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Ally was in a good mood. She had too much energy to sit around the house. Yeah, it was past dark, but the building restlessness was not going to let her sleep if she didn’t do something about it. She just had to go for a run. It was the only way to release the energy when she got like this. So, she took her phone and bag and left her apartment.
The cool crisp autumn air greeted her senses and made her feel all that much more alive.
This was a good night for a run.
Yeah, okay--it was probably not the smartest thing to do at night…alone…in New York City…but she would stay alert of her surroundings. Plus, she’s got some ninja training now from Leonardo. She could take care of herself…
Ally starts off down the street, quickly warming up into a brisk pace. Maybe she doesn’t need to wear her hoodie after all—she would be too warm soon…
After running for a mile and a half, she slows down to a walk to catch her breath. She could run some more… she just needs to take a quick break…
Ally had been keeping to fairly lit and populated streets, but as the night grew late, there were fewer and fewer people about.
As she cools down, she feels the back of her neck tingle as her nerves fire up and down her spin. She looks around in apprehension.
Yeah…this was probably a bad idea…she should really get home…
Ally pulls out her phone from her pocket to keep it handy…just in case.
As she rounds a desolate street corner, she passes a group of mean looking guys lounging around a convenience store. Ally discreetly watches them from the corner of her eye. They seem to perk up as they notice her.
Great.
Ally grips her phone tighter, but forces to keep her pace steady and not break out into a run…
“Hey there girly! Whacha doing out so late?” One of the larger men slurs as he slowly gets up from his sitting position on the ground and approaches. Ally simply glares at him and continues on a wide path around him.
“Hey, where ya going, cutie? We just wanna talk…”
Ally quickens her pace.
She can hear the three thugs following behind her.
Ally’s heartbeat is thundering, not from her run, but from the sudden adrenaline rushing through her system. She glances around searching for the best avenues of escape, while fumbling with her phone.
“Im bing flowed” Ally doesn’t even bother to look down to see if her message has been read.
She quickly turns down a side street to break visual contact with the pursuers and starts sprinting, her feet lightly smacking the pavement.
Unfortunately, there is a fence blocking the street exit at the other end.
Oh boi.
Ally whirls around to face the men now ambling towards her from the street entrance.
“Nowhere to go now, girly.” The leader sneers as he continues to approach her menacingly.
A sudden coldness spreads throughout Ally’s body as she watches his movements carefully and tenses ready to bolt or fight.
The man suddenly lunges at her.
Ally deftly dodges under his outstretched arms and races to the other end.
The other two men are blocking the exit. They hold knives out at their side and are leering at her.
Ally reaches behind her and from her bag whips out the collapsed bo-staff Donnie had made for her. In one fluid motion, she pushes a button releasing the bo to its full length and smacking the knife out of the hand of the closest assailant with a loud crack. The bo is swung around to strike the hand of the opposite man closing in on her, causing him to also drop his knife and cry out in pain. She then stabs one end of the staff into his chest with enough force to shove him back away from her. He gasps at the sudden loss of air being forced from his lungs as he stumbles backwards and falls on his behind. Ally then spins to face the second man before he has time to recover from the first strike. She also lands a blow across his chest to increase the space between them.
But before she can make use of the opening to dash for freedom, the leader has snuck up behind Ally. He grabs her in a bear hug, pinning both arms to her side. She responds by head butting him—hard. There is a sickening crunch of bone.
The man screams out and reels back from the pain, holding his bleeding nose. As Ally lunges away, he catches her hoodie with his other head, causing Ally to choke and stumble back towards him. Ally quickly recovers her balance and follows up with a back kick up towards the groin region.
She misses her goal.
“Why you little shit!” He angrily throws her bodily away from him.
The force causes Ally to lose her grip on her bo-staff. She scrambles to her feet, ignoring her scraped elbow and hands from catching the fall and eyes how far away her bo-staff has landed. She lunges to grab her fallen bo-staff, but the two other goons have recovered and grab both her arms and slam her against the brick building. Her head cracks loudly against the wall causing her to momentarily see stars.
As her focus returns, she pins a deadly glare at the leader approaching her and is breathing heavily.
It wasn’t fair. She was a good fighter, but they were stronger. It wasn’t fair.
“Hehe,” he chuckles. “I like them feisty. Now be a good girl and let us take your money.” The large man stands in front of her mocking her defiant glare. He starts to reach for her pockets, but he must have forgotten about her legs, because she quickly strikes a knee to his abdomen as soon as he gets close enough.
The large man doubles over in pain and the henchmen on either side of her loosen their grip slightly in surprise to reach out for their fallen leader. That’s all that Ally needs…
She drops all her weight against the hands holding her arms and twists them free. Then she sends a roundhouse kick solidly to the stomach of the guy on her left--another man down. She then blocks the third guy about to knock her head off, meeting his big fist with her own spindly arm. Pain jars up the length of her arm. She grits her teeth and sends an uppercut to his jaw with her other fist and his head snaps backwards from the unexpected force. He reels back in pain holding his chin.
The skin on Ally’s knuckles is split from the impact.
Ally dashes to hide behind a nearby dumpster to collect her wits of what to do next. The street exit is too far for her to make it without being caught.
She sends a pin of her location to her previous text message recipient and then hits the call button.
Not waiting for the call to be answered, she sweeps her eyes to across the surroundings. The thugs are stirring from their crouched positions on the ground. They’d be up in a second. Ally formulates a plan and stuffs her phone back in her pocket absentmindedly. She spies a fire escape ladder just out of reach. She dashes from her hiding spot. She leaps up to the fire escape and just barely makes it, her fingers clutching around the cold metal rung.
However, before she can haul herself up, strong arms grab her legs and roughly yank her down, ripping her hold from the bar.
This really is unfair, she thinks to herself.
Ally finds herself once again slammed against a brick wall. This time with enough force to knock the air out of her. She is stunned for a moment trying to suck the air back in and her head throbs painfully.
Why is it hard to breathe?
A large hand is wrapped around her neck.
“Thought you could get away, huh?” Another large hand roughly tears through her pockets and searches through her wallet tossing it to the side in disgust.
“Don’t got any money? Well, no matter, I will just take something else from you then…”
His face is leaned so close to Ally now that she can smell the sour beer on his breath and it makes her gag against the hand holding her in place.
“Maybe I will take the feistiness from you, huh? Maybe I will break you…” A sharp pointy object presses against Ally’s side and her eyes flash open in fear.
Before she can really think about it, Ally has slapped the knife away with a swift block of her arm, causing it to clatter to the ground out of the assailant’s hand.
Warm liquid languidly oozes out from a gash on Ally’s forearm.
The guy looks at the fallen object in shock. Then shoves Ally even harder against the brick and tightens his grip on her throat causing her to cough and gasp for air.
Tears well up in her eyes.
Ally can vaguely sense her arms desperately thrashing at the attackers’ face before he pins them both with one large arm above her head. He presses his body against hers into the cold wall to removing any space between them, eliminating her ability to get a good kick in.
Ally’s bleeding arm makes the assailant’s grip slick. She takes advantage of that and yanks her injured arm free. She shoves her fingers towards where she hopes are his eye sockets. Her own eyesight is blacking out with the lack of oxygen from the tight grip on her throat.
She is not sure if her last ditch attack caused any damage or not though, because right at that moment, the man collapses from a heavy blow from above.
A large shadow has descended on top of the fiend and has twin blades raised, snarling and seething in rage.
Ally is immediately gulping in air with her windpipe no longer blocked and continues to press herself against the wall to support herself from the sudden loss of the other body holding her upright.
Ally is barely cognizant that a shadowy figure is whirling around and dealing resounding blows that echo off the brick walls. And then in a blink, the figure is looming over her.
“Ally? Ally? Are you alright? Can you hear me?” hands reach for her.
“DON’T FUCKING TOUCH ME!” Ally vehemently lashes out, her voice sounding strained and horse.
The hands immediately halt to hover in the air before her.
“It’s okay…It’s me. It’s Leonardo.” The voice sounds anxious, but doesn’t attempt to move any closer.
Ally’s only response is the sound of heavy breathing. Her eyes look unfocused at Leo and she is tense, ready to strike out at any perceived danger.
Leo is unsure what to do.
Ally looks like she is about to collapse any second, but he also doesn’t want to frighten her any further. He makes a low whine sound like a question using his turtle voice in an attempt to reach her.
That seems to snap Ally out of it.
“Leo?” Her voice waivers and her eyes clear as she finally focuses on him.
All tension leaves her body as she slumps against the wall. Her whole body begins trembling as the adrenaline dissipates. Tears are running down her face now.
Leo starts to take hold of her shoulders, but stops before actually making contact when Ally shakes her head.
“But…Ally…your arm.” Leo sounds conflicted about how to proceed.
Ally glances down at her arm like she has never seen it before. Then her face goes pale at the sight of blood smeared all over it and the slow red trickle dripping from her fingers onto the concrete below.
She slides all the way down the wall into a sitting position.
Leo follows her movement down, squatting in front of her and closely watching her face. His own face pinched in concern, keeping his hands out where she can see and hovering close just in case.
“Good. Sitting down is good. You are probably going into shock. I need you to wrap your arm. Can you apply pressure while I get something to stop the bleeding?”
Ally doesn’t verbally respond, but clasps her other hand shakily around the cut to staunch the bleeding. Leo rips off some cloth from somewhere that Ally is not aware of enough to see.
“Is it alright if I wrap it for you?”
Ally grimaces and attempts to shakily take the makeshift bandage from Leo. She pauses at seeing her hand covered in blood.
As soon as Ally’s eyes go unfocused and she slumps forward, Leo catches her in his arms. He quickly wraps up her arm to stop the bleeding.
“Ally. Ally! Come on Ally…” Leo is calmly, but sternly calling as he finishes the wrap. He pauses when he notices something on his palm that is holding the back of Ally’s head. He brings his hand away and there are faint blood smears. Leo takes a sharp inhale. And says with more urgency,
“Ally! I need you to stay awake! Ally!” He lays her down on her side and is crouched over tapping on her face now, then shakes her leg with his other hand vigorously.
“whaaaa…” Ally rouses to Leo’s relief.
“wha—where am I?” Leo winces at Ally’s strained voice. It is difficult to tell if her speech is being affected from the abuse to her windpipe or the blunt trauma to her head.
“I need you to keep talking. I know—I’m sorry—I know it hurts. But you may have a concussion, so you need to stay awake. Tell me what happened. Why did these guys jump you?”
Leo looks down briefly to send a text and then watches Ally’s eyes carefully to assess her responses.
“uuuuhhhh…I was jogging…” Ally winces at the effort it is taking to speak. “…and that was dumb…huh?” She tries to cover up her discomfort with a sheepish smile. She looks at Leo, whose face is etched in stone.
Ally starts tearing up, “I-I-I thought it be fiiiiine……’cauzzzzz I had all that ninja train’in…….itsnot fair…” Ally’s voice gets quiet as she begins shaking and sobbing.
Leo is tight lipped as he lets her cry it out. He holds something against the back of her head and keeps her injured arm elevated.
“Oh no you don’t.” Leo reprimands when Ally grows quiet again and gently shakes her. “You gotta stay awake. Remember?”
Ally’s eyelids crack back open.
When did she close them? Why is Leo being so mean? Why can’t he just let her sleep. She feels exhausted.
“Imma wake…” Ally mumbles.
“Good ‘cause we can’t stay here. These guys are going to wake up soon with a headache. And as much as I would like to stick around for round two so I can bash their heads in some more, we need to get you some medical treatment. Can you stay awake if I carry you?”
Leo is kneeling next to Ally and slowly raises her to a sitting position. Ally’s world goes momentarily gray at the change in elevation, but it gradually fades back in.
“uugggh…yeah I got it…I can do that…”
Leo looks un-reassured by her response but doesn’t see any other options.
“Okay. I’m going buddy-carry you on my back. Just lean onto my shoulder and hold on.” Leo scrambles around so he is in front of Ally with his back to her. He doesn’t let up on the pressure on her arm the entire time, but gently adjusts his grip around.
“Okay. On three. One. Two. Three.” Leo hoists Ally’s injured arm over his shoulder, keeping the pressure on the wound and pulling her against his back. Once he feels that she is settled, he slowly stands up, but stays hunched over to keep her from sliding off.
“You good?” Leo glances behind his shoulder trying to see Ally’s face when she made a grunt noise at being jostled.
“Yup. Peachy. Tally hoe my trusted steed!” Ally says tiredly and thrusts her free arm over his shoulder and points off towards the end of the alleyway.
Leo finally cracks a smile at the relief of hearing her humor.
“Just make sure you hold on.” Leo straightens up as he feels Ally’s grip tighten on his upper shell with her free hand. “…and keep talking.”
Leo brings out his blade and gives it a swing. Brilliant blue light floods the dark alleyway. As they step through the portal, Ally is filled with a sense of relief because she knows she is safe…
________
Ally ends up not keeping her end of the deal. She passes out again almost immediately after Leo steps through the portal.
Leo is able to jostle her awake a bit more, but doesn’t get any clear responses and so he quickens his pace and secures his other arm around her to keep her from slipping off his back. He has portaled them outside the hospital that the turtles have a friend working at. They are expecting Leo when he shows up at the back door and takes Ally from him.
Leo stands there as they whisk her away, wishing he could go with her to make sure she will be okay.
Their nurse friend promised that she would text Leo with updates. So there really was not much else he could do.
Leo clenches his fists.
He hates feeling helpless.
He hates being reminded how fragile his human friends are.
He hates that his training was what might have gotten her into trouble…
…he needs to punch something...
…Maybe he will go back to those thugs and make sure they understand how much Leo hates how horrible people can be to each other…
---------
A week later, Leo is surprised when he walks into the lair dojo to see Ally stretching and warming up.
“Hey, Leon! Ready for our weekly lesson?”
Leo freezes, glancing at the still visible bruising around Ally’s neck and the wrap around her arm.
“Yeah…no way. You are not doing any training until you are completely healed.” Leo finally snaps out of his headspace and casually approaches her.
“But! I was released from the hospital 5 days ago! I can’t just sit still in my apartment all day! What was that old saying that you got to get back on the horse?”
Leo sits down next to her and notices the way she uncharacteristically stiffens at the close contact, so he leans back on his hands to give her space. “Well, not if you’re going to aggravate any injuries. Just…like…give your body time to recover?” He looks hopefully at Ally.
Ally scowls.
“Okay! Fine! How about we just do some stretches and isometrics. It’s good physical therapy.” Leo acquiesces.
Ally knows that Leo can be just as stubborn as she is and therefore it wouldn’t do any good to try to push for anything more vigorous, so she sighs. “Fine. Whatever you say. You are the medical expert.”
“Exactly. So you have to listen to me!”
Leo leads Ally through some light stretches and exercises that will help work out any tension. He includes breathing training to help them both stay focused and relaxed.
Ally seems much more at ease when they are finished. They are now both lounging on the floor.
“Sooooo…when can I resume my training?”
“Ally…” Leo warns.
“What? I want to know how long to prepare my mind for boredom.”
Leo chuckles, “Maybe some boredom wouldn’t be a bad thing.”
“Yeah, not if you had my brain!” Ally teases back.
Leo sighs and then sits up facing Ally. “Look. I don’t think it is a good idea to resume your training…”
“WHAT! What do you mean?!” Ally shoots up and is glaring down at Leo. “Is it because I messed up? Okay yeah. I admit it! I got overconfident and wasn’t being smart. But I learned my lesson and will never do that again!”
“It’s not that…” Leo says quietly.
“Is it because I couldn’t handle it myself?! How is that FAIR!! It was THREE guys against ONE!!! But you can teach me! I can learn to handle it!”
Leo swiftly gets to his feet to face Ally at eye level. “No!” He says with more passion than he intended to.
Ally steps back a little shocked at Leo’s sudden outburst.
“I mean…” Leo quickly amends speaking softer. “…I don’t want you to have to fight three men…or anyone for that matter…”
“Well, it’s not like I’m picking fights on purpose. I don’t want to have to fight anyone either! But that’s the whole point of this training! So that I can if I have to!” Ally crosses her arms, eyes fiery.
Leo shakes his head. “Well, you may be ready to resume training, but I’m not.” Leo turns to walk away.
“Wait!” Ally shoots out her hand to stop Leo and quickly drops it when he turns around to face her. “What does that mean you’re not ready to? I’m the one who got beat up, remember!?”
Leo’s face winces at the memory. “I KNOW! AND…and it was my fault…if I had trained you better….or-or…not trained you at all…maybe…maybe you wouldn’t have gotten hurt!” Leo blurts out.
Ally softens at how broken Leo appears. “Leo. It’s not your fault. I make my own decisions and have to live with the consequences of them. Even if you weren’t training me, I would have found someone else to train with and I would probably still have been out running that night.”
“Well, go find someone else then! Because I can’t be responsible for you getting hurt again!” Leo stomps out of the dojo and into his room slamming the door.
Ally is left alone in the dojo feeling dumbfounded. Rage slowly builds up at how unfair Leo was being. “FINE!!” She yells to through the lair. “I WILL! AND THEY WILL MAKE ME INTO A MUCH BETTER FIGHTER THAN YOU EVER WOULD HAVE!”
Ally hap-hazardly gathers her belongings stuffing them into her bag and rushes out of the lair.
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Leo heard Ally’s words before she stormed out of the lair.
They stung.
He should go after her and talk things through.
…he’d rather wallow in his feelings than try to resolve anything.
…He should be the hero and put aside his own feelings to make sure that Ally gets the proper training since she stubbornly insists on continuing.
...He doesn’t feel like doing anything.
A message notification from Donnie appears. He is walking Ally home.
Leo sighs in frustration and falls back against the pillows on his bed. He drapes an arm across his eyes.
His mind wanders to the memory of how limp Ally felt when he rushed her to the hospital.
He squeezes his eyes trying to shut out the memory.
He feels sick.
-----------
Donnie and Ally hadn’t exchanged any words on the way home. She just let him follow her, knowing that they wouldn’t let her walk alone after what happened last time.
Ally avoided taking the shortcut home that led past where the attack happened.
She waves to Donnie who perched up on a landing of the opposite building complex before heading inside.
They were just trying to look out for her. She knew that.
But she also didn’t want to be babied...and Leo should know that!
Ally stewed in her apartment going back and forth between feeling angry at Leo for refusing to train her and feeling guilty for causing him so much worry.
“Sigh. Well, I can’t stay here forever. I still got to live life.” Ally angrily swipes a tear from her eye. She gathers up her confused and broken emotions and stuffs them down to deal with later.
She would let Leo be for now and eventually things will go back to normal…eventually she will feel normal…it has to.
------------------
There’s a sharp staccato rap on Leo’s door. He know who it is.
“Go away Donnie.” Leo doesn’t bother to lift his head from his pillow and his voice is muffled.
There is silence on the other side of the door.
Leo turns on his bed to face the door.
Leo sighs heavily and gets up to open the door.
There is no one there, but Ally’s bo-staff is leaning against the adjacent wall. There’s a note.
I fixed it. You will too.
“Gaaahhh…” Frustrated Leo grabs the bo-staff turning back into his room, shutting the door behind him. His twin always knew how to cut right through all of Leo’s emotional bullshit.
Leo plops down into his blue beanbag chair, reverently turning the slender metal weapon over in his hand. Donnie’s handicraft was evident from the added reinforcement and smooth finish. There appeared to be new features added too.
When Leo had gone back to find Ally’s weapon discarded and busted lying on that street, he had felt something break inside him. Ally was his student. He was responsible for training her. And he had failed.
How could Ally expect him to pretend everything was fine! She was hurt! She was still hurting…
Maybe he wasn’t ready to have a student. Maybe he never will be…
Donnie had taken one look at him and the staff he held in his hand when he had come home that night without Ally, and dropped whatever he had been working on to give him a short but firm hug. He then took the weapon from Leo and spent the rest of the night in his lab.
Leo read the note again.
You will too.
---------------------------
Ally still came around occasionally for family/friend gatherings, like pizza night with the bros.
No one commented on the dark circles under her eyes because of the nightmares.
Everyone politely ignored how she jumped at every shadow.
Leo avoided her as much as possible.
And when that wasn’t possible, he just covered up the awkwardness with stupid jokes…like normal…
UUUUUGH! Why was it so hard to talk to each other anymore?! She just wants things to be normal again.
One night while the family was gathered eating, Ally announces that she has been training at a martial arts dojo. Leo almost chokes on his pizza. Raph gives Leo a curious look.
“That’s great, Ally!” Mickey cheers. “I know you’ve been looking forward to getting back into it! How’s it been going?”
“Awesome!” Ally is purposefully avoiding eye contact with Leo. “They are really great at teaching me how to work around my limitations of being a smaller person and use my nimbleness to my advantage! They said I could even sign up for a competition if I want!”
“What happened to only training for self-defense?” Leo grumbles.
Ally finally makes eye contact with Leo, then breaks it off addressing the family in general. “I haven’t decided if I want to participate or not yet. But it’s a really good workout and the sparring is a chance to test out my skills against an opponent. I know it’s not like an actual fight, since there are rules and stuff. But I can still find out how well I match up against someone else!” Ally sounds excited about it, to Leo’s dismay.
Why is no one countering that they already know how well she stacks up against real opponents? Ally chides herself.
“Well, good for you, Ally! I’m proud of you for wanting to improve yourself!”
Leo glares at Master Splinter for encouraging Ally. Master Splinter is ignoring Leo’s eye daggers.
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After dinner is finished and Ally is getting ready to leave, Leo shuffles over and looks away as he nervously taps his foot.
“Yeeees?” Ally prompts Leo.
“Oh. Uh…it’s my turn to walk you home.” Leo answers lamely.
“Huh. Is that all?” Ally turns to face him.
“Well… err…no…”
“You better not try to talk me out of training again, Leo. I am doing this! And there is nothing you can say to change my mind.”
“I know…it’s just…I know you are capable and all...and will be great at it! But…I can’t help but want you to be careful…because I know how stubborn you get and…and…I just don’t want to see you get hurt again…”
“Leo…” Ally sighs exasperated. “I can’t promise that I won’t get hurt, but I am training to reduce the chance of that happening ever again! I hated feeling so weak! You have no idea how scary that feeling was! This is how I am coping with it. By training to be stronger, faster, and never get hurt again.” Ally clenches her fists trying not to shake at the memories.
Leo meets her eyes with open honesty and admits quietly. “I do know how that feels…and that’s why I worry. That feeling—it can either cause you to shut down completely or make you push yourself to be even more reckless. That kind of experience changes you…”
Ally is quiet as she let’s Leo talk. She’s heard the stories of their fights with Shredder and the Krang.
“Ally. You are strong and capable. You incapacitated two guys and crippled the third before I even got there! Anyone would have been overwhelmed, but you fought back! And…I’m…I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before how proud I was of how hard you fought. You did good…and…have nothing to feel ashamed about...It wasn’t your fault. I failed as your sensei and friend to support you through this…and…if training at the martial arts studio is what you need to heal, then…I support you. Just promise that you won’t do anything crazy…”
Leo’s hands come around from his back revealing the upgraded bo-staff. “Donnie fixed this for you. I figured that tech like this shouldn’t be left lying around…”
Ally’s eyes well up with tears. “Thank you, Leo! I thought I’d never see this again!”
She wraps her hands around the staff and pulls it close to her body in an embrace. “This means a lot to me—and I don’t mean just the bo! I mean everything you’ve done for me…and I’m sorry too that my stupidity caused you so much anxiety. But don’t worry! I’m making up for it by training so you won’t have to stress about me ever again!”
“You--that’s not the point--you don’t have to train to prove yourself to me…I already know that you are a capable fighter. I’m sorry that I made you feel like you are not.”
Ally’s grin turns mischievous. “Well, I may not have to prove it to you, but I do to myself. I owe myself that.”
Leo nods sagely. “yeah I get that…” Leo catches Ally’s grin and returns with his own. “…and if you ever want to test your new skills out on a real opponent, I know a guy...”
“Pfssh! You!? You’ve been acting like I’m a fragile china doll for weeks! You won’t be a challenge! All I’d have to do is say ‘ow’ and you will fold! HAHA!”
“Ally, that's not fair! You try living with the memories of your friend bleeding all over you!”
“Oh boo-hoo! Does the big softie need a hug?”
“Yes actually.” Leo sticks his snout in the air in mock offense.
Ally looks at him a moment, and then immediately wraps her arms around Leo, pinning his arms to his side along with the bo-staff.
Leo melts at the embrace. He wishes that he could hug her back, but since his arms are pinned, resigns himself to resting his head on top of hers instead, letting her support some of his weight.
Leo knows that it will take time to let himself trust that Ally can take care of herself again, even though he knows that she is capable. And Ally needs his support. Ally will take time healing from her own trauma, but at least they can talk about it now and be honest with their feelings.
The end.