All the guys had offered to sleep on the couch and let her have their beds, but she had stubbornly insisted that the couch was fine. They all reluctantly agreed to let her stay on the couch. She had chuckled at their reluctance. She'd grinned and told them not to worry, and that even though she didn't look all that tough, she wouldn't break.
Leo walks to Raph's side and looks at Diana. It's true. She's very delicate looking.
Raph looks up. "Hey, Leo."
"Mornin', Raph," Leo responds.
Raph reaches down and gently moves some hair back from her face.
Just then, Leo comments, "Wow, she has amazing hair."
Raph nods, "Yeah."
Her hair's mostly black, but had some spots that were brown-gold.
"Guess she dyed it," Raph comments.
She twitches in her sleep and opens her eyes. She grins, "Come to see the sleeping...well, I'm not exactly beautiful, so average-looking chick?"
The guys chuckle, and Leo comments, "Hey, we think you're beautiful." Raph nods and she blushes a little.
She gives a little chuckle, "Anyway...good morning."
"Mornin'," Raph says, and Leo nods.
A yawn takes Diana by surprise, and they all quietly laughed as the two guys follow her example.
"Yawns are awful contagious, aren't they? I've always wondered why." Diana grins and stands up, grabbing the blanket that had been covering her, and folded it neatly.
They all look up when Don says, "One theory is that the change in air pressure, resulting from the original yawn, creates a need for others to get more oxygen, causing them to yawn."
They stare, just blinking at him. Mikey walks in, whistling. "Morning, all!" He looks at their blank stares, and then to Don.
"Umm, Donny? Didya create a zombie making machine and then sic it on them?" he asks, waving a hand in front of Raph's eyes. Raph grabs Mikey's hand.
Leo just says, "I guess our brains can't handle science early in the morning."
Diana says, "Great, I feel guilty now. First making you guys yawn and then getting Don started."
Splinter then walks in and smiles to see them all awake and chatting away.
"Good morning, my students." He smiles at them all.
"Good morning, Sensei," the guys say.
Diana smiles, "Good morning, Splinter." She isn't really sure of how to refer to him. He isn't really her Sensei, but she does respect him. However, 'Mister Splinter' sounds kind of dumb to her.
"Good morning, Diana. Tell me, are you a student of the martial arts?" Splinter asks, and smiles at her. He likes her, too. He can see a little bit of each of his sons in her. She's gentle, like Don, a bit of a clown, like Mikey, has a protective quality about her, like Leo, and when he lookes into her eyes, he can see a great deal of hurt and anger, like Raph.
She nods and a big smile comes across her face, but Splinter can see something else in her blue-green and gold eyes, was it...determination that Splinter sees? "Yes, I am."
"What art do you study?" Splinter inquires.
"Aikido," she answers.
Leo's eyes light up with recognition. He had seen a television program on it a few days ago.
Watching it, he was very impressed and called Splinter over. Splinter had smiled and told him that that was Aikido.
"Would you like to show us?"
She nods.
"Well then, that will replace half of our spar for today."
Raph, Don and Mike look surprised. They thought that Splinter might be sick or something. He was just going to let them sit back and watch her work out alone. Leo grins, he knows his brothers are in for a surprise.
Splinter takes out an old gi jacket and belt and hands them to Diana.
"I am sorry, but I could not find any pants that would fit. Are those jeans are flexible enough for you to work out it?"
"Yes, they are. To tell the truth, I was a little worried that I would have to work out in this shirt." She shrugs.
Splinter chuckles, and replies, "I didn't think that you'd enjoy having my sons see more of you than is necessary, and you are welcome."
Diana went into the bathroom and comes out in a couple of moments wearing the gi jacket tied closed at the waist with the belt.
She goes into the practice area and does some warm ups; stretching, rolls and falls.
After the warm ups are done, Splinter instructes Don, Raph and Mike to sit and watch while Leo and Diana stand before them.
Leo and Diana bow to Splinter and then to each other. Then Diana and Leo take up ready stances. At Splinter's command, they start.
Leonardo throws a punch at Diana, and she moves aside, grabs his fist and brings him down, swinging him in a circle, using his own force against him. When she has him on his plastron, she holds his arm the way she had in Raph's dream.
She tells Leo, "Hit the ground with your free hand when you feel pain." With that, she slowly twists his arm.
Raph is stunned from the feeling of de ja vu that he gets.
Leo hits the ground and she lets him up and is in a ready stance by the time he gets up.
He lunges for her and she steps back and throws him to the ground, twisting his body, and forcing him to lose his balance.
After that, his attacks get lightning quick, as do her responses.
He kicks; she ducks and sometimes pulls him down.
He grabs; she either pulls with the grab, or brings him around and down.
He punches; she grabs and brings him down.
He cuts with knife hands; she blocks and pulls him off balance, using his momentum against him.
Sometimes, she brings him down by going low. In fact, she usually does that. Sometimes, though, she also brings him up and back. A lot of times, she uses wrist twists to make him move.
Leo's glad when Splinter says to stop, he's winded from all that falling, rolling and getting up again.
She's also catching her breath and is sweating a little.
She and Leo bow to each other and face Splinter and the rest of the turtles.
Di almost laughs at the slack jawed looks of amazement on the brothers' faces.
Mikey says in awe, "I wouldn't want to meet her in a dark alley!"
Splinter motions for Leo to sit with his brothers, which Leo does gladly, and looks to Diana, who has regained her breath.
"Would you be able to take the other three at the same time?" He asks.
"I believe so, yes. Though I wouldn't be able to last as long as I did with Leonardo," she replies.
So Splinter tells Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael to stand before her. They all do their bows.
Splinter orders them to start.
Raph is the first to attack; she whips him around and throws him into Mikey who is about to try something. They both land in a tangle of arms and legs.
Donny tries to sweep her legs out from under her, she simply jumps out of the way, and when Donny lunges at her, she throws him into Raph, who is about to charge her. Down they go.
Mike makes a grab for her, and she goes down on one knee and sends him flying.
Don, seeing she was down, tries to tackle her from the side. She just rolls back out of the way at the last moment and is standing immediately after the roll is done.
Raph grabs her from behind and she twists out of his grip while bringing him down.
Mike and Don grab one wrist each, and grin at each other just before she somehow threw them both down using her Ki.
Just then, she gets a foot in the chest from Raph, she'd twisted aside so that the impact was more on her left shoulder and she goes down, hard.
Splinter calls a stop and they gather around her. She rolls over and looks up into the faces around her, all of them full of worry for this fragile looking girl who just got kicked by one of the physically strongest turtles.
They all ask if she's ok and she assures them that she is. She slowly sits up, coughing a little, and with a hand up from Raph, she stands.
She moves her arm around, and doesn't feel any sharp pain, so she's satisfied that she hadn't broken anything. She can feel the bruising already, though.
She grins at Raph. "Nice kick. I'm gonna be black and blue for a while! I don't bruise all that easily, either."
Raph just grins and pats her other arm and says, "Thanks, so long as I didn't do any serious damage. Good thing I pulled that kick. I thought you were going to move in time."
She chuckles, "I guess I was running out there."
Splinter speaks up then, "We will continue our spar. Diana, if you would like to stay and watch, you are welcome to."
Diana smiles, "I think I will, thank you."
She bows to the guys and to Splinter, and then sits by the wise old rat.
"That was very impressive. How long have you been studying?" Splinter asks.
Diana thinks for a minute, watching the turtles, very impressed despite her previous knowledge of their skills. After a minute, she says, "Well, I've been studying it for ten years, though I've had an interest for pretty much all my life."
"If you've always been interested in these arts, then why haven't you been studying longer? How did you first get involved?" Splinter inquires, keeping an eye on the spars and an eye on her.
"My parents didn't approve of a girl being interested in 'fighting' as they called it." A note of bitterness creeps into her voice. "They told me, when I was seven, that if I was going to practice any of the Arts, I'd have to go out on my own and find a dojo to practice at. It took me a year to find one. When I finally did find one, it wasn't under the most peaceful of times. I was trying to look in the window of the Aikido dojo that I go to, or went to, at least, and some guy came up behind me and tried to stab me in the back. I don't know why he'd want to kill a little girl for no reason, but he did try. I turned as he was stabbing, and he cut me pretty deeply in my arm." She pulls up her sleeve to show Splinter the scar on her arm. His eyes turn cold at seeing the old scar on a young body, as her eyes turn hard at the memory. "As I was standing there, lutching my arm, trying to figure out what to do next, I was only seven, turning eight later that day, the Sensei, my future Sensei, came out and pinned the guy until the police came. One of the students had apparently called 911. I ended up going to the hospital and got stitches. My parents were notified and they cam to the ER to take me home. The Sensei had stayed with me while I was getting the stitches and waited for my parents with me.
When they got there, they were making a big show of being worried about me, and being so glad that they didn't lose me. They were probably more worried about my younger sister's beauty pageant the next day."
She smiles at what she's going to say next. By now, Splinter's paying more attention to her than to the spars, which seem to be winding down. He sees this and tells them to stop. Diana goes on.
"At this point, Sensei had taken my parents to the side, and was talking to them about something, I never found out what and I was too distraught to listen, but after he was finished talking to them, he told me he'd see me later, and he left. After the doctor talked to my mom and dad, my mom took my hand and my dad put an arm around my shoulders. The doctor then talked to me about the stitches, and my dad picked me up and carried me to the car. Apparently I looked kind of pale and weak, I felt really weak.
The car ride home was in silence, and once we got home, they both tucked me into bed, and for the first time in a really long time, I felt like they loved me."
She twitches a little at the feel of Raph gently lifting a tear off of her cheek.
She smiles, she'd forgotten that she's actually talking out loud. She then finishes the story.
"A couple of weeks later, I went back to that dojo and started classes." She chuckles, "and the rest is history."
She looks at her audience: the guys, Splinter and April, who'd shown up sometime during her tale.
Mikey comments to Raph, "Hold me," and Raph pushes him away, making a face. Diana can't help chuckling.
After being pushed away from Raph, Mikey sticks his tongue out and runs to April, giving her a bear hug.
"Hi, Ape!" he practically shouts. "Guess who this is!" He gestures to Diana.
April grins at Diana, "The one Splinter wanted this old stuff for?"
Splinter chuckles and nods. Diana has a look of surprise on her face.
"You...you really didn't need to do this," she says in shock.
Splinter smiles, "When I told April about you, she said that you would probably be more comfortable if you had a change of clothing and something to brush your hair with." He chuckles, seeing her hand go to her knotted up pony tail, she'd tried combing her mop of hair out with her fingers, but wasn't able to do all that great a job of it, she smiles sheepishly.
She just says, "Thanks." Then she excuses herself to shower and change, April gives her the bag of stuff and they smile at each other.
While she's in the bathroom, Mikey gets breakfast started.
Casey comes down and he and April are getting the story from Splinter. Leo and Don are talking about the gun she'd told them about. Raph is leaning against a wall, just watching.
After her shower, Diana comes out in a fresh pair of jeans and a sleeveless shirt, her wet hair combed back from her face to dry.
The guys all look up and all but stare at her.
She smiles uncertainly, seeing their stares, and says, "Uh..Hi guys.."
Leo snaps out of it, and he pokes Mikey.
"Come on guys, it's not nice to stare!"
Don and Raph shake their heads and grin at each other.
Mikey strides over to Diana and offers her his arm.
In his best gentlemanly voice he asks, "May I escort you to breakfast, milady?"
She chuckles and takes his arm, "I would be honored, Sir." She lets him lead her to the table.
As she sits down, Raph sits down beside her, and she comments, "What a ham he is!"
Raph grins and says, "That's one way of putting it."
Casey, who had been joking around with Mikey after hearing the story from Splinter, walks in then and sees Diana.
"I'm Casey," he introduces himself, "you must be Diana."
She grins at him from the table. "Hi Casey, and you're right, nice ta meet you."
Mikey then comes to the table, carrying a humongous stack of pancakes. Di starts to get up to help set the table, but Splinter puts a hand over hers and tells her, "You are a guest, you should not have to set the table, my sons will do that."
She smiles, "Thank you Splinter." She then sighs and says a bit more sadly, "I wonder how long I'll be a guest here." She looks up and hastily says. "Not that I'm not grateful for your kindness, it's just that I miss my family at the dojo, and I can't help wondering how they're taking my disappearance." She sighs again.
Splinter pats her hand. "You will return to your home, but until then, you can stay with us, I'd imagine we have a lot to teach each other."
She looks into his eyes, and sees what she expected to see there, wisdom, but she sees something else that was unexpected, love. The love that a father would show a daughter. She gently smiles and puts her other hand over his.
She grins, "I would tend to agree."
By then, the table is ready then and the guys are chowing down.
They all eat their breakfast as a family would.
George awakes that same morning feeling the odd tingle that's the usual side effect of a healing.
He's been on the receiving end of the Master's temper tantrums before, and had to get healed before. He is, unfortunately, getting used to it.
Just then, a warrior-servant comes into his room carrying a tracking device. George looks up at him.
The warrior-servant hands George the device and says, "The Master commanded me to, as soon as you awaken, tell you to locate the girl and when you find her, to return for reinforcement," there's a look of apology in this man's eyes. If he doesn't say exactly what the Master wants him to say, he'd get a beating as bad or worse than George's and he would only get healed if he was lucky. He goes on, "because, the Master said, 'because you obviously can't handle her on your own.'"
The man winces and looks at George.
George knows the man's just doing his job, so he just waves him away instead of punching him in the face, which is fully within his rights, being higher in rank.
He sighs, looking at the thin box he holds in his hands. At least he doesn't have to try to kill her; like he did all those years ago.
Chapter Two
Chapter Four
Realities Index