Milo sat opposite her at their favorite restaurant, patiently waiting for her to start talking. His brown hair managed to look tastefully windswept despite the lack of air moving inside or outside of the small Italian café, his clothes the picture of ordered chaos while his eyes watched her calmly, shining more green than blue under the warm lights of the flame lantern above them. His espresso was steaming in front of him and his ciabatta sandwich was poised in his long thin fingers a few inches off the hand-painted plate. He looked like he had frozen for one of his own paintings, a relaxed scene between two friends, maybe siblings, maybe lovers; any insinuation he could make by the simple colors he chose to paint his canvas with.
Except if he wanted to make it relaxed, he would have had to completely repaint Kait from imagination. Her legs twitched and bounced, her high heeled pumps tapping ever so quietly on the hardwood floor. Her eyes refused to meet his, darting all over the area around them, not hovering on any one object for more than one sentence. Her right hand quickly, haltingly, nervously curled a few loose strands of her hair around her fingers, undoing the careful curls she had seared into them that morning, while her left hand stirred her soup with the decorative spoon.
"Kait," Milo murmured gently, his voice as soothing as ever. "We came here so you could talk to me about what happened. Was it that bad that you don't even wanna talk to me about it?"
Kait quickly shook her head, dissuading him from his worst thoughts. "I just don't know how to put it into words. I have people that trust me to keep things under wraps."
"People who trust you to keep things under wraps?" Milo chuckled, but she knew he was half serious. "I know your great, great grandfather was mafia, but I thought your family got out of that after him." His eyes sparkled a little, coaxing her to open up with his unwavering charm.
"No, Milo." Kait couldn't help but giggle. "There's a few people out there that are acting kind of like vigilantes. Like that Nightwatcher fellow that came around a few years ago. But they're a group, organized. Most of them are actually a family. They…"
"But how exactly did you fall in with them?" Milo asked quietly, solemnly, darkly.
For an instant, Kait was reminded of Raph's steely gaze after she had asked about Emily. That same glare was on his face for the entire rest of the night as neither spoke to the other. "Because they saved me from a small group of organized crime members. I was painting on my roof like I always do and on come these horrible men and they use me as a shield almost against the others, the good guys." Kait pulled down the collar of her turtle necked blouse. "They did this to me, and one of the brothers patched it up."
Milo only shook his head. "I trust you, Kait, but this sounds crazy. I just want you to be safe, and this does not sound safe."
"But one of them watches me at night." Kait pleaded, seeking in some respects his approval. "One of them stayed out on the roof with me last night and another will come tonight, until they feel like I'm safe." Kait's eyes finally locked with his, finally convinced that something good could come from this conversation, Milo's unwitting acceptance of the brothers.
With a sigh, he finally bit into his sandwich, losing a tomato to gravity. After he had chewed for a few seconds, he looked back up at Kait's puppy dog pout. "This sounds as crazy as the giant turtles in the hospital last month." He jumbled through his sandwich.
"What?" Kait forced her voice to stay light, unaffected. Milo had a habit of reading the bogus newspapers for giggles, which was surely where he heard the story. But she knew that it might not have been all sci-fi dreamings of a bored journalist.
"Yeah." He finally swallowed the bite. "Last month a janitor swears he saw some giant turtle-human things at Bellevue a little after midnight, coming out of some woman's room."
"Do you remember the name?" Kait asked mildly. She knew her question wouldn't raise suspicions. She often played along with Milo's science fiction whims.
He nodded as he chewed his second large bite of the sandwich, a bit of dressing joining the tomato on the plate. "Fred-something-or-other."
"That's not much of a name, Milo." Kait smiled, watching him scarf down another bite as she sipped on her soup.
Thankfully, their conversation turned away from the brothers, and towards more benign topics like Milo's dog and Kait's cat, unlikely friends, who seemed to be missing each other. It had been almost a month since they had had a play date. The twelve pound cat was fond of curling up on the couch with Gracie, Milo's giant Great Dane, weighing in at over one hundred and fifty pounds. True to her breed, Cujo was affectionate to an extreme, bestowing it upon the sleek hair dog in the form of naps, cat baths, and massaging her ribs while she walked along her side.
Soon enough, the food had been finished and the bill had been paid, meaning it was time to return to the gallery. While Milo was sad that he had to leave the alone-time with his friend, Kait was excited. On her desk was a laptop, with internet, with access to the oracle known as Google.
Milo had given her part of a last name, and she could pair it with a first name.
Emily Fred Kait typed into the search bar before she hit enter.
The first result was a Wikipedia page for Emily Maria Fredricks, a kick-boxer born and raised in New York City, Manhattan specifically.
As she skimmed the article, certain things jumped out at her.
Mother, dead. Father, never mentioned. No siblings. No relationships.
Undefeated. Unstoppable. Fierce. Strong. Loyal.
Then she saw the picture at the bottom of the page, taken after her last fight. Her pencil straight black-brown hair hit the tops of her shoulders. Her skin was a slightly tan, marred by errant scars a few freckles. Her eyes, however, were a bright blue. Fierce, yet calm. Sharp, yet kind. Highly inquisitive.
April's comment suddenly made sense. Several friends of Kait had said the same of her own hazel eyes. April's comment about their similarity hadn't been anything in personality or appearance. It had been the emotion in their eyes. Ignoring the color difference, they were a mirror of each other.
Right there and then, Kait knew this was her. This was the Emily. Raph's Emily.
The article she had pulled up had a link to a news report. New York Kick-Boxer Caught in City Violence. Emily was in the hospital, Bellevue, after being shot in the chest. After a few weeks, she apparently recovered because she was checked out and returned home. But she released a statement to the press that because of the injury, she would not be able to continue professionally fighting. The article had been written a week after this statement was released, and apparently she hadn't been seen in public since her admittance to the hospital, despite several attempts at being located by the police or the press to ask about the injury. The journalist when on to insinuate that it could be related to a 1990s era organized crime group, a gang based around Japanese culture and fighting skills, notorious for gaining recruits from the younger end of the population, the Foot. Emily's close friend, Austin Park, had been allegedly killed by the Foot after beating one of their legitimate fighters. Emily had also beaten one of their fighters a few years later, just shy of seven months before the shooting, and just shy of 9 months ago.
Kait closed the laptop with a deep breath. She doubted that Emily had been fine after a few weeks, fine enough to check out. She had probably been taken out of the hospital to be protected, most likely by the same people protecting her. It was also safe for her to assume that Emily had been involved with one of her protectors, one of Kait's protectors. And judging by everyone's reaction, especially Raph's, it was him.
As she stared off into the sky beyond the windows, she thought of the implications of that revelation. A human woman, like her, was involved with one of them, one of the brothers. She did respect them, see them as living beings that deserved kindness and compassion, but to be romantically involved with one of them…it didn't made sense to her.
"Earth to Kaitlynn." Milo murmured from directly behind her.
The skip in Kait's heart took a moment to recover from before she could speak. "Yeah, sorry, Milo. Just tired. Was up late painting last night. Didn't get much sleep."
Milo nodded, wrapping his scarf around his neck before holding out Kait's coat. "Well, time to close up shop." He murmured quietly. "Be safe till I've got you back in my line of sight. Deal?"
"Deal." She smiled, giving him a friendly peck on the cheek before walking out with him to hail two cabs.
She continued her nightly ritual as usual, opting for Chinese delivery instead of pizza. Cujo was feeling lazy that night and curled up on the bed after she had scarfed down her dinner. As Kait looked out the window, she saw the storm clouds rolling in. Checking the clock, she knew the brother sent to watch her that night, which she knew was not going to Raph, wasn't there yet. She couldn't paint tonight because of the storm, so she decided to stay in for the night, and invite the brother in with her.
She took a quick, hot shower, dressing in lounge pants and a fleece hoodie, her feet in dark slippers. Her hair was pulled up in a messy bun and her face was bare of makeup. Just as five o' clock rolled around, the skies opened up, dropping a downpour onto her roof.
Quickly, she opened the large window, standing under the eaves. "I know you're out there. You can come in. I'm not gonna paint today." Patiently, she looked out into the dark rain, waiting. Sure enough, a shape swung down from the roof above her. Despite expecting it, she was startled a bit.
Out of the shadows walked Don, his skin covered in water as he shivered slightly. "Thanks for saying I could come in. I may be a turtle, but that doesn't mean I like being out in the rain. Especially this time of the year. It's too cold." His smile was kind and genuine as he followed her in through the picture window.
Just as Kait closed the window latch, the door bell rang. The look on Don's face was priceless as he looked for someplace to hide.
"It's dinner. Relax. Stay here." Kait held out her thin hand before grabbing the money off her counter and going to the door. Exchanging the money for the food, she returned to main room of her apartment, dropping the bag onto her counter. She looked at Don, standing awkwardly on her rug, dripping and shivering. "You're soaked. Let me get you a towel and I'll make you some coffee to warm up." As she walked into the bathroom, she had a second thought. Hesitantly, she stuck her head back out the door. "For one, do you like Chinese, two, do you like coffee?"
Don nodded, gently rubbing his biceps as he tried to warm himself up. Being coldblooded, he needed to find a source of heat to make up for his drop in body temperature. He watched Kait walk quickly back out of the bathroom carrying a large, plush towel. He gratefully accepted it and wrapped it around him. He continued to watch her as she started up a single serve coffee machine.
"Help yourself to the food." Kait called over her shoulder, trying to fish a mug out of the top shelf.
Quietly, Don came up behind her and reached it for her, gently setting it on the counter in front of her. Kait, startled for the second time, turned around to look at him. He was close to her now, a few inches away, and she finally noticed their height difference, a good ten inches or so, and the details in his face. He did look similar to Raph, who was supposedly his brother, but they also had a few differences. Don had a lighter skin down and what looked like freckles. His eyes were also a darker brown with less defined ridges above them.
"Thanks." She murmured, putting it under the machine and letting it start. Don nodded and opened the bag, pulling out the boxes of Chinese food.
"You know, as a Japanese-American, I should be offended that you assumed I would like Chinese food, but somehow, with this food staring me in the face, I don't mind." His chocolate eyes devoured the rice, noodles, vegetables, and meats in the white boxes as he grabbed a set of chopsticks.
Kait grabbed her share; Don thankfully left her a few of her favorite dishes, and sat down on her couch, motioning to the seat next to her and to the armchair by the lit fireplace, the chair that Don gratefully took. The warmth from the fire would be like a retile sunning itself below a heat lamp, allowing don to warm back up.
After several minutes of comfortable silence, the food was gone and Kait had refilled their coffee cups a few times. Looking over at Don, she suddenly remembered her revelation about Emily and Raph. "Hey, Don, can I ask you a question?"
He nodded, looking over at her as she was curled up on the couch, her legs tucked underneath her.
"Do you have a girlfriend, like Raph?" she asked as conversationally as she could.
The shock was evident on his face, as Kait was able to read a few emotions on his face already. "How did you know about Emily?" he asked curiously, watching her as intently as she was watching him.
"She's dating your brother, right?" Kait pushed gently.
Don shrugged a little, settling in the plush cushions. "If you want to get technical, they're engaged."
"Engaged?!" She couldn't contain the gasp and the widened eyes.
He nodded. "Raph proposed just before the incident, which I assume you know about as well." A nod from Kait. "I'm going to assume you pieced this together from that one tabloid story." Another nod. "Well, no, I don't have a girlfriend. Or a fiancé, for that matter. Raph is the only one of us that has managed to integrate that well. Then again, the only other women that have stumbled into our lives have been April, now engaged to our very much human friend Casey, and you. Not much of a chance for the other three of us to kindle romances." He gave her a week smile.
"So, I don't think she got better in two weeks after getting shot in the chest."
"No, she's been in a coma for the past two months. We moved her from the hospital to our new home."
Kait suddenly understood Raph's aggression and protectiveness over Emily. He had proposed to her two months ago, the night before she was shot, and she hasn't woken up since.
Their conversation continued to Don's medical and scientific skills, the skills of the other brothers, and their past run ins with the Foot, the ones responsible for the attack on Emily as well as Kait, as he revealed. After hours of talking, Don saw Kait's eyelids growing heavy and checked the clock. It was late, and he knew she had work the next morning.
"Kait, you should get some sleep." He told her gently, taking the mug form her hands and putting it in the sink with his.
She defiantly shook her head, clinging to the threads of daily consciousness.
With a chuckle, he turned off the lights in the kitchen alcove of her apartment. "Kait." His voice was just a murmuring rumble. "Kait, come on. Go get some sleep."
"But it's still raining outside." Kait's voice was just a jumble of syllables as she stretched on the couch, her head coming to rest on the arm.
He chuckled a little, squatting down in front of her. "I'll make you a deal. You go to bed and I'll stay until the rain stops."
"Deal." Kait sighed as she let her eyes close right there on the couch, not caring that a giant turtle-man was sitting right in front of her, watching her sleep.
AN: I'm back!
I feel so successful, putting up chapters so fast…. I can't guarantee it'll stay like this, though. Busy life and all that jazz.
Well, I'm doing my best to tie the two stories together. And now you know what happened, mostly.
As always, reviews and suggestions appreciated.
Sincerely,
C M