"Sensei!"
I jumped up quickly, my whole body feeling like I had just been shocked out of a trance. It was Donatello's voice. I ran over to the door just as the brothers entered the living room.
Physically, they all looked unharmed, but it was hard to tell with their mottled green skin. However, their expressions told me that something had gone wrong.
"What happened?!" Splinter demanded, appearing beside me all of the sudden.
"They ambushed us." Leonardo explained, his voice breathless. "The police scanner was hacked. We were lead there on purpose. They didn't see us - at least I don't think they did - and we were able to fight them off pretty easily but... It appears that they've caught onto us."
"Ambushed..." Splinter whispered to himself, looking very troubled at this news.
"We need to go back and see if we can track 'em down." Raphael said firmly. "This is our chance to find out where their base is!"
"No." Leonardo retorted. "I told you, that would be too dangerous."
"Shut up, Leo." Raphael snapped. "You don't know everything. This is our chance to-"
"We could have been seriously hurt, Raph. We're done for tonight." Leonardo cut him off, folding his arms and puffing up his chest. Raphael's eyes flashed with fury.
"I swear to God if you tell me what to do one more ti-"
"If you were capable of making wiser choices, maybe I wouldn't have to tell you what to do."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Raphael hissed, lurching forward and getting right up in Leonardo's face.
"You know exactly what I mean." Leonardo replied, not seeming phased by Raphael's show of aggression.
"Enough!" Splinter finally intervened.
Raphael and Leonardo were only inches away from each other now, face to face, glaring at each other intently. Neither made any move to back down.
"You are not going anywhere tonight, Raphael." Splinter said in a tone that even I knew not to question. "You are to go and calm down. Now."
The two older brothers continued to stared each other for a few more moments before Raphael finally turned and walked away. Leonardo sighed.
"Leonardo, come with me." Splinter said once we heard Raphael's door slam shut. They both disappeared down the hall without another word.
"It's going to be fine." Donatello said, seeing the way that I was staring after them blankly.
"Yeah." Mikey said, coming over and putting his arm around me. "It's not the first, and it most certainly will not be the last, time that Leo and Raph have disagreed."
"I know." I told Mikey, giving him a reassuring smile, even though that wasn't what I was really worried about.
Ambushed. They had been ambushed by the Foot Clan. I could tell that Donatello and Mikey were freaked out about it too, but were trying to keep a strong face on for my sake.
"I should go." I said quickly, pulling away from Mikey and starting to gather up my things. "You should all be resting. I'll talk to you tomorrow."
"I'll walk you 'til your manhole." Mikey offered.
I hurried down the sewer, barely even noticing the orange masked turtle as he walked beside me. I felt like I had been thrown into some kind of alternate universe. The Foot Clan? Hacking into police scanners? Giant mutant turtles who are ninjas? Was I insane or was this actually my life now?
Some how, the reality of everything I had seen since that fateful night in the alley seemed to come crashing down on me.
"Lily?" Mikey questioned, and I noticed that I had stopped walking. I was staring at the cement walls.
I sighed, rubbing my forehead to try and stop the headache that was forming.
"Sorry. I'm just... really worried about you guys." I replied, deciding that was the safest answer. I wasn't going to burden Mikey with my own personal issues. It wasn't like it was a lie. I was scared for them - very scared, actually.
"Really?" Mikey asked, sounding genuinely surprised.
"Of course!" I said, narrowing my eyes in confusion. "Why wouldn't I be?"
Mikey scratched his head, his face looking very deep in thought for a moment.
"Uhmm... isn't it, like, obvious why?" He finally asked, laughing slightly. "I mean... we have shells."
"Isn't obvious that doesn't matter to me?" I replied honestly.
"You gotta understand, Lil. We always thought no one would ever find out about us. Much less a gorgeous girl, like yourself." He winked at me, which made me giggle despite the seriousness of the conversation. "And then on top of that, you don't care what we are and you're like, becoming our friend... It's just weird."
"Well, it shouldn't be." I said firmly. "I mean, I could say the same to you, right? It's weird that you guys want to be my friend, because I'm just a human."
"Yeah." He admitted. "You're right. I guess that the only truly weird thing is that Raph seems to care about something other than himself. I mean, that part is surprising to us all."
I laughed at that remark. "Don't be mean," I scolded him, although I couldn't keep from smiling.
"Hey, it's true." Mikey replied. "Raph is hard to deal with. And he thinks I'm the pain in the ass."
"Besides, I highly doubt Raphael cares about me. It mostly seems like I annoy him."
"Raph does care about you." Mikey said, suddenly very serious. "He just doesn't want you to get hurt because of us. So, he isn't exactly trying to make you feel welcome. That's what he told me at least."
"Wait, when?"
"Tonight," Mikey explained. "After we left, he was all talkin' about you and how if he was around you then you might get hurt because of this Foot Clan stuff. And well, what happened tonight prooobbabbllyy didn't help."
"Oh. Great." I muttered, dragging my foot sullenly back and forth through a murky puddle.
"He'll chill out eventually. Atleast, I think he will." Mikey said. "I told him that he was being stupid and that you seemed tough enough to handle whatever happens. I mean, you handled the whole mutant-ninja-turtle thing pretty well."
"Thank you. I think." I replied.
"Leo's the one tellin' Raph he shouldn't let you hang around, though." Mikey continued. "He thinks you're a distraction."
"Oh." I said sadly. "Was... was that comment Leonardo made about Raphael not making good choices about me then?"
Mikey shrugged. "Maybe," he answered. He finally looked over at me and saw the defeated expression on my face. "Hey, I'm not telling you this to upset you. Geez, I'm sorry. I'm an idiot."
"It's fine." I said, giving him a grim smile. "It's the truth."
"Leo just doesn't want you to get hurt because of us either, Lil. Not because doesn't like you." Mikey said, obviously determined to get me to believe him.
We continued to walk in silence, almost to the manhole that would take me back above ground. Was being friends with the brothers really going to put me in that much danger? The idea seemed odd to me, like that kind of situation was only something that could happen in the movies. Being in danger, fearing for my life... That seemed like someone else's life, not mine. Though, up until recently, I had also thought being held at gun point was something that only happened in the movies. Maybe I should have listened to Leonardo, and ran as far away from the brothers as I could. That was probably what any other person would do in this situation - hell, they probably would have ran after seeing Raphael the first time.
But no, not me. Instead, I had screamed at the roof tops for Raphael to show himself again.
It wasn't until late that night, when I finally made it home and was curled up in my own bed, that I realized the truth of the situation: I wasn't going to get hurt because I knew the brothers.
The only thing that would hurt me now would be pretending that I didn't know them, leaving, forgetting everything I now knew, and trying to pretend that they weren't real.