Perseverance

I'm not making any money off this, nor do I own the Ninja Turtles - I'm just borrowing them for a while.
Please R&R it makes my day! :) Thanks for the great feedback! :)
~~~~~~~~~~

Charlie grabbed a couple of books and went to shelve them so she didn’t look as eager as she felt when the turtles walked in the door. She’d been thinking about them all day and she was really looking forward to seeing Donatello again.

The bell jingled as the turtles walked in the door.

“Hello?” Don called. Wasn’t she just at the door a minute ago?

“Hi!” She called across the store. “It’s ok, no one else is here!” she appeared around the corner of a shelf as the guys took off their fedoras.

“Hmmm” Raph though appreciatively. Charlie was wearing a pair of snug jeans and a long, low-cut, brown blouse that flowed gently around her as she walked, clinging momentarily to her curves before shifting again. “She looks good after she’s bathed and put on something that’s not got Mike’s blood on it.” He glanced at Don rooted to the floor staring at her.

“Hi Raphael! How’s Mike?”

“He’s much more alert. He still doesn’t want to eat much, but we’ve been force-feeding him that vitamin goo.”

Charlie laughed. “Poor Mikey... I’ve got to shut everything down, but I’ll be ready to go in a minute if you’re in a hurry.”

“Nah”, Don said. “Take your time, there‘s no rush.”

“Is it ok if we look around?” Raph asked.

“Of course it is. Make yourselves at home”. Charlie smiled and headed to the back room to shut off the computer. Raph and Don drifted around the store. Don had just found the computer technology section when he heard Raphael calling him.

“Hey bro, check out the size of these comics!”

Donatello found Raphael examining a shelf of the fattest comic books he’d ever seen.

“They’re graphic novels”, Charlie said coming up behind them. “You like comics?”

“Yeah,” Raph said, reading the back of one of them. “We mostly grew out of it though, but Mikey still loves them.” Don hid a grin, knowing darm well that Raphael read every comic book that Mikey brought home.

“Hm.” Charlie said, thinking for a moment. “Would you guys help me lift something?” Her eyes sparkled mischivously as she turned and walked to the back corner of the store, flipping through her big set of keys. Raph glanced at Don who shrugged, not knowing what she was up to.

Charlie led them to a door in the back or the store. She jiggled a key in the lock and pushed the door open. The room was full of cardboard boxes which were covered in varying layers of dust. “This is the storeroom”, she said. “I keep new arrivals in here as well as things that don’t sell.” She waded in through the boxes, pushing some aside with her legs to clear a bath. “Here it is”, she said pointing to a box marked ‘G.N.’. “Think Mikey would like these?” Don opened the lid on the box and found that it was full of old graphic novels. “They always send me a few more than I can sell, and I can’t return them” she explained. “There are new ones every month, and the publishers have no use for the old ones.”

“Can’t you just order less?” asked Don, looking up at her.

“No, they come in packages of ten.”

“Mikey’ll love ‘em” Raph said. “He can’t move around much.” Don lifted the box up into his arms. He smiled at her, remembering how he’d picked her up the night before.

“Thanks Charlie.”

She smiled, noticing how Don’s muscles flexed as he shifted the box around in his arms. She pulled her jacket on, and smiled
back. “Ready to go?”