A/N: Not to give anything away, but I think someone's guess came pretty close as to what happen to Marcus. ;p


Chapter Nine

For obvious reasons Cherise couldn't be changed out of her ratty clothes. However her arms, face, and legs were cleaned to prevent further illnesses. The young girl's soaked socks were replaced with dry ones to not only keep her feet warm, but to shave off any chances of frostbite as well. The couch was unfolded into a bed and a few blankets were placed on Cherise to keep the cold off. Yet the young girl was still with a very high fever, so cold compresses were put upon her head and bitter herbal medicine was poured into her.

Nights were the worse for the poor young girl, because her feverish dreams would make her cry and moan for her father. "Daddy…" Cherise would cough, her voice barely heard above a whisper. "Daddy…" And she would grabbed hold of anyone who was within her reach, refusing to let go until she well comforted. "…I don't feel good."

Everything was tried to calm the young girl down during these intense nightmares she suffered. She desperately needed to save her strength and voice if she was ever to get well again. However nothing short of coddling worked. So that's what Splinter and the turtles did when it was their turn to watch Cherise. When she started to make a fuss they would take the young girl up into their arms and rock her gently. Sometimes they had to pretend to be her father, talking to her soothingly and stroke her hair gently. Then when she was calm again they would lay her back down until the next time she would weep uncontrollably.

Even Casey and April, who did not know Cherise, felt moved enough to help in this kind of way. Of course the most unusual person to perform such a thingwas Raphael. At first he tried to resist doing such an 'embarrassing act', however the young girl's sobbing would cause him give in the end. But interesting enough was Leonardo showing so much compassion towards Cherise. Considering that he had resented the fact that she tried to become a sister to Donatello and Michelangelo in the past, the blue clad turtle couldn't help playing 'big brother' to the young girl.

After three days and three nights Cherise's fever finally broke. Finally being of sound mind the young girl looked around to see a large humanoid turtle sitting on the armrest of the couch with a book in his hands. He rubbed one of his tired eyes as he read. "Can it be?" The young girl whispered, her throat was still sore from her being sick. "I thought it was a delirious dream." Tears came from the corners of her eyes as she began to weep.

Hearing the young girl sniffling and thinking that she was having another one of her bad dreams Leonardo got up off the armrest. He placed his open book down where he once sat and came over Cherise. "Shh…" The blue clad turtle said calmly while brushing some hair from her forehead. "You need to conserve your strength if you ever want to get better." Though he knew that his comforts would fall onto non-understanding ears, the young turtle still talked to her as if she would.

Cherise weakly smiled at him. "How long?"

"Eh?" Surprised that the young girl was coherent, Leonardo felt her forehead with the back of his hand. "Fever is gone. How do you feel?"

"…Hungry." Cherise replied meekly.

"Ok." Leonardo said with a nod. "Well let's just get you something to eat." He got up from the couch and walked into the kitchen.

Michelangelo was sitting on a counter, flipping through a cookbook. "Hey Leo." The young turtle greeted. "I was thinking of trying something new for dinner tonight."

"Later for that." Leonardo responded. "Cherise is hungry."

"She is?" Michelangelo exclaimed. "You mean she's better?"

"She still might be a little sick, but at least her fever has broken." Leonardo answered. "How whipping up some soup for her."

Michelangelo jumped off the counter and gave a salute. "I'm on it."

Leonardo couldn't help shaking his head while going back out into the living room to see Cherise struggling to sit up. Quickly the young turtle went over to her so that he could help her. "Something will be brought out to you in a moment." He told her while making sure the young girl stayed wrapped up in a blanket so that she'd keep warm.

Cherise gave a slight nod, as if to say thanks, but she avoided making eye contact with the young turtle. "Um…I'm really sorry that I tried to…um…steal from you guys the other night." She felt ashamed for her previous action. "I…I know it was wrong. But I so hungry and…and I just couldn't think straight."

"You were sick." Leonardo sat down on the couch bed next to her and looked her in the eye. "How long has it been since you've eaten?"

"I don't know." Cherise shrugged. "At least weeks."

"Well then I guess this will just be an appetizer for ya." Michelangelo chuckled as he came out with a tray table loaded down with food.

"Mikey, I thought I told you to make soup." Leonardo scolded. "She might not be able to stomach anything else."

"Nonsense." Michelangelo scoffed as he placed the tray down in front of the young girl. "She practically skin and bones. If she doesn't eat enough she can't get her strength back and that wouldn't make her well again."

Cherise stared at the food that was in front of her with wide eyes. For at least a minute she was afraid to blink, just in case it would all vanish if she did. With shaky hands she took up a bowl of soup and brought itto her nose. Such a delightful smell came from the dish that it made the young girl's lips tremble with anticipation. Slowly she brought the bowl to her mouth and quietly slipped the soup. When she was done Cherise placed the bowl back down on the tray so that she may pick up something else to eat.

What surprised the two turtles were that the girl's eating habits. A starving person who was given a bounty of food would have tried to stuff a much as they could into their mouth, but not Cherise. She made sure that her eating etiquettes were kept neat and she refused any more food when she was done with what was on the tray table. But Michelangelo tried to persuade the girl to at least have seconds. "Are you sure you don't more?" Cherise shook her head. "How about some dessert then? Nobody can say no to sweets." The girl took a second to think before shaking her head slowly. "Not even cookies?" Michelangelo question temptingly as he watched to see if he could wear her down. "I have a batch of peanut butter cookies with big chocolate chucks and I know you like them."

"Mrs. Mason use to bake those." Cherise whispered. "Any time she had a batch done she would make daddy bring some home for me." She started rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand. "…daddy."

"Good one Mikey." Leonardo commented.

"What?" Michelangelo exclaimed. "How was I supposed to know that mentioning cookies would upset her?"

"Hey, she's up." Raphael bellowed from the second level. "Yo Donnie, da girl is up." The red clad turtle jumped down and ran over to the couch with his brother following. "It's about time." He hopped up onto the back of the couch, near the girl and behind his 'elder' brother. "So what happened ta ya? How did ya end up like dis? Where's yer father?"

Cherise brought her knees up to her chest, hugging them. "…daddy." The blanket fell off her shoulders in the process and shefound that she wasn't wearing something. "Where is it?" The young girl said in a panicked tone. "Where is the cloak?"

"We had to take if off so you could sleep comfortably." Donatello told her.

"You didn't throw it away did you?" Cherise asked anxiously. "Please tell me you didn't throw it away."

Master Splinter had heard the young girl's frantic cries and came from his room. "Do not worry young one." He held out the well-worn faded green cloak. "We had made sure that it was put in a safe place for you."

Cherise snatched the cloak from the elder rat, clutching it close to her body. With eyes closed she pressed the worn fabric to the lower half of her face and inhaled deeply. Afterwards she let out a satisfied sigh while rubbing the most velvet part of the cloak across her cheeks.

"It's just a cloak." Raphael stated sternly. "Why make such a big fuss about it?"

Cherise plopped the cloak down into her lap and glared at the red clad turtle. "This is daddy's favorite cloak." She informedsternly. "He wore for Halloween and to Renaissance fairs." The young girl pointed towards Donatello andMichelangelo. "This was the cloak he used to conceal guys from people so he could takethem from Darren's hideout to our home." Cherise brought the cloak back up to one of her cheeks. "And it's all I have left of him." She sobbed.

Leonardo took the distress young girl into his arms and laid her head on his shoulder. "There, there.Big brother Leowon't let mean ol' Raph upset you anymore." He said half comforting and half teasingly while giving her head a pat. His red bandanna-wearing brother stuck out his tongue out in response.

Master Splinter took a seat in his usual armchair that was place across from the couch. He gave the girl a moment to cry a bit before asking the obvious question that was on everyone's mind. "What happen?"

Cherise dabbed her eyes with the cloak as she straightened up into a proper sitting position. "Um…" Her lip still trembled a bit. "I…(sniff)…don't know. See…uh…one day, about a year ago, daddy…um…didn't come home from work." She cleared her throat a bit so it wouldn't sound rasped. "At first I thought he couldn't cause there was supposed to be some kind of strike with the subway people. But…if he couldn't take the subway I knew he would take a cab. So then I called his job place…and Belinda, the receptionist, said he left for the subway like he always does. So then I called the police and they said to wait one more day before reporting him as missing. So I figure that I'd wait two more days for daddy to come home and he didn't."

"So your dad just up and disappeared?" Michelangelo questioned.

"I…guess, I don't know." Cherise sniffled. "When I called the police again and told them that daddy still hadn't come home they sent some cop out over to asked me a bunch question. Then they took a recent picture of daddy and told me that they would retrace his steps to see if anyone knew what happened to him. But some kind of really big crime happened, like a robbery or murder, and it that took up so much of their time that they didn't have a chance to do it."

"So how did ya end up on da street?" Raphael asked.

"With daddy gone I was going to have foster care called on me, because I was so underage that I couldn't beallowed to take care of myself." Cherise answered. "But I was afraid to go. So I told the police that my daddy and I lived with his parents. I told them that my grandparents would be back from their vacation in a couple of days and that Mrs. Sway from next door watches me when nobody his home."

"You should have not lied to the police." Master Splinter scolded.

"You don't know what happens to children who are put into foster care." Cherise snapped. "I've had many friends who got forgotten 'in the system'. Kids get lost in the system so bad that parents, really good parents, can't get them back. And if you arelike over the age of five, ten at the latest, nobody wants you." Realizing that she was getting too excite, the young girl calmed herself. "I didn't want to go through that. I wanted to stay home where daddy could find me once he was located. I figured that word on him would come up in a couple of days. However weeks went by withno clues as to where he might be and I was starting to run out ofstuff to eat. So I took things into my own hands and made posters with his picture to hang up all over the place. Then I travel the routes he would havetaken to come home and asked anyone if they had seen him. But still no information came to me about daddy.

One day Mrs. Sway, my landlord as well as my babysitter, came over to the apartment asking for the rent. I was going to tell her the situation, but if I told her that I was by myself I knew she'd feel obligated to call the police on me and they would call foster care. So I told her that she'd have the rent soon."

"How did you get the money?" Michelangelo asked.

"I sold everything we owned except for the clothes on my back and daddy's cloak. I figure that when he came back we could just everything back." Cherise answered. "Selling everything we had gave me enough money to pay off two months' rent and enough food to last about that long." The young girl looked down at the cloak in her lap. "I assumed that the added time would have been more than enough to find daddy…. But it wasn't."

"Don't tell me that Mrs. Sway threw you out when the rent was up." Donatello stated with some shock.

Cherise shook her head. "I had always been careful to make sure that she didn't know daddy was missing while I looked for him. But about a week before rent was due again she did find outand called the police. She must have told them that I had been living alone for over three months in a near empty apartment, because there was this woman from social services outside my door waiting for me. When I saw her and realized that my cover was blown I ran away."

"Where did you go?" Michelangelo questioned. "Mrs. Mason?"

"No, she was gone by the time daddy went missing." Cherise replied. "I just roamed the streets like some kind of street urchin. I'd find shelter where I could and stole what food I need to keep me going." At this point the young girl was too ashamed to pick her head up and look at anyone. "I know it was wrong, that daddy taught me better, but I didn't want to starve. I even tried to keep a tab of what I took and from where, so that I could pay them back when I found daddy. But after doing it so long I lost count of how much I owed and from where I've had stole things from.

At one point I was almost caught by a shopkeeper. He got suspicious of me when he saw how shabby my clothes looked. Him chasing me way made me realized that I couldn't steal from stores anymore. So then I restored to either pick pocketing people or lifting their groceries when they weren't looking. But I wouldn't do it too often, because I wasn't that good at it and would almost get caught."

"Which you eventually did." Michelangelo pointed out.

"Luckily it was by us and not someone who would turn you over to the police." Leonardo added.

"And now here yer are." Raphael stated.

"…yep." Cherise gave a miserable nod. "And I don't know where to go from there."

"Well you can stay here with us until we find your father." Michelangelo declared. "Right Sensei?"

Master Splinter was a little caught off guard by this sudden announcement. He would have preferred they had a discussion before making any plans. But then Splinter thought that there shouldn't have to any debate. He and the turtles should take young Cherise in without question, because it was their turn to repay a kindness with a kindness. "Yes, of course she may stay. And we'll do everything we can to findher father."

Cherise was so happy that she jumped off the couch and hugged the elder rat tightly. "Thank you so much." The young girl softly wept. "Thank you."

The turtles were as shock as Master Splinter by the young girl's sudden action. However the elder rat returned the hug and patted the back of her head. "You are quite welcome."


A/N2: You know what? I think I'm taking a lesson from the story writers that do the cartoon by leaving you with a continous cliffhanger. (Heh) :p