Chapter 14- The Immortals

A/N: Hello again. This chapter is a spicy one. Full steam ahead!

…

I step out of the elevator and almost stumble. The first floor is quiet and dark. The only light is coming from the cinema-size Screen Time displaying a forest clearing with a doe and her fawn sitting on the banks of a small brook. I head up the spiral staircase and I see Anya's bedroom door to the left. She's not in there. She was up late baking cookies with Devin and decided to stay the night with her. I knock on the door to the right before entering.

"Sasha, are you resting?"

"I know who you are. You are Donnie, a turtle and a man. You are a workaholic, coffee drinker and I like it when you show up at random hours of the night."

I'm glad she remembered her mental exercise. "Good job, Sasha. Did I wake you?"

"I wish." I hear her say in the darkness. I see her as she taps a side table light to mid-glow. She's seated on a couch in the midst of her large bedroom. She's wearing sweats and a tank top and is wrapped up in a velvety throw. Her bed is neatly made. It's been almost a week since she's slept.

"What were you doing?"

I walk over to her and she removes an ear bud from her ear. "Listening to the bible."

"I didn't know you were religious."

"Not as much as I probably should have been… I thought listening to the 'Begats' would have been boring enough to knock me out, but as you can see I'm still wide awake."

I sit beside her and give her a quick check-up; eyes, ears, throat. She looks so much better that she had been. "How are you feeling?"

"Not too bad. I had a headache earlier today. I couldn't focus on just one thing… this morning I saw something…"

My stomach tightens. "What did you see?"

She sighs. "I was resting my eyes earlier today and I though I heard someone whisper my name. I opened my eyes and I saw… my mother… and then in the bathroom, I was washing my face. I looked in the mirror and…" She laughs. "I looked like a turtle… at least I think it was me. Maybe I was seeing Anya as an adult. I reached out my hand and touched the glass. My green reflection was smiling softly… but I was crying." She looks over at me. "This disease is quite entertaining. I'm recording everything I think and feel, so you can add it to your records later."

At some point my right hand crosses the small distance between us and find her left hand. She turns to me and rubs my fingers. "Donnie, don't worry. I've been just fine the rest of the day. No pain, no hallucinations… I've just been a little lonely with my thoughts… But I've also been quite productive. Imagine how advanced society would be if we didn't need sleep." She says with a bit too much wimsy for my taste.

The light-hearted spin she's painting over her hopeless condition is not doing anything for the lump in my throat. If I look at her, I'll loose it, so I ask her. "How have you been productive?"

"Getting my affairs in order." She says plainly.

I close my eyes and sigh. I'm ashamed at how I'm feeling right now. I am very, very angry. I'm angry at the cards dealt to me and Sasha. I'm angry that she's so young. I'm angry that I can't have what my brothers have. How is it that my bulldozer of a brother, Raphael, was able to keep Amber? I never caused as much trouble as he has. I fix things, not shred them to pieces. Don't I deserve someone if HE does? And Mikey. He's a grown man yet still so childish. Why, oh why were the stars practically aligned for him to find and keep Arimi? I've always been the sensible one, always calculated my steps for the good of my family. If he can stumble into love why do I have to create miracles to only get a glimpse?! And Leo… Leonardo…

I'm an egotistical ass.

I am a mutant. A turtle unnaturally evolved. Yet, I have so much more than a lot of humans do. I have a family and now a… daughter. I still have more than Leo might ever have. So I guess I can only be mad at myself. I allowed myself to get too close to Sasha, even after I knew I could never have her.

I can never have her.

Sasha shakes me back to reality. "Donnie, what human do you trust the most?"

"Why do you ask?" I still can't look at her.

"I'll tell you after you tell me."

I purse my lips. I've never really thought about it before. I know so very few. The ones I do know… I trust them with my anonymity, with my life, my father, my brothers… but who do I trust with it all? "April Jones. I and my brothers have known her the longest. I trust her with it all."

Sasha nods and awakens her data-pad. She taps along its surface. A moment later. "April Jones, formerly April O'neil. Was head of the action news team from channel six, New York. Currently living in Boston, runs an antique store and hobby shop with her husband Casey…" Sasha mentions her birth date, social security number, blood type, mother's maiden name and even her SAT score. Sasha looks up at me and smiles. "Seems nice. How did you end up meeting her?"

"Back when we were teenagers, one of my brothers saved her from being hurt by an evil ninja clan trying to shut her up. We helped each other, hurt, cried and triumphed together. She gave us hope in humanity. I'll forever trust her." I say.

I miss her so much.

"You befriended a news reporter who never reported you… I trust her as well." She looks back at her data-pad and begins to scribble away.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

"I need someone to give my inheritance to… to make sure that Anya will have access to it. I'm completing my last will and testament before I forget again. I think April is the best person to do this, don't you?"

"I don't want to talk about this." I blurt out. Why is she giving up so willingly?

"We have to talk about this. I'm able to focus now. I don't see anything strange, I'm feeling well and I want to get this correct while I have a sound mind."

She continues to swipe over her screen and I just look at her. She's so pale. Her sleepless, sunken eyes shift left and right. My hands become restless. I slowly reach out to her again and stop her hands from racing over the screen. I finally look into her eyes and I almost break.

"I'm so close. I'm so close, Sasha… I know I'll find the answer soon but it won't…" my grip pulses gently while holding her hands. It's all I can do not to pull her into my arms. This feeling of helplessness I've only felt a few times before; when our father was kidnapped, when Raph got hurt, when Amber left, when I lost Leo. But this is much more distressing. She's right in front of me; crumbling from the inside out… and I can't do a damn thing to stop it… I can't save her. I just want her to close her eyes and rest. But she can't, she can't shut down. Even if I tried to induce a coma her body would be still but her mind would be racing. Soon she'll overload, succumb to delirium and aggressive dementia, the last synapse will dissolve and then… she'll finally be able to sleep.

But I love her.

I open my sorely shut eyes as she turns to face me. How can she smile at me? I've failed her at the cost of her life!

"Thank you." She says.

I shake my head and the tears sting my eyes and run shamelessly down my pebbled skin. She cups my face and I can barely see her Hazel eyes through the mist. "Thank you, Donatello, for saving my daughter and countless others from this soon-to-be vanquished disease."

"But I can't…"

She nods her head. "Anya will be ok without me. Time will take care of that. And I know she'll have you to help her." Her slender thumbs rub away the tears drenching my cheeks.

"As selfish as it sounds… I'm not worried about Anya right now… I want, I need you with me." I confess.

Sasha gasps and I feel her hands start to fall away, but I catch them and hold them against my face. "Please Sasha, tell me what to do. I once hated it here, but now I know that here is where I found my true self. I found myself while being by your side. I don't want to go back to the man I was before I met you. Without you, I won't know who I am."

She allows my weeping to subside before I feel her scoot closer to me. I look up and her face is so close. Something in her eyes sparkle and I briefly loose my bereft reverie.

"I know who you are. You are Dr. Donatello Hamato, a mutant turtle. A wonderful scientist and a beautiful man… and the one that I love." She kisses me full on the lips, her warm, honey eyes drawing me in.

I don't want to give in yet, although I let the heat of her mouth wash over me. I gently pull her back, wanting to ask her if she is sure about what she's doing. She sees the question on my face and says, "I know who you are and I love you." We lock eyes and she presses against me once more.

Her mouth is sweet and open and inviting. I cradle the back of her precious head and journey down her porcelain spine. Her moan vibrates over my lips and ignites something, once hidden, now fierce and vibrant within me. My fear and hunger war for my attention. Her warming hands make the tender flesh of my neck tingle. Her hands are free to roam. They squeeze down my arms and trace the edge of my shell and explore the grooves of my plastron. My own hands find pleasure beneath her thin shirt. Her skin is so soft. I massage the lean tendons, making sure I touch every inch of her back and belly. I reach higher and lightly rub my thumbs over the sensitive rounds of her breast and she pulls away with a shutter. She looks at me, breathing hard. She licks my lips and reaches behind my shoulders. She slowly peels away at the fabric tape of my shirt, then roughly rips it down off of my arms. The slight pain mixed with her mouth seizing mine again make me growl loud and low. It rumbles from the base of my throat. It's a primal sound I've kept buried, a sound I only let out in my most private and lonely times. And now that I've let it bellow in front of her, my fear takes over.

But she doesn't shy away. She leaves a trail of burning kisses over my face and down my neck and hums a string of Russian responses, quelling my panic.

"Sasha…" I exhale. I remove her shirt, guide her to lie back on the couch cushions and devour her body. I feel her pulse quicken as I clamp down on her throat. Each supple breast becomes perky between my teeth. Her cries of affirmation, her fingers running around in circles on top of my head, and the scent of her arousal flooding my senses, cause me to salivate. It's her smell, her intoxicating aroma that's driving me wild! I have to get to it! I loosen the drawstring of her pants and whip them away. I don't expect her to cry out the way she does as I bury my face into her panties and revel in the essence of her core. I look up at her; I'm sure I must look absolutely feral to her. But her hands are back behind her head in surrender and that smile on her face makes me growl again as the pain in my lower plastron starts to throb.

I blink a few times, trying to keep the beast in me at bay. I climb up over her and meet her eyes. I entangle my hands in her hair and slowly and deeply kiss her. I want her to remember this, oh God! How I want her to never forget this moment. The temperature between us heightens and she pushes me away, taking a long-awaited breath.

"Donnie… I want you to know something… I've never done this."

I trace her lips with me finger. "I never thought I would ever do this." I say.

"I want you to be my first… I want you to be my one and only. Will you please… make love to me, Donatello?"

I'm almost overcome. She's giving herself freely. She's asking me, begging me. I want to keep her forever. But we know that's impossible. So she's giving me the next best thing; everything she has left. I pick her up bridal style, carry her across her room and amorously lie her down in her bed. I remove the rest of my clothing and I remove the rest of hers. I can't help myself but to take a mental note of her stunning body. Her contours and curves shaded of pinks and reds muted under the dim light dazzle me. Her hands stroke over those curves, waiting for me. Her eyes follow me as I join her in bed. The cool sheets feel good around our overheated bodies.

"I love you, Sasha." I utter against her lips.

Her eyes don't waiver as she receives me with sharp breaths and teary eyes… and her nails combing up my shell. We blissfully get lost in the labyrinth of ecstasy, feverishly attempting to get in a lifetime of love-making in one night. Being amateurs, we give much grace; learning, seeking, finding, then lusciously abusing one another. I've never experienced such radiance. She eagerly captures me in every way. She says I taste like chai and smell like fresh cotton. But I'm the one that's hooked. I'm an addict to every dripping part of her. I want more and, at least in these moments, I don't care about the doom of withdrawal awaiting me.

Making love to a dying woman, I've never known her to be more alive than she is with me now. I don't focus on our mortality; don't think about the inevitable, though I sense it lurking in too close in the future. I just give her everything I have, however she wants me. I can't believe she wants me, but she does. I wonder how much she really feels, if her nerves and synapses are still connected firmly enough in the id of her brain to sense what I sense… if she knows how rawly I need her to feel what I do. I hold her tight into me as another torrent of cries erupt from her voice. My name continues to roll deliciously out of her mouth and I roar back, following her over the cliff of release. In that instant, we are immortal, eternal. Air and water aren't necessary. We are gods in that everlasting moment; until our muscles relax and my left hand finds her hip and my right hand finds the back of her neck and I kiss both hinges of her jaw bone. I kiss each bone in her collar. She opens her eyes and I grow cold. Her hazel eyes have gone to a dull brass. I whisper her name and, to my relief, she smiles. She wraps her legs around me and tells me that she knows who I am and that she wants me to do it all again.

…

My eyes pop open and I don't recognize my surroundings. I look across the room and the blue foggy scene of a harbor sunrise plays on the Screen Time. I stiffen when I feel someone moving against me.

It's Sasha… What a wonderful night we had.

She exhales warm air onto my plastron where her head lay. "Good morning, Donnie." She purrs.

It's morning. How long did we… and when did I fall… how long has she been waiting? "Were you able to sleep at all?" I feel down and wrap my arms around her warm nude body.

"No. I was awake the entire time, listening to you breathe, replaying everything we did just hours ago, enjoying how my muscles quake as my body recalls everywhere you've touched me."

"How are you able to make the thing that's ripping you away from me, sound so beautiful?"

She kisses me on my chin. "I will always be with you, Donatello. After last night, I no longer fear what's coming. You took all my fear away."

I turn over and pin her beneath me. I place kisses like tiny prayers all over her face.
God please, just a little more time. "You're gorgeous, strong and so very sexy. I want to take you home. I want you to meet my father. I want you to have dinner with my brothers and sisters… I want to wake up with you by my side every morning, just like this. I want to make you your favorite tea and waffles. I want to lie down with you and give you whatever you want, whenever you want. I want to raise Anya with you and grow old with you. I want to spend the rest of my life showing you how I feel." I lean into her hair, inhale the coconut splendor and indulge in the taste of light sweat on her neck.

She giggles a bit and rests her lips to the side of my head. "I thought that I was the only one with a faltering mind… You know those things won't happen with us."

I look down at her and whisper. "I know. I just wanted you to know that I would have done it all if I had the chance… I love you Sasha."

She kisses me and I return it gladly, wanting to make the moment last, wanting to let her know I mean every word I say… and then my stomach rumbles.

"Are you hungry?" She asks coyly.

"No, not for food." And our lips meet once more.

…

A/N: YES! Do your thing Donnie! Well that was spicy but also bittersweet. Any thoughts or comments?