Jewels woke up to the sound of a piercing scream that echoed across the room. once that had faded she could hear her dad shouting and yelling in the background. It took Jewels a moment to remember where she was and what had happened and it all came flooding back even as calmer voices tried to talk to her obviously distressed parents.

She had just slipped out of the bed when the door burst open and Raph came stomping in. "Your folks are up, would you mind helping us shut them up? All their screaming and yelling is giving me a headache."

"I'm coming." She quickly told him and followed him out of the room.

He led her to Leo's room where her parents had barricaded themselves inside. Leo was calmly leaning on the opposite wall with his arms crossed while he waited for her to walk up. "Sorry, Mikey was trying to bring them some breakfast and they woke up on him. Poor guy was dodging pancakes there for a minute until he made it out of there. Then they locked themselves in and have been screaming for you ever since." He gave her a wry smile. "Apparently they think we ate you or something."

"Like I would want to." Raph grumbled. "All that hair would give me a hairball."

"Do turtles even get hairballs?" Mikey asked as he walked back up, using a washcloth to wipe syrup off of him.

"They would if they had to eat her." Raph grinned as he pointed a thumb at Jewels.

Chuckling, Jewels pushed past Raph and walked up to the door and knocked on it, loudly to be heard over the screaming and yelling inside. "Mom! Dad! It's me, open the door!"

There was a stunned silence from inside of the room for a few moments before there was the sound of it unlocking and it slowly opened and Dad slowly popped his head around. "Jewels!" He flung the door open and pulled her close to him, Mom crashed in just a second later and she was beginning to find it hard to breath they were crushing her so hard.

"See, we told you she was safe." Mikey said from behind them. Dad looked at him and freaked out again, slamming the door shut in his face. "Owww." The muffled complaint was heard through the door along with the sounds of laughter.

Jewels pulled out of her parents grasp after dealing with the 'Oh honey! I'm so glad your ok!'s. "Of course I'm ok." She smiled at them. "My friends came to help."

"Your friends?" Mom asked her, more than a little confused. "I didn't know you had any after the park incident."

She looked at her parents a little sheepishly. "I didn't make them until after the park incident Mom. And they took me a while to find again after that to even make friends with."

"Would you care to explain young lady?" Dad asked her.

Jewels sighed. "I didn't tell you everything that happened that night. The part of the Dragons beating up on that old man and I are true, as is the part that someone came and stopped them. I just didn't exactly tell you who it was that did."

"Why not?"

"Probably because I knew you would throw pancakes at them." She grinned at him.

They stared at her for a moment then looked to the door. "You mean, those, things..." Mom sputtered.

Now she was getting a little angry at them. They weren't things, they were her friends. "They could have let us get taken by those men!" She flared at them. "But they didn't, they came and helped us. The least you could do is stop being so judgemental towards them just because they are different! They have been better friends than any human has been to me so far." She finished with a sigh. "Even if I haven't known them for very long, I trust them."

"Oh, snap." Came from the other side of the door.

"Shut up Mikey!" The others hissed at him.

Her parents ignored the commotion outside the room and stared at Jewels. She however didn't give them a second thought as she turned around and opened the door wide. Leo was still leaning on the wall across the hall as was Raph now. Mikey was standing, looking a little silly, with his head pressed to where the door was just a moment before, then he toppled into the room. "Busted." He mumbled as he stood back up.

Jewels went over to help him back up to his feet then, after a look at her parents, gave him a hug. Mikey blushed a little but returned her hug. "Now, what was that for?"

"I never said thank you. So thank you." She smiled up at him.

"Aw man, it was nothin'." He mumbled.

Next she went to Leo and gave him one, then Donnie who had just walked up. "Am I missing something here?" He asked as she pulled away.

"I do believe she is trying to prove a point to her parents, and combining it with thank yous while she's at it." Leo smiled at him as Jewels moved on to Raph. He was a little harder to hug because he was so much larger than the others, but she managed. The return hug he gave her was surprisingly gentle, he also held on a few moments longer than the others did. Finally she turned and looked expectantly at her parents, who now wore thoughtful expressions on their faces. The fear was still there but not as much.

Jewels stood in the hallway, with the four turtles behind her, and waited. After taking a deep breath Dad grabbed Mom's hand and slowly they walked out of Leo's room into the hallway. "Well, I guess we should add our thanks to hers." he said as he approached them.

"None are needed." Leo calmly told him.

"Nonetheless, you have it." he tentatively reached out a hand, and Leo reached out his own. Their hands met in a firm shake.

"Now that we got that settled." Donnie said. "Anything you can tell us about why we had to save you from the big bad goons?"

"I'm not really sure...ah...I'm sorry, I didn't get your name."

"Geekhead works good enough for one." Raph said and Leo elbowed him.

"I'm Mikey!" The orange banded turtle chriped as he held out his hand. Dad took it and Mikey shook his hand vigorously up and down.

The poor man was wincing by the time Leo broke up the handshake. "Ok, calm down. You don't need to break his hand."

"Quite a grip you got there...Mikey." Dad said as he shook his hand.

"It's about as hard as his head. I'm Raphael. I'd shake your hand but I'm not sure my little brother didn't break any bones in it."

"Leonardo." He accompanied his introduction with a short bow.

"Donatello." This one was accompanied with a quick node of his head, but Jewels caught the movements of his hands hiding what looked like a couple of syringes. He caught her look and leaned in towards her. "Tranqualizers. Wasn't sure if I would need them or not." He murmured to her.

"Oh Donnie..." She giggled.

"And I am called Splinter." Came a voice from behind Donnie and Mikey and they moved out of his way.

He moved forward but as he did they heard a faint sigh and a thud. Turning to see what had happened they found Mom laying on the floor behind Dad.

"Why does someone always have to faint." Mikey said as he looked down at her and the rest of them just shrugged.

.

.

Dave wasn't too bad, Raph figured. At least he didn't faint. Once again they were all gathered around the large TV wall, with Raph once again sitting on the couch with his arms crossed and his feet up on the coffee table. Well, all of them besides Susan who was still passed out in Leo's room after her faint.

"So, you have no idea why they were after you?" Leo asked Jewels' Dad.

"No, I wish I did." He replied as Donnie handed him a cup of coffee, then he took a sip. "Hey, this is actually pretty good."

"Thank you." He replied. "I've had a lot of practice."

"I wonder why." Leo smiled. "You are the only one that keeps odd hours to need all that coffee."

"Hey, I'm a genius." Donnie grinned. "We geniuses always keep odd hours."

"I think we might be getting a bit off topic here." Raph told them. They might want to talk about that nasty stuff, but he was more concerned about why they were being chased by the Foot.

"I can't help but wonder if it might be because of me." Jewels said softly from where she was sitting on the couch next to Leo, her knees drawn up to her chest. "Because I took Mikey in that night."

"It is a possibility." Leo told her calmly. "But not a very high one."

"The percentage would be higher for them to go after April instead of you. She is a confirmed friend of ours where you were more of a coincidence. We haven't know each other long enough for them to put the connection together." Donnie added.

"But that is one of the reasons why we had to keep our distance from you, Jewels." Leo picked up the conversation again. "There is always the risk of something like this happening. We do consider you a friend, and as your friends we had your safety in mind by staying away."

"Which is pretty much moot now because they are being chased anyway." Raph said. "Now, Jewels, stop blaming yourself about what happened. It wasn't your fault and I don't want to hear anymore of that crap come out of your mouth." He didn't like that she was beating herself up for something that was, more than likely, not even her fault.

Leo rolled his eyes. "Way to handle the situation with finesse, Raph."

"Hey, you want finesse, go watch a ballet. I'm more interested in busting up these creeps."

"I usually don't condone violence, but in this case I agree with him." Dave smiled.

Donnie had by now sat down on the floor with his hands clasped around one bent knee. "If you don't mind me asking, what do you do for a living?"

"Me? Nothing exciting. Just a bunch of boring lab work." This made all of our heads pop up. Labs and Foot had a history of going together, and not always in a good way.

"What kind of lab work?" Leo asked him.

"Disease research mostly."

Donnie groaned. "Don't tell me they are still riding that old horse..."

"Excuse me?" Dave asked with a confused expression.

Leo sighed and leaned back into the couch. "You remember that falling tower incident on top of the Sacks building?"

"Yes, of course. The news was full of it for a week. That was a nasty chemical they put in there."

"Would it clear things up for you if we told you the Foot was involved in that as well?"

"What?"

"Yeah, I think the news skipped that part Leo." Mikey interupted.

"The Foot work for a man named Shredder and Eric Sacks was his student." Donnie clarified. "Sacks was caught, but Shredder is still floating around out there, somewhere, and has his Foot with him."

"You know, that might explain the massive foot sightings in that area the last few weeks." Leo said thoughtfully. "They were looking for you. Now we just need to figure out what they are trying to cook up this time."

"Known them, something nasty." Mikey said.

"How are you feeling today Mikey?" Leo asked the youngest.

"Better. Still kinda tired though." Raph narrowed his eyes, in Mikey speech that meant 'I feel like shit, but I really want to go, so I'll play it down.'

Leo wasn't buying it either. "You're staying home tonight. I'm sure the three of us can handle an information gathering run."

Mikey just sighed and nodded and Splinter laid a hand on his shoulder. "He is right, my son. Another night of rest will do you good."

Raph looked over to Leo, that familiar twinge of excitement hitting him when there is a possible Foot ass whoopin' in the near future. "So, we are going out tonight then?"

"Don't really see the point of delaying. The quicker we find out what's going on, the quicker we can stop it."

"What are you going to do?" Dave asked curiously.

"The usual." Raph replied. "Go out and beat the crap outta Foot until one of them spits out the answer we are looking for along with his teeth."

"That's a very graphic way of putting it." Donnie muttered.

Raph shrugged. "I'm a graphic kinda guy. It saves time if you get right to the point instead of trying to sugar coat it."

"Alright, then it's settled. We go out tonight and see what we can find out." Leo stood up. "Now, anyone feel like risking a peek in my bedroom to see if it's safe to go in? I personally don't feel like dodging furniture or something."

"Chicken shit." Raph smiled at him.

Leo shrugged. "Nobody is perfect."