Chapter 7

Michelangelo was still a little surprised by both Donatello and Leonardo losing it. He had been shocked that Donatello had kicked them out of his workroom. He wasn't sure what had happened behind the closed doors, but not too long after they had left the room, a very pale Donatello had emerged from the workroom his hand tightly clasped in Katherine's. They had kicked him off the couch and they had sat and went through Katherine's pictures on her camera.

They had begun with the dinosaurs which had managed to put colour and excitement back into Donatello's face. Katherine had left for a few moments and returned with an equally pale Leonardo. He and Raphael had joined them as Katherine showed them the other pictures she had on her camera. There were pictures of her brothers, her parents, her friends and a few tourist pictures of other places around her province. She had then managed to convince them to pose for the camera but only if she was in the photos as well. She had gotten Donatello to print out the copies on the printer and let them keep them, but she had also kept some for herself.

The next week passed in a blur. Leonardo had allowed Raphael to come out on patrol, though Raphael wasn't as pleased with this as he should have been. But after three days Leonardo had called a halt to their nightly rounds after the third night of coming home in the very early hours of the morning to find Katherine still awake. Donatello had complained to Leonardo that she was going to make herself sick by not getting any rest. Leonardo had readily agreed. All of them seemed happier to stay at home with her anyway.

They had managed to convince Katherine to stay until after Halloween, which was tonight, which meant she would be leaving tomorrow. She had gone out with all of them to the grocery store. It was the one night of the year when they could actually go out in public and not have to worry. Katherine had wanted to carve pumpkins. They had decided to sit at home and watch some scary movies in celebration of Halloween.

Presently they were walking down the street, Raphael was carrying Katherine's pumpkin while Michelangelo was carrying his own. Katherine currently had one arm draped around Leonardo and the other around Donatello. She was chatting with them happily. She let go of them and bounced forward in excitement. "I love Halloween!" She exclaimed. "It is my favourite holiday!" She said happily as she waited for the light to change to walk across the street.

"Even better than Christmas?" Michelangelo asked her.

"Better than Christmas. There is just something...electric about Halloween, the night, the fun, the costumes, and make-up!" She said happily.

The walk light changed and she crossed the street. There was a bark. Katherine's head swung around as a dog bounded out from between some cars. A driver who was turning left and hadn't been paying attention swerved to avoid hitting the dog, and instead swerved into Katherine. Leonardo was fastest. He managed to grab onto her and pull her out of harm's way. The driver of the car hadn't even realized he had almost hit her.

Leonardo was clutching her to him a look of absolute panic which was mirrored on his brother's faces.

Leonardo looked down into her face. "Are you okay?" He asked looking at her for any injury.

She looked at the car's taillights and nodded. "I know New York drivers are supposed to be bad, but..." She let the sentence hang as Michelangelo tried to get his heart to stop pounding in his chest.

Leonardo lifted her up. She squeaked. "What are you doing?" She asked arms thrown around his neck.

"I'm carrying you home." He replied gruffly.

"I said I was fine." She protested a blush spreading across her cheeks.

"Yes well, I'm not, so I am carrying you home and only then am I going to put you down once I know you are safe." He growled. And Leonardo, true to his word, didn't put her down until they had gotten back to the lair.

"Donny is she really okay, she didn't injure herself again did she?" Leonardo asked completely overriding her protests that she was fine.

Donatello took a look at her and pronounced that she was as well as could be considering it had only been a little over a month since she had been stabbed.

Only then did everyone seem to relax, but Michelangelo knew all of them were thinking the same selfish thing; that if she had been injured even just a little bit, it would be all the excuse they needed for her to stay just a little longer.

Raphael hefted Katherine's pumpkin onto the table. "I don't get it." He said looking at it. "Why do you want to carve one of these things anyway?"

Katherine looked with glee at Michelangelo. "Because it's fun!" She said happily spreading out newspaper for the gunk in the middle, and completely ignoring her near brush with death.

Michelangelo looked at his pumpkin, then at his brothers. They had also seemed to have recovered from her near brush with death, and they were smiling when she looked at them, but a quiet gloom had descended over each and every one of them, including himself.

Each of them had fallen in love with her. He wasn't sure if his brothers knew how each of them looked at her; watched her with hungry eyes as they craved something they knew they shouldn't want, and could never have, like some sort of forbidden fruit.

"You need some help with the knife Kitten?" Raphael asked her.

She raised an eyebrow. "I think I can handle it Raphael." She said wryly as she cut open the top. "Oh I almost forgot." She said as she began rummaging through a grocery bag. She pulled out something black and put it on her head. Little black kitty ears were now perched on her head. "There, much better." She said with a laugh as she pulled the top off the pumpkin.

"Cute." Raphael said as he stepped behind Katherine pulling her into him. She looked over at him in shock, a blush spreading across her face. Leonardo and Donatello glared. Michelangelo felt a stirring of jealously, but pushed it down.

A devilish gleam came into her eyes as she reached into the pumpkin and pulled out the slimy seed filled gunk in the middle. She plopped it on the newspaper, looked at her hand and smeared it across Raphael's cheek.

Raphael stumbled back a look of disgust on his face. Katherine laughed.

"Nice one." Michelangelo said to her as he began laughing. He had pulled the top off his pumpkin and had his hand inside the gooey center.

"Think that's funny do you?" Raphael questioned furiously.

Pumpkin hit Michelangelo's cheek and slowly dripped down the side of his face. Raphael looked at him in surprise. They both looked at Katherine who was holding a spoon covered in pumpkin. "Oops." She said innocently.

Michelangelo grinned and pulled his hand out whipping a handful of pumpkin at her. She dodged and it struck Leonardo in the chest.

Leonardo glared angrily. The kitchen went silent as Leonardo scraped the pumpkin from his shirt. He looked at the gunk in his hand and threw it back at Michelangelo.

After that it was a free for all pumpkin fight. The kitchen was a mess, they were all a mess and the pumpkins still had to be carved.

"What a mess." Katherine said as Donatello pulled pumpkin out of her hair. "But so much fun." She said happily.

Michelangelo laughed. That was exactly why he loved her. He loved her because she knew how to laugh and have fun. Sure she was beautiful and smart and enjoyed many of the things he did, but it was her sense of fun, her laughter and her smile that he loved most.

She looked at Michelangelo with unrivalled glee. He smiled warmly at her. He had known he was in love with her for a while. It had been interesting watching his brothers each fall in love with her. Leonardo and Donatello had struggled against it, Raphael hadn't realized it until it had hit him like a ton of bricks, but Michelangelo had embraced it. He hadn't been concerned with the particulars. He loved her, plain and simple. All he had to do now was convince her to stay. He knew she had to deal with her Uncle's estate, but after that was done, he had to figure out a way to convince her that she belonged with them.

He knew that she wasn't indifferent to them, otherwise she wouldn't blush as much as she did when any of them got near. She was aware of them, but the problem was she didn't seem to favour any one of them in particular. She spent a little more time with Raphael, but that was mostly because they had both been injured and stuck on the couch together. Raphael was also the more pushy of the four of them which meant that whether he realized it or not, he had been, and still was, the more possessive of all of them.

"Yuck." Raphael complained as he shook pumpkin off his hands.

Katherine picked her knife up. "Well at least the pumpkin's clean." She said as she began carving a face into it. "Do you guys know how the pumpkin became known as the Jack O' Lantern?" She asked, but was looking specifically at Donatello. Donatello shook his head as did the rest of them. "Well the story differs but the main premise of the tale is the same. There was once a thief by the name of Jack. The tale differs on the how, but basically Jack manages to trick the Devil and trap him, rendering him powerless. Jack then only agrees to release the Devil if he promises never to take his soul, the Devil agrees, and Jack releases the Devil. The problem is Jack didn't ask for eternal life or anything so eventually Jack dies, but he can't get into Heaven because his soul was too wicked, and he can't get into Hell because of his deal with the Devil, so Jack is forced to endlessly wander the world in darkness. Eventually he calls out and complains to the Devil. The Devil takes pity on Jack and gives him an eternal ember from Hell. So Jack takes a turnip, carves it, puts the ember inside his lantern and thus becomes Jack of the Lantern or Jack O' Lantern." She finished her story by putting the lid on her carved pumpkin. A glowing manically evil face grinned at them.

"Jack was an idiot." Raphael finally mumbled.

She laughed. "Yes he was. You never make a deal with the Devil, it never turns out well."

Michelangelo looked down at his pumpkin, it looked more sad than scary.

She walked over to his pumpkin. "Your pumpkin looks sad, it can't scare away evil spirits looking sad." She picked up his knife and made a few cuts into the soft flesh of the pumpkin. "Samhain is the night where the barrier between the world of the living and the world of the dead is thinnest. The spirits of the dead walk this night more than any other." She said turning his pumpkin towards him. It looked angry and mean now. He smiled at her but asked in confusion. "Sowan?"

"Summers end. The end of 'light days' and the beginning of 'dark days'." She said pulling some pumpkin goo off her shirt.

He looked at his brothers all of whom were looking gloomy. If she left and stayed gone, it would be dark days. Michelangelo thought to himself.

She looked down at herself. "Well, I think we should get ourselves and this place cleaned up, we'll make some dinner and then..."

"Monster movie marathon!" Michelangelo crowed happily, his gloom being short lived. Maybe he would ask Donatello, he knew his older brother had to be able to think of something to make her stay.

She laughed. "Yes Michelangelo, monster movies." She took her kitty ears off, which had somehow managed not to get pumpkin goo on them. "Okay am I goo free?" She asked Leonardo turning around in a circle. "I don't want to jump in the shower and have pumpkin goo clogging up the drain."

Leonardo studied her and brushed some goo from her cheek. Her bruise had faded to a greenish yellow. She looked at Leonardo who nodded and pronounced her goo free. She blinked as if coming out of a daze, a blush stealing over her cheeks. "Alright you guys play nice, I'm going to have a shower and change."

She walked to the bathroom. They all stared at the closed bathroom door before they shook themselves and began cleaning up the pumpkin mess.

"Oh come one! How did I get it in my underwear!" She shouted from the bathroom. They all stopped and stared at the bathroom door as it opened partially. Katherine stuck her head out the door. "Can I borrow a pair of pants and a shirt?" She called from the bathroom. "We are doing laundry as soon as I get out...and the rest of you shower."

"You can borrow mine Kitten." Raphael called out before any of them were able to form a coherent thought at the sight of Katherine's partially naked body displayed through the opening of the door.

"Raph." Leonardo growled.

"You snooze you lose bro." Raphael laughed as he walked to his room to dig up some clothes.

Leonardo was standing guard at the door of the bathroom to make sure Raphael didn't try any 'funny business'.

Katherine emerged a few moments later, showered and wearing Raphael's clothes. His sweats were rolled up at the waist so they didn't fall down, but they still hung very low. Raphael's shirt was too big and the neck opening hung down low exposing the tops of her breasts. She was just tying the shirt up as she walked from the bathroom. She stopped in the kitchen grabbed her kitty cat ears and put them back on her head.

"Hey Raph, she makes your clothes look good." Michelangelo commented as he watched her walk to the laundry room. She grabbed the laundry basket. But that was just it, she wasn't trying to be sexy, she was just trying to be comfortable. She was completely oblivious as to how unbelievably beautiful and sexy she was.

Raphael just nodded numbly. "Okay I'd like to know how may pairs of underwear you guys own, because I know I don't have any left. Please tell me you actually change yours every day." She said holding the laundry basket on her hip.

They all looked at each other and shrugged. She shook her head and huffed. "Men!" She said walking away to grab all of their laundry.

She put a load of laundry into the machine and then began supper. Michelangelo helped her by cutting up the vegetables for a salad while she made the chicken. She was baking something in the oven but Michelangelo wasn't sure what it was. She had taken over the cooking duties a few weeks ago. She said it was the least she could do since she was basically staying with them for nothing. She had also been horrified at the amount of takeout they tended to eat. They had felt bad at first since technically she was their guest, but she had insisted and she was a good cook. She wasn't fancy, but it was good. She had even begun baking cookies and other treats occasionally. It struck him then that they had fallen into a completely domestic routine.

Michelangelo stopped what he was doing and looked over at Katherine. She couldn't leave, too much of their lives had begun to revolve around her. "If you even think about taking that cookie I will smack you Raphael." She said not even looking at where Raphael had snuck up and was in the process of grabbing one of the pumpkin shaped sugar cookies she had made earlier. She bent down and was taking something out of the oven. Raphael forgot all about the cookie as he instead ogled her ass.

"And stop looking at my ass." She said to him standing up and looking at him over her shoulder. Raphael sputtered his innocence as Michelangelo laughed. "If you are just going to be standing around in the kitchen, you can be useful and set the table." She said with a smile.

Raphael set the table and they ate dinner. Michelangelo thought that it would be a sad and quite affair and it was until she brought out the pumpkin and plopped it in the middle of the table. It was small and had been carved, cut in half and stitched back together. It looked like a shrivelled zombie pumpkin head. Beside the pumpkin she placed a bowl with something orange and mashed. They looked at it in confusion. "Martha Stewart eat your heart out. Mashed zombie pumpkin brains." She said with a smile taking a big scoop and plopping it on her plate.

"Shouldn't it be the zombie pumpkin eating our brains?" Michelangelo asked her.

"Shut up Michelangelo." Katherine said with a laugh.

They had all laughed and enjoyed the rest of dinner.

Raphael gave Michelangelo a punch in the arm getting him to move over so Katherine could sit down beside him. She had just put her pumpkin beside Michelangelo's and walked back to the couch to sit. Michelangelo moved over and she sat between them. Donatello was sitting beside Michelangelo and Leonardo had taken a seat on the chair. Michelangelo was vibrating with excitement.

"Calm down Mikey, it isn't like you haven't seen these movies like a million times. Raphael growled.

Michelangelo gave him a devious smile. "Yeah, but this time is going to be so much better."

After the third movie Donatello and Leonardo went to bed. Katherine yawned. "Last one Michelangelo?" She asked.

"Yup, I've saved the best for last." He said with a grin.

So far Raphael had been enjoying sitting on the couch with Katherine. He had begun absently playing with her Kitty ears during the movies and his arm had made its way across her shoulders during the second movie. Leonardo had sat and glared at him the entire time, but he ignored his older brother, after all, she hadn't complained.

The title of The Haunting of Rochester Mansion appeared on screen. "I thought we were only watching Monster movies Michelangelo." She said as she sunk farther into the couch.

"Come on Kitten, we can't have Halloween without one ghost movie." He said innocently.

She pushed herself farther into Raphael. "You just don't want me to sleep tonight." She grumbled. "I told you ghost movies give me nightmares." She complained.

Raphael looked at his younger brother. He had never really appreciated the pure evil genius of his youngest brother. She spent the entire movie buried between and clutching both of them. She had a death grip on Michelangelo's arm, but had practically crawled into Raphael's lap. As far as he was concerned, best night ever.

"It's okay Kitten I'll protect you from all of the scary ghosts and monsters and every nasty evil thing out to get you." He said with a smile.

"You sure you can keep that promise Raphael?" She asked him with a half smile.

He laughed. "I've dealt with my fair share of nasty things, I'm pretty sure I can handle it." He boasted.

"Fine." She said as she jumped as the ghost's ghoulish figure appeared on the screen.

She pulled Michelangelo closer to her. "I am so not forgiving you for this." She said with a glare, but a slight smile on her face.

She buried her face in Raphael's chest. "I am so not going to my dead Uncle's house tomorrow. Thanks a lot Michelangelo. Because of you I am going to have more than one sleepless night."

Michelangelo grinned in triumph. Raphael shook his head, then looked down at the head buried in his chest. It seemed a little silly to be freaked out about ghosts, but then again he hated bugs. He had unmanned himself a few times by having to get her to kill a few spiders that had managed to cross his path. Why they always liked crawling up drains into the sink was beyond him.

After the movie had finished Michelangelo went to bed and Raphael walked her to his room since it was his night to bunk on the couch. "Night Kitten." He said to her.

She was looking down at her feet. "You probably think that it is pretty silly to be scared of ghosts don't you?" She questioned.

"I don't get why you would be scared of things that aren't real but..." He just shrugged.

"Coming from the turtle who is scared of a tiny arachnid." She said with a smirk. She lost her smile and sighed. "I believe in them, I've seen them, at least I could when I was little, but I can still feel them, and I know they can't do anything to hurt me in any way, but they still creep me out and give me nightmares. Wow I sound like I'm 5." She said shaking her head.

"Hey everyone gets nightmares now and then." He said with a shrug.

"I know. Doesn't mean I still haven't totally wimped out and crawled into bed with my brothers after a really scary movie though." She said with a laugh. "I'm a wimp, I can admit it."

"That's okay, Mikey ain't much better. Luckily he has seen all of the movies we watched tonight otherwise he would probably be jumpin' into bed with one of us too, well at least asking to sleep on the floor in our rooms anyway. Donny usually lets him bunk in his room.

She laughed. "Well that makes me feel better then." She said with a smile.

"But if you need someone to sleep with to keep the nightmares away, you could always bunk with me." He said jokingly.

"Really? Thank you." She said with relief, grabbing his hand and pulling him into his room.

He had only been joking, he hadn't actually thought she would say yes! He looked at his bed. He couldn't breathe and he felt over warm. He swallowed hard as she pulled him into bed with her.

"You're sure you don't mind?" She asked him.

He couldn't talk. Did he mind? Hell no! He shook his head.

"Thank you." She said as she plastered her back against his chest, wrapping his arm around her so they were both laying on their sides spooning. She snuggled in deeper, her ass pressing into his crotch. "Are you comfortable?" She asked him.

"Yes." He managed to squeak out.

"Good, me too." She sighed as she shifted her ass more firmly into his crotch.

Raphael closed his eyes and hoped she didn't move around anymore. He was already hard and her rubbing against him was making it worse and felt way to damn good.

She was hugging his arm which lay between her breasts, her fingers threaded through his own. "Goodnight Raphael." She said sleepily.

He looked down at her and realized she was still wearing her kitten ears. "Goodnight Kitten." He said softly. He closed his eyes and pulled her close smelling the soft smell of flowers that drifted from her.

He wondered how he was ever going to get to sleep. With her pressed against him like she was, it was taking all of his willpower not to touch all of the velvety soft skin that was exposed. Then he remembered what he was. He had no idea what her feelings were for him; if there was even a chance that she could look at him as more than just a mutated turtle. Would she even let him touch all of that soft skin? He wondered. Of course she didn't seem to mind him touching her. He looked at the back of her head and then remembered that she was leaving not tomorrow, but the next day. He settled down and pulled her tightly to him. There wasn't enough time. He closed his eyes. It didn't matter. She was leaving. The thought made his heart hurt.

Okay I know, things will start moving along soon and some stuff is going to start happening I promise! =) Hope you enjoyed please feel free to R&R!