The Legacy

Disclaimer: I deny any ownership of any adult or adolescent transformed shadow warrior chelonians.

Chapter Nine - Gone Fishing

Karena:

I'd been down in the turtles subterranean home for about two weeks, and I was by now fully healthy. I knew that I was welcome to stay or leave but since I really had no place to go and no idea of how I would get there, even if I did, I was quite willing to stay.

April and Casey had been kind enough to loan me some money, they called it a loan with no worries attached; meaning I was to pay them back whenever I was able to do so. April was also kind enough to find me some spare clothes so that I wouldn't have to wear the same thing continually.

I knew that I didn't fell trapped or held hostage by the turtles and I had time to get to know all of the family over the last few weeks, though Leo had been rather elusive. I knew that I could leave but I really didn't want to as I wanted to learn more about my new friends.

I especially enjoyed Mike's daughter, gosh she was a handful sweet and endearing but at the same time a total terror. I had all ready begun to teach her simple jokes, like knock-knocks and why did the chicken cross the road, and she had learned them quickly.

I had to laugh at her many practical jokes or 'presents,' as she called them as if to make the recipient feel they were well thought of.

She seemed to give plenty of her 'presents' to Splinter and to her Uncle Raphael. The other day she had brought Raph a can of well shook up soda for him, while Splinter got chocolate sauce in his tea.

While I adored her lively antics I knew she wasn't the main reason why I stayed.

I knew in my heart that I stayed for one reason and one alone, any thing else I could think of was simply excuses. I knew that I stayed because of Leo, there was something about the whole way he handled himself that I just loved to watch or be around.

Funny thing was, he hardly seemed to know that I existed. Oh sure, he would pass my by and do polite conversation, the hi how are you sort of talk in passing then excuse himself to hurry off on some sort of business.

I found the closest I could get to him was when he was teaching Ramiela, yeah I only got to watch him from the sidelines but at least he couldn't escape from me.

I sat on a small bench in the dojo watching as Leo sat on the floor beside Ramiela.

" I want to play a game with you today" he told her.

I saw her perk up at his words.

Leo brought out a deck of cards and laid a few of the cards on the floor between them face up, " This is a special deck of cards Ramiela. Now first off I have to see if you know the pictures on each of these cards." Leo pointed to the card on his right.

" Shurien, Staff, sword, sai," Rama stated as he pointed to each card in turn.

" Very good. Now I am going hold up a card so you can't see it. I want you to concentrate, which means you must think very hard, and tell me what you think is on each card." Leo explained, " Your dad will write down your answers then we will see how many cards you got right."

" Okay" Rama beamed.

I was puzzled not quite understanding the lesson Leo was trying to teach with this game, but by the end Rama had gotten ten out of twenty five right, of course some of her correct answers had to be due to the odds of chance alone.

" Well done Ramiela but you have to concentrate much harder if you want to get them all right. Next time I want to see if you can get fifteen right okay?"

" All right Sensei, I try to get more right next time" Rama agreed.

Then Leo took her into the main part of her lesson so I assumed that the card game was Leo's way of getting her to focus and pay attention, pretty sneaky of him.

He definitely could get through to the rambunctious Rama and while I could tell that he cared for her, he knew when to draw the line or take command and it was clear to me that Rama was fully aware of it as well.

I had to admire Leo for so many little things that I saw. I knew that his brothers refer to him as 'the great leader' or 'the perfect son.' I could see how he had earned both of those nick names, for he carried a great deal of responsibility on his young shoulders but he did handle it well for the most part.

Yes, he was the reason I stayed but I wondered at times if I was just being foolish or perhaps was overstaying my welcome to some extent, in spite of how the family treated me, after all I was sure that the invitation to stay was not meant to last forever.

I wanted a chance to get to know Leo better but didn't know how I could manage that when he hardly gave me the time of day, so I decided to talk to one of the family.

Of course I didn't know if Splinter would approve my interest in Leonardo. I felt that Don might be difficult to talk to, not that he was difficult to converse with he was calm understanding but he often seemed so busy with his lab experiments and creations that I felt it might be wrong of me to disturb him. Raph was pessimistic, or perhaps realistic might be a more appropriate term. He was a hard bitter cynical as if he knew about life and the hand it dealt out, but he was a survivor and fighter. Still I had a feeling one did not talk to Raphael about in depth stuff unless you knew him well. Mike seemed easy to approach the most sociable of the bunch and he often joked that he do just about any thing for adult conversation.

It was easy enough to see where Rama got her sense of humour and I had rarely seen a father as devoted as Mike was to her.

I found Mike, Rama and Raph in the playground area, it was a large section of pipe, with the ceiling high above, I had been told by Don that while most of the sewer tunnels were just large enough for a human to stand in there were a few places that seemed large, open caverns. It made sense for the boys to utilize one of these caverns to make it a place to play.

At the moment the three of them were on a small thin board about six feet off the ground, between two fort like structures at either end. I knew Raph and Mike would not come to harm if they fell from such a height but Rama possibly could.

Mike spotted me and waved " Hey Karena come on up and play" he urged.

I gave a slow uneasy shake of my head " Uh, no thanks." I replied uneasily.

Mike gave an indifferent shrug before he did a back flip landing with ease on the board, that manoeuvre was enough to set my heart racing.

" Again daddy!" Rama squealed with delight clapping her hands and jumping up and down causing the board to wobble slightly, I winced sure that she was going to fall at any moment due to her antics alone.

" Again? Hmmm, Okay" Mike agreed with that he did a series of flips one after the other right to the fort's secure platform. " Come on Rama try to catch me" Mike urged gesturing to her.

Rama yelped and took off running nimble over the board and into her dad's waiting arms, Mike hugged her and then sprang to his feet leaping off the edge of the fort and grapping a rope, which he used to swing to the ground on.

" You sure you don't want to play Karena it is loads of fun?" he coaxed.

I gulped backing up and shaking my head " No I really don't think so, thanks any ways Mike."

He gave a little laugh, " Aw come on it is a real blast." He must have seen the look on my face for he grinned " or maybe not."

" Aren't you a little afraid of Rama getting hurt on some of that equipment or falling?" I asked curiously.

" Not really, it doesn't look that safe but trust me it is a lot sturdier then you think. Besides Karena children are always falling down and getting hurt suffering the occasional broken bone, scrape, cut or bruise, it is all a part of life" He replied, " Besides this is good training for her. Learning to be ninja is not a pain free profession."

Ninja, Ninjitsu that was the art form Splinter had trained the boys in or so I had learned but as far as I knew it was just another Asian fighting skill like many other martial arts one could find or learn from, whether it was karate, kung fu, tae kwon do or some other martial art, did it really matter? Probably not. I had watched only a small portion of one of the boy's work outs and had been amazed at how fast they had seemed to move, the force and the power they used had been more then frightening.

" So" Mike drawled rousing me from my thoughts and bringing me back to the present " If you don't want to play then what are you doing here?" He wondered.

" I was hoping we could talk alone." I replied simply.

" Oh!" Mike blinked once or twice then gave a wry grin, " gee, um you know this is all kind of a sudden there Karena…"

I laughed a little " No you have it wrong I want to talk about your brother" I corrected him.

" You dig Raph" he beamed, " Cool!"

I shook my head " No Leo" I informed him.

" Oh Leeeooooo" he said drawing the name out, " You go for the serious types do you?" He arched an eye ridge " I'm just kidding. Hold on a second Karena I'll be right back."

I watched as he climbed with effortless ease back up towards Rama and Raph, he spoke quietly with Raph before jumping straight down and landing with a cat like grace.

" Raph is going to keep Rama out of our way until lunch. Want some tea?" He asked as he steered me towards the kitchen and gestured me to sit down at the table.

" No I just want to know a little more about Leo." I confessed.

He shrugged " So, what do you want to know, I may not divulge all of his secrets but if you pay me enough I can promise you girl, you'll have some real incredible stuff on our fearless leader."

" I just want to know basics I guess. I mean it seems to me that Leo has been avoiding me and I was just wondering if I had offended him in any way. I haven't insulted him have I?" I asked. I was sure that I must have done something to cause Leo to be so distant with me now.

Mike paused in thought as he considered my question before replying with one of his own " You haven't maligned Splinter in any way have you?"

" No of course not" I was appalled that he would even think of such a thing.

" Then you haven't offended Leo. Quickest way to do that is to bad mouth Splinter" Mike assured me " Of course if you had let such a thing slip he would have informed you, quite respectfully mind you, that such a comment wouldn't be that polite of you."

I sighed with relief, then almost instantly scowled " Then why do I feel like I have done something wrong Mike?" I demanded to know, " At first when I was in the infirmary he would visit with me and we'd talk but all of a sudden it just stopped."

Mike nodded " Now it seems like he is far to busy to even bother saying hi, always seems to be pressed for time things to do" he stated knowingly.

" Exactly" I huffed sitting back in the chair and crossing my arms over my chest.

" The only reason Leo was with you in the infirmary to begin with was he wanted to figure you out. See if you were possibly a threat to us." Mike explained.

" How could I ever be a threat to you muscle bound guys, I don't even know self defence never mind the work outs you all do." I pointed out.

" No offence Karena but a single human could endanger our lives and existence, all it would take is for one person to harbour ulterior motives or talk to much generating suspicion and fear" Mike paused shook his head, " fear is a powerful motivator, but it does funny things to people when they get together. If Leo had felt that you were a threat he would have taken you to a hospital, after we had fixed you up."

" He told me all about you guys when I first came awake though, if he taken me to a hospital I still could have said something" I pointed out reasonably.

" True. However ninja have ways of changing others realities." Mike spoke mysteriously.

I looked for the familiar twinkle in his eye that would tell me he was having me on. I didn't see it but I knew every thing Mike said could not always be taken seriously.

" Besides a doctor hears you mumbling on about such a story, he'd put it down as head trauma, or subconscious dream state" Mike rolled his eyes and laughed " Nothing more then fig leaves of your imagination girl."

" Fig leaves?" I repeated.

" Very large green fig leaves" Mike nodded, " Leo also spent time with you at first, just to ensure you were going to be all right and didn't suffer any complications. Leo knows about complications, he has dealt with Raph after all."

I chuckled at that remark " So that was all it was, Leo just wanted to make sure I was all right, in more ways then one?"

" Fraid so Karena."

" So why doesn't he just ask me to leave?" I wondered aloud.

" It wouldn't be polite Karena. We have offered you our help, so until you leave our home, of your own free will, you are a welcomed guest" Mike explained, " You may stay as long as you feel it is necessary for you to stay. It would be dishonourable of us, to call you our guest, then insist you leave the moment we are bored of you." Mike sounded shocked, " That is your choice alone to make Karena, and you will know when it is time to move on. When you do we will give you our blessing and hope that our paths cross again in the future." He sat back contentedly in his chair.

" Have you ever had a guest you thought might betray you or cause you some problem later on?" I inquired.

" Yeah it does happen" Mike admitted, " not often thankfully we know most of our guests have a bit of the undesirable quality to them but we are intuitive and can pick up on stuff easily for the most part."

" What do you do if you are wrong though, I mean it happens right?"

" It has at least once had to use a bit of muscle and run the person out, get up and in their face, really intimidating and threatening, just enough to make them think twice." Mike answered " It is for the most part a risk we have to, and are willing to take. Look Karena we don't have a lot of time here, you asked to talk about Leo but if we get sidetracked you won't learn much." He declared casually as if it didn't matter to him one way or another. " But I am kind of interested in knowing are you in to him in kind of a romantic way?"

I could feel a warm blush rise to my face at that unexpected question. Mike chuckled a bit then whistled a few short notes.

" All righty then I think that answers my question. So when did it start, if you don't mind my asking that is?"

" I guess about the first time we talked, he was so composed so polite. He…I don't know. You have heard of love at first sight. Well for me it was more love at first hearing him talk" I was flustered and didn't know if I was making much sense but I continued my ramblings " I felt safe with him, and that I could trust him even though I was terrified."

I almost expected Mike to make fun of me but instead he gave me a knowing look.

" Leo does have that way about him, very charismatic" he smiled, " I think he reminds women of knights of old or the time when men were gentlemen and women were ladies. What ever it is Leo really ought to try and bottle it for selling, we'd make a fortune" Mike claimed. " Thing is though Karena Leo doesn't have a great deal of time for relationships he has to teach Rama, over see our workouts, keep tabs on what is going on topside and here at home," Mike began listing some of the duties Leo was responsible for " Arrange patrol shifts to guard the city, keep things running smoothly, care for problems that arise in the home between people, meditate, research things and that is only the tip of the iceberg" Mike exhaled " His priority to us comes first. No female guest has ever gotten Leo's attention though many have tried. Leo refuses to go there though, he won't date and doesn't want to get messed up in a relationship that might only cause problems for everyone." Mike cast me an apologetic look " He is our leader Karena and one day when Splinter is too old to continue or has past on he will be the head of our family and it will be up to him to make some very important decisions. That is where his training is taking him Karena."

" Leo has to take some time for himself though" I disputed.

Mike agreed quickly " Of course he does. That is when he can be found perfecting some training aspect, working out new katas, meditating or reading up on one of his favourite subjects."

Ah, ha. Finally! I thought to myself before pouncing " So what does Leo read?"

" Books on strategy, fighting arts, meditation, enlightenment that sort of thing." Mike replied easily.

I shook my head in frustration and gave vent to a loud exasperated sigh " There is a whole world out there, things that Leo could be doing or…" I began.

Mike reached across the table and took my hands " Don't get me wrong Karena, but it isn't for Leo. Personally I think that it would do him a world of good to get into a relationship as long as it was with the right person." Mike soothed, " he could use someone that would be able to help him relax and unwind as well as take him away from all his responsibilities every once in a while. He deserves a break more then any of us do" Mike smiled and spoke almost reflectively " Leo has always taken his training far more seriously, then the rest of us took ours. For the rest of us it keeps us alive and we can care for ourselves, for Leo it always has been much more then that. Splinter took what Leo showed and helped him build on it, to make him who he is today, our leader." He gave a sad shake of his head " Leo really didn't get to have much of a childhood mind ya and much as I would love to see Leo in a relationship I wouldn't want it to be a fling or a passing fancy. If you get my meaning."

I looked him straight on " You mean the ones that love them and leave them category?"

Mike nodded slightly " See if someone wasn't serious about things, well, Leo could get hurt in the fallout. Leo is the sort that once he trust you, he will do so for life but he also is aware that by giving his love he is giving you the means to hurt him and his family." Mike paused his eyes took on a firmer look his tone became more serious " So word of advice Karena before you go chasing after Leo, figure out if you truly want to be with him for the rest of your life."

" Okay Mike" I nodded, " Hypothetically speaking, if after deciding that I do want to get involved how do I go about getting his attention?"

Mike smiled " Do you spar, can you handle a sword?" he shot out.

" No on both counts" I replied, " I told you I don't even know self defence" I reminded him.

" So you did" Mike admitted then smiled " I guess you aren't going to impress him that way then. Now if you could fight and offered up a bit of a challenge to him, then he might, just might, get intrigued by you" he gave a sad shake of his head, " it would take far too long to train you that point now. Don't even bother asking Leo for lessons on self defence it has been used before. Leo just gets Raph to teach the guest who ask him for lessons, so he doesn't have to waste his time with love sick pupils fawning all over him and not really learning anything." Mike laughed.

It seemed that what ever I felt for Leo might always be one sided, and yet I knew enough to know that I did care for him and wanted to learn more about him. Maybe though from, everything Mike said I just had to wonder if I was wasting my time.

I saw Mike give me a sympathetic look, and realized I must have shown how dejected and rejected I suddenly felt.

" Don't feel too bad Karena, Leo just has other priorities that demand a great deal of his time. If you somehow manage to do the impossible and do what no one else has ever been capable of then all I ask is, Don't hurt him." Mike's voice grew hard and his eyes took on a sharp menacing look as he said the last three words.

I almost detected a hint of a threat in them. It was clear to me that Mike had a fierce loyalty towards Leo, he might not show it or act upon it all of the time but there was no mistaking it either.

All playfulness was gone and for a brief instant I had no doubt that I had been warned and his warning was quite clear.

Suddenly, I wondered if he felt this sort of protection to all of his brother's or if it was just Leo? Perhaps after having Shay leave him the way she had, Mike might not want any of his brother's really, getting involved in spite of what he might say to the contrary.

To test out that theory I asked " What if I decided to go for one of you instead of Leo?"

Mike grinned " it wouldn't matter then Karena. We need Leo to be the calm controlled leader, ready to give us advice and take charge during serious problems, if he can't do that we could all be in major life and death problem" Mike explained, " Look Karena there is a gang or, clan, of ninja that operates in New York. The Foot clan is highly secretive and they pull off a lot of crimes in this city from smuggling, drugs, assassination you name it. We are the only ones who stand in their way. In many ways we are at war with the Foot."

I gasped at his words not sure if I could believe it or not but the way he spoke told me that he wasn't lying to me about it. Before I had a chance to fully grasp his last words he was speaking again.

" We could die in battle with the Foot if Leo doesn't have it together, the fact that we are still alive today says something for Splinter's training and Leo's role of leader to us." He smirked a bit, " In the same way though if you were to go with Don, Raph or even myself then bail out later it wouldn't matter so much. Sure we will be hurting and might not be acting at our best but it is part of Leo's job to hold us together or decide if we ought to sit out on some action."

Suddenly I understood the importance of Mike's words about why he didn't want Leo being hurt. I knew it would take time to understand everything he had told me to this point.

I nodded " Thanks Mike I think you have given me a great deal of information for right now."

" Good! You don't have to tell me what you intend to do with it Karena, that is really none of my business. Just keep everything I said about Leo in mind." Mike stated as he stood up to start preparing lunch for the family.

" I will Mike. I appreciate your insight," I admitted.

I realized two things then, first was I felt bad for Leo having so little time for himself, living the sort of hectic high stress life that could take years off the average person, and could very well be shortening his life span. He needed to take time for himself, to have some peace and quiet. He had more then earned it.

The other was I'd have to work harder then I had first thought if I was going try to get his attention, though that task now seemed far more daunting then it had at first. It was going be a challenge for me, but as I hadn't done anything to make him reject me, then I felt that I stood a fair chance.

Course the whole idea of them being at war was going involve some further consideration all on its own, and I ought to consider that first because if I wanted to stay out of the war then I'd have to stay away from the turtles themselves.

" You know Karena, I have to admit you are the first guest who tried to figure out what makes Leo tick. Most of our guests made fools of themselves and Leo knew what they wanted long before hand. He wasn't quite impressed by some of their antics either." Mike chuckled.

I smiled at his words; I had a feeling that talking to him about Leo had brought me up in his estimation at least.

TBC

Kitty Katty Blu: Thanks for the heads up on that one. I made the correction on it thanks to your eagle eyes. A gratitude for your insight.

Reinbeauchaser: That ah ha, moment as you call it won't be for awhile yet. I think it comes near the end of the story if memory serves me right. Course anyone familiar with Rama is fully aware of what the problem is at this stage of the game but, when I first wrote this everyone was in the dark and it was quite the mystery that I had to solve, myself before it could be revealed. Course I had help Rama told me. A gratitude for your insight.