After I got the reviews to Splinter Lost I thought: Geez, go on! Before they´ll blame me…
But unfortunately, it's the end of the semester and that means exams…
Just to make things clearer: Splinter has very high fever and is not conscious of his surroundings any more.
TMNT, Splinter and April are property of Mirage (forgot to write this before, but I´m sure, everybody knows), Tally is mine.
Cynlee, thanks for your charitableness over my English and for the –very fast!- corrections.
Chapter 7: …and Found
After three circuses she lost her hope in ever finding him. There remained only two places at her list of circuses in New York, and she could not even be sure if he wasn´t held captive in a circus were she had already been. Sure, she asked if there were some "strange novelties", but the workers just showed her things like a rare white tiger of which she was sure that the poor animal had been colored.
It would soon be dark and she was pretty tired. She had spent the whole night before in searching via internet until she'd finally found the addresses and had just slept a few hours in the morning.
Up to the next one, and the last… and if she wouldn´t find him, she would beat the name of the circus out of Robert, she swore.
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A strange scent. He inhaled it a few minutes before he recognized it. Straw. Rotten. Of course. He had to care for those little Turtles he found just a few days ago and so he hadn´t had the time to upholster his nest. Oh, they were so fast, despite to the fact that they were Turtles, and looking at them made him nearly forget that…
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Ed Dean stood outside of the cage and watched his newest bargain. For sure, he could make a lot of money with this thing, but it had to survive and right now it looked like it would croak within the next hour.
His rat freak had curled together at the floor and whined quietly. It almost sound human, he thought uneasily. Maybe he should call for a vet. Better to pay a bill than to lose his investment.
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He screamed!
His beloved master- his father!- screamed out of pain, and Splinter's heart broke. He never ever before heard his master uttering a sound of pain, and now his outcries sounded through their apartment.
After his cage was broken, he fled, frighten to death, to hide behind a pavement, but he had to help him! These evil men would kill him! But they were so many, so tall, so strong, especially the one in the shining armor covered with razors…
And then he heard the two words he would never forget: "Finish him!"
NO!
And he attacked, he sprang directly in the face of this walking muscle- mountain, scratching and biting with everything he had… which wasn´t enough. One move of the man´s hand dashed him out of the window.
At the last moment he was able to get hold at the windowsill- and wished he hadn´t, because what he saw then was the worst moment of his life. All power left his body, he fell down to the street and was sure he would die- hoped he would die and join his beloved master.
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Strange, but this time she had a good feeling. The circus looked shabby and she hoped that it was more than a feeling, that she would finally be successful. The other circuses were eager to show her a few attractions to lure her into their show. She just hoped that the workers of this one acted the same way.
It was late afternoon and already getting dark. A sharp wind blew and she froze even in her coat. She just started to have a look-around when…
"Can I help you, Lady?" a man asked right behind her. Startled she turned around.
"Yes, sure. I´m interested in your show and would like to see a few of your animals, Mr.…?"
She offered him her brightest smile. It seemed to work.
"Dean, Ed Dean. And I have the pleasure of speaking with?"
"Tally Brown" and automatically she added "MD".
"A doctor?" Mr. Dean asked surprised. "Miss Brown, you´re sent by heaven. Maybe I have a patient for you…"
"I´m sorry, it´s my vacation", Tally said reluctantly, but she so hoped that he would lead her to Splinter, "but if it´s an emergency, I´ll help if I can".
"Oh, it is. Some kind of pneumonia, I think."
Tally gasped. "What?"
Mr. Dean looked startled. "Eh?"
" I just mean… if it is a pneumonia, you should have already brought the patient to a doctor."
"Yeah, maybe, but I just got it."
"You got IT? Are you talking about an animal?"
"Well, you´ll be surprised, Tally- may I call you Tally? Yes?- you´ll really be surprised!"
He led her to a dark cage in the middle of the place. First she saw nothing at all, but then she recognized the furry heap in the corner.
"What the…"
Ed Dean seemed to be really proud.
"Isn´t it fantastic? I´ll earn a fortune with it; that is," he looked at Tally, "if it survives!"
Tally stood nearly a minute before the cage, shocked, before she finally trusted her voice enough to speak.
"I need a closer look at …it", she croaked.
He interpreted it wrong.
"Yes, it´s pretty impressive, is it?" But he opened the cage door and let her enter. Carefully she bent over Splinter. He laid crumpled together on his side with his back toward her. She rolled him on his back and got frightened. He looked much worse than the night he was kidnapped. His hands were wrenched into fists, he breathed heavily, but he still fought.
Tally had seen it before in the hospital, were she used to work. Terminally ill people did sooner or later surrender and waited for death, but the rat before her would not give up not for a long time yet.
There remained just the question how long he would still be able to survive in this cold.
"He needs blankets and warmth. You should call a vet, I´m afraid I can´t do anything right now without the proper medications."
"I´ve a few old ones it can have. So, have you planned anything this evening, Tally?"
Was there a sign at her forehead saying "solo"?
"I´m sorry, Mr. Dean, but I´ve already a appointment this evening. See you!"
She walked as fast as she could from the place without being to obvious. Indeed, she really had something planned for tonight: freeing a mutant rat whom she promised she wouldn´t let anyone hurt!
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So cold. So much pain. No air.
He whined, tried to move, with no specific goal, just wanted to go away from this- wherever it was.
So cold- of course.
He laid backwards in a puddle, his whole body aching from the fall from the window, where Shredder- where Shredder had killed his master!
But he'd avenged his dead master, he'd had his payback!
His son Leonardo cut off Shredders head, didn't he?
But Shredder was alive, he had kicked him out of the window of the skyscraper, and again he fell, he saw the sky above him, for a moment he was lucky- he would meet his master again, but his sons, he had to help his sons!
He swished in the water, struggled again for air and opened his eyes- he was in one of this glass cylinders, Agent Bishop filling it with some liquid, and right before him was one of his sons- who? His youngest?- strapped on a table, Bishop placing a scalpel to his plastron, the liquid increasing, screams (his youngest?)-oh, he must help him, but he had no air and fell again, and this time he hit the street, he smelled and tasted his own blood, he was strapped onto the table, Bishop raised the scalpel--
no, Shredder was the winner and cut Leonardo's head off- he had forsaken him! His son, his sons, Leo was so ill and there was a fire in the shop, Shredder pinned him to the floor and hit his face, then he raised his hand with his blades and aimed at his throat, Splinter waited for the pain- he knew he would die- and he did.
The hits on his face continued and he finally managed to see the cause.
But he was dead- the fall, the water, the knife, the scalpel- he died at least a dozen times- so this must be…
"Amatsu-otome?" he whispered, then everything went black.
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Tally thanked all gods which names she had ever heard that it was no full moon. She was sure that her nerves wouldn't stand this. She had driven back home, slept for a few hours, and came again.
Now it was three o´clock am and damned cold, but she had to make sure that no one was awake. Finally she dared to tiptoe to the cage in which Splinter was imprisoned. In the dim moonlight she could see that he hadn´t moved since her first appearance.
Sh…! She should have thought about this! The cage door had a padlock, of course. What to do now? Then she had an idea and crawled under the cage.
Yes! There was a shutter through which the hay could be changed, and it had only a bar!
Luckily Splinter didn´t lay above it, so she was able to enter the cage.
Splinters body felt much too hot, but his pulse was more or less steady so she decided that she could risk waking him. He was too heavy for her to carry the whole way to her car. Carefully she hit his cheeks.
After a half eternity he opened one eye and whispered something which sounds like "amatsuotome". A look in his eyes told her that she could not hope that he would be able to fully wake. Looks like she had to carry him, and he was much heavier than he looked...
Afterwards she was not sure how she'd managed this. She just noticed somewhere on the ride to Manhattan that her whole body was trembling. The street seemed not to end.
Finally in the city, she stopped at the first all- night drugstore and bought a pain killer, a bottle of water and a strong smelling menthol crème.
Okay, this was pretty mean, especially to a rat with its sensitive nose, but she had no idea what she should do with him. Bring him to her practice or to her apartment?
No way! Rob would find them immediately.
Slowly it dawned her what she had really done. This guys from the circus… would be really angry…
She gulped, hard. It was best to get rid of the rat and to take a real vacation, maybe to Europe or even to Asia for four weeks. After that everyone would have calmed down- she hoped.
She once again tried to wake Splinter. He muttered some words she didn´t understand. But as she put the box with the crème under his nose, he sneezed a few times and moved his head away, but Tally followed.
At last he opened his eyes.
"Splinter, where does this April live?"
First she thought he hadn´t heard her, but finally he muttered: "Corner Eastman and Laird, warehouse."
Tally managed barely to put a few aspirin in his throat and make him swallow them before he collapsed again.
Okay, April lives in a warehouse. Maybe a homeless?
She drove to the address- a little bit too fast, actually much too fast, but she could feel the fear on the back of her neck.
If she would have it to do again, she would have left him in the cage, wouldn´t she?
She was not sure. Despite to the fact that it was cold outside her pullover was soaked with sweat. What was she thinking! They would come after her! She braked.
She should drive immediately to the police station, explain everything, they would protect her…
Behind her she heard a soft whimper. She turned around. Splinter laid curled up like an infant on the back seat.
Involuntarily she smiled. She had managed it so far; she could just as well end it- and have a normal life again without mutant rats. And if these circus guys tried to threaten her, she would go to the police. She was a distinguished doctor. The police would believe her and not some rag tags.
She reached the warehouse. It was obviously abandoned- too obviously, she thought after a second view. The lock was new, but the windows were low enough to allow her to climb through.
There was rubbish all around, but under the rubbish- a motorbike, and a very strange looking van. But there were other things to care about right now.
Which names had Splinter mentioned? She just remembered one.
"Raphael?"
First nothing happened, but then the strange pattern on the floor vanished and some kind of elevator appeared. She gasped scared.
The door opened, a bright light was blinding her in the dark warehouse, but she could see the two black shadows within the elevator.
Two huge black shadows.
Suddenly she was sure that she had made a very big mistake- but now it was to late.
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A/N:Yeah! Old writers trick- stop at the most thrilling moment. Nasty nasty…