Thank you all for your support! :) So here's the second chapter. I know the part where Leo finds the letter is a bit far-fetched, but hey, it's a fanfiction about mutant ninja turtles, so please be lenient. ;)


Chapter 02: Dear Mr. Turtle

Climbing the steps of the subway station in seconds Mr. Dearing rushed over to the school building. He had promised to pick up Madelyn from the after school-care sooner today because they wanted to go to the movie and watch this new animated movie about the unicorn-princess, but he had literally been drowning in work today and had left the office even later than usual.

He leaped the staircase to the entrance in two jumps and hastened to where the after school-care rooms were. When he turned around the corner he changed to a slower pace. There was this common rule about not running in school's corridors, and first, he didn't want to be a bad role model for the children, and second, who said that despite his age he couldn't still get yelled at by some random teacher for running in the corridor? And that would be way too embarrassing.

So when he reached the room where he knew his daughter was waiting for him in a swift pace, he was still gasping for air after all this running. But when he set eyes on the teacher who was in charge of the after school-care today, he knew he wouldn't get to her anytime soon.

He nodded at the teacher in greeting, hoping against better knowledge she would just let him pass.

"Mr. Dearing," the teacher said matter-of-factly. "May I have a word with you?"

Mr. Dearing choked a sigh and nodded. He glanced over the teacher's shoulder into the room and caught sight of his daughter sitting at a table and drawing, but Madelyn didn't look up. Then the teacher closed the door and joined Mr. Dearing in the corridor.

"Mr. Dearing," the teacher went on, "I know Madelyn has been going through a lot lately. And I do understand that her constant talk about her imaginary friend is her way of coping with the situation, but the other kids are starting to avoid her. And when I realized that, I thought something needs to be done."

"And what would that be?" Mr. Dearing asked.

"Maybe you should talk to her that her imaginary friend is great and all, but that there are other great things happening in her life. Or you could take her to a child's therapist. If you need any contact details, there are a few therapists I can recommend."

Mr. Dearing's eyes widened when the teacher mentioned a therapist. This was the last thing he wanted. A therapist could make Madelyn remember how dangerous it had been back then, and he wanted to spare his daughter these scary memories.

"Thank you, Mrs. Stenson," he finally said. "I will think of something."

He glanced at his watch. It was too late for the cinema now, so he had to think of something else to entertain his daughter anyway. He decided they would walk the way back to their apartment, or emergency accommodation, to be precise. Maybe an idea to make his daughter think of anything else than Mr. Turtle would pop up on their way.

With a nod he passed the teacher, opened the door and went over to his daughter.

Madelyn still didn't look away from her drawing.

"Hey, Madelyn," Mr. Dearing said with a smile as he crouched down next to her.

"Hey, Daddy!" Madelyn lifted her head and beamed at him for a second before turning back to her drawing.

"What are you doing?" her father asked and glanced over her shoulder. He choked the second sigh that day when he realized the picture showed two green figures, both with a very round body and quite big heads, but one with a red line over its eyes and one with a blue one, and a much bigger blue figure with fangs.

"I am drawing a picture for Mr. Turtle," Madelyn explained. "See, this is Mr. Turtle." She pointed to the green figure with the blue line. "And this is Mr. Red, Mr. Turtle's best friend." Her finger moved to the one with the red line. "And this is Mr. Bad Guy, Mr. Turtle's enemy." She pointed at the blue figure now. "But it is not finished yet."

"So, do you think you can finish the picture at home?" Mr. Dearing asked. "We are too late for the cinema anyway – I'm sorry for that, dear. We will go tomorrow, okay? – But now you have enough time to finish your picture while I prepare dinner. What do you think?"

"That's a great idea, Daddy!" Madelyn clapped her hands in joy. "So if Mr. Turtle finds me tonight, I can give him his picture right away."

"That's my girl," Mr. Dearing said as he stroked her head. "Always looking at the bright side."

Madelyn beamed at her father again and then got up, picture in hand, and walked over to where her schoolbag was. She carefully stashed the picture and then slung the bag over her shoulders. She walked back to her father who reached out for her and she smilingly took his hand.

When they left the room Mr. Dearing did his best to ignore the glances all the other kids were flashing his daughter. But he failed miserably. They looked at his daughter in some sort of dislike, and when Madelyn waved at her friends cheerfully and said good-bye, the waves she got in response were rather half-hearted.

Mr. Dearing bit his lip when he saw that. Madelyn on the other hand didn't seem to notice or care.


Father and daughter were walking down the street, holding hands and chatting. Well, Madelyn did most of the talking, her father was just listening, giving his daughter's hand a reassuring squeeze from time to time.
When they turned around a corner, Mr. Dearing's eyes fell on a window dressing. It was a stationery shop. The man let his eyes wander over the letter paper in all colors and with all kind of ornaments that was shown. An idea formed in his head, causing a little smile to appear on his face.


Later that evening – Mr. Dearing was nearly finished with preparing the dinner – Madelyn came into the kitchen. She held a pink envelop in her hand – one from the letter paper set she had chosen earlier that evening. Her father had chuckled slightly, when she had decided to take the pink set right after they had entered the shop. Sometimes his little girl was so predictable.

"Are you done with writing your letter, Lynnie?" he asked.

With a nod Madelyn placed the envelope on the kitchen table.

Mr. Dearing glanced over his shoulder as he took a pot from the hotplate.

Already sealed, he thought. Well, that shouldn't trouble his plans at all.

"And what did you write Mr. Turtle?" he asked further.

"Daddy!" Madelyn's voice had a dispraising ring to it. "That's for Mr. Turtle only!"

"Oh, yeah, sure. Sorry, Lynnie."

Madelyn climbed one of the chairs, looking at the letter with a questioning look in her eyes.

"Are you sure the people at the post office know where Mr. Turtle lives?"

"Lynnie, they are working at a post office. Addresses are their job. I'm sure they know his as well."

"Okay." Madelyn didn't sound totally convinced, but she smiled at her father.

Mr. Dearing returned the smile.

"Now, who's in for spaghetti?" he asked blithefully.

"Mememememememe!" Madelyn cheered, bouncing up and down on her chair.


With a smile on his face Mr. Dearing left the apartment building. Madelyn had insisted that he brought her letter to the post office right after dinner. He didn't like to leave her alone, but when Madelyn had given him her puppy-eyes-look, he simply couldn't do anything, but do as she wished. So he had popped a DVD of Madelyn's favorite cartoon show into the player and extracted the promise from her that she wouldn't open the door to any strangers and wait in the living room until he returned.

He knew he didn't really have to go to the post office. A little walk around the block for around fifteen minutes should do the trick. He would return to the apartment later, telling Madelyn that he had been successful, and then tomorrow during his lunch break write a response to Madelyn's letter. Sure, he would have to change his handwriting, but he was sure he could handle it. Maybe being able to correspond with her Mr. Turtle would make her talk less about him and so the other kids would talk and play with her again.

Mr. Dearing thought about his plan once more, and yes, he was sure it was a good plan. But since he didn't have anything better to do, maybe he could read the letter while he did his little walk.

He dug into the pocket of his jacket, retrieving Madelyn's letter. He looked at the envelop where Madelyn had written "To Mr. Turtle" down in her spidery handwriting.

But that moment a gust of wind yanked the letter out of his hand.

"Oh no!" Mr. Dearing cried out, running after the letter which was drifting away from him in some sort of crazy dance, driven by the wind.

Mr. Dearing did his best to catch the letter again. He saw it being driven around the corner of a building into a side street. He sprinted after it, nearly overbalancing at the turn. But when he had sprinted down the side street a few steps, he stopped abruptly. He looked around him, scanning his surroundings for the pink envelope. It would stick out of the predominant gray and brown of the side street, even in the street lighting. But there wasn't anything but gray and brown.

A frustrated growl escaped his mouth as he realized he had lost the letter, and he kicked a waste container before he left the side street again.
What on earth should he do now?


Leo had just lifted the manhole cover and glanced around when a piece of paper hit his face, staying wrapped over his eyes as if it was glued there. With a grunt he wanted to brush it aside when he heard footsteps. Instinctively, he moved his head back and let the manhole cover slip back in place. With an annoyed gesture he grabbed the piece of paper, pushed himself off the ladder and landed on the ground.

He looked back up, hoping to hear retrieving footsteps soon.

While waiting, he realized he was still holding the piece of paper which now that he looked at it, turned out to be a letter. In lack of something better to do, leaning there against the brick wall of the sewers' tunnel, he moved the envelope closer to his eyes so that he could examine it more closely. The dim light falling through the manhole cover above fell on the letter and he could read which addressee was written down on the envelope.

His eyes widened in surprise and he thanked fate that he hadn't just thrown it away.

He shifted a bit so that more light fell down on the envelope, but the words written down remained the same.

To Mr. Turtle.

When he read that he couldn't help, but smile. The awaited retrieving footsteps could be heard now, but Leo didn't seem to notice.

He ripped the envelope open and took the letter out, unfolding the paper. And then he read what the sweet little darling had written to him.

Dear Mr. Turtle,

I hope you are doing fine. My Daddy and me had to move to a new apartment after Mr. Red and Mr. Bad Guy broke our old one and it needs to be fixed now. But we move back soon.
When will you visit me again? Tea parties aren't the same without you. Even Mrs. Sparkling Hair complaint that tea parties are boring without you, and you know how Mrs. Sparkling Hair is. When she admit it, it's true.
I drew you a pic. I hope you like it.
Is Mr. Red okay? Did Mr. Bad Guy hurt him?
I hope to hear from you soon.

Yours,
Madelyn

Leo chuckled while reading. So the little girl had decided to name Raph Mr. Red and Slash Mr. Bad Guy. He wished he could tell his brother that he got a new name as well, but no, that was a bad idea. And he had absolutely no idea who Mrs. Sparkling Hair was, but he guessed it was one of Madelyn's dolls.

He looked at the second piece of paper, the picture Madelyn had drawn of him, Raph and Slash made him chuckle.

He then looked at the envelope again, checking for a return address, and yes, there it was, Miss Madelyn Dearing's new address.

Leo really wished he could respond to this letter, but he couldn't just march into a post office and mail a letter. The smile on his face faded quickly when he realized that.

But then his body straightened. Well, maybe he couldn't do that, but he knew someone who could. He just needed to let this someone in on his little secret. And he knew this someone was really good at keeping secrets and wouldn't make fun of him like his brothers surely would.

The smile appeared back on his face when he started moving.


Later that night, April O'Neil opened the window to her room at the silent tapping of the mutant turtle waiting outside on the fire escape.

The teenage girl greeted her friend with a questioning look in her eyes.

"April," Leo said. "I think I need your help."