Tracey woke up to her alarm going off quietly, she rolled over and looked at Leo who was laying flat on his back still asleep his sandy blond hair tousled around his face. 'God he is so hot when he sleeps.' Tracey thought, pushing herself carefully up on her elbow and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. 'If only this moment could really last forever. Unfortunately all good things must come to an end... but they don't have to right now right Tracey? We could enjoy a few more minutes before all hell breaks loose right?' She concluded her inner argument with a nod and with a sleepy sigh she settled back down, her head resting on Leo's chest, right over his heart. Using her other hand Tracey gently traced over his bare and sculpted chest and listened to his breathing, it was soothing and she felt at peace.
He shifted a little in his sleep one arm curling around her waist tugging her in close against him as he settled again. She could hear Mikey and Donnie talking… or arguing, in the hallway and she vaguely heard Master Splinter humming something in the little alcove he used to tend his bonsai trees. She didn't hear Raph or Artemis though. Groaning a little and trying to shut out the noise by squeezing her eyes closed more, Tracey finally gave up and wiggled regretfully out of her warm spot in Leo's arms. She quietly opened and shut the door behind her, her hair falling in her face and only her eyes could be seen from the depths. Stalking to Donnie and Mikey, Tracey slowly ran her hands up their arms to their shoulders and applied pressure so they would be encouraged to come down to her level and then she spoke low and deliberate.
"You two make enough noise to wake the me and the dead, and at the moment the dead are the least of your problems." She said, her gaze shifting from Mikey and then to Donnie. "What are you two arguing about anyway that it can't wait till after everyone is awake?"
Mikey looked nervous and Donnie shifted thought his hand was turning green and he wanted to wake Leo and Raph to do blood tests. I was trying to make him wait cause…" He trailed off awkwardly then finished in a rush. "Cause Raph took Artemis to bed and I thought Leo did the same and I really don't wanna piss either of them off by interrupting." It all came out in one breath and Tracey could barely understand it.
Taking a moment and slowing down the last portion of what Mikey had said with her head, Tracey slowly nodded and understood everything. She took a deep breath and patted their shoulders before releasing them, pushing her hair out of her face and then crossing her arms over her chest. Letting loose a breath of air, Tracey studied them and tilted her head to the side. "Okay, did you already run blood work on yourselves Donnie? What were the results?" She asked, scratching her head after a moment and then stretching her arms up over her head.
"Its inconclusive right now, the levels of mutagen in me and Mikey's systems seems to be holding stable but neither of us has the muscle density of Raph or Leo and I want to know if that might be a factor." Donnie said sheepishly.
A quick glance at the clock showed that it was just after 9am. Tracey looked at the clock too and groaned again, slumping over a little before sighing.
"Okay, I'll check on Leo first and send him out to you Donnie and then I will go get Artemis and Raph. Arty needs me too much to kill me so it will be safer if I wake her." She said, turning on her heels and quietly stalking back to Leo's room.
On her way back up the hall to Leo's room Tracey realized that they would have a better advantage hitting the safe houses now that the turtles returned to their normal forms than they would if they were human. She was still slightly concerned that there might be a few repercussions with the boys' and how they would handle their change back to turtles. Slowly Tracey opened the door and peeked around the door to see Leo still in bed and then closed the bedroom door behind her. He had flipped over to his belly and tugged her pillow in against his side in his sleep, she heard Donnie and Mikey moving back towards Donnies lab while she stood contemplating Leo's sleeping form. "Leo, you really are adorable when you sleep." Tracey laughed quietly and made her way to her stuff to pull out a fresh set of clothes, not wasting a second to change while Leo still slept. "Leonardo, I'm sorry to bother your slumber, but Donnie needs to talk to you..." Gently she sat down on the edge of the bed and reached over to run her fingers through his dirty blonde hair and was quite surprised by how soft it was. Tracey nudged him softly until he started to stir from his sleep.
He grumbled and blinked up at her before a sleepy smile rippled across his face. "Donnie can wait." He mumbled and tugged her down to give her a kiss.
An exasperated mumble of protest tried to escape from Tracey as she flailed to keep her balance on the edge of the bed, but she didn't succeed, fell forward to rest against Leo's smooth chest, and was cut off by Leo's soft lips. She succumbed to his tender kisses and her stomach fluttered happily, but she knew it wouldn't last and that Leo and his brothers probably wouldn't get another chance like this to socialize with humans and experience something so precious as a kiss or a gentle caress of another person's touch. "It's important though." Tracey tried to protest, touching his cheek gently.
"If its Donnie it usually is." He replied simply and smiled sitting up. But so is this." He kissed her again before he stood up and reached for the shirt he'd dropped on the desk chair.
Tracey smiled and shook her head before rummaging in her bag for her brush and hair ties. Upon finding them she ran the brush through her hair to smooth it out and them pulled it back before tying it up, a few stray strands of her hair fell out of her ponytail and framed her face nicely. With a smile she put her stuff away and made up the bed really fast before she patted Leo's arm and stepped out of the room, heading for Raph's dwelling and knocked on the door softly, giving the occupants a few minutes to prepare themselves. "Come on Raph, I need you guys up... Artemis, I know you're in there too." Tracey breathed. "I didn't think Raph would let you be as stubborn as him and sleep on the couch. Wake up you two."
Raph opened the door his torso bare with the tattoo on his bicep standing out sharply on his human skin. His brown hair was a tangled mess and he gave her a wary look from hazel eyes. "What's up, other than you I mean?"
Tracey gave him a cheeky grin and poked him gently in the chest. "Donnie needs to run some blood work because he thinks that you and your brothers might be changing back to your turtle forms soon." She replied. "Also it would be good to get Arty up so we can hit the safe houses today so everything can get resolved. So get that tight butt of yours in there and be delicate when you wake her, we don't need her sitting on you again."
Tracey resisted the urge to smack him on the ass when he turned to go back into the room and left for the kitchen to get breakfast and tea started, several thoughts and scenarios flying through her head at the same time as to how the day could go for them.
He closed the door quietly and shook his head. "That woman is nuts." He mumbled and flopped back down on the bed next to Artemis who was actually awake.
She smiled slightly. "She is but it's charming in its own way." She was laying on her side in a pair of sweatpants and a tank top that hugged every curve and he grinned reaching over to run a hand over the curve of her waist and hip.
"Charming huh? And what does that make you?"
She leaned up on her elbow and reached up to pull his head down until they were within kissing distance of each other. "Older, more experienced and dangerous."
He grinned fiercely and rolled her onto her back leaning over her. "I like a woman who can be a dangerous as I am."
She smirked up at him and pressed a finger to his lips the look in her eyes a little sad, he licked the tip of her finger and leaned up a little giving her more space. "Hey, I ain't looking for declarations of love or nothing. Hell I ain't even asking for sex, but it's nice to kiss and cuddle." He ran a hand through her hair. "You're all soft curves and hard edges and I like that, hell I even like that you've got some sort of heartbreak you won't share. Mystery is sexy. Just don't push me away because of it ok?"
She smiled and reached up pulling him down for a kiss that seemed to last for hours but then she was rolling out from under him and looking for her clothes. "Come on you, we're holding up Donnie and whatever it is he's found."
He snorted and found a shirt tugging it on while she dressed. He held the door open for her while she walked out finger combing her hair. She made a beeline for her coke on the kitchen counter cracking one open and taking a long grateful drink. "Oooh thats the stuff."
"Nice of you to join us Sleeping Beauty, I hope you slept well." Tracey said with a knowing smirk. "Now that you've had a little bit of caffeine, perhaps you'll tell us who's going with who and to which safe houses we'll be visiting. Hopefully Donnie will finish with his business too and everything else will go smoothly... but knowing our luck we can only hope."
Turning from the stove, Tracey set down a large plate of bacon, eggs, french toast and fruit on the table before she added cups and tea pot to the table too. She place plates and eating utensils beside each plate before calling the boys together so they could eat. Artemis smiled and leaned on the counter. "I don't have the addresses on hand right this second, they're in Donnies lab. As to the pairings I'm still waffling about those. Any suggestions?"
Tracey sat down and started to spoon herself some fruit into a bowl and chew thoughtfully while thinking on it. After a few minutes she answered with another smirk. "I had been giving some thought and I think the teams should be Donnie and Mikey, you and Raph, and Leo and myself. As far as I can see there are only good things that can come from these pairings and we can each keep an eye on everyone's' back." She said with a laugh and chewed a piece of fruit for a minute.
"I know what you're thinking so you don't need to say it. But on the other hand, having Donnie and Mikey paired together will allow Donnie to keep an eye on Mikey... how would you have them paired?"
Artemis grinned. "I was thinking of the same pairings." She looked around when the boys joined them.
Donnie was reading over a handful of papers while Leo and Raph bickered good naturedly about something. When Mikey plunked himself down next to Artemis Raph lifted him bodily up and deposited him in a different seat and sat down next to Artemis and snagged her coke going to take a drink and getting an elbow in the ribs from her. "Get your own big guy." She commented and handed him one before turning to Donnie. "So what's the word?"
Mikey started bouncing up and down. "Oh oh oh oh! I know! Bird!"
Tracey looked at Mikey and couldn't help but laugh and pat his arm. "That's not what she meant Mikey my sweet, but nice try." Tracey said with a smile. "We need to know what Donnie's findings are with the blood work that he took from you guys this morning... if you guys are going to become turtles again then we should wait to hit the safe houses because by then you'll have an even better advantage. But if there's no risk of you reverting back today than we should hit the safe houses and bring Stockman to justice." She passed him the plate of french toast and syrup and let him serve himself.
Donnie dropped the pages and sighed. "It's all inconclusive. The levels of mutagen are consistent but they vary, much like the levels of various hormones and chemicals in our blood work. We can't afford to wait for the mutagen to work it's way out of our systems, the info Tracy managed to get for us is almost a week old, and who knows how frequently they move the safehouses."
Tracey sighed and then rested her arm on the table and then her chin on her fist. "Then perhaps we should head for the safe houses after breakfast and hit them them hard. My only concern right now is if you guys do change back in the middle of a fight and then become incapacitated to fight, then things could go sore for us in a hurry."
"Donnie, were you able to pull up the schematics of the safehouses?" Artemis asked.
Donnie nodded. "Yeah."
"Good, we'll go over those before we leave. We can't do anything about you guys possibly changing in the middle of a fight, there's no knowing when that might happen if ever. But what we can do is finish this mission and worry about the rest later." Artemis replied calmly.
"I guess we'll handle this when it happens." Tracey shrugged her shoulders and nodded in agreement. She looked to each of the boys before making her next statement.
"Artemis and I have talked about it and we think the teams should be as follows: Donnie and Mikey, Raph and Arty, and Leo and myself. Not for any other reason other than you each compliment the others' skills to a tee." She said, folding her hands in front of her.
Mikey and Donnie looked at each other and shrugged. "I guess so."
Leo and Raph seemed content with the pairings and Donnie got up to get the schematics. When he came back Leo moved the plates out of the way so Donnie could explain the layouts of each of the safehouses. After looking around at each of the boys and studying them closely as if it would be the last time she would see them, she then sighed and refocused on the task at hand. Tracey looked down at the maps and noted the three locations on the map that they would have to hit simultaneously. "We need to be very careful when we do this and no matter what happens we have to stay the course." She said quietly.
Artemis tapped the schematics. "Donnie and Mikey, you're hitting this safehouse. Tracey and Leo will hit this one." She motioned at the second schematic. "Raph and I will hit the third one. We'll go in at the same time for all three, if we haven't finished in 15 minutes we need to bail out and reassess."
Leo looked at her levelly. "And what happens if things go wrong?"
Artemis gave him a calm look. "We improvise. Tracey is a Master of that art, I'm no mean shake at it either."
He frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. "It's really risky, we can't back each other up."
"And they can't back each other up either if we strike all three at once." Artemis replied.
Tracey tapped her chin and laid a hand on Leo's arm. "I know it's not our most favorable plan of attack, but that's why we're going in pairs. If we're careful then things won't go wrong. We should forsake the illusion of control, because we will never be in control of the things that are to come." Tracey coughed and rubbed her temple.
"Sorry, I think I've been hanging out with Master Splinter too long, not that that's a bad thing... we don't have much time to discuss this further, we should leave very soon.
"We leave in an hour." Artemis said. "One way or another this will be finished today."
She stood up and left to get her satchel and any tools she thought he might need; Leo watched her go with an annoyed look on his face until Raph clapped his on the back. "Sucks being bossed around don't it?" He teased.
Leo looked at his brother and frowned. "Do you feel like I boss you around like that?" He asked quietly.
"I've been telling you that you're a bossy jerk for years Leo." Raph replied.
Leo looked at Donnie and Mikey, Mikey looked uncomfortable but Donnie shrugged. "You're assertive and usually have a good plan for whatever needs doing, you just usually fail to get our input before initiating said plan. You've improved a lot since the TechnoDrone incident though."
Tracey could feel the tension rising slowly and stood up, drawing their attention to her. "I just want to point out something to you all that you yourselves probably haven't realized. You each have grown in your own way since the TechnoDrone and that's a fact." She said quietly. "If you think you can take on the responsibilities of being a leader than perhaps you each should have the title for a week and see what it's like. In the meantime we should all pack things that we could need and then prepare in whichever way we see fit."
Making her way out of the kitchen, Tracey went to Leo's room and pulled a few things together which didn't take her long and then she sat down on the edge of the bed to contemplate the several things going through her head. There were so many things that could go wrong, but now wasn't the time for that, she had to be positive and hope for the best. This always happened whenever they were about embark on a dangerous outing, even if it was when they were in Ancient Greece or when she and Artemis were going to a convention... it never failed. "We just have to be careful and watch each others' back." She said quietly, checking the strap on her satchel. "What possibly go wrong?"
"Did you just taunt the universe?" Artemis asked poking her head in the door.
"With our luck would it really matter if I did taunt the universe?" Looking up at the door, Tracey giggled and shrugged before standing and looping her satchel over her shoulder. Tracey took a deep breath and let it out softly, she was hoping that her nervous jitters would go away but no such luck.
"Are you and Raph ready to go? Does everyone have what they need? Including a first aid kit as needed?"
Artemis smiled and held up her satchel. "You have your first aid kit, I have mine and Donnie is packing his backpack with everything he and Mikey might need. We'll be ready to go in a few minutes." She handed Tracey the schematic with the address written across the top. "I've already given Donnie the address for the one he and Mikey are hitting."
"Good, I think they'll be fine. Out of all of us I think Donnie and Mikey will have the most fun." Tracey laughed and took the schematics to look them over, figuring that the best way for her and Leo to get in would be for them to go to the roof and try the vent shafts. They led through the entire building and passed a lot of their obstacles, including security. With a little laugh, she folded up the paper and put it in her satchel.
"Let's hope that we don't have to use the first aid kits... I guess all we can do now is get a move on and hope for the best..." She said with a lopsided grin. "Let's go get the boys and get a move on Artemis. With a bit of luck we should be able to destroy the purple ooze forever."
Artemis gave her an incredulous grin. "I've been waiting on you!" She laughed and walked out ahead of Tracey, the boys were waiting for them in the living room each with a backpack.