Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT.

06

Raphael sat silently in the pit, staring down at his phone. He couldn't believe it. She had actually texted him back. But all she had said was, "K."

As in okay.

What the hell did that mean, though – was Mia gonna try to contact him? Was it okay for him to call her? Was ever he gonna hear from her again? Or maybe it was only okay if he texted her?

"Hey, bro."

Raphael closed out of his text messages and looked up to see Michelangelo, sitting down across from him with a plate of pizza in hand. "Hey," he said simply.

Mikey nodded at him halfheartedly as he grabbed the remote to the TV and began switching the through the static for cartoons. Then he looked back at Raph. "So," he said. "What're you up to?"

"Nothing," Raph said a bit too quickly. Then he looked back down and remembered the T-phone that was clenched tightly in his fist. He loosened his grip on it. "Nothing," he said again. "Just messing around online."

Mikey nodded silently.

Raph leaned back and fell into the throw pillows silently. He stared at Mikey silently. After a minute or two, he knew he was safe. Mikey was watching My Little Pony. He was completely sucked into it – nothing was gonna break him now. But Mikey was easy like that, and Raph knew that he wasn't the one he really needed to watch out for.

Raph peeked his head over the top of the bench. Donnie was hanging out with April in the lab. He was more than occupied. Leo was nowhere to be seen, though. He was probably off somewhere sucking up to Master Splinter, Raph thought as he opened up the text message on his phone again. He wasn't sure what exactly Mia was trying to play at – if she was being friendly or if this was her way of telling him to get lost, but he couldn't ignore her. She didn't hate him, he reminded himself. Even if she didn't like him or want to be friends with him, he already knew Mia didn't hate him because of the last time he'd seen her. Knowing that, Raph just couldn't bring himself to just completely ignore her. He wasn't that kind of person.

He wasn't that much of a coward.

So, silently, he typed out a simple one word response and hit the SEND button on the phone. "Cool." Then he shoved it beneath the throw pillows for safekeeping.

Mia sat the dinner table, gaping at her sister. A week had passed since the last time she had texted Raphael. In that time, she had gotten her cast off and had started walking again. And ignoring Raphael. She wasn't pretending that he didn't exist. No, that was too hard to do. She simply didn't know what to say or how to say it. So, instead, she said nothing. "A job?" she repeated, stabbing a piece of macaroni with her fork. "I just got my cast off, and you want me to –?" She was cut off by the sound of someone pounding on the front door.

Clara stared at the two of them, looking from one to the other and back again. The pounding continued.

Janie turned to look at the door. "Who is that?" She turned back to Mia. "Did you invite Troy?" She didn't wait for answer before she got up from the table.

Mia laughed bitterly. "He invites himself," she said in a hushed whisper.

Janie opened the door and Mia felt her spine go rigid as cold flooded her stomach. The woman standing in the door was tall and pale. She had long, fine, dirty blond hair and sunken, blue, eyes with dark bags etched beneath them, jagged cheekbones that would have been attractive on someone else, and a cleft in her chin. It was their mother.

Before Mia even had time to process what was happening, Clara was up from the table and in Karina's arms, squealing happily. She barely even knew her, but somehow she was still aware of the connection between them. The bond that was supposed to be there.

"Oh, my girls," Karina said, kissing Janie on the forehead as she moved past her. She hugged Clara closed to her, and kissed her all over her face. "Oh, my girls," she said again, sitting on the sagging couch in the living room. "How are you all?"

"We're good, Mom," Janie said, smiling at her. "We're all good. It's so good to –"

"What are you doing here?" Mia cut her off, scowling. She got up and started clearing the dishes off the table. "If you're here for money, we don't have any."

"Mia!" Janie gasped in angry disbelief.

Mia ignored her. She picked up one plate, two plates, three plates, waiting for an answer.

"I came because I heard you were hurt," Karina said, still hugging Clara. She reached into her bag and pulled out a cigarette.

Mia threw the plates into the sink with a loud crash. "Really?" she spun around to face her mother and the others. She could feel both of her sisters scowling at her. "Well, you're a little late – oh, but if you want to hear some good news Clara is in therapy now because you left –!"

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Mia felt something harsh and warm collide with her face. She fell backwards, dropping the fistful of silverware she'd been holding onto, and hit her head against the plaster counter tops. When she looked up, Janie was standing over her. "Don't you dare talk to her that way!" her sister spat at her.

Mia stared at her, shocked. "Are you freaking kidding me?" she said, starting to get to her feet. "After everything she's done!"

Janie slapped her again. Harder this time. Hard enough that Mia bit her tongue and could taste iron in her scowled at her silently, her breathing heavy.

Clara was silent again.

Mia looked at her older sister in hurt, angry, disbelief. She knew that things had been bad between them, but did they actually know so little about each other? Mia had thought for sure that this – the woman had abandoned Clara – was the one thing they'd be on the same page about.

Or was Janie only acting this way to spite Mia?

Mia pushed past her and grabbed her bag off the couch. Then she left slamming the door behind her. No one called after her.

Once Mia was outside, panic began to set in. Her mother was in her house. The woman who had abandoned her and her younger sister was inside her apartment, acting like she lived there. And Mia was outside with nowhere to go in the area where she'd gotten jumped less than a month ago.

"What I am gonna do?" she said to nobody in particular, pacing up and down the sidewalk. "What am I gonna do?" She asked again and again.

Then at the end of the street, a bus pulled up at the corner store. Mia stared at it. It was almost ten O'clock at night. She didn't even know the buses ran this late. Then just as it started to pull away from the curb, Mia ran as hard as she could across the street and inside the bus.

The driver scowled at her as she searched her pockets for loose change and dropped whatever she had inside the coin-slot. "Take a seat," the driver instructed her.

Mia nodded, panting slightly and turned to look for a seat. The bus was empty. She ran to the back of it and collapsed in the very last seat. The bus drew away from her neighborhood and five minutes later, passed Troy's apartment building. Mia wasn't panicking as much as anymore. No one was going to get her on the bus, but she still couldn't believe what had happened back in the apartment.

Her mom was there. Her actual, real life mom, who she hadn't seen since she was eleven years old. The one who had left her to be raised by that monster she called a husband. And she had the nerve to say she had come because she was worried about Mia!

Tears filled her eyes as she realized with a mixture of fear and desperation that she didn't have a choice. She needed Raphael right now.

Sobbing, Mia pulled out the T-phone and dialed Raphael's number silently.

Raphael answered on the second ring. "Hello?" he said. "Hello, Mia – this better not be your sister, messing around again!"

Mia pressed the phone against her ear. "Hey," she managed to choke out. "Raphael?"

"Mia," Raphael said. He sounded pleased. "It is you. What's going on?" Suddenly, he sounded angry. Deadly, even. "You aren't in trouble, are you – what's happening?"

"I-I can't go back home," Mia told him. "I left. I can't go back – please, don't make me go back there, Raphael!" She was sobbing into the phone now.

There was a moment of silence. "Where are you?" Raphael finally asked. "I can come get you."

Mia froze. She wasn't sure if she was ready to see him again. "Why would – ?"

Raphael cut her off. "That's why you called, ain't it?" he demanded, sounding somewhat annoyed. "Now, tell me where you, so I can come get you."

Mia nodded as though he could see her. "I'm on a bus."

"In the city, right?" Raph asked. "Where's it going?"

"I-I..." Mia voice faltered as she suddenly realized that she had no idea where the bus was heading. "I don't know," she admitted to him. Then she started sobbing again.

Raphael sighed. "Alright. Okay," he said. "Get off at the next stop, and wait for me there."

Half an hour later, Raphael found Mia curled up on a bench on a deserted street off of Broadway. She was using her bag as a pillow, and she wasn't wearing a coat or shoes, despite the fact it was the first of December and snowing. She didn't look up at him. Instead she just stared off at the buildings across the street, and he could tell by how bloodshot her eyes were that she'd been crying.

But her cast was off, so at least there was some good news.

"Damn it," he muttered, walking over and sitting down beside her.

She didn't look at him. She just curled further away from him.

Raphael sighed. There was going to be hell to pay if he had bring her back down to the lair. "Do you want to talk about it?" he asked her, hoping he could convince her to go back.

This time Mia looked up at him, and that was when he noticed the fat lip and the thin, trickle of blood that ran from her mouth to her chin.

"Oh, damn." Raphael resisted the urge to reach out and examine her. He comprised by moving an inch closer to see what had happened. "Damn, Mia, what happened?"

Mia shook her head. "It's nothing," she said. "My sister – "

Raph cut her off. "Your sister?" he asked in disbelief. "Clara – the little, weirdo one?"

Mia grimaced and looked almost amused. "No." She shook her head. "My older sister, Janie. She hit me 'cause I back-mouthed my mom."

Raphael stared at her in disbelief. "Wait, what?" he said after a minute or two of processing. "Isn't that sort of an overreaction – and what did your mom do to make you mad, anyway?"

At this Mia started sobbing again. She pulled her bag back into her lap, and used it to wipe the tears from her eyes. "She's a really bad mom, Raphael," she half-whispered to him.

Raphael stared at her, defeated. Without even knowing the whole story, he knew he couldn't send her back there. Not right anyway. Maybe a day or two would be okay. Maybe he could reason with Splinter, and try to make it okay. Try to explain. He'd understand.

Leo was never going to let him leave this one down, though.

Neither was Donnie.

Or Mikey.

This did answer one question, though, Raphael thought as he got to his feet silently. If Mia trusted him enough to call him for help, and to tell him what had gone down with her and her family, she definitely didn't hate him. He yanked Mia's bag from her. He flung it over his shoulder before she could respond, and held his hand out to her. "You're coming home with me," he said simply.