn't answer her, was he too afraid?
"I care about you Raphael, and I fell like you should know that by now." She walked past him this time, she ignored all the hurried scuffling noises the others made as they tried to look innocent and went straight to the kitchen to get a cold drink.
He stood stunned for a moment before disappearing into his room.
The others let the tension dissipate a little before they emerged from the Lab, even Splinter had made himself scares and hadn't reappeared. April went to her friend and they spoke in hushed tones in a corner.
"That was intense" Mikey commented before plopping down on a beanbag and powering on a games console.
"Yeah, I don't think anyone has ever spoken to Raph that way before." Donnie was amazed.
"She had some valid points though" Leo sighed and shrugged. Raph was going to be impossible for a while now.
The girls rejoined the group and sat down to watch Mikey.
"Your van is amazing, Donnie," Holly said, sounding almost like herself again, "but I think we can find us something a little less obvious."
"How?" Leo asked.
"I haven't quite figured that out yet, but I might be able to convince my aunt to let us use her station wagon." April added
"Someone knows how to drive though, right?" Holly chimed in. "I only have a provisional license and have barely practiced at all."
"I'm sure its easy" April said with a wave of her hand.
"I can drive my van, and its basically the same as any other internal combustion engine vehicle." Donnie was grinning smugly to himself.
"I bet I can drive it" Mikey said, as he crashed the car he was driving in his game into a wall.
"I wouldn't let you drive if you paid me a million dollars." Donnie said.
Leo, April and Holly laughed.
The remainder of the night, the teens just enjoyed each others company. Splinter did come back out to get a fresh pot of tea and to see how their plans were going. He agreed that they should use an inconspicuous vehicle while they gathered information, but it needed to be done sooner rather than later. But, he soon left them to their games and talk and went back to his room. He did briefly glance at his second sons door debating if he should try to talk to him. It could wait until the others were gone though, Raphael had probably been embarrassed enough already for one day. When the girls decided it was time to go, Donnie jumped up eagerly. He ran to his Lab and started checking over all the gauges and dials before he would start it up.
"Should I go get Raph?" Mikey asked before they all climbed into the van.
"Mmm, best not this time." Leo said and sat in one of the few seats there were in the van.
April sat herself in the front next to Donatello and fastened her seat belt, "This thing is safe, right?"
"Of course!" Donnie said confidently.
"I just hope all the cylinders are properly sealed or the engine might blow up!" Holly said jokingly.
"That wont happen though, right?" Leo asked his brother with just a hint of worry in his voice.
"Ignore her, she knows its fine. She looked at it herself already" Donnie wasn't worried, they had looked at it together as he had built it since she actually had experience with cars.
Holly chuckled as Leo gave her a disapproving look,"Its solid. Did you forget that I build cars with my dad when I see him."
"Maybe." Leo confessed.
Donatello fired up his van and pulled out into an old subway tunnel. They drove underground for a few miles before they came to a dead end.
"Dude, where are we supposed to go now?" Mikey asked.
"Just watch" Donnie said and pressed a button on the dashboard. The entire wall opened up in front of them and revealed an opening to the surface.
"Did you build that by your self?" April asked awed.
"Yeah, when you live underground in secret, theirs a lot of down time." He shrugged, but internally he was thrilled that April was impressed.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Mikey yelled "Lets roll!"
The van screeched out onto the street, and that was when Holly realized that the back had no seat belts. "Lets maybe take it a little easier than this?" she said as she was thrown around. She finally grabbed onto a pipe that had been fitted and held on for dear life.
The van was top heavy, so it rolled around the corners as Donnie tried to get the big behemoth to drift through the streets. By the time they got to Holly's apartment, she was feeling quite queasy.
"Next time, I'm driving" She said before falling out of the vehicle onto the sidewalk.
"It wasn't that bad" April said happily from the passenger seat.
"Oh yeah? Try sitting in the back and tell me how you feel." Holly shot her friend a sarcastic look.
"I'm sorry, I'll have to work on the suspension system to make the ride better." Donnie said thoughtfully.
"Get heavy duty springs and it should help with the rolling, but you really need to lower the center of gravity." Holly said honestly. "Other than that though, you did awesome."
He beamed at her praise, and looked over his shoulder at his brothers. "Shall we go?"
"Can I drive now?" Mikey asked.
"No" the three remaining passengers said in unison.
Holly shook her head, bade them all good night and went up to her apartment.
Donatello drove a little less exuberantly on the way to Aprils house. He was deciding what he wanted to do. He really wanted to talk to April. Holly and Raphs fight had been rough, but both of them had been right about something. Raphael didn't want to put Holly in any unnecessary danger, although he had expressed it like a complete idiot. Raph wasn't the best at expressing any sort of affection, but that was where the terribly ineffective plan had come from, a place of caring. And Holly had been right that there were things that she and April could do to help them, and both of their parents had been captured for one reason or another. The girls were just as involved as the turtles and Splinter were. Donnie was desperate to talk to April about his worries, and hopefully be a bit more tactful than his brother.
They arrived at Aprils aunts house and she hopped out of the van, "I'll see you tomorrow?" she asked.
"Um, actually... Leo, do you want to drive the van home?" Donnie asked, there was no way he was going to let Mikey loose on his newest creation yet.
"I probably could manage it." He said over Mikey yelling that he wanted to drive.
"Thank, I'll catch up with you later." Donnie hopped down and waved as his brothers drove away still fighting over who was driving.
"Is everything OK?"April asked.
"Yeah, I just wanted to talk to you... in private." Donnie looked awkwardly at his feet.
"OK, why don't I go in and I'll meet you on the fire escape?" April touched his arm briefly before rushing up the front stairs. It sucked that she couldn't just bring him home to meet her aunt, but Carol might have a heart attack if she was who April was spending all her time with.
April tried to keep her conversation with her aunt as short as possible, she wanted to know what Donnie wanted to talk about. She had a feeling she knew, but still, it was nice to be able to have some time with him alone.
Carol was curious to know where April had been all day, but wasn't too pushy in asking questions. She remembered what it was like being a teenager. Hormones raging and trying to figure out who you are all at once, she wouldn't go back to that if she was paid a million dollars.
April closed her bedroom door once she had safely answered all her aunts questions. He then opened her bedroom window and saw her lanky, gap-toothed turtle waiting patiently for her. "Sorry about that, I had to chat with my aunt for a few minutes."
"No, its not a problem. I understand." He smiled goofily at her.
"So, whats up?" She asked and sat on her hands to keep the chill away.
"Well," He started scratching his head, "I wanted to talk to you about Raph and Holly"
"Oh, yeah that was pretty rough." She nodded along.
"No, I mean what was said, very badly, between them." He was already messing this up... No wonder Raph had made such a mess of things.
"OOH" She said, suddenly understanding where he was going, "I was wondering why you wanted to gossip."
"I just wanted to check in with you, and make sure you knew that I worry about you in all of this too, but I know that you want to, and are perfectly capable of, helping us." He felt a little awkward saying this all out loud, but he felt it was necessary.
"I know, but thank you for saying it anyway." April scooted closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder. "You do know that I would keep getting involved even if you didn't want me to though, right?"
"Of course," He put an arm around her waist and scooted her over even closer. "Holly is more hot headed that you, but you're both as stubborn as I have ever know Raph to be."
April laughed,and the sound warmed his heart, "That's probably true." There was a brief pause as the two teens just sat and looked out over the dark city.
"I should probably go," Donnie said a little awkwardly.
"Stay with me a little longer. In fact, come inside with me, its getting chilly." She dragged him through her open window with her.
"Won't your aunt hear me?" he whispered as he stepped into Aprils room. He propped up his bo staff against the window frame so he could grab it on the way out in a pinch.
"No, she said she was going to go to bed soon and she sleeps through pretty much anything." April did keep her voice down though, her aunt had a routine, and she still had her episodes of reality TV to watch.
"What do you want to do?" He asked, awkwardness levels climbing ever higher.
"Just, come sit with me." She patted a spot next to her on her bed. Donnie audibly gulped. April laughed.
She kicked off her shoes and opened up her laptop to put on some episodes of a show. He sat on the edge of her bed and twiddled his thumbs.
April rolled her eyes, she grabbed him around the shoulders and pulled him back to sit next to her on her bed. She wrapped his arm around her shoulders and snuggled into him. After a few moments he began to relax. They watched a few episodes of one of Aprils favorite shows, but really they weren't paying that much attention. Donnie was so absorbed by the feeling of having Aprils body so close to his, he could barely hear anything over the sound of his own heart pounding in his ears. He could feel her breathing against him, and he couldn't help but stroke the soft skin on her arm. April, likewise could hear Donnie's heart beating in his chest. She intertwined her fingers with his over his plastron and noticed his heart rate speed up. She didn't know she could have this effect on anyone, but she kind of liked it. She looked up at him and he gave her his trademark goofy grin, she sat up and leaned in to kiss him. He was stunned for a moment, but very quickly he recovered himself and kissed her back. She pressed against him and he held on like she might dissolve into a dream.
Raphael finally emerged from his room once he knew everyone else was gone. He had spike on his shoulder and went to the kitchen to get something to eat for himself and his pet. He set a whole bunch of lettuce leafs on the table and unwrapped the pancakes the others had saved for him. He took a couple of bites and had to admit that they were delicious, but he still didn't have much of an appetite, so he re-wrapped the pancakes and sat with his chin on the table watching spike eagerly munching on his dinner.
"Are you alright, my son?" Splinter had appeared noiselessly in the kitchen.
"Not really," Raph admitted, "I was an ass today, wasn't I?"
"Yes, that pretty much sums it up." Splinter agreed.
Raph groaned, "Why doesn't she understand that I just want to protect her?"
Splinter paused for a moment, "Do you understand that she wants the same thing?"
"Sure, but I am more prepared to deal with stuff. We've been training for years." Raph argued.
"True," Splinter agreed, waiting to what his son would say next.
"And these guys are really dangerous! Who knows what they're all planning together?" Raph continued, feeling justified.
"Again, this is true." Splinter confirmed, "Holly's mother was taken by them, and we are yet to help Aprils father."
Raph was , "So we have to keep them safe! Right?"
"And you think pushing her away, further from your protection, is the best course of action?" Splinter said.
"Well, no." Raph said, sensing a trap.
"Holly, and Apirl, are very well aware of the risk they are taking on. The fact that Holly is worried shows that she understands that she has shortcomings in this fight. But you need to trust in her ability to know when it is too much, and that she will let you know when she needs your help." Splinter knew that his son had difficulty expressing himself, but he also knew that he did care deeply for his family and friends. It was his loyalty to them that was his greatest strength.
"But, what if she gets hurt because of us? What if she decides that we're not worth the trouble?"
"Do you believe she would come to that conclusion?" Splinter asked.
"I don't know, and that is what scares me." Raph went back to watching his pet munching on his leafs.
Splinter paused thoughtfully, young love was a tricky topic, "There may come a time where Holly might feel that way, but she won't know it until it happens. It would seem that right now she doesn't think you are a waste of time, and she was willing to fight for you. You are still young and learning how to handle more mature situations, but I wouldn't let you fear deny you one of life's most wonderful experiences."
Raph sighed again, "What am I supposed to do?"
"I can't answer that for you, but I can at least give you one very important life lesson that I learned too late. Talking honestly with the people you care about will solve more problems than anything else."
Raph was silent again, he wasn't the best at honest conversations. He liked to stay safely hidden behind his wall of sarcasm and empty threats. "I need to get some air." He left his father and Spike in the kitchen and proceeded to the surface, he had been in his own head for too long.
"Boys." Splinter shook his head and chuckled to himself as he got another lettuce leaf for spike.
