Fearing what was about to happen, Mikey clenched his fist. Not too tightly though. A new shell cell, with little orange kanji written on the fake scutes. It was smaller than the others Donnie had made, a specialty for Becca. Holding back what would have been his thousandth sigh, he looked to the lift. For a moment he thought about hitting the E-Stop button. Holding back another sigh, he shook his head. Sara was down stairs so that wouldn't work.
Work. It seemed as if that was the only word he could think of today. Work. Not him, oh no, not him, of course. Becca… Becca was getting ready to go looking for that four letter word that started with W. He'd tired not to be under her feet too much but it was difficult. He knew she'd be gone. Letting out one long, heavy sigh he tried to cheer up.
At least she wouldn't be going out completely on her own, he tried to tell himself. Sara would be going with her, waiting at a computer café just a few blocks away. If for some reason the panic button was pressed, his sister would be able to get to her in a matter of minutes. He pouted. Unlike him, who would be stuck down here if something did happed, which would mean that he wouldn't be able to protect her.
The lift started to hum. He could see chains and gears moving. He flipped the phone open. The panic button, orange and glaring, stared back at him. In the middle of the phone it was surrounded by other colorful little dots. Two purple, another orange towards the top, then a red and a blue. The key pad had been programmed with a few short cuts. One through four called him or his brothers. Five was set up for Sara's number. Six and Seven were for April and Casey, in case Sara was called but wouldn't be enough.
He clenched the phone. It was the only way for her to contact him. In daylight he couldn't just go to the middle of town and save her. He was useless until nightfall. He sighed, rubbed his face and walked over to the lift. He would have to ask Donnie how he'd ever let Sara out of his sights. At least Sara could protect herself for the most part. Becca was smaller, more fragile.
He smiled a little, a memory from a few nights ago popping up in his head. She wasn't completely fragile. Her training had started and for the first time she'd been able to throw Sara over her shoulder. It was one of the easiest moves to learn, but still, it was something. The pride and joy on Becca's almost healed face had made his heart throb. She'd proceeded to jump up and down, flailing her arms, squealing. "Oh my god, oh my god! I did it! I did it! Did you see that?" She'd ran at him, arms open. Hugging him hard enough around the neck little black and red specks tinged his vision, she'd let out a laugh of relief.
Mikey knew he was a touchy-feely person. He craved contact. Becca's new found obsession for hugging him set him body on fire. He wanted her. To hold her, to feel her soft small body pressed against his. Every time she hugged him, he stopped himself for enveloping her in his arms. Instead he'd rest his hands on top of her hips, just slightly returning the favor. She'd dropped herself back to the floor upon releasing him. She ran over to Sara, who had laid still on the mat, her stomach and shoulders moving as she covered her hand with her mouth to stop herself from laughing. "I don't know which of us is more surprised," Sara had giggled.
Chatter dragged him out of his memories. Becca and April cleared the floor to the garage, their happy talking breaking the silence around him. Becca raises an eyebrow. Any tiny flaw she might have had was covered by makeup and her eyes shimmered underneath the shades of tan she wore around them. Her orange dress swayed as she walked to him. "Hey, I couldn't find you down stairs, are you here to see us off?"
"Yeah," he grinned just from seeing her so excited. "I have a good luck present for you too." He opened his hand, exposing the small cell phone. Her eyes lit up as she eyed the small thing. Hesitant, she took it from him, opening it and looking it over.
"The buttons are color coded, so press them if you need to send an emergency signal to one of us. Sara is the purple one on the right. The big orange one will alert all of us, Casey, April, and even Marcus. If you just want to call then Leo is one, Raph is two, Donnie is three and I'm four. Then it goes Sara, Casey and April." Becca looked him dead in the eye as he talked. It was actually a little unnerving. Her eyes bounced back the light from the windows on the second story and her teeth clenched her lip. She looked back down at the phone once then up at him again. Her arms flew around him, her small frame pressed against him.
For one small moment Mikey caved and wrapped her in his arms. He inhaled hard, memorizing the smell that she gave off. He noted that she was just big enough that if he turned his wrist, he could still hold onto her hips. "Thank you so much!" She squeezed him even harder. He prayed she wouldn't ever let go. Then Sara cleared her throat. He held back a groan as Becca jumped. However long they'd been like that, it hadn't been long enough. Becca didn't let go of him completely. Sliding down to the ground she brushed a kiss over his cheek. That had to be an accident, he told himself immediately. The wink that Becca gave proved him wrong. "I'll be home soon." She smiled then nearly skipped to the door.
As she left he held his cheek, grinning.
*)O(*
"Okay, um, not that I wouldn't be thrilled, but are you okay with…" Sara stopped herself. How could she really give advice on love? Her even bringing it up might cause Becca to rethink it herself. If Sara turned out to be the reason she decided not to even try being with Mikey, she'd never forgive herself. "Ok with what?" Becca asked as she fiddled with the new shell cell.
"Opening up again?" Sara had heard her story. She knew the reason why Becca didn't try to date. The part of her that told her she needed to be a good sister was eating her up. "I-I don't really know." Becca confessed. "But, if I don't try, how will I ever know?"
"I meant, uh, are you ready to try, you know, with him?" Tip toeing around what she wanted to say wasn't really her strong suit. She liked that Donnie understood that about her. "Why not him?" Becca frowned. "He's nice, gentle, funny, cute…" She'd started to smile but was blushing now. "He's a good person." She declared and tried to go back to her phone. Sara grinned. The girl couldn't stop blushing right then to save her life. "Cute, huh?" Sara teased. "I think you mean you think that he's handsome."
She couldn't help but laugh as the tint on Becca's face deepened. "Do- Do you think that I'm weird because of it? I mean, I know that you love Donnie, but…"
"No," Sara stopped her. "Well, yes, a little, but that's because you picked Mikey, so you have to be at least a little weird. But the fact that you can look past everything else means that, even if you are weird, you are an amazing person." Becca smiled awkwardly then hugged her.
"Thanks."
They walked to the coffee shop together. Becca waved, continuing on. "Sara!" Marcus smiled. Large sunglasses almost blocked his face and as was appropriate for the weather, he was in jeans and a long sleeved shirt. Although he would wear the jeans in the summer, and a long t-shirt at least. Every time she saw him she felt a little guilty. No matter how much he tried to tell her otherwise, she still thought that what he had endured was her fault. "Hey," she called back. Silently she hoped Becca would do well today as she went to join her friend.
*)O(*
It was getting late. They'd left early that morning but by the time Becca got done with her last interview the sun was high in the sky and starting to move to the horizon. She was ready to sit down and relax. She hadn't gotten a solid 'yes', but she had gotten a second interview at two places and the response that they would have to check her background before notifying her again. It had been the best day she'd had job hunting so far. Her new phone chirped and she opened it. 'Hey, come to the grocery store two blocks down from the coffee shop, I'm getting groceries. -S-'
Groaning, she continued on, the large store visible from the café. So many people flooded the street it was getting harder and harder to move through the crowd. She'd almost forgotten what it was like to maneuver through everyone. In the lair there was enough room for everyone to have their own space. It was a miracle that somewhere so big existed below their feet. Caught up in her own thoughts she kept on walking.
She was a few yards away from the store a hand snatched her by the arm. "You!" Venom seethed from the voice and she spun around to face the person. Liam. His bruises still visible, his nose crocked. Pure rage spewed from his eyes. The sight of him made her choke. He drew back his hand. Something inside of her kicked into gear and she screamed. The crowd of people around them turned and stared. She could see a few cell phone coming out. She screamed again and crouched, putting her hands over her head. Some of it was real fear. Some of it was knowing he wouldn't do anything with people watching him.
She didn't look up until someone else said something. "Are you okay ma'am?" A woman's voice, soft and tender. She looked up and Liam had disappeared. Shaky, she gulped before answering. "Ye-Yeah, who was that guy?" She lied, playing ignorant and innocent.
"I don't know, honey. Why did he try to hit you?"
"I-I think I might have bumped into him or something." She stood up when the woman offered a hand.
"Fucking jerks," the woman threw over her shoulder. "Do you want me to walk with you?" She turned back. Becca shook her head. She gave a look around. "I'm meeting my sister at the store right there. I'll be okay. Thank you so much for your help."
"Don't worry about it, we women have to stick together in this world." The woman smiled and waved, walking away.
Only in New York could someone almost get assaulted on the sidewalk and everyone else not bat an eye, Becca thought as she waved back to the mystery woman. Taking a few deep breaths as the rest of the onlookers started to fade away, she calmed herself. Her eyes stayed open as she stepped into the store. She opened her phone and pressed five. Sara picked up within two rings. "Where are you?"
"I'm by the deli."
"Liam found me." She tried to say it calmly but an edge of panic was raising inside of her.
"I'll be right back-" Sara said to someone else. "Stay right by the door, I'm coming for you. Did he follow you in?"
"No, I scared him away." She informed her as she grabbed a cart. "He tried to punch me around a bunch of people and I screamed."
"Good. Did he say anything to you?"
"Not really."
"Not really or no?" There was an edge of annoyance in Sara's voice as she asked.
"All he said was 'you'."
"No threats other than trying to assault you again?"
"No."
"Okay, I'm almost there, keep an eye out, make sure he doesn't come into the store. I'm going to hang up now."
"Okay," Becca nodded and closed her phone. The windows at the front of the store became her main focus as she tried to look like she was waiting on someone. Technically she was, but she didn't want anyone to think that she was also on guard.
She heard Sara's voice before she saw her. "-the van to the store, yeah, the normal one. Thanks Casey. I'll even grab you some of the flaming hot chips that you like. Yeah, I can see her now, she looks okay. I've got to go, get here as soon as you can. Okay, bye." Sara jogged a heavily loaded down cart the last few feet. For a moment she was left standing there as Sara walked around her once. "Good," Sara sighed. "If you'd gotten hurt Mikey would have killed me."
"No he wouldn't, he'd just prank you for the next year straight." Becca teased. Well, she thought she did, but Sara turned a little pale. "Oh, goddess help me, I think I would rather die." Surprised, Becca burst out into laughter. The people in the store turned a head then ignored them.
"Yeah, yeah," Sara waved. "Come on, now that there is a second cart I can do all of the shopping today." Becca followed Sara through the store. Sara's cart was already over full but that didn't stop her from almost filling Becca's. She almost thought that Sara was playing a joke on her until she remembered the take-out from Murakami's. Thinking about that they might have even needed a second cart. The store people acted like it wasn't unusual. Most of the items were in bulk. Some made Becca wonder how they even got packaged at all. "I didn't know they made toilet paper in 88 rolls." She confessed.
"The bad thing is that it will only last a month," Sara laughed softly.
The cashier even greeted Sara by name. "You come here a lot."
"Sure does. Usually she comes in with the other redhead though, you should see those two." The tall blond man said with a wink. On a level that she wasn't aware of, something happened. She didn't take the wink as a friendly gesture; the sight of him doing it made her scrunch up her nose like she'd just walked in dog shit. She stopped herself right away. What was wrong with her? Here was this nice gentleman who had tried to be nice to her. She shouldn't have felt like he was being rude or disrespectful. Maybe he was even trying to flirt with her.
That thought made her turn up her nose again. Stacking things on the conveyer belt she told herself to knock it off. There was no reason why she should be acting like this. Then some small thought creepped up in her head. 'He wouldn't do that if he knew you were taken.' The giant jar of pickles that she'd had in her hand slid the last few inches onto the belt. The sound made her jump. Sara whipped around, eyeing the jar and then her. "Sorry, butter fingers." She tried to smile. She picked up the next thing, trying to look innocent. "Hey, who's the cutie, Sara?"
"She's my sister… Well, almost, she's my fiancé's brother's girlfriend. I finally got her to come shopping with me for everyone."
"Aw, too bad you're taken," the cashier mourned. "He better be a nice guy to have someone like you."
"He is." Becca said with more conviction than she intended. Sara was smirking. Smirking like Mikey would if he'd just heard her say that. She put her head back down, eyeing the rest of the things in her cart. One giant package of water bottles glared back up at her. "Uh, can I get your scanner thing?" She blushed. Sara had lifted into the cart with no problem at all. The sheer size of the thing made Becca doubtful that she'd ever be able to lift it.
Casey pull up on the side of the store. Clouds were gathering in the sky. It had been nice earlier but now the temperature was dropping as she was glad she could be somewhere with a heater on their way back home. She helped Sara and Casey, who were extremely quiet, load up the van. It was done quickly and they moved their carts to the holding area. Sliding into the van and the warmth within Becca couldn't wait to get home. She no sooner sat down than arms were around her.
"Are you okay, did he hurt you? What happened, are you alright? How did he even find you? Where were you at when he touched you." The voice broke into a growl. "Where did he touch you, are you okay?" Mikey's arms held her from the back seat. The small scare he'd given her made her let out a nervous sigh of relief. "I'm fine Mikey. I handled it." His arms loosened and she turned around to face him.
He was the most confused she thought she'd ever seen him. He looked worried, happy, angry, relieved, proud and scared all at the same time. "Please tell me you threw his ass."
Becca laughed. "No, but I'll remember to do that next time." She scrambled over the middle seat and sat next to him. The windows were tinted almost black and the sky was darkening, letting him sit in almost safety. "You should have called me, Becca." Mikey pouted.
"I didn't want you to worry, I had it covered anyway." She bit her lip then hugged him. She'd been trying to get a hug from him but usually he'd pull away or hold her at arms length. Not that morning and not now though. His strong arms wrapped all the way around her, making her feel small. His arms crossed in the middle of her back and his hands still held her hips. He squished her against his plastron and she tried to press even closer.
It was like a damn inside of her burst and she didn't want to try to fix it. Emotions that she'd held back from giving to anyone in a long time sprung forth. She wanted to trust him. Hoped that she could be with him, and that he'd want her to stay. Fear that he might turn her away, or that he would grow tired of her. A few tears leaked from her eyes but she ignored them as Mikey held her until they got back to the lair.
