It was around 3am when Salina let out an exasperated sigh. For some reason she just couldn't fall back asleep. Perhaps it was the events that took place earlier; Calla running off leaving her worried; as usual. Then meeting April and Casey wasn't exactly stress free; they hadn't had the best experiences with humans in life. Or perhaps it was Shelley's intermittent snoring that kept her up. Regardless, she realized that she probably wasn't going to be able to fall back asleep anytime soon, so she sat up. Feeling her hair cascading down over her shoulders, she realized that the white ribbon that she used to tie her up had come off at some point.

Salina gingerly felt around for her ribbon, careful not to wake anyone on the crowded bed; but to no avail. It was too dark, the bed was too crowded, and she didn't want to turn on the light and risk waking the others; Cori was notoriously agitated when woken up. She finally accepted defeat, quietly got out of the bed and left the room.

The living room was quiet, peaceful; a far cry from the usual noise of the waking hours. Though her sisters often did present a good amount of noise at times, the guys were far more rambunctious. She didn't see anyone else up, and eventually ended up in the kitchen. She turned on the light, and proceeded to go to the sink and get a glass of water.

She stood there, leaning against the sink, absent-mindedly staring out into the dark living room, getting lost in thought, when she began to hear heavy footsteps. She looked more intently, wondering who could've been up at this hour.

"You're up early." Came the familiar voice.

"Leo." Salina smiled slightly. "Hey."

Leo entered the dim light of the kitchen as he put his katanna in the holsters on his shell. "You okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine. Just had trouble sleeping." She shrugged. "It happens."

"Well it was an eventful day." Leo remarked.

Salina looked distant for a moment, bringing to mind the events earlier that day. "Yeah…" she soon looked back towards Leo. "What about you? How come you're up so early?"

"Patrols…we've been slacking."

Salina looked beyond puzzled. "Patrols?"

Leo nodded. "Just safety precautions. We keep an eye on our perimeter down here…" he gestured above his head. "And up there as well. We're ninjas, we've gotta protect this city."

"Ninjas?"

Leo smiled and looked her over for a moment. "Why don't you come up with me? I'll explain everything."

"Up? As in, outside?" Salina was visibly disturbed as she shifted slightly. She hadn't been out once since their lake incident, and she wasn't too keen on leaving what she deemed safety; not yet anyway.

Leo nodded. "Yep, a little fresh air is good. Don't worry, I won't let anything happen to you, promise."

Salina smiled a little. That's the second time the blue-clad Turtle was able to put her troubled mind at ease, at least somewhat. A feat that was very difficult, considering 99% of the time, everything was on her to make sure everyone was safe. Now, she could relinquish a portion of that responsibility, if even for a little while. "Ok…" She eventually nodded, before putting her cup in the sink, grabbing her jacket, and following Leo up top.

The early morning air was cold, yet refreshing, as Leo and Salina made their way through various corridors in the sewer, to a rooftop downtown.

"Soo, Splinter, or as you guys call him, Master Splinter, taught you all to be ninjas? That's amazing."

Leo nodded. "It is. It's helped us a lot. I don't think I ever realized it in the beginning, years ago when we wanted to just go and play but Master insisted we practice. But now I see, it was all for our protection. It gave us focus, and purpose."

Salina looked pensive. Focus. Purpose. Two of the things she felt she and her sisters were severely lacking.

Leo stared at her, observing her for a moment. "We can keep you all safe you know. The Foot I mentioned, they're just the beginning of the danger out there. I'm sure you've run into situations before too. Not to throw salt in a wound, but that ice, was only scratching the surface."

Salina sighed deeply. "I know, it's just that, those scientists…those people are horrible, and it's one thing if they find us, but now you guys' lives are on the line as well, and…"

"We can handle it."

Salina looked up at him.

"You're safe here." Leo leaned down slightly, looking her in the eyes. "Trust me."

She found Leo's voice very reassuring. Just the fact that he took the time to reassure her was nice. Something about the way he looked at her in that particular moment made her stomach flutter just a little; a strange feeling she tried to push past. She gave a small smile. "I do." She said quietly.

Leo offered his own small smile, and realizing he'd been staring into her deep brown eyes for a while, looked down briefly before speaking. "But um, you don't have to make any decisions right now. When you do though, I'll be here to help. We all will."

"Thank you." She caught herself staring back at Leo, and took a deep breath, looking around. "Sooo, this is where you guys do your patrols?"

"Well, one of the places." Leo took a step back and took a small walk around the area they were standing in. He stopped when he reached the edge of the rooftop and looked down. "The rooftops offer a unique, concealed vantage point."

Salina joined him by the ledge.

"We're ninjas, we operate in the shadows. Unseen. Unheard…but yet we see, and hear, everything."

Salina looked down at the city below. Being close to 3:30am, there really wasn't much to see, just a few random passerbys and cars every now and again.

"Come on."

Hearing Leo's voice, Salina looked up, and saw him climb on the ledge on the other side of the building. She looked alarmed. "What are you doing?!"

Leo turned towards her, still standing on the ledge, and gestured towards an adjacent building. "Continuing patrols." Seeing the beyond confused look on Salina's face, he smirked, and gestured for her to join him.

Salina shook her head and took a step back from him. "I'm not going up there!"

"Relax…" he held out his hand to her. "I got you. Promise."

Salina stared back at Leo for a moment, still filled with hesitation, but eventually approached him and took his hand.

Leo smiled. "Let's go."

A/N: Sorry for the long hiatus, got caught up working on other stories, and the sequel to this one as well. I should be keeping up with it now though. I hope you're enjoying reading as much as I enjoy writing this ;-)