Disclaimer: I don't own any of the TMNTcharacters. This whole story is an idea I have had for a while. It's a few of the different turtle-verses tied together. It will be slow moving, but it will pick up, promise! Hope you enjoy!
Never in a million years did she ever think her life would turn out this way. Living with her mom's cousin, who had moved with her to Michigan, was something that she came to except and become quite used too. Her dad had to do quite a bit of searching and explaining for them to take her, to what she remembered anyways. In the last 12 years, her mom's cousin Amy and her husband Mike were the only help she got, and even that wasn't much. They were never mean or mistreating towards her but they had their own kids to take care of. She became quite independent, now living on her own. These days, the only bad part about Shadows life was, every so often realization hit all at once and it reminded her in the worst way that her mom had died when she was born, and her dad, well… he sent her away.
She remembered her dad being there to send her off to elementary school in the morning, and him tucking her in at night; that's all that twenty-three year old Shadow Jones could really remember. Shadow knew he was a good man, that he had loved her. However no calls, letters or anything for the second half of her life made her skeptical, actually quite cynical. She knew why there were no contacts. There couldn't be. Sometimes she would wonder if her father even knew where she was, where her cousin had moved her too.
Her father's choice in friends was the cause of it all. High school, dates, jobs, boys, parties, proms, graduation, college- she did it all on her own. She had too. Her reason for being sent away was the Shredder after all. She had no idea who this 'Shredder' was, or why he was any reason for it, until yesterday, when she got the letter. It was several pages long, with extra postage. No return address on the outside, naturally, that was always her luck. No break on life to have a road back, right? The letter explained everything. How Casey met Raphael that night in the park, April and the others, the Shredder and the reason that Shadow had to be sent away. Shredder and the Foot had found out about her. Casey he begun receiving phone calls in the middle of the night, letters stuck to the door with knives. The turtles said that they could help since it had been their entire fault. However after consultation with Splinter, everyone thought that sending her away was for the best; that they thought as soon as everything quieted down that they could send for her to come back.
The letter also told her the main thing that was on her mind now. Why the letter now? During college when she was at Michigan State, the Foot had found her. Never interfering with her, but finally made mention to Casey, this time when he and the turtles had been in a scuffle with some of the Foot ninjas. One with a very smart mouth thought he'd be the comedy act of the night, telling the five males that the Foot knew where their precious Shadow was, that at anytime she could be snuffed out. Shadow didn't know what happened to the ninja who said it, and the letter didn't say. She had a feeling that it wasn't very pleasant. She knew her father was on his way, the end of the letter read "We'll see you soon hunny." She just didn't know when. It was like she was in the witness protection program all of a sudden. Then again, she always sort of was.
The turtles were only three and four years older than her. They never really talked much to her. She didn't even really know them. Just like in normal society, what would fifteen year old boys want with an eleven year old girl? Boys that age start to notice girls, but not eleven year olds; she was annoying to them just for being around. Casey hardly ever brought her around them anyways. She would go to school, come home and get her homework done because of a deal that she had with her dad, ate dinner every night with Mrs.Carini the crazy, in a fun way, Italian neighbor and then Shadow would walk four blocks to Titans Gymnastics. It was her most favorite thing in the whole world. From there her dad would pick her up and they would walk home, talking and laughing. By this time of night, she would head to bed and he would tuck her in. She always thought he was there, watching a game on TV and falling asleep in his chair. Why would she think otherwise when he was always there in the morning. Now she was old enough to know that he left every night. A vigilante's work is never done after all. With her full days however, when would she have time to ever see the turtles? Not that she cared much too. Why would she want to see boys that made fun of her anyways? When they did see her, they picked on her, sometimes maliciously. Now that she was older, she can accept the fact that they were all young. Four years in kid time is a lot of a difference. Now she's twenty-three and they're what, twenty-six and twenty-seven, they could actually have common interests, right?