Again, sorry, but as hard as i was trying to force the smut to happen it just wasn't happening. You'd think after 109,000 words I'd be able to get SOMETHING steamy in there. But alas the characters are not thrilled about this "sudden" change and therefore the relationship continues to develop at a snail's pace

Simply having everyone home and alive was plenty of reason to celebrate, and Casey Jones was more than eager to come over with pizza and a couple of medical supplies so long as he was repaid in stories from the event. Aaliyah wanted to be with the family and so asked Donatello to carry her out of the lab… Right up until she found out that he'd had his humerus broken in his furious rage against The Shredder. Then it was Michelangelo's job to carry her around as needed. His shell was sporting some new, rather severe, cracks but his limbs were fine. She stayed awake long enough to be deposited into Donnie's lap and drink some water but before she could even hear word one of the story she was out again. Not that Donatello minded.

Michelangelo was the designated storyteller, recounting all of the moments everyone shined and everyone slipped up and everything in between.

"And then Brooooooo you should have seen it! Aaliyah totally busted outta nowhere and saved Leo's ass! It was probably the third hottest thing I'd seen in my life. She was all like rrrr-at-at-at-at and just mowed down six of 'em! She got Leo a little, though, and she freaked the shell out! Bahahaha! All like, threw the machine gun over her head and didn't even see it clobber a guy behind her. 'Leo, Leo, Leo! I'm Soooooo sorry! Are you ok!? I'm so sorry, I promise I'll fix it!' Hahaha! Lucky I was there 'cause these three merks were squaring up to take her down but I totally swooped in to save the day."

Normally Donatello would have felt obligated to point out the inaccuracies in the story as it was being told. But with Aaliyah sleeping on his chest… He really didn't have much interest in anything that could possibly wake her and disturb the quiet moment they were having. So he let the inaccuracies slide and buried his nose into her hair to breathe deeply of her feminine scent still mingled a little bit with the iron-rich smell of blood and the smoky overtones of gunpowder.

For nearly a week almost all interactions with her were carried out while she was unconscious. She would wake for a few minutes, just long enough to say a few words and take a few sips of water and use the restroom, and then she'd be out for the next five to seven hours. The cot was moved from the lab to the sitting area where the boys were congregating anyways to sleep in a pile together. Even Sensei was moved to the main area so that everyone could keep an eye on him.

Usually Donatello only slept when he had to, leading him to sleep deeply and dreamlessly. But with Aaliyah within arm's reach he found himself stirring even at the slightest indication of movement.

"….mm."

Donatello's eyes were open and he untangled himself from Raphael's arm. " 'liyah? You awake?"

"Mhm."

"Do you need anything?"

"M-m."

"Are you sure?" He slid over next to her cot and took her hand carefully. "We probably ought to have you drink some water."

She thought about it for a second, Donatello worrying that she might have fallen asleep again already. "Aaliyah?"

"'M here. If I have some water can I come cuddle in the pile?"

He wanted to say yes but the doctor in him just couldn't quite agree to that so early in the healing process. "I-I don't want you to get hurt or aggravate your injuries. They're still raw and healing…"

There was the quiet sound of her nodding, braided hair shuffling against the thick fabric of the cot. "Ok. I understand."

"Sorry."

She giggled a little but cursed lewdly at the pain that caused. "Don't be. I know you're just looking out for me."

"I am." He squeezed her hand and she squeezed it back, tugging it up to her lips so she could kiss his bandaged knuckles. His heart flipped over in his chest, mind blanking at the immediate question of whether or not he should (or could) reciprocate the action. But before he could even come to a decision her breathing deepened and the light sound of snoring joined in the chorus of obnoxious snores coming from the pile of brothers to their side. Not daring to wake her up, but not willing to let go of her hand just yet, he scooted a little closer to the cot and lay his head down lightly on her arm. His thumb brushed over her delicate fingers until sleep finally beckoned him back to darkness and he rejoined his brothers til morning.

The second week showed some improvement in the amount of time that both Sensei and Aaliyah were awake, though in Splinter's old age it was already apparent that he was going to take longer than usual to heal. While Aaliyah was able to sit up with some assistance and stay sitting up on her own until exhaustion took over again Master Splinter still needed assistance to even remain sitting up. Even at that, though, improvement meant progress and everyone was in much better spirits by the end of that second week. Except for Leonardo's attitude, however, which only worsened.

Week three brought with it still better news. Aaliyah's body wasn't terribly fast at rebuilding her blood supply but it was efficient at healing and enough scarring had taken place that Donatello was able to remove her stitches. With his and his brother's mutations their ability to heal was incredibly improved over what a normal person would require and so by now even Michelangelo's cracked shell was nearly done scarring. It took some convincing but with his arm fully healed Aaliyah finally relented to Donnie's wide-eyed persistence and allowed him to take over Michelangelo's responsibilities.

Along with this changing of the guard came the need for her first bath since the battle. In her weakened state she hardly had the water in her to even function let alone sweat, and so the occasional wipe-down with a wet cloth had been sufficient until now. Additionally, now that she was able to stay awake for 30-40 minutes at a time there wasn't such a risk of her falling asleep while submerged and risk drowning. In anticipation of the event Donatello had not stopped blushing the entire morning, prompting a severe amount of teasing from the brothers that was nearly impossible to brush off. Aaliyah, on the other hand, had no problem simply rolling her eyes at them.

She'd deteriorated significantly with her mostly-liquid diet and lack of motion, cheeks sunken and pale and body far bonier than her once lithe and muscular figure softened with the gentleness of grace and feminine beauty had been. This made her painfully easy to lift and carry around, even if Donatello's arm hadn't been fully mended. But her eyes were bright and she wasn't quite as deathly pale as she had been the past two weeks so Don did his best to set aside his concerns for her seemingly slow recovery. Two steps forward and one step back was still a net gain of one step forward.

"Alright, here we go." He announced at the arrival to the bathroom, mostly from the nervousness of having nothing else to say. Aaliyah made a noise of agreement and worked to balance herself as Donatello set her down on the counter.

He looked around, somehow already lost, prompting her to giggle at him in sympathy for his predicament. "Don."

"Hm?" His head snapped down to look at her, worry shining plainly in his eyes. She held out her hands to him and he took them, the slightly darker tint that had stained his cheeks all morning roaring back to life intensely.

"Don, it's ok. It's a bath, not sex. I need help to get in, not to get off." She stated bluntly, attacking the source of his embarrassment directly. He peeped and had to cover his face out of total and complete mortification, a move that was too adorable for Aaliyah to not begin cackling at him. An unintelligible string of half-sentences and explanations spilled out of his mouth that he couldn't quite stop, a knee-jerk reaction that she understood but wanted to put to rest.

The only reasonable reaction, then, was to begin undressing.

It took a few moments for him to recognize what she was doing but as soon as he did he choked out a curse and clapped his hands tightly over his eyes. She laughed again but soon joined his cursing as the motion of trying to tug her shirt over her head had her stretching in ways that her innards did not agree with. Embarrassing as it was that this simple thing wasn't one she could do on her own, in a way it worked out to her (painful) benefit. "Don? Little help?"

He didn't move immediately, battling with himself over his unbelievable luck and yet his absolute misfortune. If his brothers could only see him now... they actually probably would not be looking at him. Not with HER to look at. An odd spike of jealous fury at the very thought of that had him checking the doorway (since there was only a curtain that allowed the occupants of the restroom any privacy at all). It was vacant, lucky for his brothers or else there would be blood on the floor to clean up, and that one little fact helped him steele his courage just enough to suck in a deep breath and peer down at Aaliyah.

She had the shirt lifted to her shoulders, his life-long training to be a gentleman immediately averting his eyes again at the expanse of bare skin that accosted him. But her patience with him finally won out and, with his breath held tightly behind thin lips, he knelt down and locked eyes with her. Carefully he pinched the fabric so as to avoid touching even one skin cell and tugged it over her head. That locked gaze never deviated even when her own eyes drifted downward in thought at how this next part would work.

"Alright, one down, one to go. You want to undress or do you want to balance? I'm pretty sure I can't quite manage both."

Another mortified curse slipped out of his lips, this time in Japanese, and he finally broke eye contact to look down at the concrete floor. Would he like to place his hands on her bare skin and hold her while she slipped out of her own pants or would he like to have her drape her naked form over his shoulder while he pulled her only remaining garment from her body? Was running to New Jersey an option? There was definitely no 'correct' answer to this one. It was a trick question. Trick questions weren't fair. It was Definitely not fair to attack him with a trick question like that without giving him at least two weeks notice so he could truly calculate the best answer to give.

"I-I uh... well... it's um... there... if … W-what I mean is... uh..."

Aaliyah understood the conflict behind the babbling, being part of the reason for it to begin with. She certainly hadn't made this easy for him up until now and this being a first for him to begin with it had to be terrifying. The only way any kind of friendship or relationship could work, however, was with open and honest communication and it seemed like he could use a strong dose of it now. Heck, she could probably use just as strong of a dose of it as he needed.

"Don." She took his face in her hands and slid her thumb over his lips, quieting his nervous rambling. His eyes locked stoically with hers, wide and scared stiff.

"Do you remember how I asked you to hold on to that thing you were going to say a little while ago?" He nodded, and Aaliyah continued. "Do you remember why I asked you to hold on before finishing that thought?"

His eyes bounced between hers while he thought back, finally asking with eyebrows lifted uncertainly. "It wasn't a good time?"

She nodded at him and quirked her lips into a crooked smile, stomach twisting nervously. This was it. Time for the moment of truth. "I wanted to make sure that you and your brothers had the best chance possible against the Shredder. That meant that I wanted to make sure I did everything I could to keep you focused. If I was too much of a distraction then I could have gotten you killed. Now that the Shredder is gone it's less dangerous… Well… Less Immediately dangerous… And therefore it's a better time for distractions. So, um, if you're interested… then it's probably safe to tell you now that I Really like you. Now, uh, for right now, I definitely am not going to be offended or upset in any way at all with your hands on me to help me out. I'd… Actually really like that."

Donatello gaped at her, dumbfounded, trying to process what he was hearing. It made sense, logically, but it was still so fantastic to his life-long fear of never being able to find someone that it took a long moment to be able to breathe again. Speaking was still out of the question, though, so something a little bit more concrete was the best way to communicate the tumultuous emotions roiling in his chest.

He took her hands and encouraged her to stand, himself dropping to his knees reverently in front of her. Even with his eyes locked on hers respectfully the view from down below was absolutely spectacular. He nearly forgot why he was down on the floor until she wavered on her feet, still just barely strong enough to stand. Remembering with a start he shuffled foreword on his knees to wrap one arm Very gently around her waist, careful to avoid her injury, and supported her weight. His eyes dropped from her eyes, not quite able to resist sliding over the breathtaking expanse of bare skin before him, finally resting on the waistband of her sweatpants.

Heart in his throat, nearly on the verge of passing out, he touched the soft fabric and paused to lift his eyes up again. She understood his silent question, asking for explicit permission that he couldn't second guess, and she nodded to him. And just to be sure he couldn't misconstrue her meaning she put one hand over his and pressed down on his hand gently. His gulp was loudly audible in the smaller space, breath rattling over her stomach that was so close he could have kissed it. As that thought crossed his mind he found himself leaning in and burying his nose into the perfectly soft skin and peppering it with gentle pecks. The sensation tickled terribly in the most delicious way and the moan that bubbled up in her throat had to be tweaked into a happy hum so as to keep any prying ears from burning.

They were both surprised to find the fabric pooling at her ankles, necessitating that she lean against him in order to step out of it. Then his forearm was behind her knees to lift her from the ground and take her to the tub. In all reality it probably wasn't the best idea for him to be carrying her since the press of her naked body on his plastron was making his legs feel a bit unsteady. But the alternative was to have her walk the treacherous 10 feet on her own and he certainly couldn't have that. Not in the least.

He had already filled the bath preemptively and, after testing it quickly to ensure it was still warm, lowered her into the water. Aaliyah sighed happily and leaned her head back to wet her hair, a movement assisted by Donatello. With her eyes closed he was sorely tempted to ogle the way this position lifted her breasts into quivering peaks that begged to be ravished, but respect and absolute terror kept his eyes trained on the waterline so he could make sure she didn't go fully under and possibly drown.

He pulled her up and fetched her everything she would need, sitting down beside the tub while she washed herself and scrubbed her hair. As long as it took to try to even rinse the shampoo from her hair, however, he had to take over eventually. Carefully his fingers massaged her scalp, pulling the soap and the grime from it in the most soothing of ways. Then while the conditioner set she looked him over with burning eyes and leaned on the edge of the tub with a devious grin.

"Donatello. I'm afraid my strength has failed me since I am so weak and infirm. However I'm afraid I haven't been able to completely wash myself. Might I call upon your position as my physician to assist me? I can assure you that, as my primary healthcare provider, it would be the honorable thing to do as a way of ensuring my comfort and health."

He chuckled weakly a little bit, shaking hands opening and closing nervously while he considered. Did he want to? Yes. Wholeheartedly yes. Would he be in trouble for doing so? From Aaliyah no but if Splinter happened to walk in he'd probably be in the Hashi for a week straight. Did he care? … … nope. … Ok maybe he cared a little but not enough to turn down an offer like the one being offered.

Cautiously, worried that maybe if he moved too quickly she might change her mind