A/N: Thank you Icecreampopstar and randomchick1995 for reviewing. All reviews are greatly appreciated. As a side note some interesting roadside attractions are mentioned in this chapter. These things actually exist in South Dakota, don't believe us Google it.

On the Road Again

"Map?"

"Check."

"Okay, suitcases and bags?"

"Check."

"Car repair kit?"

"Check."

"Cool, you guys ready yet?" Li and Piper had packed up all their essentials into Piper's car and were waiting for their turtles, who were, you guessed it, on the roof. The girls were really excited to go back to New York. Both of them got into the graduate program at NYU, and were looking forward to setting up their lives in the big apple.

"Think this will work?" Li pulled her phone out of her pocket and sent Raph a quick 'hurry up!' text. They had decided that the two turtles would go in the Turtle Taxi, while the two girls took Piper's car. Mating season hadn't gotten any easier, and still had about three weeks left. Li had decided that riding in the same car as their boyfriends may be distracting, so they decided they would ride alone. She and Raph were coming along, after a conversation when she finally realized that he didn't know marks were normal when people got physical. He was convinced he was putting her in pain with every bruise and mark, and it took awhile to convince him otherwise. Fact was, women got hickeys and bruises all the time, and she believed they were finally making some headway on the sexual front.

"Alright I have all the stops coordinated. We'll drive twelve hours today, taking six hours shifts. The guys will be following behind us and hopefully Raph won't hit a deer and/or cow. Of course we won't be staying in Chicago, not after what happened last time. We'll stop in Mitchell and show the boy's the Corn Palace, Mikey wanted a picture, and we could stop at Murdo and see the world's largest wooden car, but that would put us behind schedule..."

"Piper?" She looked up from her map.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up." She pouted and put the map away, eyeing the roof, waiting for Leo and Raph to show up.

"We might have to get separate hotel rooms." Piper hmmmed. Fact was, both girls needed all the money they could save, as New York as an expensive place to live, but she wondered if that would help. She could just see her and Li sleeping peacefully when turtles suddenly burst through the window. Yeah...

"Let's figure that out when we stop." Li nodded in agreement and got in the car. They decided to just start driving, maybe that would get their beau's attention. Li giggled as they drove out of the parking lot, watching the roof as they went.

"Do you think they heard?" Piper shrugged, if they didn't, and looked down and saw their car was gone and that they had left without them...yeah, that was funny.

"How far away do you think we can get before they notice?" Piper looked in her review mirror, eyeing the suspicious yellow vehicle that was quickly gaining on them. Li's cell phone suddenly rang.

"Not far." She heard Raph's voice angrily asking why they'd left without them and Li trying to stifle her laughter.

"The open road waits for no one, Raph." She heard him say something unintelligible on the other line and Li started laughing. Piper turned on some tunes and just concentrated on the road. They had a long way to go once on interstate, she wondered how far Leo and Raph would get before they had a fight and Raph demanded to switch cars. No way was that happening, no way he could be in such close quarters with Li and not jump her. Not to mention she and Leo...yup, this was a much better arrangement.

"My lady, your orders?" A man knelt before a black haired woman, waiting for her signal. She finally nodded her head.

"It seems we have no choice. The instructions were quite clear, we must return to New York." She'd given up trying to find her child in Japan, and with her limited resources and lack of other options there was only one thing she could do.

"Send word to everyone who is still loyal to me to prepare for battle. A war is about to begin."

Li leaned against the car, watching the gas pump and waiting for Piper to come back with food for everyone. It was decided that while the guys may have disguises on they weren't good enough to be seen in broad daylight in a town full of nosey old ladies. So she was in charge of gassing up the cars and Piper was in charge of snacks. And right now she was trying to ignore the look Raph was giving her that made her want to jump into the back seat and fog up the windows.

"Where the heck is she?" She diverted her gaze as Raph flexed his bicep. If she didn't hurry Piper's backseat was going to get a whole new use out of it.

Meanwhile, Piper was merrily trying to decide what type of Gatorade she wanted, not knowing how close Li was to deflowering her car. She went with red Gatorade, now on to chips. She was comparing nutrition labels on the bags when someone bumped into her, causing her to drop everything. She bent down to pick everything up, but paused when she saw who bumped into her.

"Sorry about that. Here, let me help." She did an inner fangirl squeal when she saw the cute guy that bumped into her. Whoo boy, hello gorgeous. Then she mentally beat herself up for that, her handsome ninja turtle boyfriend was waiting for her outside.

"No problem." He handed her her things and smiled at her, a rather knowing smile. Piper frowned.

"Do I know you?" The smile dropped from his face.

"I don't think so." He inclined his head to her, his eyes sharp on her, and walked away. Piper watched him go. She had gotten a sudden chill when he had smiled like that...she shook her head. It was probably just her imagination. She went and paid for her things and headed back out to the cars. She passed out the food and gave Raph a look, he looked like he was about to jump out of the car.

"Okay, onward!"

Several hours later saw them somewhere in Minnesota, trying to find a place to stay. They were attempting to find the cheapest motel in the area that wasn't gross or unclean. They finally pulled into a Motel 6 and Piper went inside to get rooms. She contemplated their situation. On the one hand, the guys would probably want to be nearby if they weren't in the same rooms, just to keep them safe. On the other hand, getting connecting rooms would doubtless lead to...other activities...and walls in motels were thin. And then there was the fact that even if they got two rooms and she said boys in one, girls in the other no one would listen to her. On the other hand it was mating season, and she doubted that being in the same room would even bother Raph and Leo. It was settled.

"I'll need two rooms for the night, far apart if you could do that." Everyone got settled into their rooms ten minutes later.

"Cool, they have HBO." Piper flipped through channels lazily, waiting for Leo to finish his shower. She wondered if Raph and Li had scared their neighbors yet. That thought lasted until Leo came out, dripping wet.

"Looks like you could use a towel." He just walked over to her silently, picked her up, and carted her to the bathroom. Piper blinked as she got a head rush. Leo put her down and she saw the tub was filled with water.

"Take off your clothes or I'll throw you in." She raised an eyebrow at his direct approach but shrugged. Taking a bath could be fun...

Li lazily flipped through the phone book trying to decide what to eat, while Raph examined the room. She raised an eyebrow as he looked under the bed.

"It's just a motel room." He stood up and took the phone book out of her hands.

"I never stayed in one before. Beat up punks in dem though." Li felt like an idiot, of course he'd never stayed in a motel. He'd told her that he never even saw the sun till he was seven. Great now she felt like an ass. He sat the phone book in her lap.

"Pizza." She smiled and picked up the phone, and waited while it rang. Raph sat down next to her and she felt herself being lifted into his lap. She bit her lip as he slowly kissed her neck.

"Delivery, yeah I w-want o-one cheese pizzzzzza oooooh." He began nibbling at the junction where her neck met her shoulder and the man taking her order could be heard asking her to repeat what she said. She did, stuttering slightly as Raph's large hands moved slowly up her sides. "Uhhh, l-large. Uh huh, kay." He told her the price and she hung up, turning to face Raph. She pouted.

"No doing that while I'm on the phone!" Raph just grinned lazily and let himself fall back onto the bed, bringing Li on top of him.

Piper leaned against Leo, silently wondering if picking a bath had anything to do with him being a turtle. And then she had another thought and wondered when the last time this tub had been properly cleaned. She scooted around uncomfortably, and hoped it had been recently. But then again, Leo was pretty hygienic about this stuff too, maybe he cleaned it. She would assume he did, just so she would stop thinking about it. She turned her head to peek at him and saw that his eyes were closed, though she was sure he wasn't sleeping. He had an arm wound around her waist, his other one over the edge of the tub.

"Is this cause I wouldn't let you in my shower?" He chuckled and kissed her shoulder.

"A turtle has to have some time in the water, I couldn't pass this up." He gestured to her and Piper understood. Li had told her that normal turtles did have to spend a certain amount of time in water, and while Leo showered regularly, it made sense that he would have to soak every now and then too. She just leaned back against him and closed her eyes. It was rather nice. A thought struck her, something Li had asked her the other day.

"Leo?"

"Hmm?" He, like her, was leaning against the back wall with his eyes closed.

"When's your guys' birthdays?" Leo opened his eyes. "Do you have them on the same day?" He laughed lightly.

"No, when we were younger, we all wanted our own days, we just did them in order of age. Also, I think it was easier for Master Splinter to scavenge gifts for us separately, he would have had a time finding us things on the same day, I think." Piper pondered that.

"So, when are your birthdays then?" Leo shifted slightly and put his left foot on the edge of the tub.

"Well, Mikey wanted his birthday to be on Christmas, I think he was convinced he would get twice as many presents, but Master Splinter put his foot down. It was hard enough for him to find presents for us in the winter anyway. So Mikey just had Splinter chose for him, he eventually chose August 28th, after Donny's." Piper laughed, that did seem like Mikey. "Donny wanted his birthday in the summer, when scavenging was the best, I think he figured he would get better presents that way. So he had his be June 6." Piper nodded, even at that age Donny was clever. "Raph didn't really care too much, so Splinter assigned his as May 1st. And mine is April 19th." Piper turned around to give him a look.

"You two already had your birthdays and you didn't tell us!" Leo laughed nervously.

"Well, I didn't want to make a big deal out of it, and Raph really doesn't care. Now, when's your birthday?" Piper looked sheepish.

"Uhhh, April 18th." It was Leo's turn to give her a look.

"That's a day before mine! So what's your excuse for not telling me?" She put a hand to her head.

"Uhh, I didn't want to made a big deal out of it." She said, using his words. Leo laughed.

"Guess we were thinking along the same lines."

"Yeah, I guess so." Leo lazily traced a circle on her stomach.

"You know...we could celebrate now..." She got his meaning and turned around.

"Why my dear Leonardo, are you suggesting something?" Leo's eyes grew dark.

"You know it." He whispered, before kissing her.

"Raph!" Li and Raph had thrown all the covers off one of the beds and were busy worshipping each other when a knock sounded at the door. They ignored it, Raph flipping Li over so that he was on top of her, sucking her neck while moving inside her. Li moaned and threw her head back. The knock came again, louder this time, but neither Raph nor Li showed any signs of hearing it. They were staying in a rather old motel, with old key locks that you had to turn to lock the door from the outside. Li, unfortunately, used to automatic locks on hotel doors, had failed to do so. When the door opened, then, and revealed a startled looking pizza delivery boy, both of them were rather surprised. Luckily, Raph's ninja reflexes were quick, and the lamp that he sent soaring through the air at said pizza delivery boy's head was heavy. No one saw Li in a state of undress besides himself. There was a moment of silence as they stared at the unconscious delivery boy on the floor, and the broken lamp next to him. Li looked at Raph.

"What now?" They both looked over at the pizza box sitting on the floor. Ten minutes later saw Li dressed and putting her things back into the backpack she had brought in with her, while Raph got rid of the remains of the lamp. Li put a twenty on the dresser, feeling slightly guilty. She grabbed the pizza and Raph grabbed the pizza boy, hauling him unceremoniously out the door. Li cleared the way and Raph just set the guy in the hallway, along with the money for their pizza. He then put an arm around Li's shoulders as they headed out to the Turtle Taxi. Li said she'd feel guilty if they went back to the scene of the crime and ate pizza like nothing happened, plus there was the fact that when the pizza guy woke up he'd tell the police what room he was in when it happened.

"I hope he doesn't have a concussion."

"Nah, I didn't hit 'im dat hard."

"Piper's going to mad when she gets the bill." Raph momentarily paused, wondering how long the lecture from Leo was going to last. He shrugged off the thought, Fearless would just have to deal with it. It's not like they'll ever come back here. He opened the car door for Li and climbed in beside her. He took a slice of pizza and started eating and gave Li a sideways glance and tightened his grip on her waist.

"Yah know, we never got ta finish what we started." She took another piece of pizza.

"No way, I spent good money on this I'm eating it while it's warm." Raph gave her a look of disappointment as she continued eating. She cocked a smile in his direction. "Once the pizza's gone." He smirked and took another slice.

Piper woke to the sound of thumping. She sat up on the bed and stared at the form of Leo doing flips in the motel room.

"Do you ever not train?" He stopped doing flips and moved into a kata.

"I'm a ninja, I always have to be prepared, there's nothing more important." She stared at him for a minute waiting for him to continue.

'Except for you and my family, Piper. You're more important than ninjutsu, here let me kiss you.' She waited, but the response never came. 'Oh well, he's training, and he's always been single minded.' She got off the bed and got dressed in the bathroom. When she got out Leo was doing push ups. She gave him a weary glance.

"I'm gonna get breakfast, I'll bring you back a muffin."

"Thanks." He said, not pausing in his work out. She shut the door and let out a frustrated groan, wondering if there would ever come a time where Leo let his ninja habit rest. 'Yeah that'll be the day.' She gave herself a mental slap for being so selfish and went down to the lobby to get breakfast. Knowing Raph and Li, neither of them would be up for a while, after all it was only 6:30. She gave another groan and sat down to watch CNN and prepare herself for a long wait.

It was 8:30 when Piper decided that Leo had trained enough, and Li and Raph had slept enough. She had a schedule to stick to, darn it! She grabbed her orange juice and Leo's tea and muffin and headed back to their room. She'd call Li and wake her up once she was there. Now came the tricky part, opening the door with two drinks and a plate of food while not dropping any of it. She stared at the door and decided that Leo wouldn't magically open it if she willed it. She kicked it a few times and waited.

"Who is it?" He sounded all cautious and Piper smiled inwardly.

"Room service, open up." He opened the door, careful not to reveal himself incase anyone was walking by, and Piper walked in and put down the food. Leo closed and locked the door and picked up the tea.

"Thanks." She nodded and picked up her backpack.

"Okay, I'll make sure there's no one outside, and we can hightail it to the car." Leo nodded and finished his tea, pocketing his muffin in his trench coat. Piper walked into the hallway, and looked both ways. "All clear." A minute later they were in the parking lot.

Piper unlocked her car door and tossed her bag in.

"I'm going to go back inside and wake Li up, she never answered her phone." Leo stopped her.

"There's no need." He pointed to the Turtle Taxi which was parked next to her car, and stared in abject horror. Sure enough there was Li and Raph, buck naked in the back of the taxi. She snapped out of it when Leo started muttering about how much of an idiot his brother was.

"Doesn't he know anyone could have seen him! What's the point of disguises if he's just going sleep in the back of cars naked?" He pounded on the window. "Raph, you better hope I don't tell Master Splinter about this!" Raph and Li snapped awake, startled by Leo. Li quickly tried finding her clothes and failed, so she ended up using the pizza box instead. Piper gave them both confused looks as she pointed to the motel.

"There's a perfectly good motel right there. I got you a room, I paid for a room, I handed you the room key. Why are you naked in the car when I gave you a room key?" Raph and Li looked at each other.

"Uhhhh..." Piper shook her head.

"Okay, Li, get dressed and we can go." Leo shook his head and crossed his arms.

"There is no way I'm riding in that now."

"Well they certainly can't ride together, you know what they'll be doing." Leo looked at Piper, then at the car.

Ten minutes later saw Piper and Li sipping coffee in the front seats of Piper's car, with Leo riding in the backseat. Raph followed in the Turtle Taxi. He was not pleased. He kept calling everyone's phones to complain. Piper and Leo finally turned theirs off, leaving Li to deal with him.

"They wouldn't let me! And you know that's not a good idea. Well it can't be that bad, at least you can blast KISS now, right?" Leo had made Raph listen to classical music the first leg of the trip. "Awww, I'm sorry." Piper gave Li a look. Li was clearly caving to Raph, but there was no way any of them were riding with him, he would be way to distracted with Li in the car, and Piper agreed with Leo and wouldn't get in the Turtle Taxi. "Uhh, Piper wants to tell me something, I'll call you back." She flipped her phone closed and Piper smiled.

"Don't want to hear him complain anymore?" Li winced.

"Not really, he can be as bad as Mikey." Leo nodded in the backseat.

"Hear, hear." Piper put the car in cruise control and regarded Li and Leo, asking a very serious question.

"So who's going to tell Donny that his taxi was used for sex?"

Raph and Leo jumped from roof to roof keeping up with the girls, who were on the streets below shopping. Both had refused to return to the lair without thank you gifts for Master Splinter and April, and neither seemed to be able to convince the turtles that they would be fine in broad daylight in a busy shopping center without them. They had reached New York earlier the next day, as they just decided to drive through the night. Much coffee was consumed.

"We should get Splinter something Japanese."

"I was thinking a box set of As the World Turns." Li nodded.

"Both would be good. I'm thinking a gift certificate to a spa for April."

"Oh she'd love that." They waited for the light to change, then crossed the street. They paused and looked around.

"Okay...you go get the boxed set and, get him some tea, and I'll get the spa certificate, I think I saw one up the street." They both glanced upwards, to where their turtles were watching. "Think they'll freak out if we split up?" Piper adjusted her purse strap and shrugged.

"It's not like they're not going follow us the whole time, how about we meet back here in thirty minutes?" Li nodded.

"Sounds good." They headed off in separate directions, Leo and Raph following discreetly. It was like having an invisible body guard. Li strolled into the spa she had seen and purchased a massage-facial package for April. She would like that, she seemed kinda harried having to deal with Casey and the turtles' antics. She had some time left, so she kept walking down the street, window shopping and enjoying the nice spring day. It was good to be back in New York, she missed it. She walked past a window and paused, seeing a cute top on a store mannequin. She looked at her phone, she had time to spare. She walked into the store, found the shirt and went to try it on. She walked into the dressing room and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw her reflection. It wasn't her, at least not the her she was used to. Her eyes were like slits and greener than normal, and her nails were like claws, her teeth far too pointy and sharp. She closed her eyes and opened them again, and everything was back to normal. She suddenly didn't feel like trying on clothes anymore. She left the shirt and walked to the entrance when she saw a tall man with black hair and a trench coat. Bishop. She spun around but no one was there. Now, properly shaken, she hurried out the door and headed back to where she was supposed to meet Piper. She looked over her shoulder and her eyes widened when she saw a large blond man with a tattoo. He grinned at her and mouthed the work kitten. She started running to get away from him. She ran past an alley and released a muffled scream when someone grabbed her, whoever it was let her go and she spun around and punched them as hard as she could. Whoever it was caught her fist.

"Jeeze warn a turtle why don't yah?" She blinked and relaxed when she saw who it was.

"Raph." He gave her a worried look.

"Yah okay babe? Yah look terrified." She tried explaining what happened but the only word she could get out of her mouth was his name.

"Hun." Raph pushed her behind him and took out his sais, bringing both of them into the shadows as he surveyed the area.

"What? Where?"

"Behind me. He was chasing me..." She trailed off when she saw the look on Raph's face.

"Babe, no one was chasing yah I was watching da whole time." Li's face was a picture of confusion.

"But...I saw him. And, the mirror..." Donny had warned him about this, Li had been through a great deal of stress, and might go through post traumatic stress disorder. But, she hadn't shown any symptoms before...He put his hands on her shoulders.

"Has this ever happened before?" Li furrowed her eyebrows. Well...she had thought she had seen Hun's shadow once, walking by an alley way. She had ran for it, and realized minutes later that no one was following. Her shoulders slumped.

"I-yes." She kept her head down, not wanting to see Raph's face, he must be disappointed in her, acting like a frightened child. She was surprised when instead, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against his plastron.

"Hey, yah don't need ta worry, okay? Those two are gone, no one can hurt yah now, and even if dey were here, there's no way I'd ever let dem touch yah." She leaned against him, touched by his words. She knew he meant it, he really would protect her from them, or anyone else that looked at her the wrong way. A single tear slipped down her cheek and she sighed.

"Thank you."

An hour later saw Piper's car parked at April's, the turtles had hidden the Turtle Taxi in their garage earlier, so they rode with the girl's to April's. They got out and grabbed as much of their things as they could carry, and the two turtles went around back to avoid being seen. Li and Piper knocked and a second later April appeared at the door.

"Li! Piper, you're back!" They all hugged and April ushered them inside.

"Casey, get the rest of their things. You two must be tired." They were set on the couch with tea before they knew it. Wow, April was a great hostess. Casey went outside and came back with their suitcases, and set them on the floor. April sat down across from them.

"So, I've got an idea." Li and Piper looked at her in interest.

"I know last time you called, you were thinking about looking for an apartment, when I remembered that I have an empty one downstairs next to the tunnel!" The girls looked at each other. April's basement was a pit, they hadn't seen anything resembling an apartment down there when they used the tunnels. She was looking rather excited, however, and pulled them both up to show them. Casey was heard laughing in the kitchen, where Leo and Raph had just entered. Li shrugged, might as well. She led them downstairs, down her creaky staircase into the dark basement, full of broken antiques and old furniture. They helped her move an old box spring, and a door appeared in the wall they hadn't seen before. She pushed it open to reveal a dusty room filled with cobwebs.

"I know it's a fixer-up, but I've been on Casey for months to help me clean this out. We could have this place cozy in no time!" Li looked around, it really wasn't that bad, and she really liked that the entrance to the tunnel that connected the building to the lair was just across from the door. She would never be far away from Raph this way, and April would certainly be a cheaper landlady than any other in Manhattan. She smiled.

"Sounds great."

"Great! I'll just get Casey to clean this junk out and you two can move in." They thanked her and followed her back up stairs. She told them about where they could get some furniture at a discounted price. She seemed very excited to have other females around.

"We should get the guys and then we can head over to the lair. You can tell me what the two of you have been up to there."

"Kay." They walked into April's living room and found Raph and Casey wrestling on the floor, with Leo playing referee. April gave the girls a look.

"I'm so glad you'll be moving in." This caused every male in the room to stop.

"What?"

"You're moving in here?"

"Why?" Piper side stepped Leo and took out the gift for April.

"Well we can't just live in the lair like we did last time. Here April, this is a thank you for helping us, and bringing us clothes and make up." She smiled and took the gift.

"You shouldn't have." Raph came up behind Li.

"What do yah mean yah can't live wit us?"

"We'll need a place of our own, and I would never just move in somewhere, especially without asking Splinter."

"But..."

"No, it would be rude." Piper walked between them and broke up the fight before it could begin.

"Speaking of Splinter we should give him his gift, and I miss Mikey's cooking so let's get a move on people. Chop, chop." She clapped her hands and gave everyone an expecting glance. Leo was hiding behind his hands again. She still couldn't figure out why he did that sometimes. April nodded toward Casey.

"Since the room's not ready yet, I suppose you two will have to stay at the lair until we get it fixed up, what do you need to bring?" Li and Piper each filled their bags with essentials and several sets of clothes, April insisting Casey carry them. They headed downstairs, Li and Raph bringing up the rear.

"So what's da deal?" She held back a sigh, she knew he was going to fight this. She kept her voice down so that the other's couldn't hear.

"We need our own space until we get things settled, and Piper and I have a lot of stuff. Not to mention you don't have a closet, have you seen all my clothes? Besides, this way, we can have sleepovers." She let him mull that over and trotted to catch up with the others while they walked through the tunnel that led to the lair. She heard a hmph, and smiled. She knew he'd see it her way. April and Casey were in front, and activated the sequence to open the wall in front of them so that it would slide to the side and let them into the living area of the lair. The wall slide open and April and Casey went inside, followed more slowly by the girls, Raph, and Leo. Donny was sitting at the computer, Mikey was watching TV, and Splinter was drinking tea. They looked up in surprise as everyone entered. Li waved and the wall slid shut behind them.

"Hey everyone, we're back." The next thing she knew she was being bear hugged by Mikey. "Oomph. Yeah Mikey, I missed you too."

"What the heck Mikey? What am I, chopped liver?" Piper gave him a playful pout and the next thing she knew she and Li were both being bear hugged. He ended up with some of their hair in his nose. He sniffed, they smelled different. He wasn't able to place the scent, but he liked it.

"I MISSED YOU TWO!" He continued hugging them and finally Raph had to whap him on the head before he released them. They staggered slightly, but quickly regained their balance. Piper spotted Donny and bounded over to him, jump tackling him in a hug.

"Donny!" She hugged him tighter and he hugged her back until she broke the hug and patted him on the shoulder, giving him a sincere look. "Donny, I'm sorry for your loss." Before he got a chance to ask her what she meant, she was gone and over next to Master Splinter, handing him a package with Li, explaining their gratitude at allowing them into his home. He smiled fondly at them.

"The two of you are always welcome here. Now Piper, Liara, is this the season with Susan's twin brother, who turned out to be her long lost sister?" They grinned and nodded, both touched that he used their first names. Mikey jumped up and ordered pizza, and everyone sat down around the table talking and laughing. Ah, sewer sweet sewer.