The A-plot of this one has been around in my head for a while, exploring another aspect of what happens when April gets to take on the older sister role, rather than the younger sibling she tends to be cast as when dealing with ninja stuff (as I said, I'm a huge fan of the fact they're close enough in age to alternate whether April or the turtles are acting as the older sibling, depending on the situation). It takes place just before the Mousers episode.

The B-plot is new, unexpected, and all Pickles' fault for pointing out what was in plain sight, and making me think about it. Going back after and reviewing the episodes, it does seem that when one of the turtles comes down hard on a bad guy, more often than not, it's Raph. Check out preservedcucumbers on tumblr if you haven't seen it yet (and for more general awesomeness).

Big thanks to everyone who's helping me out when I post random questions on the fantasiawandering tumblr, too. This goes way faster when I don't have to back-watch three episodes to find specific details, and it's amazing what people have screengrabs of. I've started posting deleted scenes on the tumblr, too (including, eventually, one for this interlude). There's a lot of stuff under the "Falling" tag.

And once again, a huge thank you to everyone for your comments. I read all of them, and I appreciate every single one. You're a large part of why this is still going. I'll keep trying to find gaps as long as you want them.

Serious Business

Leo dove, rolling quickly back to his feet as the carpet scraped across his skin. He spun back, his eyes widened, and he barely had time to bring his hands up in a cross-guard as Raph plowed into him with the force of a bulldozer, throwing Leo into the wall.

"Raph!" Leo planted his hands on his hips. "Not so hard!"

Raph grinned. "What's the matter, Leo? Can't handle some competition?" Rounding on his heel, Raph came at him again.

"No," Leo said, raising his arms to block Raph's next series of strikes. "But this move—is supposed to be—graceful—like a gazelle—" He disengaged, slipping behind his brother's headstrong charge to land a firm kick to the back of his shell. "—and you're coming on like a rampaging water buffalo."

Raph snorted. "Hey, if you can't stand the heat, you can always go spar with Mikey."

He gestured toward the other side of the dojo, where Donnie and Mikey were sparring with weapons. Mikey was in the middle of regaling Donnie with the story of some action figure he'd found on the last dump run. Donnie, looking extremely bored, was blocking all Mikey's moves with the mechanical ennui that told Leo that Donnie was on full auto-pilot; their genius brother's mind was probably far away from practice. As Mikey nattered on, Donnie responded at appropriate intervals with some kind of noncommittal noise.

"—so then I looked down, and you couldn't tell through all the muck, but I just knew, 'cause you know they only ever made ten thousand of them—"

"Uh-huh."

"—and it was! It was totally a nearly almost mint condition Captain Cadaver—"

"Hmm."

"—limited edition action figure with necromancy action—"

"Wow."

"—and so I dug around, and I even found some of the original accessories—"

"You don't say."

Leo turned back and gave Raph an exasperated look.

Raph shrugged. "Hey, don't say I didn't give you the chance." He came at Leo again, every bit as hard as the first time.

Splinter, who had been observing silently from the sidelines, rapped his staff against the floor. "Too hard, Raphael! You would do well to listen to your brother."

Laughing, Raphael ran toward the tree. "Thanks, Sensei, but if I wanted lessons in how to cuddle my opponents into submission, I'd go ask April." He leaped, kicking off the tree and driving at Leo.

His timing was off. Leo rolled out of the way, and Raph went down hard. Leo was back on his feet in an instant, but he didn't move. Raph had also regained his stance, but he was frozen, standing on the carpet not far from Donnie and Mikey, panting.

"It would serve you right if I did let you ask April that question," Splinter muttered. "We could sell tickets to the show."

Oblivious to Raph, Mikey continued to let Donnie drive him across the dojo as he babbled about his action figure. Donnie wasn't paying attention either, his eyes still unfocused, so it wasn't surprising that Mikey backed straight into Raph.

What was surprising was Raph's reaction as he rounded on his brother. "Mikey! Will you watch where you're going!"

Mikey broke off abruptly, turning to Raph with wide eyes.

"Yeah...uh huh...fascinati—wait, what's going on?" Donnie said, finally realizing that Mikey had stopped talking.

Mikey's attention darted back to Donnie. "Are you kidding me? You weren't even listening?" He punctuated the protest with an emphatic gesture, and end of the nunchuck in his hand swung out hard enough to jostle Raphael. Raph staggered, and Leo saw the moment his temper snapped.

"Oh, come on, Mikey, nobody cares!" Mikey cringed, taking a step back toward Donnie, but Raph wasn't finished. "It's just a stupid doll. Would you grow up, already!"

Mikey's lip quivered. "It's not a doll, it's an action figure!"

"Raphael!" Splinter stepped forward. "That is enough."

"It's a kid's toy. You're teenage ninja, for crying out loud. No wonder nobody takes you seriously!"

"Oh, yeah?" Mikey shouted back, his eyes shining. "Well you're a… stupid….aaagh!" He pressed his hands over his eyes. "I can't even come up with a name for you!" Turning away, he ran from the dojo.

Donnie watched him go, his bō hanging by his side, and turned to Raph. "Wow. That was unusually harsh, even for you."

"Whatever," Raph muttered, at least having the grace to look ashamed.

Leo exchanged a look with Splinter and crossed his arms. "Hey, Raph. Come over here a minute."

Raph's gaze snapped over to him, and his eyes went wide as he saw the look on Leo's face. "Uh, no thanks. I'm good here."

Donnie, catching on, moved to stand next to Leo and Splinter. Setting his bō against the floor, he leaned on it, looking suitably unimpressed. "You wrenched it, didn't you?"

"No!" Raph said. The fact that the word ended in a squeak didn't help his argument much.

"Uh-huh." Donnie said flatly.

"Look, braniac, I'm fine—"

With a speed that only Donnie could bring to the bō, he whipped it around, driving it toward Raph's knee. Stopping just short of contact, Donnie tapped the knee with a feather touch.

Raph's face contorted, his entire body stiffening, and his eye began to twitch. "Feels fine," he spat out between clenched teeth.

Donnie looked at Leo. "He wrenched it."

"Again," said Leo.

"I did not!" Raph clenched his fists. "Look, maybe I came down a little hard, but that doesn't mean—"

His words cut off in a strangled grunt, and he collapsed to the floor. Leo, who had moved to stand behind Raph as he was busy yelling at Donnie, dusted off his hands in satisfaction.

"Well done, Leonardo," Splinter said, looking down at his unconscious son. "Your nerve block is improving. Not even any twitching this time."

"Thanks, Sensei."

Each taking an arm, Leo and Donnie heaved Raph up between them and started dragging him toward Donnie's lab. "Jeez," Donnie wheezed. "How does someone so short end up so freaking heavy?"

"It's all the bones in his thick skull," Leo grunted. Between them, they managed to muscle Raph into the lab. Donnie ducked out from under Raph's arm, leaving Leo to bear the weight, and headed into his storage room. He returned a minute later, pushing forward an old dentist's chair. Leo dumped Raph into it and helped Donnie get their brother into position. As Donnie unwrapped the problem knee, prodding at it carefully, Leo gathered some rope from Donnie's supplies and started tying Raph to the chair.

Splinter joined them just as Raph started to come around. Raph groaned, tugging at the ropes, and let his head thunk back against the headrest with an exasperated grunt. "You have got to be kidding me."

"If you'd stop being a big baby every time you get hurt, we wouldn't have to," Leo said.

"Raphael," said Splinter, "If you will not listen to me, and you will not listen to Leonardo, I think that perhaps it is time for you to listen to Donatello."

Donnie stepped forward, in front of the monitor he'd wheeled in front of Raph's chair. "Thank you Sensei."

Raph's eyes widened in horror. "No...you can't mean..."

"Now then." Donnie raised a remote, and with a press of a button, a title card bearing the words 'PHUN WITH PHYSICS' appeared on the monitor. "Imagine, if you will, the observations made by Sir Isaac Newton in the late seventeenth century—"

"Not a Physics lecture!" Raph twisted in his bonds as Donnie continued unabated. "Sensei, please, have mercy!"

Splinter just shook his head and left the room.

"—so when we take the dense object – that's you," Donnie pointed at a stick figure of a turtle on his current slide "—and we calculate the forces acting on you as you hit your target, we find that the total kinetic energy absorbed by your knee is equal to one half your mass, which is a lot, times the velocity with which you—"

"Leo! Leo, please! You're my brother! Don't leave me like this!"

"Sorry, Raph." Leo headed for the door. "Maybe you should listen next time. I have to go find Mikey."

"—and don't even get me started on the gravitational acceleration at Earth's surface—"

"Nooooooo!"

Leo winced as he left Raph to Donnie's tender mercies and went to fetch his katana from the dojo.

April rubbed her eyes as the words in the textbook began to blur and run together, and resolved to take her contacts out before too much longer. The last thing she needed was another night of sleeping with her lenses in, which had been happening far too often since her peer group had shifted over to a bunch of nocturnal ninjas. She let her head drop onto the book and wondered if Donnie was available. She hated going to him for help — he had a sweet but annoying habit of trying to do the work for her — but without her dad, she had nobody to help her navigate the really advanced sets. She could figure it out on her own eventually, but it was taking forever.

She rolled over, stretching out on the bed and pushing her books and notes aside. Maybe a break would help—

Something moved out on the fire escape.

April caught her breath, her blood freezing. She glanced over at her phone, but the desk seemed incredibly far away. It was probably nothing, but ever since Dogpound and the Foot had taken her, she was more than a little bit jumpy, a small corner of her mind always wondering if they'd be able to figure out who she was and where she lived.

Reaching up to the shelf above her bed, she groped around for the nearest solid object. Grabbing the first thing that felt like it could leave a substantial dent, she slipped off the bed and crouched against the wall beneath the window. Taking a few deep breaths, she tried to remember everything Splinter had taught her. Setting her jaw, she drew back and launched herself through the window with a war cry, swinging her fist overhead.

An impossibly strong hand locked around her wrist, and she found herself dangling a foot above the balcony, the stupid fish lamp from the family's antique store clutched uselessly in her trapped hand.

Michelangelo looked at her from his seat on the railing, his face unusually forlorn. "Oh. Hey, April."

"Hey, Mikey." She wiggled her feet a little. "Do you think you could put me down?"

"Huh?" He really looked at her, only now seeming to realize that he was holding her up. "Oh, sure." He frowned. "Were you trying to hit me with that fish?"

"Nah," she said as he set her down. She put the lamp down next to the wall and leaned against the rail next to him. "Just checking something." She propped her elbow on the railing and rested her chin on her hand. "So what's up?"

He sighed. "April, do you take me seriously?"

Whoa. Why do I get the feeling I just stepped onto a minefield?

April thought carefully. "I guess it depends on what you're doing."

His expression darkened. "I knew it. You think I'm useless."

"Hey, hold on now," she said, placing a hand on his knee. "I didn't say that. Who said that? Was it Raph? I bet it was Raph."

Mikey stared at her, his lip starting to quiver. And then the whole story poured out. April listened solemnly, nodding in the right places, and as the story began to peter out, she held up a finger. "Hold that thought."

She ducked through the window, taking the fish lamp with her and returning it to the shelf. She paused only to grab her phone and a set of keys from her desk drawer, and returned to the fire escape, pushing the window closed behind her. She pulled out the phone, opening up her maps app, and punched in an address. "Can you get us here?" she asked, and showed him the screen.

He looked at it, considering. "Sure. What for?"

"There's something I want to show you." She looked up at him, hands clasped behind her back. "If we're going by roof, I'll probably need help with some of the big gaps."

He blinked at her, and the hurt in his eyes softened, his expression relaxing into what she had come to recognize as his 'cool guy' face. "Well, then it's a good thing you're with me and not some slow, stupid jerkface." He hopped off the rail and took her hand carefully. Then, with a grin, he yanked her onto his back. In seconds, he was on the roof, running for the edge, and in a heartbeat more, they were in freefall.

Being the focus of Mikey's attention was scary at the best of times. Being only half the focus of it was downright terrifying. April found herself caught in a breathless chase as they moved over the city toward their destination, half the time on her feet either chasing Mikey or being dragged by him, and half the time finding herself under his arm or over his shoulder as he cleared the bigger distances for her. Except for the moments when he seemed to find some random crime to fight with whatever part of his brain wasn't telling the story. He had a pretty impressive grasp of what she could do and what she couldn't, as long as he wasn't thinking too hard about it. So she endeavoured to keep quiet and let him continue his tirade.

"—and he doesn't get it! I mean, everyone knows that dolls and action figures aren't the same thing—" he grabbed her around the waist with one arm, catapulting off the edge of their current roof, the chain of his kusarigama catching an overhanging flagpole the next building over as he swung them down to another rooftop "—and he knows that too, but sometimes he just—" As they cleared the roof, April was able to make out a large man in Purple Dragon regailia advancing on a smaller one in the alley below. Seconds later, two shuriken thudded into the alley wall, pinning the Purple Dragon's hand over his head. "—yells for no reason."

"Mmm-hmm," April said as they cleared the next roof, making the jump on her own this time.

As they ran across the next stretch, Mikey glared at her. "Are you even listening?"

"Captain Cadaver. Not a doll. Raph is stupid." Concentrating hard, she heaved herself across the next gap.

His eyes widened. "Oh. Okay." He landed next to her. "So I found this thing, right, and it's only missing two of the original accessories—" A cry sounded from the parking lot next to the building. She didn't even see him go over the wall, it was that fast, only heard the sounds of blows landing on a very large target, and then Mikey was back on the roof, a yellow purse in his hand. "And it would be better if the accessories were there—" He tossed the bag over the edge, a delighted cry from below indicating that it had found its original owner. "—but even without them—" He grabbed her again, and she clung to his back as he used a ventilation duct and a water tower to give him the height he needed to make it to the next building. "—it's still something I've been trying to find since I was little, you know?"

"I know," she said. "And it's not like it's a teddy b—" she caught sight of the look on his face and swung the thought around fast, "—bearrrr, which is fine too. I've got a bunch. They're good company." As he gathered himself for another jump, she put a hand on his arm. "Mikey?" He looked at her, and she pointed at the next building. "We're here."

He looked down and leaned against the ledge of the roof. "Oh. Right." He sighed. "Maybe he's right, though. Maybe I should be more serious."

"You are serious," said April. He looked at her in surprise, and she nudged him on the arm. "Seriously cool. That?" She gestured back at the rooftops. "Was totally awesome."

His brows raised. "It was just running. What's so cool about that?"

"Mikey," she said, "do you have any idea how many thugs you took down just now?"

"I dunno," he said. "A bunch?"

She leaned against the wall. "So you're also a serious ninja. What more do you need?"

He hunched his shoulders, looking down at the sidewalk below them. "For my brothers to take me seriously."

April put her hand on his shoulder. "Do you know what I need?"

"What?" he asked, genuinely curious.

"I need you to keep being Mikey." When he shot her a disbelieving glance, she bumped him with her hip. "Now I'm serious. Do you know how much fun I just had? I mean, what would it be like if everyone acted like Leo? Or Raph?"

"Or Donnie?" he added, smiling a little.

"Or Donnie." She grinned. "If you ask me, I think they need Dr. Fun-enstein around to keep things from getting boring."

He raised a brow at her. "Maybe you should let me handle naming stuff." But his mood was starting to lift. Good. Sad Mikey was just...wrong. "So you really don't think action figures are stupid?"

April smiled. "See that window down there? Meet me there."

Leaving him on the roof to stare after her in bewilderment, she jumped to the fire escape and let herself down. Crossing the gap between buildings, she made her way to the front of the brownstone. Pulling the little-used set of keys from her pocket, she let herself in.

A few minutes later, Mikey was pulling himself through the open window, looking around the room with open curiosity. "Where are we?"

"My room," she said. He looked at her, a question in his face, and she shrugged. "My actual room." As comprehension dawned across his face, she sat down on the bed. "I haven't been back that much...it's kind of hard to come home and find it empty, you know?" She shook herself. "But that's not why we're here." She shoved herself off the bed and crossed to the closet. With a look at Mikey, she pushed open the closet door.

He moved to stand next to her, his eyes the size of dinner plates. "…whoa," he breathed.

April folded her arms, looking at the rows upon rows of heroes, villains, monsters and sidekicks arranged on the shelves. "It's something Dad taught me when I was really little. All those shows and comics were so amazing, but even when some of them had girls in them, the girls never got to do much." She shrugged. "This way, the girls got to do whatever I wanted them to do." She reached into the closet, pulled out the Captain Cadaver accessories Mikey was missing, and handed them to him.

Mikey stared at her, and a massive grin spread across his face. "You. Are the coolest person. Ever." He grabbed her, lifting her off the ground in a hug that drove the breath from her body. "Maybe you should be Dr. Fun-enstein!"

Laughing, April patted as much of his shell as she could reach with her arms pinned. "Nah. I think I'll leave the doctoring to the expert."

Raphael moaned as Donnie finished wrapping the compression bandage around his wrenched knee. Behind him, Splinter watched the treatment carefully. "It'll be fine," Donnie said, clipping off the bandage and picking up the ice pack he'd retrieved from the freezer, slipping it into the velcroed sleeve that would allow him to wrap it around the joint. "I gave him some painkillers, just in case."

"No, you're ugly," Raph muttered.

Splinter looked at Donnie. "Exactly how much did you give him?"

"Um…" Donnie hedged. "Maybe a little more than was strictly necessary?" Splinter folded his arms, and Donnie shrugged. "It's not gonna hurt him. I just wanted to give myself a fighting chance in case he decides to come after me when I let him up."

Splinter sighed, but rested a hand on Donnie's shoulder. "It is good of you to care for your brother, Donatello."

"Yeah, well." He looked back at Raph. "Somebody has to."

Splinter patted his shoulder and left the room. Unable to put it off any longer, Donnie took a breath and went about setting Raph loose. Fortunately, either because of the painkillers, or because he just wasn't in the mood anymore, Raph seemed disinclined to take a swing at him. Donnie carefully helped him sit up, easing his legs over the edge of the chair. "How's it feel?"

"Fine," Raph snapped, pressing a hand to his head.

Donnie lifted the leg gingerly, performing the series of motions that would tell him if there was any deeper damage to the knee that they needed to be worried about, but Raph didn't react, other than to clench his fists. "They're right, you know. This wouldn't happen if you'd stop treating your legs like a battering ram and just do the moves like we're supposed to." Donnie let the leg go and rubbed his eyes. "Honestly, Raph, what are you thinking?"

"Thinking I need to take the other guy down 'fore he hurts one of you."

The response was slurred, and so quiet Donnie almost missed it. His gaze snapped up toward his brother. Raph saw him looking and scowled. "What? I didn't say anything. Shut up!"

Donnie held up his hands. "Whatever you say. Come on, you need to get off that knee and get some rest." He offered a hand.

Raph pushed it away. "Don't need help," he mumbled, and would have collapsed as soon as his feet touched the floor if Donnie hadn't been there, pulling Raph's arm around his shoulder and taking the weight off Raph's knee.

"Sure you don't," said Donnie. "I'll just stand here anyway."

"Didn't ask you to."

"Didn't need to." Donnie steered his disoriented brother out of the lab.

Raph looked down into the pit and stiffened. "Hey! That leprechaun better stay outta my comics if he knows what's good for 'im."

Donnie looked over at the empty pit, and made a mental note to ease back on the painkillers next time. "I'm sure he knows better."

"Thass right." He pointed an accusing finger at the air. "I got my eye on you, pal."

Donnie shook his head. "You tell him, buddy."

Raph leaned into him, staggering as they hit a small step. "I'm a jerk."

"I know. You can't help it, though."

"Think Mikey's mad?"

"Probably. He won't stay mad, though. He's Mikey. Besides, Leo's with him. He'll talk him around."

Raph patted Donnie's shell awkwardly. "You're a good guy, Donnie. Sorry I told you where you could stick your stupid science."

"That's okay," Donnie said. "It wouldn't have fit there, anyway."

Raph's legs gave out completely. With a pained grunt, Donnie hoisted Raph across his shoulders, grabbing one of Raph's arms with his right hand and the uninjured leg with his left. Raph's head bounced against Donnie's arm and left a spot of drool behind.

"Sorry." Raph's words were really slurring now.

"Don't worry about it. You can pay me back later." Donnie started moving again, straining under his brother's weight.

"I love you, man."

"Love you too, Raph."

His only answer was a deeply drugged snore.

Meanwhile, across town, an interstellar war raged.

"Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!" April reared back, brandishing the action figure of what had once been Petunia the Princess Fairy, long ago re-christened Petunia the Destroyer. "You shall never defeat me! My tyranny knows no bounds!"

"Oh yeah? You didn't count on my Marshmallows of Doom!" Mikey, deep in the role of Elgarth the Magnificent, leaped across the room, ricocheting off her desk to the bed and sending a flurry of pillows at her head.

April shrieked with laughter as they struck, knocking her backward, but even as she fell, he was moving again, catching her before she could hit the ground.

"Do you give up, Petunia?"

"Never!"

He dropped her the last inch and was off. Laughing so hard she could barely breathe, she felt desperately sorry for all the kids of the city who had grown up without ninjas. This was so much more fun.

Mikey perched on top of her desk chair. Some of the Pretty Magic Rainbow Kittens from her early childhood years had left the closet stash to join Elgarth in his hands. He cackled, fists raised. "All right, Petunia! Prepare to taste my Kitties of Fury!"

"I don't know," said a dry voice from the window. "Are you sure Petunia can take it?"

Mikey toppled from the chair with a squeak, landing in a pile next to April. He struggled back up, propping himself on his elbows. "Oh, hey Leo."

April pushed herself up as well, straining to catch her breath. "Hey." Her brow furrowed. "How did you find us here?"

"Please," Leo said with a smirk. "I'm a ninja, remember?" He swung himself into the room.

"Okay, then." April crossed her arms. "Why are you here?"

"My brother was missing and I came to get him back." Leo surveyed the room. "Although you guys seem to be pretty good here—" His eyes widened and he darted for the closet. "No way! Is this the Nebuzarian Armour Captain Ryan?" He grabbed the action figure from the shelf with undisguised glee. "I thought they only released these in Germany!"

"They did," April said smugly. "But my family has connections in the collectibles market."

"You should see some of the crazy stuff she's got," Mikey added.

Leo looked dreamily down at the Captain Ryan figure cradled in his hand, and April and Mikey exchanged a look. Grinning, they moved apart, flanking Leo on either side.

"Well, Elgarth, this is a new development." April climbed up on the desk. "The great Captain Ryan descending from on high to break up our little party. Shall we set our differences aside and deal with this most unwanted interruption?"

"Indeed, my dear Petunia! We shall destroy this intruder and his precious Dauntless!" Mikey crouched, ready to strike.

Leo looked from one of them to the other, and his face broke into a grin of unadulterated delight. "You fools!" He struck a scarily accurate Captain Ryan pose. "No evildoers can possibly stand against the united powers of the Planetary Alliance!"

"Yaaaaugh!" April launched herself off the desk at him.

He wasn't there anymore. As Leo vaulted out of the way, April found herself coming down on top of Mikey instead. Effortlessly, Mikey flipped from his crouch onto his back, catching her easily. She hung there for a millisecond before his feet, planted firmly but gently in her midriff, pitched her over his head toward the bed. April shrieked as she pinwheeled through the air, but Leo was already waiting. She smacked into him hard, his arms locking around her waist even as the force of her momentum threw them both onto the bed. Giddy with laughter, she struggled futilely to get up as Leo clung to her, demanding that Petunia surrender to the overpowering might of the Alliance.

With a bloodcurdling cry, Mikey flung himself at them both. Leo's arms tightened around April's waist as he yanked her out of the way, the force of Mikey's landing bouncing them up to a sitting position as the bedframe creaked.

"Get him!" Leo yelled, and they threw themselves on top of him.

"No fair!" Mikey bucked under them, though he was grinning hard enough that April's face ached in sympathy. "You switched teams!"

"Never underestimate the duplicity of Petunia the Destro—"

With an ominous crack, the bed shifted beneath them, and collapsed to the floor.

April knelt there, her heart pounding, still half on top of Mikey. The boys looked at each other and then back at her, horrified.

"April," Leo began, his voice ringing with concern.

She couldn't help it. A strangled noise escaped her, and she doubled over into an uncontrollable fit of giggles. "I'm sorry!" she gasped. "The looks… on your faces!"

Mikey was the next to join her, but Leo wasn't far behind, the three of them falling over each other as laughter rendered them helpless. April's sides ached, and tears streamed down her face, but her squeaky "owwww" only set them off even harder.

"Ohmigosh, I almost forgot," she wheezed, pulling herself out of the tangle of limbs and falling off the now much-shorter bed. "You're gonna love this. Wait here."

She ran into the closet, sliding the door closed except for a tiny crack. As she found what she wanted and struggled into it, she kept half an eye on the boys through the crack. As they brought their laughter under control, Leo reached over and helped Mikey sit up.

"So," Mikey said, sobering a little. "Is Raph still mad?"

"Nah," said Leo. "He wrenched his knee."

Mikey made an exasperated sound. "Again?"

"Yeah. But Donnie fixed him up. And lectured him about physics."

"Ouch. Poor Raph." Mikey sighed. "I guess this means I have to forgive him." He sounded annoyed, but there was no anger on his face as he drew a knee up to his chest and wrapped his hands around it. "So how did you find us?"

"It really wasn't that hard. You left a heck of a trail of cops and Purple Dragons to follow." Leo reached out and rubbed Mikey's head. "Nice work there, little brother."

April smiled, leaning her head against the wall as she watched them. Then, deciding she was ready, she jammed the wig on her head and pushed back the closet door. The boys looked her way, and she watched Leo's mouth fall open as he took in the polished boots, red uniform, and the cascade of teal hair falling over her shoulders. She planted her hands on her hips, smiling in satisfaction.

"You," Leo said slowly, "have a Lieutenant Virtue costume?"

"Yup." She said. "I mean, I'm really only a fan of that one episode, but there was this family contest thing with some of my dad's friends a couple Halloweens ago, and he thought we'd be a lock."

Leo beamed at her. "That is so awesome!"

April grinned, and bounced on her toes. "Oh, wait! Dad still has his Captain Ryan costume!" She ran for the door. "I bet it'd even fit you; he was really paunchy back then."

Behind her, she heard Mikey explode with laughter, accompanied by Leo's aggrieved, "Hey!"

"That's not what I meant!" she yelled back down the hall. "You have a shell, dummy!"

Still laughing, she pushed open the door to the bedroom down the hall, and froze.

Only then did she realize that she hadn't opened this door since her dad had been taken. The room beyond was dark, and cold, but it still smelled like him. Fighting back the stinging in her eyes, she felt her way over to the bed. She stretched out on it carefully, burying her face in the pillows and breathing deeply. Just for a minute.

When she felt that she had indulged long enough, she pushed herself up, wiped her eyes, and got what she needed from the closet. She paused only briefly on the threshold, looking back into the dark room.

"Miss you, daddy," she whispered.

The unmistakable sounds of the interstellar war starting up again drifted to her from down the hall, and she closed the door, smiling. This house had been empty of joy for way too long, and as she listened to Elgarth challenging Captain Ryan to a duel to the death, she found that didn't have the words to describe the feeling that filled her when she considered how the boys, Mikey in particular, had found her at the darkest point of her life and given the gift of laughter back to her.

Captain Ryan's costume pressed tight to her chest, she ran back down the hall, throwing open the door. Without even really looking, she launched herself at the bed. She didn't even care who caught her. She just knew that there wasn't even a question that one of them would.

And that, in this moment, was enough.