Chapter 43

Sierra started to stand to leave. Leo's eyes snapped to her as she started to head for the door, he stood up "Wait"

"What is it?" she stopped at the door and sniffled

"Don't go" he whispered

"Well do you want me to go or not?"

"N-no" he mumbled

"What? I didn't quite catch that"

He never repeated, he grabbed her and pulled her to him, crushing her against his chest "Please don't go. I love you so much, I can't live without you" he struggled to talk through his sobs "You mean everything to me, you are my everything. Please… please don't leave me" he whispered

Sierra gently pushed away to look up at him and smile "See, I'm not going anywhere" she reached up and wiped away his tears "Okay"

He nodded and swallowed hard

"Now come on let's go to bed"

"Yeah, I'll take you back downstairs"

"No, I'm staying up here with you" she limped back to his bed and laid down while reaching out for Leo "Come on"

"Don't you think you should…?"

"No Leo, I'm not leaving you up here alone. Now come here" she demanded

Leo walked up to the bed, sat down and rested his head on Sierra's chest. She arched her back slightly so he could slip his arms under her. She felt him tighten his grip a bit as if trying to reassure himself that she was really there "It's alright Leo I'm still here" his grip loosened and he stayed there awhile listening to her heart beat. Nice and Strong.

He soon found that his eyelids were getting heavy as exhaustion finally kicked in. He soon fell asleep to the soothing sound of her heart.

"And I always will be"

The next morning

"Hey Mel, where's Sierra" Don had walked out of his lab slightly panicked

"Isn't she in there?" Raph asked

"Guys, don't panic she's fine. She's in Leo's room" Melanie explained

"What? How did she get up there" Don questioned "She's in no condition to move anywhere right now"

"Well… I kinda… helped her"

"Mel…"

"I'm sorry, but if I was in her position I would want to know the exact same thing"

Raph and Don headed up the stairs to Leo's room. Opening the door, slowly letting light shine in. They heard a moan and saw Leo turned his head away from the light not moving from his spot on Sierra's chest.

Sierra looked at them and pressed a finger to her lips telling them to keep quiet then continued stroking the back of the sleeping turtle's head. Don and Raph slowly backed away shutting the door behind them.

"I guess they're okay now" Raph said

"Yeah, I guess" Don agreed "Come on let's leave them alone"

Leo groaned and started to sit up

"Good morning sleepy head" Sierra greeted

"Good morning" he said rubbing sleep from his eyes and grabbing his mask

"Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah, better than I had all week" he put his mask on "How are you feeling?"

"Much better now that I know you still love me"

He grinned and pressed his forehead against hers "I meant your wounds"

"They're fine Leo"

"Do you need anything?" he asked

"No, I'm okay"

"Are you sure cause I can get it for you. No matter what it is"

"Leo" she giggled

"Hm"

"Shut up and kiss me already"

He chuckled and gladly obliged savoring the feel of her soft lips against his.

"Let's go tell everyone that you're okay"

"Right" he stood then scooped her up in his arms and carried her downstairs

"Well look who decided to show his face again" Raph said next to Melanie on the couch

"So I guess almost getting in trouble was worth it"

"Yeah I think so"

"Typical Sierra" Melanie smiled as Leo placed her down on the couch "Do you need anything?"

"No, I'm fine" she watched as Mikey came out of the kitchen and headed toward her with Paige "But I could go for Mikey's famous homemade French toast"

Mikey suddenly turned and headed back to the kitchen "Anybody else want any" he called back

Paige looked to everyone else than yelled back "No, I think we're good"

Everybody was worried about Sierra's health

"You guys should eat something too"

"We'll find something to eat later" Leo said "Right now let us worry about you"

"Ugh… fine"

"Thank you"

Trevor came out of nowhere and hugged his big sister.

"Hey buddy" she hugged him back "I hope this guy wasn't too much trouble"

"Not at all" Paige ruffled his hair "He was an absolute angel and he taught us how to say turtle in sign language"

"That figures" she winced when Trevor clung tighter "Trevor ease up a bit that hurts"

He gasped and backed away, afraid to go near her again

"You didn't have to stop hugging me. You just need to be a little gentler" Sierra signed to him and he crawled back over her and wrapped his arms around her

"Aw, Kodak moment" Mikey said walking back in with a plate

"Shut up and give me my French toast"

Mikey handed the plate over to her and she stuffed a forkful into her mouth

"This is amazing. Oh man I thought I'd never get to eat these again" she froze when she noticed the sudden awkward silence 'Oops totally a bad idea to bring up the almost dead thing' she thought "I'm sorry I didn't mean that"

"Don't worry about it sis" Raph sighed "We're just glad you're here with us now"

"Yeah, don't worry… just promise you won't do that again" Melanie said

"Yeah we love you too much to lose you" Vanessa came up behind her and hugged her

"Oh no"

"What's the matter" Melanie giggled

"I feel guilty and guilt makes me lose my appetite" she looked sadly at her half eaten plate of French toast "I really wanted this"

"I'll take it" Melanie raised her hand

"I should've seen that coming" she handed the plate off to Mel "I'm sorry, they made me do it"

"Oh brother they can't be that amazing" Melanie told her exaggerating friend and then took a bite her eyes widened and she looked to Sierra "Oh… my… God"

"See, aren't they great"

"Oh my… God" she repeated and took another bite "Hey Mike, do you think you can make some more… like later"

"Sure, why not"

"Sweet, how come you never made this when I was here?"

Mikey shrugged "You didn't ask"

"Nessa" a small voice called "Does this mean we can go home now?" Jessica asked

"Um… Leo?" she asked when she picked up her little sister

"Maybe, but just to be sure" he turned to his brothers "We should go out and patrol the surrounding areas just to make sure things are safe" his brothers nodded in agreement and Raph noticed Melanie was quiet all of a sudden

"Mel? What's wrong?"

"I… have nowhere to go"

"Okay… what did I miss?" Sierra asked

"The foot killed my foster family" Melanie growled

"What?" Sierra squealed and stood up hurting herself in the process, sat back down and earned a glare from her boyfriend "They did what?" she growled

"My family is gone. I have nowhere to go"

"Why don't you stay with us or with Raph?"

"I wish I could, but I'm still 17, a minor so the only way I'd be able to stay with one of you is if Auntie Rae or Master Splinter meets with the social worker and signs a bunch of paper work for adoption, if not then I get shipped off to yet another foster family" Melanie explained

And suddenly as if a light bulb went off Sierra started signing to Trevor. He nodded and ran off up the stairs.

"What was that about?" Mel asked

"You'll see"

Seconds later Trevor was dragging Raven downstairs by her hand

"What's this all about? Why is my nephew yanking me?"

"Because I have something really important to ask you"

"Okay, what is it?" Raven asked yawning

"Can you adopt Melanie? She needs somewhere to go and since asking Master Splinter would be kinda awkward I thought I'd ask you"

"Uh… sure, but can you fill me in as to why I'm adopting her"

"My foster family is… no longer with us"

Realization dawned on her "Ah… well that's a very good reason. I'll definitely do it"

"Oh no, I couldn't"

"Yes, you can" Raven said then snatched her up by the wrist and dragged her to the kitchen "Come on you're explaining the entire foster child adoption process to me"

"Okay"

"Well now that that's settled" Sierra clapped her hands together and said "I think I'll just…" she started to stand with some difficulty, but sat right back down when six pairs of eyes glared at her "… sit right here and do absolutely nothing except watch TV and get waited on hand and foot"

"Good answer" Leo smirked and kissed her temple

Sierra crossed her arms in a huff then after awhile realized that no one was going to fall for the pouting bit so she picked up the remote and turned the TV on "Okay, I'm ready to be taken care of" she kicked her feet up onto the coffee table "I hope one of you…" Sierra started

Mikey interrupted "Yes, I have recorded all of the episodes of 'So You Think You Can Dance'"

"You see this is why he's my best friend. He knows me"

"That I do"

XXX

"Well, how's it looking out there guys" Vanessa asked when the guys walked back in from their patrol

"It's looking pretty good" Don told her

"Pretty good? Come now Donatello you are dating my daughter you should know that things like pretty good and fine don't sit well with me" Lucille said

"It's absolutely, positively safe for you to go home now" Don corrected

"Honey, leave the poor guy alone" John said

"No, no it's fine I kinda walked into that one. And listen" he turned to them and rubbed the back of his neck "I'm sorry that this meeting wasn't under better circumstances"

"Oh don't worry about it. It was quite fun being on the run for awhile"

"Really?" Don asked "You had fun down here?"

"Yeah, but let's not do this again anytime soon"

"No promises" he chuckled

"Hey you two, how's it going in here?" Raph asked walking into the kitchen

"It's going great, well sorta. The social worker found my family when she came to check on how I was doing, but she and Auntie Rae have agreed to meet so we'll see how it goes from there"

"It's safe for us to go to the surface right" Rae asked

"Yeah"

"Okay then, let's do this"

XXX

"Hey Amy, sorry about all of this"

"Sorry about what?"

"That all of this happened"

"Oh whatever, I had a feeling that being with your father would be… interesting"

"And you still stayed with him?"

"That's how I know that she's the one for me" Daniel came up behind her and kissed her, just as Mikey did the same with Paige

"Aw, you're so sweet"

"Paige" someone called. She turned to see her mother

"What is it?" she said with a hint of anger in her voice

"Can we talk? Alone?" she asked

"Why? Maybe I don't want to" Mikey poked her in the side "Ouch… Mikey"

He gave her that give-her-a-chance look

"Fine"

Mikey, Amy, Daniel left

"What? Do you want to hit me again?"

"No, that's not it"

"Do you want to change something else about me that you don't like?"

"No. I want to apologize"

"Oh great tell me why you apologizing"

"For never paying attention to you, for trying to change you when you're perfectly happy the way you are, for not accepting your boyfriend and judging him before I got to know him and I'm sorry… truly truly sorry for laying my hands on you. There's no excuse for that"

"You're right there isn't"

"But I want my daughter back"

"What makes you think I want my mother back at this point?" she said with a sneer

She heard Mikey and her father clear their throats loud and dramatically. Paige rolled her eyes "Guys go away" the footsteps moved away from the door "Look, I'll give you another chance, but only one"

"I'll take it" she said and reached out to hug her

"Whoa hold on. One step at a time you have to work your way up to the hugs"

"Okay"

Sierra was stretched out on the couch staring at the ceiling. She gave a long, bored sigh that only Leo heard.

"Are you bored?"

"Take a guess"

"Want some company?"

"I'd like that"

Leo sat down next to her "Hey Sierra"

"Yeah"

"What exactly did they want you to tell them when they took you?"

She sighed and sat up "They wanted me to tell them where you guys were hidden"

"And you didn't?"

"No of course not. I couldn't betray you like that"

"But if you did then… this… would not have happened"

"I'd rather die than to lose your trust" she leaned in to kiss him quickly

"But you would've done what you had to, to stay alive. I wouldn't feel betrayed"

"But I would feel like I did. I love you"

"I love you too" Leo pulled her into a hug mindful of her injuries and kissed the top of her head 'I'm never letting this one go' Leo thought 'She's just too good to lose'

XXX

End

Alright my first fanfic is done. Sequel should be up in awhile.