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.
Author's Notes: Up until now I was a few chapters ahead of the game. However, now I've run out of chapters between me and what's next so chances are it's going to be awhile until chapter ten gets put up. I'll try to have something finished for next week, but most likely there is going to be a two-week gap between updates. Sorry peeps.
Chapter Nine:
"I'm kind of glad the others aren't assigned to this. It's a bit of an ego trip." Donny confided in Leo as they hunched in the bushes beyond the chain link fence around the NAMR building. They both were bundles of suppressed energy. The night before after telling Splinter what they had learned from observation, they had given permission to begin making blueprints of the premises. Donatello had been unable to find the original blueprints even though he had spent the nights he wasn't on observation duty scouring the internet for them. The building had been high security and abandoned before the internet had become such a huge vessel of information.
"It's easiest this way. Raphael is high risk at the moment; his emotions are too raw for whatever reason. And Mikey doesn't like this kind of thing. We don't need the muscles of four just yet."
"I know Master Splinter discourages any kind of conclusion-making, but I think Raphael's bent out of shape over a girl."
Leonardo sighed and nodded his head. "I think so too."
They stared at the building unseeing, their thoughts on their temperamental brother.
"When do you think he met her? Was she like April? Or is that why he's so upset – she didn't accept him?"
Leo placed a hand on Donny's shell and gave his brother a stern, telling glance. Don nodded and sighed, giving up his train of thought, though he hated leaving a problem alone without either thinking it into submission or working it out.
"Either way, he needs a little time to recuperate. He takes things very personally and can't just bounce back from whatever obviously hurt him."
"Yeah."
"Stay here and I'll sneak closer for an hour. If I'm not out by then, come and get me. If I am, we'll switch until we've got the whole place mapped out."
"Good thing I've got a photogenic memory." Donny chuckled. "Right now all we can do is draw in the dirt until we get back to the den and I can draw up a map." Leo grinned and inched closer to the slash in the fence the brothers had fixed to appear normal at a glance.
The Foot were too dependent on the remote location and the few, easily guarded entrances of the building, so the perimeter wasn't well guarded and when someone was stuck with patrolling the area, they didn't look too closely, not expecting to find something suspicious.
If the slash were found, the brothers could find another way in, but for now it was the easiest and most resourceful way.
Bending the fence outward so he could ease his body through the opening, Leo silently made his way to the building and the least monitored entrance.
Chassidy was thinking on the sofa, curled up in a nest of blankets in her own little world when Raphael came into the den. He entered from the sewers.
She had seen him only a handful of times and each time she could feel the suppressed violence radiating off of him like electricity. She did not talk to him, barely glanced at him, and always tried to pretend she was part of the furniture when he was in the room.
However, this time, no matter how still she held herself – like prey sensing a predator nearby - he noticed her.
"You still here?"
She nodded jerkily, her eyes wide and scared.
"Your bruises look better."
Blinking furiously, startled by his words, she nodded again.
"You got a name?" He shifted his weight so his body was angled towards her – she had his full and undivided attention.
"Chassidy." She murmured quietly. "Raph." He replied, jerking his head in a slight nod.
The violence in his demeanor had simmered down. He wasn't nearly as intimidating as he'd been storming in from the sewers.
"You gonna be here long?"
"I don't know. I need to find a new place to stay."
"Just don't touch my stuff and we can be friends." With that he turned on his heel and stormed towards his room.
Chassidy opened her mouth to tell him she wouldn't dream of it, but he had slipped out of hearing range by the time she could take in a breath. Letting it out in a soft sigh, she stared at the floor again, her brain chewing both her encounter with Raphael and what she was going to do now that she had officially moved out of Stone's place.
She had only this day left before she would have to return to work. She couldn't afford to not work anymore, and with enough make up and winter clothes she could hide the worst of the bruises. The sooner she went back to work the sooner she could get out from under Splinter and his sons' feet.
She'd have to find a roommate, though, because she could not imagine living in an apartment by herself. And that meant searching for someone because she had no friends to ask. Maybe she could put a ad out in a newspaper or as Danny to find someone. Or ask Danny himself.
Chassidy felt a pulling on her toes that were tucked under two layers of blankets and blinked her eyes into focus. She found Michelangelo with his arm stuck under the blankets, his grin wicked and unrepentant.
"Hi. You were thinking pretty hard. I got within your person bubble without even trying."
Pulling her toes away from his reach and tucking both her feet into the crack of the cushions, Chassidy gave Mikey a small smile. "Hi."
"Whatcha thinking 'bout?"
"Stuff. Money. An apartment." She rested her crossed arms on her bent knees. He retrieved his arm from under the blankets.
"But I thought you were going to stay with us for a while."
"I am. I'm going back to work tomorrow, and I'll stay here until I can move into an apartment."
"Oh. I thought it would be longer than that." His tone was definitely disappointed.
"I'll probably be here a month before I can afford an apartment and find a roommate."
Was that a pout? Chassidy couldn't help staring at what was the closest thing to a pout she imagined his beak-like mouth could manage.
"Where do you work? You want me to walk you there when you go?"
She wanted to be strong enough to tell him no, but her vocal chords and mouth produced "Sure." Instead of the "Thanks but no thanks," she should have told him. She felt guilty about it, but couldn't dredge up enough guilt to change her mind. All she felt was relief. It was so easy to depend on him to protect her. And his protection didn't come with any strings attached.
Or, at least nothing more demanding than friendship. It made it very easy for her to say yes to him.
"I need to be to work at 7 o'clock tomorrow morning, though."
"Wow. You should be in bed, then."
"I'm not tired." She sighed. "I only woke up about six hours ago. I'll just put up with being tired tomorrow."
Mikey shrugged turned around to sit on the floor and wedge his side against the front of the couch near her feet.
"Any ideas about what you want to do to pass the time?" He flopped an arm over her feet and two layers of blankets. She could feel the weight of his arm on the tops of her feet and shifted them so they were hidden farther in between the cushions.
"No. I'll need to take a nap, though, closer to 7."
"But until then?" He tapped his lower lip with a finger. "Wanna take a walk? I can put my disguise on and walk with you – not enough shadows to hide in without it."
"Not really."
"Wanna cook up a snack?"
Chassidy considered that one. She wasn't a good cook, but she did well enough to make hot, filling meals on very little. Stone had complained that she didn't make good food, and it was one thing she didn't strive to become better at because he didn't beat her for it. Just whined about it. Cooking wasn't something she liked doing – she only did it because it was cheaper.
"I am a little hungry."
"Great! Lets make cookies."
Leo returned within half an hour. His face was blank, but that meant whatever he was feeling was strong and he wanted to hide it from his brother. Donny tensed. This wasn't good.
"I don't like this." Leo whispered as they settled in the bushes. "There aren't a lot of Foot inside... in fact it looks like there are only ten or so of them. Either they haven't been as successful at recruiting as Chassidy suspected or they're somewhere else. A more important somewhere else."
"That's not good. If this is their secondary base then we're doomed."
They shared a concerned glance, then watched the NAMR building for a while.
"Here is what I found out so far." Leo said dragging a thick finger through the dirt. "The place is like a maze and there are a lot of big, sprawling rooms. They look like they used to be laboratories. Now the rooms are completely bare, cold, and dusty."
"Let me go in." Donny said after Leo finished doodling in the dirt. He memorized the makeshift map and nodded. "Let's see what I can find out."
"This time take an hour." Leo suggested. "The place's very complicated and confusing, we'll need the extra time. But be more careful."
Donny nodded and made his way to the slit in the fence.
Cooking with Michelangelo was an adventure. Doing anything with Mikey was an adventure but so far cooking topped the list.
The kitchen of the shelter was an absolute mess. He used five bowls to mix the ingredients in and had flour on his face, arms, and legs. Chassidy had managed to get very little on her mainly because Mikey did all of the hands-on stuff. Chassidy oversaw. And chewed on her lip so much to keep from laughing that the inside of her lip was raw and possibly bleeding.
He had talked her into going to the shelter because the den didn't have a stove or oven big or good enough to make cookies in. She tried to back out, saying she didn't want cookies anymore, but he was stubborn and had a craving that would not be denied. Which meant he wouldn't be denied and that Chassidy bent to his will once again.
In the end there were five batches of cookies and 2/3rds of the unburned ones went to the homeless shelter whose kitchen they had hijacked. They kept at least a handful of the best looking ones for the two of them to share. His brothers would have to choke down the borderline batch they had kept. Chassidy had been in charge of the stove since she assumed just from what she knew about him – which wasn't that much, really – that he'd forget about them after two minutes, maybe three.
He proved her right and was engrossed in squishing his fingers in the cookie batter to pull the cookies out in time. The batch was borderline because she wasn't sure how long the cookies were supposed to be in there, and Mikey had no clue either. He made the batter from memory and guessed at the temperature and time.
The good batch came from her watching them like a hawk, completely ignoring Mikey's attempt at distracting conversation. He pouted and complained, and she rolled her eyes at him, her actions hidden as she had her back to him
"Well it's later now, and we did our good deed of the day." He announced, a cookie soaking in the glass of milk he had poured.
Chassidy nodded, enjoying the cold slide of the milk down her throat.
"I'll walk you home too."
"Okay." She felt like such a coward, but she wasn't strong, had never claimed to be. Someday she'd be able to say no, to choose the harder road because it was the strong thing to do. But not now. Not today.