Chapter 3: Taken

April O'Neil's life may be in danger, and whether they liked it or not (which Raph most certainly did NOT), they were the only ones who could protect her. But after a ten-year social hiatus, convincing her to trust them may not be as easy as they'd like.

"The effects should dissipate within—"

"Aaaaaahhhhhhh!"

Leo and his brothers started as Mona raced down the corridor, a flash of pink and green.

The doctor speaking to Master Yoshi winced, tugging guiltily at the lapels of his white lab coat. "—within a few—"

"Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!"

Mona ran by again, arms flailing.

"—hours!" the doctor shouted.

Two hours later, Leo sat wide-eyed on the floor beside his brothers, watching Mona run laps around them, arms out in front of her, giggling incessantly.

"Is she okay?" Leo asked.

Master Yoshi just frowned as Mona hurtled past him, cackling all the while.

"What'd they do to 'er?" Raph growled.

"Least she's not screaming anymore," Mikey groaned.

"Go on, now go!" Mona sang. "Walk out the door! Just turn around now! 'Cause you're not welcome anymore!"

Raph groaned impatiently.

Mikey grunted in response from his spot on the floor.

Donnie continued to snore.

"Did you think I'd crumble? Did you think I'd lay down and DIE? OH NO, NOT I! I WILL SURVIVE!"

Leo winced and Donnie started with a snort.

It was going on five hours since Mona had returned from her evening checkup and almost two hours since she'd started singing.

If you could call it that, Leo thought wearily.

Bedtime had come and gone and, with the exception of Donnie, Leo and his brothers hadn't even tried to sleep as Mona continued to bounce around and screech every song she knew at the top of her lungs.

"Everybody was Kung Fu fighting!"

Leo swallowed his own groan. Not again, he thought.

"I say we tranq 'er!" Raph grumbled.

Mikey raised his head off his arms. "Can we do that?"

"No," said Master Yoshi, not even bothering to open his eyes.

Raph growled irritably and Mikey's head dropped onto his arms again.

Glancing at Master Yoshi, Leo wondered how he could actually meditate with all the noise!

Something dropped into his lap and Leo started awake. Donnie was snoring behind him and Raph appeared to be drooling on Mikey's shell. But it was the little body curling up on his lap that had woken him.

Looking exhausted but still humming, Mona hugged her tail, using it to pillow her head, before sticking her thumb in her mouth.

Leo smiled sleepily, pulling her close before drifting back to sleep.

"Sooo, what's the plan?" asked Mikey conversationally when they'd reached the roof of April O'Neil's apartment building. "We just gonna crash in there with a 'Heeeere's Johnny!' and grab 'er? 'Cause I'm thinkin' that's not gonna go over too well."

"Ya think?" Raph growled, rolling his eyes.

Leo was having an unusually hard time focusing. He didn't dream of Mona Lisa very often but when he did it was always the same memory, the same moment. He would wake and still hear her humming "Ring My Bell," could still feel her curled against his plastron.

Trusting him to keep her safe.

"I ain't leavin' her here, Leo!" Raph shouted, his voice cracking.

"Leo?"

Leo shook his head and looked at Donnie. "Yeah?"

Donnie chewed his lip, consulting the portable computer strapped to his forearm. "She's on the seventh floor—so five floors down. And assuming she has her phone near her, the GPS locator, in comparison to the building schematics on file with the city, indicate she's nearest a window on the east side of the structure."

Leo nodded and he and Raph started toward the east edge of the roof.

"Dude, did you even take a breath just then?" quipped Mikey.

Mona had slept for nearly two days straight and Raph had spent most of it in the hashi after punching her doctor.

"Uh, potential complication," Donnie called across the roof.

Raph growled and Leo paused, both looking around at their brother.

Mikey raised his hands. "Not my fault."

Leo smirked.

Ignoring their little brother, Donnie looked up with a guilty expression. "According to her rental agreement, she has a roommate."

"Is she hot?" asked Mikey.

Donnie shot him an exasperated look. "It's a contract not a Facebook profile."

Mikey shrugged.

"Dumbass," Raph muttered, shaking his head.

Leo looked at his brother.

"I ain't doin' it," Raph growled, his expression guarded. But the stark emotion in his eyes as Master Splinter offered him the candle—

"Dudes, why don't we just call her?" Mikey suggested, pulling Leo out of his reverie. "Tell her to meet us on the roof?"

Raph snorted.

Leo shook his head slowly. "I don't—"

"Actually," Donnie interrupted thoughtfully, "that's not a bad idea."

Leo and Raph stared at him.

Mikey grinned.

Donnie explained. "The fire escape is next to the main living area," he said, "which means we risk running into her roommate; it's also on the north side of the building. The east side, where she is currently, is over the street."

Leo sighed, nodding.

"You really think she's gonna just pop up here to chat after last night?" Raph asked while Donnie made the call.

Leo shrugged. "Not all of us threatened her until she fainted."

Raph snorted. "Pretty sure it was Mikey's ugly mug."

They grinned at each other in a rare moment of comradery.

"Dudes, how do I look?" said Mikey, obviously not listening as he struck a particularly ridiculous pose.

Leo just stared at him.

Raph pushed him over.

"April!" said Donnie suddenly. "It's Donatello! Uh, turtle? Four eyes?"

"Dude!" Mikey hopped to his feet and scrambled over. "Dude, lemme talk to 'er!"

Frowning, Donnie backed away, shaking his head. "We told you we'd find you."

Raph grabbed Mikey's shell.

"April!"

"Meet us on the roof of your apartment building," Donnie continued, scowling at his little brother. "Uh, in five minutes."

"It's me, girl!" Mikey called.

"And come alone," Donnie added, "O-or else we're—uh, you shall be punished… and stuff?" He quickly ended the call with a wince before looking up at his brothers.

Raph had his hand over Mikey's mouth but he was almost grinning. "'You shall be punished'?"

Leo chuckled. "'And stuff.'"

Donnie groaned, head dropping forward.

Mikey finally managed to get free and quickly bounced away from his older brother. "Seriously, dudes," he said after a moment, "how do I look?"

"Sometimes I think you were exposed to Neanderthal DNA," Donnie grumbled as they made their way back to the lair, April dangling over Raph's shoulder, a cloth sack over her head.

"The sack was Leo's idea," said Raph, sounding amused.

"Grabbing her off the ladder before we had a chance to explain was not my idea," Leo argued over his shoulder, still angry. Leave it to Raph to botch something so simple, he thought irritably.

"What the hell's there to explain?" Raph snapped back. "We told 'er to drop it, she didn't. Now she's gonna play by our rules."

The woman in question whimpered.

Exasperated, Donnie huffed. "Would you stop saying things that make it sound like we're going to tie a weight to her ankle and drop her in the East River?"

Raph chuckled darkly while Donnie seemed to realize what he said and immediately started to backpedal.

"Uh, b-because we're not!" he quickly reassured her. "W-we just wanna talk."

"Dude, I wanna hold 'er!" said Mikey.

"No!"

"Absolutely not!"

"You almost dropped her comin' down the fire escape!" Raph growled.

"Did not! I totally didn't almost drop you, angelcakes. Promise."

Leo rolled his eyes.

"Oh, come on!" Raph roared at the ceiling, stomping away impatiently.

Leo gently lowered the unconscious woman to the floor. "At least we caught her this time," he said ruefully.

Master Splinter smirked, despite himself.

"More importantly," said Donnie, kneeling beside Leo with a look of concern, "she'll be safe here until we can figure out who's monitoring classified information."

Shaking his head, Raph paced back and swore, hissing when Splinter's tail snapped him in the leg.

Mikey sauntered in with a six-pack of Orange Crush and a grin that immediately withered when he saw April. "Dudes!" he cried, tossing the soda cans and sliding into Donnie, who knocked heads with Leo. "What'd you do?"

"Son of a—ow!" growled Raph when the six-pack clocked him in the back of the head and Master Splinter snapped him again before he could curse.

"Mikey!" groaned Leo at the same time Donnie mumbled an irritated, "Ow!"

"I'm afraid the fault is mine," said Master Splinter, his tone amused.

"Oh." Mikey glanced at their sensei and grinned. "Kinda like Raph and cockroaches."

But Raph wasn't listening as he picked up the Orange Crush. "Where the hell'd you find these?" he snapped, side-stepping Splinter's tail.

"If she doesn't quit jumpin' every time we move, I'm gonna break something," Raph muttered under his breath, grabbing an ice pack from the freezer while Leo made tea.

"Give her a break, Raph," sighed Leo. "It's a lot to take in."

"It's insulting," he snapped back.

Leo smirked as Raph pressed the ice pack to the back of his skull. "Gotcha good, huh?"

Raph grunted. "Miserable punk's been hiding my Orange Crush. I should skin 'im!"

Leo chuckled, he couldn't help himself. "Yeah, because Orange Crush is totally the priority right now."

Raph scowled. "How 'bout I chuck a six-pack atcher head and you tell me what your priorities are?"

Still smiling, Leo shook his head. "No, thanks."

"Then shut-the-hell—"

An alarm over the stove cut him off, then another started to squeal and Donnie raced by, shouting, "We have a perimeter breach!"

© Nickelodeon