Disclaimer – Hmm…(checks bank account)…nope, don't own them. Would like to, though, but then I don't think these guys like to be owned. Anyway, my heartfelt thanks to everyone who is continuing to read my missive and a bigger heartfelt TY's to those who left a review. They are – Ramica, Lunar Ninja, Mewfem, Jessiey Landroz, Katana Babe, Chibi Rose Angel, Reluctant Dragon, Kaya Lizzie, Leo Oneal, and BubblyShell22.
Some of you have wondered why Raph would worry about Mike and Don learning that he cried in front of Beth, when they witnessed him crying up in April's apartment. Hmm…just in case you missed that point, he wasn't aware of them being at April's, so – as far as Raph knows, he was alone when he cried then.
BTW, I am hoping to contact all of you via E-mail to thank you personally for your many comments when this story ends. I sure do miss the days when we could do this after each chapter, though. sighs
In either event, things get a little 'busy' with this chapter. Be blessed.
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Chapter 24 – A Ruckus Royal
Leo didn't know why, but for some odd reason he found himself awake. He lay there on the cot in Don's bedroom, blinking the tiredness away, while he tried to figure out what had interrupted his rest. He heard Don snore softly just above him and to his right, his brother as deep in sleep as Leo had been a moment ago. Yet, his snore wasn't so loud as to be considered disturbing.
Nevertheless and for some inexplicable reason, Leonardo was awake.
He sighed, then, and tried to relax, draping one well-muscled arm over his face. At one point, he turned from his plastron and onto his side, trying to find a more comfortable position, but soon found himself back on his stomach, again. He thought of turning over onto his back, yet, sleeping on his carapace seemed - odd. The thought of him sleeping in that position brought images of helpless vulnerability to him. He smiled a little, as the phrase, 'somebody help the boy', came to mind. Yes, indeed, the image toyed at his mind of the hapless turtle, the unfortunate creature stuck on his back, with stubby feet peddling for all it was worth, and getting nowhere fast. It made him almost chuckle aloud, except that, for the common turtle, being stuck on its back would mean a death sentence. Still, despite his obvious human physiology, for Leo to imagine himself on his back seemed instinctively wrong.
The longer he lay on the cot and tried to go back to sleep, though, the more he heard the internal workings of the lair. The sound of water whooshing through pipes beneath the subway floor, where the lower sewer system was, seemed to sooth him a little. More sounds of comfort came to him, such as the various snores filtering in from the other rooms. Where his other brothers and father slept, only a few compartments away, their nighttime murmurings came easily to his ears.
Propping his left elbow underneath him and raising himself up a little, Leo sighed. He rubbed at his eyes with his right hand, and yawned wide. It was becoming all too obvious to him that falling back to sleep was not going to happen any time soon.
Then, as he accustomed himself to the various sounds of the lair, he heard something else, something that seemed out of place for that time of night. Someone was speaking, or whispering, as if they did not want to be overheard. Their words seemed rushed, desperate, but the language they spoke was one of which Leo had only recently, and slowly, been reacquainting himself.
Someone was speaking Japanese.
Now, the sleepy muddle of Leo's mind instantly vaporized as he jerked further awake.
"Who is that, whose voice is that?" were questions that tugged at his mind as he now sat straight up on his cot.
He quickly looked over at Donnie. Where his eyes had finally adjusted to the inky blackness, Leo could see his brother a little better. He was nothing more than a darker silhouette against the gray-dark of his lightless room, but it was easy to tell that Don was lying flat on his stomach. He snored softly, his head turned outwards towards the interior of his bedroom, and oblivious to Leo's waking. Leonardo realized, then, that nothing short of a bomb-blast would wake his brother, and so he eased off his cot to stand up. He then stood perfectly still as he strained his ears to hear.
As the direction of the sound became clearer, he slowing began walking towards it. Following the murmur of the muffled voice, he found himself stepping closer to the opposite wall from where the beds were and which separated Donnie's room from the one that Beth was using. The closer he came to it, the better he could hear. Then, suddenly, as he pressed his ear to the thick wooden wall in the middle of the subway car, his eyes flew open in alarm. He instantly recognized the voice.
Raphael was in Beth's bedroom!
Leo stood there for only a second, trying to find some reason as to why his brother would be in the same room as Beth. Then, as a sudden fear gripped his heart, he immediately bolted angrily for the door of Don's compartment, not caring if he woke Donatello - or the rest of the clan.
Raphael looked up at Beth and realized, then, that he had her completely befuddled.
"Of all things, speakin' t'her in Japanese." Raph chided himself. Yet, he knew that it was his overwhelming emotions that forced him, by habit alone, to utter such lamentations in his father's language. It was, after all, the first language he and his brothers had learned, before discovering that those living topside didn't speak the same way. Then, after learning English, the only times he and his brothers would ever utter their original language was either in Splinter's presence, or if they wanted to further insult one another, as brothers often do.
Shaking his head slowly, Raph chuckled a little, his expression of remorse now released and his pent-up self-loathing gone. He then quickly translated to the girl what he had tried to tell her, as he smiled faintly, "What I was try'n to say, Beth, was I'm sorry, sorry for being such a jerk. I've been goin' through things, lost a good friend, two actually, and seein' you here only reminded me of them – of - her, really." He wiped his eyes dry as he continued, "Not yer fault, ya know, but –well – as ya can see, we're not average garden variety turtles. Who's gonna like us for being us, without seein' the shell, the green skin – our ugly face?" He took a deep breath and continued, "Seein' you kiss'n Leo yesterday just drove it home fer me is all, and I sort of lost it. I just wanted t'tell ya that I'm sor…"
However, while Raph had explained his murmurings to her and before he could finish, Beth had risen from her mattress. Her heart had pricked from seeing Raphael cry. Hearing his emotional lamenting in the strange language, and then his translation just now, had explained so much to her. She quickly stepped the short distance to him. Stooping down a little, she then took one of his hands to pull him up out of his submissive posturing.
Now speechless, for he hadn't expected this kind of response from her, he slowly rose to a stand. He stood a bit taller than she did, and his mouth was slightly ajar, as if he were stunned. Consequently, he stood in reflective surprise before her.
Then – shocking him further - she hugged him as she said, "I understand and – I forgive you, Raphael." As her arms went around him, he felt the strength of her embrace, with her head lying against his shoulder, facing away from him. He closed his eyes and, for a moment, relished the gesture, of having her against him. Then, he allowed his own arms to encircle her, and that was when Raphael teared up once more, but this time a wider smile grew along his snout.
Yes, to Beth it made perfect sense for Raphael to feel resentment and loss, and then jealousy to see one of his brothers kissing her. She had to agree with him, that the chances for anyone falling in love with any of them was slim and none. Where they had kept themselves so well hidden from society and where they were unique and not human, it would make it even harder for them. It would obviously take a miracle for any of them to find love. It was then when she realized how fortuitous it was for her in finding Leonardo in that alleyway. Had it not been for that, she would still be in her apartment, fearing shadows, squeaky floorboards, and life in general.
And, as far as Leonardo was concerned, it made her weak in the stomach to think what the authorities would have done to him had they found him first.
Nevertheless, she realized in sudden surprise a startling change. In numb bewilderment, she recognized that she had progressed from going catatonic from the mere idea of being where she was, to embracing one who had caused her to go catatonic from only the day before. How could such a change happen and in so short of time, she asked herself. Nevertheless, she put her personal wonderings aside, as she then murmured to Raph, "Please know, Raphael, that I do not hate you, but my heart belongs to…"
However, before she could tell him that Leonardo had stolen her heart, a sudden sound rang out from outside in the lair, as if a door had been slammed opened. It startled Beth for a moment, causing her to hesitate, and then, in the next instant, a figure came charging into the room, roaring objections as it did.
Beth quickly released Raph and whipped around, as Leonardo came rushing in, yelling at the top of his lungs, "Keep away from her, you bastard!"
Seeing Leonardo charging into the room and fearing his brother's lack of caution, Raph pushed Beth out of harms way. His quick shove caused her to fall up onto the bed, yet safely out of reach of the ensuing ruckus. She lay there for a moment, stunned, as Raphael met his brother's fury.
Without hesitation, Leo charged into his brother, and his brother met the challenge. The two turtles then embraced in furious hand-to-hand combat, each grabbing at the other. Raph yelled for Leonardo to stand down, blocking his moves as he did. However, this only enraged his brother more and caused him to fight harder.
Recovering her senses, Beth scrambled further onto her bed in terror, only to tuck herself into the far corner as she watched the ensuing fight. With her only exit blocked by the two combating males, she was helpless to escape the room. She watched as Leo tore into Raphael, who now found it almost impossible to break away from his brother. Leo had grappled him around his neck and carapace, trying to pull him down, while Raph braced against the attempt, spreading his legs as he tried to grab at his brother in turn. When Leo realized he couldn't 'mat' Raphael, he then began to pummel him with fists and kicks.
Understanding that blocking the strikes did little to quell Leonardo's attack, Raph let loose. Suddenly a volley of snap-like jabs and hits erupted between the two brothers. Each of them shoved and kicked at the other in a furious attempt to subdue. They both moved quickly, almost impossibly quick, in fact, as far as Beth was concerned. Yet, she could do little but to watch.
Nevertheless, the muffled sound of fist hitting flesh, or plastron, resonated repeatedly and loudly within the room. All the while, Leonardo continued to bellow in fury as Raphael yelled for Master Splinter.
At one point, the two ninja knocked a table over, spilling its contents, that table included the lamp. Yet, despite its upending, its precious light remained fixed and steady. When he saw an opportunity, though, Raphael lightly kicked it out of harms way, lest either he or his brother step on it. He then gave a quick glance to Beth and saw the fear in her eyes. He hoped that she would not space out as she had done the last time he and his brother had fought. So far, though, he was relieved to find that she was more interested in staying out of their way than going catatonic. He then continued to defend himself against his brother's onslaught.
As it was, Leonardo seemed to have lost it entirely. His eyes blazed with a jealous rage, as he fixated on his brother. He screamed at Raphael for trying to take Beth away from him, as he continued to strike out at him in fury.
Raph could only yell back, "I wasn't trying to take her, Leo; knock it off, I was just…" but then his brother changed tactics and dipped into his ninjitsu. It was something that – up until that moment –seemed impossible with his impaired memory.
The sudden shift in the fight almost caught Raphael by surprise, but his own skill in the arts quickly alerted him to the change. He immediately stepped up the speed and efficiency of each of his counterstrikes, meeting kick for kick with an equal and powerful force. At one point, Raph's rebuttals sent Leo hard into the side of the bed, causing Beth to jump as she screamed out in surprise. That was when Raph realized that the girl was in danger. Consequently, he quickly grabbed the outer edge of Leo's carapace and flipped him towards the opened door of the bedroom. As Leonardo rolled expertly up to a stand and raced back into the middle of the room, again, Raph suddenly charged towards him with his head down. As he plowed into Leonardo, he grabbed his brother around the middle. In the next moment, the two battling brothers shot through the opened door of the room and into the main area of the lair. Now rolling along the ground, entwined in each other's desperate and angry embrace, their shells scraped noisily across the concrete floor.
The entire melee took only seconds to end up where it was, just enough time for the sound of the fight, and Beth's scream, to alert the remaining members of the family. The moment Raphael and Leonardo slammed onto the floor of the abandoned subway station, Mike, Don, and Splinter came racing out from their own sleeping quarters.
"Leonardo, Raphael, I insist that you cease your fighting!" Splinter called out to them
While their Sensei tried to stop the altercation, Mike and Don went to Leo's room to check on Beth. There, they found her crumpled in a corner of the bed and shaking terribly. She looked up at them with fearful trepidation in her wide eyes, yet she seemed to remain lucid and coherent. Donatello breathed a sigh of relief, fearing that she would have gone catatonic again from witnessing yet another fight.
"It's going to be fine, Beth," he tried to assure her, gently patting her arm, "They just have to work this out, is all," he remarked. Still, hearing the fight between his two brothers just outside the room did little to convince her of this.
"But, all Raph was doing was…" she tried to explain, but Mike then interrupted her as he sat down on the edge of the bed.
"What happened, Beth?" he asked, taking one of her hands and soothingly caressing it.
"I was trying to tell you that. He was apologizing to me. That's all he was doing," and then her eyes flew open in worry when she wondered if maybe she had betrayed Raphael with telling them even that. "You're not –going to tease him, are you, for apologizing to me?" she begged piteously. "Please don't tease him, please?" she begged some more, her expression earnest and sincere. Witnessing Raphael's emotional breakdown and hearing his heartfelt apologies had changed her view of the overbearing turtle. "Splinter was right," she thought to herself, "there is more to him than what I've seen."
Shaking their heads, both Don and Mike said in unison, "No, we won't, Beth, we promise." They sat next to her, each one either patting her back reassuringly or taking her hand in encouragement.
That seemed to ease her insecurities a bit, but then a sudden shout from Splinter – an almost worried and grieved exclamation – interrupted them.
In a rush, Beth frantically scrambled off the bed, fearing the worse. As she scrambled towards the door of the room, Mike and Don joined her. What they saw, next, outside the car caused Beth to cry out in alarm and Mike and Don to gasp in surprise.
Leonardo was lying prone on the floor of the lair, in front of the coffee table, with Raphael standing over him, sweaty, breathing hard, and with his fists clenched in anger. Blood coated his hands, while some dripped alongside of Raph's mouth where Leonardo had evidently punched him. Several large bruises were already forming along his legs and arms where his brother had struck.
As for Leonardo, he, too, showed fresh injuries and bruises along his body, yet, none seemed to be serious. This mystified the trio standing in the doorway of the subway car as to why he was unconscious. Then, they watched as Splinter walked between Raphael and Leonardo. He sternly said something in Japanese to his upright son, just before the rat pointed his walking stick towards Raphael's bedroom.
Raph tried to explain things, but the rat interrupted him, reiterating the direction he wanted him to go. Then he took his walking stick and whacked his son alongside his plastron for emphasis.
"Go, now, before I put you beside your brother!" Splinter hissed.
"I was just defending myself, SENSEI!" Raph grumbled loudly, "He attacked me first!" he insisted.
Another whack from the walking stick silenced whatever else Raphael was going to say. However, he narrowed his expression at his father and declared, "I'm not a child, anymore, SENSEI!" Pointing to his brother, who now lay unconscious and prone on the ground, the turtle spat out, "Leo may be yer favorite son, but that doesn't mean that he's always RIGHT!" Then, Raph quickly stormed away from his father and towards his bedroom before Splinter's stick could strike against his carapace a third time. As he did, he grumbled under his breath, cursing more than saying anything of relevance. Barreling into his room, he immediately slid the door into its pocket with a hard, angry pull.
Mike and Don were stunned for only a moment as they watched their petulant brother disappear inside his room, but then Donatello went into immediate action. Both brothers ran over to where Leo lay, with Don checking his fallen sibling's vitals. He checked Leonardo's eyes and noted their condition, stating in frustration, "He's probably suffered another concussion." He turned to look up at his father, "Did he just fall or what?"
Splinter sighed as his head drooped, his ears and whiskers flattening, as he said, "Raphael executed a roundhouse kick at Leonardo's head."
Both brothers' eyes went wide, with Mike asking in shock, "At…his head?"
Nodding affirmatively, the rat said, "Yes, but Leonardo had tried the same thing just before."
Mike and Don both looked at one another, and then back at their father. That was one target, when their practiced, that they were all forbidden to use, the power behind their well-trained kicks lethal and, therefore, too dangerous to implement in training. The fact that Leonardo had tried to use it, and in the way forbidden, said many things to them, but one fact stood out more than the other did. That was when Don pointedly asked, "I thought Leo's memory loss prevented him from remembering how to do something like that?"
Shrugging, Master Splinter replied sadly, "So did I." He studied his unconscious son for a long moment as Don went back to checking on Leonardo's other injuries. Then, after a thoughtful moment, the rat said, "It would be best to move him into his own room," he looked over at Beth, who still stood in the doorway of the Leo's compartment, "My dear, I am sorry, but you will have to use my room for the rest of the night."
Beth came out into the lair from the doorway, her arms wrapped around her body insecurely, as she watched Don pick Leo up. She observed as he carried him passed her and into the bedroom that she had just vacated. As Mike followed in his wake, Beth tried to do likewise. However, Splinter stepped quickly to her side and gently took hold of her arm, as he entreated, "No, Beth, let Donatello care for Leonardo. He is well versed in first aid, as you know." She turned to look at the rat, her eyes wide and concerned. The master nodded, "Yes, I know you are worried, but rest assured, Donatello will take care of Leonardo." Then, he turned her towards the kitchen, gently pulling her along, as he offered, "Let me make you some of my tea, it will help you rest."
However, Beth resisted, stopping and pulling her arm way from the rat's gentle hand, "No, Master Splinter, I don't want any tea. I – I just want to be close to Leo, if you don't mind. I won't be in the way, but…I want – to watch, please?"
The Master looked at the girl and noted the earnest expression on her face. He saw that she was quite lucid and clear minded, not anywhere near to going catatonic, as she had been before. Finally, he smiled and said, "Yes, of course you do. Come then," he invited, as he turned back around towards Leonardo's room, "we'll watch together."