I own nothing, but Jona and Mrs. Winters.

"I LOVE sparring with you!"

Jona fell onto her hands. Then she swept one leg at both of his. Yoshi hopped over it. She used the momentum of the strike to roll away from his attempt to pin her with one of his feet. His ears came up while he replied in a dry voice. "Your style, or rather your lack of one, is certainly interesting, Jona."

She rose onto her hands and shrugged at him with an unrepentant grin. "That's the ninja way."

He glared at her leaning back with his hands up to block. Instead of striking out at him, she spun away in a seeming dance-move. His eyes followed her fluid and seemingly pointless movements as he remained still.

She all but cartwheeled up to him. Then, she nearly kicked him in the jaw. However, he jerked back and attempted to take the opportunity to grab her leg. However, her knee came up into his forearm as he did so. Meanwhile, her hands bore all her weight. He attempted to take advantage of this by sweeping his leg out at her wrists. Her legs fell over to plant her feet on the ground, and her hands left the mat in time to avoid the strike. She came out of the flip to stand straight and facing him a wide smile still on her face. He rose to stand and stare at her hands going up to block again as he leaned back.

A cheering sound made them both turn their heads. A round, green face stared at them over the side of the nearby playpen. Jona stepped by him and out of their sparring match to walk over to the little spectator. Her brows were furrowed. "How are they doing that?"

Splinter watched her go, folding his hands behind his back, somewhat relieved at the interruption thus provided for him. "They sit or stand on each other."

Sure enough, Jona looked over the side of the playpen to see one turtle was lifting his brother. Her strained expression melted away into another kind of smile. "Awww …" She picked the turtle on top up and bounced him on her black, ninja-pant-clad hip. She turned her head to the side to coo into his face. "Do you like watching daddy and me spar?"

Yoshi rolled his eyes from where he watched. Jona looked back into the playpen and reached a hand down to tickle the other turtle mutant under his chin. "And were you helping your brother, little one?"

Yoshi closed his eyes, sighed, and massaged his brow with his fingertips. "Please, do not encourage them, Jona. What with their teamwork, I don't know how to keep them inside that thing anymore."

Jona looked up to see the other two turtles were making even more progress in escape, one having given the other a boost, so the one thus boosted already had one leg swung over the side of the playpen. Jona's voice became more tense as she strode around to block his attempt. The one with freckles smiled innocently up at her even caught in the act. Jona spoke on she looked coldly down at him in return. "We need to make the walls taller and so they bend inward when weight is put on them. That will keep them in, but also not hamper us much when we reach in to get them."

Splinter's ears lifted. He stared at her eyes bugging out. Jona continued to hold Leonardo on her hip as even as she lifted Michelangelo's foot up and back over the playpen wall. She didn't even know their names, and yet …

Yoshi almost sighed. He was with them all day, every day. And when she entered the seemingly ancient ruins of the train-station that was their home, which was nearly every day now, all his sons flocked to her.

He fed them most of their meals, but she brought the food in. He had protected them from the Kraang, but she bounced them on her hip till they giggled. He named them after great famous, artists who had been his heroes in his youth, but she cooed cutesy, baby, American nicknames at them and got his sons to coo and giggle back at her.

She had asked him to forgive her for what she'd done to his last family. He was having a hard time forgiving her for stealing his new one now. He sighed and slouched a bit. But it had been nearly impossible raising them without her. At least, after they had had their first bite of pizza. She'd been responsible for that. So, maybe it was a conspiracy after all.

Suddenly, she turned and eyed him with a concerned look on her face. Then she smiled, strode over and handed Leonardo over to him before going back to grab and lift Raphael out of the pen. "Why don't you give them a lesson now? I need to go home anyway. Perhaps, you can come back later."

Yoshi looked down into the deep blue eyes looking up into his. His heart felt a little heavy with guilt. Then again … perhaps not …

. . .

Mrs. Winters met her at the window ledge. "Back so soon, Lovey?"

She smiled at her after sliding the window shut behind her. "I think the dad was getting a little jealous, so I left early tonight."

The woman shook her head. "To think, quadruplet boys. And raising them as a single father, and without help!"

"Yes, well, he can't really get work easily with his disfigurement, and the work he used to do wouldn't mesh well with his current single-fatherhood."

Mrs. Winters sighed. "Too bad his wife passed away like that within a year of giving birth."

Jona winced as she pulled off her gloves partly from being reminded of Tang Shen's death, which she felt somewhat responsible for, and partly out of guilt for allowing Mrs. Winters to assume giving birth to quadruplet sons had something to do with the death of the now single father's dearly departed spouse. It was an outlandish enough tale, one would doubt it was as wild as it seemed, and hopefully not guess it was even wilder still. A mother died within a year of giving birth. The father then moved to New York City in hopes of living a better life than he could in the place his wife had died. There, he was burned by acid instead, which had changed his appearance so drastically, in a way that might scare many, he dared not show it. So now, he lived alone with his quadruplet sons, who were now very mobile, but still could not speak, in housing that belonged to the public while avoiding society altogether and living off of charity.

"You seem so happy when you return, Jona …"

She smiled gently. "I am … I love the little ones …"

"Do you love the man too?"

She paused and thought about it, then she sighed as she finished removing her other glove. "It wouldn't matter if he did. Our souls walk different paths now. He does not believe the same as me now. Even if he did, his heart is still devoted to his wife. And even if all that were not true …" She met Mrs. Winters now sad gaze and shrugged, "I don't think he's that fond of me overall …"

. . .

Yoshi walked across the old train-station that was now his living room with a crinkled-up nose and narrowed eyes after the woman left. Ugh, now that Jona (he'd begun to think of her that way more easily) seemed no longer afraid he would kill her or throw her out of his home, she was more irritating than ever. Her mouth was almost always running. It had a filter with very large holes. Her fighting style when they sparred, unlike when she had tried to kill him, was unlike anything he had ever seen. She came far closer to beating him with it than she had any right to since her movements were so sloppy in comparison to his. It was like she was using the opportunity to practice movements that she was least familiar with, because she didn't consider him an actual threat. This annoyed him all the more.

He stopped and sighed folding his hands behind his back again. Then one of his ears twitched. He turned. A little form on its hands and knees stared up at him. Leonardo.

Of all his turtles, this was the one that followed him most relentlessly. Michelangelo loved to hug. Raphael loved being given permission to punch during their lessons and stayed very close to him as he taught him to do it better. Donatello loved to examine every inch of him from the tufts of hair emerging from his rat- ears, to the tip of his rat tail. Leonardo loved to follow and copy him everywhere he went.

He turned and picked him up before carrying him back to the pen with another sigh. He'd probably have to follow her suggestion for their playpen once more. He plopped his little one back down next to his three sleeping brothers, and while he knew he shouldn't encourage their escapes found himself smiling at all of them.

God Bless

ScribeofHeroes