Chapter 09: Free Dottie
Michelangelo woke to a silent whimper that reached his ear – a sound he knew all too well now. He immediately wrapped his arms tighter around the sleeping body next to him, pulling her closer to him, her back against his plastron.
"It's okay, Mittens," he whispered calmingly. "I'm here."
While he said so, he gently stroked her arm, and after a while the whimpering stopped.
With a relieved smile Mikey went back to sleep.
After they had rescued Mittens, the cat-mutant hadn't been her usual self. The tiniest noise had made her jump, and her nights were disturbed by nightmares. It was a lot better now than it had been some days ago. Noises didn't scare her much any longer, and at least Mittens did sleep at night now - something she hadn't been able to manage at the beginning.
That was why Mikey had insisted to stay with her at nights. When he asked his sensei for permission, Splinter extracted the promise from him to not do anything stupid. Mikey had agreed – only to ask his brothers later what that was supposed to mean. And when they had explained, Mikey had turned as red as a beetroot. Like he would ever think of that.
During all these nights he had held Mittens in his arms, calmed her down when one of her nightmares had made her wake with a start. And now Mittens was a lot better. Her nightmares only made her whimper, but didn't wake her up any longer.
Her appearance had been back to normal sooner. Her fur that had turned dull from the lack of sunlight and care was as silky as before her imprisonment, and she had gained the weight she had lost due to the hunger rations again, thanks to the special pizza gyoza treatment by Mr. Murakami.
But the nightmares were still there. The two nightmares during her imprisonment – the one where she just couldn't reach Mikey and the one where she thought she saw Raph die – had been replaced by two new nightmares. In the first one she saw Sonya grinning down at her devilishly and she felt the pain in her neck that made breathing nearly impossible. That was the reason why she thought she would never be able to wear a collar again. She had loved the collar she had gotten from her owner so much and had been really sad when Sonya had taken it from her, back when she had thought the woman had meant well. Now even thinking of something around her neck choked her.
In her second nightmare she heard Dottie's loud outcries, knowing she was crying for help, and Mittens was looking for her everywhere, but couldn't find her, the noise fading away in the distance.
Mikey's calming voice made her drift into other, more pleasant dreams now, although she always forgot what these dreams had been about in the morning. All she could remember was her nightmares.
After a week Mikey was back to his training, thinking that Mittens had recovered enough to spend her days without him, although he insisted that April checked on Mittens every day after school.
So all in all, things were getting better for Mittens now. She was able to spend her days alone again, they had continued her training and lessons, and Mikey only had to calm her about two times per night now.
But there was one thing Mittens just couldn't overcome – that they had to leave Dottie behind. And this was the reason for some heated discussions between Leo and Mittens nowadays. And today was no exception.
"No, Mittens, we can't get Dottie out of there! It was difficult enough to get you out!" Leo's angry voice echoed through the lair. "And even if we did, what do you want to do with her anyway? A cheetah is no pet! You can't keep her in your toolshed, you know that!"
Mittens tried to retort, but in her anger all she managed to pronounce was a long hiss. Realizing that, she kicked the bench in the living room where Leo and she had their not so little argument after Mikey had invited Mittens over for a movie night. She made another attempt to pronounce her anger in words, but again, a hiss was all that left her mouth. She clenched her fists and marched over to Donnie's lab since it was the closest door, entered the lab, and let the door noisily slide closed.
"Heh, that's my lab!" Donnie who had watched this whole argument sitting on the bench leaped to his feet. "I need to work!"
Mikey next to him just shrugged, not looking up from his comic book. "If I were you, I wouldn't go in there now."
His brother looked at him quite shocked. "Don't break anything!" he called over to the closed door.
A cat-ish shriek was all he got as a reply, and with a sigh he slouched his shoulders and let himself slump back on the bench.
"Cats!" he mumbled, then looked at Mikey. "Don't you want to go after her?"
"Nope," Mikey gave back while he continued reading his comic. "I am not suicidal."
"Aren't you worried?" Donnie tried again to somehow make Mikey go after Mittens and get her out of his lab. "I mean, after all she had been going through a lot lately."
"Nah," Mikey responded. "Now that I know she can get that angry again, I'm sure she is doing fine. I'm waiting for it to blow over, and then go check on her."
Instead of a response, Donnie just lowered his eyes, hoping that this would blow over fast.
Mittens spent quite some time in Donnie's lab. First she was so angry that Leo and the others that didn't want to rescue Dottie, and then she was embarrassed that after all this time of being a mutant she still couldn't manage to speak when she was too angry or feared or happy, but only meow or hiss or shriek. Why did they cat in her always get through in these moments? It was so awkward!
So even as she had calmed down she stayed in Donnie's lab, sitting at his table, leafing through some papers, looking at some inventions, but she was careful not to break anything. She was waiting for the others to leave the living room so that when she got back, they wouldn't look at her all at once. So when she heard Mikey mention something about preparing dinner and heard retrieving footsteps, she just waited a few moments longer. Then she went over to the door and eavesdropped. The chatting of the others and the sounds of the TV had reduced to some thuds which she couldn't quite assign to, but she was sure that it was safe to leave Donnie's lab now.
She silently slid the door open and looked around. The living room was empty except for Raph who was working out with the training dummy again, and that was the source of the thuds.
For a moment Mittens thought about just walk past him and just ignore him, but something about his bearing caught her attention. He seemed so tensed. Or more tensed than usual, that was.
Without further hesitation Mittens went to him.
When Raph saw her approaching he pretended he didn't see and kept hitting the dummy. After they had rescued the cat-mutant, all his guilt had somehow been renewed when he had seen in what a bad shape Mittens had been. He knew that they should talk about it, that he should tell Mittens how guilty he felt, how angry he was with himself, but he had never been the talking type. He preferred hitting stuff. So when he just continued hitting, maybe he could avoid the talking.
Mittens just stood close by for a while, and Raph did his best to pretend he didn't know she was there, but deep inside himself he knew it was a lost cause. And he knew it for sure when Mittens addressed him.
"Raph…" she said insecurely, her voice little more than a whisper.
"What is it?" he gave back, an angry undertone in his voice.
"Are you…okay?"
"'Course I am. You should have figured out by now that I really am alive."
"That's not what I meant." Mittens' voice was louder now, more secure. "You seem sad – somehow."
"I'm fine," Raph retorted.
Mittens shook her head. "I don't think you are. But either way, I wanted to apologize."
The moment she said that, Raph's eyes widened in surprise and he froze so abruptly in his motion that the dummy that had swung back from the last punch, hit him in the face. Raph stumbled back a few steps, then turned to Mittens while rubbing his jaw.
"And why on earth do you think you need to apologize?" he asked. Despite from the surprise shown in his eyes his voice still sounded angry.
"Because it was my fault," Mittens gave back, lowering her eyes. "That you nearly got killed. I should have known that Sonya was lying, I shouldn't have given myself up to her, I should have known better. And I'm sorry."
Raph still couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"You are sorry?!" he repeated. "Mittens, are you crazy? Nothing of what happened was your fault. It was all my fault. I should have sensed them sooner, I should have noticed they were too many to fight them on my own, I should have gotten you out of there! But I screwed up." His voice, still angry at the beginning, got calmer when he said that, and it was barely a whisper when he added, "I am sorry."
Now it was up to Mittens to be surprised. She looked at Raph.
"But it was my fault!" she gave back.
"No, it was mine!"
"No, it was mine!"
"No, mine!"
"No, mi…..chrrrrrrr!" Mittens last sentence transformed into a hiss and she slapped her hand against her forehead when she realized that she again wasn't able to speak properly.
"Angry, huh?" Raph asked.
Mittens just nodded, her face still hidden behind her hand. Talking was not a good idea right now.
Raph couldn't help himself and smiled.
He thought about their whole situation as Mittens tried to take control of her pronunciation again, and suddenly burst into laughter.
Mittens lowered her hand and looked at him surprised – and a bit hurt.
When Raph realized he tried to explain as he finally managed to get the laughter under control.
"Think of it, Mittens," he said, still chuckling. "We are getting into a fight about whose fault it was, but not because we accuse the other, but because we both want it to be our fault!"
Mittens blinked a few times and then burst into laughter herself which made Raph laugh again as well.
When they finally quieted down, they looked at each other for a moment.
"How about this?" Raph asked. "We agree that we both take responsibility for what has happened and that it will never happen to us again."
Mittens nodded. But then she frowned.
"Does this apply to the…other thing as well?" she asked.
Raph lowered his eyes. "Especially for the other thing. Things would be all different without the other thing."
Mittens lowered her eyes, too, but nodded approvingly. "You're right. We don't need to talk about it again. We already know what we have to do." She looked at Raph and their eyes locked for a moment, before they both gave a resolute nod.
"Hey, you two!" Donnie called from the hallway that led to the kitchen. "Pizza's ready."
"Coming!" Mittens gave back and turned on her heel. She walked a few steps, but when she realized Raph wasn't following her she looked at him over her shoulder with a questioning look in her eyes.
"I'll be right there," Raph replied to her unsaid question.
Mittens just smiled at him and continued her path.
The mutant turtle turned back to the practice dummy with the intent to go back to hitting it again, but when he heaved his fist he realized that he didn't need to do that any longer – at least not to make this guilt less disturbing. Mittens was fine, they knew they would never kiss again, so matters were settled now. With a smile he let his fist drop and set off to the kitchen.
The next evening – Raph and April were seated on the bench, April doing her homework on her laptop, and Raph reading a comic book, while Leo was watching the hundredth re-run of Space Heroes – Donnie popped his head out of the lab.
"April, did you see the map of Sonya's warehouse?" he asked frowningly.
"No," April answered without looking up from her laptop.
"You sure? I wanted to put into my folder of accomplished missions together with all the other info we used to save Mittens, but I can't find it anywhere. You didn't borrow it for your homework, did you?"
"Donnie, why would I need the map of a random warehouse for my homework?" April finally looked up from the screen.
The mutant turtle shrugged. "Dunno. You borrow quite a lot of my stuff when it comes to homework."
With a silent grunt April put her laptop aside. "If it makes you feel any better, I'll help looking for it. I'm sure it just got lost in the chaos in there."
"Hey, that's not chaos!" Donnie defended himself.
April just shot him a look, and Donnie straightened up, closing his eyes and pointing a finger.
"That's organized chaos in there," he clarified.
April just chuckled as she passed Donnie who closed the door behind them.
"Smooth move, Donnie," Raph mumbled.
Leo turned his head. "What?"
"Oh, I bet Donnie hid that map himself so that he could spend some time with April," Raph said.
Leo raised a brow, thinking about that.
"You're probably right," he said then and turned back to the TV.
At that moment Mikey entered the living room and slumped down on the bench next to Raph.
"Aren't you leaving for Mittens' today?" Raph asked.
"No," Mikey responded. "She just called and said since she is feeling so much better she wants to try and spend the night all by herself. So it looks like I am free tonight." He looked a bit sad when he said that, but then his face brightened and he looked over to Leo.
"Hey, Leo, in for some pin ball-competition?" he asked with a grin. "I am in a good mood today, so maybe I'll let you win."
Leo blew a raspberry as he got to his feet. "Suuuuuuuure. Like I'd need that to win."
"Heh, I already won a lot of times before," Mikey retorted.
"Yeah, but that was when I let you win."
"Not true!" Mikey jumped up and ran over to the pin ball-machine. "I will teach you a lesson in letting me win!"
"Oh no, you don't!" Leo gave back as he ran over to join his youngest brother.
None of the two realized the deep frown on Raph's face.
Mittens crouched down behind a container and peeked around it to the big warehouse. She got back behind the container and dug into the pocket of her shorts to get the map out.
But the moment she had unfolded the map, someone grabbed her from behind, pressed a hand against her mouth, and before she even could think of struggling she was turned around, so she had to face her opponent, and pinned against the container. She hissed, but the hiss was muffled by the rough hand over her mouth.
"And what do you think you're doing here?!" an all too familiar voice asked – an all too familiar angry voice, Raph's voice.
Mittens blinked a few times as the mutant turtle took his hand away from her mouth.
"I'm saving Dottie!" she hissed.
"Oh, yeah? Do you have a plan how to sneak in there?"
Mittens shook her head.
"Do you know how to pick locks?"
Mittens shook her head again.
"Do you know how to get this cheetah out of there without being seen?"
Another shake of Mittens' head.
"Then what on earth makes you think you could save Dottie?!"
Mittens lowered her eyes.
"She needs my help," she mumbled silently.
Raph was still standing there, pinning here against the container with no attempt of letting her go.
After a few moments Mittens asked, "Don't you want to let go of me?"
"No!" he gave back. "I mean, yes! But the moment I let you go, you would try to get in there! So I simply can't let you go!"
"So we are staying like this for the rest of our lives?" Mittens asked further.
With a growl Raph let go of her.
"But I'll have an eye on you during this whole mission!" he said angrily.
"Mission?" Mittens repeated disbelievingly.
"Yeah. The only way to be able to let go of you and make sure you won't get captured again, is to get that damn cheetah out of there." Raph pointed in the warehouse's direction with his thumb and then folded his arms over his chest, setting his jaw.
But the next second his eyes widened in shock as Mittens flung her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. It took him a few moments to regain his angry look, but then he unfolded his arms and shoved Mittens away.
"Yeah, yeah, all right, all right," he said matter-of-factly. "Don't make a fuss about it. Now, let me see this map."
Using the containers as cover Raph and Mittens snuck over to the warehouse. When they were close-by, Raph took out some of the ninja smoke-bombs he had with him. Some precise throws and the smoke-bombs went off at quite a distance from the two hiding mutants, leading away the guards from the door, so Raph and Mittens flitted inside the warehouse, taking cover behind some boxes.
They used the same trick to get to the backdoor that led to the stairs to the basement where the cages or – like Mittens would call it – the dungeons were.
Once they were in the aisle they realized this part of the warehouse was unguarded. That made sense. Who- or whatever was down there was locked in cages anyway.
Raph stood up from his crouching position and looked at Mittens.
"That wasn't so bad," he said which in his terms was quite a compliment. "I didn't have to drag you along all the time and keep you from being too loud."
Mittens blew a raspberry. "I am a cat if you haven't noticed," she said in a bugged voice. "I know how to be quiet."
"And my brothers and I are ninjas, and some of us still have problems with that," Raph added with a shrug.
Mittens just rolled her eyes as she went over to the door where she knew Dottie had to be – if they hadn't brought her somewhere else, that was. So she held her breath in anticipation as she opened the door and let out a sigh of relief as she recognized Dottie in the cage next to the one where she herself had been held captive way too long.
With a calming meow Mittens knelt down at the cage and Dottie which had been crouching down at the furthest end of her cage straightened up and walked over to her, greeting her friend with a purr.
"Could you get her away from the door and make sure she can't run away when I open it?" Raph asked.
Mittens nodded and entered the other cage which was now empty and useless, since Mittens had been freed, leading Dottie with her to the back of the cage. She then moved her hands through the bars and grabbed Dottie's collar, purring loudly to calm the cheetah down.
The next moment Raph kicked against the door of Dottie's cage with full tilt.
Mittens did her best to keep Dottie still, but with every noise the cheetah flinched and tried to get free.
"I thought you knew how to pick locks!" Mittens looked at Raph reproachfully.
"No, I asked if you can pick locks," Raph clarified as the lock finally gave in and the door swung open. "Now make sure that flea bag doesn't bite me."
"Dottie has no fleas!"
"Make sure she doesn't bite me anyway."
And with that Raph moved closer to the cheetah until he could give her a shot of tranquilizer.
"What are you doing?!" the cat-mutant asked aghast and let go of the collar as the cheetah slumped to the ground unconsciously. "Where did you get that from anyway?
"Donnie's lab while he and April had lunch in the kitchen."
"How do you know what the right dose rate is? She might never wake up!"
"That's something we can take care of later. Now let's get her out of here."
And with that he threw the cheetah over his shoulders and left the cage.
Mittens gave a little hiss as she followed him.
"So are we going to use that smoke-bomb-trick again to get out?" Mittens whispered as they had reached the first floor again, looking over to the guards that were on patrol that night.
"Not exactly," Raph whispered back. "They should have found out by now that something is going on, so I thought of something new."
He glanced over to one of the warehouse's windows and put down Dottie on the floor.
"You and Dottie wait here, I'll be right back."
He slunk over to the window, opening it quietly and looking outside.
Mittens couldn't perceive what exactly he was doing, but then she could hear it – a flapping noise that came closer and seemed to grow louder and louder, and suddenly the warehouse was filled with pigeons. And these pigeons were fluttering about, distracting guards and keeping them away from Raph as the mutant turtle was on his way back to Mittens and Dottie.
Mittens' jaw dropped, her eyes pinned on the pigeons, and before she really knew what she was doing, a happy meow emerged from her throat and she jumped to her feet, making grabs at the pigeons that were close-by. But someone grasped her shirt and dragged her along with him, someone really, really angry.
"What are you doing?!" Raph asked loudly. "We need to get out of here!"
Mittens shot him a glance, realizing he had slung Dottie over his shoulders again, but the moment she wanted to reply, another pigeon flew close-by, and her gaze darted to it, her paws reaching out to grab hold of it.
Raph only gave an annoyed growl as he ran through the warehouse, carrying Dottie on his shoulders and lugging a very distracted, very cat-like Mittens with him who was meowing happily the entire time.
It was a miracle to him how they were able to get out of the warehouse without getting caught. Once the pigeons were out of sight, Mittens' human part took over again, and she mumbled her sorries. Raph just rolled his eyes and let go of her shirt, happy that he only had one cat that was totally out of it to take care of.
They made the rest of their way without any interruptions and reached their destination – the Bronx Zoo – or more precisely, the cheetah compound there.
Mittens used a leash to tie Dottie up close to the compound. Then she took out a red ribbon from her pocket and attached a note to the leash with it. Raph glanced over her shoulder and read what was written down on the note.
Hello, my name is Dottie. Nice to meet you!
He choked a chuckle. That was really cute – not that he would ever admit it.
Mittens patted the cheetah on the head.
"When you wake up, there's a new life waiting for you, my friend," she said calmly.
Then Raph grabbed her hand and pulled Mittens to her feet.
"Time to go," he said, but his voice didn't sound as angry as it usually did.
They had just gotten back the rooftops again, when Mittens stopped and looked at Raph.
The mutant turtle stopped too and returned her gaze with a raised brow. "What?"
"I…I just wanted to thank you," Mittens said.
"It's okay. No big…" – he was interrupted by Mittens who flung her arms around his neck – "…deal," he finished with a surprised ring in his voice. He hesitated for a moment – shoving her away like he had done earlier that night didn't feel right now – before he hugged her back.
Mittens let go of Raph a bit so that she could look him in the eye.
"Thank you," she whispered.
"You're welcome," he replied.
And before they really noticed what they were doing, their eyes closed and their lips touched, leading to a gentle kiss.
Little did they know that this time they were watched.
"And you really think Mittens took that map?" April asked as she and Donnie made their way over the rooftops.
"She was the last one in my lab, and I'm afraid she wants to save this cheetah she keeps talking about," Donnie answered.
"Then what does she want at the zoo?" April asked further, looking at her Tphone where a red dot showed where Mittens' Tphone – and hopefully Mittens herself – was. It had been close to the Bronx Zoo when they had left the lair, but had moved a bit in the meantime.
"I don't know." Donnie shrugged. "Maybe she wants to learn more about cheetahs so that she can keep Dottie as a pet."
"Are you sure we shouldn't tell Mikey?"
"Nah," Donnie gave back. "Mikey has been worrying so much about Mittens, it will do for a lifetime. I think we should keep him out of this for now."
April thought about that for a moment. "Agreed."
Donnie slid to a stop and looked around.
"Oh, look, there she is," he pointed out to another rooftop. "And…Raph? What are they do…oh geez!" His eyes widened and he drew back quickly, hiding behind a billboard. April followed suit, her eyes just as wide as he imagined his to be.
They just stood there for a few seconds, their backs resting against the billboard.
"Please tell me you didn't just see Mittens and Raph kiss!" April pleaded.
"I didn't just see Mittens and Raph kiss," Donnie said obediently.
"Are you lying to me?" April asked further.
"Yeah."
April turned her head to look at Donnie. "What do we do now?"
Donnie furrowed his brow. "I have absolutely no idea."
The next night Mittens was seated on her couch reading a book, when the door to her toolshed was opened and Mikey came in.
"Hey, Mittens," he said, but his voice missed its gleeful ring. "How have you slept last night?"
"Like a baby," Mittens answered with a grin.
"Really? Was that all you have been doing last night?"
Mittens' grin disappeared and she eyed her boyfriend up with a frown. "Y…yes."
"Oh, really? Then explain this!"
And with a quick gesture he pulled a newspaper from behind his back and held it in front of Mittens' face.
There was a big picture of a cheetah on the title page, and the headline said, "Cheetah Dottie wants to live in Bronx Zoo".
Mittens just meowed insecurely.