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 Eight:

"Well, it looks like it's just you and me for the next couple of days."

Chassidy glanced up from her game of solitaire. "Huh?"

"Leo and Don are off playing Peekaboo with the Foot, Raph's not in his room, and Splinter's in meditation Lala Land so it's just you and me."

This news didn't seem to make her happy. In fact, her face was starting to adopt the look of a cornered rabbit.

"Okay, so then you be you out here and I'll be me somewhere else." Mikey shuffled backwards, retreating into his room.

Just as Chassidy was starting to become comfortable again Mikey came storming back into the living room pointing a thick finger at the girl who was trying to shrink into the sofa.

"What have I done to you to make you think I'm going to eat you? I know I'm not a human, but I'm not a slobbering monster either. I'm not mean like Raphael, I'm less serious than Leonardo, and I'm not as smart as Donatello. I haven't yelled at you, I haven't raised a hand to you, I've never said anything negative in your presence so what in the world is so intimidating?"

"I don't know." Chassidy admitted. "You just... are."

"That's not helping."

"I'm sorry! I don't know! You're loud; you're vibrant and constantly moving. I don't know what to think of you and I don't know how to handle you."

"What's there to handle?" Mikey asked as he shuffled closer slowly. Chassidy made room for him on the sofa and he ignored the fact that there was plenty of room on the sofa already. "Why not just tell me to shut up or go away like my brothers do? It makes me feel bad when you flinch and cower away from me. You smile at Donny and Leo and even let Leo hug you and Donny touch your bruises."

"They're quiet, move slow, and always keep a nice distance away from me."

"Will you like me better if I do to?"

Chassidy blinked. "I don't know. Maybe."

"Great," Mikey smiled at her, a big grin that showed white teeth. "That's better than nothing." He then scooted over to the opposite end of the couch and stared at the wall.

Chassidy watched him for a while, every now and again placing another card onto the coffee table where her card game lay. He had started to fidget and pick at the ends of his nunchucks. One of his green two-toed feet was vibrating so much she could feel the tremor in the cushion she was sitting on. She couldn't help the small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

"Are you very bored?" She asked quietly.

"Bored out of my mind." Mikey whined, abandoning his nunchucks to the floor and kneeling at her feet in a flash, his hands clasped together as he looked up at her pleadingly. "PLEASE let's do something?"

Chassidy couldn't stop from flinching at his sudden movement. She felt bad about it since Mikey really did seem mostly harmless, but habits died hard.

"What is there to do?"

"Stuff. Lots of stuff. But not here, I'm getting claustrophobic."

Chassidy stared down at Mikey for a silent moment. "Can we go by the apartments? I forgot a lot of my stuff there when I... left. And I don't want to go alone."

"Sure! First stop: Sunnyview Apartments."

"So, why'd you let him beat you up so much?" Michelangelo asked a few moments later as they made their way down the sewers in the direction, he said, of her apartments.

"I don't know." Chassidy shrugged, not looking up at her companion. "It was bearable at first. It was better than being out on the streets and selling by body for money."

"But not now."

"No. It's only going to get worse, and I'm not going to die at his hands. I'd rather sell my body than be dead."

"Selling your body would eventually kill you too." Mikey inserted, his voice serious and in no way playful. She shrugged.

"Those are my choices."

"Well not anymore. You can stay with us for however long you want. You don't have to live on the streets – live under them!" He nudged her shoulder, a grin splitting his face. Chassidy stumbled a little, cringing from his touch.

He sighed. "I'm not going to hurt you."

Chassidy cringed at the hurt tone in his voice. "You might not mean to..."

Without warning Mikey stopped moving and snatched her hand. Chassidy recoiled automatically, trying to pull her hand from his, but he held fast.

"Am I hurting you?"

No, he wasn't. His grip was firm – there was no way she was going to get her hand back from him if he didn't let her – but it wasn't painful.

"I want to hold your hand. Can I?" He slid his hand so their hands were clasping one another.

"I don't have much of an option, do I?" She stared pointedly at their hands.

"Of course you do!" He chirped and continued walking.

Chassidy muttered under her breath. "I'm starting to realize that means no."

Slowly she grew accustomed to her cold hand being in his warm one, their arms brushing against each other as they walked. His skin was slightly pebbled, but smooth and dry. She could feel calluses on the palm of his hand, most likely from his nunchucks. He was humming a tune she didn't know.

Before she knew it they were climbing up a ladder and slipping into the shadows. She recognized where they were – the apartments were just around the corner.

"You walk. I'll be in the shadows." He told her, then suddenly he was gone.

For the first time in the past couple of days she was alone.

The air was polluted, but at least it didn't have the heavy scent of smoke or sewer tinting it. She stood there for a moment feeling very vulnerable, debating if she wanted to retreat back into the sewers or curl up in the bed in the apartment and put up with Stone.

"Pssst." Mikey's voice called from above her head. "You can start moving now."

Chassidy's feet started to move before her mind did. She wasn't alone. Mikey was still here, though she couldn't see him. She didn't know WHERE he was, but he was there. It was reassuring enough for her to be able to walk to the apartments without scurrying.

Once there she came up against a large problem. Stone had changed the lock on the doors. She stood staring at key she had only because the always kept it in her pockets useless in the keyhole. It wouldn't turn. The key that they hid in the soil under the bush a foot away from the back door was missing. She checked any other places one would hide a key but found nothing.

A slight thump sounded behind her and then Mikey's hands landed on her shoulders. "What's up?"

He didn't pull away when she flinched. He kept his hands where they were and waited for her to settle under his touch.

"The door." She whispered, her voice wobbly from the strain of the night. "They key won't work."

"Oh, easy," he said stepping forward and pulling a nunchuck from his belt. "Ninja very wise, very sneaky." Adopting a thick, obviously fake Asian accent he picked at the end of one of his nunchucks and then screwed something loose. Pulling a few lock picks from the core of it, he flashed a full set of teeth at her and went to work.

"Raphael is the only other one who knows how to pick locks. Leo's too honorable, and Donny'd find another way around it. Raph and I, we're doers. Though nine times out of ten he'd just kick the door in." Mikey explained shrugging. "Raph's a scary ninja. And DUDE, don't piss him off. Because then Deadly Silent Ninja goes out the door and Violent Howling Banshee makes an appearance."

"Noted." Chassidy nodded her head, thinking of the dark, brooding brother she saw so little of. The lock clicked and Mikey opened the door.

"I'm a happy ninja. I don't kill unless I hafta and mostly use my Master Ninja Skills to annoy people."

Chassidy made a beeline for her room.

Their room was ransacked. It looked like Stone had thrown a royal temper tantrum and everything was ripped apart and broken. She stepped over the wreckage and made her way to the closet. She didn't really care about the furniture. Sure it was upsetting to see her stuff strewn about the floor like it was worthless, but what really mattered was hidden in the closet and untouched. Her clothes had been ripped off of the hangers and the boxes full of books and nick knacks on the top shelf had been thrown on the floor.

However her small box of the things she really cared about was untouched on the floor of the closet. In it were little things that reminded her of her parents and little sister, the better part of her life. A few pieces of jewelry and money she had saved up without Stone knowing. She picked up some of her clothing on the floor and found out that Stone had taken a knife to her favorite pieces.

Wanting to cry she grabbed a trash bag from the kitchen and put the clothing that wasn't slashed, her small box, and an extra pair of shoes. From the bathroom she salvaged her shampoo and conditioner as well as her apple-scented bubble bath and toothbrush.

With a bag full of her possessions over her shoulder she joined Mikey in the living room where he was vegetating in front of the television sitting back mostly on his shell and making a nice dent in the cushions.

Being in the apartment had felt like waking up from a dream. Everything – her escape from Stone, meeting mutant turtles, living in the sewers, meditating with a mutant rat – felt like a fuzzy fantasy she'd been floating through.

Seeing him sitting on the sofa, seeing his green domed melon head resting on the back of the sofa while his thick thumb tried to manipulate the remote control smacked her in the face. She stood in the ruin of her old life and realized the past couple of days really had been real. The apartment's dark shadows seemed lighter, the familiar scent of it sharper in her nose. The glare of the television light up his skin, showing the green hue with painful clarity.

He wasn't human. He wasn't normal. And he was real.

He turned around to face her, noticed her standing in the doorway to the bedroom behind him and smiled at her. "Ready to go?"

She watched with a sense of detached fascination as his lips moved, flashing huge white teeth. He didn't really look like a turtle.

"Chassidy?" He asked, blinking at her and then looking behind him at the TV, trying to figure out why she wasn't responding to him. Seeing a car commercial, he looked back at her. Yeah, she was looking at him. Why did she look like her brain had died? "You ready to go?"

Chassidy blinked hard, shook her head and took a deep breath.

"I didn't have much to get." She smiled in a fashion she hopped was convincingly lighthearted. Mikey watched her with suspicious eyes, suspicious, but not willing to call her on it. Determined to lighten the mood and help her cover her moment of bizarre staring, he jumped up from sofa and clapped his hands.

"Here, lemme have your bag." He grabbed the bag from her back before she could protest. "We can take the top-side route home if you want. April and Casey don't like being down in the sewers for too long so I figure you'd like the breath of fresh air." He smirked at her. "Though really there's nothing fresh about the air up here."

Once Chassidy closed the door to the apartment and turned around, she found herself alone again. Chassidy tried to peer into the shadows, searching for the mutant who was her only form of protection at the moment, even reached out a hand to wave in the darker spots. The hair on the back of her neck was beginning to stand up straight.

Chassidy had a very distinct dislike of being alone. Lately it had gotten much, much worse. At this very moment the last thing she wanted to be was alone. Anything, anyone was better than being alone. Even Stone.

"Ummm, Michelangelo?"

"Right here, babe." He called to her but the voice didn't seem to come from any one place.

"I think it'd be better if we went the sewer way." She couldn't help that her voice was starting to creep up in octave. Her back was starting to become very sensitive like there was someone behind her, ready to attack. She leaned her back up against the outside wall of the apartments in an attempt to make the feeling go away.

Mikey fell from the sky to land two feet in front of her. She jumped, startled, and gasped loudly.

"Calm, smooth, happy." He said, making a petting gesture with his hand in the air. "Are you sure you don't want to go for a walk?"

"Positive." She told him, her shoulders still hunched up around her ears, her hands clasped in fists under her chin. "Please. I don't feel safe alone here."

"No problemo." He said and handed her back her trash bag of belongings while he sauntered to a manhole cover and climbed down inside.

"Jump!" he suggested playfully at the bottom of the ladder as Chassidy awkwardly made her way down with the bag over her shoulder. "I'll catch you!" She ignored him.

"At least drop the bag. You're taking too long."

The temptation to drop the bag down on his head was very strong, but she managed to squash it. She was just tense from... everything.

When she finally reached the sewer floor, she refused to give Mikey her bag though he asked for it. "It's my stuff, I carry it." He shrugged.

"Why do you treat me like this?" She asked, more than a little irritated at him. He had been on her back, following her around, talking to her when she didn't want to talk to anyone, touching her when she didn't want to be touched, ever since she met him.

"Like what?"

"Why do you pay so much attention to me, why do you want to talk to me?"

"Because I like you."

That startled her. "What? Why?"

Mikey opened up his mouth to reply, paused, then thought for a moment. "I dunno. I just do."

"You shouldn't; I'm messed up. I'm jumpy, I have trust issues, I'm needy and clingy, but I don't like being touched. And I've got bruises from head to toe – though I'm hardly a pretty sight on a normal day."

"The bruises will fade. And maybe I see you as a challenge."

Chassidy stared at him and he stared back. She wasn't exactly sure what she thought about that. Was she insulted because he was only interested in her because she was a challenge? Was she a challenge? If she was a challenge to Mikey, how would he know when he'd conquered her? What was he trying to accomplish? Making her like him? And why would he care if she liked him or not?

By silent agreement they made their way back to the sewer without saying anything else. Chassidy blanked her brain in self-defense. If she thought one more thought her brain was sure to pop and ooze out of her ears.

Mikey started to hum again. The melody provided her with something light and uncomplicated to concentrate on.