TMNT Husband Scenarios

The inbetween

Matt's POV:
It's been a few weeks since the fire. The building has been closed off for reconstruction, and every time I walk past it I get this haunting feeling.

The funeral was the worst part. Seeing a photo of Tadashi while everyone else around me wept like he was their own son. A woman and a young boy seemed the most saddened. If I remember rightly, the woman's name was Cassandra or Cass and the little boy was Hiro. My guess is the woman was his mother or sister and Hiro was his little brother. All that aside, nothing had prepared me to see Dawn's reaction.

I hardly recognised her when she arrived. Her usually long curly hair had been tied back into a tight bun with not a strand out of place, her normal cheery face was replaced by one of misery and pain. She wore a straight black dress with a belt synched in at the waistline, and black ballet flats.

She didn't look like the Dawn I know. She didn't look herself. She looked empty.

I kept glancing at her during the funeral, hoping to at least get a smile or something back. Nothing. I don't think she even blinked. She looked emotionless, like there was nothing inside.

I desperately wanted to hug her and tell her everything was alright, but something told me that no amount of hugs and affection could fill the empty space. The Tadashi shaped space.

One person I didn't see at the funeral was GoGo. It surprised me. I thought her and Tadashi were best friends, before Dawn came into the picture.

My best guess was that she was at home, grieving in her own way. Maybe she was crying into a pillow or sitting calmly on her bed waiting for the emotion to take over. Wherever she was, she wasn't with me.

As I wander around the halls, the atmosphere feels hazy. Like a storm cloud is about to engulf the school.

My next class starts in 10 minutes. Usually I'm the late one to classes, but today I'm not in the mood for slacking off. As I enter my classroom, the whole room is empty except for one person - Dawn.

She sits at her desk, her head facing down on the wooden surface and being shrouded by her arms. She's wearing a black hoodie and ripped jeans with her black sneakers, which to me indicates she's still grieving.

Taking a deep breath I approach her desk and put my books down at the desk next to hers. I rest a hand on her back. "Are you alright?" I ask.

She lifts her head to show me her tear stained face, little bits of mascara mixed with the tears. "No, I'm not." She whimpers.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I ask sensitively.

She takes a deep and shaky breath. "Every time I close my eyes I see him. I can't forget what happened, I can't erase the picture of the explosion from my mind."

I nod. "I understand how you feel."

She suddenly straights her back. "No you don't!" She hisses. "Ever since it happened everyone has been telling me they understand what I'm going through, but they don't!" I'm a bit shaken by her comment. "They've never had someone close to them get killed right in front of them, they've never had the feeling of being the last person they talked to before they were killed and they've never felt the pain that I have felt!" She rests her head on the desk and starts to sob. "Tadashi..." She says quietly. "I wish you were here..."

I turn to the front of the room, unsure of what to do. How do you comfort a crying girl who just shouted at you because you were trying to make her feel better?

...

All through class I couldn't stop thinking about what might have happened to GoGo. She has to be at school today.

I'm not too sure who GoGo hangs ou with, but I've seen her around with a girl who has long straight honey blonde hair. According to Jordan she hangs out at the library since the labs were destroyed.

As I search the library I finally find the girl sitting at a desk all on her own. She's accompanied by a huge stack of science books which she seems to be enjoying reading... Weird.

I approach her desk. "Are you friends with GoGo?" I ask.

She looks up from her book. "Excuse me?" She asks in a polite tone.

"Are you friends with GoGo Tomago?" I repeat.

She thinks for a moment. "Oh, you mean Leiko Tamaka?" I nod. "Yes she's my friend."

"Do you know where she is?" I ask.

The girl thinks again for a moment. "She'll probably be out in the courtyard."

Without even saying thanks (rude, I know) I race off to find GoGo.

The girl was right. She's sitting on a vacant bench in the courtyard, fiddling with some wheels on her rollerblades.

I start walking towards her. "Is this seat taken?" I ask. She looks up, but she doesn't have that usual sparkle of rebellion in her eye. In fact, there's no sparkle at all; she looks drained.

"Be my guest." She says, shuffling down.

I sit next to her, and there's an awkward silence for a few seconds. "I didn't... I didn't see you at the funeral." I say, trying not to sound insensitive.

"I don't do funerals." She replies bluntly.

I nod. I don't want to make things worse than they already are, so I try my best to not to bruise her emotionally traumatised state anymore than I have to.

"He was a good guy." I say.

"You barely knew him." GoGo says, looking over at me. "I was his best friend."

"I know, I know." I say, trying to avoid an argument. I sigh. "I can't imagine how upset you are right now..."

She looks over at me again. "My best friend was killed in an explosion and I wasn't there to protect him." She says. "I failed him. I wasn't there when he needed me most." She starts to sob, something I never thought I would see GoGo ever do. "I failed my best friend." She says through her tears.

I rest an arm on her back. "Hey, he died trying to save someone. He didn't die in vain."

She wipes away a tear. "So how's Dawn taking it?"

I straighten up remembering her brash reaction at the beginning of my first class earlier. "Not very well." I reply.

GoGo nods and straightens up, fixing herself up. "So now that Tadashi's gone, are you going to try and get with Dawn?"

"What?" I say, not paying attention.

"That was the whole idea, right?" She replies. "Get Dawn and Tadashi away from each other so that you could date Dawn?"

"Oh," I reply. "Yeah, I guess."

"Okay." GoGo replies, sounding slightly disappointed.

"But," I say, facing her straight on. "Whatever happens, we'll still be friends."

GoGo nods. "Friends for ever."

After the bell goes, I start to wander to class. Millions of things are whizzing through my mind at 100 miles an hour. I keep thinking about my chat with GoGo, and then me trying to comfort Dawn. But that one question keeps pestering me like a fly on a pizza slice:

So now that Tadashi's gone, are you going to try and get with Dawn?

Honestly, I don't know what I want anymore. Seeing Dawn act so brashly is making me reconsider whether she's the girl for me, and after everything that's happened with GoGo...

I'm just so confused. There's too much happening at once. I haven't had a moments peace since Tadashi died, and all of a sudden my world is in ruins.

So I'm the inbetween.

It's either Dawn.

Or GoGo.