Fierce: A Forever Series Book

Chapter 16

As Raph's eyes opened again, the pounding behind his eyes had eased off a bit, enough that he was almost fully aware of what was going on around him. He was still sluggish, his arms felt like lead weighing him down. He glanced around the room, squinting at the bright lights above his head and felt like something was missing.

"Probably just the drugs wearing off," he told himself. But something kept tickling the back of his mind and made him squirm anxiously. 

Pieces of hushed conversation rang through the lab and made him frown. He could only hear mumbling, thanks to the sleeping drugs still wearing off, so he strained his ears to hear as much as he could.

"-...upposed to do? -... leave her there? -...angerous." Raph frowned. "Dangerous? What was dangerous?" He looked around to see a chair sitting beside his bed, tilted at an angle that whoever was inside the chair would be looking right at him. A cup of now cold coffee sat on the table, the only evidence that someone was there.

Then it clicked.

Jasmine.

Where was Jasmine?

The last thing Raph could fully remember was the fight with Blackout, where he was drugged and then passed out. Raph fought hard to remember anything else past that and only managed to remember that he had been awake once, and talked to someone. But he still couldn't remember who he talked to or how long he'd been awake.

But that wasn't his main concern now. Right now, he needed to find Jasmine and see if she was okay. "I'll never forgive myself if somethings happened to her," he thought as he readied himself to throw back the thin sheet covering the lower half of his body.

He struggled to lift his arm but managed to grab the sheet and rip it off, leaving him shivering on the bed. He took a deep breath before sitting upright and swinging his legs over the edge of the bed. When he did so, his ribs started to hurt like crazy, making him look down and see the white bandage that covered his plastron. He winced when he realized that he must have some broken ribs. He sat for a moment as he gained his bearings and then slid his body off the bed.

He almost toppled over when a wave of dizziness hit him from standing too fast. He stumbled to the side and caught himself on the edge of the bed. "Come on Raphael. Don't be so weak. Take a step." His legs shook under his weight as he stood, waiting for the wave of dizziness to pass. He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his arms lightly to get some blood moving through them and to distract himself. He clenched his teeth and prepared himself to take a step forward.

"Raph?" Donnie surprised tone rang through the lab, causing Raph's focus to waver and his eyes to shoot open. There stood his genius younger brother with a shocked look. But before he could do anything, he noticed that the ground was quickly moving towards his face.

"Oh shit." He hit the ground hard and the bang echoed through the room. He lay on the floor, feeling the cold hardness of the concrete against his cheek and sighed. The pain in his ribs only got worse from the impact and he cursed silently, sucking in a gasp of pain through clenched teeth. Donnies hysterical laughter broke the silence before Raph heard him slowly walk closer.

"R-Raph," Donnie tried to stifle his giggles but failed. Raph huffed. "Are... hehehe... are you okay?" Donnie kept laughing as he crouched down and tipped his head to look directly at his older brother.

"Shut up Donnie." Raph growled before Donnie covered his mouth with his hand to keep in another fit of giggles.

"I-I'm sorry." Donnie laughed again before reaching down to help Raph stand up. "It's just... how did you even manage to get out of bed? You shouldn't be able to move all that much let alone hold yourself up for as long as you did." He said as he hoisted his bulky brother up and struggled to get him back onto the bed.