A/N: Okay, there will be TMNT action in this chapter. I promise. Please R/R…

Chapter One: On the Run

"Delaney?"

She knew that voice.

It was distant, but Delaney knew it all the same. She felt the pillow underneath her head and a light sheet that covered her body from the chest down. She was in the hospital, and somebody was there to find out what happened. All at once everything from the department came back to her. The glass breaking, the sounds of the struggle and her father. Something happened, and she knew at the moment that Detective Glanson's voice pierced her sleep that something happened to her father.

Delaney opened her eyes to find the middle age looking female detective leaning over her bed, "What time is it?"

"It's just after six in the evening," the woman said and sat back down in the chair next to Delaney's bed, "You had quite a long nap."

"What happened?" Delaney didn't waste any time. She wanted to know what happened at the department, and she wanted to know what happened to her father.

She watched as the Detective looked everywhere except at her. The sun was setting outside and the blinds that blocked the sunlight from coming in were a shade of light red. Detective Glanson worked on and off with Delaney's father every once in a while, and had a few years seniority in the force over him. She usually worked with Homicide every once in a while. If they needed an extra person at the department, they usually called her. If she was here, with her badge on and on duty, Delaney could pretty much read that some one was gone.

"He's dead isn't he?" she asked quietly.

Detective Glanson closed her eyes and nodded slightly, "Yes."

Delaney squeezed her eyes closed and shook her head slightly, finally turning it totally to the side, away from the detective, "And I ran away from the scene."

"You had no choice. You could have been killed just as easily."

She felt the hot tears running down her face. She couldn't help it; they weren't going to listen to her silent pleas to recede. So might as well let them come. Of course she blamed herself for some, if not all of it. She ran when she could have done something.

Right?

"It wasn't your fault, but you have to answer some questions… about last night."

"Where's my mom?" Delaney asked quietly, still diverting her eyes to the blinds.

"She's… she's getting home from work soon. She doesn't know yet."

"How can she not know?" Delaney struggled to keep the tears out of her voice.

"She…"

"How long until she gets here?" Delaney cut her off, not really wanting to talk about anything with a detective right now.

"An hour maybe."

"Can I talk to her first? I need someone to talk to before…"

"I understand," Detective Glanson went against everything she learned in training in letting Delaney go without questioning, but she needed some time to recover. Her father was killed the night before, and she just found out. The older detective got up from her chair and walked out of the room.

Delaney found a mountain of flowers and cards at the side of her bed from her friends. The group has never let her go by a single injury or flu without a mountain of cards and a huge amount of hugs. Apparently, no one was able to hug her yet, but she knew she would be asking for it when she got out of the hospital. And the brutal truth be told, she needed the hugs and comfort.

Two hours later there was still no sign of her mother and Delaney knew something was wrong. The feeling was back, but it wasn't as if something was there in the room or even in the hospital with her. It was her mother. Something was keeping her mother from coming to her. Something major that neither the detective nor the nurses were going to tell her. The nurse kept telling her it was her imagination and maybe the traffic was just bad. This was New York City after all. Maybe that was true, but if her mother knew that she was hurt or something happened, she defiantly would be at her bedside in half a second.

Delaney turned her head toward the door as she heard some feet scratching the surface of the floor outside her room. She got off the bed and walked over to the door. Her head was spinning earlier, but she eventually got over it and she began to wake up more and more. She felt fine, and she wanted to know where her mother was. She had her hand on the doorknob and was about to ask them until she heard the conversation outside taking place between the nurse and Detective Glanson.

"You have to tell that poor child soon. She's been waiting for two hours now. You told her an hour," the nurse said exasperated.

"You tell me how then!" Detective Glanson whispered harshly, "Tell me how to tell her that her mother was also killed, only a few minutes after her father! She already has lost her father, how will she take the next blow when I tell her that someone is after her family? They will more than likely come after her. How do I tell that to a child?"

"She is eighteen years old!"

"And just graduated high school! She is still dependent on her parents, and now they are both gone!"

Delaney backed away from the door shaking her head form side to side in disbelief. They had to be mistaken. It wasn't her mother. It wasn't her father. They were both fine in their respective apartments eating dinner. Delaney tried to reassure herself that it was all a nightmare and that she would soon wake up. Or this was caused by her fainting spell. Both of her parents were fine. They were healthy. She was wrong to think that her father was gone. Was killed. They were both just great. They were both well. Alive.

She turned away from the door and found her clothes at the end of the bed. After the questions from the detective she was going to be free to go. But go where? If these guys were after her, where was she going to go? Protective police custody? A witness protection program?

She began to change back into her orange top and black pants until she tried to find her shoes and orange backpack. The last thing she needed was to find that that stuff was taken into evidence or something. She found both of the items in the small dresser-like structure at the side of the room. She struggled to put on her black jacket and slung the backpack over her shoulder. She wanted out of this place. They did their job, now it's her turn to do hers. To protect herself.

She looked out the window and found that she was thankfully on the ground level and could easily slip out the window. She had enough money to catch a train. Subway probably was the fastest way to her dad's apartment, especially if there was, in fact, traffic. She knew it would be dangerous going back, especially if people were after her, but she needed a few things. Then she was running. These people killed her parents, and she doubted that they would stop there. They knew something that she didn't and she wasn't going to allow them the chance to find her.

Not before she found out who they were and why they killed her family.

One month later…

The huge warehouse was filled with old crates and boxes towering toward the high ceiling. Some were labeled fragile and others showing the 'this way up' sign were upside down. The warehouse was usually quiet in the evenings, but tonight everything changed. Soon enough there were people flying through the air and boxes falling over one another.

"Hey Donnie… we could really use the battle shell right about now," Raphael said being backed up against the wall as three ninjas stepped toward him.

"You try getting these guys off my back and I might just be able to send the signal," Donatello said through gritted teeth, pushing the advancing ninja off of him.

"How hard can it be to press a stupid button, dome chrome?" Casey smacked a ninja away from Donatello with his signature baseball bat.

"Harder than you think, Elf lips," Donatello punched his bo-staff into an advancing ninja coming up behind Casey and pressed the button on the side of his belt. As soon as more ninjas began to rush forward a crash of metal and rubber burst through the warehouse doors, "Finally."

Raphael hit the head of the last ninja not mowed down by the battle shell and let him slide down the side of the building, "Yeah great, it comes when we could have handled it."

"Make up your mind, Raph. We either need it or we don't," Donatello sighed and rolled his eyes, putting a few more of the ninjas over by Raphael's growing collection by the wall.

Raphael walked over to the battle shell and opened the side doors to come face to face with another grinning green face, "Hey bro, how was the head smashing? Did I miss anything?"

"Yeah Mikey…loads," Raphael poked his head past his brother to find Leo just getting out of the front seat, "We need to find a better panic button for the battle shell."

"Have Donnie work on it."

"I don't trust his 'technological baby' with my life," he grumbled, "What'd you and Mikey find?"

"Nothing much. All I know is that we aren't dealing with the foot. It's… something else."

"No Leo… I thought they all came out of jail one last time to say hello."

"Let's just see how much damage you and Casey did, huh?" Leo smiled and jumped out of the battle shell with Mikey not that far behind.

After gathering the ninjas into one general area the turtles took a look around to see if anything else was off. They split into different directions to check the place and Mikey took the back route through the warehouse. He checked behind boxes and crates to see if any more of their ninja friends were hiding. Although this was a very big threat, Mikey keep searching through the maze of crates and boxes humming a theme song to one of his favorite cartoons he was watching before they left the lair. Every so often he would do a motion with his arms or a quick movement to emphasize a portion of the song.

After some time of searching Mikey couldn't find any more ninja pals, but he could sense someone else was still in the warehouse besides his brothers, Casey and the unconscious ninjas. His humming stopped short when he discovered that his senses weren't wrong. There was someone else there, but they didn't have the presence as if they were there to hurt anyone. They didn't want to fight at all. They actually seemed scared and… it was a girl, or should he say young woman. Mikey may be a little nuts at times, but he knew a female human when he sensed one. It was strange… it was if she knew he was there too.

He knew it was against his ninja training to be seen, but the girl seemed like she needed help, and out of all his brothers, he seemed to be the only one who wanted to do more good than just slinking around in the shadows. He took cautious steps and put his hand over his nunchakus. She may not have malicious goals, but being scared could make anyone just as dangerous.

By looking around one of the far crates he found a young woman pushing herself against the side of one of the crates, hoping to disappear. Her head was buried in her arms and covered on top by a black apple hat. She had a small backpack slung over one shoulder with a black jacket and black pants on. She was scared as hell, but she wasn't running. From the look of her clothes, she had been running enough. She finally looked up at him and Mikey could see the confusion on her face. Probably one because she was thinking he was going to be one of the ninjas, and two he wasn't human. He saw her face smudged with dirt and mud, from outside the building no doubt. But if she cleaned up a bit, he could tell that she could be very beautiful. She wasn't screaming, which was a plus, and for some odd reason she looked a bit relived, but scared and confused all at the same time. Michelangelo took his hand off his weapons and knelt down next to the young woman.

"It's okay," he tried to touch her arm, but she seemed to scoot further toward the box at the slightest feel of his touch. She still didn't trust him, but realistically who would trust a walking, talking turtle? Michelangelo sighed and stood up. He looked back toward the direction of the battle shell and yelled at his brothers, "Hey dudes! I think I found something!"

He turned back towards the girl, hoping to comfort her in some way, but he found that she was gone. She must have slid around him when he was distracted and ran out from sight. He turned around and looked different directions for the girl and found a hole in the side of the building just big enough for someone her size to fit through. He looked through the hole just in time to see her look over her shoulder and hop a stone fence at the other end of the alleyway.

"Dang," Michelangelo snapped his fingers and looked behind him just in time to see his brothers coming up to him.

"What's up Mikey?" Leonardo looked at his brother on the ground.

"Come on, or we're going to lose her," Mikey ran toward a door at the far side of the building and kicked it open, hopeful that the girl wasn't too fast and he could pick up her trail. His brothers looked at one another, shrugged their shoulders and started to run after their youngest brother.

"Her? Mikey, you got girls on the brain again?" Raphael tried to joke with his brother as they ran down the alleyway and toward the stone fence.

All four turtles hopped the fence one after the other and were about to take off running again, until Mikey saw something on the ground. He knelt down and found the black apple hat that the girl was wearing before she took off. She must have lost it hopping over the fence. The other three came back toward him and noticed the hat in his hands.

"I don't see anyone down the street, Mike," Leo said scanning the immediate area and then back at his brother, "Who ever it was is long gone."

"She can't be that fast, Leo," Mikey put the hat underneath his belt, "She's still out there, we just didn't see her going over the fence."

"Yeah, all right," Raphael cut into the conversation with arms folded, "Look, the case of the phantom girl is closed. We have a warehouse full of unidentified ninjas that need to be taken into custody. And I don't trust Casey to watch over them."

"I hate to say it but Raph's right," Leo said gaining a disapproving face from Raphael and looked at Michelangelo, "We'll keep an eye out for her in the warehouse, but we need to get all these guys under custody. Let's go."

"Do you guys really need me?" Michelangelo grumbled and looked at the ground, "I mean they are all unconscious after all."

"Mikey-"

Raphael was interrupted by Donatello's hand on his shoulder and turned away shrugging his shoulders, "I think we can handle it."

"Thanks," Michelangelo watched his brothers go back into the warehouse and toward the battle shell.

He saw Donatello stop for a moment and looked back at him, "You coming home soon?"

"I need to take a walk, but I'll be home after a while," Michelangelo nodded, "Tell Splinter not to worry."

Donatello nodded and jogged into the building to catch up to the other two turtles already in the building. Michelangelo took the hat from his belt and looked at the material. It defiantly needed some serious dry cleaning and had a hole near the top. She didn't leave it behind on purpose, and if she was on the run she probably would want it back. People like that only have a few possessions, and what they have means a lot to them. He shrugged his shoulders and began to comb the alleyways around the warehouse, looking for any sign on where the girl could have gone.

Delaney watched from her dark corner from across the street as the thing looked over her hat and then placed it back in his belt. He then took off down the street, probably looking for her. She could tell that he wasn't human, easy enough assumption. But why was he looking for her? From the way he was acting in the warehouse he didn't want to hurt her, and from the sounds she was hearing, he was probably fighting the other guys that were after her. Either he was or some of the others like him. She sat and thought for a while until a huge break through went through her mind.

He was once of the 'ninja turtles' the tabloids were always talking about! She knew they had to be true. Oh man, wait until she got to rub that into Callista's face- if she ever got to see Callista and the others again.

She let out a breath and slid her back down the side of the building. There was nowhere to go. That warehouse has been her sanctuary for a month now. She looked at the double doors that were busted open somehow. She was hiding behind some crates, protecting her head when the doors were busted open. She started to lecture herself in her head about how big of a coward she was becoming. It was her choice to run, wasn't it? To protect herself? Hiding in the corner of a warehouse doesn't seem very brave. She chuckled at herself. It sounded good at the time, now her brain is chastising her.

She looked over her shoulder and knew.

She had to go to Callista's.

She needed a place to stay until morning when she could take off again and Callista is the only one out of the four of them with a place all her own. Delaney tried to pull her hat down over her eyes like she usually did, but all she felt was air. Man, she was going to miss that hat.

"Crap," she grumbled and looked both ways down the street to make her way toward Callista's place.

Unknown to her, she should have looked at the rooftops as well. Perched on the fire escape above her head Michelangelo watched her run down the street toward a few apartment complexes.