Raph walked back into his room, rubbing the last bit of sleep out of his eyes.

"Raph?"

He froze, swiveling to his right, where the hoarse, raspy whisper had come from.

Blue. Oh so glorious blue eyes blinked at him from a few feet away.

Raph's knees began to shake as tears welled out of his eyes. "Emily!" he almost shouted as he stumbled over to her bed, throwing his arms around her neck. He repeated her name again and again, kissing her forehead and cheeks repeatedly. "Thank God yer awake." He pulled away enough to look at her. Her eyes were confused, a bit scared. Instinct kicked in to make her not afraid. "What's wrong, Em?"

Her little smirk, the simple pull in the corner of her mouth, filled his aching heart with joy. He had missed it for so long. "I'm just so…so…lost." Her voice was a rasp and he knew she must be thirsty.

Raph kissed her forehead again. "Let me get ya a glass of water, and I'll get Don so he can look ya over, and then I'll get everythin' straightened out, okay?"

Emily nodded slightly, her heart beating anxiously knowing he was about to leave. When he had entered the room, most of her memories clicked into place. It was his lips that had kissed her. It was his voice that had spoken her name. It was his arms that had always held her. It was his bow that was tied around her finger. She was his intended.

The name Don also brought back foggy, unorganized memories. Brother, nerd, medic, technology, bo staff, and purple all blended into an incomplete picture of him.

Raph was back a few moments later, his caramel eyes absolutely alive. "Don'll be in here in a few minutes. He's tryin' to get Kait comfortable." He handed Emily the glass of water, helping her support it as she sipped gently.

But Emily's mind had just taken a dive into livid envy. "Kait?" she asked, her voice noticeably bitter.

Raph nodded, taken aback by her harshness. "She's an artist. We took her in a little while ago to protect her from the Foot. She's Don's squeeze." Raph smiled a bit, proud of his little brother's manly prowess to hook up with the human.

Emily visibly relaxed. When she had head the name of another woman, she had first thought that Raph had found someone else since she had last opened her eyes. She understood that it had been awhile since then. "I'm happy for him. Is somethin' wrong?" she asked, curious about the new woman. The pit of her stomach still hadn't settled about her.

Raph nodded a little. "The Foot sold her out to that cult I told ya about from a few years back. They nailed her to a cross last night. Her hands and feet aren't in too good shape." Emily nodded, feeling bad for the other woman.

"How long has it…has it been?" Emily managed to choke out the emotional question.

"Four months." Raph murmured quietly. "I've been waitin' for your eyes to open up every day since he…since he shot you."

Emily remembered that. The emotional pain of Raph taking the man's, the rapist's, life in his hands and the physical pain of being shot in the ensuing struggle were fresh in her mind. "Where are we?" she asked, attempting to alleviate the first fear that had come to her when she opened her eyes.

"Casey's family's farmhouse. We hid here back when we teenagers. I don't' think I've been here in ten years."Emily nodded, understanding her surroundings.

"Why are we here?" Emily asked, the confusion leaking back into her voice.

Raph took a deep breath in preparation for the story. "Kait got dragged into the whole Foot issue, and they used her ta try and get ta us. In the process, I killed Karai. The Foot sent a whole group of guys ta replace her, and they took Kait as a way ta make sure we listened. They gave us a week ta leave the city. They gave Kait ta the cult ta make sure we left. So we're goin' ta lay low here for a little while."

Emily absorbed it all in stride and began to question more when there was a tentative knock on the door and Don, sans his purple mask, poked his head in. His smile was huge as he saw his almost-sister-in-law with her eyes open.

"Hey, Emily." He greeted happily as he walked in, coming to the bedside opposite Raph.

"Hey, Don." She returned, happy to see a familiar face.

"How are you feeling?" Don asked, but his eyes were on the machinery around her.

She shrugged a little, feeling the tug of the IV in her arm. "My head's all fuzzy and I feel weaker than I ever have before."

"Expected considering you haven't moved in four months. I can start you in a muscle retraining today if you feel up to it." He was happy for Emily, but even she could see he was distracted by something.

Raph beat her to the questioning. "Is Kait okay?" he asked, concerned.

Don shook his head slightly, turning off the machines around Emily. "I had to sedate her. Even the topical anesthetic didn't relieve the pain. She should wake up in a few hours."

Raph reached over and patted his arm. "She'll be okay soon. Just stick with her."

He nodded and started gently taking electrodes off of her forehead and chest, silencing the EKG and EEG machines. "Emily, if you feel up to it, we can do a strength test with you right now."

"If it means I can get out of this bed sooner, do whatever you want, Don." The boys were happy to see that she was returning to herself with every passing second.

Don nodded and started asking her to push and pull against his grip in both arms, both legs, and then broken down into each individual joint. He also asked her to try and sit up under her own power. All of her results shocked him. Her body had remained quite intact despite being given four months to atrophy. She had lost weight, but it was manageable. Don even considered that she might be able to walk in a few days.

She was shocked, knowing a bit about comas and injuries, until Don gave her a bashful smile. "I may have tested some hypothesize about muscle atrophy on you while you were out. Raph was responsible for massaging major muscle groups and we made sure to keep you moving. We also kept your muscles activated with electrodes."

Emily giggled a little. "I don't see why I didn't expect you to experiment on me."

"I'll help her downstairs." Raph piped up, his hand finding Emily's on the bed. "If ya want ta, doll." He added carefully.

Thankfully for him, she nodded, looking to Don for his medical go ahead. He nodded as well, backing out of the room to check on his girlfriend, leaving the engaged couple together.

Emily struggled to sit up, having to prop herself up on her elbow. "Come here." She murmured to him, her eyes finding his with a shocking passion. Raph obeyed, sitting beside her on the bed. She pushed herself even higher, her torso even with his, allowing her to hold onto his shoulders and draw her lips up to his, kissing him slowly and passionately.

Raph managed to gently translate four months of loss and loneliness into one kiss as he held her, pulling her into his arms. Emily responded in kind, kissing him back with as much emotion. They pulled apart after a few moments, breathing deeply and just looking at each other, small smiles on their faces.

"I missed ya." Raph murmured, reaching to gently touch her face.

Emily smiled and motioned that he could help her up. She could move all the parts of her body, but not with the strength required to support herself quite yet. So Raph wrapped an arm around her tiny waist, holding the entirety of her weight but allowing her to go through the motion of walking.

Leo saw them at the top of the stairs as he was talking into the kitchen and he froze there, his mouth agape.

"Emily!" he shouted, running up the stairs to her and wrapping her up in a hug.

Mikey was woken up by the shout and stumbled to the foot of the stairs, confused. When he saw the little woman with black hair, his face broke into his trademark childlike smile as he too ran up the stairs to drag her into a hug of his own. Splinter slowly made his way to the foot of the stairs, smiling as he watched his sons reunited with Emily. The joy on their faces, especially Raph's, made him immensely happy. They eventually let her down the stairs where Splinter gently wrapped his arms around her waist, welcoming her back to the world that had missed her greatly. He also enquired about Don, to which Raph repeated what his brother had told him about sedating Kait.

Leo went about cooking breakfast, what he had originally been walking to the kitchen to do, as Mikey, Raph, Splinter, and himself caught Emily up on everything she had missed in the past four months.

"Ya know what we all forgot about?" Raph garbled around the pancakes Leo had put in front of him. "Today's Kait's birthday. She's twenty-seven now."

The others were surprised that she was that old, and that they had forgotten in the week leading up to that day to celebrate her birthday.

"I don't think she's gonna celebrate it." Emily piped up around her milk, not having much of an appetite quite yet.

Mikey shook his head. "If anybody would have a good time on their birthday, even with four holes in 'em, it's Kait."

"She sounds like quite the woman." Emily murmured. Though the jealousy had faded, she still didn't quite trust this idol of a woman that the boys seem to have fawned over in her absence.

Don came down about an hour later, lured in by the smell of pancakes and coffee. He mumbled good morning to his family before jogging back upstairs with food for two in his hands.

"He's gonna be as bad as you were, Raph." Leo sighed, watching his younger brother return to Kait.

Raph nodded, turning to explain to Emily. "In the beginnin', probably the first month, I wouldn't leave yer room unless one of 'em dragged me out."

Emily reached over to squeeze his hand as tight as she could. "Thank you." She whispered, smiling at him with earnest.

It took another hour for the door upstairs to open again, but this time they didn't hear it close. The boys could hear quiet murmuring and a steady descent down the stairs, but Don didn't turn into the kitchen. Instead, they heard his shuffle enter the living room and the old springs in the couch gently took weight. Don then appeared in the kitchen, smiling at his family, especially Emily.

"Well, it looks like you can finally meet Kait." He told her with a cautious smile. "She woke up a few minutes ago and the pain is doing better." The boys were excited, but Emily was wary.

Attempting to bite down the unease, she murmured for Raph to help her into the living room. The others beat them in there, but they had reserved the plush chair for her. Raph was initially in front of her as he eased her into the chair, so it took a few moments for Emily to actually see the other woman.

When she did, the jealousy reared its ugly head again. Kait was beautiful, even curled up against Don on the couch in sweatpants and a jersey shirt, even bandaged and bruised and tired, her hair ruffled in a few places. Her skin was a nearly perfect cream color and her hair was a lustrous strawberry blonde. Her eyes, despite her misfortune, were bright and alive, dancing to everyone in the room, including Emily. Her body was thin and petite, unlike Emily's compact and muscular frame. Everything about her appearance was better than Emily.

"Hi, my name is Kait Daws." Even her voice was prettier, Emily seethed, watching as the other woman moved to extend her hand, stopping herself after a few inches. "The boys have told me so much about you." Kait was all smiles to Emily, excited to finally meet her for real.

But Emily only nodded. "I hope it was mostly good." She sighed, shifting around in the chair. Kait's presence was making her nervous.

Kait nodded and was about to say something when the boys suddenly burst into a not so harmonious rendition of "Happy Birthday," but she smiled all the same. She almost went to clap before Don gently grabbed her wrists, holding her hands still and gently shaking his head.

She nodded just as gently as she continued to smile at the others. "Thank you, guys!" she told them happily, absolutely beaming.

"Happy birthday, love." Don murmured as he touched his lips against her temple, shifting his hold on her, further cradling her against his chest.

Emily saw the love radiating off the two of them, and the jealousy and the rage only got worse.

Who was this girl to come into their lives, to wedge herself into their secrets? How was Emily supposed to trust this blonde bimbo that had managed to get her hooks into Don? Who knew what else Kait had done while Emily was in her coma, not there to temper the boys' second brains from letting Kait walk all over them?

Emily decided, as he watched the brothers fawn over her and Kait, that she would pull their blinders off and unmask the little pretender.

AN: She's awake!

But not all things are right in the world.

As always, questions and comments are welcome.

Sincerely,
C M