"Silent now" Leo whispered to his brother. Mike grinned but nodded, and the two of them vanished in the dim shadow of the tunnel.

They could hear the voices now. Young, teenagers. Not rowdy, but talking in low tones. Sometimes a laugh escaped and reached their ears.

After a minute of creeping, murmurs became words. They could make out the voices of five people...a very young girl, two boys, and two girls. From the left. The door of the old equipment room was shut, but had fallen into disrepair and was slightly off its hinge, making the door hang 1/3 open.

Mike knew why they were here. Down here the temperature had dropped decently. Despite the steam pipes, it was cool. Almost cold. Which meant above had to be worse. The NewsCast said the wind chill was below 0. These kids had no where warm to go but down. He felt sorry for them, and not for the first time wished they could go in, introduce themselves, and offer warm blankets and a place to sleep at the lair.

He hated not being able to help.

Leo's eyes were a little harder, but Mike also sensed pity from his brother. It was just that they were so damned close. To get warm, they had to go deep.

Too close to home.

One of the boys was talking "So then he says to the waitress 'Okay, but you have to promise to tell me about the specials."

There was a good round of laughter at this even though it was muted.

"A' Dingo, that was nasty!" Said one of the older girls.

"I don't get it." Said the young girl, and the other older girl spoke soothingly "Best keep it that way, Rabbit."

"I wanna get the joke Cat!"

"Have another burger. No more nasty jokes Dingo. " Cat said.

"Think it'll get warmer tomorrow?" The other boy said.

"Better. Cats gonna freeze her whiskers off runnin' around in all this." Said the other girl.

"Don't worry about me, Snickers." Said Cat "I got it all under control. promise. Tomorrow night, we eat like kings again. The Cat has your back."

Snickers snorted "And modest too"

"You forget stunningly beautiful" Said Cat and they chuckled.

Leo frowned a little. They crouched in the dark listening, trying to get a sense of when these teens would be moving on. Hoping that they would leave and not present this danger. And at the same time, not wanting them to have to return to the cold. They both knew very well that death could wait for the homeless in this weather. Even those as lively and sturdy as these kids seemed to be.

"Come on Rabbit. Sleepin' time." Said Cat, in a gentle tone.

There was silence for a long time. The brothers turned and began to walk back when Mike stopped and turned his head. One of the girls was singing gently.

"Blackbird singing in the dead of night

Take these broken wings and learn to fly.

All your life

You are only waiting for this moment to arrive."[1]
It was beautiful; the girl had a wonderful voice. But there was something in it that made a lump come to Mike's throat. *It's not fair* he thought.

Leo touched his arm and they headed off in the dark.

*******

Raph looked around "We could scare 'em off. Or wait till they leave and seal the room off."

Leo shook his head "We could expose ourselves if we try and scare them. and if we seal the room, they'll wonder who did it and why. it might make them more likely to find us."

Mike looked around "They're kids. They just want a warm place to sleep. We take that, and they might freeze to death up there. We can't do that."

"Mikey, I don't wanna hurt them neither, but....look....we gotta protect ourselves. What are we gonna do if they find us? Keep 'em as pets?"

"We can't take their safe place." Said Mike "What if someone did that to us."

Don didn't comment, just seemed to be thinking the matter over.

Splinter looked at all of them "We do nothing for now, my sons. I am not convinced they are a danger. And I cannot condone turning children out into the cold. Even if it is to protect ourselves."

They all nodded. Mike looked relived, Don thoughtful. Even Leo seemed a little relived. Raph frowned.

*******

Breakfast was cold greasy fast food from the night before. Cat was the first up, and she cracked the door open to have a look out into the main hall, and maybe an idea of the temperature.

The door brushed a cardboard box. She looked down surprised, and then knelt to open it.

Inside were faded but clean and patched wool blankets. And wrapped in tin foil was half of a cold, but obviously fairy fresh pizza. She found several small pillows. And a small, worn but obviously well loved teddy bear.

Cat looked up and down the hall confused. She looked back down and smiled a little.

"Hum.....We have an Angel." She said and then glanced around again. "Thanks"

She took the box and ducked back in.

----------------------- [1] "Blackbird." by The Beatles