Gabby found that her father and uncle were just down the street a few stores away. They were heading back to the Musical Note and were surprised to see her coming towards them.
"Anything wrong, Gabs?" Raph asked.
"No. Just didn't want to take up too much of her time, s'all. "She replied quickly. "She had customers wanting to come in."
Gabby felt that was somewhat true, but she knew the real reason she left was because of Cassandra asking about Jason. Any mention of him seemed to cause the girl to want to run away. She had blissfully forgotten about him during her visit at the shop. If felt good to be feeling her old self again. Yet, Cassandra's interest in Jason upset her greatly.
Still, Gabby felt badly to have left her new friend so suddenly. If she hadn't of left, she was afraid she would have poured everything out that had happened to her. Cassandra was filling a void in her life. It would have been all too easy for Gabriella to share with her friend what Jason was doing to her. In just the little time Gabby had come to know this woman, she knew that Cassandra would have had a talk with Raph or Mike about it. That would have ended up being disastrous.
The ride back to Mike's was quiet. Finally, Raph spoke up.
"So, Gabs, how was your visit with Ms. Edwards?" he asked.
"Fine. It was nice." she replied softly.
"Just 'nice'?" Raph inquired.
"Yeah. She made tea and scones. We chatted a lot, mostly about her life and stuff. " his daughter softly said.
"Really? Anything interesting you want to share?" Mike inquired, looking in the rearview mirror at his niece while he drove the Suburban.
"Nothing special." Gabby wasn't in the mood for talking. Cassandra affected Gabby deeply. She wanted someone to trust, someone who would give importance to her own feelings. The fact that this woman was so willing to listen and to offer to be there for her was what Gabby needed in a friend. It was more than her family was presently willing to give her.
*********
"So, what did you find out about this woman, Mike?" Don asked. The three turtles were in the gymnasium well after the rest of the family had retired to bed.
His brother replied, "She's legit, as far as we can tell. Everyone who knows Cassie has nothing but nice things to say about her. She's giving a benefit concert on Halloween night at the Pacific Repertory Theater to help raise money to support the theatrical arts. Seems she sang on Broadway about fifteen years ago. We were inundated with flyers for the event, too."
Raph handed Don about ten flyers, all bearing the likeness of Cassandra, but a younger version of her. He studied it carefully, squinting as he focused on the face that was pictured. Then he tucked the flyers under his arm.
"I'll be doing some research between now and then. In the meantime, Raph, I want you to find out if Gabby divulged any Clan information to this woman. We need to make sure that your daughter does not reveal under any circumstances her training or the things she knows about us. She could very easily slip up in the newness of this friendship, where she's had very little experience in this area."
"No problem. I'll take her aside tomorrow morning and review that with her." Raph concurred, "I'll have to go easy with it, though. It looked like she had a good time there and if we put ourselves between her and Cassie, Gabby could become belligerent."
"Sure hope she's the real thing, Don. Gabby sure needs a friend right now. I don't know what's going on, but she's faking her good mood." Mike declared and then explained, "I squeezed her shoulder this afternoon after I returned from handling a problem. You know, like I do with the kids when I'm just being affectionate. Man, Gabby froze up harder that a rock! I swore I could sense rage in that instant. Somethin's not right!" Mike shook his head for emphasis.
"Yeah, I could sense it, too, when we picked her up after her visit. I was very surprised to see her meeting us rather than milk the visit with Cassie for as long as she could." Raph commented, "Ever since last week .... she just seems to be off. I can't quite put a finger on it."
Don nodded, "Right. Well, just be extra alert. Anything that sets her off - let me know. Keep tabs on her at work, too, Mike. I have to agree with you about the bad feeling. There's something going on."
Raph asked Mike, "Could there be some truth to what she claimed Jason tried to do to her two weeks ago?"
"No way, Bro. I've known Jas since he was in high school. He and Devon have been friends for a long time. He's a good worker and I know he wouldn't do anything like that." Mike insisted. He was quite honest about how he felt, yet there was just a smidgen of doubt that had started creeping into his resolve about Jason. Lately, Gabby was behaving quite unlike her old self. Maybe it was the three days down in the gym, or maybe there was some truth to her claim. Either way, Mike had invested way too much time in Jason to just start accusing him of an assault. There was very little solid evidence to back up Gabby's assertions. He determined, though, to keep his senses on high alert just in case he was wrong about the boy.
*****
Raph was Gabby's sensei for the next week and she was looking forward to it. Still, she held out the possibility that her own father might prove to be the worse of the lot in what he expected from her. That thought sobered her a bit, as did the frigidness of the pool. Gabby decided she would have to stop her laps for a while until the weather warmed back up.
However, she did keep up her quiet time in the gym.
On Monday morning, Raph took her aside to ask about her visit with Cassandra.
He said to her, "Gabby, I'm so glad that you have a friend in Cassie. But, I want to impress upon you the importance of not revealing who we are and what we do. Most humans here in the United States haven't a clue what a clan is or what ninjitsu is all about. To them, a clan means a criminal mob, which is not what we are. If we were in Japan, this and ninjitsu wouldn't even be a problem. But too many people here have been conditioned to think about such things in the context of how Hollywood portrays us. That's a tough image to challenge. "
Gabby nodded, "Yes, I understand that. But I know this. Why are you concerned?"
Raph asked, "I don't need a complete rundown of what you talked about, but did you say anything yesterday to Cassandra about us?"
Gabby thought about it and realized that she had, but she had tried very hard to minimize it with her friend at the time. But because Gabby's integrity had been suspect recently, she decided to be up front with her father.
"Well, Cassandra mentioned being at the courtyard the day I sang at that bar. She heard me. I told her what Leo said, that I couldn't really sing and the DJ turned my microphone off and played Serena Brightwell's music instead." Gabby explained.
"Good, I'm glad you did that. " Raph smiled, "But, why did she bring that up?" He looked at her seriously.
His daughter replied solemnly, "Cassandra shared with me about her career in Broadway … and … I told her that I liked to sing, too." She cringed, realizing that if she hadn't even imparted that bit of trivia with her new friend, Gabby wouldn't have had to explain anything about the karaoke incident. Then again, maybe Cassandra would have brought that topic up anyway considering she had witnessed the aftermath. But it was a given that just sharing about her love of music opened the door that Gabby was then forced to close.
Raph sighed, "You do know that just by sharing your interest in music you've violated your probation." He looked sadly at his daughter and knew she was devastated, just by the expression on her face. He also knew that something serious was going on with her. He decided in that moment to exercise some leniency.
"However, we did allow you to visit with her. Considering that her shop is mostly about music, I would find it next to impossible for either of you to not talk about it. I admire your courage to side with the story Mike planted, though. Knowing what I know about how well you can sing and how much you love it, you must have found it quite difficult."
Gabby nodded quietly, relieved that Raph wasn't going to punish her, but still disappointed that she had revealed too much to her new friend – even about herself.
She offered, "I'm really sorry. I sort of forgot where I was and I really didn't think that talking about music was a violation. I'll do better next time!" She smiled a little for emphasis. She saw her father smile back at her.
One question did come to Gabby, though, and she raised her hand to ask it. Raph gave her permission to speak.
"If… I wanted to sing professionally, would I be denied that because of … Clan rules?" she asked meekly.
"That would depend on many things, Gabby." Raph replied, "Right now, I'm not at liberty to say what kind of restrictions you would have to abide with. Your Uncle Mike has his studio but he's retired from any Clan business. I play the saxophone now and then with this band I belong –or maybe it's more like belonged to. But, I always wear my fedora and coat when I play and the gigs are usually in dark music houses and bars. No one's ever really seen me other than maybe one of my band-mates. But, he hallucinates, so no one would believe him anyway." He paused and then asked her," How 'professional' are we talking about here?"
"Broadway." Gabby offered. She looked at her father and saw the surprise on his face.
He smiled a little and then commented, "Well, I know you have the singing ability to do that. But getting by Don and Leo and then getting passed the fact that you're a mixed species might be more challenging than you'd care to bother with." He chuckled and then added, "But, I'd pay big bucks to see you sing at Carnegie, that's for sure." And then Raph stroked her head affectionately.
After their talk, Raph reviewed the first day what Gabby had learned over the past four weeks. He was pleased with her blossoming abilities and the expediency with how she learned. She had handled the Nunchuks and the Sais with almost expert precision, but when it came to the Bo, she was downright lethal. Raph was not expecting her to overwhelm him the way she did; being intimidated back several steps a few times through the exercise. He noted, too, her expression during the sparring that it was distant and detached, almost like she was somewhere else other than in the gym. He made a mental note to tell Don. One thing that was always impressed upon them by Splinter, when sparring, spar in the 'now' frame of mind and not in the 'what was' or 'what will be'. It would have been far too easy to get caught up thinking about things of the past to unintentionally injure a brother. The ninja was always aware of his or her surroundings. Never were they controlled by events that had already happened or had yet to.
Raph's instruction that week was going to focus on the finer details of what they were as a Clan.
"'Going ninja' is a term we've used to describe the mind frame we implement. You have probably seen one or more of us get from one place or the other in considerably less time than normal?" Raph asked his student.
Gabby's interest was piqued, "Yes, Sensei, and it unnerved me, actually."
Raph smiled, " Yes, it can do that if you are not trained or not expecting it. It's not something you can learn in a text book nor can you learn it in one lesson. Like when you tried not to leave a trial at the beach. From what Mike said you found it to be more challenging than you had first thought. 'Going ninja' is much more difficult. "
Raph demonstrated several times for Gabby and it always startled her. She would watch her father intently and then, the next thing she knew, he was clear across the room from her. It was almost like trying to see how a magic trick was done, but watching a master of the craft. For her, it proved impossible. Shaking her head, Gabby was frustrated that she had missed the 'trick' each time.
Raph explained, "It's based in meditative thought and the focus is always on where you want to be and not where you are. Again, it is not something that you will learn easily. Gabby, you're going to have to put aside your desire to learn quickly for this one. It very well may take you a year or more to finally get it." He could see the frustration building up in her as her expression was tight and unyielding. "No, don't go getting all upset over this. What's important is that you keep trying. Anything worth learning is worth the invested effort. Keep remembering that, okay?"
Over the course of the next few days, there were moments when Gabby felt she had found the 'secret'. But, just as quickly, she would lose it. Raph always followed up her lesson with sparring. He understood her emotional makeup better than anyone else in his family. Expending the pent up frustration was necessary in order to unclutter the mind. Too much time spent on what was not achieved would crowd out what was already accomplished.
During one of her breaks, she asked Raph, "Can you tell when one of the others is going ninja?"
"Usually we can. There's a certain expression that's given. I think you saw something like it the night you were released from the gym after you broke Jason's nose."
In that instant, Raph saw his daughter's eyes cloud over. The mention of the boy's name did the trick; he was sure of it!
He continued, "Anyway, going ninja is more than 'disappearing'. Sometimes, it's when we read someone – which is what I was doing with you at the dinner table." He studied her reaction and was pleased to notice that she was back to paying attention again.
"I did sort of notice something, Sensei. I thought, well….I kind of knew you were disappointed in me." Gabby said quietly.
"A little, but my main objective was to see where you were in your head." Raph commented. He smiled as he added, "I was quite relieved to find the time you spent down there helped your attitude! Believe me, Gabs, if there's anyone who knows anything about an attitude, it's your ol' man!" and then Raph laughed.
Then, Gabby asked him, "Sensei, I've learned all the major equipment but the katana sword."
Raph nodded and replied, "Leo will teach you that. We wanted to introduce you to the other instruments first before moving you on to the sword. It's not an easy tool to learn despite its simplicity. Leo is the only one of us who has mastered using two at the same time."
******
Gabby's time with the professor each evening found her becoming more and more concerned for his health. He seemed paler and less energetic. The medicine he was taking didn't seem to be working quite as well and she took her concerns to Don as soon as he returned from doing business in San Francisco.
"Why isn't the medicine working? He's looking worse." Gabby complained worriedly.
"I know. I'm thinking that maybe he might have to go into San Fran for some chemo. I'd hate having to do that, it's such a long drive and all. He would probably have to stay there through the course of the treatment."
Gabby did not take that news very well. Visiting with him in the evenings brought a sense of 'normalcy' to her life, especially now with her problems concerning Jason. She had never told her surrogate father about him and what he was doing to her, since she knew he would then tell Don or someone else in the family. "Is there anyway to prolong that trip? With Christmas so close.....it's our favorite time of the year." Gabby's eyes started to tear up.
"I'll increase the herbal strength of Leo's tea; maybe that will help." Don said as he hugged his niece. She then grabbed him in a fit of despair.
Don then said softly, "Gabby, you must understand that if he has to go in before this Christmas, it's only to ensure that he will be here for the next one."
Gabby's head nodded against Don's chest as she cried quietly. He stroked her hair and wondered what else was going on with her.
******
Saturday came all too quickly for her. As hard as she tried to strengthen her resolve, her stomach was still in knots. She couldn't eat breakfast and her quiet time was drowned out with thoughts of Jason. Gabby seethed inside how this creep of a human was completely controlling her. She despised being managed in the first place, but to be manipulated the way Jason was doing was debilitating her. She wanted very much to ninja kick the creep into the next life. If Don hadn't already told her that any injury to humans could result in damaging litigations, Gabby wouldn't have believed any of Jason's threats. It was that in and of itself which reinforced her determination to keep silent.
Gabby had filing to do again at Mike's. But, she was not working out of his office this time. She was in the first room she had worked in four Saturdays before. Around eleven, Mike left to do some running round and several of the other regular Saturday workers had taken the day off. The only personnel left on the premises now were Devon, Jason, and Gabby.
This was not good new for her. She was concerned about lunchtime and being forced into joining her brother and Jason. Gabby decided that if it came down to it, she would just say she wasn't hungry. She would then elect to stay behind at the studio to do the rest of the filing. The phones had been put on auto answer since Gracie wasn't in and the filing was more important for Gabby to do. So there wasn't a need for her to be in the reception area.
When she presented this to her brother, she could see his friend look at her very hard. He was just a little behind Devon and out of view, so he allowed himself the full privilege of glaring at her.
"How come you're not hungry? You hardly ate anything at breakfast, Gabs?" Devon implored.
"Just not up to eating lately. I'd prefer to stay here and file, anyway. There's a lot to do and I'd like to have it all done before we go home later." Gabby replied.
Jason never said anything, but he did give her his familiar look that said nothing had changed.
Gabby recoiled inside, gulping nervously as she watched them leave the building. After they were gone, Gabby thought about how she could discourage Jason from taking her into the utility room again. She hesitantly went to the room to survey any thing that might be of use to her. She thought of trashing the place, but that would have been obvious. However, there was a sink and it gave her an idea. Gabby thought maybe if there was a major water leak, the room would be useless to Jason. With every other room and hallway monitored with cameras, he would have to forego his 'appointment' with her. But, then there were the bathrooms. He could just as easily move her into there. The women's room would be the most likely spot since Devon could walk in on them in the men's. She noticed, too, that the restrooms were very close in proximity to the utility closet. That gave her another idea.
*****
By the time Devon and Jason returned, Gabby had successfully sabotaged the water pipes in both rooms and artfully created a major leak. She had turned the water supply off to do the job, but basically she loosened the pipes of the incoming water line, allowing water to leak profusely all over the floors in both bathrooms and the utility room. It took persistence, but her motivation was her catalyst. Once it was turned back on, the water managed to seep under the doors and out into the hallways of the respective rooms. Other rooms were affected, as well, which made the surrounding areas inaccessible and unusable. A plumber would have to be called on Monday to correct the problem, but until then the water line would have to be shut off. Hopefully, this would end the day early.
"Man, what a mess!" Devon exclaimed as he saw how far the water had leaked. "Didn't you notice this, Gabby?" He had arrived back from lunch and noticed the water right away. The initial rooms were just around the corner from the reception area, which was also soaked from the leakage.
"I was in the filing room the entire time. How could I have known?" she explained. Fortunately, that room was beyond the 'water line' and it helped to cover her responsibility with the deed.
She could see that Jason was not happy, not one bit.
"Poor baby." she mused to herself.
He glared at her again, knowing full well she had something to do with it. But, there wasn't any proof and where she was in the building her location would have kept her from knowing about the leak.
As Gabby expected and hoped for, Devon canceled the rest of the day. He called Mike, who was understandably upset by it all. He thought it very strange that all three rooms with a water supply would go at the same time. Still, the workplace was unusable and illegal to work in without running water, which he thought quite ironic, all in all.
"We have more running water than we need and we still have to close the place down!" In his typical way, Mike found the humor and he couldn't help but laugh at his own expense.
Gabby breathed a silent thank-you to her uncle. She had figured rightly that the deed would end her day early. She noticed that Jason had continued to stare at her during Devon's phone call to her uncle. She gave the biggest "I haven't a clue how that happened" look she could give.
Without any proof that she had been responsible, Jason couldn't make good on his threat. But, it was interesting to him that this happened on the Saturday she decided to not join them for lunch.
*****
Gabby's mood for the remainder of that day had brightened considerably. She was more animated around the dinner table than the weeks before. Talk of Gaele coming into town on Wednesday of the next week was the major topic. Halloween would land on a Friday this year and the entire family was looking forward to going into Carmel. Raph mentioned the concert at the Repertory Theater and that Gabby's new friend was going to be performing.
"She never told me about it last week." Gabby complained.
"Maybe she just didn't want to blow her own horn." Raph explained as he took a bit of his meal.
"So," Rahab asked, "are you going to go with us, then, Gabby?"
She smiled, "How can I not? She would be offended if I didn't show up with all of you." Then she added with a wry smile, "I'm just going to have to decide what I'm going as, though. Halloween demands a costume, doesn't it?"
They all looked at her as if she had quite forgotten what she was. Then, they busted up laughing, realizing she said it in jest. She laughed with them. It felt good to be feeling something other than despair and it did not go unnoticed by Raphael. He hoped that whatever it was that seemed to be bugging his daughter was done with.
However, after dinner she started to not feel at all well. She excused herself from the family room and headed for the stairs. Just as she approached them, she charged up the steps in a frantic attempt to reach her bathroom. She didn't make it. The rest of the family all heard her retching, but only Rahab and Raph went to find out why. The rest decided it wasn't what they wanted to see.
Gabby was truly not feeling at all well. She couldn't understand it. Jason wasn't the problem this weekend as he had been the previous three. Maybe this was just a result of not having the stress. That was probably it, but she didn't share that thought. Gabby wanted to help Rahab clean up the mess, but her aunt wouldn't let her.
"Just go lie down on the bed. I'll have Don bring up some tea to settle your tummy."
Gabby couldn't keep the tea down, either. In fact, the very smell of it nauseated her. To top that off, she became sullen and irritable, telling Don it would be good for his health if he would just leave her alone. Remembering that week she had gone ballistic on everyone, he complied willingly.
That evening, he met with his two brothers in the gym once again.
"Okay, what was different about today? She's in that mood again. Told me to basically do myself a favor and leave her alone."
Mike offered, "Only thing that was different about today is we had a water leak in the building and had to call off early. Devon said she wasn't at all hungry and wanted to just focus on filing. He let her stay behind. That was it."
Don was concerned, "Well, we'll just have to wait and see how she recovers. If this becomes a pattern, getting sick on the weekends, we may have to take her into the doctors. I hate to do that though. They can be quite intrusive with their exams."
*****
Sunday started off as Saturday had ended. Gabby threw up almost as soon as she woke up. She managed to make it to the bathroom in time, though. She ended up laying down on the cool tiles, which had a calming effect on her immediate turmoil. There wasn't any way she was going to make it downstairs for her quiet time. In fact, it didn't seem likely that she was even going to go downstairs at all. She felt awful. Waves of nausea swept over her as she tried to stand, forcing her to crawl on her hands and knees back to the bed.
Sometime later, Rahab knocked on the door, "Gabby, are you okay? It's nearly nine in the morning." No answer, again. Rahab said, "I'm going to open the door, dear. It's just me, your Aunt Rahab." She did not want to trigger a repeat performance from two weeks before.
She saw her niece still in bed, the covers pulled high up around her. "Are you awake?" She asked softly.
"Hmm hmmm..." Gabby uttered softly.
Rahab moved around the bed to where Gabby could see her. "Can I feel your forehead, Gabby?"
Her niece nodded and so Rahab placed the flat of her hand gently across Gabby's forehead. It was cool. "Well, you don't have a fever, but it's obvious you're not feeling well." she told her.
Gabby shook her head and seemed to moan a little, "My stomach hurts. I've thrown up about a dozen times since six. Maybe I have the flu?" she asked.
"No, you don't have a fever. Maybe you ate something yesterday that didn't agree with you?" Rahab offered.
"I had what everyone else had last night. I didn't have lunch or breakfast." Gabby replied. "What's wrong with me?" she moaned.
Rahab was mystified. If Seth and Gabby had been married, she would probably think that Gabby was pregnant. But, they weren't' and he was way across the ocean in Japan. "If this persists, we'll have to take you to San Fran to the doctors. You might just have a simple infection that can be cleared up with antibiotics. Right now, you just rest, okay?"
"Hmmm...." and Gabby closed her eyes against the onslaught of another attack of nausea.
*****
Rahab shared with Mike Sunday night after they had retired to bed, "If I didn't know any better I'd say Gabby was pregnant."
Mike sat up in the bed, aghast, " How can that be, Rahab? Seth is thousands of miles away. They weren't intimate while he was here, I'm sure of it. "
"I don't know, unless they were early on and she has the ability to put off conception until later. There are turtles out there that can do that, you know." his wife countered.
"Yeah, but those are sea turtles. She's part mutated box turtle - and they don't store stuff." Mike commented. They were both very upset over the possibility of Gabby being with-child.
"It's probably an infection of some sort. Remember Gaele had something similar when she was about twelve? Once she was on antibiotics, her nausea went away." Rahab offered.
"Yeah, that's probably it. Wow, for a moment there I thought we were going to have to call Seth and start asking him some very uncomfortable questions."
Still, the thought of his niece being pregnant haunted Mike all that night. The more he thought about it, the more that 'midgen of doubt' started to grow.
"Anything wrong, Gabs?" Raph asked.
"No. Just didn't want to take up too much of her time, s'all. "She replied quickly. "She had customers wanting to come in."
Gabby felt that was somewhat true, but she knew the real reason she left was because of Cassandra asking about Jason. Any mention of him seemed to cause the girl to want to run away. She had blissfully forgotten about him during her visit at the shop. If felt good to be feeling her old self again. Yet, Cassandra's interest in Jason upset her greatly.
Still, Gabby felt badly to have left her new friend so suddenly. If she hadn't of left, she was afraid she would have poured everything out that had happened to her. Cassandra was filling a void in her life. It would have been all too easy for Gabriella to share with her friend what Jason was doing to her. In just the little time Gabby had come to know this woman, she knew that Cassandra would have had a talk with Raph or Mike about it. That would have ended up being disastrous.
The ride back to Mike's was quiet. Finally, Raph spoke up.
"So, Gabs, how was your visit with Ms. Edwards?" he asked.
"Fine. It was nice." she replied softly.
"Just 'nice'?" Raph inquired.
"Yeah. She made tea and scones. We chatted a lot, mostly about her life and stuff. " his daughter softly said.
"Really? Anything interesting you want to share?" Mike inquired, looking in the rearview mirror at his niece while he drove the Suburban.
"Nothing special." Gabby wasn't in the mood for talking. Cassandra affected Gabby deeply. She wanted someone to trust, someone who would give importance to her own feelings. The fact that this woman was so willing to listen and to offer to be there for her was what Gabby needed in a friend. It was more than her family was presently willing to give her.
*********
"So, what did you find out about this woman, Mike?" Don asked. The three turtles were in the gymnasium well after the rest of the family had retired to bed.
His brother replied, "She's legit, as far as we can tell. Everyone who knows Cassie has nothing but nice things to say about her. She's giving a benefit concert on Halloween night at the Pacific Repertory Theater to help raise money to support the theatrical arts. Seems she sang on Broadway about fifteen years ago. We were inundated with flyers for the event, too."
Raph handed Don about ten flyers, all bearing the likeness of Cassandra, but a younger version of her. He studied it carefully, squinting as he focused on the face that was pictured. Then he tucked the flyers under his arm.
"I'll be doing some research between now and then. In the meantime, Raph, I want you to find out if Gabby divulged any Clan information to this woman. We need to make sure that your daughter does not reveal under any circumstances her training or the things she knows about us. She could very easily slip up in the newness of this friendship, where she's had very little experience in this area."
"No problem. I'll take her aside tomorrow morning and review that with her." Raph concurred, "I'll have to go easy with it, though. It looked like she had a good time there and if we put ourselves between her and Cassie, Gabby could become belligerent."
"Sure hope she's the real thing, Don. Gabby sure needs a friend right now. I don't know what's going on, but she's faking her good mood." Mike declared and then explained, "I squeezed her shoulder this afternoon after I returned from handling a problem. You know, like I do with the kids when I'm just being affectionate. Man, Gabby froze up harder that a rock! I swore I could sense rage in that instant. Somethin's not right!" Mike shook his head for emphasis.
"Yeah, I could sense it, too, when we picked her up after her visit. I was very surprised to see her meeting us rather than milk the visit with Cassie for as long as she could." Raph commented, "Ever since last week .... she just seems to be off. I can't quite put a finger on it."
Don nodded, "Right. Well, just be extra alert. Anything that sets her off - let me know. Keep tabs on her at work, too, Mike. I have to agree with you about the bad feeling. There's something going on."
Raph asked Mike, "Could there be some truth to what she claimed Jason tried to do to her two weeks ago?"
"No way, Bro. I've known Jas since he was in high school. He and Devon have been friends for a long time. He's a good worker and I know he wouldn't do anything like that." Mike insisted. He was quite honest about how he felt, yet there was just a smidgen of doubt that had started creeping into his resolve about Jason. Lately, Gabby was behaving quite unlike her old self. Maybe it was the three days down in the gym, or maybe there was some truth to her claim. Either way, Mike had invested way too much time in Jason to just start accusing him of an assault. There was very little solid evidence to back up Gabby's assertions. He determined, though, to keep his senses on high alert just in case he was wrong about the boy.
*****
Raph was Gabby's sensei for the next week and she was looking forward to it. Still, she held out the possibility that her own father might prove to be the worse of the lot in what he expected from her. That thought sobered her a bit, as did the frigidness of the pool. Gabby decided she would have to stop her laps for a while until the weather warmed back up.
However, she did keep up her quiet time in the gym.
On Monday morning, Raph took her aside to ask about her visit with Cassandra.
He said to her, "Gabby, I'm so glad that you have a friend in Cassie. But, I want to impress upon you the importance of not revealing who we are and what we do. Most humans here in the United States haven't a clue what a clan is or what ninjitsu is all about. To them, a clan means a criminal mob, which is not what we are. If we were in Japan, this and ninjitsu wouldn't even be a problem. But too many people here have been conditioned to think about such things in the context of how Hollywood portrays us. That's a tough image to challenge. "
Gabby nodded, "Yes, I understand that. But I know this. Why are you concerned?"
Raph asked, "I don't need a complete rundown of what you talked about, but did you say anything yesterday to Cassandra about us?"
Gabby thought about it and realized that she had, but she had tried very hard to minimize it with her friend at the time. But because Gabby's integrity had been suspect recently, she decided to be up front with her father.
"Well, Cassandra mentioned being at the courtyard the day I sang at that bar. She heard me. I told her what Leo said, that I couldn't really sing and the DJ turned my microphone off and played Serena Brightwell's music instead." Gabby explained.
"Good, I'm glad you did that. " Raph smiled, "But, why did she bring that up?" He looked at her seriously.
His daughter replied solemnly, "Cassandra shared with me about her career in Broadway … and … I told her that I liked to sing, too." She cringed, realizing that if she hadn't even imparted that bit of trivia with her new friend, Gabby wouldn't have had to explain anything about the karaoke incident. Then again, maybe Cassandra would have brought that topic up anyway considering she had witnessed the aftermath. But it was a given that just sharing about her love of music opened the door that Gabby was then forced to close.
Raph sighed, "You do know that just by sharing your interest in music you've violated your probation." He looked sadly at his daughter and knew she was devastated, just by the expression on her face. He also knew that something serious was going on with her. He decided in that moment to exercise some leniency.
"However, we did allow you to visit with her. Considering that her shop is mostly about music, I would find it next to impossible for either of you to not talk about it. I admire your courage to side with the story Mike planted, though. Knowing what I know about how well you can sing and how much you love it, you must have found it quite difficult."
Gabby nodded quietly, relieved that Raph wasn't going to punish her, but still disappointed that she had revealed too much to her new friend – even about herself.
She offered, "I'm really sorry. I sort of forgot where I was and I really didn't think that talking about music was a violation. I'll do better next time!" She smiled a little for emphasis. She saw her father smile back at her.
One question did come to Gabby, though, and she raised her hand to ask it. Raph gave her permission to speak.
"If… I wanted to sing professionally, would I be denied that because of … Clan rules?" she asked meekly.
"That would depend on many things, Gabby." Raph replied, "Right now, I'm not at liberty to say what kind of restrictions you would have to abide with. Your Uncle Mike has his studio but he's retired from any Clan business. I play the saxophone now and then with this band I belong –or maybe it's more like belonged to. But, I always wear my fedora and coat when I play and the gigs are usually in dark music houses and bars. No one's ever really seen me other than maybe one of my band-mates. But, he hallucinates, so no one would believe him anyway." He paused and then asked her," How 'professional' are we talking about here?"
"Broadway." Gabby offered. She looked at her father and saw the surprise on his face.
He smiled a little and then commented, "Well, I know you have the singing ability to do that. But getting by Don and Leo and then getting passed the fact that you're a mixed species might be more challenging than you'd care to bother with." He chuckled and then added, "But, I'd pay big bucks to see you sing at Carnegie, that's for sure." And then Raph stroked her head affectionately.
After their talk, Raph reviewed the first day what Gabby had learned over the past four weeks. He was pleased with her blossoming abilities and the expediency with how she learned. She had handled the Nunchuks and the Sais with almost expert precision, but when it came to the Bo, she was downright lethal. Raph was not expecting her to overwhelm him the way she did; being intimidated back several steps a few times through the exercise. He noted, too, her expression during the sparring that it was distant and detached, almost like she was somewhere else other than in the gym. He made a mental note to tell Don. One thing that was always impressed upon them by Splinter, when sparring, spar in the 'now' frame of mind and not in the 'what was' or 'what will be'. It would have been far too easy to get caught up thinking about things of the past to unintentionally injure a brother. The ninja was always aware of his or her surroundings. Never were they controlled by events that had already happened or had yet to.
Raph's instruction that week was going to focus on the finer details of what they were as a Clan.
"'Going ninja' is a term we've used to describe the mind frame we implement. You have probably seen one or more of us get from one place or the other in considerably less time than normal?" Raph asked his student.
Gabby's interest was piqued, "Yes, Sensei, and it unnerved me, actually."
Raph smiled, " Yes, it can do that if you are not trained or not expecting it. It's not something you can learn in a text book nor can you learn it in one lesson. Like when you tried not to leave a trial at the beach. From what Mike said you found it to be more challenging than you had first thought. 'Going ninja' is much more difficult. "
Raph demonstrated several times for Gabby and it always startled her. She would watch her father intently and then, the next thing she knew, he was clear across the room from her. It was almost like trying to see how a magic trick was done, but watching a master of the craft. For her, it proved impossible. Shaking her head, Gabby was frustrated that she had missed the 'trick' each time.
Raph explained, "It's based in meditative thought and the focus is always on where you want to be and not where you are. Again, it is not something that you will learn easily. Gabby, you're going to have to put aside your desire to learn quickly for this one. It very well may take you a year or more to finally get it." He could see the frustration building up in her as her expression was tight and unyielding. "No, don't go getting all upset over this. What's important is that you keep trying. Anything worth learning is worth the invested effort. Keep remembering that, okay?"
Over the course of the next few days, there were moments when Gabby felt she had found the 'secret'. But, just as quickly, she would lose it. Raph always followed up her lesson with sparring. He understood her emotional makeup better than anyone else in his family. Expending the pent up frustration was necessary in order to unclutter the mind. Too much time spent on what was not achieved would crowd out what was already accomplished.
During one of her breaks, she asked Raph, "Can you tell when one of the others is going ninja?"
"Usually we can. There's a certain expression that's given. I think you saw something like it the night you were released from the gym after you broke Jason's nose."
In that instant, Raph saw his daughter's eyes cloud over. The mention of the boy's name did the trick; he was sure of it!
He continued, "Anyway, going ninja is more than 'disappearing'. Sometimes, it's when we read someone – which is what I was doing with you at the dinner table." He studied her reaction and was pleased to notice that she was back to paying attention again.
"I did sort of notice something, Sensei. I thought, well….I kind of knew you were disappointed in me." Gabby said quietly.
"A little, but my main objective was to see where you were in your head." Raph commented. He smiled as he added, "I was quite relieved to find the time you spent down there helped your attitude! Believe me, Gabs, if there's anyone who knows anything about an attitude, it's your ol' man!" and then Raph laughed.
Then, Gabby asked him, "Sensei, I've learned all the major equipment but the katana sword."
Raph nodded and replied, "Leo will teach you that. We wanted to introduce you to the other instruments first before moving you on to the sword. It's not an easy tool to learn despite its simplicity. Leo is the only one of us who has mastered using two at the same time."
******
Gabby's time with the professor each evening found her becoming more and more concerned for his health. He seemed paler and less energetic. The medicine he was taking didn't seem to be working quite as well and she took her concerns to Don as soon as he returned from doing business in San Francisco.
"Why isn't the medicine working? He's looking worse." Gabby complained worriedly.
"I know. I'm thinking that maybe he might have to go into San Fran for some chemo. I'd hate having to do that, it's such a long drive and all. He would probably have to stay there through the course of the treatment."
Gabby did not take that news very well. Visiting with him in the evenings brought a sense of 'normalcy' to her life, especially now with her problems concerning Jason. She had never told her surrogate father about him and what he was doing to her, since she knew he would then tell Don or someone else in the family. "Is there anyway to prolong that trip? With Christmas so close.....it's our favorite time of the year." Gabby's eyes started to tear up.
"I'll increase the herbal strength of Leo's tea; maybe that will help." Don said as he hugged his niece. She then grabbed him in a fit of despair.
Don then said softly, "Gabby, you must understand that if he has to go in before this Christmas, it's only to ensure that he will be here for the next one."
Gabby's head nodded against Don's chest as she cried quietly. He stroked her hair and wondered what else was going on with her.
******
Saturday came all too quickly for her. As hard as she tried to strengthen her resolve, her stomach was still in knots. She couldn't eat breakfast and her quiet time was drowned out with thoughts of Jason. Gabby seethed inside how this creep of a human was completely controlling her. She despised being managed in the first place, but to be manipulated the way Jason was doing was debilitating her. She wanted very much to ninja kick the creep into the next life. If Don hadn't already told her that any injury to humans could result in damaging litigations, Gabby wouldn't have believed any of Jason's threats. It was that in and of itself which reinforced her determination to keep silent.
Gabby had filing to do again at Mike's. But, she was not working out of his office this time. She was in the first room she had worked in four Saturdays before. Around eleven, Mike left to do some running round and several of the other regular Saturday workers had taken the day off. The only personnel left on the premises now were Devon, Jason, and Gabby.
This was not good new for her. She was concerned about lunchtime and being forced into joining her brother and Jason. Gabby decided that if it came down to it, she would just say she wasn't hungry. She would then elect to stay behind at the studio to do the rest of the filing. The phones had been put on auto answer since Gracie wasn't in and the filing was more important for Gabby to do. So there wasn't a need for her to be in the reception area.
When she presented this to her brother, she could see his friend look at her very hard. He was just a little behind Devon and out of view, so he allowed himself the full privilege of glaring at her.
"How come you're not hungry? You hardly ate anything at breakfast, Gabs?" Devon implored.
"Just not up to eating lately. I'd prefer to stay here and file, anyway. There's a lot to do and I'd like to have it all done before we go home later." Gabby replied.
Jason never said anything, but he did give her his familiar look that said nothing had changed.
Gabby recoiled inside, gulping nervously as she watched them leave the building. After they were gone, Gabby thought about how she could discourage Jason from taking her into the utility room again. She hesitantly went to the room to survey any thing that might be of use to her. She thought of trashing the place, but that would have been obvious. However, there was a sink and it gave her an idea. Gabby thought maybe if there was a major water leak, the room would be useless to Jason. With every other room and hallway monitored with cameras, he would have to forego his 'appointment' with her. But, then there were the bathrooms. He could just as easily move her into there. The women's room would be the most likely spot since Devon could walk in on them in the men's. She noticed, too, that the restrooms were very close in proximity to the utility closet. That gave her another idea.
*****
By the time Devon and Jason returned, Gabby had successfully sabotaged the water pipes in both rooms and artfully created a major leak. She had turned the water supply off to do the job, but basically she loosened the pipes of the incoming water line, allowing water to leak profusely all over the floors in both bathrooms and the utility room. It took persistence, but her motivation was her catalyst. Once it was turned back on, the water managed to seep under the doors and out into the hallways of the respective rooms. Other rooms were affected, as well, which made the surrounding areas inaccessible and unusable. A plumber would have to be called on Monday to correct the problem, but until then the water line would have to be shut off. Hopefully, this would end the day early.
"Man, what a mess!" Devon exclaimed as he saw how far the water had leaked. "Didn't you notice this, Gabby?" He had arrived back from lunch and noticed the water right away. The initial rooms were just around the corner from the reception area, which was also soaked from the leakage.
"I was in the filing room the entire time. How could I have known?" she explained. Fortunately, that room was beyond the 'water line' and it helped to cover her responsibility with the deed.
She could see that Jason was not happy, not one bit.
"Poor baby." she mused to herself.
He glared at her again, knowing full well she had something to do with it. But, there wasn't any proof and where she was in the building her location would have kept her from knowing about the leak.
As Gabby expected and hoped for, Devon canceled the rest of the day. He called Mike, who was understandably upset by it all. He thought it very strange that all three rooms with a water supply would go at the same time. Still, the workplace was unusable and illegal to work in without running water, which he thought quite ironic, all in all.
"We have more running water than we need and we still have to close the place down!" In his typical way, Mike found the humor and he couldn't help but laugh at his own expense.
Gabby breathed a silent thank-you to her uncle. She had figured rightly that the deed would end her day early. She noticed that Jason had continued to stare at her during Devon's phone call to her uncle. She gave the biggest "I haven't a clue how that happened" look she could give.
Without any proof that she had been responsible, Jason couldn't make good on his threat. But, it was interesting to him that this happened on the Saturday she decided to not join them for lunch.
*****
Gabby's mood for the remainder of that day had brightened considerably. She was more animated around the dinner table than the weeks before. Talk of Gaele coming into town on Wednesday of the next week was the major topic. Halloween would land on a Friday this year and the entire family was looking forward to going into Carmel. Raph mentioned the concert at the Repertory Theater and that Gabby's new friend was going to be performing.
"She never told me about it last week." Gabby complained.
"Maybe she just didn't want to blow her own horn." Raph explained as he took a bit of his meal.
"So," Rahab asked, "are you going to go with us, then, Gabby?"
She smiled, "How can I not? She would be offended if I didn't show up with all of you." Then she added with a wry smile, "I'm just going to have to decide what I'm going as, though. Halloween demands a costume, doesn't it?"
They all looked at her as if she had quite forgotten what she was. Then, they busted up laughing, realizing she said it in jest. She laughed with them. It felt good to be feeling something other than despair and it did not go unnoticed by Raphael. He hoped that whatever it was that seemed to be bugging his daughter was done with.
However, after dinner she started to not feel at all well. She excused herself from the family room and headed for the stairs. Just as she approached them, she charged up the steps in a frantic attempt to reach her bathroom. She didn't make it. The rest of the family all heard her retching, but only Rahab and Raph went to find out why. The rest decided it wasn't what they wanted to see.
Gabby was truly not feeling at all well. She couldn't understand it. Jason wasn't the problem this weekend as he had been the previous three. Maybe this was just a result of not having the stress. That was probably it, but she didn't share that thought. Gabby wanted to help Rahab clean up the mess, but her aunt wouldn't let her.
"Just go lie down on the bed. I'll have Don bring up some tea to settle your tummy."
Gabby couldn't keep the tea down, either. In fact, the very smell of it nauseated her. To top that off, she became sullen and irritable, telling Don it would be good for his health if he would just leave her alone. Remembering that week she had gone ballistic on everyone, he complied willingly.
That evening, he met with his two brothers in the gym once again.
"Okay, what was different about today? She's in that mood again. Told me to basically do myself a favor and leave her alone."
Mike offered, "Only thing that was different about today is we had a water leak in the building and had to call off early. Devon said she wasn't at all hungry and wanted to just focus on filing. He let her stay behind. That was it."
Don was concerned, "Well, we'll just have to wait and see how she recovers. If this becomes a pattern, getting sick on the weekends, we may have to take her into the doctors. I hate to do that though. They can be quite intrusive with their exams."
*****
Sunday started off as Saturday had ended. Gabby threw up almost as soon as she woke up. She managed to make it to the bathroom in time, though. She ended up laying down on the cool tiles, which had a calming effect on her immediate turmoil. There wasn't any way she was going to make it downstairs for her quiet time. In fact, it didn't seem likely that she was even going to go downstairs at all. She felt awful. Waves of nausea swept over her as she tried to stand, forcing her to crawl on her hands and knees back to the bed.
Sometime later, Rahab knocked on the door, "Gabby, are you okay? It's nearly nine in the morning." No answer, again. Rahab said, "I'm going to open the door, dear. It's just me, your Aunt Rahab." She did not want to trigger a repeat performance from two weeks before.
She saw her niece still in bed, the covers pulled high up around her. "Are you awake?" She asked softly.
"Hmm hmmm..." Gabby uttered softly.
Rahab moved around the bed to where Gabby could see her. "Can I feel your forehead, Gabby?"
Her niece nodded and so Rahab placed the flat of her hand gently across Gabby's forehead. It was cool. "Well, you don't have a fever, but it's obvious you're not feeling well." she told her.
Gabby shook her head and seemed to moan a little, "My stomach hurts. I've thrown up about a dozen times since six. Maybe I have the flu?" she asked.
"No, you don't have a fever. Maybe you ate something yesterday that didn't agree with you?" Rahab offered.
"I had what everyone else had last night. I didn't have lunch or breakfast." Gabby replied. "What's wrong with me?" she moaned.
Rahab was mystified. If Seth and Gabby had been married, she would probably think that Gabby was pregnant. But, they weren't' and he was way across the ocean in Japan. "If this persists, we'll have to take you to San Fran to the doctors. You might just have a simple infection that can be cleared up with antibiotics. Right now, you just rest, okay?"
"Hmmm...." and Gabby closed her eyes against the onslaught of another attack of nausea.
*****
Rahab shared with Mike Sunday night after they had retired to bed, "If I didn't know any better I'd say Gabby was pregnant."
Mike sat up in the bed, aghast, " How can that be, Rahab? Seth is thousands of miles away. They weren't intimate while he was here, I'm sure of it. "
"I don't know, unless they were early on and she has the ability to put off conception until later. There are turtles out there that can do that, you know." his wife countered.
"Yeah, but those are sea turtles. She's part mutated box turtle - and they don't store stuff." Mike commented. They were both very upset over the possibility of Gabby being with-child.
"It's probably an infection of some sort. Remember Gaele had something similar when she was about twelve? Once she was on antibiotics, her nausea went away." Rahab offered.
"Yeah, that's probably it. Wow, for a moment there I thought we were going to have to call Seth and start asking him some very uncomfortable questions."
Still, the thought of his niece being pregnant haunted Mike all that night. The more he thought about it, the more that 'midgen of doubt' started to grow.
