Chapter 18: Tell Me a Story

Madison yelped and woke up when she accidentally rolled over her bad arm. She wasn't sure how long she had been out but she felt more or less pretty good. Her shoulder was still hurting but that was ok. She felt better now than when she arrived. A snore next to her made her jump slightly. She turned back over and smiled at the slumbering turtle next to her. She eyes his features slowly, chuckling a little at the dried trail of drool on the side of his mouth.

"Raph?" she said shaking him softly. "Raph, wake up."

Raph opened his eyes and grinned playfully before pulling her back up against him and snuggled back down to go back to sleep.

"Oh no, you don't," Madison chuckled, trying to push him off with her good arm. "It's almost 8 o'clock at night, I have to get up."

"Why?" he said, resting his chin in the nook of her neck.

"Because I have to see if Peter is back so we can get started," Madison said, giggling as Raph's breath tickled her neck. "The sooner we get this to the police the sooner I can breathe. Speaking of breathing get offa me already! You weight a ton!"

"Gee thanks," Raph chuckled as he got up, "Hold on don't move," he said. He went around the other side of the bed and lifted her into his arms. "You are not walking on that ankle until we find some crutches."

"My hero," she rolled her eyes a bit but draped her good arm around his neck as they left the room. They entered the living room and found everyone sprawled out randomly around the room watching TV. "Anything good on?"

Everyone's heads immediately snapped up and the kids jumped off the ground and crowded around Raph, "Whoa!" he exclaimed. "Back off, Ankle biters! Let me put her down first." He put her on the couch and laid a blanket over her. The kids gathered around her once more. Madison hugged and kissed every one of them. She hugged Brian tightly when April set him in her lap. Her expression turned serious and she looked at Peter.

"Did you find it?" she asked.

"Right where you said it'd be," he said, producing the box. Madison kissed and hugged him before taking the box.

"I'm so proud of you," she smiled.

"So what exactly is it?" Mikey asked.

Madison opened the box and held up a small video tape, "This, my friend, is what is going to put him away for good," she said. "A few years ago Dad bought a video camera. He had been recording one of our better family moments but left the camera on by accident and caught him self on tape beating mom and me. I took the tape and hid it from him and Mom."

"Why didn't you turn this in already?" Don asked. "You could have been rid of your dad years ago."

"It wasn't this bad a few years ago," Madison said. "At that point Dad was slightly civil most of the time and Mom loved him. She was sure that she could change him but obviously she didn't succeed."

"So why not after your mom died?"

"There were… reasons," Madison said, fingering Brian's hair.

"What reasons could there possibly be to staying in that situation?" Leo asked.

Madison sighed, "I was scared to do anything; he threatened to kill Brian."

"Speaking of Brian there is something I have been wondering about and don't quite get," Donny said. "When exactly did your mom die?"

"A year and six months this December, why?"

"Brian is only a year old."

Madison shifted uncomfortably, "Eleven months," she corrected not looking anyone in the eye.

"Now how does that work?" Donny said putting his hand to his chin in a thinking pose. "If Brian is only eleven months old and your mom died a year and a half-ish ago, than your mom would have had to of died like seven or eight months before he was born. It doesn't add up…" The room went quiet, and eyes shifted to Madison for an answer. She sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. " Madison…?"

Madison looked up at her family, a long kept secret hid behind her uncomfortable stare, " Madison," Splinter said. "There is something you have not told us about Brian." It was not a question.

"Brian… is not my mom's son," she said slowly. "He's mine."

There was a long silence that fallowed Madison's confession. They weren't really sure how to respond to that. It wasn't like they were angry they were just shocked, and a little hurt. Why would she fell like she had to keep that from them? Leo was the first to speak.

"Why didn't you tell us?"

"Out of habit I guess," Madison said. "After I had Brian of course people talked so Dad went around telling the neighbors that I had been sleeping with some guy from another town and made the mistake of forgetting to use protection. So of course he being the wonderful father that he is told everyone that he adopted Brian as his own so that I could live a normal life again."

"Did your mom ever know?" Mikey asked.

"Yeah, she knew," Madison said.

"Is Brian…?"

Madison looked away, "In all honesty I'm not really sure..."

"Perhaps you should tell us the whole story, my daughter," Master Splinter said, his eyes held, not anger, but a bit of hurt from being lied too. He had hoped that she had learned to trust them by now but he guessed that after what these children had been through it was hard to ever truly trust again especially with details surrounding the reasons that caused Brian's existence.

"Dad had been raping me since I was 13, but not only was he doing it, he sometimes brought in some scum bag friends while Mom was gone and they all had a bloody good time," Madison snarled the last few words. "I had gotten pregnant by the time I was 14, I don't know who the father was, but mine hauled me down to a clinic and had the baby aborted. I got a heck of a beating for that one because of course it was my fault that I had gotten knocked up," Madison's voice dripped with sarcasm. "When it happened a second time I was smart and went to my mom instead and she helped me hide it. I didn't want to go through another abortion. When it finally started to show and Dad found out he was furious. The night Mom died was the night Dad found out I was pregnant again," Madison wiped away a tear. "He came after me, Mom got in the way, not just for my sake but for the baby's, and he killed her."

"So why didn't he make you abort Brian?" Raph asked, finally finding his voice.

"I had been pregnant to long he had no choice; legally he couldn't have me abort the baby," Madison said, touching the child's pudgy cheek. "And besides, by the time he was done covering up mom's murder he had dropped it. Guess he figured what was one more kid to make his image look good? So he didn't beat me into a miscarriage, wasn't that thoughtful of him." She looked around at the faces staring blankly at her. "I'm… I'm sorry I lied to you, please don't hate me."

Master Splinter placed a hand over hers and squeezed, "No, my daughter, we do not hate you," he said. "But do not hate yourself, or your child, for what happened. It was not your fault."

"I don't hate Brian, I mean how could I? It wasn't his fault either," she said. "The only one I hate is him. I want him to pay for what he has done to us and to Mom."

"Then let's get our shells in gear and get this stuff down to the police," Raph said, slamming his fist into his palm. "I want this sicko locked up. Preferably with a big hairy guy named Bubbles who likes playing 'Drop the soap in the Shower'."

The mood lightened considerably when everyone started laughing hysterically; except for Molly, who didn't get it. Madison shot Raph and Casey dangerous glares when they opened their mouths to try and explain, "Don't even think about it…"

"Er so what is the plan now?" Casey asked.

"Well, plan for right now is everyone is going to eat, I'm gonna take another pain pill and go back to bed," Madison said. "I can't do anything if I'm half dead."

"Oh my god…"

"What?" Madison looked confused at Donny's shocked expression.

"You're actually listening to me!" he exclaimed. "Hell frozen over, my life is complete, and the Yankees won the World Series! Thank you everyone it's been grand, good night…"

"Oh shut up and get me the phone," Madison laughed. April handed her the phone and an hour later everyone was feasting on Chinese food. It was about half way through the second helping of Kung Pow Chicken when Molly started to yawn and fall asleep in Raphael's lap that Madison and Master Splinter decided it was probably time for bed for everyone. She was thankful that Mikey took the two smaller children to get them ready for bed. When Brian and Molly were ready, Peter and Kaylin took them and they all curled up together in the spare bedroom with out a peep. Madison opted to just stay on the couch. There was a wonderful warm fire going in the fire place, and she was enjoying the peaceful silence. The guys crammed themselves into the second spare bedroom and had gone to sleep awhile ago.

Madison sat on the couch watching the fire dance, the gentle light reflecting off her face and illuminating it. She winced due to her extremely sore muscles and injured shoulder.

She jumped slightly when a voice behind her broke the dead silence "You should probably take another pill." Madison turned around and saw Raphael standing behind her with the pill bottle in one hand and a cup of water in the other.

"I thought you were sleeping?" she said as he moved over to the couch and handed her the bottle and cup.

"Couldn't," he said seating himself on the edge of the couch. "I slept all day too remember. You still hungry?"

"Yeah a little," she said taking two pills. Raph got up and disappeared into the kitchen. Madison heard the microwave run for a few minutes. Raph eventually reemerged with a plate of reheated Chinese food and a pair of left over chop sticks.

"Thanks," she said taking the food and immediately attacking it.

"You know, no one would guess that you eat like a horse with how skinny you are," Raph chuckled, wedging his way behind her so she could lean up against him.

"Well after years of being barely fed at all I have learned to count my blessings," she said, blowing on a piece of chicken.

"So question…"

"Answer."

"Why didn't you tell us about Brian? Seriously," Raph said. "Having a kid is not something you usually forget about I'd imagine."

"It's not that I forgot," Madison said. "It was kinda something I wanted to forget. Just go on convincing myself that he was just my brother and nothing else." Getting a slightly blank look from Raphael Madison put her chopsticks down for a moment, "Picture this if you will," she said sounding slightly hard. "You're thirteen years old and one day your dad decides that he is bored with just having his wife and starts doing with you as he pleases, and not just how he pleases, how ever half his buddies please. You feel that this is not right but he is your father, how dare you question the man who raised you, right? Well, you've just started learning about your body and what not, and less than a year later you discover that you are feeling sick all the time but having strange cravings and your period, which you have just started getting use to, has stopped," she glared at the fire. "You have no idea what the heck is going on and you go to your father in hopes that he can explain what is happening and make it go away. He puts two and two together and hauls you down to a clinic where they violate you with medical instruments and rip a living being out of you that you didn't even know was there in the first place! Then dear old dad takes you home and beats the living day lights out of you for being so careless…"

" Madison…"

"It gets better," she cut him off. "Years later, after you have grown into your body a little more and understand how it is suppose to work you start to realize what had happened and how wrong it felt. Then irony of ironies, it happens again. This time you know not to go to Dad but instead go to Mom. She thinks it best to have it aborted before Dad finds out again but reflecting on the last time you decide that even though you are terrified of what will happen you can not make yourself go and do that again and still be able to look at yourself in the mirror every morning," Madison set her plate down on the table for a moment. "It gets to the point where you can't hide it anymore and Dad finds out. He is furious and starts to hit you; you do everything in your power to protect your stomach. Mom throws herself on his back to try and get him to stop. He turns around, chucks her off and after hitting her a few times, he throws her down the stairs. You watch your mother slip away," Madison was biting back angry tears. "You spend the next several weeks being forced to comfort the perverted sicko how killed your mother and caused you, whether directly or indirectly, to be with child."

Raph felt Madison shiver and pulled her closer, wrapping his arms protectively around her, "Nine months later you awake in the middle of the night with horrible pains shooting through you. It takes your father almost 3 hours to decide that he might need to take you to the hospital so that you don't mess up the carpet when you have the baby," a single tear ran down Madison's face. "While your unconscious and recovering your father signs papers and arranges for the doctors to operate on you to make it where you can't have anymore children because of course you don't feel hideously ugly and defiled enough as it is, he has to go and destroy the very reason God made me a woman!"

"You are not ugly," Raph said firmly trying to sooth her as she almost trembled in rage just thinking about it. "You're the furthest from ugly."

"Whether I am or am not, sharing that your father did that to you is not something you usually go around waving like a banned for the whole world to see," Madison said.

"Point taken."

"I feel kinda of empty when I think about not being able to have kids."

"There are ways around that."

"I used to really want a family, Raph, and he destroyed that for me," she said. "But even if I could still have kids I don't know if I could let myself bring more people into this world. I don't know if I could bear it if I somehow ended up with someone like my dad."

"If you did I would come and take care of him," the turtle said. "I'll never let anyone hurt you ever again, Madison. I promise."

"You can't save me from life, Raph," Madison chuckled lightly. "Do you know how painful it's gonna be when Brian asks about who his father is some day? What am I suppose to tell him?"

"Tell him the truth," Raph said trying to be helpful.

"Yeah…right," Madison snorted. "I couldn't do that to him."

"Well I wouldn't recommend lying to him about it."

"He can't even talk yet I think I have time to come up with an answer, Raph," Madison chuckled relaxing against him. "I just don't want him to get hurt."

"With a mom like you, Attila the Hun would have a problem getting to him," Raph smiled. Madison chuckled too laid her head on his shoulder, her eyes getting heavy.

"Hey, Raph…"

"Yeah?"

"Tell me again what you told me last night."

Raph chuckled lightly and kissed Madison on the forehead as she drifted off the sleep, "You're beautiful, Madison," his kissed her head again. "You are so incredibly beautiful…"

He waited until she was sleeping to grab the blanket in the back of the couch and drape it over them. Tomorrow would be a very trying day for all of them. He just prayed that his little warrior was going to be able to meet the challenge. Raphael looked back at the slumbering woman in his arms. He had seen her fight off dragons and monsters, not to mention her own demons, and still she was standing. If she couldn't stand tomorrow he would be there. He would always be there for her from now on. Raph closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep himself. Tomorrow they fight, and tomorrow they win.