Alrighty chapter 23 up and ready to go! Thak you so much to Forgottenforever you rock! Everyone please enjoy!

Chapter 23

Raphael felt a weight press down on him. "Daddy. Daddy wake up." A voice said from on top of him. He opened an eye and looked into Starlight's brown ones. He frowned, looked at the clock and looked back at her.

"What are you doing up?" He asked her. It was noon, which was around the time when he liked to ooze out of bed, but he was surprised she wasn't still sleeping.

"Well technically it is still dark somewhere. I'm hungry and we're bored." She said jumping on him.

"Starlight go tell your sister to quit jumping on her father." Katherine mumbled into her pillow. "We're getting up."

"Kay." She said crawling off of him and walking out of the room closing the door behind her.

Katherine rolled out of bed. She looked at him. "What?" She asked him.

"How did you know what Starbright is doing?" He asked as he rolled over an sat on the edge of the bed.

"Because if Starlight is bugging you, then Starbright is bugging Leonardo, and knowing him, he probably spent most of the night awake." She said with a stretch as she turned to walk to the bathroom closing the door behind her.

He heard the shower start up. He stood and walked to the bathroom door. He stared at it a moment before reaching for the door handle, opening the door, and walking in. He watched her shower through the fogged glass. He wanted to join her. He wanted to open the shower door and watch as the water caressed a body that made him ache with need. But he wasn't that brave. Michelangelo had no need to worry. He would kiss her, he would do anything to her, but the thought of her actually seeing him naked frightened the hell out of him. He knew he was human-ish, but he wasn't human, and he wasn't turtle, some mix in-between, and the fear of her pulling back in horror cut him to the bone.

He backed out of the bathroom and waited until she was finished. He took his turn next and she was gone when he finished with his own shower.

He walked to the kitchen where Michelangelo was laughing. "Did Raph catch you kissing Kitten Leo?" He asked.

Raphael looked at his brothers. There was no sign of Katherine or the girls. His eyes sought out Leonardo. There was a large dark bruise on his jaw. His eyes widened in shock. "Wow. When Kitten said she let you have it Leo, I didn't think she really meant it. Shit, she really did floor you didn't she?" He asked his brother. He had thought he would still be angry with Leonardo for marking Katherine's pale perfect skin, but she was right, she could fight her own battles. Leonardo looked at him, his shame filled eyes shifting away quickly.

Leonardo rubbed his jaw. "Yeah." He said with a nod.

"Wait, Kitten did that?" Michelangelo said with shock that quickly changed to suspicion. "What did you do that she punched you Leo?" Michelangelo growled at him.

"Leave it Mikey." Raphael said to his baby brother.

"But..."Michelangelo protested.

"Trust me Mikey, Kitten was just trying to knock some sense into him. Speaking of Kitten where is she?" He asked.

Michelangelo looked at him. "She's in the library with the girls, they are making lists of things to buy at the store today since the girls have been wearing the same clothes for two days now." He told him.

"Okay." Katherine said walking into the kitchen. "You ready Michelangelo?" She asked his brother.

"Yup." Michelangelo said leaping up off his chair.

"Hey wait, Mikey's going with you?" He asked her.

"Michelangelo wants to pick up a few things. Besides, you really don't want to go shopping for children's clothes all day do you Raphael?" She asked him.

His shoulders slumped but he shook his head. No he didn't. "Look after the girls." She said as she stopped and looked at Leonardo. She leaned over and tipped his head up. She looked at his jaw. "Wow, I really clocked you didn't I?" She asked him.

Leonardo closed his eyes and tried to pull his chin out of her grasp, but she wouldn't let him. "Sorry." She whispered as she kissed the bruise gently.

"Be good." She said to all of them. Raphael glared at his brother who was rubbing his jaw.

He opened his mouth to growl at him but Starlight and Starbright came into the kitchen. "Daddy we're bored, come play." They said as they dragged him and Leonardo out of the kitchen.

Donatello was tinkering with an invention in the third bay of the garage. He was trying to create a device that would be able to detect temporal anomalies. His theory was that if he could find out where the twins had come through, he may be able to tear open a new window to allow the girls to go back home. He had no doubt that if there was another, older version of himself somewhere trying to find the girls, that he would succeed eventually, but he figured there was no harm in trying to help out.

Donatello frowned as Raphael yelled at him from the house. "Donny!"

"What?" He yelled at his older brother.

"We can't find them!" He said in a panicked voice.

"Can't find who?" He asked with abstraction as he ran a series of calculations in the computer that was in the garage.

"The girls, we were playing hide and seek and we can't find them!" Raphael said with panic.

"So, call out olly olly oxen free." He said staring at the data on the screen.

"We did." Raphael growled. "They've been gone for two hours."

Donatello froze. He stood up quickly. "The house if full of secret passages, maybe they managed to find one and get lost. Kitten dragged me through a series of them and I couldn't see a damn thing. I have no idea how she managed to navigate her way through." He followed Raphael into the kitchen. "You are sure you looked everywhere?" He asked Raphael and Leonardo who was pacing in the kitchen with worry.

"This is a big house Donny." Raphael growled.

"We checked the basement, the attic and everywhere in between." Leonardo said rubbing his jaw, eyes worried.

"Okay, well I know where one secret passage is." He said as he grabbed a flashlight from the kitchen drawer and began leading them up the stairs. He walked into Katherine's room and looked behind the bathroom door. He tried to remember what Katherine had done. He fiddled until he found the secret catch. The door opened and he looked into the blackness beyond. He turned on the flashlight illuminating the dusty, spider webbed passage. He led them through a series of passages until he hit a dead end. He frowned. He knew they hadn't walked far before they had hit a set of stairs. So where were they?

Raphael batted a piece of something stringy out of the way. Leonardo knelt down. He touched the floor in confusion. Under a layer of dust was dirt."This passage in made up of dirt." He said in confusion. "I don't mean that there is dirt over a wooden floor, I mean that it is dirt."

"Give me that." Raphael growled taking the flashlight from Donatello's grasp. He looked back the way they had come shinning the light down the passage. "Do those look like tree roots to you?" He asked.

Donatello frowned in confusion but nodded. In fact some of the support beams within the hidden passages looked as if they were made of entire trees. Donatello took the flashlight back. "There should be a set of stairs somewhere." He said ignoring the fact that there seemed to be trees behind the walls of the house. "But I didn't see any, and I know Katherine didn't open another passage to get to the set of stairs." They turned around and searched every nook and cranny of the passageway finding no other way to go but back out. They walked back to the kitchen.

"Well that was a complete waste of time!" Raphael growled. "What do we do now!" He said his voice rising in panic. "And what the hell is with the trees?"

"It looks as if whoever built the house built it literally around the surrounding forest." Donatello said with a shrug. "Are you sure you have checked in all of the closets, under all of the beds, in all of the bathtubs, behind every curtain and every piece of furniture in this house?" Donatello asked them.

"Yes Donny." Leonardo said in frustration.

Donatello puffed out an irritated breath.

Dread crawled deep into his gut and stayed there. Something wasn't right. Worry and apprehension clawed at him, but he didn't feel as though it had anything to do with the girls. It felt more as if...

"Donny?" Leonardo asked in concern.

"Well, we'll split up and look again." Donatello said as his shell cell began to ring.

"Mikey?" He asked as he answered it. He frowned. Michelangelo was panicked and his words were coming out all garbled. "Mikey calm down I can't understand a thing you are saying." He said as he put his cell on speaker phone.

"I'm fine." Katherine's voice came over the phone. "We're almost home." Katherine said as the line went dead.

The feeling of dread lessened and the knots in his gut loosened "That was strange." Donatello said as he looked at his cell and tucked it back into his pocket. They heard the garage door being opened.

They looked at each other. "Katherine is going to think we are the worst substitute fathers ever! We lost them, we lost two 5 year olds." Raphael said as he watched the door open and Katherine step in with several bags in her hands. Michelangelo followed, still wearing his hat, sunglasses and scarf wrapped tightly around his face to disguise himself from the humans. He carried in more bags.

She looked at their faces. "What's wrong?" She asked.

"The girls are missing." Donatello said to her.

"We were playing hide and seek and we can't find them and they won't come out of hiding." Leonardo told her.

Katherine frowned and began going through the bags at her feet. "They are sleeping in the dumb-waiter." She said pointing to a spot on the wall behind her.

There was a sunken panel 3 feet by 3 feet on the wall. She walked over to it pulled the moulding back, grabbed the handle that had been covered by the moulding, and slid open the door. Curled up together were the two girls, sleeping soundly and completely unaware of the panic they had caused. Raphael reached in and grabbed Starbright handing her to Leonardo, and then he pulled Starlight out. They didn't even move.

Donatello looked at the inside to the dumb-waiter. It was actually larger than the 3' by 3' foot opening suggested. Big enough to allow two 5 year olds to curl up together.

"How did you...?" Donatello began to ask her when Michelangelo burst out.

"Kitten's been shot!" He said in panic.

Katherine sighed. "It's just a scratch Michelangelo."

Donatello paled as did his brothers.

"What happened?" Leonardo asked Michelangelo as Donatello grabbed at Katherine. There was blood dripping to the ground, the red droplets standing out starkly against the white tile.

"Where?" Donatello demanded as he pushed Katherine into a chair.

"Left arm." She grumbled. Donatello looked at her left arm. There was a hole in the sleeve of the jacket she wore, and it was already soaked through with blood."There goes another jacket." She said with a grimace.

He quickly stripped the jacket off and looked at her arm. She was wearing a short sleeved shirt. There was a two inch long laceration on her arm. It was definitely deeper than a scratch, but Katherine was right not to panic, it wasn't life threatening. A few stitches and she would be fine.

Michelangelo shoved his first aid kit at him. "Kitten was getting some gas, and she went in to pay, and a couple of guys who looked suspicious walked into the gas station. I followed them in and they were holding up the place. Suddenly the one guy looks at Kitten and says 'There you are.' And he shoots at her. She leaped out of the way, and I managed to knock both of them unconscious. I didn't even know she had been shot until we were nearly home and I saw the blood leaking through her jacket."

"She's fine Mikey." Donatello said stitching up her arm.

Leonardo and Raphael frowned at each other and left the kitchen. They returned a few moments later having put the girls to bed.

Donatello was just finishing wrapping her arm up.

Leonardo knelt down and looked her in the eye. "Who is Kaethryn? Is she why these men were after you?" He asked her.

Katherine stood up angrily. "They weren't after me, they were holding up the gas station. I have no idea why the one guy turned and said that to me."

Leonardo stood up angrily and reached out to grab her arm but stopped. His hand pulled back. It was then Donatello noticed the angry bruise on her left upper arm. His eyes narrowed as he realized that Leonardo had given her the bruise by grabbing her angrily.

"Katherine, if you are in some sort of trouble, we can help you." Leonardo pleaded with her.

She looked at him seriously."Kaethryn is dead." She said as she turned grabbed some of the bags and left the kitchen.

"Are you okay Mikey?" Donatello asked in a concerned voice.

Michelangelo was still pale and looked wretched.

"If she had have been moment too slow, if the guy would have been a better shot, Katherine would be dead." He said, the fear thick in his voice.

Donatello felt horror run through him at the thought of losing Katherine. He stood up and walked to the sink. He grabbed some paper towels and wet them.

"Mikey, Katherine is fine. There is nothing you could have done." Leonardo said putting a comforting hand on Michelangelo's shoulder.

Donatello knelt down and stopped. He looked at the ground in confusion.

"What are you doing Donny?" Leonardo asked him.

"I was going to clean up Katherine's blood, but," He looked around the white tiled floor which was spotlessly clean. "I could have sworn..." He said shaking his head and standing up.

"Raphael you know who Kaethryn is, don't you?" Leonardo asked him.

Raphael looked at him seriously. He shook his head. "Kaethryn is dead Leo. Just leave it at that." He said as he left the kitchen.

Donatello frowned at his retreating brother's back.

Raphael pulled Katherine closer to him. She wrapped herself around him. The girls had slept for the rest of the day and had woken up when it had become dark. They had looked pale and tired. Katherine had told them not to try to wake up during the day. She had pointed out if they messed up the girls sleeping schedule their parents might not be too pleased.

Katherine had bought the girls clothes, shoes, jackets, toothbrushes, brushes, hair ties, hair clips, pjs, and other things he probably forgotten by now. She had also bought Christmas presents for the girls in case they were still with them for Christmas. They had cut down a tree and decorated the house and tree. The girls had asked what Christmas was and Michelangelo had nearly had a heart attack.

"What do you mean what's Christmas?

Katherine looked at the girls. "What do you celebrate" She asked them.

"Saturnalia!"Their faces lit up and then fell. "But we are missing it." They said sadly.

"What's Saturnalia?" Leonardo had asked.

"It's like Christmas but usually lasts 6 days from the 17th of December until the 23rd. It is a celebration of the god Saturn, or if you want to go Greek, Chronos." Katherine said.

The girls had nodded. "But mommy is the most important so she gets to sit at the head of the table." They said.

The girls began decorating the tree while they watched. The girls talked to each other excitedly, but at times almost seemed to be talking to someone else.

Michelangelo had walked over to Katherine and began discussing something with her. She had just laughed and shook her head. Michelangelo had then brushed aside her hair, leaned down and kissed her.

"Michelangelo, I'm okay, alright." She had said to him as she had pulled away.

Michelangelo had held onto her tightly for much of the rest of the night. He wished he could have been angry or jealous, but Michelangelo still hadn't recovered from earlier in the day, and he couldn't blame his brother for wanting to wrap her in his arms, he had wanted to do the same thing.

Katherine and he had gone to bed after Donatello and Leonardo. Michelangelo had offered to look after the girls again.

"Maybe you should tell them who Kaethryn is." He said to her softly.

She remained silent. He looked at her face and found she had already fallen asleep. He sighed his hands brushing against the bandage Donatello had wrapped around her arm. Michelangelo had been right, less than a second later and she would be gone.

He closed his eyes, an image of Katherine wrapped in Death's arms ripped through his mind along with the image of a card. On the face of the card was a man walking off a cliff, a dog barking on his heels, and the words written below: The Fool.

He tried to open his eyes but he couldn't. Nonononono. He thought as he was thrown into Katherine's nightmare.

Thoughts, opinions, guesses? =)