WORN

December 21, 1995

LEONARDO:

"Leo!" a voice called through the darkness. It sounded as if it were echoing through a long tunnel. "Leo, wake up!"

I felt hard cement under me and moaned in pain as I tried to move my fingers. Icy water was raining on me, though I wasn't sure where it was from. It was the middle of winter, so it wasn't coming from the sky. Broken pipeline, maybe. Or a fire hydrant. Whatever it was, it was freezing.

"Where am I?" I asked as I forced my eyes open. I still saw nothing but blackness. As I tried to focus, I saw Donny looking down on me.

"You're okay," he assured. "Just relax."

I groaned as I tried to sit up. "Where's the girl?"

He shook his head and I groaned. "Oh God," I groaned. All that, and she didn't even live through it. I pushed the thought aside. "What time is it?"

"I don't know. But you've been out for a while. The press is gonna be here pretty soon."

He offered me a hand and he pulled me to my feet. I almost fell into him. "You hurt bad?" he asked.

I shook my head. "I don't think so."

I looked around, my head pounding. The room was filled with large slabs of concrete that had fallen from the ceiling. It was probably a miracle that I'd survived. "Can you walk?"

Feeling slowly returned to my legs and I nodded. "Yeah. I think so."

ANNA:

I sighed as I looked down at the metal box in my lap. The key had been lost in the explosion, but I knew I could still get it open if I tried hard enough. "Well, Kaylie," I whispered to the spirit of a child lost. "Here goes."

I jammed the screwdriver into the slit of the metal box and pried the top back. It was three days early, but I'd grown more impatient now than I had ever been for anything in my entire life. This box was all I had left of my mother, and I wanted to know what was in it.

I froze as the lock broke.

"Maybe we shouldn't. Didn't your momma say we should wait until we were older?"

It was a very fragile memory, not very clear. But that was how most all of my memories were. I recalled very little from before my arrival at the orphanage.

"Oh, come on! It's not gonna hurt anything to look real quick."

I'd opened this box before. I remembered now. I'd opened it but... I didn't remember what was inside. I concentrated for a moment, then gave up. I lifted the lid. For a moment, I stared at the contents, hoping for more of the memory to return. There was nothing more. My mind was a blank.

I sighed and looked over the items one at a time. There was a gold necklace, and a passport with a my mother's name on it. There were also several faded photographs of a man I did not know, and a book. It was there that my attention came to rest.

The cover of the book was cardboard, and had come apart from being opened so many times. It was a plain brown color, with no writing on the outside of it. I turned it over in my hands before slitting the flexible plastic band that held it closed. It was meant to be opened with a key, but I didn't have that. I opened it slowly, and my heart sank. The writing was in Japanese.

I felt disappointed tears sting my eyes as I flipped through the pages. Suddenly, the writing changed to carefully written English. I stopped for a moment and scanned the words without really reading them. Some of the letters were malformed, and the sentence structure was staggered. But it was legible.

I learning much in new world. I speak English now! Adam say I no speak very well. He angry when I use bad words. But he more angry when I no use words he...

I didn't realize that I had company until he was fully inside of my living room. My heart jumped into my throat as I spun and saw him standing at the window, dripping a steady stream of water onto the carpet. "Leo!" I cried. A flash of lightning illuminated him and I gasped, realizing that a good portion of that water was actually blood. I sprang to my feet, leaving the contents of the box on the floor. "Oh my god, what happened to you?"

The tired look on his face told me more than I could have asked. "I'm..." he slurred.

God, he must be freezing. How did he get all wet? My heart melted in worried sympathy and I walked to the hall closet. I returned with a soft bath towel. "Are you okay?" I asked, returning to him.

He sighed deeply as I draped the towel over his shoulders. He was shivering from the cold. He looked up hesitantly and our eyes met. I brushed my fingers over the side of his face. "Oh, Leo, you look like you've been to hell and back."

When I pulled my hand back, my fingers were tipped with red. Concern flooded through me. "You're bleeding all over the place."

He closed his eyes and said nothing. I couldn't imagine where he'd been in the past few hours, or what kind of torture his body must have endured. I pressed into him and kissed him full on the lips. His body was cold and wet, but I didn't care. His arms circled my waist and wrapped me in the towel with him as my tongue met his. I could feel my body reacting to his gentle caress against the inside of my mouth. I didn't want to let him go, but he released me and I pulled away slightly.

I looked down at my white blouse, suddenly realizing what I'd done. So much for this shirt. Nothing was going to get that stain out. Leonardo looked down too, and flushed as he quickly looked away. It was wet now, and fairly see-through. "Uh, sorry," he stammered, pulling away from me. "I didn't mean to…"

I answered with a tired smile. "It's okay," I whispered. "But you need to get in the bathroom where there's tile on the floor. I'll never get blood out of the carpet."

I took his hand and led him to the bathroom. He had a long cut on the back of his hand, and I grabbed the bottle of peroxide out of the medicine cabinet. "How'd you do this?" I whispered as I washed the blood away.

"I can take care of that, Anna," he assured me. "I don't need you to do it."

"Shut up and sit down there," I ordered.

He smiled faintly as he obeyed. I knelt in front of him and pressed a damp washcloth to the wound on his hand. "I hit the glass out of a car window," he explained.

I stared at him. "You're kidding. That glass is almost impossible to break out."

He smiled. "Adrenaline."

I cleaned his wounds, but he didn't want them bandaged. I argued with him briefly, then left the bathroom. A moment later, he followed me into the living room. "Why don't you take a shower?" I asked. "Since you don't seem to have any interest in taking care of your injuries."

He leaned down in front of me, his hands on the armrests of the chair I was in, and kissed my forehead. "Thank you, Anna."

I looked up at him. "Go take a shower," I ordered. "You're a mess."

LEONARDO:

I meant for the shower to be quick, but the hot water felt really good against my skin. Part of me really wanted to be alone right now. I guess that's why I didn't want to go home with Don. But I knew it wouldn't solve anything to hide from this. It would just keep getting worse, like it had for the past month. It would just keep getting more intense. Everything inside of me was screaming, but there was no way out.

These past few weeks had been too much for my body to handle, not to mention my mind and emotions. I knew that, even though I hated it. The never-ending battle against the recent crime wave had taken its toll on me and all of my brothers. But somehow, they could still sleep at night. I couldn't. I obsessed about this city when Shredder put his hand on it. And as much as I hated to admit it, it kept me awake night after night. The tension was enough to break me, and that was frightening.

Every part of me craved release, and sparring sessions just weren't cutting it anymore. Raph went out, Donny vanished into his lab to do God-knows-what, Mikey had taken up writing to vent his emotions. But for the first time in my life, no amount of meditation was able to calm me. I found myself feeling helpless against the war raging inside of me.

I dried off and checked over my injuries. There was nothing serious. Mostly bruises, and a few cuts. I sighed as I walked out of the bathroom and back into the living room, carrying my weapons in my hand.

"Feel better?" Anna asked. She had changed from the ruined shirt and put on her robe.

I sighed. "Not really."

A look of concern crossed her features. "What's wrong?"

I strapped my belt around my waist and adjusted it. Then I sat down next to her on the sofa. "We didn't even get her out," I whispered, hiding my face in my hands. "She still died, you know that?"

She was quiet for a moment. "I'm sorry, Leo."

I felt anger rise up inside of me. Not at her; she wasn't responsible for all this. I looked away. "It just doesn't stop, Anna," I growled. "He never stops, never slows down. And it just keeps getting worse. I know he's behind all this, but I don't know why. They're all connected somehow! And I feel…"

I paused, hesitant about speaking without first thinking my words through. I didn't usually let emotion spout like this, and I didn't like the feeling of vulnerability it stirred in me. I swallowed hard. "I feel like it keeps building up inside of me, and there's no way to get rid of it."

ANNA:

I rose and straddled his legs, careful not to brush the newly-acquired wounds. I kissed him deeply, and tasted the tension as it radiated from him. "You're unhappy," I whispered against his lips.

"I'm stressed," he breathed back. His voice was pleading. "Anna, believe me, it's not you. It's everything else."

I hugged him, and felt warmth rush through me as my body pressed to his. In this position, the embrace was a little more intimate than anything I'd felt before. I hadn't meant for it to be that way, but I certainly didn't mind it.

I nuzzled against him and kissed his neck. Then I realized what I'd just done. I froze and waited for a reaction. Did I step over the line? No, I didn't. After a moment of hesitation, he buried his face in my hair and kissed the rim of my ear. I pulled away slightly and we stared at each other. It was easy to see the shock on his face, and I knew it only mirrored my own.

"Would you tell me to stop?" I asked quietly.

"If I wanted you to," he answered. I believed that. I didn't imagine Leonardo was one to allow people to do things to him that he did not welcome.

Curious, I pressed my hand to the side of his face, then kissed him again. His arms circled all the way around me and he held me so tightly I could hardly breathe. After a moment, he loosened his grip. I felt like I could melt. I ran my hands down his sides, watching his expression. His eyes remained steady on mine as my fingers curled underneath his plastron to brush against soft skin. He drew in a long, slow breath. I suddenly felt separated from myself as I realized what was happening.

"Yes?" I whispered, asking permission.

He was quiet for a moment. "Anna, you don't..."

"I'm ready, Leo," I interrupted.

He studied me. "Ready?" he questioned. His lips brushed mine as he spoke, and I thought I was going to die. The way he made me feel inside was something I had never felt before.

"Ready... for more. For committment."

He pulled away slightly and stared at me. I couldn't read his expression. Was he shocked? Horrified? Was he willing? "I want you to stay," I whispered. "I want you to stay with me tonight."

At length, a look of concern crossed his features. "Anna, you don't know what you're asking."

I sighed deeply. "Of course I do, Leo." I turned away from him. "The house, the kids, the car, the normal life... I've thought about all of it." He didn't move, and I looked back toward him. "And I've decided I want you more."

He swallowed hard. I could read the look in his eyes clearly now. He wasn't sure if he could believe what I was saying. He wanted to, but he was too cautious to allow it. "Anna, there's more to it than that."

I sighed and looked back up at him. "I know, Leo; the list is endless." I placed my palms on his cheeks. "But I don't care. I'm not a child, Leo, and I know what I want. I know it'll be hard. I know that five years from now it might not seem like a fairy tale anymore. I know you're not perfect, but you're everything I've always wanted and to me, that's enough to make me try."

Now he was surprised. He was so hard to read sometimes; but I'd learned to see it in his eyes. "And I know you, Leo," I whispered, caressing the side of his face. "I know you think about consequences and that you wouldn't ever let yourself do something you'd regret. I know you'll want to think this through so if you need time... that's fine. I'll wait. But I just want you to know. I'm ready now."

He stared at me. His fingertips ran over my cheek. For a long time, it was silent. Then, finally, he kissed me lightly. "Yes?" I asked again as I felt his arms circle me again.

He nodded. "Yes."

If you wanna read it, go to http://www.angelfire.com/ok5/tmnt/father/joining.html Those of you who'd rather not, just be advised that Leo and Anna had sex and it was a beautiful thing. ;)