Mikey stared at the vanishing backs of Leo and Karai, then he looked back to the three people that were staring at him and his brother from the corner. The little boy was the only one who wore a face of anything seeming positive, his expression excited as he gently tried to pry himself away from the young woman. He went nowhere, however, as her grip remained strong like bars over his chest. Everyone's eyes seemed to be flickering to everyone else, waiting for something to happen. Unexpectedly, it was the little boy who broke the silence.
"Sarah, stop holding me so tight! They're not going to hurt us!" He whined, pulling harder against her arms. Sarah looked at him incredulously, then looking up at Donnie and Mikey with a slightly confused face.
"Spikey...you don't know that for sure. I have no clue what they are, or what business they have in all this, but I don't want you to go near them. She spoke softly, but there was an obvious threat in her eyes as she stared at the two turtles. Mikey scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
"No, Miss, the boy is right." Donnie said. "We aren't going to hurt you." He tried his best to sound soothing. Sarah gave him a skeptical look, suddenly standing up and handing Ethan to Alex in the same movement. She walked towards Donnie, stopping about a meter away from him. Her eyes scanned over him in a studious squint. Donnie fidgeted in her skeptical gaze.
"Who are you?" She asked. Donnie's eyes darted to the side and back awkwardly.
"Uh, my name is Donatello. And this is my younger brother, Michelangelo." He said, gesturing to Mikey as he addressed him. Mikey grinned and waved despite himself. "We're friends of April's, and we would never purposely inflict harm on innocent people like you." Donnie finished. Sarah's eyes landed on his assortment of weapons accusingly.
"Uh huh. And you're..."
"Mutants." Donnie said. "Turtles, obviously."
"Uh huh." Sarah said again, so Donnie explained further.
"We were originally turtles, but then we came in contact with a substance we have come to call mutagen, thus causing our bodies to-"
"Do you know where my little sister is?" Sarah suddenly demanded, interrupting Donnie's flow of information.
"Uh, um..." Donnie stuttered, caught off guard and failing to hide his guilty face. Sarah gasped.
"You do! I knew it! Where is she? Tell me! Tell me where my little sister is!" She stepped up to Donnie, no longer caring whether he was dangerous or not.
"Woah, woah!" April said, getting in front of Donnie. "Don't get crazy, Donnie's a nice guy, you can trust him."
"What?" Sarah asked. "I want to know where Gracie is! Do you know?" She asked April. "Do you?" She said, moving to Mikey.
Mikey shut his mouth quickly before he could let anything slip. Sarah's expression suddenly changed, her eyes looking at Mikey hopelessly.
"Please." She pleaded. Mikey stared at her sympathetically, wishing he could tell her. Instead, he shook his head gently, looking at the floor. He knew better by now to let his brothers do the talking when it came to situations like these.
"Please." Sarah said again, looking back to Donnie. "You don't understand. What would you do if you ever lost your little brother... uh, Mikey?" She asked, remembering the nickname that Mikey had used to address himself.
Donnie stepped over to Sarah and put his hand on her shoulder. Her shoulder jolted at his touch, but she didn't reject it.
"I do understand. I understand completely." He said softly.
"Then... why?" Sarah whispered, staring at Donnie with teary eyes. "Why wont you tell me where she is?"
Donnie looked down sadly, his eyes shameful. "I can't." He said.
Sarah bowed her head, turning away and walking to Ethan and Alex. She took Ethan's hand walked to the door.
"Sarah! We can't leave!" Ethan protested. Sarah hushed him. He stopped talking, instead craning his head backwards to reluctantly gaze at the two turtles. Mikey waved at him, causing a huge grin to spread across his face. Sarah opened the door and pushed Ethan out in front of her, then, before she stepped out with him, she turned back to April and the two turtles present.
"I trust you." She said. "I don't know why, but I do. But if I'm wrong, if I find that you have put my little sister through any kind of misery..." Her eyes stabbed into the three of them. "I will make your life a living hell." And she stepped out, shutting the door behind her.
"She's not kidding, either." Alex suddenly said from where he stood after a long moment of silence. Everyone turned to him, seeming to be surprised to see him there. He gave them a miserable smile. "But...I don't think she'll have to do that. I can tell you really want to tell us something. What exactly is it that you guys are hiding from us?" Alex asked. He watched them expectantly.
Nobody said anything. Even Donnie was unsure of how to handle the current situation. How could he be? It was chaos. Sure, everything seemed calm, but truthfully, everything was teetering precariously on the edge of a black hole. If they even make one slip, everything could go wrong. Donnie couldn't think. He couldn't think of how he could handle the situation without endangering everyone around him. His family's safety rested on this moment. April's safety. Gracie's safety.
And what could Donnie do? His mind wasn't focusing correctly, causing him to become frustrated. If anything, his mind is always the part of him to solve his problems. But at this moment all his mind was doing was making them worse. Even in the current situation, the thought that continued to run around his head was: This is the boy that loves Grace. The boy that has always been there for her. The boy that is still fighting for her now. This boy loved Grace. And she probably loved him, too.
It was hard for Donnie to look at Alex with those thoughts in mind, let alone talk to him. Suddenly, in what seemed at the present moment to be luck, there was suddenly a large crash from April's bedroom, followed by a weak groan. The eyes of everyone is the room suddenly went wide. Donnie and April exchanged worried looks.
"I got it." Donnie said, dashing to the door and slipping into the door before anyone could think to look through it. April's eyes darted from Alex to Mikey and then to the door.
"Uh, yeah, I better, uh, you know... Um, Mikey, why don't you just hang out here with, uh, Alex?" April stuttered.
"Me?" Mikey cried, but April had already disappeared behind the door in the same manner as Donatello.
Alex rushed in the direction of the door as well, but Mikey quickly blocked his path. "Hey, dude... uh, that's private." Mikey said awkwardly.
"What was that?" Alex asked, eyeing the door curiously.
"Um, n-nothing." Mikey said, struggling to contain himself. Alex shook his head, looking at Mikey and then back at the door, his eyes gleaming rebelliously.
"There's someone in there." He decided. "You're hiding someone from me." He told Mikey, as if Mikey was the one who didn't know.
Suddenly Alex ducked beneath the green arm that blocked his path and darted to the bedroom door. Luckily, Mikey was much faster, and managed to get to the door before Alex did, once again getting in Alex's way and preventing him from reaching the door.
"Hey!" Mikey protested. "Will you cut that out?" Alex gave Mikey an exhausted look of disbelief. Then suddenly Alex's demeanor changed entirely. He stepped back, smiling at Mikey politely.
"Okay, yes, of course. I'm sorry for acting like that. It's none of my business." He said, stepping away from Mikey to show that he no longer cared about the room. Alex's gaze remained focused intently on Mikey.
"I-It's fine..." Mikey said, furrowing his brow as he wondered whether that was the correct response. Alex smiled again.
"So, Mikey. Why don't you tell me about yourself?" Alex asked, changing the subject.
"Okay..." Mikey said uncertainly.
"What kind of stuff do you like to do?" Alex asked curiously, eyeing Mikey with interest.
"Oh, all kinds of things..." Mikey said, beginning to list a bunch of his favorite things. "I like skateboarding, video games, pulling pranks on my bros, making awesome shadow puppets, cooking stuff, reading comics, eating pizza...mmm, pizza..." Mikey zoned off as he continued babbling about all of the other random things he enjoyed doing. Alex nodded as if he were intrigued, but his eyes drifted back to the bedroom door that the noise had come from. That groan had definitely been female.
"Ow! What the hell!?"
Mikey jumped as Raphael's angry outburst suddenly sounded through the house. He whirled around to see Raphael had came in through the broken window and landed directly on top of the broken glass. Mikey realized that Raphael must have snuck out around the time that the rest of them had gone to hide, as he hadn't been present during any of the time that had followed. Raphael limped over to the nearest chair, where he immediately put his foot in his lap and began inspecting it. It was bleeding in several places already. He cursed under his breath as he began trying to pick the glass from his foot. Mikey quickly grabbed the tweezers that had been laying beside the couch from when Donnie had been working on Gracie and brought them to Raph, who took them without any thanks.
Raph looked up from what he was doing with his foot and gave Mikey a quizzical look. He was about to say something when his eyes looked past Mikey and saw Alex at the creeping towards the bedroom door.
"Hey!" Raph shouted. Mikey turned around anxiously, realizing too late that he had been deceived. Alex's head whipped around and gave them a wide-eyed look. Mikey immediately jumped to run and stop Alex before it was too late, but his plan fell short as Raphael, who too had jumped up to stop Alex but had instead stepped on his injured foot and fallen with a cry of frustration, crashed into him and knocked them both over.
"Wait!" Mikey cried hopelessly. Alex looked at him guiltily for a half of a second, but his hand was already on the door handle. It was too late for him to stop now. Too late for them to stop him. So, Alex gritted his teeth, prepared for the worst, and flung the door open.
Welp, I have done it again. I have prolonged the inevitable reunion of Gracie and Alex. I am so darn despicable C: Guess you guys will just have to wait for the next chapter! Muahahahahaha! Sorry to make you guys wait, but I do love me some suspense. Another huge wait between chapters, yes I know. I apologize for that, but I have seriously been having a rough time working on the book lately. Errgggggg! Things have been very complicated for me and I have been very stressed and depressed lately. Don't worry, I'm okay, it's just that you'll have to deal with my slow progress here. This chapter is so short! I usually try to make my chapters with a 3,000 word minimum, and this one is pretty far off that mark. I probably should have written more...but then again, I'm a lazy loser. Thanks for the support of this story! I really am so happy that so many people enjoy it so much! Thanks for sticking with me for yet another chapter, I would love it if you would stick with me for chapter fifteen! See you then, byeee!