Author's comment: I have three new reviewers! Yay me! Oh and in taking Reinbeauchaser's advice and reading my finished works aloud to beta-read them before uploading, I got busted by my parents last night reading out one of Mikey's lines in a very thick New Yorker accent (by the way for those of you who didn't pick it by small spelling variations, I'm an Australian). I think they're going to commit me next week to a lovely place call 'Clear Waters' [laughs]

Lisa15: Hey there, Lisa and thanks for the review! This feedback-addicted poor writer is hungry for all the praise she can get. No seriously, I have a fellow Leonardo fan! C'mere! [bear hugs] I look forward to your opinions as the story takes shape! Oh and don't sweat it about the graphic love scenes. Personally, I've always found a really lemon scene somehow cheapens the whole story. (No offence to writers who include such scenes in their fiction). Besides, I'm not even sure how something like that would work between a human and a mutant turtle! Rest assured this story will not exceed NC-17 in that regard, and remain on because I will handle it with a measure of decorum and class.

Lindsay: She loves my work! I have a fan! Woohooo! achem Excited? Who me? Nyah. Anyway, here is that update and I'll try and keep them coming through a perpetual writer's block.

Buslady of SoCal: I'm busting at the seams to finally hear from you. I have to confess, it was your JeanXRaphael fiction which inspired me to consider TMNT as a category to write for. Before that I was strictly an anime/comic book fiction author. So I figure I've got to thank you in this chapter for motivating me to make the story in the first place! I'll see about that Donnie fiction later down the track, huh?

Disclaimer: I don't own Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or any names, characters, places or events therein covered by the copyright. My only claim to this is my OC 'Madeline'. (See comment above Disclaimer in chapter 1 for why not to sue me)

-- CHAPTER 6 --

"Hold on, Maddy! I'm coming!"

Leonardo burst from the tunnels onto the main platform short of breath. His eyes whipped around the deserted living area-- the TV was still on, displaying a morning talkshow. A cup of black coffee in Raphael's favorite American flag mug was still steaming on the card table. Donnie's work desk was buried beneath what looked like the components of an old transistor spread everywhere and a screwdriver still spun on its axis at its edge as if it had been dropped in haste.

His stomach plunged to the soles of his big green feet. "Mikey? Raph?! Donnie?!! Master Splinter?!!!" No one answered his frantic summons. The lair was so horribly quiet, he could hear the ringing of silence in his ears. "Where IS everybody??!"

As if answering the turtle's question, another high-pitched scream of fright rang out, bouncing off the high ceilings of the subway dome shrilly. Leo's head snapped towards the subway carriages, pinpointing the source at last, and he wasted no time at all vaulting over the back of the couch to get there.

"Hold on, guys! I'm coming!" he shouted as he barged into the narrow passageway so heavily the entire train rocked.

"Leo! Get your ass down here and –SHIT, MIKEY, LOOK OUT!" Raph's voice rose to the familiar bellowing battle cry he had heard many times carry across a fight.

Shoving anything which got in his way, tables, cushions, old cereal boxes, everything. Leonardo sprinted down the narrow corridor and slammed a hard right into the doorway of his bedroom. He had to dig his heels in and throw his weight back into his shell to stop plowing into the back of Splinter, who kept his distance on the threshold.

Over the top of the rat's furred and graying head, the eldest ninja took in the warzone which used to be his bedroom. And when dark eyes fell upon the center of the chaos, his jaw swung open....

Madeline stood, clutching a bloodied butter knife in a white-knuckled grip, backed into the furthest part of his bed. She pressed her back into the corner of the wall, shoulders pulled tightly in against her neck and pose defensive as if she were trying to slip into a crack somewhere.

His youngest brother was sitting on his backside a pace and a half away from the mattress, clutching a bloodied forearm. The dark ichor ran in thin rivulets between his fingers, but the wound wasn't gushing, not yet. That assured Leonardo at least the injury couldn't be terribly deep.

Raphael was right behind the other, sai's drawn and leering at the blind woman like she was a Foot Ninja. He looked about ready to rend, tear, shred and dissect if it weren't for that blunt little utensil in her hand. But the look in his eye rang alarm bells in the eldest's brain-- he knew by that look alone, if he didn't get between Madeline and his hot-headed sibling, there was going to be more blood spilt.

Donatello, still wearing a pair of his magnifying goggles with the multiple lenses pushed up onto his forehead, stayed by Splinter's side, just a step into the room. He obviously hadn't had his bo staff handy when the ruckus broke out; instead he wielded a big thick book out of his shelves. His eyebrows were up and he was looking at the human as if he didn't know whether to bash her over the head or don a Hazmat suit!

"What in the shell is going on here?!!!" one very confused mutant turtle demanded.

At the sound of the question, all heads turned to stare at Leonardo standing in the hall. Even Madeline's, which gravitated to the familiar voice, but lost none of the horror painted on her face.

Mikey let loose another girlish shriek and lifted his arm to show him from the floor. Well that solved the mystery of who had been screaming like a schoolgirl. "She cut me!" he wailed. "She's crazy, Leo, save me, man!"

"Leonardo?!" the girl cried, the raw tone of fear in that single word silently begging with him to save her.

Splinter gave his student a black look. "It appears, my son, you had failed to explain important details about us to the new guest..."

Leonardo withheld a cringe. He was going to have to explain himself to the sensei later. Later being as soon as this mayhem was resolved before anyone else got worse then a little nick on the arm. Seeing his son glance down at the floor, looking contrite, the rat 'hmph'ed to himself and twitched his whiskers. The twisted cane tapped loudly on the floor and his long, brittle claws scraped as Splinter shuffled into the bedroom to clean up the mess.

It was a blow to Leonardo's pride.

"That is enough, young lady!" the martial arts master snapped firmly. He undercut his own words by lifting his walking stick and banging the end once and once only between his feet. The sound was like a heavy gong striking silence into the tiny room. "My sons saved your life... And this is how you repay them?"

Through her panic, Madeline had enough shame to look guilt-stricken. "But, Micahelangelo... He's not human!" she replied, pointing in the general direction of where Mikey sat. Raphael sneered and opened his mouth, self- conscience pricked by the woman's remark, to retort some angry backlash. But a look from Splinter silenced the red-bandana wearer.

"Neither are we all, my child. We may seem strange and frightening to you now, but I can assure you no one here means you any ill will." The rat's dark, beady eyes gave Raphael a sidelong glance during his pause like a silent cue to put the sais away. "Now, if you care to put that down and come with me..." Splinter used the same tone of voice someone would with a jumper on the ledge of a high-rise building. Without fear, he took a step onto the mattress, making the springs groan faintly with his weight. The sound alerted the woman to his close proximity and she flinched before the rat's long-fingered, bony hand reached out and plucked the butter knife from her now nerveless grip. The cutlery clattered to the floor as the sensei threw it away with a quiet grunt after inspecting the blood upon its edge.

"Come now..." the mutant rat instructed, gently reaching in and closing clawed fingers around a trembling wrist. Madeline blinked and made a quiet whimpering sound as she stared sightlessly over his head. The sound nearly broke Leonardo's heart, because now, he knew, all hope of normality with the girl was gone.

Gently, patiently, Master Splinter led the girl off the mattress and out of the room a step at a time. She followed numbly, shaking all over with tremors of shock and her feet seemed clumsy, as if her knees were weak too.

As the pair pasted him out into the hallway, Splinter regarded Leonardo one last time with a disappointed glance. The understanding in that one look was enough. The old rat knew ultimately why this had happened: his sons were growing up and wrestling with the inner demons of shame. But of them all, Leonardo was the last sibling he had expected to resort to denial...

In their wake, the human and the rat left three very confused turtles staring at each other, and one who had bored his gaze into the floor sullenly.

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Oh! Poor Mikey needs a doctor now! Someone get the antiseptic and band- aids! - QA