Summary: Human AU: After Raphael is kidnapped at the age of five, his family was devastated. They never stopped searching for him, but after eleven years, they fall to the conclusion that he must truly be gone. But when the Hamato family receives a phone call early in the morning, they are overwhelmed to hear that Raphael is alive and well. But after such a large time gap, and a crude upbringing, is the Raphael they knew still inside this hardened shell of a teenager.

Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT or its characters. All rights go to producers. I just put their characters into my story.

Chapter Fourteen: Relief

"My past has not defined me, destroyed me, or deterred me, or defeated me; it has only strengthened me." ~ Steve Maraboli, Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience.

The looks they were giving him was disturbing him. It seemed to be a cross between shock, disgust, and something else that Raph couldn't quite place. All the same though, it bothered him and suddenly he found himself feeling super self conscious. He swiped the blade of the knife along his shirt hem before folding it back up and shoving it back into his pocket.
Without saying another word, Raph made a beeline for the door, his eyes focused only on the door. With each step he took, he could feel three pairs of eyes following him. Please stop, he thought as he could begin to feel sweat slid down the back of his neck. Please stop staring.
It took a moment, but the three began to follow after a moment, their steps hurried as he was already half way out the door.

"Raph!"
"Raph, please slow down," Donnie called.
"Dude, slow down!"
He ignored the calls, his fists clenching in irritation. He just wanted to go home; he wanted everything to go back to normal; he just wanted a fucking time machine to stop this all from happening. Now with the adrenaline beginning to quiet within his system, Raph could feel fatigue setting in, along with a fear that he hadn't felt in a long time.

He was scared. Mostly because of how they had looked at him; what did they think of him now? Was he a monster to them now?
"Raphael!" He felt a sudden hand on his shoulder. Raph turned around, causing Leo to stop abruptly in his steps.
"Don't make me regret my decisions, Leo. I know what I did, okay! That bastard deserved it!"
"You shouldn't have acted out in anger; it doesn't do any good. There are better ways to handle these types of situation-"
"Shut the fuck up!" He glared at his brother, his fists clenched tightly at his side. He fought the strong urge to swing a fist at Leo's face. He exhaled heavily, the muscles in his shoulders and arms relaxing slightly. He jabbed Leo sharply in the chest and took a step forward, making Leo step back.

"What I did was not purely done in anger, Leo. You don't know what I was feeling! Anger and hatred, yes. But that action of stabbing someone who has fucked with my life for so long…I felt relief in the fact that he is laying out, hopefully bleeding to death."
"I understand that that man has hurt you, but you can't just…do that to people." Leo tried to keep his voice low and calm, although he really wanted to match Raphael's voice in volume.

"I know right from wrong Leo, I'm not totally stupid! I know what I did was wrong, but it was what I had to do. A sense of fucking justice! So don't you dare fucking get all high and mighty with me!"
Raph turned around and continued his path forward back to the warehouse where the party was being held. He felt so done with everything right now; he just wanted to go home and crawl under the blankets and push this event to the back of his memory.

As they began to get closer to the warehouse that the party was housed in, Leo noticed the distinctive flash of red and blue lights. He stopped in his tracks, thinking back to the warehouse with Hun; he hadn't had the opportunity to call police, and he wasn't sure if any of his brothers had, and he didn't even know if Raph had had the opportunity to call the police.
But now that the police were involved, their father would more than likely be involved later in the night. Leo could only imagine what their father would say about the events of tonight.
"Leo!"
Drawing himself out of his thoughts, Leo turned towards the call and saw Karai, Casey and April jogging towards them. Karai embraced Leo, her arms wrapping around his neck.
"Are you okay?" she asked, pulling back slightly, "I was starting to get worried. I went to go wait outside and then I heard someone screaming." Karai glanced over at Raphael, who was trying to elude Casey who seemed to be trying to get answers from him.
"What happened," she demanded, her eyes locking onto Leo's. Leo sighed heavily; there was so much to explain, and he wasn't even sure if he could tell Karai everything. Karai was a strong young woman, but Leo wanted to spare her of having to hear the details.
"I'll explain later, it's a bit much to take in in one sitting."

"Whoa, Raph," Casey exclaimed, "What the hell happened, man?" He gestured to his own face and chest. "You're all bloody!" Raph smiled half heartedly, wiping at the drying blood on his face.
"Some of it's not mine," he muttered. Casey's blank look turned to shock as he processed the information.
"Well what happened man? Did that big guy mug you or something?"
"Something like that," Raph said. He couldn't help looking past Casey's head and focusing on the police cars, and the police officer that was beginning to approach them.
"You boys mind telling me what's going on here," the cop asked. For a long moment, everyone could only stare at the cop like deer in head lights; who was going to talk first? Eventually, Raph broke away from everyone else. This was technically his problem, so he should be the one to deal with this police officer.

The conversation with the police was long; much longer than it should have been. There were a lot of questions asked regarding his bloody state and what had happened for him to end up that way. It was highly uncomfortable, and when it came to Raph explaining what had happened to Hun, the cop looked at him, a raised eyebrow in question.
"You stabbed this man? Why?"
Raph was slow to reply. "He tried to…rape me." He hoped that he was being quiet enough that no one within ear shot would hear. The cop scribbled this down on his notepad.

"There's more," he said. He bit his lip, realizing what he had said. He had had a slip of the tongue, but he couldn't exactly take it back. But with everything that had happend tonight, he felt like this reveal of information would do good for someone else. Seeming to sense his hesitation, the cop glanced up from the notepad that he had been writing on.
"Go ahead, son," he said, motioning with his hand that held his pen.
"There's a warehouse near here. It's sort of like a brothel, but with kids." The cop stopped his note taking and glanced up, surprised.
"How would you know about something like this," he asked, his voice stern, yet concerned.

It took awhile to explain to the cop, but he seemed to think that Raph sounded pretty sincere about his claims. While Raph was lead over to awaiting ambulance to check him over for injuries, the cop he had been talking to rounded up his partner and the other squad unit that had shown up. They disappeared in their cars, driving over to the warehouse that wasn't much farther then where Hun had taken him tonight. He hoped that the set up that Hun had had when he was younger was still there; he really didn't want to be branded a liar, or worse, a criminal to the authorities. that would more than likely land him in juvie, and if he thought foster homes were bad, he had heard worse stories from those that had been in a juvenile detention facility.

Donnie was fascinated at how the cops went about their work. It was a profession that he would never have considered going into, but he had always really liked learning and reading about crime and law. But he had never expected to be experiencing a crime scene firsthand. He wasn't sure what Raphael had said to the police, but the officer and his partner radioed in another car, and before he knew it, they were heading over to another warehouse that wasn't too far from where Hun had taken Raph. What the officers found and brought back from the warehouse was far beyond what Donnie could have ever imagined.

At first he noticed a bulletin board. He had to squint to see from where he was standing, but the bulletin board was filled with pictures of children, varying in ages, but most appeared to be pre pubescent or early teen years. It was sickening to see and he couldn't help but think that Raph's picture was probably up on that bulletin board somewhere. He glanced away from the evidence that the cops were carrying from the warehouse, and towards Raphael, who was getting his injuries looked at. He couldn't help but sympathize with Raphael; Donnie could only imagine what he had gone through. He could understand why he had stabbed that giant of a man; self-defense, and a sense of justice, as Raph had stated.

He just hoped that Leo and Mikey were able to see the reasons for Raph stabbing that man. He could vibrantly recall the expression on his brother's face after he had stabbed Hun and he could see that Raph was hurt by the way he and the others were looking at him. And Donnie didn't want that; he was sure none of his brothers wanted that.

Mikey's brain felt over stimulated. With everything that had happend tonight - the party, the fight with a giant, acting like a statue as he almost watch his older brother get raped, and the police- it was a lot to take in all at once. He, Donnie, April and Casey all lingered about near the door to the warehouse of where the party was still ongoing, watching from the sidelines as both Leo and Raph interacted with the cops, all the while Karai clung onto Leo's wrist like her life depended on it. He wondered what would happen when their dad found out about tonight's events. He knew that his imagination tended to be over the top sometimes, but he knew either way that the outcome of tonight's events would probably end in some elaborately strange punishment that Yoshi Hamato was so great at creating.

A/N: Hey everyone. Sorry for dropping off the grid for awhile. School's finally finished for the semester so I have some free time. I apologize if this chapter isn't the greatest, but I hope you enjoy!