Chapter 3

Once back at the lair Raphael had his younger brother help him move some things out from a spare room they had which was only used to store some stuff in because master splinter would go ballistic at the sight of an untidy home. Donatello helped Liz unpack while Leo went to get her a cup of tea as requested. Don opened up the second bag she had brought, knowing that she had put sensitive stuff in the first, and began emptying it. He saw the photos of Elizabeth and her friends in the park having fun and messing around but then he brought out a load of old newspapers that were well kept and some had scrap pieces of paper inside with things written down as though Liz was trying to discover something. He thought it best to leave it alone and not ask questions just as Leo came in with a hot, steamy mug which he placed on the bedside table.

Liz smiled at Leo as he came in and began sticking up the photos on the walls just as he remembered from her bedroom.

"Thank you guys for letting me stay here"

"Well we can't let you stay at your dads, not after what I heard anyway"

"It's funny. I never left because I wanted to preserve what was left of my family but now that I have left I feel better and I don't miss my dad"

Donatello smiled he was glad that he and his brothers were able to help her and make her life better. He saw that Liz and Leo were constantly looking at each other and caught on to what was going on and left them to it. He returned to the main room to find Mikey watching cartoons and Raph working out on the punch bag.

"So how is hot girl settling in?" exclaimed Mikey at his older brother

"She's fine Mikey and stop calling her hot girl"

Raph smirked at his brothers remarks and continued to punch the bag as though it was the shredder

Leo sat down next to Liz on her new bed when they were done and watched her drink her tea.

"I see that you've tried to make it resemble my old bedroom"

"Just making more comfortable for you"

Liz then yawned and closed her eyes she began leaning on Leo and he knew that she must have been tired. Leo stood and placed her head on to the cushion and lifter her legs on to the bed. He left the bedside light on but turned off the ceiling light and left the room to let her sleep.

She was crying, she was sat in the middle of the living room and was crying as the building around her was on fire. "Mummy" she cried but there was no answer. She began to crawl to the front door hoping to get out of the apartment but she was struggling to breath. The black smoke surrounded her as she heard a loud laugh, its evil tone rang through her ears. "Mommy!" this time there was a reply

"ELIZABETH! ELIZABETH I'M COMING!"

She tried to crawl further but she felt weak and frightened. She lay on the floor inhaling the black smoke and coughing to get rid of it, her eyes began to close when she could just make out her mother running through the door and grabbing her. Hands grasping her so tight, she tried to wake up but couldn't and only heard the heavy breathing of her mother trying to escape the fiery inferno.

Just as she was about to slip away she felt pain on her body as though she had been thrown and heard a woman scream her name with an evil laugh right beside it. The fire drew close and was about to light her up.

Liz woke up immediately with a little pain from her broken arm at the sudden jolt. She looked around and saw she was in her room the turtles fixed up for her, she was safe away from any fires or screams. Liz climbed out of bed and felt wet from sweat as well as out of breathe.

"Not again" she mumbled

Liz went over to her little desk and saw her laptop at the bottom of a stack of newspapers on one side of the desk but right in the middle was her sketch book. She opened it to see a picture of her mum and herself when she was little stuck at the front with a little message from her mother underneath it. Liz flicked through the pages seeing her drawings of fire and apartment buildings and several pages filled with a strange symbol that she had been tracking down for ages she had not seen it in a while apart from last night when she was attacked by Hun. He wore the symbol as a tattoo on one of his arms. It was red, almost a diamond shape but at the top were three points the middle one being the tallest point they look like spikes or peaks.

The last page she drew was of a fire-fighter that had found and saved her from burning to death. He was kind and personally took care of her until she was reunited with her father. Liz still knew the fire-fighter today she saw him regularly and considered him family. Elizabeth opened up a new fresh page and began drawing, she would always draw something random she would never think about it but scribble and she would always find that it took the shape of something. Liz would always do this after a nightmare to either remember it or use it for clues later or to distract her.

After about an hour Liz found that for the first time she had not drawn something from that nightmare like she always did but she had drawn Leonardo for some reason. She smiled at the drawing and began to blush so she closed it and decided to get dressed she carefully moved her left arm and when she did she felt no pain at all as though it was completely healed but she knew it wasn't because she had been down this road before so she decided to put the sling on again even if she could move it a bit more.

"I said I heal fast"

She emerged from her bedroom to find the other doors along the corridor were closed so she guessed the others were still sleeping. When she reached the main room she decided that although she was injured she was going to keep to her training anyway and the best way to do that was to mostly use her legs and meditate. Liz wondered to the dojo and began doing hard kicks in to the air.

She found this quite easy and painless so she knew her bruises were healed, she thought about practicing her evading manoeuvres but then again they do require arm movement sometimes and so didn't. After 30 minutes of leg training she kneeled before the strong tree in the dojo and breathed softly, she emptied her mind and entered deep meditation. She must have been doing it for some time because she opened her eyes when she sensed someone watching her.

It was master splinter.

"You enjoy your training don't you?"

"Yes sensei" she bowed

Splinter walked over to her from his private room and presented her with a katana.

"This is a Katana I got from Japan, it was hand crafted by an ancient Japanese blacksmith. The metal had been folded so many times to make it light and strong. I present it to you as you are worthy"

Liz took the katana she awkwardly lifted it to her left arm so that she could unsheathe it and when she did her eyes laid on the shiny metal that had Japanese writing on it. She immediately recognised it.

"Sensei this is Jokoto, it is very ancient. I don't think I am worthy of such a beautiful weapon"

Liz tried to hand to katana back after placing it back in its sheath, but Splinter looked down upon her.

"I know you are ready, for instance you identified this katana instantly"

"Legend says that if you speak these ancient Japanese inscriptions the katana will glow with immense power"

He smiled and nodded at her knowledge of the weapon

"But young Elizabeth no one speaks the ancient Japanese language"

Liz bowed at him

"I can speak a tiny bit of it actually, I bet I can translate it. Thank you sensei"

Splinter then left to the kitchen as Liz kneeled again and placed the katana in front of her, she felt blessed and excited to unlock the inscriptions. But before she would start her research she would continue her meditation.

Leo was the first to wake up and see that Liz's door was wide open, he went to the dojo for his early morning training while his brother usually start to wake up but was surprised when he found Liz meditating in front of the tree. We walked over to her and noticed a katana lying there too.

"Leo, how are you today?" Liz asked

He saw that he must have disturbed her with his presence.

"I'm good, surprised to see you here actually but I forgot your trained in the arts too" he laughed

She began to get up but Leo could see she was struggling so her offered his hand she took it and then fell backwards pulling Leo down with her he ended up lying next to her on the floor. Both looked at one another before laughing.

"I'm so sorry Leo"

"It's okay, we all struggle now and then"

Leo then stood and held out his hand again to Liz

"Wanna try again" he said

She took his hand and stood up right properly this time. When they were both stood they stared in to each other's eyes and lost themselves. Both began to blush when they heard Mikey calling to everyone that breakfast was served. At once they snapped out of it and felt a bit embarrassed.

Liz took her katana and went with Leo towards the kitchen.

They found Donnie drinking coffee and eating pancakes, Raph however was just drinking his coffee.

There were three other mugs and plates filled for Liz, Leo and Mikey.

"You don't want pancakes Raph" Liz questioned

"Believe me you won't be wanting pancakes in a minute either" he said

Liz was confused about what Raph said and began eating her breakfast. She loved the softness of the pancakes and how fluffy they were. Not a burnt bit in sight just a perfect pancake, something she could never enjoy with her dad.

Liz then realised what Raph had been talking about when she looked over at the chef to see Mikey stuffing his face with what looked like ten pancakes topping with a bucket full of syrup.

"Told ya" was Raph's remark to her stunned face

Leo and Donnie laughed it was going to take a while before Liz would get used to Mikey's eating habits.

After breakfast the guys did there morning training session with master splinter watching them and giving them activities such as team training. All stuff Liz had never done as she had always trained on her own. She stood watch over them hoping that she would learn even if she couldn't join in herself. She saw Leonardo use his katana's to hit Michelangelo in the stomach with the handles. And Raphael snapped Donatello's staff in half and began hitting him with the remains. It was then down to the two eldest brothers.

Both knelled before each other and began to fight Leo tried to deliver some blows but Raph evaded in the end Raph used his Sais to trap Leo's wrist and flip him over his shoulder on to his back.

Master Splinter then called to them and they knelled down. Of course Raph boasted about how he won the fight but Splinter put him straight. After their training Donnie took me to his lab to check up on my arm and bruises.

"Wait, your bruises have healed already" Don questioned

"I told you I heal fast"

Just then Leo came in asking for a cream to help with the ache in his wrist from training. He smiled at me as Don examined my broken arm.

"Your arm is better than yesterday too"

He seemed confused at how she had healed fast just like she said.

"Everything okay Donnie" asked Leo

"Yes, I mean Liz wasn't kidding when she said she healed fast her bruises have gone and I estimate that her arm will be back to normal within two days"

Both of the turtles looked at her in disbelief

"What, everyone is different" she shrugged

She then exited the lab, leaving Leo and Don speechless

After a couple of minutes Don spoke up

"So what's going on between you and Liz?"

Almost immediately he had an answer so that the discussion would be quickly dismissed.

"What do you mean, there's nothing going on"

"Yeah right, I've seen the way you look at her bro"

Leo could tell he wasn't going to win this one.

"Okay fine, I kinda like her. I felt something when I was carrying her home. Like I had to protect her and all."

Donnie just laughed and he thought his crush on April was bad. Leo gave his brother and unimpressed look before leaving the lab. When he left he saw Raph and Mikey playing video games and Liz sat on the couch with an unsheathed katana and a book in her lap. He ventured over and sat beside her.

"What are you doing?" he asked

"I'm trying to decipher the inscriptions on the Jokoto that master Splinter gave me"

"Wait… Jokoto the ancient katana, Splinter had it and gave it to you… and you can read the ancient writing"

"I can sort of read it"

"That's so cool, the language is supposed to be dead"

Leo looked over at her as she read through the book about the history of ancient Japan. He saw how her sky blue eyes shined in the light and skimmed over the book quickly looking for the information. He chocolate brown hair hung over her shoulders but it bounced slightly where it was wavy. His heart began beating faster when she looked up at him and smiled she even scooted closer to him so that he could see too and help her out.

Leo took a deep breath in and then let it out.

"You'd be surprised how much I love Japanese culture" she said

Liz put her hand down from where she was flicking through the pages and found that she had put her hand on top of Leo's. They then looked at each other before hearing Mikey moan about how he lost to Raph on his video game. They both took their hands away and coughed looking away from each other.

"Come on Leo, I bet I can beat you too" teased Raph

Leo was about to reject raphs offer to play but noticed Liz go towards her room and so took the controller from Mikey and began playing.

"What's wrong with me? First I draw Leo and then we both fall over and now I can't even talk or sit next to him without feeling weak or hot" Liz questioned

She started feeling hot and blushed again when she thought about Leo, it was as if he was making her weak and taking away her train of thought. When he was around she always lost herself in his eyes and found herself missing him when she had not spoken to him in a while. There was just something about Leo that made her feel weak at the knees.

"YES! I win again" Shouted Raph

He then began doing a victory dance. Normally Leo would care and win at this game but right now he didn't he lost the game because he was thinking about Elizabeth and how when he is with her he feels complete and would do anything for her. He wondered how someone as strong as he is could feel so weak at the knees.

That night the guys went on patrol leaving Liz at the lair. She wanted to go with them but didn't bother asking because she knew that they would tell her that she couldn't so she waited until they were gone to leave. She liked living with the turtles but she did feel a bit trapped sometimes and misses the freedom of going outside. When she reached the surface she saw that there were people around still even if it was late evening, this was the time that if people wanted to go shopping but had to work all day they would it now. Liz didn't expect anything different in the city that never sleeps. She walked along the side walk careful not to bump in to anyone in case her arm wasn't as healed as previously thought. She walked quite a way and worried that she wouldn't find her way back.

She walked towards the park and saw just sat on a bench in the middle of the park was her three friends Emma, Jayden and Jessica.

She walked towards them having missed seeing them around.

"Hey look it's lizzie" yelled Jessica

"Ssshhhh Jess, this maybe the city that never sleeps but there are some people sleeping" Laughed Liz

All three of them stood and walked over to Liz each giving her a hug.

"We haven't seen you in ages Lizzie, where have you been?" asked Jayden

"I've been staying away from my dad"

"Don't tell me that your dad did that to you Lizzie" said Emma

They all looked down at Elizabeth's broken arm in a sling.

"Oh no purple dragons did that, this was my dad"

Liz pointed to an almost healed mark on her right arm where her dad had cut her with a knife. Her friends stared at her in shock.

"You gotta do something about him Lizzie, He should be worried about you being attacked by those thugs not attacking you himself because you let it happen"

"I am doing something about it Emma and I didn't let the purple dragons do this to me it was an unfair fight s'all"

"You went looking for answers again didn't you?" questioned Jayden

Liz tried to look less guilty but couldn't contain it

"Fine, but if I don't no one will"

Emma, Jayden and Jessica shook their heads at their best friend's actions.

"Your gunna get yourself killed one of these days, so how are you staying away from your dad then"

"I'm staying with some friends that's all"

Then Liz thought of Leo and blushed.

"So who are these friends, who do you like?" asked Jess

"What makes you think…" Emma interrupted her

"Your blushing Lizzie"

"Okay I like someone and so what"

They just stood there in silence. Liz felt bad, normally she would see her friends almost every day and share pretty much everything with them but recently she hadn't seen them and she can't tell them about the turtles.

"You know Danny has been worrying about you, he hasn't seen you in ages and you always visit him once a week"

"So I haven't seen him in 3 weeks, I've just been busy"

"Finding answers?"

"Yes if you must know"

"Fine, I'll go see him now"

Liz walked off away from her friends with guilt she went straight to Danny's apartment. This wasn't going to help her either as she told Danny everything too but that's mostly because she could trust him ever since he saved her from the fire when she was little she would go to him if there was a problem. Liz rang the doorbell and waited for him to answer.

The door swung open and the next thing Lizzie knew she was engulfed in to a big hug.

"Lizzie, I can't believe that it's you. It's been so long. How have you been?" He invited her in.

"I've been good, attacked by purple dragons and more dad troubles but still good"

"Are you okay, most people don't look as good as you do after an attack? How did you get away?"

Lizzie was silent, she completely forgot about the turtles and that they would probably have gone home and found that she wasn't there. Now she was in trouble.

"Lizzie?"

"Oh I ran away and some friends helped me"

"How did you get attacked?"

"I was going to get some beers for dad"

Danny raised an eyebrow at her.

"Okay so I was finding answers and then I was going to get some beers"

"Lizzie, you can't keep doing this"

He was about to hug her again to comfort her but she backed away

"I'm not crazy, I know the fire was no accident"

"Lizzie have you been having that nightmare again"

She just looked at the floor and didn't bother replying, he knew the answer anyway. Danny just put his fire-fighter jacket on and grabbed his keys.

"Listen, I'm on call tonight so I have to go. Stay here tonight away from your dad where you're safe. I meant what I said a month ago I will report your dad."

Liz just walked past him before he could close the door. She would stay with him sometimes but she was safe with the turtles and knew that she shouldn't let them worry. She heard Danny call after her but she didn't want to talk to him anymore, even he thought she was crazy. Liz ran out the front door of the building and up the first fire escape she could find. She liked being up high and the wind blowing through her hair, it made her feel free. She walked over to the edge and sat down letting her legs dangle.

Overlooking the city Lizzie thought over everything.

"Maybe I should have stayed in the lair"

"Maybe you should have" came a voice behind her

Lizzie turned and saw Leo stood there. She turned back around so that he wouldn't see her blush again, which seems to be a recurring thing with her.

"I'm sorry Leo, I wanted to get some fresh air and I missed my friends"

He walked over to her and sat beside her.

"Although now I kinda wished I didn't come up here"

"You really had me worried you know"

"You?" she questioned

"I mean us… you had us worried"

Lizzie laughed.

"I know, I just used to go outside quite a lot and now I don't have a reason to anymore"

Leo smiled he knew the changed wouldn't be easy for her but he was really glad that nothing bad had happened to her.

Liz shuffled towards him and rested her head on his shoulder as they looked over the city together.