Chapter 13

Rayen Sat with her beer glass pressed against her bruised jaw. The adrenalin had faded and now the pain had begun to set in. she listened to low drum of Raphael's and her brother's voices as they chatted about lord knew what. In all honesty she wasn't really listening. Her non swollen eye met Lyra's two.

Lyra watched her sister with concern. She was going to ask about her well being but A deep voice cut through her own before it had had a chance to leave her lips.

"You gunna drink that beer or just snuggle it?" Raphael rumbled.

Rayen turned her head slowly so to be able to see the man that spoke to her. gave a half-hearted smile and took a long draw of her drink. "How did you manage to make his shell crack?"

Raph's eyes widened for a second and then he smiled slyly, "Oh it is just a trick I used to play on my brother's."

"A trick?" Lyra asked raising a quizzical brow at the man sitting beside her.

Raphael took a drink and nodded as he swallowed.

Lyra and Rayen looked at one another then back at the large turtle.

"Well, don't keep us in suspense, sir. Tell us the trick." Rayen insisted. "I would like to know how to crack shells."

Raph sighed and reached into his pocket then, after pulling it out, he held out his closed fist. Shifting and tightening each or his fingers, he produced a series of small cracks and snaps the last being thicker in sound. Then opening his hand, broken twigs dropped to the table in a soft clatter.

The siblings blinked at the twigs.

Tonyee's laughter broke the silence first. "You had a man about to piss himself over broken sticks!"

Raphael Grinned.

"But he acted like he was in so much pain." Rayen stated in her guffaw.

"Ya well I guess when your having a hard time breathing and hear breaking sound, the brain fills in the rest." Raph said with a shrug.

"What made you come up with that idea?" Lyra asked.

"Used to use it to freak out my brothers."

"You used to make you r brothers think you were breaking their shells…" Lyra said in an unimpressed tone.

Rayen snerked as she tried to stifle her laugh.

"It is cruel." Lyra defended her lack of amusement.

Rayen shrugged. "I found it quite gratifying, watching Jayden squirm, afraid his shell might crack open under the pressure of Raphael's foot. And the fact that the pain was in his head is all the better. Pain that rests in the mind and on the soul is a hard thing to swallow down. May the taste sit long in his mouth." Rayen took another draw of her beer.

"Vindictiveness has never been a good look for anyone. I am not used to seeing it on you." Lyra frowned at her sister.

Rayen scoffed. "A few bruises and a fear of being broken is where is rests. Raphael here had been willing to kill Jaylen. If I was truly vindictive, Lyra, I would have let him." With that Rayen chugged down the rest of her beer then got up and went to the bar for a refill.

Lyra narrowed her eyes at Raphael. "She is a kind woman. Do not taint her with hatful pursuits."

Raphael frowned back at Lyra and watched her shift under the pressure of it. "Hateful pursuits? Lady, from what I have gathered here in the last hour, she was raped by a commanding officer and then expected to just grin and bear it for the last how ever many years while he continued ranking and being a commanding officer. I think some hatful pursuits were in order in the first place."

"It is obvious things are done differently where you are from…" Tonyee started.

"Not different enough." Raph grumbled as he stood and walked away from the table.

Lyra reached out and grabbed the monstrous turtle's arm, Then tried not to melt under his fiery glair, "look," Lyra stated softly as she released his arm. "She deserves justice. And I want it for her more than anyone. But Not at the expense of who she is. More importantly than that bastard, is my sister's healing. Vengeance, hate, and anger will not bring that."

Raphael did not argue nor did he agree. He simply turned and walked away motioning to the tender as he approached the bar for more beer. He leaned his arms on the bar next to Rayen while he waited for his refill.

"Does it ever go away?" her voice softly drifted up from where she frowned into her beer.

Raphael considered her for a moment. "I don't know." He answered honestly. "I do know that wounds become scars though. The pain lessens but the memory is still there in some twisted way or another." The tender handed Raph his refilled beer. He took a small drink. "Scars are important. They remind us we survived."

Rayen turned her head fully on him so she could see him clearly through her non swollen eye, first meeting his golden gaze, then noting a deep scar on his lip, his cheek, many that thatched their way across his arms, a chip in the top of his plastron, partially covered by his shirt. She turned back to her drink. "You have a lot of scars. So, what you say must be true."

He contemplated the many sources of his many scars for a moment, "I'm glad you got a chance to kick his ass." Raph stated bluntly.

A small smile spread across Rayen's lips. "Me too."

Sitting quietly the two continued sipping on their beers. Ignoring their comrades at the table.

Leonardo frowned at a particularly lovely patch of raspberries. They were plump, bright red and being harvested by the sweet and lovely Emry, who had Michelangelo's complete attention. They had entered the gardens after looking everywhere else in the keep they could think of finding Donatello. To no avail. Either they were just missing him or he wasn't in the keep. And now Emry was proving to be more of a distraction than the hoped-for help.

Leo rolled his eyes as Mikey spouted some cheesy pickup line about angels or something. He couldn't be sure what annoyed him more. The fact that Mikey was so easy to completely distract, the pick up lines, or the fact that they seemed to be working, given the giggles Emry was rewarding Mikey's efforts with.

Taking a deep breath and pinching the brim of his nose he turned to face the giggling couple. "Emry, Can I aid us in finding one of my brothers?"

Emry's expression became more serious. "You have lost your brother? Is that why he was missing at breakfast? I see you found this missing one." She thumbed toward Michelangelo.

Leonardo gave a curt nod.

"I just over slept." Mikey explained.

Emry smiled and shook her head in mock disapproval at Michelangelo then turned her attention to Leonardo. "I can try and help. Which one is lost?"

"Donnie went missing some time last night. We have walked much of the keep and have not sean any sign of him."

"Forgive me but, which one is Donnie?"

"Oh, Donnie is like really tall, and kinda wiry." Mikey explained. "He's got glasses…"

"The one with the kind voice." Emery said fondly. "He is very tall. I have not seen him in the gardens… what interests him? Could he be taking a tour of the training grounds?"

Leo shrugged. "Maybe. He is more into science, and building things, reading… He does a lot of reading."

"Have you checked the library?"

Leo and Mikey shook their heads.

"I didn't realize you had a library."

Emery popped a couple of raspberries in her mouth as she nodded. Swallowing as she started to lead the way out of the garden. "Oh, yes. We have a rather large one. One could be lost in there for days with nothing but words and leather-bound paper to sustain them."

"Sounds like Don's kind of place." Mikey chuckled as they followed Emry back into the keep.

Donatello had no less than bombarded Min with questions. Though it had kept them busy while awaiting their patience's impending labor. He had learned that the terapinians were ovoviviparous. Though they did produce eggs. The eggs were housed internally until they hatched. Then the mother would labor and have a live birth, expelling the leathery egg shell after. Not to unlike a mammal delivering the placenta and amniotic sack, after giving a live birth. The gestation was close to that of a humans differing only by about a week on average though the babies were born on an average of four to six pounds as apposed to the human's average of six to eight pounds. He had found himself surprised at the different path evolution had apparently taken with the terapinians in comparison to turtles back home, on earth. As not a single turtle, that he could recall, was ovoviviparous. Though he did know of several reptiles and fish that were. And even though turtles are considered a reptile they are actually more closely related to birds than other reptiles… and there are no birds that give live birth either. But everything living on a given planet does seem to share a base DNA, as if everything anything could possibly be was already written into existence. He pondered this for a moment and decided it would make more since when and if man ever came to the point that they had discovered and understood everything.

But for now, as Min was escorting a cursing and pained laboring terapinian back into the shed, other things needed his attention.

The stages of Labor had taken up a good portion of the day and they were slipping into the mid afternoon when it was decided that it was time for the delivery.

Don and Min washed their hands again. Min setting to work preparing the mother and Donatello preparing the linens for the birth.

Donatello's eyes widened at the sight of a long, thin metal rod that had a small hook on the end in min's cloth wrapped hand. She was allowing it to cool as she had pulled it from a pot of boiling water.

He knelt down next to her with an arm full of linens. "What is that for?" He whispered softly.

"To break the egg shell" Min answered simply. She positioned some linens beneath Julia's bottom and began to insert the now cooled, hooked rod into the woman's birth canal.

This stirred a mixture of feelings in Don, ranging from, surprised, to discomfort. "It doesn't break on its own?"

Min shook her head. "Not in this case. Not this early… usually"

"Early?" Don asked, suddenly confused. He had assumed with the herbal help to deliver the pregnancy had gone longer than expected.

Min applied gentle pressure to the rod until she felt the leathery shell of the internal egg give. Then turning the rod 180 degrees she began to gently pull until the rod released. She removed the rod with a torn piece of the leathery, off white, egg shell which was followed by a gush of the thick clear liquid egg white.

"Push with the next contraction." Min instructed Julia then turned to Don and explained, "The egg will collapse as she delivers."

"Oh." Donatello stated simply as he was still trying to understand why they were delivering the baby early. He wanted to ask but did not want to be a distraction if the mother's or infant's life was somehow in danger.

As Julia contracted Min encouraged her pushing.

As long as it had taken to get this far the baby was crowning within minutes. Min counting her lucky stars the baby was not breach. Which was rarely the case at this stage.

Donatello couldn't hold back his excited gasp. Words could not express the feeling of watching a being coming into the world. Especially something so similar to himself. Sure, he knew scientifically life began much sooner than this, conception to be exact. * But this, the moments before a first breath is taken and the world is seen for the very first time… it was miraculous.

Julia pushed and the infant's head was freed, she pushed more and soon the shoulders and the beginnings of the carapace were free.

"Alright, this is the hard part…" Min stated.

"The hard part?!" Julia breathed. "As if any of this has been easy."

"Just push hard with the next contraction." Min instructed flatly.

Donatello couldn't understand the lack of emotion on Min's face or in her words. She seemed as though she was just going through motions done time and time again.

Julia cried out as she bore down with the next contraction.

"Almost there." Min stated.

One more hard push and infant was freed.

Donatello held out a linen and Min deftly placed the infant in his hand.

"Take it out side." She instructed.

"What?" Donatello couldn't hide his confusion or concern any longer.

"She said to take the thing outside." Julia snapped, making Donatello jump.

He looked back Min and he saw it then. The hint of sadness as she looked back at him. "Go now." She said softly. Then just like that the look was gone and she went back to tending to Julia.

Deftly Donatello went outside. Looking down at the infant in his hands. She was tiny. The tip of her head at the tips of his fingers and tiny feet reaching just below his wrist. Thin and frail with the yolk sack, small but still intact. Min's words from their ride here finally held meaning. "I am not thrilled about what I have to do today. It isn't why I took to studying medicine." He thought she had just been nervous about the delivery.

This had not been a typical delivery. This had been an abortion.

His stomach turned as he looked down at the infant that squirmed in his hands. He had never given much thought to this. It was a human problem, not his own. And besides that, he was not a woman. Who was he to say what a woman could do with what grows with in her?

But, as he stood there in that court yard watching this little girl as she squirmed and struggled to find her voice, her fight, his heart broke for her.

He didn't know what to do. Was he just supposed to stand here and watch her succumb to her early arrival?

A small sound escaped her. no more than a whisper of a whimper. But it set forth his determination. He didn't care what Julia had wanted. He was going to do what he could for this infant.

First the yolk sack needed to be kept moist. So, without a word he about faced and walked back into the shed. He grabbed a handful of linens, dipped one into the previously boiling water then, when warm to the touch instead of hot, wrested it on the infant's yolk sack as he walked back outside. Once outside he wrapped the infant tightly in a series of linens and moved into the sunshine to help warm her. There sitting cross-legged on the ground he rubbed his hands over the bundled baby to create friction and thus more heat.

He needed things he didn't have. Here or at home. He needed an incubator, an oxygen tank, and a nasal canula. He needed a proper sterile environment not the dirty ground of this court yard. It occurred to him that helping this tiny baby may be quite an impossible task. But listening to her soft whimper he couldn't bring himself to stop trying. So, there he sat, as tears pricked his eyes, attempting to warm her as he cooed soft encouragements and impossible promises.

"It's going to be ok. You are going to be just fine. I won't let anything happen to you."

After tending to Julia and giving her the post birth instructions on how to use the sitz bath, the raspberry leaf tea, and various salves, she gathered her tools, basket of linens, and bag.

"How would you like me to tend to the..." Min began to ask Julia.

"Just dump the thing in the ocean." Julia said bitterly rolling away to face the wall of the shed.

Min nodded then stepped out of the shed. She stopped short upon seeing Donatello there in the sun cooing in answer to the softly whimpering infant. A sound she was surprised to hear at all. The infant was about 8 weeks premature. Technically she had everything she needed to survive. Functioning lungs, heart, brain, liver and so on… everything but time. Time needed for development. Time needed to gain strength.

Slowly, regretfully Min approached Donatello's back.

"You didn't tell me we were here to…to.."

"I warned you that this would not be an easy task." Min said softly.

He didn't reply he just there rubbing his hands over the baby. "What now?" He finally asked.

"Miss Julia wishes for us to place the… infant in the ocean and…"

Don stood to face Min then, cradling the baby to his chest. "Absolutely not."

"It is the mother's right…"

"She is not a mother." Donatello spat out with more venom then intended.

Min's eyes widened for a moment but then her expression softened. "What would you have her do, Donatello? Should she have carried this child to term. Raised her here in a brothel to someday take over her mother's work?"

Don looked up at the stone building.

"She knows not the father." Min continued, " She has no financial gains to offer her baby or to offer a future perspective husband. And what man goes looking for a wife in a brothel."

Donatello frowned. "Those aren't her only options."

"Are they not? This child is girl born to a prostitute. What options do you think she has?"

"I don't know she can do anything she wants, learn to… to fish… or become an apothecary." His eyes locked with Min's then.

Min sighed, "I have the privilege of being the daughter of a lord. This allowed me liberties most women do not have. Most woman, my own mother, are not even taught to read. She has no future here."

Donatello's determined expression fell as did his gaze. Looking down at the baby he frowned. "I don't see why that means she should have to die. There has to be something… is there not an orphanage?"

"Yes." Min answered. "But they do not have the means to keep this child alive. She will need around the clock care for weeks. At least until her yolk sack is absorbed. And that is if her little lungs can sustain her. They simply don't have the resources."

"Then we get them the resources." Donatello stated. His eyes lifting to meet Min's. His determination returning.

"Do you have them?"

Don slowly shook his head.

"Then we must do what miss Julia has asked…"

"What about your father?"

Min tilted her head quizzically. "What about him?"

"He has the resources."

"He is attempting to marry off four daughters. The doweries alone…"

"I will forfeit mine." Done stated. Then with a nod. "Ya… I don't have any use for it. And she does. Would it be enough? Just till she is out of the woods." He looked down at the baby against his chest.

Min was well aware of the doweries promised in regards to herself and her older three sisters. It had been set high to encourage suiters for the difficult four. It would be enough to pay a nurse maid. More than enough. "And what of the mother's wishes?"

"What of them? Has she not basically thrown the baby away? If I walk down to the ocean and let the water touch her, but then pull her from it, I have done what Miss Julia asked. I have followed her wishes… the baby isn't hers after that. She has forfeit her rights as a mother. Hasn't she?"

Min watched Don's chocolate eyes darken as she considered his argument. "You are splitting hairs…"

"Oh, come on!" Donatello exclaimed in exasperation.

"However," Min stated as she put up a hand to stop his debate. "You are not wrong. I can not and will not stop you."

"You won't?"

"I did not get into this business to end lives, Mr. Hamato. Come we have tarried too long." With that she hurried into the brothel building, Donatello at her heals clutching the small infant to his chest.

Min stopped to ask a woman where the kitchen was. Once there she removed her tools from her leather satchel and poured some water into and over the bag, to the chagrin of the cook that had made the trek to get the bucket of water. Min assured the upset woman that the walking was good for her, then went about putting hot coals into the wet leather bag. She layered linens into the basket then placed, the now warm, wet bag on top. She then layered a few more linens on top of that.

"We will have to keep a close eye, as the coals will not burn through the wet leather right away, and will probably loose heat before that would be an issue, the basket may still get too warm… or too cold if the coals go out, given the wetness." Min informed as she took the tiny baby from Donatello and placed her in the basket. Carefully she checked that the cloth over the yolk sack was still moist, rebundled the baby, then handed the basket to Donatello. "Come, we need to be quick about the mother's wishes if we are going to talk to my father."

Min hesitated for a moment then.

"I thought we needed to hurry." Donatello stated.

Min looked up at Donatello and rested a gentle hand on his shoulders. "You should know, sir. The odds are not in her favor. Eight weeks early is very early and most infants born this early do not survive."

Donatello had to take a moment to remind himself that even though the means to help the baby existed on his earth, they were not anymore available to him there than they were here.

He gave a small nod. "I know."

Satisfied, Min, turned and led the way out of the brothel and out to the edges of the docks where the ocean lapped at the island's shores. Caring little if her shoes got wet, she hurried down to the water Cupping her hands she lifted some of the salty water from the waves as they washed over her feet.

"Uncover her feet, quickly." Min commanded.

Donatello sat down the basket and did what min had demanded, watching as she ran her ocean wet hands over the fussing baby's feet. He couldn't help the smile the rested on his lips as he watched her tenderly re wrap the baby's little feet and whisper a soft "There there." In that moment he felt his chest tighten yet again toward this strange woman.

Min realized Donatello was watching her and blinked at him. "What?" She asked expectantly.

"Thank you." Don said softly. Then, ignoring some primal need to cup Min's cheeks in his hands and kiss her slowly, he curled his fingers around the handle of the basket and hurried back to the coach so they could quickly make the trip back inland.

*Agree or disagree, google it. This is what it says.