Why hello everybody! I know I was supposed to post this on Halloween, but life (and a funeral) got in the way. So, here it is! The sequel to "In Her Grasp"! I hope you all like this story as much as it's predecessor. It kind of starts out pretty fast, but it'll get better. And yes, I got my inspirarion for this one watching movies like Practical Magic and Hocus Pocus. ABCFamily's 13 nights of Halloween were on this past month, don't judge me! Okay, here we go. Enjoy!

Claire Blackwood lay with her head hanging off the edge of her bed, studying her trigonometry homework. Well, she wasn't really studying; she was simply reading over it. Again. It was a welcome relief from what her aunts wanted her to study.

That wasn't practical for the modern world. It couldn't be used in a job situation, neither could she put it as an ability on an application or resumé. She tried as much as she could to stay away from it all.

Her sister Ella, on the other hand, excelled in it. She could make lotions and salves and soaps out of anything, and she often produced medicines for their neighbors in their apartment complex.

Claire's abilities were different. She didn't make medicine. She couldn't help people, only herself. It was only a few things here and there, but it almost always ended up badly for someone else. She hated it. She hated that no matter how careful she was, her abilities seemed to only lead to destruction and pain.

At least, that was what it felt like to her. Her aunts and sister assured her that that wasn't the case. They told her that hers and Ella's parents died because of a freak accident, not because she'd only recently discovered what she could do. Even still, she would not participate in her family's activities.

"Claire, dear," her Aunt Beatrice called up the stairs. "Dinner's ready!"

Groaning in apprehension, Claire shut the math book and rolled off her bed, landing gracefully on her knees. On her way out, she passed the mirror hanging in her closet. She made a face at her unruly, curly brown hair and scrunched up her nose, then made her way down the stairs to the dining room. The entire way she was mentally preparing herself for the onslaught of her aunts. After dinner would be the other half of her daily instruction.

When she walked into the room, her Aunt Alice was stirring the large pot on the stove, and she breathed a soft sigh of relief. Today's lesson would focus on what Ella was good at – potions.

Claire sat down next to her twin and looked at Aunt Beatrice expectantly. Beatrice snapped her fingers and the plates of food flew from the counter to the table, along with a large pitcher of apple cider. Immediately, Claire and Ella loaded up their plates with food and began to eat. Alice and Beatrice joined them, both talking about that night's lesson.

"Maybe we should change the lesson," Beatrice began hesitantly. "Ella is already well-practiced in this. Claire needs to practice."

"Agreed," Alice said around her mouthful of potatoes. She, too, snapped her fingers and an ancient-looking candelabra floated over and settled in the middle of the table. "Claire, light these candles."

Claire glared at her coarser aunt and took a bite of her chicken. "Okay. Where are the matches."

Beatrice sighed and placed a comforting hand on her niece's. Claire could feel the power radiating from that wizened hand.

"Please, dear, you don't need to hide from what you are. Your abilities do not cause bad things to happen, I promise you." She smiled sweetly, her gray eyes crinkling around the edges.

Claire gave her aunt a dubious look and set down her fork, her own gray eyes growing hard. "Fine."

She focused hard on the candles in their holder, paying particular attention to the wicks. She began to think about anything hot – lava, the desert, fire. She inhaled and pursed her lips and blew towards the candles, and they erupted into small flames. Her aunts and sister applauded her, as if it were some great accomplishment.

It wasn't. She'd been able to do that since she was seven. For ten years, she barely practiced her magic. Unlike her sister, who forwent her actual schooling for learning herbs and medicines, Claire focused on real school. She knew that it would help her more in the modern world than the little tricks she could do.

"You should practice more, darling," Alice told her. "It'll come in handy one day."

"We've been over this, Aunt Alice," Claire countered. "It really won't. Can't we just drop it?"

"Dear, your sister – "

"What she can do could actually be used in today's society. My abilities absolutely can't."

"Now that's not –"

"I'm done talking about this," Claire announced, forcing her chair back from the table and heading for her room. She couldn't understand why her aunts pushed her to do magic so much. She honestly didn't see any practicality in it, other than showing off at Halloween. She climbed out onto the fire escape outside her window and put her legs through the wide metal bars, gripping them in her hands and resting her head against them. The cool autumn breeze ruffled her hair and raised goosebumps on her bare arms. She didn't feel it, though. She was too busy staring out at the city skyline before her.

Looking at the city lights always calmed her mind. The lights, coupled with the sleek designs of the skyscrapers, helped her to refocus. There was so much science there, so much math and architecture. So much infallible, undeniable, critical information before her. It was what she lived for. There was no room for magic in math and science.

She sighed as she heard the familiar whispering behind her. She hesitated to turn, but something compelled her to anyway.

"Well, come here then."

Her little black cat made its way out onto the fire escape and settled on her lap, turning his unique violet eyes up to her. His name was Salem – hey, just because she was a witch didn't mean that she couldn't have a sense of humor about it. Her sister even had a golden owl named Hecate. Claire tried to ignore it, but the cat pulled at her mind, drawing her in.

Claire, why won't you listen to your aunts?

"I'm not talking to you, Salem."

The cat – her familiar – meowed and rubbed his head against her leg.

You can't ignore your powers forever, his voice echoed in her mind. They won't be bottled up.

She sighed exasperatedly through her nose. She hadn't been able to stop her aunts from giving her the little cat. Their reasoning had been that every witch needed a familiar, and that both she and her twin receive one on their thirteenth birthday. Claire had tried her hardest not to pay attention to the kitten as he'd softly called to her...but she was a witch, and a witch was drawn inexplicably to her familiar. Now, Salem frequently comforted her and helped her, but he still pushed her towards her natural magic.

She scooped him up and held him to her, and he nuzzled her cheek.

"I know," she finally answered. "There's something that keeps telling me to practice it...but I can't tell what it is yet. It's like the magic can't wait to get outside me, but I have to hold it in for now."

Salem gave her a confused look and meowed again. Claire laughed and scratched him behind his ears.

"Yeah, I don't understand it either." She let him climb onto his favorite perch on her shoulders, wrapping his tail loosely around her neck. "I guess all I can do is trust my aunts for now."

Salem butted her neck and purred. She took that as a 'good for you' and climbed back inside, making her way downstairs for the lesson.

…

Across town and a few hundred feet below the surface, Donnie was trying to work. It was getting increasingly hard to do so, because their home seemed to be so full of noise lately. Mikey could often be heard playing with Emily and Sloan would sometimes play her violin. Raphael and Leonardo were both getting more rambunctious, Raph because he didn't have Hannah to mellow him out and Leo because he was getting increasingly more nervous the closer Sloan got to her due date. She was at seven months now, and her mother's old clothes had stopped hiding the baby bump.

In the moments of peace that he had, Don could be found in his lab, drawing up plans for new inventions or working on commissions from investors. Which happened to be most of the time. Mikey and Sloan were worried about him. They were afraid that he was deliberately distancing himself from his family. The only times anyone saw him were if they caught him getting his morning coffee, or at daily katas.

The truth was he just was too busy to do anything else. He had numerous investors lined up, wanting him to test their softwares. Every day he sat at his computer screen and tested and re-tested programs and firewalls. He kept telling himself that it was for his family, but that was hard to do when they were all trying to get him out of the lab. He felt guilty for pulling away from them – especially from Michelangelo – but it had to be done.

He stopped typing on his keyboard and swung around in his chair as he heard a knock on his door. Leonardo stuck his head in.

"Hey, bro, Sloan's got dinner ready."

Don blinked as he realized he'd worked the entire day away, and he hadn't even emerged for lunch. His stomach growled loudly.

"All right, Leo, I'm coming." He made a show of getting out of his chair and stretching. "Oh, I'm getting too old for this."

"Maybe if you joined us for more workouts you wouldn't be so stiff," Leo laughed, clapping a hand on his younger brother's shoulder.

Ever since they'd gotten back from North Carolina, Leonardo had loosened up immensely. Don thought Sloan might have something to do with that. His oldest brother and the now-eighteen-year-old girl finally had their wedding ceremony in July. It had been extremely simple – Sloan had worn a sundress and gone barefoot while Leo had only removed his swords – but beautiful nonetheless, with Master Splinter conducting the ceremony. It had been a day full of happiness and laughter.

When they'd returned to the city in August, Hannah had reluctantly returned to Camp Half-Blood. She'd promised them all that she would be back by Thanksgiving, but she had to take care of some things back at Camp. Raph had told his brothers that he had a sneaking suspicion what those "things" were, but he didn't elaborate further. In any case, Raph was still slightly more content without Hannah there. But that could have something to do with the fact that his girl would be back within a month.

Leo led Donatello into the dining room, just in time to catch Mikey pull a pot gently out of Sloan's hands.

"You're doing too much," the orange-banded turtle was telling her. "You're seven months' pregnant! You need to take it easy. I'm doing the cooking from now on."

"Michelangelo," Sloan began warningly. Don could see the prideful set of her shoulders. "I'm pregnant, not dying! If I can carry a baby for nine months I can certainly carry a pot of mac 'n cheese."

Chuckling, Leo left Don's side and went to stand with his wife. "We're not saying you can't," he told her, gently pulling her toward her chair. He pulled it out for her. "But if you don't stop cooking and cleaning now, we're afraid that you won't, and you'll hurt the baby."

She sat down slowly, Leo's arms out protectively on either side, and sighed once she was settled. Leo rested his hands on his shoulders and kissed her cheek before sitting down beside her. Don took his place beside Mikey just as Raphael came down the stairs with a laughing Emily on his back. He himself was chuckling when he reached the table, reaching over his shoulders and lifting the little girl off his back.

"No! Go again, Raph!" she exclaimed when he set her in her seat.

"Later, Em, right now you gotta eat," he answered, sitting beside her.

Don smiled at the little girl's crestfallen look, which brightened as soon as Sloan started filling her plate for her. And then Sloan scoffed as Raph took over her duties and spooned potatoes onto the plate.

Thanks to Sloan finding all hers and Emily's documents in North Carolina, Emily was able to start kindergarten that September. She'd turned five in August, so she was of age to start school. Her teachers had been amazed at the amount of learning that she'd already done (thanks to the efforts of the brothers), and there had actually been discussions of her skipping to the second grade the next year. The brothers had started taking turns working with her on her homework, which is where Raphael had been. Often, she didn't need help with it, but they were there in case she did.

A soft tap-tap could be heard coming towards the table, and the entire group fell silent as Master Splinter took his spot at the head of the table.

"My sons and daughters," he began. "Let us take this moment to be grateful for our months of peace. It is nice to be able to live without fear of the future, even if it is only for a while."

Don murmured his assent with the rest of them. In the two months they'd been back in New York, there hadn't been any more threats from the Shredder, or even any contact from Hun. He'd apparently taken Sloan's rejection hard, and he'd pretty much left them alone. They hadn't even confronted any Foot ninja on their patrols. The genius turtle knew it wouldn't last, but he could still enjoy it while it did. He glanced around the table, smiling as he took in Mikey and Raph arguing over the latest episode of Hawaii Five-O. Sloan and Leo were also arguing, but it was more of Leo poking fun at her irritation. Emily was busy stuffing her face, and only stopped eating when Raphael paused in his discussion with Mikey to point out that she use her napkin.

His gaze finally came to rest on Master Splinter, who's wise brown eyes conveyed the exact same sense of peace that Donatello felt. His sensei nodded, and Don grinned back before taking a bite of his potatoes. Life certainly was good.

Review please! Anyone who does will be given a big high-five and a smiley with a mustache...like this one! :{) See?