His True Love
Disclaimer: I deny any ownership of any adult or adolescent transformed shadow warrior chelonians.
Author's Note: To Buslady: I hope you take no offense at this chapter, as I know you like buses but this is based on some thing else and I truly don't wish to offend anyone. I'll explain further at the end of the chapter.
Thanks all for your reviews. And yes Reinbeauchaser Raph told Don to take a hike for this chapter. As for Don fans I don't know how many are reading thus far as most Don fans know I usually don't do a great deal with him and for some odd reason this story never appeared in the Just In category when I posted it Maybe because it is an R story. Ah well…
Chapter Twelve – Friends
RAPHAEL:
It was Saturday, which meant Sara at least didn't require an escort to and from the school and that meant we could all sleep in, that is if the kids in the family permitted it. We would only need to watch Sara at night when she headed out to work.
I enjoyed a good long sleep but was woken around ten by Rama's boisterous greeting to Jessie her calls echoing off the sewer pipes.
I got up and staggered out toward the kitchen in search of coffee and was almost attacked by the half way point by the two seven year olds.
" Uncle Raphael you gonna come plays with us?" Ramiela pleaded bouncing around my feet and bouncing a soccer ball.
I snatched the ball away from her " Ramiela" I growled in slight irritation. I wasn't the most cheerful of fellows at the best of times and I was even worst on first getting up.
Ramiela was undaunted " Come on Uncle Raphael you promised to play with us last week?"
" Go to the playground run off some energy and if and when I wake up I will see you there" I grumbled willing to say any thing at that point to get them out from under foot so I could get my coffee.
I yawned as I watched the two kids go chasing one another off not having the heart to yell at either one of them about the rule of no running in the house, and no ball playing outside of the playground area.
For the moment I could act like I hadn't seen a thing. After all I wasn't totally awake just yet.
Only after a couple cups of coffee did I head to the playground ready to take on the two terrors on a quick two on one match of soccer. It seemed that whenever Jessie came over I would end up playing some quick game with them, sometimes Mike would join us and we'd split into teams of one adult and one kid each.
Jessie was quite the sports enthusiast and knew all kinds of games while Ramiela having grown up around practically all males had acquired a taste of all kinds of sports from an early age.
Course the fact that Casey and I spent many hours drilling her in all the wonderful sports out there might have had a little something to do with it. Besides it was one way to increase her stamina and get her to be more physical which could only help in other areas of training later on. Besides that it was one of the best ways of running off some of Ramiela's excess energy.
By the time the game was over my winning by a very close margin the two friends headed for the skateboard area of our home just past the playground and I decided to go do a work out in the dojo.
I knew that in about an hour Leo would be wanting the dojo to teach Ramiela and Jessie their lesson but until then it was free and I figured on making some use of it.
Jessie with his bad stuttering problem was easy pickings for any bully wanting to show how big he was and we turtles had agreed the kid was in desperate need of self esteem and self confidence.
Fighting could help in those areas and he would also learn to look after himself becoming more self reliant. Those things in turn also might help him over come his speech problem to some degree.
Jessie wasn't too bad of a kid actually, his mom was a different story a regular pain in the shell but she was slowly starting to improve.
Considering how she figured we were nothing more then filthy dirty animals to begin with, and abominations of the worst kind we had to take what ever she was willing to grant us as she slowly tried to overcome her ol' thinking. At least she was trying to get over it.
Fact is she now trusted us animals to look after her only child without being her to supervise which, I suppose said something in Melody's favour I just wasn't sure what it was.
Personally though all of us had taken a liking to Jessie who accepted the whole lot of us with such ease.
Mike often teased Jessie claiming him to be " the son I never had."
Don who helped tutor Jessie in some of his more difficult areas in school stated that Jessie was far more inclined to learn then Ramiela was.
Yeah Melody by permitting her son to play with his one and only friend was gaining all sorts of benefits she could never have given Jessie otherwise. What we gave her for free to help Jessie in his schooling and day to day life would hopefully help Melody to realize that we had a big part in how her son viewed himself and the world about him, meaning in the end she would be deeply in our debt.
Especially as part of his lessons from Leo was respecting his mother, obeying his rules and working hard and achieving good grades in school. Those were the things Jessie had to do to play with Rama and earn his fighting lessons.
I started out my workout by beating the stuffing out of one of our punching bags and I do mean beating the stuffing out of it. Then I switched to some katas with my sais.
I was nearing a long series of moves when I sensed someone enter the dojo even without turning to look I knew it was Sara.
I finished up what I was doing and turned to face her " You good to go?" I asked challenging her slightly.
" Against you? You're joking right?" she scoffed.
" No I'm not joking you said you took some courses. You are recovered from your injuries why not?" I demanded.
" Yeah well I happen to know you could probably wipe the floor with me. A sparring match against you wouldn't do a thing for me" Sara replied tossing her hair back over her shoulder and staring at me dead on.
" It could help you hone your own skills Sara. Sides you really think the person who taught you couldn't have done the same?" I retorted.
" The person who taught me wasn't as intense as you happen to get when you start working out," she pointed out.
" What you think I'd beat ya just for the sake of doin' so? C'mon won't hurt to keep your skills honed." I insisted.
Personally I just wanted to see how much she did know get a level of her skill in the craft and the best way to do that was spar.
She seemed to take a long time before answering " No Raph I just think you'd enjoy it far too much" she claimed casually unfazed.
I chuckled " Guess you aren't as tough as you make out."
" No I happen to use my brains over my brawn" she quipped sharply. " Besides I thought Leo was the Sensei."
" Yeah well, you can learn from him if you want to Sara but I won't be as demandin' as Mr. Perfection."
Sara leaned against the wall laughing a bit then shrugged " I probably would get bored of his control issues in very short time."
" Oooh he does have those. You think he is bad now though you should have seen him before Karena came along. He actually has lightened up a bit since then." I agreed.
" All right Raph lets see how and what you can teach me but if I end up regretting this lesson in any way so help me I won't do it again."
I grinned as she caved in. " All right step on to the mats."
A few minutes of light sparring let me gain a fairly good idea of where she was at. I figured Sara was fully capable of handling any where up to three novice fighters, she might come out the worst for wear but still come out alive.
Of course if any one she faced also had some martial arts training her chances would drop.
Once I was sure of where she was comfortable I turned up the heat a bit forcing her to strive harder and dig deeper. Getting her to focus mainly on what she all ready knew and using it to protect herself.
I could work on teaching her other moves later on if she figured it was worth her while I wasn't about to force her to learn. She had to want this for herself.
" Ya…you th…thi…think Sara nnn..needs h..he..help Rama?"
" Lots of it if shes gonna beat my Uncle Raphael" Ramiela chortled.
I backed up realizing it was almost time for the kid's lesson and so drew an end to our workout.
" Watch it both of you," I growled at them.
" Aw come on Uncle Raphael I wanted to see you ninja kick her at least," Ramiela declared rolling her eyes a bit.
" And just what kind of person do you take me for Ramiela? To beat up on Sara just because I'm a better fighter isn't exactly honourable."
" I was ho…hop…hoping tttt…to see Sss.Sa…Sara th..thr..throw Raph." Jessie said playfully.
I glared at Jessie did he really think I was that bad?
" If I ninja kick anyone it will be you two" I threatened them.
Rama and Jessie just looked at one another and laughed as if I had cracked the biggest joke.
I rolled my eyes and shook my head in disgust " Lucky for me I don't have to teach either of you any manners."
" It's a lost cause wit us Uncle Raphael" Rama chirped up cheerfully a huge grin on her face and her eyes dancing.
" Don't I know it!"
Leo came in then and I looked over at my brother knowing just by the way these two were acting he might have a hard time of it today " Good luck Leo they are in an exceptionally great mood today." I informed him as I gestured Sara out of the dojo ahead of me.
I figured Leo might have it easier if the two kids didn't have an audience to perform for.
It was a while after dinner and I was sitting on the couch waiting for Sara to get ready for her evening of work and watching some silly kid movie that Rama had wanted to see and Mike had allowed her to stay up to watch.
Sara entered the living room dressed up or should I say dressed down?
Anyway she gave me a look " You ready Raph?"
" I've been waitin' on you." I reminded her.
" Where are you and Sara going?" Rama asked looking up from her show.
Sara paused and glanced my way her eyes silently pleading for any type of help in answering her question in such a way that Ramiela would be satisfied and without incurring Mike's wrath.
Mike had made it very clear to Sara right from the start that she was absolutely, under any circumstances whatsoever to talk to Rama about what she did on her night job.
As Mike had put it " It is only going to open the doors to a whole lot of questions I don't need to answer and Rama doesn't really need to know any thing about."
" I'm going to work." Sara finally stammered
Rama scrunched her face up a bit before asking " What kind of work? What do you do Sara?"
Sara really cast me a throw me a line I'm drowning look my way at that point.
I decided to go with the first thing that popped in my head " She has to go wait for a bus to visit a friend who needs help around the house." I said evenly staring right at her. It wasn't really a lie. It was just covering myself and saving Sara by giving Rama something she'd hopefully accept.
" Oooh, well why didn't ya say so Sara." Rama shook her head and gave an exasperated sigh " I hope you and your friend have fun." She said innocently.
I had to fight to keep a straight face at that comment and even more so when Sara answered her.
" Oh I'm sure my friend will have lots of fun," she murmured dryly.
" Yeah but first you got to go catch the bus don't want to miss it." I said hurrying her out the door of the lair and into the sewer.
As we headed for topside Sara cast me a sidelong glance " Waiting for a bus Raph?"
" Well yeah what did you want me to tell her? You are waiting for something out on the street." I pointed out.
" Why a bus?" Sara demanded
" Well you don't have a car and you don't have much money at the moment and Rama does have a bit of an understanding about buses and what they do" I explained.
" Why not a taxi?"
" They are more expensive and Rama doesn't know about them. Sides that good girls go by taxi. Taxis they come to you when you call a bus you have to wait for. You spend a lot of time in waiting Sara."
" I have NEVER in my life heard of doing what I do as being called waiting for a bus," She snapped at me.
What the hell did she want from me here?
" Fine you want to be the one to go back and clear things up with Ramiela? Tell her the truth perhaps then go and be my guest but don't complain if Mike decides to give you a lesson on nunchucks and what they can do to you." I declared turning on her " Ramiela is satisfied with what I told her. That is good enough for me!" I hissed.
" All right you have a point Raph" Sara conceded, " I just never heard of a driver paying the passenger before" she smirked a bit.
I turned and gave her a wicked grin " Long as he knows how to drive it what have you got to complain about?"
Sara crossed her arms over her chest and glared at me for a moment or two but suddenly she started to laugh.
" You are something else Raph."
I nodded and gave her a slight bow of acknowledgment.
TBC
Author's Note: The whole waiting for a bus bit was actually something a friend told his young daughters one evening when they were driving home and the girls started to question what all these ladies were doing out on the street. Dad didn't want to go into what the ladies were actually doing so told his daughters they were waiting for a bus.
This became a family joke.
Many years later and now those girls are adults but still the one girl insists that she doesn't take the bus or wait for them either.