April sat in her bedroom, or her aunt's guest bedroom rather, reading over her assigned chapter in her chemistry textbook. It wasn't her ideal way to spend a Saturday afternoon, but after having put off all of the homework that she'd promised herself that she would do in the meantime while she was with her grandmother, it needed to be done if she were to keep from falling too far behind.

The obnoxious vibrating of her phone against the hard, wooden surface of her desk shook her from her concentrated train of thought. She glanced at the screen to be greeted by a close-up image of a big baby-blue eye with the contact name "Mikey-oto" over it - "oto" being the Japanese diminutive for "little brother", appropriate for the turtle who acted very much like the little sibling that she had always wanted.

She smiled at the image. Mikey had wanted to take a picture with her phone, but not being the most tech-savvy turtle, he had a terrible habit of holding the phone the wrong way and right up to his eye like a traditional camera, always cluelessly snapping pictures of his own eyeball. The best part was that for some reason, he could not figure out that the pictures kept coming out that way because he had been taking pictures of his own eye.

His brothers, especially Donatello, had found it moronic and annoying, but April couldn't help but to find it endearing, so she kept the image and made it his contact ID.

She touched the screen to answer the call.

"Hey, Mikey," she said.

"April? Hey, I'm gonna need your help again."

She chuckled. "Mikey, your 'chuks might have rolled under your bed again. Check their first before..."

"No, no, not that. I, uh, I sent a message to her...to Splinter's mom."

April froze. She knew she shouldn't have been surprised – it wasn't unlike Mikey to be overly optimistic and make an impulsive decision, but still, she hadn't expected even him to act that soon.

"Mikey, you shouldn't have done that. I told you, we needed to plan this out better before we do anything rash."

Mikey sighed. "I see that now. She responded and she thinks I'm some kind of creep." His voice was laced with such sadness and disappointment that she could almost see his heart breaking. "Do you think it's too late to fix it?"

April cradled her forehead in her hand. "No, I'm sure she can still be convinced, but...I just don't know how yet."

"What if..." Mikey hesitated. "What if we, like...sent her a photo of sensei as a human as proof?"

To April, that immediately sounded like venturing into dangerous and forbidden territory – unfeasible. Splinter had the only two photos that remained of his former life as a human and she dared think of what might happen if one of his sons were to take one of those photos and post it anywhere on the internet. It seemed like a major overstepping of boundaries on their part – one that could get one of them into serious trouble if they were caught - as if it wouldn't be bad enough if he found out that Mikey was revealing to a human his existence, even if he wasn't telling her that he was a mutant. A protective father like Splinter would certainly disapprove.

"Mikey, no. There has to be some other way. You can't do that. Splinter would kill you if he found out you did that."

"He already told me not to even contact her. I mean, I'm already breaking the rules as it is -"

"Exactly. How many rules are you gonna have to break to make this work? I mean, is it really worth it?"

"Yes," Mikey's voice cracked. "It's worth it to me. I-I have a big family out there somewhere, April. I wanna know them."

April sighed. "I understand, Mikey, but you gotta know what you're doing is dangerous."

"It's worth it, though. Please help me, April. You don't know how much this means to me."

She wanted to say no, that he'd already done far too much, but a voice in her brain loudly objected.

"You don't know," it said. "You have a big family. What if you didn't have them?"

Where would she have been if she didn't have those people to look after her and be there through all the hardships in her life? Her aunt to care for her when her dad was kidnapped, her dad to take on the workload of two parents when her mother passed, her grandmother to act as a mother figure in her mom's tragic absence. Mikey, all of the turtles, had none of that. Who was she to tell them that it's not worth the risk?

"Alright Mikey," she said, "I'll help you do this, but you have to promise me that you will not do anything else until I help you."

"Absolutely. I don't wanna screw this up anymore."

"Okay. I have some homework to do this afternoon, but I'll be over there later this evening. I'll see what we can do. Don't do anything until I get there."

She swore she could hear him smile.

"Got it! Thanks, April."

She smirked. "Talk to you later, Mikey."

Raph stood in the doorway to the main room, peering in at Donnie and Leo. Donnie, as usual, sat on the couch with his face buried in his laptop screen while Leo was concentrated on an Xbox game. After seconds of speculation he discovered that it was Halo and it piqued his interest.

Given the circumstances, he may not have even considered asking but after hanging around for about an hour, Casey had left for hockey practice and now he was bored out of his mind.

"Hey, Leo," he said, "mind if I join you?"

Leo turned to look at him momentarily, then glared.

"I don't think you need to play anymore violent video games," he said.

Raph fought an instant burning urge to retaliate.

"It's a stupid game, Leo," he grumbled. "It's not real."

"Well, if it's a stupid game then I guess you don't need to play then," Leo scoffed.

Raph rolled his eyes and stormed toward his room.

"Whatever..." he groaned.

He made sure to slam his bedroom door behind him.

"Stupid Leo," he groaned and punched his punching bag that hung from his ceiling. "And people think I'm difficult."

He glared at the swinging leather bag, envisioning his older brother's smug face. He breathed hard and swung again and again, pounding the thing as it bounced off of the plastic board it hung from. With every bare-fist strike, he grunted louder and louder.

Soon the pounds and grunts grew so loud that he didn't notice the knocking on his bedroom door or the sound of it slowly swinging open.

"Raph..."

Whack! Boom!

"Graah!"

Whack! Boom! Whack! Boom!

"Grrrraaaah!"

"Raph!"

Raph stopped and swung around to see Mikey standing in his doorway, waiting for his response.

He sighed. "What, Mikey?"

Mikey, having sensed his brother's intense frustration, shuffled his fingers nervously.

"A-are you okay, bro? You're really wailing on that thing..."

Raph took a deep breath and began rubbing his now very sore knuckles.

"I'm fine. It's...it's whatever..."

Mikey placed his hands on his hips and gave his brother quizzical gaze.

"That didn't sound fine. You sounded like you were coming through the wall just now."

Raph plopped himself down on his bed, continuing to nurse his sore knuckles.

"It's just stupid Leo and Donnie," he began. "I didn't do a damn thing to either of them, but they just won't let it go."

Mikey decided it was safe enough to approach him and took a seat beside him.

"I even tried to be civil with Leo. I tried to play Halo with him and he made some smart-ass remark about how I don't need to be playing violent video games," he ranted. "I swear he's gonna hang this whole thing over my head for the rest of my life. Like he's never done anything wrong in his lifetime!"

Mikey sighed. "I don't know what to tell you, dude. I tried to tell 'em to just let it go, but they don't listen." He grabbed one of Raph's hands and examined his knuckles. He gasped.

The bandages that he usually wrapped around his hands to protect his knuckles from scrapes was torn away and the flesh beneath them was scraped, bleeding, and already bruising and beginning to swell.

"Dude, you have got to start wearing gloves or using more bandages or something," Mikey urged. "You're really tearing yourself up."

Raph glared. "What, are you my mom now?"

Mikey glared back. "I'm serious, dude." He stood up. "Don't move. I'm gonna go get the first aid."

Raph said nothing more and gazed at the floor.

When Mikey got no further response or retaliation, he assumed it was Raph's typical begrudged resignation and started off to the bathroom to retrieve their first aid kit.

He knelt down in front of their makeshift vanity and opened the cabinet.

"Mikey?"

He was startled by the sound of April's voice and bumped his head on the sink.

"Oh, sorry!" She knelt down and grasped his shoulder. "I didn't mean to scare you."

Mikey chuckled and rubbed the aching spot on his head.

"It's cool. I just didn't know you would be over so soon."

He pulled the leather case out from under the sink and stood.

"Is someone hurt?"April asked, gesturing to the familiar case in his hand.

"Raph was punching his punching bag too hard again," he explained. "His knuckles are all scraped up and bruised."

April cringed. "Well, anyway, I brought my laptop. Meet me in your room when you're done with Raph."

He gave her a thumbs-up. "Sure thing!"

Mikey poured the peroxide on a cotton ball.

"Please don't punch me, okay?"

Raph chuckled. "No promises."

Mikey took his hand and pressed the cotton to the raw knuckles.

Raph grunted. "Damn..."

"Just relax, dude," Mikey soothed. "Come on, don't be a wuss."

After a moment of applying pressure, Mikey retrieved the roll of gauze and wrapped it around his brother's hand several times.

Raph hissed.

"Alright, dude, we're halfway done."

Mikey repeated the agonizing routine with the other hand – clean, disinfect, and wrap.

"Thanks, Mikey," Raph grumbled.

"Hold on," Mikey said while he put away the gauze and peroxide and then pulled a Sharpie from his belt.

Raph raised an eyeride. "What are you doing?"

Mikey took one of Raph's hands and held it in his own swollen hand. With the other hand, he drew a heart on the gauze and under it, in his own chicken scratch, he wrote 'were cool'.

Mikey capped the Sharpie and cast Raph a winning smile.

"Just remember that, dude," he said. "Who cares what they think, right?"

Raph gave a crooked smile and ruffled Mikey's head.

"Right, little bro. Thanks."

It was there on the mantle, a valuable part of Splinter's shrine – all that he had left of his old life. Such a lively picture of him in his youth, smiling with his hand on her shoulder. The photograph was sacred to his father. So sacred that it felt abominable for him just to gaze at it too long, let alone touch it, as if it would burn him if even grazed the frame with his fingertips.

Anything that was part of that shrine had always been off-limits to him and his brothers, and not only in a physical sense. For many years and even still, Splinter's old life with his wife and daughter had been a taboo subject in their household. The topic, the boys learned very early on, was a sensitive one for their father and one that he tended to speak of defensively. There were times when the boys felt that it was not even their place to utter their names.

Karai, or Miwa, rejoining their lives made no difference. Splinter still never seemed to want to talk about his old life with them openly most of the time, especially if it had anything to do with Tang Shen. But that was why he needed to do this. He hated living in a divided family. After all, Splinter was his father, Karai was his father's daughter, and Tang Shen was his father's wife. Why couldn't Karai be his sister, they be Karai's brothers, and Tang Shen be their late mother? Every time Splinter referred to Karai as "my daughter" and them as "my sons", rather than calling them brothers and sisters, it broke Mikey's heart.

He sighed. Someone needed to tie his family together and Splinter's own mother just might hold the strings to do it.

He snatched the photo and tucked it into his belt, then started out of the dojo to meet April in his bedroom as promised.

Splinter was befuddled, having just watched his youngest son trot out of the dojo with the precious photograph of him and his wife. Unbeknownst to Michelangelo, Splinter had been watching him through a crack in his shoji doors. It had been a wonder as to why his son had stood staring at his shrine for what came to be several minutes.

He thought about approaching him and finding out what the boy was up to, but thought better of it. After all, Michelangelo had been acting rather strange as of late and maybe watching his actions would give a better explanation than if he'd asked him himself.

Perhaps, he will understand in time.

Yes very late update, I know, but I've got my writing inspiration back and I had a day off work today since banks are closed for Veteran's Day. I can't make any promises that updates will be consistent again, but I will certainly try!