Because You Weren't There

Chapter 3 - Do You See What I See?

*Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, 'It's a Wonderful Life', or 'The Greatest Gift.'

*Author's Notes: Chapter 3 of 'Because You Weren't There' has arrived and I'm not quite sure how describe this one. Donnie's in rare form here. XD

A great big thank you to everyone who has checked out this story and given me such awesome feedback. I appreciate it lots and lots and lots. I sure hope you all like this new chapter. Thank you very much for reading. ;)

CJ

--------------------------

Chapter 3 - Do You See What I See?

Even after blinking several dozen times, my eyes still refuse to cooperate. It takes a good minute or so for them to finally come into focus, and when they do, I realize with sudden gut-wrenching dread that I'm lying face down on a dirty, concrete floor.

Well, I guess that explains the painful crick in my neck.

With a great deal of effort, I raise my head up to do a quick scan of the room and assess my surroundings. It appears to be an abandoned business of some sort. There are three desks haphazardly shoved up against the back wall of the large room and a couple of office chairs overturned in the middle of the floor. Other than those few random pieces of furniture, a handful of mousetraps, and a very disoriented mutant turtle (me), the space is completely empty.

I clumsily force myself up to my unsteady feet so I can continue looking around, but nothing about the place looks at all familiar.

There's always something extremely unnerving about waking up in some strange location with no actual recollection of how you got there.

The good news is I appear to be none the worse for wear. A quick onceover of myself reveals no visible injuries or signs that I had been attacked. Aside from feeling a bit groggy and suffering from a splitting headache, there seem to be no other harmful side effects from whatever substance had been used to knock me out.

The bad news is I have absolutely no idea where I am and I don't see my bo-staff or T-phone anywhere in sight.

Super.

All I want to do at this point is drag my sorry shell back home and crawl into my nice, warm bed, but I can't risk someone stumbling across my T-phone. If Leo finds out I lost it, he'll pitch a fit. Which means I'm now going to have to go back up to the rooftop where that psycho went after me.

I grunt in disgust, more than a little miffed with myself for letting some out-of-shape, middle-aged human get the jump on me.

Clearly, all those years of ninja training are really paying off . . .

I'm just glad my brothers weren't here to witness my incompetence.

Speaking of brothers, I probably should get my tail in gear. If I don't get back to the lair soon, someone's bound to come looking for me.

Aw, sewer pickles!

If my brothers track my T-phone and find it lying abandoned on that rooftop, they're going to totally wig out. I can only imagine the epic lecture that would result.

Ugh!

Faster than the speed of light, I rush towards the front of the building and yank the door open, nearly ripping it off the hinges.

As soon as I step foot outside of the building, I stop dead in my tracks and my jaw practically drops to the ground.

I'm not even sure how to describe what I'm witnessing. I mean, I can try, but it's pretty unbelievable. Like Mikey-level unbelievable.