Brennan slumped against the outside wall of the garage, cigarette in hand as he puffed out a breath of nicotine smoke. He'd just spent the last couple hours crouched over the turtle's couch, picking shell fragments out of a stranger's shoulder. After coming to the conclusion that there was no bullet lodged in her wound, he'd managed to stitch the skin back together. In the process, he'd decided that the graze to her thigh didn't need to be stitched and bandaged everything. He'd warned the terrapin brothers that there was nothing he could do about the damage to her shell.

He knew from research that turtle shells were amazing at repairing themselves, but based on her anatomy, he wasn't sure hers would. Her mutation was different from the brothers. He wasn't entirely sure her terrapin appearance was genuine.

Lifting his cigarette to his lips again he took another breath. Lowering the nicotine stick, he chuckled lightly. "I think I respond to more 911 emergencies with you guys, then at my own clinic." He teased.

"We appreciate you coming though." A disembodied voice responded through the boarded window to his left.

"Yeah, well I really didn't do a whole lot. Donnie probably could have taken care of it himself. Now if the bullet had still been in her shoulder, that'd be a different story. But all I did was stitch her back up. The wound looked worse than it really was. Lot of blood loss, but nothing majorly serious. She's gonna be insanely dehydrated when she wakes up though."

"Donnie and Leo are already working on that." The voice responded again, it sounded as exhausted as he felt. "Any idea how long she'll be out?"

"Honestly? She could wake up in the next ten minutes, or she could be out for another three days. It's hard to say. Especially since we don't know anything about her. But you want my recommendation? Learn as much as you can." Brennan sighed, "Hate to break it to you, but strangers like you guys don't just suddenly appear for no reason. My bet is something is going on, and knowing you guys, it probably ain't good." He drew another puff from his cigarette.

"You sound like Master Splinter." The voice snorted half-heartedly.

"All I'm saying is that you should be careful."

"It's not like we're going to spill all of our secrets to her the moment she wakes up, Brennan." The voice snapped through the boards, "We're not that stupid, ya'know."

Brennan huffed at the response, dropped his cigarette and snuffed it out with his foot. "Call me when she wakes up." He resigned, before shouldering his bag and kicking away from the wall.

Raphael watched as Brennan's shadow disappeared around the corne. He ought to head back down, but he really didn't feel like dealing the situation. Master Splinter had Mikey running drills in the dojo, and Leo and Donnie were preoccupied with tending to the new mutant. He hadn't lied when he told Brennan his brothers were working on the problem of her dehydration. Donnie had the brilliant idea to squeeze water into her mouth using a wet rag or sponge and Leo was helping him. Which meant Raphael would be expected to participate in drills with his younger brother, and he really didn't feel like doing that. Pushing his hand beneath his mask, he rubbed at his eyes. Tonight was supposed to be droll and boring, and he wasn't entirely sure he was excited about this new development. Brennan had been right; strangers like this didn't just appear out of nowhere.

Tapping his forehead to the wooden beam a couple times, he finally decided to straighten and maneuvered across the floor back to the elevator. There was nothing else he or anyone else could do tonight.

The ride down was quick and as he reentered the chamber it was almost as if nothing had happened. The sounds of grunts and clashing metal suggested Leo had taken his leave of Donatello and returned to the dojo, and even Donatello was no longer hovering over the injured mutant. Raphael blinked a few times as his gaze flashed to the empty couch. "Where-?" He started as he spotted his purple masked brother carrying a vial about the size of his finger filled with a thick red fluid.

"Leo and I moved her to my room." Donnie interrupted him with a shrug. "It was the closest room and I highly doubt I'm sleeping tonight." He added, holding up the vial. He started to turn away, towards his lab, but paused and turned his head back with a sneer. "Are you ever going to take a bath?" He asked with a jeer, and Raphael realized he was still covered in the woman's blood. Suddenly disgusted, his face contorted and he followed his brother's lead, except he moved in the opposite direction; towards the bathroom.

The following couple of days passed in a blur, someone was posted outside Donnie's room at all times, and none of the turtles felt the desire to leave the lair for the first time in their lives. It seemed they were all waiting. Though they were all fascinated by the woman for varying reasons, it seemed no one was as eager to meet the woman as Michelangelo. He prattled constantly about how awesome it was going to be having a girl in the house. He seemed convinced that she would become romantically involved with him as soon as she woke up.

At first, his brothers thought it was kind of cute and teased Mikey about it, but as the hours progressed, it became more and more annoying. And it was becoming increasingly obvious that the orange masked ninja had actually convinced himself that the woman would become his romantic partner. As usual, it irked no one as much as it annoyed Raphael. Leonardo had managed to pacify his brother by telling him that it was just a delusional dream that would be shattered as soon as the woman woke up and rejected their younger sibling. However, even he wasn't sure that would be enough to deter Michelangelo's advances.

He was droning on in Leo's ear at the moment, and it was beginning to wear on his near infinite patience as well. It took all of his willpower to refrain from reacting as he sat outside the closed door to Donnie's room. It was near impossible to keep Mikey away, and so their constant vigil had become more of sentry position to keep the orange masked ninja from doing anything stupid.

Even Donnie had become more of an annoyance than anything. It seemed he only came by his room to draw another sample of the woman's blood for analysis. Leo had tried explaining that his continued drawing was not aiding their efforts to keep her hydrated or recovering, but his words seemed to fall on deaf ears. Raphael came by occasionally, either to relieve Leo or see if she had woken up. But, other than when he was struggling not to explode on Michelangelo, he was uncharacteristically passive. It bothered Leonardo.

"Would you shut up already?" Raphael snapped as he approached his brothers, he didn't stop to greet them, simply pushed the door open and disappeared inside. With a sigh, Leonardo lifted himself to his feet and followed his brother. Mikey tried to weasel his way in, but Leo held out a hand to stop him. "You stay out here." He instructed, pulling the door shut behind him.

Inside, Raphael had slumped into the chair beside the unconscious woman, he'd pulled a bowl of water to his lap and was gently dabbing the woman's lips with the wet rag, wiping it across her face occasionally. "Think she'll ever wake up?" He mumbled.

"Eventually." Leonardo responded. "What're you waiting for?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know. Mikey's waiting for her to reject him, even if he doesn't realize it. Donnie's waiting to perform who knows what kind of tests. What're you waiting for?"

"Answers." Raphael responded simply.

The two brothers stayed there in silence for a few minutes longer until Raphael dropped the rag back in the bowl and set it on the nightstand before rising to his feet. Leonardo stepped aside as Raphael left the room. He glanced briefly between the woman and the portal in which his brother had departed, but decided nothing would come of trying to pry information out of his kinsman.

His gaze turned back to the woman and his eyes narrowed. No one had mentioned it, but he couldn't bring himself to believe none of his kinsmen had seen it. He'd seen it the other day, when Brennan was assisting them. He'd seen it when he'd facilitated his brother in flipping the woman onto her stomach. There was no way his brothers would have missed it. Raphael had been standing right next to him, and Donnie had stayed with Brennan for the two hours it had taken him to clean and bandage her wounds. Leonardo couldn't believe his brothers would be so unobservant of it. The Foot Clan symbol that was blazed on the top lip of her shell, just behind her neck, like a brand. Maybe that's what Raphael had meant when he'd said he was waiting for answers.

Pushing his tongue into his cheek, he decided he was oversimplifying the situation. She wasn't capable of explaining the position she was in yet. And it wasn't like this would be the first time they'd seen the Foot Clan perform experiments on unwilling victims. He couldn't jump to any conclusions without proper information, and he couldn't get any information until she woke up. He groaned as his head gave a throb and finally decided he needed sleep.

Leo woke with a start, for a moment he couldn't figure out what had woke him up. Until it came again. A crash, a cry, a clamor, a commotion. He was out of his room before he could distinguish between the noises. Katana at the ready, he ran for the source. It seemed to be emanating from Donnie's room and as he approached he finally recognized some of the sounds. Voices, several voices. Raph, Donnie, Master Splinter, even Mikey, and another voice, one he didn't recognize. A feminine voice, screaming in a foreign language.

"Hey!" Raphael's voice sounded in a cry of outrage as an object came flying through the doorway. It was a book; a large, thick book. Leo dodged the object and stepped into the chaos. It took a moment to properly digest what he was seeing. Michelangelo was backed into one corner, held there by Donatello who was yelling at him. Raphael was planted in the middle of the room, his hands held out in front of him. He looked different without his signature red mask. Apparently he had been startled awake as well. So who had been standing vigil outside?

After a moment, Leo also noticed their sensei. He was crouched across the room, speaking quickly in another language, the same language the woman was shouting in.

She was huddled in another corner, the bed sheets still tangled around her legs, and she was brandishing a sharp object in her hand. A piece of glass, he realized. It was cutting into her hand as blood dripped from around the object. Her blue eyes were wide. Scared.

It only took Leonardo a moment to realize she was speaking Japanese, but even after that realization, he still couldn't understand what she was yelling about. The only two words he could understand were "hiru" and "obake". He fought a smile as his gaze flicked to the opposite corner where Mikey and Donnie were still locked together. "Hiru" which was Japanese for "leech" and "obake" which was Japanese for "hob goblin". The nicknames fit perfectly, at least for a first impression. They brought it on themselves. He silently chuckled, as he stepped farther into the room. That's when he noticed the glass shards, and a small puddle of blood on the floor.

His brother's amber eyes flicked to him, but he barely acknowledged Leonardo's presence as another book flew through the air and collided with his forehead. Raphael let out a grunt as his head jerked back and the encyclopedia hit the floor. Leonardo slipped further into the room, carefully maneuvering through the wreckage. Perhaps it hadn't been all that wise to put her in Donnie's room where there were trinkets, odds and ends, and books everywhere. The woman had an unlimited supply of projectiles. And by the looks of the room, it appeared she'd been at it for a while. She cursed in her native tongue again, and drew back her arm to throw a snow globe, or at least prepare to use it as a club of some sort. Briefly, Leo wondered why Donnie even had a snow globe in his room, but realized it was unimportant.

"Knock it off!" Raphael roared, taking a menacing step forward. The movement was his mistake. Leonardo barely managed to duck as the snow globe sailed through the air, but surprisingly didn't collide with his brother's body. Instead the projectile flew past him and shattered on the ground behind him, sending a spray of glass slivers and water cascading through the air.

"Shut up, Raph." Leo warned suddenly, throwing a hand out toward his brother. "She's scared out of her mind and your yelling is not helping matters, so shut up and let her calm down." Across the room, he could recognize the syllables as their sensei said something similar to the woman in Japanese. He was easing a hand toward her, toward the hand that still clutched the glass shard. He was muttering a simple phrase repetitively until his fingers wrapped around her wrist and he pulled the glass from her hand.

Her muscles bunched, but to Leonardo's surprise, she wasn't watching their sensei as he uncurled her fingers to examine the injury. Instead, her blue eyes were locked on Raphael. Her lips slowly parted and a look of recognition filled her expression.

"H-Hasha…?" The word came out small, breathless, barely a whisper. Leonardo barely heard it and his gaze turned to his brother in curiosity.

A derivative snort sounded from the back corner as Mikey and Donnie apparently overcame the argument they'd been having. "Did she just call you "Hasha"?" Mikey asked.

"Better than "Obake"." Donnie jeered, earning a contorted look of disgust from his younger brother. The tension was suddenly gone from the room. At least until the woman threw aside Master Splinter's hand, shoved herself forward, tripping on the sheets tangled around her legs and ankles, and threw herself against Raphael. "Hasha!" She cried, fingers grasping at his arms and shoulders before rotating around him and pressing against his shell.

"Woah! Hey, what?" Raphael tensed, clearly as confused by the sudden outburst as his surrounding kinsman.

"Got something you wanna tell us, Raphie?" Mikey piped up again, aggravation coating his expression as the woman used their brother as a shield.

"I have no idea what's going on!" Raphael countered, as he tried to peer over his shoulder at the cowering woman. "H-H-Hey."

"Apparently she's chosen her champion." Leonardo struggled not to laugh at the bewilderment and awkwardness of his usually confident and boastful brother. As his gaze flicked toward the rest of his family, he realized Donnie was also having difficulty containing his laughter. But Master Splinter was staring at the duo with suspicious, narrowed eyes. It was then that Leonardo realized the woman had her back to the rodent, giving him a clear view of the symbol on her shell. But the rodent didn't say anything, just moved from the corner toward his son. He spoke the simple phrase again, as he reached for her hand, but she only recoiled from him. It was a small inconsistency, but it still made Leonardo wonder what changed. A moment ago, she didn't seem to have a problem with their sensei touching her, now even he couldn't get close to her. She recoiled from all of them. All of them except Raph.

"Raph." He interjected, "someone needs to check her hand."

"Yeah, so? What do you want me to do?"

"You're the only one she'll let near her., so unless you convince her to let someone else look at it, you're up." He pointed out; as he lowered his katanas upon realizing he still held them out in front of him. "C'mon guys, let's get out of here. Let her relax a little. We don't all need to be in here, crowding her out." He added, pivoting around, firmly ushering his younger brothers out with him with a hand on their shells. Master Splinter seemed to agree with the arrangement, as he too started out of the room, leaving Raphael with the stranger.