A/n: POV change everybody! Because it gets boring writing from one perspective.

Karma was a bitch. I learned that much in my life. I learned that very seldom people survived after doing hurt onto others. There would always be an exception of course, karma can skip those who feel guilty. That goes to say that they actually try to apologize, and don't continually try to kill you through the guilt. It proved true with Liza. She made nice with Leo, and Donnie was prepared not to murder her for nearly killing the rest of us. I guess it helped that she still didn't know how to hide her emotions around us, so we could feel the crushing guilt fall off her.

Leo couldn't move from his bed rest under Donnie's orders, so chairs were brought up to his room. His weapon rack had to be moved to fit the four chairs, and Leo, with the help of Donnie, transferred so he leaned against the wall in his bed. I sat closest to the door and made sure Liza's chair was next to me. It was refreshing to feel her that close, and I felt the worry of life melt from my shoulders.

Silence descended over the room. Leo rubbed his shoulder, Donnie watched him with hawk eyes, Mikey bounced in his seat with old vigor, and Liza stared at the place behind Leo's head.

"So, we sat down for a reason," Liza said eventually. She motioned to the meager space between the five of us as if to ask someone to explain why we had to sit down. Donnie and Mikey looked over at Leo naturally. I think it was more a reaction than actually thinking he would answer, because there was no way he had an answer. I looked over to a wall covered in ancient Japanese symbols and roamed my eyes over the inked words I couldn't dream to understand, because I didn't want Leo to feel obligated to answer. Liza looked between the four of us and waited, because what else could she do. Leo made an audible sigh.

"You're on our side. Raph saved our lives with the thing he did," Leo started. I saw out of the corner of my eye he nodded his head to me and I smiled, ever so lightly. "But that doesn't mean we're out of danger."

Liza crossed her legs and tilted her body away from me and towards Leo fully. That was something different about her, she directed her body towards authority. She asked, "Shredder?"

"Yes. He might not have ya under his fingernail anymore, but he's still an imminent threat." I answered instantly, and looked over at her. She looked at me at that, and I found familiar green eyes, but only in color. There wasn't a sarcastic glint or a hard line in her irises that had been there before. Her eyes were more open, and pinched in nervousness. It made me realize that she came here, but she was lost on where to go from here.

Liza nodded along to what I said, and I saw her thoughts wander as Don's did when he realized something.

"You've fought him before?" She asked all of us. Leo nodded in response, which Liza saw.

"Then you know how he fights?" She asked once more. He nodded again. Liza breathed in through her nose and held it for a moment.

"Well," Don cut in, "We have fought him, and we learned from any mistakes we made in the past, but we don't know how he fights."

Liza's jaw muscles clenched and unclenched in whatever she was thinking about.

"I can... show you what he's taught me. Give you the best fighting chance to actually take him down. He doesn't rely on strength or speed. He relies on instinct..." She paused long enough to audibly gulp. "One of the most common training sessions I'm given is a blindfold. I blindfold myself, and then I fight until I can't take it anymore. Then Shredder comes out, and tells me to attack."

"I don't get it. What does that have to do with instincts?" Mikey asked. I looked at Leo, because only he or Master Splinter would put together the pieces she didn't say. Leo watched Liza move for a long, hard moment, and then his face fell.

"You don't mean physically, you mean mentally," Leo said, not really a question. Liza smiled tensely and nodded once. Leo looked over at Donnie, Mikey, and I to explain exactly what the two of them meant. "He breaks her down mentally until all she can rely on are instinct. Which is something Master Splinter never did with us, because it can be pretty bad to the psyche."

"I still don't get how that's different from other training," Mikey said.

"Mikey..." Donnie murmured, and he laid a hand on Mikey's shoulder. "My poor brother..."

"What'd I say?" Mikey asked.

"Mikey... I'll have Liza show us after we both get better." Leo said, and Don went rigid in his seat. It was gone in between breaths, and Don leaned back. Mikey pursed his lips in thought and looked Liza over. He made a humming noise, like he was thinking about the idea of her teaching him.

"Alright, I'll let her try." He answered faux casual. Liza's lips quivered, and she covered her mouth with her hand. Her cheeks started to rise, which is probably why Mikey smiled at her cheekily.

"Liza," Don called to get her attention. Liza looked over at Donnie, suddenly serious. She dropped her hand in her lap, and her face was suddenly expressionless. Mikey sighed loudly and grumbled about something too low for us to hear.

"Yes?" She asked.

"Not that you teaching us isn't good and all, but what good will this do against Shredder? I mean, there's no plan," He said. A silence covered the room, and I blinked a few times. A plan. That was a good point. "We can't exactly walk in without a plan, can we?"

Liza thought on his words longer than most others would, and when she responded, she sounded hesitant.

"I don't know. Shredder's fortress is much more strict now. Simply getting through the front door is going to be impossible," She told us. "I would know, I helped train the people at the door... And in the entryway... And in the elevators."

"Who said we would go through the door?" I asked. She looks over at me again. "That ain't the turtle way. We scale the tower, an' attack from there."

This time she smiled, and her entire face lit up with it. She looked over at Leo.

"Would you really scale a twenty-story building just to fight Shredder? What if you fall?" She asked him. Leo barked a laugh, and then stopped and rubbed his shoulder while noticeably grimacing. I raised an eye ridge at him, surprised he'd laugh at anything Liza said.

"That was cute. You're worried about us falling, but not the actual face off with Shredder." Leo said, more subdued in his response but still with a smile. "It won't be the first time we climbed a tall building."

"And it might not be the last." Mikey sighed in agreeance.

"Okay. Liza teaches us how Shredder works, we climb the tower, an' get him. When does it start?" I asked. Liza looked at the ceiling.

"Well, it won't be tomorrow. Or next week. Or next month for that matter." Liza answered instantly.

"I know that. I was askin' for an estimated time." I responded lightly.

"Mikey has another three weeks before he's healed enough for training, and Leo's plastron will take six weeks, give or take. Then they will have to go through rehabilitation and training to get their strength back. Then we can get taught by Liza, which could take anywhere between a week and several months. So... Half a year? At least." Donnie answered. I raised an eyebrow at the time stamp. A lot could happen in the time, for all of us.

"Hey, what time is it?" Liza asked abruptly. The four of us floundered for a watch of some sort, but Leo saved the day by looking at the clock in his room.

"Half past eleven. Why?" He asked.

"I should leave." She answered, and stood up abruptly to do just that. I reacted by reaching over and grabbing her wrist, effectively, temporarily, stopping her. She looked down at me, and her eyes sparkled a little with something I hadn't seen before.

"Why?" Mikey asked.

"Ya only got here an hour ago, Why are ya leavin' all of a sudden?" I asked.

"I left without telling anyone. I might be safe to stay, but it would be better safe than sorry. Shredder, I don't know how strict he is, and I don't want you guys found out. You're at least just a bit more safe with Shredder thinking you're dead." She answered.

"What about you? You have to face him on a daily basis. At any moment he could decide to kill you." Donnie pointed out. Liza shrugged, and lifted one side of her mouth in a sad smile.

"That's something I'll have to face." She said, but despite her words, I could see the fear it caused by the tension in her shoulders. Unlike before, she cared if she died or not.

I looked over at Leo, who was calculating Liza. He fingered his shoulder, tapped at it with a sense of forgetfulness. He sighed and dropped his arm back to his lap.

"Be safe." He said. My eyes widened from surprise at his words. That settled it, somehow between when Leo kicked her out, when Leo fought her, and now, he had decided to be nice. It felt a bit late for him to think it, but I guess it was better late than never.

"Yeah, I think I can try that much," Liza answered with a smile.

"Raph, show Liza the way out," Leo ordered softly, and it was one order I could listen to happily.

Liza and I heard Mikey's loud shout of " Awe man !" after we'd left the room, which made Liza smile. I bet he tried to sneak out and failed, and that thought made me smile as well.

I followed Liza down the hall and stairs. She tapped her thumb along the guardrail and looked in all directions but at me. Despite how warmly she received me earlier, I felt like I was hanging. Every fight we had, violent or not, for fun or not, went through my head, and I wondered if she remembered any of it. I opened my mouth to ask when she spun on her heel and looked me in the eyes. I stopped on my place on the stairs, just one step higher than her. She opened her mouth to speak, but didn't for several seconds. Those seconds felt like lifetimes.

"I..." She began, and looked at the floor. "I'm glad you're safe. And alive."

I smiled and felt my hand twitch to move towards her. I fought it. I was under no delusions with her, I knew it could as easily be lust and curiosity that fed her acceptance of my previous advances than genuine attraction, no matter how I felt. She did look happiest when she saw me though. Maybe I could touch her, just off those principles.

"Me too," I responded. Liza didn't twitch when my hand appeared in her vision, and I took that as something good. I grabbed her chin with my thumb and forefinger and tilted her head up with minimal force. She wasn't fighting me.

She looked at me with familiar green eyes, but they were only familiar in color. The emotions were completely different. These eyes were hesitating, nervous, insecure, and hard around the edges. I tried to remember what they were like before, but she never showed her emotions through her eyes before she got amnesia. You only knew what she felt when she showed you, which was basically never. Now, Liza was an open book.

"Raph…" She whispered quietly into the air between us. I tipped forward slightly, unaware of if I wanted a hug or a kiss. Liza caught me with her hands on my chest, and her mouth pressed against mine awkwardly. She stared back at me from so short a distance, and it felt like an eternity before she did anything.

She pushed where her hands were against me and pushed me far enough to split us. For a second she was far enough away to talk, and I waited for her to say something, but I fell forwards once more as she relaxed her grasp on me. We were back to where we started when I'd first tilted forwards, and we stared until I realized she wanted me to make the next move.

I moved my hand slowly along her jawline, and I felt her hands twitch against my chest. I shifted my lips just enough to give her the idea, and then closed my eyes as she began to respond. Even the way she moved her mouth was hesitant, but there was still a warm feeling in the pit of my stomach. I was still familiar with that feeling at least.

This time was different from the others, so much more different. The first time I was tipsy and Liza did it to stop me from drinking another stupid beer. It set fire to a furnace she didn't know was there, but she didn't shy away when I responded. The next one was to save my family. A last ditch attempt at giving Liza a memory and my brothers a future where they lived. It had been filled with need, and hope, but not much else. This was one I could get used too. Something soft and unpaced, something that conveyed what I didn't how to say yet, because I was still accepting they existed.

Liza pushed my shoulder once more, and my head followed. I opened my eyes and looked at Liza, still very near. Her eyes were clenched closed, and she gnawed her bottom lip with nerves. Her brows furrowed, and her head dropped against my palm.

"Liza?" I asked carefully. She took a step away and looked at me.

"I… can't," She said, and I didn't know if it was the rejection or her sadness that hurt me. "At least not yet. It's all still new to me. I mean, just a week and a half ago, I was prepared to have your head on a silver platter. And now... It's like this weightless feeling in my chest when I see you, and leaving you at all is hard to think about."

I had a weird moment of control over my face, where I wanted to smile and furrow my brow in thought at the same time. I soared inside at her words, but I wanted to comfort her at the same time. I moved closer to her already, and I didn't want to do it again if she wasn't ok with it, but I wanted to pass some comfort to her. I chose to lay my hand on hers, and wondered what else I could do. But it was all in her eyes. I didn't have to step any closer, all she needed was my hand. It was comfort enough.

"We can go at whatever pace ya want. I've waited four months, I can wait a while longer." I soothed. She smiled, and laughed slightly. She shuffled her feet and spun her hand around to grab mine. Her fingers spread mine apart and laced our hands together in a cute display. I looked at our hands, and felt hollow at how different they were. She was a pale peach, which was a very violent contrast to my dark green; her fingers felt small between mine; two of hers made one of mine. She looked at our hands too, and furrowed her brows as she no doubt saw the same differences.

"We're very different," I whispered. I rubbed my thumb across the back of her hand. Her skin had tiny hair follicles that moved with my thumb, a show of its elasticity. My thumb had the very tiny scales that came from being a turtle, which probably felt rough against her skin.

"We can make it work. See, all I have to do is this," She released her hand from mine. She paired up her fingers, index to middle, ring to pink, and her thumb stood alone. She put them back in place, and suddenly her fingers didn't feel so small anymore. They matched along side mine nearly perfect, like when I laced my fingers with my brothers, years back. "And then it works."

I stared at our hands a while longer, interested in how it worked. Her hand was warm, and the way her fingers were positioned didn't look comfortable, but she didn't seem to oppose to it. She looked kind of content actually, in the two minutes she allowed our hands to be laced.

At the end of those two minutes, she let go of my hand and crossed the living room with lightning speed. Her sword found its place on her back again, where she tightened it into place. I remained on the stairs and stared after her. She didn't look back when she left, but that didn't matter so much to me. Liza would return, assuming she didn't get in trouble with Shredder. That was enough for now.