By Courtney Kays
Disclaimer: This was originally going to be a short story on how I see the turtles in future. But I think it might take a couple of chapters or more, depending on how long it will take to finish it. I haven't seen any fics with the turtles over the age of forty, so this might be the first. Only the first chapter is narrative. Enjoy and give me some feedback!
I stared out in the distance of the large expanse of trees from my seat on the porch. I have been living at the farmhouse by myself for five years and I have been taking it better than I thought. How many years had it been since my brothers and I left the sewers of New York? Nearly thirty É Splinter always said time slips away faster with age and he was right. Stretching my back, I shifted on the porch swing, my feet tapping on the worn boards of the floor. I found I could only take sitting on the hard swing for half an hour before my arthritis kicked in. Touching the old, withered skin on my knuckles I decided to go inside and make a cup of tea.
As the water boiled on the stove, I began to reminisce on the years gone by as I sat on one of the four empty chairs. Out of the five members of my family Splinter was the first to leave. Even through our teaching he consently reminded us they he would not be with us forever, yet through our youth we never thought he would leave so soon. The cold winter in the sewer finally took our sensei one cloudy night when we were only twenty-four, coming back from a battle with the Foot. I remembered how odd I felt early in the day before Splinter died. He did not seem sick, but very weak and we thought it was from cold in the sewer. Out of my brothers I believe I had the best connection to our master. Before leaving him in his bed I had a terrible feeling, but ignored it. He died alone and I have regretted it for years. On the outside I tried to look like a strong leader, but inside I was torn up and only when I was behind closed door would I weep. Through the mourning I decided to do what Raph had down for the greater part of his life and hide my emotions from my brothers. I did it so we could move on with our lives and still continue to battle with the Foot.
We stayed in the sewer for the remainder of their youth. Casey and April finally married and had two children named David and Carrie. While we give thanks everyday that we have friends like April and Casey, their lives have completely changed after meeting us. Not only were we hunted by the Foot, but because they had ties to us, their lives were also in danger. We did not want to put their children at risk so they agreed to leave the city until the Foot was officially defeated. Who know it would take twenty years to see them fall. There are no words to describe how we felt when we heard that the last and final sector of the Foot moved back to Japan. The new leader took their business elsewhere and ended the war to start a new away from America. I can remember standing in our lair just staring at the ground. Never in our lives have we felt such relief and peace of mind. We could hardly believe it was over when our whole lives had been spent training to avenge our Master. Since then it had been nothing but a vicious circle of wars since the day we turned thirteen. It must have taken days for it to finally kick in that we had won and we were free. That was the first day I had ever seen Raphael cry, though he never admit it. We were in our forties then and we were still in our peak of strength and it could not have ended at a better time. I only wished Splinter was alive to see it with us.
We continued to live in our underground home for another ten years. Between the end of the Foot and our ever-approaching old age we learned to live without the fear of constant sudden attacks. We still continued to train, whether my brothers only kept up it from habit I will never know. To me it was to honor our Master who had given us the skills to survive and defeat an old enemy who had plagued our lives from the very beginning. Donetello finally had the time he needed to work on the inventions he had put off for years. Michelangelo worked on his writing and learned a few more culinary tricks. Me, I had time to mediate and enjoy our new life with my family. Raphael, as always, was still restless and being the lone wolf he was, he would spend more time topside, break up gang fights and drug dealers. I swear not even age could slow him down.
Then first of the series of events happened to us one fine day in August. Donetello grew ill
TBC