Epilogue

Six months later

James scratched his head in confusion as he stared at the large letter 'A' that was etched in red pen.

"Jon, look at this!"

Jonathan sunk down to the concrete step beside of his friend and tossed his black bangs aside. "What?"

"Do you not see this?" James shoved the stapled papers into Jonathan's hands. "An 'A'! I never get A's in science! And this!" The brown haired boy reached into his backpack and pulled out a thick stack of papers. " Math test: A! English: A!"

Jonathan laughed as James threw his hands into the air. "You should be happy about that, Jimmy."

"I just can't believe it!" James took the paper back from Jonathan and shoved the entire pile into his backpack. "I think my I.Q. went up or something while we were gone." He turned back to face Jon. " Do you remember anything yet?"

"No, and to tell you the truth, I really don't want to." Jonathan lifted his bottle of water to his lips and took a sip. " I've been having some really weird dreams though."

"Really?" James's eyes grew in surprise. " Me too! What have yours been about?"

Jonathan was about to answer when he saw a smiling face walk toward them.

"Good afternoon gentlemen!"

"Geesh, Alex," James moved his backpack as their blonde friend took a seat on the step under them. " If your smile was any bigger, your face would break!"

"Why shouldn't I be smiling?" Alex said with a tinkle in his young eyes. "It's Friday! School's almost out for the summer, I get to hang with my best friends, and . . . "

"And what?" Jonathan asked.

Alex began to snicker as he leaned in closer. " Get this: my mom was so upset that I was gone for so long, she sold, I repeat, sold my piano and bought me three video game consoles!"

"Oh, no," Jonathan shook his head as James rolled his eyes.

"That's right! No more boring lessons! No more concerts! Just fun, fun, fun! All the time! BOO-YA!"

"Now we'll defiantly never see you!" James joked, causing Jonathan to laugh with him.

"Did you guys hear about what happened to Mr. Hamilton? How they put him in mental hospital?" Alex leaned in and whispered, as if keeping their conversation a secret.

Jonathan nodded sadly. "Yeah, but I don't believe he had anything to do with our kidnaping. He just seemed too nice."

"Well, it's always the nice ones you gotta watch out for," James shook his finger. " You know, that whole 'don't judge a book by its cover' thing."

The sound of a car horn made them look up to the street in front of the library just as a tan station wagon pulled away, the driver waving at the boys as the car disappeared. At the end of the sidewalk, Damon readjusted his long auburn hair and replaced his red duffel bag on his shoulder.

"It's about time you got here!" Alex said in a joking manner.

Damon playfully punched the blonde teen in the shoulder as he dropped down next to him. "You know how I like to be fashionably late. It's still okay with if I stay with you, right?"

" So, your mom is really checking into rehab?" Jonathan asked as he passed his water to James.

"Yeah," Damon nodded. "I can't believe she thought I ran away cause of her drug problem! I guess she really did care about me. How's your dad been dealing with it?"

Jonathan shrugged, a slight smile appearing on his face. "He's made a lot of progress." He then fell silent as his eyes wondered among the leaves of the trees around them. " Isn't it strange how everything seems to be turning around for us?"

The other three boys nodded, each thinking about their mysterious time away, not one of them remembering what had happened during that time. The silence was broken when Damon suddenly yawned loudly.

"I hope I sleep better at your house, Alex. All those dreams I've been havin' keep me up half the night." Jonathan and James shared a curious look.

"What kind of dreams?" James asked, arching his eyebrow.

"It's kinda hard to explain." Damon scooted back against the brick wall of the library stairs and drew his knees up. "Most of it's just jumbled pictures and black fog, but in my dreams I'm a-," He stopped and started to laugh at himself. " I'm a giant talking turtle! Ain't that the craziest thing you've ever heard?"

Damon's laughter stopped when he noticed the blank expressions his three friends carried. " What?"

"I've been having dreams like that too," Jonathan said softly.

"So have I." James replied, then looked down at Alex, whose mouth was gapping in shock. "Alex?"

The boy closed his mouth and didn't give a response, his wide brown eyes answering for him.

"What do you think it means?" Jonathan thought out loud.

"Well, it could just mean that since we're so close and we just went through a traumatic experience together, that our minds have somehow taken all of the subconscious memories we're missing and turned them into decipherable images that we can relate to on a subliminal level."

James then felt three pairs of eyes on him and he turned his head away in embarrassment.

"Or . . . something like . . . that."

"What?" Damon asked in an irritated tone. "Where the heck did that come from?"

"Jon! Jon!"

Jonathan jerked his head back to the sidewalk, watching as his younger sister Carrie raced across the library lawn and up the steps, her long blonde hair flying wildly behind her.

"What? What's wrong?" Jonathan held onto Carrie's arms as she regained her breath.

"The hospital just called Grandma. It's about Mom."

Jonathan felt an uneasy pain in his stomach and prepared himself for the worst. "What happened?" Carrie then smiled brightly.

"She's awake, and she's asking for us!"

A few tears of happiness spilled down Jonathan's cheeks as he lifted his sister into the air, embracing her tightly. He began to pull back, but Carrie continued to cling to him, still relishing in the fact that her brother was back home.

"We better get going if you guys want to see her. Visiting hours are over in an hour." James stood up, grabbing his backpack and slinging it across his shoulder. He took one step, and the tip of his left shoe caught the concrete.

"Jimmy!" Alex tried to grab his friend as he fell, but watched in amazement as James caught himself with his hands, then pushed off, flipping through the air and landed squarely on his feet at the bottom of the steps.

"That was unexpected," James commented as he looked back up the long flight of steps.

"You're tellin' me!" Damon descended the stairs behind Alex, Jonathan and Carrie. "How in the shell did you do that?"

James scratched at his short brown hair and gave Damon as odd look. " Did you just say shell?" The four boys then turned to Carrie as she began to giggle, her hands placed over her mouth to keep her laughter down.

"What's so funny?" Damon asked her, sounding a bit more annoyed than usual. Carrie shook her head, the knowing smile lingering on her face as she lowered her hands and locked her fingers behind her back.

"Nothing," She replied with a snicker. " Nothing at all."

As they walked over the library lawn, Alex bounced around James, asking him repeatedly to teach him the 'cool ninja move' he had just done, while Jonathan walked in between his sister and Damon. Carrie reached behind her brother and playfully poked Damon in the side. Damon in turn did the same, and Carrie giggled again. Jonathan stopped walking, narrowing his eyebrows at the two, causing them to shrink down in fear. Jonathan then grabbed Damon and switched places with him, smiling at Carrie as he placed Damon's hand in hers, and continued to walk away without saying a word. Carrie mirrored her brother's smile, sharing it with Damon for a moment before turning her head and glancing up at the building across the street. Damon also looked, not knowing what Carrie suddenly waved at, then began to question her as they hurried to catch up with the others.

"Geesh, do you think we rubbed off on them?" Michelangelo joked, his chin resting on the edge of the building roof as his arms hung over the side, his orange bandanna whipping in the wind.

"No, not at all." Leonardo laughed as he grabbed Raphael's outstretched hand and pulled his brother to his feet. " Come on. We better get back to the lair before Splinter finds out we're gone."

"He has been gettin' a little more paranoid than usual." Raphael pulled a sai out of his belt and twirled it around in his fingers.

"Do you blame him?" Donatello took a step back from the edge. "After what happened to us, I'm surprised he still let's us go topside!"

" Yeah, but what are the chances of that ever happening again?" Michelangelo jumped up, knocking Donatello's bo staff to the ground. "Oops! Sorry!"

Donatello sighed as he bent over to retrieve it. "It's okay, Mikey. I got it."

"Do ya think she'd ever tell them what happened?" Raphael asked Leonardo as they leaned over the back edge of the building to check the alley below. A smile crawled across Leonardo's face as he laughed again.

"Do you think they would believe Carrie if she did?"

Raphael thought for a moment. "Good point."

"I still think it's cool that Dr. Hamilton was able to switch us back!" Michelangelo exclaimed as he did a cartwheel.

"It was a good thing our bodies were in stasis," Donatello pointed out.

"And that he was able to retract enough of our cells back out." Leonardo added. "In a way, he was still able to thank us for saving him. He basically saved our lives, too."

"And it feels good ta back in our own skin!" Raphael said with a smile.

"You know," Michelangelo placed his hand to his chin and looked up as he thought out loud. " I wonder if we got any of their memories inside of our brains?"

As they readied themselves to jump off, the sudden surprised cry of Donatello caused them to turn around. They held back their laughter as they watched their brother trip over the end of his bo staff and land face down on the building's roof. Donatello quickly regained his footing, and pushed back his feelings of embarrassment as he neared his brothers. Michelangelo lifted his green finger into the air and was about to make a comment when Donatello threw up his hand.

"Not one word!" He then jumped off of the roof, and his brothers shared a hearty laugh before they joined him in the dark alley below.