It was pretty obvious that after that night, something had changed with Ty. Not necessarily in a bad way either. In fact, I was rather happy with the way things were going. He finally emerged from Cindy's tent as the sun began to make it's way upwards, holding her hand firmly and a with baffled look full of wonder on his face as the rest of us were almost finishing up loading up.

Leo walked over to them, a small smile on his face. "About time. Was starting to wonder if you were going to sleep all day." Then he paused and gave the boy a long level look, sensing something I really couldn't as I moved closer to check on Cindy. Then he rubbed his forehead. "Son, when I said last night you were protecting your mate... I didn't mean for you to formalize it."

My son's face went that weird red shade they get when they blush, and Cindy's wasn't much better when she hid a little behind Ty to escape that blue eyed gaze. My own mate was having none of it as he pulled her back out to face him. "Don't. It's nothing to be ashamed of. I'm more worried that what happened before might have influenced it." He looked at Ty. "Did it?"

Ty sighed. "Maybe a little." He pulled Cindy to his side. "It let me see how much I really care for her, and I let her know that."

His gaze went to Cindy next and she blushed harder. "I love him." She simply said, fighting past her embarrassed intimidation to even get those words out.

The smile Leo gave them was like the sun coming up and he pulled her closer to him. "Then, I guess I have no choice but to welcome you into the family."

She looked a little confused at that and I took pity on the poor girl. "He loves you, you love him. That's all that's required to join this particular family. Here you tend to join before the wedding bells ring."

"From here on out Cindy, if you ever need anything you can come to me." Leo added softly. "I'll do whatever I can for you."

Her eyes teared up as she looked from me, back to Leo, then to Ty who gave her a soft smile and a soft shrug. "It's how it pretty much worked out with all of them too."

"All you need is love!" Mikey sang as he walked closer and began to take the tent apart.

Cindy still looked confused and flustered as Ty wrapped his arm around her. "But...how did he even know!"

Ty laughed and kissed her forehead. "He knows everything."

"Not quite." Leo corrected in an amused tone. "But I'm working on it."

"Stop teasing the poor girl." Donnie said when he came up to help Mikey. He paused on his way and gave her a level look. "He smelt Ty on you. Apparently Ty's marking scent is potent when he's aroused."

Ty groaned as he slapped a hand to his eyes. "Thanks a lot Uncle."

Donnie just shrugged. "She did ask."

Cindy looked even more confused. "I understand nothing..."

I laughed and pulled her away from those embarrassing older turtles and they, along with Ty, helped Mikey with the tent. "Don't mind them dear. They've been getting into the bad habit of trying to embarrass the crap out of the kids lately."

"But what does he mean?" She looked honestly curious now. "I still don't understand a lot of things."

I smiled at her. "Despite the teasing, it's not really a bad thing. Humans can't even smell it. All it is, is that he lost himself in the moment enough to rub his scent on you. It's another way of letting everyone know 'This is the woman I chose, keep your hands off.' "

Her eyes flashed a moment. "So, he owns me?"

"No silly." I laughed again. "He doesn't own you. Just like Leo doesn't own me, and I've been marked a few times myself. Just think of it as another way of him letting you know he cares about you and it's a smell involved way rather than a visual one. A way that only the other turtles can detect. They know now that things are growing serious between you. Not like we haven't been waiting for it. Leo and I have been watching you two for weeks now and fully expected this next step to happen sooner or later."

Her face flushed again. "Am I going to have to...put up with that every time we have sex? I'm not sure I can stand the embarrassment."

"Cindy, he knows the others can pick it up and he won't do that to you. Leo doesn't do it often either, for the same reasons. Ty probably was really worked up and let his instincts take control for a moment. This is all just as new to him as dating a turtle is new to you. You both will adjust with time. Now, enough of that. How are you feeling?"

"Still a bit sore honestly."

I turned to her and gently tilted her head to the light so I could look. "You've got a nasty bruise on your face too. He got a good hit on you."

Tony overheard me as he came walking up and gave a short laugh. "You should see Jeff. He's so black and blue, you can't tell his natural skin color if you looked at his face." He then handed her some more pain pills and a bottle of water. "Let Kyle drive today, you I want to rest some more."

"I'm fine." She began to protest. I smiled. There was that turtle mate stubbornness, already shining brightly through.

"You will rest." Ty told her as he passed with the now folded up tent and stored it in her vehicle and began to tie it down. "Because I'm riding with you today to make sure you do." I grinned. And there was that turtle overprotectiveness.

She glared at him, and he ignored it as he pulled the straps tight. Then she looked at me. "Please tell me, are they all like this?"

"Yup." Came my answer. "Better get used to that too."

She looked like she wanted to chew nails for a moment, then she shook her head and laughed. "Fine." She sighed, then popped the pills in her mouth.

Kyle, now chuckling, slipped into the driver's seat as the third member of their team took the front passenger one. Ty carefully helped Cindy into the back and then sat next to her before firmly pulling her against him.

I still had that smile on my face as I walked over to Hide and slipped in.

"And why do you have that silly grin plastered onto your face this morning?" He asked.

"It's always nice to spend time with your kids before the start of a long, boring, day."

Leo just gave me a curious raised eyeridge as he slid in. "This from the one who is notoriously a grumpy morning person."

"My thoughts exactly reptile."

I crossed my arm and glared at them. "Fine, you pair of unromantic idiots. I'm happy for my son, ok? For the longest time I wasn't sure if he or Lavi would find someone, and now they are both in relationships. So stop raining on my mushy Mom parade and let me enjoy their happiness.

Hide just snorted at me as he started to roll out, but Leo gave me a long, quiet look before he turned his head to look out the window.

'What's wrong Leo, you should be happy for him.'

'I am dear one. I really am. But we just brought another into our fold, and I'm not sure I can protect her.'

'What's wrong with Ty watching over her?'

He just shrugged and remained quiet. I myself sighed in frustration. Why couldn't he just accept the fact that they were growing? They were starting to move on with their lives? I know it's painful, especially when you spend a large portion of your life watching over them, but you have got to let go sometime.

'Maybe so. Maybe I am holding on too hard.'

'No maybe about it Leo. You want them to stay the same, happy, smiling toddlers that used to run around and get into everything. They can't. Eventually they turn into happy, smiling adults that get into everything. I'm surprised you aren't ready to kick them out yet, I know Raph is.'

That actually got a smile out of him. Even if it was a small one.

We traveled on, Leo looking out at the scenery as the sun rose higher, and me watching him. To be honest this depression he couldn't seem to snap out of had me very worried. It was a peculiar thing to watch, but also not a healthy thing. When things were calm he seemed normal, but as the relationships around us grew, or after every conflict we've been through lately, that unseen worry that he was losing the ability to look over his family expanded. He was becoming more quiet and withdrawn when it was just us two.

I shook my head and finally turned away from him with a sigh. He didn't even notice as his eyes seemed locked out the window, looking at things that weren't in front of him as the scenery passed by him, completely unseen. He was here, in Japan, a country that held a special place in his heart...and he was missing out on it because he was worrying about something he couldn't change.

Needless to say it was with relief when Donnie finally called a halt at around lunch time. That gloomy ride was starting to drain me.

"What's up?" I asked him as I moved closer.

"Just trying to fine tune our directions a little." He replied, looking at the picture he took of the lightmap.

I walked over to his side and looked at it. The bold outline was obviously of Japan itself, but there were smaller outlines, leading towards the Japanese Alps. Or more accurately, Mt. Ontake which was almost due west of Tokyo.

Donnie was looking at it thoughtfully, his eyes lost in his contemplation.

Leo walked up on his other side. "And? What is the fine tuning telling you?"

"I've...got a hunch." He replied absently, then pointed. "We know this is an active volcano."

"Yay." Raph interrupted as he also joined us, along with the others. "Never said I wanted to get close to one of those."

Mikey grinned at him. "Why? Scared you gonna get your ass set on fire?" He quickly dodged the incoming smack.

Donnie just ignored them and kept up his musing. "And on the north side of Mt. Ontake is a large body of water. Add into the fact that if you go high enough on any elevated surface, you're going to get wind, and the volcano itself is a big pile of earth and rock."

Leo also got that thoughtful look on his face. "All four elements..."

"In one spot." Donnie confirmed. "I'm willing to bet you my goggles we need to get to that volcano, preferably on the north side."

"But where?" I asked them, a little baffled. "As far as I know...there isn't anyplace there worth marking on a tourist brochure. Not that I'm a walking tourist information stand..."

"Which leads me to believe even more that is the right place." Donnie mumbled. "If everything that's happened so far is any indication, whoever is calling us, doesn't want the location to be general knowledge."

Sides' holoform peeked at the map curiously. "Looks like some major off roading going to happen there. This might be fun!"

Bee beeped his agreement and the two high fived as Sunny rolled his eyes. "Idiots."

Hide snorted his agreement to Sunny's statement and Jazz grinned at both grumpy bots.

Prime however was looking thoughtful himself, then looked at Donnie. "I too feel that this is path we must follow."

"Oh?"

"I must admit, I feel something calling out to me as well."

"That's a new twist." Mikey said. "Usually it's us that get these weird tugs and yanks. So far, you guys have just been along for the ride. So...what changed? Why are they tampering with the boss bot now?"

That set of a round of confused looks and shrugs.

Leo sighed. "I guess we'll find out soon enough. And standing around here isn't going to find the answers."

That statement broke our huddle and we all loaded up again. Soon we were rolling out, but we still were no closer to finding out what we were heading towards. Hopefully that was going to change shortly.