Raphael pulled a blanket up over Jacquelyn's exposed body as she slept on the bed before him. Sitting there beside her, Raph couldn't help but smile to himself as he moved a long strand of hair from her face. It still baffled him how he had ever managed to find her and get her to feel the same way he did. It was one thing for him to love her but for her to love him still boggled his mind. Not in a million years did he ever think he'd actually make love to the woman.
Scooting down beside her, a thick arm wrapped around her and pulled her warm body against his plastron. The turtle kissed the back of her neck before he closed his eye and snuggled in to try and get some sleep, if his heart would ever calm down.
Jack was moving around quite a bit in her sleep, her movements coinciding with the storm that was raging outside. In the early hours of the morning, Raph opened his eye and looked down at the mumbling woman in his arm. Whatever she was mumbling wasn't really coherent, but the furrow across her forehead had the turtle worried. He ran a finger down her cheek.
"Jacquelyn." He said softly. "Jacquelyn wake up."
She mumbled and tossed and turned in his arms. Lightning flashed and momentarily lit up the room through the slats that covered up the window.
"Shhh." Raph tried to hush her but to no real avail.
With another boom of thunder, her body jumped and her eyes snapped open. Her grip on his arm tightened. "Raphael?"
"Hey…" He pulled the blanket around her as his arms circled her. "You were having a pretty bad dream I think."
She nodded. "The storm didn't help." She scooted up and kissed his neck before finding his lips briefly. "I'm sorry I woke you."
"Don't be." He kissed her forehead.
The woman smiled and snuggled into his side. "I love you." She said quietly in the darkness amidst the sound of the pouring rain.
"I love you too."
In the morning Raphael was the first to wake. The storm had passed and now the sun was coming through the window in broken beams and landing across the woman beside him. Jack was tangled in the blanket, her hair a pale mess on the pillow behind her head. Raph let a small smile cross his face as he eased his arm out from under her and carefully climbed off the bed. He made his way downstairs to the kitchen where he found his older brother already working on breakfast.
"You should be more careful." Leo said without turning around.
Raph paused. "What?" He asked as he went to the fridge to grab the carton of eggs and hand them to his brother.
"Your room is right above mine." Leo glanced at him. "And you and Casey didn't exactly sound proof the floor."
Instantly Raphael's face turned red as he recalled the previous night and the kinds of sounds he and Jack had been making. "I uh…"
"I'm happy for you Raph. Just… make sure you guys are a little more careful." Leo cracked a few eggs into the skillet before him.
Raphael swallowed his embarrassment but It was quickly replaced with a sense of guilt. He remembered a time he had walked in on Leo and Mona a time or two. Now Leo didn't have anyone. "Sorry…"
"Don't be."
Raph rubbed the back of his head, still a bit embarrassed. "What happened to the boxes that the guys brought back last night?"
"They took them to the rooms. They aren't put away yet, but everything is at least in the room it belongs too." Leo informed him.
"Sounds good." Raph took a plate when his brother offered him one. Turning to the dining room table he sat down and started to eat just before Leo joined him.
Leo paused, the fork, just an inch or so away from his mouth. "Mikey told me something else rather interesting last night while you and Jack were busy."
"Oh? What was that?" Raph bit his tongue, trying to not get angry at his brother for mentioning his love life so casually. Leo was dealing with his own relationship problems, maybe venting would help, but Raph could only handle so much.
"Old Hob is back."
Raphael coughed on the mouthful of egg he had just started to chew. "What?" He glared.
"Apparently the old flea bag was in the sewer by the old place. He grabbed Jack." Leo looked at him. "Didn't you notice the mark on her arm? Probably right around the same spot she left those scratches on your arm?" Leo cocked a brow at him.
Heat flushed his face as Raph looked down at the nail marks the woman had left across his upper arm during the night. He snorted and tried to ignore his fluster. He had noticed the bruise on her arm but she had asked him to let it go so he had. Now he wished he hadn't. "So what did the cat want?" Raph snapped before shoving another bite in his mouth.
The T.V. in the living room buzzed to life with white noise as Mikey tried to hook it up. Leo glanced over briefly before taking another bite of his food and shrugging. "Don't know. He didn't exactly say."
"Hey guys!" Mikey's voice from the living room stole their attention.
"What is it Mike?" Leo asked.
"Come look at this!"
Raph and Leo looked at one another before getting to their feet and wondering over to where they could see the T.V. Mikey was still on the floor staring up at the news broadcast on the screen. There was a well-built man in an Armani suit filling up the television. Reflective lenses covered his eyes as he slicked back his salt and pepper hair.
"Xanus." Leo said through gritted teeth.
"Is it true your company had a break in?" a reported asked him.
"No no… nothing of the sort. One of our machines malfunctioned during an experiment in the lab. Nothing too far out of the normal." He said casually.
"Will this affect the production of your new miracle drugs?"
"No of course not. Here, I'd like to introduce you to a man and woman who are having a big hand in helping with the production that is going to change how we are going to live." Xanus gestured off camera and a man and woman in their twenties stepped on screen.
The turtles all froze. Mona Lisa was standing there beside…
"Anthony?" Raphael barely said the name as he stepped closer to the screen. He'd seen that man in all the pictures Jack owned.
"Who?" Mikey looked back at him.
"That… That's Jack's brother but… he's supposed to be dead." Raph ran a hand over his face before looking up at the loft where Jack was still sleeping.
"I… I know him."
The three brothers all turned around and saw Antonello standing there, his brow furrowed beneath his yellow mask. Something was wrong, it was written on his face. Suddenly the turtle grabbed at his chest and dropped to his knee.
"Ant!" Raph rushed to his side, the other's close behind.
The young turtle was struggling to breathe. "He… he is…" He was genuinely gasping now.
Raph knelt down next to him and put a hand on his shell as he tried to get the turtle to straighten up. "Breathe dude. Take a breath!" Raph tried to calm him down.
Ant just shook his head as he sank further to the floor. Was this a panic attack? Something worse?
Raph looked up at Leo and Mikey.
"Let's get him to Donnie's room." Leo said as he pulled Ant's arm away from his chest and helped Raph pull him to his feet.
Donatello was sitting at his desk when his brother's walked in. He had a metal leg laid out before him on the table, making adjustments to it with a screw driver before he looked over at the wheezing turtle the older two were practically dragging in.
"What's going on?" Donatello pushed his chair over to the chair that Ant was placed in.
"He saw something on T.V. and just started to freak out." Mikey did his best to explain.
Donnie shook his head as he came over and took Ant's pulse. He checked a few other things on the turtle before going to a sterile cabinet and grabbing a vile and syringe. He brought them over and injected the panicking turtle with the sedative.
"Arionna brought some of this stuff over. This is just a mild sedative. It'll help you calm down." Donnie pressed a cotton swab to the area where he had stabbed the needle.
Ant rubbed his face as his chest slowly started to slow to a normal breathing pace.
"He's going to just pass out here in a minute. Make sure he doesn't fall out of the chair." Donatello said as he rolled back over to the cabinet to put the vile away.
On cue, Ant's head started to roll off to the side so Raph grabbed his shoulder to keep him planted on the chair for now.
"How much of Jack's diary did you read?" Raph asked his brother.
Leo looked at him a bit surprised but then turned back to Don to hear the answer.
The one in purple scratched his head. "Well, when we were worried about the codes, I read the whole thing looking for clues about them." He frowned. "Why? I am not going to tell you something she hasn't told you herself, it's her business and I still feel like a terrible person for reading it."
Raph shook his head. "We aren't looking for her secrets I just… The guy that Ant saw on T.V." Raph sighed. "It was Jack's brother."
Donnie stiffened and looked up at Raphael.
"But Jack told me Anthony was killed by Xanus and the foot."
"Yeah that's why she was all beat up when she first moved here." Mikey added.
"Anthony was killed by the foot. Jack wouldn't lie about that, you know she wouldn't. Besides, that wasn't even mentioned in her diary." Donatello rolled his way over to a book shelf and pulled down the worn little diary that belonged to Jacquelyn. He flipped open to a page and pulled out a small photograph that was shoved in the binding. He handed the photo over to Raph and Leo
The wrinkled piece of paper showed three people. Jack was standing in the middle, maybe a freshman in high school. Then on either side of her stood a young man with ragged blonde hair and green eyes that matched her own. The men were identical in appearance and were obviously a younger version of the man on the screen and a younger version of the man in all the photographs Jack had in her suitcase.
"What the hell?" Leo mumbled as he pulled the photograph from Raphael's free hand.
"Meet Anthony and Adam. Jack's older brothers, twins. She talks about Adam quite a bit in the first part of her journal."
Raph looked over at the turtle talking. "Why wouldn't she mention another brother? I thought she didn't have any one left… Isn't that why she was so willing to stay with us?" He was so confused. Why wouldn't she go back to her family if she still had one? Did she not know he was out there? If she found out then, would she leave as soon as she found out she had family out there?
"Raph stop it." Donatello demanded. "Apparently Adam was nothing like his twin. Adam was…"
"Donatello shut up."
The entire room turned and looked at the door. Standing there was Jack, dressed for the day, none of them had heard her come down stairs or up behind them. The look on her face told them that they had clearly crossed a line. Storming into the room she snatched her diary out of Donatello's hand and glared at him for a long moment before turning on her heel and snatching the photo from Leo. Then she walked out.
"Gee, thanks guys." Donnie snorted. "Exactly what I didn't want to happen."
"Jack!" Raph let go of Ant and hurried after her. "Jack wait!"
Mikey rushed to his brother's side and kept him from falling out of the chair. He looked over at Donatello. "So… who exactly is Adam?"
Don shook his head vigorously. "Nope. I'm done. I do not want that woman pissed off at me. If you want to know about him, find out from her."
Out in the living room, Raphael looked around for Jack. She was nowhere to be seen. That's when he heard the side room slam shut. Outside?! What the fuck is she thinking! He asked himself as he ran to the door and wrenched it open, oblivious to the consequences himself.
The sun was bright, brighter than he expected. Raph squinted against the light as he held up a hand to shade his eye. He knew he shouldn't have been out there, it would have been too easy for someone to spot him. But Jack was out here somewhere, furious and he had to bring her back inside. She wasn't exactly safe outside anymore either.
He finally spotted the woman walking off towards the main road. Rushing after her, Raph put a large hand on her shoulder to stop her. "Jack! What are you doing?"
The woman wrenched her shoulder out of his grip. "What the hell were you thinking?!" she shouted at him. "Do you even know how much these mean to me?" There were tears welling up in her eyes as she looked up at him.
"I didn't… I mean…" He wasn't expecting this kind of reaction. Raph didn't really know what to do. "I guess I wasn't-"
"That's right, you weren't thinking!" She smacked him in the chest with the journal in her hand. "You didn't think to ask if it was okay to go through my things! To dig into a past where you don't belong!"
"Jacquelyn, that's not what we were doing!" Raph grabbed her hands. "You don't understand."
"No you don't understand!" The tears were dripping down her cheeks now. "These… these stupid journals were the only things that kept me sane for years! And this is the only one that the foot didn't destroy when they killed Anthony. It's the last shred of sanity I have left. I can't even bring myself to read it because it has a part of my life I refuse to remember."
Raph slowly shook his head. "I… I don't understand what you are talking about. Jack will you please just come back inside so we can discuss this?"
"No!" She looked up at him. "You crossed a line Raph!"
Raph knelt down in front of her. "Please… I'm sorry. I… I'm an idiot, okay? I know I messed up but I really have no idea what you are talking about. I can explain why we took your journal, and you can be pissed at me for that but please, can we just get off the street? Then you can tell me what happened… Does this have something to do with Adam?"
The woman shook her head. "Don't you dare say that name." She squeezed her eyes shut. "I hear the way you mumble at night… you still think of yourself as a monster. There doesn't seem to be anything I can do to convince you otherwise." She looked up at him. "But I've seen real monsters. Adam is a monster. I lived with him. Real evil and I will not go back to relive that!" She pulled the picture out and stared at it for a moment before ripping it up into pieces. Then almost as if she was horrified by her own actions she tried to gather up all the little pieces in her hands. Sinking to the ground, her shoulders shook as she cried.
"Come here." Raph wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to his chest. Rising to his feet he lifted her in his arms and carried her back into the warehouse. "I'm still not sure what exactly is going on but… I'll tell you what I know." He kicked open the door and took her over to the living room sofa. Luckily for them, his brothers seemed to still be in Donnie's room and the television was off for now. Sitting down with the woman on his lap, Raph kept talking. "When Alopex took you and we first heard about the codes that Xanus used, Leo went on that rampage in your room remember? He found your journal and that's when we found out about the codes and all that stuff."
The woman nodded as she wiped at her face with her knuckles.
"Donnie was the only one that read your journal. Figured he was the only one that would be able to make sense of it anyway… He only told us what was relevant to the codes. He refused to tell us anything else, said that was your place." That's when Raph sighed. "But Mike turned on the T.V. today and Xanus came on. He introduced some workers of his… Mona and well, I thought it was Anthony at first but you said he was dead."
"He is." Jack looked up at him.
"But the guy on the screen looked just like all the pictures you have." Raph frowned. "I had to know if there was something I missed, so I asked Donnie if there was something in your journal that might have some kind of clue as to why I thought your brother was on T.V., that's when he mentioned. Adam."
Her body stiffened in his arms.
"Will you please tell me about him?" Raph put a finger under her chin and forced her to look up at him. "When Ant saw him on the screen he about had a nervous breakdown. Something is seriously going on here."