Chapter 2: Understanding

"This is embarrassing." Delilah groaned.

"You fell over!" Leo protested.

"I don't care! I told you to put me down!" She insisted.

The turtles stopped at April's to get some clothes for Delilah, but when she tried to stand up she fell over. Leo was ignoring her protests and was carrying her out of the car bridal style.

"I take it back! You and I are NOT going to get along!" She frowned.

Raph chuckled. "Wish I could help ya, but when Leo puts his mind ta somthin, ya can't stop him. He carried ya out of Bishop's anyway. 'Least ya have a blanket this time."

She looked at Leo skeptically. "You manned up enough to carry me out of there even without me being 'decent'?" She mocked.

"Carrying you without clothes wasn't exactly honorable, but you would have died if one of us hadn't done something. It's what anyone would have done." He told her as Mikey knocked on the door of April's apartment.

"Ugh...Look, I appreciate you saving my life and all, and I'm sorry I joked about that, but could you please put me down? I really don't like people touching me."

The blue masked ninja sighed. "Alright." He put her down gently.

Delilah's knees immediately buckled. Leo caught one of her elbows and Raph caught the other before she fell.

"At least I managed to keep the blanket on." She groaned.

The door opened to a taken aback April. "Guys? What...who's that?"

"Delilah." Delilah answered. "I'd shake your hand, but I'm concentrating on standing and not throwing up right now." She joked, but her tone was strained.

"There always seems to be something keeping you from shaking hands." Donny mused.

"What is she doing standing like that? She's obviously having a hard time! Pick her up, one of you!" April scolded.

Leo and Delilah sighed simultaneously as the other mutants laughed.

"May I?" Leo asked politely.

"Oh fine." She scowled in annoyance.

Leo picked her up again and they quickly entered the apartment.

April shut the door and got to work giving orders. "Leo, put her down on the couch. Mikey, make something for her to eat. She looks starving. Donny, fill me in on what happened and help me check her vitals if need be. Raph…um…can I trust you to get clothes from my bedroom?"

He stared at her with a mix of disgust and mild curiosity. He'd seen bras in commercials on TV, but never in real life…

"Yeah, I didn't think so." She frowned, reading his mind. "Ok, I'll get the clothes. Leo put her down on the couch." She called as she was already going down the hallway to her room.

Leo placed Delilah gently on the couch as Mikey ran into the kitchen to make pizza (what else?). Raph sat down on a large armchair and Donny hovered over them, waiting until April came back downstairs to tell the story.

"Oh my God. I thought YOU were overbearing." Delilah told Leo in shock.

He laughed. "Well, you DID look hungry. I hope you like pizza."

"You should know, I'm a vegan." She joked.

"I can tell Mikey to microwave vegetarian pizza. I'm sure April has some without meat."

"Oh my…Leo, I'm kidding! I grew up without a lot of money. I couldn't really be picky about something as stupid as food…Hey, I can call you 'Leo', right? I heard April say it, and it's less of a mouth full than your full name."

"Of course."

"Ok! Got some clothes!" April announced as she came down the stairs. "Guys, leave." She pointed to the kitchen.

The turtles quickly left and April helped Delilah into some clothes. April even had the foresight to bring scissors to cut a hole in the pants for the mutant's tail.

"You can come back in!" She yelled again.

Raph and Donny both came back out. Leo had decided to stay in the kitchen to make sure Mikey didn't clown around. He didn't dare actually try to help. He burnt everything. Even toast.

"Guess what guys? I have a tail." The younger girl frowned, sounding less than enthusiastic. She was sitting on the couch wearing white jeans and a red t-shirt that luckily fit pretty well.

"And she's unusually ripped." April told them in surprise. "She says she never went to a gym though."

"Nope! Musta been something Bishop did." Delilah shrugged. "He did say I was supposed to be a 'super soldier' or something."

"What else did Bishop say?" Donny asked curiously as Leo and Mikey walked in. Leo was carrying a large pizza and put it on the coffee table next to the couch. He handed Delilah a slice and she ate hungrily.

"Said he was gonna infuse me with animal DNA and that I'd have animial instincts and better strength and agility." She answered with her mouth full of pizza. "Said I'd be a killing machine."

"That's a little…creepy." Mikey frowned.

"No shit, Sherlock." Raph rolled his eyes. "It's Bishop we're talkin' 'bout here."

"Hmm." Donny thought out loud to himself. He studied her carefully. "You have very sharp, carnivorous teeth, impenetrable scales, new and improved muscles…how are your hearing, sense of smell, and eye sight?"

"Um…I don't know. I still kinda have a migraine, so my vision is blurry and anythin' loud or really rank is annoying."

"Meaning it makes you want to vomit?" Donny asked skeptically.

"…maybe."

"You're just like Raph when it comes to your health." He complained.

"I don't lie 'bout my health!" The red masked brother protested.

"What, is it bad to be like me?" She grinned evilly.

"I didn't mean it like that." He mumbled.

Delilah was feeling much better. A lot of her strength was beginning to return. She stood up without warning. Black spots threatened to overtake her vision, but she managed to stay steady. She took slow, deep breaths, then wrinkled her still human-like nose.

"What smells like sweat?...Oh. That's you boys…and me." She blushed.

"We could all use a shower." Leo admitted.

"Everything is sharper and I can hear things clearer. This is kinda awesome!"

"Are you sure you're ok?" Leo asked.

"Yeah. I'm feeling…good." She smiled calmly. "Is there a bathroom?"

"Yes. Right through that door over there." April informed her, pointing to the left.

"Thanks." Delilah smiled. She walked into the room and stared at herself in the mirror. Oddly enough, her appearance didn't bother her. It was unnerving to not recognize your own face, yet something about the way she looked now seemed appealing. She realized with a start that she looked strong. She had been faking strength for years, and now she finally really had it!

Even though she had scales and more reptilian features, her basic anatomy was relatively the same which was why she still had to wear clothes. She thought that was a bit of a bummer since she hated picking out clothes to wear anyway, but whatever. She was glad she still had her hair, and was even more relaxed when she found a ponytail holder on the counter by the sink. She quickly pulled her hair up and off of her face.

Delilah sighed and bit a claw. There was one problem. How was she going to take care of her mother now? Without Delilah's financial support, the middle aged drunk would certainly get evicted from the apartment.

"It's not the time to worry about that now." She told herself. "Mom's been using you ever since Dad left six years ago. She can take care of herself for a couple of days."

But she wasn't so sure. Fatigue and worry overcame her and she slumped to the floor, hugging her knees. She hated feeling worried about her mom when the woman hadn't cared about her in the slightest for so many years. Silent tears spilled onto her cheeks, causing her to only feel even more disgusted with herself. The clear droplets hugged her scales like morning dew on an emerald green leaf. It was a sad sight, and yet quite beautiful.

She stiffened slightly when an arm wrapped around her shoulders, but didn't protest when it pulled her onto the figure's plastron. She hated being touched, but this time she made an exception.

Delilah silently cried until no more tears would come.

"It's been five minutes." Mikey complained.

"She's probably upset." April explained to him. "Give her some space."

Mikey pouted, but was subdued when April turned the TV on for him. April and Donny began to talk about some science crap, and Fearless Leader had mentally checked out. He wasn't meditating or nothing, just deep in thought.

That left me to my own company.

April must've noticed my restlessness, 'cause she told me Casey found the part I needed for my motorcycle and left it over here since Donny was gonna come by later anyway to pick some science stuff up. Apparently it was in a box on her kitchen counter.

I quickly got up off the couch and ducked into the hallway that lead to the rest of the apartment, so basically just April's room, the bathroom, and the kitchen. I was gonna go to the right to get the package, but I noticed that the two doors going to the left were also open. I thought that was weird, since Delilah was supposed to be in the bathroom.

I really don't know what possessed me to check on her, but I did.

She didn't look up from her spot on the floor when I walked in, obviously not hearing or seeing me. But I sure as shell saw her. She looked broken, something I couldn't allow.

I knew she was a lot like me. That much was obvious from the short while she'd been talking. People like us act tough on the outside. We act like we're strong and intimidating, when really we're upset on the inside. We get upset pretty easily actually. And we deal with that by being angry, brash, and in her case sassy. At least according to Leo and Splinter. Apparently there are better ways to deal with our emotions, but we don't know them or feel like we need to learn them. We won't let ourselves, 'cause that would be admitting we have issues.

I quietly knelt next to her, not really knowing what to do. She was so intent on crying and thinking, that she still didn't realize I was there.

"Shit. What would I want right now? For real. Pretendin' I wouldn't be embarrassed or nothin'…I guess I'd wanna get some comfort from somebody." I thought to myself.

I grimaced. I wasn't the comforting type. Hell, I couldn't even remember the last time I'd done something "comforting".

"Movies. What do da guys in movies do when da chick is upset?" I quickly tried to think back to the last time it was April's turn to pick a movie for movie night at the Lair. She liked action movies, but sometimes she picked chick flicks, which always ticked the rest of us off, besides Splinter of course. They're a lot like his stupid soap operas apparently.

That's when I remembered the guy hugs the girl and lets her cry. Well, it goes something like that anyway.

I bit my tongue nervously and put an arm around her. I felt her stiffen, but she didn't freak out or nothing. Then I pulled her close to me.

She rested her head on my plastron and cried a bit harder.

I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding. Thankfully she didn't notice. I'd expected her to freak out on me the way I knew I would've, but she must've really been upset because she seemed to like the reassurance I was trying to give her.

It had been ten minutes, and Raph was beginning to think Delilah was going to cry forever, when she sat up straight, roughly wiped her eyes and nose with the back of her hand, and cleared her throat.

"Thanks." She offered gruffly.

"No problem." Raph managed to reply.

An awkward silence ensued.

"Um…sorry if I was a little…'up close an' personal', I guess ya could say. I saw ya cryin' an' didn't really know what ta do..."

"It's fine." She frowned, looking away. "Just don't pull the whole 'I can save you from your problems' shit on me. I've been through that scam before."

"I was afraid ya'd take it like dat. I wasn't tryin' ta pull any of dat romantic crap or nothin'. I just don't really know how ta act 'round girls so I pulled somethin' from a chick flick April made me watch." He said in a rush. He didn't want this girl getting the wrong idea, especially since she would be living with them for a while.

Delilah turned back towards him. After a moment, a broad grin broke through her impassive mask. She laughed. "I shoulda known it was somethin' like that. You guys are too innocent, ya know that?"

Raph rolled his eyes at that, but became serious again. "Ya know, I understand ya. Ya hide yer emotions like I do, and dat's fine. I'm not gonna pry 'em out of ya. But I think ya should know there's someone else dat gets da way ya feel."

Delilah looked down at the floor. Her hair covered her face so Raph couldn't see what she was thinking.

"I've always wanted that. Secretly, I've always wanted someone to understand me like that. I figured the only person who could would have to be a sibling, but I'm an only child." She finally muttered.

"Well, if dat's da case I guess ya got someone dat could be here for ya kinda like a brother…but I ain't offerin' anythin' da others wouldn't, mind ya!" The fact that she was so much like himself made Raph feel a bit responsible for her, though he wasn't sure why.

Delilah smirked. "You sure hate making others think you care."

"Yeah, so do ya, I bet."

They held each other's defiant gazes before grinning.

Raph stood and held his hand out for the female mutant.

She shrugged it off and stood up herself, causing them to laugh despite themselves. Raph knew she wouldn't accept help, and she knew he had anticipated that.

"Are you guys ready to go now?" A voice from the doorway asked kindly.

They both turned around with lightning speed.

Leo smiled slightly at them.

"How...when…" Delilah sputtered.

Raph scowled at his older brother. "He has a nasty habit of appearin' at da worst time possible."

"It's a ninja thing." Leo shrugged.

Delilah's eyes widened. "You guys are ninjas? …well I guess I should have suspected that, what with the bandanas and weapons." She looked at the two eldest turtles with curiosity. "You're gonna have to tell me your story."

"On the way to the Lair." Leo agreed. He turned and walked back out to the others, knowing Raph and Delilah would follow (which they did).

Delilah went off to find another piece of pizza while Leo and Raph waited for Mikey to be done with his TV show and April and Donny to stop their "geek-speak", as Mikey liked to call it.

"Ya know," Raph began. "'Bout whatcha saw in der-"

"It's alright, Raph. I know you were just trying to help her. That in itself was impressive for you." He grinned. "I wouldn't expect you to fall in love on top of that."

"Are ya implyin' I ain't capable of love?...wait a sec, did ya just make a joke?" He asked incredulously.

"Don't act so surprised. We used to joke with each other all the time when we were kids."

"Key words bein' 'when we were kids'."

"Touché."

"Hey, are you guys ready to go yet?" Donny asked them suddenly.

Raph glowered at them.

Leo smiled at his brother's reaction. "Yes, we're ready. Mikey?" He turned to look at his brother.

"Give me the pizza, Mikey!" Delilah growled.

Leo inwardly sighed at the sight of Mikey and Delilah fighting.

"No way, dudette! It's the last slice!" Mikey grinned, holding the pizza away from her.

"You aren't the one who just went through a mutation! I'm hungry!"

"So am I!" He protested, obviously loving her frustration.

"Mikey, give her the piece of pizza!" Donny frowned at him. "It's a wonder she doesn't need to sleep straight through the week after what her body has gone through."

"We have more at home anyway." Leo pointed out.

"Fine." Mikey grumbled, handing over the slice.

"Thank you." Delilah grinned evilly.

"Pizza-stealer." He mumbled under his breath.

"Thanks again, April." Leo smiled at his human friend.

"Of course! Oh, Casey and I might be over tonight if you guys don't mind the company."

"Duh. Not like we're doin' nothin' anyway. Tell Case ta bring his baseball bat and we'll go Dragon huntin'!" Raph grinned broadly at the idea of him and his best friend patrolling.

April, however, didn't approve of Casey's nightly outings. "Fine. But you guys need to be back by one." She folded her arms over her chest, leaving no room for argument.

Raph frowned. He could debate about curfew with Leo, but not April. If he disobeyed her, she would get Mikey to help her pull some awful prank to get back at him. "Fine." He grumbled.

"Can you tell him that every night?" Leo pleaded. "He doesn't listen to me!"

April laughed at Leo's half-joke, half-serious plea.

"Come on!" Mikey wined. "I'm missing a Justice League marathon!"

"Alright, alright." Donny rolled his eyes. "Bye April, thanks again!"

"Yeah, thanks." Delilah told the older woman sincerely, if not a bit embarrassedly.

"Anytime." She assured them with a smile.

The gang quickly exited the small apartment and entered the Battle Shell.

As they drove away, Delilah couldn't help but ask "Who's Casey?"

Raph grinned. "He's a buddy o' mine. He and April are datin' though, dats why he's basically her bi-"

"-Language, Raph!" Leo reprimanded his brother before he uttered the curse word.

The red clad turtle rolled his eyes. "Well, ya get da idea." He told Delilah.

"How do you guys know them?" She asked curiously. "No offense or anything, but it doesn't seem like you guys would know any humans."

"We saved April from a villain named Dr. Stockman and his robots called Mousers." Leo explained. He was sitting behind Raph, who was sitting next to the female mutant. Mikey was directly behind her, impatiently waiting to get home and watch cartoons. That left Donny alone in the front seat.

"Casey on da other hand, I met while bustin' some heads topside."

"Topside?" Delilah asked innocently.

"It's a slang word we use meaning 'the surface'." Leo answered.

Delilah still didn't know what exactly that meant, but she ignored her curiosity for now. "So Casey just accepted you? He didn't think he was dreamin' or anything?"

"Yeah. He's a pretty good guy and doesn't really care whatcha look like as long as ya help him bust heads. He was taken his vigilante job a little too far when I found him. Had ta keep him from killin' some Purple Dragons. He got himself in da middle of an ambush and we helped him out." Raph answered.

"So what you're sayin' is, you've saved all of your human friends. Even previous one's like me."

"Pretty much. After we save humans, dey usually run away. April didn't have da chance since we took her back ta da Lair when she passed out in da sewers, and we helped Case out of a tight spot, so he didn't really care."

"Moral of the story, April and Casey became our friends instead of running away and we all lived happily ever after, the end." Mikey finished with a slightly annoyed edge to his tone. "Come on, Don!" He called to the front of the car. "Splinter can drive faster than you!"

"For your information," Donny retorted. "Splinter can't drive at all!"

"And Splinter is…?" Delilah asked as she raised an eyebrow.

"Our Sensei." Leo answered for her. "He raised us and taught us ninjutsu."

"And he's a mutant turtle like you?"

"Rat, actually." Raph smirked.

"You never told me your backstory." She informed the guys. "And YOU promised ya would when we got in the car." She turned on Leo.

Leo grinned. "And I always keep my promises." He quickly began to tell her everything about his and his brothers' origin. By the time he was finished, they had reached the old warehouse where they stored the Battle Shell.

"So basically, some aliens called Utroms came to earth and created a transmat device that secreted ooze that can mutate things. Then, after a boy bought you four in pet-shop-turtle form, a blind man almost got run-over by a truck transporting the ooze, so a guy behind the kid bumped him to save the blind guy, causing him to drop you into the sewers. The truck swerved and a can of the ooze fell into the sewers too, covering the four of you. There, normal-rat Splinter found you and took you in." Delilah summed up. "Because he cleaned you up, he got the ooze on him too, and after that the ooze transformed all of you into mutants."*

"Yep." The four brothers answered in unison.

"We get out here." Leo told her.

Delilah just then realized they had entered a warehouse. She quickly followed the guys out of the vehicle.

"But then," She began. "How did he know ninjutsu?"

Leo sighed. "That's a whole other story."

Mikey burst out laughing, surprising the others. He had been so busy sulking about missing out on the Justice League marathon, that he had hardly said anything the whole ride home. Something normally unusual for the orange masked turtle.

"What?" Raph asked gruffly. They were just now leaving the warehouse.

"Keep it down now, guys." Leo whispered.

"It's just," Mikey chuckled one last time before lowering his voice as to not alert humans. "April asked the exact same thing after we saved her. You might as well just tell her, Leo. We still have a ways to go."

The leader shrugged. He had intended on telling her anyway. "I will tell you if you want, Delilah."

Delilah snorted. "I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to know…hey, where exactly are we going? I'm not a ninja, ya know, so I could get spotted by someone out here."

"We just need ta make it ta dat alleyway over there, den we can get ta da sewers." Raph answered.

Delilah frowned. Leo had told her their home was in the sewers during the origin story. It had surprised her, but she knew it shouldn't have. Where were four humanoid-turtles supposed to live without being discovered? Still, she wasn't looking forward to living in the sewers.

Leo noticed her frown and grinned internally. April and Casey had been surprised at how nice their home was, despite where it was located. He knew Delilah probably would be too.

"So are you gonna tell me how your master knows ninjutsu, or what?" Delilah pestered.

Leo put a finger up in a signal for quiet as the band of mutants crossed the street to get to the alleyway with the desired entrance point to the sewers. Once everyone crossed without being spotted, Mikey hastily lifted the manhole cover and everyone jumped into the sewers, Delilah a little more hesitantly than the others.

Leo waited to speak until the manhole cover was safely back in place. "Now that we're underground, I can tell you."

Delilah listened intently to the story. It helped keep her mind off of what she was probably stepping in right now. Surprisingly, it didn't smell that bad down there.

"Those aliens sure give you guys a lot of trouble." She frowned after Leo was done with the second tale.

"Yeah." Raph agreed. "They brought da Shredder ta earth, and Splinter's master, Hamato Yoshi, got killed tryin' ta protect dem."

"But," Donny interjected. "Without them, we would still be pet turtles."

"Good point." Delilah nodded. "You guys are lucky your master was so observant. Most people wouldn't believe it's possible for everyday rats to learn martial arts, let alone learn it by mimickin' their owner's movements. Speaking of Yoshi, did he ever get, like, avenged or something?"

Raph grinned evilly. "Old Shred-head is currently on a frozen asteroid courtesy of us."

"You guys fought him? So he stayed on earth for a while?"

"He posed as a human using Utrom technology." Leo answered.

Raph nodded. "Ya probably heard of him. He pretended ta be a human named Oroku Saki."

Delilah's eyes threatened to bulge out of their sockets. "Saki? The savior of New York? He was an alien! Jeeze!" She shook her head adamantly. "I thought he went ta Japan!"

"He was just saying that. He was going to go back to the Utrom Homeworld." Donny informed her.

"And bring back some more slimy aliens to help him invade earth." Mikey smirked. "Of course, he couldn't defeat the…" He paused dramatically.

"DON'T SAY IT!" Raph yelled. Delilah noticed he suddenly looked murderous.

"BATTLE NEXUS CHAMPOIN!" Mikey laughed, already running from Raph who soon followed in hot pursuit.

"The what?" Delilah asked in confusion.

"Another long story." Leo answered tiredly.

The group quickly caught up with Mikey and Raph, who had stopped in front of what seemed like a dead end.

Before Delilah could comment on the fact that they were lost, Donny pulled a few pipes on the wall. To her surprise, they moved like levers and suddenly the wall began to split down the middle and retract into each side of the wall. It kind of reminded her of an automatic door at a super market.

"Welcome to the Lair." Mikey grinned at her as they entered.

A/N: *If you're confused about the transmat bit of the origin, that was revealed in the episode Secret Origins, Part One. Not trying to insult anyone, it's just something that isn't widely talked about and was barely even mentioned in the episode in the first place.