Disclaimer: I don't own TMNT, but maybe they could share with me...

A/N: I know you've been waiting patiently for this one, so here it is. This is number sixteen in the series.


The turtle leaned back in the chair, propping his feet on the control panel. "Dude, this planet better not be like dullsville or we're out of here. Right, Chase?"

A second turtle, sitting a little behind the first at a table, banged away at buttons on a video game console. "Absolutely. We're supposed to be having fun, and I don't see what a no-name rock in this part of the galaxy can possible produce as fun."

In the command chair at the center of the control board, the third turtle laughed. "Hey, man, the way my gramps described this place it should be awesome. And the name of the planet is Earth."

Chase snorted. "Feh, whatever, K-three. Your gramps thinks a trip to the bathroom is exciting."

The first turtle dropped his booted feet to the floor. "That's it. Let's just blow this off and go astro-surfing near Rigel Three."

"Come on, Zan, just give it a chance. If nothing else, I hear they have righteous food." K-three responded. He watched the blue planet grow threw the viewport, while his two companions grumbled. For some reason he felt drawn to the place. Maybe it was all the stories he'd heard about the brave group of ninjas that lived here, who'd once saved their home world. And if it really was boring they could always head back to the more populated quadrants of space later.


When the alarm went off, they all responded but at a much slower pace than they once had. By the time they'd made it to the lab, Mira was already sitting at the computer. She was far more alert than her uncles and father. She turned to them. "It's the interplanetary alarm."

"You mean we have visitors?" Leo had Shinta propped on his shoulder, where the tot was fretting a bit from the loud noise that had awoken him. His father rubbed circles on his shell.

"Is it Marina?" Raph yawned.

Donnie stepped forward and hit a few keys and then stood back up. "No, it's not a Mazar ship. I'm not sure I've seen anything like it before."

"Oh, great. Why does this stuff always happen in the middle of the night? I wish aliens had the courtesy to wait until morning at least." Mikey grumbled.

"It is morning. It's seven." Mira pointed out in a matter-of-fact tone that reminded the brothers of Donnie.

Her father smiled at her. "Have you tried to plot their trajectory?"

She nodded. "If they continue on their present course, they should land outside the city in about an hour and a half."

Leo frowned. "I guess we'd better go greet them, guys."

Raph groaned. "Can't we let the humans deal with the aliens for a change? Let the army take care of 'em."

Donnie shook his head. "I doubt they'll even know they've landed. They probably have some kind of cloaking shield to hide their approach. The only reason we can spot them is because of the parts I stripped from Marina's old cruiser."

Leo nodded. "Then it has to be us. Let's get ready to go."

"Can I come?" Mira asked.

Leo almost told her no, but the fact was that Mira had proved herself over and over in the past two years. She had become a valuable addition to the team. These days one of them always remained behind while the others went on patrol. So, Mira had essentially taken the fourth spot. And having two geniuses at hand while dealing with the aliens was probably not a bad idea. "Okay."

Donnie patted Mira's shoulder. "Get the exact coordinates."

Sarah, Kala and Cat were waiting in the hall as they came out. Mikey grumbled some more as he stepped into their bedroom. Kala frowned as she followed. "What's going on?"

"Stupid aliens, I wish they'd call ahead or something…." Mikey flopped on the bed.

Kala chuckled as she sat near him. "Why don't you get some more sleep? I'll wake you up when it's time to go."

He gave a slight nod and closed his eyes as she ran her fingers gently down his arm. She sighed, before getting up to help Sarah in the kitchen. The Mazar was making up a few quick sandwiches for the guys to take with them. Kala frowned a little at her appearance. Her friend always looked tired these days. With the sudden lack of Amaya and the introduction on an infant, who'd been sick in the beginning, it wasn't really a surprise.

Sarah'd stepped up and became something of a surrogate mother to little Shinta. But it was hard carrying on the daily chores of cooking and cleaning for eleven when you had an infant attached to you half the time.

Shinta was shy and rather clingy. And although Kala tried to watch him as often as she could when Leo was busy, the little rascal would always end up right under Sarah's legs. Leo had tried a playpen in the dojo at first, but it didn't last more than ten minutes as Shinta had immediately started wailing. He didn't like being left alone that was for sure. That probably had something to do with the fact that he'd slept in Leo's bed nearly every night since his hatching.

Raph had suggested they dig out the old crib, but Leo had said it wasn't necessary since there was plenty of room in his bed. He had accepted the safety bar Don had installed on the far side of the bed to prevent the infant from rolling off though.

Kala moved past Sarah to start breakfast for the rest of them. Kaz and Yoshi would be up any minute. As if on cue there was a bellow from down the hall. "Yoshi!"

Kala sighed. Kaz was entering his pre-teens, which meant he was growing more moody by the day. It also meant every little thing set him off. And just as she'd expected, he came running into the kitchen. "Mom, Yoshi broke the string on my guitar again." He held up the musical instrument to emphasize his point.

Kala patted his shoulder. "It's okay, Kazzey. He just likes playing with it."

"But Mom…" Kaz whined.

Sarah put the last of the sandwiches in a bag and turned to the eleven year old. "How about we get you a new guitar and give Yoshi the old one? That way you can both have one."

Kaz looked at the beat up old fender. Slowly he nodded. "Well, okay."

Kala frowned as her son left the room. "How are we going to get him a new one? After Cat had the shop closed for so long, business is just now picking back up." After the break in, Raph had been so paranoid that he wouldn't let Cat reopen. It took several months and several sutra charms to make him comfortable enough to let her go up there without him. And in the beginning he'd even hung around upstairs to make sure nothing happened to her.

Sarah sighed. "We'll figure it out. We did just fine before the income from the garage. I'm sure we can find Kaz another guitar, even if it isn't brand new. It'll be new enough that he won't know the difference."

Donnie stepped into the doorway. "Sarah?"

She picked up the bag and stepped out into the living room with him. "Take these with you. You could eat them on the way back."

He smiled softly, pressing a hand to her cheek. She closed her eyes leaning into the comforting touch. Donnie frowned a little. He wasn't blind. He knew she was stressed, even if she never said so, even if there was never any sign of frustration in the bond. "I was thinking, once we've dealt with these visitors, maybe we should head up to the farmhouse for the weekend. Just the two of us."

He felt the surge of love flow over him, just before she opened her eyes. Wrapping her arms around him and resting her cheek against his chest, she sighed. "That sounds wonderful. It has been a while since we really got some alone time."

Wrapping his own arms tightly around her, he squeezed her. "Yeah, it has. Things have been a little crazy around here."

She chuckled softly and muffled a small yawn. "That's an understatement."

As if to make her point, Shinta came running from Leo's room to latch onto her leg. "Neenee!" Donnie couldn't help but chuckle as he looked down at the small turtle. How "Aunty" had become "Neenee" he'd never know, but it had become Shinta's nickname for his wife. Sarah just smiled, still holding tight to her husband as if the little turtle was some permanent fixture on her leg.

Down the hall Raph and Cat were having a rather intense discussion. Cat paced the bedroom. "You can't be serious!"

"Look, it might not even be the whole day. It could just be a few hours."

"I am not closing up shop, Raph. I've worked too hard to get the place going again after…after the remodel." She was referring to the painting of the garage floor, which covered up the garish mark on the cement.

Raph frowned as he stood from his place on the bedside. He took her shoulders. "Darlin', if anything ever happened to you. I'd be a hundred times worse than Leo was. With all of us going, there won't be anyone here if there's trouble."

"But there hasn't been and those charms Master Shinta sent seem to be working just fine. At least as far as we know."

He cupped her face. "Cat, please…." He kissed her and her hands came up to grip the edge of his plastron. She trembled and he deepened the kiss. When he rose up just a little, she was panting. He gazed down into her emerald eyes. "Just call and tell the guys that you're sick or somethin', and they'll have to pick up their bikes tomorrow. You can do that, can't you?"

Cat licked her lips, still clinging to him. She nodded mutely and he smirked. She groaned softly as he pulled away. Raph knew how to play her like a violin. Once he got her motor going, he could get her to do almost anything. "That's so not fair."

He gave a rumbling chuckle deep in his chest. "I'll make it up to you tonight."

She smiled. "Oh, I bet you will."

Suddenly there was a large crash next door. Raph and Mikey burst into the hallway at the same time, nearly running into each other as they tried to see exactly what had happened. On the floor were Kaz and Yoshi in another fight. They had knocked over their bookshelf in the process and it lay in pieces on one side of the room. Raph groaned and Mikey dragged a hand down his face. This was getting old.

"I want my own room! I'm tired of you breaking all my stuff!" Kaz shouted.

"Your stuff! It's mine!" Yoshi retorted.

"Enough!" Raph snapped and both boys immediately stopped. "What is goin' on here?" Both boys opened their mouths and he put up a hand. "Never mind, I don't really want to know."

"Kaz, this has got to stop." Mikey was more than a little irritated at this point. This was third time this week they'd broke up a fight it was only Tuesday.

"But Dad, he-"

"I don't care. Enough is enough. Ten laps."

Kaz's jaw dropped. "But-"

Mikey narrowed his eyes. "Twenty. Want to try for thirty?"

Kaz clamped his mouth shut. Beside him Yoshi snickered and Raph glared. "You too, Yoshi. Ten laps." Yoshi ducked his head, he wasn't about to get twenty like Kaz had just done. "And when you get back, I suggest you clean this room."

"Yeah, it better be spotless when we get back." Mikey added.

Kaz's head came up. Worry clouded his blue eyes pushing out the bit of anger that had formed there. "Get back?"

Mikey sighed, his tone softening a bit. "We'll be back in a few hours. Don't worry. Now, move it - to the dojo." He followed the two boys as they crossed the living room.

Cat touched Raph's arm and he looked down at her. He hadn't noticed she'd followed him out. "Kaz may be on to something. Maybe we should separate them. They are getting older."

Raph sighed as he looked on the destruction the two boys had left in their wake. "Yeah, but it ain't like we got a whole lot of room. Where'd we move one of 'em to? We're kinda already burstin' at the seams here."

"Well, there is one place." She turned her head to the living room.

He followed her gaze and frowned. "I don't know, Cat. I know it's been a long time, but it still feels wrong to mess with his things."

"I know it's hard. I felt the same way when I put Danny's things away. But I also know he'd understand. And he'd be glad to give his room to one of his grandsons." She stroked his cheek. "Just think about it. Okay?"

He nodded. "Okay, I'll talk to the guys about it."

She rose up and kissed him softly. "I love you. Be careful out there."

He hugged her tightly. "I love you, too. And you know I will."

She stepped back with a smile that belied the worry that always seemed to be present in her green eyes these days. "Well, I guess I'm on babysitting duty, since I'm grounded."

He chuckled softly as she walked away. Then he sighed. Their family just wasn't the same since Amaya's death. Though life went on and the pain lessened over time, the fear of the intruder still lurked around the back of the minds. They tried to push the fear away, but it remained. Even with all the upgrades Don had done to their security system.

He'd setup a separate security alarm system with another dozen cameras and sensors as a backup to the primary, so if the first was disrupted the second would still be running. He'd also setup a secondary control panel beside the elevator. You could now not only set the alarm remotely without the use of the computer, but you could also close and lock all the doors in the garage without setting a foot upstairs. Even the latch on the roof had been upgraded to a thumbprint lock. No one except one of the four brothers or Mira could come through that way. So, in reality they were safer than they had ever been before.

And yet, the fear remained.

As Raph stepped into the living and watched his family, he understood why. There was too much here to loose. Too much life not lived, too much love not shared, too much joy not felt. Raph watched Leo step from his room with his katana and kneel to give Shinta a little pat on the head and tell him to be good. Unfortunately his brother had learned the hard way that it could all be lost in just a few unguarded seconds. There was far too much here to lose

Cat and Yoshi emerged from the dojo and he ran up to give his father a hug before he left. Mira came running up the hall as Don stepped away from Sarah to push the button for the elevator. The teen gave her mother a quick goodbye before joining her father and Leo in the car. Raph patted Yoshi's head as he too stepped inside.

Mikey came from the dojo with a very tired looking Kaz. He stopped in the door to the kitchen to give Kala a kiss and whisper his love in her pointed ear. Kaz wrapped his arms around his father's waist and hugged him tightly.

That too had changed. There were more 'I love you' s and more tender touches. There was more savoring of the quiet sweet moments, more understanding that every heartbeat was precious.

As the five turtles left through the back door of the garage, Leo paused more out of habit than anything else, and checked to be sure the sutra maker was still on the door frame. It wasn't likely to go anywhere as Don had painted a lacquer over to seal it down. The strange symbols had hung over all their doors now for nearly two years. Master Shinta had said they would prevent any demons from getting inside.

The old priest had been devastated when Leo had finally got a hold of him and told him what had happened. But he had quickly promised to do everything he could to help. And within a week a box had shown up with the sutra charms and instructions on how to use them. So, as he'd done each time he left since then, Leo prayed they would keep his family safe while they were gone.

Donnie drove while Mira sat at the computer console in the back, giving directions. The other three brothers sat quietly during the ride. They each secretly hoped these aliens were not out for a fight.


A/N: Boy, are they in for a shocker! LOL! I plan to keep this one kind of cheery and a bit romantic. I thought we could all use something a little up-beat after the last one.