A/N: Thanks agian to all my reviewers!  And thanks for all you understanding about my last author's note.  I think I just got a little too upset about somethings, someof them not pertaining to the reviews at all.  Anyway, on with the fiction!

Chapter Nine: Training Begins

Another month passed for Delaney. With one big difference. This time she wasn't on the run. This time she was surrounded by people who cared about her and were doing all they could to keep her safe.

Her friendship with Michelangelo was stronger than anything she had ever experienced before, and it began to scare her at times. He began to finish her sentences like Callista had once done, and they both had the irresistible drive for pizza. She couldn't describe it. He was becoming one of her best friends, except he had green skin and a huge shell on his back. Didn't make much difference to Delaney if he was over a hundred feet tall and had a speech impediment as long as he still understood her. He understood her even better than Callista, and that was saying something since he had known her for a little over a month compared to the fifteen years Callista knew her. Although he had his moments when he had no idea what she meant because of the normal barrier of understanding between male and female minds.

Each girl began to spend time with specific turtles, pertaining to their own interests. Amity and Eros both began to spend time with Donatello in his lab going over different inventions and helping him on some plans. Amity was fixated on the work and the technology that he had to work with, while Eros seemed a little distracted with something else. Delaney asked her once what she thought about Donatello, but she never gave her a clear answer. She dropped it after that. Whatever was going on in her hormone driven brain of hers was her own business, and Delaney would much rather not tread on the uneven ground that was Eros's mind. Although Amity would go and help Donatello with his inventions with Eros, she would often leave after a couple of hours and went to talk with Leonardo. They seemed to have a good conversation at times, and after a while Delaney could see the change in her friend's behavior. She was happier. But that could also be the fact that she got the details about the turtles from Leonardo that she couldn't get from Donatello.

Then there was Callista and Raphael. They were always after one another about the smallest things. Every argument started with someone giving the other a weird look or the way Callista put up her hair. As soon as they went at it everyone else just kind of backed off, but by the end of it they were on peaceful terms heading up to the surface to catch a movie or some coffee or they settled down to watch some of the more gory based TV programs. Some arguments would result in doors slamming, but most came to peaceful conclusions. To say the least, no one really understood them. They would be ready to take off each other's head at one point, and then the next they were sharing a bag of potato chips watching a guy getting his head copped off on TV. After a while, everyone decided to give up on trying to understand and let their arguments take their course.

Even with all the interaction with the turtles the girls never forgot one another and had their nightly discussions and activities during the day. They refused to forget one another, which was difficult anyway since they lived in such small proximity to one another. Callista and Delaney worked nightly on the case, where Delaney would fall asleep halfway through the night most of the time. Callista didn't mind it much since she got to sleep in most of the time. Delaney had now made it routine to get up early in the mornings so she could watch the turtles and Master Splinter train. It seemed like they still haven't seen her. Eros and Amity still stuck close, although Eros was becoming more and more detached from the group and started to hang out with Donatello in his lab. She kept telling the others that they were close to discovering her new child improvement toys. The turtle and young woman both enjoyed each others company and the girls were okay with it.

Something was starting to get underneath Delaney's skin and the others felt it. Heck, even Michelangelo felt it and he usually shook it off as she was having a bad day. She saw something one night about a week ago in the case files that either scared her or surprised her. Callista could never find out which. Delaney never told her. She just said to drop it and continue on with another piece of evidence. They were close to the answer… but it still was lost. After one full moth, it was still lost.

Delaney opened her eyes and took a huge yawn. She pushed herself up and realized that she was slumped over the desk again with a blanket hanging from over her shoulders. She fell asleep looking at the photos and write-ups again. Callista probably went to bed soon after she did and covered her with the blanket. She tilted her head to the side and looked at the small watch she found in the sewers about a week ago. It still worked and showed the correct time as far as she knew.

"Oh crap," she whispered to herself and shoved pushed herself out of the chair and toward the foot of the bed, "They're already at the dojo."

On her way to the bed she tripped over the edge of Callista's rack of clothes and mid-projects. She grabbed a t-shirt with an oriental design while she threw off her nightshirt. She pulled the shirt over her head, while trying to shove on a pair of loose blue jeans that were hanging from the side of her bed. She slowly made a mental note to tell Callista that they both needed to take some time to clean the room before they did anything else. She felt the cool air coming from down the hall and pulled on an old orange sweatshirt that Michelangelo gave her after she spilt some fruit juice on it. It still had the light red stain on the right sleeve. As she went about the room, she tried to figure out if she should find her boots in the gigantic mess or if her socks would be enough. She decided that it would be useless to keep on looking and went out with only socks. She tried to put her hair up in a semi- nice looking ponytail and exited the room.

All the girls' wardrobes exploded with clothes after a truck that was stolen crashed on one of the city streets a few weeks prior. The owner was more furious about the truck then the objects that it was carrying. Apparently he had no idea that there were any clothes in the truck to begin with. Either he was telling the truth or didn't want to admit that he was the one that wanted to steal the clothes in the first place. No one claimed the clothes after the television broadcasting of the crash. The turtles brought the clothes down for the girls knowing that three different outfits couldn't last very long. After a while, still no one claimed the stolen truck or clothes and the girls felt it as a case of 'finders keepers'. Eros was especially happy since she wasn't able to shop in weeks. April kept them informed on the news of the crash and eventually gave them the green light to keep the clothes. Especially since they could not go shopping in the local mall for new clothes or go back to their homes to pick up a few things. Callista soon began to work on her clothing line again and used the others as models every once in a while.

Delaney continued down the hall trying to keep as quiet as possible. She usually could make it to the dojo without a problem if she caught them before they woke up, but today they were already up and alert, so sneaking probably wasn't the best thing. All she needed was a few turtles in her face about to attack her because they thought it was someone trying to sneak into their home. She took a look around the corner and found the entry to the lair empty and continued her way to the dojo. It looked like the turtles already finished their meditations and were now starting their sparring with one another.

"Good, my sons," Splinter chanted from the sideline of the main training spot, "Keep your mind clear, Raphael."

Delaney looked around the doorframe and watched as she always did. She was amazed by the way they trained from the moment that she first spied on them. They were so quick and agile. It was almost as if they were dancing, but in a way that could hurt anyone they came in contact with. In its own way it was very pretty, but just as deadly.

She looked at each one of the brothers and found Michelangelo in the back spinning his weapons with high velocity, ready to spring on his brother, Donatello. She watched him as he sank low and sprung into the air. She smiled at his movements. He was very good at what he did, and the nunckukus just added to the concentration that he had to build in his mind. It was surprising at what he did; the way she understood his mind worked she didn't think he could do anything like this. It just added to a list of questions she still needed to ask her friend. Just in that moment he decided to look at the door and locked eyes with hers. Her face lost her smile immediately.

"Delaney?" he lost his concentration and tripped over his brother's shell and fell straight to the floor. Delaney squinted as he landed on the floor of the dojo… face first.

Splinter turned from his fallen son toward the doorway to see what distracted his son from his attack and saw Delaney with a very sorry looking face. He gave a half smile to her and motioned her to come inside. She bowed toward him and then slowly came inside the dojo. She came up to Master Splinter and gave him a slight bow once again as she saw the turtles do every time they came into the dojo.

She slowly lifted her face, "I'm sorry for intruding, Master Splinter. I-"

Splinter put up his paw like hand and stopped her in mid-sentence, "You still have an eager mind and you were curious. No need to apologize. You must know that my sons have done much worse because of their wondering curiosity."

"Well, I think I should at least apologize to Mikey," she turned to the turtle just now getting off the floor with the help of his brothers, "You okay, Mikey? I'm sorry."

"I'm okay, babe. Don't worry about it," he waved at her and gave a small smile as he checked his beak. He squinted as he heard a pop and wiggled his beak to check nothing was injured.

"I'll leave you guys to your training. I'm sorry again for interrupting," she bowed again toward Splinter and started her way toward the door.

"No wait," Leonardo spoke up with his katana still in hand. Delaney turned around and looked at him. He turned to Splinter, "May she train with us?"

"Leo, thanks for the offer, but I don't think that I could do what you guys do. You've been training for years, I-"

"Won't know what you are capable of until you try," Splinter interrupted her again and looked at her. He waited for an answer from her looking at her with expectant eyes.

"There- I can't…" Delaney tried to put thoughts together, but couldn't find anything to say. She looked around the room at the four turtles trying to find some kind of feed back on what she should do.

"Come on, Delaney," Mikey came up to her and put one of her hands in his, "You owe me for making me fall flat on my face. Why don't you give it a shot?"

"I haven't even tried to meditate this morning," she said looking from Mikey to Splinter, "My mind isn't clear. I might falter on even the easiest basic."

"Why do I get the feeling that you've either done this before or have at least seen it before?" Raphael asked spinning his sais absentmindedly.

"Because I've seen you practice almost every morning since I got here," Delaney admitted and shrugged her shoulders in her defense, "It seemed interesting. I had to admit, you guys had me hooked."

"And we never sensed you all this time," Leonardo said amazed. He looked at Splinter who nodded at him and took a few steps toward Delaney and Michelangelo.

"I think it is time that we see what you can accomplish," Splinter put a hand on her shoulder and led her, with his four sons trailing behind them, toward the inner part of the dojo where they usually began training with meditation. Before they got any closer Splinter stopped them before they entered the room and pointed back out to the main mat.

"I will show her the way. You keep practicing," he said and the four turtles grumbled as they went back to sparring.

Before he went Michelangelo gave Delaney a quick thumbs up and a smile. She gave him a small nod of the head and smile back. Splinter slid the paper door, resembling the doors to his room and went to sit down on a pillow not far away. Delaney followed suit and found a pillow sitting in front of him. Delaney sat down in the lotus position with Splinter in front of her, slowly closing his eyes. She put her arms out and placed her wrists on her knees and closed her eyes. She soon heard Splinter's voice echo through out the dojo room. It was calming, unlike what she was used to when she was instructed in school or gym.

"Clear your mind of all that troubles you and concentrate," he said slowly taking in deep breaths.

She took a few cleansing breaths and tried to clear her mind of the case files in her room, her parents' deaths, and the fear burning in the deepest place of her mind that there was something more. She had to erase all of it if she was going to be serious about this. Otherwise, she might as well get up now and go back to her room to get some more sleep before breakfast. Again, she took a deep breath and concentrated on the blank state of mind where she could begin to train.

"Your mind is clouded with many things. It is sad to see such a young mind carry so many burdens," he talked slowly to keep her concentrating, but brought up his opinions all the same.

"Many people have it worse off then I do. They have no one to care for them on the streets. Only one another if they get that far," she talked as softly as Splinter and began to feel all the tension drain from her shoulders and neck, "They carry even more burden than I ever thought possible. Some still have their parents, yet they reject them."

"Many people do not understand what they have. Even after they lose it," he took a deep breath, "Clear your mind as if it were a clean slate and start a new length of thinking."

She took a deep breath and found that all she could think of was Michelangelo helping her that one night, and everything felt so much lighter. She felt happier. But that also had to be swept aside for her slate to be clean. Feelings and all.

After a half hour of meditation Splinter took Delaney to the next room and let her watch the sparring between the turtles, "They have learned all they can from me. Now, they must perfect it."

"So that is why you still train them," Delaney turned to him, "To let them reach their potential and become masters of the art."

Splinter nodded, "You can too become a master in time, if you wish."

She smiled and looked at the floor of the dojo, "Although I would consider it an honor for you to take me as a student, I don't think that I am ninja material."

"As I asked before… How do you know what you are capable of if you do not attempt it first?"

"I just don't think I have the heart or the dedication that this art needs or deserves. My mind wanders too much and too far. Especially now with all that's developing."

"If you feel you cannot, and believe you cannot, you never will, Delaney," he said softly, "But if you do decide to believe in yourself my offer is always available to use."

"Thank you, Master Splinter," she looked up from the floor and turned quickly to him, "Even though I am not a student, would it be all right if I still came and mediated and go over basics a little with you and the boys in the mornings?"

"As I said the offer is open to you, Delaney. It is your choice on how and when you wish to take advantage of it."

Delaney lowered her head. She knew that she didn't have the patience or the dedication that was needed for the art, even though she would think it would be interesting to become a ninja. There wouldn't be any harm if she could come, watch and train a little, would it?

"Clear your mind, child," Delaney heard Splinter cut through her thoughts, "I once gave that advice to your friend Callista. It is easier to become entangled with the worries and thoughts of the world that the answers are in a shroud of confusion. Clear your mind of such things, and maybe then the answers will come to you."

Delaney nodded her head toward Splinter and closed her eyes. If she was going to find the answers to her questions, she would have to start with a clean slate.