Amber woke up in an old bed, she could tell from the creak as she moved slightly, and sat up to find she felt a bit light headed, putting a hand to her head. "Owww…" she complained before looking around. Her weapons were on the old nightstand, but everything seemed dusty and old. Though this didn't unsettle her. She was used to old, dirty, often foul smelling surroundings, and had learned to deal with it. She got out of bed, and saw a chair off in the corner.
'Maybe someone was sitting there…waiting for me to wake up…' she eventually put her weapons, closed, onto her belt, and headed out of the room. She ran into Mikey, who hugged her, happy she was finally awake. "Hey, Mikey! What's wrong? Did I die or something?" "No…but you were asleep for a whole day…Raph still hasn't woken up…" She soothed him, and then headed out to find the others. She found Donnie with Casey, trying to fix the truck, though Don jumped out immediately to welcome her and make sure she was okay. "I'm fine, Donnie! Really! Just a little light headed."
She smiled reassuringly, before turning to Casey. "Thanks for helping us before. I never DID get to thank you before…" Donnie seemed to become protective when he felt Casey was starting to like her, and she smiled uneasily. "I'm gonna go find Leo and Raph…" she left after that, still looking around. When she found her other brothers, it was a sad sight. Raph was still unconscious in a bathtub, with Leo sitting on a chair, sleeping soundly. She sighed, and left for a moment. When she came back, she had a blanket, and put it around Leo, who seemed slightly uncomfortable.
She looked around, her eyes soft, before a memory hit her. She remembered that, when they were young, she'd always be like a mother, tucking them in at night and giving them a goodnight kiss before leaving. She shook the thought from her head, and headed out. She sat on the roof, looking at the clouds thoughtfully. The brothers didn't bother her, knowing she was probably thinking about her past. They'd never known anything about it, though Splinter said that she had been abused, and that was why she was living with them now.
When she heard Leo's voice, she looked down with a confused look on her face. When she finally understood what he was yelling, she shot up. "Raph's awake! Raph's awake!" she ran down with ninja speed, and nearly knocked poor Don over when he stopped outside the door. "Raph! You okay?" she questioned once she got inside, and helped him out of the tub. "I'm fine, sis…" "What were you doing on the roof, anyway?! You had me worried sick!!" she lectured, but the relief was obvious in her eyes. After he'd come back to normal, the four brothers would go out to train, though Amber would stay behind, thinking.
She'd usually had an outlet before, talking to Master Splinter about the depression or sudden anger these memories would give her, but she was unwilling to share with her brothers. This went on for days, when Raph, Don, and Mikey were playing a board game indoors and Leo had gone off to meditate. When he came back, she noticed the happy excitement that animated him, and went down to hear him saying that Splinter was alive. That thought made her perk, and he ended up dragging them all into the woods in the middle of the night, and made a fire. She sighed, sitting Indian style on the log and she looked around with her normal over-protectiveness.
"Focus." She sighed, clearing her head, when the flames grew large and turned bright blue before an image of Splinter appeared. He congratulated them, and, after saying goodbye, none of them could keep the sobs or the tears down, though both struck the honey red head who had been doing her best to do that the past few days. She turned from the fire, though it's dancing light still made the tears glisten on her cheeks. "Amber? Sis? You okay?" Leo tried to comfort her, but she shook it off, coming to a decision. "I need to talk to you guys…about my past…" this made all four brothers perk.
She'd never have offered this information before, and Splinter had never told them anything. Mikey tried to soothe her, when she finally wiped away her tears, and breathed out before starting. "When I was young, I suppose I had a normal life…but I never seemed to notice how my father seemed to be getting worse…he'd spend more time away, and I never noticed the worry in my mother's eyes whenever he came home…one day, he came back from the bar…I could tell, because his breathe smelled like alcohol…and…" she breathed heavier, her eyes glazed over in memory, like she couldn't see Mikey trying to calm her, or the others listening to her every word intently. "I'm not exactly sure what he did…I was knocked out…but, when I woke up, I hurt all over…and my mom told me…that he'd…"
She couldn't say it…it was too still too much for her…and she thought she'd finally gotten over it! She finally gathered all her courage, and then said, "He'd tried to kill me…his excuse was that he'd always wanted a son…and I wasn't good enough…" she noticed the sympathetic looks, even from Raph, though he'd never admit it. "Later on, my mother died…I'm not sure how…no one wanted to tell me…but no one was going to let me stay with my father…so I started jumping from foster home to foster home, each worse than the last…until no one wanted to take me in anymore, and everyone seemed to forget about me…that's when I was put on the streets…and you guys found me…that's when everything seemed to turn around…"
She smiled softly. "I finally had people who cared about me…and I'm not about to lose any of them…" she gathered them all into a group hug, and even Raph didn't protest. He could tell that she felt fragile at the moment…she'd lost Splinter, and she thought she'd lost him, too…when she felt she'd pulled herself together, she released them slowly, saying, "Now let's go get Splinter back…"