Hi, everybody! I'm sorry for the long delay and the not-so-great chapter. I'm not very happy with it, but I think if I fuss around with it for much longer, I'll never finish this story. Also, I have this system in place where I don't italicize the most frequently used Japanese words – hai, sensei, dojo, kunoichi, and since I use it so often, Obasan. But now that I'm introducing more Japanese words, like Otōsan and Okāsan, it looks weird. Oh well, I guess just bear with me and pretend not to see the inconsistencies, okay?

Despite the aches and pains in her body, Mei was just starting to drift off to sleep when Leonardo's voice interrupted her.

"Whoa! You're slipping again."

Mei snapped back to wakefulness and tightened her grip around Leo's shoulders. Her arms ached from hanging on. "I can't…I think I need to rest."

"Yeah," Leonardo said, panting slightly. "I think I could use another rest, too." He eased her down off of his back and set her down on the floor of the sewer tunnel, then sat down next to her. "Oh, man." He rubbed his shoulder, and Mei heard a distinct pop as he flexed his neck. "Sorry we're not there yet. It's not really a straight shot through the sewers – that's why we normally take the rooftops or the Shellraiser."

"I should be apologizing to you." Mei massaged the bridge of her nose, wishing that the screaming pain in her head would go away, wishing that she had a nice soft bed and some undisturbed slumber.

"You don't have anything to apologize for, Obasan. Seriously. Hey, now – stay awake, okay?"

Mei was not even aware that she was dozing off, and she did not much care. Leonardo's voice faded. Her eyelids were heavy and warm, and nothing seemed more important than keeping them shut. It wasn't until Leonardo lightly patted the side of her face that she opened them again.

"No, no, no…Aunt Mei, Aunt Mei, stay with me."

"All right," Mei muttered. She forced herself to look at her nephew. It was hard enough to see in the dark sewers, but he seemed out of focus. She blinked several times, and her vision finally cleared. "I think that I might have a concussion."

"Yeah, no joke," Leonardo replied tensely. "So you know you need to stay awake for a while, right?"

"It's hard."

"What can I do?"

"Talk to me."

"Um, yeah. Sure." Leo was quiet for a moment. "So, you and Splinter. How long has that been going on?"

Mei laughed softly, but stopped short and gasped when she felt a hitch in her ribs.

"Are you all right?" Leonardo's expression was absolutely agonized with worry.

"Yes, Leonardo. Just...my side hurts." Mei decided that maybe keeping the conversation going would be the best thing. "Anyway, I am not even sure myself when it started. But we first talked about it the night I came home from the hospital."

"So…how serious is it?"

"What do you mean?"

Leo stared at the sewer floor for a few moments. "Like, 'am I getting a mom' serious."

Mei couldn't help it. She laughed again, and her side seized up even more, making her cry out this time.

"Are you – "

"Fine," Mei said, catching her breath. "Like I told you, it is complicated. It is different for people who have been married before. I can never forget Kenshin. And I remind Splinter very much of my sister, and…well, it complicates things even further."

"Yeah, I guess I can see that," Leonardo said. "And it's probably even weirder for you, since he's a mutant." He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye.

Mei had the distinct feeling that Leonardo was carefully gauging her, as if he was trying to decide whether or not she deserved Splinter. From what he had said, he was glad that she made Splinter happy, so it also made sense that he would be so defensive of Splinter's heart – maybe even a little worried that she might eventually reject Splinter because he was a rat.

She was surprised that he would suspect such a thing of her, but then she realized it was amazing that the boys had received her as readily as they did. She was still a newcomer to the family. When she thought about how, all told, she had only known them for a few months, it shocked her that it had only been that short of a time. To her, it had been a new awakening from a cold and sorrowful existence, and it felt much longer.

But she had entered into this – relationship, or whatever it was – with Splinter knowing full well that he intended to remain a mutant. She had, in a short time, become so comfortable with mutants that she hardly even thought of them in those terms. She thought of her nephews more as 'boys' than 'turtles,' and she had grown so accustomed to Splinter's new form that she rarely thought of him in terms of his old human form.

"Yes, it is 'weird,' but I happen to be very fond of mutants." Mei laid a hand on Leonardo's shoulder. "My favorite nephews are mutants, you know."

Leonardo grinned. "So when are you and Splinter telling the rest of the guys about this?"

Mei sighed. "Honestly, we planned to keep it to ourselves for quite some time. If, for whatever reason, it did not work out, we did not want you boys to feel as if you had to pick a side."

Leonardo's smile faded. "So why did you tell me?"

"You seemed to need some guidance. I thought it would help."

"It does, kind of. But still…it's different. Your sister was married to Master Splinter, and that's the only connection you really have. But Karai and I…we have the same father. Mikey even called Tang Shen 'mom' a while back, and I get where he was coming from on that. So that means that Karai and I have the same mother, too…"

"Leonardo, listen. You were not raised as Miwa's brother. She was not raised as your sister. If you had been raised together, it would be different. If Tang Shen had given birth to you, it would be different. But neither is true."

"I don't think Raph sees it that way."

"Raphael knows about it?"

"He said I was being really obvious about it. I guess everyone knows."

Mei smiled. "Not everyone. As far as I can tell, Splinter does not know. But I would wager that Raphael knows you better than most."

"Maybe. But you noticed."

"Call it a woman's intuition. But let Raphael think what he wants to think."

Leonardo sighed. "None of this will matter if Karai doesn't make it."

Mei's memory of the evening was starting to become blurry, but she remembered that Miwa was already injured when she and Michelangelo had arrived. "How did she become injured in the first place?"

"She took a knife for Raph. He was disoriented from a flashbang grenade, and the knife would've killed him. But Karai knocked him out of the way."

Mei's heart swelled with a mixture of pride and sadness. Miwa was the bravest young woman she had ever met. When faced with a horrific revelation about her own past, Miwa had not melted down like some would. Instead, she took charge of the situation. She had bravely lied to the Ronin – knowing that being caught in the lie could mean her – to protect her new family. Even if her methods had been questionable, they required bravery and a tremendous amount of strength. "She is an incredible young woman."

"I can't believe now that I didn't trust her before. I was so willing to believe the worst of her after she betrayed us that time, and since then, she's been perfectly honest with us. I shouldn't have suspected her when things went sideways tonight."

"She has always had our best interests at heart."

"What if she dies thinking that we still don't trust her?" Leonardo turned to Mei, a trace of tears shimmering in his eyes. "I should've believed her right away when she said that she didn't tell the Kraang to start the project."

Mei pressed her lips together. She knew for a fact that Miwa – no, Karai – had lied to everyone else about that. Mei had urged Karai to tell the truth, but Karai was convinced that no one would understand.

"Wait a minute." Leonardo's expression became suspicious. "You know something, don't you?"

Mei silently cursed Leonardo's keen perception. "I do not know what you're talking about."

"Did she actually tell the Kraang to start the project?"

"We should be moving on," Mei said loudly.

Leonardo narrowed his eyes for a moment. "You're right. Let's go." He stood up and stretched before helping Mei up. Her legs were still Jell-o, and she could not climb up onto his back. So, he helped her up again and they continued on.

After about ten minutes, they came to a junction in the tunnels.

"Oh, no," Leonardo said. "I forgot. If we go right, there are two massive sewer ponds connected by a short tunnel, but it's way faster. The other way adds almost a whole hour."

"Do you really think I'm in any condition to swim?" Mei asked.

"Well, I can pull you. The question is, how long you can hold your breath?"

"Maybe a minute?"

Leonardo sighed. "Seriously? That's it?"

Mei rolled her eyes. What did he expect of her? "Well, how long can you?"

"Five or six minutes if I'm moving around a lot."

Of course. Mutant turtle. "Oh, is that all?"

"You're lucky Donnie's not here, or he'd tell you about the time he held his breath for twenty minutes. In painstaking detail. And he'd tell you about the biology behind it. But that's not important. Could you make it two minutes?"

Mei was too exhausted to argue. "I can try."

"Let's do a test run, then. Hold your breath – I'll count."

Mei made it to one minute and twenty-nine seconds before she gasped for air.

"Long way it is, then," Leo sighed.

As they took the tunnel on the left, Mei genuinely wished that she had been able to make it those crucial extra thirty-one seconds. "I am sorry, Leonardo."

"You have nothing to be sorry for. I'm just glad you're in one piece." They continued on for several minutes before Leonardo spoke again. "Just so you know, I'd be okay with it if I did get to call you Okāsan."

Okāsan. Mei remembered teaching Kenji how to sound out the syllables. She remembered the first time Suki used the full form, instead of simply calling her Kāsan.

Suddenly, all of the aches and pains in her body felt like nothing compared to the huge loss of her sons.

"Me too."

Dude. Seriously. What was that? Was Leo even in character? I'm so frustrated with this chapter that I can't even 'see' it. I need some criticisms, yo. Where did this go wrong? Glaah…