Chapter 9

Raph picked Di up and carried her to the couch.

Mikey rushed over and took Di's vitals. Her breathing and heart rate were slow, but steady.

"What happened, Raph?"

Raph looked up at Leo, who had asked the question, and answered, "I'll explain later."

"Why not now? Mikey can take care of her," Leo replied, suppressed annoyance in his voice.

Raph ignored him and concentrated instead on getting the soaking wet rain coat off of Di without hurting her. "We have ta get her shirt off."

Mike stared at Raph, "Geeze, bro! I knew you liked her, but this isn't the way of going about it!'

Raph glowered at Mike, "That's NOT why! She has the needle part of a dart in her back, an' we gotta get it out!"

"Oh..." Mikey said, "Don, Leo, maybe it would be best if you left." Leo nodded and guided her brother from the room.

Raph gently held Di up as Mike slid the shirt over Di's shoulders. Splinter took one look at the weld on Di's back and said to Mike, "Perhaps you should leave as well."

Mike took a look at the black and blue welt and nodded, know that he would not want to be around for what Splinter would have to do. With Mike gone, Splinter took out a knife and told Raph to continue holding Di. Raph held her and he figured out what Splinter was about to do. He buried his face in her hair as Splinter cut to find the needle pushed under her skin and deep into the muscle.

The dark Master glared at George and the five other cowering in front of him. "You had her in your grasp, and you let her GO?!?!?!" he hollered the last word.

George, since he was in charge of the last mission, was expected to answer. "Well, we were coming back, and I had her on my shoulders and she just sort of disappeared," George answered in a frightened voice.

"Just sort of disappeared.' George, you can't even make up a decent excuse," the dark on said in disgust.

George winced and bowed low, all the way to the ground. "It is the truth, oh great one. One moment I was carrying her on my shoulders, and the next, I felt a breeze and she was gone." The Master seemed to grow larger for a second and then shrank back down to his regular size, as if he was surprised. The Master, surprised? George thought incredulously.

"Did any of you notice a sword with the girl?" the Master asked, almost quietly.

When he thought about it, George did remember seeing a sword at her side. "Y-yes, my liege," George stammered.

"Do you have this sword?"

George cringed. "No, we did not think it was necessary to disarm her after the drugs from the dart knocked her out. We didn't think that she would be able to escape." George could sense annoyance and anger from the Master.

"You did not disarm her? You fool!" The Master sighed. "Do you at least have the dart?"

George looked at the man who was in charge of the darts. The man looked as pale as a blank sheet of paper. "N-no, M-master. It-it seems to have di-dissap-peared," the man stuttered, visible shaking.

"IMBECILES!" the Master raged, "GET OUT OF MY SIGHT, YOU STUPID LITTLE WORMS!" They all almost ran out of the chambers. The dark form rested its head on it hand. She has the sword, he thought. Now I MUST have her in my possession, with her power being increased threefold!

Di opened her eyes and felt someone holding her hand. She looked over and smiled. "How did I know it would be you holding my hand?" She said in a weak voice, with a little grin.

Raph grinned, "I dunno. How you feelin'?"

Di took stock of her body. She was rather tired and her back hurt a lot. She smiled, "Well, my back hurts like hell and I'm really tired, but aside from that, I'm fine," she squeezed Raph's hand.

Raph smiled back, "You should probably go back to sleep, then." She nodded, and tried to reach over to cover his hand with hers, but the stitches in her back objected and she grimaced, losing her breath to the pain.

"My back," she said after the pain was gone.

Raph nodded, "It's ok, you sleep."

"Ok," and with that, she closed her eyes.

Raph gently put Di's hand on her stomach and tucked the covers around her. He stood and went over to where the others were standing. April and Casey were there, with the other turtles. Splinter was meditating, seeing if he could get any info on who wanted Di.

"Is she ok?" April asked.

"Yeah, how's she feeling?" That was Leo.

"She says her back was hurtin' and she was tired, bus aside from that, she says she's fine. She's asleep now," Raph answered. Don was studying the dart that Raph brought back and the needle fragment that was pulled out of Di's back.

Leo looked at Don. "What do you think, Don?"

"I'm analyzing the drug used and a sample of Di's blood from the needle right now in my lab, with my computers," he examined the dart and the needle in his hands. "I got some prints off of the dart, and after the comp. is done with the samples, I'll hack into the police department and see if I can get a match."

Leo nodded as he watched Raph go back and watch over Di.