Summary: After helping to save New York City from the attempted take over of The Footclan in a deadly attack, April O'Neil is starting to think her life will never be the same again. And though they may be worlds apart, the Turtles are having the same concerns.
A/N: So, this is set just after the events of the 2014 movie, seeing as I recently watched it and loved it. This is just me exploring what could possibly happen after all the heroic stuff and when life goes on afterwards! I intent to write longer chapters in the future - I wanted to get my premise across in this one! Reviews would be greatly appreciated because as ever, my writing is a skill very much in progress!
You would assume that your life would change forever after saving the entire population of New York City from a mass poison gas attack at the hands of a power-crazed mob. And it did. I just didn't expect things to get so shitty.
For a time I believed I was just in some kind of 'adjustment period' after all the craziness that happened within only a couple of days. At first I theorized I was just on a come down, so speak, from all the adrenaline and lack of sleep and damn right do-gooding. Yet things didn't change. I woke up every day telling myself this was the day things would fall back into place, but every morning the gloom engulfed me the moment I rose from my bed.
Maybe it was stupid of me to expect that I suddenly would be plucked from reality and retire to the Bahamas filled with the warmth of eternal self-fulfillment. It was a futile thought that had stemmed from my own pride of cracking my first major crime case - one that I would never get any recognition for seeing as I could never publicize any of it due to the fact I had the help of four mutant ninja turtles and a rat. Who would even believe me anyway?
Every day I thought about the mutant turtle brothers. I wondered if their lives had gone back to what they had been before - non-existent to the world. Every street I walked down I noticed every sewer drain and pictured the brothers living beneath it. Every crime report I saw on the news, I wondered if they'd had anything to do with it; risking their lives for the same city that kept them barricaded underground for fear of rejection.
I also often wondered if they thought about me like I did them, if they wondered how my life was going since everything. It was a purely self-indulgent thought and I teased my own feelings with fictional excuses as to why the brothers hadn't tracked me down again. I tried to convince myself that they wondered about me even a fraction as much as they filled my thoughts, but without any evidence it was just a flimsy thread of hope I clutched on to. They had disappeared again, as if they were a figment of my imagination. But they weren't, they were real, and it wasn't like they never existed because I knew they did. Things couldn't go back to how there were before because I knew they were here, in the sewers, in the streets, in every shadow and crook of the city - protecting us all.
"April?"
My eyes flickered up and met Vern's across the table. I gave him an apologetic smile that felt tight and uncomfortable on my face - I didn't feel like smiling much lately.
"Sorry...In a world of my own," I said, straightening up in my chair in an attempt to show that I was fully focused.
"Huh..." Vern twisted his fork into his noodles and scooped them into his mouth. His face was illuminated by the soft glow of a tea light between us. "Still thinkin' about our, shall we say..." He cleared his throat melodramatically and lowered his tone, "giant scaly associates?"
I stared into my own noodles as I stabbed my fork into the mound, unprepared to have that conversation with him. As much as he tried to make light of the situation, Vern wasn't quite the understanding type. I couldn't really blame him - it was a strange situation us humans weren't trained to be able to console someone over.
"No just got some things on my mind," I replied playing with my food. I could feel his eyes on me still. "Like my interview tomorrow."
Okay, so that wasn't a complete lie, I had been worrying myself over that too. After Channel 6 had completely washed their hands of me in presumption that I was having some kind of mental breakdown and imagining the story of four ninja trained mutated talking turtles, I'd struggled to find anywhere that would take me on since. It had been near damn impossible but, with my ungratefully bitter resentment, Vern had some contacts and managed to get me an interview with a small internet broadcasting channel - but I hadn't got my hopes up.
"Listen, you're the best damn reporter on TV, you just gotta' show these guys that and convince them you're not a total nut case," Vern offered, raising his eyebrows and nodding encouragingly.
I snorted. "And how exactly to you suppose I do that? The whole broadcasting industry probably knows me as The Crazy Turtle Woman."
"I've heard it's something more along the lines of The Turtle Whisperer..." Vern said waving his fork nonchalantly. He gulped his food down and shifted nervously when he saw the completely sarcastic humored expression I wore. "But that was from Linda at the office and we all know she went a bit, cuckoo, after that beloved cat of hers died..."
He waved his hand dismissively. "Anyway...what I'm trying to say is, you'll do fine O'Neil. Just be yourself - they'll be putting me on their Christmas card lists for handing them such talent."
He slid his arm across the table and his hand found mine, giving it a soft squeeze. Admittedly I was touched by his fumbling attempt at comforting me, so I kept my hand where it was, resting on the table enclosed in Vern's.
"I hope so."
The Chinese restaurant was a small place in downtown New York, embossed with neon Chinese lettering above the door. The building itself was only a couple of stories high so was easily looked down upon from any of the other buildings surrounding it. The turtle brothers had calculated that the building opposite and just to the right gave them the best line of sight and least risk of detection.
The four hulking turtle's were at the edge of the rooftop, each fidgeting and shuffling into each other trying to get a better view of the restaurant across the street.
"Donnie's being a total hogger of those binoculars, come on bruh I want a turn!" Mikey, the brother that sat a couple of inches shorter than the rest, swiped for the binoculars.
Withdrawing them out of his reach before so much of a thick, green finger could touch them, Donnie looked mildly insulted.
"You don't 'have a turn' of them Mikey, it isn't a toy! Do you even know the focal length needs to be precisely calculated dependent on the distance from the focus point, and the infa-red radar needs calibrating and-"
Raphael bent forward with a grunt, cutting Donnie's flustered rant short.
"Quit borin' us to death and gimme' those." he snapped and snatched them out of Donnie's hand roughly, who's mouth fell ajar in outrage. Leo had watched the exchange and as the democratic peace-keeper/babysitter of the group, he decided it was time to intervene. He raised an assertive hand to Donnie, silently telling him to hold his tongue and turned to Raphael, who had the binoculars clamped to his eyes.
"Donnie made those, be careful with them Raph, we don't break things we-"
"Fix 'em, yeah yeah I know." Raphael said impatiently still looking through the binoculars.
"Oh he knows?" Donnie muttered indignantly crossing his arms across his hard chest. "Who'd of guessed."
"Look's like she's all cosied up with her little nerdy boyfriend anyways," Raph said pulling the lens away from his eyes and holding the device out to Leo. With a questioning look Leo took them and peered through to locate the right hand side window of the restaurant, illuminating the street outside.
Sure enough, there she was, April O'Neil, having dinner with someone, a man. Leo adjusted the focus slightly on the guys face and realised he recognised it. It was the guy April worked with, the one who drove the van. He was pretty sure they'd saved that dudes ass a couple of times - not that he could remember what his name was. His line of sight drifted across the candle lit table and Leo skimmed the lens from their touching hands up April's arm and to her face. He lingered there for a moment as her lips moved silently in unheard conversation, her face uncreased and serious.
"See?" Raphael's rough voice cut through Leo's concentration. "So it's kinda' creepy that we're spyin' on her right?"
Leo straightened up, a pensive look on his face. He didn't flinch when Mikey grasped the opportunity and yanked the binoculars for himself.
"You sure you're lookin' in the right window Raph?" Mikey said, navigating the binoculars on his eyes in erratic directions until he found the same window the others had. "April would never..."
Leo could hear the disappointment in Mikey's voice as his words withered away at the scene and he sighed. After all of their ninjitsu training over the years, Mikey had never mastered control of his own feelings and he didn't care much to hide them. Time and time again he had been told to keep his emotions in check but Mikey was Mikey, and he wore his heart on his sleeve for everyone to see.
"We ain't spying Raph, we're just checking in on her," Leonardo said.
"Yeah, you said that the first ten dozen times. Sure, I get it, she didn't tell nobody about us. But she looks pretty okay with her little man friend to me." Raphael gestured a large scaled hand across the rooftop at the restaurant. "She sure ain't concerning herself with us."
Suddenly perking up enough to argue with Raphael, Mikey tore his eyes away from April. "That's such turd man! I bet she totally misses us!" he said, waving the binoculars around in his hand in emphasis. Donnie was behind him desperately following his arm movements in fear of his binoculars safety. "Me most of course."
Raphael snorted at Mikey's smirk. "Oh yeah, she really looks like she's missin' ya right now shell brain!"
Kneading his forehead in exasperation, Leo snapped. "Drop it!"
The two subdued their bickering to the last few bitter mutters under their breath and Leo continued.
"We all agreed we would check that April was okay after what she did for us. Now, as Raph has so eloquently pointed out, she seems to be doing..." He paused for a moment, looking between his three brothers. "...Okay without us. So, if April ever needs us, we will be there. But now we're gunna' leave her be."
"What?!" Mikey threw his hand up sending the binoculars spinning into the air over the edge of the rooftop. Donnie lunged, his face a contort of utter despair, and shot his arm over the edge. They landed in his huge palm and the turtle quickly hugged them to his chest in relief. Mikey was completely oblivious and was staring wide-eyed at Leo.
"Dude you totally teased me bringing us to these ultra-secret spy spots to," he implored air quotations and an insultingly inaccurate mock of Leo's voice, " 'check on April'. You've been such a party pooper - don't get seen, don't speak to April, don't break into her bedroom..."
Raphael snorted loudly in disbelief.
"And now you're telling us we can't even spy on her any more? That is not cool bruh!"
Leo rolled his eyes and exhaled, his patience wearing thin. "I told you, we are not spying! April is a normal human being Mikey, she's not like us! She can have an ordinary life, doing ordinary stuff, going for dinner with ordinary guys. We can't mess that up for her by interfering with her life any more."
It was quiet on the rooftop for a moment, the bustle of the street below humming in the background. Each brother looked between each other, considering the weight of Leo's words. Donnie was the first the speak up again, clearing his throat and adjusting his thick rimmed glasses.
"He does have a point. I highly doubt April would be able to have a stable life with us involved. I mean, genetically there are so many proven differences and we're just -"
"Worlds apart..." Leo mused.
Mikey's warm eyes were glossy in the reflection of the distant lights. "But...she's our friend Leo."
His tone has such childlike sincerity to it, none of the brothers could deny the truth in his words. Leo looked out over the rooftop, his face as hard and heavy as his heart felt. He didn't turn back round when he addressed Mikey, just instead let his voice drift over his shoulder as he stared on.
"Remember when that baby bird had fell down a sewer grid and broke its wing Mikey? Remember how you found it and we took care of it until it could fly, and we didn't wanna' set it free? What were the words that sensei told us?"
Donnie was the one who answered and he recited Master Splinter's word quietly. "If you love something, let it go. If it comes back to you, it's yours. If it doesn't, it never was."