Lynn bent over to catch her breath as she arrived at the steps of the library. She reached into her bag and pulled out her keychain. Flicking her fingers to find the right key, she finally found it. Lynn opened the door and locked it behind herself. She put her keys away as she made her way through the main hall to the door on the back wall that led to the archives. Reaching for the door, she froze and tilted her head. She slowly reached for her phone and got ready to call the police. She had heard the sound of someone moving something sturdy around in the archives. Lynn took a deep breath and threw the door open.

"What?" She was frozen in disbelief at the sight before her. Leaning against her desk was a humanoid turtle. It froze and stared at her through a red mask. After a couple seconds, it tried to stand up and fell back over clutching it's ribs.

"Fuck. Don't scream." It spoke to Lynn in a heavy Brooklyn accent. She shook her head and slowly walked over to kneel in front of it.

"You're hurt. How can I help?" It stared at her and tried to move away. She hesitantly reached over and put a hand on its arm. It flinched and glared at her hand.

"What is wrong with ya?" She looked into its green eyes at its question.

"You're hurt. I want to help." She stood slowly and went to the other side of her desk. It tried to keep her in its line of sight. Lynn opened the bottom drawer and pulled out a first aid kit. Moving back around the desk, she puts the kit down next to it. "Here's my first aid kit. Do you need my help?"

"No, I don't. Back off." It reached for the kit as Lynn scooted back and sat a few feet away. It worked to pull equipment out of the kit as she got the first real look at its injuries. There were old scars all over its shell and deep cuts on its arms and shell. Bruises were starting to form all over as well, and the worst injury she could see was the parallel cuts running from shoulder to elbow.

"Do you have a name? My name is Lynn." She watches it as it flinches from trying to reach the cuts on its back. "Let me help. I won't hurt you." She reaches over and takes a swab from the first aid kit with some disinfectant. Moving closer slowly, she sits to the side and reaches for the shell. It freezes and watches her closely. As she dabs at the cuts with the disinfectant, it slowly starts to work on the cuts on its arms.

"Name's Raphael."

By the time they got all the cuts bandaged the best they could, Lynn had been there for an hour. She was sitting in her office chair and staring at the ceiling. She had moved Raphael to a better location back amongst the shelves where he was less likely to be discovered. He said he was fine and would be gone by morning, but she told him to stay at least a couple of days to help heal better. Standing up and stretching, she walked towards the door.

"I have to set the alarm before I leave or my boss will kill me. Try not to move around too much, I'll be back in the morning." She didn't hear a response, so she assumed he was asleep. What she didn't know was that she was being watched by an emerald green eye through the shelves.

Lynn laid down on her bed and pulled her phone over to her. She typed a goodnight message to Joan, but paused before pushing send. Deleting the whole message, she hit the phone icon instead and called Joan.

"So, how did it go?" Joan answered in a sleepy voice.

"I'm sorry sweetie, did I wake you up?" Lynn looked at the time, noticing that her trip to the museum took almost an hour and a half. More than enough time for Joan to get home and fall asleep. Joan made a cute sleepy little noise and yawned. Lynn smiled and thought about what to tell her.

"I got the alarm turned on and the museum locked up tight." She thought about telling her about Raphael and decided against telling Joan about it. "I'm home now and just wanted to check on you."

Joan smiled and cuddled deeper into her pillows. "I'm glad to hear you got home. Will I see you tomorrow?"

"Of course, it just won't be until I get off work."

"I'll see you tomorrow night then. Love you."

"Love you too." Lynn waited for Joan to hang up and then plugged her phone in for the night. She laid in bed for a couple hours just thinking of Raphael

Walking into work the next morning, Lynn paused at the door to the archives room. Taking a deep breath, and adjusting the hold on her bag, she opened the door. She looked around and didn't see Raphael, but she heard a noise from amongst the shelves.

"I brought snacks." She closed the door behind her as she said this, walked over to her desk. A shadow fell over her desk and she turned around to find Raphael standing behind her. "You shouldn't sneak up on someone like that."

"And you shouldn't be so trusting. I could'a seriously hurt ya." Lynn shrugged and walked around her desk to the chair and sat down.

"If you wanted to hurt me, you would have done so last night." She put her bag down and the snacks fell out of it. "Grab something to eat, it's not much but I couldn't just bring a bunch of food in here." Grabbing a pencil and her notes she stood up and walked over the boxes that she had been unpacking. "I gotta finish cataloging the rest of the exhibit."

When Lynn's phone chirped that it was lunch time, she was elbow deep in a box full of packing straw. Blowing her hair out of her face, she pulled a small statue out of the straw and gently set it down on the table next to the box. She headed over to her desk and shut off her phone's alarm. Lynn sat down in her chair and grabbed something to eat from the small remaining pile she put out that morning. Raphael had retreated to the spot he spent the night in, and was watching her through the shelves. She spun around in her chair as she ate, and stared at the ceiling.

"I'll leave the rest for you in case you get hungry while I'm not here." Raphael jumped slightly because she hadn't talked in a couple hours. "I gotta get back to work." Lynn stood and stretched, before heading back over to the boxes, diving elbow deep in straw again.

Lynn was leaning back in her chair, facing the ceiling, as she hadn't moved in almost an hour. Her eyes were closed and a faint snoring could be heard coming from her. Lynn was dreaming about having a picnic with Joan when a turtle crawled onto the blanket, it was small, when Lynn looked back to Joan, she was gone. The dream started to fade around the edges as she looked around for Joan. Lynn opened her eyes and raised a hand to sleepily rub at her eye. Rustling next to her got her attention, as she turned she saw Raphael next to her grabbing a snack.

He was about to say something when there was a knock at the door. Lynn stood up and motioned for him to hide himself, she looked over her shoulder at the door and he was nowhere to be seen. She pulled in a breath and steeled herself. When she opened the door, her boss was standing there. "Hello, sir." He nodded and waved his hand.

"Lynn, I wanted to tell you to have the archives neatly organized in a week. The curator set up a meeting and they want to see inside the archives." Lynn nodded and did some mental math to see how hard she would have to work by next week.

"I can absolutely do that sir." He nodded and walked away, so she shut the door and leaned against it. "That's going to be a task. I'm going to have to work so hard this week on top of everything else I have to do."

Raphael leaned against the shelf and watched her. "This mean I have to be out within a week? No problem, I should have been gone last night." Lynn walked back to her chair, and flopped into it.

"Just let me know before you leave ok?" Raphael snorted before walking back amongst the shelves.

"Yeah, yeah."