Okay Dessiree26flores, you'll learn a little of Jeffrey Moore in this Chapter but in the last book, 'The Long Way Home', the last chapter deals with who he is.
Ch 6 Dealing With The Past
"Are you sure you want to do this now babe?" Raph asked Leo, watching Leo unlock and open the small storage unit where Leo was keeping things from both his mom's house and his aunt's apartment.
"I have to Raph." Leo told him, grunting, he pushed the doors up and stepped inside. He looked at the various size boxes with a look of sadness. There were only about a dozen boxes, but it still was overwhelming for him to look at everything that was his past. "It's going to be a year in April since we've brought these things here, and I've put it off long enough." He turned to look at Raph. "If you want to go wait in the truck, I can bring them over by myself." He made his way over to the closest box.
Raph walked with him and hugged him from behind. He nuzzled his neck which made Leo giggle. "I'll stay and help." He told him. "Besides, I'm kinda curious about some of the things that had to come back from LA with you."
He walked over to a box marked books and went through it. "Look at all the books on war and ancient Japan." He exclaimed, pulling out one book after another. "Do you want to keep them all?"
"Not sure." Leo replied absentmindedly looking through another box. "I'm going to bring them home and go through them there." He stood up and pulled out a snow globe wrapped in bubble wrap. He unwrapped it and looked at the snow globe intently. It showed the Statue of Liberty surrounded by New York City in a snowstorm. "My mom brought this out to LA with her." Raph saw the sad smile come across Leo's face as he thought back. "After my fath…Saki died, or disappeared rather, I remember her telling me that she wanted to come back here." He moved the snow globe around making the 'snow' fall.
"But you didn't." Raph pointed out. "Is it because Bradford came into the picture?"
Leo nodded and put the snow globe back in the box. He pulled out another item wrapped in bubble wrap. He carefully unwrapped it to show it was a 'Precious Moment's figurine' of a young boy and girl in dutch clothing leaning in and kissing. Each held something behind their backs, the girl had a book and the boy had a bouquet of flowers. Leo looked at the figurine and then wrapped it back up. He swallowed hard and was about to pull out another item when Raph put a hand on his hand making him stop to look up at him.
"Let's get these things back home." He told him with a tender smile. Since there were not that many boxes, Raph figured his pick-up truck would be enough. He grabbed hold of another box and looked inside in amazement. "There has got to be at least a dozen trophies in here." He exclaimed. "And what's with all these Space Hero comics?"
"Not a dozen trophies, only ten." Leo told him with a shy smile. "And Space Heroes is my favorite show. I use to want to be just like Captain Ryan, he was my hero as a little kid." He explained. Raph gave a light chuckle and continued to dig through the box.
Leo watched as Raph pulled out what looked to be a photo of someone and saw his eyes narrow. "Who is this?" Raph asked. He sounded almost jealous as he held out the picture.
Leo took it and stared in confusion at the picture. "I thought I destroyed this." He muttered. He turned away from Raph and frowned at the picture in anger. Raph stared at the picture over Leo's shoulder. It was a picture of Leo with a tall human boy of about eighteen. He had dark brown eyes and dark brown messy hair with a shaved beard. He had his arms wrapped around Leo from behind and had his head leaning on top of Leo's head. While the human smiled happily, Leo's smile was small and timid.
"Care to tell me who he is?" Raph asked, his voice had a demanding tone about it and Leo turned back to him with a look of surprise.
"If you must know." Leo shot back rather angrily at Raph's sudden attitude. "He's my ex."
"I thought you said I was your first." Raph actually sounded as though he was accusing Leo of infidelity.
Leo was taken aback by Raph's sudden attitude. "I said I never had a lover before and you WERE my first." He insisted. "I had a boyfriend before you but it never went anywhere." He quickly began to rip the picture into small pieces and shoved them into the box. "After only a month of dating, I found out he was a big-time jerk and I quickly broke it off." He roughly grabbed the box out of Raph's hands and headed out of the storage bin. "I don't even know how that got in there but now that you know, can we please keep going?" Leo walked toward the truck and put the box in the bed. He then proceeded to go back into the storage unit and continued to get more boxes. For the rest of the time, he didn't speak to Raph but instead, kept focus on his work.
When Raph attempted to help, Leo took the box from his hands before he could bring it out to the truck. He did this two more times before Raph finally put his hands on Leo to stop him. "Okay Leo." He said giving him a stern look. "I'm sorry." He said firmly. "I had no right to react the way I did." He looked at the ground in shame."It's just that the thought of you being with another guy felt… for some reason… just felt like a betrayal." He looked back up at him feeling rather confused. "Really, I…I don't know what came over me." He insisted.
Leo looked up at him and gave him a small smile. "It's okay Raph." He told him. "Just don't do it again." He told him sternly.
"I promise." They smiled and hugged then finished getting the last few boxes out of the storage bin and into the truck. As Leo climbed into the truck, he took one last look around the large yard of storage bins as something caught his eyes. 'Did I just see a flash of light in the distance?' He wondered to himself. That strange feeling of being watched came over him again and he narrowed his eyes and strained hard at the sun's light that seemed to be reflecting off of some sort of mirror or glass like substance in the distance.
"Yo Leo." Raph called out from inside the truck. "Something wrong?"
Leo looked at Raph then looked back where the light had been coming from. It was no longer there. Leo searched the area for a few seconds before finally climbing into the truck. "I thought I saw something out there." He told Raph.
"Like what?"
"I'm not sure." Leo shook his head and Raph put the truck in gear and drove off.
"So what was it about this Jeffrey guy that made you realize he was a first class jerk?" Raph asked, looking at Leo rather cautiously.
Leo went into the story of how they met and how Jeffrey eventually became possessive and demanding of him and how he ended up in jail. "The big thing that should've clued me into what kind of a guy he really was, was the fact that he was a student of Bradford's." Leo said. "I think it was just another way for Chris to keep tabs on me."
Raph nodded as Leo finished telling his story. "Well, if he's in jail, then at least we know he's someone you don't have to worry about." He told him as he squeezed his hand and Leo nodded.
In the distance, Jeffrey Moore put his binoculars into their case and smiled cruelly as he watched the truck drive off. "Awww, what's the matter Leonardo?" He mocked to himself. "Not happy with the little gift I left for you?" He climbed off the roof of the storage bin he had been sitting on and stood to the side, squinting his eyes to watch the truck in the distance. "Perhaps you'll be happy with the surprise I've set up for you at our new place." He smiled evilly as he fingered the butt of the gun that he kept just inside the pocket of his jeans. "Just have to think of a way to get you alone."
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With Raph's help, Leo had managed to get the boxes into the garage of the Hamato home. He began going through them one by one, slowly removing things and making two piles. One pile was to keep, which so far included all of his books, comics, trophies and his personnel belongings. The other pile were things he decided he did not want to keep. Most of it had belonged to his mother, but the more Leo thought about it, the more he realized she had received them from either Saki or Bradford, and he didn't care to keep anything that reminded him of them; and he was sure they wouldn't even care if the items got thrown out or were just given away.
His aunt's belongings were very few and Raph had retrieved mostly her pictures, knick-knacks and figurines. Since his aunt had worked at the school library she had very few books and what few were in her apartment, Raph had given them to her school on Leo's request. Everything else Leo had decided the real estate agency would take care of. With the exception of Irma's family photos, Leo decided he would get rid of everything else.
After several hours of being by himself in the garage and lost in his thoughts, Leo grabbed the empty boxes and began filling some of them back up. He would take the things he decided he did not want to keep to a consignment store and have someone sell them for him. The rest of the items he either kept in a box and stored in the garage until he and Raph got their own place, or they went up to their room to be displayed.
"Perhaps you would like your trophies displayed in the dojo?" Splinter asked him as he attempted to make room on one of the shelves for both his books and his trophies along with some of his mother's items that he had given to her over the years.
Leo smiled at his Sensei gratefully. Several minutes later, he and Splinter rearranged Splinter's trophies and awards to make room for Leo's. After they were done, they smiled at each other and Leo bowed to him. "Thank you Sensei." Leo said as he straightened up.
"You are welcome my son." He smiled at him and bowed in return. "I was thinking of making some tea." He told him. "Would you care to join me?"
"Tea would be great right now." Leo said and followed him out of the dojo and into the kitchen. "Where are Raph and the others?" He looked around the house and realized he had not seen them since he and Raph had returned home.
"Michelangelo left with Renet to look at wedding rings." Splinter walked over to the stove and began to heat up the tea kettle. "Donatello is on a date with Angel and Raphael is visiting April and Casey." Leo saw a smile play over Splinter's lips.
"He went to visit friends and didn't invite me?" Leo asked, his eye ridges raising.
"He knew you were very busy and did not want to disturb you." Splinter told him. He poured two cups of tea and placed one in front of Leo.
"I was hoping to have some time with you alone anyway." Splinter told him, taking a seat directly across from him. "It seems the only time we see each other now is strictly at work."
"Well, I have been a lot more busy then normal." Leo pointed out.
"Yes, this is true." Splinter took a sip of his tea. "And it is beginning to show." Leo looked at Splinter in surprise.
"Excuse me Sensei?" He asked.
"You look tired and worn." Splinter pointed out. "How are you feeling?"
Leo sighed and looked down at his tea. The nightmares have been more frequent and sleep had been difficult for him. He would go to bed with Raph at a decent hour, sleep for a short time before being jolted awake by one of his nightmares and stay awake almost for the rest of the night.
He looked back at Splinter and smiled at the gentle rat. "I'm doing okay." He told him, mentally crossing his fingers as he told the lie. "There is just a lot on my mind, like the wedding and other things." He gave a nervous chuckle and a shrug of his shoulders.
Splinter looked at Leo quizzically. "Has there been any information from Dr. Rockwell regarding your blood test?"
"So far there's still nothing but he's still concerned." Leo told him. "Frankly, I think everything is okay. He wants to continue to see me but only every other month instead of once a month since it's been over a year and nothing has happened…yet." He took a breath and finished his tea. He then stretched and yawned. "I think I'll go take a nap, it has been a long day."
He was just about to stand up when Splinter put a paw on his arm. "Leonardo, we are your family." He told him. "If there is something you need to talk about, do not hesitate to come to one of us." He looked at Leo with a fatherly gaze. "We will always have an ear for you….as well as a shoulder."
They smiled at each other and Leo nodded. "Thank you Sensei." He said and walked out the kitchen.