"I need a favor April."

The woman raised an eyebrow as she shut the window behind her old friend. "A favor? You haven't seen me in months and the first thing you want is a favor?" She smiled. "Sure. What can I help you with?"

Raph adjusted the strap to his eye patch as he looked for a way to ask what he wanted to.

Shadow pulled April over towards the couch, but the woman's gaze was still set on her terrapin friend. "It isn't like you to be so at a loss for word Raph…" She teased.

"It's about his girlfriend." Shadow chimed in."

Face red, Raph glared at the child. "She is not my girlfriend."

"That's not what Uncle Mikey says." Shadow stuck her tongue out at him.

April's eyes got wide. "So there is a woman?" She sat down at her daughter's urging. "Do tell. I thought after Ninjara that you vowed to never date again."

The turtle snorted. "Ninjara, Mona. They were both the same." He ran his hand over his face as he started to pace. 'They just… They couldn't understand me and they wanted something I couldn't give. Mona was obsessed with becoming human again, and Ninjara just wanted to become the leader of her own clan. I was a side project to her. Something she eventually forgot and well, I am not anyone back burner project." He clenched his fist and resisted the urge to punch a hole in the wall. He took a deep breath and let the air out his nose. "I'm not dating Jacquelyn, she is just my friend." His eyes flashed up to April.

The woman nodded. "I see. So tell me about this Jacquelyn." She pressed a bit.

Shadow jumped in. "Shes great mom!" The girl bounced on the sofa. "She's tiny but she moves like those people that you see in the circus the um…. Um…" her hands moved as she tried to show what she meant.

"Acrobats?" Her mother tried to help.

"Kind of? Like on the balance beam."

"Oh a gymnast."

She nodded. "She's really pretty too! Her hair is long and looks like honey. She talks kind of funny though."

Raph grinned. "She's from Georgia." He explained the accent.

The little girl went on. "She plays with my hair and cleans up everybody's messes on top of all the training Uncle Raph puts her through."

That caught April's attention. She glanced down at the girl beside her and kissed her temple. "Why don't you get to bed sweetie. Daddy has off tomorrow and wanted to take you and C.J. to the park." The girl hugged them both and then skipped down towards her rarely used bedroom so the grownups could talk. "So what's the real deal with this woman? She's human I take it?"

Raph nodded. "Her brother was killed trying to stop a company from using the mutagen. Then she helped out Leo and I… so, she kind of got swept up in it all. She doesn't have much but…"

April could see something in the way he was hesitating, that distant look on his face. He was thinking about her, in more than just the conversation. He was lost in thought, his mind focused soley on the woman sleeping below the city streets. "There's more. You really care for her don't you?"

Heat crept across his skin, turning his face a shade of red. He sighed. "Yes? I… well… I don't know." He fell into a seat beside her. "She scares me."

April snorted as she tried to hide a bout of laughter. "Scares you? Raphael Hamato, I don't think you have ever been scared of anything in your life." She resigned. "What about her scares you?"

"I can't stop thinking about her. I just… It's like every waking moment. I try to meditate, but she's right there. I work out but she is a constant image in my head. I'm training her to fight by the thought of her getting hurt literally keeps me awake at night." He ran his hands over his face. "Everything I have ever known has just been fighting, anger, hit this, kill that, fight them, destroy something…. But when I'm close to her, I go to touch her and I'm scared I'm going to break her. For the first time in my life I don't want to damage the thing in front of me."

April blinked a few times as she stared at him. She hadn't heard him say so much in a long long time. "Wow… I don't think you've ever said that kind of thing about anyone."

Raph straightened. "Yeah well… don't go telling Casey."

"I won't." She chuckled. "But it sounds to me like this girl is more than just a girl to you. I mean back in the day, you guys didn't even let me get that involved." She waved a hand trying to dismiss the subject. She could see the tension building up in her friends muscles. "Anyway. You said you needed a favor?"

Nodding Raph looked at her. "Jacquelyn doesn't really have much. She came here with close to nothing and well… I was hoping you could take her shopping. She's never been in the city and I don't want her going alone. You guys have access to the account Donnie set up for us so…"

A grin spread across her face. "Girl time? That's the favor?" She leaned over and hugged him briefly before he half-heartedly shoved her off. "Oh Raph, you don't know a thing about women." Rising to her feet she straightened out her tee shirt. "I'll come down tomorrow around lunch, make sure she is ready, now… I'm kicking you out. It's late and I need sleep."

"Thanks again." Raph got to his feet and climbed out her window making sure she locked it behind him. Instead of going down he went up. Running across the rooftops like he hadn't done in years. He hopped up on ledges and launched himself into areal flips and bounced off air conditioning units and other loud rumbling apparatuses that kept the buildings below him alive. He stayed out in the fresh air for a while, stopping by the park.

He stood there staring dumbly at the patch of wild flowers before him. His conversation with April reminded him of all the things he had done wrong with his relationships in the past. Granted not everything had been his fault, and this thing with Jacquelyn wasn't a relationship. But he did care for her. Even on the roof tops he had been thinking of her…

"Girls like flowers right?" He grabbed a fistful and wrenched them from the ground before slinking back into the shadows and making his way back to the sewer.

By the time the turtle got back home the flowers in his hands were missing most of the petals, the stems were bent and broken in his large fist and only a few remained mostly intact. He had yet to notice. His home still quiet with everyone asleep, Raphael went to Jack's room and slowly opened the door to peek inside, but she wasn't there. "Jacquelyn?" He called in softly before stepping in and glancing around. But she was nowhere inside.

She could have gone to use the bathroom so he walked towards the other hallway to find her but the bathroom door was open, the light off. He frowned. Turning to his room he opened his door and peered inside only half surprised to see his hammock move slightly. Closing the door behind him as he walked in he crossed the room and steadied the swinging bed. "Hey." He said softly.

The woman rolled over and rubbed at her eyes. "Hey." She smiled. "I couldn't sleep." Sitting up she went to get out of the hammock but paused, her night vision had gotten increasingly better since her first night there. "What are those?" She asked as she pointed to his hand.

"Oh… I uh…" Raphael felt that heat converging on his face again as he looked down at the flowers. When he noticed that they were half dead he frowned. Pulling the mostly dead ones out and flicking them to the side he offered her the mostly living ones. "They are… for you."

She took them and held them up to her nose like a prized bouquet, even though she only had about four flowers. She beamed up at him. "They are lovely." She put a hand on his chest to steady herself as she leaned forward and planted a small kiss on his cheek. "Thank you. I've never gotten flowers before."

Raph wiped at his face as he looked away, his heart racing. "Yeah, whatever." He rubbed the back of his head. "It's nothing special. I just saw the stupid things." He muttered.

"Well I don't think they're stupid." Carefully she crawled out of the hammock and looked up at him. "I'll get out of your bed so you can sleep." She paused, staring down at her disheveled looking flowers. "Can I still stay in here with you? I'll sleep in the floor."

Raph was about to hop in his bed when he heard her. "Don't sleep on the floor." He grabbed her arm and gently pulled her towards him. Taking the flowers from her hand he set them on his night stand beside his weapons before he lifted her up and climbed up into the hammock with her nestled on his chest like they had so many times before. "Your body will be far too stiff for training tomorrow if you sleep on the floor." He closed his eyes and sighed. Yeah… That's really what you wanted to say Raph. He scolded himself as he adjusted his one arm around her. You should have just opened up your big mouth, but no, you kept it shut for once. He closed his eyes and tried to get to sleep, but it didn't come easy.

The following day training was spent divided between their normal physical routines and half studying and learning about their new weapons. Donnie and Mikey were told to practice with theirs since well, they hadn't spent much time with them in a while.

Antonello's weapon, was a small sickle attached to a long chain. Excellent for tangling up opponent and then dealing a final blow. Also good for distance combat and close combat as well. It would be hard to master.

Jack's weapon was much smaller. Small wooden or metal rods held in her fists that poked out either end. They were used by jabbing at the pressure points of the enemy's body. Some of the small rods were sharpened to points to stab the sensitive locations to make them permanently useless and not just temporarily disabled. Raphael picked this weapon for her because as much as he hated the thought of it, he knew she would be the one that could get close enough to dance around an enemy and inflict that amount damage. The tricky part was Jacquelyn would have to learn all the pressure points and what each of them would do. Which ones would paralyze, which ones would inflict pain, and which ones would kill instantly.

The woman frowned as she looked down at the different graphs and diagrams on the table before her. Raphael was off working with Antonello while she sat there reading. After a while, Raph glanced over and saw her unhappy face, pausing his training, letting the younger turtle work on his own, he went over to her.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

Jack brushed her bangs out of her eyes. "I… I don't know if I can do this." She looked up at him, eyes big and sad, like she was going to disappoint him.

Shaking his head he reached a hand down. "Come on you've stared at that long enough, time to practice. "

Before she could say no, he had pulled her to her feet. "What? But I…" It was too late, he was shoving the solid wooden rods into her small hands. They were blunted on the ends, only meant for sparing but she still didn't want to use them. They felt strange in her hands.

Standing behind her, Raphael moved her into a starting pose for sparing. It was a bit different from the hand to hand one she had used with Mikey before. He let his hand linger on her shoulder just a bit longer than needed before he let her go and moved around to stand in front of her. "You're fighting me today." He took off his real sai and picked up a pair of blunt wooden ones that were chewed up and a bit mangled.

"Y-you?"

He nodded. "Just a quick fight though. You are going shopping later."

Jack looked at him puzzled, her arms falling to her sides as she fell out of her fighting stance. "What?"

That's when he lunged. His movements were slowed of course, he didn't really want to hurt her, but he needed her to move, to think, and to put her new knowledge to the test. Her reaction was perfect. Jack dodged and rolled under him, her hand lashed out, the weapon in her hand jabbing at a pressure point on his inner thigh. Raphael's leg collapsed for a second before he recovered. The turtle grinned. She was thinking on reflex, it was good. He spun around and threw a hand out to hit her with it. Jack ducked, her hands flying up and hitting a series of pressure points on his forearm and upper arm.

Raph actually swore when she hit one with enough force to make his hand go numb. He almost dropped his weapon as he spun around and launched himself off the wall at the woman. She in turn hit the floor and rolled out of the way but was quick to close the distance once more. Jack realized she couldn't hit him in any convenient places, his shell protected him. She would have to think harder.

The two of them danced around the sparing room each dealing small blows to one another until Raphael had Jack pinned up against the wall, his sai pointed at her neck. They were both panting, chests heaving and covered in sweat. "Got ya'." He smirked, their faces just a few inches away.

"Oh really?"

He felt her shobo tap his inner thigh, his femoral artery. If she'd hit that point correctly he could be dead. His smile got bigger. "Good job. I knew you could handle it." He backed away and held his hand out for her weapons.

Handing them over she smiled up at him, more than happy she won his approval. "Now you should go get cleaned up. April will be here in a little bit. I'll get you some lunch."

"Thanks." She turned and gracefully glided out of the room.

"Dude! What are you doing!"

Raphael spun around and chucked his wooden sai as hard as he could at whoever was behind him. Luckily both Donnie and Mikey were fast enough to get out of the way and the wooden object broke into a few wooden pieces as it struck the wall. Red face he glared at them.

"Standing back up straight, Mikey completely ignored the assault attempt. "That was the perfect chance! You could have just leaned in and been all kissy kissy with her!" He closed his eyes and puckered his lips as he held some invisible figure in his arms.

Donnie smacked him on the back of the head so he'd stop it.

"How long have you two been standing there?" Raphael snapped.

The two of them smirked. "Since before you two started your little dance." Donatello informed him. "But Mikey was right… You did miss he perfect opportunity."

He snorted. "What the hell do you guys know." He snatched his weapons from the side table and stormed out.

"I know she won't wait forever!" Donatello called after him.