Greg was too stunned to speak, but he also couldn't take his eyes off Katherine as the woman fell apart. He automatically supported her around the back as she shook, and he tried to direct her into a chair. Katherine's legs were as stiff as stone, and Greg had great difficulty in maneuvering her.
"Kat..." he whispered, not knowing what else to say.
Without warning her legs gave out and she shuddered with a tremendous sob. Greg struggled to keep her upright, but then settled for dropping to his knees alongside her on the pavement. His head spun as the woman cried into his shoulder, and the numb exterior he'd erected so quickly came crumbling back down.
A sob originated from deep in his chest, and shook him to the very core of his being. It suddenly felt as if the entire world had been thrown off its axis, and it would never be right again. Greg was aware of Katherine; he knew that she was still clinging to his shoulder, but the rest of their surroundings faded into white noise until she spoke.
"Where?" Her question was so strangled that Greg hardly heard it. Katherine raised her head resolutely and turned to face Benita behind them. "Where is he? I need to see him with my own eyes. I have to. I need my baby too."
"Mrs. Barrows, he was released to be taken to one of the Coroners with a couple of others. The transport team was already in the area."
"Which Coroner? Who took him?" Katherine's tone grew in intensity.
"I'll find out all that information for you, Mrs. Barrows," Benita replied evenly. "Let's focus on your little girl for a minute here, okay? Can I get her name and age?"
"Her name is Reina, and she's almost sixteen months old. She has blond hair and blue eyes, just like her father." Katherine's control dissolved again.
Greg felt like he couldn't breathe. The ache in his chest was spreading - it seemed to be attempting to consume his entire body. He took a determined breath, and forced his way back to his feet. His hand shook slightly as he withdrew his wallet, and searched for a photograph. Luke and Katherine had taken Reina in for portraits right before her first birthday.
"I don't know if this helps," he said quietly, "but this is Reina. Can you please find her, or at least tell us where to look?"
"I'll get on it right now," Benita assured both of them. "I won't quit until I have answers for you, okay?"
The woman sped back to her table, but Greg understood what she'd inferred without saying the words out loud.
What are the chances that Reina could survive something that ended up killed Luke? He would have had her with him.
What had been one of the most tiring days he'd ever experienced had just turned into one of the worst days of his life. He glanced down at Katherine to see the woman curled up on the floor with her knees against her chest. It produced a flashback in his mind from years ago, when Luke had been kidnapped by a group with Mafia connections. She'd been broken then too, but this...
How can it be real? After everything we've been through, after everything this family has survived, how does it end like this? How are we going to tell everyone else? Luke's been there for the guys through so many things, this is going to absolutely crush them. I wish he was here now, and I could take his place. God, how could you let this happen to Kat? Why did it have to be him?
Greg thrust his fist into the pavement to vent some of the frustration and helplessness clouding his mind. The pain hardly made a dent in the emotional storm, but when he looked down he realized that his hand was trembling.
Katherine was staring at him too. "Did you break something?"
"No. C'mon, James, you have to get up. That woman is going to look for Reina, and we...we'll sort things out."
Looking at Kat right now, she reminded him very much of the young woman with whom he'd been partnered when they first started at the FBI. Greg would never have called Katherine a cold person, but there had been an element of her personality that was detached, cut off from the outside world. She had a type of mental strength that was desperately needed by a woman in the field, but the hardness had penetrated her entire existence. Everyone was kept at arms' length. Greg had always considered her to be a good woman and an amazing partner, but her shield had even put him off sometimes.
Luke changed that about her...and meeting the guys probably had something to do with it too, though I didn't know it at the time.
Greg had witnessed Katherine display kindness and compassion to someone before that point, but he'd never seen true warmth in her golden brown eyes until the doctor came along.
He blinked suddenly, and realized he'd been staring. "C'mon, James," he repeated, and partially dragged her upright.
Katherine stood to her feet, and let him guide her into a plastic chair. They sat in overwhelmed silence for several minutes, waiting.
Greg swore inwardly. How can it take this long? C'mon guys, either Reina's alive or she's dead. Don't drag this out on Kat.
He cast another glance at Katherine, and the woman appeared to be so weighed down it looked like she could fall out of her chair. At that moment he also heard a pair of footsteps, and he looked up to see Benita returning. Greg immediately sat up straighter, and tapped Katherine's knee to get her attention too.
"Mrs. Barrows, I'm sorry for the delay," Benita apologized. "There was a file started on your little girl. Her injuries were minimal, but we're still searching for her."
"What do you mean you're searching for her?" Kat was on the verge of exploding. "You just said she was here! Where's my baby?"
"Begging your pardon, Ma'am, but we have five people combing different areas of Triage to find her. She started out in the Pediatric section, but she isn't there now."
"You people lost my little girl?"
"Things are unorganized-"
"That earthquake is going to have nothing on my fury if you don't produce my baby!" Katherine interrupted dangerously.
"Donny."
Someone was patting his face repetitively, like they weren't going to quit until he gave them some response. The purple-masked turtle stirred on the uncomfortable ground, and he opened his eyes to see his red-masked brother, illuminated by the rays of the rising sun.
"Good. You're awake." Raphael sounded satisfied.
"And you're learning a little more gentleness. Nice to see, Raph."
His older brother gave him a hand up to a sitting position, but Donatello regretted it as pain pounded through his temples. He ducked his head and took a calming breath, as if he could mentally convince the throbbing to cease.
"You all right, Genius?"
"I will be," Donatello answered. "The side effects from tetrozine are stronger through a direct injection than when we use the IV line. They shouldn't last for more than a few hours."
"Just a few? That's good to know."
"Is Leo awake yet?"
"Yeah, Mikey was working on him. He has the gift of annoyance. You want some water, bro?"
Donatello stared at the proffered bottle. His throat felt like sandpaper, but he didn't want to waste very many of their precious resources. He took it from Raphael and allowed himself a small sip.
"You can go crazy if you want," Raphael told him. "There's another source of standing water close by - Becky found it this morning."
Donatello took a bigger gulp from the plastic bottle, and decided to hold onto it. "Can you give me another hand up, Raph?"
"What are you wanting to do, Don?"
"I want to see the others, and I need to get to work on my scanner, whether I have a headache or not."
"Oh, yeah...I have good news for you about that," Raphael mentioned. "Greg got a hold of us last night, 'cause he figured out how to make the phone work. He found April and Marc at St. Joseph's. Their apartment was blocked off by the cops because of some damage, but after Kat showed up at the hospital, she and Greg went in to get Marc's scanner. We haven't heard from them since they found the machine, but Greg said the busy signals make it hard to get through even with using the satellite."
Raphael helped steady him for the short jaunt toward one of the two low-burning fires.
"I figured if anyone could figure out how to switch the settings, it would be Heff," Donatello said.
"He's got a little computer geek in there, doesn't he, Donny?" Raphael laughed; a sound that seemed much freer than any he'd made the day before.
"You sound relaxed," Donny commented guardedly.
Raphael shrugged. "I'm trying to take some of the advice that's been handed down over the years. I was probably up until about 4am, before I figured that worrying wasn't gonna make anyone else okay."
"So you've had what, three hours of sleep?"
"I've lived off less," Raphael replied, unconcerned, and handed Donny's phone over.
The purple-masked turtle glanced down at the display, and jolted when he saw the bars that indicated a regular signal. "They've restored the towers!" Donatello was surprised, but relieved too. "I'm sure the circuits must still be overloaded-"
"Yep," Jenna spoke up from where she was leaning against the sandstone wall. "A whole lot of busy signals and that stupid error message. I hope I'm not wearing the battery out, Donny, but I have to try to reach someone, don't I?"
Donatello shook his head with a smile. "You're not going to kill the battery, Jen. We're under open sunlight, so the solar power is going to kick in."
"You really are a genius." Raphael grinned.
Donny shrugged off the compliment as he spied a still groggy Leonardo also balanced against the wall of the fort. The flash of concern that rolled over his senses made Donatello forget that he was off balance himself. His red-masked brother caught him under the arms as he nearly fell.
"Easy, Don. Leo's not going anywhere."
Donatello looked at him sheepishly, and he moved more carefully toward his oldest brother, sliding into medical mode as naturally as breathing. "Leo, are you okay? Do you know where you are?"
Leonardo's dark eyes were glassy, but flickered to life as they met Donatello's. "Yeah," he said shortly.
"Are you experiencing any unusual pain? I know you're dealing with side effects from the tetrozine, but I'm talking about things you've never felt before."
Leonardo shook his head, wincing as he did. "Nope. I just feel like I OD'ed on that stupid drug of yours'."
"Hey. That stupid drug has saved our shells a couple of times."
"How come you were walking around? I still feel like the ground is spinning. Is that an aftershock?"
"No, Leo, it's just you. I have a higher tolerance to tetrozine than you, which translates into a reduction of severity in the side effects."
"Is that because you've been your own guinea pig?" Leo asked accusingly.
"It could have something to do with it."
"Mike said he was going to..." Leonardo trailed off, as if he'd lost his train of thought. "Where'd he go?"
Raphael stifled a chuckle. "He's making the tea, Fearless. Gonna help you feel like yourself again."
"Shouldn't waste the water," Leo mumbled.
"Becky found more," Raphael assured him.
Donatello looked around the perimeter of the fort, until he noticed Michelangelo tending the kettle over the other fire. Rebecca was beside him with Olivia, taking her time feeding the baby from a bottle. As Donny started to turn back to Leonardo, Jenna caught his eye first. The woman put the phone away for a moment as she stepped over to him.
"G'morning, Donny. Are you doing okay?" she asked.
"I'm fine." He squeezed her hand reassuringly. "Are you getting frustrated?"
"Kind of, but I didn't expect it to be easy. There's not much else I can do except try and hope that-"
Donatello's phone buzzed to cut her off, and startled both of them. Donny hit the button to answer it without a second of hesitation. "Hello?"
"Donny, is that you?" Greg's voice greeted him.
"Yes, Heff! I'm so glad you got through!"
"I don't have a lot of time. My signal is still kinda shaky-"
"You know if you keep using the satellite, that won't be a problem."
"Donny, listen to me, okay? I'm with Kat, and we're trying to track down Reina. All the evidence is pointing to someone snatching her right out of the Triage unit where we found Luke."
Donatello's heart skipped a beat. "Somebody took her? You can't be serious!"
"I am. We know who was seen with her last, but I need your help. I have a student ID I have to research, and I'm having trouble establishing an internet connection with my laptop. I have to access the FBI database so I can do a background check on this woman who might have taken her. I've been trying to use your signal booster, but it isn't working. Can you trouble-shoot with me?"
Donatello spent a couple of minutes walking him through the process of bringing the booster back online, and he heard a triumphant sound on Greg's end.
"Great, I'm in, Donny. Thank you. We know where everyone is, even though we haven't been able to connect with them yet. Calley and Karina are still on the Lower West Side; it looks like they were staying at MS250. We're going to head that direction, but we have to find Reina first."
"Yes, Heff, find her!" Donny said urgently. "What about Luke though? You said he was in Triage?"
"Donny, I have to go! Stay where you guys are, and we'll make it out to you as soon as we can." Greg's voice shook with his reply.
"Greg-"
The click on the line was so sudden that it stunned Donatello. Jenna was quick to pick up on his confusion.
"What is it, Donny?"
The purple-masked turtle gripped the phone for a couple more seconds, as if he couldn't let go. "Something's wrong," he said softly. "There was something in his voice...It wasn't right. He cut me off when I asked about Doc."
Leonardo cleared his throat. "Let's not jump to conclusions, okay?"
"That's not the worst part," Donatello said anxiously. "Reina's missing. They think someone took her."
A familiar fire immediately burned in the blue-masked turtle's eyes. "We have to get out of this Park."
"Leo, you're not ready to go anywhere," Jenna pointed out.
"That's not going to hold me down all day," Leonardo said fiercely.