Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT.

09

That night Mia sat silently down in the pit, listening to Raphael and Leonardo argue with Splinter about the messages on her phone. They were already watching out for her, Splinter said. That would have to do. She didn't understand why Troy had sent those messages to her. Deep down, she had begun to suspect there was something bad about him. Something worse than weed cigarettes and underage drinking after school. But those messages – he had meant to scare her with them. Maybe he thought that if he scared her enough, she'd come running come back to him, begging for his forgiveness and approval. As if. The thing that actually bothered Mia, though, was whether or not he'd try to hurt her when she didn't come running back. What would happen if he did – what would Janie do? Would she care? Would she let him come back to hurt Mia again? Mia didn't say any of this out loud, though. Especially not to Raphael. He seemed so angry and upset that she'd tried to blow it off before. She didn't want to make things worse.

So Mia nodded and tried to smile at Mikey's jokes. She didn't speak during the B-grade late night horror movie that Donnie and April agreed to watch with him. She wanted to stay out of the way and be a good guest, which was hard to do since everyone seemed worried about her. Good guests didn't make their hosts worry. Then after only a few seconds of convincing, she dragged herself off to Raphael's room. She wanted to barricade the door with her text books, but she knew that the Turtles would definitely notice that. Instead, she climbed into Raph's lumpy bed, wielding her heaviest textbook as a weapon.

It was a little past one AM when Mia finally went to bed. Raphael had talked her into sleeping in his room that night. Hopefully, she'd actually stay in there this time. Then, as soon as she was gone from the pit, he jumped to his feet.

"Where you going, bro?" Michelangelo asked him, looking up from The Creature of the Black Pond 5: The Creature of the Space Pond as he started to walk away from them.

Raphael looked at him over his shoulder, and took his sai from his belt. "Where do you think?"

"Just try not to destroy too much of the equipment," Leonardo told him, staring at the screen.

Donatello nodded. "Yeah, I'd appreciate that, too," he said. "I just got done rebuilding the attack dummy."

Raph scowled at them. "You rather I take it out on you?" He couldn't stop the words from coming out. He'd been in a bad mood all night and they were really starting to push his buttons.

Leo was on his feet and standing in front of him in less than a minute. "Is that a threat?" he demanded, scowling.

"You guys," April said, getting to her feet. "Just knock it off." She turned to Raphael. "We get that you're worried about Mia because she's your friend and I hate to say this, but I think you're overreacting. I know the guy that's been messaging her, and he's bad news, but he's never done anything like this before. He's just bluffing, okay?"

Raphael scowled at her. "You know, April," he spat at her. "The next time I wanna be shrinked, I think I'll just make an appointment." He turned and walked away over to the training arena near Master Splinter's room.

As if that was all that was wrong – that jerk was an easy fix. No matter what Leo said, those freaking text messages weren't anything a good beat down couldn't fix. The real problem was something Raph didn't think anyone could fix. Not even himself.

He didn't deserve this.

Raph sank his fist deep into the punching bag.

He didn't deserve to think about her like that.

He round-house kicked the bag and sent it flying. Then it came back around to him and he punched it hard once, twice – three times. He could hear the old patched up bag and the anchor it hung from groaning.

He didn't deserve to look at her that way.

He high-kicked the bag, his breathing heavier now. His lungs were close to bursting and his face was already bright red cause he was overexerting himself. And because of her.

Why did he have to realize it?

He punched the bag in quick succession – one, two, three, four. Then again. One. Two. Three. Four.

Why did this have to happen to him – with her? She didn't deserve this.

Again, he landed a round-house kick, this time right in the middle of the bag and the seam burst. Sand came pouring out of it onto the floor. Then he moved on to the attack dummy.

He didn't deserve her or anyone, but especially not her. She'd had enough hell in her life. She deserved to be happy. And that was something, Raphael knew, that he could never make her.

When Mia woke up the next morning, the first thing she did was pack her textbooks. She was about ten minutes into it when Raphael appeared in the doorway. He stood silently, watching her for a few more minutes. Then when she was done, she looked up at him.

"You ready?" he asked her simply.

Mia nodded silently.

"Alright," Raphael said. "Let's go." He led her out of his room and down the hall. "The others are coming with us. Are you cool with that?" he asked, looking down at her.

Mia tried to smile. "Yeah," she said. "Of course."

Raphael paused and turned to look at her. "If you don't want to go home," he said, staring down at her shoes. "You don't have to. I'm not gonna force you to go."

"That's not an option, Raphael," Mia said, shaking her head. "Clara needs me." She pushed past him, and continued on her way down to the pit.

Raph watched her go silently.

Over an hour later, the six of them – Raph, Donnie, Mikey, Leo, April, and Mia – stood beneath the open manhole cover that would take her up to the alley that would lead her back to her street. Mia shifted her bag from shoulder to the other and looked up at the others silently. Her eyes traveled over each of them before they landed on Raphael, who looked away from her quickly. "Thanks," she said, looking back at the others. "For letting me hang with you this weekend."

"Don't worry about it," Leo said, reaching out and putting his hand on her shoulder. "You're welcome to come back." He smiled at her.

"Yeah," Mikey added. "Just be sure to bring pizza next time you decide to drop by."

"Deal," Mia told him, laughing.

"Alright, alright," Raphael said, pushing past the others and starting back down the sewer. "Can we get out of here already? It's not like we're never gonna see her again. Jeez."

Mia looked from Raph to the others and back again. "Just a sec," she promised. Then she took off the down sewer after him. "Raphael – hey, wait up!"

Raphael turned to face her. "Yeah, what?" Then before he could process what was really happening, Mia's arms were around his neck and she was hugging him tightly. He hugged her back awkwardly, avoiding the looks from the others.

"Look, just thank you, okay?" Mia said, pulling away from him. "That's all. Just thank you for being such a good friend and for worrying about me and for inviting me to come stay with you. I wish there were more people like you in the world." She hugged him again, quickly this time. Then she started to walk away from. "Text him once you're back to the lair!" she called back to him.

People? Raphael though, smirking despite himself. Did he count as a person? "Yeah, yeah," he called back to Mia. "See you later!"

A/N: This chapter is shorter than the others, but I hope you guys enjoyed it. Sorry about the emotional, goodbye scene, but I felt like their first goodbye should be a special one. I have a lot in store for the next chapter, so, hopefully, you guys are looking forward to it. R&R!
Thank you, you guys!
-Mj