Earlier that night…
Raphael stopped suddenly and Karai and Casey followed suit behind him. He couldn't hear the creature anymore, which meant it had probably stopped moving again and was just perched somewhere nearby. He growled in frustration. They'd been chasing this fucking flying monster for almost an hour.
His phone buzzed and he pulled it to read the text from Leo. "They captured a monster. Leo says actual stone generals showed up to take it away."
"I told you about them," Karai said, frowning. "You guys didn't believe me?"
Raphael raised a skeptical eye to her.
"I'm not a liar," Karai said, angrily.
Raphael considered this while she glared at him. "Fine, yer not a liar. But yer full of shit."
"What?" she took a threatening step towards him and glared again when he smirked at her advance.
"You and Leo are way more alike than either of you would like to admit," Raph said, sighing in exasperation as he watched her take another step towards him. "And I'm an expert at reading Leo. You may not be lying to us, but yer not telling the whole truth either." He watched her freeze. Her eyes stayed on him but she took a step back. "And on top of that, yer somehow confused as to why Leo is angry with ya."
Casey stood to the side, his eyes going back and forth between the two of them, ready to jump in the middle of the family feud if needed. It wasn't like Raph to subtly push emotional buttons like this, especially while looking so calm.
Karai turned away from Raphael but it didn't stop the red-clad turtle from continuing anyway.
"All those years Leo spent trying to get you away from Shred-head and into the safety of our clan. Yer clan by birthright," Raph said, shaking his head. "He went on and on about how there was good in ya and how we shouldn't give up on ya. And how did you repay all that blind faith he had?"
"You don't know what you're talking about!" Karai snarled back at him, pulling her sword.
Raph crossed his arms in response to her threat. "So you didn't high-tail it outta here when things calmed down? When it was time to just relax and settle into yer new family?" He watched her lower her eyes to the ground as the arm holding the sword lowered. "You thought you could run away and it wouldn't matter to us. But it did. It hurt the whole family, especially Leo. Leo takes all that shit on his own shoulders. No one loves family like Leo loves family. And you left him feeling like he'd failed Master Splinter. Like he failed the family."
Karai felt a chill run through her. It was the exact conversation she'd been trying to avoid with Leo and she certainly didn't expect it to come from the family hothead. She raised her eyes back up to him, expecting a smug look on his face, but instead his eyes were narrowed into a slight frown with his mouth pressed into a thin line. He was waiting to see if she was going to rebuke what he'd just said. But, she found she was at a loss for words. She watched him uncross his arms and drop his hands to his sides in a less threatening pose. Her eyes narrowed in on his wrists as she realized one of his wrist guards was blue while the other was brown.
She was about to ask him about his mis-matched gear in order to change the subject but watched as his head jerked up to the sky right before he took off again. She pressed the tracker button for the Foot once more and quickly followed behind him and Casey.
Leo landed on the rooftop silently and immediately crouched down to check on his unconscious mate. Even though Casey had said Raph wasn't actually hurt, he couldn't stop all the worst case scenarios from running through his head until he had his hands on Raphael again.
Casey and Karai stood back and silently waited for Leo to finish checking Raph's vitals, something they'd been doing routinely as they stood guard over their teammate. They didn't mention their prior checks to Leo, he wouldn't have cared at that moment.
Finally, Karai broke the silence. "He shoved me," she said. "I was about to yell at him for pushing me but then he went down and I realized he'd been hit by the tranquilizer. They were aiming for the monster we'd found but it was flying erratically over us and they missed."
"No kidding," Leo said quietly, pulling Raph's head into his lap so he could pull his eyelids back and check the pupils of those green eyes. "The dart?"
"I've got it Leo," Casey said. "I'll give it to Don when we get home."
Leo nodded and Karai's eyes slid to Casey. It was strange to think that perhaps Casey now lived with the turtles as well.
Leo slid his hands down Raph's face. Raph seemed ok based on his cursory check. But he wanted him back home so Donnie could check him over properly. "Help me sit him up."
Casey and Karai both stepped forward to help but the glare Leo sent Karai stopped her. Casey pretended not to notice and helped move Raph into an upright position so Leo could more easily pull him onto his own shell to carry him home. It was the main reason Casey had called him out there since not even he and Karai together could move, let alone carry, Raphael's bulk.
"Leo-," Karai said.
"Let's go, Casey," Leo said, turning to head off the rooftop.
Casey looked to Karai and shrugged before moving quickly to keep up with the leader.
When they reached their building, Leo went directly to his and Raph's apartment where the majority of his family sat quietly in the living room. Leo had called Donnie on his way to pick up Raphael and alerted him to the situation. He passed the others and gently deposited Raphael on their bed where Donnie was waiting with his mobile medical bag to examine Raph as well.
After agreeing with Leo that Raphael seemed okay except for the sedation, Donnie took the tranq dart from Casey and headed down to his lab. Leo sent everyone else to bed and went back to his own bedroom where he began pulling Raphael's gear off him before undressing himself and crawling into bed to wrap himself around Raph's shell.
"Idiot," he murmured into Raph's side. "She doesn't deserve you saving her."
He stayed like that for a while, listening to Raph's even breathing while he alternated between calling Raphael a moron and growling at him to wake up already. His T-phone buzzed and he pushed himself up off of Raphael to reach it.
He frowned when he read Donnie's text: The dosage of this tranquilizer would knock out three elephants. Go to sleep. He's not waking up anytime soon.
"Goddamn her," Leo growled, tossing the phone back on his nightstand as he sat up to glare at Raphael. "And you. Goddamn both of you." He sighed when he still got no reaction from Raphael. He reached over and gently ran his hand down Raph's peaceful-looking face before positioning himself down next to him again to try to sleep.
When Raphael next opened his eyes, he was surprised to see two sets of little eyes peering at him over the side of his bed.
"Papa!" Machi said when she realized his eyes were open.
"You've been asleep forever," Akito said, a slight frown on his face.
Raph stared at them for a few moments. He felt groggy and didn't know why he'd be in bed if the two kids were awake. He opened his mouth to ask where Leo was but his mouth was dry and no sound came out. He coughed a few times.
"I'll get you some water," Akito said, sprinting out of the room.
Machi climbed up on the bed and curled into his side. She wasn't a huge cuddler normally so he had to again wonder how long he'd been lying in this bed.
Akito returned with a glass of water and Master Splinter. Raphael moved into a sitting position and moved Machi into his lap. His arm was a little sore and he felt slightly dizzy sitting but otherwise didn't note any injuries. He nodded his thanks to Akito and quickly drank the entire glass of water handed to him.
Akito took the glass back with wide eyes and quickly ran to the kitchen to refill it.
"What happened?" he asked, his voice hoarse.
Master Splinter placed a paw on Raphael's pale forehead and nodded before answering him. "Casey says you knocked Karai out of the way of a tranquilizer dart and took the hit yourself. A tranquilizer meant for an ancient monster," he said with a wry grin. "You've been asleep for almost two days."
Akito returned and handed another full glass of water to Raphael.
"Two days," he said quietly as his thoughts again turned to Leo. "Where's Leo?"
"I told him that I would watch over you while you slept and persuaded him to continue monster hunting since there is a deadline," Master Splinter said.
"Is everyone else ok? No one else has been hurt?"
"Everyone else is fine," Master Splinter said, nodding and turning to leave the room. "I'm going to make you some soup."
Raph put his water glass down on the bedside table and glanced back down at Machi in his lap. She was sound asleep. He looked over to Akito who was still standing by the bed. "Come here," he said to him, lifting an arm as Akito quickly scampered up onto the bed and tucked himself into Raph's side. "You worried just because I decided to take a long nap?" He smiled at Akito and watched the little fox actually roll his eyes. "I'm sorry I've been out of it for a couple days. And yer dad's been gone a lot too, lately, huh?"
Akito nodded and pressed himself closer to Raphael.
"Let's call him so he knows I'm up," Raph said, reaching over for his T-phone. He hit the speed dial for Leo.
"Raphael," Leo growled when he picked up although Raph could immediately hear the relief in Leo's voice.
"Aishiteru, Leo."
"Don't think that's getting you out of a lecture, you jerk," Leo said and Raph smiled at the smile he could hear in Leo's voice.
"What number are ya up to?"
"Twelve," Leo said.
"Damn," Raph said. "Have you been sleeping at all?"
"Not really," Leo said. "And it's all going to be for nothing if we can't find the last monster."
"Too bad we've had a teammate sleeping instead of helping!" Raph heard Mikey yell into the phone. Raph heard some muffled noises and imagined Leo shoving Mikey away from him.
"How are you?" Leo asked seriously when his side of the call became quiet again.
"Want to see you."
"Me too, Raph," Leo said, sighing. "You're okay, though? Not in any pain?"
"Little groggy when I woke up but its wearing off."
"Kids okay?"
"Machi's asleep in my lap. Akito's right here too. I think they missed me." Raph grinned at Akito when he felt Akito elbow him.
"We've all missed you. I love you, Raph. I wish I could come home now but we have to keep searching."
"I know, Fearless. Stay safe."
Leo hung up with Raphael and moved back across the rooftop to where Donnie, Mikey, Casey and Karai were waiting for him.
"He ok?" Casey asked.
Leo nodded before turning to Karai. "Winters doesn't happen to know what the last monster looks like, does he?"
Karai shook her head. She and Leo had developed a silent truce where they spoke civilly to each other, although only when it was absolutely necessary, and so she kept her snarky comment to herself. "He hasn't known what any of them look like. He's always surprised to see them when we bring them in."
Leo sighed. He'd been anxious to get back to Raphael when he was still unconscious. But now that he knew Raph was awake, he was desperate to go home.
"We're going to split up," Leo said. "We'll cover more ground."
'I call Casey," Mikey said.
"Uh, me too," Donnie chimed in, desperate to get away from Leo and Karai's tension after two straight days of it.
"You don't get to call-," Leo said, but cut himself off when he saw Mikey pull out the big puppy dog eyes. "Fine."
"Great, thanks Leo!" Mikey said, grabbing Casey's arm and dragging him away.
Donnie paused and wondered briefly it was a good idea to leave Leo and Karai alone together. He glanced over at them, noted they were currently doing their best not to look at each other and quickly spun on his heel and away from the tension.
