DISCLAIMER - My apologies for taking so long in updating this story. As some of you might know, another story was born and, with ideas for it popping like popcorn in my head, I had to run with it. Fortunately, I was able to do what has become rare for me – I finished it and in under a month, no less:0) And it wasn't even a one-shot!

Anyway, as always, I only own Beth and the idea behind the story. Thanks goes to Leo Oneal who inspired it and gave me a kick in the pants to get it going. This chapter is a little tamer than that previous one, if only to set things in motion. It's also the shortest one I've written, so far – for Butterfly, that is.

Enjoy.

Chapter 13 Awakening Hope

Beth stirred and found, much to her surprise, that she was back in bed again. Deep under the covers, she slowly opened her eyes and looked around. Quickly recognizing that she was in Splinter's room once more, she couldn't quite remember how she had managed to get there. With her memory stunted for the moment, Beth also felt a bit unsettled. It was almost as if she had had another one of her episodes. Had she gone catatonic again? Compounding her fuzzy recollection, she felt just a little muddled, as if someone had medicated her. It almost reminded her of when she first woke up in the mutants' home.

As she looked around, she discovered Leonardo sitting next to the bed in the one chair the room afforded. It was obvious he had moved it from where it was originally, to be closer to her. She smiled a little, wondering about him. With his head tilted forward and down and his eyes closed, his chin was currently resting in the center top niche of his plastron. He slouched in the chair just a little, with his arms folded in front of him, his breathing soft and shallow, as if he were napping. With his legs outstretched and with one crossed over the other at the ankles, it was obvious he had been sitting there for a while. She saw the various bandages and recognized that they seemed fresher than before. Had Donatello re-bandaged him, she asked silently.

Then, Leo's eyes opened. Seeing that Beth was awake, he smiled over at her. "How're you feeling?"

Shrugging under the blanket, the girl replied, "Fine, I guess." She then scrunched up her face as she asked him, "What happened? How did I get here? The last thing I remembered I was in the other room."

Sighing, Leo replied, "Well, Don said that when Raphael and I started fighting, you sort of went..." he furrowed his eye ridges as if trying to think of the right word, "What did he say? Catatonic? Yeah, you sort of went blank on us." He then apologized, "I'm sorry for reacting the way I did. I feel kind of responsible for what happened to you."

"Quite honestly, I don't remember much. Sometimes I can recall what triggers my episodes, and sometimes I can't," Beth replied.

Closing her eyes, however, and groaning inwardly, it was her worse fear to have an episode in front of someone. She then swallowed as she felt a whimper come to her throat. Beth tried to ward it off, to suppress it, but it did little good. Unable to help herself, she suddenly began to cry. Turning to face the wall and with her back to Leo, her body trembled under the blanket as she sobbed.

"Hey, it's all right, you're fine now," Leo leaned over and placed a comforting hand across the back of her head. He gently caressed her hair, stroking her head tenderly as he soothed, "You didn't know what you were doing and no one was hurt, so, everything's okay."

"Nothing's okay, Leonardo. I'm not okay. I just want this to stop. I want to be normal again. I want my life back." Beth wept inconsolably.

Leo didn't know what to say to her; he could only mollify Beth's emotional outburst with his caring touch. As he stroked her hair, he sighed, for he could easily relate to the girl's lamentations. He, too, wanted to get his life back, to retrieve his lost memories that teased and tickled his mind with sporadic images that bedeviled him. It began with the conversation Splinter had earlier with Beth, when the rat explained to her their origins and even admitting to being ninja. To learn of that, had amazed Leo a great deal, and worried him, as well.

Were they killers?

Then, the fight with Raphael had actually triggered recollections that Leo could only surmise as his lost memories. While he napped beside the bed and waited for Beth to reawaken, he had had visions of running at night along the roofline of buildings. He 'felt' the wind blowing against his body as he raced through the city far above the ground. Moreover, conversations came back to him that he'd had with various members of his family, most of them between Splinter and himself. Some were with Raphael and most of those were argumentative at best. Yet, with the conversations disjointed and uncoordinated with one another, it made it very difficult for Leo to understand their meaning.

Worst of all, were the disturbing pictures of fights. Playing like a movie, he saw battles with opponents dressed in dark clothing from head to toe and who wielded swords as they slashed out at him. He, too, held similar weapons. Those were the nightmares, the unsettled memories he would rather not recall. Leo wondered, then, if what Splinter told Beth about their many battles with the Foot, if his words had influenced his thoughts. It frightened him, yet – at the same time – intrigued him a great deal.

"I – understand how you feel," Leo admitted softly, "I, too, had a life – here, in this subway station. But, I can't remember any of it," he said sadly.

Beth shifted around in the bed and turned back to look at him, "I can remember mine, though. Believe me; sometimes not knowing what you lost is better."

Smiling, Leo concurred, "I guess that makes sense. Still…" he looked away for a moment, "I have this feeling that my position in the family was an important one." Leo gave Beth a sideways glance as he grinned a bit, "and I think that Raph's not happy that I don't remember what that was."

As she slipped her arm beneath her and propped herself up with her elbow, she asked, "Why is that?"

Sighing and casting a gaze out the compartment's window, he explained, "Well, a while ago, he and Splinter got into an argument about something called 'patrol'. I guess Raphael didn't want to go out yet, he said something about it being 'too soon'. But…" Now Leo looked back at Beth as he continued, giving her a more serious expression, "Splinter didn't want to take any chances."

"Could it be about this gang, this Foot gang he talked about, before – my episode?" Beth asked. She was feeling much better, now, not as weepy as she did moments earlier. Talking to Leonardo seemed to calm her. She was relieved to find that it was easy being around him and talking with him. In a rarified moment, Beth felt a bit more alive than she had in a very long time.

"Might be, but then they mentioned your apartment, too." Leo shrugged.

Beth's eyes went wide as she exclaimed, "Do you think someone knows that I'm missing?"

"Ah," Leo held up a finger as if in proclamation, "That's what Splinter was worried about. Do you live with anyone?" he asked her.

Shaking her head, Beth replied, "No, I live alone. I'm kind of a loner; I don't have friends."

"Any family, then?" Leo asked as he cocked his head in query. Yet, as he watched her, he noticed almost right away a sudden change in her demeanor.

Beth cowed back away from him, the thought of 'family' affecting her more than she desired. At first she rushed her words, "No, my mom died when I was a little girl and my dad – " she hesitated a little, her father's memory triggering more emotion in her, causing her voice to soften to a near whisper as she whimpered, "he – he died about – five years ago, after…" Then, she quieted, going mute as if someone had switched her off.

"Beth, are you all right?" Leo asked worriedly. He noticed the now-familiar glazed look come over the girl's face, her eyes becoming fixated once again. "BETH!" he nearly shouted at her.

The sudden rise in volume of Leo's voice broke through the girl's emerging psychotic state. She startled just a little, her eyes dilating in surprise as she nearly jumped. She looked over at the turtle and knew instantly that she had almost succumbed to yet another attack. They were happening all too frequently, now, it seemed to her, and that worried Beth a great deal. Tears now filled her eyes as she contemplated what it might mean, fearful of possibly losing her mind completely.

With her voice shaky and trembling, "I'm afraid, Leo, I can't control myself, I don't know what to do," she began to weep once more.

Leo slipped off the chair and over onto the bed next to her, wrapping his arms around her protectively. However, in reflex and considering how she hated to be touched, Beth stiffened up instinctively and tried to pull away. Yet, despite her attempts, Leo refused to let her go.

"Beth, it's me, Leo…I'm not going to hurt you. You're safe here, remember," he whispered softly to her. "I won't let anything hurt you, okay?" he soothed.

Beth tried to relax in his embrace, she tried to focus on his words and believe them. Yet, she recalled Splinter's explanation about what ninja did and that he and his family were ninja. "But, you used to fight and y-you used a sword and there was - blood on that sword and…"

Sighing, Leo interrupted her, "Beth, I don't know about the sword or the blood, but I don't' think I would hurt someone like you. I think - no, I know that I would try to protect you. If that were not true, don't you think the rest of my family would keep me from you?"

He could feel her shudder against him in uncertainty as he continued to hold her. She had stopped resisting him, now, and seemed to be listening, instead. Her head was against his plastron with his chin resting on top and nestled into her hair. Beth sniffed a couple of times and then she shrugged, "I – I guess so."

"As far as controlling your episodes," Leo suggested, "maybe Splinter can help you. He talked to me a while ago, while Donnie was redressing your wound, that they practice a form of meditation. He told me that it might help restore my memory, so it might help you to learn how to control your attacks, too."

Hope sprouting just a little within her, Beth pulled away from him and asked in almost disbelief as she looked into his eyes, "Y-you think so? Can he help me?"

"Well, it certainly can't hurt and it's better than not doing anything at all," Leo smiled. He looked at her and saw past her disheveled and un-kept appearance, noting the gentle attractiveness of the girl's face. Warmth filled him and in that moment, he relished that she was in his arms. Although he had only known her for a short while, Beth's fragile mental state and his need to protect her affected him deeply. Although he could not explain it nor did he care to try, Leo knew only one thing.

Beth needed him and, for some inexplicable reason, he needed her as well.

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COMMENTS: I'm so grateful for all who have read this little fic and for those who took the time to comment. Thanks!