"I have brought you tea" The old rat said gently.

Jessie blinked at him, sure she had heard wrong. When he said nothing else, she surprised herself by smiling a little bit, almost amused. She reached up with one hand and rubbed tears from her cheeks like a child. "Hum....tea......tea sounds pretty good."

Splinter nodded, and took the cup. He came to sit beside the mat and handed her the tea. She nodded "Thank you." She said and sipped it. It was some herb...sweet and green and lovely.

He watched her for a long moment. "You spoke" He said again. "I heard you cry out..."

"I know." She said and it was a small sigh like the wind.

"Someone wishes you dead?"

"Someone did. A long time ago, It doesn't matter."

Splinter studied her "It seems it does matter." He said. He didn't ask whom, but she saw it in his eyes and suddenly she was shocked to hear words from her own lips she thought would go with her to the grave.

"My father." Jessie said softly "My father. But I didn't die. He did. I got away." There was a sort of bright hard pride to that statement. "I lived."

"Have you any family? Your mother? Any place to go?" The questions were gently spoken, and she mused how funny it was that she didn't mind him asking. Normally she would have given a scowl and told anyone who dared pry to go to hell.

"MY mother was dead long before my father died. Cancer. And yeah I have a family.....shadow. They're my family." She said, in a neutral tone.

He nodded "I see."

She looked away suddenly uncomfortable "That's why I......I mean. I gotta take care of them, Sir. I......I have to take care of them 'cause they take care of me." She frowned "That's why I came looking for you.... So I can take care of them."

He nodded "I understand. I too have taken care of my family no matter what."

She nodded "Your boys they're.......Mike." She smiled thinly but with a real affection that surprised him "Mike's great. You must be a hell of a dad."

He smiled a little "I try, child. They are all I have in the world."

She looked back at him for a long moment "Do you....." She paused and then "Do you hate me?" She said. She sounded so young when she said it, not a teenager at all but a little girl lost.

"No child." He said softly "We do not hate you. Raphael is angry with you, but even he does not hate you."

"But I'm...I'm bad! I'm your enemy! I'm willing to sell all of you like...like.....animals." she said

"You are a Lost Girl who is making the best choices she can. As we have. I think you are making the wrong ones, but......" He paused "I cannot tell you have to live Jessica. I can only tell you that your Shadow may be your family, but I know Michelangelo has come to think of you as a friend. Despite all of this. You may have more family than you realize."

Jessie looked at him "I'm sorry" She whispered. Her hands shook "I'm so sorry, sir. I wish I was someone.... that Mike should have as a friend. I wish I was......I wish I was someone my mother would still know. I used to be a good person. A long time ago......."

He regarded her with an even gaze "You can be whatever you wish Jessica. If you wish to be that person again, than be it."

"I can't up there......" she blurted miserably

"You can. You are, at least in part. I see that in you, and so does Michelangelo. That's why he helped you. That's why I am helping you."

Jessie said nothing again, and looked into her cup of tea as if scrying for an answer. "They're lucky. They're very lucky, to have a father like you. I.....I'm glad for them. And I'm a little jealous, I guess."

"I am lucky to have them."

"I don't know what to do, sir. I really don't."

He paused "I think you do, child. Otherwise, you would not be so distraught over what is happening." he paused "You said your father wished you dead?"

"He...wanted a son. He....beat me, he....." She said softly.

"But you did not die." he said "You lived, and you became strong. We see that in you too. But tell me this Jessica. If you allow yourself to become cold, to loose sight of what you believe is right and wrong, then does not your spirit die? That thing that makes you Jessica? And then, your father will have killed you after all....."

She looked startled. She had thought something almost word for word that very statement just today.

"I....Think so. I think that's exactly true." she admitted.

They were quiet for a long time and then he said "Your mother was a good person." It was not a question.

Jessie nodded "The best. She just...made mistakes. And then she got sick."

"She is in you." He said "Her spirit is in you."

Jessie sipped the tea, and then stared at it when a single tear dropped into the cup.

He put a hand on her shoulder, and she jumped a little, but didn't shake it off. No one had touched her with such gentleness...such.....care...since her mother had died.

"I do not hate you." He said again "I pity you a little. And I admire you."

"Admire?" She looked shocked "Why would you do that?"

"Because after all that has happened to you, you still are human enough to care." He said "You hide well, but you do not hide that well. That is clear."

Jessie looked into his eyes with her own wide and slightly moist. She licked her lips as if to speak and then found she could say nothing.

He rose, taking his hand from her shoulder, and taking the empty cup from her hand "Sleep child. And if you dream, dream of your mother with great joy."

He blew out the candles and walked to the door. Her voice made him pause.

"They're so lucky to have you." She said in a whisper "I.....I wish you were my dad too."

He turned back to study her for a long moment and almost seemed to want to say something. She looked back with a calm face, but eyes that seemed lost in the darkness.

"Goodnight, Jessica" He said softly, and was gone.