The Perfect Son

Disclaimer: I still don't own them.

Chapter Fifteen - Decision!

Christine:

I woke up feeling chilled through to the bone. I shivered slightly, my head was pounding as if it was a drum. I was laying on a small cot, with only a blanket or two on top of it. Leo was sitting on the floor in a corner of the room, his shell pressed into the niche. At least he was no longer bound up, and neither was I.

I sat up slowly looking around the room. It was about twelve by twelve and concrete I could see no windows and only one strong, what looked like heavy metal door. It looked like there was another small room off this one, but there was no door on it. There was only one small light bulb overhead.

"You all right Christine?" Leo asked.

"Yeah, I think so." I noticed the fresh bruises and cuts on his body, and the raw marks on his wrist and ankles, "How bout you, and what's in that room?"

"I'm okay I guess. That other room has a toilet and a sink. They let me loose and I managed to untie you." His voice sounded numb, and hollow he wasn't even looking at me.

He didn't sound okay, far from it in fact, "Were those guys friends of yours Leo?" I half teased, as I wrapped one of the thin blankets around myself.

"I don't think they are anybody's friends," he muttered dryly.

"Damn, it's cold in here," I grouched, as I did my best to recall how we had ended up here. After a few minutes of thought I managed to remember that I had been in bed sleeping when I heard a sound. I'd gone out to investigate and was grabbed by strong arms and so quickly bound up I didn't have a chance to fight.

Leo had been so bound up in chains or rope he probably couldn't have moved even if he wanted to. Then the bumpy ride in the van to this warehouse.

I gulped, a warehouse full of people dressed in strange black pyjamas, whose intentions were clearly not good for either of us, and most especially for Leo, of that much I was certain.

"Do you think these are the Foot soldiers your brother spoke of?" I asked Leo.

He gave an indifferent shrug, "Possibly. How am I suppose to know. Their coming around us has attracted their enemies to us, how nice. Not to mention they aren't here to help us," he remarked bitterly. "Whatever the case is I doubt the people want to vote me the most popular turtle."

I looked around the room and shook my head. "I don't like this Leo we have to get out of here." I declared.

"Get out. How do you plan to do that?" Leo wondered as he gave me a disbelieving stare. "Even if we were lucky enough to get out of this room we would have to get out past all those people out there." He jerked a thumb towards the door.

I blinked at him, from what I had heard from Leo's brothers if it was the Foot holding us captive at the moment, then they would be bound to torture us or harm us somehow.

"So, you'd rather just sit here and wait to see what they plan to do with us?" I demanded of him.

"All I'm saying Christine is that we don't stand a chance of getting out of here. They have weapons, and there is a number of them out there waiting to hurt us if we leave," he insisted, fear tinged his tone.

"You don't even want to try and get out and away from them? They have all ready hurt you Leo. They will hurt you again, these people were probably the very ones who got you injured in the first place." I pointed the obvious out to him. "If we can get away we will be safe."

Leo snorted and shook his head, "I'm all for getting out of here. But I don't think we'll be able to manage it. You are worried about what they might do to us if we stay here, but don't you realize they can kill us just as quickly if we try to escape. Escaping would be a fool's errand," he declared sharply.

"I think it is far more foolish to sit here and wait for them to make all decisions where we are concerned Leo," I countered.

"What if you fail in escaping and they punish you for it?" Leo inquired simply.

"As long as you try you can't fail and at least then we could say we tried and gave it our best." I reasoned.

"So you are willing to be killed in your attempt to escape, that is, if escape was even possible."

"They can kill me just as easily while I sit here, in my way of thinking that means I have very little to lose," I pointed out.

Leo's jaw dropped and his eyes bulged, "You're serious Christine!"

"Yes, I'm serious Leo," I admitted, then tried for a little lighter note "after all I have to be at work tomorrow."

Leo chuckled then looked away from her. "I don't think it is possible to get beyond this room even."

I sighed, "I wouldn't know for sure. Not at least until we try."

"We?" Leo echoed, "As in you and me?" He pointed to me then to himself.

" Of course, you and me Leo. Who else? We can't expect your brother's to help us they probably don't know where we are. They said they had no idea where the Foot base is at."

"When did they say that?" Leo wondered, "I don't remember any of them saying anything about that."

"I've been visiting your brothers after work. Raph and Mike have been helping me with my hand to hand techniques, and Raph mentioned that one of the days I was there," I confessed in an off hand way. "The fact is we are the only ones who can get us out of here alive."

"One problem, we won't get out of here alive," Leo declared quickly countering my words. "It is safer to stay put!"

"What makes you believe that Leo? They broke into my apartment, they kidnapped us. They have us locked up and the only thing I am sure of is they aren't holding us for ransom." I fumed my eyes narrowing. I gulped hard and gave him a pleading look.

"Leo please, I think you know how dangerous these guys are. I think you are aware of who they are, what they are capable of doing and somehow- someway- you also know the best way of getting us out alive."

"I know No such thing Christine," Leo snapped sharply as he glared at me.

"Leo you have been trained for this, for all of your life. I can't do it alone, I don't have the training behind me," I explained patiently.

"Neither do I Christine. I don't know a damned thing about fighting. I don't want anything to do with fighting. As far as I know, I've had absolutely no training what so ever. I hate fighting and don't want anything to do with it." He refuted me.

"Why not Leo?" I barked at him.

I had to admit my temper was running short. I didn't mind letting Leo recover at his pace, and do what we could to assist him. But now, was not the time to coddle him along.

"It doesn't solve anything," Leo replied.

"Somehow I doubt we could sit down over a cup of coffee and talk out our differences with one another like responsible adults," I quipped.

Leo heaved a heavy sigh and leaned his head back against the wall.

He looked bored, and there was also a look of someone who wanted to be elsewhere. Perhaps far from here, where some one wasn't harassing and jumping all over him for his choice of being passive.

He might even be comparing me to Raphael at this point, after all Raph had always been the one to berate and challenge Leo about remembering something.

I sighed myself and hung my head, feeling bad for hurting him. For doing this to him. I was suppose to be his friend. I had cared for him since I brought him home and he trusted me. I might even be breaking that trust with my behaviour towards him now.

The other turtles trusted me with him, which I thought might be a mark of honour that they felt safe with me, and felt all right in Leo staying with me.

I pulled my legs up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them, as I tried to consider my options in this.

Leo was clearly set on maintaining his pacifist role, and I knew for a fact that neither of us could afford that. Not with everything that was at stake here. Leo had to remember who he was, and he had to do it soon. Because I didn't know how much time we had left.

On the other hand to push Leo into recall before he was ready for it, might be enough to cause him some further damage.

I knew his mind was blocking his past, for whatever reason and he had turned his back on fighting and all things to do with fighting for a good reason.

I knew if I did start pushing him I wouldn't be able to back down. I'd have to force him somehow to the brink, to make him somehow want to look or accept his past so that hopefully, he would be the Leo his brother's knew.

Only if he acknowledged his past and accepted it would he be able to move on.

If he didn't accept it, what was the worst that could happen?

Considering his condition, it was possible that he might go over the edge and go crazy and become mentally unstable. At the moment the Leo I saw and knew would be far more likely to go the worse route out and I really didn't care for that idea.

Deep inside Leo was a person, a being who could help them out of this situation, at least if all I had heard from the other turtles was anything to judge on.

I closed my eyes, knowing that if I did this. Leo would clearly feel betrayed and no longer accept me as a friend. All I could do was sit there and debate over all the possibilities, not that there was many options available to us.

There was so much at stake here. I grabbed the other blanket off the bed, and walked over to Leo wrapping it around his shoulders. He looked up at me and reached out to hold my wrist.

"Christine, I'm sorry. I know your upset with me. It is just that I have never had anything to confirm that everything the other turtles have said is even true. I don't want to fight," He said miserably, "I don't think there is anything we can do that will make a large difference to the mess we are in at the moment. I think we are only going end up being angry and getting frustrated with each other."

I looked at him, it was clear he had given up and would accept his fate whatever it was. But in accepting his fate he was also, putting me in for whatever was waiting ahead for me.

"As long as you try Leo, you can't fail. Only when you give up entirely, will you fail and in the worst way possible," I muttered, as I wrapped my own blanket tighter around myself.

Leo jerked slightly and gave me a weird look, he shrugged and licked his lips nervously before rising to his feet and walk towards the bed.

I turned to watch him, "What's the matter Leo?"

"Nothing," he answered abruptly.

Oh, it was far more something then it was nothing. Even, I knew that and I had a feeling that Leo was also aware of it somehow, that was why he was acting suddenly anxious and uneasy. He clearly didn't want to talk about it.

In an instant my mind was made up. 'To hell with it, this is our only chance. I've got to try or I will be the one to fail. I can't do this alone, I'll need his help. I need the assistance of the Leo who is trapped somewhere inside of himself. I need the Leo who knows how to fight and who will fight.

I need not the Leo that I know but the Leo, his brother's know.'

I knew this wouldn't be easy, I hoped to hell that I wasn't going to regret this choice later on. But I felt like I had little choice left, I was between the rock and the hard place and I had to get tough with Leo, or who knows what would happen to us.

'I've never done anything like this before. Oh gods, Leo forgive me for what I'm about to do to you. I only hope you are ready for this, because I'm not so sure that I am.'

TBC