The next day, Don took up the effort to teach Emily.
Emily thought that the bo would be easy. How hard could it be to swing around a big stick? But that was before Don handed her the big sick in question.
The sanded, polished, and taped oak staff reached Emily's eyes when she rested it on the ground, and it easily weighed ten pounds. Looking up at Don, she didn't see how the relatively thin turtle could fight for hours on end with it, much less strike as fast as she knew he could.
"You've never used one of these before, right?" Don asked her, spinning his bo over his hands.
Emily shook her head, weighing the bo in her hands, imagining how much it would hurt if she hit herself.
"Good." Don smiled. "Let's start with the basics."
And that's what he did.
Up, down, right, and left were repeated easily a million times before the day was through, and just as many bruises then covered Emily's arm, sides, shoulders, and head. By the end of the first five hours, Emily could stop an attacker if they rushed in at her with another staff. But only if the assailant in question rushed in at a slow walk and swung the bo in slow motion.
So needless to say, Emily wasn't too impressed with her progress, again. And yet again, Raph was there to try and pick her up from the sullen mood she had pushed herself into.
When he got back from an errand for Splinter, he saw Emily stretched out on the couch, her thin frame clothed in the baggiest clothes he knew her to have, an icepack resting on her head. Her eyes were closed, and Raph couldn't help the thought that she looked younger, softer, like the weight of her life had been taken off her shoulders. But the ice-pack kind of took away from that.
Raph didn't know if she was asleep for not--he hoped she was--but he walked over and sat silently on the coffee table in front of the couch, keeping his amber eyes on Emily's calm face. Looking her over, he saw the blue and purple blobs covering her arms and one appearing just below the hairline on her neck. Raph knew she had been with Don today, and he had hoped he would've been smart enough to come up with a way to teach Emily without inviting her to kill herself.
"Em," he spoke softly, brushing a part of her bangs out of her face. "Em," he called again, a little louder.
Her eyes slowly fluttered open. Em looked up Raph, a small smile tugging at her lips before she pushed it away. "Hi, Raph." She whispered, trying to sit up but instantly regretting it.
"How bad did ya get your butt handed to ya, Em?" he asked, looking at her bruises again, barely withholding a shudder. Raph and his brothers' bruises just appeared as a darker green on their skin. Sure, he had seen Case and April with bruises, but never that close.
She sighed, closing her eyes and wincing as she shifted her weight on the couch. "Badly." Opening her eyes, she looked up at Raph's face again. "Big sticks aren't my friends." She tried to joke, but she was also deadly serious.
"I noticed." Raph smirked. "Did you learn anything else?" he asked, genuinely interested.
Emily thought for a second, cocking her head to the side. "The four basic strikes and the basics of self defense with that thing." She told him, shaking her head. "At least that's what I was supposed to learn."
"Not bad." Raph allowed. "But if ya think you're sore now, just wait until you're working with Fearless. Now let's get ya a heat pack. That ice pack won't do everything." He stood and looked down at her expectedly.
"I don't want to move." Emily whined, pouting up at Raph.
He sighed and rested his hands on his hips. "Don's going to teach ya tomorrow no matter how sore ya are, so ya might as well start shaking it off now."
Emily glared up at him but sighed and relented all the same. Slowly, she forced herself to sit up, cringing at the pain that shot through her muscles. Raph helped her by resting his hand on her back to keep her from lying back down. When she finally stood, it was shaky at best, her legs unwilling to support her weight, however small. It didn't take long for her legs to give up entirely, sending her to the floor.
Well, they would have if Raph hadn't grabbed around her waist and held her up, supporting her against his chest. "Are you alright, Em?" he asked quickly, looking her over from his vantage point.
She nodded. "Apparently my legs don't want to move even more than I did." She joked darkly, looking down at them in disdain. Looking up at Raph, she gave him a weak smile. "Thank you." She whispered.
"Glad to be of service." He smiled back at her. "Do ya want me to let go?" he asked suddenly.
"I don't particularly want to fall. You can help me get to the kitchen and then put me in a chair." Emily told him, looking down at his arms wrapped around her.
He nodded, shifting Em to his side. They slowly made their way o the kitchen, where Raph carefully set Em down in the chair, no letting his eyes leave her face, knowing she would never actually tell him if she was in pain, but it would be betrayed by her eyes. He got the water pack out from the cabinet and set it on the counter ad filled up the tea kettle and started to boil it.
"Why do you help me so much?" Em asked him, thinking back to when she had a concussion.
He refused to look at her while he thought of an answer. "Because believe it or not, ya need someone to be there for ya from time to time." He muttered.
Emily didn't broach the topic, and neither tried to break the silence that fell on them while Raph helped Em loosen her tight and sore muscles. They knew their friendship was special and neither wanted to test the waters of their own minds to see how special.
The night passed quickly, especially for Emily, who basically passed out against Raph's shoulder while she and the brothers were watching a movie. Raph carried her to her room and tucked her small and still frame beneath the old blue blanket.
When Emily awoke, all the brothers except for Don were still asleep. She had wanted to thank Raph for carrying her to her room last night, but now it would have to wait.
Begrudgingly, she trudged to the dojo, where her current source of torture sat on the floor. And it wasn't Don.
The lacquer of the bo gleamed back at her as if it was taunting her, warning her of the deadly weight behind it, threatening to draw blood and break bone should she not monitor her every move.
A few feet away, Don stood in a straddle-leg stance, practicing his quick, deadly open-hand strikes. "Good morning." He called, his breathing heavy.
"Morning." Emily mumbled back, still eyeing the staff.
Don stopped and straightened out, shaking out his muscular legs. He followed Em's gaze to the bo and walked across the mats to her. "Let's not worry about that yet." He smiled, motioning to the corner of the mats where he had been standing. "I think we should try something different."
"Raph talked to you, didn't he?" Emily sighed, following Don and feeling sorry for what his older brother might have put him through.
He shook his head, the smile still on his face. "He didn't kick and scream at me, Emily. He pointed out how sore you got and how bad your bruises are."
"Oh." It was all Em could say. She was shocked that Raph had controlled himself.
So Don took a different approach. He explained to Em how to use the bo, as an extension of her body. Then he re-taught her the things she had learned the day before, with great improvement. She wasn't scared of the bo anymore, and she knew how to absorb the shock of the wood hitting her arms and shoulders. In six hours, she learned what don had planned to teach her over the course of two and a half days.
When Emily left the dojo that night she was exhilarated.
And exhausted.
She was becoming very good friends with the couch, sleeping on it until the next morning, awaking to churning stomach that was demanding food.
When Em got to the kitchen, the brothers were sitting around the table, laughing over their breakfast, some of them with cups of coffee held between their green hands. Em was very accustomed to her life with the brothers, but it still shocked her sometimes how amazingly normal they were.
In her eyes, what she saw while she stood unnoticed in the doorway was a Kodak moment. Raph as leaned back in his chair, his feet propped up on the edge of the table, a cup of coffee in his hand. He was laughing at Don and Mikey, who were arguing about something, but both smiling at each other. Leo sat at the end of the table, his usual visage replaced with one of an older brother enjoying the company of his siblings. Rarely could you find the four together under such good terms, and Em didn't want to ruin it.
Then Leo saw her and smiled his warm smile that seemed too old for a twenty-six year old. Em always thought Leo would have been the perfect older brother to have growing up, almost as good as Austin. "Good to you see you back with the living, Em." He joked.
Emily huffed out her breath, sending her bangs flying, but she was smiling. This banter is one of the things that made her feel like that little sister that had been there her whole life. "Glad to be back." She smiled sweetly. "Any more coffee?" she asked him, walking over to the cabinet to find her mug; the black one with Mickey Mouse chasing Donald Duck painted on it. The brothers had designated it as hers because their hands no longer fit into the handle and Splinter never used mugs.
"Plenty." Done piped up, his arm wrapped around Mikey's neck, holding him tightly while he gave him a noogie. "Mainly 'cause we didn't let this rascal chug the whole thing." Just then Mikey got the upper hand and flipped Don onto the ground, but his older brother hung onto his neck, dragging the orange-banded brother with him. He two continued the scuffle on the floor while the other three laughed heartily, enjoying their picturesque time together.
Well, besides the fact that four of them are giant turtles.
Don was proud of Em. Even more proud than Mikey. She had passed the past six days with flying colors, and she was handling her final exam like a pro, not exerting herself too soon. All his brothers and his father stood in the corner, watching as Em blocked every strike he sent her way and returning with one almost as strong and as fast. Emily had learned faster and better than anyone had expected. She had learned two weapons in two weeks. And she had never complained that they were pushing her too hard.
He lost his train of thought when Emily got a strike in on the center of his plastron. His brothers laughed while he doubled over to catch his breath. He shook his head and smiled. Time to start part two of the sparring. He stood up and waved Mikey over. His little brother knew it was coming, so he sprinted over, drawing his nunchakus. The brothers had agreed that it would be a good idea to connect what she had learned so far.
Emily went pale. Her hands tightened on the bo subconsciously. She was scared on the nunchakus again. She had never been on the receiving end of them before. But she knew how they worked. And apparently if she could just hit Mikey once it would be over.
Raph tensed as well, seeing the fear flash in Em's eyes. His hands tightened around his waist, keeping himself under control. He knew Emily could handle herself and that Mikey wouldn't try to hurt her. But accidents do happen. And Emily could be rather accident prone at times.
Mikey and Em circled each other cautiously; neither wanting to attack first and leave themselves open. Finally, Emily struck first, using the reach of the bo to her advantage. But Mikey struck back quickly, used to sparing Don with their weapons over the years. The two went back and forth for fifteen minutes before Emily fell. She landed hard on her back, the bo skittering across the floor into the corner. Mikey thought he had it in the bag, so he caught his nunchakus and prepared to tap Emily on the shoulder, but Em had other plans. She rolled to the side and grabbed the bo just in time to fling it around and barely nick Mikey in the leg as he chased after her.
Emily had won.
A loud applause broke out from the other side of the dojo, the brothers cheering for her, huge grins on their faces.
Em was growing up on their eyes, and she was turning into a ninja to be reckoned with.