Disclaimer – Goodness, I am on a roll, aren't I! Well, it's already been said that I don't own anything other than Gabs, Min, and Jordy, not to mention the plot of this story.

Many thanks to all who are reading this story and, especially, to those who have left comments in the review window. I appreciate each one of you!

Enough said!

A Time of Reflection

by Reinbeauchaser

Chapter 6 – A New Day Dawns

As Gabby awoke, she noticed morning hadn't quite arrived just yet and so she wondered what time it was. For a moment, though, she allowed herself to enjoy the comforting darkness. She felt pleasantly sleepy under her piles of blankets and comforter, as they kept her warm against the chill in her room. She closed her eyes again, tempted to drift off and sleep a little more, at least until the alarm woke her up. However, she reluctantly glanced over at her illuminated clock to check the time.

When she saw it read five-fifteen, Gabby groaned.

"Ah, it's way too early to get up yet," she nearly whined.

She rubbed at her face and yawned, trying to decide whether to remain in bed for while longer, or get up and get going. Where it was still dark outside, save for what lighting the clock afforded her, Gabby knew everyone else in the house was probably still asleep. She focused her hearing and listened, soon confirming her assumption. At least, she didn't hear or sense anyone moving around just yet.

Rarely did she ever find herself first one up, especially in a house with two seasoned ninja.

However, Gabby wasn't sure if she wanted that distinction today, so she pulled her extra pillow over her head and squeezed it hard against her face. "If only I had had slept better", she sighed.

She had slept fitfully at best, knowing what her first day of training might be like. Worrying about the what-if's and the imagined tests, all of it had made it difficult for her to relax. Then when she did succumb to the pull of sleep, to stay that way was another matter all together.

She tried her best to calm under her pillow, now, hoping to drift off for a few minutes longer. However, the more she tried, the harder it became, until finally she resigned herself to the fact that she was, indeed, wide-awake.

Gabriella heaved a deep disappointed sigh and tossed her pillow to the foot of her bed. Sitting up, now, she stretched and yawned, then sighed again, taking in a deep breath. Slowly letting it out to calm her nerves, she stayed where she was for a just moment, but then swung her legs out from under the covers and slipped out of bed. The cool of her room caused her to shiver just a bit, but she dismissed it. Standing up, she then her robe from a nearby chair and shrugged it on. Sliding her feet into her slippers, Gabby silently padded her way over to the bathroom to take care of her morning business.

A few minutes later when she returned to her bedroom, Gabby dressed in her gi uniform, and then checked on Jordan. He had slept better than she had and still seemed to be, in fact, so she left her son to his dreams. She shut her alarm off, so it wouldn't wake him prematurely, and then flipped the baby monitor on. Then, Gabriella quietly slipped out of the room and softly closed the door behind her.

She hesitated for a moment as she stood at the top of the stairs. She stared down towards the foyer and wondered who was going to be her sensei. The night before during dinner and afterwards, she had tried to observe her father and uncle, watching for any sign in their expression or interaction as to which one would do the job.

Yet, neither Raph nor Mike had given her a word, or a smirk or even a raised eye ridge to indicate which one it would be. It irritated her just a little, too, but she pushed the feeling back since it wouldn't do her any good anyway. More than not, whoever was going to do the job would call her on it in the morning.

"Why give them something more to confront me with," she reasoned to herself.

In either event, as Gabby made her way down the semi-darkened staircase, she focused on fixing herself a cup of tea.

"Maybe Leo's brand," she considered, but then decided that being relaxed was probably not a good thing, not if she had to be on her toes this morning and fully alert.

As she stepped off the stairs and turned towards the direction of the kitchen, Gabby thought she saw something move in the darkened family room. She stopped and looked intently, staring towards the far side of the room, where she thought she saw the movement. There, by the small hallway near the stairs leading down to the dojo, the shadows were deeper and harder to discern one from the other. Without an available light source, she couldn't even tell a chair from the sofa, or even discern the coffee table.

Gabby noticed that the main foyer had only one light turned on and it was on low illumination for nighttime. Consequently, very little of its light could seep into the family room. She looked towards the kitchen and saw that the overhead lighting, above the sink, was on, in case someone wanted a midnight snack. Yet the family room itself remained mostly dark, despite the kitchen and foyer's close proximity.

Nevertheless, Gabby was certain she had seen 'something' over by the stairwell. But, when she walked up to the wide threshold of the family room, she stopped. It seemed darker, now, than when she had first noticed the movement.

"That's strange," she thought.

Gabby studied her surroundings a little more, relaxing her senses so that they might discern if it was Mike or her father. However, when she did, she found nothing amiss. She stared once more at the deep shadows, dark and foreboding, somewhat threatening, too. Her eyebrows knit together in concentration and then Gabby chuckled, "My imagination must be on overdrive this morning." Satisfied she hadn't seen anything at all, she turned towards the kitchen to make her cup of tea.

A while later she was sitting at the breakfast bar, sipping at her second cup. She was enjoying the peace and quite that 'first up' afforded. From where she sat, she could see outside through the kitchen window by the sink. As the backyard gradually brightened with the approaching sun, she sighed and smiled.

"Maybe I'll make a habit of getting up this early from now on," she mused, "It's nice seeing the backyard like this."

It would still be another twenty minutes before the sun would crest over the eastern range of mountains and flood the area with its radiance. Yet enough of its light filtered in over the top to set the yard aglow with first light. She knew the rest of the family would soon be waking.

Gabby then recalled the talk she had had with her father the day before. She still didn't like the forest and probably never will, but she was determined to keep that to herself for as long as possible. It wouldn't surprise her in the least if someone in the family had the bright idea of pitching her out there for a week, just to 'get used to it'. She chuckled again and shook her head, wondering if Splinter had been as persistent in defeating his sons' fears, as they seem to be with hers.

"Living in the sewers must have had its own kind of terror," she said softly to herself and decided that maybe she would brave the question and ask one of them about it.

Nevertheless, during her talk with her father and despite the fact she had become more accepting to her situation, Raphael had managed to find some resentment in Gabriella. He had talked to her as a father would to his daughter, though, rather than as teacher to student, and it was rather comforting for Gabby. As curt and as rough as he could be sometimes, she had seen an aspect of her father that challenged the family lore of the hot-tempered ninja. He didn't waste words or time, but he did allow her to speak from her heart. It allowed Gabby to share much about what had bothered her in Japan.

"Had Devon been more aware of Mindy and what she was doing, or was capable of doing," Gabby had remarked, slightly irritably, "had he caught her with the shuriken before she left the dojo…"

"You would have never known, right?" Raph had finished for her, watching her.

"Well, yes, but more to the point, she wouldn't have cut her self like she did; that is what made me mad."

"But, it also taught her a lesson, Gabby," Raph pointed out, "it wasn't a serious cut, anyway, but it hurt and Mindy'll think twice about taking or even touching one without permission first."

Gabby huffed, "So, father dear, tell me how this fits in with overcoming one's fears? If allowing Mindy to cut herself…"

"Devon did not allow her to cut herself, Gabby," Raph countered roughly. "He allowed her to experience the results of her disobedience, that's all," He saw his daughter tighten her mouth in opposition , so Raphael added, "A police officer doesn't allow motorists to speed, but if they choose to speed and they get ticketed, or end up in an accident, by that measure they've learned their lesson. By their own accord, they've set in motion the ticket or accident to come, and it's by their own deeds they suffer the consequences."

"Mindy's just a baby, Father!" Gabby protested earnestly.

"Jordan is a baby. Mindy is four. She knew what she was doing when she did it, because she hid it inside her gi," Raph laughed, "Your daughter is a lot smarter than you give her credit for, Gabs!"

"Still…" Gabby insisted, "Why even have such sharp weapons lying around like that."

Raph sighed, nearly exasperated, "Persistence seems to be another family trait, it seems. You forget that Mindy had to collect four cushions and then stack them to stand on them, in order to reach the shurikens!" Raph stared at his daughter and shook his head, "she deserved to get cut, plain and simple. And YOU were out of line to challenge Devon – and in front of your daughter, no less. That's why…"

Gabby shot her hand up as if to stop her father, "I know, I know; that's why I'm here and not in Japan, I get it, you don't have to nag." She sighed deeply then "And…" as she looked at her father, "as much as I miss my family, I understand, now. I did earlier, this morning, when I was feeding Jordan, but your lesson in Forestry 101 interrupted my train of thought."

Raphael laughed a bit and then graced Gabby's shoulder with an arm. He hugged her into him and said, "Well, I'm glad you've come to terms with it, but I highly doubt…" and he gave her a stern expression, "that you've fully accepted your brother as your daughter's sensei."

"Probably not, but then…he is my brother, right?" Gabby smirked, "Kind of like you and Leo."

"Kinda, but not quite. Wait until he starts telling you what you're doing wrong all the time…"

"Oh, Dev's already done that, for five years - this month, in fact!" Gabby smiled.

After their talk, Raph took her to the back part of the forest, where it opened up just before the land dropped down over a precipice and into a canyon below. He wanted to show her how far she could go – if she decided to come that way – before having to be careful. Standing by a rather large and very prominent rock, Raph pointed about three feet beyond, just ten yards before the drop, "From this rock to that marker…" he said, indicating a small, nearly perfect shrub-like tree, "is the warning zone. You'll feel a little bit of an electric current, not much, but you will feel it. We have it imbedded all around Mike's property along this side. If you persist and go any further than that tree, however…" he again pointed to the shrub and then out towards the edge of the cliff, "well, let's just say that you won't know what hit you and it'll be the last thing you'll ever do."

Gabby shivered, just imagining what horrors were hidden there, "Can you get away with that? I mean, aren't there laws to limit the severity of certain security measures?" she asked worriedly, staring at the spot in question.

Raph chuckled, "This drop goes about five-hundred feet straight down. Do you see the canyon beyond the edge and the far mountain range beyond that, and then the one beyond that, which you can barely see the top of?" Raph asked his daughter as she craned her neck to see, quickly nodding affirmative, "Mike and Don own all of it. There's a whole lot more, too, but most of it's wild and some of it's for public use, but most of that is on the opposite side on the eastern end, and far from where we live - miles away, even. We have other measures on the other side of that ridge above the house on the east side that keeps any interlopers from trespassing. It's not as formidable as the one we have here, but this is where anyone who has mind to do us harm would come, since it's the least traveled route."

"Least traveled?" Gabby asked.

"Yeah," Raph smirked, "no witnesses, for them – or for us!"

Gabby finished her tea and considered her father's words from the day before. It was certain that keeping secrets, such as Don's extreme measures to safeguard the family, was an important part of belonging to a clan of ninja. Although she was grateful for the security, a large part of her wished she and her family could be accepted more readily by the general public. Just imagining people such as Jason and his father lurking about, waiting for an opportunity to strike, made her hesitant to leave Mike's compound at all!

Gabby took her empty cup now and, slipping off her stool, walked over to the sink to wash it out. After setting it on the counter, she turned back to the breakfast bar and fished an apple out from the fruit bow. After rinsing it off, drying it, she then proceeded to eat it.

As she did, the sound of a door closing from upstairs came to her ears, and so Gabby glanced at the clock on the microwave to see what time it was.

"Hmm…six-thirty already."

Gabby then glanced over at the small hallway towards the basement door and took another bite of her apple, deep in thought. The gradually brightening outside spilled in through the windows behind the family room, now, bringing in a little more light. All the shadows she had seen earlier were slowly evaporating. She chuckled to herself, imagining the monsters she had thought were there and remembering how her daughter Mindy had reacted a few years ago when she realized she had her own personal shadow.

"Mons'ers indeed," she said with a smile.

But then Gabby had to dismiss these thoughts of her daughter, knowing how quickly they could put her in an emotional tailspin.

So, Gabby chewed thoughtfully and vigorously, wondering a bit about what she was going to learn today that she hadn't learned before.

Before too long, she heard the familiar creak of wood from upstairs. Soon, she saw Mike easing down the steps, a little jaunt to his rhythm, and whistling softly so as not to wake Jordan. He skipped off the last step and ambled merrily into the kitchen.

"Hi, Gabs!" he chortled, flashing a toothy smile. As he passed by the fruit bowl, Mike snatched up an apple for himself. He bit into the fruit with gusto and ripped off a chuck, chewing eagerly. He smiled broader as he stepped past his niece.

"So, what's doin'?" he asked her and leaned back against the counter to look at her.

"Eating – like you!" she smiled back, apparently more relaxed than her uncle expected her to be. Gabby finished off her apple and went to deposit the core into the trashcan.

Mike studied her for a moment, taking a couple more bites of his fruit. After chewing sufficiently so he could talk, he asked, "Find out who your sensei's goin' t'be?"

"Not yet," Gabby replied casually. She rinsed her hands off with tap water and dried them on a nearby towel, "but…" she looked at the time again, "in about twenty-five minutes, I'll know."

"Ah huh…well…" Mike pushed off from the counter and finished off the remaining bit of his apple. He plopped it into the garbage can to join Gabby's core, announcing, "I'm gonna fix me a cup of coffee; you want some?" He went over to the opposite side of the kitchen from where Gabby stood and began preparing the coffeemaker.

"No, I already had a couple cups of tea this morning."

Mike looked back, as he filled the coffee carafe with water from the tap, "What time did you get up anyway?"

Gabby sighed, "Oh, about…" However, she suddenly heard Jordan's cry from upstairs, "Oops, Jordan's up; gotta go get him, be back in a few…probably have to feed him, first, though…" she looked at the clock worriedly and saw that she had twenty minutes before she had to be down in the dojo. She sighed and grumbled, "Great, first day and I'm going to be late again."

Mike smiled as he watched his niece rush off for the stairs. He waited as Gabriella quickly ascended the steps, taking two at a time. She soon slipped out of sight, disappearing above the height of the kitchen ceiling as she headed for the second level and her bedroom from where he could hear Jordan's soft pleading cries.

He waited some more, listening for the sound of her bedroom door opening and then closing. When he was satisfied she wouldn't hear him, Mike walked quickly over to the stairwell door and opened it. Not wasting a moment, he descended the stairwell and eased down into the room below, dark as pitch, since the light was presently off.

Mike called out softly, "Jordan just woke up, Gabby might be late because she has to feed him still."

"I'll give her ten minutes past her appointed time, but don't tell her."

"No problem, bro."

"Does she suspect anything?"

"No," Mike said.

"Good," his brother replied, "How she has adjusted will show it self soon enough, but the less she is aware of, the more honest her reaction will be."

"Gotcha!" and then Mike charged back up the stairs, taking the steps at a hurried but silent pace – and smiling broadly like the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland.