FF: hello again! No reviews sadly. Rather discouraging, to be honest, but no matter! The story goes on regardless! (though seriously, what do you guys think? yay? Nay? Eh? WHAT?)

FF: Anywho! To the story yes? We left off with poor Liza stressing out- a constant nowadays to be sure.


CHAPTER TWO

It took almost three hours for the police to investigate, sweep her backyard for evidence, question her on what happened, reassure her and her mother it was probably random gang violence so they probably wouldn't be back, leave, her mother to panic and question her as well, hold her close, gape at the damaged back door, panic for her daughter again, call her father, panic with him, Liza to talk and reassure him, panic for her daughter some more, Liza to talk and reassure her, and finally settle somewhat as her daughter snuggled close with her on her parent's bed.

Liza didn't mind the snuggling, desperately craving any comfort she could get. But when her mother finally fell asleep, the brunette reluctantly slipped from her mother's embrace. She turned out the light in her parent's room and slid into hers, shutting the door silently and locking it.

She let out a long, deep sigh as her mind returned to thoughts of her guest.

Truly it was a miracle she'd managed to drag him up the stairs and into her bedroom- her arms nearly falling off and her spine almost breaking- before her mother had rushed home and the police had arrived (ow, her arms still ached). An even bigger miracle was that no one had tried to go into her room.

She leaned heavily against the door, forehead pressed against the wood with sleep heavy and red rimmed eyes closing a moment as she fought to calm the stress eating at her heart.

And then, suddenly, a hand was pressed over her mouth and something pinned her arms to her side and she was yanked back and held against something hard. She couldn't even scream for lack of oxygen, simply gasping and struggling to breathe through the shock and terror and she was about to be murdered NO!

"Who are you?" A voice growled in her ear, rough and strained sounding.

She couldn't respond, too busy almost hyperventilating in panic.

"I said, who are you?" The growl turned into an almost snarl and the arm clamping her arms down tightened. "Where are we? Why did you bring me here?"

She couldn't hold up under the fear and terror and panic and confusion, her heart beating too fast and her mind too awash with the hurricane of emotions frothing in her head.

She cried.

Hot, fat tears rolled down her cheeks as she almost convulsively sobbed into the hand over her mouth.

Her captor jerked back in shock, only making her sob harder as she panicked that he was angered by her tears and oh please no, he was going to kill her! "What th-?" His voice was utterly baffled, but she just couldn't notice.

She didn't even have the energy to struggle, hanging limply in his grasp with her feet dragging on the floor and struggling to breathe through her tears and painfully fast heartbeat as her vision darkened.

"Shoot, stop crying! Just-" There was an aggrieved noise and then she was lowered to the floor by a strong hand on her shoulder that was strangely gentle with another still over her mouth, but looser. "Hey- hey! Calm down! Breathe, okay? Just breathe, like this- in, and out. Okay? In and out."

She couldn't see a thing through her tear heavy vision, but her brain recognized the accurate advice and her body followed suit, fighting to mimic the familiar and helpful calming technique. It took a minute or two for her chest to stop heaving and for her loud gulps of air to settle into somewhat heavy panting instead, her aching eyes beginning to clear.

At this point, she was completely and entirely drained. She just didn't care anymore. If he killed her, he killed her. So what. She just wanted to sleep.

She just wanted this day over with.

So she lifted her arms to scrub at her face, not caring how the hands on her shoulder and mouth instantly grabbed her wrists instead. She just looked miserably to her captor- the injured turtle she'd rescued, (How's that for gratitude? Her mind sulked tiredly)- and croaked out, "My eyes hurt…"

"Uh," He blinked bewildered amber eyes and hesitantly released her, watching as she wiped at the tears still oozing from her stinging, overworked eyes.

The brunette let her hands fall into her lap and stared up at him dully, completely worn out. She didn't say a word.

He seemed to have lost any courage to grab her again and instead awkwardly crouched in front of her, one hand hovering near his shoulder and side wounds while the other brushed its fingertips against her carpet floor for balance. "Um," he coughed and eyed her uncomfortably, "You're not gonna cry again, right?"

She stared at him tiredly, a slow, painful blink making up her answer.

"Right...well, look. I'm not gonna hurt you, okay? But I need to know how I ended up here. Alright?" His voice hardened somewhat, like he was trying to regain control of the situation simply by sounding tough.

She stayed silent- talking was just too much effort.

He waited for a response but, when he received none, he added experimentally, "...please?"

With some irritation, she realized he wasn't going to stop until he got an answer.

So Liza sighed and took in a deep breath, finding that filling her lungs made it just a bit easier to speak. "'Found you outside after the fight. Brought you inside. Hid you." She mumbled, feeling what energy she'd gained rapidly disappear.

"And these?" he gestured at the bandages and gauze carefully wrapped over his wounds.

She pointed limply at herself.

He narrowed his eyes at her. "Why?"

She stared at him dully.

He leaned closer to her, glaring now as he repeated, "Why?"

"You wer' hurt." She answered, her tolerance level for this conversation dropping even faster as her exhaustion only increased.

"You-"

"I'm tired." She interrupted flatly, her patience and energy entirely depleted and leaving her without her usual sense of politeness. "I'm gonna go sleep...Stay here." She added the last part as an afterthought, her worn out brain barely remembering to input the command to say the words out loud.

"What?" he jerked back in what seemed like offense as she stood shakily, staggering to her door and unlocking it. "You can't just-"

"You c'n sleep on the bed." she muttered, shutting the door on his response.


It was a long night.

First he'd debated the pros and cons of escaping at length, angrily finding that his injuries would not allow him to go anywhere until he'd given them sufficient rest (as well as the unpleasant discovery he had a killer headache).

Then he had to figure out how to break the news to his brothers that, hey, he wasn't dead but he was stuck in a human's house, rather injured. Oh, and did he forget to mention the human had seen him and definitely knew he was a mutant turtle? Oops.

He settled with sending a group text that he was fine and would be back tomorrow, and then promptly turned off his phone.

He did manage to grab a few hours of sleep, (yes, he caved and slept on the very comfy bed,) but it was broken up by him jerking awake due to paranoia of attack while defenseless.

By five AM he was too wired to sleep any longer, too nervous by the knowledge that the girl and whoever else lived in this house would be waking soon, as well as wondering how badly his brothers had responded to the texts. Thank heaven Splinter was on a trip in Japan- otherwise he would be SO dead when he got home. (Granted he was already so dead, but not as bad.)

So he found himself absently testing how far his shoulder could bend without pulling the wound too much and how far he could twist without aggravating the slice in his side. When he finished with that, (amidst much angry muttering and frustration at his limitations,) he turned to examining the room he was stuck in.

There was a large bookshelf in one corner of the room, utterly packed with books or odd items that might've been mementos in every space possible. The dresser by the door was rather neat, the top covered in a wooden box, stuffed animals of varying species, and some photographs he didn't bother with. Her bed was on the left side of the room with a night table by the head and a stack of old, faded sketchbooks underneath.

Nothing much else.

There was a break in his examination when he heard a nearby door open, and sluggish footsteps plodded outside the room where he sat, breathless and coiled tighter than a snare drum for fear of discovery. Thankfully, the footsteps simply padded away to the downstairs realm and, after a minute or so of tense waiting, he cautiously went back to exploring.

He sifted through the bookshelf and poked at the stuffed animals, eyed the mementos with thoughts varying from 'what the flip is that?' to 'eh, don't care', wandering around the room in dull circles as he tried not to limp from a previously unnoticed sore ankle.

The ninja turtle paused by the night table, then crouched and scooped up one of the sketchbooks. Absently, he sat on the bed and examined it, moving to flip it open.

The slight noise of the doorknob turning had him flinging the sketchbook aside and his hands reaching for his sai that- weren't there?! He gave a sharp, horrified glance at his weapons' empty sheaths before his head snapped up, locking onto the startled brunette just entering the room with a wide eyed glare and his best attempt to get into a defensive stance.

"Ohgoodness!" She jolted, not expecting the sharp movement out of the corner of her eyes, and nearly dropped the paper towel wrapped bundle in her hand as she jumped, accidentally shutting the door a bit too hard with her shoulder. She huffed out a breath and her free hand held onto her chest, just over her heart. "You scared me…"

"Not that surprising." He scowled, fighting the urge to rub at his aching shoulder and side that had not taken his quick movement well.

The brunette gave him a confused look, but seemed to shrug it off, taking a deep breath. "Um, I- I know we didn't get off on the right foot yesterday- er, last night? Anyways, um, I've brought a peace offering. So to speak." She hesitantly approached and shyly held out the bundle to him.

He arched an eyeridge at her critically, but accepted the package, unraveling it to reveal a peanut butter sandwich and a banana within.

"I thought you might be hungry..." She explained nervously, flushing at the look he gave her- startled, with a bit of 'seriously?' thrown in.

"Thanks…" Raph eyed her a moment, bewildered by this strange little wisp of a human, and cautiously took a bite of the offered sandwich. When he found it to be not poisoned, he was all too happy to oblige his rumbling stomach and devour it and the banana.

The girl awkwardly glanced around the room before deciding to inch forward and sink to the ground beside the bed, folding her legs neatly underneath herself. She stared at the floor, her gaze flicking up to his briefly as she tentatively spoke, "So, how are you doing?"

Mouth busy practically inhaling food, he narrowed his eyes at her.

She looked away quickly, her cheeks darkening. "I mean, your, uh, your wounds. Are they- do they hurt much?"

The ninja turtle shrugged, shoving down the wince at the sharp pain. "I've had worse." he grunted, turning away and missing the worry that flooded the girl's eyes before being reined back.

"I've heard that enough to know it means 'yes'." She murmured, swiftly avoiding his gaze and wincing when he glared. "Just saying."

"Well, what do you know?" He scoffed, restlessly crumpling up the banana peel in the paper towels.

"I know enough." Despite her words, her voice held no challenge or defiance to it.

It was still enough to ignite his temper.

"Yeah, sure. Cause you live such a hard life." He sneered, gesturing at the room around him. "Really suffering there."

The brunette stiffened, hazel eyes widening in shocked hurt. "I didn't mean t-"

"Sure you didn't." He rolled his eyes, scowl firmly set in place as his anger began to take hold. "Look, you don't know anything about this kind of thing- don't pretend you do."

She flinched back at his acidic tone, one arm sharply rising as if to block a blow as her body twitched away.

It just made him angrier.

"What's the matter? Scared of the big bad mutant?" Raphael hissed. In the back of his mind he knew he wasn't being fair, but in the face of his fury at being trapped, injured and alone, at this girl's mercy and with her ridiculous presumptions, that part cowered and retreated. It almost always did.

The brunette recoiled a little farther, her arm trembling and seemingly unable to decide whether to curl against her chest or keep waiting for that imaginary blow. "No, I just-"

"You just what?"

"I just want you to stop!" She suddenly snapped, and though her tone held more desperation than anger, her eyes held the most hurt as she whipped her head up to bore a hole through him. "I get that you're upset, I get that you have it rough, and you're right! I don't know what you've gone through, but you don't know what I've been through either!

"So can you just-" her hands lifted as if she was gripping something tightly, then dropped as though she just couldn't bear to hold it anymore, and her voice abruptly quieted, like she didn't have the energy anymore "-stop? Okay? Please...just...just stop…"

Silence.

That had been completely unexpected. He honestly had no idea how to respond to the sudden outburst- an unfamiliar mix of open pain and sadness without rage- and it seemed she didn't either. She simply closed her eyes and turned her face to the ground with her arms wrapped around herself.

The silence grew until it filled the room in a suffocating blanket, leaving the two looking anywhere but each other as they absorbed and mulled over the situation.

"I'm sorry…"

His head lifted, amber eyes widening at the words.

The brunette wasn't looking at him, her gaze fixed tiredly at a spot near him and her voice scarcely a rough murmur. "I shouldn't have shouted. It wasn't fair of me…and this is probably really hard for you."

He stared at her mutely, mouth open but no sound exiting.

She ducked her head, hair falling forwards and making a curtain between them, but he'd caught a glimpse of the pained twist to her lips. "I'm sorry…"

Raph shook his head. "You...you've got it all wrong…"

She tilted her head faintly, one hazel eye appearing to look up at him like a wounded puppy.

"I-..." He paused, pride fighting with his conscience not to show weakness, that he was in the right (about some of the things at least)! Conscience won with the logic that the girl was being enormously kind, and that this was not a fight with Leo. "I was being a jerk. And..unfair."

The brunette looked at him more fully, her eyes softening. "It's...understandable." She murmured.

"But not right." He grimaced, glancing at the crushed up paper towels that held the remains of her gift of food. His gaze flicked to hers. "Sorry."

"It's-" she cut herself off, shaking her head and offering a tiny smile for his efforts. "Thank you. All is forgiven."

He couldn't help the slight grin that pulled at the corners of his mouth- she had a strange, inherent sweetness that was startlingly endearing.

A muffled shout of, "Liza?" had the girl jolting and the ninja turtle whipping around in alarm.


FF: If any of you are questioning why Liza's acting so...'normal'ish with Raph- (i.e. talking to him like a normal person,etc)- she doesn't really have any other idea how to interact with him. She utterly baffled and is just trying to inch her way through the situation as painlessly as possible...doesn't seem like that's gonna work though. :/

FF: ALSO- if you're wondering why Raph was bein' so mean earlier- I honestly don't think he'd take to this kind of situation well. Lotta stress and anger built up in that guy with no outlet. hence- meanness :(