Chapter 3: The Debate

Awake, in pain, and surrounded by an unruly herd of teenagers, Emma struggles to contain her nerves and her temper! Though it's unlikely these boys are working with the men she'd been trying to escape, Emma could only hope she hadn't escaped the frying pan only to land in the fire.

It was bad enough to be kidnapped once—but twice?!

Emma surged to her feet in righteous indignation… and immediately regretted the sudden movement. Swaying on her feet, she mumbled a frustrated, "Bugger it," before her knees buckled beneath her.

Raph cursed, lunging forward to stop the stupid girl from doing a face-plant on the coffee table, but Donnie caught her first.

"Bloody hell," cried Mikey theatrically, "she's British!"

"Get off!" the girl hissed, shrugging away from Donnie and toppling backward onto the couch again.

"Mikey, watch your language," said Leo automatically, his tone distracted.

"Hey! Raphie said it first!"

Growling, Raph shoved Mikey into the recliner currently occupied by Casey, who swore loudly.

"Dude, that was way worse than hell!" Mikey objected.

"Hey Reckless," Raph snapped impatiently, stomping over the coffee table, "you're the one crawlin' out of five-story windows, not me!"

"Raph," Leo warned.

Raph's lip curled in response; intimidation was his specialty and this little brat was scratching at his last nerve. My fault my ass! he thought.

But the girl didn't cower or cry, she just sat there scowling up at him with one good eye and a thin line of blood running down her bruised cheek.

Raph blinked. Someone had obviously knocked her around tonight; hell, the girl's face looked like hamburger! She should be weepy and hysterical and… grateful, damn it!

"I'm sure," Leo spoke up, his speech irritatingly slow and nonthreatening, "that Raph was just trying to help."

The girl snorted derisively. "Right, because sneaking up on someone on a ledge is ever so helpful!"

"But why's the rum gone?" chirped Mikey from the floor where Casey had dumped him.

Donnie groaned. "Mikey, Harry Potter and Jack Sparrow are not representative of the entire British population."

Mikey gasped. "What about second breakfast?"

Donnie sighed.

"I wasn't sneaking up on anyone!" Raph bellowed, ignoring Mikey and earning a dark look from Leo. "I thought you were gonna jump!"

"Then I was, what," Reckless snapped back, "aiming for the wheelie bin on the other side of the building?!"

"Heh," Casey snickered. "Self-cleaning suicide."

April smacked him on the arm. "Not funny."

"Uh, what's a willy bin?"

"Wheelie, Mikey," Donnie corrected. "A wheelie bin is basically the British equivalent of a dumpster."

Mikey blinked at him and Donnie grinned, holding up his smart phone. "British slang app; wheelie bin was word-of-the-day a couple months ago."

Raph rolled his eyes, but Mikey just stared at his older brother in dismay. "Dude."

"The variations of the English language are extremely fascinating," Donnie insisted. "I have slang applications for several English-speaking regions around the world and—"

"Dude," Mikey interrupted, his expression pained, "you're sucking the awesomeness out of smart phones everywhere!"

Donnie glared at him. "Ignoramus."

"Dude, I try to ignore you every day!"

"Shut up," Raph growled and, grinning, Casey gleefully smacked Mikey in the back of the head.

"Ow!"

Leo stepped closer and Raph braced himself for a fight.

But Leo wasn't looking at him, he was watching little Reckless. Eyes narrowed thoughtfully, he raised one arm and silently waved it back and forth as though trying to get the girl's attention.

Raph scowled, glancing at Mikey and Casey, who just blinked back at him (Casey pointed at his temple and mouthed, Crazy!). But Donnie was staring at the girl in amazement, raising his own hand for a quick wave, which pissed Raph off even more!

What the hell?! he thought, looking at the girl again.

Then he felt his own expression drop as the girl continued to glare up at him—completely oblivious to his brother's stupid waving arm.

Raph cursed under his breath and Mikey grumbled something about swearing and inequality behind him.

Little Reckless was blind!

Emma had heard enough! Head still spinning, she probably would have thrown up all over the git looming over her if she'd had anything to throw up. As it was, she didn't know where she was or what this lot wanted but they were certifiable!

"Dude, Leo, what are you—?"

Then everyone got very quiet and Emma froze.

They knew!

"You climbed out a five-story window you couldn't even see?!"

The juvenile medic beside her cleared his throat. "Technically, Raph, she wouldn't have been able to visually verify she was even on the fifth floor."

Emma glared. And Raph snapped an angry, "Shut up!" before shouting, "Are you insane?"

"Raph!"

Slowly this time, Emma got to her feet, forcing her latest cantankerous captor to move back a step before she clenched her fists and punched him in the ribs.

The result was less-than satisfying when he scoffed in startled amusement, but the sound was all she needed to find his head and he wasn't laughing when Emma hit him on the jaw.

Raph swore.

The clock on the chin hadn't hurt, but it had sure as hell caught him off guard!

"If you're hoping to collect some sort of ransom, Raph," she sneered, "you'll be disappointed!"

Raph just scowled at her. "What the hell are you talking about?" he growled.

"Hell again, Leo," Mikey interjected helpfully.

Leo groaned.

"I've got a swollen face and a mad delinquent with a stupid name shouting questions at me and you're asking what I'm on about?!" Reckless shrieked hysterically. "And what sort of name is that really? Raph." She snorted. "Why not Bebop? Eh? Or Idiot?!"

Mikey chortled. "I like this girl."

Raph suppressed a grin. He would never admit it, but he was starting to like her, too.

Then she poked him in the ribs and he instinctively grabbed her wrist.

"I will not be another kidnap statistic," she hissed with a wince, "not to you and not to those blokes from the docks!"

Raph's ready retort died in his throat at the stark look of pain and fear in her open green eye. For the first time that night, the girl was visibly shaken, gulping in a shuddering breath as the word kidnap hung in the air around them.

Frowning, Raph looked down, opening the hand curled around her wrist. The girl tried to yank it away, but he grabbed her forearm with a scowl. Her knuckles were bruised and the tips of her fingers were raw, but it was the thin red welts that circled her narrow wrist that had Raph seeing red.

"Who did this?" he growled.

But the girl only pressed her lips together, glaring up at him defiantly and before Raph could press her for answers, the door swung open with a whoosh of cold air and the smell of hot pizza.

"Sorry I'm late!"

© Nickelodeon