Thunder shook the windows of the old farmhouse that time had forgotten, while lightning flashed across its windowed eyes. The fire place burned bright against the dark air surrounding it and a lone figure sat in the corner, a book in his lap though he could hardly see the words on either of the open pages with the little light that the burning wood gave off.

Creak.

Casey glanced up as a splash of red entered his vision, "Hey Raph? The others ok?"

The red banded turtle stepped into the light, the flames throwing shadows across his dark green skin, "Yeah, everyone's good. Leo's meditating so he may as well be asleep, what a boring roommate."

Raph's golden eyes lingered over the remainder of the burnt skin that decorated a scar on the left side of his best human friend's face and shuddered away the memories. He forced his eyes to look to the side but then his breath slightly caught as he spotted the figure laying on the ragged couch they had set up a few weeks ago.

"Our patient doing well?" Raph asked, walking over to the sleeping figure.

Casey followed his turtle friend's line of sight and smiled, "Yeah. Just fine."

This was one thing that Raph found hard. It was like he had to gather all his pride, which was easy, and then balance it all on a pedestal 30,000 feet in the air that was as thick as a single sewing needle. Needless to say, before he could even reach out, he found himself back on the stairs and already half way up.

He hesitated for a second, and gave in. He turned and looked back at the woman on the couch, her hair red, matching the fire's flames and he knew her green eyes, he had seen them so many times before.

"April," he whispered, before turning away and climbing the stairs again.

He passed a second floor window when his eyes caught something outside. Oh, it was just a squirrel. Thank goodness. They had already run away from New York because of the Foot and now they were one brother short…

The red clad turtle shook his head, ridding his mind of the image of the exploding fire that had once been their home and his little brother's scream…

He closed his eyes and didn't open them again until he was back inside his room.

Unbeknownst to them, outside, in the back of the pick-up truck that Casey had drove out there, another familiar red masked being grinned in the dim moonlight, his red mask dripped with droplets of blue and an orange mask curled around his fist.

One down…three to kill.

Well Malkin, we'll see.

Just yet another story to add to the Lasting series, which is what I'm affectionately calling the connected tales of "You Have No Idea," "It's Not OK," and this new one I deem "We'll See"

So, the story will start in June of this year. I'm not going to jump right into it.

As always-Read and Review!

~Moonsetta