Chapter 3 is up and ready to go! Please enjoy and any reveiws are incredibly appreciated!
Chapter 3
"You're snoring." A feminine voice said from close by.
"No I'm not." Raphael grumbled.
"Not you, him." She grumbled back.
Raphael heard it then, the rumbling snore of his baby brother. He was a little surprised, but not overly shocked that Michelangelo was in the room.
"Hey Mikey, shut it!" He said raising his voice slightly.
The snoring continued. "It's like trying to wake a rock." Raphael grumbled. "Just kick him or something." Raphael said as he rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. His eyes flew open. "You're awake?" He said with surprise as he rolled over and sat up.
"Unfortunately" Came the grumbled reply from beneath a pile of blankets.
"How do you feel?" He asked as he knelt down beside her.
"I don't want to think about it." She said pulling back the covers. "Everything hurts." She looked over at him. "I'd kick him, but he's too far away."
Raphael stood, his leg burning as he did so. He limped over to the other side of the cot. "Wake up Mikey." He said pushing his brother with his good leg. Michelangelo looked blearily up at him. "You're snoring." He said to him.
Michelangelo sat up and yawned. "Sorry." He said sheepishly. "Hey you're awake." He said to the woman.
"No thanks to you shell for brains." Raphael glared at him.
"How long have I been asleep?" She asked softly.
"You've been here for three days." Raphael said to her wondering if she was going to freak out. Instead she just nodded.
"I've been checking the news, no one has reported you missing." Michelangelo said to her. Raphael looked at him in surprise. He hadn't even thought about it. Of course there would be people looking for her and worried about her. Family, friends, maybe even a boyfriend. He looked at her tousled hair and flushed face and wondered why the thought of her having a boyfriend bothered him so much.
She looked at both of them, as if assessing them. Her calm green gaze met his and he felt as if she were ripping away every barrier he had ever erected and peered into his very soul. Her gaze flicked away. It was then he realized what Michelangelo had said an realized how it may have sounded. He hit Michelangelo up the side of the head.
"Ow, what was that for?" Michelangelo asked rubbing his head.
"Because what you just said didn't sound creepy or anything. We are trying to convince her that we are trying to help her. Not scare the crap out of her." He looked back at her. Not that she seemed scared, which was a little odd.
She seemed to think about it for a second then shook her head. "No one would be looking for me." Her gaze went to the door where Donatello had just walked in, Leonardo following close on his heels.
"Why wouldn't anyone be looking for you, are you all alone?" Michelangelo asked.
"Well I came to New York by myself." She said looking up at Donatello. Donatello handed her a bottle of water and then helped her to sit up. She looked at the bottle and unscrewed the lid. She took a quick drink and put the cap back on. Her gaze steadily assessed both Donatello and Leonardo. Each of them seemed transfixed for a few moments as she considered them.
"My great Uncle Carin Ráth recently passed away, and for reasons completely beyond me or anyone in my family, he left me his house and I am the sole beneficiary of his Will. Carin apparently didn't have any wife or kids and no other family but my mom. Why he left it to me rather than my dad, or my younger brothers I have no idea. I've never met him and no one in my family has either." She shook her head."Anyway I flew into New York, and I was going to rent a car to go out and see the place. I mean truthfully, I'm probably just going to sell it because what am I going to do with it? I'm Canadian and have no real use for a place here. Besides the sale of the house would pay for my tuition for the next few years. Anyway I flew in, decided to do the tourist thing for the day, was going to stay in a hotel and rent a car the next day because it's a two hour drive up the NY 23A highway. I planned to inspect the place, go through Uncle Carin's things and try to find a lawyer because there has got to be a bunch of legal stuff I don't even know about." She said shaking her head.
"Anyway I stayed too long at the museum. I was wandering around trying to find a hotel when I ran into the men with the tattoo's and guns, after that I just ran." She sighed.
"So are you a Drama major or something?" Leonardo asked suddenly.
She turned large green eyes on him. "Drama? Oh the Hamlet quote." She said thinking. She moved, then winced in pain. "I have so many Shakespearian quotes floating around in my head, mostly because we had to learn them in high school. Not a big fan of his plays, but the man could write, and he could turn a phrase like no one's business, so no, I am majoring in Anthropology." She said with a shrug.
"What's that?" Raphael asked.
"The study of human beings." Donatello supplied while standing up and looking at Raphael. She nodded. "Shirt off Raph, I want to check your arm and we'll get to your leg too," Donatello said to him as he hopped up on Donatello's worktable.
"You were hit in the arm?" She asked curiously.
"Yeah, stupid Red Dragon got a knife in my arm and leg." Raphael grumbled pulling off his shirt.
Her brow furrowed. "Deltoid or bicep?" She asked. Raphael blinked at her. "Deltoid." Donatello supplied looking at her. She nodded thoughtfully. "And he was hit in the upper thigh?" Donatello nodded again. "His femoral artery wasn't hit was it?" She asked Donatello.
"No," Donatello said slowly paying more attention to the woman. "The knife missed it, but he lost a lot of blood." She nodded again.
"What kind of Anthropology are you taking?" Donatello asked with interest as he began unwrapping the bandage around Raphael's arm.
"Archaeology, specifically mortuary archaeology, so I've taken a few osteology classes, a few pathology classes, a few forensic anthropology classes and an anatomy class or two thrown in for good measure."
"Did you understand a single thing she just said?" Michelangelo asked. She just smiled, the smile reaching her eyes.
"She is studying different human culture's burial and funerary practices. So she has studied the human skeleton, what disease can do to effect the bones of a skeleton, as well as courses that would allow her to determine cause of death if the evidence was still evident on the bones, and I know you know what anatomy is." Donatello said studying and bandaging his arm back up.
She nodded. "I took this semester off to deal with the whole inheriting a house in a different country thing, but next semester I have been accepted to go on an archaeological dig in England. They have uncovered a medieval cemetery and are estimating around 200 individuals may have been buried there." She said with excitement.
Donatello turned and looked at her. He was wearing a thoughtful, abstracted expression. "That is exciting." He said. "Pants Raphael." Donatello said not really paying any attention to what he was doing anymore.
"What?" Raphael said in shock. He didn't want to have to take his pants off in front of the woman.
But Donatello wasn't paying attention anymore. "Why did you choose Anthropology?" He asked curious.
She laughed again. "Because I wasn't smart enough to become a palaeontologist. I love dinosaurs, but I would have to enter into the sciences and it just isn't my thing. Biology I'm pretty good with, but anything mathematical, I am completely lost." She paused in thought as Donatello looked back at him.
"Raph, I can't look at your leg through your pants." He complained.
Raphael grumbled but stripped down to his boxer-briefs. He hopped back up on the table and wondered how long he was going to have to sit in his underwear until his brother remembered he existed again.
"The dinosaur exhibit at the museum was not bad, but the one we have back home is better, since you can actually watch the palaeontologists working. The Tyrell Museum rocks. It's right in the badlands so everywhere you step you could be stepping on dinosaur fossils." She said excitedly.
Raphael looked at Donatello and knew his brother was gone. His focus was now completely on the woman sitting on the cot. She had him at dinosaurs. They all knew about his interest in dinosaurs and it was one he himself couldn't understand.
"You've been to the Tyrell Museum?" Donatello asked in awe.
"Hey Donny, leg, remember." He said trying to gain his brother's attention.
"A few times, in fact I think I still have some pictures on my camera, which should be in my bag." She said with a smile. "If you want we could hook it up and I could show you." Donatello blinked in surprise. "But maybe later since...um...Raph? Is getting antsy."
Donatello turned his attention from the woman to Raphael. He glared at his younger brother. "Oh...right." Donatello said as he finally began unwrapping his leg to have a look.
"So what is your story?" The woman asked.
"That's easy." Michelangelo said happily. So Michelangelo told her of their mutant origins, of their father Master Splinter, a mutated rat, his death, their friends April O'Neil and Casey Jones, their fights with the Red Dragon gang and The Foot, led by The Shredder. Michelangelo told her everything but their shoe size pretty much. Well if they actually wore shoes he probably would have told her those too. She was silent throughout the whole story only nodding occasionally here and there.
Donatello finally finished wrapping his leg and he was able to put his pants back on. Luckily for him the woman seemed engrossed in Michelangelo's story.
"Okay so you are Mikey?" She asked.
Michelangelo nodded. "I'm Michelangelo, that's Donatello, Raphael, and Leonardo."
"Italian renaissance artists." She said thoughtfully. "My name is Katherine. But you probably already know that." She said motioning to her open purse. Leonardo blushed. Raphael knew that a woman's purse was this mysterious thing that no man should ever look or snoop through. You never knew what you would find in there, at least that is what Casey had told them. She continued. "You can call me anything but Kathy." She said scrunching up her nose in disgust. "But my friends usually call me Kit."
"Short for Kitty?" Donatello asked.
She smiled. "Kitty is an old English shortening of Katherine, but Trevor calls me Kit which was shortened from Kitten."
"Oh, is Trevor your boyfriend?" Raphael asked and wondering why this thought bothered him. And why he was asking in the first place? She was smart and beautiful, of course she had a boyfriend.
She shook her head. 'I don't have a boyfriend." Raphael felt relief wash through him. "Trevor and I have been friends since we were 5. He always called me kitten because I was a scrapper in school." She shrugged. "Hard not to be when you are the smallest one in your class all the time." She smiled.
"Yeah, we're pretty short compared to most humans too." Michelangelo said to her.
She looked up at all of them standing around her. "I'm actually getting a crick in my neck looking up at you guys." She said with an apologetic smile. "And I'm getting a little sore sitting like this."
"We could move you to the couch." Michelangelo offered.
"That would be better." She said as her eyes fell on Donatello's workbench. Her backpack lay on the floor, but her clothes were still in a bloody pile on the workbench beside her purse. She looked down at herself. She was wearing Leonardo's shirt on backwards and Leonardo's boxers. She was oddly silent.
"We can explain..." Raphael began, wanting to explain that she had been really injured and that is why her clothes were gone.
She had begun feeling where the bandage was. She motioned for him to stop talking. He looked at Leonardo with worried eyes. His older brother had been oddly silent.
"Lacerated liver?" She asked. Donatello nodded. "Haemorrhaging?" Donatello nodded again. She touched her chest. "Cardiac arrest?" She asked softly. Donatello nodded again. He tried to read what she was thinking, was there accusation, anger, fear? But he couldn't read her, she was like a closed book. "Fever?" Donatello nodded again.
"I should have taken you to the hospital." Raphael found the words pouring from his mouth. "I should have called 911, something. You nearly died because I panicked."
She nodded her head in thought. The fact that she didn't seem to be showing any particular emotion was bothering him. "You carried me all the way here with an injured leg and arm." It wasn't a question just a statement of fact.
"I..." He began. Her eyes met Raphael's silencing him.
"You should have done those things, but I can understand why you couldn't and didn't. I would imagine the same results would have been achieved if I had have been at the hospital." She turned to Donatello. "Thank you Donatello, for saving my life. Thank you as well Raphael for helping to save it."
Raphael blinked at her in shock. "But if it wasn't for me..." He began.
"True." She said cutting him off. "But I am alive and healing, that is all that matters."
And that was it. For her that was the end of the discussion. Leonardo was looking at her as if he were assessing her.
Raphael felt a little overwhelmed. She was taking everything in stride and didn't seem to be overly emotional. He wondered if maybe she was in shock or something. He leaned over to ask Donatello if this was possible. Donatello just shrugged.
"Sorry, but I really need to call my dad." She said apologetically. "I told him I would call him in a few days, and he is probably freaking out by now. I'll give him a call, tell him what's going on, and explain that I am going to be in New York longer than I had anticipated. Donatello could you please pass me my purse?"
Donatello grabbed the purse from the worktable and handed it to her. She dug through it and pulled out a phone. She dialled a number and waited.
"Hey daddy," There was a pause. Her father was a loud talker, they could hear him through the phone.
"Are you alright I've been worried sick!" A panicked male voice came from the other end of the phone.
"I know, I would have called sooner, but I've been," She looked down at herself. "Indisposed."
"Are you in the hospital, please tell me you aren't in the hospital? You were mugged weren't you, I knew I shouldn't have let you go to New York all by yourself!"
"He's..." Michelangelo began.
"A little high strung." Raphael finished.
She grimaced but gave a slight smile of acknowledgement. "No dad I'm not in a hospital, and I didn't get mugged. But I haven't managed to get to Uncle Cairn's yet. I've actually met these really great guys who are letting me crash at their place at the moment while I get a few things straightened out."
The voice went suspicious. "What do you mean guys?"
"Guys, you know, men, males, the opposite sex of women." She said with a slight smile. Raphael felt himself blush.
"I was a young man once young lady and I can tell you right now any young guys you run into right now are only interested in one thing." He growled.
She rolled her eyes but asked innocently. "And what exactly is that?"
"Katherine don't play innocent with me. These guys who are helping you are probably only interested in getting you out of your clothes."
Katherine looked down at herself sitting in Leonardo's boxers and backwards shirt. "Too late." She said softly as she covered her mouth so she wouldn't burst out laughing. Raphael found himself blushing even more.
"They are decent guys dad. And you know you couldn't have come with me anyway. You've got work and mom's out of town right now. You couldn't leave Darren and Brian all by themselves. Besides this is a good experience for me. If I can handle working on a Master's thesis proposal, I can handle finding a lawyer and straightening out Uncle Carin's estate."
"Honey..." He began.
"Dad, you and mom bought your first house at my age, and mom had me a year later. I can handle this. I'll give you a call again in a few days." She said coaxingly.
They could hear an exhalation of breath. "Fine, is one of these young men around? How did you meet them and how old did you say they were again?"
"Yes..." She said slowly as she looked at them. Michelangelo mouthed twenty five. "They are here. I sorta ran into one of them and they are 25."
"All of them?" Michelangelo nodded.
"Yes, they are brothers...quadruplets." She said with a grimace.
"Shouldn't they be at work about now?" He asked suspiciously.
"Dad you are being snoopy, they've been kind enough to take time out of their busy routine to show me some New York hospitality, be nice."
"Fine, but let me talk to one of them." The voice growled.
She grimaced and gave an apologetic look passing the phone to Leonardo. Leonardo looked at the phone in surprise. She mouthed the word sorry, then gave him a pleading look. Leonardo reluctantly took the phone. "Hello?" He asked.
"Hello, I hear you are assisting daughter?"
"Yes sir." Leonardo said into the phone.
"Good, I'm trusting you to make sure nothing happens to her, you understand?"
"Yes sir. I'll make sure that your daughter gets to her Uncle's house safe and sound." Leonardo said politely.
"You sound like a nice respectful young man. If you can help her out I'd appreciate it. My daughter is very smart, got a good head on her shoulders, but she can be very naive, make sure no one takes advantage of her, understand?" The message of: up to and including you and your brothers, was made very clear.
"Yes sir." Leonardo gave the phone back to Katherine. She was repressing a smile.
"I'll call you in a few days, love you too, bye." She ended the call and burst out laughing. "Ouch, ouch, laughing bad. But you should see your face right now!" She said laughing at Leonardo who was looking uncomfortable. "I shouldn't laugh, but you look like a guy who just got a surprise inspection by his girlfriend's dad." She grimaced in pain. 'Sorry, but thank you Leonardo for talking with my dad. I appreciate it."
Leonardo glared at her.
"Is your dad always so...?" Michelangelo began.
"High strung?" She finished. "Unfortunately. But he's the best." She said with a fond smile.
"So that's why you don't...freak out about things." Michelangelo asked.
"Something like that. I've had to coax my dad into some resemblance of sanity often enough to know that freaking out is just not very helpful. Although I suppose as a parent my dad will always worry about me. I am daddy's little girl, and to him I will always be 6 years old with a scrape on my knee, crying because I've fallen off my bike, and my dad is the hero, saving the day by giving me a band aid and getting me to stop crying." She said with a happy smile.
She looked down at herself again. "I think I'm going to get changed into my own clothes, if you guys have a bathroom or something I could use that would be great."
Leonardo blinked. "Of course."
"Thank you. Raphael could you please pass me my backpack. All of my clothes are in there." She said pointing to the bag on the floor.
"Wait are you saying this is your luggage, all of it?" Raphael asked in surprise.
"I packed light. I figured if there was anything I really needed I could just buy it. Besides I figure Uncle Carin's house has got to have a washer and dryer so I can do laundry if I need to." She said with a shrug.
"But...you're a chick. April's makeup bag is bigger than this thing." Raphael said in surprise. And he would know. He had seen all of the luggage April was taking on her trip with Casey. They were on a work trip/honeymoon. They weren't sure when they were getting back, but had been traveling all over Europe collecting antiques and other items for April to sell in her shop.
She looked at the bag and shrugged, opening it up. "I don't wear makeup in general. I suppose I do occasionally, but it isn't like a hair brush, foundation, eyeliner and eye shadow take up much room." She pawed through the bag. "I also have shampoo and conditioner, a razor, shaving cream, and about a week's worth of clothes."
"And that all fit in there?" He asked surprised.
"Yep." She pulled out a pair of plaid pyjama pants, a t-shirt, some lacy underwear and a pair of socks. "I think I'll be skipping the bra for a while." She mumbled to herself. "I'll need to buy a new jacket too." She said looking at the pile of bloody clothes, which had included her jacket.
"You can borrow mine." Leonardo said suddenly. "Until you can get out and buy one." He said with a shrug.
"Thank you. Um...not to be all damsel in distressy or anything, but could I get some help to the bathroom, I don't think I can manage to walk on my own."
Raphael went to grab her. "Don't even think about it." Donatello scolded him.
Leonardo leaned over and scooped her up. Her eyes widened in shock. "I didn't mean...okay." She said as Leonardo strode from the room with her in his arms.
An emotion rolled though Raphael. He wasn't really sure what emotion it was but he was not happy his brother was carrying her in his arms.
Leonardo scooped Katherine up in his arms. He didn't know why. The conversation with her father had rattled him, but he had given her father his word that he would see her to her Uncle's house safe and sound and he was going to keep his word. But this aside, he wasn't sure why he had offered her the use of his coat, or why he had taken her up in his arms.
She was warm and lighter than he had expected. She had clasped her arms around his neck and he could smell the soft scent of flowers from her. "Thank you." She said softly. "For talking to my dad."
He looked at her in shock as he gently put her down. She clung to him as she tried to take her own weight. She was pressed up against him, his boxers were nearly falling off her hips, his shirt had fallen partially forward exposing her shoulders and the pale creamy expanse of skin across her chest. He grabbed her to help her keep herself on her feet. He realized then that she was actually shorter than him by about two inches putting her height at around 5 foot exactly. His fingers brushed across the warm velvet skin across her back. She looked up in shock as she shivered. "Do you need any help?" He found himself asking gently.
"I think I may be okay. I'll call if I've fallen and can't get up." She said with a wry smile. She removed her arms from around his neck. "Wait for me?" She asked.
He opened his mouth and had to stop himself from saying forever. "Sure." He managed to say instead.
She managed to walk slowly on her own into the bathroom and gently closed the door.
He stared at the door as if it would give him some answers. "You just had to be smart, and funny and sweet, didn't you." He growled at the door putting his forehead against the cool wood, arms holding onto each side of the door frame.
A few minutes later she opened the door, nearly ploughing into him. She looked up at him in surprise. She was wearing black and white plaid pants and a tight fitting short pink shirt that exposed the lower part of her belly. Over that she wore his shirt. The sleeves were rolled up and she had tied the bottom of the shirt up into a knot.
"Can I keep your shirt? She asked handing him back his boxers.
He nodded numbly as his brain stopped functioning at the sight of her. "Wait, how do you know it's mine?"
"It smells like you." She said to him.
"Right sweat, steel and tea." He said to her, but she was already shaking her head.
"That is what I remember you smelling like at that moment." She leaned closer to him. "You have a musky smell mixed with a fresh spring smell, like the mountains in summer." She winced in pain. He gently picked her up. He walked into the living room and lay her gently on the couch. Michelangelo was waiting with a pillow to put behind her back to prop her up, and there was a blanket as well.
She smiled at Michelangelo." Thank you." She said including him in the smile. It was a smile that opened her whole face up like the blinding flash of the sun, and like the sun should never be looked at full on.
He turned and stumbled away. "Where you going Leo?" Michelangelo called from the couch as Raphael sat down at Katherine's feet.
He thought he managed to mumble 'to his room', as he left his two brothers sitting on the couch.
"But comics are awesome Raph." He heard Mikey say. "Just because you don't want to read them doesn't mean she wouldn't like to read them."
Leonardo paused waiting to hear a biting reply from their intelligent house guest.
Katherine laughed lightly as not to hurt herself. "Michelangelo's right, there are good ones out there. Which is your favourite Michelangelo?" Katherine asked.
"The Golden Sentry." Was the prompt reply.
Leonardo could hear the smile in her voice as she replied. "He's pretty good, but bring me my bag, I'll show you guys a real comic book."
Leonardo walked to his room then as they began debating the finer merits of comic book heroes. He threw himself down on his meditation mat. He lit some candles and tried to calm his mind and body, but he couldn't. Too many thoughts and emotions intruded. He finally gave up, blew out the candles and rummaged through his book shelves to find a book to read. After reading the same sentence over and over he threw down the book and glared at his door. Only a few more days and she would walk out of their lives, hopefully more quietly than she had entered it. He thought this would comfort him, instead he felt emptiness wash over him.