The Journey Home

Disclaimer: I deny any ownership of Don, Mike and April they are and have always been owned by Mirage.

Chapter Three:

I tried to figure out what to say, or do to try and convince Don that running me off wasn't the way to go. I hadn't gone through so much, just to realize my dreams and hopes and have him shut the door in my face. "Look Don this isn't going work. I'll just keep coming back here and I will find you even if you try to disappear" I vowed firmly, "I'm not going lose you again. Don't I have as much of a say as you do, on if I want to be in your life or not?"

Don rolled his eyes giving me a sour look "I'm not going debate this with you April," he remarked.

I smiled "Good then it's settled..."

"That's right you are leaving" he cut in, his tone allowing no room for argument.

"You are going send me away without even letting me see Mike?" I asked.

"That's right if Mike knows you are here, then he'll figure that we ought to be back together again." Don pointed out.

"What is wrong with that?" I fumed as I placed, Casey down and put my hands on my hips.

"He shouldn't have contacted you in the first place. We are not going back to New York April. EVER!" He swallowed sharply, " The City lasted years before we came and it will last years now we are gone. The Foot can have it and turn it into what ever they want. Don't you see they won." he declared flatly and gave a disgusted shake of his head, " If we go back they will kill us too. Mike isn't as good as he used to be. He can manage but in a major battle some soldier would be able to take him out. I won't be able to keep him safe." Don explained.

There was something else though, something that laid under his words, a feeling, a glimpse of something that is quickly shoved away, brushed aside. Mike had been right he was hurting, and I had to wonder how Mike himself had come to accept or deal with the changes in their lives. Perhaps the letter to me, hadn't been just a cry for help for Don but for him too. Mike was afraid of being alone, and I was almost one hundred percent positive that Don also feared losing Mike.

There was still so much pain and hurt here, that lay just under the surface, and there was no telling how far it went down or how thick it was because all one could see was the little bit that revealed itself at the surface. These were ninja well used to hiding their emotions, and yet I also knew that they weren't always as capable of hiding things as they wanted to. Course Raph and Leo had always been fairly good at keeping secrets hiding real emotions or thoughts, I think Raph more so than Leo. But I was also aware that they were all fully capable of it.

Don went and got Casey, she struggled in his arms, "Now hold onto your daughter we are going up."

"Don do you even know what I was put through..." I started but then realized that might not be the best way, as I saw a fleeting look of concern cloud his eyes, he knew what he had left me to. Don hung his head.

"I'm sorry April" he whispered, looking down at his toes in silence and unease.

"Don. Donny boy where'd ya go?"

I heard the voice coming through the trees, recognizing it instantly. I saw a startled look on Don's face as if he knew then that time was running out and he motioned for me to shush, to say nothing. I smirked, I knew he probably wasn't going appreciate this, but I wasn't about to be sent off like some child who was being punished. These two were my family damn it! I wasn't about to lose them again. "Mike is that you? Don's over here with me April" I called cheerfully.

"April?" He practically shouted in his enthusiasm, " You're here!"

At least one of them seemed happy to see me. "Yes. So is my daughter Casey."

Don glowered at me "Why did you do that?" he mouthed at me.

I ignored it as I saw Mike step from around some trees, and head in almost a straight path towards us at a run, veering only to miss a rock, tree, or tree root that had worked it's way up. There were three grouse tied on his belt and I figured that was going be there meal for tonight as Mike had mentioned something in his letter about hunting in the park. I was amazed with how well he seemed to know where he was, moving with ease and without the assistance of a stick or anything else to guide him.

In moment's though he had wrapped his arms around me and hugged me close "It is great seeing you again April" he assured me. "Don has invited you back home to visit with us right?"

"Not really I hadn't gotten around to it yet." Don mumbled.

Mike turned and looked at him, "No of course not. It's kind of hard trying to invite her home when you want to chase her off." He accused.

"I wouldn't do that Mike" Don protested his innocence.

"You know I'm partially blind. Not partially deaf." Mike retorted, " I heard you Don. April came all this way and..."

"She wouldn't be here if you hadn't written to her." Don declared in a sharp tone.

"That's right and you lectured me about that. Not as good as Leo would have" Mike sighed a bit, "But you did try." Mike stated, as he waved a hand in dismissal, "But she came looking for us. We owe her any answers, a bit of reunion whatever she wants after the way we left her that night Don." Mike insisted with a great deal of conviction.

I thought I heard Mike choke up a bit at the last words, but it was hard to say for sure, after all I had mentioned how good they were, or had been, at hiding certain things.

Don exhaled a large exasperated breath of air and rolled his eyes, "Well looks like I have to go up there anyways to retrieve the stroller. Last thing we need is for some one to come upon it and start a search party" he caved in with a great deal of reluctance. "Mike why not take Casey and April on to our place. I'll catch up" he finally permitted.

"Sure Don" Mike beamed wide at those words, as he softly whispered out of the side of his mouth, "I'm glad you made it April. I'm really worried about him." He sniffed a bit.

"There is no where else I would rather be" I assured him as I placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, "Casey honey come on over here." I called to her she had wandered a little ways off and was playing with some pine cones. She immediately got up and came over to us. I picked her up "Casey, I want you to meet your Uncle Mike. He used to know your daddy babe." I wasn't sure how much Mike could see her. I know he mentioned things looking blurry and fuzzy to him.

He reached out and touched her hand and slowly his hand traveled up her arm to caress her cheek, chin , and hair. " She's beautiful April just like you."

" I think she looks more like her father." I commented.

"Maybe." Mike shrugged a little, "Come on we don't live too far from here."

Too far for one person might not be the same view for another. I knew that the boys version of, not too far from here, could be any where to a few miles from where we stood. He swung Casey up and placed her on his shoulders. "I'll try to bend down so I don't sweep her off on low branches" he remarked in a slightly joking tone. Luckily I was used to him and his sense of humor so wasn't as concerned as I may have been other wise. However I soon realized that his joke might end up more true than not.

As he headed into the bush, it was clear he was used to moving about on his own, but a few branches did look like they came close to Casey, and I wondered if this was just more of Mike's sense of humour trying to scare me, or if he was truly unaware of a stick or leaf that might jab Casey in the eye. Either that or in the few years we'd been parted I had forgotten a few things about my friends. As we walked through the trees, Mike kept talking with me about normal sort of things.

When had Casey been born, what it was like being a mother, what had I been doing other than caring for Casey, as if carefully skirting the real issues. Course there would be time for those later. In between his many questions he told me about their home. "It's a log cabin, Don and I built together. Took quite a bit of work dragging fallen trees to this spot and working with an axe and other simple tools. We have a fireplace which we use for cooking and heating, two bedrooms a small living room area, and most important indoor plumbing." He grinned over his shoulder, "No stumbling out to the out house for us."

"Do you have a TV?" I inquired recalling the hours Mike used to park in front of the screen watching one show after another.

"Yeah but no cable or satellite. Just a few channels. It is mostly for movies" Mike replied, "That is one thing I miss about the city. Don even set up his computer, he even figured out a way to run it on solar power."

Somehow that didn't surprise me. Don without a computer was like Mike without a TV practically unheard of. I could just imagine Don and Mike working on the place and Mike pestering, and badgering Don about his shows. While Don himself probably couldn't wait to get onto the computer and internet to learn or research from.

"In fact Don was all right long as he kept busy. It was when there was nothing much else to do, and supplies for some of his projects are pretty slim out here. He had a hell of enough time as it was just getting the bathroom, TV and computer set up to his likings you know..." Mike lapsed into silence.

"Go on Mike," I urged.

"Well it was just when he had nothing to really do, to occupy him he started dwelling on other things and now he doesn't seem interested in that sort of stuff. I think he sort of got lost, trapped in his own pain and he hasn't found his way back out. To life you know. He's given up." Mike turned and looked my way, "He'd do better if he could get back into it. But he won't, he doesn't. I've tried to tell him we could give this place up and go closer to civilization find a country home or something like that."

"He doesn't want to though." I concluded.

Mike nodded somberly, "It is like he doesn't want what will make him happy. It's almost as if he is intent on being here as a form of punishment, if that makes any sense." Mike scrunched his face up as he tried his best to explain, "I've tried talking to him. I've done everything I can think of short of taking off on my own, but I'm afraid of what he might do to himself if I did take off" he confessed.

"The bandages on his wrist..." I muttered.

"Yeah his most recent attempt. He went into the bush, told me he was going hunting. I felt something wasn't right I followed best I could. He went total ninja and managed to avoid me, he used a small dagger." Mike swallowed and trembled, "April I hate to admit it. I hate to lay this on you..." he stopped glanced around almost nervously, "But I feel that if I can't do it maybe you can. I don't want to lose Don, he's all I have of family left." I saw a tear trickle from his eye and soak into the orange mask as he looked my way.

I reached out both hands to clasp his into mine. "You have me as family too Mike. Casey and I are part of your family. with all your concerns and fear for Don, have you dealt with Leo or Raph's passing?" I wondered.

He shifted ducking his head down, not really answering that as we neared what looked like a thick bush, Mike swung Casey off his shoulders, and moved some branches aside. Mike and I both had to crouch quite low as we moved through the bush suddenly the bush parted and there in what could only be a man made, or in this instance turtle made, clearing stood the small crude log cabin that was home to the turtles. "The water from the house is piped from a large stream just the other side of the bush at the backside of the house. Water we have to heat on the fireplace though. Don said he was going work on something for that, but that was before he lost his way."

It looked a far cry from the turtle lair, that had all the high tech gadgets, gizmos and what have you that any home could think of and then some. This looked so humble, plain, simple. But it served it's purpose of providing warmth, shelter. Yet looking at it I could almost feel there was no heart in this place. It was a place to live, to get by on but it was not by any stretch of the imagination a home. Had Don known even as he built this place that it was hollow as his own heart?

He said he had come here to heal, and yet this place seemed to be a wound in and of itself that needed to be cleansed. I wrapped my arms around my self as I looked at it.

Casey cooed and clapped her hands "Howse mommy. Play howse."

"Yeah we get to play house every day here." Mike remarked. I thought I heard just a bit of disgruntlement in his words, or maybe it was my imagination. "Don and I can bunk in one room you can have the other for tonight at least" he offered, "Tonight's menu is chicken." He pulled the birds from his belt, "Home grown potatoes, salad, and berries for dessert."

"Sounds good" I answered cheerfully.

"Yeah but I'd kill for pizza about now." Mike informed me as he sat down near the cabin to start plucking the bird feathers, much to Casey's amusement she'd pick up the feathers showing me or using them to tickle me with.

A few minutes later Don entered the area with the stroller, I saw him look toward Casey, and then he looked my way there was a resigned look in his eyes, as if he had convinced himself he was stuck with us for now, but was possibly going eject us at the most opportune moment in the near future. Casey ran towards him tickling him with a feather. Don hardly seemed to acknowledge the slight brush of feather against his skin as he strode towards us, "Well April is it what you were expecting?" he asked gesturing to the cabin.

"It is very nice and suitable for the time being Don. You have always been resourceful, but it never ceases to amaze me" I replied honestly, "It may not have the luxuries of the lair. But no one says this has to be permanent right?"

Don smiled and relaxed just a little "It is good to see you again April" he admitted tightly. I thought I saw something in his eyes, a tiny spark of the shy genius that lay somewhere inside him, then it was gone as if it didn't exist making me wonder if I really seen it or not. He looked back at Casey "Casey, named after her father. Very fitting" he said.

"I know Casey and I talked about so many names before..." I stopped as I saw Don jerk slightly back, "However with all that happened I just felt boy or girl it had to be Casey to honour him. Casey Dawn Jones."

Casey ran to me as I spoke her name. Yes I had named her for her father, but also for the one turtle I had felt a kinship with, there had always been a bond between Don and I. We'd talk to one another about science, bounce theories off one another and when it came to work on computers the two of us could unscramble, hack or otherwise work out any glitch there was. Yes, there had been a bond of sorts between us, I couldn't deny it then. But it was one of friendship and I knew that the turtles had never considered me as anything other than a sister.

I could not turn my back on what I felt was my brother I knew he was hurting and to leave him, leave us all like this in limbo was something I couldn't begin to face or bear. The journey I had started had just begun and the road ahead was too dark as yet to see where it may lead.

Don smiled, "Bring Casey inside April. We ought to treat those scrapes and stuff." He suggested kindly as he turned to walk inside, "Don't worry all the weapons are locked up except for the ones we have on us so she won't hurt herself."

I stopped myself from saying that it didn't seem to stop him from hurting himself.

TBC