The streets of New York City were beginning to come alive once more, it was Saturday night and most people were out celebrating the end of another week in the various pubs and clubs scattered up and down the streets. A few floors above street level however, the mood was vastly different.

Marie sat near the edge of her apartment's tiny balcony surrounded by plants, soft piano music could be heard from inside, dulling the somewhat chaotic noises of the city below. She appeared rather at home among all the greenery, her brown wavy hair and hazel eyes giving her an earthy look which was accentuated by the black maxi skirt, cream floaty blouse and brown floral kimono that she currently wore. A quick glance at the clock would tell that it was fast approaching midnight and as the song came to a static end Marie stood and sauntered indoors, changing the record over to another piece. Her small one bedroom apartment was full of paintings that were scattered around the place and any space not taken up by those was filled by books and yet more plants. The walls were a dark purple and were covered in different tapestries, some brown, others with vibrant colours but they all shared the intricate pattern designs and most contained some form of symbols. The light hanging in the centre of the room was likely older than the building itself and the lamp next to the worn brown leather sofa looked ready to collapse and yet somehow she had made it work.

Moving into the similarly decorated kitchen area Marie began to mist the plethora of herbs and seedlings that were growing on the window ledge when a large bang caused her to jump, spinning on her heel to face the living room. It sounded like a gunshot, she was sure, and it had sounded close, but nobody had screamed in alarm or in pain. She cautiously made her way to the balcony once more only to freeze as she noticed a very large figure stood hunched just in the doorway, they quickly took notice of her and leapt forward to cover her mouth before she could let loose the scream that her mind was screaming to let out. The piano music was still playing away in the background, its gentle sound a complete contradiction the current situation she was in. A slight turn of her head allowed her a good look at the tall intruder, and as she took in its appearance, her eyes widened to almost perfect circles and the air in her lungs froze. It was a turtle, a giant turtle with a piece of cloth over its face and it was covered in blood. As her mind began to race with a thousand possible, equally horrific outcomes she heard a voice outside, someone in the alleyway below her balcony. The giant turtle grew incredibly tense at the voice though all Marie could make out was something about a 'mutant freak' and how 'he couldn't have gotten far' before the voice grew further away accompanied by the heavy footsteps of the people he was talking to. Glancing back to the 'mutant' turtle beside her, she could quite clearly see the worry in his eyes, he was very slightly shaking as well she realised. It took her only a few moments to make her mind up about what to do and she gently began to pry his hand from her face, she was almost surprised when he let her go but she still moved to put her hands up in a placating manner. Her fear, now gone completely was replaced with a need to protect this strange being who had sought shelter in her home.

"You're hiding from them?" she asked without really expecting an answer. A small nod from the turtle was her only response but it was enough, she dropped her shoulders into a relaxed position and allowed her face to fall back into its natural soft smile as she spoke again.

"Right then, make yourself comfortable, I'll draw some hot water and we can get you cleaned up a bit hmm?" she said simply as if speaking to an old friend or a family member, she didn't wait for his response as she turned back to the kitchen, boiling the kettle and grabbing a clean rag. The turtle stood rigidly where she had left him in the living room, blinking in confusion. It didn't take long for the water to heat up and she returned shortly with the rag soaking in the gently steaming liquid.

"I – I don't understand" he spoke quietly, his voice was very hoarse but not so much that she was unable to make out what he had said. She tried not to let her surprise at his perfect English show, instead hiding it behind a kind smile,

"You're injured, from the sounds of things it's because of those men. Why wouldn't I help you?" she inquired calmly, trying to put the turtle at ease as much as she could. He shuffled his feet, keeping his gaze down as he spoke again.

"You don't know me; I could be the bad guy. I broke into your house and I could have really hurt you" he said, his voice beginning to lose some of the hoarseness, though he still appeared rather rigid, Marie raised an eyebrow at his odd reply, a smirk spreading across her face,

"From my experience the bad guy doesn't usually let the person go without a fight, and besides, that guy sounded like an ass. Now, make yourself comfortable while I take a better look at these wounds." she said with a tone of finality, this turtle was obviously injured and he was getting help whether he understood why or not.

Motioning to the couch she watched as her intruder turned guest made his way over, favouring the right leg a little before he sat down and let her set up the bowl next to him. He still hadn't looked her in the eye but that did little to deter her, she began with the blood above his eye. He let out a small hiss of pain as the cloth made contact but didn't move to stop her or flinch away,

"Sorry", she murmured, "Oh, I'm Marie by the way" she added on as an afterthought, realising that she had failed to actually introduce herself beforehand. The turtle finally looked up at her, catching her eye for a moment before diverting his gaze once again to the floor,

"I'm Leo", he replied quietly. The two sat in silence as Marie continued to clean Leo's wounds, his hands clenching into fists every time her cloth found another cut. There were so many and eventually she found the cause of the bang earlier, a bullet wound to his left shoulder. She couldn't see an exit wound so she concluded that the bullet was still in there, after mentioning it to Leo he confirmed her fears.

She glanced at her clock which now read 01:25am before sighing and moving back to the kitchen to get the first aid kit as well as some tweezers to remove the bullet. She grabbed some frozen peas on her way back through as well, getting Leo to hold them over the wound while she prepared her other tools as well as boiling the kettle again with fresh water.

Returning to his side she let out a deep sigh, handing him a damp towel that was rolled up. At his questioning gaze she suggested that he bite down on it,

"There's no point in lying to you, this is going to hurt like nothing you've ever felt before but once it's out that's it, I'll clean it and stitch it as fast and as best I can and then you can sleep ok? You look exhausted" she said rather bluntly, her soft nature temporarily taken over by a steadfast, confident look that would have put any other doctor to shame. Leo stared at her intently before nodding and putting the towel in his mouth and manoeuvring into a more comfortable position on the couch.

Marie removed the icepack, gently prodding the wound before cleaning her tweezers in alcohol and digging in. The sound Leo made was gut-wrenching but she couldn't stop, not till she got that bullet out. It only took her a few moments to locate it, luckily not too deep, and briskly pull it out. A steady flow of dark red blood oozed out after it which Marie quickly cleaned up with boiling water and more alcohol, she tried her best to ignore the agonised wail that Leo let out at that before quickly closing the wound with a couple of sutures. As soon as she was done the turtle's head fell limply back, his ragged breaths still holding a slight whimper as the pain began to dull back to an aching throb. Marie wordlessly took the towel from his mouth, setting it on the floor with the rest of the utensils and grabbed a blanket from the dryer, draping it over him as he fell into a deep sleep.

Marie gave him one last look before settling back into her original position on the balcony, keeping an eye on both the street below and the currently sleeping guest while she waited for the morning to arrive. Her mind was overwhelmed with worry, it had only been 2 hours at best since she had met this turtle, she knew nothing other than his name and that he had a group of people after him and now it seemed that she would be housing him for the foreseeable future. What had she been thinking?!

A/N Hello again, it has certainly been a hot minute since I last wrote anything… and I'm having to post this again because I completely forgot that authors notes were a thing. So anyways here is chapter one of my new idea, chapter 2 is in the pipeline and hopefully will be up by next weekend though I will be in London for the next couple of days so that will take a fair bit of time up. I would really appreciate if you left me a little review? It doesn't have to be anything useful or even positive it would just be really nice to know if people are actually reading this. Even better if you actually liked it or have any constructive criticisms for me, like I said I haven't written anything in about 2 years so I'll let you figure that one out. Have a great day and Thank you for reading!