It was down-pouring as Emily sat crouched on the low wall of a roof top. Her black hair, recently cut short to the bottom of her chin, was drenched and hanging down in her face. Her black leather jacket, a hand-me-down from Casey, felt like it weighed ten pounds instead of one and half. Her skinny jeans had started dark blue when she left the lair but now were black; black as the rest of everything she wore. Her blue eyes were shadowed by a green bandana tied around her face. She looked like a Marvel knock off of the opening scene of every single Underworld movie.

She sat perfectly still, watching a back door illuminated under the halo of a security light in the dark of the late summer storm.

A quick burst of static in her ear preceded the voice of Don, who was hidden away in Casey's van a few blocks away. "Raph's position just cleared out. He's coming to you. Go ahead and come back to the car. I know you're cold and wet."

"Uh-uh." She whispered after pressing the response button on her ear-piece. "I'm out here as long as you guys are out here. I'm one of…" she cut off as she heard a light thud behind her on the roof top. Out of the shadows came a saturated Raph, walking silently to her side as the rain bounced off his smooth green skin. "I'm one of you guys, remember. If you're out in the rain, I'll be in the rain."

Raph came up behind her, his arms snaking around her waist and his lips finding the sensitive spot at the underside of her jaw, a small growl coming out as he claimed his rightful territory.

Don came back on the ear-piece. "You okay, kiddo? Usually your witty responses come out a little smoother than that."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." She whispered breathily, pushing Raph, whose hands had begun to explore, away from her. "Raph just got here and he startled me a little."

Raph gave a throaty chuckle as his hands returned to her body.

"Alright. I'll give you a heads up when we're giving up for tonight."

"Hon, we're turtles. We're designed to be in the water." The silence was resounding for a brief second before Raph took advantage of her tired muscles. Picking her up, he had her in his arms against his body before she had a chance to react. His lips were hot against hers and his hands clutched her close as she responded in kind. She had been going topside with them for almost a month. She had been sleeping with Raphael for almost a month. But no one except for Mikey, who had terrified himself into secrecy, knew. Raph's insatiable appetite, however, was making it hard to conceal it.

Raph got as far as grabbing the button on her jeans before she whispered for him to stop. He did so begrudgingly, still holding her against his body so she got the sense of how disappointed he was. "Come on, babe. No one's out here." He whispered huskily into her ear.

"The rain is out here." She smirked before cuddling up against Raph's chest. "I promise I'll make it up to you when we get home.

The hum of satisfaction reverberated in Raph's throat as he allowed Emily to disentangle himself from him and go back to the ledge. He came to sit beside her, his fingers gently touching her hand and running through her soaked hair. Another hour passed before Don's voice came back through the ear-pieces. "Alright, guys. The sun's almost up. Let's head home."

Emily's stiff muscles begrudgingly moves as she climbed off the ledge, taking Raph's outstretched hand before following his lead to the fire escape. They climbed quickly and silently, Raph dropping to the pavement first ad holding out his arms to catch Emily. An unneeded gesture, but one of the chivalrous actions he kept up when they were alone. She slid off the last platform, bracing to catch herself of his should; but that never came. Her feet hit the pavement with a loud thud and her legs were unable to withstand the shock, giving out beneath her and sending her to the ground at an alarming pace. Her outstretched arm narrowly saved her head from impact. Just before she began to complain, she heard the footsteps rushing out of the shadows.

Quickly getting to her feet, she readied her fists and feet to defend herself and Raph. It was a small Foot soldier, not much taller than her, who ran at her with abandon. He was stopped short after impact with a well placed side-kick to his gut. Raph was not as fortunate as he was barraged by two older, well trained Foot ninjas. Emily came up behind him with one of her knives drawn in a defensive position and waited for them to see her. Within moments it was now a one on one fight; much more fare for Emily and Raph, who put the men on the ground in a matter of minutes.

Raph's hurried steps took him to her side within moments, one hand finding the small of her back to pull her close while the other rested on the side of her face. "Are you okay, Em?"

She nodded, intertwining her fingers with his. "My ankle hurts from the fall, but I'm okay."

Raph nodded back, holding her hand tightly in his and walking to the manhole, pressing his ear piece as he did. "They saw us. We got ambushed. Three guys, they're all out now."

"Get here safe, you two."

The walk was longer than usual because the more Emily walked, the more her ankle hurt. Raph had to support most of her weight on her left side by the time they got the lair. Don attacked them first, taking Emily off of Raph and into his custody, leading her straight to his lab. Leo took his place, slowly approaching his second in command. "Did they hurt her?"

Raph shook his head, dislodging water droplets onto the floor. "It was the fall off the fire escape. She got distracted by the Foot and landed hard, then ran one of the younger ones onto her side-kick." His eyes lingered on the hallway Don and Emily had walked down.

"Do you think they knew who she was?"Leo asked, the concern for Emily he carried weighing his voice down to somber notes.

Again he shook his head and abruptly walked to the lab, not being able to stand the distance between himself and his lover. Emily lay cringing on the cot, her pants rolled up to her knee, and Don was rubbing and poking various breakable locations of her ankle and foot. Her exposed leg, even after living underground for months, still maintained the slight golden color she had when she met the brothers.

Don's fingers found the tender spot as Emily sucked in a hiss through her clenched teeth and curled her slender hands into fists. It was difficult for Raph to see her in pain, and it took almost all of his self restraint not to reach out to her, to touch her, or to comfort her. He was slightly ashamed of the softness Emily had evoked from him, but he deemed it worth it.

Within an hour, Don had Emily's ankle wrapped with two solid supports to keep her ankle stable and April had returned with old crutches she had used after a broken leg. Since the two women were almost the same height, Don needed to do very little adjusting to fit them to Emily.

Her attempts at hobbling around with an almost fractured ankle were not as simple. After only an hour of walking around, Raph hovering inches beside her in case of a fall, her shoulders were sore, her intact ankle was sore, and she was dreading climbing up the stairs to go to bed.

After dinner and the brothers had had their beers, Raph saw Emily struggling up the metal stairs. Without concern for what the others saw or what they thought, he caught up to her and took her up in his arms, cradling her head against his chest, and draping the crutches over one wrist. "Ya should have asked for help." He whispered into her ear, feeling the eyes of his brothers boring into his back as he walked into her room, kicking the door shut behind him.

Kisses descended upon her gently and softly as he asked all the questions he had been dying to. Asking if she was alright, if she was in pain, and what he could do to help. All Emily could do was shake her head and nod and hold his hands still from touching her face constantly. She finally convinced him to allow her to sleep after nearly an hour of reassuring him.

The brothers and Splinter slept through the night peacefully, though Raph found his bed cold and lonely without Emily by his side. A little after two in the morning, Emily was woken from her sleep by the creaking of her door. Thinking it was Raph, she rolled towards the door with a stretch and a smile. But it was not Raph.

Her arms were clamped above her head and a gag was tied over her mouth. A pair of shadowy figures grabbed her by the arms and legs and pulled her out of the bed, kicking and trying to scream. The three men slipped out of the lair as quickly and quietly as they had come in, dragging Emily with them. As they reached the door to the sewers, Emily managed to loosen the gag.

"Raph!" she screamed as loud as she could before she was grabbed roughly by the throat and the gag returned.

Raph shot up in his bed, his hands reaching for Emily only to remember she had not gone to bed with him that night. He reached instead for his sai and ran to Emily's room. Empty. The blankets were thrown the floor and the contents of her bed side table strewn across the floor. "Emily!" he shouted, running down the stairs in frenzy, his brothers following. The door to the lair had been taken off its hinges and the water in the sewer was still rippling. Without second thought, Raph took off running down the sewer, trying to catch up to the people that had taken Emily away from him.

He found the open manhole and shot up the ladder just as a black town car peeled away. Raph sank to his knees on the pavement, his fists pounding on the ground, hot tears rolling down his eyes. He had sworn to himself to protect her months ago. From anything that could hurt her. But she had been taken from their home, from him.

And he could do nothing.