Disclaimer: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles belong to Mirage Studios, Peter A. Laird, and Kevin B. Eastman. I use them without permission, and without monetary profit.

Chapter Two:

"Leonardo?" Danny asked, his voice hesitant since no one had responded to him yet.

"Does she know?"

"No." It sounded like the human teen hadn't thought that far. "I panicked, she needed help and you guys were the only ones I could think of."

"That's okay, it's fine, it's just..." A sigh sounded. "She might not like our help." There was shuffling and then a flicker of light as Donatello lit a candle, then another.

Slowly more and more of the area was revealed as more and more candles were lit until Chassidy could see figures shifting in the flickering light of what looked like a cavern. Then again maybe the dancing flames made them look like they were moving when they weren't. Her black eye was so swollen it had forced her eyelid closed. She knew she looked horrible, but right now she was too tired to care about first impressions.

There was furniture, which surprised her. A sewer was the last place she'd want to spend enough time to need something comfortable to sit on. The air was wet and humid, and while in this room the air smelled like scented candles, musty fabric, and smoke, the air behind me stank like mingled human waste. If it weren't for the candles, the place would be completely without light.

From the shivering light that was being cast, Chassidy could see the people waiting in the room were bulky, and a thought flashed in her head - maybe they were disfigured people who sought refuge from human cruelty here. The one who was shifting around, lighting the candles and a few oil lamps showed his disfigurement from a couple of different angles.

His head was an odd melon shape, wider than a normal person's and completely bald. Though he had normal appearing arms and legs, his body was a lumpy oval shape, like he had a growth on his back and a beer-gut at the same time. Though from a profile view, his stomach looked unnaturally flat, angular flat while his back was smoothly rounded from his neck to his butt. The light shone off of his skin and either it was the swelling from her black eye, or exhaustion affecting her vision, but he looked... green.

Then the guy picked up a candle and turned with the light close enough to his face for Chassidy to see.

"Oh my god," the girl whispered, blinking in the hopes that her vision would clear. "What are you?"

"Turtles." He replied. And he looked like one, maybe if a human were to be mixed with a turtle. That explained his skin shade. The hump on his back wasn't a growth, but a shell, and the flatness of his torso was a plastron. Chassidy took a deep breath and slowly let it out.

"Uh, wow."

"They're good guys. They helped me once, and they can help you too. They're ninja like the Foot, so they can protect you from Stone." Danny encouraged, stepping away from the girl so she no longer stood half behind him. "Chassidy, these are my friends Leonardo, Donatello, and Michelangelo. Guys, this is Chassidy Jefferson." She became very aware that all eyes were on her and her less-than-perfect appearance now.

Her left eye was swelling shut, the skin an unhealthy purple and yellow. She had several nicks on her face, a bloody lip in two places, and a broken nose, which was also adding to the discoloration and swelling. Danny had barely recognized her, and it was her voice that had made him jump into action.

They had been friends once, back when she had had friends, before Stone shortened her leash. Danny was a kindred spirit - an only child acting out against a family that didn't pay that much attention to him in the first place. They had lost touch once he joined the Foot. She had gone there only a couple of times, but she hadn't liked "Master" Shredder at all and split.

Even though Stone had been part of the Foot as well, he hadn't let her come to any of the meetings, and she was just fine with that. All that mattered to her was that he protected her from the big bad nasty that was the real world.

After Stone had beat her earlier that night she decided she was much better off on her own. She wasn't going to die at his hands.

It had taken her a while to find Danny since he wasn't hanging around the same places anymore. She had found out that Danny hadn't been part of the Foot since the Shredder had died. Chassidy had ended up tracking him down at a youth hostel, and his reaction to the sight of her let her know exactly how much damage Stone had done - Danny hadn't bothered to hide his reaction.

He had told her of a place she could lay low for a while. At least until she knew that Stone wasn't looking for her. If Stone found she knew he would kill her. He didn't give up his possessions easily. He had threatened her on more than one occasion when he thought she was cheating on him, screaming at her while he had her hair fisted in his palm, her head arched back to a painful angle, that if he couldn't have her, no one could.

Chassidy had balked when Danny had pulled off a manhole cover and climbed into the sewers. She hadn't been all too sure she wanted to go through with this, but the look in Danny's eyes, reminded her of what her other choice was, she put aside her squeamishness and climbed down the ladder.

Now that she looked at them more closely, it wasn't that the three turtles standing about in the underground room were scary. They weren't. Normal turtles didn't really bring to mind blood and gore and primal instincts, and they weren't snarling or snapping or gnashing their teeth at her. It was how human they seemed. They could speak, and they looked at her like any other person would, like there was an intelligent mind there. It was daunting to be standing next to something that wasn't quite human.

People liked to anthropomorphize everything from clouds to other animals, but this was totally different.

No wonder they lived in the sewers. If the media got wind of them, they'd be dissected and put into breeding programs and possibly cloned. Why were they like this? Had they been born that way? And if they had been, why were they here, of all places? Chassidy watched warily as the three turtles shifted about to clear a chair nearby and waved her into it.

Donatello knelt by her side and tipped her chin up to inspect the damage. "Blunt force trauma." He turned to the others. "Someone was mighty angry; she's got defensive wounds."

"That's not right." Mikey shook his head, his voice sad and angry at the same time.

"So, can she stay?" Danny asked, he sounded worried and anxious.

The three turtles turned to a fourth figure who Chassidy hadn't seen before then because he had been blocked from her view by their shifting and bulky bodies. She wasn't that surprised to see a large humanoid rat with his hand on the back of a chair towards the back of the room. She started to nervously fidget.

This was their leader, and her safety rested in his paws. Suddenly she realized how much of a threat she was to them. By bringing her down here, Danny endangered their current existence if she were to use her knowledge against them. She stared at the floor, her body tensed, anticipating the "no" that was sure to come from him.

"Yes, we will help. Leonardo, ready a room." Splinter sounded tired. Like he hadn't wanted to say yes, but he could not have said anything else.

"Yes, Master Splinter." Swiftly Leonardo went into a tunnel entrance to ready a dry spot for her to sleep on, picking blankets off of couches and chairs as he passed.

"Come here child." The rat summoned while he eased himself into a recliner. Chassidy rose with a wince from sore muscles and aching bruises, and dragged a stool closer to the recliner.

"As you can see my sons and I are not what you might consider normal." Chassidy gave a small smile, her face hurting too much to do more than that. "Because of this we must stick to the shadows, invisible, and unknown. If the world were to know we existed, we would not be allowed to live our lives as we see fit."

Donatello showed up again, kneeling at Chassidy's side, this time with a first aid kit and proceeded to treat the smallest of her wounds silently so her attention wasn't pulled from the mutant rat for too long.

"The sewers, while not fragrant, are ideal for our way of life, and we wish to keep it this way. It would greatly please me if you were to give me your word that you will not speak of our existence or our home."

Chassidy shook her head eagerly. "No, not a word. I promise, I swear. I'll never say anything. It's the least I can do for the help you guys are giving me." She hastened to assure Splinter. She would have sworn anything he asked her at that moment.

"Honor your word. It should not be given lightly for it is not taken lightly."

Chassidy stared at Splinter for a long moment, considering the situation. Though she had no friends, no people to tell their secret to, she wouldn't have said anything to anyone anyway. Secrets were sacred to her because she understood the need to have them.

"I won't breathe a word." She said firmly, her eyes locked on Splinter's black ones so he understood she was being serious. The rat blinked slowly and inclined his head to her.

"You are welcome into our home. May you find peace, and freedom from your pursuers."

"Thank you."

With that Donatello gently turned Chassidy's face toward him and tended the large of her wounds, putting a salve on her black eye. He made noises of disgust and sympathy while he worked and she couldn't help but like him for it. He showed more concern for her than she expected from a stranger.

"Thank you too." She mumbled. He had her chin in his three-fingered hand and she didn't want to move her face around too much while he was touching tender, bruised skin.

He shook his head in response, his attention still firmly on his work.

"So." Michelangelo said loudly. Chassidy turned her eyes in his direction, and the orange masked turtle stepped closer to his brother so she could pay attention to him without moving her head. "Got any questions, requests, or preferences?"

"Huh?"

"You know, why do we exist, you need a night light, you can't sleep without your Binky, and your favorite food is pizza?"

"Don't make her talk, I'm busy here." Donatello warned, and Mikey made a face behind Donny's back.

"Any games you like to play, books you like to read? We don't have electricity down here so we don't have a TV or a computer. We have to go to April's if we're going to get any of that."

"Michelangelo, go help Leonardo." Splinter suggested firmly and the orange masked turtle moped off, grumbling to himself.

"I need to go home." Danny said to Splinter after he had reassured himself that Chassidy was okay and going to be looked after. "My dad worries and it's getting late." He sent a 'what can you do?' look to Splinter, and the rat's eyes shined with amusement. The boy before him today was very different from the boy he had first met in Shredder's Foot warehouse. No longer was he bitter and rebellious. He seemed calmer, happier.

"Return to your father, Danny."

"Thank you, Master Splinter." The red head said again and waved as he left the den. "Bye, Donny."

"Later Danny." Donatello called finally turning his attention away from Chassidy to wave. "Don't worry, we'll take care of her."

Danny nodded, and waved to Chassidy who waved back.

"Well, since you're breathing fine, I don't think the break in your nose needs to be set. But we do need to make sure that you don't get a blood clot." He told her as he placed a makeshift but solid-looking splint on her nose. "You're going to have a crooked nose, though. You can get cosmetic surgery to fix that if it bothers you too much."

Chassidy sighed and shook her head. "Doesn't matter." It wasn't like she was a super model in the first place.

Donny grinned at her - or at least, she thought he grinned at her - and said "Makes me kind of glad we don't have noses." She gave a weak smile in return. "Except for Splinter, but no one can get close enough to break his nose."

Seeing that Chassidy wasn't appreciating his line of conversation he mentally shrugged and packed the first aid kit up. "Leo should have your sleeping place set up by now. Oh," he turned to her, his face very serious. "Don't go into the room with the red and black plaid blanket over the entryway. That's Raphael's room, and he's not feeling so hot right now."

"There is another one of you?" Chassidy hated that she had asked that once the words were out of her mouth.

"Yeah. He's a bit of a hot head, so watch out."

She nodded and shuffled in the direction that Leonardo and Michelangelo had disappeared in.