To Die Happy (Tmnt Donatello Fanfic)

21. Not Much Time

The soft padded footsteps made the slightest noise as she walked down the hallways that led to the place she hated the most. The cells. She believed in punishment, as long as the person learned a lesson, but where punishment is needlessly forced upon someone without proper reason, that... That made her furious.

As a young girl she was raised in a household that believed in discipline where discipline was nessasary. She was a soft and gentle soul that found no pleasure in causing harm, which was certainly not passed on to her daughter. In this situation she would hesitate none in causing harm to the man who stole her from her house and let her husband believe she were dead. She would only seek revenge for the first and hopefully last time in her life to the man who influenced her child, her Miwa, to be such a violent and inconsiderate soul.

She grieved for Miwa, she was too far gone when Oruko Saki finally believed he had gained her trust enough to meet her daughter, which was less than a year ago. After numerous conversations with Miwa, Tang Shen seen no remorse in her eyes, no emotion which involved sympathy or kindness. No, Karai as Oruko Saki had re-named her, had shown hairline fragments of love for her mother's return.

The end of the corridor came quicker than she expected, and an unwanted shiver snaked down her spine. The cells always gave Tang Shen a slight tremor, having spent the last sixteen years in one. Well two in these cells and another one in an unknown location on a business trip with Saki. Her living conditions improved a great matter after they returned to the quarters in New York, and she had been given her own room that she spent most days in when Saki did not require her. Once she met Miwa, she could roam freely around the building, but was not allowed to leave the premises unless Saki permitted it.

The door opened with a protesting moan as her delicate hand pushed it open, silently padding down the concrete steps with a hint of reluctancy as she made herself move down the corridor. She stopped outside Donatello's door and her heart rate quickened. In here was her husband's child. The poor soul that Shredder had been torturing for the last six days. She produced an old key and slipped it in to the slowly rusting lock, opening the door and suppressing a gasp at the limp form of Donatello.

"My son," She breathed, "What has that monster done to you?" Tang Shen knelt down beside the battered turtle, bringing his head in to her lap and stroking his forehead. She looked over the worst injuries she could see, a dislocated left shoulder, what looked like a badly broken right knee, and many deep cuts that was painted in dried over blood. It made her stomach turn and anger bubble up to the brim. She'd heard so much about these turtles, loaned to meet them and return to Hamato Yoshi where she could re-unite and have a family with them. She didn't believe one word the Shredder had told her about the turtles, only that they were her husband's sons and that was all she needed to know.

She watched his eyes flicker open to meet hers, a groan escaping Donatello at the pain that was torturing him shattered her heart to tiny pieces. He'd panicked at first - he didn't hear what Tang Shen had said, but felt the contact, and that was enough to rouse his un-alert senses. As he stared up at her, he wondered if he was really seeing Tang Shen. For all he knew he was unconscious, eyes not even open and laying on the floor where Shredder had left him. "...impossible." He murmured.

"What's impossible, Donatello?" Shen kept her voice quiet, giving the door a wary glance before meeting Donnie's eyes once more.

"You're... You're Tang Shen?" Donnie asked, scanning her face with his eyes and concluding that it must be the woman he believed dead. It baffled him, Donatello had seen photos of her, listened to Splinter painfully recite how she'd died years ago along with their daughter Miwa. Had she escaped somehow? What about Miwa? Was she still alive?

"I am," Shen breathed back, "My husband...talks about me?" She asked with a small smile.

"Y-yeah..." Was the response she got. It was only one word, but it made something blossom in her heart and spread throughout her. Her husband, her Yoshi had not forgotten her. For moments she was distracted by the happiness inside, engulfed in memories of all the better times before Oruko Saki had changed her life forever. A more pressing worry broke through her happiness, and she looked down at the prone child beside her.