I was dreaming blurry images: Some of home, some of the city. Nothing concrete. I heard movement and snuggled deeper into the warm bed I was laying on not wanting to get up. The bed smelled like Leonardo. I could feel myself murmur lightly in my sleep, nuzzling the pillow still half dreaming. I heard a bang and sat bolt up right, surprised.

I saw Melinda, across the room holding her foot cursing under her breath. She had stubbed her toe on Leonardo's desk. My eyes grew as wide as silver dollars. Several different emotions flooded through me. At first I thought I had to still be dreaming. I couldn't be seeing the sight in front of me, slowly as the cool air hit my face and I awoke more fully I realized what I was seeing was indeed real.

"Melinda?" I was almost scared to speak her name. Afraid if I did she would disappear. She turned from tending to her injured foot to look at me. Her eyes too grew wide and I saw guilt rush across her face. She looked away biting her lip I don't think she was certain what to say.

Finally she just said a quiet greeting. "Hello, Lea." I jumped out of the bed surprised. I was just kind of staring at her. Like I couldn't believe she was real. Yet here she was standing in front of me in her pajamas nonetheless.

"Mel, where did you come from, how…how did you get here?" I looked at her shock blatant on my expression. She was still looking away. I could tell she felt badly for everything that had happened between us in the last few days, but truthfully that was unimportant to me at the moment. Right now I was more concerned about her, and mending our friendship currently then what had happened a few hours before.

"Casey brought me here. Lea, I realized a lot of things after I helped you and Don escape. I know what I did was wrong, but I got so sucked up into everything and I feel so stupid. I know I don't deserve it, but I hope you can forgive me for everything that has happened to you in the last few days because of me." She looked so ashamed. It broke my heart. I walked towards her a soft expression on my face. I punched her playfully in the arm.

"Don't be an idiot. Of coarse I forgive you. We all make mistakes, all that matters is that when you realized what you had done was wrong you changed it. And you're here now, which makes me so happy. I was so worried, Sis." Tears welled up into my eyes; I turned from her fighting them off. I felt I had cried too much in the last few days.

Melinda looked at me a little shocked. Like she couldn't quite believe I had just forgiven her like that. "Lea, thank you." Tears welled in her eyes also, she stepped forward and hugged me, and I returned the hug and smiled, sniffling.

"Yeah, well it's good you showed up!" I started to walk over to where my bag was and kneeling down started to dig through it. "I was going to go looking for you, you know! Brave Saki and that ugly Hun guy and save you." I looked up at her giving her a lop-sided grin. One she barely returned.

"You shouldn't have bothered Sis, I'm not worth it and Saki…" I saw her visibly shiver. I was about to ask what had happened when there was a knock at the door. We both jumped as it opened and Don peeked in.

"Hey I heard Melinda came back…" He looked between us his eyes falling to Mel. I saw him start to color and turned to follow his gaze to realize Melinda was in her pajamas and that was getting a rather amusing reaction out of him. I sat back on my haunches and just watched the two.

"Umm… yeah I got in last night. Leo let me crash here." Melinda too was turning bright red. I had to bite my lip to stifle the giggle that was trying to escape. The two of them then proceeded to stand there kind of blankly and stare at one another. I watched. Wondering who was going to speak first, Don won.

"Yeah well, umm… you look a little indisposed, so I'll be downstairs if you need anything." He quickly backed away having regained his composer enough to realize that he looked a little silly. I smiled; this was too adorable for words.

"Well thanks, Don, I umm, I'm glad to be back here with you…ohh…I mean everyone." Melinda turned even redder. I had to turn my face away from them. I had to be grinning from ear to ear. Don flushed and quickly shut the door. Melinda stood staring at the wooden backside of it for a few moments. I finally lost it and fell over backwards laughing. It felt good. It was a nice reprise form the stress of the last few days.

Melinda turned to glare at me. "What's so funny!" She pouted as she walked over to her bags that where on the floor next to where she had been sleeping. I sat back up again and started to sort out clothes for myself for the day.

"It's you two! You're so cute." I sighed picking out a light pink shirt and some jeans. Laying them down I went to make Leo's bed. I started to straighten the blankets; fishing out my Kakashi plushie I had been sleeping with. I got the blankets perfect and laid the pillows on top of them. Without thinking I buried my face against one and inhaled. Smelling Leonardo on it, I smiled softly to myself.

"What are you doing?" I flushed realizing that Melinda had been watching me. I felt stupid, suddenly, I had been underground too long it was starting to affect my brain.

"Nothing, just making the bed." I replied back shortly. Gently laying Kakashi in the middle between the pillows.

"Sure, I smell the pillows EVERYTIME I make the bed." Mel gave me a skeptical look. I shrugged it off.

"I am going to go shower." I began to gather my things. "Someone should be making breakfast downstairs if you are hungry." I saw Melinda freeze a little. I think she was nervous about going down. I grabbed my bag of shampoo type items and smiled at her. "Don't worry, Sis, Leo let you stay and Don's so thrilled about you being here he ran RIGHT up to see you." I giggled. "Mike won't care about anything as long as Don is happy and who cares what Raphael thinks." I made a face. "Now GO! Eat!" I grinned and she nodded at me.

"Okay…okay. Are you sure everything is okay between us, Sis?" Melinda still seemed scared.

"I am positive! Now I need to shower! GO!" I laughed as I half pushed her out the door. She was still buttoning her shirt and protested, but I didn't care. I threw my hair up in a loose bun quickly before leaving the room and picking up all my things again, grabbed the knob to exit and nearly collided right with Leonardo.

My body bumped into his, and I dropped my toothpaste right onto the floor. We both stood staring at one another for a moment. I could feel myself color. Watching his eyes. Seeing him looking at me. I stood trying to gauge his expression, trying to read what he was thinking. His hand reached out to lightly touch my face. I could almost feel my pupils dilate as he touched me.

"Did you sleep well?" He voice had a husky quality to it. Like he was trying to control something pent inside of him. I flushed and bit my lip. Wondering briefly why he wasn't downstairs eating with everyone.

"Yeah, your bed it's very comfortable. It makes me feel at home." I backed up a step; my shoulders collided with the frame of the door. I wasn't really fearful just very uncertain about what I was feeling at the moment. He noticed my retreat his hand that had been rubbing my cheek fell swiftly back down to his side. He cleared his throat.

"Yeah, well, I just wanted to let you know, that Mike made eggs, if you're hungry." He bent down to retrieve my almost forgotten toothpaste and held it out to me. "Mel came down. I was wondering if you were still asleep."

I took the toothpaste, our hands touching. I felt my heart race. I couldn't believe my emotions. I stomped on them. I was acting the way I used to back in high school when I had a crush on someone. Sure Leonardo was incredibly sweet and caring, but what kind of relationship could strike up between us. He needed someone at his standard that was as amazing of a person as he was. Not some whiney little crybaby like me, who would be going home soon anyway. I wasn't worthy of him.

"I am going to shower first, but thanks for telling me." There was regret in my voice I wanted to hide it, but I couldn't. The two of us stood and looked at one another for a few moments longer

"I think you should go down." He looked away from me. His voice was strained. "Raphael will want the shower when he's done eating." I stepped away from him, still studying him, confused. I pushed aside my thoughts. I knew whatever was happening between us it wouldn't work out. We were too different.

"Thanks." I clutched my clothes to me and started to walk away. I heard him sighs deeply behind me as I did. I shivered uncertain what I was feeling.

I lounged on the cough in the middle of the Turtles' huge studio room. It held almost everything they needed for their day-to-day activity. There was plenty of room for practice, which I noticed they all tended to do a lot. Especially Leonardo. Don had his own little workshop in one corner and Mike seemed to monopolize the TV section. At the moment. Mike wasn't there so I was invading the couch.

Kaz was in the kitchen making tea. Bored I decided to read. I had gathered together my Newtype for that month and my headphones. I still had a slew of unresolved emotions running through me from my confrontation with Leonardo that morning. Nothing helped me forget my problems faster then anime. I put in one of my favorite CDs and flopped down on the couch.

I flipped through the Newtype until I found an article that looked interesting to me, as I read one of my favorite songs started pounding through my CD player. It was Haruka Kanata the third opening theme to Naruto. Without thought to where I was I started to sing along bobbing my head in time with the bass in the song.

"kokoro wo sotto
hiraite gyutto
hiki yosetara
todokuyo kitto
tsutau yo motto
sa aa"

I screamed out the last word, raising my head to find Michelangelo smirking at me standing watching me sing. Immediately I dropped my headphones the song still blaring out. I froze and felt myself color before we both burst out laughing.

"Whatcha doing?" Mike moved to look at what I was reading. I glanced down at the article about a new anime I was interested in called Bushilord. I handed the magazine to him; he looked at it with interest.

"Entertaining myself. Everyone else was busy." Mikey's eye lit up as he looked at the pictures.

"You actually like this stuff?" He seemed surprised. "I try to watch anime on TV, but Raphael always calls it stupid and flips the channel." I turned my CD player off the Japanese voices muting. I rolled my eyes at Mike.

"That's because it's too complex for Raphael to understand." I smirked at Michelangelo and he laughed. "I don't just watch this stuff, I guess I kind of obsess over it. I spend way to much time and money on anime." My voice wavered towards the end of my speech. It sort of hit me, with the loss of my job and the uncertainly of my future now I wouldn't be getting as much anime as I had. It hurt a little and I think the pain crossed my face. Mikey looked at me curious.

"You okay, Lea?" He handed me back my magazine concerned. I tried to shrug it off. I was sick of whining to everyone about my petty problems.

"Yeah I'm fine Mike, just been a long week." He seemed to consider this. As he did Donatello came walking down from his room and headed towards the kitchen. I watched with interested as he entered wondering what Melinda would do. She seemed to be avoiding him for some reason. Like clock work, Mel came out of the kitchen right after he entered and headed back up to Leonardo's room where we both where staying.

"Pitiful" I looked up at Michelangelo as he spoke it was like he read my mind.

"I don't understand the two of them. They so obviously like one another. Why do they keep running away from each other?" I watched Don walk back out of the kitchen. His expression looked a little hurt. I wasn't surprised when I saw him glance up at Leo's room, before heading back to his own.

"You know what those two need is someone to help them realize that they both like one another." Mike spoke his thoughts out loud. I nodded agreeing.

"I think they just need a push in the correct direction, but who could give it to them?" There was silence for a moment. Mike and I turned towards one another grinning.

"Hey, Lea are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Michelangelo smirked.

"If you're thinking, what I think your thinking, then yeah…" I giggled, ideas already beginning to form in my head.

"So what is Melinda afraid of?" Mike flipped over the couch; landing next to me the two of us began to talk. We were both laughing and planning, setting up a beautiful plan to help give our two friends the push they needed to finally break through whatever wall was between them.

I laughed hard as Mike tried to describe to me how Don handles girls, as I leaned back I happened to turn my head. At the top of the stairs, Leonardo was standing watching us. His expression was strange. I looked straight at him confused. He almost looked hurt or angry. He noticed me look and turned swiftly walking in the other direction.
Mike's head turned to follow mine. He noticed Leo walking away.

"That was weird." He commented. I agreed but shrugged. We kept talking until we were pretty sure everything was set, we would spring our trap the next night.

I had gone out early the follow morning to get the main item I needed. I had made Casey go with me and had told him about our plan. He had been so amused he insisted I had to call him after we did it to tell him what happened. For helping us I agreed.

It was hard waiting until after dinner to spring our trap, but everything would have to be perfect. Every time Mike and I would look at each other all day we would start laughing. It was hard keeping our idea a secret. I was so busy scheming that I barely noticed how tense Leo seemed that day. In fact I wouldn't have noticed at all if I hadn't been walking past as him and Raphael practiced that day.

I heard Raph hit the mat VERY hard and Leonardo growling. Raphael had sprung up protesting, very annoyed. Saying Leo wasn't playing fair. I paused long enough to watch for a moment, before heading onwards to my destination. It did strike me was odd. Leonardo didn't seem himself, but ever sense we had run into one another in his room. I had been trying to avoid him. It was almost painful being near him. I knew I wanted something from him. Something I shouldn't have and I didn't want to think about it. It was much easier to just think about Don and Melinda.

Dinner passed rather uneventful. I kept quiet, to myself. Trying not to give away anything in my appearance. I helped Melinda clean up after it was done and keep talking about how tired I was with her. So far she seemed to suspect nothing, she acted completely normal. She started telling me about how she needed a shower before she could go to bed. I nodded agreeing.

She offered to let me take mine first, I grinned inwardly, thinking how perfect the suggestion was. I pretending to protest, but she insisted so I ran up stairs to get my things. I stuck down to Mike's room and knocked on the door. "You have it?" I asked him as he peeked out.

He laughed and shoved a fabric bag out at me. "So you'll be like 15 minutes so get Don down they're in around 20?" He looked at me with question.

"That would be PERFECT!" He and I exchanged smiles and holding the bag tightly I ran down the stairs to jump into the shower quickly.

I finished as swiftly as I could and getting the bag, out from under my stuff I emptied its contents into the shower. Smirking down I stepped out. I dried my hair a little for appearances before changing and dashing up to get Mel. As I walked back down with her, I could see Mike already over by Don's workshop bugging him. He glanced over at me, I gave him a nod. He returned it and pushed Don on the shoulder. I saw words exchanged between the two as Melinda and I reached the bathroom.

"Have a nice shower, Sis." I yawned pretending once again to be tired and turned like our conversation was over. I saw her looking at me a little befuddled, but she seemed to brush it off as she entered the bathroom. I could hear Mike and Don walking towards me. Mike was talking rapidly.

"I am telling you, Don the TV was making this weird WHIRRY sound… it was freaky like whirry…whirry." I had to suppress back a laugh and pretend to walk past them. I froze listening to Mike and Don talk.

"I don't think so, Mikey. I think maybe you had it on a channel we don't get again." Like clock work as they neared the door of the bathroom, Melinda let out a blood-curdling scream. Don turned swiftly towards the door. Concern paramount on his expression. Melinda fled from the bathroom in only her bathrobe and right into his arms. I could see she was shaking.

Mike slowly started to back up. I could hear Mel babbling on to Don about a snake. Mike and I were trying desperately not to laugh. This is where we exited and let nature take over. I could see Don gently rubbing her back trying to calm Mel down. I grinned; pretty sure something good would come out of this.

Mike and I took off running toward the kitchen barely able to breath from wanting to laugh. We collapsed against the counters smirking at one another. "That was perfect!" He grinned wide at me. "We make a good team!" He held out his hand to shake, laughing I reached across and accepted it.

The door opened and Leonardo entered. I had no doubt the scream had drew his attention and somehow he had ended up in the kitchen. Wordless his eyes fell on Mike and I, our hands touching. It was completely innocent. A handshake for a job well done, but from the dark turn his expression took, I decided he wasn't taking it that way.

He covered the distant between himself and us rather quickly. He slapped Michelangelo's hand away from mine, growling at his brother. Everyone in the room froze. Tension so thick it could be cut by a knife. "Bro, it's not what you think…" Mike sounded confused. I don't think he was used to Leo attacking him like this.

My heart broke to see Leonardo's hurt expression. I wasn't sure what to do, I felt stupid and useless. He turned to look at me waiting for some sort of explanation. I wasn't sure what to say. I wasn't sure how to express what I was feeling. Taking my silence the wrong way also, Leo stomped out of the room. Leaving me standing there watching him, baffled and wounded myself.