Alice woke up in a strange, dimly lit room- on her side on an unfamiliar bed. Her body covered by a downy soft blanket. Her head throbbing as she tried to recall what had happened just before she had fainted. It took a moment or so but finally she remembered her talk with Leo then being held back from going after him by the larger turtle, Raphael.

And while Leo's lack of an answer generally wouldn't have been enough to send her into hysterics, it had been Raphael's presence- that overwhelming larger than life and aggressive personality had frightened her again. Especially when he had laid his hands on her and refused to let go. Even though he hadn't hurt her...

Anyone would have freaked out at having those large hands trying to hold them immobile.

But it had been Donatello and the orange masked turtle that had been the final straw for her overwhelmed senses. It was simply too much testosterone. So she had done the only thing her body and mind would allow for the moment and fainted.

It was pitiful, true. But at least she was now free.

Sitting up slowly, she pushed at the blanket and then slipped off of the bed and slowly stood. Half expecting to be ambushed by the turtles or something as she cautiously made her way to the door and peeked out. The orange masked turtle was standing a few feet away from the door, his attention entirely focused on something else.

But even so, she highly doubted that she could slip past him. Still... That didn't mean that she wasn't going to try.

Pushing the door open slightly, she expected it to squeak on it's hinges but surprisingly enough she managed to open the door without a sound. This is a really well maintained door. She thought as she slipped out of the bedroom and tip toed past the orange masked turtle while trailing a hand along the wall, quietly so as not to draw notice.

She continued to tip toe for several feet, something that wasn't easy on her considering that she wasn't the most graceful person in the world- searching for an opening or door or something. She must have gotten a good ten feet or more when she felt a draft of air through the heavy stone wall and stopped. Turning her head slightly she saw the other turtles through an window like opening in the kitchen.

Was this how they got in and out of their home? She wondered as she started to scratch at it a bit in an effort to take one of the bricks out of the wall but hurt her fingertips. Yet she continued to scratch at it, even after her nails broke and her fingers started to bleed.

She continued this for several minutes- pushing the orange masked turtle from her mind entirely when an arm suddenly appeared around her waist, drawing her back against a well defined body, causing a strangled shriek to escape her throat.

"Shhhh..." A soft voice said next to her ear a moment before one of her wrists was seized in a slightly smaller hand than the other turtles and held up to be examined. "Wow, you really did a number on your hands. It must hurt like a sonofabitch-" The voice said almost absently before saying almost to itself in the same absent manner, "Don's going to be pissed he has to patch this up." As her wrist was released abruptly.

Tipping her head back Alice found herself staring into the clearest set of blue eyes she had ever seen before before the turtle glanced at the bloodied brick in the wall then back to her.

She could see in his eyes that he knew what she had been doing. Yet she was startled when he suddenly picked her up as if she weighed no more than a child, her body in a sitting position on his forearm forcing her to grab his shoulders just to keep from falling backwards.

He said nothing as he moved another twenty feet or so to a particular place that had a brick wall under an arch and flipped open a metal box and then half turned his body so that she could see what he was doing as he placed a finger over a number and said aloud for her to hear, "2-6-7-5-3-9-9-4. This is the code for opening the lair's door if you ever need to get out for a bit, but don't go alone until you learn the way. It's much too dangerous for a human like you and you might get lost in the sewers. Got it?"

Alice wasn't exactly sure what to say to that so she simply nodded her head, her mind already trying to commit the code he'd shown her to memory. But she had a faulty memory and couldn't recall more than three or four numbers. And even then they weren't in order.

The turtle started to flip the metal box closed when he happened to notice out of the corner of his eye that the human was chewing her upper lip, a small frown crossing her face.

He sighed softly and smiled a little bit knowing where she was coming from. He'd been unable to memorize many things in his younger years, but was much more patient at it now.

"Tell you what, Usagi, I'll write it down for you so you can take your time remembering it. Just don't forget my warning about little humans and getting lost..." Again she nodded her head at his words and he gave her a dazzling smile. "Good. Now let's go see what's for breakfast. I dunno about you, but I'm starving. Besides Don needs to look at your hand before the wounds get infected." He said as he nuzzled the underside of her jaw, causing her to dig what was left of her fingernails into his skin and flush as he then turned and headed for the stairs.