Ellie, Ivy, Harper and Carol were all racing around the gallery, double and triple checking that everything was set up for the showcase tonight.

The artists were said to show up in just a few minutes, to review the layout Ellie and Ivy had set up and then the showcase would officially be underway. The caters that Harper had hired had also shown up, half ready with entrees such as blue cheese tarts and cherry bruschettas while the other half held trays of elegant wine, prepared for the hoity-toity members of society that were said to be arriving in a little bit.

The four women were dressed exquisitely, in fine outfits with high heels that would surely give them blisters by the night's end. Ellie wore the new dress that she had bought specially for the showcase, an ivory cream strapless dress with red floral detailing.

Although she was sceptical if she'd be able to wear it, seeing as it was definitely more of a Summer or Spring dress, Carol reassured her that thanks to the heating system inside of the gallery she likely wouldn't feel cold throughout the night.

As each of the artists arrived, they looked over the layout that Ellie and Ivy had put together. After receiving the green light from the artists on their layout, Ellie's nerves began to calm slightly.

She desperately wanted to call Brooke, mostly to check if she was still coming. Honestly, the young brunette had been so busy that she hadn't had time to ask Brooke whether or not she was still free to show up, knowing that since she had been moved up the pecking order on the police force she'd lost a lot of the free time she had previously had.

Soon, the upper crust of New York began to file through the doors. Filling the room with wealthy socialites who looked over every piece on display from paintings to sculptures. They intermingled with each other and the four women working tonight.

Offers on pieces were slow in the first few hours, so Ellie and the rest of the staff were able to have a calm before the storm where biddings would be made in every direction, every second.

Ellie stood with Harper and her girlfriend, Molly. The three of them contentedly conversed, occasionally being pulled away by one of the artists when an offer was made on their work.

"So Ellie, how's your romantic life going?" Harper teased in her typical fashion. She meant no harm with the question, which Ellie knew.

Her dark brown eyes rolled playfully at Harper's question. "I don't have the time for one, Harper" Ellie proclaimed. "I have a full time job and a Brooke, that leaves very little time for anyone else, much less a partner" She affirmed, causing the couple and herself to laugh.

She may have been fudging the truth ever-so-slightly. While yes, her job and sister did take up a large portion of her time, Ellie also had a lot of free time to herself. Which as of recently, had been spent down below the surface of New York, inside the sewers with the turtles.

Although, Ellie knew she couldn't ever admit that to Harper. Or anyone else.

"Ellie!" Brooke's booming voice then called from across the room. Ellie turned to see her sister standing near the front door, waving her over.

Excusing herself from her conversation with Harper and Molly, she made her way through the crowd, apologising politely as she pushed her way through people. Finally reaching her sister she warmly embraced her, relieved that she had made it.

"You look fucking hot" Brooke gushed seeing her sister all dolled up.

She shrugged. Glancing down at her sister's attire she was relieved to see that Brooke was indeed in line with the dress code. She wore a simple, yet elegant, black suit. Ellie could even see her classic lace-up boots hidden underneath the long pants.

Ellie couldn't even be mad at her sister for choosing to opt out of wearing heels or any other sort of fancy shoe, they just weren't her style.

Just over her sister's shoulder, she could see four young men dressed nicely in collared shirts and dress pants. Ellie didn't think much of them at first, they seemed to be transfixed on the paintings and sculptures that were placed around the gallery.

Until the smallest of the four made his way over to the two girls. He threw his arms around both of their shoulders, forcing himself in between the two sisters.

"How you doing Angelcakes?" He asked Ellie, a wide grin on his face.

Ellie at first clamped up, not recognising the man who had suddenly embraced both Brooke and herself. Her dark brown eyes darted over to Brooke, who instead of also being apprehensive seemed to be amused by the young male.

Sliding out of his embrace, Ellie yanked Brooke to the side. "Brooke, who did you bring?" She whispered somewhat aggressively to her sister.

Grabbing the confused artist by her shoulders, Brooke spun her sister back around. "Come on El, you know these guys" Brooke spoke quietly before the two girls came face to face with the four young men.

Hearing that she supposedly did know the four males that awkwardly stood in front of her and Brooke, Ellie racked her brain. Searching for a time when she might've briefly met the four gents.

Unable to come up with anything, Ellie was about to plainly ask them for their names when she suddenly focused on the unique attributes that embellished their profiles.

Tiny cuts and scars accented multiple areas on their features, subconsciously Ellie recognised them but she just couldn't place why. As her brain worked to connect things, one last detail stuck out to her and finally allowed her to piece everything together.

And the detail was the eye colour of the second shortest male in front of her.

Now, Ellie was more perceptive than the average person. She picked up and noticed little things about people that wouldn't even register with most others. So it wasn't a surprise that Ellie knew the eye colours of her close friends, or more importantly that she knew the shockingly blue eyes that belonged to the turtle she was closest with. Leonardo.

The same ones that just so happened to be staring down at her, from the young man that still stood in front of her.

Ellie's bottom lip fell as her dark brown eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. "Oh my god" She whispered.

Her eyes started bouncing back and forth between Brooke and the brothers. Her expression held the disbelief, the shock and the excitement at the notion that the turtles had somehow figured out a way to come out and support her tonight.

Brooke started to chuckle. "Finally, the dots are connecting" She joked.

Feeling her cheeks turning hot, Ellie's hands moved up and covered her mouth. A million questions swirling around in her head, demanding answers.

"Brooke, what did you do?" Her first question slipped through her lips, knowing that her sister likely had something to do with this considering how calm she seemingly was about the turtles now being humans.

Had they not been at her place of work, surrounded by her boss, colleagues and a crowd of rich strangers, Ellie would've been freaking out much more publicly. Her voice raised an octave or two.

After Ellie calmed herself from the bombshell revelation that was seeing the turtles as humans, she turned to her sister and demanded an explanation. Which Brooke willingly gave to her, knowing she would've had to anyways.

Ellie's wide dark brown eyes where constantly flickered back and forth between her sister and the four, now human, brothers as Brooke rambled on about how she'd managed to pull a few strings at the police precinct and obtain a small vile of the purple ooze.

Which had lead to Leo, Raph, Mikey and Donnie

Following her sister's explanation, Ellie remained silent for a few long moments. "Okay, I can work with this... I think" She declared although it was clear she was still trying to process this entire situation. She clapped her hands together. "So... Welcome!"

Stepping forward, she moved to quickly give out hugs to the four. Ellie had to prop herself up on her toes in order to comfortably do so, the brothers still towering over her even as humans.

She started with Leo, the catalyst for her even connecting the dots that the four young men in front of her where the turtles.

Moving onto the other brothers with short hasty hugs, going to Mikey, then Donnie and finally Raph, the main note she could make about each one was that as humans they maintained their unique clear iris colours.

Brooke's grin turned onto the four. "See? I told you guys she wouldn't freakout" The archer avowed, her hands landing on her hips.

"Not the time Brooke, not" Ellie lightly warned.

A little while after Brooke and the now humanised turtles had arrived, April and Vern walked through the gallery doors. Both dressed sharply in a complementary grey dress and suit respectively.

Not wasting any time, April pushed her way through the crowd inside the gallery, with Vern sauntering behind her.

Quickly finding Ellie, Brooke and the 'turtles', the reporter gave an embrace to Ellie. Beaming at the artist. "Hey, sorry we're late, it was Vern's fault" She greeted, her little humours jab at Vern making Ellie giggle.

Hearing April's little quip, Vern rolled his eyes. "That's... not at all true, okay?" He rebutted, the slight wobble in his voice all but proving that April's claim was correct.

Following a few more minutes of being joined up with her friends and sister, Ellie had to return her attention to the patrons who wished to make offers on the artwork displayed around the gallery.

She gave a quick au revoir to her friends. "Business calls, but you guys have fun, look around and just enjoy yourselves" She encouraged.

The next few hours where a mixture of chaos and tranquility. With rich snobs placed enormous bets on different artworks, all trying to outbid the other, while others just mingled amongst themselves. Enjoying the visual art and the small entrees that the caterers walked around serving.

During another of the night's calm moments where bidding wars over pieces of art had stopped, Ellie found herself wondering through the crowd of guests alone. Just taking in everything that had made tonight wonderful.

It had been a great turn out. Most of the main art pieces done by the professional artists had sold, and Ellie had even heard Ivy's work being sold to a wealthy older retired couple. They had also bought a few other pieces throughout the night.

Something then caught her eye, stood off away from where most of the guests where, was Raphael simply staring at a lone piece of art. Even from behind, and in human form, Ellie could tell it was him.

Manoeuvring through the thick crowd, she made her way towards Raph.

"It's a lot isn't it?" She confessed, alerting him to her presence beside her. "This whole showcase, I mean"

He was startled by Ellie's sudden appearance, being so quiet that Raph hadn't heard her approaching him. The former red masked terrapin uncharacteristically stammered. "It's... strange, that's for damn sure" Raph declared.

Ellie nodded. "Yeah, these things aren't for everyone, they can take a bit to get used to" She affirmed. "I'm still not fully used to them myself" The brunette professed.

The ghost of a smile appeared on Raph's face for a moment.

"So, what are you doing all the way over here?" She then asked curiously, since he was completely on his own without any of his brothers, Brooke, April or Vern. Just seeming to stare at the painting, lost in thought.

Raph seemed to think about his answer. "Don't know, for whatever reason I've been drawn over here by this..." His voice trailed off while he gestured to the painting he was standing in front of. "I don't even know what this crap's meant to be"

"A dove flying over a field as the sun sets" Ellie answered without missing a beat.

True to her word, the painting was an eighteen by twenty-four inch. An angelic looking, pure white dove soared across the centre of the canvas, while a field of unbloomed flowers was below the bird. Hues of amber made up the sunset behind the field and dove

He looked at her in curiosity, as to how she knew exactly what the image was supposed to be. She cleared up his confusion. "It's mine" She professed.

Ellie could practically see how the colour from his face paled slightly. Clearly feeling sheepish over having unknowingly referred to her work as crap. He didn't mean it in the way that her art was actually bad, in fact the painting seemed to only prove that she was talented at her craft, it was just a subconscious usage of the word.

"Uh... Sorry, I didn't- I didn't mean-"

She giggled. "None taken, it's okay, you didn't know" She reassured the brute, seeing Raph start to fumble over his words as he mumbled out an expression of regret.

Long moments of silence filled the air around them, neither seemed to know what to say to the other. They weren't close, in fact they'd really barely said a word to each other even during the time the turtles, April, Casey and the twins had all been and hung-out together.

In each of her peripheral vision, Ellie could see Raph glancing over at her, like contemplating if he should say something else or not. Considering how he'd already sort of messed up by being a dumbass and just spewing words out of his mouth.

Taking the initiative upon seeing that Raph likely wouldn't say anything else without being prompted, she tried to start up another exchange between them.

"So... H-How did you guys agree to this?" She inquired about the brothers turning themselves human, since she still didn't know any of the details about how exactly they did it. The most she knew currently was that Brooke knew about and was likely involved in the decision.

"You're sister" He replied, keeping his answers quick. "She's... Surprisingly persuasive"

Ellie's lips widened into a grin. "Only when she wants to be"

Again, she tried more and more to establish conversation between them though the most she would get back from Raph was either a single nod or a quiet murmur of agreement. As much as she was trying to wear down his walls and better get to know the green-eyed disguised terrapin, Ellie just had to accept that Raph was a lot more closed off to newer people compared to his brothers.

Which the brunette could completely understand.

"Okay, well I'll leave you be now" Ellie began. "But please, if you need anything come and get me" She was well beyond aware that one couldn't force a relationship with someone else, it wouldn't work out well for either party.

So, she just quietly backed off away from Raphael. Quietly hoping that maybe she'd get another chance to breakdown the red terrapin's walls and let him consider her as someone he could trust. As a friend.

In the centre of the room, Ellie looked out amongst the packed space of guests, as caterers still served and handed out hor d'oeuvres and glasses of wine, just taking in the great turn-out that tonight had been.

With the profession art pieces quickly selling out by their collections, to and even the gallery's employees managing to sell to some socialites. Which in itself was considered a major accomplishment for what was considered a amateur artist.

And with her sister and friends even showing up to show support for her, there wasn't anything else that Ellie could've asked for from tonight.