Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT.

10

There were a total of five bedrooms in the group home with two beds in each of them. The room that Amelia led Emmeline to was large and oddly shaped with a slanted ceiling and a small skylight. Two twin beds were pushed up against the back wall, which was painted a sunny yellow and there was a shared walk-in closet in the middle. There were travel trunks situated at the foot of each bed and twin dressers stood guard beside the door. There were no curtains or matching bed sets or even nightside tables. No posters or pictures on the wall - nothing that connected the room to its inhabitants.

Instead, the beds were made up with plain white sheets and beige comforters, heavy enough to keep them warm in the winter but light enough not to be stifling in the summer. A tall, cheap lamp with three heads on it stood next to the open closet door, casting a pale glow on the darkening room.

"This is your side of the room," Amelia said, gesturing to the eastern part of the bedroom and the bed nearest the fire escape. She led Emmeline inside the closet and pointed to the empty shelves on one side. "You can put your things in here - coat, boots, gloves. The rest of your things go in the dresser." She turned to Emmeline, frowning. "We suggest that you lock any valuable items you might have in the trunk by your bed. There have been - ah - incidents in the past."

Emmeline walked out of the closet and threw her duffle bag down on her bed. "Don't worry about that," she said, unzipping the bag and taking out her clothes. "Any valuables I had, I got rid of - there's no way I'm letting the Dragons trace my IP address." She carried her clothes over to the dresser and began to put them away.

Amelia fidgeted with her hands as she watched. "You will be safe here," she told her. "We have the cops circling the block every night-"

Emmeline shook her head. "You're stupid if you think that'll stop them."

"But they didn't come after you while you were staying with your friend, did they?" Amelia asked her.

Emmeline closed the dresser drawers one at a time before she turned to face her with her arms crossed. "Friend is a bit of a strong word, and they didn't come after us because she is well-protected, and no, I don't mean she was in a gang. She's just got friends that the Dragons know better than to fuck with."

Amelia frowned at her. "What about you?"

Emmeline stared down at the floor and said, "People like me don't really have friends - not good ones, anyway."

"You can say that again. We're always getting thrown in with the garbage, and then people blame us when we start to stink, too."

Emmeline turned to see a small mulatto girl with cornrows that spilled down her back. "Nice quote," she grinned at her.

"Yeah, I got some good ones," the girl said, walking across the room to the bed. "You my roommate?"

"Vanessa," Amelia said quickly. "Yes, this is Emmeline Harris, and she will be your roommate from now on."

"Until next month, anyway," Emmeline added, walking across the room and retrieving the rest of her clothes from the duffel bag.

Vanessa took in Emmeline's appearance as she crossed the room. "I heard you was trouble," she told her. "But you don't look you've ever seen the inside of the principal's office."

Emmeline laughed humorlessly. "My principal - well, ex-principal - wishes she never laid eyes on me."

"Oh, no," Vanessa chuckled. "What'd you do - c'mon, let's hear it. Not a single one of us is in here for a good reason."

Emmeline piled some clothes in an open drawer, debating on how much to tell her.

"Emmeline is here because she used to sell drugs," Amelia said when Emmeline hesitated.

"For the Purple Dragons," Emmeline finished for her. She walked across the room, and pushed the duffel bag on the floor before sinking onto her bed. It was hard as a rock and paper thin - like a hospital bed.

Vanessa's smile vanished instantly. "Shit," she said after a moment of consideration. "No one said you was ganged up."

Emmeline shook her head. "I'm not," she told her. "Not anymore anyway."

"What, you trying to get out?" Vanessa asked her. "Cause they don't take that shit too lightly, and I ain't trying to get my ass handed to me by them Dragons."

"I'm not trying to get out," Emmeline corrected her. "I am out and, believe me, the less you know about it the better. If you wanna know anything about me, just read the freaking newspapers. It'll all be out soon enough."

Amelia hurriedly crossed the room and closed the bedroom door.

"So that's why the damn cops was here," Vanessa gasped. "Cause you trying to go after the Dragons. Man, what'd they do to you?"

"Enough," Emmeline scoffed.

"Look," Amelia said, turning to face the both of them. "I don't think it's a good idea for any of this to leave this room, especially since you might not get along with all the other girls in the house, Emmeline. As far as they need to know, you're just some girl who used to sell drugs to get by. We don't need to start a panic because they all think the Dragons are going to come here and attack them or something. So neither of you two breathe a word of this to anyone, got it?" She cast a dark look at Vanessa.

"Yeah, I got it," Vanessa said, nodding. She looked at Emmeline. "But I ain't covering your ass if they do show up - I may have done some stupid shit, but I do know how to stay alive and there ain't no way I'm choosing your ass over life. No offense," she added with a grimace.

Emmeline ignored her and turned to Amelia. "How soon am I allowed to spend the night at a friends' house?" she asked her.

"Well, you can leave the house at any time outside of school hours," Amelia told her. "But you have to be here for at least a fortnight before you're allowed to stay anywhere overnight."

"A what?" Emmeline asked.

"Two weeks," Vanessa clarified. "I read," she added when she saw the inquiring look on Emmeline's face. "Harry Potter and shit like that."

"She's where?" Raphael asked, leaning so far over in his seat on the bench it looked like he might fall over. "Brooklyn?"

Leonardo took a slice of pizza from the box that was being passed around the pit. "There's where the group home is, yeah."

"She might as be in, like, another galaxy or something," Michelangelo said, reaching for the box. "Brooklyn is forever away from here."

"Actually, it's only an hour by train," Donatello chimed in knowingly.

"And when do you foresee any of us riding the subway, O, All-Knowing-One?" Raphael shot at him. "What are we supposed to do - rent costumes?"

"That would just scare her off," Mikey said through a mouthful of pizza.

"So what about the other girls?" April said, intervening quickly. "Did she say what they were like?"

Leo shook his head. "She hasn't really talked to any of them yet. But I think she said her roommate got brought in after her pimp got busted -"

At those words, Raphael nearly inhaled his pizza and began to have a violent coughing fit. Donatello reached forward to clap him on the back, but quickly withdrew his hand when he saw the scowl Raph shot him into between coughs. He cleared his throat loudly. "Well, I'm sure she is just charming."

Casey frowned and turned to April. "Didn't you say the girls would probably all have rap sheets like Emmeline?"

"Emmeline has been through a lot," Leonardo said before April had a chance to respond. "I'm pretty sure none of them have a story quite like hers."

"What, and she told you her story?" Raphael asked surprised at the venom in his voice. He thought back to the night before when Leo had called her by a nickname. "Since when are you two so close anyway?"

Leonardo raised an eyebrow at him. "Since when do you care?"

"I don't," Raphael told him assuredly, taking a bite of pizza to hide the heat he felt raising in his cheeks. "Just asking."

"And anyway, she didn't tell me everything," Leo informed them all. "Just that she's worried Hun might try to come after her brother. You can just tell from the way she talks about her past. She's been through hell and back."

For once Raph was surprised to find that he actually agreed with his older brother.

"Why is she worried about Hun going after her brother?" April asked.

Leo turned to her, frowning. "She didn't say, but I would assume it's because she's cares so much about her brother, she's afraid Hun might use him to get to her."

Raphael set his plate on the floor and got to his feet.

"Where are you going now?" Donatello said, looking up at him as he started for the stairs that led to the exit.

Raph paused for a moment. Finally he said, "If Emmeline thinks the Dragons might go after her brother, don't you think someone should be watching him?"

Donnie exchanged a glance with Leonardo.

"It's scary when Raphael is the smart one," Michelangelo said when neither of them responded right away.

"Send me a text when one of you guys is able to pick up my shift," Raphael said, starting up the steps.

April sat silently for a moment, contemplating. Then once Raphael was out of the lair she got to her feet and started to jog up the stairs. "I'll be right back!" she called over her shoulder to the others. "Raphael, wait!"

Raph was already halfway down the subway tunnel. "What do you want?" he said without stopping once April had caught up with him.

She reached out and grabbed him by the shoulder. "You're not going to watch her brother, are you?"

Raphael shrugged out of her grasp and kept going. "I will. Eventually."

"Look, I know you have guys been talking and you're getting closer," April told him. "But I really don't think she's ready to tell you the truth about everything."

They rounded the corner that led to the abandoned tunnel that would soon bring them to the city's sewer ways. "If I'm gonna spend my nights babysitting some kid I don't even know, I better make damn sure I have a good explanation why," Raphael said as the light in the tunnel grew dimmer and dimmer. Soon they would be shrouded in darkness.

April paused and watched him continue on down the tunnel without her. "Raphael, I really think you're only going to be pushing her away if you force her to tell you the truth tonight. Is that what you want?"

Raphael paused and found himself thinking back to the conversation he had had with Splinter earlier in the day. His thoughts about it had been raging in his head like a swarm of angry bees all day. About whether or not he wanted to be closer to Emmeline. It wasn't something he had to think about because he already knew what her answer would be regardless of how he felt. "Maybe that's a good thing," he said at last, and then he disappeared into the darkness.

There were six other girls other than Vanessa who lived in the group home, but one of them refused to leave her room except for meals. The youngest girl was a fourteen-year-old Hispanic girl named Ruby, who had been arrested for possession of an eight ball. The oldest was a pale eighteen-year-old girl who Emmeline thought was named Freya. She had been arrested for petty thievery while she was living with a homeless colony. Finally, there were the twins, Amira and Samara, who proudly bragged that their life was the equivalent to a game of GTA.

"They aren't gonna try to run me over if I wear booty shorts on a street corner, are they?" Emmeline couldn't help but ask Vanessa as the twins skipped out of the kitchen, hand in hand. The kitchen was long and rectangular with cabinets along three of the walls, countertops that ran the length of the north-facing wall, and a long table in the center of the room.

Vanessa wandered over to the fridge and began to search through it. "I doubt they'd even notice your stick-figure ass," she said, pulling out a Tupperware container full of something. "You need to eat something. You like alfredo?"

Emmeline grimaced. "Why, yes, Mommy, I do," she said, watching her pull out two bowls and load them up with what appeared to be chicken alfredo. Except that it was made with chicken nuggets instead of pan-fried chicken. She frowned as her T-phone went off in her pocket. She pulled it out silently.

It was a text message from Raphael:

Got the address for that group home?

Emmeline texted him back the address quickly and shoved the phone in her pocket.

"Who's that?" Vanessa asked her, popping the bowls inside the microwave on the counter. "Boyfriend?"

"Who, Raphael?" Emmeline couldn't keep from laughing. "No, he's just some guy I know."

Vanessa turned to her with a smirk plastered on her face. "But you like him, don't you?"

Emmeline's smile vanished as she sat down at the long scuffed, wooden table and stared down at her hands. "I haven't liked anyone in a really long time. Not for real, anyway."

The microwave went off. Vanessa pulled out the bowls and set one down in front of Emmeline. "That's not a no," she told her. "Grab us some forks, will you?"

Emmeline spun around in her seat and pulled open a drawer directly behind her. She snatched up two forks and said, "I'm not exactly sure Raphael is relationship material. I mean, he's kinda…." Her voice trailed off as she searched for the right words. "...Different but not in a bad way. Besides, we drive each other crazy."

Vanessa raised her eyebrow at her. "In what way?"

Emmeline stabbed a chicken nugget with her fork. Was she actually having this conversation? She wanted to pinch herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming. "I mean, when he first met me, he was all condescending and he sort of hated me, you know, because of the drugs and everything. But I guess his brothers talked to him and now he's actually not a total jerk." She shrugged. "And, I mean, he listens to me. No one's ever really done that."

"If you find a guy that is actually giving you the time of day to hear what you have to say, you need to stick to him like needles on a damn cactus," Vanessa said, pointing to her with her fork. "I'm serious," she said when she saw the look of skepticism on Emmeline's face. "You and I know we fucked up. The whole world knows it, and all most of them wanna do is rub it in. If you find someone that actually wants to know why you fucked up without judging you, then you got a good one. "

"I never said he wasn't judging me," Emmeline pointed out.

Vanessa shook her head. "I don't think so. If he was, then he would have already given up on you and from the way you're talking, it doesn't sound like he has just yet."

Emmeline frowned. "No, not yet."

But he would.

It was just past midnight when Emmeline woke up to a faint tapping sound coming from the skylight in her bedroom. She opened her eyes to see Raphael staring down at her, tapping the tip of his sai against the glass. She checked to make sure Vanessa was still asleep and pressed a finger against her lips. Then she gestured to the window beside her, which led to the fire escape. She leaned forward and threw the window open, bracing herself for some sort of alarm.

There was none.

Emmeline threw the blankets off herself and climbed through the window onto the fire escape just as Raphael dropped down in front of her. She turned and closed the window, praying it wouldn't lock from the inside. She turned to Raphael, shivering slightly. It was cold out and she was dressed in a pair of night shorts and a tank top. "What are you doing here?" she asked him. Then she remembered the text from earlier and realized she should have been expecting him. "I mean, what do you want, Raphael?"

Raphael almost flinched at the way she said his name. It was too similar to his dream. "We need to talk," he said simply. He climbed the metal ladder back up to the rooftop.

Emmeline followed after him, frowning. "About?"

Raph opened his mouth to speak, but no words would come out. Finally, turning away from her, he managed, "You told Leo you were worried Hun might come after your brother?"

This time, it was Emmeline who was speechless. She couldn't believe Leonardo had told him that. "Oh," she said finally. She wandered over to the roof ledge and sat down, letting her feet dangle over the edge.

Raphael turned to face her and couldn't help but frown at the look of sadness that had taken over her features. He swallowed the lump that had risen in his throat and asked, "Why would Hun go after your brother?"

Emmeline stared out in the brightness of the streetlights that dotted the darkness. "It wouldn't be the first time he's come after my family," she told him.

Raphael shook his head. "No," he said. "No more metaphors or vague references to whatever the hell went down in your past. If your brother is in danger, then I need to know why. You need to tell me the truth."

Emmeline sighed. "I told the cops everything today. All of it." She looked up at him. "Just don't make me need to relive for your brothers, okay?"

Raphael sat down beside her and stared into her sapphire eyes. They were the same as his eyes had been when he had talked to Splinter earlier that day - pleading. He wasn't sure if she was begging him to understand or to make her not have to tell. "That bad, huh?" he said, dropping her gaze.

"Yeah, yeah," Emmeline said, her voice cracking with emotion. "It's pretty bad."

Raph was afraid to look up at her now. Afraid to see the tears that he knew would be in her eyes. "So what happened?"

Emmeline nodded, trying to clear her head and just remain focus on the facts. The important ones. She didn't want to be so sad over something that had happened so long ago. But talking about it now, she felt like she was reliving it. Maybe it was a good thing that her family never wanted to hear about it. "You remember how I told you my family was part Chinese?"

Raphael cast her an inquiring look. "What's that got to do with anything?"

Emmeline took a long, deep, rattling breath and said, "Well, three years ago when I was fourteen, my grandmother who was the only member of our family that was full-blooded Chinese past away." She shrugged. "That's when I realized I didn't know anything about her or my family's Chinese culture, and since she was gone, I realized I probably never would know. So I started hanging out in Chinatown…" Her voice trailed off, while she waited for Raphael to put two and two together.

He nodded. "Dragon territory."

Emmeline nodded. "There was this Asian grocery I liked to go because they sold all these candies from all over Asia, but it was run by this Chinese couple - the Huangs." She smiled at the memory. "That was where Hun found me. I was in there one night with my sister because I wanted to show her all the cool stuff they sold. She and I used to be close back then. Hun came in to buy beer or whatever. Then when he spotted me, he came over and offered to buy me whatever I wanted. I thought he was just some college guy."

Raphael did the math inside his head. "But you were just a kid - you were younger than I am."

Emmeline looked at him with that same pleading look in her eyes. "I didn't know what he wanted. I thought he was just being nice. I was - I don't know - a good kid back then. I had just started high school. I had never been in trouble before."

Raph scowled as things started to fall into place. "Hun took advantage of that."

Emmeline laughed and looked away just as single tear started to stream down her face. "You have no idea."

"What happened?" Raphael asked her.

Emmeline wiped the tear away. "Um, he kept being nice. My sister told me to be careful. She said that even though he was nice, college guys only wanted one thing. We had been hanging out about two weeks when he introduced me to the other Dragons." She shook her head, laughing at her own stupidity. "I didn't realize they were in a gang together. I thought they were just friends - close friends, and that's why they had matching tattoos and all. Then Hun got me a fake ID." She shrugged. "I didn't think anything of it. I wasn't planning on using it until one night, he asked me to go out clubbing with him. I told him I wouldn't do any drinking. Just dancing, you know, nothing illegal. Nothing dangerous."

Raphael stared down at his fingertips. He wasn't sure he liked where this story was going. "How'd that go?"

"He, uh, cornered me in the back of the club," Emmeline told him. "He kept trying to kiss me and stuff, but I didn't want him to. He was drunk, though, and a lot bigger than me, and there wasn't a whole lot I could do since I didn't know how to fight back then. Some guy found us and pulled him off me. I ran." She shook her head, not bothering to wipe the tears that were now flowing freely down her face. "It wasn't the end. Somehow, Hun managed to find out where I live even though I had never given him my address. One of his contacts gave it to him, I guess." She sniffled loudly and cleared her throat before she went on. "A week after the club incident, he and the other Purple Dragons broke into my parents' house. My sister was there. It was just the two of us. They brought guns and shot up the kitchen to scare us. It worked. Then they dragged my sister and me to my room, and put a gun against her head…." Her voice trailed off as she shook her head unable to finish the sentence. Unable to relive anymore of the story.

Raphael stared at her in a stunned silence, almost too afraid to ask what happened next. Instead he managed to ask, "What are you trying to say?"

Emmeline got to her feet, shaking her head and crossed her arms protectively across her chest, which heaved with fresh sobs. "I can't..." she tried to say, shaking her head.

Raphael stood up and went over to her. He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her gently. "This is already over, Emmeline," he reminded her. "Right now, it's just a story. You can do this."

Emmeline stared up at him through her tears. "Raphael," she finally said. "Owen isn't my brother. He's my son, and Hun is his father. He raped me that night. He held my sister and me at gunpoint, and he raped me."

A/N: So I'm pretty sure not everyone is gonna like the direction I took this in. I can't stop you from commenting if that is the case. If you feel, the story has taken too much of an adult turn at this point, then you may want to stop reading. However, I want to thank everyone who has stayed with me this far, and ask that you continue to support myself and the story with your reviews.

Thank you to everyone who read and reviewed the last chapter. I'm sorry that this chapter was a late update. I don't always have access to Wifi, and my laptop is on it's last leg. I hope you will be kind enough to continue reading and reviewing in the future.

Thank for reading.