As Mikey drove back to the office, he thought about what Susan told him and it gave him joy. Joy he hadn't experienced since the Shredder was taken down. It made him think that living a life amongst humans wasn't as improbable as he thought it was. If she could easily accept him, who knows who else can accept his existence?

While being deep in thought, he called Donnie via his headset and asked, "Hey Donnie? Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, Mikey. What is it?" replied Donnie.

"It's about what happened with Susan. Do you think it's possible for people to accept us?" asked Mikey.

"Mikey, you know the answer to that question and it's likely no. Humans are too afraid to accept things that are different." said Donnie.

"But Susan didn't care. And neither did John." said Mikey.

"That's true." said John.

"Not everyone is Susan or John, Mikey." said Donnie.

"Yeah and whenever we've tried to help someone in the past, all we got was hatred and disrespect. Susan and John are a one in a million chance, Mikey. Get that through your thick skull." said Raph.

At this moment, Mikey stopped at a red light and right next to him was another car. What Mikey didn't realize was that he was talking without his helmet on, which meant he was 100% exposed. So while Mikey was talking, the driver in the other car was freaking out at what he was seeing.

"I…I know. It's just that…it sucks. Our lives freaking suck, dude. Sometimes I wonder why we even bother, you know." said Mikey.

"Yeah, little bro. I definitely feel that." said Raph.

"Same here. Look Mikey, I know it's rough but one day, things will get easier. When we're all together again." said Donnie.

"If we're all together again. Fearless could be dead in a ditch for all we know." said Raph.

"Raph, don't say that!" said Mikey.

"Mikey. Stop talking." said Donnie.

"WHAT?! But Raph just…" Mikey said before getting interrupted by Donnie.

"I know but there's a car right next to you and the driver is directly looking at you." said Donnie.

"What? Oh shell, I'm screwed." Mikey whispered.

"You're not screwed, Mikey. Just act like an animatronic and I'll do the rest." said Donnie.

Mikey quickly acted like a character from Chuck E. Cheese and widened his eyes, put on a stupidly large smile, and waved his hand robotically. This seemed to work as the driver nervously waved back, although internally, Mikey believed this made the whole situation more uncomfortable and off-putting.

"Donnie, HURRY UP." Mikey said through his teeth.

"Don't worry, I'm on it." said Donnie.

In no time at all, Donnie managed to hack into that specific road's streetlights and change them from red to green, which allowed Mikey to speed out of that situation.

"And crisis adverted." said Donnie.

"Wow. You hacked the streetlights just like that." said John.

"Yep. Took years of practice and research." said Donnie.

"And that's why he's the brains of the family." said Raph.

Several minutes went by, until Mikey finally re-entered the building with the van and when he got out, Donnie, Raph, and John immediately asked how he was.

"Mikey! Are you alright little bro?" asked Raph.

"Do you need medical attention?" asked John.

"How are you doing mentally?" asked Donnie.

"Guys, I'm fine. Those kids were crappy but I kind of expected that. They didn't hurt me too much. Nothing serious. Plus, that Susan lady paid me quite well, so I'd say it was worth it." said Mikey.

"How much did she pay you?" asked Donnie.

Mikey showed them his stack of $100 bills and Donnie, Raph, and John were stunned.

"She paid you that much for that one party?!" said Raph.

"Damn. She really must've felt awful about what happened." said John.

"It also helped that she knew Mikey from a past incident." said Donnie.

"Yeah and she was real nice about the whole thing about me being a turtle." said Mikey.

"So…Mikey, I need to ask you this. After what happened today, do you still want to do this job? Because if you don't, then I'm perfectly fine with that. It's your choice." said John.

Mikey gave John's question some thought and ultimately said, "You know what? I think I'll keep this job. I mean I get paid well, I have a good schedule, and making kids happy is always a good thing in my eyes. Besides, it's not like I have other things to do, since Splinter banned us from being heroes."

"Right." said Donnie.

Raph simply snorted because no one knew he was going around doing hero work behind Splinter's back.

"Well…alright. If that's what you want to do, then that's fine." said John.

And for about a year, Mikey worked that job on a consistent basis. He always had an upbeat attitude and thought about the positives of the job rather than the negatives. Although Mikey was proud about being responsible and making his own money for the first time in his life, it did bother him how his family was slowly but surely falling apart. Donnie and Raph couldn't be with him all the time due to Donnie's I.T. job and Raph's secret vigilante work and eventually, the three brothers barely interacted with each other.

But the one thing that was worse than anything else revolved around one turtle. Leo. Mikey had no idea where he was, what he was doing, or if he was even still alive. It kept him up at night and it made him want to put in more hours at work just to escape the depressing state of his life.

At this point, all Mikey could do was work at his job, entertain kids, and hopefully get paid well. But what Mikey really wanted was for his big brother to come home and make everything go back to the way it was.

But at this point, that dream is becoming more and more unlikely.

And that's it for the story. The ending was a bit of a downer, but I think it works with the 2007 movie. And yes, I know it's been more than two years since I updated this story and I'm really sorry about that. I got sidetracked with Kasai and then the pandemic happened and I had really bad writer's block with this story, but I'm glad it's all done now. Also, now that this story is finished, I've been thinking about making an alternative version of my Kasai story. Some things will remain the same, but the overall storyline will be altered. I'm also writing new chapters for older stories and I'm hoping to get a few of these done before I go back to college. Other than that, I hope you all have a wonderful day. Bye for now and stay safe.