I own none of the characters or places seen here. They are all from the 2003 show "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." Scene set between episode "The King" and "The Shredder Strikes Back Part 1."

April was downstairs among her shop's antiques when the phone for her small business rang. She picked it up. "Hello?"

"Sis!"

"Hey, Robyn! How are you?"

"Good. Hey Sis, did you change your number, you know, to your apartment?"

April paused in polishing a piece of antique silver. "Noooooo …"

"Are you sure, because I tried to call it, and I thought I'd reached you on it before. But this time a guy picked up who talked in this atrocious French accent. Then I heard some other guys' voices in the background sounding mad including this kinda scratchy one who sounded more oriental. Then they hung up."

April had already put down her silver fork for sale. She let her forehead hit her hand-heel. Her sister's voice echoed in her ear again. "April?"

"I'm fine, Sis … just … had some friends over. One of them likes to play jokes."

"Oh … you know this was just a few minutes ago …"

"Yeah, they're still up there." April scowled toward the ceiling. "I told them they could stay awhile. Maybe I made a mistake."

"Oh. Well, don't kick them out just for that. It's just … I didn't think you would have … so many guys over."

April sighed. "Well. They're kinda in a bit of a pickle. They can't return to their old place. It has a … dangerous infestation."

"Oh my! It can't … I mean … They didn't … Could it spread to your place?"

April opened her mouth to reply in the negative. Then she pressed her lips together again and thought for a moment. "Maybe … they're trying to be careful about it. They … really do care for me. It's just … I was the only one who could look out for them here."

"Awww … April … You always did have a big heart." April smiled at her sister over the phone. Robyn went on after a heavy sigh. "It just goes to show you this time of year what 'we' have to be thankful for, doesn't it?"

April froze. Thanksgiving! She had forgotten what with five unexpected houseguests dropping in out of the blue!

"April?"

"Sorry Sis, I had just forgotten what time of year it was."

"Oh, did you, hah-hah." April now frowned at her laughing sister. The expression melted away a bit at Robyn's next words. "Sorry … Any-who, mom and dad told me what with getting the old shop going again you … don't have enough to join us this year either …"

April sighed, leaned heavily against the check-out counter and rubbed the area between her eyebrows. Her sister's voice came over the phone again. "April?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm still here."

"I … didn't realize not coming again was 'that' big of a deal to you now. You seemed so eager to get away and stay last time."

April sighed out again. Well … she'd had that coming. Growing up with a sweet, but controlling sis was kinda frustrating. Robyn was soooo sweet, so concerned, so good to her, so eager to make sure every path was smooth for her. Thing was, April didn't like smooth as much as Robyn did. Uncle Auggie had understood, taken her on wild adventures if only in her imagination through his stories. And then he was gone. Things had seemed, after the initial and frequent bouts of pain like lightning, even duller after that. Taking a chance, flying out to New York against her sister's gently persistent protests, and working for the great Baxter Stockman had seemed the perfect way to somehow continue Uncle Auggie's legacy and start her own! Right until Stockman had used his creations to steal, tried to kill her, and then tried to kill her and her new friends together. And now he was missing but wanted by the police. Though she was cleared in the eyes of the law, all Stockman's peers trying to distance themselves from him saw her working for them now as not the best way to do that. Well, she was a little shy about wanting to work for another intelligent egomaniac anyway …

"April …"

"Yeah sis …"

"I'm sorry you can't come … I'm going to miss you again."

April sighed and bowed her head. She thought of her mother's sweet pumpkin pie and sweeter face, her dad's bad jokes and proud bragging on her and Robyn, and her sister making sure she had her favorite mug for coffee, so they could stay up late into the night talking. Her throat got tight. "Yeah, me too."

. . .

A rather pale and wide, empty-eyed April opened the door of her own apartment. She was greeted by four, nervous turtles including one wearing orange who knelt before her with his three-fingered hands clasped together. "Now April, before you get mad about me picking up your phone … I was just pretending to be the French Chef of a very swanky restaurant that was too good for take-out! I was trying to get them to stop calling! I mean the phone had rung and stopped ringing and rung again three times! Raph was about to pound it into scrap-metal! I was just trying to save your phone, April!"

"Are you alright, Miss O'Neil?"

The quieter, scratchier voice came from the rat staring up at her over the top of his cane. April glanced down at him. "What … oh yeah …" She looked to Mikey next. "It's okay Mikey. It was just my sister. She uh …" April then put her hand to her head wondering if her quick explanations to her sis had been such a good idea. She now had to hold them up to her rightfully paranoid friends' scrutiny. "I told her I had friends over, because their place had a dangerous infestation."

Raph's voice sounded unusually quiet and deadly. "You what?"

Leo's eyes looked wide and horrified. Mikey, however, laughed behind his hand. Donnie's eyes had squinted. His head tilted in thought as he rubbed his chin. "Sounds plausible …" He held up his head straight again and laughed. "Since I made sure Shredder didn't bug your phones it should be fine. Your sister lives out of state, right?"

"Yep."

Donnie's bright voice broke in again. "Well, alright then."

Splinter held his head up slightly and spoke more gently. "Miss O'Neil, are you alright?"

The other turtles froze and really studied her a split-second before she came out of her reverie to notice. "Huh, oh yeah, I'm fine." She then turned and walked into her room shutting its door closed behind her.

Raph mumbled, "Somethin ain't right."

Donnie continued. "She may still be worried she's just put us in danger, but I don't see …"

The rat looked up at them all. "That may not be it, my sons. Come, let us give her privacy."

Splinter then found an old horror movie on TV. Mikey became immediately engrossed in it. Raph was more reluctantly drawn into it. Leo attempted to concentrate on it, because his father asked him to. Donnie attempted the same thing for a briefer portion of time. He began pulling apart the sci-fi of the plot out loud, which caused Mikey to hush him. He then turned to taking apart a Turtle phone to see if he could make it work better. Them all living in close quarters together made it a prime time to upgrade their long-distance communication devices.

Splinter watched all this from the side of the room until the sequel came on. Raph muttered about the sequel always being worse than the original. Mikey gleefully agreed even as the scene onscreen reflected perfectly in both his eyes. Leo sighed and glanced out the window acting as a sentry for his family. Donnie was sticking his tongue out as he fiddled with something in the turtle-com.

Sensei rose from his chair and slipped with minimal, fluid movement into the kitchen. As the horror movie went on, he used the girlie screams and manly-death shouts along with a few explosions to cover up the sounds of his making tea. As usual, he set two cups on the tray, but instead of carrying it in the direction of his oldest son, he went to the door of April's bedroom and spoke in a low, but penetrating voice through it. "Miss O'Neil?"

What do you think?

God Bless

ScribeofHeroes