I don't own TMNT. Ug I'm getting tired of having to write that every time. Oh well… better safe than sued.

Chapter 12: Cabin Fever

Kaylin lay on her stomach on her bed, munching the turkey sandwich Madison had just bribed her into silence with. She scanned the pages of the work book she was being forced to study from. She really didn't care that that some dude in 755 AD named Pepin donated land to the Pope and it cut the Italy in half and some Frankish king took over the north…

"GA! SO BORED!" she exclaimed, throwing herself onto her back, bouncing a bit on the bed. She grabbed her pillow and put it over her head. "No one cares about this crap anymore!"

"Yes they do," Madison's voice called from the other room.

"How does she do that?" Kaylin exclaimed into her pillow. She leaned forward and set her pillow back in its place. "Maaaaddddyyyyy! I'm so bored! Can I PLEASE go practice?"

"Nope," Madison said simply. "You promised that you would do your homework today if I let you skip it yesterday and I'm gonna hold you to that."

"But Peter gets to practice!"

"He did his homework."

"AGGG!"

"Besides, you're getting Brian's cold."

"Maaadiiiisonnnnnn!"

"No!"

"But, but, BUT!"

"One more word, Kaylin Janette Miller, and you're gonna go a week without practice!"

Kaylin shut up; she knew Madison would do just that. She didn't care if she was getting sick, she was finally over having her first period and she wanted to get up and actually do something with out having cramps or getting pissed off at very single little thing. She wanted to go out and do something, even if it wasn't practice. Feeling the beginning effects of cabin fever she kinda wanted to go topside. Of course there was the whole 'dad in New York' thing but it was almost dusk and other than Casey, April and another mutant named Leatherhead who that had met the other day no one knew that they were down here. Kaylin laughed for a moment remembering the look on Madison's face when she had walked into the living room and saw Brain and Molly sitting on the lap of a 10 ft tall talking crocodile

Kaylin leaned back on her pillow, hands behind her head and balancing a pen on the bridge of her nose. Why shouldn't she go topside? People rarely went down the ally they used to come out of and they were careful about when they went topside. Ug… of course there was her homework. Bleh!

"I don't wannnnnnaaaaaa!" she whined to the ceiling.

"You know the sooner you start the sooner you finish," Don said in a humored voice, poking his head in the door.

"But it's so boring!" she whined again, turning her head to look at him. "I hate history."

"Those who refuse to understand their history are doomed to repeat it," he said coming in and sitting on the bed.

"What is it with you guys and your Buddha Zen Yoda phrases!"

"It kinda comes with the whole Japanese Ninjitsu thing."

"Ug!" Kaylin brought her pillow back over her face.

"Oh come on it can't be that back let me see…" Donny grabbed the book and scanned the page. "Hmm… cool…"

"No, Donny, it is not cool! It's boring."

"I beg to differ," Don said, continuing along the page. "This is fascinating. It's the history of how the Catholic Church began."

"But we're not Catholic! We don't even go to church!" Kaylin protested into the fabric of the pillow. "Why should I care?"

"Pepin made way for George the Great, who came to be known as the father of papacy, to establish…"

"Donny, seriously I don't…" Kaylin took the pillow away, looked over and saw Don's eyes glued to the page, reading intently. She raised an eyebrow. "Bet you couldn't find four interesting facts about each of those guys," she grinned mischievously.

"In my sleep," Don grabbed a pen and began writing on a near by note book, not taking his eyes off the page.

"I'm gonna go er…grab a soda," Kaylin said slipping off the bed and walking out the door.

"Mhmm…" she heard Donny mumble something.

"Eat my dust, Tom Sawyer" she smirked, sneaking out of the Lair. Making her way through the winding sewers she found the ladder that lead up to the man hole. Madison was probably gonna kill her for ditching like this but for right now she really didn't care. Pulling her mini pony tail tighter, Kaylin grabbed the handles and started climbing. Raising the cover of the cover just enough to peak out and make sure no one was in the ally, Kaylin shoved the cover off and climbed out.

Breathing deep the crisp autumn air, she let it back out slowly with a smile spread across her face. Zipping her jacket up to protect her from a cool evening breeze, Kaylin found a fire escape and started climbing again. She soon found herself on top of the building looking out over a sea of rooftops and sky scrappers. Unlike Molly, she had no fear or heights, in fact, actually enjoyed them; made her feel like she was flying. Flying away from her haunting memories and the pain they caused her. The sun was starting to set, the light glittering off the top of the sky scrappers' windows like diamonds.

The breeze wisped through her short blonde hair, causing it to dance. It was strange being alone up here; a strange thing indeed. She usually didn't have a lot of time to herself to just think. Except maybe sometimes at night, but even then if she felt alone she could always climb into bed with Madison and curl up next to her sister's protective form. Kaylin looked out over the roof tops. She liked feeling safe but she didn't always like to be safe. Smirking to herself she remembered something that one of the guys had said about how they get around on patrol by jumping from roof to roof. She wondered…

Kaylin backed up to about the middle of the roof and stared straight ahead.

'I can't believe you're going to do this!' the common sense part of her brain screamed at her. Kaylin just smirked at herself. 'It's only 8 ft. What could happen?' her braver side argued. 'PLEANTY!' 'Oh shut up.'

Taking a deep breath, Kaylin sprinted at the edge, pushing off the edge as she jumped. She closed her eyes, not truly know whether or not she was going to make it to the side. It wasn't until she hit solid ground; tripped and rolled on the next roof did she open her eyes and stare at it in disbelief. "I… I did it?" she sounded like she didn't believe it. "I DID IT!"

"Not bad for a rookie," said a humored voice right above her. Kaylin rolled to her back and saw Raphael sitting on top of what looked like an abandoned pigeon coop. "You need to work on your landing though."

"Yeah, I missed that day in Roof Jumping 101 when they covered landing," Kay laughed.

The red clad turtle laughed and jumped down to help the girl up, "You hurt?"

"Nah," Kaylin said, taking the three fingered hand and pulling herself up.

"Good, cuz yer sister would kill you," Raph said. "So what are you doin' up here?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing."

"Saw ya sneak out and followed ya," he grinned. "But I usually come up here to think."

"What do you think about?" Kay asked.

"Everything; my brothers, Master Splinter, you guys…"

"And by 'you guys' you mean Madison," Kaylin grinned.

"Didn't say that."

"Didn't have too."

Raph glared slightly at the teenage child's annoying smirk but shrugged it off, "I just worry about you guys and her."

"Don't worry about it, we get by," Kay said, leaning up against the coop.

"There is more to life than just 'getting by', Kay," Raph replied. "There is actually getting out and living your life."

"Again with the Zen Yoda sayings."

"You know I have a point though."

"Yeah but I didn't wanna say anything," she said with a careless shrug. "You might get a bigger head than you already have."

"I do not have a big head," Raph defended.

"Sure you do," Kaylin grinned. "It's filled with all that hot air."

"You're just as bad as your sister!"

"I'll take that as a complement," Kay smiled.

Raph chuckled. It was meant as a complement. For where they had come from and being as spiritually destroyed as they were, it amazed him how much they had changed over the past month. Even in their weakest moments he had never seen them stronger, not just as individuals but as a family. Not having to worry about being attacked in the middle of the night or beaten to with in an inch of their lives every day but knowing that they were safe and loved gave each and every one of them a new spirit and a new hope for a better like, and that was something that their demon of a father could not destroy again even if he did find them.

Raphael gritted his teeth. If that basterd ever came near these kids again he and his Sais were going to have a word with him. When he had first looked into Madison's eyes, he saw everything that man had done to her. He saw pain, he say the terror and torment their father had put her through with the beatings and the rapes. He had seen evidence of the abuse coving each child. Physically; bruises, cuts, scars that would never fade… emotionally; distrust, suspicion, anger, hate… they were only kids. They shouldn't know those emotions. But now when he looked in them, although there were still traces of the abuse, her eyes had softened. They really were beautiful eyes…

He shook his head erasing the train of thought from his mind. It didn't matter now. They were apart of his family now and he dared their father to try and mess with his family. Hell hath no fury...

"Hey, Raph, look," Kaylin drew his attention over the side of the building where a group of about 12 Purple Dragons were gathered. "That looks like the guy who tried to take our money right before Leo and the others found us. Hey! That's the same guy who tried to grab me!"

"Which one?"

"The one with the blue hair and bad hair cut."

"Oh really?" Raph grinned, pulled out a sai and twirled it around a bit. "So Kay, ever seen a real ninja in action?"

"Do I know a real ninja?"

"Har, har, har," Raph rolled his eyes jumped on to the fire escape. "Be right back."

"What!" Kaylin exclaimed as Raph jumped down and proceeded to have fun with the punks. "You are NOT leaving me on the side lines!" she swung her feet over the fire escape and climbed down.

"Kay! What the hell do you think you're doing!" Raph exclaimed when Kaylin pounced on a dragon that looked like he could of easily bench pressed her with one arm.

"There is plenty to go around don't be so greedy," she said, astonishingly actually taking the guy down. "Peter has been boring me."

Kaylin's move flowed like a dance as she defended herself. Ducking, punching, blocking, kicking, winning! Defeating about four Purple Dragons, she started getting cocky. She was getting caught up in her moment of triumph; a little to caught up. She wasn't watching her back. She never heard Raphael scream "Look out!" before someone slammed into her, sending her crashing to the ally floor. Kay heard a loud crack and an even louder pop before feeling lighting hot pain shoot through her shoulder. She didn't want to let on how much pain she was actually in but when the dragon that had knocked her down, hoisted her up with one arm by her shirt she let out an agonizing scream of pain. Raphael knocked out the punk he had been fighting and tried to get to her but was blocked by at least five other dragons. He watched as the one holding Kaylin brought his balled fist back.

"KAY!" Raph screamed.

Kaylin closed her eyes and waited for the pain. She waited... and waited. When nothing happened, she opened one eye and shivered at what she saw. An iron fist was wrapped around the punk's wrist, and the piercing glare of two green eyes bore into the dragon's very soul.

"Put... her... down..."