Z22
Raphael
I haven't been this pissed at her before.
Donnie has me pack her back with gauze while he straps a mask to her face that blows some kinda asthma medicine in her nose and mouth. Her lips are a sick bluish color and I wonder for the hundredth time if she will be the death of me. She sure likes to dance with devil enough to give me a fucking heart attack. I groan as my brother hands me another box of gauze. I'm getting to old for this shit.
That damn lion hybrid chasing her was the same one that split my bridge a year ago. He was more animal than I remembered and dumb enough to go out in the light of day too. I rub my left bicep, and a heavy mother fucker at that.
Zoe moans and her eyelids flutter. She may as well stay out. Donnie will be sewing up that mess on her back for at least an hour. The pink seems to creep back to her lips and her rapid breathing slows as she opens her eyes, scanning the room before setting her stone grays on my face.
I feel my lip quiver and my jaw shifts, before I crack my neck and look away from her. I catch her rolling her eyes in my peripheral and I want to scream at her till my head explodes. I grumble and throw the empty gauze box at the trashcan by Donnie's feet but it hits too hard and knocks it over spilling out the contents.
"Raph." Donnie frowns at me then lowers the mask from Zoe's face. "How are you feeling Little Sister?"
"Like Raph needs to clean up the mess he just made," she quips with a voice that sounds like her throat must be dry.
Donnie grins, his amber eyes lighting up with the brotherly affection he holds for her. "I think she's going to be fine Raph," he says as he motions for Zoe to roll over to give him access to her back.
She has a bond with each of my brothers, but more so Donnie and Mikey. If she calls on Leo she's usually in trouble with me. I feel the corners of my mouth quirk up despite my anger. I find it funny that the brother I fight with most, and who usually turns her over to me anyway, is the very one she seeks out when she's gotten into something she can't get out of.
And there it is again, my blood boiling quick as that, because she shouldn't have been out traipsing around the docks alone, especially not where the hell she was; and she damn well knew it.
"Not like I asked," I grumble and stand up to leave, "Goin to check on Hisao and call April. See how the rest of the kids are."
"Raph," her voice comes out soft, in the way that makes me feel like she's wrapped her hand around my heart and is holding it close to hers. I'm still mad. I am. She's not getting off that easy. But she sure makes it damn hard to stay that way, all cute and semi-pathetic lying there. What she did is stupid and I intend to… Who am I kidding? I'm not going anywhere, not when she's laid out like this.
I sigh as I pick up a wash cloth, and dip it in the water bowl Donnie is using while he cleans her back. I step alongside him and look hard at the four claw marks down her back. They are at least two to three inches wide a piece and stem from her shoulder blades to the base of her spine. Damn, he got her good.
"Raph," she says again.
Donnie clears his throat, "I've got to get some wrap out of the lab. If you want to go back in the field I'll have to wrap your torso Zoe."
"She ain't goin' anywhere." I snap, and I mean it.
Zoe scoffs then tries to talk with her head turned to the side on her pillow, while flat on her stomach. It all comes out muffled, but I hear her. "Not your call Big Guy. We're on a mission. Wrap me up Donnie."
Donatello looks from me to her and back. "Start sewing Raph," he says before ducking out of the lab.
"Are you going to talk to me?" she asks as I pick up the surgical needle Donnie has opened, along with a string of thread. I hold the first bit of skin together and work the needle through and she hisses between her teeth before grumbling, "Guess not."
"What ya want me ta' say? Good job?" I pull the thread through and begin again.
Air rushes past her teeth, "You know you could numb that first."
"Oh, would you like that?" I glance at the supply table, internally kicking myself for overlooking the syringe Donnie has ready, while letting her worry at just how mad I am.
She ignores me, the way she likes to do when she knows our fight will run in circles, but it usually only delays the inevitable. "Raph, I think I was really close to the lab. I found a dumpster full of biohazard materials."
"Great, tell me you didn't climb inside and root through that." I deadpan as I inject numbing fluid in her wounds.
"Really, Raphael? What is your problem?" she snaps then pushes her palms into the table to lift up.
"Stay down, just cas' you can't feel it anymore doesn't mean it ain't still there." I set my teeth and apply a consciously gentle but firm pressure to her shoulder.
"Well stop bein' such a grouch."
"Me? Seriously Zoe, who's gettin' stitched up right now? Huh? What the hell where you thinking running off by yourself like that?"
"Like I couldn't sleep and wanted a cup of coffee?" She turns her head and gazes up at me with tired gray eyes and a melancholy smile on her still pale lips. My heart wrenches at the fierce warrior, yet vulnerable creature, two polar opposites that she somehow manages to be since becoming a mother. I bend over and kiss her mouth without thinking twice about it.
"Ahem, you're supposed to be sewing. And for God's sake do not make any more kids, please." Donnie eyes both of us and I go back to work stitching her up, but it dawns on me, he's not saying that because we were kissing. Zoe smells good. Like how five kids have come to be kinda good. And she shouldn't right now and I know it.
Her eyes narrow and her cheeks flush and I realize she knows it too.
"That's why he was after you." My mind is whirr of what is happening. So much of Zoe is like any human that to look at her it's easy to forget sometimes, that in many ways, most of them subtle, she clearly isn't. I never took to throwing what she is in her face, why should I? It would be like throwing stones at a mirror. And right now as much as I want to be jealous of that panther bastard, and in truth I am, that he's provoked her body, I'm sorry for her at the same time and I refuse to let myself pick a fight with her over it. She can't control what she is, and I get that. But I don't have to like it. My jaw starts to ache as I look at her and realize I'm clenching so hard my teeth might damn well break. I want to end finish this mission and get her home and as far away from him as I can.
As Donnie begins sewing on the third line of her injury and I'm still dazedly working on the first, she licks her lips, swallows hard and I know she's bracing for a conversation I can tell isn't going to go over well. She tips her chin up and looks at Donnie, "Did Karai tell you guys about Ansgar?"
Donnie's Adam's apple starts to bob and his eyes dart to my face before he returns his attention to his sewing. "Yes."
Zoe glances in my direction but avoids making eye contact, "Raph, could you ask Leo to come here? I want to talk to him. Maybe you take a break and check on Hisao?"
"No, I'm not going to go get my brother so you can try to get him to go along with whatever it is you know I'm going to be against. What do you take me for Zoe a dumbass? Whatever it is, you may as well put it out there." I'm getting ready to tie off a stitch and Donnie's fingers tap mine.
"Too tight," he whispers, and when I glance at it the skin around the thread is puckering I've pulled it so tight. I grit my teeth and loosen it, then tie it off and shake my head. Donnie nods and I put the needle on the med tray and lean over to look her in the eye.
"What can you talk to Leo about that ya feel ya can't say ta me?"
Her gray eyes are glossy and there are dark circles under them. She takes a resigning breath and tells me, "Ansgar will know things, useful things… that can help us get to King, inside the lab, where the meds are, he will know all of it Raph. He knows our enemy, and he knows him well. I'm not saying forever, but for this mission, we could really use him on our team."
"Fuck no!" I roar, standing upright and kicking Donnie's rolling chair so that it flies into the far wall of the lab and bounces off it in a terrible racket. Donatello groans but continues his work and Zoe's eyes clamp shut, she flinches slightly and I think it's the recoil of the noise, because after five years, she's obviously not scared of me. "Are you kidding me? What so he can get you alone and-"
"You don't trust me." Her words come out kinda pathetic like, and the sound, paired with her current condition provokes my heart and that infuriates me even more.
I find myself pacing. "I don't trust you to leave the lair by yourself after what happened today, no! And I sure as hell don't trust him!"
Donnie ignores me as he helps Zoe upright and she grabs her pillow to cover her front.
There's a stupid growling sound filling the room and both Donnie and Zoe are staring at me for a good minute before I realize why. I'm stomping around with my hands balled into fists, making a noise so loud I realize it's brought Mike and Leo to the lab doorway.
"Fuck! Everybody get out! I'll finish this up. We're fine! Everything's fine!" I yell, waving a hand at Donnie who glances at Zoe for her approval, before he follows Leo.
Mike lingers a minute, his eyes on Zoe's back then her face before he looks at me and leaves too.
"Ain't you gonna say nothin'?" I snap as I grab the gauze and start wrapping a layer around her torso before I will cover it with pale pink athletic wrap.
"You can't cover my breasts Raph. I have to be able to nurse Hisao." She takes the roll as I pass it to her and wraps it around her front before handing it back to me.
"Maybe it's time he takes a bottle like his brothers. I don't want this wound exposed if, and that's a big if, right now, I decide to let you back out there."
We carry on passing the wrap back and forth a few times before she decides to speak to me. Her voice comes out low and calm, and I find it unnerving because she usually uses it on Antonello when he's in trouble. And I'll be damned if I'm the one in trouble right now, I'm not the one who ran out by myself to the wrong end of town, alone, and got myself all jacked up. But I can see why Anton quits fucking around whenever she sounds like this. "Raphael, I love you, but you don't decide where I go and what I do. I think we established that back when this relationship started. Yes, I made a mistake today, going there alone. I'm sorry. I didn't realize I was," her eyes narrowed and she blushed, then something flickered through her eyes and she straightened a little before wincing at the pull of her stitches. She looked at me with determined eyes but I saw the reservation in them. "I know you know I'm in. He found me by my scent. We may not need Ansgar, we could just use me for bait."
"No fucking way. I know I've let you play bait before but that was with humans and you ain't hurt when we do that ruse. But now, your backs messed up, your attracting them, and it's risky as fuck. I can't Z. Please don't do this."
I may as well hand her over to the enemy myself for all the good talking to her is doing me. She nods her head, "Noah can't wait. I might even be able to get him to think I've switched sides..."
My stomach balls up and my head hurts. I can't listen to this shit anymore, she's out of her fucking mind. When I lean over so I'm eye to eye with her, the scent of honeysuckle and blood fills my nostrils along with the damn primal scent that makes me want to bend over the damn table myself. "What do you want, to get raped? He wasn't chasing you to fight you Zoe! What the fuck are you thinking? He's not looking to chat."
She bites her lip, "Yeah, I guess you right. But that means we still need Ansgar. Raph, we need his help. And I need to talk to Donnie. Maybe he knows of a drug or something that can suppress what my bodies doing." She looks away and whispers, "Besides, I don't want to end up pregnant by one of them if something goes wrong."
I'm gripping the table she's perched on so hard, the metal buckles and pops. I close my eyes and make a conscious effort to release my jaw. "You need to go home Z. It's not safe for you here."
"Like hell Raphael. Let's just get this done."
I admire her courage, and in times like this, I hate it too.
"I've got a really bad feeling about this one Zoe." I brush my fingers across her cheek and she peers up at me with eyes that shine like platinum. Taking a deep breath I catch scent of her and my vision is filled with her mostly nude body. I feel a pull in my tail and struggle with my own urges. No. I stop myself, pushing to the forefront of my mind the life we've made together and how precious she is to me. Because I love her first and I will control myself, because I adore and respect her. But I'm not lying to her, there's a churning in my stomach and a seed of dread taking root in my heart. Something tells me this mission, isn't going to end well.