Anticipation, Part 6

Title: Anticipation, part 6
Author: becky016
Warnings: Mild violence and swearing (Don’t read if you don’t like!)
Note: I will be using these (---) to divide my story as some scenes, may, jump back and forth to one another.
Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT

“RAPH! BEHIND YOU!”

Charlotte cried out for the turtle’s attention as it seemed like it was all over for him. Raph however wasn’t getting the hint, not until he took one last glance over his shoulder.

The girl, or in this case ‘robber’ had her gun out and she was about to smash his head in with the blunt end.
“WHOA!” with a swift move Raph had avoided the attack, and in the process gotten a hold of the gun. With his strength being more superior than the girls, he was pretty sure he had the upper hand. The blonde haired woman did her best to wriggle her firearm away from him, but it was futile.
“Now look ‘ere blondie I didn’t come ‘ere for a fight!” Raph warn, he didn’t fancy hurting this girl. Bad guy or not.

Seeing as their original plan had failed. The second robber, a male this time, decided to appear out of hiding. He was also armed and he didn’t think twice before lighting the entire jewellery store with bullets.

Both Raph and the girl hit the deck, along with Charlotte. Who did her best to evade the shattered glass that flew into the street from the display window.

Now Raph had, had enough. What was meant to be a simple task had now turned into an all-out nightmare. Being up against an armed madman was one thing, but trying to face off against him and his comrade with his pregnant girlfriend was a whole other. Either way he had to stop this.

Each time the turtle went to take a look the robber took another shot.
“Graham! What are you doing?!” the girl yelled, clasping her hands over her head. She was met with Raph’s fist and knocked out cold.
“I don’t usually hit girls, but when they tick me off...”
“Sorry Linz, you messed up, and now it’s time I took off!” the man replied, gathering up as much of the jewellery as he could and stuffing it in his large shoulder bag. Being as silent as he could, Raph withdrew his sai, and when the guys back was turned he was going to finish it.

“Raph?!” he overheard his girlfriend’s cry, at least that was one positive thing.
“I’m fine! Just get the shell outta here!” Charlotte shook her head at the sound of his voice, relieved that the idiot hadn’t gotten himself hurt or killed. Reaching into her pocket she pulled out her shell cell dialling up 911. Hopefully getting the police here would end this charade.

The sound of a trigger being pulled back alerted the girl, causing her to glace over her shoulder.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” the guy asked, aiming his weapon right at her.
“Trying to be the hero huh?” he said again. Without trying to reveal what she was, she slowly rose to her feet, the corner of her eye stuck firmly on him.

Raph peered over the cabinet and saw what was going on.
“Shit… C why are ya…” inhaling a breath the mutant set his frustration aside and made his move. Sai in hand he crept past the hostages. He could have jauled it over the furniture, but thanks to this bosoe there was broken glass everywhere. The hostages’ began to make a ruckus, Raph only signalled them to keep it down. It wasn’t hard to watch their expressions change when they came across his face. Still the turtle remained vigilant.

“Turn around” he warned, Charlotte remained still.
“What are you deaf? I said TURN AROUND!”
“Hey asshole…” on that statement the guy turned round to face the mutant. In that instant Raph had already thrown an upper punch to the guys jaw, knocking him out cold. Along with a few of his teeth as well.

Raph huffed as he turned back to go into the store. The sounds of police sirens echoing in the distance made it clear that there was no time left to browse through all the remaining jewels. Most were scattered amongst the wreckage anyway.

With the bad guys finally seen to it just left the two mutants to sort things out. Not that it was going to be easy for either of them.

“REALLY?! YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST LEAVE, TO GO OUT AND BEAT UP A BUNCH OF ROBBERS?!” Charlotte yelled, although the alarms were getting louder she still pursued to follow her man inside, tip toeing around the broken remains. Scraping aside a few broken shards, Raph came down to the choice of two rocks.

“What the shell do you think you’re playin’ at woman! Suddenly appearin’ like that… you could have gotten killed!” he hollered over his shoulder. In spite of it all, he didn’t his best not to let on what he was really up to.
“If I recall this ain’t the first time ya tried pullin’ this kind of crap C…” unable to decide and in a heat of the moment, the turtle turned to face her. Whilst taking a chance to grab a single ring, he kept it hidden behind his shell.
“An’ ya were pregnant back then an’ all” he finished.

Although they knew the police were on their way, the store people couldn’t help but try one last time get the turtle’s attention. Hoping they’d at least set them free.
“Oh no, no! Don’t you pull that shit with me again, you’ve been the one acting really weird lately so excuse me for being curious as to why you’re suddenly sneaking out without any of us knowing” she ranted.

Before they knew it, the cops had shown up. Turning the corner, the red and blue lights suddenly brightened up the neighbourhood.

“Ngh, come on!…” with the rings in his hand Raph planted a handful of cash on the side. Then grabbing Charlotte’s hand the mutants’ made their escape before they were spotted, but for some reason not down the manhole cover. Hauling the pregnant female in his arms Raph took them up fire escape on the nearest building and after making sure Charlotte was hidden in the shadows Raph peered over the edge.

“Jeez… what the hell happened here?” one officer said, adjusting his hat as he climbed out of the vehicle.
“Looks like a grenade went off or something” another cop said. By that point the robber, known to Raph as ‘Graham had started coming too, and he was shocked to see the men standing before him.
“Urgh… wha?...” scouting the area the coppers had already concluded what had gone on at the jewellers.

With a couple of men getting statements from the witnesses, the burglars were already being dragged into the back of the police cars.
“W-w-wait! What are ya doing? I-it weren’t my fault!” Graham panicked, like most people would if they were being taken to jail.
“Yeah, yeah, tell it to the judge”  

With that Raph returned to Charlotte’s side. She however was curled up against the wall of the staircase. Her frown indicating that their discussion was not over. Raph only shared her look, before holding his hand out towards her and heaving a sigh.
“Come on… let’s go” although still upset with him Charlotte took his palm anyway as the two of them set off.

-------

The couple had been topside for about an hour now, not that they had spoken a word since they left the scene. With Charlotte being pregnant, Raph had helped move her from rooftop to rooftop, not that she wanted it.

The city noises echoing around them seemed almost invisible. Raph was seated along the edge of the building, whilst Charlotte was stood behind him.
“Are you gonna to talk to me?” she asked, Raph hummed somewhat, fiddling about with the jewel in his pocket. Should he do it now?
“Or are you just gonna play the silent game…” she finished.

Inhaling a breath he rose to his feet, removing his hand from his jacket. No. Now wasn’t the time.
“Y-you shouldn’t have been there C…”
“He speaks” the red head spoke, even though mocking Raph probably wasn’t the best thing to do right now.
“I’m not kiddin’ around here!” he yelled, causing her to back of slightly. Not that she was gonna let it silence her.
“I wasn’t! Like I said, you’re the one who’s been acting weird lately!” Raph couldn’t have seen how that was possible.

“You could have been killed tonight Raphael, and would any of us had known?! No! What do you want, humans to find your dead carcass in the middle of the street?!” she argued.
“I’m an adult not a kid! I don’t need ta keep ya upta date on where I go or what I do! Seriously, I can go topside whenever I like, wherever I like! And hopefully without being followed by my pregnant girlfriend who’s messed up hormones are driving me insane!”

A pause arose between the two of them as it took Raph a couple of seconds to realise what he’d just blurted out. He couldn’t help but slap his forehead.
“Uhh, shit C… that’s not what I meant…” completely appalled by his reply Charlotte glanced aside before making her way over to the fire escape.
“C!” he wound up chasing after her, leaping over the edge and landing on the same level as her.
“Where ya goin’?”
“Home, I can’t stand looking at you right now!” she fronted, making her way down to the next level.

Tossing his head back and throwing his hands over his face, Raph let out a growl at the frustration of it all. Now he knew he’d really messed up. But unable to find something or someone to vent it out on he just let it slide, so much for just sneaking out and back in all ninja like. He then pulled out the ring he bought to get a good look at it, and to be honest, he was very disappointed by what he came across.

The ring itself was a gold band; hopefully it was the right size. But along the frame it featured a rather small ruby gemstone aligned with smaller white diamonds either side. Frankly, it looked pretty cheap and crappy, so he probably wound up putting too much money down to.

With a disappointing ring and his girlfriend majorly pissed off, things were not looking good for the turtle.
“Waita go hothead…” unable to do much at this point Raph followed after Charlotte as they made their way back to the lair.

-------

With the movie now finished and the pizza boxes stacked in the kitchen, the turtles were spread out doing their own thing and much like their fathers’ Ashley and Kotaro were squabbling once again.
“I said give him back!”
“Not until you say it!” Taro chased his cousin around the lair, jumping amongst the sofa and sliding down the metal pole.
“Ashley!” he cried out.
“Taro!” the red head mocked.

From what each of the adults could gather, Ashley, by some means or another had snatched Kotaro’s turtle plush and was using it as a bargaining chip of some sort. But Kotaro wasn’t having any of it, as he had grown tired of this cat and mouse chase he had tackled the young red head to the ground.
“Graah! Give it back!”
“Yahh! Get off! Raaah!”
“Gaaah!”
“OOOWW!”
“AAHHH!”

Amongst all the chaos Iris and Noah took no notice, as it was usual think to happen around now. They were happily observing their dad working, even though he had told them numerous times that in this particular situation he was working with a Bunsen burner, the tots still didn’t take any mind to his warning.

“What’s that?!” Iris asked.
“Ah!” without thinking straight the child had instantly put her hand in the way of the flame; it was only because of Don’s fast reflexes that she didn’t get hurt.
“That is a Philips head screw driver” he answered, as he lowered his mask and continued burning the metal.
“And this?” Noah questioned as something caught his eye. In that instant Don has sprinted out of his chair in a state of panick.
“No, no, no! Don’t touch that!” he cried out. But being just a few seconds short a huge crash emanated around the lair.

The others observed from afar, and Leo and Mia had entered the living room only to see their son fighting. Little Yumi was being watched over by her grandfather.
“Rrrgh!”
“GGGAAAHHH!”

The nonstop ruckus drew everyone’s attention and Leo was quick to step in and cease the fighting. Leaping into sensei mode and pulling the turtles apart from each other.
“That’s enough! Now what are you two doing?!”

The two of them stood their catching their breaths. Ashley’s hair looked more like a birds nest and Kotaro had some light bruising over his arms.
“This is all your fault!” Kotaro yelled snatching his toy back from the girl.
“I was only playing; you’re the one that attacked me!” Ashley confronted.
“Grrr!”

They may have been stopped but they continued to pull faces at one another to prove a point.
“Alright enough! Do I need to put you both in a time out” he warned stopping the pair entirely.
“No…” they replied, Leo let out a disappointing sigh.
“Now I don’t want to see the two of you fighting like that again”
“Fine…” they said again and with that Ashley scuttled off to her room, just as Taro was about to do the same, Leo had prevented him buy holding his arm out.

“Kotaro, I expected more from you… you can’t just go around attacking your cousins just because they’ve upset you”
“But she started it, she stole Mr Turtle away! And she wouldn’t give him back!” he explained, trying to justify himself. Leo had to admit, his niece did have a tendency to tease his son from time to time, but that didn’t excuse the way he reacted.
“Be that as it may…” Leo said rubbing his forefinger and thumb over his brow.
“As the next in line to lead it is expected of you to set aside your personal vendetta and go about things rationally without the use of violence, especially when it comes to your family” he said.

Kotaro’s head tilled a little as he thought over his father’s words; Leo hoped that his student/son would heed his guidance on the matter. But…
“What’s ra-ration-al-al… what’s it mean?” the four year old asked unable to say the entire word.
“Ugh…”
“It means that you should try to get along with Ashley more” his mother explained, appearing by Leo’s side and kneeling down to their son’s level. Kotaro thought it over, glancing down to the floor and then returning is attention to his mother.
“I’ll try…” he mumbled.

Mia happily smiled, planting a kiss on his head and sent him on his way.
“How comes you can always get through to him?” Leo asked.
“Because I’m his mother and can speak fluent child” she giggled prodding her husband’s snout cheekily and walking away.
“Hey I’m understandable!” Leo said after her.

But this point the main doorway opened up with Charlotte walking in, still dressed head to toe in clothing, but the mutants knew otherwise.
“Mom!” Ashley’s cries alerted the others that the pair had returned. The smaller red head running up to the other, clasping her arms around her waist as best she could.
“Hey you…” Charlotte smiled, trying to put on a brave face.
“Is Daddy with you?” Ashley asked.

By that point Raphael appeared from the shadows.
“Daddy!” doing the same as she did with her mother, the turtlette charged over to him.
“Ah-ha! You been good princess?” Raph asked lifting her into his arms. He also put on a show, but as he glanced over to his girlfriend, she quickly averted his stare.
“It’s about time you guys got back, you missed the whole movie!” Robyn said.
“Yeeeeah well…” the turtle spoke placing his daughter back down on the floor.
“I’m sure we can watch it some ova time” he finished.
“So where you guys been?” Mikey asked suckling an icicle.

The lair fell silent which was on very rare occasions, as neither Raph nor Charlotte wanted to answer. Each of the mutants could tell they had come about another touchy subject.
“Well you both must be tired, why don’t we all get ready for bed” Mia suggested. Once again Raph and Charlotte shared glimpses briefly as the pair made their way up the staircase.
“Feel free to sleep on the couch tonight” Charlotte muttered.
“For once we agree on summin’” he replied back.

“Hey daddy did you guys get me anything while you were out?” Ashley asked, following the pair up stairs.
“Not now Ash!” they both replied, causing the girl to stop in her tracks.
“Hsss…. Awkward…” Mikey whispered from the corner of his lips.

-------

That night Raph had indeed found himself sleeping on the couch, he had with him a single pillow and a sheet to keep him comfortable.
But with everyone else already turned in, he only thought about what had gone on earlier that night. Holding his arm above his head, the ring he had gotten trailed back and forth against his fingers, as he admired it in the darkness.
“Hmm…”

He thought frequently about changing it for another, but he couldn’t go back to that store, not after what had happened.

Just then he spotted a bright light emerge from upstairs and as a sudden reaction, Raph clasped the jewel in his hand and rolled over so whoever it was would at least think he was asleep.
Even though his eyes were shut Raph could still hear a commotion going on and gathering from his skills as a ninja, he could hear someone’s footsteps drawing near.

Still he pretended he was asleep, that is until this next sound.
“^{Dad… dad…}” Raph stirred a little, just to make out that he was in a deep sleep.
“Daddy?” at that point Raph couldn’t pretend anymore, so he turned over as noticed his little girl standing before him.

She was dressed in her nightgown, clasping onto one of her stuffed animals, with her hair tied back in a low ponytail with a few strands loose.
“Mmh? Oh Ash… whataya doin’ up?” Raph asked with a yawn, he expected it to be his brother Mikey, up to get himself a midnight snack.
“… Did you and mom have a fight again?” Raph was aware that both he and Charlotte did tend to argue a lot more than the usual couple, but they were used to it. The only thing they didn’t realise was how much it could affect their daughter.

Letting his head flop he pulled himself upright, leaning his forearms against his knees and scratching his head.
“Is it that obvious?” he asked.
“Well… you only ever sleep on the couch after you to fight so…” yep she was aware of it alright. Unleashing a sigh he patted the spot beside him on the sofa, and she gladly took the seat. Now he owed her an explanation, but he couldn’t blame anyone but himself.

“I… really messed up this time Ash…”
“Oh… theeeen, why don’t you buy her a present and make up” it wasn’t gonna be as easy as that, but Raph couldn’t exactly say that out loud. So instead he revealed a curved smile and shook his head.
“Ya know… for a kid, ya sure smart”
“Duuh” was his response, for a laugh he decided to put her in a headlock, being sure as not to hurt her at all.
“Ah! Daaaaad!” Ashley whined, overall Raph felt a little better about himself and after a while of playtime, it was definitely time for bed.

“A’ite, time for you ta go ta bed lil lady” he ordered.
“… Can I stay down here with you tonight?” she asked.
“Pleeeeeaaase” she begged. He thought about it for a moment and then figured it was okay so he parked his shell down on the floor and gave her the sofa.
“You gonna be comfy on the floor?”
“Yeeeah… I’m good” Raph said shuffling about trying to find a comfy position.

In truth he wasn’t comfortable at all, but he’d tolerate it for one night. But before he forgot Raph placed the ring on the side table, as he was sure he was going to lose it if he fell asleep.
“What’s that?” damn he forgot about Ashley being there.
“Uuhh… just somethin’ I um, found” in order to see it more clearly Ashley grabbed hold of it and began to observe its shine.
“Pretty…”

“Hey be careful! I don’t want ya loosin’ it” Raph said, snatching it from her and placing it back on the table. Ashley pouted and laid herself back down, but she was curious as to why her father had it. In a matter of minutes the pair of them were drifting off into slumber or so Raph thought.
“Where’d you find it?” Ashley asked, to which Raph unleashed a groan. He was hoping to have put the conversation to rest.

“That’s enough questions ‘kay, now go ta sleep” he said turning over and closing his eyes.
“Is that what you’re gonna give mom?”
“Goodnight Ash…” he replied.

Realizing she wasn’t going to get an answer from him Ashley did as she was told turning over, she went to close her eyes, but her attention returned to the jewel sitting on the table just inches from her head. She waited a few minutes, making sure that the giant next to her had indeed fallen asleep and at the sound of his first snore echoing round the lair, she knew it was clear.

In a swift move the turtlette took the ring in the hand and hid it from sight.

TBC…