DISCLAIMER: I don't own TMNT, but I seriously wish I did!
From outside of the small house, Ellie looked into her bedroom window and saw that her night light was still on. All of her stuff, it was possible she was leaving behind everything she's ever known.
Ellie slowly slid the window open and jumped inside but then turned around and held out her hand to Leo, before he could come inside.
"Wait, stay out here." She warned him. "What? Why?"
"If my parents see you, they'll freak out!"
"And they won't when they see you?" He smirked. She just sighed and then opened the window all the way, telling him he could come inside. Ellie carefully opened her closet door and saw all of her stuff and reached down for a small duffel bag and began to gather the things she wanted to keep in her life, which mainly consisted of notebooks and other various things. But mostly things that she held close to her heart.
For example, a certain golden medallion, a black leather jacket, her hairbrush, and a small box from under her bed. She reached on the shelf above her bed and grabbed a certain book and looked at the cover, smiling a little.
"What is it?" Leo asked, a little curious. "My baby book. My grandparents made it for me though, since my actual parents didn't think it was important enough." She said and put it in her bag.
"Not important enough?" He asked out loud. And then they both heard talking in the halls. "Uh oh..." She muttered and grabbed Leo, pulling him into the closet and kicking her bag in behind her, keeping the door cracked.
The door to her bedroom swung open and the light was flipped on. Her parents walked in and looked at all of her stuff.
"Where do you think she is?" Her dad asked her mother. "I don't know. Let's hope she never comes back."
Leo gasped and looked at Ellie who just stared out of the little crack.
"Maybe she got hit by a car. Or maybe she finally went insane and was sent to a mental asylum." Her mother said, making her dad laugh.
"Let's hope she's dead. No one ever even cared about her, and she was a horrible disappointment to this family. All she was ever good for was stirring up trouble." Ellie covered her mouth and started to whimper as her mother just laughed.
"I knew she would be a horrible kid. I should have gotten an abortion when I had the chance. The world would be so much better without that little emo freak." They began to leave the room and they turned off the light.
"Let's hope we get our wish." Her father said, slamming the door shut. Ellie let out a long overdue breath before opening the closet door, carrying her bag with her. Leo just stared at her.
"Ellie... Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," She lied and grabbed one last final thing and shoved it into her bag. "Let's just go." She said, climbing out of the open window, Leo following her and closing it slowly.
They walked back to the alley in uncomfortable silence. Leo broke the silence, finally.
"Ellie?"
She looked at him.
"I'm sorry... I can't imagine how hard that must have been for you." He said, sighing and grabbing her hand. She nodded and ran her free hand through her bangs.
"It doesn't matter. I was already nothing to them anyways." She said, clutching the strap around her shoulders and pulled her hand away from his and let out another heartbreaking sigh.
"I don't know where I went wrong. I don't know why the world hated me so much."
"If it means anything, I don't know either... You're kind of amazing to me." Leo said with a cheeky smile. Ellie smiled back and looked down at her feet with a nervous expression as they walked into the alley where the manhole was to the entrance of their home.
Once they got back in the lair, Ellie put her bag down and sat down in silence.
"At least now I'm somewhere I can belong." She said with a smile. She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up at Leo.
"You couldn't belong more with anyone else." He smiled and she smiled back, rolling her shoulders forward a little. A faint blush rose to his cheeks and he jumped next to her.
"So what's in this thing?" He said, poking her bag. She rolled her eyes and opened it up, pulling out one of her many notebooks.
"These are all my sketches and things. I had some designs for weapons and such but never really put them to good use." She handed him one and he opened to a random page.
It was a perfect sketch of a lily. Even though it had no color and was made with pencil, it was perfect. He looked at Ellie and she just blew her bangs from her face as she continued to rustle through her bag. She pulled out the golden medallion and held it up to him. In the middle was a silver symbol in the shape of a rose.
"I've had it forever. My grandmother gave it to me before she died. Means a lot to me." She said simply and slipped it on before pulling out her baby book and opening it up. It was on the page and she was six years old. She was holding a stuffed turtle and was sitting on the table, smiling at the camera with her big brown eyes.
"Is that you?" Leo asked. She nodded. "Grandpa took that picture, right after he gave me that turtle." She smiled at the picture and looked at Leo who smiled as well. She then gave a little laugh and pulled out the stuffed turtle. He had sloppy stitching on his head and duct tape around one of his ankles. Ellie smiled and held it up to him.
"I named him Gibby. Took this little guy everywhere. He's in all of my pictures," She said as she started to flip through the book and show him all the pictures. And sure enough, Gibby was in all of them. Whether he be on the table in front of her or she's cuddling him as she fell asleep, Gibby meant everything to her.
"And... He's had a rough ride." She said, running her claw gently down the stitching on his head and sighing.
Leo smiled a little and flipped to the last page in the book, giving a little gasp. "When was this?"
"The Valentine's Day dance, it was about a month ago. I was on the yearbook committee so I had to be there." Leo couldn't help but stare.
She wore a simple black dress that had a plunging neckline and hugged her body in all the right places. Her once long black hair was pinned up in curls on her head with a silver clip and out of her brown eyes. Her lips lightly coated in a little purple lip gloss and her eyes dusted with black eye shadow and outlined with black liner.
She wore black silk gloves that reached her upper arms and almost 3 inch silver heels that strapped around her ankles. And around her neck sat a camera as she gave the photographer of the photo an evil look as if to say, 'I'll kill you before anyone sees that picture'.
Leo blinked and then looked at the girl next to him. She still had the same body shape and bone structure in her face but her eyes were now bright blue and her once long hair was gone. All she had left of it was her bangs.
But that still didn't mean anything to Leo. He still saw the girl in that picture. She just changed.
Leo looked back at the picture. "You're beautiful." He said. Ellie sighed.
"You're lying. And even if you weren't, it doesn't matter. That's not me anymore." She closed the book and dropped it into her bag, sighing and staring off into space while holding Gibby in her hands gently.
Leo sighed and moved closer to her before wrapping his arms around her shoulders.
"Ellie, listen to me," She looked up at him and waited.
"It doesn't matter anymore who you were. It doesn't matter who hurt you. And it doesn't matter what anyone thought of you. You are someone completely new. New and amazing. I'm sure you were amazing before, but no one saw it. But this is your chance to be who you really want to be." Her eyes were filling with tears.
"The pain is over now. Your future isn't up there, its down here. With us." Ellie smiled wide and jumped forward, hugging him tightly.
"Thank you, Leo!" She said, tears falling down her face. He noticed her wet fur and just laughed. "Why are you crying?"
"Because I've never had a friend before..." She said, giving him a fangy smile.
"Well, you have one now." Leo said, finally returning her hug.
"Five, actually," Someone said, making them both look up at the others. Mikey and Donnie walked in front of Ellie and looked down on her.
"Ellie, we know you didn't really have a family. And we know you thought you only had one other alternative," Donnie said, looking at her nervously as she looked down in shame.
"But none of that matters now. We promise to protect you and take care of you... You're one of us now." He said, kneeling down and putting one hand on her knee in a comforting gesture. She smiled at him and hugged him.
"Thanks Donnie." He smiled and hugged her back. And then another pair of arms wrapped around Ellie.
"Welcome to the family, Ellie!" Mikey said, smiling wide. Ellie giggled and finally was released from their hug and looked at Raph.
"I'm sorry for annoying you earlier. I won't do it again," She said, feeling her face start to heat up.
"It's fine. I've had way worse from... Everyone in this room, actually." He said like it was nothing.
"Hey!" April smacked his shoulder in her defense.
"Ow! Except you," He said, rubbing the soreness. Ellie snickered and then looked at the stuffed toy in her hands before smiling.
"Whaddya think, Gibby? Like our new home?" She said, being a little weird. But they weren't really phased.
"Well, he's in. Looks like I'm a sewer mutant now." She said, smiling. "Yeah!" Mikey cheered and lifted her up in his arms and squeezing the life out of her. She made a face that dignified she was suffocating.
"M-Mikey... too much." She said, trying to push herself off of him. He dropped her and gave her a nervous smile and she just rolled her eyes before standing back up and rubbing her sore back and ribcage.
And then everyone got quiet when they heard a loud growling noise. Ellie put her hands on her stomach and gasped. "Ack!"
"I think someone's hungry," April said, smirking. Ellie just gave a nervous laugh.
"Maybe a little," Her tummy began to growl again and she moaned. "Okay, a lot."
They all started laughing again. Ellie gave them an evil look and let out a sigh. "So... Can I eat something now or are you guys gonna keep laughing at me?"
"How about some tuna?" April suggested. Ellie smiled. "Good idea."
She pulled out a can of tuna from her backpack. "Uh... Why is that in your bag?" Raph asked.
"Was saving it for this stray that I found last night."
"Was this stray white and have a collar that said Florence on it?" Ellie said after April handed the tuna over to her.
"Yeah, why?"
"Yeah, don't feed that monster." April blinked and looked at the guys for an explanation.
"Don't worry about it." Donnie said. Ellie opened the can with her claws and stabbed a piece of tuna and chewed on it. She just smiled.
"This is just what I needed." She smiled and continued to eat it with her claws.
"Well, she has table manners." Donnie remarked. "More than I can say for most," He looked down at Mikey.
"Hey!" He said, offended. Ellie laughed and continued to eat until the entire can was gone. She smiled and laid down on her back, looking up at the ceiling.
"Overall... Today was a good day."