"Okay, Don." Raph said as they walked into the Lair. "Fighten' time."
"Now?" Donnie asked. "We have a three hour training session in thirty minutes!"
Raph rolled his neck and cracked his knuckles all in one movement. His lips curled upwards into a sinister smile. "Right." He said. "But I'll make this fast for you." He twirled his sais in his fingers. "That training's not gonna be fun for ya after getting the shell kicked out of ya, though."
"Guys." Mikey said icily. The two of them looked at Mikey. He tilted his head at Emilynn. "Bigger fish." He said. Donnie sighed.
"Mike's right, Raph." He said, looking back to Raph.
Raphael snorted. "I think someone's chickening out." Donnie gave him a flat look.
"Raph, I am not-"
Kasey coughed out a sharp "Chicken" into his hand. At Donnie's irritated stare he flapped his hands slightly in a wing-like manor.
"You're in on this?" Donnie said. Kasey stopped, shrugging.
"I'm bored." He said simply. Donnie put a hand over his eyes, shaking his head ruefully. April touched his arm lightly, looking at him with apologetic eyes. He lifted his hand, returning the gaze.
"Go ahead and tear him up, Donnie. We can handle it for now." April looked at Leo and Mikey, who nodded as if confirming that claim. Kasey snickered from where he stood.
"Hey April." He called. "I bet you five bucks Raph'll cream him." Raphael puffed out his chest. Kasey raised his eyebrows at April tauntingly.
"Wow, thanks." Donnie muttered.
"You're on." April said, which seemed to lift Donnie's spirit's. She winked at him and he smiled.
"Thanks." He said gratefully. She pat the back of his shoulder, smiling back at him. Raph clicked his tongue tiredly.
"Okay, okay, enough of this chick-flick crap. Let's just go beat each other's faces in, alright?"
Donnie looked at Raphael and stretched his arms out in front of him, making his joints pop. "Deal." He said. They walked off towards the dojo together, with Kasey at their heels like a loyal lapdog. April turned back to Leo and Mikey, to see that they were no longer there.
"Nice." She muttered.
"She can use my room." Mikey said, carrying her down the hall. Her head lolled against his chest. She whimpered slightly, causing Mikey to shift her more securely against him.
"Mikey, I think it'd be best if she used mine." Leo said. Mikey looked at him only for a slight instant, displeasure clear on his face.
"Why?" He asked, not harshly. Leo was hurt to hear the undertone of panic in Mikey's voice. He looked at Mikey's face. So sad, yet somehow so much brighter than it had been before.
"Actually, your room's fine." Leo said. "I don't really know why I even suggested that." Mikey nodded, and Leo saw a sliver of his sadness fall away. He once again shifted Emilynn against his body, holding her tightly. He took her to his room, laying her on his bed so softly she might as well have been made from paper. As soon as her body hit the bed, she gasped slightly.
"Mikey." She said.
Mikey stopped, staring at her. She was still asleep. She lay on her back with her arms on either side of her and her head turned to the side, exposing her slender neck. The hand closest to Mikey started clenching and un-clenching as though it had a mind of it's own. Mikey knelt down, taking the rogue hand in his in an almost instinctive manner. Immediately, it stopped twitching, clenching a final time around his massive fingers. His eyes never left her face.
"She said my name." He whispered.
Leo looked between his brother and Emilynn, equally mesmerized. What was going on?
"She did." He said, almost as shocked as his brother. He went to stand beside Michelangelo, who looked up despairingly.
"Help me fix her." He pleaded. Leo swallowed hard, unable to bear the way Mikey's voice sounded. Just then, April came into the room.
"What's up?" She asked. Her face seemed to fall the slightest bit as she accessed the situation, but she quickly pulled it together again. Mikey had returned to staring at Emilynn, not responding to her question. April looked to Leo, who took a deep breath.
"We need bandages." He said solemnly. "And maybe stitches." He looked down at Emilynn and her tiny red-stained body. "And a change of clothes, if we have them."
April nodded from where she stood. "Should I get Splinter?" She asked. Leo paused before shaking his head.
"He knows she's here. He'll come when he's ready."
"Okay." April said, dashing out the door.
"Why wont she wake up?" Mikey mumbled. Leo took a step forward, kneeling next to his brother. Gently, he toke Emilynn's wrist. It felt like he could break it with just a twitch of his fingers. He bet he probably could. He felt for a pulse. It was there, but faintly. Too slow.
"She was probably drugged." He said. "Donnie would know what to do." Leo could only hope that their fight would be over quickly. He mentally slapped Raphael for his poor choice of timing. He really was so arrogant, sometimes.
"Will she be okay?" Mikey asked. "Until they're done?"
"Yeah." Leo guessed. "She'll be fine." April came back then, holding a large first-aide kit.
"I got this." She said from behind the box. She peered around it to watch her step in Mikey's mess of a room. "But all of the clothes I had here were kind of... stolen." She looked at Mikey pointedly, meeting his eyes, which darted away quickly. He suddenly stood up, releasing Emilynn's hand. It fell in an almost sad way, curling tightly in on itself. Mikey turned and went to a dresser against the far wall, rummaging through it. Out of all of the turtles, Mikey had the most clothes. Collecting random articles of clothing was almost like a hobby to him. He pulled some stuff and returned with them.
"These are gonna be way too big, but they're clean. At least..." He paused, sniffing the clothes. "They're the cleanest I got."
"Those are fine." April said. She handed the big box to Leo, who opened it and started pulling things out of it, setting them around him. "What do we do first, Leo?" She asked. Leo looked at his pile of supplies, then at Emilynn, and eventually at April.
"First, we're going to need to get all of this blood off of her. I can't really see what we're dealing with right now." He said.
"What about the clothes?" Mikey said. The things Emilynn was currently wearing were a mess of tears and blood stains.
"I guess we should do that first." Leo said. His eyes met April's. "Do you think you could change her by yourself?" He asked. April gave him a confused look.
"By myself?" She repeated. Leo raised an eyebrow at her.
"I could help if you needed it, but I just think that she would prefer..." He trailed off. April's face suddenly lit up as she realized what he was saying.
"Oh!" She gasped. "Yeah, right. Sorry." She took the clothes from Mikey. "I can do it." Leo nodded, standing up.
"You might as well clean up whatever's under them while you're at it." He said, giving her an apologetic glance. "Sorry to make you do all that, it's just that-"
"No, no. It's fine." April waved him off. "I'm just glad I can help."
"Thanks, April." He said, giving her a small smile. "I'll wait outside." He walked towards the door, only to stop at the entrance and turn back. He looked at Mikey. April followed his gaze. Mikey was staring at Emilynn.
"Mikey." April said softly. His eyes snapped up to hers.
"Can I stay?" He asked. April looked at Leo, exchanging a doubtful look with him.
"Uh, Mikey-" April began.
"I won't look." He said, cutting her off. He begged her silently with his eyes. She gulped. She always did have a weakness for Mikey's puppy eyes. She looked at Leo, who just shrugged.
"Well... I guess." She said. Mikey's eyes brightened with childish joy. April couldn't help but smile at that. Leo turned and walked out, closing the door behind him. April looked at Mikey, twirling her finger at him in a "turn around" motion. He obeyed, spinning on his toes until his back was to his bed. April sat on the bed next to Emilynn's knees, and began undressing her. The pants slid right off of her skinny legs. April gasped at the large black bruises that lined both of them.
"What is it?" Mikey asked worriedly, turning slightly.
"Don't look." April said. "It's fine." She quickly pulled the massive sweatpants Mikey had given her over Emilynn's legs. She pulled the drawstrings as tightly as they would go and knotted them securely.
Next, April attempted to battle the unconscious girl out of her hoodie. She grunted.
"Why is this so hard?" She said with a frustrated sigh.
"Do you need help?" Mikey asked, shifting where he stood. "I could keep my eyes closed."
"N-" April began, but stopped. "Yeah, that would help." She admitted. Mikey turned around with his eyes squeezed shut tightly. He walked over to the bed. April took his arm and guided him to the spot on the bed next to Emilynn's head, though he could have made it there just fine without her.
"What do I do?" He asked, keeping his eyes shut comically tight.
"Can you just hold her up for me?" April asked. "Like, her back?" Mikey nodded, searching with his hands. Once he found where she was lying he managed to prop her up against him, holding her by her shoulders and using his own shoulder as a pillow for her drooping head. "Thanks." April said. She managed to get the hoodie off, and the shirt next. Mikey stiffened slightly as his hands touched Emilynn's bare skin, and April didn't bother to comment. She winced at the girl's ribs, poking out of her thin white skin dangerously. "We really need to feed this girl." April said. Mikey made a questioning noise, opening his eyes instinctively. He saw Emilynn and immediately he realized his mistake, snapping them shut again with a small squeak-like noise. His face turned pink. April found it too amusing to scold him for it. She laughed quietly, quickly throwing the massive sweatshirt onto Emilynn. It seemed to swallow her body whole. "Okay, done." She said, loud enough for Leo to hear. Luckily there were no gashes needing to be cared for underneath any of her clothing.
Mikey opened his eyes, looking at April sheepishly. She held back a laugh. Leo came back into the room. "How is it?" He asked.
"Fine. Just bruises. Her arms are the bad parts." April rolled up the sleeves of the sweater to expose her skinny arms. Like every other time she looked at them, she winced. Leo walked over, crouching by the bed amid all of the supplies he had laid out. He picked up two small sponge-like items that had been inside the box, handing one to April. Then he handed her a bottle of spray. It wasn't labeled. April held it to her face, scanning it's contents.
"What is this?" She asked.
"Donnie made it. Just spray it on basically everything." Leo said. April gave him a skeptical look. "It helps clean it." He said. "And heal it." April still looked at him with a slightly doubtful eye. He let out a breath. "We've used it tons of times on ourselves, April. And Kasey, too. It works great."
April puffed out a heavy breath, looking upwards in a "whatever" fashion. Despite this she began spraying and cleaning Emilynn's left arm. From the other side of the bed, Leo looked up at Mikey. He had not bothered to set her down after helping April change her, and her head lolled into his neck sleepily.
"Mikey, can you hold her arm out for me?" Leo asked.
"Sure thing." He replied, doing as his brother asked. Leo nodded in thanks, spraying down Emilynn's other arm. Just as they were each finishing with cleaning up her arms, Kasey came barging into the room. April was the only one to look at him.
"Who won?" She asked.
"Splinter." Kasey said. At this, Leo and Mikey looked up.
"What do you mean?" April asked for the three of them. Kasey shook his head, flopping onto a free space on the bed with a sigh.
"Brothers should not fight each other for such stupid reasons. Especially when there's a stone cold chick that must be attended to." Kasey said in a deep voice, before continuing in his own: "That's what he said." April gave him a doubtful look and upon seeing it Kasey added "More or less." April rolled her eyes, turning back to Emilynn.
"Where are they?" Leo asked.
"Oh, they're coming. Raph just made the not-so-smart idea of talking back to the mighty sensei, so they're being held up a little longer for a 'special lesson.' "
Mikey clicked his tongue, wincing at the idea. "Poor Don." He said quietly. Everyone mumbled their agreement, before quietly going back to what they were doing.
Leo looked between Emilynn's arms, which were now clean. The marks stood out intensely from her light skin. The majority of them looked to be a few days old already, and beginning to heal on their own. He pointed at one gash that seemed significantly worse than the others.
"I think we should stitch this one." He said. "I can do it." He sorted through the tools he had set around him, picking up a shiny curved needle and a spool of similarly shiny thread.
"Shouldn't Donnie do it?" Mikey asked, giving Leo a worried look.
"Mikey," Leo paused in the act of threading the needle to look up at his brother. "You know I'm just as good at stitching as Donnie is." Mikey averted his eyes, nodding quickly.
"Right." He said. "Sorry." He flapped his hand at Leo in a "go on" sort of gesture. Leo continued with what he was doing. He grabbed a small packet and opened it, pulling out a tiny cloth. He wiped this over the wound. As he did so, Emilynn's hand started opening and closing again like it had before. Her veins rose and fell eerily from beneath the papery skin of her wrists. Mikey seemed to finally realize that he had never set the girl down, and slowly did so. He instead moved to sit beside his brother, once again taking Emilynn's hand. He gave Leo a hesitant look.
"Is this okay?" He asked. Leo just nodded, adjusting himself so he could reach her arm properly from behind his brother. He continued in the act of caring for the wound, and several minutes later, Donnie entered the room. He was rubbing his head with a wince.
"Hey." He mumbled.
"Raph?" Leo asked, gesturing to Donnie's head, which Donnie promptly shook.
"Splinter." He said.
"Ah."
"He did have a point, though. Sorry I didn't come to help sooner."
"It's fine, Don." The rest quietly agreed.
"Well, I'm not usually the one to say this, but... what's the situation?"
Leo nodded towards Emilynn's exposed arms. "The arms are the only part that really need to be looked at." He said. "I've got this one covered... April, how's that one looking?"
April threw the sponge she had been using down, wiping her hands together. "I'm done with this part." She said, looking between Leo and Don. "There's only two that are real bad looking, I think."
Donnie moved to her side to validate this statement. He nodded after a moment. "You're right." He noted, to which April grinned smugly. "I'll start on these two. April?" Donnie stopped, waiting for April's attention. Finally, she dropped her satisfied grin and turned to Donnie quickly.
"What?" She asked, oblivious. Donnie sighed slightly.
"I need you to move." He said.
"Oh!" April exclaimed, her cocky demeanor having vanished. "Sorry." She slid off of Mikey's bed, moving out of the way. As Donnie sat down, she looked between the three turtles in the room. "So." She said, causing two of them to look up. "Am I done here, then?"
Leo spared a moment to turn to her. "For now, yes." Then he added, "You could make something to eat, if you wanted." Seeing her defeated expression. "That would definitely be helpful.
April perked up at that. "Okay, but no whining about what I make this time, Michelangelo." She sent him a hard stare.
"I wouldn't if maybe you made us something edible for a change, April." Mikey replied, making a face at her.
"Edible is kind of a fancy word for you, Mikey." April teased. "Reading up on the dictionary lately?"
Mikey scoffed. "Not nearly as much as you should be with cook books." The pair was grinning at each other. Leo and Donnie exchanged glances, grinning also.
"Yeah whatever." April laughed, letting him win. She left the room, heading into the kitchen. Raphael was sitting on a stool at the table, frowning into thin air.
"What's got you so smiley?" He muttered hotly as he massaged a sore spot on his arm. April only smiled wider.
"Mikey." She said simply. Raph's brow shot upwards. He leaned backwards, staring at April hopefully.
"He's back, huh?" He asked.
"He's getting there."
At this, even post-lecture Raphael had to smile.
*totally dead Gracilynn rises from the grave momentarily to post this after like 10 years*
and now I disappear once again
*poof*