A/N: Sorry I forgot to update yesterdfay... I was a bit busy with work and babysitting my three year old neice and ten month old nephew.... anyway, on with the next chapters. I still haven't figureed out if I am posting the Epilogues yet or not.... hmmmm....

Disclaimer: As I said before, I do not own the song "My Immortal". Not mine. No sue!

Chapter Twenty-Six: Missing You

The girls sat in a small both in an older looking Chinese dinning, take out place. They have had a meeting at least every other week to find out how things were going and how life was treating everyone. Eros, Delaney and Callista now shared a three-bedroom apartment, but that didn't mean that they spent their whole time together.

It was in the mid afternoon so Amity could join them. She had work to catch up on in her classes, which suited her just fine. It will give her something to distract herself with. She had to quit the color guard since she missed all the practices over the summer and she had no chance of catching up in the work. She was able to stay in her advance placement classes and keep up with the work. She was close to a month behind the class, but she knew what she was doing. She worked herself hard and only gave herself a break when the group got together to talk. Her grandparents were still a little cautious of letting her go out when it wasn't for school, but she always persuaded them to let her go. It was especially easy if Delaney was there to pick her up. She now only had a few tale-tell bruises from the last fight.

Callista noticed that the pockets to her jacket were filled with her 'Faut Wear' photos. After her shiner went down after the first week she started to show the photos off to buyers and soon got a deal. Sure her arm was still sore and hurt every once in a while, but never caused any problems. The formal dresses were a very big hit and the fact that she used something resembling a dungeon or sewer walls for the backgrounds really helped them to sell. She was now busy overlooking progress and designing new shirts resembling the ones left in the sewer. Every once in a while she would show the group for their input, and they haven't steered her wrong yet.

Eros was looking at the many daycare centers for a job and was showing her new toys around to investors. The other day she was lucky enough to find one who was very interested in her lullaby, learn numbers while they sleep toy. She got a good market off of it and is now getting a good income. She still tampers with her ideas that she developed while she was underground, hopeful that some more benefit will come from it.

Delaney on the other hand… was stopped at the moment. Her lip was slowly returning to normal and all of her bruising had receded down to almost nothing. The local state university let her in so she could start earning her degree in criminology. No wonder, they wanted to be the school that teaches the famous Delaney Chasin who, with assistance from friends, took down a whole ninja clan in one night. She didn't want the publicity. She just wanted her degree and training so she could become a detective. That was all she wanted from the school. From life… she wanted something that she doubted she would ever have again.

The first serving in their meals came and sat down in front of them. Fried and white rice was placed in the middle of the table and each girl was given their own plate. The waitress sat down a couple of cans of soy sauce and left to check on other orders. Each girl loaded her plate with the fried rice and a little white rice. All of them started in, but Eros hesitated, poking at the rice.

"I miss Splinter's rice," she mumbled and placed some in her mouth.

"Let's not get into this conversation again, all right?" Callista growled and took a sip of her coke, "I've heard enough of them over the last six weeks. All old memories, and yet no word from them."

"Okay, okay, bad topic," Delaney said looking at the two of them from across the table, "Let's focus on something else, huh?"

"Why do we always come here?" Amity asked quietly from the corner of the booth.

"What do you mean? We've always come here," Eros said as she stuck another chopstick full of rice into her mouth.

"You mean ever since we came back up top," Amity pointed out and took a deep breath, "We're trying to stay close to them even though we can't. Delaney has stuck to eating pizza or this stuff and we all are trying to stick in the same state of mind that everything is normal. When everything… is wrong."

"Don't be silly, Amity. I have always eaten pizza like a fiend," Delaney smiled and sipped on her Sprite, "And yeah, I see that we are eating some places different, but we're expanding. Just like our lives."

"But staying in the same state of mind," Amity whispered to herself.

"How's old Esqie treating you in Calculus?" Delaney asked trying to get off the subject as Callista was noticeably tensing up.

"I got an A on my first test. He says that I'm caught up and have nothing to worry about," she smiled and ate some more rice.

"Well, at least that much is going for you," Delaney smiled.

"Yeah… Andrew has asked me to formal…" she said off hand looking into her ice tea.

"Really?" Delaney asked surprised and watched her friend's face, "What did you say?"

"I've all ready been to a dance. I want to keep that experience with me," Amity smiled slightly and then took another sip of her tea.

"Hey girls, why don't we have a girl's night, like we used to do?" Eros asked, "You know, movies popcorn and gossip. What do you say?"

"We'll try to set it up this Friday, sound good?" Delaney asked the group. Everyone nodded and looked on as their main course was set down in front of them.

Delaney sat out on the balcony of the new apartment that she shared with Eros and Callista. They recently bought a few rocking lawn chairs to put out on the balcony all facing one another, and Delaney thought it was a good of a night as any to break at least one of the chairs in. The apartment was a nice three bedroom, two in a half bath that the city decided to pay for. It seemed that it was the least they could do for Delaney and her friends after the ordeal that they went through. It was also to be taken as a reward for bringing down the ninja clan that had plagued the city for years. Only the city didn't know that it wasn't Delaney and the others that brought the clan down… it was them.

The only ones that they couldn't talk about, and couldn't find. They didn't want to take the chance of going back down to the sewers in the chance that some reporting team might follow them. Heck, the reporting teams have been following them ever since they were found by one of the local precincts at the factory. It hurt that it had been six weeks since they hadn't seen them. Not one of them. By now, any one of the girls would have thought that at least one of them would come up top to see them.

Delaney took a deep breath and looked over the cityscape in front of her. The empire state building stood in the distance, barely outlined by the dozen or so other lights of the city. She also saw the warehouse that she hid in for a month before she met him and the others. Where her life finally began to take a turn for the better. She made it back to her friends and sometimes he made it all better for her. She didn't care all that much about what was going on if he had her in his arms. Or if she had a hold of his hand.

She let out a sigh and pulled the light blanket she had around herself up higher, covering one of her shoulders.

"... These wounds won't seem to heal... this pain is just too real... there's just too much that time cannot erase..." she took a deep breath and closed her eyes, she began to think about the song again and thought to change a few lines, "I'd cry youwiped away all ofmy tears.I screamed,you fought away all ofmy fears. You held my hand through all of this... But you still have... all of me..."

"You're thinking about them again, aren't you?" Delaney looked over her shoulder to the sliding glass door where Callista presently leaned on the wall.

"Am I that obvious?" Delaney gave Callista a smirk as she watched her friend take a seat across from her.

"Well, the singing and the way you've been moping around the apartment gives me a few good hints. I guess getting together at the restaurant wasn't such a good idea today," Callista looked at the cityscape and pulled her knees to her chest, "Nice night."

"Yeah," Delaney watched as Callista's face was actually content, but once she turned back to face Delaney there was something in her eyes that told a different story, "Don't you?"

"Don't I what?"

"Think about them?" Delaney looked back at the city and at some of the streets below them.

"Why should I? They drop contact with us because a police department found us. Then they disappear on us," Delaney turned her head to Callista and noticed the grimace on her face, "They don't care about us. They never did."

"Yes they did. Don't kid yourself."

"Who's kidding who, D?"

"Don't you understand why they 'left us' when the cops showed up?"

"Do we have to talk about this?" Callista held a warning tone to her voice, but didn't stop Delaney from continuing.

"I think they did that so we can live."

"What the Hell kind of psychology are you trying to play at, D?"

"Do you think you really could have become the famous clothing designer you wanted to be if you stayed in the sewers? Do you think I could have become a detective? Eros a child daycare provider? Would Amity finish her high school education? They put us back up here so we can have a chance at the lives that we wanted to have before this whole thing began."

"They could have told us before they disappeared, if that's actually the case," Callista stood up and walked to the other side of the small balcony with her arms crossed over her chest, "They just went away- vanished without so much as a goodbye."

"Would you have let him go if they told us beforehand?"

"No-" Callista turned back to Delaney and pointed at her, "Don't make it sound like I cared for him. Don't you dare!"

"Didn't you?"

"I said not to pull that psychology crap on me! You can mope around the apartment all you like, D. But I refuse to stay in a pit of mourning when I could be doing something else. He's gone, fine. Let me pick up and go on. Just drop it!"

"I know you did… and you still do care for him. Miss him."

"I said drop it!" Callista kicked the small table at the center of the chairs over and looked down at it.

"I won't drop it until you say what you really feel. Sure, I understand that you have a reputation to have a tough girl attitude, but you keep these things inside and then you blow up. Normally at someone else."

"Since you think you know me so well," Callista sat back down in the chair, placed her hands on her knees leaning toward Delaney and looked her in the eyes, "Tell me what I'm feeling. All of it. You've known me for fifteen years. Just lay it out on the table."

"You just thrashed the table."

"D…"

Delaney took a deep breath and leaned toward Callista, "You always try to hide the pain your feeling. Both Physical and emotional- you just push it back and go on like there's nothing bugging you. Your attitude is just covering it up; it's a mask you put on every time you step out that door. And I hate it."

"How do you know that?"

"I see it in your eyes. Every single time you're hurt, I see it in your eyes, eating you from the inside out. This time is the hardest ones that I've seen you go through. Your eyes are blank, cold. I hate it. I want my best friend back! The one I knew when I was three years old. The one I grew up with. It would take me at most two days of prodding for you to open up to me about serious things. You have told me nothing in six weeks. You still trust me, don't you?"

"Christ Delaney, of course I trust you!" Callista said exasperated, "I also trusted him."

"Look, I know you want to cuss him out for leaving, and I don't blame you. But if you don't start opening up to the group, and to me, then you are just going to waste away. I've seen you at the brink before when our friend Corey committed suicide a few years back. I don't want to see it again."

"I've said all I needed to. Look I'm cured," Callista stood up and gave Delaney a cheesy smile and started to head toward the apartment again, "Thanks for the talk, doc."

"What did you tell him?" Delaney asked softly, "You said you trusted him. What did you tell him?"

Callista froze with her hand on the sliding glass door and after a few moments let it drop to her side. She took a deep breath and looked at her reflection in the glass. She wouldn't admit it, but she was a mess. She never was one for brushing her hair a hundred times a day or wondering what others thought of her, but she didn't even touch her hair today and she was still wearing the same thing she did yesterday. And… Delaney was right. Her eyes were blank…cold.

It hurt.

And she was trying to hide it from everyone. Including herself.

"You know how it took you at most two days of prodding for me to open up about a huge problem?" Callista said barely above a whisper.

"Yeah," Delaney stood up from the chair and wrapped the blanket around her shoulders.

"He never had to do that," Callista looked at Delaney and hugged herself, "I told him everything. He didn't judge me and I didn't judge him. All he had to do was ask and I would tell," Callista looked away and closed her eyes.

"Why?"

"We had our problems in the beginning. The constant arguments," she chuckled lightly from the memories, "But it was like we started to argue just to talk to one another after a while. And soon… it was like it was more than that. We began talking and finding similarities and trust in one another. We even went topside a couple of times just to grab coffee or a movie."

"You cared," Delaney went up to her friend and hugged her around the shoulders covering both of them with the blanket, "You still do."

"Care about what?" Callista slipped out of Delaney's hug and looked at her, "Nothing and no one is here to care about."

"Believe me, you do. We all still do."

"Why should I give a shit about him? He hasn't even tried to contact me. Or any of us."

"Because I still give a shit about you, Cal," a voice rose above Delaney and Callista's conversation, "And you didn't really give me enough time to contact. The police hid you girls well. Besides the fact of the constant news reports."

"My God," Delaney whispered as she turned to see Raphael step out from the shadows of the balcony and take a step toward the girls.

"I told you I hated that nickname," Callista still faced away from him, not daring to turn around. She didn't want this to be another dream turn nightmare. Too many times has she had a dream where a talk with Delaney turned into a conversation with Raphael and then him disappearing on her. She didn't want another one.

"You know my favorite pastime is causing you misery," he let a smug smile cross his features and gave a light chuckle.

"Congratulations, you hit the jackpot," Callista said in a callous tone and began to move toward the door again.

"Callista," he said sternly, stopping her in her tracks, "I… hate that we had to do this. I hate that I had to sit on my tail all the time we all could have been topside looking for you girls. I hate that I had to watch my brothers fade away each day. The plan sucked. I wanted you guys to have a normal life, but I didn't want to lose you in the process. I hate that I had no one but Leo to argue with. It wasn't as amusin'… I… I miss you."

"You have no idea..." Callista finally turned to look at him with the first time in weeks with tears brimming her eyes, "…how much I hate you right now."

He heard her heavy breathing, trying to win a losing fight against her emotions. She was trying to push back again and he didn't want her to. From what he got from the conversation between her and Delaney, she's been doing that enough. He took a few quick steps toward her and took her in his arms, holding her arms pushed up against his plastron. With only a few seconds passing, Callista began to try and push against him, try to hit him in his chest and shoulders. To let her go, so she could beat the crap out of him and curse him to Hell. He held on tight and let her fight, but this time he promised that he wouldn't let go.

He lowered his head to one of her ears and whispered, "Just tell me."

She closed her eyes and finally stopped her pushing and hitting. She let the tears come down her face and land on his plastron and her shirt. She breathed deep and cleared her throat, "I miss you… so much."

He placed one of his hands on the side of her head, letting her hair fall lightly over his fingers and put his cheek to the top of her head. She slipped her arms around him as well as she could and laid her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.

"And you didn't even use a single cruse," he said softly earning a soft laugh from the girl in his arms.

"I'll save that for later," she said looking up at him, causing him to lose his position on her head and smiled. Suddenly her smile started to fade and she got herself lost in his eyes. He smiled back and sighed.

"There's somethin' else you ain't telling me, Cal," he said knowingly.

"I would, but in case you've forgot Delaney is standing just a few feet away, and I think this is rather personal," Callista looked over at her friend who was trying to find something else to look at other than her friend and the mutant turtle on the balcony.

"Yeah well, she can watch," Raphael moved her face toward his and leaned down toward her. Their lips touched softly and eventually molded into a demanding, romantic kiss between the two. Delaney blushed furiously and looked out over the cityscape again, trying to divert her attention.

They finally separated and Callista looked into his eyes, "What took you so long?"

"We all had to decide to come up, and the police did make it difficult," he smiled.

"No I meant the kiss-"

"Wait! What do you mean 'all had to decide to come up'?" Delaney stepped over to him, "You mean that all…"

"Yeah, the others are down stairs, outside. I think Donnie has resorted to tossing rocks at one of the windows hoping to get Eros's attention. I decided to take the direct approach."

"You always do," Callista commented.

"And now back to the nagging," Raph rolled his eyes and took a sarcastic tone, "Just when I thought that nagging voice was gone, it returns! How I've missed it so."

"Don't start with me, Raphael," Callista started to poke him in the chest and turned to where Delaney was standing, "I'm right, aren't I, D? …Delaney?"

When looking for her friend Callista found that Delaney was already half way down the fire escape.

"It doesn't take her long, does it?" Raph looked at Delaney's form jumping off the ladder to the ground.

"She knows how she feels. If there's a chance that she can see him again, she will do all she can to do it."

"How do you know?"

"I can read it in her eyes."