Donnie came back into the kitchen a little while later, obviously relieved. Mikey was going to be fine, he just needed rest. Well, that and food. My stomach growled at the mention of food, making me realize that I had not truly eaten in months. April set the brush on the counter and disappeared as quickly as she had come, yelling something over her shoulder about Chinese takeout and pizza. Donnie chuckled and turned his attention to me, taking every last injury in. Before long, he was wrapping me in bandages and covering various bruises and such with salves and ointments. Apparently I had three cracked ribs, a dislocated shoulder, a minor concussion, and was in shock from the evening. Altogether understandable, all things considered. My wings were in pristine condition, albeit a little tired. Donnie agreed with me that the x-ray he wanted to take and everything of that sort could wait until I had gotten used to my new body.

Covered in various creams and bandages, I left the kitchen at Donnie's consent and snuggled back into my armchair, content for the moment. I didn't hurt as badly, but I was still starving. As if on command, April walked in with several bags heaping with various kinds of food. The smell wafted over to me and made my mouth water. Without thinking, April handed me a Chinese takeout box and some chopsticks. "Eat." She said simply, and then shouted to no one in particular that dinner was here. Almost instantaneously, Raph and Leo ran out of their rooms and hopped over the rail down to the second floor. April had to jump backward so she didn't get trampled as they dived for the food. Too my utter astonishment, she proceeded to smack Raph on the head, scolding him for his lack of good manners. He just rolled his eyes and sat himself down on the couch with a box of pizza on his lap. Leo soon joined him, stealing a piece from the box before Raph could stop him. I smiled to see them goof off like that. It struck me that they didn't seem all that older than myself, despite their monstrous size and superhuman build.

"So kid, do you have a name?" Raph looked to me as he spoke. I swallowed my food quickly and responded with a small voice, "Not one that I remember. I probably had one before I was changed, but I have almost no memory of my past life besides my family and the night I was taken." Raph asked me about my family, and I grew more confident as I continued, remembering my family with amazing clarity.

"My dad was a contractor, getting good money from his job. He worked most of the time, but he loved to have fun with my siblings and me whenever we could. Every Saturday night he would take us all out to the movie theatre for a show and a treat. We would go really early so we could sit in the very back row and watch everybody come in and find their seats. For some reason, we thought it was fun. My dad's name was Daniel.

"My mom was a part time substitute teacher for the elementary school where my little brother went to school for kindergarten every morning. She would bake cookies every Tuesday and make us the most amazing lunches to bring to school. She wanted to paint the kitchen a cool green color, but Dad read the label wrong when he got the paint so we ended painting the kitchen a pale yellow that seemed to glow in the evening when the sun set. Her name was Sarah.

"My little sisters Kim and Andie were identical twins, but Kim's eyes were more blue than Andie's and Andie's hair was darker than Kim's, so I could always tell them apart. They did everything together, from playing dolls to playing soccer. They were in fourth grade.

"My little brother Austin was four, but his birthday is next month. His favorite color was blue, baby blue. He loved Superman and Thomas the train, but hated sports. He loved to finger paint in the afternoons. He hung paintings all over the house, and Mom actually framed a few and put them in the attic as memoirs. His favorite food was cheese and crackers with pickles on the side. His best friend was named Grant… they were so cute when they played outside.

"My cousins lived across town and my family and I would go visit them every Sunday night after dinner to play board games and have ice cream…"

I went on like that for a long time, telling everyone about my past life. Strangely, they never interrupted me, but listened attentively. At one point, Donnie and Mikey (who was now awake) walked into the room and sat on the surrounding floor, also listening to me ramble on. For some reason, I couldn't stop talking. It wasn't like I was trying to fill the silence or anything, but it felt strangely good to remember how my life used to be. I went into every little quirky family tradition, from wearing pajamas inside-out on Christmas Eve to drinking chocolate milk in hollow chocolate bunnies on Easter to having doughnut-eating competitions at family reunions.

My voice soon grew sore and the food grew cold, but still I went on. I painted them pictures of my house, my school, my summer vacations, my favorite season, and my fondest memories. When I told them about the last time I had seen my family, I started tear up. The emptiness inside me threatened to rip me in two, but still I went on. I had to get this off my chest. Finally, I finished. It wasn't a grand ending or anything, but I was done. Mikey, who had successfully eaten an entire pizza by himself while I spoke, sighed in content.

"Well, now I've got a new friend to tell me about the world topside. I mean, no offence, April, but your stories are really boring."

"They are not! Since when is the news boring? Why, just last week…"

Just like that, my moment in the spotlight was over. Mikey and April started arguing about how interesting rocketing gas prices were while Donnie claimed he had to do something in his lab. Raph gave me a curious look before jumping into the quickly escalating argument. Leo, on the other hand, kept his steady gaze on me, his eyes filled with something like wonder.

"Did I say something wrong?" I asked him over the chatter. He shook his head and laughed.

"Quite the opposite. That was beautiful. You are lucky to have such fond memories of your past life. It amazes me to hear stories from the topside. Your family sounds nice."

"Yeah, they were. Honestly, I don't know what I'm going to do now. I can't go back to them, but I don't want them to think I'm gone forever. I mean, I didn't even get to say goodbye." My head drooped in sorrow. My situation looked so dismal from my point of view. I couldn't let my family think I was dead, but I couldn't make myself put them in the danger that would come from them finding out about my mutation. At the same time, I also couldn't make myself stay away from them for the rest of my life. They were my life, my everything.

The rest of the evening went smoothly. We finished all the food April had brought and spent a good portion of the night telling stories and exchanging jokes and bad puns. April had to leave around midnight, claiming she had to get up early the next morning and wanted to get some sleep. Mikey also went to bed early, soon followed by Raph and Donnie. Leo showed me where an extra bedroom was for me to sleep in. It was about as big as my room I had at home, but the walls were all brick and the ceiling was lower than usual. Being shorter than usual, that didn't bother me too much. The bed was big and comfy, with a giant comforter and two massive pillows and the head. I thanked Leo for showing me in and shut the door to my new room. I didn't care much for cleaning it up at the moment, so I threw myself on the bed and slept like a dead person.

I woke up early the next morning to the smell of pancakes and bacon. I followed my nose downstairs into the kitchen, where Raph was cooking enough food for a small army. He didn't look nearly as intimidating with an apron on and a frying pan in his grasp. No one else was awake yet, so it was just me and him. I asked if I could help at all, but he didn't have anything for me to do, so I sat at the table while he cooked. I examined the table, worn by years of use covered in scars. To me, each of the marks held a memory, and I was dying to discover their secrets. I heard a huge yawn behind me and turned to find Mikey sluggishly making his way into the kitchen. He rubbed his eyes and sat down beside me, mumbling something resembling a good morning. Raph slid a plate onto the counter heaped with pancakes and eggs. "Help yourself," he said, nodding toward me. "I suggest you eat before Mikey gets his appetite back. There won't be any food left once he starts eating."

"Um, okay. Thanks." I said, picking up a fork. Raph was a good cook, and I mean a really good cook. I ate until I thought I would pop and thanked Raph for the wonderful food.

"No problem. Maybe now you'll actually get some meat on those bones of yours."

I blushed, unsure of how to respond. Thankfully, Leo waltzed into the room, saving me from what was sure to have become an extremely awkward situation. I quietly excused myself from the table, giving my seat to Leo. He accepted gratefully and piled some food onto his plate. I smiled. It was funny to see these four turtles act so… normal. Walking out into the main living room, I found my armchair vacant and quickly filled it. While I had a few moments to myself, I opened my wings slightly and studied them as best I could. Like I had thought before, they were pure black and had feathers easily a foot long. Underneath the main feathers was a layer of soft down that was incredibly warm and fuzzy. I tucked my wings behind me once more and settled into the chair. After half an hour or so, Donnie came out of the kitchen and sat opposite me on the couch. Apparently he had come in after I had left.

"May I see them?" he asked, motioning toward my wings. I complied, shifting in my seat so my back was facing him. He stood and walked over to me, eager to examine my new appendages. He handled them gingerly, muttering to himself as he looked. After a minute, I heard a pencil scratching on paper as Donnie took notes. I smiled, settling myself more comfortably into the chair. If I trusted these turtles more than I had ever trusted anybody in my old life, which was kind of scary, but I was content to trust my instincts. I don't know how long I sat in the chair, but by the time Donnie was happy with his notes he had filled a small notebook with comments, measurements, and sketches of my wings.

"Incredible!" he sighed. "Biologically impossible by human standards, but your body showed amazing resilience and adaptation during the mutation process. I wonder if it had anything to do with your incredible metabolism? The odds of the results being replicated in another foreign organism, even in a single microbe, is astronomically improbable…"

"English, Donnie!" Came Mikey's voice from the kitchen. I giggled.

"He's just saying that I'm really special." I hollered back.

"Okay. I'm just glad he's not saying anything bad about me." Mikey said. Donnie rolled his eyes and straightened up, closing his journal and offering me his hand.

"Have you eaten?" he asked, eyeing my ribs that were painfully visible even beneath my shirt.

"Yes, actually. Your brother is an amazing cook! I can't remember the last time I had something to eat for breakfast that wasn't injected into me through a tube. It's good to be able to taste things again."

"I'm glad. I'm going to go put my stuff in the lab. Feel free to wander about the lair. Just don't go into Sensei's room at the end of the hall. We haven't exactly told him about you yet…"

"Okay. I'll keep a lookout for him." I assured him. Donnie nodded slightly and left. The tile felt cold beneath my bare feet, but I pressed on. The ceiling was high, extending at least ten feet above the second story and creating a massive dome at the top. A ledge jutted out from the bottom of the dome, six or so feet above the second story, and went around the length of the dome. It would be a nice hiding spot, if I were able to get up there. My eyes wandered around as I walked, taking in every scratch in the floor, every mark on the brick walls, every speck of dust lazily floating around in the air. I climbed up the stairs to the second floor, and found the bedrooms belonging to, I assumed, the four turtles. I couldn't tell whose was whose, but I couldn't help but notice how much bigger their rooms were than mine. I felt incredibly small just standing in the doorway of the first bedroom. The door was at least three feet taller than me and was wider than my entire arm span. When I stretch out my wings, however, they easily cleared the edges of the doorway and went out for a good foot and a half farther on either side. I folded them back in and continued my exploring.

I did this for the remainder of the morning, taking in every detail. I listened and watched my rescuers as they went about their normal day. Around lunchtime April dropped in and said hello. She was greeted warmly by the four brothers and I tried my best to give her a smile, but even after last night, I didn't completely trust her. After lunch with April and the turtles, I excused myself to my room to 'take a nap', but really spent the rest of the afternoon reorganizing my room. I was stronger than I was before the mutation and could easily move most of the furniture in the bedroom. One wall was completely taken up by a massive closet. The other three were open, except for the one that held the door leading from my room to the hallway outside. I pushed and pulled, turned and twisted, rearranged and reorganized to my heart's delight until the room was basically perfect. I decided that as soon as I could, I would get some decorations for the walls, maybe some twinkle lights to hang across the ceiling, a new comforter for the bed. I could easily have fit my entire wardrobe into the closet and had room to spare, but… all my clothes were at home, my old home. The one I could never go back to.

I sank onto the bed, suddenly depressed. This whole 'can't go back to my old life' thing was really starting to bother me. Just then, there was a soft knock at my door. April poked her head in and smiled.

"Ready to go?" she asked. I looked at the strange woman curiously.

"Go where?"

"To the store, silly. I told you I was going to get you some new clothes, didn't I? Let's go topside and get you some clothes that actually fit."

"With these?" I asked, unfolding my wings. "I'm pretty not sure they're going to go unnoticed once we get up there. They're kind of noticeable."

"I know that. I brought a big coat you can wear into the store. It's snowing outside, so nobody will question it if you're bundled up. Once we're inside, you can camp out in the dressing rooms while I do all the shopping. If anybody asks, I'm your aunt. You're here over Christmas vacation while the rest of the family goes on a cruise. You stayed behind because you get violently seasick. Should the need arise, we are unable to contact your family in any way because they have no cell phone reception or internet connection in the middle of the Caribbean. Your backpack with all your id's and such got lost in the airport and is in the process of being found. You have no other connections in the city, or even the state, and are under my legal care for the entire holiday season. Got it?" April said all of this rather quickly and I struggled to catch it all.

"I think so. That's kind of brilliant, actually. Well done." April smiled and accepted my compliment. She then threw me something big and black and told me to come into the living room once I was ready to go. I nodded my thanks, watched her as she left, and unfolded the black thing (which turned out to be a trench coat). It was big on me, but it covered my wings completely and didn't drag on the ground too much, so I was happy. I rolled up the sleeves as best I could and tucked my wings against my body, being careful to make sure they were covered by the thick black fabric. Walking out into the living room, I realized that the whole lair was eerily quiet. I found April and asked her where everybody was.

"Training in the dojo." She answered. "Splinter won't give them a day off unless it's a very important holiday or somebody's birthday. They'll be raining for at least a couple more hours so they won't notice our absence. Let's go!"