Take My Hand

Before you read! This is an alternate universe story where the turtles are not shunned by society and live among humans. And for fun I turned Leo and Mikey into girls. D

Also this chapter is mean, the following chapters will not.

Chapter 1

In this world there are monsters that hide in plain sight. These beasts see what they want and reach for it no matter what the consequence maybe. They harm others so easily with out thinking, but their care for any other than themselves is lower than the bottom of a tar pit that threatens to swallow all.

"You should be grateful!" The slender hand came colliding into the small face sending the child to the floor, "Why can't you be grateful for everything I have done for you?! No one wanted you but me! Why can't you see that?!"

The child got back up to his feet, dark eyes glaring up to the slender female who paused with her hand half way up in the air. Red liquid trickled down the unique skin from where her fingernails had dug in.

"Sweetie, how did... Let me get you some band-aids."

The woman took a hold of her adopted son's hand, pulling his glowering body with her out of the den and into the bathroom. He sat ridged on the toilet seat, back as straight as he possibly could as he heard her rummaging around. His face had already been half swollen with a growing bruise that trialed down his neck from her "fit". It was only when she saw blood would she snap out of it and return to the kind mother that had been the one to take him and his brother from a dark place and into a home.

For a child who was only in the middle of his elementary years he understood too much. He understood the signs of when she would begin to act up and send his brother outside so he could not hear the screams or see the violence. He knew how to hide his wounds by getting into fights on the school yard or purposely falling off of his bike or out of a tree in order to make sure no one suspected his mother. The worst part though was when she couldn't remember.

She could never remember what she had done... ever.

"Baby," she tenderly cleaned the wound on the side of his head. "Did that bully Tanaka catch you after school again?"

He nodded a little.

She made a cooing sound, pulling him gently into a hug. Her warm scent of orange blossoms and lilies surrounding him as he buried his face into her shirt trying to suffocate himself in the comfort that always followed his beatings. She smelled different when she was in a rage, he didn't know how, but there was something about it that stung his nose. Afterwards she would return to her normal smell, the one that he could always remember surrounding him when he woke up from nightmares or when they would sit down for family get-togethers. He clung onto the soft fabric of her shirt, letting her dark straight hair tickle his back. Her slender hand came to the back of his head and stroked lovingly.

"Oh, Raphael, did he hurt you that bad? Maybe I should start walking you and Donatello home from now on."

He shook his head.

"I'm home!" The small call of his brother seemed like alarms to him. He hated Donnie to see him like this, all battered and bruised. His breathing became heavy as he turned his back to door when he heard footsteps coming down the hall, "Mom? Raphie? Where are... you..." Young Donatello trailed off when he looked into the bathroom. Large brown eyes looked from his brother's back to his mother.

The pale woman tried to smile, "It was a good thing your father picked you up Donatello," she was now pulling band-aids from a box and unwrapping them as she spoke. "That Tanaka kid got into a fight with your brother after school."

Donatello stiffly turned and walked away, not knowing what else to do. He had learned not to tell the truth in that house. He couldn't tell her that their father was still in China on a business trip and that Raph and him had took an hour to get home because he was scared to see more bruises on his brother. He couldn't tell her that he had been sent out because his brother was protecting him from her and that she was striking out at Raph because she thought he had been the one keeping them out until dinner got cold.

The last time he told her that she was the one who had hurt Raph, she had hurt his brother so badly he ended up in the hospital. He stopped talking for a year after that had happened, he stuck his nose in books and tried to learn everything he could as he was asked to ignore the swollen spots and occasional band-aid or stitch. He had finally started to talk again when he found out that their mother's rage fits had only gotten worse and she blamed Raphael for his sudden silence.

He softly padded into the kitchen, found the drawer with Ziploc bags and fished himself out one. Pulling a chair up to the fridge he climbed up onto it and opened the freezer and began to pack ice into the bag. He had to act fast. Their parents never let them stand on anything and would become very upset if they saw. Soon as he was done he quickly shut the freezer door and put the chair back into place. Running up to his room he hid the make-shift icepack under the pillow of the bed he shared with his sibling.

That night he had to hold the ice pack himself over the swollen face of his brother. Raphael had received a second beating, one for breaking a dish and this one left the small child with an odd sensation of pain whenever he tried to move his shoulder. Donatello had been home that time. It had been so sudden that there had been no time to send him away. When their mother came too Donnie had been in tears and was covering his brother's body with his own.

"Raphie?" Donatello sniffled as he adjusted the ice pack to now rest on the swelling shoulder. "Are-are you sure you're going to be okay?"

"I'm fine."

It was curt and quick.

"Are you really sure?"

"I'm fine, Donnie."

It was quiet for a moment before the one dressed in purple pajamas hurriedly said, "Maybe we should run away. Tonight. Just leave and-"

Raphael sat up, "Are you crazy? We can't leave Mom by herself while Dad is away, and besides where would we go? We're not exactly normal or have you forgotten about being teased so much because we're turtles!"

"But Raph-"

"Enough Donnie," the eldest sighed. He felt too old to be so young. He winced in pain when he took the icepack and dropped it to the floor, settling down on his good side he pulled the blankets up to his shoulders, "Just go to sleep... everything will be better tomorrow."

The younger of the two, let a few fat tears roll down his cheeks as he curled up against his brother's shell. Raph always said that, "everything will be better tomorrow." It wasn't true though, everything was getting worse and he was terrified. Terrified that one of these days when he comes home from being sent out that his brother would be found no longer breathing on the floor with their mother yelling and screaming for him to get up and stop being so ungrateful.

To Be Continued...