A/N: Thanks for the reviews. I hope you guys will enjoy this next chapter, to me it seems a little off, so I might upload a chapter tomorrow or sooner.

Chapter Five: Crime Scene Photos and a Reporter

"Are you guys nuts?" April began to pace back and forth in front of the three turtles that she could find. Raphael was 'out' as usual and Splinter was still meditating and trying to figure out what to make of the mysterious shuriken, "You're housing an endangered runaway! What if those guys looking for her came down here?"

"Look Miss O'Neal," Callista stood up from her seat on the ground, "We only needed a place to stay for the night. Delaney needed help and the turtles- well, at least most of them- offered to help. We're rested and I think that we can get on our way, right girls?"

All the girls looked at Callista and nodded their heads. All of them except Delaney began to sit up and grab their bags when Michelangelo stood between them and April.

"Whoa, hold on here, dudettes!" he held out his arms trying to barricade the teenage girls from leaving, "Those guys are still up there looking for all of you. Do you think you want to take that chance?"

"We have to, Mikey," Delaney said, "It's better than letting the press come after us. Once they get a hold of our scent, it would be impossible to throw the ninjas off."

"Why don't you go back to the police? Get protection that way?" April suggested.

"I've tried that," Delaney settled down into one of the many chairs, "The night after they killed my parents they sent someone to kill me at the hospital. Only the police and medical personnel there knew where I was. I'm thinking that someone from the department is in on it. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I can't trust the department anymore. So that leaves police protection out."

"Who are you, some kind of detective?" April joked.

"I want to be. And in case you haven't forgotten my dad was," Delaney reminded the reporter.

April put up her hands and sat down on the arm of the couch, "So what's your plan?"

"Run," Delaney said simply and let out a large breath.

"Until when is the key," Amity added, "We want to know why they were after her in the first place."

"I think I might be able to help on that one," April offered. All the girls' eyes shifted to the older reporter.

"How?"

"I am the reporter on your case, am I not?" she pulled her bag from her shoulder and put it on the floor next to her feet. She pulled out some photos and paper work that Delaney recognized right away.

"Where did you get those?" she reached for them and filed through them. They were the photos and crime shots that her father was looking over the night that he was killed. All the marks were all there, just like she remembered. All the write ups that her father had done were in between every two or three photos still half finished, "These are near classified! Only the department personnel are able to see this. How did you get them?"

"How did you know of them?" April shot back.

"I would visit my dad while he worked and saw them every so often. Now, where did you get them?"

"April has her ways," Donatello put in his two cents.

"Although, I don't think that you've seen these," she pulled out another file from her bag and handed them over to Delaney. Callista and Amity got up from their seats and walked over to stand over Delaney's shoulder. Delaney read the name at the top of the folder and saw her own last name printed neatly at the top in permanent marker, "They call it the Chasin case."

"These are the photos of my father's scene?" Delaney asked quietly.

"Yes," April nodded and looked at her, "And your mother's. They were hard to get without anyone noticing. After I looked over them, I wish that I hadn't worked so hard to find them."

"You sure you want to do that?" Michelangelo warned Delaney from his seat.

"I'm dead sure," Delaney opened the file folder and looked over the first photograph.

"Oh my God," Amity whispered and ran toward the bathroom for the sink.

Delaney and Callista stayed put. They were both used to these kinds of photos. Callista was certified as an EMT and needed to know what she was going up against, so the photo scene was no surprise to her. Not to mention she and Delaney would sneak into Delaney's father's casebook at times when he brought it home and saw much more gruesome scenes. Delaney looked at the bodies on the carpet and the hard wood floor of the department and tried to disconnect herself from them. She had to think of them as other faceless victims that her father had to investigate. They were nameless. No emotional attachment. That's what she had to focus on.

"It looks like she was beaten and cut with a variety of weapons," Callista pointed at the picture of Delaney's mother, "The cut across the throat looked like it's what killed her. Probably from a sharp knife or sword."

"Jugular vein," Delaney nodded, closed her eyes and took a deep breath to compose herself and then continued, "And then he was killed by a gun shot to the head."

"But he was beaten in the same fashion," Callista pointed out.

"A difference in the two, though," Delaney put her parent's pictures side by side and looked from one to the other, "The bruise patterns. It looked like they beat her after they slit her throat. Post mortem. He was beaten well before he was shot and… cut."

"D, you sure you want to do this? I can already see your hesitation. I mean-"

"No," Delaney said firmly, "I'm doing this. I ran from this for too long, now I want to find out what happened."

"Well you have," April reached for the folders. Delaney gathered them up and held them firmly against her chest, "Give them back."

"You are not a part of the department, nor part of the investigation so I doubt that you have any right to even glance at these photos or write ups, Miss O'Neal."

"Neither are you."

"True, I'm not a part of the investigation, but these are my parents. And they died because of this," she held up the original folder with the case her father was working on, "Now I want to know why. This is my only way to know the truth. The only way that I can stop running."

"And what am I going to do about my reports?"

"Do as any other reporter does," Delaney stood up and walked toward the small pond in the center of the lair, "report on what the police tell you."

"That isn't fair," April stood up trying to block Delaney.

"Life isn't fair, Miss O'Neal!" she turned and stared into the reporter's eyes, "But we all got to live with it."

April watched as the young woman walked over to the water's edge and began to lay out the photos and go over the scenes in front of her. Callista soon joined her and helped to file through the reports and photos. The reporter looked at the two girl's backs and then at her turtle friends and the other girl that stayed silent the whole time.

"Aren't you guys going to do something?"

"She has a point," Donatello spoke up, "Those are police property."

"Never stopped me before."

"But she also has the connection to the victims. They were her parents."

"Another reason why she shouldn't be looking at them. Do you have any idea how much emotional stress that would put on her mind?"

"Delaney's strong, Miss O'Neal," Eros spoke up from her seat next to Donatello, "She's been around that kind of stuff from the time she was four years old. She knows how to deal with it. The only thing that I don't think she could handle is the fact that she's running from something she doesn't understand. Her parents died for a lost cause and she is trying to find it. Let her do this. If you don't… she would have run all this time for nothing."

April and Eros both turned to the two girls by the water and she gave a huge sigh, "Fine. Keep the photos. I'll try to keep the police on their toes. If there is a mole in the system, I'll try to get him out."

"Thank you, April," Leonardo stood up, "You want some eggs? We have some left over from breakfast."

"Are they Mikey's famous scrambled eggs?"

"Yup," Mikey smiled big from behind Leonardo.

"No thanks, I just ate," April patted her stomach and began to walk back toward the manhole, "I got to get to work."

Delaney looked up at the reporter as she left. She tapped Callista on the shoulder and stood up walking over to April, "Please, don't tell anyone about me. The last thing I need are police and more ninjas after me at the moment."

"I'll try to keep the heat off you," April put a piece of Delaney's hair behind her ear, "You're a very strong young woman you know that?"

"I try."

"I'll be back in a few days. I'll be on location on a report out of town. I'll see what I can find out from the police during that time."

"Thank you," Delaney nodded and headed back to the photos on the ground.

April looked at the turtles, "If any of you need some fresh air my apartment is open for you guys to use. The building is pretty safe and I doubt anyone would connect her to a reporter. Casey's been combing the city at night, so he shouldn't be home. You know where the 'keys' are."

"Thanks April," Leonardo repeated and helped April up the ladder and watched her go out of the manhole to an upper part of the sewer system.

Eros walked over to her two friends and dared a glance at one of the photos then immediately turned away from it. She put a hand over her mouth and then coughed into it, "I seriously can not imagine how you two can look at that stuff without wanting to puke."

"Practice," Delaney mumbled and put a picture of one of the original scenes next to a shot of her father. "Wait a minute."

"What?" Callista shifted her attention to the pictures Delaney was pointing at.

"Look at the cut patterns," she pointed to the ones on her father and then at the other victim, "Hand me a full picture of my mom."

"All right," Callista looked through the piles and handed her a full shot, "They're all the same."

"Yeah, except my dad got extra," Delaney put her hand into a gun shape and pretended to shoot it off, "He got lead in the head. Someone really disliked my dad. It was as if it was personal."

"Well, let's go do something to get our minds off of this. It's a little too early in the morning to have murder on the mind."

"All right," Delaney gathered up the material and tried not to mix up the different cases, "I think a break is a good idea."

"And you know what is prefect thing to do on a break from murder?" Mikey came up to the girls with something behind his back.

"What would that be Mikey?" Delaney asked tapping the papers and photos on the ground to line them up.

"A good old game of Monopoly!" Mikey brought the game box out from behind him back and dropped it down on the ground. It looked beat up and a few holes riddled the cardboard box.

"No way! Okay, I want to be the horse!" Delaney shouted and sat down next to him trying to find her piece.

"Not if I find it first," Eros went down after her rummaging through the pieces.

The two other turtles and Callista stood above the others with their foreheads in their hands just wondering how their friends and brother ever turned out that way.

"Ha, I got it!" Mikey pulled the horse figurine out and looked at the two girls and then at the figurine, "But I wasn't even looking for it anyway, I wanted the cannon."

The girls watched him shrug his shoulders and tossed the horse straight up into the air. The two looked at one another and then up at the flying figurine. Eros glared at Delaney and before she knew it Delaney was getting up trying to get the flying piece before she could blink. Eros went to one knee in an attempt to catch the piece as it came down, but Delaney acted fast and jumped on Eros, pushing on her friend's head with her hands and launched herself into the air catching the figurine before it even started downward.

"Ha! I got it!" she cried happily as she sat back down.

"Show off," Eros mumbled and settled for the Scotty dog piece.

Callista shook her head and sat down to watch, she wasn't much for board games ever since she turned eleven, "I swear D, you are going to hurt yourself one of these days."

"Oh don't be so stingy. So what? I learned a few jumps in color guard."

"Yeah, by using your friend's head as the catapult," Eros complained.

"Not a catapult, just a starting point is all," she smiled at Eros as she started to spread out the money to the different players, "Are you two going to play too? Or are you going to be a party pooper like Callista and just watch?"

"Uh yeah," Donatello nodded and sat next to his younger brother who looked just as surprised at the young woman, "Where did you say you learned that?"

"Color guard," Amity said finally getting out of the bathroom, "It's a sport that she and I keep up with in our spare time."

"You doing all right there, point Dexter?" Callista asked as Amity sat next to Eros, "You rushed to the bathroom with speed that I have never seen before."

"Yeah, just don't ever show me crime scene photos unless it is absolutely imperative."

"Deal," Delaney smiled and began dealing out the money to all the players and began to roll the dice.

Leonardo looked at the girl as she moved her piece and looked at the others, challenging them to do something about it. He wondered how she had that kind of training just from a sport. That move showed more than just a dance or leg trick. She had more abilities than she knew. She had ample talent to study the art and if Amity also shared the same technique she may be able to as well. He shook his head to clear his thoughts and started to walk back toward the sink until he saw Splinter standing just outside the doorway to his room. He was out of meditation. And from the look of it, he also saw Delaney's impressive jump and was probably thinking along the same lines as his son.

He turned his head back to the others as he saw Delaney jumping at Mikey after he made a wise crack about the sport of color guard, "Don't ever say that! We are not cheerleaders!"

"Okay, okay! Uncle, uncle!" Mikey began yelling as they both began rolling on the ground, Delaney trying to pin him as he was trying desperately to get away from the girl.

"Shouldn't have said that," Amity muttered and turned to see Callista with an amused smile on her face. She returned the smile and looked over at Leonardo who seemed to be in deep thought about something as he stepped back to the space where she believed the kitchen was, "This may take a while, I'll be right back."

"Alright, you want me to play your part if they two children stop fighting long enough to play again?" Callista slid to the floor while nodding to Delaney and Mikey.

"Sure," Amity got up and made her way to the kitchen area where Leonardo was absentmindedly drying a plate with what looked like an overused rag.

"A penny for your thoughts," she spoke up and pulled Leonardo out of his thinking pattern. He turned to her and nearly dropped the plate. Amity gasped, but saw him catch it before it hit the ground, "Sorry."

"No, it's all right," Leonardo shook his head and put the plate on a rack to the side, "Just a little out of it I guess."

"It had nothing to do with Delaney's wonderful jump by any chance?"

"A little," he let the plates soak in the water once again and looked down the short tunnel at the game of monopoly to see his brother and Delaney rolling on the ground, "They've really hit it off, haven't they?"

Amity stepped next to him and watched the scene, "Yeah, I've noticed that too."

"I wonder why."

"They have things in common with one another. She's sees a little bit of herself in him and pretty much just attached herself to that."

"But why? She has you and the other girls."

"She still thinks that we may get hurt. Or worse. She wants us to leave to be safe. She still thinks she could convince us to do so. So she's trying to detach from us and attach herself to someone she thinks is capable to take care of themselves. And out of the four of you turtles, Michelangelo is closest to her personality. She trusts him."

He turned to her, "You figured all that out in this small amount of time?"

"You got to learn psychology if you are going to be a lawyer. At least a little right?" he nodded, "Besides, I know her too well. I was waiting until she did something like this. She always does when she thinks that someone close to her is going to get hurt as a result of her actions."

"She cares for other people a lot doesn't she?"

"She thinks it is her job at times. I think it is because we kind of placed the job of leader in her lap. Now… she's pretty lost and it seems that Michelangelo is helping her to keep her feet on the ground."

Leonardo nodded and looked back at the monopoly game, "So she learned that kind of jump from a sport?"

"We call it a sport of the arts," Amity explained, "It combines dance, coordination and an ability to handle equipment in your hands at the same time. Like flags, rifles, sabres."

"Sabres?" he looked at her fearful.

"Fake swords," Amity calmed him, "Why do you ask?"

"The way she kicked off the ground and used Eros as a start point… it looked a lot like… well like…"

"Ninjitsu?" she asked.

"A little."

"You think that Delaney has the capacity to become a ninja?" Amity asked a little incredulously.

"Well, yes."

"Sorry to burst your bubble, Leonardo, but I highly doubt that she would even consider it. She is law enforcement prone," Amity patted him on the shoulder, "But you can always run it by her. She's always open to strange sounding assumptions. I mean, she believed in you guys down here before she even saw it in the tabloids. When you guys were only a rumor on the streets."

"What about you?" Leonardo asked as she began to walk away.

"What about me?" she turned to him.

"If you do the same sport, maybe you have the ability as well."

"I'll keep the thought in storage," she tapped the side of her head, "I don't know if I'm ready for serious training yet. I'm only sixteen."

"I was very young when I started with Splinter."

"I'll keep it in mind," she smiled and went back out to the monopoly game where she saw Michelangelo messing up Delaney's hair by rubbing the top of her head every once in a while, earning an annoyed glare from Delaney. He looked at her after he made his move and grinned at her, trying to act as if he didn't know why she was so annoyed at him.