She called in sick. She didn't really need to be there. The speech was already written and it was good. She wasn't concerned. Since she was seeing Raphael again tonight, she wanted to delve deep into his mind by organizing her notes and creating the speech. After her first discussion with Raphael, she knew she had hit gold. She called the police station and proposed the program that her Iowa town had instituted. The police had, in turn, followed up with that Iowa precinct and they were all on board after the rave review and high recommendations. After last night, she was more ready than ever to write this speech. She got on the bed and spread her notes around her. She organized them and then sub organized them. She saw patterns and made paragraphs. Then she made a flow chart. As she was writing the flow chart, she noticed several different messages come across repeatedly. She wrote them down on a separate piece of paper and lightning struck.

"Be smart." She murmured to herself. Once she started writing, she couldn't stop. Within two hours, she had finished it. It was concise, memorable, witty and amusing. She had created an Officer Rafle to embody Raphael. She used his quirky speech and his colloquialism to sell it. She edited it and printed a copy for herself. She also emailed a copy to the police chief. She would need his approval to present the material and then he would schedule times for some officer to give the speech. She looked at the clock. Perfect. She had just enough time to shower and get ready for Raphael.

Raphael was bouncing off the walls. His katas in the morning were rushed and Splinter had him repeat them. Three times. He sparred with Leo, but when Raphael caught what time it was, he was distracted long enough for Leo to knock him off his feet. He landed on his shell with a 'crack'.

"Ugh!" He grunted.

"Gotcha." Leo gloated and held out his hand. Raph smacked it away and stood up himself.

"Get over yourself. Sparring is over. You didn't win, time ran out."

"You were distracted. A win is a win."

"Fine." Raph was in no mood to argue. He went to his room and washed up quickly then donned his surface wear.

"Where are you going?" Leo called after him. Raph smiled as he walked out the lair backwards.

"No time to talk, bro. Gotta hot date!" He put his helmet on and lithely turned as he exited the room, laughing at his brother's open jaw.

He had decided to tell her about himself tonight. A big decision, but Splinter had agreed that the beginning is the best place to start. She let him in with a smile. He smelled pizza, but there was another smell. It wasn't unpleasant, just foreign to him. He looked at the bed as he took off his costume. He saw a pizza box, but there were also small containers.

"What's all this?" He asked, amused. Her smile widened, shyly.

"I thought I would make it a little interactive." He raised an eye ridge.

"Interactive?" She got plates out of her desk. She motioned for him to sit on one side of the bed. She sat on the other, the food in between them.

"The pizza is your back up." She informed. "This," she gestured to the cartons. "Is Moroccan food. I love Moroccan food. These are some of my favorite dishes. I thought you could try some. If you don't like it, it's okay. There's always the pizza."

"That's pretty cool." He decided."Gimme some of that orange stuff." She smiled, please he was willing to participate.

"That's chicken tagine. It's flavored with lemon and olives." She scooped a piece onto his plate along with some rice." He was going to take his plate back when she held onto it. "Wait! Try some of these, too. Their sort of like Moroccan potato cakes." She released his plate. She filled her own, but watched as he tentatively took a bite of the chicken. He swallowed, waiting a moment before smiling.

"Hey, this orange stuff is pretty good."

"Is it?" She didn't want him to say so if he didn't mean it... "Because I'll order it again if you do. But if not, then…"

"I mean it. Really, I promise to say if something tastes like garbage, okay?"

"Okay." She began to eat.

"So, I was thinkin' maybe I would talk about myself a little first." He offered. "I mean, why don't I just talk about the big green elephant in the room?" She choked on her chicken at his phrasing. "You okay?" He asked, leaning in with a bottle of water. She nodded, coughing, but accepting the water bottle. She took a swig and breathed deep.

"You have a unique way with words." She opined.

"Yeah, sorry. It's the New Yorker in me."

"Don't apologize. It's very colorful." He smirked.

"No pun intended?" She ignored it.

"So you were saying?"

"Yeah, I figured you probably have some obvious questions you wanna ask, but maybe you're too nice to say, you know. So I thought I would just get it outta the way." She waited patiently. "Yeah, so," He grunted to clear his throat. "'Bout thirty years ago, not quite, I, my brothers and I, were just your average, run of the mill house pet turtles. Someone dropped our jar down the sewer. A man, Hamato Yoshi, found us and kept us as pets in the sewer." Darielle raised her hand. Raph smiled.

"You got a question, Ms.?" She blushed. "Just ask. You don't have to raise your hand."

"Sorry, used to press conferences. Um, why was Hamato Yoshi living in a sewer?"

"He had an enemy he was hidin' from. And he was completely broke. So he lived in the sewer and we kept him company. That and the rats." Darielle gasped. Splinter? Raph nodded at her unspoken guess.

"One day, Hamato Yoshi found us playing in this green slimy ooze. He picked us out and tried to clean us off. While he did that, he got some on himself. The ooze had mutagenic properties. So anythin' that touched, the ooze took over properties of any other DNA found on it. Meanin' anything'that had just touched it. We took on traits of Hamato Yoshi, becomin' more human and intelligent. Hamato Yoshi took on traits of the last creature he had touched, a rat. Splinter, he didn't want to go by his human name anymore, watched over us. He helped us learn and taught us to protect ourselves and others. He taught us right from wrong. He's more than a master, more than a sensei, he's our father. So…that's uh…that's who we are. That's…who I am." Darielle reached over and touched his hand.

"Thank you for telling me." So simple, but he still needed to hear it. He had been worried she would freak out when she found out his evolution hadn't been natural.

"Well, I didn't wanna keep it from you, Darielle. I mean, it's kinda hard to avoid what I am, ya know?"

"You can call me, Dari." She offered. It was her automatic response. It was foolish, but she felt guilty making people pronounce her full name. She didn't think most people wanted to bother with three syllables for a person that was unimportant to them.

"You said everyone calls you that. I'm not everyone…Elle." He finished, trying out the new moniker. Her heart twittered at that and she smiled in approval at her nickname.

"More?" She held out a spoon of chicken. He offered his plate. "Oh! I almost forgot." She got up, rocking the bed, and grabbed a bottle. "This is my favorite wine." She explained.

"A wine drinker?" He mused. "I wouldna thought."

"Well, it kinda helps with parties and things. Like a muscle relaxer for a pulled tendon if the tendon was talking to strangers." She shrugged. He could see an immediate difference in her today. It was amazing. Her single sentence conversation was gone. She was warm and friendly, quick to laugh and more at ease to speak. He was putting her at ease and he was glad he was so successful.

She handed him a wine glass and filled it halfway. She filled her own and was about to drink.

"Wait." He said. She looked at him over her glass, but waited as he had asked. "Isn't it bad luck to drink without some kinda toast?" He raised his glass. She looked at him with respect and raised her glass, waiting. "Right. Um…" He cleared his throat, a nervous habit. "May you live as long as you want and never want as long as you live." He took a sip and she followed suit.

"That was lovely," She said, impressed.

"Well…I didn't make it up. Some Irish guy did, but I remembered it." She laughed.

"Do you like it? The wine?"

"Yeah, it's sweet." She nodded. She took another bite of chicken, not setting her wine glass down.

"So, you've been in the sewer this whole time? I mean, since you were…well…mutated? Is that the word?"

"Yeah, that's the word. And yeah, since then. It's not so bad. I mean, I never lived topside, so…" He shrugged. He couldn't really say that he didn't know what he was missing, because he did. He went topside enough to see what life for people was supposed to be like.

"Is that why you do what you do? I mean, the whole um…" She pointed to his suit. He looked over.

"Oh, uh, yeah I guess. I mean partly. Mostly I just like to …well."

"What? Beat people up? You told me that before. You said, 'I like to hit things.'" He stared. She remembered that? He thought she had been petrified, how could she remember anything?

"Uh, yeah. That's true. Sometimes." She took another sip of wine. He thought it was a good idea, so he did too, then hastily set his glass down.

"I get it." She said wisely. "You fight out your aggression for what you think you can't have." Think I can't have, he thought. I know I can't.

"Sure."

"Okay," She said, realizing he didn't want to talk about it. "You're turn to ask me." She had needed the wine for this part. That's why she was drinking like a fish right now and two hours before he had arrived. Why she had bought a second bottle in the first place. She hadn't drank the entire first bottle, but she didn't' want him to know that she had opened one without him. Not that she was a lush, but she wanted to be relaxed instead of nervous. He smiled in anticipation.

"Favorite color. And I won't think you're brown nosing if ya say red."

"Sorry, it's blue."

"Ah!" He feigned being shot in the heart. "Not blue! Of all the colors." She laughed.

"Sorry! Why is blue bad? It's the color of the sky, the ocean. I mean the ocean! Teeming with life and mystery. If I could live underwater, I would totally do that. Oh and blue is also the color of sapphires, some stars in the sky and bluebirds…" Your eyes, he thought. "It's hard not to like blue."

"Yeah, unless you're me." He said. She blushed.

"Sorry. I mean, I guess you don't get to see the sky or the ocean that much, huh?"

"No! That's not what I meant. I …my brother. Ah, it doesn't matter."

"Yes, it does. Why do you think it doesn't?"

"Huh?" He said.

"What you think matters." She spelled out.

"My brother's mask is blue." He said. "Not just any brother, my older brother. The leader."

"Oh." She said, making an 'oops' face. Raphael saw that her cheeks were flushed, but not from embarrassment. She was drunk! He couldn't help but grin.

"Oh!" He said, playing with her and making a funny face. She laughed.

"Oh!" She said again in true understanding because she remembered the blue mask. Then laughed because she had said 'oh' again. When she settled down, she asked:

"That's the brother that interrogated me, right?" She was still kind of laughing. Raphael wasn't anymore.

"He interrogated you?" She took a breath because it had been awhile since she had. She nodded.

"Oh, uh-huh. He asked me what happened. I think he thought it was me, you know. At first. That I's..that I as…that I was…" she finally sputtered, annoyed. "the one who stabbed you."

"I didn't know that." He was stone cold sober now. All mirth gone. Darielle noticed.

"Raphael," She murmured his name with the accent he liked. "Don't be mad at him. I mean, when he found us it looked really bad. Did he tell you that? You were unconscious, dead for all they knew, and I had pulled out your sword thingy, but they probably thought I used that on you."

"Sai." He said absently.

"Hmm?"

"It's not a sword thingy, it's a sai."

"Oh," She giggled again. He gently took her glass from her hand.

"Darielle, what else happened?" She thought.

"Umm, no that was pretty much it. Umm, Blue and Orange carried you and Purple walked me in with his stick. I was seated at a table and Blue asked me questions. He wasn't nasty about it. He just wanted to know what happened. Then Purple came out and watched me while Blue went into your room, then everyone left me for a while then you came out. So you know what happened from there." She sighed and leaned back. The room was spinning. She should have eaten more and drank less, but she thought it might be difficult to talk to him at first, so she had wanted a little help. Now she had too much. While she didn't care at the moment, she was vaguely aware that tomorrow she would be painfully aware of what she did tonight.

When she leaned back, she expected the wall to be there. Except she was on the other side of the bed, so she was about to fall off. Raphael was there in a second. In a single swoop he picked her up and laid her on the bed. He had been nonchalantly moving things off the bed as he saw her giddiness progressing. Nothing was in the way as he laid her down.

He looked down at her, watching her look up at him. Her eyes soft, but clouded with alcohol. He leaned down and kissed her on the forehead.

"G'night." He said. She raised two fingers and saluted him. He laughed softly and did the same. "Sleep tight." He finished. She rolled over and he got dressed to leave.

He took one last look and left her to sleep.

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