Darielle was stroking Raph's face and thinking of everything that led up to this moment: her parents, the orphanage, jumping from state to state, meeting Raph and now possibly losing Raph. No one got hurt when she kept to herself. But every time, every time she came in contact with someone closely, they got hurt. She heard the bone saw begin to whir and she covered her mouth, sobbing. She heard it make contact and knew that Mikey was being cut open. April came over; she had come with her and Higgins. She first had made sure that Casey and Donnie were okay. Then she began to stack some medicine that she thought might be needed. But it seemed Doctor Gayle came very prepared. April, Gina and Leo had moved Casey and Donnie next to each other and laid them out. Leo sat next to Donnie and Gina sat next to Casey.

"Hey," April said, putting a hand on Darielle's shoulder. "He's been bad before. Remember? Mutant repair. They've both got a better chance of surviving than a human would. Odds are in their favor. Darielle didn't look away from Raph.

"This is my fault."

"No-" April cut in.

"Yes. He came for me. He came for me and found them and now…look. Just look at what he did to them." Tears were rolling down her cheeks now. "My God! He's going to die because of me. He's going to die and I killed him. It's my fault." April grabbed her and shook her.

"You didn't do this. That sicko did this. Don't you ever forget that. You can't control what other people do. How could you have ever suspected that this guy would target you or them? Don't you take that on yourself. He is the one. He's the murderer. If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't have gotten here. Mikey has a chance now. And that's because of you. You are the best thing to happen to this family in a long time." April was crying now, too. "We all love you and everything is going to be okay. It's got to be." The two girls hugged and held each other as they watched over Raph. Leo watched them.

"Doctor Gayle's the best." Gina said suddenly. Leo glanced over to her, warily.

"How do you know her?" Leo asked cautiously.

"She's my sister." That surprised Leo. It must have shown on his face. "Yeah. I get that a lot. I mean we look nothing alike. I got this crazy red brillo pad for hair and she's got that silken gold head of hers. I'm a dime a dozen cop walkin' the beat and she's a PH frickin' D. We're 'bout as opposite as you get. But…we get along real well. She won't talk. She knows what you did for me."

"How…uh…did you…?"

"Get involved?" Gina offered. "Your girl over there, the one that seems to be…uh…with the red one, she told Higgins Rafle was in trouble and Higgins, that's the chief, asked for volunteers. He said Rafle a.k.a the NightWatcher needed some blue assistance. About ten of us volunteered. I mean, official policy is that the NYPD do not back the vigilante known as NightWatcher, but unofficially, we appreciate getting our butts saved when it falls outta the fryin' pan into the fire. So yeah, I volunteered to back up the guy that had my back. We were told, in no certain terms, that Rafle was unusual and might look strange and to please not repeat what we see. We gave our word after we recited the oath again and Higgins 'swore us in' so to speak."

"What about the other nine?"

"Oh, they got called off once Higgins got here. He said 'situation under control, return to your normal post' and that's what they did. But we were all scouring the sewers. See, your girl said it would be the sewers, but she couldn't guess where. So we began to walk the tunnels and then I had this idea. If I was a sick twist wanting to off someone, sorry…" She looked chagrined. Leo motioned for her to continue. "I would want a big enough space with good lighting and possibly outlets." She snapped. "That got me thinkin'. The old rail station had weren't workin' anymore but he mighta tried there first and decided he liked the set up. City plans are public record. He easily could have seen it without anyone battin' an eye about it. And here he was. I wish I had thoughta it sooner." She apologized.

"You came and saved us. Thank you." Leo said. She shrugged it away.

"Any one of us woulda done it. And I can't believe that guy didn't go down. I mean I shot him in the face! He was definitely a thing of the devil."

"So you believe in demons and monsters?" Leo inquired.

"Tell me that after this you don't." She answered.

"There are all kinds of monsters." He mumbled.

"Yeah. And I see them every day. Father's beatin' their children. Husband's raping their wives or girlfriends. There was this one sick-"

"But they're human." Leo interrupted. "What about real demons and monsters. Do you believe in them?"

"I don't know." She said after a moment. "But I think there is definitely somethin' fighting to make us go one way or the other. Why?"

"Nothing." Leo said. The saw had fallen silent now. He closed his eyes and said a prayer for Mikey and Raph. Please don't punish them for my poor judgment.

"Do you?" She asked.

"What?"

"Do you believe in demons and monsters? Real ones."

"I used to…when I was a kid. I kept insisting there was this monster under my bed. Then Splinter came in one night and he fought a brave battle and vanquished it. Telling me that it had melted into the shadow world and it couldn't hurt me anymore. But the next night, I heard it again. I didn't want Splinter to have to fight it again. How lucky could he be to survive it twice? So I decided it was my fight and I would vanquish it. I crept into the dojo and grabbed a small sword from the weapons rack and peeked under my bed." He fell silent.

"What was there?" She asked. He smiled a little.

"A rat. A little one. It was nibbling on the crumbs I dropped from eating cookies in my bed. I felt terrible. I had wanted to wage war on this little tiny thing that just wanted to survive. And that's when I thought…"

"What?" She prompted. Leo shook his head.

"That I was the monster. I was the giant trying to kill innocent Jack. I never told anyone that. It's been a while since I've thought of it. But I certainly remember it now."

"I don't think you're a monster." She appraised. He rolled his eyes. "I mean, monsters don't save damsels in distress. Monsters are distressing the damsels. And monsters only care about themselves. They don't risk their lives battling for someone else. If I had to make a judgment call, I would say you're like the opposite of a monster. The reverse, if you will…" She kept him talking. Distracting him was the best thing for him right now. He answered her questions amiably enough, but seemed closed mouthed on expanding too much. He was explaining how they came to be what they were when Doctor Gayle emerged covered in blood. Leo stood abruptly and April and Darielle gasped, then held their breath. Doctor Gayle saw them all looking at her. She removed her gloves.

"He's not out of the woods yet, but I think he has a fighting chance." Leo almost collapsed he was so relieved. He steadied himself and went into the tunnel by Mikey and Splinter. Splinter was still holding Mikey, blood lightly spattered his face and hands. He was stroking Mikey's face when he heard Leo approach. Leo knelt down and saw a line cut through his plastron. It seemed to be waxed together with a kind of glue.

"He cannot move until it dries." Splinter explained. Leo nodded. Leo reached for Splinter and Splinter lifted one hand to Leo. "He wants to live, Leonardo. He will."

"Yes, Father."

After a few more hours, Donnie and Casey woke. They slowly came out of their stupor, but when they both began to remember what had been happening, they flung into action and Leo and April had to restrain them. Leo explained to Donnie and April explained to Casey. The Doctor wanted Raph and Mikey to stay unmoved at least another 24 hours.

In the meantime, Higgins, Gina and Croc were on clean up duty. Gina used her connections to help remove the Werewolf's body and Higgins and Croc scrubbed the concrete and brick. They used the forensic light source to make sure the blood was all cleaned away. Higgins didn't know what to do. He was hiding a crime scene. His DC transfer was dead. He couldn't just sweep this under the rug. But he knew he didn't want to defend the Werewolf and endanger these turtle creatures. He observed them and they seemed to care deeply for each other. More than some humans did for each other. So he would have to come up with something. He imagined it would involve something about an unsolved mugging gone wrong. Off duty would work since the Werewolf was out of his blues. He helped wheel the one called Raph back to the lair and placed him in his bed. He also helped move Mikey.

Doctor Gayle set up temporary residence at the lair so she could administer to Mikey and Raph at night. She continued to working during the day at her veterinarian job. Neither Mikey nor Raph had woken yet. Doctor Gayle was honest and said the longer they stayed unconscious, the less likely it would be for them to wake up. Gina would sometimes join her sister. One day, she caught Leo alone in the kitchen.

"Hello." She said.

"Hello." He answered.

"I'm really sorry about Margret." She offered.

"Who?" Leo asked, furrowing his brow.

"My sister, Doctor Gayle."

"Oh! I didn't know her name was Margret." He paused, remembering her initial reference. "You don't have to apologize for her. I mean she's going above and beyond to help Mikey and Raph. I can't thank her enough for what's she's doing."

"Yeah and that's great." Gina allowed. "But she's a bit, you know, um, rough around the edges. I mean I got that New Yorker tough attitude, but she can just be plain rude and blunt as a rock." Leo shrugged.

"But I believe what she says. I know she's not feeding me some line about how he'll probably pull through and get my hopes up. I like the honesty. It's hard to come by."

"I guess." Gina answered flatly. Had he said something wrong? He really couldn't be bothered for social etiquette right now. Not when Mikey and Raph were still unconscious. "Well, I'll leave you to it, then." And she walked out. He followed her out, not because he was following her, but because he was heading for Mikey's room. He walked in and saw Doctor Gayle and Donnie, one on each side of Mikey's bed. They hadn't noticed his entry.

"His blood pressure has definitely stabilized now." Doctor Gayle was saying. Donnie grinned.

"That's great. The internal bleeding must have slowed down if not stopped altogether. He should stay still though, to prevent any hemorrhaging."

"Absolutely. His ribs should heal fine. The way your anatomy works seems to have them nestled naturally into your plastron. They're essentially already set, they just need to heal. His blood pressure would have risen if any bone fragment had chipped off into the blood stream. The bruising and swelling seem to be going down very quickly. See here and here? His coloring is almost back to normal."

"Yeah. Green is good in our case." Donnie joked causing Doctor Gayle to crack a rare smile.

"Indeed." She agreed. "I'm still a bit worried about his temperature. Do you mind? I need a base comparison."

"Not at all." She slipped a thermometer in his mouth. Leo cleared his throat and the two of them turned to see Leo. Donnie waved and Doctor Gayle nodded her head.

"Leonardo." She greeted.

"So what's the diagnosis?"

"He's in good shape. Far better than I imagined. It must be something in your DNA structure that allows cellular repair to occur at such a rapid pace." The thermometer beeped and Doctor Gayle removed it.

"Yeah, it's a perk." Donnie said. Once again, Doctor Gayle smiled pleasantly as she looked at the thermometer.

"Interesting." Doctor Gayle allowed. "His temperature matches yours. The mixture of reptilian and mammalian features makes it difficult to diagnose and treat. But it seems that he is on the mend in his own natural way. I'll go check on Raphael and then I'm off to bed."

"Well, I've treated my brothers for as long as I can remember. If you have any questions about what's normal for us I can certainly answer them for you. By the way, would you be able to show me how you did that epoxy repair of the plastron? Not that I expect to need it, but that would be a good procedure for me to know." She sized Donnie up.

"All right. I'll walk you through it as I check on Raphael."

"Thanks. I've always been nervous about the plastron. It's bone, but doesn't really grow back on its own. Our carapace does, but not the plastron."

"That is typical for most Testudines Order animals. Interesting that the mammalian trait of bone healing is limited to certain bones in your structure."

"I thought so, too. I…uh…actually tested that theory out when I was younger." She raised an eyebrow.

"An experiment?" Donnie nodded. He pointed to a small corner of his plastron by his leg. The plastron had rounded edges except for a small portion only as large as the width of a fingernail.

"Did it hurt? Aren't their nerve fibers in your plastron and carapace?"

"There sure are." He smiled. "The things I do for Science." She smiled again.

"I can relate." She turned to Raphael and began taking his stats. "When I was ten years old I wanted to see if it was true what they said about honey being a natural sterilizer. So I cut my finger, rubbed it in dirt, wiped the dirt off, but didn't wash it, and slathered it with honey. I took a picture every hour with a Polaroid so I could check for discoloration and blood poisoning. It turned a little red from irritation, but it didn't get infected." She held out her finger to show a thin white scar on the tip of her middle finger. "The things I do for Science." She echoed. After she confirmed Raph's temperature, she felt that he was healing in much the same fashion that Mikey was.

Darielle was sitting next to Raph. She was a fixture in his room like the light switch or his desk. Always there. They had greeted each other in the morning. Darielle liked to listen when Doctor Gayle came in. She would always know what was happening with Raph and tell Darielle. So far, it was good news. The only question was when or if they would wake. Doctor Gayle was loathe to give a cut off date, due to the mixture of traits between two species. After all, humans had woken up after years of being in a coma. There was just no way to know for sure. Inwardly, Doctor Gayle felt Raph's coma was a good thing for the moment. It was allowing him to heal perfectly. From what she could glean from conversation, Raph was not one to stay in bed or take direction. Donnie and Doctor Gayle left Darielle to her vigil. As they left, Doctor Gayle asked:

"How did they meet?" Suddenly, with Donnie eager to speak of it, Doctor Gayle was not so eager to sleep. They each took a seat at the table and Donnie talked about his family.

It had been seven days. Seven. And still they had not woken. Darielle took her meals in Raph's room. Her reasoning was twofold: firstly, that she could stay near him in case he woke and secondly, that perhaps the smell of food would tempt him back into the world of the waking. She had been going to her bedroom to sleep only because the first night she had fallen off her chair as she slept and cut her head on his nightstand. But tonight, she knelt on the floor and placed her head on his bed as she stroked his hand. It was a kind of prayer, a plea to please let him wake. He was so very nearly alive that she dared to dream he could be okay. Even if he never wanted to see her again because of what she brought down on them. As long as he lived. Her eyes grew heavy and she finally fell asleep kneeling by his bedside.

If she had stayed awake a moment more, she would have seen Raph's chest rise higher than it had before in a great intake of breath and see his eyes flutter. Nothing else moved. He blinked and cleared his eyes, looking at the ceiling. He vaguely wondered if he was still dying in the rail station or if he was already dead. He twitched his hand and felt subtle resistance. He moved his head slightly to see what it was and saw Darielle asleep. He was afraid to move. He needed her to really be there. But if he stirred, she might fade away into a dreamscape and he knew that would kill him if he wasn't already dead. So he stayed still and watched her.

She moved and jerked awake. She took a shaky breath and opened her eyes as if trying to clear away a terrible image.

"Hey," He rasped. She turned at his voice and he watched as understanding dawned on her face. A relieved, soft smiled crossed her lips.

"Hey." She said, almost laughing. He closed his fingers around her hand loosely. It was all he could do now. She tightened her grip.

"Mikey?" He asked.

"He's not awake. He's been out since…it happened. But his vitals are strong. So were yours and look. How do you feel?"

"Awful."

"Good." She kissed him on the forehead. "If you didn't feel anything that would be bad."

"Sure." He agreed. She lowered her head.

"Raph…I'm…I'm so sorry." She started to cry. He frowned, even though it hurt a little. "I brought him here. He found us because-"

"Shhhhh." He said. He lifted up his hand and touched her cheek. Everything he was feeling was in that touch and in his eyes: his relief that she was unharmed, that she still loved him, that he loved her and that he didn't want her to take any blame for what happened. She turned her head and kissed his hand. She took his in hers and stood.

"I'm going to let everyone know, okay? They'll want to know you're okay." He held onto her.

"Don't." He said. "Go." She looked at him and sat back down, taking his hand in hers on her lap.

"I'll tell you what happened." She said. And she relayed to him the events of that terrible night, but not in too much gory detail. Raph's face was grim, but he listened until she finished.

"Leo." He said. She nodded. She patted his hand before she set it back on the bed and went to Leo's bedroom. It was late, so she knocked softly, not wanting to alarm him. Surprisingly, he answered the door before she could finish knocking.

"Dari." He said. His eyes were a bit bloodshot from not sleeping well. She smiled.

"Raph is asking for you." He stared at her a moment. Knowing Darielle, this was not a joke. She was not a cruel person. But he couldn't believe that Raph was awake. Awake and asking for him. After a moment's hesitation, he erupted into a determined walk to Raph's room and burst in through the door to confirm it. And there was Raph: laying down, but awake and looking at him. Leo's breath caught and he immediately sat in the chair next to Raph.

"Raph." Leo said.

"Brother." Raph said. Leo took Raph's hand and smiled.

"You remembered." Leo said. "Who's Fearless now? I think the one who took a bullet wins that one." Raph smiled weakly, but pointed to Leo.

"You." He whispered. "You." Leo squeezed his hand in gratitude.

"Dari, could you get Master Splinter and Doctor Gayle?" She nodded, took one last look and went to fetch them.

"Raph, man. You have to stop doing this to me. Too many close calls. Too many." Doctor Gayle bustled in followed by Splinter and everyone else since Darielle had woken everyone to share the good news.

Slowly, Raph healed. Well, fast for a human, but slow for a mutant. Being cooped up in bed did not sit well with him. He felt fine, but Doctor Gayle insisted on bed rest to guarantee his internal sutures were completely healed. Darielle convinced him that his boredom was not worth dying over and also threatened to leave New York if he even attempted getting out of bed without the doctor's permission. Reluctantly, he had agreed.

He had visitors every day, his entire family but also Gina, who seemed to become a regular at the lair. Raph liked Gina. She had a can-do attitude, but also a strong don't –mess-with-me-cowboy vibe. She was there when Mikey finally woke. Mikey had been in a coma for two and a half weeks. She had been sitting with Leo when it happened. They were drinking, Leo tea and Gina coffee.

"Did you hear that?" Leo asked Gina. Gina stopped to listen. It sounded like a hissing.

"I think it's coming from Mikey's room." She said. Leo was up in a flash and Gina behind him. Mikey was rasping and coughing a little.

"Mikey?" Leo asked. Mikey's eyes found Leo.

"Dude." He said, then his eyes fell on Gina. "Dudette." He added.

"I'll go tell the others." Gina said. Leo nodded, not taking his eyes off Mikey. Could he be so lucky? Could they all have gotten out of this alive? Just as before with Raph, everyone flooded into Mikey's room. Doctor Gayle got priority, but then everyone took a turn. Leo explained what happened. He also begged forgiveness for letting him get taken.

"I should have been there." Leo said. "I'm your big brother. I'm supposed to protect you."

"You can make up for it by introducing me to the red-head." Mikey wheezed good-naturedly.

"Uh-" Leo stuttered as Mikey chuckled.

"Just kidding, dude. I saw how she looked at you." Leo blushed.

"What? No. She just…it's because we were both…it's not like that."'

"You gonna tell her that?" Mikey taunted. Leo smiled, embarrassed.

"No." He admitted. "I'll always come for you. I may not always be there, but I'll always come for you." It was important that Mikey understood this.

"I know, Leo. I'm lucky in all my brothers. I'm glad Raph's okay. The last thing I remember was him falling."

"Doctor Gayle says he'll be able to be up and about in a week or so. Might be the same for you too, now that you're awake."

"I'm gonna have Mario Kart withdrawal." Mikey moaned. Leo laughed and went to get Mikey something to eat.