A giant thank you to my lovely reviewers rinpup14, Diana Fay, SleepingSeeker and mela989898. You all keep me going!

As well a giant thank you especially to SleepingSeeker for all of your encouragement!

Hope you all enjoy this next chapter!

Chapter 4

Leonardo had tried his best to stay away from the Brownstone located just off 81st in the upper west side, but for some reason, he couldn't. Christmas had come and gone; so had New Years Eve and he wasn't any closer to feeling like himself.

He stared at the cat statue sitting on his desk; taunting him with accusing eyes. He had glued the cat's head back onto its body, it having broken in such a way that he could barely tell that it had been in two pieces. The head had separated from the body along the line of the cat's ornate necklace.

Leonardo closed his eyes, shutting out the alluring memories associated with the cat. He had told himself that it was just a coincidence that he had made sure that they had patrolled the upper west side more than they normally would. He had then tried to convince himself that he wasn't following Catherine, but trying to figure out where and when he would be able to give her the statue back; since he had not intended to steal it in the first place.

He had no intention of keeping the cat and was going to put it in the trash, but had kept it instead, feeling guilty for not telling Catherine he had broken it, and then for stealing it. He argued with himself that he had to give it back, because it could have had sentimental or monetary value and it was the right thing to do, especially after he had been shown such hospitality.

That he hadn't actually found the 'perfect' time to give the statue back to her was something he tried not to think about. He also tried not to think about how many times he had sat on the rooftop opposite the Brownstone and watched Catherine and Elizabeth go about their daily lives. Elizabeth had apparently moved in with her sister; if her constant presence and the large amount of boxes that had been carried into the building were anything to go by.

He then had tried to placate his inner voice that was whispering to him in his head that he had developed an un-healthy obsession by telling it that he was just making sure that the two women were protected. He argued that he would look after anyone he considered an acquaintance of sorts in the same way. And he told his inner voice firmly that the two women needed his protection because they both had an apparent and blatant disregard for their own safety.

Catherine worked at the Museum of Natural history, as an art and exhibit restoration specialist. She helped to record and assist with the reconstruction and repair of the museum exhibits as well as the items within the collections that the general public didn't get to see.

She would walk to and from work every day, even when she worked late and it was dark, outside, walking her route alone. This infuriated and frustrated him beyond all reason. Catherine was Canadian and perhaps this is what made her slightly naive and overly trusting; it was also the only possible reason he could think of for her to completely ignore all common sense.

If Catherine were not bad enough, then there was Elizabeth. She worked from home as a contract graphic designer and part time at a comic book store. She also worked part time as an arts model, posing for art students, photographer's and the like. All of this was fine, but the woman rode her motorbike like a bat out of hell even though it was winter. She also had a bad habit of staying out late and coming home at all hours of the evening and sometimes well into the morning; usually in the company of men who Leonardo would consider to be less than desirable.

Though none of the men were ever invited inside, Leonardo still didn't trust them or their intentions. He became especially incensed when they accosted the wrong sister; bothering Catherine and generally making a nuisance of themselves.

Leonardo opened his eyes and glanced at his clock, listening to the soft sounds of the empty lair. It was 10:00 on a Friday night and they had all been invited to Casey and April's for a movie. Leonardo had stayed back, telling his family that he felt like spending the evening alone and meditating.

His brothers had been disappointed, and Raphael had given him a strange, searching look before giving a shrug. They had left over an hour ago and he had finally steeled himself enough to do what he should have done months ago.

He stood and snatched up the cat, shoving it in his pocket and striding from his room. He planned on giving the cat back, apologizing, and purging Catherine from his mind once and for all.

Raphael watched with keen, suspicious eyes as Leonardo left the lair. Raphael stood up, his legs cramped and toes having frozen long ago. He didn't believe for even a minute that Leonardo actually planned on spending the night meditating so he had given his excuses to Casey and April, saying that he was going to make sure Leonardo was okay. He had then planted himself outside of the garage entrance of the lair waiting patiently, fuming slightly and freezing his ass off.

He had almost given up to and was tempted to say screw it and go to April and Casey's anyway, but the truth was he was too damn curious, and if he were honest with himself, worried. He had discovered that his older brother had begun sneaking out at night. Raphael had been tempted to confront his brother, after all, it was Leonardo who was the one always giving him shit for leaving the lair alone, and here Leonardo was doing the same damn thing; Bastard.

But Raphael had changed his mind and followed him instead which had only left him even more confused. As far as he could tell Leonardo was tracing a path between the Museum of Natural History and eighty first street. Raphael had then found out that his brother was sneaking out almost every night tracing the same path back and forth and watching a row of Brownstones. Raphael hadn't been able to get any closer to find out what was so damn interesting about the street; fearing his brother would notice that he was following him and so had kept his distance.

But tonight Leonardo had bailed on movie night, and this had aroused Raphael's suspicion. Raphael strongly believed that his brother was up to something different tonight, and he was determined to find out exactly what was going on.

Raphael suspected that the Fairy Queen lay at the center of the mystery and he wondered if his brother actually knew her identity and where she lived, and if so, he was curious to know if the woman knew that she had picked up an in-human stalker.

He had felt his worry turning to irritation when he had found his brother sneaking out of the lair. He had given his normally stringent and rational brother time to get over whatever the hell was wrong with him, but now he was determined to snap his brother out of it, even if he had to use his fist and knock some sense into him to do it.

Raphael easily followed his brother, who normally would have detected his presence, but lately had been so distracted, that he had not feared being discovered. And even if Leonardo did notice and confront him, it wasn't as if Raphael didn't have enough of his own ammunition to fire back at his brother if he even dared to yell at him for following him.

Raphael wasn't surprised that his brother headed straight for the upper west side. If Leonardo thought they wouldn't notice that he and his brothers seemed to be patrolling this area more than usual, Leonardo was mistaken; they had noticed. Of course Raphael was the only one who had his suspicions as to why they were focusing a undue amount of attention on the area. He had not informed his two younger siblings of his suspicions regarding Halloween night and his belief that their older brother had become more than a little interested in a human woman.

That was a particular and delicious tidbit of information that he intended to savour and use for his own purposes later; which probably included but not limited to ripping a strip off of Leonardo for being such an idiot.

Raphael and his brothers had accepted the fact long ago that a relationship with a human woman was not only impossible, but too damn dangerous. It didn't matter that their lives had become less dangerous over the past few years, the fact remained that they were freaks of nature and no woman would even look upon them as anything else. And even if they did, they would only be regarded as friends, nothing more.

He circled around his brother coming up the other side of the street than where his brother usually sat. But this time Leonardo didn't sit upon the rooftop like he normally did. Bundled up in a hat, scarf, gloves winter jacket and jeans, his brother made his way down to the street and darted across, making his way up a set of steps and placing something on the doorstep, before ringing the doorbell and quickly leaving.

Raphael watched his brother do this and knew that he had only a matter of moments before whoever was in the house opened the door. Taking one last glance around and making sure his brother had left and not stayed to see the person answer the door, he darted down to street level and ran up the slightly slippery stone steps.

He bent over, picking up the little stone cat and straightened, studying it in confusion, and frowning down at it. It was charcoal grey, made of something heavy, possibly stone or something else, and wore a golden hoop earring in each ear as well as a beaded necklace. He turned it over in his hand and noticed that it had been broken and glued back together.

Lamest gift ever, and it's broken, he thought to himself. There was the rumbling of a motorcycle engine that recalled him to the fact that the doorbell had been rung, and the door in front of him was going to be opened at any moment.

The heavy wooden door flew open, "Elizabeth I-" a woman's voice began before she collided with him.

She was small -probably weighted nothing- and under normal circumstances wouldn't have budged him from his spot, but the stoop was icy and he felt his boots slip before he found himself falling backwards. His arms spun as he saw his life flash before his eyes, his body crumpled below on the sidewalk, neck broken on the stone steps. The irony of having survived so many attacks and life threatening situations only to die in such a stupid way not completely lost upon him.

His flailing arms caught upon something solid and he held on, trying desperately to stop his backwards trajectory. Unfortunately he had grabbed onto the woman who had barreled into him, and she was no more anchored to the stoop than he was. She was also much lighter that he was and was unable to stop their motion as he pulled her down with him. She let out a yelp of fear that was quickly silenced as his carapace hit the stone step hard enough to knock the wind from his lungs, sliding the rest of the way down before they landed in a tangled pile on the sidewalk.

Raphael tried to take a breath and couldn't. His lungs were still rebelling against him, and there was a body laying on top of him that further aggravated his condition. The fact that he was still alive gave him no comfort, and only seemed to exacerbate the pain that was shooting red sparks of agony across his chest, through his head and over his legs.

He opened his eyes about to throw the woman off of him. He looked up at an alabaster face surrounded by a waterfall of golden, copper and russet curls. Dark moss green eyes were wide with shock, while kissable pink cupid's bow lips parted in surprise.

The Queen of the Fairies he thought numbly to himself. If his breath hadn't already been knocked from his lungs, it would have been stolen away by her breathtaking beauty.

She blinked down at him, and Raphael braced himself for the scream that would shatter his ear drums. She was close enough to see him -even though he was wearing a hoodie and a winter jacket with a scarf and a hat- he knew she would be able to see his face clearly and know he wasn't human.

She opened her mouth, but whatever she was going to say was interrupted by a smooth languid voice saying, "Kitty, if you are going to bring home a guy to have sex with, at least wait to do it in your own bedroom. The rest of us and this street don't need to see your PDA's."

'Kitty' looked up at the speaker aghast, and Raphael craned his neck to see who the second woman was. He looked at the pale woman with dark black eyeliner, dark punky hair, ruby red lips curved into a mocking smile, and a motorcycle resting on her hip.

"I wasn't-" 'Kitty' began but Raphael cut off the woman's offended words.

"Get off," he snarled, giving the woman a chance to get off him before he threw her off of him.

"No." She turned her luminous green eyes back to him. "You stole Bastet, and...you aren't Leonardo," she finished in confusion.

Raphael didn't reply, moving so that he dumped her onto the sidewalk. He glared down at the woman who quickly scrambled to her feet.

Raphael didn't let his shock at her actually knowing his brother cross his face, instead he growled, "No shit, Sherlock," and began to brush the faint traces of snow from his clothing. He refused to admit that he was being surly because he had been momentarily stunned by her; a flash of heat burning through his entire body at the very brief contact of her warm curvaceous body pressed against his own. He took a breath before looking back at her again. "What the hell were you doing, you nearly killed me?!" he snapped as he rounded on her.

Her mouth fell open at his attack before she snapped it shut. "Me?! You have 24/7 body armour!" She reached out and knocked on his plastron, buried as it was beneath several layers of clothing he swore he could still feel the heat of her hand. She continued. "You were the one who almost killed me by dragging me down with you. And you were the one lurking at my front door!"

"I wasn't lurking!" he shot back defensively even though that was exactly what he had been doing.

"I thought you were my sister, I was trying to catch her before she dragged snow into the foyer," she ground out angrily. "And then-" her words were silenced by a very familiar, very firm and strict voice that almost had Raphael's spine stiffening in response...almost.

"Raphael!"

Raphael looked over his shoulder and felt a moment of trepidation as if he had been caught in the act of doing something wrong, only this time he wasn't. Leonardo was at fault and Raphael fully intended to repay his big brother for all of the lectures he had ever given to Raphael about 'staying hidden', 'not going out alone', and 'staying out of trouble'.

Unfortunately Raphael didn't get to vent because his brother picked something up from the ground. He recognized the cat and realized that he must have dropped it when he had fallen. The cat was now in three pieces, the head having broken off again, and now one of the ears had broken off as well.

"I'm sorry I broke your statue, Catherine. I did not mean to and I had not meant to take it either." Leonardo bowed and offered her the remains of the statue. "Please accept my apologies."

Raphael ground his teeth together as his brother took all the blame for breaking the cat, not even mentioning that he had repaired it, and that Raphael had broken it again. He crossed his arms angrily over his chest.

Catherine took the cat and looked at Leonardo searchingly. She gave a nod of acceptance. "It's, okay."

"Are you two coming in or not, because if you aren't I'm going inside." The other woman said with impatience, as if it was every day that two mutant turtles congregated on her front sidewalk.

"No," Leonardo said with a shake of his head. "We-"

"Screw that, I'm goin' in," Raphael snarled, shrugging off his brother's hand which had clamped down on his shoulder. "I've been freezing my ass off tailing you around. I'm getting warm and findin' out why the hell you have been stalking these two chicks."

He started up the steps his mouth curling into a faintly malicious smile as he looked back over his shoulder at his brother, his eyes sliding over the two women who stood together, their appearances different yet exactly the same. He returned his gaze to his brother's furious face. "I mean, I get it, they're hot, and they're twins, so what were you thinking...threesome maybe?" he asked with a lascivious smile his focus upon his brother's face which darkened with embarrassment.

A woman snorted, her voice a seductive purr, "Sweetheart, he couldn't handle one of us, let alone both of us, and neither could you."

Raphael glanced at the two women, felt his brain completely shut down, and his legs stop functioning properly. At least, that's what he assumed happened because for the second time that night he lost his footing, slipped and felt himself crashing forward onto the steps before rolling to the bottom where he lay on his carapace; stunned.

One woman and then the next stepped over his prone body their hips swaying together arms around each other's waists as they mumbled something about 'men' and 'perverts'.

Raphael closed his eyes as he tried and failed to block out the image of the two sisters standing together, the one sister's head leaning on her sister's shoulder, her face filled with raw, animal seduction, while the other woman, Catherine, had her one hand buried in her sister's short hair, a mischievous smile pulling at her her lips, eyes filled with lust and the promise of carnal sin.

"Those two should come with warning labels,"Raphael grumbled in a low and quiet voice. "Exposure may cause seizures, heart attack, stroke and problems with blood flow."

He opened his eyes and stared at the night sky a grin pulling up the corners of his mouth. Having two women looking at him as if he was something more than just a mistake of nature combined with Leonardo's absolute look of horrified mortification was totally worth whatever punishment his older brother was no doubt cooking up right now.

He rolled over and got to his feet, his brother's face a thundercloud of furious anger.

Raphael only gave his older brother a cocky grin and turned making his way back up the steps without saying another word.

eyes Leonardo closed his

Leonardo closed his eyes, the cool air hitting him in the face, and it felt good. He had been feeling uncomfortable, embarrassed, and angry; and he was doing his best to keep his frayed temper under control.

"So, Fearless, you were plannin' on keepin those two all to yourself, huh?" his brother mused archly as they walked home after having spent the last couple of hours with the two women.

Leonardo ground his teeth together at his brother's words, still furious that his brother had been following him, broken the cat (again), told the two women that he had been following them, and to add insult to injury, had added the comment about a threesome and his brother's subsequent trips down the stairs had done little to assuage his fury.

"I wasn't planning on seeing either of them ever again," he ground out through clenched teeth. "And if you hadn't-"

"Yeah, yeah, blah, blah, whatever." Raphael angrily stormed ahead leaving Leonardo in his wake.

Leonardo clenched his fists together in irritation. He understood his brother's anger; understood it because he himself had been resisting the siren call of the Brownstone and the temptation that lay within it for months now.

It felt good to be accepted for who and what he was and that acceptance was something so rare that the need to cling to it had been overwhelming. But resist he had, for two long months until he was suddenly thrust back into their sphere; causing the need, and want for companionship, and for something more to rise up again and burn him alive from the desire for it.

And no matter how hard he tried to stamp down on the feelings, they had overwhelmed him and he had placed one foot in front of the other, making his way into the Brownstone and all of the possibilities it had offered.

Embarrassment and the warmth of the building had made him feel slightly overwhelmed. He had hastily explained that he wasn't 'stalking' them and that he had wanted to return he cat, but was finding it hard to gather the courage to do so. His excuses had tapered off as he looked around the foyer, now completely renovated and breathtaking it it's grandeur.

Dark wood panelling, darkly pained walls, brass fixtures, and stained glass decorated the room. He had complimented Catherine on the renovations and she had informed him that she was working on the upper floor and was welcome to go and look at what had changed since the last time he had been there.

He had agreed and Catherine had outlined her plans for the upper two floors, and had to admit that he had enjoyed himself for the rest of the evening, even though he had still been angry with his brother.

As they left Leonardo had been filled with the gut wrenching disappointment of knowing that he would never see either sister again because he shouldn't want to..

But he wanted to; so badly the pain was nearly physical.

He accepted and had been sanguine about the fact that they would never be with anyone. But maybe he had born this fact easily because he had never thought that there would be any woman out there who would ever look upon him as anything other than as a monster. Of course he could be jumping to conclusions and falsely believing that either woman would look at him as more than just a possible friend. After all, Catherine and Elizabeth were incredibly beautiful and it amazed him that neither woman was attached. Elizabeth was 'dating' but was not serious about anyone, and had not been on a date with any guy more than once in a while. Catherine on the other hand seemed to have no interest in throwing herself into the dating scene, apparently having 'too much on her plate at the moment' to bother.

Walking into the lair he had expected both Donatello and Michelangelo to have crashed at April and Casey's for the night. Instead he found his other two siblings up and both brimming with excitement and curiosity.

"I want to meet them too," Michelangelo said vibrating with anticipation.

"No," Leonardo stated firmly.

Michelangelo's face fell and pulled into lines of abused and hurt feelings. "Why do you and Raph get all the fun?"

"Mikey, it was just an accident, it isn't like we can see them again," he explained patiently, his heart giving him a twinge of regret through him.

"Why not?" Michelangelo crossed his arms over her chest in a defiant pout.

Leonardo sighed heavily, his shoulders slumping in defeat. "Because, Mikey, our lives are dangerous." He said the words he had said many times over, and didn't even believe them himself. "We have a duty to this city, we can't have any-"

"Friends?" Michelangelo interrupted.

"We have friends, Mikey," Leonardo pointed out.

Leonardo looked to Donatello to help back him up in his assessment.

"Mikey's right, Leo," Donatello said thoughtfully.

"Words I never thought I would ever hear." Raphael sarcastically drawled as he entered the room.

Leonardo shot a deadly glare at his hot-headed younger brother, which Raphael ignored, saluting him with a beer as he took a swig, a smug smile crossing his features.

Donatello continued. "I mean, we have a truce with Karai, and by extension the Purple Dragons. Bishop and Baxter Stockman haven't been heard from in years and they stopped trying to dissect and destroy us even before they disappeared. Our lives aren't dangerous anymore except for the occasional gang skirmish or basic crime that generally plagues a city this size," he pointed out reasonably. "So if these women are okay with what we are, then I don't see the problem with treating them like we would Casey and April."

The only problem being I don't want to date Casey and April, he thought to himself bitterly, but knowing when he had been beaten.

"Fine, you're right, Donny," he acceded as graciously as he was able to.

A grin spread across Michelangelo's face in triumph. "When do we get to meet them? What are they like? Tell me more, do they like horror movies?" Michelangelo pelted him with rapid fire questions and Leonardo tried to answer them the best as he could, praying that the women would forgive him for unceremoniously dropping their baby brother into their laps.

Raphael pulled Leonardo aside when Michelangelo began talking enthusiastically with Donatello, making plans for when they would meet the two women.

He glared at his red masked brother. "You did this on purpose," he ground out with irritation.

"So?" he asked unconcerned. "You needed to take your head outta your ass."

Leonardo's eyes narrowed further. "You-"

"And I call dibs on Elizabeth," Raphael interrupted.

Leonardo's mouth fell open his line of thought and anger completely sidetracked by his brother's words. "W-what?!"

"Hey, I'm not sayin' that they'd say yes, or are even interested, maybe they just want to be friends, whatever, but I'm just throwing it out there just in case. Not that I think you'd be interested in Elizabeth because -you know- she's the fun one, and you don't know the meaning of the word."

"Fun?" he asked in stunned accents. "That woman is Trouble."

"I know." Raphael grinned widely. "Night, Leo," Raphael said with a wave of his hand.

Hehe. thoughts and opinions are always welcome:) Hope you enjoyed:)