the first phone call came around mid december, when the lair was freezing and raphael was ill. it had been four years since splinter had been mutated, along with four turtles he had taken in as his sons. they lived in an old subway station, with an old payphone that yoshi had assumed had been disconnected years ago, but that day he was proven wrong.

he'd been up all night, taking care of raphael and trying to keep the others away from their brother- he couldn't afford anymore of them getting sick.

the phone ran at six in the morning, and by the time he found where the sound was coming from, the phone had stopped ringing. he waited for a moment, to see if the phone would ring again. sure enough, not even a full minute later, the phone rang again. splinter debated for a moment before picking up the phone.

"hello?" he said, voice hoarse from lack of sleep.

"you'll find a bag of medicine and food outside the abandoned station entrance in about ten minutes," said a feminine voice, who hung up abruptly.

donatello and michelangelo had gathered around him, looking at the telephone curiously. splinter stared at the handset for a moment before placing it back in it's holder.

"what was that?" donatello asked.

"i...do not entirely know," splinter replied. he closed his eyes and mulled over what to do.

the designated place wasn't far away- just a few yards down the tunnels and up a flight of stairs, but...who was this woman? how did they know anything about his situation? how did she know to call a pay phone in an abandoned subway station? everything about this situation pointed towards a trap, but there was no one left to leave a trap for him. to the world, hamato yoshi was dead.

so who was this woman who knew where he was and what he needed?

he heard raphael coughing from the other room, and ran back to check on him. seeing his son so ill made up his mind for him.

"i will be back later - do not enter raphael's room until i get back."

as the woman had said, there was a grocery bag filled with medicine and vegetables by the abandoned station. there were at least five different bottles of cold medicine and one precious bottle of antibiotics.

he smelled the first bottle of cough syrup, and anxiously gave half a dose to raphael. time seemed to crawl by as he waited for any negative reactions to the medicine- would human medicine even work on a mutant turtle? had the medicine been tampered with in some way?

half an hour later, there seemed to be no side effects of the medicine, and raphael seemed to be breathing easier, so splinter gave him the other half a dose of medicine. while staying at his son's side, he began to examine the food.

there were three oranges, wrapped in paper towels to keep them from freezing, a plastic container of frozen chicken noodle soup, and three cans of ginger ale.

when he went into the kitchen to heat up the soup, he saw leonardo and donatello taking off the front of the payphone and hooking it up to an old computer that splinter had salvaged for him earlier that year. mikey was sitting on top the payphone, legs dangling off the side.

"what are you three doing?" he asked, startled by the scene. donatello dismantling whatever electronics he could get his hands on was not unusual, but splinter was still unsettled by the call.

"donnie's gonna figure out the phone number of the herald!" mikey said, kicking his legs.

"the herald?" splinter asked.

"yeah! the person who called you earlier, that was a woman, right? and she knew things that no one else could know, right?"

splinter nodded. "yes, that's right. how do you know that?"

"well," donatello said, typing on his keyboard, "there have been a lot of strange calls like that, all over the world. a woman will call and give strange predictions, and then just hang up. the crazy thing is, she's always right. people have reported being told to go the doctors, only to find they have early stages of diseases that are treatable. she tells people to drive carefully on certain roads, and gives very specific instructions on how to avoid what she sometimes refers to as "the bad end." people from all over the world are trying to figure out who she is."

"she's like a superhero, except she doesn't fight!" michelangelo said moving to lay on his plastron on top of the payphone. "they talked about her on the news a few days ago.'

"but how does she know all of this?" splinter asked, kneeling to see what donatello was looking at.

"a lot of people think she can see the future," leonardo said, sitting next to donatello. "it's actually pretty cool."

"but that's imposs-" splinter started, before cutting himself off. he was a giant mutant rat man, living in an abandoned subway station with his four mutant sons. nothing was impossible, apparently. he looked down at the container of soup in his hands, and stood up.

"well, if you find out this...herald's phone number, let me know," he said, walking back into the kitchen to warm up the soup.

raphael recovered very quickly after that, and donatello became obsessed with uncovering the mystery of the herald. she had taken precautions to encrypt her phone so calls would be nearly untraceable, but it was no match for his son's genius and determination. after about three days, he figured out how to recover the phone numbers of everyone who had called the payphone.

"so can i post it on the forums, master splinter?" donatello asked, vibrating with excitement.

splinter shook his head. "no. that would be a massive invasion of privacy. she has respected our privacy, and so we should respect hers in turn."

"what do you mean, sensei?" raphael asked, brow furrowed.

"if she can see the future, then she saw what we needed and where to leave it. it is entirely possible that she saw what we are as well. as far as we know, she has not revealed this to anyone. however, i do think it would be a good idea to call her, and see how much she knows," splinter said, stroking his beard.

that was how the four turtles ended up huddled around the payphone as splinter dialed the phone number. what was he even going to say? 'hello, can you see the future, and did you know you were helping a mutant rat man?' splinter tried to push down the bubble of anxiety in his stomach.

the phone rang.

and it rang.

and it rang again.

then, it went to voicemail.

"your call has been forwarded to an automated voice message system. this user is not available. at the tone, please record your message. when you are finished recording, you may hang up, or press one for more options. to leave a callback number, press nine."

splinter was at a loss for words. instead of leaving a message, he merely pressed nine and hung up. he did not expect the herald to not answer the phone at all. the four turtles looked up at him with questioning eyes.

"i suppose," he said, "she simply isn't home."

"she'll call back though, right? we didn't go to all that trouble figuring out what her phone number was for nothing, right?" donatello said, frowning.

"i do not know," splinter said, kneeling down so he was on eye level with his son. "but i am very impressed that you were able to figure out her number. you are a smart child, donatello."

donatello glowed at the praise, but all the turtles were upset that the mystery woman hadn't picked up. all of the turtles were irritable for the rest of the night, and raphael, who was back to his argumentative self, had managed to pick a fight with leonardo.

splinter sighed, cleaning up the kitchen after his sons had gone to sleep. while he was washing dishes, the phone rang. he jumped, nearly dropping the dish, and ran over to the phone, trying not to wake up his sons.

"hello?" he said, his voice quiet. "is this the herald?"

"yes!" said a cheerful voice, though it had undertones of exhaustion. "sorry i didn't pick up earlier- i was at work. busy day, you know?"

"you work?" splinter said, surprised, before even thinking about what he was saying.

there was silence for a moment, and splinter worried he had offended her, but then laughter erupted, loud and joyful. he was confused for a moment, before the voice on the other line said through gasps, "that's what you're surprised? that i work? dude, being a phone psychic isn't a full time job- hell, i don't even charge anything. of course i work."

"oh," he said simply, his ears burning with embarrassment.

"anyway, what did you call me for? i'm impressed that you even managed to get my number- i really didn't see that coming." there was a pause. "that was clairvoyant humor, by the way."

"so it's true then? you can see the future?" splinter said, careful not to raise his voice.

"mm, well, yes and no. yes, i can see the future, but not quite the way you're envisioning," she said, and in the background he could hear the sound of a microwave. "i can only see the future as i can actively change it."

"as you can change it?" splinter repeated, confused.

"yeah. for example- all i could see was dropping off the bag at the abandoned station entrance and calling you," the voice said, a beeping sound on the other end indicating that whatever was in the microwave was done. "i couldn't see who you were, or why you need the medicine- or why you're living in an abandoned station, for that matter. but once i had called you a new set of branches revealed themselves, and while i could see this future, where you call me, the chances of it actually happening were quite slim."

splinter felt weak with relief. she had no idea who - or what - he and his family were. however, her explanation only brought on more questions.

"why would you help me if you had no idea what was wrong? how could the future version of yourself even know what we needed if you didn't learn until after? and what do you mean by branches?" he questioned.

there was a pause. "well, you just have look at the bigger picture. what i can see isn't all that much in the grand scheme of things. when i saw myself leaving the bag and calling you, i was looking into a different branch, one where i did know you and what you needed. it's the same way with all my other calls. i look into different timelines where i do know what's happening."

splinter was having a difficult time wrapping his head around all of this. "i'm afraid you've lost me," he said, massaging his temples.

the voice laughed. "yeah, it's kinda hard to explain. uh, i guess the simplest way to put it is that i'm exploiting loopholes in my powers to see things in other timelines, and i use that information to help people. including you."

"alright," splinter said, nodding even though she couldn't see him.

"i should probably get going. i think it goes without saying but, uh, please don't give out my number. i like to keep a low profile about all this," the voice said, chuckling nervously. "but, uh, other than that, do you have anymore questions?"

he would later think of a thousand and one questions he should have asked, but at the moment he could only think of two.

"yes," he said. "what should i call you? and will i ever speak to you again?"

the voice exploded into laughter again, much to splinter's surprise. "goodness, don't sound so dramatic! i mean, you've got my phone number- you're free to call me anytime. and as for what you should call me...just...don't call me 'the herald.' i really hate that title. call me nova," she said. "and what should i call you?"

splinter paused. he certainly wasn't going to give her his true name, but should he give her the name he went by now? no one but he and his sons actually knew that he went by splinter now, so there was no harm in it…

"splinter. please, call me splinter," he said.

"well, it was nice to meet you, splinter," nova said, not questioning the odd name. "you can call me tomorrow, if you want- well, actually i'm on call all day, so whether or not i'll be here is up in the air. but i'll get back to you as soon as i can."

splinter nodded, before realizing that she couldn't see him. "alright," he said, "i will call you sometime tomorrow then."

"okay," nova replied. it was silent as they each waited for the other to hang up.

"i'm going to hang up now," nova finally said, and splinter nodded again before replying.

"right."

nova finally hung up. he placed the phone back in the receiver and then realized: the boys were definitely going to want to talk to her. he'd have to make sure the boys didn't mention where they lived, or what they were.

he sighed. the boys would be upset that the herald- that nova had called while they were asleep. he shook his head- what was he even doing? he had called nova to see if she knew what they were, and to find out if she was trustworthy- now he was going to be phone pals with a clairvoyant?

as he walked back to the kitchen sink, he wondered if his life could get any weirder.

author's note: so, what did you think? i headcanon the turtles as mutating into toddlers, so they're around 7 years old mentally here. which is why donnie is able to take apart the phone and figure out nova's phone number. donnie's a genius, but i doubt he could do all that stuff at four years old.
the reason splinter asks if he'll ever talk to her again is because he is INCREDIBLY lonely in the sewers. he has his sons, but sometimes he just wants to talk to someone his age (or around his age). that's also why he agrees to call her again too.

please, leave a comment and tell me what you thought! you can catch me lightningrooks on tumblr