Disclaimer: I don't own TMNT or the song

Kissing Families- Silversun Pickups

I was rummaging through some trash from an apartment complex, near Harlem; for anything like a VCR player or an oven toaster. But alas, after searching for an hour, I couldn't find anything close to what I wanted. I sighed heavily keeping the frustration from taking over. This fruitless searching I've been doing for the past few days has been tiring me out; since my family was last ambushed, I took extreme measures to protect them. I bumped up security, gadgets, the Battle Shell, April's place, and, hell, even my ninjutsu! My head's been spinning on a totally different axis and without a doubt, it's going in reverse. My 9th long exhale and my brain begins to clear but something above me crashes, resounding deep in my membrane; it hurts. From the corner of my eye, I see reflections of light fall, twinkling as it does so, shatter and dim softly becoming tenfold. I look up to the left window of the 3rd floor where yellow light glares out and bounces off the adjacent building. Shadows cross over this light swiftly. I hear screams and yells; angry, deep, slurred, and quivering. As every second passes more yells erupt into a frenzy. As much as my curiosity urges me to go look, I refuse and look away to rationalize; this isn't any of my business, what can I do?, I came for one thing and it's not here. I hopped off form the dumpster but stopped dead in my tracks when I picked up the hate in a woman's voice; the words came from gritted teeth that lashed out with ferocity. That voice held an immense power that made my stomach churr violently making me palpitate with sweat. I swallowed hard and against my better judgment leapt to the fire escape, making quick time in getting up to the window. I stuck my shell to the wall, carefully inching my way to the window and peering inside. There were several people speaking, yelling, all at once; the only one who wasn't even uttering a word was the little girl huddled at the corner cradling a baby. Without a doubt the woman in front of the girl, was her mother and the voice I just heard. She kept yelling, holding back tears and choking on them. She had an accusing finger pointed at a man. His face was flushed in anger, eyes just as red and speech slurred; he was drunk, swaying a little from side to side. The others surrounded the man, holding him back from lashing out and two women were trying to calm down the woman. Only then did I realize they were talking in Spanish. I'm not too good in Spanish but I can pick up a handful of words; 'borracho', 'puta', 'infiel', 'tramposo'. 'Unfaithful? Was this what it was all about?'

"Te acostaste con mi hermana!" whoa her sister? Just then the man broke free from everyone's grasp and in a flash, slapped the woman, having shoved the other two. Yet her feet were mounted on the floor and only gritted her teeth against the pain. The other men grabbed his arms, pulled him back, and tackled him. I could feel myself being pulled inside but I couldn't risk myself being seen. I couldn't do a single thing. I felt so helpless and I just couldn't put up with this! 'Correr!' someone said. I looked back to the scene and the women were urging the woman to run away; she protested of course, pointing at her children. But one wrapped her arms around the girl, continuing to persuade her to leave. She hesitated, looking back and forth from her children to the man. She ran with tears flying behind. For a few moments, I still watched the frenzied room, the women took the girl and baby somewhere else. I leapt down again, just in time to see the woman rush out of her apartment building and run into the street. There was a car that turned a sharp corner, swerving as it continued to accelerate towards the woman. She froze in a petrified state like a deer and the car wouldn't stop. I ran as fast as I possibly could and jumped as far as I could to grab the woman. In the nick of time, I did; holding her onto my chest, protecting her head as my body skittered and scrapped against the asphalt. We collided with some garbage bags into another ally. She was breathing hard, her eyes shut tight, giving me the perfect opportunity to escape unseen. Getting off of her, I made a quick dash into the shadows of the ally but-

"Wait!" I slammed my shell to the shadowy walls hoping the night would conceal me. She was on her knee, an arm outstretched at me.

"Gra-thank you." I froze; I couldn't make myself move under her gaze. She stood up and walked cautiously towards me. I backed away, carefully holding out a hand just a little.

"No, don't come any closer." She stopped but continued to look hard at my moving shadow.

"Why?"

"My appearance would frighten you."

"You saved me, I would not be scared." She spoke with a heavy accent but nevertheless motherly. Motherly.

"I still can't let you see me…I have to go,"

"No, please, wait. Please stay with me for a while." She began to tear again; her face completely fell, revealing all that she had been holding back. 'Please' she uttered again. I, like a fool, lingered at her voice as it continued to shatter. I muttered an 'okay.' She gratefully nodded and rubbed away the tears from her eyes. There was no speaking, none whatsoever as she was calming herself down.

"Y-you were watching?"

"Yes, everything."

"The fight? The yelling?"

"Even that."

"…" her bottom lip quivered as she bit down hard on it.

"Don't take his abuse, you should leave him."

"And go where? He would follow!"

"No, there are people who can help you. You have family don't you?" she nodded but looked at me sourly.

"How much can they do? They will not be with us very long. They will tire."

"What…do you mean?"

"My husband and I…fight too much. My mother fights too much with her brothers. My cunada fights with her parents. We all fight…we all have problems…we cannot fight for others, too. We come from a family with borachos and abusers, we make problems. Fornicamos. We are disfunción ." 'Dysfunction and fornication.'

"Like your husband…and sister?" she nodded bitterly and began to curse under her breathe.

"You can fix this; you don't have to live like this."

"So easy to say, so hard to do."

"Yes, but that is the point. All of this adversity accumulated has to end and you're strong enough to do that. I know, I've heard you back there." She looked at me with a slight tint of hope in her eyes.

"Fight for just a little bit longer, for your children's happiness. Soon you'll be there, too." something clicked and flashed like a lighter just then in her face. The streetlamp glowed a little brighter it seemed, revealing the dry tear marks on her face, she smiled softly and meekly.

"I will fight…you know so much for a boy."

"Trust me I've gone through a lot myself."

"Your parents should be proud."

"I only have a father." Her face fell and I couldn't help but let tears form in my eyes. The lump in my throat grew to choke me but I couldn't let that show.

"I never knew my mother. But I'm still happy with my father and brothers. We don't always agree but it's okay, we're just fine." She didn't look so convinced but she didn't press on, instead she said, "I am sorry,"

"N-no, no, it's fine really." She smiled again at my sudden upbeat voice. I noticed then, door to her apartment building open and out came one of the women, looking right and left of the street nervously.

"That is my tia. I should go." Yet she didn't move forwards. Her back was towards me.

"What is your name?"

"Donatello."

"I am Maribel. Will I see you again?"

"I'll come tomorrow at 9." She smiled back at me, still cloaked in shadows, and ran ahead to the woman. They shut the door; I lingered for any noise, and left up into the night.

The days that followed, I spent in my lab, working, ignoring everyone and in the nights I would go off to see Maribel. She would always be there waiting, patiently, daydreaming, or holding onto foil wrapped food she prepared for me. We always talked; we opened up to each other. She told me of her youth and how she worked as a child, her family was poor back in their country, and even with a man providing money it still wasn't enough. And being the man that she had, her life only became worse. But she didn't let this get the best of her. In this time we shared, she pointed out that she was still happy as a child nevertheless and her proudest achievements were making it to this country to start again with her children. She was a fascinating woman, although no one knew that. She was a strong woman, but not many thought so. She was a good mother, the best she could possibly be, even though no one paid attention. She was all of this, she was, if anything, the ideal mother at heart. She was exactly what I wanted, too and I've found myself unable to envy her children, Lizzette and Jose, because they had her. I felt horrible for feeling this way. I could only brush away the feeling by hoping that these kids would treat her with the utmost respect and love. For her life, I wished for nothing but happiness. She was those people who deserved it the most. I talked about my family to her; everything that we did and have done but of course I held some things back. She perceived my family as being perfect but I disagreed, I knew better. We had our faults and these teeth that we kept lashing out might as well bite off our chains of heart. But what stopped it, I don't know myself; Maribel opted that it might be fear of drifting apart and the loneliness that would follow.

"Possibly,"

Mid October came soon, the cold pacing fast over the city as wind blew dead leaves into swirls. Maribel was excited for Dia de los Muertos; she promised to show me her tradition as she had done in her childhood. I waited and waited and waited for maybe four hours until my nose finally became stuffy. I hesitated to leave. I came over the next night, she wasn't there; the night after that was a no show; the third, the fifth, the seventh she didn't appear. Anger swirled in my head but I couldn't possibly stay mad at her forever. The tenth night followed shortly, finally deciding to look through her apartment window. It was locked and dark and still. I left after an hour. When I came home, Michelangelo and Raphael were idly slumped on the couch, the TV illuminating the darken room. Bored in their state of mind they only watched the news and as I was about to return to my room, the words spoken by the newswoman cast me down to hell.

"-has been convicted for the murder of his wife, Maribel-," I looked at the blaring screen in horror. What was happening was slowly killing me. I staggered to the couch, clutching onto the top of it; my brothers noticed me but I didn't batter an eye at them. I listened intently.

"…The 39 year old woman was found beaten to death early Wednesday morning by her 9 year old daughter, who along with her younger brother of 16 months, were placed under their aunt's care…" w-what? Voices began to buzz in my head as I tried to take in and digest the information but…I just couldn't help but scream and cry.

Leonardo held me close with father rubbing my shell; I babbled incoherently it seemed but they got the gist of my pain. I was carried by Raphael to my room where I continued to hideously weep. I stayed in agony, in my room, crying, screaming, and thinking until my head began to hurt. I won't ever forget her; I will never forget…the closest thing I had to a mother…! I won't! I can't...I think I know why my family can't bear to leave; we're too afraid as Maribel said. We needed each other in our lives: there was no one else we could have so close. We have a father but we didn't have a mother. We needed one but we couldn't have one; no, not in our dysfunctional family, I think you would hurt her… but 'she' is the reason we're dysfunctional to begin with.

A/N: Why this took a while? Cuz I couldn't think of a story. Why is it this long? Cuz I got into it. Why does is it hurt me? Cuz it's about a mother :( I actually used my mom's name, my middle name, and my dad's name for this one. I didn't think the story would be over 2k words...the angst wrote itself ._. but next time i'll cut it to 1000 at least. Btw, thank you Mewfem and I Love Kittens too for reviewing, it means so much :D Translation is at the bottom:

Borracho: Drunk

Puta: Bitch

Infiel: Unfaithful

Tramposo: Cheater

Te acostaste con mi hermana: You slept with my sister

Correr: Run

Fornicamos: Fornicate

Disfunción: Dysfunction

Dia de los Muertos: Day of the Dead