Thank you all for your support again! I love you! ^^

Again, I need to make a few things clear:

Raph was afraid the Foot might use Madelyn to get to Leo or that Madelyn could be some sort of a "fake" and lead Leo into a trap. And he is not convinced that isn't so yet. Of course he knows that she is no Foot ninja, but still she could be a robot or whatever. At least in his opinion. Sure, we know that isn't true, but Raph doesn't. He has only seen her for a split second and never talked to her and he is overprotective of his brothers, so I think this is understandable.

Dragonblooded mentioned that calling Madelyn a kunoichi was just a joke, but to be honest, that wasn't clear. I bet Karai could have been called a kunoichi at the age of seven, a kunoichi in training, though, but still a kunoichi. Same goes for April if Splinter had already been training her at that young age. So Madelyn could be considered a kunoichi if she would be trained that way which actually is not going to happen. Leo is showing her how to defend herself when she needs to do so, but not more. And that alone is not what constitutes a kunoichi.

Speaking of Karai, I still can't see Leo treat her as a sister. Like I said before, they aren't related and didn't grow up together, so how are they supposed to share some kind of 'sibling love'? His feelings aren't clearly shown in the show, so I tried to give you an insight on how I think Leo might feel about her in this chapter.

This chapter takes place after the one-hour special "The Manhattan Project".

Chapter 25: Unexpected Visit

With a frustrated outcry Leo crumpled up the piece of letter paper he had written down on and flung it on the ground, letting it join all these other crumpled-up pieces of green letter paper that were already scattered around his bed.

Leo looked down at the floor for a moment and made a mental note to tell April to get more letter paper for him soon. If he kept up this crumpling-up-thing up, he would be run out of letter paper by tomorrow.

With a sigh he jumped to his feet. Maybe walking around would help him figure out what to write to Madelyn. So many things had happened in the past days that he simply had no idea where to start.

Not only had they had to face a new – and admittedly deadly – enemy, no, they had nearly lost their sensei, not to speak of the near-death experience they had all been going through. To call it "a lot to deal with" was a slight understatement. No, actually it was a big one.

Leo was walking around his room restlessly, his steps firm, his whole body tensed. Every now and then he ran his hand over his forehead as if to wipe away another thought that was disturbing the thought he was focusing on, but it just didn't work. His thoughts were a mess, a knot, a bundle, and he had no idea how to get this straight.

He paused for a moment, took a deep breath and tried to relax. Okay, he would try to do this one more time, although he had his doubts that he would manage arranging his thoughts now, but maybe if he got over the facts bit by bit, it would help.

He closed his eyes, taking another deep breath, and went over the events of the last days.

There had been this encounter with Karai and the Foot, his attempt to tell her who her real father was. Then his talk to sensei about this, and then Splinter had revealed to the others that Karai actually was his daughter.

Then there had been these dimensional portals. Seeing himself in another dimension sure had been odd, but this wasn't exactly what disturbed him. So he checked this matter off as settled.

After that there had been Tigerclaw, their newest enemy who had managed to capture him, Raph and Mikey, and who had forced him to call sensei which had ended up in Splinter getting captured as well. Leo could still feel how feared he had been of losing his father, but Mikey, Raph, and him had managed to come up with a plan and rescue him. He knew how lucky they had been to defeat Tigerclaw and the rest of Shredder's henchmen, and if it hadn't been for April's idea to ride a Kraathatrogon to cause some distraction and Donnie reversing this portal's polarity to get everything back to normal, they most likely would be dead now. But they were alive, they were fine, all of them, so no, this wasn't was caused his uneasiness.

Was it the fact he could lose his brothers? No, not really. This always was a possibility and he knew that. It was his worst fear, a fear he had to face each and every day, but he was able to cope with it.

Maybe it was the fear of losing his sensei, his father. But he had known of this possibility all along. Just like his brothers, his fear to lose Splinter was there in the back of his head every day, and again, he had learnt to deal with it.

So there was only one thing left that could be responsible for all of this – Karai. Again. What was it that this woman managed to disturb his thoughts every time? Okay, he knew she was Splinter's daughter, he knew her real name was Miwa, but as sensei had told them, it was her decision to accept the truth or not. There was actually nothing he could do about it. So why couldn't he stop thinking about it then?

He had been so eager to tell her the truth. It had been a confirmation of his perception of her being different when he had been told by sensei that Karai was actually Miwa. Now she really was different. She was no ordinary Foot, not only following Shredder's orders without second thoughts, deep down inside she was Splinter's, no, Hamato Yoshi's daughter. She knew it now, she just needed to accept it.

He had been right about her. And all this time this tiny hope inside him that one day Karai would leave the Foot and join them, had never completely died down, not when she had captured him, not when she had tried to kill him. And now this hope had thrust itself forward, had become more and more important. And it had been fueled when Splinter had told them that Karai had stopped Shredder from killing him. This had showed him that she was starting to become adjusted to the truth, that maybe she would be able to accept it soon.

This was his hope, his one big hope – that the good inside her would actually show. That she would accept who she was.

And it was this one big hope only he allowed himself to think about. As for his other hopes about her, he had pushed them back inside his head as far as possible. Had he still feelings for her? He didn't want to think about it. Sure, Karai was Splinter's daughter, but this didn't make her his sister. They were neither related nor had they grown up together. He didn't see her as a sister. Maybe he never would. Maybe he still had a crush on her and just didn't show it as much as earlier when they had just met. Maybe he still saw her as love interest. But that were only maybes, nothing he wanted to think through right now. He just refused to tolerate these thoughts about his feelings for her. There were important things to do – like making her understand what being Hamato Yoshi's daughter really meant. It meant that Shredder had been lying to her all her life, it meant that she was allowed to be good. And that was the reason why all his other thoughts and hopes about her had to remain hidden, had to remain un-thought and un-hoped. For now.

Leo opened his eyes again. He wasn't really feeling better, but at least his head didn't feel like it was going to explode with all these rumbling thoughts, so it was a bit of a progress.

He sat down on the bed again, picking up letter paper and pencil, but after a few moments he tossed them aside again as he hit on another idea. And with a slight smile he jumped to his feet and left his room.

April opened the window to a hectic knocking on the glass only to find Leo outside on the fire escape.

"Geez, Leo," she said to him. "Where's the fire?"

"April, I need your help", Leo blurted out. "Do you have apple tea? We only have green tea and herbal tea. And could you please prepare a thermos bottle of apple tea? I have no idea where our thermos bottle had disappeared to, but it's gone. Probably Donnie needed it for one of his experiments. So could you, please? I mean, only if you have apple tea at home, of course. If you don't, could you please go to the supermarket and buy some? I know it's already evening, but the one around the corner is open twenty-four hours, right? So, it would be great, ifffff…"

He was silenced as April pressed both her hands against his lips, his last word muffled by that.

April closed her eyes and furrowed her brow as she went over all the information Leo had given her in a few seconds, trying to figure out what the important message was.

"You need a thermos bottle of apple tea, right?" she finally said as she opened her eyes and looked at Leo.

The mutant turtle nodded because April's hands on his mouth still hindered him from talking.

"Good," the teenage girl said. "We have apple tea at home. My aunt loves it. And we do have a thermos bottle as well, so I am going to prepare what you asked me for, okay?"

Leo nodded again.

"And while I am doing so, you stay out there and calm down," April demanded. "Or else you might get a heart attack."

Leo nodded again, but when April put her hands away he took a deep breath and wanted to say something.

"Nah-ah!" April stopped him before he could speak up. "Calm down!"

Leo breathed out audibly and nodded again.

"Good boy." April smiled at him and then left her room.

When she came back with a thermos bottle full of apple tea she eyed him up as she stepped up to the window.

"Better?" she asked.

Leo just nodded.

"You know you can speak now," April said.

"Okay," Leo said. "I'm better."

"So what was all this rush about?"

Leo shrugged insecurely. "I dunno. I had this idea of visiting Madelyn tonight and bring her her favorite tea, so I rummaged our kitchen for some apple tea and our thermos bottle, but couldn't find either. It turned out we don't have apple tea at home and that our thermos bottle had disappeared. But I had spent so much time looking for these that it was getting later and later, so I could only think of asking you for help to somehow still make it to Madelyn before she goes to sleep."

"You know she wouldn't mind if you wake her up, right?" April asked.

"I do, but I don't want to wake her up," Leo explained. "She's a kid, she needs her sleep."

April thought about that for a moment. "I see," she finally said. "But you could have sent a text message instead of knocking at my window as if the house was on fire. I thought God-knows-what had happened."

Leo smiled at her sheepishly. "Sorry. I guess I was too stressed out to think of that."

April theatrically rolled her eyes, but then she smiled at Leo and handed him the thermos bottle.

"Give Madelyn my regards," she said with a wink.

"I will," Leo assured before he took the thermos bottle. He waved at April and then disappeared into the night.

Madelyn was lying in her bed, holding Daisy close to her and trying to fall asleep. However, she had problems with that tonight. She kept thinking about these disturbing earthquakes – as probably did most of New York's inhabitants now. Would there be more of them? Would they get worse? Her father hadn't been able to tell her, so she had decided to ask Mr. Turtle about it or April, but she wouldn't see April before tomorrow when the teenager would pick her up from school as she usually did on Thursdays. This meant she wouldn't get a letter from Mr. Turtle before tomorrow either and couldn't ask him about the earthquakes in her reply before the day after tomorrow. And even then, she wouldn't get a reply to her letter before the weekend – which was when Mr. Turtle said he would try to visit her anyway. So either way, her questions would have to wait until tomorrow.

She closed her eyes again, but she still didn't feel tired. So she really squeezed her eyes shut now, thinking that maybe that would make her feel more tired. But after a few moments she realized it didn't.

The moment she opened her eyes again, there was a knock on her window. She sat up and looked to the window, but when she realized who was waiting outside for her to let him in she jumped out of her bed, ran over to the window and opened it.

"Mr. Turtle!" she cried out.

"Shhhhhhhttttt!" Leo tried to shush her. "You don't want your father to hear you, right?"

"Daddy's asleep," Madelyn clarified when Leo knelt down so he could hug her and she immediately flung her arms around his neck. "He will only wake up when I cry for help."

"Okay, I see," Leo said as he placed his one hand on her back and gently patted it.

When Madelyn let go of him the little girl stepped back and eyed him up.

"Did you stop the earthquakes, Mr. Turtle?" she asked earnestly.

"We did," Leo assured her.

"There won't be any more of them?"

"Not in the near future."

Madelyn's earnest look turned into a beam. "I knew it!"

Leo chuckled.

"And now to the next item of business, the most important one," Leo said with a smile as he held out the thermos bottle to Madelyn. "Let's have some tea."

Madelyn gasped in surprise and clasped her hands against her mouth.

Moments later they were seated at Madelyn's little table, sipping apple tea out of Madelyn's plastic tea cups.

The little girl was telling Leo about what had happened in her life the past days, how school was, how Billy still left her alone, and how she and Marcus were becoming better and better friends.

Leo's was listening with a warm smile on his face.

And for the first time in days now he felt how his body relaxing and how he calmed down. For the first time in days he was actually feeling good.
That was the reason why he loved Madelyn so much. That was the reason why he loved being her Mr. Turtle.