The next morning I woke up early and called to let my coworkers know that I wouldn't be in. I had caught up on all the business I needed to do anyways, so I didn't feel bad about taking an extra day for my weekend.

Hows are things going? I texted Donatello.

Bad. Splinter made Raph sit out of practice. Thought there might still be some issues after yesterday. He replied.

I figured I could use this information to my advantage, so I hurried to get ready and then I headed out to grab a few things for my visit. First, I bought donuts as a treat for the brothers, and then I got two coffees just before I made my way back the manhole and down into the sewers. I hadn't forgotten that coffee wasn't allowed in the house due to Mikey, but I knew Raphael would keep it a secret, and I figured it might cheer him up a little bit.

I opened the door to their home and listened. Silence greeted me, and I closed the door softly behind me. I crept across the living room, setting the box of donuts on the kitchen table, and then headed for Raphael's room. I paused for a moment, wondering if I should knock or not before going in. There was light coming out from beneath the door-frame, so I assumed that he was awake. I raised by knuckles and was just about to knock when the door flug open infront of me.

I'm not sure who was more startled, me or Raphael, but I jumped about a foot in the air, almost dropping the two coffees on the floor. Raphael glared at me and I seemed to shrink under his gaze, suddenly feeling very tiny and well... very human.

"What are you doing?" Raphael demanded.

"I was just about to knock..." I replied, still breathless from the fright. "I brought coffee."

He peered down the hall suspiciously, probably expecting Mikey to pop out at any moment and run off with the drinks. When that didn't happen, he stepped aside and closed the door quickly after I entered his room.

"Coffee fixes everything." I said, handing him the paper cup.

I hadn't known what kind of drink to get him, but something inside told me that he was more of black coffee drinker. I'd grabbed extra creamers and sugar just in case, but as a took a long drink and didn't cringe, I assumed that I'd been right.

"Kinda." He muttered, as he turned around and went over to the side of his bed to sit down.

"Thanks, by the way." He added as a he took another sip.

"I got donuts too." I said with a smile as I sat down beside him, being mindful to leave some space between us.

"What is that?" He asked, nodding at my drink.

"Coffee?" I replied, dumbfounded.

"It doesn't look like coffee."

I laughed. I could see his point. I'd gotten my usual drink, an iced blend of caramel and a large topping of whipped cream. It was really more of a milkshake.

"Try some." I offered, holding the cup out to him.

He looked at it with suspicion for a moment, then finally took it from me, taking a quick drink.

"I guess that's pretty good," he admitted. I grinned, feeling like I had achieved something, although I really wasn't quite sure what.

Maybe getting him to say that he actually liked something?

"Did you ever find out what really happened yesterday? How they hacked into the police scanner?" I questioned.

"Donnie's workin' on it. Splinter has forbidden us to go above ground until we know more." Raphael said, sounding miserable about that fact.

I knew it was probably because he felt responsible for the decision since he was the one who had acted so irrationally about going after the Foot Clan.

"That might be a good idea..." I ventured carefully. "I mean, you've obviously gotten onto their radar, so you need to be careful about how you continue. It sounds like they were really trying to hurt you. That's good too I guess - it means you've scared them enough that they now view you as a threat."

"They should." He said fiercely. "Splinter can't keep us locked up forever."

"Maybe I could help," I offered. "I mean, I could try to be your eyes while-"

"No." Raphael said sharply, his eyes narrowing. "This doesn't concern you."

His comment offended me a little bit. "Uh, yeah it does. I'm your friend. I care about you guys."

He scoffed, shaking his head like he couldn't believe what I was saying. "You shouldn't."

"Why?" I demanded. My conversation with Mikey from yesterday coming back to me. "Why shouldn't I?" I asked again, softening my tone a little bit.

Mikey had said Raphael would try to push me away - pissing him off probably wouldn't help me in the long run.

"Cause we're mutant freaks, that's why." Raphael answered harshly. "We're green. We have shells."

"Oh wow, thanks for pointing that out." I shot back sarcastically. I would never succeed in trying to be nice to him if he kept up this attitude. "I hadn't noticed until now. That changes everything."

"Goddamn it." He growled in anger. "You're not getting involved."

We were face to face now, so much closer to each than we had been when I first sat down. Even though his expression was hard, I could see emotions playing around behind his cold gaze. Maybe if I just approached the topic a little differently...

And then the moment was ruined.

"Donuts?!" Rang out Mikey's gleeful shout.

I knew it was only a matter of moments before the others put two and two together to come find me. And I also knew the first place they would look. Raphael grimaced as the voices grew closer.

"Hey! Raph! Is Lily in there with you?!" Mikey called, knocking on the door loudly.

Raphael stood up, quickly flinging the door open as he spoke. "Do you always need to be so obnoxious?"

Mikey, un-phased by the insult, shoved half a donut in his mouth. "It was just a question," he mumbled through the food.

"Thanks for the donuts, Lily." Donatello said as he appeared beside Mikey. "We don't get them very often. Are these from the shop on 5th and Main? They have chocolate raspberry ones there like these ones."

"Uhm.. No." I said, my head feeling dizzy from all that was going on.

Between Raphael looking ready to murder Mikey, Mikey chewing with his mouth open, and Donatello showing up, I didn't know what to think.

Dontello shrugged, totally oblivious to anything going on beside the donuts.

"I'm hungry. You guys had better have saved me one." I said, pushing past the turtles into the hallway. The room had suddenly felt very small.

"Of course we di- hey! Is that a coffee cup?" Mikey exclaimed from behind me. All I could do was shake my head and keep walking.

Leonardo was sitting at the kitchen table. I sat down across from him and grabbed a donut. The blue masked turtle gave me a questioning look, probably picking up on my mood. I ignored him. The others appeared, taking up their own seats and continuing to eat.

"Hey, you alright Leo?" Donatello asked suddenly, and I looked up to see that the oldest turtle did indeed look lost in his own thoughts.

"I checked the monitors after practice... There were three possible Foot Clan attacks after we got back last night. And now we can't do anything about it." Leonardo explained, his voice troubled.

Raphael shifted next to me, and I could see darkness growing in his eyes.

"Who knows how many more will happen tonight... and the night after that. They're going to eventually realize that we aren't tracking them anymore. I fear what may happen at that point." Leonardo continued.

"If only Sensei didn't forbid us to go above ground..." Donatello mused, as he picked at what was left of his donut, his appetite lost.

"It's all my fault." Raphael said. "I shouldn't have lost my temper and-"

"Raph, it's not your fault. You just wanted to do what you thought was best. The truth is, we don't know what the best move to make is." Leonardo cut in, putting a hand on his brother's shoulder. Raphael shrugged it off, not seeming to believe him.

"Leonardo is right." I said. "The Foot Clan have no idea who you are. To them, you're just some people trying to stop them. They don't know you have a connection to them. What happened last night... I think it was just supposed to spook you. If they didn't see you, or get close to you, then they probably still think you're just really... big humans. And if you don't get in their way anymore, they will believe that they succeeded, and they might start to get overly confident... which could mean they might start making mistakes. Being stuck down here may not be as bad as it seems."

Of course, I had other motives when I said this to them. Raphael had completely shut me down earlier when I had suggested that I could help, but I knew that I could probably sway the others. If I got Leonardo on my side, as bad as it sounded, Raphael would have to let me get involved. Besides, it made sense to me. I was a young human girl: I could blend in very easily. I was a pro at being invisible to others. All they'd have to do was find out where the Foot Clan was working from and I could help keep an eye on them.

"Lily might have a point..." Donatello said, and I could see the wheels turning in his head. "Maybe we can use this to our advantage."

Leonardo and Mikey's faces seemed to brighten as they too began to think of ways to turn the situation around. Raphael was the only one who seemed unchanged. That wasn't surprising. I knew that all he wanted was face to face combat. He wanted answers, the fast way. I knew none of them would disobey Splinter though, so this would have to occupy them until it was deemed safe for them to go above ground again. I watched Raphael's expression carefully, trying to tell if he had caught onto my secret motives yet. It didn't appear that he had: he just looked frustrated.

"I think I'm going to work on some new software... See if I can come up with anything to help us monitor the Foot Clan better from down here." Donatello said absentmindedly as he got up from the table.

"And I need to blow off some of this extra energy." Leonardo said, his eyes looking faraway too. "Want to join me, Mikey?"

"Sure." Mikey replied, following his older brother to the practice room.

He'd been uncharacteristically quiet during this whole conversation and I felt a little ping of worry go through my mind. I'd have to check on him later.

I tapped my fingers on the hard table top as I sat next to Raphael. I noticed he hadn't eaten anything.

"Not a fan of donuts?" I asked, though I doubted that was the reason.

"I'll get one later." He replied. "Didn't really work up much of an appetite sittin' around my room this morning."

"Wellll..." I said, not wanting to press that subject anymore. "Wanna watch a movie or something?"

"Alright." He answered after a moment of hesitation. I smiled and went over to the very large DVD collection that they had next to all of their TVs.

"Do you care what we watch?" I asked as I browsed all the titles, wanting to be polite.

"Nah. Pick whatever you want." Raphael said as he sat down on the couch.

I browsed some more before my eyes landed on one of my favorites.

"Hope you don't mind horror movies," I said holding up Scream.

He chuckled. "Most of those are mine. I'm the only one who likes the scary ones."

"Let me guess..." I said examining all the different types of movies they had. "Mikey likes the comedy and cheesy action movies, Donatello likes all the long boring documentaries and sci-fi movies, and Leonardo..." I picked up the lone romantic movie in the collection. "This is all him, right?"

Raphael laughed. "How'd ya know?"

"I'm actually pretty smart." I said with a sly smile. "Don't let my beauty fool you. I got brains too."

I stood up, and began to look for the DVD player among all the different electronics. I heard Raphael come up behind me, and he took the movie from my hands and stuck it into one of the slots on the biggest TV.

"Brains, huh? You were sayin'?" He joked.

"Hey now." I said, plopping down on the couch. "I never said what I had brains in, exactly. I just said I had them."

Raphael shook his head, although I could tell he was trying to hide a smile as he did so. He took a seat next to me and the movie began. There was something strangely comforting to me about old scary movies. I could never explain why. All I knew was that they weren't as predictable as the ones that came out these days. There wasn't as much blood or gore to distract the viewers from a shitty script. Instead, there were moments that chilled you to the bone and scenes that stayed imprinted in your eyes until you finally fell asleep.

When the movie ended, I could hardly believe that we hadn't been interrupted by one of Raphael's brothers. But, their home was silent as the credits rolled. Raphael didn't seem to be worried about this fact. As I turned to look at him, he actually appeared to be relaxed. His arms were folded behind his head and there wasn't the usual line of concentration (or frustration) on his forehead.

"Are you hungry?" I asked, my own stomach feeling empty.

"Not really." Raphael replied.

"Oh, okay." I tried to sound indifferent but he obviously caught on to what I was really trying to say.

"Are you hungry, Lily?" He questioned, his eyes narrow as if to say 'don't even try to lie'.

"Uhm... Yeah." I admitted. "I can get my own food though."

"I'll make you something if you want," Raphael offered.

"Really?" The word popped out of my mouth before I could think about how it probably sounded.

Raphael just chuckled at me. "Yeah. Don't sound so surprised. I'm a pretty decent cook."

"Sorry, it's not that I doubt you. I just wasn't sure because you had Mikey make breakfast the other day."

"Ah." He said, shaking his head. "I should have known he wouldn't keep that to himself. He's the better breakfast maker. In fact, it's pretty much the only thing he can do right most of the time."

I smacked his arm playfully. "Don't be so mean."

"You don't live with him." Raphael shot back, giving me a small smirk. "Now, do you want me to make you something or not?"

"Fine. How about grilled cheese?"

"That's really what you want?" He asked and I nodded. "Well, you're easy."

Raphael went to the kitchen and started on my sandwich. I turned around, watching him from the couch.

"Do you want something to drink?" He called over his shoulder after a few minutes.

"Sure," I replied.

"Well? What do you want?" He snapped. "I'm not a mind reader."

I stared at the back of his head in disbelief. God, he really was a bigger pain in the ass than Mikey.

"Surprise me!" I answered cheerfully, just to piss him off even more.

He came back to the couch a few minutes later, holding out a perfect looking grilled cheese and a glass of soda.

"Thanks," I told him giving him a cheeky grin.

"You're welcome." He huffed as he sat back down on the couch. I took a small bite of the sandwich, my mouth starting to water as soon as I realized how delicious it was. I tried to not look too obvious as I took another much larger bite. Was there anything he wasn't good at?

"So," Raphael began. "How long have you lived in New York?"

He was attempting to get to know me. His eyes were watching me closely as I pretended that I was still chewing my food before answering. It was the last thing I had expected him to do, especially after our little argument this morning.

"Well, uhm, only about a year actually. I moved here from California."

"Why?" He questioned.

I'd never had someone ask me that before. Most of the time when I told people I had moved here from so far away, they automatically assumed it was for my job.

"I needed a change." I said, pulling my sandwich apart, my mind now distracted from my hunger. "Home just started to not feel like home anymore. I didn't really have any reasons to stay."

He nodded. "Makes sense. So why New York?"

"Well, I applied for jobs everywhere... But I guess I just always wanted to live here. So much is always changing in the city and it has always sounded exciting. It's very different from where I grew up. So, when I got offered a job, I jumped at the chance."

"And you like it here?"

"Yeah," I said with a smile. "I love it."

I love it even more since I've met you, was what I wanted to add. Wait, what? Since when?

I went back to my food, eating some more as he seemed deep in thought about what I had told him. For some reason, I felt like he almost looked sad about what I had said. His face had dropped slightly, his eyes on his hands and his mouth set in a firm line.

"So... Do you have a lot of friends?"

I watched him as he asked me the question. It seemed random. He hadn't looked up from his hands as he'd asked.

"Uh, well. Not really. I mean, I like the people I work with. I think of them as friends, but we don't hang out much when we aren't working."

"Why's that?"

"I dunno. I guess we're just tired and want to go home afterwards. And most of them spend their days off with their boyfriends or girlfriends, husbands or wives." I replied, extremely curious as to where he was trying to take this. I put my now empty plate on the table, shifting to face him a bit more.

"What about your family?"

"I'm not close with them." I admitted. "Never really have been. We don't see eye-to-eye on pretty much everything."

"That's surprising." He stated, his green eyes locking onto mine. He seemed vulnerable for the first time since I had met him. He wasn't looming over me or punching something or growling at one of his brothers. He was speaking to me softly, asking me personal questions... maybe he was starting to let me in? A girl could hope.

"Why?" I questioned.

"You don't seem like the type to not get along with others." He explained.

I shrugged. "Family is different."

"Yeah. It is." He replied, and I knew that he understood exactly what I meant.

I waited for him to continue to ask me questions, but he didn't. It seemed as though he had opened himself up enough for one day, because he just reached forward and grabbed the plate off of the table.

"Do you want anything else to eat?" He asked, the warmth in his voice mostly gone now.

"Uh, no. I'm fine." I managed to reply, feeling like a rug had just been pulled out from under me.

Was this how it was always going to be with him? Two steps forward and three steps back?