A/N: Thanks, everyone, for the awesome reviews, follows and favorites. You guys are the best. Here is chapter 7 of I Need a Hero. I hope you all enjoy.
Splinter and his sons infiltrated the Foot's prison ward flawlessly. Splinter respectfully insisted he'd go with them due to the possibility of a trap since he didn't fully trust the girl and the Foot soldier saw Mikey on the rooftop with Sarah. He never wanted to hurt his dear youngest son's feelings but he didn't want Mikey to get his hopes up that the girl was safe and harmless either.
Raph brutally attacked and took down two Foot solders in his path, knocking their heads together into unconsciousness , while Leo took down three more guards to his right, hitting two in the back of their heads with the handles of his katana blades and one in his temple with the handle of Leo's left katana. Splinter gave the signal that the coast was clear and the five silently ran down the narrow hallway after Donnie unlocked the door and disconnected the alarms.
Finding the young girl wasn't too much of a chore. She occupied the second cell to the left down the right corridor. Donnie did his magic with the padlock and the door opened with a squeak and a squeal. They saw the girl lying down on the cot, a drop of blood drizzling down her cheek. They, all but Raph who stood watch at the door, ran to the girl to see if she was even alive. Her pulse was weak and fluttery; her breathing was shallow; she was cold and unresponsive to the touch, but she was alive, just barely.
Splinter picked up the young girl, coming to the conclusion that this girl was bait; she wasn't working for the Foot. This was a trap, Splinter concluded, but young Sarah is innocent. Splinter knew they all had to leave as soon as possible before they were caught and poor Sarah died. Before he could move, however, Sarah spoke.
"Mom." Splinter looked down at the young girl's pale face, her eyes still hidden behind her eyelids. "I've… missed you… so much." The girl sounded so weak and frail. They needed to leave before they lost her. Ordering his sons to go, stealthily, he positioned Sarah to where they both would be a little more comfortable and followed his sons out.
"I've been… livin' on the… street. They were mean… at the place… they took… me to. I ran away. I met… a giant turtle. His… name… is… Mikey. I call him… Angel… because he saved me. He helped me," the girl in Splinter's arms told the mother inside her head. It made Mikey look behind him, looking at the sick girl worriedly.
"Michelangelo, focus," Splinter whispered sharply. Mikey looked away, sure, but Splinter could tell he wasn't focusing.
"I love… you, Mom," the girl said again. Splinter could tell it pained her to speak, which was probably the reason her breaths were so shallow.
Splinter and his sons were nearly out of the building when Shredder jumped down in front of them. No, they didn't have time for this! Splinter thought as the girl in his arms was hit with powerful coughs. The girl was in pain with each breath she took to the spasms and jolts the coughs made.
"Well, well, well, I thought I would get, you turtles, here, but I never imagined I would get you here, Hamato Yoshi. What a pleasant surprise," the man in armor said, coming closer.
"Move, Shredder! Can't you see this girl is ill? Would you like for her to die right in front you?" Splinter asked, fear for the girl's life and angry at the man who dared to delay them. Around that time, Sarah's coughing ceased, continuing to talk to the mother no one else could see.
"Mom, it… hurts," she said. Her breathing was getting ragged and more shallow. They needed to get out of there and Sarah to a hospital.
"Leonardo!" Splinter said to his oldest son, whom understood his sensei's silent command and threw a smoke pellet on the ground. They disappeared in front of Splinter's arch nemesis, causing him to look around the building, but it was useless. They were gone.
The large rat held Sarah to his chest before positioning her beside the automatic door of the hospital then carefully wiped her face with a napkin to rid her of the blood before activating the door and throwing a knife with a note attached that explained Sarah's possible illness as to not waste more time than necessary into the hospital. It landed where Splinter aimed, next to the receptionist on the wall. Splinter gracefully bolted out of sight as the woman screamed in surprise and fear of having a knife thrown near her head. From the building across the street, they watched as the woman with blond, curly hair and glasses came out and bolted back inside after noticing Sarah. She came out a minute later with some doctors and a gurney. Lifting the girl carefully onto the rolling hospital bed, the qualified professionals rolled her into the hospital and away from the unknown five's view.
After a couple of minutes of watching nothing happen, Splinter called the turtles away, all but one. Mikey stayed in his spot on the roof, unmoving as if he hadn't heard his father's request or didn't care. He just continued to stare at the place on the concrete that once occupied the sick girl as if she was still there, dying. He couldn't leave yet. Mikey just couldn't leave.
"Mikey, bro, you comin'?" Raph asked, his voice unusually soft and sympathetic. It took Mikey awhile to answer. Raph figured that Mikey hadn't heard him and began to repeat himself when Mikey's quiet voice broke the silence.
"How can I leave now? Sarah could die. She's only ten. I didn't even get a chance to give her the picture frames. She didn't get a chance to see 'em. Now, she might never see 'em," Mikey said, speaking as if the girl was already gone, already dead. The broken, hopeless tone in Mikey's voice unnerved them all a little. Mikey was always so positive, so uplifting. They just all thought he never had negative thoughts, that he always thought of the glass as half full, and seeing their baby brother's and youngest son's glass of water spring a leak right in front of them scared them.
"Hey, bro, she'll see 'em. She'll see her pictures in the frames you made," Leo said.
"Yeah, she'll never forget you. She'll always have something to remember you by," Donnie added.
"And she'll be grateful. And alive," Raph said to his brother, walking to him and placing his hand on Mikey's shoulder. "Right, Master Splinter?"
"Yes. Her Angel can go visit her tomorrow and see for himself," Splinter said, giving his son the hope he needed. Mikey smiled at that. Yeah, that's what he'd do. He would go see Sarah tomorrow and give her the pictures. There's just one problem.
"How will I know which room she's in? It's not like I can walk into the hospital and say, 'Hey, I'm a giant turtle. Can I see Sarah?'"
"We can get April to go to the hospital for us. She can tell them Sarah's homeless and she met her a couple days ago and knew she was sick and became worried when she never came back to meet her again. She can take the picture of Sarah and her mother too, so they would know what she looks like and evidence of their friendship," Donnie said, his brain hatching a plan, involving his crush.
"See, Mikey. It'll be fine; you'll see," Leo said.
"Com'on, bro. Let's go home," Raph said, pulling gently on his youngest brother's shoulder. Hesitantly, Mikey followed his family home.
Sarah awoke to the sound of a heart monitor and the ring of a telephone. She squinted at the bright light that flooded the room from the florescent light bulb above her. She felt a pang of sorrow when she realized sadly she wasn't in heaven like she thought she'd be with her mother and the father she never knew. She was in the hospital where she last saw her mother alive, but how did she get there? Did Trent finally decide that it was immoral to keep her locked in that room while she slowly faded away? No, Sarah decided, he wouldn't do that for her, bait. Then who was kind enough to go out of their way to safe her life? Suddenly, a nurse with curly blonde hair and glasses that covered her blue eyes walked in, smiling warmly when she noticed Sarah was awake.
"Hey, sweetheart. It nice to see your finally awake. You've been out for about three days," the nurse said. "My name is Linda. Can you tell me your full name?" Sarah took a cautious breath, realizing quickly it didn't hurt her to breathe, then she tried to speak.
"Sarah. Sarah Fielder." Her throat was dry, causing her voice to come out hoarse and hollow sounding, but it wasn't painful.
"I heard you were homeless Sarah," the nurse half asked. Sarah nodded.
"My mother died. My dad died before I was even born," Sarah explained. Linda smiled sympathetically.
"I was hoping your parents just didn't give you up, left you on the street." Sarah looked down at her bed sheets at that statement. "But I guess they had an excuse, didn't they? Not to be unsympathetic. You know, I always wanted a child, but I'm not able to have any." Sarah looked up at Linda and smiled weakly at her.
"What's wrong with me?" Sarah asked after a long pause as Linda checked her vitals.
"You have Pneumonia. It's a lung infection. It can be fatal, but you'll be all right now. Whoever brought you in, brought you in just in the nick of time," Linda said, finishing her examination then proceeded to look down at Sarah with a smile.
"Who brought me here?"
"Well, that's the puzzler. We don't know. They got my attention outside and I found you leaning against the building." Sarah furrowed her eyebrows. Who brought her in? "Get some rest. You're gonna need it to recover," Linda finished, before striding quickly out of the room. Sarah contemplated that, but she couldn't help but think of how she got there.
She looked around the standard hospital room. The bed she laid in was in the middle of the room with a heart monitor and other equipment she didn't recognize to her left, farthest from the door, with a smooth cushioned bench behind the machinery, under a large window with an unlocked latch. A door, that she believed to lead to the bathroom, faced the bench, adjacent to Sarah's bed. There was a TV across from her on the wall, below it was a desk with three small desk drawers on each side of the small opening for the cushioned wooden chair that sat in the middle. Facing the door and touching the window were counters with at least a dozen drawers below it, and about four cabinets above it. On the counter sat glass jars with cotton balls and swaps and a bunch of other medical gear, like gloves that sat in a box at the edge of the counter.
Sarah looked to her right. A smaller window with a drawn curtain rested above the matching chair of the bench. There was a nightstand just above her head, and picture frames were placed on top of it. Sarah studied the photo of her parent's wedding picture and the decorated frame that held her mother and her's picture in it. She smiled at the glittered names at the top. She never had a frame for that picture; she always wanted one. It was nice to finally have a home for her favorite picture of her and her mom together, and it was nice to finally have solved the mystery of who brought her to the hospital.
Sarah closed her eyes, and before she fell asleep, she whispered, "Thank you, Angel."
A/N: Thank you, guys, so much for reading and sticking with this story as long as you have. Thank you again for all of the lovely reviews, follows and favorites. You guys are awesome.
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