A/N: Finally, I got the next chapter up. Sadly...wait sadly? No, um...well let just say that this isn't the last chapter as I've said. See I thought it would be, but something happen while I was writing it. I realized I couldn't end the story without tie up a loose end somewhere...I at least I didn't think I could. Anyway a little plotbunny (hey, a plotbunny within a plotbunny) bit me and made me write was happened here. So in short, no this isn't the last chapter.


Chapter Fourteen

That morning the next day everyone got ready to have a big celebration for a great reunionwas about to happen. This wasa reunion among friends…no, of family. Now the time of the party was set for noon, but with such eagerness to be ready everything was up a little before. There was a buffet of snackage in the kitchen and minor decorations in the living room. There were even paper party hats and little noise makers laid across the fireplace, because of Michelangelo insistence that a party just couldn't be one without those 'important' essentials. So with nothing left to do, everybody (with the exception of one) decided that they would sit on the front porch while they wait for their reason to having a celebration. Raphael was the one not to join, he decided to stay in the living room where he could scow without anyone telling him otherwise.

Well noon came and went with no sign of Cherise. At first the group thought that maybe she was lost, so they waited a bit long. An hour pasted by, then another, and then another after that. At about a quarter past four the group wondered if maybe Cherise decided she didn't want to come after all, that maybe it would have been too overwhelming for her if she did. However that thought was quickly diminished when Michelangelo jumped to his feet and pointed at a mini van zooming down the dirt road towards them. "There she is! She's here!"

"Are you sure?" Leonardo questioned. "I mean we don't really know what she's driving."

"Of course it's her." Michelangelo replied sternly. "Who else would want to pull up to a rundown farm house like this?"

"Hey!" Casey gave the orange clad turtle a small glare. In reply Michelangelo stuck out his tongue, making the dark haired young man even madder. "Why you, wait till I get my hands on ya."

"Catch me if you can slowpoke." Michelangelo teased as he jumped out of Casey's reach. He laughed as he continued to jump around while his human friend kept trying to grab him. Eventually the dark haired man was able to grabbed hold of the young turtle in a bit of a bear hug, but the sound of screeching breaks and blaring horn coming from behind made him drop the turtle in fright.

Apparently the two were so busy bouncing around that they failed to notice they were in the upcoming mini van's pathway. Luckily the vehicle was able to stop about an inch from hitting the two. "Are guys asking for a death wish or something!" Cherise shouted when she stuck her head out the rolled down window. "Of allplaces to play tag, you had to choose the driveway?" She continued to grumble asshe pulled herhead back in to turn of the mini van and remove the key from the ignition. "You'd think of what happened two years ago they would know better than to let themselves get hit."

While Casey rubbed his head embarrassingly Michelangelo jumped onto his feet and descended upon the mini van. He hopped up onto the step that was on the side so he could stick his head in through the window. "Well it's about time that you got here, what made you so late?"

Cherise was shockedat how ignorant the orange clad turtle was about what could have happened to him. "I almost hit you, because you were foolish enough to playing in front of a moving vehicle, and all you do is tell me off about being late?"

"Words don't work on him, he's too thick." Donatello said as he came up behind his brother with his Bo staff out. "You have to do something like this to get the message home." He gave his youngest brother a whack on the head, causing the young turtle to grasps his head as he dropped off the side of the mini van.

"Harsh." Cherise said while undoing her seatbelt. "Anyway, I'm sorry to be so late. Therapy ran later than expected."

"We're just glad you came. For a moment we actually thought you wouldn't have come at all." Michelangelo said while opening the mini van door so he could pluck the young woman out; he was much too eager to wait for her to come out on her own. "Wow. You've must have put on weight, cause you're a lot heavier than before."

Cherise rolled her eyes at the comment and says, 'Nice.' while being set down. She wore gray sleeveless shirt, dark blue jeans, and white sneakers. Her red hair was now down to her ankles, still braided tightly as usual, and she quite muscular.

"Oh fine, forget about me." A voice said from behind the driver's seat. "Might as well think I'm dead or something."

"Daddy!" Cherise semi-squealed. "Don't talk like that, it's not funny."

"Well it's not like anyone is going out of their way to say hello to me." Marcus replied jokingly. "But then again maybe its cause nobody can see me. So how about opening the door?"

Donatellowalked around to the other side of the mini van. "I'll get it for you." He grasped the handle and pulled it open. "What the shell!" The young turtle yelped when he saw a large metal grate blocking the passage way.

"Going to have to move there, son, or else I can't get out." Marcus said with a laugh.

Obediently the young turtle moved to the side and watched curiously as the metal grate lowered down in order to be leveled with the mini van, revealing Marcus. His brown hair was shoulder length again and his arms were muscular, almost like before, but a bit more. He wore a white t-shirt, black sweatpants, and black slip-on shoes.

Noticing everyone staring at him as he wheeled out onto the platform made the young man ask, "What? Do I have something on my face?"

"S…sorry." Donatello replied timidly. "It's just that I wasn't expecting…that is to say…I didn't think…I mean we weren't…um…sorry?"

"What's to apologize for?" Marcus questioned while the elevator lowered him down to ground level. "You didn't put me in this thing and you didn't expect to see me in it. So your reaction is quite normal. But the main question is does it bother you to see me like this?"

"No, of course not." Donatello answered.

"Well that's good." Marcus replied while getting off the elevator. "Don't want you to be uncomfortable around me." He wobbled about on the terrain.

Seeing the chair bound man having trouble Master Splinter thumped his walking stick on the porch. "Leonardo." He said sternly, causing the blue clad turtle to jump a little. "Go out there and help your brother bring Mr. Bard here."

"Yes sensei." Leonardo said before jumping off the porch. He ran over to one side of Marcus while Donatello got on the other. Together they lifted the young man off the ground so they could carry him to the house while Cherise locked up the mini van.

Marcus was amazed at how both turtles were able to move him with ease. "Such strength." He said while looking at Donatello's backside. "It felt like only yesterday that I was catching you jumping out of my tub." Marcus looked at Leonardo's back and was a bit shocked to see a piece of his shell missing.

Cherise, too, saw Leonardo's back side as she followed with Michelangelo to the house. "Big brother what happen to you?"

"An injury given to me by someone who was out to hurt my family." Leonardo answered solemnly.

"Yeah, you should have seen him." Michelangelo chimed as ran ahead and jumped up onto the porch, right in front of them. "The bad guy was like this big." He stretched his arms out as far as he could to show size. "And we were like, 'Yikes!' But then we became all, 'grrr.' And then we went like this…" The young turtle did a flying jump kick off the porch, going passed his brothers and Marcus, landing next to Cherise. "Then there was a punch, and a kick, and another kick, and then there was a big explosion. Boom! But we didn't die cause these aliens stopped time and got us off the ship before it went. And then…"

Cherise made a 'time-out' sign with her hands. "Wait a minute. You lost back with 'the bad guy was like this big." She mimicked the young turtle's spreading out his arms.

"That's no way to tell a story." Donatello scolded while he and Leonardo put Marcus down. "See, it was like this…"

Master Splinter put up a hand to interrupt. "Why don't we finish with the greetings and wait until we are all seated inside before talking about our past two years." He turned to Marcus and gave a low bow. "A pleasure to see you again."

"Same here." Marcus replied while bow as best he could.

"Wheel chair or not, yer lookin' better den when I last saw ya." Casey said as he clambered up the stairs.

Marcus turned to the dark haired man and cocked his head to one side curiously. "…you are…" Quickly he straightened it while snapping his fingers. "You must be the little brother my doctor was talking about." He let out a laugh. "Doc was telling me about how my young brother came and I wondered what brother he was talking about, seeing as I only had a couple of sisters. Luckily Cherise was there to 'remind' me of 'Uncle Casey' and 'Aunt April'…who must be this lovely young woman over here."

"Yes, that's me." The red haired woman said while holding out her hand. "A pleasure to finally meet you…um…"

"Coherent?" Marcus chuckled while taking the hand and gave it a kiss. "I must defiantly agree with that."

April blushed a little as she took her hand back. "To agree with Casey, you are looking fit."

"I've had a great nurse." Marcus replied while turning around to looking at Cherise, who was still on the bottom step of the porch. "Never gave up on me once. Lifting me in and out of this contraption. Not to mention luggin' me everywhere too."

"And look what I got out of the deal." Cherise said while flexing one of her arms. "Course I suppose we have to thank that physical therapist of yours to for that too. Being as I had to right him every time he upset himself." She turned to Michelangelo with a matter-of-fact face. "That's how broke the Shell Cell you gave me. Daddy's therapist fell over and I had to lift him up. In the process he accidentally knocked the cell from my side and it smashed over the floor."

"I wonder how he fell over." Marcus joshed while eyeing his daughter.

Cherise blushed a deep red. "Daddy!"

"He's in a wheel chair too?" Michelangelo questioned.

"He is. Been in it a good part of his life" Marcus answered. "And just like Cherish, he kept pushing me to work as hard as I can. But I have to admit that he is a bit of a show off." Looking up Marcus saw a cloud of dust coming there where. "But you'll get to make your own assumption when you meet him."

"You invited him here?" Michelangelo said, being as stunned as everyone else.

Marcus rested a hand on the back of his neck. "Well…he actually insisted on coming here."

"You…you told him about us?" Leonardo eyeing Marcus slightly which caused the male human smile nervously.

While this was going on the cloud pulled up to the house, parking next what Cherise drove, and when the dust settled vehicle revealed was a mini van too. The driver gave an excited wave before moving around to the back. After few minutes the side of the van opened to reveal the same kind of metal grate that Cherise's van had. Once leveled with the vehicle a young man that looked to be about twenty, doing a wheelie, came out onto the platform and stayed in that position until the elevator hit the ground. He was dressed in a red tank-top, dark blue jeans, white sneakers, and black fingerless gloves. His dark hair was cut close to the neck with the top ends spike up. The muscles on his arms were bit bigger than the ones the turtles had and the thinness of his legs showed that he had obviously been paralyzed for a very long time. His chair'swheels were at a slight angle, the backing slightlymet his shoulder blades, and the seat was a couple inches longer than most chair seats were suppose to be.

"Do you need any help?" Marcus called out the young man.

"No way Mr. B." The young man continued to wheelie as he got off the elevator platform. "This chair was made for terrain like this." He spun around as he waited for the elevator to collapse back into the van.

"You're right, he is a bit of a show off." Leonardo whispered to Marcus when he saw the young man started to drop his front end and pick back up again, showing he could move without leaving the spot he was at.

"Whoa!" Misjudging how far back he was making himself go, the young man went too far and fell backwards.

"Bit of a klutz too." Donatello added.

"Any relation of yours Casey?" Michelangelo joshed and received a smack upside the head. "Would people kindly stop hitting me?"

Cherise gave a laugh before jogging over to the fallen man. With hands on her knees she bent down to him with a smile. "Fancy taking a dirt nap, eh Darren?"

"Darren!" Michelangelo and Donatello cried.

"Ya know who he is?" Casey questioned.

"Shell ya!" Michelangelo snapped. "He's the guy that bullied us back when we were kids. He's the one that threw paint balloons at us with his to little cohorts."

Upon hearing this Master Splinter looked at the young man laying on the ground with a bit of a glare before looking at Marcus the same way. Everyone joined him in looking at the older man, making him feel a bit awkward.

Darren felt the angry tension building up. "Keep your anger directed at me. I'm the one you should be mad at, not Mr. B. It was my idea for coming here, not his." With Cherise's help he was able to get upright again.

"Why are you here?" Master Splinter asked as coolly as his stare.

Darren did a full body shiver. "Whoa, the temper dropped fast." He gave a meek smile, which quickly disappeared when he saw that it was not appreciated. "I'm here to apologize." The young man wheeling up to the porch with Cherise following behind him. "I want to make amends towards the ones that I hurt directly, indirectly, and to you. And…I wanted to thank you also."

"For what?" Donatello questioned with a bit of a growl in his voice.

Darren started to give his arm a scratch as he answered the question. "For…geez this is going to sound weird, but for…this. For putting me in the position that I'm in now. If it weren't for you guys and Cherise, I think I would have been worse off…maybe even dead."

Being the protective elder brother that he was, Leonardo's cold glare was just as deadly as his Sensei, if not more. "You are thanking them for somehow putting you in that chair? Why?"

"Because that's how I learned that I needed to change." Darren replied earnestly. "Sure in the beginning I wasn't happy about never being able to walk again. You could even say I was anger about it and for a while I did blame you all for this. But it was during all that time I spent sending resentment your way that made me realize I was really the one to blame and that I had one of two choices. I could keep being angry, blame those who weren't to blame and end up continuing down my destructive path until I eventually destroy my life or I could do something to better myself."

"So how did you go from figuring that it was our fault to a favor we didfor putting you in a chair?" Donatello asked, his cold glare slightly melting a little.

Darren bit his lip. "Well this sounded really cool in my head, but now it might sound really…stupid. But the way I connected things was like this. If I hadn't done what I did to you and your brother, Cherise wouldn't have tricked me into getting into trouble with my mother. And if I hadn't gotten in trouble with my mother I wouldn't have been sent to that boot camp where my accident happened."

"Accident!" Cherise exclaimed. "I hardly call what happened to you an accident."

"What happen?" Michelangelo pressed. His face showed genuine interest and he forgot that he was supposed to be either afraid or angry with Darren.

"Well I was use to being the big man on campus back in the neighborhood and I never liked to back down from a challenge, not that I ever knew how." Darren explained. "So at boot camp I tangled with boys bigger than I and bit off more than I could chew."

"Wild guess, but you got into fight and some guy who broke your spine, right?" Leonardo asked.

"Close." Darren answered. "It was maybe a month after I arrive that me and this one guy really got into it. One day the guy got on my nerves so much that I give him a bloody nose. That night he got his buddies together and cornered me outside my bunk in retaliation. His buds held me while he came around back of me to stab a homemade shank. It felt like forever waiting for that stabbing and throughout the whole time I was terrified. Finally the shank pierced my back, severing my spinal cord." As if he could really feel it right then, Darren rub his backside. "Shortly after they all took off and I laid there bleeding, trying to move for help. However I couldn't move my legs and I was stuck there reliving what just happen. It was there that I realized what it must have felt like when I cornered other people back at my neighborhood. How they must have felt when I loomed over them with threats of harm." Darren looked at Donatello and Michelangelo, bowing as low as his chair would let him. "So again I apologize, many times over."

As the glares started to soften Michelangelo begged to hear more. "What happen next?"

Surprised that he had an audience Darren continued on. "Well as I said before, I started to get mad others for not being able to walk anymore. But once I got over that I started on turning my life around. First I worked on accepting my present condition while learning to turn my minus into a plus. It took two years with the help of a great therapist who worked me mentally and physically." A smile came onto the young man's face. "For physical therapy he would push me to my limit only so he could make me go beyond it. For mental he had me talk at school assemblies and teen violence prevention groups. Watching him work with me and others, I was inspired to become a physical therapist myself."

"Which is where we met." Marcus said.

"I recognized him right away." Cherise chimed. "At first I was like, 'No way was he going to be my daddy's therapist. I don't trust him.' But then Darren was like, 'I'm really and truly am sorry for what I did. Please, please, please let me help your father. I've change and I would love to show you.'"

"I don't think I begged that much." Darren said as he eyed Cherise.

"You've had your turn talking and now it's mine." Cherise scolded. "And I'll tell this story how I wish to remember it." Darren rolled his eyes at her before giving an accepting smile. "So anyway, he was really asking to show the new self. Of course we didn't agree, because we still weren't sure so they gave us one more as like a backup. However Darren was everything a therapist is suppose to be and then some."

Donatello cocked an eyebrow. "What do you mean 'and then some'?" Cherise answered by slipping her arms around Darren's neck and gave it a little squeeze. "Ahhhh."

"But isn't he a little old for you?" Leonardo questioned.

"So what is a couple of years?" Cherise asked back. "Besides, daddy doesn't object."

"I would think that even if I did, it wouldn't have made much of difference." Marcus whispered to Master Splinter. "Once kids set their minds on something it's hard getting them to think other wise, don't you agree?" The elder rat nodded.

"Poor Raphie, he'll be so crushed." Michelangelo said jokingly.

"Speaking of the red one, where is he?" Cherise inquired as she looked around. "He never got a chance go meet daddy and I would like him to meet Darren too."

"He's in the house, sulking." Donatello answered.

"Sulking! Him!" Cherise said with mild surprise. "Why?"

"Didn't like how you left." Leonardo replied.

"But I told you why I had to leave like I did." Cherise said sternly.

"You left us a cryptic note." Donatello retorted. "It hardly told us what you reason for leaving a week after your father woke up was."

"Why did you leave?" Michelangelo asked. "And who did that." He pointed to Marcus's chair.

Cherise opened her mouth to say something, but Master Splinter put a hand up to stop her. "As I said about us telling our past, you should tell yours once we are settled inside. That way Raphael can be included too." Marcus nodded in agreement with the idea.

Being that April was by the door, she opened it for the elder rat and the man in the chair. Once they were in she followed with Casey behind her. After them were Leonardo, Donatello, and Michelangelo.

Cherise and Darren were left outside as the steps of the porch. "Well gee. Don't everyone come rushing to help." The young woman said with a huff as she crossed her arms over her chest.

Darren waved a hand. "It's alright." He unbuckled the belt that held him in the chair. "Really I'm surprised that they didn't continue to ice me. I figured that I'd have to apologize a whole lot more than I already did."

Cherise let out a bit of a chuckle. "Like you kinda had to do with me?"

"Do you think I'll have to by them dinner and flowers to show how sincere I am?" Darren asked while slipping out of his chair onto the porch steps.

"Oh, a date." Michelangelo said in high-pitched voice as his face appeared in the doorway. "And me without a thing to wear. Oh whatever should I do with my hair?" As he pretended to stroke locks of flowing hair until Donatello gave him a shove out of the entrance.

Cherise smiled as she let her arms down. "I knew that you guys wouldn't be like that."

"Yeah, well. It's not like we were going to let him off that easy." Donatello said coolly.

Michelangelo let out a semi-cruel chuckle. "Yeah." He rubbed his hands together. "Be prepared to do some hard core apologizing. Like, you're going to be saying sorry so many times you'll be sick of the word."

"Michelangelo." Master Splinter's stern voice called out.

"Alright, alright. Ten times will be fine."

"Michelangelo!"

"Three?"

"Michelangelo, do not make come out there."

"How about if I just struggle getting me and my chair up these stairs?" Darren asked. "Would that be enough?" Donatello and Michelangelo looked at each other before looking back at the young man to nod. "Ok." Darren reached out from his seat on the stair for his chair so he could collapse it. Then he pulled it towards him and started heaving it up the three stairs as he scooted up them.

Cherise wanted to help so badly, but when she reached out Darren stopped her. "But…"

"You have to let me do it myself." Darren scolded. "I've done this many times before I met you and with more steps than this. No reason that I should stop now or that you should offer just because you feel sorry. You know feeling sorry won't help anyone."

"But I don't. It's just that…well…I don't think it's fair." Cherise said sternly.

"And that is why you'll always be the sweet kid that you are." Darren replied.

"How long have you been dating her?" Donatello questioned as he took the chair from the young man.

Darren was surprised by this movement, he didn't expect any help from the turtles. "Um...I dunno. Maybe going on a year and a half."

"And you don't know her way of conning people?" Michelangelo helped his brother open up the chair and hold it still so that Darren could get into it.

"Well I knew about that, yeah." Darren said in a 'no duh' tone while climbing into the chair and fastened the seatbelt. "Thanks for the help."

"No problem." Donatello held open to door so that Michelangelo could wheel Darren into the house and followed right in after them.

Realizing she had just been left behind, Cherise cried, "Hey! Wait for me." She jumped up the steps and into the house.


A/N2: He he. I got a few of you to think I killed off Marcus. For those I didn't trick...well...dang. Anyway, yes I'll tell what happen to him in the next chapter. To tell truth I didn't even think about Darren running him over as revenge. But as you can see, it wasn't him and the real reason will probably sound really lame...I dunno. However with everyone talking about Darren, I felt like I kinda had to bring him back to tie up that loose end and mix in a bit of karma to boot.