Raphael laid there awake for hours. Something about just having the woman so close, wrapped in his arms, set him on edge. He could feel her warm breath every few seconds on his neck as she breathed her lips just a few centimeters away from his throbbing veins. She shifted in her sleep and snuggled into him, finding refuge in his warmth but it only brought him more torment.
He couldn't do this. Ignore the feelings this long. He was never good at that. It was what always got him in trouble. He spoke without thinking, acted first and asked questions later. He wasn't good at this whole, hiding how he felt thing. But Jacquelyn was human and he wasn't sure why he felt this way, why she made his heart race or why he wanted to just drop everything to just jump to her aid and spend all his time on her. Was this normal? Was this how Leo felt about Mona Lisa? But Mona Lisa was at least like them… Jack was human; she would never return these feelings. To her, he would always be some deformed monster.
It hit him like one of Leo's kicks to the gut.
As carefully as he could Raphael slid himself out from under the woman and scooted himself out of the hammock. He made sure to steady the bed, not letting it swing too much as he climbed out and onto the floor. Standing there looking down at her, he caught the glisten on her cheeks in the dim light of the old tear stains from their argument. He fought with people a lot. Especially recently. But seeing the stains on her cheeks made a ball of guilt drop in his stomach, bile crawling up the back of his throat made him almost want to puke. She deserved better than this.
After adjusting the blanket, Raphael grabbed his things from the night stand and walked out into his home. No one else was awake. Mikey was surprisingly in his room instead of on the couch. Donnie in his room and Ant was left with the sofa. Since Raph couldn't seem to get his mind to calm down he went over to the unfinished hall way to see if there was anything that he could do.
The turtle worked in silence as he hefted up the two by fours that would frame the new rooms and put them into place. He grunted softly as he moved piles of debris and rearranged things into so semblance of order and a few hours later there was something that finally looked like two rooms and a hallway. Raph wiped a drop of sweat from his eyebrow as he leaned back and stretched. He grabbed a hammer and started to nail the support beams into place, each one only taking one hit to go in. He didn't really want to be too loud and wake everyone up anyway… not that he really thought about that, but it may have crossed his mind at one point.
"What are you doing?"
He paused, setting the hammer down as he glanced over his shoulder at the little girl behind him. But what surprised him more with the well-built man standing behind her. Instead of answering the girl's question, a glare crossed Raphael's face and he turned back to continue doing his work.
"Aw come on man, don't ignore my kid." Casey chided, but he was smirking, you could hear it in his voice.
"Why not?" Raph snapped. "You do it all the time." The hammer smacked down on another nail. "I see her more than you do. When was the last time you ever played a game with her?"
Casey scowled. "Hey now… Don't tell me how to raise my kid!" He got in Raph's face and the two started yelling at each other, poking one another in the chest as they vented. Raph about being left behind, Casey about his marital problems. They both had been neglecting their friendship in different ways.
By the time Jack had stumbled out of the bedroom to see what the ruckus was about, Mikey, Donnie and Antonello were already awake. Lined up and watching the show Mikey and Shadow were munching on a bag of Cheetos as they watched the two meat heads fight.
"Just in time for the real show." Mikey grinned at her just as Casey tried to put Raphael in a headlock.
Instantly the pair was on the floor rolling around in flying arms and feet. The human was at a severe disadvantage. He had a background in brawling but it was no match for Raph's long history of martial arts. Punches were flying, landing, as were the kicks. Rolling her eyes Jack walked towards them.
"Boys!" She shouted, but they either didn't hear her or ignored her.
They tumbled and got so close to her at one point Donatello had to pull her out of the way or else she would have gotten punched. It surprised her, somewhat, that Raph would accidently hurt her, but then again, it didn't. He was so worked up anything he'd do right now wouldn't really surprise her. When she started to see smears of blood on the floor she had to stop it.
"That is enough!" The woman jumped into the middle, doing her best to push the two apart.
It wasn't the smartest idea because the last thing she saw was a green fist flying towards her face before she squeezed her eyes shut.
The room froze. Jack cracked an eye open and let out the breath she was holding when she saw Raph's fist just a few centimeters away from her nose. Her body relaxed and she put her hand on her racing heart.
"Holy shit!" His arms wrapped around her and pulled her against his warm chest. "What the hell were ya thinking?" He whispered to her. "I could have killed you." There was genuine fear in his voice, something, she hadn't heard from him, something she didn't even hear when she had woken him up when they first met.
Casey sat there and wiped a drop of blood off his chin. "Who the hell is this?" He asked, the anger vanished from his voice, now replaced by complete curiosity.
"I told you! That's Jack!" Shadow piped in from the side lines.
"You never said she was a chick."
With a red face Raphael let the woman go and scooted back a bit. Getting to his feet he offered Jack a hand up first before he extended a bloody hand down to Casey to help his friend up. "Casey, this is Jacquelyn, Jacquelyn, Casey. He's Shadow's old man."
"Nice to meet you." Jack gave him a small smile before turning back to Raph and frowning. "You really shouldn't be fighting. Either of you." She shot Casey a glance when she heard him start to snicker behind her. "Now what's going on? It's four in the morning!"
Both of them looked away from each other and from her.
She shook her head. "Really? Nothing." She sighed and ran a hand over her face. "Fine then. Pummel each other to death. I'm not going to stop you." She grabbed shadow's hand. "Come on sweetie, I'll braid you hair like I promised."
"Awesome!" The girl hopped off her uncle's lap and bounced alongside the woman as they walked towards the living room.
Casey watched his daughter skip after the stranger much like he wished she'd skip after her step-mom. He looked back to Raphael. "So, you finally found yourself a girl?" He asked with a bloody grin.
"Heh." Raph didn't sound too cheery. "I wish." He shot a glance to his brothers and the new kid and they scattered. Motioning towards the kitchen the Casey led the way and Raph pulled out an ice pack for him as the human fell into one of the chairs. "So what are you doing down here anyway?"
"Herfmm merf serrr de-"
"Move the ice pack, I can't hear you numb-nuts." Raph shook his head.
Casey moved the frozen peas off of his nose and mouth. "Hey, does a guy have to announce every time he wants to come visit his best bud?"
"One, you hate the sewer. It takes a threat and a half to get you down here. Two, you haven't been down here in months. Three… The last time we spoke… well, I wasn't too happy with you." Raph sat on the counter, staunching his own bleeding lip with a dish towel.
The man sighed and hung his head, pressing the frosty bag to his bruising skin. "Yeah I know. I.. I've been an ass lately. I haven't been nearly as good of a friend, or husband as I should." He scratched his head. "I lost my job at the factory and haven't had any luck finding a new one. I spend all my time at home with C.J. while April works… I feel like a failure of a man."
"Dude you're not a failure." Raph understood, and he felt his animosity subsiding. "We all have setbacks, you'll bounce back. Maybe you should break out the old hockey mask and we can go beat in some heads. What do ya say?" He grinned.
"Sounds like a grea-"
An ear piercing scream tore through the house. Raphael was on his feet and running towards the living room, Casey close behind. The sight that they found, surprised them both. Jack had her face buried in Ant's chest, the young turtle standing there rather clueless. Shadow was sitting on the sofa, her hair only half done, a frown on her face.
Raphael's chest tightened as he approached the woman clinging to the other turtle. "Jacquelyn?" He asked softly.
Before he could even finish her name she turned around and latched onto him. It was a bit of a surprise but Raph put his arms around her and tried to shush her and calm her down.
"What happened?" Casey looked from his daughter to the turtle he now realized wasn't one of the brothers.
Antonello shrugged. "I have no idea! We were just watching some TV and braiding some hair." He was worked up and confused, his hands moving about as he spoke, much like Mikey did. "And then all of the sudden she just jumped up and screamed."
"She was looking at the man on TV." Shadow added as she looked up at her dad. "I think he scared her." She reached over and the battered man picked her up.
Raphael carefully peeled her away from his chest, brushing the hair out of her face. "Jacquelyn, what's going on?"
"That bastard was wearing my necklace!" She looked up at him, her eyes brimming with tears as a shaking hand pointed at the television. "My necklace!"
They all looked at the commercial displayed on screen, confused. "You have to be a little bit more specific." Raph tried to be gentle with his words, but he wasn't used to this, however… it came a bit easier with her.
"That man… he was from Xanus Pharmaceuticals. Speaking about their new facility." She wiped at her face. "And he was wearing the pendant I got Anthony last year for his birthday." She sniffled a bit. "He never took it off."
Raph's grip on her shoulders tightened a bit, reassuringly, as he looked back to the television. "It'll be okay." He reached over and clicked off the screen before leading her out of the room. He glanced at Casey, his gaze a bit like begging for help but the man was about as clueless as he was. They didn't know how to deal with distraught women. He carefully sat her down at the table and turned to the highest shelf.
Pulling down a dusty tea pot and a few cups he felt that pain sat the loss of his father figure. But he ignored it. Washing it all off, he put some water on and started to prepare some of Master Splinter's favorite tea.
"I haven't seen that in a while." Mikey smiled as he pulled a seat up next to Jack and rubbed her shoulder a bit comfortingly. "Master Splinter's tea fixes everything." He grinned.
Even Donatello came and joined them at the table.
The small group sat around and sipped on tea and shared stories about the old rat, happy stories that the brothers hoped would get the woman's mind off of her sad past. Even Casey had a few stories he could add. They joked and laughed for a good while, until the woman herself was laughing at their antics. Mikey and Donatello doing their best impersonations of each other, their brother Leo, April and of course Master Splinter. But in the midst of it all, Raphael noticed one of them had vanished. Antonello.
Excusing himself Raph quietly got to his feet, letting his brother entertain Jack for the moment while he went to find the other turtle. The living room was empty, as were the bedrooms and training room. Raph walked out into the sewer tunnels and found Ant sitting on a ledge looking up through one of the drain grates.
"You okay kid?" Raph asked as he leaned against the cold wall next to him.
He shrugged.
Raph smacked him on the back of the head. "Don't give me that crap."
Ant looked up at him a bit shocked, but Raph simply shrugged in return. He sighed. "I don't know. I just feel so… out of place." He rubbed his face before staring down at his hand. "I don't remember anything. The first thing I remember was waking up in the back of that van. I just feel like I don't belong anywhere, I have no family, no home, nothing!"
Raphael leaned over and got in his face. "Listen here kid. You ain't alone. Not, anymore. Now, we have work to do around here, and I plan on getting you into better shape than my youngest brother over there so you better get ready." He poked him hard in the chest as an evil looking smirk crossed his face. "Starting tomorrow, you aren't going to eat, sleep, or take a piss without my say so, you got me? I am going to turn you into the best damn ninja we got."
The kid's eyebrow twitched, his cocky teenaged attitude was starting to come out. "Yeah whatever. Don't do me any favors."
Raphael grabbed his finger and twisted it back until the kid was nearly screaming and on the ground. "Don't give me any lip kid. From here on in, I'm in charge of you." He pulled the yellow mask Jack had made from his belt. "You want to belong somewhere… You will earn this." Raph let him go and helped him back to his feet.
Antonello glared up at him.
"I'm a hard ass, what can I say. But I'm not training you alone. I'm not going easy on Jacquelyn. You can do more, simply because you are a guy, and a turtle… That much I know. But don't think I'll be treating her any differently." He looked down at him. "But I will be expecting more from you."
Making their way inside the pair rejoined the others at the table where they were still having a good time. It made Raphael feel better, seeing Jack with a smile on her face. He couldn't rid himself of that sick feeling in his gut when he saw those tears rolling down her cheeks.
So everyone stayed there around the table for the rest of the night just relaxing and talking. Eventually Casey ordered them some pizzas and Jack learned how much giant turtles loved the food. And Ant discovered his new favorite food. It was quite a sight.