Hello all, This is a sneak peak at my new fic. It is stand alone fic, so can be read even if you have not read With Death We Met, or Darkness and Light, However, that said , the characters from both fics will eventually appear in this fic. So it can be considered a sequal but not...

Please enjoy!=)

Chapter 1

Raphael was panting hard. His blood was roaring through his ears, his heart was pounding in his chest. He had just run flat out for ten blocks and he swore he could still hear the drumming of racing of footsteps behind him.

He had ducked into a dark, reeking, side alley, the night cloaking him from prying eyes. He looked down at his leg and grimaced. He was bleeding pretty bad, his arm wasn't doing so well either. Rage burned through him at the thought of having to retreat. The Red Dragons had been out in full force. He hadn't expected so many. He had decided to blow off some steam, get away from Leonardo's constant lecturing about how irresponsible he was. He closed his eyes in frustrated anger. And now when he got back, Leonardo was going to rip a strip off him for exactly what he had been lecturing him about.

He opened his eyes. He needed to get back to the lair, but he hadn't found the opportunity yet. The Red Dragons just didn't seem to want to give up.

He could hear it then, the running of feet hitting pavement hard. Raphael tried to slow his breathing. "Fine if they want a fight, I'll give them a fight." He growled to himself and hoped it wouldn't be his last.

He clutched his sais tightly in his hands. He listened intently, waiting for just the right moment to strike. His vision wavered. He shook his head trying to clear it. Had he really lost that much blood? He wondered to himself as he heard the footsteps getting nearer. He couldn't tell how many of them there were, the sound echoing off the brick walls. He figured that if they had split up there were at least a few of them.

Now! He thought to himself as he leapt around the corner surprising his pursuers. His eyes widened in surprise as he felt his sai strike and enter soft flesh.

A young woman looked at him in wide eyed surprise. Raphael felt his entire world shift. Her eyes drifted down to where his sai had plunged itself into her flesh. She suddenly slumped to the ground.

Raphael grabbed at her as she fell. He looked at her in shock. He looked over her frantically. "No." He whispered. "No." He whispered in horror as he realized he had just stabbed an innocent bystander.

Raphael felt his world swim and the bile rise in his throat.

He picked her up, his frantic thoughts swirled together into a pinpoint focus of getting back to the lair, getting her to Donatello. He began to run, as he begged her to survive.

"Donny!" Raphael's voice roared. Donatello grimaced. Raphael and Leonardo had been fighting and Raphael had stormed off to do exactly what it was Leonardo was yelling at him for doing in the first place. Leonardo was angry and upset because Raphael was going on solo runs during the night, even though he knew that there had been an increase in Red Dragon gang activity.

He wondered if he could just ignore his older brother. "Donny!" Raphael's voice broke in panic. Donatello dropped his tools. It was unlike Raphael to sound that frightened. Actually Donatello didn't think he had ever heard that level of panic in his brother's voice.

Donatello ran from his workroom and took in the scene before him. Raphael was standing with someone in his arms. Raphael's leg and arm were red with blood.

"Donny...I ...I ...Help." He pleaded.

"What's going on?" Leonardo asked as he emerged from his bedroom.

Raphael ignored Leonardo as he took one wobbly step forward. "I...I...didn't mean..." He stammered.

"What the hell are you doing bringing an injured girl here Raph. Don't you know how dangerous it is. If she's hurt you should have just left her for the humans to look after!" Leonardo yelled at Raphael. "You should have called 911."

"What's going on?" Michelangelo asked sleepily as he emerged from his bedroom.

"Raph what happened?" Donatello asked as he quickly approached his brother. Raphael was covered in blood, some of it his own, most of it not. Donatello checked the woman's pulse. It was weak, but still there. He moved her coat out of the way and that is when he saw his brother's sai sticking out from her left lower abdomen.

"Oh no Raph, what did you do?" Donatello asked in horror."Workroom now!" Donatello said urgently. Raphael managed to get the woman onto the table he used to stitch his brothers up. They managed to wrestle the backpack off of her back so they could lay her down flat. He looked at the girl's wound. He grabbed a pair of scissors and cut away her shirt so he could see the damage. Lower abdomen wounds were often fatal.

Raphael had been smart enough to leave the sai in, which meant that he hadn't made the wound worse, but still. He shook his head. "I don't have the equipment to deal with something like this." He said shaking his head, panic starting to course through him.

He looked at his brother's face which was a mask of agony. "Donny, please try." Raphael begged him. Donatello closed his eyes. Either way she was probably dead. "Leo's right. You should have taken her as close as you could to a hospital Raph." Donatello said quietly. "Or called 911."

"I didn't think I...I panicked." Raphael stammered as Donatello looked at the sai. It wasn't as if he had any equipment to view the damage caused by the sai. All he could do was hope that she didn't bleed to death. He thought to himself as he removed the weapon. He put the bloody sai aside.

"Raphael this is exactly what..." Leonardo began, but stopped as Raphael wobbled slightly. His eyes rolled up into his head and he fell to the floor unconscious.

"Damn it!" Donatello swore. Swearing was not something he did often, but he felt it was warranted. He looked over his brother's wounds grimly.

"These are bad Leo." Donatello whispered. "Get a compress, try to stop the bleeding. I'll stitch him up after I try to help her." He said as he turned his attention back to the woman.

Donatello's eyes frantically searched the wound. It had struck far enough to the side that it was possible it had missed her internal organs. He looked again and swore. "He hit her liver." He applied pressure on the wound. There wasn't much he could do outside cutting her open and finding out how bad the trauma to the liver was. If it wasn't that bad, and if the bleeding stopped, she would recover. However if the laceration was bad enough she would just bleed out. Of course even if she didn't die immediately, there was always the possibility of infection. He explained this to Leonardo.

They had put Raphael on a cot that had been set up. He got Michelangelo to apply pressure to the Woman's wound and went to make sure Raphael was going to be okay.

Leonardo looked at him worriedly. "He'll be fine, but he needs to rest, he's lost a lot of blood." Donatello said grimly as he turned towards the woman. All he could do now was stitch her up and hope that she pulled through.

"I don't suppose she is a Red Dragon?" Leonardo asked Donatello hopefully. "Maybe it was self defence?"

Donatello shrugged. He wasn't sure.

"She's got a purse." Michelangelo said pointing to a blood covered green cloth purse that was still slung over her shoulder.

Leonardo grimly looked at the purse and opened it. He pulled out a wallet and shuffled through it.

"Katherine Brooks, age 21, University student from Canada." Leonardo said quietly. He pulled out a ticket. "Went to the American Museum of Natural History this evening." He said quietly putting her wallet back into her purse.

"Leo if she dies..."Donatello began.

"I know Donny." Leonardo whispered bleakly.

Raphael had never killed anyone. None of them had. Donatello knew that it would be inevitable that one day, one of them was going to end up killing someone, either purposely or accidentally. But if the first person Raphael ended up killing was just an innocent woman who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time...well he didn't know how that would affect his brother.

It had been several hours and Donatello had finally convinced Leonardo to go to bed. Leonardo had wanted to stay up and keep watch, both over the woman, and Raphael, but he had managed to convince him that he could take second watch. Michelangelo had looked worried, but had also shuffled off to bed.

Donatello looked over the woman again. Her breathing was shallow, her skin was pale to the point of being waxy, but she was still alive. It worried him however that she hadn't regained consciousness yet, although Raphael hadn't either.

He sighed and rubbed his eyes. He looked over the woman again. She was pretty he supposed in a human sort of way. Smooth clear skin, a cascade of brownish red hair, defined cheekbones, square jaw, pert nose and light pink cupids bow lips. Her hand twitched. He reached out and took her hand in his. An electric shock of awareness went through him. Her head rolled to the side, her eyes opening slowly. They seemed to focus slightly then she fell into unconsciousness once more. He pulled his hand away slowly. He looked at his hand as if it was somehow not his own. What was that? He wondered to himself. Maybe he was more tired than he thought. He looked down at her again. Her eyes were green, a bright beautiful moss green.

Raphael opened his eyes. He felt like he had been hit by a truck. Memory came rushing back as he sat up quickly in panic. Was the girl dead, had he killed her? He looked around Donatello's workroom which was quiet and empty except for him and the pale woman who was laying next to him on a cot.

He slid from his cot and padded over to the woman. His leg was throbbing and so was his arm, but he ignored the pain as he fell to his knees in front of her.

He tentatively reached out checking for a pulse and wondering where the hell Donatello had went.

He panicked for a second when he couldn't find it, but breathed a sigh of relief as he found the fluttering beat at her wrist. He took her hand in his. Awareness raced through him. He looked at her hand in confusion. He stared down at the woman. Her head turned and she opened her eyes slightly.

"I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. It was an accident. I didn't mean it." He whispered to her as he pleaded for her to live, but she had already closed her eyes. He felt his own eyes get heavy as his face fell into sheets that smelled like flowers.

Leonardo walked with Donatello into his workroom. Donatello was exhausted and needed to sleep, but he had wanted to check her one last time before he went to bed. Donatello came to an abrupt halt, Leonardo almost running into him. "What is it Donny?" He asked in confusion as he looked over his brother's shoulder.

Raphael was slumped over the cot that held the woman. He was holding her hand tightly, his other arm was partially under his head.

"Well at least he managed to regain consciousness." Donatello said checking over their brother. "But he's slipped back into unconsciousness." Donatello said softly.

"Help me move him off the floor." Donatello said to him as he attempted to remove Raphael's grip from the woman's. "What's wrong Donny?" He asked as his brother was looking at Raphael and the woman in confusion.

"They're both unconscious, but their hands, I can't get them apart without wrenching them apart and I don't want to do that and risk hurting either of them." Donatello said slowly. "We'll move the cots together."

Donatello grabbed the cot while Leonardo hefted his bulkier brother up and onto the cot. They both lay on their backs hands gripped together in the space between.

"Raph's bleeding again." Donatello said grimly.

Donatello began the task of re-stitching Raphael's wounds and re-wrapping them. Donatello looked grim the entire time. "Is he in danger Donny?" Leonardo asked with worry. "You said he'd be fine."

Donatello let out a breath. "He should have regained consciousness, which he did, obviously briefly, but he should be sleeping, not still unconscious. Maybe he lost more blood than I thought. He just reopened his wounds so of course he just lost more blood. He'll be fine, if he makes it through the night, he'll be fine." Donatello pronounced grimly.

Leonardo looked worriedly at the unconscious forms, hands clasped between them like a lifeline, as if willing the other not to die. He shook his head at the flighty thought.

It was impossible, she hadn't even regained consciousness yet, but when and if she did, it wasn't going to be pretty. There would be the inevitable look of fear, shock and horror, perhaps a little disgust, possible screaming and fainting. Although in her case her feelings would be perfectly justified since Raphael had nearly killed her. And that was only if she didn't die before she regained consciousness. This thought dragged his already heavy heart lower.

Raphael blurrily opened his eyes. There was noise all around him . There were panicked shouts and a noise like the buzzing of electricity. He was clutching something cold in his hand. He slowly sat up and looked at the chaos around him. Donatello was looking frantic as was Leonardo. Michelangelo looked pale, worried, and a little ill.

"Clear!" Donatello yelled. Then there was the sound of a thump.

He was clutching the woman's hand tightly. There was blood everywhere. Donatello was holding the paddles of a machine, what was it called, a defibrillator. The woman's shirt had been ripped open. Leonardo was trying to stop the bleeding from the stab wound he had given her.

Raphael looked at her in horror. She was going to die. She was going to die and it was going to be all his fault. He clutched her hand tighter. "You don't get to die." He growled at her. "You hear me, you don't get to die!"

"Clear!" Donatello said again her body leapt from the table.

Leonardo felt for a pulse. "She's got a pulse!" He said with shock and relief.

Donatello put the paddles back in their slots, looking relieved, but strained and pale.

"I'm not a surgeon Leo. The best we can hope for is her bleeding stops and she doesn't haemorrhage or go into cardiac arrest again either." Donatello looked exhausted.

Donatello met his eyes and they widened in shock.

"Raph?" He asked. "You're awake." He said with surprise.

Raphael nodded. He looked at the small delicate hand in his larger three fingered calloused grasp. He gently lay her hand down at her side.

"How do you feel?" Donatello asked walking over to him.

"Weak, tired." He grumbled. Donatello nodded. "How is she Donny?" He asked.

Donatello paused, closed his eyes, and shook his head. "Not good Raph." He said softly.

Raphael nodded curtly. Sadness and guilt weighed down on him.

"Raph can I talk to you?" Leonardo growled at him. He looked at his older brother. He knew the lecture that was about to begin. He knew his brother was going to yell at him for disobeying him and running off. And for once he knew he deserved every single harsh, reproving, whip like word that was going to come from his brother's mouth.

He looked at his brother, begging him to chew a strip off him because he deserved so much more than just a lecture.

Leonardo studied his face, closed his eyes, then said "Later. Get some rest before you fall over."

Raphael shook his head. "I can't Leo, what if I go to sleep and..and she...then I'll have missed...I...I want to be here, I have to be here when..." His voice broke.

Leonardo nodded in grim understanding.

Please read and review! and yes I know I called them Red Dragons instead of Purple dragons, that was on purpose.=)