"So do you really think this place has her?" Ant whispered as they hunched down on top of the building.
They had been scouring the city, finding bands of Purple Dragons all day and gathering as much information as they could about where their headquarters might have been. It took hours, all night, but their work led them to the river side and this dilapidated looking warehouse.
"Everything led here. It's the only logical conclusion." Donatello answered the younger turtle.
"Then what are we waiting for?" Raph grunted. He swung over the ledge of the building and grabbed the sides of the fire escape and slide down towards the ground.
Leo rolled his eyes and slid down after his brother. The others followed suit and they made their way towards the building. There were purple dragon members hanging around the entrance so the turtles had to sneak between the abandoned machinery that littered the lot around the building. Leo motioned to Mikey and Ant. The pair dove in succession and took out the foursome that was guarding the door. Unconscious and soon bound around the corner, they were no longer a threat.
Now they just had to hope that the inside was clear, by the door anyway. Cracking the door open, Donatello was the first to peer inside.
Hands bound above her head, Jacquelyn was hanging by her restraints from what could only be assumed to be an old meat hook. The room was full of them. Old reddish brown stains splattered the walls and floor. Her feet barely scraped the floor as she hung there. Blood dripped from her nose and a gash above her eyebrow. She was wheezing again.
Alopex was hunched down on a broken cooler, glaring at the girl as two men stood next to her taking turns hitting her. "Tell us the codes!"
"Screw you!" Jack spat at them.
A fist connected with her gut. She stifled a scream as her shoulder was jerked from its socket and her body hung on her arms ligaments.
The fox snarled. "Stop playing games girl and tell us the damn codes!" She beat her fist on the cooler.
"What codes are you talking about?!" Jack screamed at her. "I don't know what you are talking about!"
Another fist hit her ribs, then her kidney. "We don't have time for this."
The fox launched herself off her perch and got right in Jack's face. "One last chance. Tell me the codes or you will die."
Jack spit on her. "Fuck. You."
The lights went out. Jack screamed as something collided with her. She was wrenched off her hook and thrown to the cold ground. Rough hands grabbed her by the neck and pinned her to the floor there, some grimy cloth was shoved in her mouth so far she gagged. There was clattering, the sound of weapons hitting weapons, fists on skin, shouts and angry snarls.
Someone wrapped an arm around Jack's neck and dragged her somewhere, the being arm was hairy, Alopex. There was a smack behind her and the lights flicked on. The fox mutant had an arm around her throat and a dagger against her ribs. Tears blurred her vision but Jack could make out the five green figures standing in the room before them.
"Back off or the girl dies." Alopex snarled.
Raph's hands flexed around his weapons, already his hands covered in blood.
"You won't kill her, you need her." Donatello glared at her.
"Doesn't mean she has to come in one piece." Alopex slid the knife down Jack's side slicing into her bruised skin. The woman screamed, as best she could with her mouth gagged.
Raph screamed but before his feet could even move, Ant was half way across the room. His axe crashed down beside the pair of females causing Alopex to roll away with Jack. It gave him a chance to grab his friend. His hand was too weak and Alopex snatched Jack back. The youngest turtle swore.
"Put her down you piece of shit!" Raph pointed his sai at the fox but Leo put an arm in front of him to stop him.
"Why do you want her?" Leo asked, stone faced as always. He had already heard part of the interrogation, he just needed to buy time until someone thought of a way to get Jack out of danger.
The yellow eyed fox glared. "None of your business turtles. Now back off!" She was so busy looking at the four turtles, so used to seeing only four, she didn't realize that there was one sneaking up behind her.
In an instant there was an axe blade under her chin. "Let her go. She is the only thing stopping me from ending you right now." Antonello whispered in her pointed ears.
She hissed, her ears lying flat against her head. "If you end me, more will come. It's what happened when you killed Bruno. Kill me and worse things will happen."
His blade pulled tighter against her neck and caused her to release the battered woman in her grasp. Jack crawled away, still bound and bloodied.
Raph snatched her up into his muscled arms and held her tight against his chest as he pulled the rag from her mouth and then used a sai to cut the ropes from her wrists. His gaze met Antonello's for a moment before he turned and walked towards the exit with Mikey behind him.
"You're lucky." Antonello snapped before his elbow snapped forward and connected with the Alopex's temple, knocking the fox out. Joining the others, Ant looked over his shoulder and sighed. "Are you sure it is okay to leave her there? With all these people after Jack… shouldn't we try to stop them?" He hoped they understood his implications.
Leo frowned. "We don't kill defenseless people. In fact we avoid it. We are not barbarians. We were trained with honor by Master Splinter." He turned and started to walk away.
Antonello didn't follow. "Well I wasn't!" That stopped Leo. He and Donatello both turned around and stared at him. "I was trained by you and your brothers. Not Splinter. He isn't here anymore and I'm sorry I never met him, I truly am, but it's time you stop living in the past. All of you." He marched up to Leo and looked down at him, his four inches in height over him made the younger turtle seem almost more menacing. "It is time you start making decisions for yourselves. Make decisions based on what is going on here and now." He gestured to the unconscious people behind him. "You are the oldest Leo, you are the head of this family… it is a growing family, in the past year you have had two new people move into your house and join your family. You have to start considering what is best for them too. They didn't grow up like you did, they didn't have the same things you did. But now they are family, we are family. I'm not saying you have to kill for us, but we aren't just random strangers in your life… Jack isn't some meaningless person." He sighed. "Her life is in danger. I'm willing to do anything to protect it because she ismy sister, that's how I feel about her. I think you should be willing to do the same, even if it means breaking some of those old rules."
Without another word, Ant walked by him and rushed after Raphael and Mikey to check on Jack leaving Donnie and Leo standing there dumbfounded.
"Jack, Jack open your eyes."
Her body was trembling, writing with pain that was emanating from the gash on her side and a dislocated shoulder. Her bright eyes were squeezed closed as she tried to fight through the pain. Raph ran a large finger down the side of her face as he hunched down in the alley, cradling her against him.
"She doesn't look good."
"This isn't as bad as when Leo attacked her." Mikey looked up at Ant.
"Yeah but this could have aggravated those old injuries. She could be bleeding internally or something." He ran a hand over his face. "Raph, she should see a real doctor."
"Fuck! I know…" He grunted. "Mikey, go get Casey, tell him to bring the car. He can take her to the hospital."
So Mikey hopped off and disappeared up a fire escape as Ant hunched down beside his brother. "Leo isn't going to be happy with me."
"Fuck him…" Raph snorted. But then he looked up. "Why?"
"I kind of told him off… on why he didn't jump to helping Jack faster, why he wasn't willing to do more…"
"Good." The scarred turtle looked down at the squirming woman in his arms and tried to hush her. "Don't move, Casey will be here soon." He whispered, brushing hair out of her face.
Her eyes fluttered and she tried to move her arm, but winced. "I'm sorry." She mumbled.
"Don't apologize…"
"What's she saying?"
The two turtles looked up to see Leo and Donnie approaching from the shadows. Raph didn't answer his elder brother. Leonardo would have thrown his brother against the wall had he not been holding the half conscious human.
Gritting his teeth he spoke again. "What is she saying? Is it about the codes?"
"She isn't saying anything."
Leo whipped around any looked up at Ant. "I wasn't asking you."
"Yeah well I answered." He glared down at the eldest. She isn't in any condition to be interrogated Leo. Back off."
"She obviously knows something!" Leo pushed the taller turtle out of his face. "The woman is hiding something-"
"The woman?!" Ant nearly screamed. "You mean Jacquelyn? Our sister, the girl that has been staying with us for a year! She isn't some stranger Leo! You can't treat her like a criminal!"
"Will you two shut the hell up!" Donatello forced his way between them and shoved them apart. "What is wrong with you? We have an injured friend and a serious problem flooding our city. This is no time to get at each other's throats! So shut it! Do you want to be seen?"
Headlights turned down the alley way and the turtles all shrank back into the shadows, Raphael, hiding in the corner, still holding on to Jack. The car stopped and shut off just before Michelangelo and Casey climbed out.
"It's okay guys, come on out." Mikey called.
Silently they all emerged, Raph carrying the unconscious woman in his arms.
"Damn…" Casey mumbled. "Mike filled me in but…"
"Just open the door and take her to the hospital." Raph hung his head.
The human obeyed and opened the door to the back seat letting the turtle lay the battered woman down on the back seat.
"Don't leave her side. You hear me? Don't leave her side for one second."Raph grabbed the front of Casey's shirt until he was sure the man under stood him.
Casey nodded. "You got it bro. I won't leave her alone."
The turtles watched Casey climb back into the car and then drive away, the red tail lights vanishing around the corner. As soon as he was gone Raphael turned around and let his fist connect with Leo's face.
"If ya even think of treatin' her like some criminal I'll beat yer ass." And with that he turned and walked away, slipping into the shadows to head home.
Raph spent hours in the training room. Lifting until his muscles screamed, beating the heavy bag until his knuckles were bleeding, and forcing his body to the point of exhaustion. Finally dropping to his knees and panting for breath Raphael listened to the stillness that had settled on the house. He was the last one awake on this miserable night. Or so he thought. Sound from across the house echoed to his ears.
Forcing himself to his feet the weary turtle grabbed his weapons and followed the sound all the way to Jack's room. What he found wasn't what he had been expecting. Leo was on his knees amidst a pile of jacks clothing, strewn about the once neat and orderly room. The drawers to her dresser were yanked out of their wooden home and left hanging recklessly, bras and tee shirts hanging from the edges. Her mattress had been flipped over, the sheets yanked off of it and thrown aside. The blue branded turtle was kneeling before the last thing he had yet to destroy, Jack's old suitcase. Neatly closed and latched on the ground before him.
"What the fuck do you think you are doing?"
"I'm finding out who she really is." Leo said as his large fingers pressed the buttons on the edge of the beaten green case.
Raphael's hand pressed it close again. "Look at yourself. This is pathetic. You have torn apart her room, destroyed everything, for what?"
"For answers Raph!" Leo all but screamed. "I need to know who did this to me! Who got so close to me they could have killed me and made me almost…"
"Almost kill Jack? Jack, you know, your friend?" Raph scoffed. "Some friend you are… you are so desperate for answers, so desperate for some kind of control you are willing to sacrifice someone else. What happened to our great and mighty leader?"
Leo hung his head. He didn't know what to say.
"You know what, go ahead… you have destroyed everything else. Look in her suit case. Just prove that she isn't hiding anything from us." Raph pulled his hand away and crossed his arms over his chest as he glared down at his brother.
So Leo opened the case. Inside was a collection of old picture frames. His big green hands picked up the first, a picture of her in her teens with a man a few years older, her brother he assumed. There were a few more pictures of the two. Her brother in a suit, Jack in varying uniforms from diners and dives. She looked happy.
Setting aside all the pictures Leo found a worn out note book underneath them all. Lifting it up he flipped through the pages. Jacquelyn's handwriting was scrawled across all the pages, a journal detailing her daily life. Leo hung his head, there was nothing there. No secrets, well, nothing he was interested in. He had been a complete ass to someone who had done nothing but try to help them.
He was just about to close the journal when a page caught his eye. Numbers. It was page after page of numbers and numbers in varying sequences and patterns. It filled up the last four pages of the journal before there was nothing but blank pages left.
"What the hell…" Leo looked up at Raphael.
Raph slowly let his arms drop to his sides as his eye drifted from the pages up to his brother's face. He swallowed hard. Was she hiding something?
"Mr. Jones?"
Casey jumped to his feet and smoothed his long hair back out of his face. He had been waiting in that stupid room for hours. No news, no word. Nothing. Just the sound of beeps and alarms from the distant rooms, nurses on phones and new patients coming into the ER screaming and wailing. It was a nightmare, enough to fry every one of his nerves.
"Yeah, that's me."
"This way please." A petite woman with a clip board led him down a cluttered and active hallway to a closed door with a curtain drawn on it. "You brought in Miss Garver?"
"Yeah I did. Why? Is she alright?"
"Her condition is stable. Her injuries were treatable and non-life threatening, but our examination revealed older injuries that were partially healed. We have to ask if she is in a suitable living situation." She cocked an eyebrow and glanced over her shoulder at the police officers that were just a shout away.
Casey nodded. "I uh, I understand completely ma'am. Her home situation is completely safe. She is new to the city, moved here from Georgia so the hustle and bustle kind of scare her. She was in a car accident a few weeks ago and it kind of freaked her out. She didn't want to go to the hospital so she just stayed at home."
The woman nodded cautiously and jotted a few things down on her clip board. "Very well." Stepping aside she gestured to the door and let Casey pass.
On the gurney inside Jack was asleep, a few tubes were hooked up to her arms pumping her full of fluids and antibiotics. Her shoulder was wrapped and held against her side to stabilize it. Her wrists were wrapped in bandages as was her side where some sort of blade had carved into her skin. For now she seemed to be sleeping peacefully.
Breathing a sigh of relief Casey reached into his pocket and pulled out his shell cell to call Raph with the new that Jack was safe and well.
5