I'm very sorry for the delay on this story. If you talk to any of my friends out there on FF, like Mikell, she'll tell you that I was very close to giving this story up because of the lack of ideas and interest in it for awhile. However, I am going to stick with it, due to demands, and I hope you all enjoy this chapter.


Six Days Before


"Okay, this is getting ridiculous." Leo drummed his fingers on the wooden table, listening to the rhythm of the movement. Don sat opposite side of the table, tinkering with a small device on the table before him, armed with a screwdriver, a nail, and lots of patience.

"What is?" Don glanced up.

"Raph is late." Leo growled, once again looking towards the clock, ticking the wall. The sound was taunting him.

"And that surprises you, how?" Leo shot the purple clad turtle a glare, in which he just shrugged in reply with a grin on his face. "I'm just saying."

"But Mikey could be back at any second and Raph swore he'd be here." Protested the leader, once again shooting the clock a death glare.

"Well then I guess we'll just have to fill him in later." Don leaned forward, resting against his folded arms. "So we've decided on Mike's birthday gift?"

Leo nodded. They'd been planning Mikey's birthday for almost a month now. Splinter had agreed to distract the youngest turtle at April's for as long as possible while the other three were supposed to be discussing the secret surprise they had planned out. They'd planned it so that they'd have plenty of time to talk about the big surprise but they all knew eventually April's famous chocolate chip cookies and milk would eventually run out…especially with Mikey eating them at the rate he usually did, which consisted to five cookies a hand. Nobody could protest about it, even Splinter, whom Leo could swear was second in line to April's cookies.

"So have we narrowed down the choices?" Don asked, pulling out his laptop from a leather bag, which was beside him on the floor.

"Nothing too big, like a Mastiff and nothing that will constantly howl, like a Basset Hound."

"What about a Labrador?" Don asked, pulling up a page on .

Leo shook his head. "Too energetic. Besides, they really like water and I don't really like the smell of wet dog." He wrinkled his beak. "Especially if the dog gets into sewer water."

"Okay then…" Don canceled out of the page and pulled up a page filled with large, muscular dogs straining against leather, snow flying up behind them. "What about Siberian Huskies? They're supposed to really loyal dogs."

Shuddering, Leo refused. "Casey said a neighbor had one and his yard was practically covered in dog fur. Nothing that really shed."

With a sigh, Don closed it out. "So what are we looking for in a dog?" He asked.

"Something big enough that will be able to keep up with Mikey and something with enough energy that will be able to keep up with Mike's endless supply. Also a very loyal dog, and one who is a good guard dog." After an afterthought, he added. "And one who's easy to train."

"Well that narrows it down." Don muttered sarcastically. "We have eliminated a total of four dogs out of how many? Thousands?"

Leo rubbed his temples. Who knew picking out a dog could be so much work. "Well then we'd better get started. April said she saw this really pretty dog another day…I think it was called an Australian Shepherd."

Don nodded, quickly typing it into the search engine. A smile slowly lit his face as he read the short paragraph. "Perfect." He smiled. "Medium sized dog, smart, loads of energy, and they don't shed like mad."

"Do they have any?" Leo asked, standing and peering over Don's shoulder.

Don smiled, pointing at the screen, where a list of dogs was being shown. "Yes, right here. Says a litter was just born awhile ago…ready to be adopted soon."

"Then call." Leo said seriously. "Reserve a puppy, if you can."

Quickly pulling out his shell-cell, Don punched in the number from the screen and waited until someone picked up. "Hi…yes, how about you?. ..very well thank you….puppies….yes, the litter….one left? please….young female?" His eyebrow rose at Leo, who grinned. "Sounds good…another five weeks? We'll be there." with a quick farewell, he hung up the line. "We got the last one."

With a relieved sigh, Leo sat back in his chair. "Good, that's one less thing to worry about. Now to find Raph…" he found one fist pounding into the other with a soft thump.

"Ya know Leo, it was probably a good thing he wasn't here." Donny mussed. "Otherwise we might have found ourselves getting Mikey a Bulldog or Pitbull."

Leo chuckled at the thought. "He could try."

Don pulled out his tracker and pushed the small red button. Instantly seven dots appeared, each a different color; black was Splinter, white was Casey, yellow was April, and each of the turtles had their own color. Mikey's orange blip was close to Splinter's black one; the same for the yellow and white dot.

Don counted the purple dot and blue dot, his eyes scanning the small screen for the red dot. With a finger, he gently tapped the screen, praying it was just an error on the programming. When no flashing red blip appeared, Don bit his lip, a frown on his face. "Odd."

"What Don?" Leo glanced up.

"Raph's dot…it's not there."

"What?" Leo once again found himself peering over the purple clad turtles shoulder. He hoped Don had just looked Raph's dot over, but sure enough; there were only six flashing colors on the screen.

"Could be a technical error…" Dom murmured, shaking it gently.

"How many times with Raph has it been an actual technical error?" Leo asked, giving his younger brother a pointed look.

Don shook his head, remembering the many times in the past he'd watched the little red blip disappear and then several hours later they'd be carrying Raph home, a bruised, bloody and unconscious mess after the tracker on his phone was destroyed from a nightly brawl. "Good point." Standing up, he held the tracker in one hand. "Hold on Leo and I'm going to see if I can't locate his last position before the phone went dead from my computer."

"I'll call Mikey and Splinter."

Don nodded before hurrying into his room. Leo pulled out his shell cell and punched in Mikey's number. Holding it to his ear, he waited six rings before the grouchy young tone of Michelangelo could be heard from the other end.

"Hey Leo."

"Are you okay Mike?" Leo instantly sensed the distress in his voice.

"Splinter is making me carry back, ugh…groceries."

Leo chuckled. "Well hand Master Splinter the shell-cell for me Mike."

"You're not going to rescue me?" Mikey whined.

"Michelangelo! Hand me the phone right now, my son, or you and the dojo are going to become very close this week."

Leo held back a fit of laughter as the orange clad turtle held onto the phone for as long as possible, stalling for time against carrying the dreaded bags full of what Leo knew was Splinter's favorite tea, something April usually bought for the elderly rat. A second later the old voice of his sensei replaced the younger, brother.

"Yes my son?"

"Master Splinter, I don't mean to pry Mike away from his…task, but we need him over here."

"Is everything alright over there Leonardo? Donatello hasn't blown up the lair, has he?" Splinter asked, alarmed.

"No father, it's…. it's Raphael. He's missing."

"Missing?" Splinter lowered his voice. "Was he not to join you for your gathering?"

"He never showed up."

"Has Donatello attempted to track him on his…um…object of great design?"

"Yes father." Object of great design? What the shell? Is that what Splinter called all of Don's inventions? Objects of great design? "There's no sign of him anywhere."

"Very well, Michelangelo will be along shortly."

"Thank you sensei." Leo hung up the phone as Don came back into the room, his leather bag slung over his shoulder. "Mike's on his way."

"I'm ready." Don said as he quickly threw some water bottles in his bag, along with a few bags of chips. At Leo's raised eyebrow, Don explained. "have you ever had to listen to Mikey complain for endless hours?"

"Yes…"

"And is it annoying?"

'Yes…"

"And would it be nice not to have to listen to it?"

"Yes…"

Don grinned, putting in one last small bag. "Done." He said right as the front door opened.

"I'm here!" Mikey declared as he charged into the lair.

"Good." Leo sheathed his katanas. His chocolate brown eyes blazed. "Let's go."


Raph groaned, struggling from the darkness from which he was forced into by sedation. He could still feel the cold steel island table under all his thick fur and the heavy light above him. The steady, rhythm of a hand brushing his side fur brought attention to reality and away from the darkness that threatened to suck him back in.

"Easy boy…easy."

Raph gently flicked up an ear, listening to the heavy breathing of Jeff and the light shuffling of Kevin's clothes.

"Excuse me, it's seems Houston is coming out of it." Kevin interrupted.

"Oh it's okay, I'm about done here anyway."

Raph forced open his heavy eyelids, ready to bite the hand again. If Jeff got to close to me…if he did anything I'll rip out his throat and shove it in a place where the sun don't shine. With a heavy sigh, he gave a large yawn, showing off his sparkling teeth and fangs. Forcing his still legs to work, he scrambled to get his paws under him.

"Easy boy."

Raph swung his head around, growling deep in his throat. He couldn't help but notice with a grin how the vet had taken a very large step back and how a nervous sweat broke out over his skin.

"Are you done?" Kevin asked, readjusting his grip on the leather leash.

"Yes, yes…" Jeff asked, opening the door and ushering them out with one hand. "Have a good day young Kevin and…Houston."

Kevin had to literally drag Raph out the door and into the lobby, trying to keep the fangs away from the bandaged hand. "Hey dad.

Ben turned away from the counter with a sigh. He still had the pen in one hand a single sheet in the other. "Are you guys done already?" he asked in surprise.

"Yeah dad…we've been here for over an hour." Kevin chuckled at his dad's surprised face. "How many pages do you have left?"

Ben quickly scrawled his signature on the last paper before handing it to the amused recipients. "None." He said proudly. A grin snaked across his face. 'But it seems you have some unfinished business to do." He pointed behind Kevin.

Before the boy even turned, Raph already knew who was. Amber stood behind Kevin with a smile on her pretty features.

"Hi Kevin…"

"Uh…hi, um…Amber." Kevin stammered, looking like he'd rather be anywhere else but in the office.

"Are you okay?" She stepped forward, laying a hand on Kevin's arm.

Raph gently nudged the boy's shaking hand. The poor boy was so in love…chuckling, Raph decided to see if he could take up a friendly conversation with the she-dog at the girl's side.

"Hey."

Ice blue eyes turned towards him and Raph could almost feel the gaze burning him through. With a shiver, he sat down and decided not to mess with her.

"What's your name?" she asked, cautiously.

"Raphael."

Sandra cocked her head at the name. "But your human calls you Houston."

"It's a long story." Raph chuckled. "But my real name is Houston. And you must be Sandra."

"I am." With a sniff, she straightened up, giving him a glance. "Ya know…you're not so bad looking for a dog."

"What?" Raph slowly started to back up, fighting down the serious creeps that were sneaking up on him. A dog had it in for him? Mikey would have a cow with that one. "Um, sorry." He resisted the urge to hide behind Kevin's legs. "I'm not interested."

"Oh you aren't?" she sounded unconvinced. With a chuckle, she stood up, allowing her long white tail to brush Raph's side. He shivered, moving away from the touch which only seemed to please her more. "You see, there's just too many mutts and foolish dogs around here that would love just to get one sniff of me…" she chuckled.

Raph moved away further, sensing where this was going. And it disturbed him to no end.

"And I like a dog that can keep his nose to himself…" with a laugh, she slid up to Raph, pressing herself against him. "And I like a dog with papers."

Raph was pretty sure he didn't have any and told her so.

"I see…" she laughed. Amber had finished talking with the nervous Kevin and Sandra followed at her owner's heels. "I'll see you around, Flame-boy."

Okay, Raph thought, watching her swaying tail as they walked out the door. Very creepy.


I hope you all enjoyed that chapter so please leave a review and let me know if I should continue this and how you like it so far.

So please, REVIEW!