PART TWO

CHAPTER TEN

A NEW LIFE

Ryan stared down at the pavement underneath him as he paced along the side of the restaurant. "Who's gonna kill Donny?" he demanded.

"Dr. Richardson and associates, I presume," she answered emotionlessly.

He turned and hit the brick wall. "Fuck!"

"Yeah, that's about what I said," she added.

He turned to her. "Look, I can't help you."

The girl glared at him. "If you can't, then who can?" she challenged.

"No one can," he agreed, turning away. "Those guys are fucking vultures; there's nothing I can do. And I'm sorry. But it's not my problem."

"Just because you choose to turn your back on your family doesn't mean you don't have a responsibility to them; it just means you're neglecting it."

"You don't know what you're talking about," he shot at her.

"You're the only hope he has, Raphael."

He spun around to face her, teeth clenched in anger. "I can't help you!" he growled.

"You mean you won't," she shot back. "Why not? His life really means that little to you?"

"Ever hear the term 'old wounds'?"

"Ever hear the term 'scientists'?"

He looked away as people walked by and stared. This was not the place to be talking about top secret government experiments gone bad. He could walk away now. Part of him really wanted to. Part of him knew that if he took her home, he'd be on his way across the country in the morning. But his conscience wouldn't let him turn his back on her. She hitchhiked across the country to find him, and god only knew how she'd pulled it off. It wasn't like he'd made himself easy to look up in the phone book.

"Fine," he whispered. "You wanna talk? Let's go to my apartment and we'll talk. But I'll tell you right now, there's no way in hell I'm going back to New York with you."

***

She stood at the window and looked down at the street below. "Alright, here's the deal," she mumbled, taking the sucker out of her mouth so she could talk. "I don't like you and you don't like me. But we have a mutual interest in keeping Donatello alive." She turned and locked eyes with him. "So let's try and work together, shall we?"

"This is not my problem," he answered coldly.

"I'm making it your problem, Raphael-san."

"Will you stop callin' me that!" he shot at her.

"It's your name, isn't it?"

"My name is Ryan."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why that name?"

"Why's it any of your business?"

She crossed her arms over her chest. "Fine," she stated simply. "Don't tell me."

He glared at her. Something about the way she said that put him on guard. "Who are you?" he demanded.

"I'm the daughter Leonardo-sensei never knew he had," she shot back. "That good enough for you?"

Ryan rolled his eyes. "Shit, you gotta be kidding me."

He considered that for a moment. She wasn't older than fourteen, but there was no way she was younger than twelve. Did Leo actually hook up? And so soon after Mike's death? Somehow, he found that hard to believe. Another thought struck him as he considered her words from earlier. "You said your father was dead."

She stared out the window, her back to him. "I know what I said," she replied quietly.

He closed his eyes slowly. Grief he hadn't been expecting flooded through him. Damn it. If Leo was dead, Donny was the only one left. "How did he die?" he managed after a long silence.

"In the name of science," she answered quietly.

Ryan clenched his teeth. "Shit!"

"And they took Donny."

"How long ago?"

"Two weeks."

Ryan flopped down on the couch. "Forget it," he told her. "He's gone. There's nothing you can do if they've had him that long."

"You lived," she reminded him.

"Yes," he mumbled, his hand over his mouth. "I did. And I shouldn't have."

"Why did you do it?"

He glanced up at her, confused. "Do what?"

"Leave New York."

His look hardened. "None of your business."

"You abandoned us, Raphael," she said coldly. "How is that not my business? Your decisions affected my entire life. And my father's. You managed to bring his life to a screeching halt."

He stared at her in disbelief. "You tryin' to blame me for Leo's death?" he shot.

"Did I say that?"

"You sure as hell implied it."

"There's a big difference between saying and implying."

"You didn't answer my question," he growled.

She studied him for a moment. "You didn't answer mine."

He hesitated. "It's called a fresh start," he informed her. "I did everything I could for them, and then I left."

"Killing those scientists was all that you could do?"

"So is that how you knew I was alive?"

"No, that was incidental."

"So how did you know?"

She stared at him. "My sensei told me."

"And that would be who? Leo or Don?"

"I didn't say it was either one of them."

That opened up a whole new door of questions that Raph wasn't sure he wanted answered. Sharon didn't give him a chance to ask. "Look, all of this is irrelevent," she mumbled. "It doesn't really matter who's guilty of what and why they did it. I don't really care about why you walked out on us. I care about getting Donatello back. Alive. That's the only thing that matters to me right now."

"Sharon, I can't."

"Don't you think you owe it to him to at least try?"

Ryan couldn't answer that. He knew he did, but to admit that to her would be suicide. "I'm not asking you to fix it, I'm asking you to try. Because maybe there's something you can do, and you're his only hope right now."

He didn't answer. The girl felt tears burn her eyes as she stared at him. He wouldn't even look her in the eye. Bitter hurt and anger welled up inside of her as she realized that she wasn't getting through to him. "Forget it," she growled, turning toward the door. "Sensei was right. You don't give a damn about your honor."

She threw the door open and slammed it behind her, then started down the hall. Ryan leaned forward against the wall, his forehead on his arm. She was gonna get herself killed, hitchhiking all the way back to New York. It was a wonder she made it all the way out here without getting raped. And what the hell would she do when she got back there, anyway? She was only fourteen. It wasn't like she could make it on her own. He hit the wall. Damn it, why now?

He threw the door open and stepped out into the hallway. "Sharon, wait."

She stopped walking, but didn't turn around. He sighed. "You've got nowhere to go," he reminded her. "If Don's gone, there's no reason for you to go back to Manhattan. So why don't you stay here?"

She turned slowly and glared at him with ice cold eyes. "Because I'm not like you, Raph," she answered. "I spent my whole life with that man. Growing up in his house, learning from him. There was never a time that I needed him and he wasn't there for me. And in his time of need, I'm gonna be there for him whether or not it kills me to do so."

He let her words sink in for a moment, and bowed his head, running over all the possible scenarios. He knew it was probably pointless to even try, but he had a hell of a lot more chance of surviving it than she did. At least he was fully human. He doubted they'd try to do anything more to him. But going back meant facing things that he had tried so hard to forget. And he'd nearly succeeded. He felt as if he were being forced to weigh his life against hers.

He looked up slowly and their eyes met again. "Fine," he said quietly. "I'll go with you. Under one condition."

"What's that?"

"If I try, and there's nothing I can do, you're either going to go to social services or you're going to come back here and live with me."

"What's the point of that?" she questioned.

"I'm not going to leave you to live alone in the sewers."

She nodded once. "Then I promise I won't live alone in the sewers."

"And you're not gonna go run off with a boyfriend or something, you got that?" he added, noticing how she changed those words around before she agreed.

She shook her head. "No boyfriend, no friends," she agreed. "Only with you or with someone you know and trust."

"I don't trust anyone," he clarified.

She nodded. "Which is exactly my point."

***

"Hey."

She took a deep breath and tried to come alive. "Mmmnnn?"

"Get up. We're leaving in twenty minutes whether or not you're dressed."

She forced her eyes open and saw a dark room. It took her a minute to remember where she was. Reaching up on the back of the couch, she grabbed onto it weakly and pulled herself up to look into the kitchen. Ryan flicked the light on and she was momentarily blinded. "What time is it?" she mumbled, rubbing her eyes.

"Quarter to four," he answered, disinterestedly staring into the fridge. He didn't feel like eating.

She moaned. "You wanna leave now?"

"No, I wanna leave in nineteen minutes. So if you got somethin' to do, I suggest you get up and do it."

She yawned and swung her feet down to the carpeted floor. "Can you drive?" he called.

"I don't have a license," she answered.

"That's not what I asked."

"I know what you asked."

He shut the fridge and turned to look at the back of her head. "Can you drive or can't you?"

"I know how."

"Thank you. That's all I wanted to know."

He studied her for a moment as she stood up. Her hair stopped where it brushed her bare shoulders, and she held the blanket around her, halfway down her arms. Had she slept naked on his couch?

She turned and smiled when she saw the dumbfounded look on his face. "Does it bother you?" she asked.

He looked over her again. At least she didn't wear her gloves to bed. Didn't wear her makeup either. Her natural skin color was evident now, and it was a light, pale green. Her eyes were slanted oddly, though she was still quite beautiful, and he wondered why he hadn't noticed that before.

"Does what bother me?" he questioned.

"Anything," she grinned.

"A lot of things bother me," he answered. "But you're not one of them."

She smiled. "I took a shower last night," she explained. "And I've been wearing the same clothes for a week now so they were pretty gross."

He nodded. "Understandable."

"Do you have any clothes I can wear or should I put mine back on?"

He considered that for a moment. "No, uh... don't do that. I'll find something."

He disappeared and she wrapped the thin blanket around her like a towel, then lifted it off the floor as she walked to the bathroom. She splashed water in her face and ran her fingers through her hair to brush it out. "It's not exactly in style." The voice behind her made her turn. "But it's better than the blanket."

She caught a pair of sweat pants and a T-shirt as he threw them at her. "Thanks."

He shut the door and she dressed quickly.