Disclaimer: I don't own the TMNT

A/N: I've gotten great reviews about the last chapter, now my only fear is that I'll be unable to live up to them! I hope so. I'm so sorry that it took so long.

Chapter 7

Dreams and Lessons

It was dark, dank, and foul. The smell of standing urine and feces wafted into her nostrils. She ignored it. As hard as it may be to believe, she was used to it by now. After all, it was her own waste that was rotting. If only he'd give her a friggin toilet, then it wouldn't have to be that way.

Unfortunately, she didn't really have a lot of say in much of everything.

Footsteps echoed down the passageway, slowly she stirred out of her half slumber. The familiar sound of the metal links of a chain greeted her ears, but once again she ignored it. There was nothing she could do about it anyway.

Slowly, so as not to attract attention, she flexed her hands. Slowly the feeling came back to them, followed by the pins and needles feeling. It was a common ritual, but it needed to be done. If only he'd chain her hands just a little bit looser...once again that was too much to ask for. A question like that would certainly be risking his wrath.

Not that she couldn't take it, she just didn't really look forward to it.

Finally she opened her eyes. Familiar. Everything was familiar. The cold, bare stone walls of her cell, the only decoration the hanging sludge. The concrete floor greeted her coldly as she stretched her confined legs just as carefully as she did her hands. No need to attract notice.

She leaned back, trying her best to get more comfortable in the half-slouching position she was forced into constantly. Longingly she looked at the moldy wooden bench that she couldn't reach. At this point any comfort would be welcome.

Though, once again, that would be too much to ask for.

Suddenly the metallic sound of the lock holding her cell being opened clanged through the air. With steely resolve, she gritted her teeth and waited for it. Surely it would come, after all, it always did.

The grinning figure at the cell door chuckled menacingly as he creaked the door open and stepped in.

Yes, it was time.

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She woke with a start, her green body trembling with sweat.

Furiously Jade wiped her eyes, stripping away the tears that she wanted to never come. Never. She couldn't cry.

Slowly she sighed and leaned back into the blankets of the makeshift bed. Why did those dreams always have to come? Especially now? She was beginning to be happy here. She didn't know why, but she felt safe when she was here.

Lying back with a sigh, she stared at the ceiling for a full fifteen minutes with wide eyes before she admitted to herself that she wouldn't be going back to sleep any time soon.

Wide awake, she swung her legs over the edge of the hammock, careful not to disturb her sister. They had what you would call, bunk hammocks. Hers was at the bottom, something she requested for precisely this reason. Kit and Hero had 'bunk hammocks' as well on the other side of the room, with Hero having the bottom.

When their room was chosen and put together there were some complaints that it would be too small. Jade and her family didn't mind it at all. It was more spacious, more luxurious than anything that they'd ever owned. They had real bookcases, they were ratty and second hand, just like the small dressers and nightstands but it was more than they'd expected. All of their belongings didn't even fill up one of the tiny dressers. Despit that, they shared. Jade and Hero had one, Kit and Shasha had the other. They had real carpet, which was thrown out for being worn probably, but she thought that it made it much softer that way. The hammocks were lined with old blankets and sheets with an actual pillow. It was actually just a pillowcase stuffed with rags but no one cared. It was a bed.

Slowly Jade stood up, arms outspread. Leaning back, she slowly stretched out her muscles, straining to reach every one in an odd dance that no one ever saw. Wincing slightly she reached up and massaged a tight deltoid, probing the kinks out of the muscle.

Satisfied she walked out of the room, which was on the second story, and hopped down to the common area.

She wasn't used to these kind ofoptions. In the forest, in her last home, there were the usual outdoorsy stuff avaliable: swimming, walking, running, climbing a tree, stargazing, that kind of thing. Now her options were TV, swimming, video games, working out in the dojo, or snacking. She was trying hard to adjust to urban life but in many ways it was difficult. She never watched TV or played video games in her life until she came here.

Ultimately she decided on the dojo, it seemed like the more natural of options; no technology involved. Besides, there she could work out her stresses.

Her dreams.

Those dreams had been occurring on an almost nightly basis for years. Six years to be exact. The amount of years that Hero was.

With a snarl she attacked the punching bag. Energy built up in her limbs and she became a frenzy of movement. With each thud she thought of the one responsible. He was responsible for so many things. So many things done to her. To her family. To her son.

They didn't know anything about it. And she preferred it that way. It was best for them not to know. It happened directly to her, because of her. It was her that was meant to carry the burden. It wouldn't make any sense for them all to be losing sleep on a nightly basis.

Besides, how would she tell them?

She paused in her frenzied attack in the punching bag, clinging to it with taut hands. Six years. Six years had gone by and still she hadn't gathered up the courage to say anything, hadn't gotten the guts needed to let it go. To let loose.

Her family wasn't stupid. They knew something was wrong, something that she wasn't telling. But after multiple confrontations they were forced to drop the subject in order to keep the peace, hoping that some day she would come to her senses and rely on her family. Shasha, she knew, hadn't given up completely. She was waiting for the right time, a time where she couldn't back out or fight back. A time where she'd actually tell them. Tell her.

Suddenly she fumed and attacked the punching bag anew. Who was she to talk! Who was she to pry! Shasha had too much going against her to do so! People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, and everyone knew her history! And unlike Jade herself, the things in Shasha's past was her doing!

What happened to her, it wasn't her fault. It was done to her, she didn't do it to other people! Other mutants! Sometimes she thought back on all of the things that went on in The Hole and she couldn't believe it. She just couldn't believe it...

The door to the dojo slid open with the already familiar sandy scrape. Immediately she froze to look over and see Leo standing there, staring at her.

For a moment they just stared at each other in silence. It was a tense moment.

"What are you doing up?" Leo asked. His expression, or lack thereof didn't change.

Jade cleared her throat and looked at her feet before meeting him squarely in the eye. "I was about to ask you the same thing."

"I asked you first."

"I couldn't sleep."

"Why?"

"One question at a time."

He gave a little grin. "I always get up this early, to get some training in."

Jade looked at the old clock hanging in the dojo. 4am. Man, this guy needs a life. Then again, look who's talking? She shook her head. "Sorry. I didn't mean to take up your training time. I'll go now." With that she headed towards the door.

He didn't know why but Leo just couldn't let her go. He held up an arm to stop her and for a fleeting moment he saw panic spring in her eyes, like the panic of a trapped animal, before she quelled it. "Please let me go."

Leo shook his head, his own defiance amazing him. "Nope. Not until you tell me what's really going on." He knew something else was going on, he could see it in her eyes.

Jade shook her head and looked away from him, and from what he knew of her so far that was uncharacteristic of her. He tried his best smile. Man, what was he doing!

"Alright, then let me show you how to do a proper punch."

This surprised her. She turned around and stared at him for a moment. "A proper punch?"

Leo nodded. "Yes. I saw the way that you were doing it. It's good, if you're street brawl category. But if you want to be better than that...will you let me show you?"

She looked at the door, then at Leo, then at the door again before finally answering. "Alright." After all, what could it hurt?

Together they walked over to the punching bag. Positioning herself in front of the bag in a boxing stance she looked at him quizzically. "Ok, now what?"

"Punch."

She did as she was told and gave a few resounding thwacks to the bag. The leather felt good against her knuckles. Before she could get out any more, however, Leo stopped her.

"Alright, first of all, are you trying to hit the bag or glance it? Because it looks like you're doing a mixture of both."

Jade looked at him, confused. She'd never recieved any training like this before. To answer his question she simply shrugged.

"Let me show you." Raising his own fist he put it to the bag real slowly. "You see how the line from my knuckles to my elbow is one straight line? That puts more power behind the punch. I'm hitting my opponent right now, because when I make contact with him I want him to go down if possible." He delivered a swift punch, and she could see that his fist and arm was straight, like a battering ram. The punching bag shuddered on it's chain.

"And when you glance at the opponent, you're trying to graze them. You might come in from the side, or from below in an uppercut. In this your arm is at a purposeful angle." He did it slowly again, coming in from the side and clipping his knuckles on the bag. It swung on it's chain like a pendulum.

"Alright, now you try."

She delivered punch after punch to the bag, each time Leo made corrections, told her what she was doing wrong, and what she could do to fix it. It was invigorating. She was doing things with these simple changes and it made so much of a difference.

The close contact with Leo was beginning to get to her as well. In some of the demonstrations or teaching, he stood behind her and helped to guide her fist and elbow with feather soft touches with his hands. It was a bit unnerving.

Not unnerving because she didn't trust Leo, unnerving because it went against everything she was ever taught, that she had ever experienced. Males weren't supposed to be like this. Then again, these particular males had been confusing her ever since she met them. She noticed immediately that they were different from the ones that she was used to, but that didn't change her instincts. And her instincts told her that she should be fearing for her life right about now.

Yet she wasn't.

All too soon they heard the first of many doors open up. The rest of the troop was awakening.

Leo stepped back abruptly, as though he just now realized how close he was to her, and gave her a shaky smile. Jade looked at him quizzically. Was he nervous too? Surely it couldn't be for the same reasons. Still, it made her wonder what was going on in that brain of his. Suddenly she was curious. She wanted to step closer to him somehow, and it confused her. Looking at Leo she could somehow tell that he was thinking the same thing. Maybe he would let her know...

But it was rude to pry.

Without saying a word they both turned and headed for the dojo door, walking side by side with tension between them tighter than an airplane cable. When they reached the door Leo looked at her.

"I-well what I'm trying to say is that-um-thanks for letting me train you."

Somehow she could tell that that wasn't what he really wanted to say, but once again didn't budge into it.

Instead all she said was; "Thanks for helping me."

With that they headed to breakfast.

A/N: I know, such a boring chaper for such a long wait! I'm sorry! But the hopeless romantic in me was waiting to be unleashed! Maybe I'll unleash it in the next chapter considering that this one wasn't too good...

Anyway, if you read it, please review it! Toodles!