Thanks for all the reviews! Enjoy chapter 6!
: Chapter 6:
Austria sat on the battered, old couch in front of the Entertainment Center in the lair. She tightened her lips and looked around as a giant mutant rat stared at her from a far. It was all she could do to keep from screaming and getting the hell out of there. She was surprised to have seen Leo here and everyone was even more surprised that they knew each other.
"How is your leg?" Austria flinched when the giant mutant rat spoke
"Oh you know..…good….." she replied
"Woman of few words eh sensei?" Mikey elbowed him and smiled
"Very much indeed" He slowly walked away towards the kitchen where Leo was being questioned by Raphael
"How do you know her!?" Raph tried to keep his pitch down to a whisper
"I told you already. It was a few years ago, I saw her on the roof of her house and thought she needed help" Leo responded
"I don't want to hear any of that bullshit Leo! You obviously are very acquainted if she recognizes you as yourself and you knew her name! May I remind you YOU'RE A MUTANT TURTLE!" Raph slammed his fists on the kitchen table which made Leo stand up in defense.
"I don't need to explain myself to you Rap! I also don't need to sit her and let you lecture me!" he yelled back
"Leonardo. If you have exposed yourself to this girl…." Splinter started
Mikey snorted and tried to hold in a giggle. Splinter rolled his eyes wishing his son was close enough to smack with his walking stick.
"If you have revealed your true identity to another human other than our friend April O….."
"Hey don't forget Casey!" Raph shouted
"Other than April O'Neil….you have put us all in even more danger than we are already in" Splinter finally finished
"What danger?" Mikey yelled across the room "We already shredded shredder and put Hun behind bars"
"Hun may be gone but the purple dragons are still out there bonehead" Raph exclaimed
Leo sighed and looked over at Austria sitting on the couch. She turned away and tucked her hair behind her ear.
"If you won't talk maybe she will" Raph walked over to the living area. Leo jumped and flipped over to him and stood in front of her protectively.
"You're not going to antagonize her. She needs to rest" Leo crossed his arms and stared his brother down. Raph opened his mouth to say something then paused.
"Leo…" Aus began. "They don't have any reason to freak out" She smiled up at him. Raph rolled his eyes
"I know. I already told them I just helped you get back home and that was it. There just upset that you recognized me" he smiled back down at her
"Can you stop talking like I'm not here!? Geezes" He sat down next to Austria yet keeping his distance
"Well to be honest you recognized me first so therefore it's your fault" she laughed
"It's no one's fault really" He sat down on her other side "So what do you think?" He looked around the lair "Not the homiest place but we make do"
"It's uh…." She stared at the moss seeping through some places in the walls and the cob webs up high in the beams of the ceiling. "Soothing. Yup very soothing"
"So what brought you to the city?" He asked
She sighed and looked at the ground
"If you don't want to talk about it…" He put a hand on her back
"No it's not that…I was just sick of my home life and stuff. I guess Don told you about the shooting and everything" She tightened her lips
"I'm sorry. I wish we could let you stay here and recover but…"
"Wait what?" She looked up at him confused. "You're not going to let me stay? But I have nowhere to go. Leo please you can't be serious!"
The yelling had attracted the rest of the team to the living room
"Please understand child, we can't allow you to stay. You're in more danger every minute you're here then if you were somewhere else." splinter spoke in a sympathetic tone
Austria was completely in shock. She stood up and started to tear from her eyes. She looked around for Donatello and ran/limped over to him. Right now, he was the only one she trusted.
"Don please…" She let herself fall onto his plastron and be embraced by his arms. She closed her eyes and softly cried to herself. He looked up at his brothers and sensei, confused.
"I don't see why she can't stay" He said in her defense
"Yeah sensei, she aint hurtin anybody bein here" Raph also defended her in the argument
Splinter sighed and shook his head. "Donatello, take this girl to your lab and fix her leg properly. We will discuss this matter later "Don nodded and led her out of the kitchen.
"Sensei I….." Leo lifted his brow
"Do not speak. This girl cannot stay here I forbid it. Do I make myself clear?" All three of his sons agreed and bowed to their sensei. "Good" He bowed back and walked off to his room, covered by bamboo dividers.
"This bites!" Raph kicked an old soda can out of his way
"I thought you didn't like her Raph?" Leo smirked
"I neva said I didn't like her!" he started to blush uncontrollably
"Then why did you ask so many questions?" Leo said while slowly circling his brother
"Oh boy…Alpha turtle fight. I'm out!" Mikey slowly slipped away and retreated to his room upstairs.
"I was just curious how ya knew her that's all!" Raph growled
Leo grinned "Alright then" Raph hated the look that he was giving him right now. It was one of those "I'm better than you and you know it" looks and that was one of the main things that made him tick and Leo knew it. Whenever he wasn't being uptight and all leader like, he was doing everything he could to get on Raph's nerves. Whether it filled him with some kind of joy, he would never know. But he never picked on Mike and Donnie like he was now. It was almost like this behavior was hidden inside him and tucked away for "Raphael Use Only"
"Whatcha thinkin bout bro?" Raph grinned back. Time to fight fire with fire
"Oooh nothing" He kept that same look and it began to make Raph's muscles tense up." Don't let him get to yah" He thought to himself so he took a deep breath and tried to calm down. While Leo was becoming more like Raph, Raph was becoming more like Leo in the tense that he was able to control his temper much more easily then he could a few months ago.
"I know yah tryin to get unda my skin Leo" He uttered
He took it to offense. "Why would I try to do that?" That face….it was still lingering….
Raph Chuckled violently. "I know what yah tryin to do and it aint ganna work"
"Is this about Austria?" Leo asked still maintaining his smirk
What? This had nothing to do with that girl! Maybe Austria's appearance tonight is what stirred the uptight personality Leo's had lately to become that thorn in Raph's side that never seemed to go away. Or so he thought.
"Im goin ta bed" Not allowing himself to be defeated by his brothers aura, Raphael turned around and did the something that shocked even himself… he walked away.
"At 9:00 in the morning?" Now he was using that tone. Boy he was good. It must be a ninja thing, like taunting. Being able to hit "Extreme Asshole" on the bitch scale. Casey Jones had a tendency of doing that as well. Good, now he knows who to thank for Leo's attitude. He'll have to have a little "chat" with Case later. The very thought made him smile and probably was the only thing that kept him from turning around and socking his brother right in the jaw.
: In Donnie's Lab:
"Will this procedure be requiring needles?" Austria asked as she jumped up onto a metal counter in the small, well lit room. "Because I'll be honest…I HATE needles"
"If you don't move to much then no, it will not be requiring needles" Don looked into a draw and pulled out a few things and laid them on a small tray. He totally forgot about the anesthetic he would have to give her to numb the pain but his mind was trailed off somewhere else. He still couldn't believe Leo knew her and he was just itching to find out. Don pulled out a small needle from the drawer. He then opened a cupboard door and picked out a small bottle labeled "PainKiller". He stuck the needles into the cap then extracted the fluid.
"Hey uh…Don…you know what a needle is right? Because, that looks a lot like a needle" She shifted in her seat as her palms started to get sweaty.
"You'll need this to help with the pain. Don't worry it doesn't hurt much" As he approached her with the medicine she jumped off the counter and backed against the closed door. She knocked down a few things that fell and shattered onto the floor.
"Aus it's just a tiny needle"
"I don't think you know what you're doing…" her face was priceless. She was really afraid of that needle.
"Alright fine, I'll just start digging into you thigh with my scalpel and let the horrifying pain knock you out instead" He grinned
"Ok! Just…don't do that that's torture" She slowly walked back to the counter and hopped onto it.
"Can you just…roll up you're…" Don pointed to her blood stained shorts.
"Oh yeah….sure" She slowly grabbed the bottom of her pants and rolled them up. Good thing they were loose fitting. The blood on her bandage was a dark red and had an awful stench. What Don feared had come true. She probably had a terrible infection.
"Ok I just want you to lean back a little and lay your head on that towel behind you" He helped her slowly lower herself across the counter then pulled out an extendable section for her fit to rest on.
"I'm just ganna take the bandage off…" He said hesitantly
"Are you sure you know what you're doing? You seem a little…I don't know…nervous?" Aus lifted her head off the towel and looked at him
"Pfft, of course I know what I'm doing. I've just…never worked on females before and this is a first for me" he slowly used a small pair of scissors to cut the bandage off
"Well what's the difference?" her voice beginning to become irritated
"umm…." He blushed "I don't know…I guys girls are more sensitive that's all" He put his hand on her leg to tighten the skin around the wound so he could pull the bandage off more easily. She jumped and almost kicked him right in the face.
"See?" They laughed together
"No it wasn't that. Your hands are really frickin cold" She pretended to shiver
"Well I am cold blooded. I'll try to warm them up next time" He smiled
"What do you mean next time?"
Don dropped his head and sighed. Why was he so bad at talking to women? Talking with April was a snap…eventually….but this girl? She was so different.
"I didn't…mean it like that I sorry" He rolled away the bandage and got a good look at the..…disaster underneath? How in the…
"It's healed already?" Don leaned closer to get a better look
"Whatcha mean?" She tried to get a peek but was horizontally challenged at the moment.
"Well it's not "Healed" but it looks a lot better than it did this morning"
"Good! So, we don't need the needle?!" Her face stirred with excitement
"No you still need the needle" He was so shocked. The entry wound was still red and puffy but it wasn't as nearly as deep then before but he still needed to get that bullet out and maybe stich back together some torn pieces of skin. Skin…he looked at the area around the wound and he noticed that it was already beginning to scar. Usually those activities don't start until a week after recovery.
"You must heal very quickly Austria" He fully removed the gauze from her leg
"Very cool! Can I go now?" She asked
"Once I stich you up. I'll still give you the painkiller though. If it makes you feel any better, sometimes talking helps get your mind off it. The needle I mean"
She sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "We can talk about how I met Leo?" she suggested "I'm guessing your probably wondering about that anyway huh?"
"Well…If you want to" Austria couldn't see Don's smirking face since she was lying down.
: 10 years ago in Brooklyn, NY: Austria narrates in italicizes
"I was a good kid. Always did my chores, listened to my parents the whole shebang really. But no matter how much I listened to them, and I already told you this in exchange for you not taking me to the hospital, my parents always treated me like I was some kind of…alien. I had an older brother and they treated him like a king which was why he weighed 800 pounds by the time he was all harassed m, beat me, my dad even threw me out into the street once. I was just different and I had no idea why"
"Frank! Where the hell is that girl! I said Mocha not caramel! She knows my sensitive body can't handle caramel!" Austria's mom wobbled into the kitchen where her 6 year old daughter was on her hands and knees scrubbing the dirty kitchen floor. Her older, fat brother was eating a hotdog over her head and letting the ketchup and mustard fall onto the floor for her to clean up.
"Yeah you worthless shit" his mouth was full a food
"Alex, there is no cursing in this house sweetie" The mom patted her fat tomato on the head then looked down at Austria's big hazel eyes and at the time, wavy blonde hair.
"Frank!" The woman called her husband into the kitchen "Look at this…she missed a spot!"
A thin, half-dead looking man walked into the kitchen with a beer entangled in his fingers. "Yup…" It was obvious he was way over the legal intoxication limit which mad him that much more dangerous.
"Mommy, Daddy. Can I play outside today?" Austria stood up and dusted her hands on her apron
"Aww Frank she wants to go outside today? Isn't that sweet" They all began laughing together and the father even fell over on the floor, most likely a cause from his drinking.
"After you finish these floors, fold the laundry, wash the dishes, clean you and your brothers' room and pull the weeds from the garden. Then, you may go outside dearie" She spit onto the floor and made Austria flinch.
"Ok Mom I'll get it done I promise!" A beautiful, bright smile covered her face from ear to ear. She got back down on her knees and continued scrubbing the floor"
"I did everything she asked me to and I never got to go outside that day. I don't know how I remember all this…I just do. At about 3:00am everyone in the house was asleep and I decided that I really wanted to go outside. I pushed the little nightstand I had next to my bed out of the way and behind it was this little secret window that led out onto the roof. The best part was, only I knew about it"
Austria wiggled and squeezed her small body out of the tiny opening. When she got out onto the roof her mouth dropped open. The full moon shone brightly and there were millions upon millions of small white things in the sky that she assumed were the stars that kids in her school talked about all the time. She stared up into the endless array of space, bedazzled by its sheer size.
"It's so beautiful… "Her little hands reached up and cupped the moon into her palm. It sat there like a stone and looked down on her with a smile on its face. She began to sing a tune she had heard in school in her small innocent voice. "Across the plains, across the sea, a home it dwells for you and me. The stars shine bright, the moon can sing and happiness is all we bring" A sudden movement behind her made the song come to an end. She turned around quickly with a gasp and held her hands over her chest.
"Hello?" No one was looking out her window so it couldn't be her family. When she squinted her eyes to get a closer look she saw a little dark figure sitting on the upper half of the roof.
"You have a pretty voice" It said. The shadow was probably her age by the sound of it.
"Thank you kind sir but if you don't mind me asking…how did you get all the way up here? And what are you doing on the roof of my house?" she asked
"Well…I was ganna ask you the same thing" It shifted positions slightly "I was also ganna ask you why you're out here all by yourself" Suddenly it moved slowly into the moonlight and allowed itself to be seen. The top of his head and eyes were covered by a blue bandana but that wasn't the most obvious thing about him. His skin was green, something little Austria had never seen before.
"You look funny" she giggled "Are you sick?"
The creature giggled back "No I'm not sick. I'm a turtle. I'm Leonardo" He stepped closer to her then sat down on the edge of the roof. He patted the spot next to him and signaled her to sit as well. "What's your name?" He asked
"I'm Austria" she held out her hand for him to shake. He looked at her, puzzled.
"Don't you know how to shake hands?"
"Shake hands? Well why would you do that?"
She giggled "It's what you do when you meet somebody. Mrs. Heifer my kindergarten teacher taught me how to do it"
Leo lifted his brow "Well…If you say so" He reached his hand out and swayed hers back and forth. They laughed and giggled. Aus didn't really know why people did that. Maybe because it was funny and made people laugh.
"Where's your family?" She asked him "I know it's late for me to be outside but…what about you?"
"Well I woke up in the night and I couldn't fall back asleep so I decided to go look at the stars but when I got outside I couldn't see any! My dad says that the gas from all the cars in the city sometimes hides the stars so we can't see them. So I decided to come down here and maybe I could see better and guess what? I can!" The small turtle raised his hands in the air as he gazed up into the night sky. He suddenly dropped them down and bit his lip
"That reminds me…" He stood up. "I better get going though, before my dad finds out I'm gone" He helped Austria up. "It was nice meeting you Austria. And listening to you sing" He smiled at her
"Will I ever see you again?" Her big brown eyes gazed into his blue ones
"I…I don't know" he frowned
"Well…if you ever want to look at stars again you know where they are now" She smiled back to try and cheer him up.
"Thanks! I'll try and come back sometime! Bye" He got a running start and leaped off the roof and landed safely on the ground. Austria's heart fluttered with life in the hopes that the strange kid she met would return sometime soon. And we all know how that story ends. He never did.