And Then There Were Five

Chapter 11: Earn Your Keep

The song for this chapter is Goodnight Moon by Go Radio

(Silvana's POV)

The clock read 2:30 AM. The boys should have been back an hour ago. My nails were bitten down too stubs, and my eyes were burning from staring at the TV for too long, but there was no way I was going to bed before making sure they were okay. After another ten minutes of nerve-racking silence, I heard a commotion at the entrance of the lair.

It was the turtles! But Donnie was leaning heavily on Leo, and there was blood oozing out of a deep gash on his right shoulder. They made their way to the lab, not even taking any notice to me. I could hear them in the lab, trying to figure out what the best thing to treat the injury was.

"Lay him down on the table."

"Mikey, go get the first aid kid from the shelf in the back."

"We need to put pressure on it."

"Hold on, there could be something lodged in there, let's not be too rash."

"Hold on? Are you joking?! He's bleeding to death here!"

"Guys, is he going to die?"

"No, Mikey."

"Ahem," I cleared my throat, standing in the doorway. They turned to me, noticing me for the first time, and then went back to focusing on helping their brother. 

"Okay, hand me that cotton swab."

"No way! There's too much blood to put that thing anywhere near an injury that serious, it'll be a huge mess."

"Raph trust me, I know what I'm doing!"

"Ahem," I cleared my throat again, this time louder. They all turned around again. "I think I might be of assistance here," I said.

"And makes you think we want your help?" Raph said, sizing me up.

"Well for starters, I think that sitting around arguing like a bunch of dopes isn't going to help Donnie at all. I know what to do, let me help him," I reasoned with them.

Leo was about to stop Raph from saying something rude, when Donnie spoke for the first time since he was attacked, "Let her help. I trust her," he said weakly.

"We don't have much time, so you'd better make a decision fast," I said, moving towards the chair beside the bed Donatello was on.

"Okay," Leo sighed.

"Good, now I need some honey, ginger, kale, a bowl, scissors, gauze, tape, and alcohol," I informed them.

"On it," Mikey nodded and dashed out of the room. He was back one minute later with all the supplies I needed.

"Thank you Mikey." I put a drop of honey into the bowl, and sprinkled a pinch of ginger in as well. Then I chewed up a couple leafs of kale until they had a paste-like texture, and mixed them in with the honey/ginger concoction. I washed my hands, then dabbed the rubbing alcohol onto the cut, cleaning it and stopping the bleeding. Scooping up the food paste with my fingers, I spread it across Donatello's cut, and he winced in pain.

"Dudette, what is that?" Mikey asked with wide eyes.

"It will help the wound heal faster. The kale helps inflammation and increases the healing rate, ginger gets rid of any trace of infection, and helps reduce pain. The honey is just soothing on the skin, and is sticky so it makes a good bonding agent for the ginger and kale," I explained while still working with the paste.

"Does it hurt?" Leo's concerned eyes were on Donnie.

"It did when she was putting it on, but it actually feels really good," his voice was already sounding like he felt better. I placed a square gauze bandage over the wound, and taped it up.

"Voilà," I announced after snipping the final piece of tape, "that baby should be way better by morning."

"Thank you so much Silvana, I already feel 75 percent better!" Donnie smiled up at me, the relief in his eyes evident.

"Yay! Don isn't going to die!" Mikey cheered. At this, we all rolled our eyes.

I decided this was a good time to leave the brothers to talk about what happened tonight, and made my way back over to the couch. I flipped on the TV and Space Heroes was on again; how convenient. Leo and Mikey had me hooked on this ridiculous show. I was halfway through about my 45th episode of the night, when a voice behind me made me jump.

"This is my favourite episode," Leonardo came walking into the main room.

"It's growing on me," I admitted with a smile, and scootched over so he would have room to sit down.

"What are you still doing up?" he eyed me, "It's almost 3:00 in the morning, you know."

"Yeah," I sighed, "I guess I was waiting up for you guys to make sure you were okay. Good thing I did," I added.

"Yeah. . ." he scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, "So, did Raph ever, you know, apologize for what happened this morning?"

"No, and I don't expect him to," I hugged my knees to my chest, and stared straight ahead. I did not want to see the look of pity for me on Leo's face.

"He should have," Leo frowned.

"Oh, well," I shrugged, "I'm over it."

"Good, because I'd be damned if you thought we were some creepy perverted guys," he said.

"Hey, what's wrong with bunking with creepy perverted mutant turtles in a sewer?" I asked in mock-offence. At this, he cracked up. He had such a nice laugh, but he was always so serious, so you can only hope for small snippets of it.

"Nothing at all," he was suddenly serious, "Mikey spoke for all of us before when he said we felt very close to you," he turned his shining blue eyes on me.

"Oh I think Raph must be the exception then," I joked.

"I speak for myself when I say that I care deeply for you Silvana," his voice lowered a bit in pitch, sounding a bit husky. It sparked something me.

"Thank you, I feel the same way," I tried not to sound too serious, "you have all treated me like family, and for that I am grateful." 

"You're not the worst person to live with, you know," he grinned from ear to ear, and I copied him. I was suddenly very tired, though. I yawned and stretched, and accidentally stretched my wings out as well, and they brushed against Leo. I was about to apologize, when he did something very unusual and it caught me off guard. He took my good wing in his hands, and stroked the feathers ever so gently for a good couple minutes. It actually felt really relaxing, so I tilted my head back and closed my eyes. 

"Your wings are spectacular,"Leo's voice pulled me from my daze. I couldn't help blushing. "Tell me," he began, "how did you learn to make that healing paste for Donnie?"

"Well, when you are on the run your whole life, and have no one but yourself, you have to figure some things out on your own. I picked up some tricks along the way, so I guess you could say I have a good bit of experience under my belt," I winked at him.

"Hmm," he mused. "I don't want to be rude, but I'm extremely tired, and you're currently sitting on my bed. . ." he trailed off.

"No, I'll take the couch, you need a good night's sleep," I replied.

"I sleep fine here," he argued.

"Really? The pale complexion and eye bags you're sporting beg to differ," I countered. "I will survive a night or two on the couch, God knows I've slept in worse conditions." A night or two. My bandages come off the day after tomorrow, which meant I was free to leave after that, but I wasn't sure what I wanted. I knew I hated being so far from the sky, but I would miss my sort-of family so much.

"If you insist," the blue masked turtle turned to the direction of his room, then paused, "hey Silvana?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"Everything."

"Sleep well, Leonardo." I said goodnight, but I had trouble falling asleep, but it wasn't the couch. The places on my shoulder and wing where Leo had stroked just wouldn't stop tingling.