Mike shifted tensely while he waited for his brothers to ascend the fire escape. He and the girls had already received word that Raphael had suffered a serious injury, and it had made the last few minutes more difficult to handle. He bit his lip as he glanced at Karina out of the corner of his eye. The woman was seated on the very edge of the couch, and one of her legs was vibrating nervously.
The entire room sat silently, waiting to hear a sound from the guest room, where the others would be entering from the balcony. Tiger rubbed her head against the orange-masked turtle's arm, and he reached over to scratch her ears fondly.
"Raphy boy is gonna be okay. You'll see," he half-whispered to the feline. "Nothing's gonna break his hard shell."
The stillness was almost unbearable for Michelangelo. He wished that someone would speak, or yell, or cry. Anything but sit here in stone silence, like they'd just learned of someone's death sentence.
Mike jerked upright in the chair when he heard a door open down the hall, and he instantly put down the footrest. His first instinct was to jump to his feet and run to his brothers, but something made him hold back from moving. Marcus was the one who emerged first into the living room, and raised a hand to solemnly greet everyone.
"We're all in safely," he announced. "Raphael is still unconscious from being sedated, and he probably will be for a while yet. Donny and I have a few things to do, but the guys have to get cleaned up first. Karina, Mike, if you want to come on back, that would be okay."
Michelangelo lightly gripped Karina's shoulder as the woman walked down the hallway, almost as if she was in a dream. He automatically held his breath as he approached the guest room, but Leonardo and Donatello came out before the two of them could open the door.
"Guys." One of his arms went around each of his brothers, heedless of the ash and dust that covered them. The other turtles returned the embrace fiercely.
"We're okay, Mike," Don said quietly.
"Do you need anything? Can I do something to help?" Mike asked.
Leonardo looked over his shoulder at the bronze-haired woman who'd already entered the guest room. "Just stay with Karina, Mike, and make sure she's taken care of," he replied under his breath. "Don and I need to get showered so we can focus on more pressing things, then we can catch up in a little while."
Michelangelo nodded, stepping to one side in the hall so that his brothers could get through. He walked slowly into the next room, and found Karina kneeling on the floor beside the bed where they'd laid Raphael. At first glance, it didn't look like the red-masked turtle had suffered more than a few bumps and bruises, until Mike focused on his legs. The method in which they were immobilized was familiar to him; he recalled the contraptions from Donny's own bouts with his knee injury. When he looked closer, the device couldn't hide the shape of Raphael's left leg.
Mike hovered silently behind Karina, as Marcus slipped back into the room.
"Hey," Marcus said softly. "I'm afraid I won't have a lot of information for you yet, but I'll answer questions for you guys to the best of my ability."
Karina turned to face him. "You're the orthopedic specialist, Marc. How bad is this?"
"His left leg was nearly crushed; it suffered a number of fractures. Raphael's going to need reconstructive surgery to fix this. Donny said he mentioned he couldn't feel that leg, so it's likely there's some nerve damage too."
"Surgery...You need certain conditions to perform something like that, don't you?" Karina asked. "You can't just operate here in your apartment."
"It wouldn't be in his best interest, no. We don't have the equipment or the drugs we need. The anesthetic agent, among other things, is absolutely necessary."
"And it's not like you can run down to the hospital and pick it all up," Mike said bitterly. With their sensitivity to conventional medications, the custom chemical creations of Donatello's and Luke's had become their safe alternatives to traditional narcotics and antibiotics.
"No," Marc said morosely. "We have a lot of pieces to assemble before we can even think about surgery."
"Is it safe to wait?" Karina asked.
"As long as the blood flow to his leg hasn't been cut off. The procedure doesn't have to take place immediately, but the pain could be almost intolerable if the nerves weren't completely severed."
"Is there anything else wrong with him?" Mike asked.
"He has a couple of hairline fractures in his plastron from the concrete pinning him to the ground. If it had landed on his chest instead of his shell, this could have ended very differently. He couldn't breathe with it on top of him as it was."
Karina sighed shakily. "Will he...will he be normal again?"
Marcus nodded with a fair amount of certainty. "He's in excellent physical condition, he's young, and I'm experienced in this type of reconstruction, Karina. I've seen athletes with injuries similar to these, and I know he can come back from it. It's just going to take time and a lot of hard work."
Mike hesitated before asking the next question. "How long, Marc? Do you know?"
He shook his head this time. "That's difficult to say, Mike. It will depend on how deep the fractures are, and how willing Raphael is to rest. He wouldn't be able to start the intensive therapy for weeks, at least."
"Oh, he'll rest," Karina muttered. "I'll handcuff him down if I have to."
"He'd probably enjoy that, Karina." The joke left Mike without him giving it a second thought, but then he winced for opening his mouth.
Karina cracked a smile at the turtle. "He'll be okay, Mike, I know it. I think all of us will be. It's just a matter of where we go from here. Where do we go from here, Marc?"
"Luke has the possible solution, and I'd rather let him introduce it. I need to break him out of Triage tonight too."
"No you don't," Katherine mentioned from the door. "We're here."
Marc's mouth fell open slightly. "Luke wasn't supposed to move until-"
"We couldn't wait any longer, and Luke didn't want you to be forced to leave Raph. It's done now, Marc, so there's no sense in getting upset."
The man exhaled tersely. "Where's Luke?"
"He wants to see Raph..."
"That's all he's going to do. Darn it, Kat, he shouldn't even be on his feet yet!"
"I know, but Tim was there to help. He gave Triage a mouthful too, if that makes you feel any better."
"Does that mean everybody's here now?" Mike asked.
"Except for Brandon and Greg," Katherine answered, and looked back at Marcus. "What do we know about Bran?"
"The scanner confirmed a broken collar bone, and he was beginning to go into shock. Between a serious drop in blood pressure and the concussion, he was pretty out of it," Marc replied. "He was stable enough from the noraphim Donatello gave him that I felt comfortable leaving him with Greg and Director Kelley. The Director says he can get him into a hospital, though I don't have a clue how."
As Marcus explained, the weariness dragging down Mike's legs became much more pronounced. He reached down to squeeze Raphael's arm, and then looked at the others. "I'm gonna check on a couple of things."
The orange-masked turtle shuffled down the hall and glanced into the living room. It was comforting to see most of their friends in one place, but the tension in the air was so tangible that he could hardly breathe.
That's great - something new and different for me.
Mike's eyes fell on Luke sitting in the chair, and the man locked gazes with him. Luke acted like he was going to get up, and Michelangelo waved him back down.
"Don't get up just 'cause of me, Doc."
"C'mere and sit back down, Mike." Rebecca jumped up from where she was sitting on the couch, and pointed him to the spot.
"Beck, I'm fine."
"Sit and catch up, Mike. I'm going to help Calley."
"With what?"
"It's been hours since anyone has eaten, Mike."
Food didn't sound appetizing right now, but Michelangelo wasn't going to say that out loud. Shell, I wish we could just get on with this already, but I guess we're still going to have to wait.
It was a long hour of sitting for Michelangelo, as everyone lingered on edge waiting for Marcus and Donatello to finish what they were doing. When they returned to the living room, Karina came with them.
"Hey, everybody," she said tiredly. "Whatever you decide we're doing, I'm just along for the ride. I want to stay with Raph for now."
The kitchen chairs and a couple of folding ones had already been dragged into the room to provide additional seating besides the furniture for everyone. Michelangelo felt somewhat anxious that they hadn't heard from Greg yet, but he was also more than ready to get started.
Leonardo cleared his throat. "Okay, Doc. Marcus said you have a plan."
"It's not a plan, so much as it is an option," Luke replied. "With what's happened to Raph and needing to move faster...well, it's the best thing that I can think of."
"Are you going to keep us in suspense, Doc?" Jen asked impatiently.
"I want to take you home with me," he answered.
"But..but your home was..." Rebecca faltered.
"Go with me here," Luke said wearily. "I'm not talking about our building that collapsed. I want to take you to North Carolina."
Donatello sat up with a jolt. "Your parents' place in the mountains?"
Luke nodded. "It's an extreme step to take, but I can't come up with anything better."
No one said a word for several seconds.
"There's plenty of room, and um...the entire third floor is already dedicated to a Lab."
"Really?"" The purple-masked turtle sounded more interested already.
"My parents did a lot of their research from there, Don. It won't have a lot of the equipment we need, but other chemistry elements are already in place-"
"So that all we'd need are the drug components," Donny interrupted. "It would still take an effort to get everything together."
"But at least we'd have the environment to perform surgery safely," Luke finished.
"Has this house just been sitting empty for a decade?" Tim asked.
Luke shook his head. "An old colleague of my parents, he and his wife were acting as caretakers and entrepreneurs over it. With my Mom and Dad's blessing, they were running the house as a Bed and Breakfast, up until earlier this year. The wife died, and Doctor Wells moved back to the city. I can put a call in to him and ask him to run back up there to turn the breakers on and get it ready for us."
Luke's gaze traveled to Leonardo, but the blue-masked turtle wasn't looking at him.
"I don't think any of us want to leave the city," Leonardo said finally. "But we have to accept that we don't have a choice in the matter. Are you sure about taking us to your family home, Doc?"
"You guys are family. The only issue I see is the physical distance from New York, and our ability to get there without a delay. Flying wouldn't take that long, but there's still the issue of getting to Newark."
"We'll find a way," Tim said determinedly. "Even I have to figure out how to drive a boat myself."
Leonardo gazed around the room, and then fixed on Tim and Victoria, who were sitting side by side. "This is a difficult decision. If anyone is going to object to this course of action, we need to hear from you now."
Silence persisted across the living room.
"If you're waiting for me or Victoria to say something, you have our support, Leo," Tim replied. "You can't stay in the city. Luke said this is the best option he can think of, and I agree with him. You could rent any number of houses, but the danger of exposure is still going to exist. This place is remote, and it's already set up for you. The only thing left in my mind to figure out is getting you guys off this island."
"But..." Leonardo stopped and took a deep breath. It felt like he was waiting for someone else to speak.
"Hey, we're coming back, right?" Michelangelo forced optimism into his tone. "This isn't going to be forever."
"No, it isn't," Don agreed, and Mike noticed that his purple-masked brother's gaze was leveled on Tim and Victoria as well.
Aw, shell...they feel bad about Calley and Jenna. They gotta feel like they're ripping them away from their parents.
Victoria smiled with all of the grace with which Michelangelo had come to associate her. "We all wish we could go with you, but certain pressing matters in the city don't allow us that freedom," she said wistfully. "In the face of everything happening in New York, Tim and I consider it an incredible favor for you to keep our girls safe elsewhere. We'll miss you terribly, but this is temporary. Don't any of you forget that."
"Wow. We're doing this, aren't we?" Mike murmured, unsure if everyone would even hear.
"I guess we are," Leonardo said dully, glancing at Calley on his right for the first time. The pair seemed to have an unspoken conversation with their eyes, and Mike watched Calley lay her hand on top of Leonardo's.
The blue-masked turtle's expression turned resolute. "We have to work out how we're getting off the island...and the sooner, the better."