His True Love

Disclaimer: I deny any ownership of any adult or adolescent transformed shadow warrior chelonians.

Author's Note: For Rama fans I am co-authoring a story with Reinbeauchaser Rama is going be in Gabby's world. The story is titled Reflected Reality and is posted in the G-PG13 area of FF.net. Hope all Rama fans enjoy.

Chapter Twenty Two – Searching

MICHAELANGELO:

     I didn't hear Rama come in when she should have but that really wasn't all that odd she loved slipping in quietly after being out somewhere.

 I could all ready foresee the sort of trouble I would be in for when she became, please not that any thing but that, a teenager. Then all this sneaking around and ninja stuff was going be used to sneak in or out of the lair past curfew to do what ever she pleased. I mean Raph and I used to do that all the time with Splinter. Rama was all ready far too good at ninja stealth by the time she reached her early teens she would have it down to a fine art.

I wasn't really that spiritual of a person but I often found myself praying a lot more then I ever did, such little things like " Give me patience so I don't kill her right now" or " want to perform a modern day miracle do me a big favour and make my daughter skip her teen years all together." I knew such things might not help but they sure couldn't hurt either.

So I had no inkling of her absence until Don entered the kitchen when he should have been teaching his reluctant student.

" Where is Ramiela Mike? She hasn't shown up for lessons" Don grumbled.

I could tell by his attitude that he wasn't amused not that I could blame him. I groaned a little though at his words seemed Rama wanted to push her luck and see if we really meant business or not.

" She went for a walk in the sewer about an hour ago she said she would be back on time." I replied.

" Yeah well she hasn't shown up for lessons and I all ready searched the lair. Unless she is hiding some place I don't know about." Don insisted.

I sighed Rama only hid in the lair before bedtime, if she was going skip school she would disappear into the sewers so I figured our best bet to find her was outside our home because I just couldn't see Rama changing her M.O. ( modus operandi)

If Rama was hiding in the sewers we had two choices go out looking for her or wait at home fore her to return and pounce on her. The latter was my personal favourite, letting her come home when she was good and ready and then catching her it also was far better then searching for her when she didn't wish to be found.

Something though was all wrong with this though. First off Rama enjoyed her visits with Jessie far too much to go jeopardizing one. She wouldn't throw it away. She knew that would be the consequence and she also knew I would stick to that rule.

Secondly Splinter, Raph and Leo had impressed upon her the importance of paying attention to Don and respecting him and I knew their words, as well as my own, carried a great deal of weight with her. She would try to obey to the best of her abilities.

Take those things into account and I couldn't see why Rama would stay away unless she couldn't come back.

If Rama was unable to return home then that meant someone or something had to be preventing her from doing so, which meant the sooner we got looking for her the better.

" Don I don't like this one bit. I'm afraid Rama might be in trouble" I murmured as I sent a silent but highly urgent call to my other brothers.

Don didn't question my statement or deny it. Or even try to give me a logical reason for her absence but he knew that my instincts on the matter were probably more correct.

I hoped I was wrong, I really did but some tight feeling in the pit of my gut told me otherwise.

Moments later after the others had arrived and I had filled them in on the problem Leo gave me a concerned look as he inquired " Would Ramiela go some where other then where she originally told you Mike?"

I considered that question knowing it could be important to finding her quickly, because I truly did believe that Rama had every intention of coming back and because I also knew how much she enjoyed Central Park I gave a negative shake of my head. " I don't think so Leo not this time. Rama doesn't lie about that and while she might change her mind I really don't think she did."

This was a simple matter of how well did I know my daughter. If I was right hopefully we'd be able to find her fast. If not we could lose precious time as well as any possible clues could vanish making it harder to track her.

" All right we will stick together then for the time being. The Foot haven't been seen in that area recently but that doesn't stop a lone soldier from coming across her." Leo scowled slightly as he spoke " Let's grab our disguises just in case we have to go topside. I don't want to lose time," He ordered briskly.

I was anxious to get a move on all ready numerous scenarios were playing out in my mind and I had to say that I didn't care for any of them. I started another silent prayer " Let us find her and keep her safe. Please keep her safe."

Rama's mental abilities weren't that strong in this point of her training, she was far better at the physical aspects. Still I did have a bit of a connection with her being as she was my daughter, I could pick up on her emotions easily and sometimes all it took was a little reaching out of my own mental skills to know where she was at. Since Don had informed me I had been trying to get a sense of where she was and was getting nothing back. I couldn't pick up a sense of her anywhere and that usually only happened when she was sleeping. Only problem was Rama didn't sleep during the day not normally that is.

Of course Rama was far too young to carry her weapons with her so she wouldn't have had them if she got into big trouble and needed them.

We traveled Rama's main route to the park moving quickly but cautiously scanning every step of the way but had found nothing of her so far to prove that she had even passed this way.

We came to one juncture of the sewer that I felt lingering trace of Rama and fear.

" She was here Leo I can feel it. She was afraid of something but that is all I get right now" I whispered, my own heart starting to race under my plastron.

Don had moved out and bent down to pick up a watch with a broken band he scowled at it " No City workers have been down here recently. I know where they are and when. This watch is a ladies one to small and fine to be a males, but it isn't high quality."

Leo glanced his way " Out with it Don."

" Well Leo the watch is still running and it isn't rusty, which means it must have broken off it's wearer only in the last couple of hours probably not even that." Don replied simply.

Leo considered this " It hasn't rained in the last three days either, which means the watch wasn't washed down here from topside," he concluded.

I think all of us must have been thinking it but I gulped " You think who ever owns the watch might have Rama Leo?"

" It is a possibility Mike, though we have no idea who the owner of the watch is. Still unless the person was trained in martial arts, she would not have been able to hold Rama on her own." Leo replied.

" But if there was someone else with her Leo then Rama might not have been able to escape" I insisted and I knew that was as true as what Leo had said.

Her fighting skills ought to be adequate enough to break free from one lone female but more then one adult female or an adult male and female Rama might not be able to manage as well.

I noticed Don still examining the watch out of the corner of his eye he wiped it on a wristband and then commented rather casually in his unruffled way.

" There is engraving on the back of this watch a heart, a letter u followed by the name Sandra and the letter R" he smiled a little " I love you Sandra R."

Leo frowned his brow furrowing with concern " Let's head up and see what else we can find."

We headed to the nearest manhole cover and I saw that whoever had passed through it last hadn't replaced it properly.  I climbed up and lifted the manhole peeking out to insure the way was clear and no one was hanging around the back alley.

All I could see was bits of water near the manhole cover and the usual shadows of a trash strewn alley.

" Careful bros watch your step coming up. We might have some clues from leftover sewer water up here." I called down to them carefully climbing out and trying to decipher the bits of water, puddles and marks that were slowly drying and fading away.

Someone had kneeled near the manhole there was quite a bit of water too much for just wading through sewers, whoever had made that mark had to of fallen into the sewer.

There was another slight water mark, that showed just a partial foot print much smaller looking like that of a child.

Pushing up on a manhole cover was far easier then pulling it up from street side so I highly doubted any small child would find their way down into the sewer to play. The partial child footprint had to belong to Rama.

If it wasn't Rama we were dealing with a great deal of coincidence but in our line of work one could only accept so much as coincidence before accepting other avenues.

As the others came out I pointed out the marks " Someone has to have Rama and she wasn't walking with them." I gestured to the marks that left the alley only two footprints lead away.

One smaller probably a female, the other footprint was larger and was obviously made by a shoe.

That was an obvious clue in itself even the Foot soldiers wore boots when they roamed the sewers looking for us. The other person, most likely a male judging from the shoe print hadn't planned on going down into the sewer but had.

My heart crashed as even worse images joined the race of the possible things that might be happening to my daughter.

I think I really would have preferred the Foot having Rama after all they would only use her as bait to get to us. Not only that we knew where to find them if we so desired.

This could be far worse though because your average person might want to sell an oddity and we would have a much harder time tracking them down to get Rama back. The longer she was away from us the worst it could get.

They had left the alley packing her and I looked up to all ready see Leo jogging back towards us after checking things out closer to the street.

" Who ever has her must have left in a taxi cab. The water on the sidewalk says they must have waited a bit before leaving the area. If they had a car they would have jumped right in." He shook his head sadly and glanced my way apologetically.

I knew if those people did have Rama and were looking to use her for a quick buck, and that is what most humans might think upon seeing us, would of course try to hide her from other humans until they were ready to reveal her.

" We can't just give up now Leo. We have to find Rama and fast" I snapped, " these people have my daughter and I am not going to rest until I get her back." My voice rose slightly as I spoke until I was close to yelling.

" We will get her back Mike I promise you that but we don't really know where to go from here" he said softly.

I knew he wanted to calm me down I just glowered at him.

Don cut in between us " You both know all it will take is a few phone calls and I think that I will be able to figure it out."

I sighed the anger I felt quickly dissipating at his words.

" I might even be able to find out where the driver dropped them off at. After all we have some jewelry to return as well as get back what belongs with us." Don continued as he looked from Leo to myself.

I chuckled a little " I've got two questions then the first being what are we doing standing around here for?" I inquired all ready heading back down into the sewers.

" And the other question?" Don wondered as he followed me.

I looked up at him " How come neither Leo or I thought of that?"

" Easy I'm the intelligent one" Don replied as we headed towards home so that he could hopefully learn what we so desperately needed to find Rama.

TBC