Okay. I lied about updating on Friday. But at least I have one up today. And I wrote another chapter. So that's something. But I've got a sibling and a cousin getting married and I'm a bridesmaid in both; I know I'm fantastic but I can only do so much here.

This is one of those "quiet but secret-y type things are happening in the cupboards and closets" chapters.

TMNT is not mine, nor any of the characters within.

Thanks to Colonel Pop, and GoodSmileGirl for beta-reading.

Chapter Ten

The morning that we left to go home, I was awakened from my peaceful slumber by a gentle shaking and a soft voice in my ear. It was Don, trying to get me up in the nicest way he could. But I was firmly entrenched in his warm blankets and soft pillows and I was having none of it. Eventually Casey got me up by ripping the blankets off me completely, leaving me freezing and exposed to the air.

Although I made my displeasure very clear, the others decided not to take notice. I was politely ordered to put on the clothes I had brought with me, now clean, and we all hurriedly ate some cereal for breakfast. As we ate, Leo began speaking.

"Your apartments should be safe. The explosion was in that warehouse you were looking through, so whoever did it probably didn't want a lot of bodies left over. That's not likely to change. I wouldn't worry about someone coming to your places to kill you."

"Goody," I muttered, still sleepy and groggy.

He ignored me and continued. "We're getting you home before the sun rises, so we'll have to hurry."

"The sun hasn't risen yet? What time is it?" I demanded.

"Exactly 4 AM right now," said Don. "Now pay attention. You can nap when you get home."

"We'll be traveling the sewers for the most part, of course, and luckily both your apartment buildings are close to manholes. It's getting inside that might be tricky. We're going to use fire-escapes to get into both apartments, so if you have any fear of heights, Irma… Deal with it."

"Ah, how lovely to hear such considerate words this early."

"Wise-ass," muttered Raph, but he grinned a little as he said it.

And so, with our cereal eaten and the plans laid out, we went on our merry way. As we walked, Donatello was sure to tell me the subtle markings and the signs that showed the way to the Lair "In case you want to drop by again." I could have hugged him had we not been traveling in sewers, where one wrong hug could trip us up and land us in a bunch of God Knows What.

Just like the plan went, once we got to April and Casey's building, the two of them climbed up with Leo, Raph, and Don, and I waited below with Mikey for the rest of the brothers to return. Once they did, we continued to my own home. The other two and I said brief goodbyes, knowing that we'd be stopping by each other's homes fairly frequently, just like before.

Eventually we got to a ladder where we all stopped. I looked up. "I take it this is my stop."

"Ladies first," said Mikey, with a flourish.

"Alrighty then. Catch me if I fall, would you?"

"Well NOW you've just given me ideas!"

"Can you two cool it for five seconds?" snapped Raph. "Now hurry it up."

With that, I began my assent up the ladder until we got to the manhole cover. "Just slip it to the side slowly," I heard Leo say from somewhere on the ladder beneath me. "I'm gonna have to wash my hands for ages after this," I mumbled to myself. Slowly and carefully, I pushed the lid back, trying to be as careful as I could. Thankfully, it wasn't as heavy as it looked- I managed fairly easily.

As I crawled out of the sewers into the night air, I gave a long, happy sigh. The feel of the wind on my skin felt so good after being stuck underground for weeks.

"Damn. I was hoping for another orgasm moan." Raphael clambered out next, followed by Leo, who instantly smacked his brother hard on the head. They did a growly thing at each other while Mikey and Don climbed out. "This is your apartment building, Irma?" Don asked as the two oldest kept trying to kill each other with their eyes.

"Yep," I said, looking up at the 1930's apartment building. It wasn't the most gorgeous building in the city- according to some, it was completely dilapidated. But it was cool in the summer, warm in the winter- and the rent was super low. We were luckily on my side of the building, and the fire escape was further into the alleyway, making it almost completely safe to climb up. I say ALMOST completely because the entire fire escape was rusted over and looked like any second it was going to crumble to the ground.

We all stared at it for a moment. "So… Ladies first," Raph said, gesturing towards the ladder.

"No, no," I responded. "You can go first. Ninja expert and all that."

"Your house, you first."

"Thought you were supposed to be a bodyguard or something."

"We are," said Leo gruffly. He gently nudged past me and began to climb. "It's perfectly fine," he said as he began to climb. "Irma comes next. Come on."

I gave a sigh and looked back at the other turtles. "If I fall, someone catch me please."

Mikey did a salute. I assumed that was a "Sure."

Without another word, I began to climb, with Leo in front of me and the others in the back. I made comments as we passed the apartments. "Mr. Koll's apartment. He smokes."

Second floor. "The Franklins. Their kids are unholy nightmares."

Third floor. This was when the ladder started creaking. "Old Mrs. Young's place. She collects cat figurines and talks to pigeons."

"Old Mrs. Young?" I heard Don ask behind me.

"She's old but her last name is Young. Old Mrs. Young." I explained. "My apartment is the next one."

"Thank God," Raph muttered.

Leo made me wait for a moment while he checked the windows by the fire escape. Then he called down to me "Are they unlocked?"

I thought for a moment. "I don't think so."

"Of course they aren't," I heard the leader mutter above me.

"I heard that." He ignored me and then did something complex with his fingers, and then my window slid open. He crawled in, looked around for a moment, and then popped his head back outside. "It's clear. Come in."

"I should be the one to say that," I said as he took my hand and helped me in through the window. I immediately walked through my small but suddenly beautiful apartment. I walked through the kitchen, the small dining area, the living room, the bedroom, the office, and the one bathroom. It wasn't nearly as spacious as the Lair, but it was mine, and it was full of my books, my movies, my pictures, my clothes, my things, everything familiar. I did a small happy dance as the rest of the guys clambered into my living room. "Welcome to my home!" I said, spreading my arms out wide to them, grinning broadly. "And my home is your home! Make yourself at home!"

"Why do you keep saying home?" asked Raph, looking irritated as usual.

"Because it's such a wonderful word!" I said happily.

Don shook his head, laughing softly. "Glad we could help."

I grinned happily. Then a thought struck me. "Oh! Oh! Mikey, Mikey, come here, I want to show you something!" I drug him to my office to show him my collection of games. Then I pulled Donatello to my giant bookshelf that covered an entire wall of my apartment to show him my complete collection of Shakespeare, Milton and Chaucer. Then I shoved Raph over to my TV to show him all my DVDs. Then I pulled out all my history textbooks for Leo to look at.

They went along with my excitement for a few minutes, and then Leo put a hand on my shoulder. "Irma," he said firmly. "Thank you very much for accepting us and trying to make us feel welcome. But we really do need to be getting back to the Lair now."

"Oh! Right. Of course." I walked over to the window where they started to climb out again. "Be careful," I said.

"You too," Don was the first out onto the fire escape.

"You guys will come to visit and stuff, right?"

"Sure! As long as you have pizza!" Mikey did a flip out the window to show off.

Raph grunted at me and gave a little wave as he crawled out.

"We'll be checking up on you fairly regularly, so don't worry," Leo told me as he went outside.

"Don't be strangers!" I called softly to them, leaning out of my window as they climbed back down. I watched them crawl back into the sewer and close the lid behind them. I turned to look at the clock in my kitchen. It was 5:30 AM. I gave a little groan and headed to my bedroom. The blinds were already closed, so I stripped down and got into my big, warm, soft bed, and promptly fell back asleep.

It was 10 in the morning when I woke up next. My eyes had adjusted to the sunshine again, and after being underground for so long, I was excited to be able to see without the aid of an overhead light. I hoped up and began to get ready for the new day. I was excited, so I wore a red skirt and a red vest over a long-sleeved black turtleneck, with my cute black heels and black purse. I put my hair back in a bun to keep it out of my face, and headed down to the police station at 11, where I promised I would meet April to let the department know I was alive and kicking. April was already there, looking ready and refreshed, and also very excited to be outside again. Casey was with her, and the three of us went inside to get our things and explain what happened.

"Remember," April whispered to me before we went into the office, "Just let us do the talking."

"Right. No talking," I said, a little nervously, and so I decided that the best way to not say anything was to not pay attention. And I didn't. I sat there for about three hours, staying completely silent by counting the number of tiles on the floor, and inwardly wincing about the amount of paperwork I knew I'd be welcomed back to the next day at work.

"Miss Langinstein," a voice said, sending me out of my reverie, "Is what they're saying true? That the three of you were so shaken, you just went on a road trip for two weeks?"

"Uh… Yeah. Of course. Whatever they said. Lovely time of year in… Kansas."

The policemen's eyes narrowed. "Thought they said you went to Connecticut."

"Of course! Kansas City Connecticut." Smooth, I thought to myself.

Casey looked like he was in pain and April was pinching the bridge of her nose between her fingers. The policeman gave me another strange look and then sighed, handing myself and April some paperwork to fill out. "Just turn them into the front desk and your things will be returned to you."

We said thanks as the man left, and we began writing.

"Kansas City Connecticut. Wow, Irma," muttered Casey.

"You guys told me not to talk," I replied defensively.

"When we said 'Don't talk,' we didn't mean, 'Pay no attention to anything whatsoever,'" said April calmly as she wrote.

"Oh… Oops."

We turned our clipboards full of our personal info into the desk, like we were instructed. April and I got our purses, and her clothes. Casey didn't get anything since he didn't disappear from the hospital. I did a quick search of my purse to make sure that everything was in there, and April did the same for hers. Then a thought occurred to me. "You know, we could have just had Casey call the station and told them that we were on a vacation before, like when we first left the hospital. Then we wouldn't have had to do the paperwork." April and Casey looked at me, and then at each other.

"We should remember that," remarked Casey.

I pulled my cell phone out. It was dead, of course. But my credit and debit cards were still in my wallet, along with my driver's license and keys. "Your car is in the parking lot," the woman at the desk told me. "Also, here's a bag with the other belongings you had." She handed me a plastic bag that hand my magazines and puzzle boxes, all of them looking undamaged. I thanked her and walked outside with April and Casey to give them a ride back to their apartment. "Hello, Gary, my old friend," I said fondly to the steering wheel."

"You have really got to stop naming your belongings, Irma," said April, who sat next to me in the passenger seat. "You're almost as bad as Michelangelo when he plays with his food."

"You're just jealous that I have a car with an awesome name," I said, and I pulled out of the parking lot and began to drive. "Okay…" I began, determined to breech the topic that I hadn't had the courage to before. "Why did someone try to blow you up?"

"Because she doesn't know when to let something go," said Casey from the backseat. "We tell her to let something go, and does she? Oh, no, God forbid that she let something go. No, no, she has to do everything that we tell her not to. We say, April, this client is obviously shifty. Don't listen to him. Take the job with the nice elderly woman who wants to dig up her family's genealogy in Scotland, we say. Does she listen? No, of course not. That would be too easy."

"I was trying to follow a lead on Seiobo's Nectar that brought me to a warehouse and when I went in, I found a bomb on a timer. I had about enough time to dive through a window before it went off." April spoke while ignoring Casey.

"So, basically someone is looking for the artwork and not willing to share it," I summed up.

"Pretty much," said April.

"Just DROP it, damn it!" said Casey angrily. "If they're willing to kill for it, just give it to them. It'll probably come back to bite them in the ass later."

April turned around to look her boyfriend in the eyes. "I am NOT going to give up on this! Hardly anyone has heard of this piece of artwork, no one has written anything on the artist, and by all accounts he shouldn't be of any importance whatsoever. And yet someone is trying to kill me for it! That has to mean something! Why can't you guys appreciate that?" The hurt in her voice almost made me forget that she was ignoring the fact that someone tried to kill her for it.

"Look, April, it's probably just a moldy old scroll that someone thinks is lined with rubies or some such crap. I say just give it to them." April stared at me so hard I thought I was going to explode. "Or not…" I amended weakly.

"See, this is what she does, Irma. I love you, April, I really do," Casey said. "but you're insane."

"I'm not the one dating my own boss," she retorted.

"Touché," I commented. "So what do we do now? Keep looking for this thing? I mean, if they're already going to try to kill us…"

"Irma, don't encourage her!"

"Look, Casey, I know you and the guys are concerned for my safety," April began.

"And mine, I should hope," I interjected.

"-but the fact of the matter is, we don't know that that's even why someone was after me! I mean, in all the years of working as an antique collector, nothing like that has ever happened. I mean, for all we know, it could be the Foot!"

"The hell is the Foot?" I asked.

"That's even more reason to drop this thing!" Casey said, not noticing my question. "Maybe the only reason they found you was because you were looking for this thing."

"Oh, please! After being an accomplice in killing their leader and blowing up their base of operations? Yeah, they totally forgot about me from that." April looked over at me. "And the Foot is that ninja group that Master Splinter told you about, remember, Irma?"

"I thought that was the Head."

"Do you pay attention at all?" snapped Casey.

"Hey, I had a concussion! And I wouldn't be making comments if I were you, Mr. Not There When You Need Him!"

"Oh, that is SO typical of a girl! You screw up ONCE and they hold it over you for the rest of your life!"

"Would you like to get out and walk? 'Cause I can pull Gary over right here if you want."

He grumbled a bit from the backseat, but the rest of the ride to their apartment was relatively quiet. Or at least as quiet as the three of us could be.

After I dropped off the lovebirds, I went to the library to make sure that they hadn't set it on fire while I had been gone. I was relieved to see that the building was still standing, although my return was a bit more happy than I had anticipated.

"IRMA!" Kelly had screamed the second I walked through the door. The next thing I knew, she was clinging to me and saying something about how the library had been complete chaos while I was gone. I sighed and told her I'd be back the next day. Then I went over to my office area. Just as I had suspected, tons of papers were stacked up in my inbox. I gave another sigh and decided to get some wine on my way home. I started to leave the building when-

"Irma!" I turned around right away to see Ken coming out from behind a bookshelf, a million dollar smile on his face and looking like someone had just told him Christmas had come early. "You're back!"

My own face became wreathed in smiles as well as he came over to hug me tightly. I hugged him back, wondering why I had never noticed how nice his arms felt around me. He pulled back after a moment and asked "How long have you been back? Are you okay? I kept calling you but you never answered."

"I'm fine, just got back today, and I am so sorry. I forgot my cell phone at home and I had to call you from a pay phone." It was partially true.

"I was worried about you," he said softly. "I mean, I come in one day, and Kelly tells me that you've dropped off the face of the earth. Did you really get attacked in the hospital?"

"Giant condor, yes." He looked confused. I decided to take advantage of this and changed the topic. "So, uh, what about you these past couple weeks? Have you been okay? How's work been?" I took his arm in mine and gently steered him towards the front doors, leading him away from the library.

"I've been fine, I guess. A little worried and disappointed about missing our date, but okay besides that."

I was touched at his concern. I gave him a smile as we walked down the steps of the building. "Hey, I have an idea. Why don't we have a quiet movie night at my place? We can order some take out and just talk. Nothing fancy."

"I think I like that idea," he said. "How about Wednesday?"

"What day is today?"

"It's Sunday." He looked at me quizzically. "You didn't remember?"

"Been a long vacation," I answered. "Hard to come back to reality from that, y'know?"

"Yeah, I guess so." He looked around for a moment. "Well, hey, I gotta get back to work, and I'm sure you have to go someplace too."

I nodded. "But I'll see you tomorrow, maybe? I'm coming into work then."

"Yeah, yeah, sounds great."

"Alrighty! See you then!" And with that, we went our separate ways. I was already planning what to wear.

I spent the rest of that afternoon dusting and vacuuming the apartment, as well as finishing the laundry I hadn't folded before the ordeal at the hospital. After that I scoured the bathroom and the tile floors in the kitchen area. Then I cleaned out the fridge and threw away everything that had gone bad, which was a lot. I was going to have to light so many scented candles to get the smell of soured milk away that it wasn't even funny.

But when my home was once again clean and smelled new and I had firmly put my stamp on the place once more, I sat down in front of my little TV, turned on the news, and began to fiddle with my puzzle box once more. I couldn't really say what I liked so much about the things, other than that they gave me something to do when I was bored, and I felt smart when I finished them. The one I had in my lap, I had been working on for some time before the Incident, so I was well on my way to finishing it already. I had to get myself reacquainted with it of course- you can't just put down and pick up puzzles, otherwise you forget where you started and what you've already done. But I was determined to pick it up again, and successfully.

I had plugged my cell phone in to charge up. There were several missed calls and voice mails, two from Kelly, five from Ken, and one from my twin sister Velma who wanted to know if I knew the author to the book Carmilla.

Realization hit me suddenly, that there was a good chance that my life was going to be boring again now. I had never thought of it as boring before, but really, what else could it be called, now that I had met a bunch of talking turtles and their rat master? True, there had been a distinct lack of bombs, gunshots, and the like, but it was still pretty exciting. With a sigh, I turned my attention back to the news. Maybe there was something on there that would keep me from thinking of my boring life.

The voice of the news reporter droned from the speakers. There has been a reported theft from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. According to the sources, the theft took place last night at roughly one in the morning. Although the piece of art in question was not on display at the time, it is nonetheless a loss to the artists who so fondly followed the work of the artist, Sir James Berkly, before his death.

Click. The entire left hand side of my puzzle box moved to the right.

The piece of art in question was titled Reflections in the Garden, a work inspired by the artist's long stay in rural Japan, where he reportedly apprenticed under a well-known local artisan, Hideki Shizumi.

Something snapped into place under my hands. The top of the box lifted a fraction and I slowly turned all the way around so that the decal on the top was now facing the opposite direction.

Many have long complained about the lack of security in the vaults of the museum, but museum officials say that it is nearly impossible to get into the vaults without first going through several well guarded posts inside the building itself. Despite these assurances, many still wonder at the ability to break in, as well as the choice to steal a piece of work that, while known, is not nearly as valuable as many of the other pieces in the museum.

I pushed the decal back down onto the box. Something else clicked, and a side of the box popped out, revealing a drawer that held a wood bracelet that had pictures of cranes painted on the large beads.

Reporting from Channel Twelve, evening news.

Awww… Irma's happy to be home. Being something of a homebody myself, I can appreciate what she's going through.

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