WHAT BECOMES OF THE BROKENHEARTED

Title: What Becomes of the Brokenhearted

Summary: After a painful break-up and general bad luck with men, Kayla vowed to never give her heart away again. He was hot-headed and temperamental, believing love was something he would never experience. When their lives cross paths, can they help each other to trust one another with their heart? Sometimes love can be found in places you least expect.

Genre: Romance/Hurt/Comfort

Characters/Pairings: Raph/OC. The guys are in their mid-20s.

Disclaimer: TMNT is the property of Eastman & Laird and Nickelodeon. I wish I owned Raphael *sigh*. I do own Kayla Martin.

A/N: Constructive criticism is welcome. A big thank you to FreyReh for threatening… errrr, ummmm, encouraging this novice writer . And many many many HUGE thanks to my super-awesome beta DarkUnderworld. She ROCKS!

Chapter 1

"Kayla, wait! It's not what you think! Let me explain!" the male voice shouted at her, even though it seemed as if his voice was coming from somewhere far away, echoing around almost painfully in her head.

She turned to face her soon-to-be-ex-fiancé as he ran after her, her dark brown eyes blazing with anger and heartbroken sadness.

"Hmmmm, let me guess, you're going to 'explain' how I didn't see you and my best friend in bed together? I didn't hear you say, 'Don't worry, Kayla will never find out. I've got her wrapped around my little finger?' You're going to 'explain' how I didn't hear her repeatedly moan your name as you fucked her? Is that it?" she asked bitingly as she struggled to keep the tears that were building and trembling upon her lashes from falling down her cold, mocha colored cheeks.

She wanted to cry, she NEEDED to cry, but not here, and not in front of him, because he didn't deserve her heart, and he didn't deserve any sort of 'second chance'.

He struggled to say something, anything to defend himself or refute the charges she had leveled against him. "Well, I, ummmm, what happened is…" the tall, muscular brown-skinned male stammered as he rubbed the back of his head, his hazel eyes searching the room as he struggled to come up with an excuse, or better a lie, and found he couldn't.
"Save it! I'm not interested in hearing your sorry ass 'explanation'. Now if you will EXCUSE me, I have somewhere else to be. But before I go, I want to return this, because I don't need it anymore." She took off the 3-carat diamond ring and threw it in his face. "In fact, why don't you give it to MICHELLE," the name feeling like acid on her tongue. "Maybe she'll fall for your lies and deceit, because I'm sure as hell not going to anymore." Turning her back to him, she started to walk away.

He grabbed her wrist. "Kayla, baby, I'm sorry. Please don't leave. Can't we talk about this?"

She whirled around and slapped him hard across his left cheek, the sound of flesh against flesh echoing in the small confines of his apartment. Shaking out her hand, she glared at him. "There is nothing to talk about. You're only sorry you got caught. Goodbye, David." She turned and quickly walked away from him so that he wouldn't get to see the twin trains of heartbreak that tumbled their way down her cheeks.

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It had been one year since Kayla had broken up with her fiancé David Parker. As she sat in the local coffee shop sipping on her white chocolate mocha latte, she wondered: Why? Why was love so hard and so cruel? Every relationship she'd been in seemed to end in heartbreak. She wondered if maybe something was wrong with her that had caused this to happen.

Her ex-boyfriend Greg openly admitted to toying with her feelings when she had confronted him. Her ex before Greg had been Tony. He seemed to care, but his actions, flirting with other women, spending more time with his buddies than her, calling her jealous and clingy when she'd try to talk to him about it, showed otherwise. When she had met David, she thought she'd finally found The One. He was kind, caring, handsome, and charming. He treated her like a woman wanted to be treated. She couldn't help falling in love with him, and she thought he had loved her as much as she loved him. She had been planning a wedding, a life, a future with him, until that fateful day when she had walked in on him and her now ex-best friend Michelle.

She didn't think that she would be able to survive the kind of pain that comes when someone you love and trust betrays you and breaks your heart into so many tiny fragments that you are sure that it can never be put back together again.

Kayla fought back tears as she looked at the picture of her father. Her life had never been the same since he passed away eleven years ago when she was just a teenager. Her mother had died when she was just a baby, so it'd just been her and her father all those years.

She was his baby girl, and he was the one she felt safe with; the only one who would never hurt her. And now that he was gone, she didn't think she'd ever find that kind of safety and security again.

Sure she was doing pretty well for herself; a good job, nice apartment. However, there was still a part of her that longed for companionship, but did she dare risk her heart again?

She dropped her locket and looked towards the window of the coffee shop she was currently sitting outside of. She studied the reflection of the twenty-five year old professional looking woman who looked back at her. Her shoulder-length black hair was pulled up into a ponytail at the back of her head, her mocha-colored skin gleamed in the sunlight, her dark eyes staring back at her as if they perhaps contained the answer to her silent question.

Sighing, she finished her drink and headed to the subway station to go home, not noticing that she was being followed.