Here's the latest chapter of my story. The new character I introduce will only be playing a minor part in the story as a whole. I hope you enjoy.
April paced back and forth outside of the Central Park Zoo clinic, her face contorted in a worried expression. Her fire red hair blew lightly in the wind as she waited for her good friend, Dr. Sarah Smith, to appear, as well as the turtles, who had also still not appeared. Her stomach did another worried flip as she thought back to the panicked, shaky voice of Don on the other end of the phone. She could see the blood on his face, the terror in his eyes as she spoke to him over the phone. Something terrible had happened, though he didn't specify over the phone what it was. She had immediately done what he asked and called Sarah, telling her that friends very close to her had an emergency, and asked if she could meet her and them at the zoo clinic to help. Sarah had immediately agreed, as April knew she would, telling her she would meet them there as quickly as she could.
April still didn't know what she was going to tell Sarah. How was she going to explain that the friends she had spoke of were four giant talking mutant turtles. April rung her hands together nervously, unconsciously chewing on her bottom lip.
She looked up and saw headlights drawing closer to the building. As the yellow beams grew closer she recognized them as the lights from Sarah's silver SUV. She watched as the car pulled up and her friend stepped out. Her long blond hair was pulled in a haphazard ponytail on her head, her slim body was dressed in a pair of heavily wrinkled light blue scrubs that looked as though they were picked up off the floor in a great hurry and thrown on without much thought. Sarah absent mindedly rubbed her sleepy blue eyes and stifled a yawn as she made her way over to April.
"Are your friends here yet?" she asked quickly, looking around.
"No, not yet." April said, worry obvious in her voice. "Listen, Sarah, you trust me right?"
"Of course I do." Sarah said, yawning slightly again, still looking around for the appearance of April's friends.
"And I can trust you." April said again, her voice still etched with nervousness.
"Of course." Sarah said again, but her eyes were now facing April questioningly. "April, what is going on?"
"Well, it's my friends." April started, once again nervously ringing her hands. "They are very different. And I need you to swear that when they come, when you see them, that you will not tell a sole about them, and that you will not be afraid of them, and that you will help them."
Sarah was now staring at April with an unreadable expression on her face. "April, you know you can trust me, and of course I'll help them, and if you need secrecy, I'll always keep your secrets. But you have me really confused and concerned. What is it that I should be expecting here?"
But April didn't answer. There was suddenly a soft whistling sound from around the side of the building and April was now looking in that direction, her lips drawn into a tight line. Sarah watched as April walked a few steps closer to where the sound had come, craning her neck.
"Guys?" Sarah heard her say. "Guys, if your there, it's safe." There was sudden rustling from the side of the building, and Sarah stood very still, squinting her eyes in the night, trying to spy April's friends.
Suddenly a form emerged from the shadows of the building. He looked to be average height, and well built, and carrying something on his back. She silently watched as the person quickly approached April, coming closer to the soft glow of light emitting from the posts in front of the clinic. As the form finally stepped into the light, Sarah found herself gasping, bringing her hand up over her mouth, as she finally got a good look at April's friend in the light. It seemed to be a giant turtle, standing no more than five feet away from her. It looked at her in response to the gasp, a nervous and unsure look on its face. Sarah wasn't sure what to do. She felt she could scream, but couldn't bring herself to make a sound as she watched the figure turn uneasily back to April.
"Is she going to help us?" it asked in a soft voice. My God, it spoke. This was the most incredible thing Sarah had ever seen. "Can we trust her?"
April looked over at Sarah, pleading with her eyes for Sarah to contain herself, but knowing how terrified her friend must be. She herself remembered her first encounter with the mutant turtles, her feelings of terror and confusion as she realized what they were. But she had gotten past that fear and realized what amazing beings they were, and she hoped that Sarah could do the same.
Sarah seemed frozen in shock, her hand still over her mouth, her eyes never leaving the large turtle in front of her. She could see it wore a purple bandana and had a large stick stored in the belt it wore. She finally brought her hand down and took a deep breath, trying to contain herself, and remembering the promise she had made to April a few moments before.
"Yes, you can trust me." She said in a soft, shaky voice that she barely recognized as her own. The large turtle nodded then turned back to the shadows from where he had emerged and let out another soft whistle. She watched, breathless, as two more figures emerged cautiously from the shadows. They seemed to be carrying another between them. She watched as they also came closer to the light, and saw two more large turtles, one with a red bandana, and one with an orange, carrying a fourth turtle between them who seemed to be badly injured.
"Oh Leo!" April gasped, running over to the turtle being carried. "What happened!?"
"It's a long story." The purple one said quickly. "We were attacked and Leo was badly injured. He needs serious help fast." He then looked at Sarah, who was still breathing hard, trying to gain control of her nerves. "Please help him. He is fading fast. Please," he begged.
Sarah took a deep breath, once again trying to calm her nerves. "Of course," she breathed. "Quickly, let's get him into the clinic." She rushed over to the door and unlocked it, leading April and the four turtles into the dark building and down hallways that she knew by heart to the treatment room. She silently tried to compose herself, quickly switching on the lights of the treatment area. Light slowly flickered to life in the room, revealing a large open space. Two stainless steel tables were positioned in the middle of the room. The walls were covered in cabinets filled with medical supplies and restraint devices. Without looking at the others, she hurried over to a cabinet and pulled a large blanket out, covering one of the tables with it.
"Lay him on the table," she said, rushing off to find her stethoscope. She had no idea how she would help these creatures. They seemed to be mostly like turtles in appearance and hopefully in anatomy as well, however, similar to humans in mannerisms among other things. She decided to worry about that once she examined him, and went back to the table where she saw the red and orange ones carefully laying down the injured one, which she now saw was wearing blue, although it was hard to tell, the bandana was soaked with blood. Sarah swallowed thickly, finally getting a good look at the turtle's injuries, her heart falling slightly. She laid her hand on the jugular vein, feeling for a pulse, which she found to be fast and weak.
"His heart rate is really fast" she heard, and looked up to find the purple turtle talking to her, also with his hand on the blue one, feeling a pulse. "And his respirations are really fast and shallow. He's lost a lot of blood. I tried my best to keep his blood loss to a minimum, but based on the quick heart rate and respiratory rate, and his pale skin and mucous membranes, I think he's in hypovolemic shock."
Sarah once again was speechless. Not only was this turtle talking, but he knew medicine. He was highly intelligent. She measured the respiratory rate and found that the purple turtle was right. Looking at the mucous membranes, she noticed how pale they were. My God, he was right again. The blue one was in hypovolemic shock, which wasn't surprising considering the amount of blood spattered on both his and the other's bodies. Swallowing hard and recovering from her shock at the situation, she looked back at the purple one. "Your right," she acknowledged. "He needs fluids fast, and possibly a blood transfusion. Get into that cabinet over there and grab a bag of fluids, a 22 gage needle, and IV catheter and extension, do you know what those are?." The purple turtle nodded and jumped into action immediately, wrenching open the cabinet door and grabbing all the supplies she specified. As she watched him gather all of the right supplies, she realized slowly that her mouth was once again hanging open.
"Don is extremely smart." She heard April tell her. "He can help you. He knows a lot about medical stuff." Sarah nodded, and took the bag and catheter that the purple one, now with a name, Don, was handing her.
"The red banded turtle is Raph." April quickly explained, hoping names would take some of the nervousness from Sarah about the large turtles. Raph gave no acknowledgement that he was mentioned. "And the orange banded turtle is Mikey. And Leo," April swallowed hard, looking at the horribly injured turtle in front of her. "Leo is who you are treating." Sarah nodded in response.
Sarah worked feverishly over the injured turtle as precious minutes ticked by, trying her best to keep the weakening body alive, with Don helping in anyway he could. He had lost a lot of blood, probably most of it from the deep stab wound he sustained in his shoulder. His right arm was turned at a funny angle, and his right leg, she could assume from the deep swelling, was also broken. His plastron was cracked on the same side. She was also concerned about his head wound. There were also more minor cuts and bruises that littered his body.
The other two turtles had remained painfully quiet, so quiet in fact that she was beginning to wonder if the purple one, Don, was the only one who could speak. The red one, Raph, had not moved from the other's side as she worked, still grasping his hand tightly. The orange one, Mikey, looked as though he could be sick at any moment, leaning carefully on a close by wall, but never removing his eyes from the scene.
She again turned her attention back to the injured turtle in front of her and gasped when she saw his half lidded eyes staring back. Her gasp grabbed the attention of the other turtles who immediately made it to his side.
"Leo!" Mikey exclaimed, showing more animation and expression than he had since she had laid eyes on him. "Leo, dude, you're awake!"
The blue turtle, Leo now, looked confused and in pain. His breaths were coming faster now, in shallow gasps. He seemed as though he wasn't aware of anyone around him. He tried to say something but it came out as an incomprehensible whisper. She saw the red turtle tighten his grasp on the others hand
"Leo," she heard Don utter softly from next to her. "Leo, can you hear me?" Leo's eyes tried to move toward Don's direction. They looked full of pain and confusion.
"Donny…" he managed through pained gasps.
"Don't you have any pain medicine you can give him?" Don asked with urgency, seeing the pain his brother was feeling reflected in his eyes.
"I've already given him some. I'm afraid more will make his condition worse." Sarah admitted, feeling sorry for the poor turtle.
Don clenched his jaw then looked back at Leo. "Hey bro, it's going to be ok." He said soothingly. It looked as though the red banded turtle was struggling to find words, but none came, and he swallowed hard and looked away, never letting go of the others hand.
Suddenly Leo let out a loud gasp and then a cough. He was struggling to get air, gasping and wheezing desperately as his body struggled.
"He can't breath!" Mikey screamed in horror.
Sarah ran to get the oxygen mask and machine while Don continued to talk soothingly to Leo, trying to get him to breathe easier, but with no success. Suddenly, Leo's eyes began to roll into the back of his head and the gasping stopped.
The room became quiet, but the silence was quickly broken by a terrified cry from Don. "He's not breathing. He's not breathing!!"
Sarah paused in shock, but only for a second. She had quickly grabbed her stethoscope and ran over to listen to his chest. When she heard nothing she didn't pause for a moment knowing the turtle in front of her was slipping away before her eyes. "Don, get me an endotracheal tube and the ventilator, quickly!" Don leapt into action, grabbing the instruments and machine she asked for without hesitation. His hands were shaking with fear as he handed them to her. Sarah quickly opened the turtle's mouth and skillfully placed the endotrach tube, connecting it to the ventilator and programmed it to breath for the failing turtle. There were a few terrifying moments where there was no response, but then the machine took control and Leo's chest began to move rhythmically up and down under the control of the ventilator.
Don let go a breath he had no idea he was holding. April, who was clutching Mikey, let out a relieved sob and wrapped Mikey into a hug, who was already trying to wipe away tears he hadn't realized were flowing. Raph looked weak and exhausted, his whole body was shaking violently.
"Grey's Anatomy was wrong," Mikey said suddenly, shocking them all as his nervous voice broke the tense silence. "You vets are real doctors."
Sarah laughed shakily, glad for a slight break in the extreme tension that had just taken hold of the room. She heard Don sigh beside her and could imagine he had rolled his eyes. The red banded turtle, Raph, didn't make a sound, or even a movement to show he had heard the comment at all.
Sarah took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves then began to examine Leo once more. His heart rate was still fast and weak and the fluids were not helping his color, he was still extremely pale. He was still loosing blood faster than he could replace it.
"He is going to need a blood transfusion." Sarah told Don quickly. "He has lost too much blood and needs some of it replenished if he is going to have a chance at survival."
Don opened his mouth to speak, but was quickly interrupted by Raph. "I'll do it." He said in a gruff, shaky voice, without any hesitation. "I'll give him my blood, however much he needs."
Sarah nodded, slightly surprised by the red turtle's sudden spoken words. "Ok, good." She then quickly gathered the supplies. "Have you ever done this before?" she asked Don. He nodded. "Yeah, yeah I can collect the blood."
"Ok. While you do that I'm going to try and patch up his other wounds." Sarah said. Don nodded and got to work. Sarah grabbed gauze and began to quickly work on the gaping stab wound in Leo's shoulder. She quickly cleaned the wound, trying to minimize the chance of infection then tightly bandaged the area. She then moved to tightly bandage the crack in the turtle's plastron. By the time she was done Don was standing in front of her with a couple of bags of blood, and Raph was sitting against the wall, looking slightly weakened and pale, his arm bandaged. Sarah took the bags and began to infuse them into Leo's veins, giving his body the red blood cells it so desperately needed.
Raph raised himself from his place against the wall, swaying slightly, and managed to get himself back to Leo's side. Don pulled up a chair for him to sit in, then went back to helping the doctor. As the blood was being transfused, Sarah and Don finished bandaging up Leo. She had finished bandaging the cracks in his plastron and had placed casts on both his leg and arm. Don had carefully bandaged the wound on Leo's head.
Once finished, Sarah was able to cast a glance up to the clock for the first time since taking the turtles in. It was almost five in the morning. The zoo and clinic would be opening in a few hours. She bit her lip, trying to think of what she could do with her patient. He was way too unstable to transfer somewhere else, and besides, he had to stay on the ventilator. But she couldn't just leave four mutant turtles in the clinic. Then she thought of it, the store room below the clinic. No one ever used it, it had oxygen hook up, and she would have easy access to check up on Leo whenever needed. It was perfect. She turned and saw the family of four, along with April scattered around the treatment room, all looking exhausted, pained, and worried.
"We are going to have to move him." She finally said. "The clinic will be opening in a few hours and it will no longer be safe."
"What will we do?" Don asked, obviously thinking of the same things she already had. "He'll never survive moving him back home."
"There is a store room below the clinic." Sarah explained. "No one ever uses it. It has oxygen hook up so he can remain on the ventilator. It should be a safe place for you all to stay until he is stable enough to move home."
The three turtles looked at her in shock, apparently surprised that she would allow them to hide out here. She then saw the orange turtle walking up to her, and gasped as he quickly wrapped her into a large hug. "Thank you," he said, his voice shaking. "Thank you for everything." Sarah was speechless, an awkward look plastered on her face as she was squeezed tightly by this large turtle. He finally let go of her. She smiled at him, and slowly regained her composure, smoothing her hair unconsciously, blush hitting her cheeks.
"We haven't told Master Splinter." Don suddenly said. "He has to be worried about us by now. And he'll want to come and stay too, I'm sure."
"Master Splinter?" Sarah asked tentatively.
April smiled at her nervously. "Yeah, he's the one who raised them." Sarah nodded numbly, completely unsure of what to expect.
She saw Don whip out something that looked like a shelled walkie-talkie and quickly dial a number. She took a deep breath. Tonight had been one of the most insane nights of her life, and she could only assume it was just the beginning.