Kait found herself unwilling to leave the brothers' home, staying to help Don with his online service job and then staying to watch a movie with the boys. They had a weakness for old action movies, and Kait knew she had a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie on her phone, which Don nimbly connected to the television so they could all watch it, crowded on the two old couches and love seat. Kat managed to squeeze between Don and Mikey's feet—the youngest of the brothers having spread his body across the loveseat and one of the couches—as the seven young adults settled down to watch the movie. A few minutes into it, Kait began to realize she was still in her business clothes as it neared seven o' clock at night. She silently kicked off her heels and began to covertly as possible pull the bobby pins out of her hair, letting tight curls fall around her shoulders.

Just like the drawing, her actions caught Don's attention, who quickly and gently gripped Kait's arms, turning her so her back was facing his plastron. His fingers began to nimbly aid her in pulling out the difficult little clips. "I hope you don't mind." He whispered to her, his breath tickling her ear.

She shook her head as she turned back and settled in to watch the movie.

She didn't know which of them had moved, but she became electrically aware of the side of her arm gently pressing against the side of Don's arm. The coolness of his skin radiated through her thin sweater and goose bumped her skin. She refused to look at Don and Don, equally as affected by their contact, refused to look down at her.

Butterflies began to flutter in Kait's chest as Don shifted his weight, pressing even closer to her. The electricity began to pulse from her arm into her chest as she tried to sit perfectly still, but found herself relaxing against his arm.

Her eyelids began to flutter an hour into the movie, and her head began to droop and loll, finding the top of Don's shoulder comfortable when her head dropped to that side. Don didn't move and at that point, she didn't care if he moved. It seemed like an instant later someone was gently shaking her shoulder.

"Kait," Don's already recognizable voice whispered into her ear. "Dinner's here. Time to wake up."

Kait grumbled and rolled the other direction, finding the other side of the couch empty. The arm of the couch became her new pillow as she tried to ignore Don. Sleep seemed more inviting than food. That was until strong arms picked her up and hefted her off the couch, throwing them over the owner of the arms' shoulder. Kait's eyes flew open as she was bounced towards the kitchen atop Don's shoulder, her legs over his front and her torso against his shell.

"Put me down!"Kait shrieked, flailing in his arms. She only succeeded in shifting herself off of his shoulder and into his arms. "Don!" she screeched, continuing to struggle, despite the obvious fact that her efforts were futile.

By the time Don had deposited her in a kitchen chair, everyone was bawling in laughter, even Raph. With a petulant pout, Kait consented to be handed a paper plate with a slice of pizza on it. Despite the smile that was plastered on her face while she watched Mikey and Casey almost inhale their pizza; she forced it away into a glaring scowl whenever Don looked ever at her.

In her mind, the turtles were beginning transform into men, into a family. She saw the dynamics, she could feel the dynamics. And she liked it. These were people she would like spending time with. She just now had to face the dichotomy in her mind. She understood them as men, as people, but her eyes betrayed their truth. At this point, at least, she couldn't reconcile them with each other.

It was eight o'clock when Don waved the white flag of peace. "Have you forgave me enough to let me walk you home and keep an eye on you tonight?" he asked quietly, one of this three fingered hands coming to rest on her shoulder.

Kait leaned back in the chair to look up at him, a small smile on her face. "I will consent to that. Don't know if I'll paint tonight, through. The weather report said it would be too cloudy. You're welcome to keep me company though." She stood from her chair and began searching for her shoes. Don even offered her his arm for support as she slipped into the stilettos.

Scarcely were they back in the sewers when Kait's errant thoughts took control of her mouth. "How old are you?" she blurted out before turning scarlet red in her cheeks. "It's just," she tried to cover. "Emily looks so much younger than me, so I thought it was safe to assume that Raph and the rest of you were close to her age. And I started feeling like an old cow." She managed to shut herself up before she spilt anything else.

Don laughed a little, looking over at her out of the corner of his eye. "We turned twenty-seven last month. I'm the one that's starting to feel like an old cow. Things are getting sore that never used to get sore. Still think you're older than us?" he asked good naturedly, glancing over at her.

Kait pretended offense. "Don't you know you shouldn't ask a woman her age?" she quipped lightly, loosening up and opening up around Don.

He only shrugged, looking at her more closely. "Obviously less than thirty. But more than twenty-one."

"How do you know I'm over twenty-one?" she laughed. She knew it was rather obvious, but she wanted to hear his rationale.

"Well, you had wine in your kitchen last night and you have a diploma from graduate school. Both of those make it quite obvious your between the ages of twenty-four and twenty-nine." He looked at her reaction.

"For the record, I graduated with my masters at twenty-three." She smiled up at him. "Same year Greg went into the army." She murmured quietly, playing with the strap of her bag.

"Greg?" don asked politely.

"It's nothing." She murmured quietly. "For the record, I'm about two months younger than you." She told him cheerily.

"Your birthday is this month?" Don asked conversationally, understanding her discomfort on the subject of this Greg.

She nodded a bit. "Halloween."

He nodded in return, making a mental note to himself. By this point, they had reached the ladder closest to her apartment. "Do you want me to watch you tonight?" he asked, almost hoping she would say yes.

But Kait turned him down. "I'm not gonna work tonight. I need to catch up on some sleep. I'm thinking hot shower, pasta, and a long date with my pillow. Will you come watch me tomorrow night?" She hoped he would say yes.

"Of course. You got the note about our phone number, right?" it was actually the number to his personal cell phone, rather than the rewired payphone in the living room.

She nodded, before reaching out and gently touching his smooth arm. "I'll see you tomorrow."

At that, the two separated and she climbed up the ladder, ending up on the back side of her apartment building. It was a quick walk up the stairs into her apartment. A few moments after she had set her bag onto the counter, there was a hesitant knock on her door. She walked quickly up to her door and looked through the peephole. All she could see was a light blue fitted t-shirt close to the hole. Trustingly, she opened the door a little to see who it was.

"Greg?" Her voice squeaked a little as she opened the door a little farther.

His blue eyes looked down at her with a sad little quirk. "Milo told me you moved in hear since we last spoke." His voice was a deep rumbling murmur. "I was in town and I decided to stop by to see you."

"You talked to Milo?" Kait was becoming increasingly more anxious as she stood in her doorway with Greg on the other side.

He nodded a little. "He was cordial as ever." There was a tinge in his voice that Kait had learned over the years to mean he was in pain, not physical, but emotional.

"Come on in, Greg. I was just about to cook dinner." Kait stepped aside, allowing the muscled man to move past her, lumbering in with a slight limp in his right leg. "I can make enough for two." She was instantly glad she hadn't invited Don to stay. Neither Don nor Greg was ready to meet each other yet. Kait wasn't even sure if she was in a mood to deal with Greg. They had never had the best of relationships. Then again, that was expected of the prodigal daughter and the illegitimate son.

Kait's half-brother dropped himself gingerly onto her couch. "Don't worry about it, Kaity." He sighed.

"You know, you're the only one that still calls me that." Kait sighed, filling a pot with water to start the pasta. "I've been Kait to everyone else in this world for years now."

He nodded, rubbing his military cut roughly. "I know." He elongated each word. "I guess I just liked Kaity better."

"Where are you stationed now?" she asked as she came to sit in one of the chairs.

"About to head to Fort Bragg. I've got a few days leave so I decided to come up to visit my big sister." He smiled at her slightly.

She chuckled a little. "I'm not your big sister by any means. You're the one that grew up big and strong and joined the army."

"You know why I did that." He sighed, rubbing his head again.

She nodded. "But you renewed the contract. So it isn't just some attempt at proving your manhood anymore. You don't have anything to make up for. You never did."

"Yes I did!" he almost shouted.

"What did Milo say to you?" she asked quietly.

Greg shrugged, sinking farther into the couch. "Asked how I've been, where I was being reassigned, stuff like that." His fist slammed down onto the couch. "Like nothing ever happened between..." His voice strangled itself out.

"Greg, he's trying to be your friend!"Kait shouted. "He's tried to be your friend since you ran off. You broke his heart because you felt ashamed of yourself." Without hesitation, Kait has sided with her friend over her brother.

"Our father was ashamed of me!" he shouted right back at her, standing from the couch.

Kait shot to her feet as well. This was why her family never had any family reunions. "That doesn't matter. You were happy living with us. You were happy with Milo. Then our father says one thing about what he thinks of guys like you two and girls like me and you decide to leave Milo, leave me, and run off into the army, like that would make up for the fact you were gay!"

The silence resonated in the small room as the siblings stared each other down. Greg had run from his feelings and in the process shunned his older sister and his then boyfriend, Milo Evans. Since that day, four years before, Kait had seen her brother twice, and Milo had never seen him, despite countless attempts to reconnect and reconcile with him.

But Greg refused to deal with the fact that he had hurt anyone and that he was deceiving himself. Milo had since gone through a few boyfriends and girlfriends, as had Kait, and they tried not to think about the day that they had gone to lunch with Milo and the siblings' father, who had conceived Gregory Mathers with his secretary, Jocelyn Mathers, two months after he had conceived Kaitlynn Daws with his wife, Mary. The second he saw Milo rest his hand on Greg's, he went ballistic on the two men, then turning on his daughter when she confessed to share Milo's tendencies. Neither of the siblings had seen or talked to him since.

"I should leave." Greg murmured, turning mechanically towards the door.

"No, wait." Kait moved to reach for him, but her arm only moved a few inches from her side. "Greg, please."

Her words fell on deaf ears as he marched his way back down the hallway, slamming the door behind him.

Yet again, Kait had lost her brother.

With tears streaming down her face and sobs starting to pull at her body, she stumbled to the bathroom where she had left Don's sticky note. It was sitting on the counter, right where she left it. She kicked off her heels and found her cell phone, dialing the number with shaking fingers.

Ring…Ring…

"Don." He answered quickly and mechanically.

"It's Kait." She tried to even out her voice, but she knew it was shaking.

"What's wrong? I'm on my way over right now." She could hear sounds of the sewer behind him and the sounds of him running.

"I'll tell you when you get here. The window's gonna be unlocked." She heard Don end the phone call before she ended the call on her line.

She changed her clothes while tears continued to drip onto her cheeks. After a few minutes, She heard the window slide open and Don slide in. "Kait?" His voice was torn with concern as he saw her struggling with the zipper of her jacket.

She turned to him, her red rimmed eyes tell tale of what her emotional state was. He rushed to her quickly, taking her gently around her shoulders. "What happened?" he asked quietly. "I just dropped you off a few minutes ago. What could have happened in that short amount of time to…"

"Greg." She murmured, plopping down on her bed.

He kneeled down on the bed beside her. "I thought you said it was nothing."

"He's my brother." Kait looked up at him. "Well, half brother, kind of. It's complicated."

"Well, if it's upsetting you this much, tell me about it. I'm sure I'm smart enough to follow." He gently rubbed her arms, trying to calm her down.

She took a deep breath, prepared to explain her confusing family story. "I'm the older one, by two months."

"Then you can't be…"

"I know. We're half siblings. Our father cheated on my mother, his wife, with his mother, his secretary. We grew up together, though. My mom dealt with it rather well, probably because of the fact she was cheating on him too." Don nodded, motioning that he understood. "We even went off to college together, Greg and I. To get away from our crazy family. That's when we met Milo. He and I were both art majors and Greg was an English major. When Milo and I decided to go to graduate school so that we could run our own gallery, Greg decided to go with us. We all moved into an apartment together to cut costs. And that's when we all came out of the closet to each other." Kait didn't notice Don's eye ridges shoot up. "Long story short, Greg and Milo dated until my father condemned us all. Then Greg ran off and joined the army right before we all graduated. I've only seen him a few times since them and Milo hasn't seen him at all, even though they were in a very serious relationship. And he just showed up in my apartment. And we fought about that night. And he just stormed out. And I think I lost my brother." The sobs started up again as Don cradled her gently.

"You asked me last night if I had a girlfriend. I think it's my turn to ask you that question." His voice was slightly apprehensive as he picked a point on the wall to stare at.

Her laugh came out as another sob. "You hear me say I might have lost my little brother from my life and you ask if I have a girlfriend?"

"I think it's a legitimate question." Don insisted playfully.

She shook her head. "I've never dated a girl, only slept with them. So no, no girlfriend. Now boyfriend either, for that matter." She wiped her tears away with her sleeve.

"Come here." Don murmured against her hair, pulling her closer. "Now, if this guy is your brother, he'll be back. He sounds like Raph, well, except the gay part. He's gonna throw a hissy fit and then come back to apologize when he feels like it. Give him time and he will come back around. To you and Milo."

Kait nodded, leaning back against his side. "I just wish he wasn't so pig headed. He broke my heart and my best friend's heart. Some brother."

"If you think the four of us haven't had spats, you're crazy. Leo went to South America for two years and Raph moonlighted the entire time. I took up the job I have and Mikey worked birthday parties. We have had some tough times too." He squeezed her a little tighter for a brief moment. "Just give him time."

"Thanks, Don." She sighed, deflating in his arms, all the strength just melting from her body.

"Anytime. I mean it."

AN: More fluff, I know, but I need to build things up before I can tear them down…

So, dun dun dun…thins will go badly for our new pair. But I'll get there in time. For now, pay attention to everybody, I promise they'll be important. Even poor, poor Greg will be important later on. Especially when it all comes crashing down for Kait.

Well, as always, comments, questions, and suggestions are always welcome.

Sincerely,
C M