Chapter 77

Hi everyone! I know I've been a little off on my updating but since my chapters are going to be longer I'm going to update every 4-6 days anymore. Plus, I have my senior capstone to present and I'm trying to get that all situated!

I got of depressed myself yesterday when I went through my previous chapters! I noticed how horribly short certain chapters were, grammar flaws, and some parts that didn't make as much sense as I wanted! During Easter break I'll go and fix everything! I'm super embarrassed! Please, if you notice anything like that in the future don't be afraid to let me know in a PM! This way I can quickly fix it before anyone else notices!

Master Splinter could tell there was something bothering his oldest son. He was frequently out of the Lair, sometimes with Hikaru sometimes not, would lock himself in his room, and only seemed focused during training.

He tried to speak with his son about it after the boys rescued the mutants from the Kraang prison, but Leonardo pretended to be more worried about Donatello, who was mourning the loss of Metalhead.

Claire, Zoey, and Holly came to the Lair late in the afternoon on Saturday, after Claire and Zoey got out of work.

"I hope Sam will feel better soon," Claire said worried.

"I never knew teenagers could be diagnosed with diabetes. I thought it was always kids."

Master Splinter went over to the group.

"Claire, may I speak with you for a moment?"

Claire blinked a few times in confusion.

"Of course, Master Splinter."

Claire followed the rat into the dojo while Zoey and Holly went to their boyfriends.

The brunette girl sat in the seiza position, mirroring Master Splinter.

"I wish to speak with you about Leonardo."

"Leo? Is he still a bit off?"

She knew?

"It seems you noticed it as well."

She nodded.

"When we played Hide and Seek the other day, he just didn't seem like playing anymore. It was almost night and day to how he was. Now that I know he's still that way...I'm worried."

"I was going to ask if you could speak with him. Sometimes, my son looks to me as a sensei more than a father. He will not open up to me about what is bothering him. If Tang Shen were here...I'm sure he would be able to tell her..."

Claire nodded.

"I'll definitely ask him. Why don't you call him in here? Raphael might grow suspicious if I went into Leo's room without him."

Master Splinter got up with the large weight now off his shoulders. Claire had a motherly personality that allowed the boys to want to open up to her.

Perhaps she would be better able to help his eldest son.

Claire was surprised when Leonardo walked into the dojo. He looked tired and out of energy.

"Hi, Leo."

"Claire? What's going on?"

"Why don't you sit with me for a bit?" Claire asked sitting with her legs crossed.

Leonardo sat down, a little confused as to why Master Splinter told him to go to the dojo in the first place.

"What's going on?"

"Master Splinter and I are worried about you. Something is bothering you."

Leonardo felt a blush rise on his face.

"Nothing's wrong. Everything is fine."

Claire sighed.

"If I confide in you my secret, can you tell me yours? I haven't even told Raphael."

Leonardo didn't know Claire had any secrets from Raphael. Lately, the couple had spent most of their time training in the dojo due to Claire's competition. He thought they told each other everything.

"Sure...but it can't be something lame like you-"

"I'm helping Slash."

It took Leo a moment to process what she said.

Leonardo's jaw opened slightly.

"A-As in...Spike? Mutated Spike?"

Claire nodded.

"I found him the night he fell from the roof. I treated his injuries and-"

"You've been helping him that long? He hurt Donnie and Mikey! Why are you helping him? How have you kept it from Raph?"

"By saying I've had work. I know it isn't good to lie, but if Raphael found out, he'd be furious with me. I was so worried when he went missing that I nearly told Raphael. But then you guys freed the mutants in that prison and found him! It was the biggest relief! Slash-I mean Spike needs a lot of help still. Think about it. Raphael probably wants Slash to go back to being Spike more than anything else in the world."

Claire felt tears well up in her eyes.

"I know he hurt your brothers and there's no excuse for that. But there is good in him! He remembers how well Raph and I took care of him!"

Leonardo was confused as to why she was crying.

"If you think Raphael's going to be mad at you, I don't think he will be."

"It's not that. I'm worried when Don finds a retro-mutagen, Raph will want to use it on Slash. Have you ever heard of a story called Flowers for Algernon?"

Leonardo listened as Claire struggled through telling him the the story. She was crying violently.

"It's the same thing that would happen with Spike. He was given all this knowledge and ability...to make him return back to what he was would be devastating. What would happen if you guys were to turn back into normal turtles?"

Leonardo felt his hands shaking. That thought had crossed his mind before over the years. What if the ooze that had created them would wear off over time? But through that story, it terrified him even more. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to not be able to read again, flip over rooftops, or even stand on two legs again.

Master Splinter heard the crying from his room and stepped into the dojo.

"Claire, everything is all right," the rat said holding the girl, rocking her gently. "We're all fine."

Leonardo stood up and went to get his brother.

In the lab Zoey was being held by Donatello, with Mikey, Raphael, and Holly alongside the table.

Holly was looking over the Metalhead data on Donnie's laptop.

"You're saying he evolved to the point of valuing your lives above his? That he became sentient?"

Donatello nodded glumly, his head on Zoey's shoulder.

"I hadn't realized he had evolved to that point. Here, we wanted to erase his memory clean..."

Mikey looked over Holly's shoulder.

"I don't understand any of this stuff. What does that mean?"

As Holly tried to explain the list of numbers and commands to Mikey, Zoey nuzzled against Donatello.

"Don-kun," Zoey said affectionately. "Don't be sad. You programmed him to be a true ninja. For the sake of his brothers, he took on countless enemies to see that the Kraang would not succeed. You should be proud he was your ally."

Donatello sighed. He really missed the little robot and was wondering if he would ever have the heart to build another Metalhead.

Raphael was sick of seeing all the mushy couple-stuff going on around him. Claire and Leo were in the dojo and Master Splinter had yelled at Raphael to stay out.

"Why does Leo get to see Claire and I don't?"

Holly was typing on the computer at lightning speed.

"No need to get jealous, Raphael."

The red-masked turtle glared at the girl. She wasn't fazed by it, except Mikey was becoming over-protective.

"Leave my girlfriend alone."

Raphael saw Leonardo had come into the lab. Their leader looked almost pale and ready to pass out.

"Leo?" Mikey said going over to his brother. "Bro, what's wrong?"

Leonardo stared at his brothers. If the Kraang or Don were ever able to make an anti-mutagen and one of his brothers was altered...

Raphael rushed over to Leo.

"Calm down," he said making his brother sit down on the floor. "Talk to us."

Holly and Zoey left the boys alone in order to check on Claire.

Leonardo hugged Mikey hard.

"I'm sorry, guys. I know...I know I've been off lately. I swear everything is okay. Nothing is wrong. Sometimes, I just...I forget I can tell you guys anything."

Donatello put his hand on Leo's shoulder as he stopped crushing Mikey.

"Leo, we know it's hard to talk about certain things. But it isn't healthy to keep stuff bottled up inside. Whatever you have to say, we'll listen."

Raphael elbowed Leonardo.

"No matter what, we're always going to be brothers."

Leonardo didn't quite tell his brothers about Stacy. He told them he had been remembering about where he had gotten the rabbit and that he knew it was from a human.

The memories brought of the fear of humans entering their Lair and separating Leo from his brothers.

His brothers felt the same way and could understand how that could weigh heavily on his mind.

Once it was time for the girls to leave, Leonardo volunteered to walk them back.

The brothers were confused, since the girls were their girlfriends, but Claire knew Leonardo was going to share his secret with her.

"Raphael," Claire said going over to him.

"Why don't you let him walk us back tonight and then tomorrow you can pick me up on the cycle after work? It's been a while since we've had a drive!"

Raphael nodded and kissed her quickly.

"All right, Babe. Are you sure you're okay?"

Her eyes were still puffy from crying.

"You know how much of a sap I am. I cry over the littlest thing!"

"Yeah, even that weird Once Upon A Time show you keep talking about."

Claire hugged Raphael tightly.

"I love you."

The others glanced over and saw the turtle's face almost match his mask. With a mumble, Raphael quickly left the room, with Mikey and Donnie teasing him as he left.

Leonardo escorted the girls back to the sewer opening that was closest to Holly's house.

Holly and Zoey were talking about what to do on Tuesday for the Science Club meeting, giving Claire the chance to speak with Leo.

"So...are you going to keep your end of the deal?"

"I don't want them knowing. You can keep a secret. I can't risk them telling the others."

Claire nodded.

Once Holly was inside her house, Zoey and Claire followed Leonardo to the top of Holly's building. They started jumping from rooftop to rooftop until they reached Zoey and Claire's apartment.

Zoey was climbing down the fire escape when she noticed Claire wasn't coming.

"Everything okay?"

"Yeah. I just want to be up here a little longer if that's okay. I know you have the morning shift, so you probably want to go to bed."

Zoey shuddered, already dreading having the Bauman twins.

Claire turned to Leonardo.

Leonardo sat on the roof, as did Claire.

"Okay, you know that rabbit?"

Claire nodded.

"Well, I went back to where I remembered getting it on Valentine's Day. There was someone there."

"Did they see you?"

"No, she didn't."

"She?" Claire asked with a wide smile.

"Yeah. I think her name is Stacy. I followed her, since I wanted to make sure she wasn't some Kraang spy or something."

Leonardo reached into his shell and pulled out the stuffed doll.

"She left this."

Claire examined the green doll that was covered with a black cloak. Over its eyes was a blue mask.

"Is this supposed to be you?"

"Follow me."

Claire was surprised when Leonardo lead her a few blocks over to stare across the street. There was someone on top of the roof, but they were too far for her to see.

"I can't really see..." she groaned.

"We can go closer, but we need to be careful. Her parents usually come up and listen."

"Listen to what?" Claire said matching his footsteps across the street.

Claire recognized the song immediately from Hairspray.

"Good morning, Baltimore? It's a great song," she said before settling into the higher rooftop.

This Stacy girl really was beautiful. She had blonde hair and was currently wearing a floral sundress.

"Isn't it still a bit early for sundresses?" she muttered feeling chilly herself.

Leonardo smiled.

"She has this thing for dresses. When she sings, sometimes she gets really into it and dances."

Claire turned to him.

"You've been watching her for a while, haven't you?"

He nodded.

"It's not like I can just go over and be "Hi! My name is Leonardo but you remember me as Lee. We met around 10 years ago." And I don't think she'd like the fact I'm a turtle mutant."

"Obviously she knows you aren't human. Why don't you just-"

Leo shushed her as the rooftop door opened.

Stacy's parents walked onto the roof.

"Stacy! Time to come in! It's getting late!"

Claire felt like she had seen them before.

"They look familiar."

"They're on the news a lot. They're the Nolans AKA the two biggest UFO investigators in the city right now. They get calls all the time and come and go throughout the day. I've seen them leave for an hour or two and them come back with boxes of stuff."

"You think it's Kraang tech?"

"I hope not. That stuff's dangerous. If the Kraang could track it, they'd be in danger."

Claire looked back and saw Stacy was following her parents inside. Leonardo slumped against the wall next to them.

"Claire, I really don't know what to do. When her parents don't make her come inside, I see her looking at the sewer grate down there. Sometimes, she says "good night, Lee," or other stuff."

"Lee?"

"Yeah, I gave her a fake name when we met. I wasn't sure what to do when I met her and I was about to say Leonardo. I thought Lee was a good cover-up."

Leonardo covered his face with his hands.

"I feel like I can't breathe sometimes if I know she's out here singing and I'm not here listening. She gets up here once it's dark outside. Never earlier. I think she gets lessons based on what I've overheard."

"Leo, you should know this is very stalker-y."

He groaned.

"I know, but I'm not-!" Leonardo punched the wall behind him. "I'm not a normal kid who could just march up to her and ask her on a date..."

"You've thought about dating her?" she said surprised.

Leonardo blushed.

"I've thought about dancing with her, listening to her sing for me, talking about aliens and science fiction together, and so much other stuff."

"Well, what do you like most about her?"

Leonardo started pacing on the roof.

"It's not as simple as that! There's so many things! She's a free spirit, she's really beautiful, and when she smiles..."

Claire giggled.

"Sounds like you've fallen pretty hard, Leo. What are you going to do about it?"

Leonardo's face clenched into a frown.

"Nothing."

She was shocked by his answer.

"It's too dangerous. If she found out about me and told her parents, our family would be in danger. I can't risk it."

"But, Leo...you obviously like her and she remembers you! Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

Claire was almost floored by the sad look in Leonardo's eyes.

"It means more than anything to me..."

At the Foot headquarters, Karai on the Shredder's throne and was listening to Baxter Stockman talking. There was a map of the city on a large blackboard behind him. There were red circles around different points.

"Based on the data we have from the Foot Bots, we have found areas the turtles are seen the most or we fight them around here on more than one occasion-"

"Can you find the turtle's hideout or not?" she snapped tapping her fingers on the throne's arm.

Baxter twitched in fear before clearing his throat.

"N-not them exactly, but I found this one facility that the Bots have seen not only the turtles but the motorcycle one of them uses in that area."

Karai went over to the map and looked at the circle he was pointing at.

"What's there?"

"NYC's Star Potential Studios."

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