Chapter 9 - Tunnel Troubles

"Ow." April muttered under her breath as she stood up off the training room floor, wiping dirt from her pant's leg.

She could hear Raph tsking her in his obnoxious way from across the small room. Although, she knew he was right, she should have been able to block his kick that had landed her on the ground.

"You aren't paying attention." He added, a hint of a snicker in his voice.

"Let's go again." She replied dryly, not wanting to give in to his provocation.

They went back to the starting places and took their pose. April held her hands up in position and slid her right foot forward, the sole of her tabi making a soft scrape across the cardboard mat.

"Hajime!" Raphael shouted indicating the match had begun.

April made the first move. Darting towards Raph, she swung a punch towards his left side, which he easily dodged. She spun around, circling her leg through the air in a high kick, but before she could connect, Raphael grabbed her by the ankle, stopping her kick in mid-air and pulling her off-balance. She hit the ground with a thud, a small cloud of dust puffed up around her.

"You gotta stop thinking about Don and actually focus." Raph snarked from above her.

It had been two days since Raph had spilled the beans about Donnie's feelings for her, and according to him, her concentration was shot since that moment.

She couldn't really argue with him, her mind had been replaying their conversation on a never-ending loop. 'Donnie's crazy about you.' being the part that stood out every time.

Sure, she had started to put together that he really did have feelings for her, but to have all doubt pushed aside in one gruff comment from Raph was something she hadn't been prepared for. Whether he had meant to or not, Raphael had essentially put the ball in her court. She could see all the cards and had to decide the next move.

For being the only other person in-the-know, Raphael had been extremely unhelpful. And seemed to see it as purely a weakness and a good reason to crack jokes as he took advantage of her distracted mind. If she didn't know better, she'd guess he was actually angry with her. But which part of it pissed him off, she was unclear.

What she did know, is that at the last couple training sessions, she had pretty much spent the entire time being knocked down by the unhappy green tyrant. For at least the tenth time this session, she found herself lying on the hard ground, Raph above her carrying on with insults.

As far as she was concerned, he hadn't pinned her, which meant the match wasn't over and she felt he deserved a little payback for all of the smack talk he had been dishing out in this morning's session.

Quickly, she pushed up on her forearms for leverage, balancing on one knee at the same time, and swung her free leg out. Her foot found it's target behind his knee and as she had hoped, it was enough to knock him back.

"What the—?" He tried to holler as he fell backwards, but before he could get it all out, she'd grabbed his arm and used it to help pull him down beside her, his shell making a loud thunk as he hit the hard floor. She deftly flipped around and used her upper body, flung across his chest to pin him down.

"Ha! Take that!" She cheered. "And the win goes to O'Neil!"

"Very funny. Get off'a me." Raph squirmed a bit beneath her, and suddenly the image of a turtle trapped on its back with little legs wiggling in the air popped into her mind and it made her chuckle. Her stomach vibrating against the front of his plastron as she laughed.

"I'm serious April, get off!" He shouted louder than he needed to. He grabbed her arm and yanked her off to the side, a little rougher than he had intended. As soon as her little bit of weight was off, he leapt to his feet and took several steps away from her.

April knew that Raph, hell any of the boys, were strong enough to throw her around like a rag doll, but all the time she'd known them, that was the first time any of them had physically moved her in such a manner. She sat up on the filthy cardboard covered floor and watched the turtle stomp away, a light hand rubbing the spot on her arm that he had grabbed.

"Geez Raph." She muttered, loud enough to make sure he heard it.

He stopped walking and turned around, but did not look her in the face.

"Look, I'm sorry…. But that was a joke of a session."

"Wait? What?" April couldn't believe he had the audacity to use his apology as another reason to chide her.

"C'mon, you were sloppy and unfocused."

"I just pinned you!" She shot back.

"After I took you down in two moves. The fight was over as I see it."

"That doesn't give you the right to toss me aside." April stood and glared hard in his direction, though he was still refusing to meet her eyes.

"And I said I was sorry for that! And I'm also sorry for telling you about Don, because it obviously messed with your head." His voice was low and angry.

"What?! How dare you bring him into this! This is just you being an asshole!"

This time Raph's fiery eyes met with hers. "I'll stop being an ass when you get your head back in the game!
That's what I was trying to do with Donnie; help him get over you, so he can focus! We're a team of four April, we always have been, and you've made Don the weakest link."

"What?! That's why you told me about Donnie's feelings? So he'd be a better teammate?! You just wanted me to hurry along and tell him there was no chance? " April sputtered out in anger and confusion.

"April look at us! There IS NO chance! We're freaks of nature! We have to stick together as a family… because that's all we'll ever have." Suddenly his anger trailed off, and April was struck by the sadness in his eyes.

The yelling that had filled the small training room was replaced with just the sound of their heavy breathing, hearts still pumping furiously from both their practice and their shouting match.

It was in fact, quite the opposite of what she had thought just moments earlier. Raph wasn't being selfish, he really was just looking out for his brother. He didn't want to see Donatello get hurt.

At that very moment that April realized something. She didn't want Don to get hurt either. Sure she couldn't promise that they'd be together forever, but she did know that she would do anything within her power to make sure that he wouldn't get hurt. It should make the prospect of them as a couple more terrifying, but for some reason it only made her desire stronger. She knew without a doubt that herself and Donnie already made a great team and that they were better together. Being a couple could only make them stronger.

She closed the short distance between her and Raph and placed a soft hand on his shoulder. He had closed his eyes and didn't look up or even move as she touched him.

"You guys are not freaks. And you don't have to be on your own anymore." She paused to see if he had anything to say to that, but the bullheaded teen stood his ground and hadn't moved an inch. So she took it as a sign to quietly leave the room.

As soon as she was out of ear shot, Raphael let out a big sigh. He knew that part of the anger he had building up inside of him these last few days, was that he knew she was right. But he had been so damn sure that there was no way a human could become part of their team, their family, could actually care for one of them. And as soon as he had found someone who seemed to prove him wrong, she already belonged to someone else.

April took a quick shower and got ready. She felt excited, energized, like she was ready to lay down all her cards. She had no idea what her game plan was, but she knew she wanted a chance to talk to Donnie and clear the air between them. So she headed to where she knew she'd most likely find him.

April poked her head into Donnie's lab, and knocked on the door frame. For some reason she felt nervous, and even though everyone, herself included, typically just wandered in, the knock gave her a split second to stall and try to plan her move.

"I'm back here." Came his distant response before she was ready, but she headed on in.

She found him toward the back of his shop area loading tools into a bag. He paused what he was doing and looked up to flash his gap-toothed grin in her direction. "Hi April."

It was moments like this that make her heart flutter. The way he would give her all his attention as she entered a room, had always made her feel special and now, she found it made her insides warm up in response.

"Whatcha doing?" She asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

"The perimeter alarms are giving me hell again, so I've got to go out and recalibrate the motion sensors." He explained, as he continued placing his tools in the bag.

"Do you need some help?" She asked, jumping at the chance to get some one-on-one time with him. As well as a good excuse to get out of the lair for a while.

"It's a lot of roaming the sewers, they are pretty spread out." He started, obviously afraid that she might not realize what she was signing up for. "Probably not the best way you could be spending your day."

"True, but I'd be hanging out with you, so it can't be all that bad." She replied and he paused his packing again to look up at her to see if she was joking.

Her smile was genuine and it made a glimmer of hope swell up in his chest. Why hadn't he thought of that, it was a good excuse to get her to spend some time with him.

"Well, if you don't mind, some help would make it go faster. Plus, I'd like the company." He tried not to sound flustered, but was unsure of whether he had accomplished it.

"Great! Let me go change into some boots better suited to tromping around in the sewer." She smiled again, and Donnie could swear that there was something different in the way that she spoke to him.

It was something he couldn't quite put his finger on, but the last couple of days he could swear that she was behaving differently. She seemed to be finding new reasons to talk with him, and more than once he swore that he caught her watching him from across a room. He wasn't really sure what it meant, but he sure hoped that it was a sign that she was warming up to him. Maybe this afternoon would present itself with a good chance to tell her how he felt.

"Give me 10 minutes." She stated as she started the leave the room. "And throw some of that stuff in another bag. I can help carry the gear!" She added over her shoulder as she left.

Ok, it wasn't exactly the type of situation that would present a lot of opportunities for pronouncing one's feelings, April thought to herself. But at least she'd get to spend some time with him. She ran into her room to grab her boots. She stopped momentarily in front of her mirror and straightened her bangs and briefly wished she was wearing something cuter. Since when had she cared about what she looked like in front of Donnie? Plus, she couldn't help but be practical, wandering around the sewers was not really a good time to get dressed up. She sighed, grabbing the oversized jacket hanging on her desk chair and ran back out the door.

Just as she had stated, April returned 10 min later, in some rubber boots and a light jacket, well aware that the dank sewers had a chill about them. They each tossed a duffel bag over their shoulder and headed out into the gloomy tunnels.

Donnie gave April the somewhat lighter of his two handmade super-powered flashlights, and lead the way towards the location of the first sensor.

The two walked down the dark, stone lined tunnels, staying to one side to keep out of the stream of rain water and filth that trickled along beside them. There was an unnatural silence between the two, both wanting to say something, yet neither knowing quite where to start. Don was relieved when they approached the first sensor and he could use the repairs as a conversation starter. They both crouched down next to the monitor, April aiming her flashlight at the device, while Donnie walked her through the steps to fix it.

As she held the beam on the small metal box, April found her focus more on that of the man crouched above it. She had always found something about Donatello alluring, but before she had considered anything more, she had written it off as a scientific curiosity. As he had put it himself, he was different, and she was curious. But the more she watched him over these last few days, as she tried to sort out her own feelings of warmth and excitement that seemed to fill her body whenever he neared her, she found that there was nothing scientific about the way she was looking at him. It was purely appreciation.

She had noticed how defined his muscles were, the sharp edge around his shoulders and biceps, the tight curve of his thighs and the way his calf muscles looked to be carved from stone. The light grazed across him and the dip where his neck attached to his shoulder seemed to be peeking out at her from beneath the tails of his mask. She followed the light, glancing back over the edge of his shell and found herself longing to touch the intricate patterns again.

"Can you bring the light back?" Don asked, pulling her out of her brief daydream. Embarrassed, but confident he had been too focused to have noticed her staring, she quickly moved the beam back over to where he worked.

"And once you have the wires capped off, just place the cover back on and verify that the sensor light is still running, and you're done." He finished off, placing the sensor back on its stand and putting his tools away.

"That doesn't seem too terrible." April commented, trying to not slip that she hadn't been paying much attention. They both stood back up, Donnie tossing his bag over his shoulder. "So how many of these things do we have to fix?"

"Well, there's one about every 5-10 feet all the way around the perimeter of the lair, plus a few extra." Was Donnie's cryptic answer as he toed the ground in front of him, half afraid that she'd turn around and run back.

"Well then we best get to work." Was April's only response.

The two continued on their way taking turns doing the repairs. If there happened to be a couple nearby, they'd race to see who could finish the tedious, yet simple adjustments the fastest, giggling as they rushed to get their contraption done first.

It had actually turned out to be an entertaining afternoon. And while the dank sewers of New York may not be the most glorious atmosphere, it was definitely a nice change to the walls of the lair she had been hiding away in the last few weeks.

They had even managed some small talk as they went, Donnie had asked about her training and the latest book he had eyed her reading and she had asked him about his latest adjustments to the Shell Raiser's power source. Nothing had really felt like a good opportunity to diverge into a conversation about feelings, and the matter of what exactly she was going to say was still lost to her.

The time flew by and before they knew it, they were wrapping up the last few. Squatting down next to it, April hummed a quiet tune as she worked on replacing the sensor in the small monitor in front of her. She had insisted that Don go on ahead to work on the other nearby and they'd meet back up at the tunnel entrance to head back to the lair.

They had already finished the monitors that encircled the perimeter and had left the few lining the path that eventually lead to Murakami's Noodle shop. April had to admit, there was a few more than she had been expecting, which was silly when she thought about it, Donnie being cautious should not come as a surprise to her. But she had been more than happy to help him with this task.

Hearing his soft footsteps coming from the tunnel nearby, she shook her head at his ability to somehow complete the exact same task in half the time. She'd thought she was at an advantage with her small fingers, but the tinkering terrapin still managed to beat her out every time.

She turned, mouth open, about to deliver a smart-ass line about how he just couldn't stay-away, but found the dark tunnel abandoned.

Something wasn't right. She was sure she'd heard footsteps a moment earlier. She knelt back on her heels and slowly reached for her tessen which hung by a strap on her jeans pocket.

"This is a pleasant surprise." The piercing words came from directly behind her, but before April could even spin around, she felt a sharp blade push against the side of her neck.

"Karai." April acknowledged the kunoichi beside her, the sound of distaste on her tongue.

"You know," Karai spoke in a belittling tone as she moved around to the front of April, dragging the knife along the edge of her neck as she did. "I was just down here on a hunt for some missing Kraang tech, but imagine how excited I was to find you instead."

"Glad I could make your day." April was using every ounce of will power in her to not wince at the pain of the sharp blade cutting a papercut-like line into the tender flesh at the base of her jaw line.

"I haven't seen you around much." Karai squatted down at eye-level with the freckled teen. She got a sick satisfaction of being able to see into the eyes of her subject as she taunted them. "Been hiding out with those turtle freaks?"

When April didn't answer her, she carried on. "I know the Kraang want you for some unspoken reason, but they technically didn't specify that you had to be delivered in one piece."

"You have a twisted soul Karai." Her voice was like a growl. She was trying her best to sound brave and unaffected by Karai's words, but in reality she was terrified and her heart was pounding away in her chest. She wasn't really sure how far away Donnie was, but knew that he should be finished and headed back her way any moment and tried her best to keep her talking. "You're the freak!"

"How dare you!"

The kunoichi in black armor flicked her wrist to swipe up and slice at April's cheek, but April had been expecting it and swung her elbow up to deflect, smacking Karai's arm to the side as she tilted her head the other way, just barely catching a small glance near her earlobe.

Continuing one fluid motion, April took advantage of her attacker's off-balance and sprung forward from her squatting position, hitting Karai in the chin with her elbow and knocking her onto her back. Quickly, she carried her momentum through the jump, and into a roll, before springing up onto her feet. She silently thanked Raphael for the many times she had to practice getting up after he had her knocked down.

As soon as she was back on her feet, she took off running towards the tunnel entrance where she was supposed to be meeting Donatello. As much as she felt better prepared to fight Karai, she knew she was still no match on her own.

She only made it about three steps, before a shuriken flew past her head. In dodging, she faltered her footing just enough for Karai to grab the end of her jacket and pull her backwards. Luckily, the unzipped jacket was her father's and a few sizes too large, so April was able to slip her arms out of the sleeves, giving her enough balance to deliver a roundhouse kick behind her and catch the surprised Karai in the side.

"Nice moves. You've been training." Karai spoke in a tone that was eerily calm for the atmosphere.

April spun around and flicked out her tessen. "Just in case I don't have any stairs to toss you down." She smirked.

Karai's stoney façade broke into a face of anger and hatred. She unsheathed the sword on her back and swung at April while letting loose a furious scream. April managed to barely dodge the first swing and blocked the next with her fan, the sound of the metal objects clinging and scraping against one another.

"You know, with the right training, you could be a great soldier." Karai swings as she taunts and again, April barely manages to use her fan to deflect the blade away from her. April has a worrisome feeling that Karai was just getting warmed up. " Why do you choose to hang around those filthy animals?"

"How dare you talk about them like that!" April shouted. Never let your opponent know your weakness, rang through her head as soon as the words left her mouth, but she couldn't help herself. "They're honorable heroes, and you're nothing more than a thug."

Karai clipped April's wrist, knocking the tessen out of her hand and it skidded across the dark tunnel floor, out of view. Karai flipped her sword around and used the blunt end to knock April to the ground, standing over her, she used the sword to pin down her shoulders, the blade just under her chin. Leaning down as April struggled to get loose, she whispered, "And where are your heroes now?"

"Right here!"

The sound of Donatello's voice caused a great wave of relief to wash over April. And a split second later she watched him use his bo to launch himself feet first at Karai, knocking her backwards off of April.

Karai let out an "umph" as the back of her head collided with the scum covered tunnel wall, but was instantly back on her feet, her sword having been knocked off to the side.

April sat up to see Donatello land and bolt straight for Karai.

"Stay away from her!" He shouted, as he flung his bo back behind him, the blade ejecting from the end. He spun it around and swung at Karai The unarmed woman had little choice, but to evade, and as she flipped to the side, the sound of Don's blade scraping along the armor of her chest plate could be heard reverberating off the stone walls.

She flipped in a cartwheel, grabbing her fallen sword and repositioned herself for the turtle's next blow.

Don spun his bow around his body, moving it from hand to hand, with such speed that it looked like a blur of brown. Karai had to duck and move to avoid the blade and just raised her sword in time to stop the blow Don brought down at her face.

His strength was much greater than her own, but she managed to use her sword to hold back his weapon as she looked up into the taller one's eyes. "Aww, looks like someone has feelings for the girl." She sing-songed in a mocking tone.

Don's eyes went wide, had April heard her say that? The momentary distraction was all Karai needed to kick at Don's chest and knock him back enough for her to dodge to the side. Unfortunately, her eyes had been on the tall turtle and she hadn't noticed April retrieve her fan and the sound of it whirring through the air was all the warning she had to attempt to dodge as the sharp blade skimmed past her ear, ripping out a high-placed earring in the process.

Karai's hand went to the bleeding appendage out of reflex. "Bitch!" She yelled out in anger.

April caught the flying fan as it came back around and stood her ground next to Donnie. Both armed and posed, ready to fight.

"You two lovebirds think you can take me out alone?" She sneered in their direction as she raised her blade.

"They're not alone." Came another voice, causing Karai to turn and see the other three turtles appear from the shadows along the end of the tunnel.

"We don't have to be enemies, Karai." Leonardo spoke with authority, gaining a few unpleasant looks from his brothers around him.

"Not so sure your troops agree with you, Blue." She nodded in Raph's direction who had his sai out and ready to pounce any second. "Besides, you brought this feud upon yourself when you betrayed me."

"We shouldn't have turned back on our deal." Leonardo spoke out again, still feeling guilty for that day on the docks when they had tried to get the upper hand on Shredder. "But the Kraang are bad news, join us and we can team up against them!"

"Ha!" Karai's laughter was bitter and dripping with resentment. "Any shred of trust you had from me is gone." She paused and changed her tone to a cavalier note. "It's nothing personal. The Kraang have things Shredder wants, and in return, they want the girl, so I'm on orders to bring her in."

As she spoke, she moved her blade to point in the direction of the redhead. April didn't falter from her stance for a second, but Donnie moved over to reposition himself closer to her, with his staff crossing over in front of her like a barrier.

"April's one of us!" Mikey shouted back at Karai as he too moved in closer to April's position.

"If you go after her, it's very personal." Raph added on, flanking her other side.

"She seems a little normal looking for your freak show. How long do you think before she wises up to that?" Karai sneered, but at the same time, inching away from the group.

"This is over Karai. Leave." Leonardo ignored the kunoichi's taunts and flipped over, landing right in front of Donnie and April, his sword drawn towards Karai.

"I don't have time for these games anyways." Karai spat out. "Until next time April!"

She tossed down a smoke bomb, enveloping herself in a purple mask of fog and when it dissipated she was gone.

A solid minute went by before the tension in the group decreased. All four turtles stood guard around April, silently searching the dark corners for any other signs of a threat.

"Where are the blacks drones with the footprints on their heads?" Raph remarked, noticing the lack of her usual Foot Clan groupies.

"She seemed to be alone." April replied, her fan still drawn and ready. "Said she was down here looking for Kraang tech."

"That's odd." Donatello commented, though his mind was focused purely on April's safety.

Leonardo moved further down the direction to where Karai had been moments earlier. He seemed to sniff the air as he searched the area.

"We're clear." He stated before sheathing his swords.

Mikey and Raph followed suit, holstering their weapons. But Donatello seemed reluctant to do so.

"Are you alright?" He turned to ask April, eying the small trickle of blood from the hairline slice on her neck. He gently reached out to push her loose strands of hair back and looked into her nervous blue gaze.

As she gazed back into his warm brown eyes, so full of concern and love, she was overwhelmed with emotion. She reached up and placed her hand over his, still tenderly cupping her cheek. Without a sound actually leaving her lips, she nodded and mouthed, "I'm OK."

"Looks like she fared better than Karai did!" Mikey exclaimed, startling the two and breaking their moment. "Did you see April nick her ear? That was so awesome!"

Raph turned and smiled at April as a proud teacher would their star student.

"I got in a couple lucky shots, but it's a good thing you all showed up, the odds were not in my favor." She turned to Donnie. "I was glad you got here when you did."

"Luckily, Karai likes to jabber, I overheard the fighting echoing down the tunnel and hit the panic button on the T-phone as I raced over." He explained.

"Let's move out." Leonardo interrupted the conversation. "We'll split up into two groups and take alternate routes to be safe. Mikey you're with me, we'll stick above ground. Raph stay with April and Don and stick to the tunnels."

"Be safe." Leo stated to the three, before gesturing to Mikey to follow him and they took off for a nearby manhole to street level.

"C'mon, let's go this way." Raph pointed towards an unused tunnel off to the side.

"Just a minute," April caught him with a light hand on his elbow. "I just need to finish this last sensor. Don, did you get yours done?"

The taller turtle nodded. "It's ok, we should go. I can come back for it later."

"It will only take a minute, I was almost done." April waved off the worry in Don's eyes and went over to crouch down next to the sensor she had been working on, and collected her scattered tools on the ground.

"You wouldn't even know she'd just been attacked." Don shook his head in amazement at her cool demeanor, still feeling a little frazzled himself. That had been too close to comfort.

"She's no weakling Donnie." Raph punched his brother's arm and walked past him to pick up April's discarded jacket. He tried his best to shake the sludge off of it before tossing it over to Don, who tucked it into his forgotten bag he had dropped to the side upon arriving at the scene.

"Hey would you look at this."

Don tried to peer over to see what Raph was talking about, but this area was dark and the extra dust kicked up in the tussle made it even harder to see more than a few feet. He glanced back over at April who seemed to be done with her sensor and was packing up her supplies.

Don slung his bag across his body and offered April a hand up. "All done?"

"Yup. All done." April zipped her bag and smiled up at the kind brown eyes looking down at her. Today had felt like a constant sign from above that she was meant to be at this man's side. They were both better together. She reached up and placed her small hand in his large palm and he pulled her up to her feet. He started to pull away, but was surprised when instead, she tightened her grip, holding his hand.

He glanced down at their joined hands, her tiny fingers barely managing to wrap around one of his over-sized digits, but somehow it felt like she fit perfectly. He caught her look again and she was still flashing that bright smile of hers.

It felt like he stood there staring into her eyes for hours when he heard Raph make a throat clearing sound to get their attention. "C'mon lovebirds, let's go." He said in a voice more gruff than usual.

The pair instantly flushed and separated, feeling as if they had been caught doing something way more incriminating than simply holding hands.

"I'm going to take us down the old C-line route that goes to the East. We gotta make absolutely sure we aren't being followed."

Don nodded in agreement, but April being unfamiliar with the many abandoned paths just merely watched the exchange between the two.

"It's the long way around and the path gets pretty rough in spots, do you mind riding on my shell?" Don turned to ask her. "I'd carry you, but I'll need my hands free."

"Whatever is best." April wasn't really looking forward to the ride, but knew that Don wouldn't mention it, if he didn't think it was necessary.

Donnie positioned his bag across his body, moving it to the back, and Raph effortlessly lifted April up to grab the top of Donnie's shell, the duffel bag riding just beneath her to help from slipping too low.

Feeling her delicate fingertips dance along the inner side of his shell sent little chills down his spine.

"Is this ok?" April asked, her warm breath on the edge of his neck. He was in heaven.

"It's great." His voice came out a little more high-pitched than normal.

"Alright, let's get the hell outta here." Raph muttered and they all took off into the darkness.

A/N - Ok, seriously, I know this is WAY overdue. I apologize and thank you for hopefully sticking around. I have about 3 (possibly more) chapters planned out for this, but it is wrapping up here soon. Updates should be better now that the holidays (and epic household sicknesses) are over. SIGH.

I can't wait to hear what you guys think! Did you like the encounter with Karai? What about the moments with Raph? Hopefully he didn't seem OOC... eep! I'd love a review! Have a great one!