A Ninja's Dance

Chapter 21

She was staring a brick wall.

Not the brick walls she had been used to waking up too recently. Those particular walls were fast becoming familiar and comforting. No, this brick wall was too close to her nose to be the ones in the Turtle Brothers home and it was broken and cracked.

She was counting the cracks.

Looking at them between the dirty metal rungs of the ladder clasped between her fingers so tight her knuckles ached. There was rumbling above her, swirling, dark rumbling of Dragons. They were going to find her. They were going to kill her. She was breathing hard and it hurt to breathe.

Her whole body was on fire but she couldn't stop breathing so hard because she was scared. The rumbling was getting louder, she could hear the dragons roaring, gnashing their teeth.

She whimpered and wanted to move, to climb down, but there was something stopping her. Holding her in place so she couldn't struggle. Because it wasn't time to move yet.

Why couldn't the noise just stop? Why couldn't they just go away?

The roof above her was being opened. She could hear the metal being wrenched away like a lid of a tin can, curling back so the dragons could get inside. But that wasn't right. It was meant to stay closed. She knew it was meant to stay closed.

Fear welled hard in her chest sending everything logical swimming out of her head so all that was left was rushing adrenaline demanding that she move! Judith heaved a breath and gagged on it, coughing hard.

Smoke was pouring in from the newly opened manhole. It surrounded her, coating her throat and lungs with burning choking soot. She could see it, a curling entity of almost purple fire as it barrelled down at her from the torn and jagged opening to her sanctuary. It twisted and curled into shapes, reaching out to her in long sets of clawed fingers.

She tried to scream, but she couldn't make a sound. Tried to move but the hands wrapped around her so tight she couldn't budge and squeezed.

Judith launched up, heaving breath and blinking into the darkness. Somewhere amidst the panic she realised she'd just had a nightmare and she took her time letting her eyes adjust until the familiar outlines of Leo's room come back into focus.

Just a dream.

Letting out a shaky breath Judith untangled herself from her sheets. She'd always been good at wrapping herself up into a blanket cacoon while she slept and apparently nightmares only made the cacoon tighter.

Her heart was still pounding in her ears and Judith could feel her eyes stinging as tears tried to push their way out from under her eyelids.

Dammit, no. She wasn't going to cry at a nightmare. She was ok. She was safe. She'd cried enough.

Judith swallowed and blinked furiously, a shiver running down her spine as if someone had dropped cold water down the back of her shirt. She shuddered against it, rubbing her arms and frowning at the slow trickle of calm that worked away at the dregs of panic still hanging on from the nightmare. A minute later she was breathing easy again, contemplating the wall with a strange sense of serenity that fogged the edges of her mind.

Somewhere above her a train rattled along its rails and Judith jumped, the calm scurrying back away into the dark corners of the room along with the coolness stroking up and down her spine. She rubbed her eyes, huffing at the oddity of it all and decided she needed some water. A big, cool glass of water to wake her up completely so she could make her head think in a straight line.

Throwing back the covers and dropping her feet on the freezing cement Judith found a pair of socks and a jumper to pull on before she headed out into the lair, grabbing her shell cell on the way out the door.

According to her clock it was just before five am, so she didn't expect anyone else to be awake, especially after what Mikey had explained (animatedly) to be a far too exciting evening on the docks. Judith hadn't been sure how to take his wild eyed tales of flying containers and the ninja clans. She'd tried hard to keep her head on straight but she was pretty sure the colour had drained from her face when he started talking about how they thought the Purple Dragons were working with these ninja's.

Leo had squeezed her hand and carefully told Mikey to maybe consider shutting his mouth for a little while. Mikey looked first confused, then frustrated, then understanding blossomed behind his eyes and he rushed to apologise.

She'd waved his sorrys away with her best attempt at a smile, trying not to think about how deep the rabbit hole was and how damn far into it she had fallen.

Darkness met her outside the door and Judith turned the little light on the phone on so she could see past the end of her nose. She didn't want to sit around and mope, and she'd be damned if she became one of those damsels in distress constantly wailing and waiting for the hero's to swoop down and rescue her from her yo yo-ing emotions.

No. She was going to get through this, end of story.

She padded her way across the top level corridor and realised she'd been wrong about everyone being asleep. As she neared the bottom of the stairs she spotted two familiar orange tails to a ninja mask dangling over the arm of the couch in the living room, illuminated by the glow of a single screen. Michelangelo was splayed out along the length of the seat jabbing away at a gaming controller looking almost bored.

He glanced up as she wandered over, smiling brightly right up until he noticed the slightly pinched look on her face.

"Hey." He sat up, frowning as he gave her a once over assessment. "Are you ok Jay? You look pale. Do you want me to get Don?" The worry in his voice made her move without thinking it through and she headed over to the couch, resting her hands on the back of it.

"I don't think he'd have a cure for nightmares that doesn't involve sleeping tablets or booze" She smiled as she said it but was faintly aware there was an edge to her voice. She'd had nightmares before, but they'd never really rattled her. This one had felt a lot more real than anything else. She supposed that was because it was based on something that had actually happened to her.

Mikey looked at her like he was processing a whole host of feelings associated to what she'd just said before setting his controller down and sitting on his hands. Judith noticed the sitting on hands bit and frowned.

"Was it bad?" He asked quietly, turning in his seat so he was looking at her fully. Judith shrugged.

"Nothing I can't wake up from."

The horribly bitter voice whispered from the deep dark recesses of her mind that she would very much like to wake up from the last two weeks. That of course insinuated that she was living some kind of nightmare right now.

A single glance at Mikey's big concerned puppy dog eyes told her that that was a bullshit way to think. This wasn't a nightmare. Not with the turtles on her side.

Mikey bounced a little on his hands and the two of them went quiet.

"I was just going to get a glass of water" Judith finally broached when her turtle companion glanced at her for the fourth time in half a minute. He was acting strange. This wasn't what she had expected from Michelangelo.

Maybe she had disturbed him when he just wanted to be alone.

"I'll…go" She muttered, backing away from the couch.

"What? No…ah." Mikey's hands came out from under him and he held them up like he was surrendering. "Its ok." He hesitated then sighed and Judith could have sworn that he would be shuffling his feet if he were standing "I'm sorry, about before when I was rambling on about the docks and the Foot and everything. I didn't mean to scare you…" Another pause as he tried to figure out what he was saying "I hope your nightmares weren't brought on because of what I said."

Judith felt her heart strings tug at Mikey's downcast look and she cut him off with firm shake of her head and a 'nu-ah'. Skirting around the couch she took a seat next to him, sinking happily into the cushions and patting his arm.

"Mikey, it was just a bad dream." She assured him, shrugging her shoulders. Mikey sighed, contemplating his hands.

"Bad dreams have to come from someplace. Talking turtles don't help." He said simply, giving her a sideways look and sighing again. "Leo gave me this…lecture…about being too familiar with you after everything you've been through, I don't want to be another reason you're scared."

Judith looked at him. Really looked at him. From his green skin to his shell, his bandanna to his gear, his three fingered hands and his two toed feet and she smiled.

"I'm not afraid of you" She said gently, catching his eye and holding his gaze in the hopes he would see the absolute truth of her statement.

Mikey hesitated, then his shoulders slumped and he looked relieved. He matched her smile and rubbed the back of his head a little sheepishly.

"Right. Good. That's good. I'm glad. I get carried away sometimes and just open my mouth and say things then I get worried about it later. Not that great for public relations."

Judith's smile turned to a grin at that and she got comfortable on the couch, feeling the conversation shift to the more usual, light hearted Mikey she was familiar with.

"It's totally ok. Dia is the same and she's been my best mate for years." She said with a slight hand wave, remembering the countless times she'd talked their way out of trouble because Dia went and said something wildly inappropriate.

"Ok. Well. If I ever do say something that's getting on the wrong side of creepy just let me know and I'll smack myself over the back of the head for you." Mikey tugged on his own bandanna tails for dramatic effect.

"I've noticed Raph doing that." Judith smoothed her hair out of her eyes, remembering the numerous times the red clad turtle had wacked his little brother. "Seems to be a thing."

Mikey gave a light hearted shrug. "I like to think it's his way of saying he cares. Like 'geez Mike, you're a goofball, but really bro, deep down in m' mushy core I think ya awesome'" He finished his sentence with his best attempt at Raph's accent and Judith chuckled.

"What's with Raph's accent anyway? You all sound really different, but you grew up together didn't you?"

Mikey nodded sagely and 'hmmmed'. "You've noticed that huh. You're a noticing type of gal I'm figuring. Ok, then I'll let you in on our little secret" He lent in conspiratorially and glanced this way and that, checking to make sure they were truly alone and lowering his voice to a hushed whisper.

Judith scooted closer on the couch, waiting to hear this long held secret.

"We…." Mikey paused dramatically, checked again that they were alone, then: "…Don't know" He smirked, Judith blinked, he chuckled, she got the joke and they both started laughing.

When Judith managed to catch her breath and Mikey had stopped giggling right along with her he settled back and shrugged.

"Really though, we're not 100% sure. We kind of figured it had to do with how we learnt to read and talk or whatever you know. Like, Raph's accent came in real bad when he was small and started sneaking topside on his own. Don watched a lot of documentaries and read a lot of books, and Leo spent heaps of time with Master Splinter."

"And you read a lot of comics and watched a lot of TV." Judith finished for him, nodding at the revelation. It made a quirky kind of sense, everyone was a product of their upbringing and she figured the sewer wouldn't exactly have a single accent to pick up on.

She still wasn't sure if Raph had started mimicking people topside because he liked the sound of it, or if that was just by some happenstance how he started talking. But on the scale of weird Raphael having a different accent didn't exactly rate.

"You catch on quick" Mikey wiggled his eyeridges and Judith chuckled again.

"So what are you playing?" She asked after a beat, turning to the screen.

"Street Fighter III, 3rd Strike. It's awesome, best in the series." Mikey picked up his controller then glanced at her. "You…wanna play?"

Judith contemplated this question with pursed lips.

Her brothers had always played video games back home but she'd never taken much notice. The few times she did ask to play she was dismissed with a whole lot of name calling and squinty faces because 'she was a girl and girls didn't know how to play video games'.

Her brothers were such brats.

"Bring it on" She decided finally, holding out a hand to take the second controller Mikey grabbed from the coffee table. "How hard can this be?"

"Ok, so, double tap the left joystick up, then press x, square, square, triangle."

Jay's brow furrowed in concentration as she dutifully pressed the instructed buttons and watched her fighter start glowing blue, make a loud declaration in Japanese and punt Mikey's character across the screen like a ping pong ball.

An echoing 'K-O' sounded and Mikey cheered.

Judith grinned proudly, laughing at her characters victory pose despite being aware that she had just been not only allowed to win, but shown how.

"You're getting pretty good at this, might have to stop going easy on you" Mikey smirked from his spot on the couch as he absentmindedly selected another fighter from the rapidly growing pool of choices.

They'd gone about six rounds now. Jay had lost three to Mikey's total annihilating skill and won the other three when he took a break from overachieving and started trying to teach her.

He hadn't really done that before. He was good and playing just well enough to make the matches look real even when he let someone else take a victory on purpose, but he'd never really bothered to try and show anyone else how to play properly.

Seemed to make Jay happy though, which was a good thing, and really it was only because Jay had started asking all the right questions about how he did his special combo moves. Before he knew it he was patiently walking her through the controls and how to do all the awesome things that couldn't be achieved with mere button mashing alone.

Mikey hadn't expected that this was how the night would end up. He'd been on the verge of crawling into bed or forsaking the bed all together and just crashing on the couch in front of the TV when Jay had arrived.

He'd been a little annoyed that she'd managed to get as close as she had without him noticing, but he would admit he had been a little lost in thought when he'd finally noticed her.

Mikey wasn't what you would call a big thinker. He wasn't a plans man like Leo, or a walking encyclopaedia like Don. He got bored easily and couldn't bring himself to like meditation no matter his dad's insistence. But when Mikey got himself in the right zone he was just as capable as any of his brothers at getting caught up inside his head.

Which was why he had been stewing. Because he should have noticed Jay shrinking into herself when he started rambling. He should have known it would freak her out and he should have kept his mouth shut.

He wasn't sure why his brain had shut down like that and it had taken Leo's lecture to clue him in to something he should have already figured out for himself. He'd gotten too used to Jay being there with them already. He'd gotten far too familiar with her presence (as Leo had put it) far too quickly and hadn't been able to modulate what she should know and what was strictly need to know.

He was worried he'd stuffed it up for everyone and now here she was. Having accepted his apology like a champ and trying to figure out the difference between each of the buttons on the controller.

"Like I could keep up if you did" Judith snorted and shifted on the couch next to him, elbowing him out of his thoughts and wedging a cushion under her arms to make herself more comfortable. She selected the same fighter he had been tutoring on and waited for the classic 3-2-1 countdown before they both started mashing buttons again.

"Jump! Jump!" Despite his half-hearted attempt to kind of maybe win this match Mikey started offering instructions two seconds in when Jay's character took a low kick to the ankles that could have been easily avoided.

Jay made her character jump. Then made him jump again, then again and again and again until he was hopping around the screen like a crazy, hyperactive rabbit. Mikey snickered, his own fighter chasing Jays as she made the little dude fly from left to right and back again.

"What are you doing?" He glanced at her and his snickering turned to laughter at the face she was pulling. Her tongue was sticking out ever so slightly, caught between her front teeth as her eyes locked on the screen in avid concentration.

"Jumping!" She announced, dodging yet another hit from Mikey with a frantic pressing of buttons. "You can't hit what doesn't touch the ground!" She bounced on her elbows and managed to avoid a special attack despite Mikey's now solid effort to stop laughing and land a blow "Dance monkey! Dance!"

Jay grinned, enunciating her last words in what was probably meant to be an American accent. It came out more like something from a bad cowboy movie and Mikey lost it, laughing so hard he was suddenly finding it hard to breathe.

His eyes started to water and it wasn't until Jay's character let out his battle cry and burst into blue flame that Mikey realised what had just happened.

"K-O! Victory Player 2!"

Jay let out a gasp of disbelief, wide eyes going first to the controller in her hands and then to him. Realising she had just effectively won the match all by herself (even if she cheated) she let out a woop at her glory and threw her hands in the air.

"I won! For real! Holy crap!"

Mikey gasped for air and attempted to process his loss. He was having some trouble doing so because Jay's victory woop had turned into a victory wiggle that could have maybe been some sort of happy dance if it hadn't been done with her butt firmly planted on the couch.

It made her look like she was impersonating and uncoordinated worm.

"No fair!" He managed to get out, grinning so wide his face hurt. Jay wiggling changed to incorporate finger pointing and some bad 70's disco moves until eventually she stopped long enough to pause the game so it didn't launch into a second round she certainly wouldn't have a chance of winning.

"Nope!" She agreed, giving an exaggerated yawn, stretching her arms up over her head and setting her controller back down on the coffee table. She made a show of getting up before resting her hands on her hips and grinning at him. "Well, I'm tired. I think I'll take a nap"

Mikey's jaw dropped open and he gestured wildly to the paused screen.

"You can't do that! You have to give a turtle a chance to defend his title!"

Jay shrugged and yawned again, eyes glittering with humour. "Says who?"

"Says the Battle Nexus Champion!" Mikey declared, standing and facing off with her. Jay blinked and frowned, tilting her head.

"What's the Battle Nexus?" She asked. Mikey pursed his lips, aware he might had just done the being too familiar thing again.

"Skateboarding contest" He answered quickly, not willing to chance explaining an interdimentioal combat competition aimed at finding the greatest fighter in the multiverse. Jay raised an eyebrow and it was clear she didn't completely believe him. Considering it raised the question of exactly who Mikey was competing against, where the competition was held and whether or not his brothers agreed that he was the victor.

Mikey wasn't surprised she didn't believe him.

"You skateboard?" She asked eventually, after she'd given him a thorough stare to decide if she wanted to press the point. Obviously she didn't.

Mikey looked offended. Well, he did his best to look offended when he wasn't.

"Do I skate? Dudette, I'm better than Hawk"

Jay looked at him blankly.

"Tony Hawk" He clarified.

Jay blinked.

"As in one of the greatest skateboarders of this time, made it into a big deal, has all those games…" Mikey expanded on the point, stopping when Jay shook her head and continued doing her impression of a blank slate. "You're telling me you don't know who Tony Hawk is? Seriously?"

"No. Sorry" She shrugged and Mikey face palmed.

"I've literally been living under a rock for my whole life and I know who this awesome dude is. What have you been doing with your time?"

Jay shrugged again. "Not skateboarding" She answered in a deadpan.

Mikey shook his head, this was simply unacceptable.

Leo had tried hard to get used to the old, but somehow new again, noises that came with waking up back home in the New York underground. The trains, rumbling traffic and clatter of pipes was a constant. And while it was background noise in the lair it was a far cry from the soft hum of insects and whistle of birds he'd grown very accustomed too during his two years in Central America.

Gradually, he was getting better at it. He was getting used to waking without the sun on his face, getting better at opening his eyes to complete darkness, void of the light from the stars and moon.

It had taken all this time for him to become re-accustomed to stretching leisurely when he felt his conscious wander back to him in the morning and he was sure it would take even longer for him to lose the pressing feeling in his muscles that he needed to act. That there was something that needed to be done.

This morning however he was woken with a far more familiar feeling of dread mixed with a shot of adrenaline. Because he woke to someone screaming.

Not a long winded 'plea for help' scream that came multiple times, hindered by the gasps of breath from a desperate innocent fleeing. No. A high pitched yelp of someone caught by surprise, jumped by an attacker.

He had heard that scream too many times in Central America and it drove him to his feet before his eyes were even fully open.

Leonardo didn't take up his weapons. He knew from experience that even the slightest pause would see whoever was in danger suffering irreversible damage, whether of the mind, body, or both. Instead he barrelled into the main room of the lair and drew up short, assessing the huge cavernous space for the location of distress.

Jay yelped again and Leo's eyes snapped to her, watching as their new house guest wobbled so badly on the skateboard that she nearly fell off into Mikey's waiting arms.

"That's it! You nearly got it! Just don't stick your hip out so far." Mikey had a hold of Jay's hand and was pulling her around the room, obviously trying not to laugh right along with her as she shambled along, barely keeping her balance.

His heart pounding in his ears Leo leant against the wall and rubbed his eyes, sighing as the headache that always came after forcing himself awake so quickly and violently began to burn in his temples.

At least no one was in danger.

"Hey, Leo! Bro! Morning." Mikey waved, and Leo lifted a hand in return. Jay apparently thought this was a trend so tried to wave as well. With Mikey distracted greeting his elder brother and practically no support keeping her upright the skateboard rolled forward and Jay squealed for the third time.

This squeal was accompanied by her toppling backwards as the skateboard shot out from under her. She landed heavily with a thump and there was a pause of quiet as both Leo and Mikey's head caught up with what had happened.

Leo was next to her in a second, kneeling alongside Mikey who was trying to help her up.

"Jay, are you alright? Is anything broken?"

"Are you ok? I can get Don."

Jay blinked, like she was a little stunned about the fact that she was suddenly on the ground before a smile broke out on her face. The smile turned to a grin, which turned into a snicker, which exploded into full blown laughter.

"Did you see…? Did you see how the skateboard flew out like that?" Jay was having trouble talking between her laughter, gasping in big breaths of air and only working herself up more as she rehashed whatever element of this she thought was hilarious. "It was like a bad Hollywood movie! One second I'm up then bam!"

Leo glanced at Mikey to see if this was something he needed to be worried about only to find his brother had started laughing along with her, like her breathless commentary had somehow explained a big joke.

He looked back to Jay, about to ask again if she was alright when she reached out and gripped his forearm, meeting his eye with a grin. Her hand was freezing, but that wasn't what surprised Leo.

He could suddenly feel her laughter shaking through her hand and was taken aback by the absolute joy in her eyes that this one silly little moment had created. His lips quirked up into a smile as Jay pulled herself up so she was sitting and giggled her way through a few semi calm breaths.

"So, as I was saying before I fell over. Good morning Leo." Jay finished the wave she'd been trying to give before she hit the ground and crossed her legs. "How are you this morning?"

"I'm ok" Leo answered "How about you?"

Jay nodded and tried to push her hair out of her face so she could see properly.

"I'm ok. Mikey's trying to teach me who Tony Hawk is by practical application" She sighed out the last bits of laughter, still smiling wide and giving a gesturing in the general direction of the skateboard as she spoke before another question bubbled up. "Is your shell feeling any better?"

"A bit sore" Leo answered without thinking, sitting back on his heels. He gave a slight shrug and a huff as his shoulders and back reminded him that they ached horribly. He hadn't noticed before, too hyped on the possibility of danger. It was making him wince now. "I'll take something with breakfast."

"Breakfast" Jay said the word out loud as if it was slightly foreign to her then looked between the two brothers. "I could totally go for some breakfast" She admitted, nodding to herself.

It was at this point that Leo realised Jay hadn't eaten properly for days. She'd had some soup and a couple pieces of toast but apart from that there wasn't much else she'd been able to keep down.

"Of course. You must be hungry" Leo was feeling the adrenaline leak out of his system with every passing moment and his smile became more genuine as he relaxed.

"Yeah, breakfast is the most important meal of the day and April got us Lucky Charms" Mikey rubbed his hands together in excitement for the cereal and jumped up. Leo stood along with him and offered a hand down to Jay, still mildly surprised and pleased to see her take it without so much as a flinch.

It wasn't as cold this time.

He had to admit, Lucky Charms were his favourite as well. He wouldn't say it out loud to his brothers (who all thought he was a cheerio's man) but he had a special place in his heart and stomach for the little shaped bits of marshmallow.

"What are Lucky Charms?" Jay asked as she brushed herself off and followed them for the kitchen. Mikey froze and even Leo found himself giving her a disbelieving look.

"It's a cereal." Leo said eventually, resuming his headway to the kitchen. Once there he went straight for the cereal collection on top of the fridge and pulled the box down, holding it out to Jay who took it and looked over the colourful picture of a leprechaun on the front with some interest.

"Oh, I've seen this stuff. Never had it though. Is it any good?"

"Is it any good?" Mikey grabbed the box out of her hands and set it down on the counter with a snort of derision, like she'd just asked him if birds could fly or video games were fun. Leo rolled his eyes and set about finding three clean bowls and spoons.

"It's not good for you." He explained when Mikey was no longer forthcoming with information. "But yes, it's tasty"

Leo filled the bowls he'd set out on the counter and Mikey fetched the milk from the fridge, making short work of preparing breakfast and handing the sugary goodness to a still slightly perplexed looking Jay.

"You must not have this in Australia." Leo took a seat at the head of the table and smiled at her as she sat down next to him, taking a moment to examine the brightly coloured contents floating around in the milk.

"No, we don't. Are these marshmallows?" Jay lifted a spoonful out of the bowl and stared at it. "This stuff has marshmallows in it and it's a breakfast cereal?"

"Damn right!" Mikey grinned, practically inhaling his share and humming in appreciation. "Best thing ever. You seriously don't have this in Australia? What sort of cereal do you have?"

Jay put the spoonful of lucky charms in her mouth as Mikey talked, chewing meditatively. Leo held back a laugh when her face twisted into a look of mild shock.

"This stuff is crazy sweet" She declared, looking like she was debating whether another spoonful was a good idea. "And back home we have sweet cereal, just not like this. Mainly its weet-bix."

"Weet-bix?" Mikey had finished his cereal in record time and stood to wash the bowl in the sink, heading to the fridge to pull out a box of eggs before fetching a frying pan from one of the many cupboards.

"It's um…shredded weat all smushed together into blocks." Jay answered after another spoonful of Luck Charms. Mikey paused in his scrambled egg making to furrow his brow at her.

"Sounds disgusting." He make a 'yuck' kind of noise to further demonstrate his point and Leo chuckled, finishing his bowl of cereal and getting himself a glass of orange juice. He held the pitcher out to Jay and she nodded with a smile, gratefully accepting the glass when he passed it to her.

"It kinda is but then you cover them in fruit and honey and yogurt and they get good." She took a sip of the OJ and Leo sat back down, giving her a quick once over just to satisfy his paranoid side that she wasn't hurt from her fall.

She didn't appear to be. In fact it was baffling to see how quickly she had recovered from everything. He hadn't had a chance to really dwell on it the night before, and after Don had dosed him with painkillers it was a bit of a blur.

Sitting here in the kitchen with a completely healed Judith Carter, Leo noted that she was quite a pretty girl when she wasn't laid up with a gunshot wound. He suspected however that she either didn't know it or didn't particularly care.

He couldn't believe how calm she was either. Although he wondered if maybe it was a self-defence mechanism or a mask. Her hair was a mess and the clothes April had brought for her were noticeably too big but it didn't seem to bother her.

She drew her feet up onto the chair so she was sitting cross legged and took another gulp of orange juice, smiling at the face Mikey was making as he tried to figure out if fruit and honey would make these 'weet-bix' any better.

"…nope, still sound gross." Apparently he didn't think it would. Jay laughed.

"What sounds gross?" Everyone turned to the alcove of the kitchen where a sleepy looking Raphael stood, arms crossed. He yawned and stepped into the room, heading straight for the coffee pot and turning it on.

"Weet-bix." Mikey informed him simply, scrambling the eggs and putting the frying pan on the stove to heat up.

"Morning Raph" Jay gave a little wave. Raph rubbed his eyes and blinked at her, obviously surprised to see her up and about in their kitchen.

"Ah…Morning Jay. Good ta see ya up" A slight smile quirked on Raphs face and Jay grinned back at him before he cleared his throat, shook his head and turned back to Mikey "What are weet-bix?"

"Gross." Mikey put the eggs in the pan and they sizzled. Raph blinked and waited for something more. When it didn't come he rolled his eyes and poured himself a cup of freshly brewed coffee.

"Thank you Mikey, very informative."

Mikey saluted Raph with his spatula.

"Weet-Bix is a high-fiber and low sugar breakfast cereal biscuit manufactured in Australia and New Zealand by the Sanitarium Health and Wellbeing Company" Donnie announced as he shuffled into the kitchen and headed straight for the pitcher of orange juice on the counter.

"The brain is up." Raph smiled, grabbing himself a heaped bowl of Lucky Charms and bringing both his coffee and his cereal to the table.

"Morning Donatello." Jay greeted him and Donnie jumped, blinking blearily at her before his face broke out in an honest to goodness, genuine smile.

"Good morning Judith. Did you get some sleep?" Jay nodded, pushing her cereal around in her now multi colored bowl of milk.

"Yes, thanks, how about you?" Donnie shrugged and took a long gulp of his OJ before he spotted the lucky charms Raph had just walked away from on the counter. He headed for it with single minded determination.

"Enough to take the edge off." He said over his shoulder, opening the cereal box and looking inside. "Who ate all the Lucky Charms?" There was a slight catch to his voice, like someone had just taken away his best and favorite gadget and was trying to break it.

"Mikey." Raph said quickly, chowing down on his bowl of sweet tasty colours. Mikey rounded on him, pointing his spatula at Raphael incredulously.

"No fair! You've got the biggest bowl at the table!" He said with wide eyes. Raph just smirked and took a sip of his coffee.

Don looked between them and let out a little sigh, slumping over to the bin and dropping the empty cereal box into it before he took a seat at the table. Jay bit her lip and when she thought no one was looking slid her bowl over to him.

"I swear I've had, like, two spoonful's" She said with a sideways smile. Don didn't even argue, he just accepted the cereal gratefully and started eating. After a few bites he pointed his spoon at Mikey.

"He at least can handle the sugar, you're liable to explode or something"

Mikey threw his hands in the air at the two pronged attack from his brothers and stirred the eggs some more. Raph snickered and Don smiled, focus going back to their cereal.

It was quiet for a moment until Mikey swung around to address the collective again.

"I wouldn't explode."

That did it. Raph, Don and Mikey started up at each other, playfully tossing stories back and forth about all the times Mikey had tripped out on sugar, or Raph had drunk too much soda and lost it. They even started recounting tales of Don's week long caffeine fix.

Leo chuckled at his brothers, turning to Jay when she tapped him conspiratorially on the shoulder.

"Is it always like this?" She asked in a hushed tone, giggling when Mikey declared the neither Don nor Raph were getting any eggs and they weren't invited to his birthday party.

"Mostly. Yes. If it gets too much…"

Jay shook her head firmly before he got to offer her a quick extraction from the kitchen.

"No, no it's ok. It's…nice." She smiled before her expression dropped and her eyes narrowed at something on his arm. "Leo, are you ok? You have blood on you" She touched her fingers to his skin and Leo looked down to where she was pointing.

A streak of dried blood was smeared across his forearm and Leo stared at it, rubbing at the red lines until they flaked away. He certainly hadn't cut himself. He would have noticed. The blood wasn't his.

So then…

"Did you hurt your hand when you fell?" Leo asked, lowering his voice. The spots of red were right where she had taken hold of his arm to pull herself up. It had to be Jay's.

"No. I mean, it was stinging but its fine now" Judith flipped her hand over and turned slightly so only the two of them could see it. The skin was clear, not a single scratch or cut, but small flecks of dried red clung on around white colorless spots on her palm.

She had defiantly cut it then, you couldn't bleed without a cut.

"Was there anything odd after you'd fallen?" Leo asked quietly, glancing at his brothers as Don stood from the table and popped a few slices of toast in the toaster. Raph followed him up and set about making Master Splinters tea, all the while casually throwing insults like they were statements of affection.

"No. Well, yes, my hand felt kind of cold but my hands are always cold." Judith held her hand out under the lip of the table for Leo to look at and after a second of hesitation he took a hold of it and smoothed his thumb over the skin. The flecks of blood shifted aside but the slim white lines and patches remained. These spots were cold under the pad of his finger and he frowned.

Jay saw his look and sighed, nodding as if she knew what was coming. "Back to the lab?" She said in a hushed tone, drawing her hand back when Leo released it.

"Just in case" Leo mimicked her nod and glanced up, intent on informing Don, but stopped short when Jay gripped his arm again.

"Can we just wait until after breakfast?"

Mikey had started spooning out scrambled eggs onto the plates, accompanied by the toast Don was buttering as it popped out of the toaster. Leo went to say that this was important but it caught in his throat at the pleading look Jay gave him.

"This is the most ok I've felt since I decided to take a walk Leo. Please can we just wait until after breakfast?"

Leo thought about it. He didn't have to think hard.

"Ok."

The relieved smile Jay gave him was brilliant.

Authors Note: Its done! My goodness. Need a nap. Please read and review, it makes me smile.