-The Next Morning-

Splinter found it odd that Michaelangelo was awake and doing meditation as he joined his sons the next morning. Sophie was siting at the table with Leo, who was the only other brother awake. Picking through her cereal, she sighed. Her father's morning meditation always seemed to take forever, and she wanted to play.

She then remembered, she was in New York, and had others to play with. "So, uncle Leo. What do you do around here for fun?" Sophie asked innocently.

Leo looked up and saw his niece and grinned. "Has your daddy ever told you about Space Heros?" Leo asked.

"is that a game?"

"It's a tv show."

"Cool. Can we watch it?"

"Sure. I have some dvds."

Suddenly a voice came from the dojo where Mikey was meditating. "Sophie, have you finished your breakfast?" Mikey's voice asked. Splinter looked in amazement at his son who was still in a meditation pose on the floor.

"Can I eat while watching tv with Uncle Leo?" Sophie called back.

"Ok, just don't spill the cereal. I'm not cleaning it up."

"Thanks daddy." the small voice answered. Splinter could see his son smile, just a twinge before resuming meditation.

b

After lunch, Splinter left his room. Coming up and tapping his son on the shoulder, Mikey nodded as he left Sophie on the living room floor coloring. Closing the sliding door to his room, Mikey and Splinter sat across from one another. "Michelangelo, I'm so happy to have you home. I have so many questions."

Mikey felt strangely calm considering this conversation was going to be difficult. He guessed it was because he was home. "I know." The orange banded turtle said.

"First, where is her mother?" Splinter asked as Mikey's face fell. "Was she a human or turtle? Was she a mutant?"

"Marie was a mutant turtle like us." Mikey started as Splinter sat patiently, listening to his son. "Except she was older when she was mutated. She was beautiful." Giving his father the small picture, he smiled at the two of them, eating corndogs.

He then caught something he wasn't sure of. "Was? Where is she? I would love to meet her." Splinter asked as Mikey look at him gravely. "She's dead Master. Karai killed her a few months after Sophie was born." By this time, Mikey was almost in tears, memories streaming back.

Splinter was shocked, but put his arms around his son. "Oh, Michelangelo. I'm so sorry."

Releasing the hug, Mikey wanted to explain. "I never thought I could be a good father, ya know. The guys always thought of me as a goofball and I couldn't deny it. When Marie came along though, I felt like I was on top of the world, like I could do anything. She had a way of making me feel like I was smart and important." Mikey felt tears come to his eyes, but refused to cry in front of his father.

Splinter picked up on that quickly and took his hand. "My son, it's ok to be upset. You four didn't know it, but I spent many years grieving Tang Shen. It's ok to cry. Unlike you, I had no one. My best friend betrayed me and I knew no one in America. But you Michelangelo, you're home. You have me, your brothers, April and Casey. You're not on your own." Splinter said as his son finally let it all out.

b

Meanwhile, in the living area, Sophie continued to color. As Raphael came into the room, Spike on his shoulder, Sophie looked at him oodly, before laughing. "What?" Raph grumbled.

"It's funny." Sophie said between roars of giggles.

"What is?"

"You're a turtle, right?"

"You're more like Mikey than I thought..." Raph grumbled before giving a simple "yeah"

"And you have a pet turtle?"

"Du'h." He retaliated.

"It's just funny, that's all."

Raph, remembering what he used to do when Mikey bugged him. "Why don't you go bother someone else!?"

Sophie went from laughing to almost in tears in a nanosecond. "You're a meanie!" She yelled, running off from the area. As she ran, she suddenly hit something tan. Looking up, she was met with her purple masked uncle.

"Sophie, what's wrong? Are you hurt?" Donnie asked as he picked her up. She shook her head, but continued to cry. Donnie was suddenly put into an arkward position, but decided to take advantage of it. "Why don't I let you play a game on my computer?" Don asked as he brushed her tears away.

She stopped crying, reduced to a small whining sound. "Ok. I guess that'll be alright." Donnie smiled as he lead the female turtle into his lab, where the computer was. Coming into Donnie's huge lab, he set her at the computer. Picking a game of checkers against the computer, Donnie left her to finish some work on his invention at the other side of the room.

b

Coming out to the living area, Mikey saw that Sophie wasn't where he left her. "Hey Raph, have you seen Sophie?" Mikey asked as Raph looked up from feeding Spike.

"That headache, haven't seen her." Raph snarled.

"Wha- Raph, what did you do!?" Mikey hollared.

"She was bugging me, so I-" Raph started. He didn't get a chance to finish before Mikey flipped his nunchucks out. Advancing towards his brother, Raphael actually seemed a bit scared.

"What!"

"I told her to go bother someone else."

"You what! Raph how could you? We're not teenagers anymore, you can't just yell at anyone you want. Haven't you learned anything in five years?"

"Bro, chill!" Raph said, surprised at his kid brother's anger. "Just take a deep breath, I'll start looking around the lair."

"Ok...ok. Yeah, I just..." Mikey hesitated. "Sorry bro."

"It's cool"

"But if we don't find her, you're searching the sewers." Raph sighed and started to look.

Looking in the dojo and the bedrooms, Raph started to feel guilty. He wasn't trying to be mean, he just lost his temper. Thinking about it now, Sophie han't been laughing at Spike. She was just laughing at the ironic fact that Raph had a pet turtle. It was kinda funny.

Finally, coming to the lab, Raph sighed in relief as he discovered the young turtle at Donnie's computer. Finally sensing his presence, Sophie looked at Raph and ran to Donnie, who screwing a bolt onto his invention. Clutching onto Don's shell, Raph took a deep breath and walked over to the pair.

Don looked at Raph with a questioning look. "Look Sophie, I'm sorry I yelled at you. Forgive me?" Raphael asked.

"Ok. But you're still a bit of a meanie." Sophie said, smiling at her red masked uncle.

"Yep."

b

That night after Mikey put Sophie to sleep, he came and sat by his brothers. They all stared at him coldly. "What?" He asked tiredly.

"Mike, it's great you came back and all but..." Leo started.

"Why'd you leave in the first place!?" Raph yelled.

"I didn't!" Mikey replied harshly. "I was captured."

"Huh?" The other turtles questioned.

"It's a long story."

"We have time." Donnie said calmly.

"Ok" Mikey sighed. "So it was a Wednsday night. I decided to get some air, so I went topside. I was sitting on a roof on the edge of town. It's the only place you can get a good view the stars in New York. So After a while, I started on home and was ambushed. I tried to fight back, but someone hit me on the head and I blacked out. Shredder held me for two months. I remember feeling so defeated and vunrable. He was trying to get the lair's location. When I wouldn't tell, he'd beat me almost to death. After he figured out I wouldn't tell, he beat me one final time and threw me into the ocean."

"Wow Mike... you saved us." Leo said, his mouth hanging agape.

"We never realized. Sorry bro. You shouldn've had to go through that."

"Why didn't you come home?" Donnie asked, paying full attention to his brother.

"Marie." Mikey said, excitment in his voice.

"Sophie's mom." Leo said, nodding in aknolegement.

"She was the first face I saw when I woke up. She tended my wounds and fixed me up."

"Well, that's great." Donnie said. "But why didn't you come home when you were healed?"

"We fell in love. When I proposed the idea of moving back to New York, she didn't want to go. She was running away too."

"Why?" Leo asked.

"She said there were too many bad memories there. In reality, she was mutated there and had to escape from the Kraang."

"You mean she was one of their experiments?" Don asked. Mikey shook his head yes.

"So you moved to Canada?" Leo asked.

"No. I took Sophie there after Marie was..." Mikey started to whimper as Donnie sat beside him and put his arm around him.

"It's ok Mikey. You're safe. Karai must've found out you survived and Marie sacrificed her life for you, didn't she?" Mikey shook his head again before bursting into tears again. He hated feeling like this. His brothers just looked at Mikey sadly.

After a few minutes, Leo spoke. "There's good news Mike."

"What?" The orange masked brother asked, wiping his tears away.

"Karai's dead, so is Shredder."

"Really?"

"Yea. We defeated the foot clan." Raph said, pumped. "When we figured out you were missing, we took them down."

"We were hoping to find you at the end but..." Donnie said, a hint of sadness in his eyes.

"So if you and Sophie wanted to live here, you could." Leo said.

"Maybe." Mikey said, obviously in thought. "It's not that easy. We've made a life up there and that's where Marie is burried. I don't know if I can."

"Well, think about it, ok bro?" Leo said.

"Ok. I'm tired, I'm gonna call it a night." Mikey said, getting up from the couch and walking to his room.

"Wow." Raph commented, sitting on the couch.

"Poor Mikey." Donnie said, still sad from Mikey's story.

"Guys, we gotta be gentle with Mikey. Most importantly, we can't push this decision. No one is to try to perswade him otherwise. Understand?" Leo said, in a serious voice.

"Yeah. It has to be his decision." Donnie said.

"Raphael?" Leo questioned, staring his brother down.

"Yeah, ok." Raph said, not being completely honest. He was going to have a talk with Mikey.