Sunlight from the bright summer morning filtered into the packed up apartment, shining upon the stacks of cardboard boxes patiently waiting for the movers to arrive. Pale white squares covered the walls, once hidden by happy picturesque memories of family and friends, of good times from the past when once a happy couple shared this small one bedroom apartment. Meals for two were lovingly prepared in the yellow painted kitchen and eaten in the comfort of candlelight and Mozart.

Rebecca Spiegel shook her curly brown head at these distant memories, instead allowing the more recent visions of fighting and slamming of doors to echo through the now empty hall. Then, the loneliness when Scott moved out all of his belongings in a single night, after yet another verbal battle where both were trying to hurt the other one more, both succeeding and failing at the same time. Three years they'd shared their lives, their thoughts, their hopes, their dreams. Their home. So many wonderful memories made together, but where there once was love and happiness was now only a bitter memory lost in darkness and hatred. Such a waste.

For two long, quiet months, Becky had waited for Scott to return. Two months of her phone never ringing, her friends telling her to move on. Two months of a living hell where she refused to see what was really going on. It wasn't until just one week ago, when out for some retail therapy with her friend April O'Neil that she finally realized the truth, the realization coming in a hard blow that nearly destroyed her.

While stepping out of a boutique, armed with white bags of hair accessories, funky bracelets and long pendant necklaces, Becky and April were laughing, the first real laugh she'd had since Scott had left. Then, unexpectedly her laughs became tears as Scott and an unknown blonde walked past them, hand in hand, not even noticing the two friends as they sauntered by. Becky noticed him first, stopping dead in her tracks. April, not realizing her friend had stopped, turned to see the color drain from Becky's face. Tears pooled in her bright blue eyes as she could only stare at the couple in front of her.

Following her gaze, April's jaw dropped to see Scott lean over and kiss the blonde before they took off again down the street. Quickly rushing to Becky's side, April pulled her into a hug, allowing her to release the tears all over her brand new yellow leather jacket. The tears came out in a flood, an ugly force with riptides and jagged rocks. It was during the breakdown that April was finally able to convince Becky to leave her apartment behind and take a bigger one in her's and her boyfriend Casey Jones' building. For less than she was paying now, Becky would be able to have a nice two bedroom apartment and her best friend near by. It was an offer that she was no longer strong enough to refuse.

The door creaked open in the apartment, bringing Becky back to the present and April into the room. April surveyed the apartment, her red shoulder length hair flopping around in a pony tail as her she moved. She smiled at all of the packed boxes and pulled Becky into a friendly hug.

"You ready to do this?" she asked.

Becky took in a deep breath, looked around the room, biting into her lower lip. "As ready as I will ever be," she admitted.

April smiled, hugging her friend again. "Don't worry, you have me. And Casey. We will always be here for you. No matter what."

"Thanks, April." Becky looked around April's shoulder toward the hall of the apartment building.

"Where is Casey?"

April laughed. "He's downstairs with the movers, reminding them to behave themselves."

Becky raised an eyebrow at her friend. "And just why would they need to be reminded of this?" Uncertainty clung to her words. She'd let April handle most of the details of her move, including hiring the muscle to remove the boxes from the old place, and set them up at the new place. Becky never thought about asking for references or names, until this moment.

April looked at her friend and smiled again. "Don't worry, you can trust them. Besides, they were willing to work for pizza."

Becky raised both eyebrows, but kept her thoughts to herself. She trusted April and she knew her friend would never do anything crazy to hurt her. Trying to relax, she walked around the apartment, checking one last time to make sure everything was safely packed away into a box, including the memories of Scott. That mental box would never be opened again.

Outside on the street, Casey opened the back of the moving truck to let out the entourage of movers. Each of the four wore thick painter's overalls, ivory ball caps, work gloves and colored surgical masks. Casey reviewed his helpers and cracked a smile. He'd seen his friends in some pretty weird disguises over the years, but these really took the cake.

"And just what do you think is so funny, Dude?" asked the shortest of the movers from under his yellow surgical mask.

Casey forced himself to stop laughing, but the smile on his face gave him a way. "Well, Mikey, I'm laughing at how absolutely ridiculous you guys look!" he admitted, trying to keep from laughing again.

The mover in the red surgical mask walked over to Casey, pulled up his hat enough to look him straight in the eye. "You keep laughing like that, and I'll show you ridiculous."

Casey burst into another fit of laughter, slowly backing away from his friend.

The blue masked mover walked over, putting a hand on the red masked offender. "Yo, Raph, you gotta keep your cool. April and Casey's friend needs our help, but we don't want to blow our cover."

"Yeah, Leo, I know."

"Well, then, let's get to it," Casey said, putting his arm around Raph. "Okay, guys. Now, when we get up there, try to say as little as possible to Becky. We need to get in and get out as fast as we can to try to keep you guys from revealing our secret."

"That's right, guys. We don't want to scare the poor girl by revealing that we're turtles," Leo said, surveying his brothers.

"Yeah, it's not like these big bulks of green shells on our backs don't give that away already," Raph retorted.

"Well," said the quietest and tallest of the four from under his purple surgical mask. "If she were to ask, we could always tell her that we're wearing back braces. We are movers after all."

"Great idea, Donnie," Leo said, patting his brother on the back. "Now, let's get up there and get started on our mission."

"Yeah," said Mikey. "I'm already hungry for that pizza April promised us."

Casey shook his head. It was almost too easy to get his green, turtle friends to help him out. All he or April had to do was offer up pizza as a reward and they would do just about anything. Though, sometimes the ingredients were a little on the bizarre side, he was happy to whip up something special as a thank you.

Herding the guys into the elevator, he lead the way to the apartment of April's friend, ready to get the move started, and hoping beyond hope that the boys would keep their cover and not cause any trouble. For once.

As they entered the apartment, Becky and April watched the guys file in. Becky's head cocked to the side as she saw the team that Casey had brought with him. Checking for a reaction, April and Casey both sucked in a breath, not sure how they would explain if Becky noticed anything odd about their helpers.

The two had talked about all of the pros and cons in detail with Master Splinter before even offering the job to the guys. Usually, the brothers did their best to stay hidden in the sewer system of New York City with their Master, friend and adopted father Splinter, especially during daylight hours. Night time was different. The guys could often be found at night, fighting crime, donning costumes to go to a movie or even going to April and Casey's for a pizza night.

Over the past few years, the four had grown on April and Casey. Had it not been for the four brothers taking April in after a mugging where Raphael had saved her life, she may never have met Casey. Raphael was also the first turtle Casey had met, meeting him face to face in Central Park one night, after chasing a couple of hoodlum thugs into the park after they attempted to steal an old woman's purse. Raphael had put a stop to their theft, but it was Casey who was bound and determined to punish them for their misdeeds.

Against his better judgment, Raphael had come to the aid of the hooligans, saving them from the punishment of Casey's baseball bat. Though it wouldn't be until later, Casey and Raphael often attributed that night to the beginning of their crazy friendship. And through their friendship, April and Casey were able to meet and eventually fall in love.

Knowing that Casey and April cared for the turtles as much as they did for each other, Splinter agreed to mediate on the idea of the turtles to come to the surface during the day to help their friend. After a vision of the poor girl being in much need of his sons help and friendship, he quickly agreed, telling the boys to be careful with the young girls emotions and to watch for signs of change. At the utterance of the word change, he had uncharacteristically placed a loving hand upon Donatello's shoulder, following the word with a wink in his direction. Before Donatello had a chance to ask any of the questions flooding his mind, Splinter had limped away, leaving April to give out instructions for the move, as well as promises of pizza.

Casey clapped his hands, calling the room to attention. "Here's the game plan. Raphael and Michelangelo, you guys can start here in the living room with the couch, tables and entertainment center. Leonardo and Donatello, you guys can start in Becky's bedroom moving the bed and dresser. I'll move the television and lamps and you lovely ladies can very carefully move those boxes that say fragile to April's van. They're less likely to get broken that way."

Without uttering a word, the four movers nodded at their orders and set to work, moving at ninja fast pace. Becky looked over the guys, a quizzical look upon her face. She slowly motioned over to April, who picked up a box of figurines and moved slowly back toward her friend. Becky pointed quickly at the four guys as they moved back and forth with pieces of furniture. "Where did you find these guys again?"

"They're friends of mine and Casey's," April told her. Alarm bells rang in the back of her mind, but she pushed the thought aside.

"Such unusual nick-names. Did you meet them at an art club or something?"

April laughed, "Nope, those are their real names. Don't worry, they really are a great group of friends."

"And why haven't I met them before?"

April let out a worried laugh. "They are our special friends."

Before Becky could ask another question, April was out the door followed by Casey. Becky looked around at the movers again, peered at what looked to be a shell shape on their backs and opened her mouth to speak.

Somehow sensing what was going to be asked, all four movers at the same time shouted out "It's a back brace!" Becky stood dumbfounded in the center of the room, nearly dropping the box marked computer supplies that she held in her hands. The mover in the purple mask used his lightening speed reflexes to grab the box before it hit the ground.

"Careful with that," he said, his voice unexpectedly soothing. "You can never be too cautious with electronics. Especially computers."

Becky caught the deep brown color of his eyes from under his hat and smiled. "Yeah," she said softly. "Thanks." She took the box back from him and moved slowly toward the door. Daring to look over her shoulder, she turned just enough to see that the mover had stood in place, watching her go. She smiled again then took off for the elevator. Though she couldn't quite put her finger on it, the four strangers in her apartment greatly intrigued her, and she was bound and determined to figure out why.

Dropping the box off with April, she took the stairs back to her apartment, her mind still working overtime trying to figure out her movers. Pushing the thought away, she glanced around her slowly emptying apartment. Hope washed over her as she realized she was finally moving on with her life and leaving Scott nothing but a distant memory.

Donnie walked back into the apartment from his last load of heavy boxes labeled books. Before today, he'd never met anyone who owed as many novels and textbooks as he did. Based upon the weight and quantity of the boxes he'd taken downstairs to the truck, it was possible the girl may have even more than he did, which greatly impressed him. Smiling at her as she passed him in the doorway, he couldn't stop himself from watching her as she went by, taking note of the way her cheeks reddened when she caught his eye.

Wiping the back of his gloved hand against his forehead, he felt drops of sweat drip into the sleeve of his shirt. For just a moment, he would have loved to remove the mask, hat and gloves from his body just to cool off, but with the human not in on their secret, he knew he couldn't do it. Then again, Becky seemed like a trustworthy person so maybe, just maybe she would be okay with them being turtles. Then again, Master Splinter would likely kill him with extra training if he dared to reveal their secret without permission. Better to just stay hot and sweat it out, he decided.

The sound of footsteps from behind him caught his attention. Twirling around, he watched as Becky jumped back into the apartment and he couldn't help but smile at the girl as her pony tail bounced around. For the first time since they'd arrived he found himself right out staring at the girl studying her face, taking in her features. Wavy brown hair, bright blue eyes, pale skin and an adorable little nose. Her movements mesmerized him as she seemed to float from one box to the next, stacking them carefully on top of each other and carrying them two or three at a time out the door and down to the truck. Then she would bound back up the stairs to grab a few more, seemingly oblivious to his gawking.

Happiness oozed from her body as the apartment grew more and more empty with each trip and her smile grew wider. It awed him. Grabbing a large box, he cautiously made his way down the hall, following her into the elevator. Just before the doors closed, he shoved his foot in between them, forcing the elevator to open.

"Room for one more?" he asked.

Laughing, she nodded. "I think so, as long as you don't have personal space issues," she responded. He laughed back at her as he moved into the elevator. Their elbows touched as they rode the elevator down the three stories back to the ground level. Though he couldn't quite put his finger on it, he felt something odd over take him as they waited for the doors to open. It felt almost like an electric current floating around them, but he had no idea what could be causing such a sensation. Before he could inquire if she felt anything, the ding of the elevator rang as the doors split open and she practically skipped over to Casey waiting inside the truck to load up her boxes.

Following slower behind her, he waited for Casey to help him pull the heavy box up into the truck. Turning around in time to see her start the climb back up the stairs, he thought about following her, but he couldn't bring his feet to move. There was something about that girl that just bothered him, though not necessarily in a bad way. He felt no threat from the girl, and knew she wasn't any danger to him or his family, but something that didn't quite click in his mind was definitely running through his head. Slapping his palm to his forehead, he tried to will the thought to come out, but it didn't work. Casey looked down at him, a concerned look upon his face. "Yo, Donnie. You okay man?"

Shaking his head, Donnie looked up at his friend. "I don't know. I think I may be coming down with something. I can't explain it, but I'm not really feeling like myself right now."

Smiling, Casey looked past Donatello and into the apartment building where Becky had just disappeared. With a knowing smile, he put a hand on Donnie's shoulder. "You're a smart guy, I'm sure you'll figure it out soon enough."