Sorry for the wait, but I'm going to keep this short-here's the next chapter. (FYI: Casey and April are NOT together in this story)
Enjoy!
-BookBearer
Chapter 6: Discoveries
I use the cold sewer walls to steady myself as I make my way towards the lair. My hand was clamped around my injured arm in attempt to stop the bleeding. I was limping because of my cut leg, and tears brimmed my eyes, one or two leaking out every so often.
My body was dangerously beginning to numb, but my wounds refused to be ignored and they burned terribly, making every step that I took even more difficult than the last.
I halt when I remember my brothers. If they saw me like this, they wouldn't let me go topside by myself again-they'd freak! Ugh, and the worst part is that they'd see me as a stupid kid who allowed himself to get beaten up by a bunch of low life thugs.
I-I can't let them see me in this condition.
Holding in a scream of excruciating pain and-even though my body suggested otherwise-I managed to pull my dirty brown trench coat over my aching body, covering my injuries and bruises. I slowly bend down and cup my hands together, splashing the water on my face in attempt to clear away the dirt and blood.
I look at my reflection in the water and determine that I looked the least bit better. As long as they didn't get a good look over me, I'd pass by with ease. This may sound simple enough, but I still have to manage to act normal even though my pain and my earlier intoxication. Not to mention the fact that I still couldn't see straight.
Continuing my walk through the sewers, I finally reach the lair and notice that all the lights were out. Were they all asleep? I squinted my eyes through the darkness to ty to see if anyone was around, sitting on the couch or in the kitchen, but only seeing faint outlines of…balloons? And streamers?
Good god, they had a party without me. Seriously, they threw a party on my birthday and didn't even tell me about it!
Anger bubbled inside of me and I growled, storming to the middle of the room and flipping the switch from off to on. I look around the lair to see a bunch of sad looking excuses for decorations hanging around.
A big red banner had fallen and was huddled in a pile on the ground and the surrounding balloons had become deflated and sunk lowly. There were scattered plates and cups around the main table and napkins were on the ground as well. The whole place looked like a mess.
I wince and hiss in pain when my body reminded me of the wounds that needed to be treated ASAP. I have to forget about this for now, there are more important matters to attend to.
Turning around, I limp in the direction of Donnie's lab, knowing that he must have a med kit or something in there somewhere.
On my way to the lab, I use nearby objects to steady myself and only knock a few items down in the process. I blinked away the white spots that were beginning to blur in my vision, and I grasp the outlining of the lab doors.
Breathing heavily, I scan the room in search of what I needed. My eyes stop when I find the medical kit and I start moving towards it.
My left leg throbbed even more painfully when I moved, but I knew I needed to get this now. Tears stung in the back of my eyes when I collapsed on the ground; still an arm's reach away from the medical kit.
Gathering what little strength left that I had, I grit my teeth together and thrust forwards; my fingers barely skim the handle of the box, yet just enough for it to fall to the ground with a 'thump'. With teary eyes, I sit up then open the kit and scan the contents inside. I immediately go for what I recognize, and I grab pill bottles; my body still screaming out in pain allover.
I spot some that I know; Aspirin, Tylenol, Advil, Motrin and a bunch of others that I didn't recognize. Quickly deciding that it doesn't matter; I open the bottles and just throw random ones in my mouth to relive this terrible pain.
Sighing, I rest my head against the cold wall, and sit there for a few minutes; soon starting to feel the effects of the pills numbing my body. I could feel cold sweat dripping down my forehead and I used the back of my hand to wipe it away.
After a while, I start feel well enough to continue on and to at least attempt to close these wounds. Sitting back up, I go through the kit again to see what else I could use to help-but the only useful item is the bandages, and I need that at the end.
I shout angrily and kick the medical kit across the floor out of frustration. What am I supposed to do now, I can't let Donnie see me like this; he'll tell Raph; he'll tell Leo; he'll tell Splinter; and he'll just plain out kill me!
Honestly, I don't know what I'm doing right now. I'm running low on energy, I'm pretty sure I'm about to vomit, my wounds are getting worse by the second, these pain killers will run out sooner or later, we are entirely out of anymore pills and I'm pretty sure I am about to pass out from the amount of blood lost from the trip here.
In other words: I'm screwed.
B-But I can't just give up! Everyone's gone and I'm alone here, and if I don't do something now; I'll just be in worse shape than I already am. Plus they'll have to see me like-
My eyes widen when I notice Donnie's experiment table. That's it, he has everything I need! A thread, a needle, some alcohol, there's water in the bathroom, and I have some bandages right here.
I smile painfully in victory and move to go to the supplies, and use Donnie's desk for support. My body stings faintly, but I ignore it and make my way to the table. I know I have a limited amount of time until they eventually show back up at the lair and I need to make this quick.
Here we go…what could go wrong?
3rd Person's POV:
"Guys! Guys, he's alright! H-he's at the lair-oh my god, he's alright!"
April clutched the green phone tightly in her hands as she held it up to her ear, and a few tears escaped her eyes. "H-He's here, in his room s-sleeping." She sobs into the phone.
A huge weight had lifted off of her chest and was flooded by relief as she realized that he had found himself home. She and the others had been searching for him all night; Kasey and Raph taking the south side, Donnie and herself taking the north side and Leo and Splinter taking the west side of the city.
They had all been searching frantically, in fears that Mikey had gotten himself in trouble, or worse. As expected, Splinter had found out and was beyond furious about to things; the others had no intention of telling him the truth, and that Mikey went topside alone. This very situation was what Master Splinter had been fearing from the very beginning.
It had been an hour after 9 o'clock when Raph, Donnie and Leo started the search for Mikey. They split up and searched everywhere Mikey would usually be (without being seen of course). They looked at the pizza place, the arcade, skate board shop, the action figure utopia and finally the comic book shop where Mikey had originally told Leo where he would be.
But Mikey wasn't at any of those places.
Panic and fear started to seep into their systems and the thought of Mikey's sudden disappearance curled at their stomachs. Deciding that this was beyond serious, they had all agreed to tell Splinter the whole situation-they knew they needed help. After they had filled Splinter in, and he was on his way, they called April and Casey and asked them to come out and help as well.
They all split up into three groups and spread out wider in the city. They knew they needed to find him quickly before sunrise, and in case he had been hurt.
Hours of searching passed by and strips of orange and yellow started to peak passed the horizon, greeting the people of New York, and dreading the ones in search of the lost turtle.
That's when April went to the lair to check if he had gone back home and much to her relief, he had. With tears of joy, she immediately called the guys and told them that he was back in the sewers, sleeping in his bed room.
Once everyone had gotten the call, they rushed back to the lair to greet Mikey.
They all piled into the orange-masked turtles room, only to hear the steady pace of his breaths, and his chest moving up and down. The room was dark and the only thing they could see is the faint outline of the smaller turtle's shell. His dark green blanket was pulled over his body and stopped right at the tip of his chin, covering his beaten body.
Splinter sighed visibly and Donnie gave a small smile of relief. Raph and Casey had their arms crossed, still holding their 'tough façade', but gratitude was shown through even the toughest of shells. And April stood in the door way as well-a wide grin on her face, despite her previous emotional breakdown.
But Leo had a small frown on his face. Yes, he was glad that Mikey was home safely, but two things still bothered him. One: Mikey had lied to him and wasn't at the comic book shop or home by nine, and two: what had he been doing if he was out this entire time? Had he gotten lost? But that couldn't have been the answer because Mikey knows his way around better than all of them-what had he been doing?
Leo sighed and cleared his mind full of thoughts away for the time being. For now, he knew that Mikey had to rest and when he awakes, then he will ask him these questions.
"Good, he's back." Leo finally speaks through the silence after a few minutes. "I know we were all worried, but he's fine now-we should let him get his sleep."
No one argued back, and with that, they all filed out of the small room, leaving Mikey to sleep and heal. They all gathered into the living room and suddenly remembered the party.
"What 'bout da' party?" Asked Raph, crossing his arms. "We've still got' all 'these decorations n' stuff to clean."
Leo looked to April and Casey, and raised his eyebrows. "You guys mind lending a hand here? I know you've already helped enough with the whole 'Mikey' situation, and you guys don't have to-"
April interrupts him by putting her hand in the air, and waving dismissively. "It's okay Leo, we don't mind. Right Casey?" He only shrugs points to Raph.
"Yeah, I don't mind. As long as I get to stay for the night with Raph-I wanna kick his ass in some 'Macho Minos, Death Smack Down' tonight."
Raph wore a challenging look on his face and he walked to the kitchen, purposely bumping him in the shoulder with his own. "Kick my ass? Please, you're about to get your ass whooped so badly, you're going to go crying home to ya' mommy'! You're on, Jones."
Splinter exhales and stokes his long beard and silently walks out the room. "Very well. For tonight and tomorrow will be for resting. If you decide to spend it playing games, be my guest. But do not make the mistake of awaking the rest of us."
Everyone shudders and imagines the punishment of waking up Splinter. Once he leaves the room, the atmosphere seemingly gets lighter, and everyone moves to start cleaning up.
"What about you April," Leo asks while putting the untouched pizza in the fridge. "are you staying here tonight?"
She thinks for few moments and nods. "I guess my dad wouldn't mind-I'll text him later tonight. Plus its Friday so…" I nod in understanding, and continue to clean.
"Oh," I stand up and face the others, and they all turn to me, waiting for what I have to say. "Look, before I forget, do not use curse words around Mikey, alright? I understand if you guys use it around each other, but I don't want Mikey to…you know."
In an unspoken agreement, they all nodded and continued to clean up the kitchen. Not long after, the kitchen was cleaned and everyone headed their separate ways.
Leo went to his room to go take a hot shower and get ready for some sleep, Raph and Casey went to Raph's room-something in which he rarely lets anybody into-to get the stuff needed for their 'all-nighter', and April headed towards the extra room down the hall.
Splinter had it added in a while ago, it had just been some extra space when they first moved in. But when April started hanging out round more frequently, she sometimes spent the night over and slept on the couch.
Seeing April as one of his own, he had his four sons clear out that space and make it as an extra bed for her to sleep in, whenever she stayed over. He didn't want her to not feel welcome, or to stay on the couch forever.
"Wait, April." Donnie's voice quietly spoke up, just enough so that she could hear him. He had butterflies in his stomach and his voice was a bit shaky. He knew he had screwed up, not too long ago, and April was pretty pissed at him. But now the question was-was she still mad?
She remained turned around and crossed her arms in defiance. "What?" She asked a bit harshly, the argument still fresh in her mind.
Donnie grimaced at the tone of her voice and scratched his neck nervously. "C-Can we talk April?" He turned around and saw Kasey and Raph setting up their game not too far away from them, and he looked back at her.
"Uh, in private? Like my lab-"He was interrupted by her turning around harshly and glaring daggers. She took a dangerous step forwards, and raised her eyebrows.
"What, so you can yell at me again? To say I'm stupid, to say that I don't mean anything and that I should just go?" She snaps and glares.
"Well, I don't want to hear it." She finishes and turns on her heel of her foot to leave to her room. Donnie felt his heart break in two, at her second rejection to his apology and he felt as if he would feel even worse if he lets her go again. It may be easier to let her leave, but he couldn't bring himself to it.
"Please, April." He whispered defeated, making one last final attempt at redemption. "Just-Just let me explain myself…please."
Seconds pass by and silence over comes the two. She had stopped in her tracks and was having an internal debate with herself, whether or not she should give him a chance. She slowly turned around, and with her lips in a straight line, and her eyebrows furrowed, she sighed and looked down.
"Fine." She finally caved in. "But you only have five minutes. No more."
Donnie gave a toothy grin, showing his gap and his dimples stood out on his face. "Okay, come on."
They both turned around and walked to the doorway of Donnie's lab, just out of ear shot of Raph and Kasey. Donnie took a deep breath to calm his racing nerves and looked down at April.
She was leaning against the door frame, looking out at the living room, avoiding his eye contact. That made Donnie's guilt tug at him even more, and he sighed.
"April, I-I'm really sorry about what I said, it was wrong, and I completely take it back." He says, looking for any sign of forgiveness. But her face was still stone cold, and her eyes we're unforgiving.
"Please April," He begs, "I'm really sorry, and I shouldn't have said that. Just look at me, please?"
Her eyes slowly move to his and her arms were crossed over her chest, still not saying a word. Donnie sighed and scrunched his eyebrows together.
"April…I really am sorry for the way I treated you the other day. I didn't mean any of it, I swear. It had been a long night, and we we're all exhausted and stressed from that night's patrol. I kind of got worked up, and I took it out on you and accidently said something's that just wasn't true, at all."
Her eyes got softer with every word that he spoke, and deep down, she knew that he was being sincere here.
"The truth is, you are a big help around here, and you do have a say in what goes on. And Mikey isn't just our brother, he's yours too. I-we all know you care for him, and that's okay. It's good for him to have another figure to look up to. You're not a stupid girl, and I do care what you do-we all do."
He looks down and a small pink blush appears on his cheeks, and he rubs the back of his neck awkwardly. "Truth be told, I do care about you…a lot." He looks back up and locks eyes with April, and she gives a small smile.
"Honestly I've been meaning to ask you this for a while, but I-"He stops and stutters over his words in compete nervousness. "I-I-I uh…"
Most of her anger faded, April nods her head with a smile, waiting for his answer. "Yeah?"
Donnie puts his hand above her head, frowning. "April, "He whispers and leans forwards, causing her to blush fiercely. She tucks a strain of hair behind her ear, and bites her lip, expecting.
"Y-Yeah Donnie?" She speaks quietly, leaning forwards to him, eyes fluttering and her lips parted slightly out in the slightest motion, waiting.
He moves his head right above hers, and inspects the wall behind her head.
"Do you smell that?" He asks, curiously, tilting his head to the side and sniffing the air. The mood immediately dies, and April looks at him, dumbstruck. How he could be so oblivious, she might never know.
She raised her eyebrows, leaned back again, crossed her arms and scoffed rather loudly. "What? Is it me-Oh god, way to ruin a moment Donnie-"
He shakes his head as he interrupts her, pointing to the wall behind her. "No, wait. Seriously, what is that?" He asks, instantly becoming serious and narrowing his eyes.
She notices the serious look in his eyes, and she turns around to see for herself. On the grey doorframe, was speckles of red, followed by a dark red hand print.
April frowned and inspected the print closely, "Is that…dried blood?" She asked in a whisper, fearing for the worst.
She frowned as she tried to put the pieces together. But why would this blood be here, no one was here! Everyone was out looking for Mikey. Unless it was Donnie's but his hands are perfectly fine.
"April. Look." Donnie whispered, as he took a few steps into his lab. His eyes were directly on his experiment table, which was now covered in blood, and supplies left a mess. His medical kit was on the ground, and empty pill bottles surrounded it.
The white bandages was scattered around on the ground in all directions. His scalpel on his experiment table was covered in flakey dried blood, and his alcohol bottle was left unclosed. Black thread had rolled on the floor as well, and a blood drenched needle attached was sprawled on the floor.
His grey metal mobile table had been pushed over on its side, and the items surrounding it had been knocked over, as if someone had been struggling to stand.
"W-What happened?" April asked as she followed Donnie into the lab, glancing around at the bloody mess. "I don't supposed you left it like this?"
He shook his head and inspected the blood left on his table. "No, I didn't. I've never seen this much blood everywhere before." He says as he takes a closer look at everything.
"It's dried, so someone had to be here earlier." April states, crouching down and picking up the scattered bandages. "But no one was here, right? It couldn't have been you…so who-"
She catches a lump in her throat, when she puts the pieces together. Her right hand covers her mouth as her eyes widen. "You don't think…"
Donnie turns around and locks his worried eyes with hers, and furrows his eyebrows together. "We need to tell Leo. If you're right, there's only one way to find out." She nods her head and continues to pick up the mess.
"But first, we need to clean up this mess-it reeks. And from what we saw, Mikey is alright and resting. When he wakes up, we'll ask him about this." She says as they both clean up the bloodied mess.
"I just hope he's alright. This isn't good." Donnie sighs, and walks to the bathroom to get the hot water, soap and wash cloths.
Mikey takes his brown mixed with light red leather coat and wraps it around his body.
It only takes a number of hours for the mutant turtles to heal, because well-they're mutants. His wounds we're healing just fine, but his body started to ache. He knew that Donnie was all out of pills, so he planned on going out to grab a few more drinks to numb the pain.
Mikey grabbed his brown hat and put it on top of his head, wincing slightly when he raised his still-healing arm.
He knew that humans take longer than them to heal, so he wouldn't be scared of any gang members out to get him-even if a few of them did, he'd just teach them the same lesson as he did earlier tonight.
He stuffed his nun chucks in the back of his belt, and opened the door to his room, walking-limping slightly-out. He patted his belt to check for some money, and much to his surprise, there was still some left.
He had almost made it out, before he heard a stern voice behind him. "Mikey. Glad to see that your back, mind telling me where you're going?"
Internally groaning, Mikey rolls his eyes and turns around to face his two older brothers, Raph and Leo. Behind them was Casey on the couch, passed out and drooling.
"Out." He replies, deadpanned and as monotone as it could get. Leo looks at him with a serious expression, and Raph narrows his eyes dangerously.
"I don't think you get it Mikey," Leo starts, his voice lowering to one of great authority, officially switching into leader mode. "You're not going anywhere. Not now, not again." He says firmly.
Mikey's eyebrows raise slightly in disbelief and amusement, scoffing. "Excuse me? I'm just going to the comic book shop-"
"Bullshit." Raph hisses dangerously, pointing an accusing finger at his younger brother. "Mikey, we we're lookin' all across' New York', for you! We were worried' sick! You just…disappeared!"
Leo didn't even scold Raph on his language, as he just stared at Mikey, his serious expression still up. "You obviously don't get how serious this is Mikey. You can't leave like that and lie about where you actually are!"
Mikey only tilted his head and looked at his two older brothers. "I was only gone for an hour-"But again he was interrupted by Leo.
"An hour?! Mikey, you were gone for several hours! We had no clue where you were, and we aren't going through that again! You are staying here and not going topside again without an escort by your side."
Raph nods his head in agreement, and Mikey growls angrily, clenching his fists together. "You can't do that! That's complete and utter bullshit, you can't! I'm not a fucking child, I'm sixteen! "
Leo narrows his eyes and leans forwards. "Michelangelo, I swear if you use another curse word you will only make it worse for yourself. What I said is final and there is no going back."
He only glares at the two in response, and turns back around. "Screw that, I'm leaving."
Raph reaches forwards and yanks on his brown coat, bringing him back into the lair, while taking his coat off. "You aint' going anywhere-what the hell?"
He stops his sentence and stares at Mikey, with wide eyes. Leo's serious expression was soon replaced by a worried and shocked expression instead.
"What is this? What happened?!" He said worriedly, his eyes raking over his younger brother's body. It was black and blue mixed with the green of his skin. There we're bandages covering most of his arms and legs, and wounds were beginning to heal.
The red was mixed with the white of his bandages, mostly on his arm and his left leg where he had been stabbed with the knife. They could tell that if his shell didn't have a chance to recover, that parts of it would crack and break off.
Mikey cursed under his breath, and snatched the coat back out of his hands, standing up and pulling it back over. They saw him, damn it.
"Mikey?" Came Leo's shaky response and Raph's anger grew.
He clenched his fist and jaw, glaring at Mikey. "Tell me who the hell did this, I'll kill them! This is why you don't go up topside alone, Mikey!"
Mikey sent a cold glare at the two of them, and snapped. "I can do whatever the hell I want to, and you can't do a damn thing about it! I'm fine and I took care of it!"
Raph growled and tugged Mikey's arm upwards, seeing the bandages that were wrapped around his shoulder. Mikey's painful wince only proved his point even more. "You call this taken care of? Mikey, what' the hell' we're you thinking? You're bruised all over!"
Yanking his arm back, he falls to the ground and stifles a groan of pain. Mikey looks up at him with cold eyes and he practically barks at him. "I have my reasons! And I don't need to consult them with you! I can handle myself, you assholes."
Leo quickly snapped back into his leader-mode at that exact sentence, and looked him straight in his narrowed baby blue eyes. "Michelangelo! This is way beyond dangerous, and you need to stop being such a child. If you want to be treated like an adult, here's your chance."
He was about to snap back with another snarky comment, but Leo beat him to it. He points behind him at Donnie's Lab and snaps his fingers, causing Mikey to flitch visibly.
"Get your ass into his lab right now, and have him help you clean yourself up. Once you're done with that you will come out here and tell us every goddamn thing that happened to you tonight, are we clear?" He said harsher than anyone had ever heard him before.
Even Raph was taken aback at the tone and authority in his voice, he had only spoken it to enemies that they had faced. He had never spoken like that to anyone, especially to one of them. And he was tight about cursing in front of Mikey, and he just broke his own rule.
His eyes filled with water, they became glossy and shining as the light above hit them. He was rendered speechless. Leo had never spoke to him like that before, and it was quite frightening to the young turtle. His heart was beating a mile a minute, and his hands were shaking. He might have acted tough, but on the inside, he was still scared and shaken.
"I-I'm-"He paused and his body shook. The two brothers were towering over him, looking him dead in the eye, not moving and with serious faces-they're both equally as frightening. They both wore expressionless faces, and only showed anger in their eyes.
A few tears began to pour their way down his light green cheeks. He sniffed, but kept his mouth in a straight line, still attempting to be strong. Taking small hiccups of air, he gritted his teeth together and rose to his feet, never breaking eye contact with the two.
"I h-hate you guys." He choked out and hissed before stomping passed his two-now shocked-brothers, and walking to his room. Along the way, he knocked down the lining chairs out of pure frustration, and slammed the door of his room loudly.
That night, no one came to confront Mikey for what he had said, nor did he go out to apologize. He spent the night curled up in a blanket, his wounds aching profoundly-but not as much as his heart was.
He breathed heavily and salty tears slid down his cheeks constantly, he had wiped them so much that they were beginning to get red and swollen. But until finally, he could cry no more. But when he felt as if he was able to, he repeated the process again.
Finally, when he felt that he could cry no more, his body began to shut down and he knew he was about to drift off into a dark and peaceful sleep. Things couldn't get any worse than they already we're, he had just told his brothers that he hated them.
He was wrong.
Okay, done.
I have to work on my other stories, so I'll make this A/N quick.
If you have any ideas on the next chapter just tell me, and I'll consider it! Remember to REVIEW if you want a chapter update!
Word Count: 5,252
Next Chapter Update: 93 reviews
Thanks.
-BookBearer