Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT.

5

The doctors at the ER didn't do much for my injuries. They did a CAT Scan, re-bandanged the wounds with hideous neon green bandages, and prescribed some medicine for the pain. They told me to come back if the pain in my head came back.

When I went back to school, none of the teachers questioned the reasons given for my injuries in the slightest. A doctors' note equaled immediate benefit of the doubt for Dad and Camille. I also found out that I didn't make the track team, which was fine because I didn't really want to play any sports anyway.

I spent the rest of the week running errands, replacing everything I had lost on the night of the attack. I hated it. I felt paranoid. I was constantly on edge. Always on the look out for Luke and the Purple Dragons.

Not that it mattered. Now, that I had lost my only line of contact to the turtles, I was on my own if I ever ran into him again.

An eerie quiet had fallen over the loft. There was a constant tension between Dad, Camille, and I. Like there was an argument lurking just below the surface of every conversation. So I stopped talking to them. And they stopped talking to me.

Late at night, I lay in bed, wondering what Mom had been trying to accomplish by committing suicide. What reason could she possibly have for killing herself?

Did she think I would be better off without her?

If so, she had been wrong.

It had been almost two weeks since the turtles had returned me to my home. I had finally been able to take the bandages off and lay in my bed silently, listening to the Mozart CD that was playing quietly in the background. I looked around the room silently.

It was small and cramped with yellow wallpaper and a tiny closet. There was a small desk with my laptop on it next to the window where the fire escape was and the bed was a small twin-sized bed covered in pink linen. Shelves covered with my new school books hung along the walls. There were no pictures of Mom. Sometime during my time with the turtles, Dad or Camille – probably Camille – had taken them all out of the room.

This room had been my second bedroom since I was seven. Now, it felt like a prison.

Pling!

I jumped as I heard the sound of something ricocheting off my closed window. "What the hell...?"

Pling!

I stood up as I heard the sound again. I pushed aside the swivel chair at my desk and wrenched open the window. I grabbed a penlight out of a cup on my desk and stuck my head out into the cool night air. I turned on the penlight and then I saw them: two small star-shaped metallic discs, laying on the balcony of the fire escape.

"Shuriken." I reached out and grabbed them off the balcony.

"So you are alive."

I looked up. Standing on the roof of the apartment building next to the one I lived in were Raphael and Donatello. Raphael stood with his arms crossed, glaring down at me while Donatello knelt on the edge of the roof, using his bo staff to balance him.

"Hold on a sec," I said. I climbed over the window ledge and onto the balcony. Then I reached inside my bedroom and closed the blinds, so Dad wouldn't be able to see. I closed the window and turned back to them. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Well," Donatello said, "we were going to send Mikey instead, but we were afraid Raph might kill him if we left them alone together." He jumped off the roof and landed on the opposite end of the balcony noiselessly.

Raphael flipped off the roof and landed right in front of me. "Don't you know how to use a phone – we told you to call us that night and you never did."

"Yeah," Donatello said, nodding. "We would have come sooner, too, but Leo thought it would better to wait."

I frowned. Had they been worried about me?

"I'm sorry," I said, sighing. "I wanted to call, but my dad and his girlfriend went crazy when I came home. They took the T-phone –"

"You let them take the T-phone?" Raphael said, cutting me off. "All of our information was in that thing!"

Donatello nodded urgently. "And do you have any idea how hard I worked to put that thing together before you left – it's not like we just have extra ones lying around or stashed in our knee pads. We don't just give them out to anyone, you know!"

"I didn't let them take anything," I said quickly. "My dad's insane girlfriend pic-pocketed it and the shuriken, and then she smashed the phone."

I could feel a dull pain building in the back of my head. I pulled out the bottle of prescription painkillers the doctors had given me. I dug one of the pills and swallowed it.

Raphael swore loudly and snatched the bottle from me. "What are these for?" he asked, examining the bottle.

I took the bottle back from him. "They're painkillers. I got them at the hospital."

"What were you in the hospital for?" Donatello asked me.

"My wounds reopened. It's no big deal." It almost didn't sound like a big deal when I said it that way.

"No big deal?" Raphael repeated. "Wounds don't just open up again on their own. Something must have happened – what was it?"

I shook my head. I didn't want to lie to them, but I couldn't tell them about what was happening with Dad and Camille. Even if I did tell them, it wasn't like it would change anything. The most they could was lecture me.

"Hello!" Raphael said, waving his hand in front of my face, breaking my train of thought. "Are you going to tell us what happened or aren't you?"

I tried to come up with a believable excuse on the spot. "It's nothing, Raphael. I fell out of bed and hit my head on my desk."

Donatello glared at me, crossing his arms. "Not buying it."

"Me neither," Raphael said. "It doesn't match up with the rest of your story. Why don't you tell us what's really going on?"

What, that Camille was a psychotic lunatic who couldn't make up her mind about corporal punishment, all of a sudden?

"Nothing's going on," I said, trying to sound reassuring. "You're both just being paranoid." I pulled my new phone out of my pocket. It was identical to my old one, except for the label with my name and address on it. "So you can have my new number."

I held the phone, waiting for one of them to take it. After a minute or two of uncomfortable silence, Donatello snatched the phone from me and began putting my information in his T-phone.

"Unbelievable," Raphael said, shaking his head. "We save your life and you're lying to us – and you actually think we're stupid enough to believe it."

I could hear the disappointment in his voice, but I didn't know what else to do. If Camille found out I had told someone, there was no telling what she would do and it was already pretty clear that Dad wasn't on my side. What else could I do?

"If there was something going on, I would tell you," I said.

Just not about this.

"Just tell us who it was, Dani." Donatello handed the phone back to me. "Was it the Dragons again – or the Kraang?"

I looked at him. "What – what the hell is a Kraang?"

"Okay, so it wasn't them," Donatello said, nodding. He sounded relieved.

Okay then...

"Okay, so was that it?" I said. "Because if so, I'm going to go back inside before Dad comes in and starts thinking I ran away or something." I turned and started to open the window.

But Raphael reached out and grabbed me by the arm, stopping me. "I want you to come down to the lair with us. Just for the weekend. I'll talk it over with Leo and we can probably pick you up on Friday."

I stared at him. He looked angry and disappointed, but accepting. "Why?"

When did he get so caring - when did any of them, for that matter?

"You're not safe here," Raphael said simply.

"You know, I hate to say this, but he's right," Donatello said. "Which is hard to believe because he's Raph, but New York City just seems to hate you. Plus, April would love to see you. Just think how she'll be when I tell her I thought of this!"

I ignored him. "I'll have to ask my dad," I told Raph. "He might say no."

Or he might actually believe that I was capable of making friends.

"Dani, dinner!"

I jumped as I heard Camille calling for me.

"Who was that?" Raphael asked as I turned and finished opening the window all the way.

"My dad's girlfriend," I said. "Her name is Camille."

"The one who smashed my T-phone?" Donatello said, glaring in her direction. "Awesome. She sounds nice."

"Yeah," I said as I reached inside and pulled the blinds up. I climbed back inside my bedroom over the window ledge. "Sorry about that." I turned to face them again, but they were already gone.

"Dani, didn't you hear me?"

I turned to see Camille, standing in my bedroom door. She smiled at me. "Sweetie, what are you doing, staring out the window?"

"Sweetie" had become her new pet name for me ever since I had returned home from the turtles' lair the last time.

I shrugged. "I was bored, so I was looking out the window."

Camille's smile faltered. "Oh, right. I thought I heard you talking to someone, that's all."

Why was whispering the one thing ninjas didn't know how to do?

"Oh, yeah," I said. "A friend of mine from school called and asked if I wanted to stay over this weekend. I told her I'd have to ask Dad."

And by "her" I really meant a giant mutated turtle named Raphael. Who would never find out about this conversation. Hopefully.

"Oh," Camille said, smiling again. "So you did make some friends at school?"

I nodded silently.

Camille nodded and raised her eyebrows at me. "And does this friend have a name?"

Crap - think of a name, think of a name, think of a name!

"Yeah, her name is Rachel." I used the first R name that popped into my head. "Rachel Hamato. She's in my gym class. Her family is Japanese. She studies karate."

That was believable. Right?

"Hmm," Camille said. "Alright. I guess you can go. I was going to see if you wanted to come with your father and I to pick out save-the-dates for the wedding, but it'll probably just be more fun to surprise you with the finished product." She flashed an overly sweet, toothy smile at me. "Now, come on. Dinner is ready."

That was odd. First, they send me to the emergency room, and now they wanted to spend quality time with me?

I followed Camille out to the kitchen and sat down silently.

"So how was school today?" Dad asked as Camille put some chicken on my plate.

"Fine," I said. I looked at Camille as she handed me my food. "Thanks."

Camille sat down at the table and said, "It was better than fine. Dani made a friend today. She even got invited to sleepover."

I nodded as I took a bite of my chicken."Yeah, her name is Rachel. It's okay if I go, right, Dad?"

"Yeah," Dad said, nodding. "It'll be nice."

What will be nice – not having me in the house for two days?

We finished eating in silence.

When I woke up at six-thirty the next morning to get ready for school, I had two missed calls from the turtles.

I showered and dressed quickly and left without eating.

My phone rang just as I was leaving the building. "Hello?"

"Don't you ever answer this thing?" Raphael said irritated. "We called you twice already."

I lowered my voice and glanced up and down the street as I walked."I was asleep. It's what surface-dwellers do. Anyway, I'm on my way to school, so I can't talk long."

"Hey, Dani," Leonardo said. "Nice to hear you're still alive." I could hear him smiling.

I frowned. "Am I on speaker phone?"

I heard Michelangelo, Donatello, Splinter, and April all say "hi" in response.

Leonardo laughed. "Sorry about that. We wanted to talk about this weekend – about how Raph invited you down here."

I raised my eyebrows as I walked down the busy street and turned a corner to the street where my bus stop was. A small group kids stood waiting and goofing each other. "Am I being uninvited?"

"Oh, don't worry," Michelangelo said. "I already checked. That's movie's not real – it was all made up."

"That's not what she meant, Mikey," Raphael said.

"How would you know?" Michelangelo demanded. "Just because you –"

There was a loud crash in the background followed by the sound of Michelangelo screaming as Raphael yelled profanities at him. I flinched as I heard the sound of another crash that sounded farther away from the phone. "Is everything alright?"

"Oh, yeah, it's fine," Donatello said. "Raph is just being, you know, Raph."

Actually, I didn't know. Sometimes I forgot that I still didn't know the turtles very well.

"And don't worry," Leonardo said reassuringly. "You're not being uninvited. We just wanted to know where we should pick you up tomorrow."

Was tomorrow Friday?

"Raphael!" Splinter yelled in the background. "Release your brother immediately!"

I got in line with the other kids waiting for bus, praying that none of them could hear what was happening on the other end of the line. "Right because it's not like you guys can just show up at the loft. Why don't you just meet me at my school tomorrow after classes are done?"

There was one last crash and the yelling in the background stopped, but I thought I could hear the sound of Michelangelo groaning faintly. What had Raphael done to him?

Wait. Did I really want that answered?

"That sounds good," Leonardo said. "I guess we'll meet you there."

"Hey, genius," Raphael said as Splinter yelled at him to get started on his punishment, "don't forget to find out what school she goes to."

"Abraham Lincoln High on Fiftieth," I said before any of them could ask. The bus pulled up. "I've got to go, guys. No phones allowed on the bus."

I ended the call and switched the phone to silent, climbed up the steps of the school bus silently, and sat down in the first seat I could find. Honestly, I hated riding the bus to school. It was partially because it was a constant reminder of the night I'd been attacked by the Purple Dragons and partially because it reminded me of Mom. When she had been alive and I had lived with her, I used to have to take a long bus ride from the bottom of the hill to my school. She would walk me down the hill every morning before she went to work, so we could talk to each other.

Now, I was left to walk on my own through a city I knew nothing about, constantly looking over my shoulder for people who would want to hurt me. Except for when the turtles were there.

I thought back to last night. Would Mom hate me for lying to the people who had protected me?

Or would she understand my reasoning – would they?

Would they hate me?

Raphael was already mad at me, but he didn't seem to be pressing the issue. Maybe he had figured out what I already decided for myself: If things got worse, I would tell.

Or maybe he had decided to let me suffer in my silence.

I walked down the hall to the loft silently. I had just gotten off the bus from school. Outside it was cold and rainy, but not storming, thankfully. I opened the door to the loft and froze. "What the hell...?"

The floor of the kitchen and living room was covered in millions of shards of broken glass. Camille stood in the kitchen, red-faced and panting. Her hair was a mess and she looked like she was crying. She spun around to look at me as I stood in the doorway of the loft. "Close the door now," she growled at me.

Well, at least, now I could tell she was angry.

I closed the door silently and as I turned around to face her, a large white china bowl smashed against the wall beside my head, showering me with bits of broken glass. "What was that for?" I asked angrily.

Camille stomped over to me, glass crunching beneath her feet as she walked. "You know what it was for," she told me, grabbing a fistful of my hair in her hand. "You did this – you caused it!"

Tears stung the corners of my eyes as she dragged me to the kitchen and threw me down on the hard floor, glass shattering beneath me as I fell. What was she talking about?

What had I done – I had just gotten home.

Camille knelt down in front of me, her face inches from my own and her eyes mad. "Clean it up."

I looked around for a broom silently, but there wasn't one. I got to my feet slowly to get one out of the closet, but Camille pushed me back down to the ground. I fell and felt the back of my head collide with the counter top. I bit my tongue to keep from crying out. "Use your hands, you stupid slut!" she spat at me. "You think I don't know – you think your father doesn't know?"

What was she talking about?

I stared up at her silently. "I don't –"

"Really?!" Camille said. "Really – you don't know?!" She reached up and grabbed a piece of paper off the counter top and shoved it in my face. "Just look at all the trouble you cause!"

I took the paper from her silently. It was an eviction notice. We were being evicted for noise complaints. I started to say something, but when I looked up, Camille was gone. I heard the door to Dad's bedroom slam shut.

I heard a faint buzzing sound and my eyes fell on my cellphone, which had fallen out of my pocket. I grabbed the phone and turned it off without checking to see who was calling. I shoved it in my pocket and began to pick up the glass carefully with my hands, so that I wouldn't cut myself.

I stood in front of the bathroom mirror silently. Being careful hadn't helped me much. It had kept me from cutting my hands – mostly – but I still had managed to cut myself when I had fallen on the glass. Luckily, they weren't very deep and could be easily hidden. They wouldn't need more than some peroxide and Band-Aids.

The bump on my head the size of a small rock would be harder to hide, but I wasn't too worried. If I did my hair right, I could hide it the same way I had hid the bandages. No one would notice.

Out in the living room, I could hear Dad and Camille talking about the eviction. We had thirty days to find a new place to live. And everyone – meaning them – seemed to agree that it was my fault.

I grabbed a box of Band-Aids out of the medical closet and went down the hall to my room, happy to see Dad and Camille were back to ignoring me. I sat down on the bed and stared at my phone on my desk. None of the turtles had called since that morning. A small part of me wanted to pick up the phone and beg them to come get me, so I could start the weekend early without having to worry about all the drama that was happening at home. But I couldn't.

Things would only get worse if I stormed out of the house randomly to go meet my friends somewhere. And if I called the turtles asking for something like that now, who knew what they would say, especially Donatello and Raphael. I was stuck.

I sighed as I finished putting on the last of the Band-Aids. At least, it was only until tomorrow.

I woke up early the next morning. I had zero missed calls. I showered quickly and grabbed my bag out of my room, which was already filled with two days' worth of clothes. Then I left to catch the bus and I felt like a zombie as I boarded it. My head was in a haze and I felt lost at school. I was lot to class a lot. That didn't matter, though. The fact that I was exhausted because I had spent half the night digging glass out of my skin and replacing Band-Aids didn't matter. The fact that I didn't have to go home today didn't matter. Nothing mattered. All I could think of was Mom.

How she would drive me to New York every summer, so I wouldn't have to go by plane, surrounded by strangers. How she would plant flowers in the spring, so they would be ready when I came home during the last week of August right before fall. How I had woken up in the middle of the night once when I was nine and found her in the kitchen, sobbing.

Why was she so upset then – had she always been like that?

"What's going on?"

I saw sirens blinking in the last light of the sunlight. There were people all over our yard. They our neighbors, firefighters, and paramedics.

"That poor girl."

They had realized before I did.

Why did she have to leave me alone with them?

"Dani?"

I looked up. I was standing out in front of my school. Most of the buses were gone, but there were still people everywhere. April was standing in front of me. She looked worried and a little bit afraid. "Dani, are you alright?"

"April," I said simply.

What was she doing here?

April nodded. "The turtles sent me to come get you," she said, grabbing my hand. "Come on, they're waiting for us."

The turtles?

Oh, right. Those turtles. I was going with them today.

I followed after April silently, slowly. I felt like I was moving through tar. We walked to the end of the street to a where a small, garbage-strewn vacant lot stood empty. In the very center of the lot lay a manhole cover that had been pushed aside to give way to the dark, narrow sewer shaft that led to the world below the surface.

"Come on," April said, lowering herself down into the shaft.

I followed after her and climbed down the grimy ladder silently.

"Hey, Dani," Michelangelo said as I reached the last rung on the ladder. "Long time no see."

"Yeah," Leonardo said, smiling at me. "It's good to see you again."

I stood and stared at all them silently. My mind was a blank.

"Uh, is she alright?" Raphael asked April, frowning, after a long moment of silence.

April shrugged uncertainly. "I'm not sure. When I found her, she was just staring off into space. She hasn't said more than two words to me."

Was I supposed to?

Leonardo frowned and walked over to me. "Alright, Dani," he said firmly, putting his hand on my shoulder. "You need to talk to us. Did something happen – are you alright?"

I turned my gaze to the dark green-brown water at my feet. I needed to talk to them. Did I really – couldn't I just stay like this?

"Dani!" Leonardo said, shaking me maybe a little hard than he should of. "Don't ignore me. Tell us what's going on."

They already knew, though. Why did I have to tell them again?

"Don't you want to talk to us, Dani?" Michelangelo was the one who spoke this time.

I looked up at him silently. He looked hurt. I looked back at the water. "Mom is dead."

"Oh," Leonardo said with notes of confusion and understanding in his voice. "Dani –"

"Quit hounding on her, Leo," Raphael said. "She's just upset. Come on, let's get out of here." He turned and started walking down the sewer.

Yes, that's right. I was just upset. Raph got it.

I followed him silently down the sewer tunnel, leaving the others behind.

A few hours later, I sat on the couch in the sewer lair with the others. I didn't feel better, exactly. Just more myself. More normal. The haze inside my head was finally gone. "I don't understand what happened. I just woke up this morning and felt empty."

"Your mother only died a month ago," Donatello said. "You're probably still mourning her and based on what you've told us, it was probably a really traumatic experience for you." He sighed. "It sounds like you're still in shock and your mind hasn't figured out how to cope with it yet."

I nodded silently, even though I didn't really understand. The doctors had treated me for shock at the hospital the night Mom had died. Why was I still feeling the effects now?

As if reading my mind, Splinter offered me a cup of tea from a nearby trey and said, "Time does not heal wounds. It's what you do with that time that will heal you."

So I needed a hobby?

I took the tea from him and sighed. "I guess that's the problem then – I don't know what to do with my time."

Except study, maybe, since I had nothing better to do.

I stood up and went to the kitchen where my bag and all my books from school were. I sat down at the small table and pulled my Geometry book towards me, but I couldn't concentrate. My eyes fell back on the living room. They were all watching another episode of Space Heroes, except for Michelangelo who was reading comic books in his tire swing.

"They don't get it."

I looked up to see Raphael, leaning against the counter top, playing with his sai. I raised my eyebrows at him. "And you do?"

Raphael frowned at me. Then he sighed and sat down next to me. "Look, I'm going to tell you something I've never told any of the others before. Except Spike."

I tried to force myself to smile, but I couldn't. "It's an honor and a privilege." My sarcasm in my voice was frigid and stony. It sounded more like an insult than a joke.

And that's the way Raphael saw it, too. "Hey," he said, glaring at me as he got to his feet, "if you don't want to hear it –"

He fell silent as I grabbed by him his wrist to keep him from leaving. He stared at me. "It's not that I don't want to hear it," I told him. "I just don't really think you'd understand."

Raphael sighed as he sat down again. "I'm not saying I understand," he said. "Not one-hundred percent, anyway. All I'm saying is, I've been there."

"You have?" I asked, looking up at him.

A dark look crossed his face and suddenly, it was like he was a completely different person. He was lost, aching, and vulnerable – not some sarcastic asshole who liked to hear himself talk. "We were on a mission. I was in charge, and Mikey got hurt. Bad. I thought..." His voice trailed off and he looked up at me. "I can't even begin to describe how I felt. It was the worst feeling I've ever felt before in my life."

"I'm really sorry you went through that," I said. "You must be so happy that your brother is still alive."

Raphael nodded. "Yeah, I am," he said, "but I have never forgotten that feeling and it's more than just shock and whatever other fancy medical terminology Donnie wants to use, so he can feel smart. It's anger and hurt and pain and it – it makes you sick inside that you let that happen to someone you care you about!" He was on his feet now and he looked angry again. Like he wanted to hurt someone. He punched the wall hard and I could have sworn he left a dent in it, but I wasn't sure.

All I knew at that moment was that he was right: He got it. His situation was completely different from mine – his brother was alive, breathing and my mother was dead and buried in a land plot in Connecticut. And, yet, somehow he felt the same as me, even if it was a million times less so for him. He still got it.

For a second, I thought about hugging him, but before I even had time to think about it, Raphael was walking away from me. "I'm sorry," he said. "I can't talk about this anymore. I need to go to bed."

"Yeah, okay," I said as I watched him walk away. "Good night."

He said nothing in response.

The next morning, I woke up to the sound of my cell phone ringing. I heard the sounds of Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, Raphael, and April all groaning in their sleep as the shrill sound cut through the air. They all had decided to camp out in the living room with me the night before.

"Answer it, Dani," Leonardo said, still half-asleep.

"Okay, okay," I said as I rolled off the couch and landed on the cool concrete floor. "Ow."

Now, I was awake.

I grabbed my cellphone off the floor as the name "Dad" flashed across the screen. "Hello – Dad?"

"Actually, it's me." I recognized Camille's horrible sweet voice immediately.

"Oh, hi." I wiped some sleep out of my eyes.

"Sweetie," Camille said, "where are you?"

In an underground sewer lair with four mutant turtles, a talking rat, and a human girl.

The others were starting to get up now and they all looked at me with varying expressions confused interest. The only who was still asleep was Raphael. He slept like a rock.

I looked away from them. "I'm at my friend's house, remember?" I said. "For the sleepover?"

"Right," Camille said. I could hear her smiling. "Well, I just wanted to let you know that, thanks to you, your father and I had to reschedule our appointments to look at save-the-dates. We have to wait until next weekend now."

Thanks to me – what I had done?

I frowned. "I'm sorry. How come?"

Camille laughed. "Because, sweetie, we have to go apartment hunting because we're being evicted, remember?"

No, not really, honestly. I had completely forgotten about that. "Oh," I said uncertain of what else to say. "I'm sorry?"

Camille's voice sounded sweeter than ever now. "You had better be, you snarky little slut. Just wait until you come home – you are dead." She hung up on me.

I clicked the phone off and turned to look at the others, whose expressions ranged from concerned to slightly frightened. "You guys heard every word of that, didn't you?" I asked them.

"Pretty much," Leonardo said.

Michelangelo smiled a strained smile at me. "She seemed nice."

"Right," I said, getting to my feet. "Well, since I woke everyone up, I'll go make breakfast." I started walking to the kitchen.

"Hold on," Donatello said as he and the others followed after me. "First, she smashes my T-phone and now, she's threatening you and calling you names."

I pulled open the fridge. There weren't really a whole lot of options, except for some eggs and leftover pizza. I grabbed the eggs. "She didn't threaten me," I said, setting the eggs on the counter. "And, yeah, we fight a lot, so sometimes names get thrown around."

"She said and I quote, 'You are dead,'" April said, making air-quotes with her fingers. "That sounded like a threat to me."

"Me too," Leonardo said as Donnie and Mikey nodded in the background. "And I've been threatened a lot."

I searched the cupboards until I found a frying pan and spatula. I set them on the pan on the stove and began cracking eggs open a little harder than I should have. "She just meant that I'm going to be grounded," I said as egg splattered on the counter. "That's how parents tell their kids they're grounded."

"Yeah," Donatello said, "in horror movies."

I glared at him over my shoulder.

"Besides," Michelangelo said, "I thought your mom was dead."

"She is," I said. I could hear myself getting angry. "Camille is my dad's girlfriend, but they just got engaged, so she does have some control over me."

"You never told us they were engaged," Leonardo said, sitting down at the table.

That's because I've been trying not to think about it.

It was true. Aside from today, I had tried to avoid thinking about the fact that Dad and Camille were engaged and their horrendous engagement party as much as possible.

"Yeah," Donatello said, nodding. "When Raph and I were over there the other night, you didn't mention it then, either."

I spun around to face them. "Mention what?" I spat at them. "How my mom just died and my dad chose just now to get to engaged because my feelings aren't important to him and he obviously didn't respect my mother enough to even think about waiting a reasonable amount of time, and I can't point out any of this because him and his girlfriend are both completely psychotic?!"

The four of them sat, staring at me in shock. I stood in front of them, staring and breathing heavily, shaking with anger. I had told them too much. Would they figure it out?

Had they already?

I set the eggs down silently and grabbed my bag off the floor. "I'm going to take a shower," I said as I walked out of the kitchen.

After I spent half an hour taking a shower and another half an hour replacing the Band-Aids that had been washed off by the water, I went out to the living room. No one was there, but I could hear sounds coming from the training room. I wandered over to it silently. Everyone was inside, sparring, including Raphael who had woken up sometime during my shower. April was with Mikey, Donnie was with Leo, and Raphael was on his own with the attack dummy.

What really caught my attention, though, was that a second set of sliding doors that I had originally thought was a wall had been opened to reveal a room I never knew existed before. I wondered what was in there.

"Dani!"

I looked up to see Leonardo walking over to me.

So much for training, huh?

"Are you okay?" Leonardo said, sheathing his swords. He nodded at the room I had been staring at. "That's Splinter's room."

Oh, well, that explained a lot.

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm sorry about earlier. I didn't mean to –"

"Don't even worry about it," Leonardo said, silencing me. "It's kind of our fault. We shouldn't have pried, especially me. I'm the leader. I should known better. I'm sorry."

Just then there was a scream and Donatello landed at our feet, groaning.

I couldn't help laughing. "What happened to you?" I asked him.

"Ask Raph," Donatello said, getting to his feet. He turned to Leo. "I asked you not to make me fight him."

"You shouldn't have made him mad," Leonardo told him, laughing.

Good advice. Probably useless, but good, nonetheless.

"Oh, right," Donatello said, nodding. "Uh-huh. I see how it is – he's allowed to make fun of me and say whatever he wants about me, but if I say even one word about – " He fell silent as a sai flew threw the air and collided with the sliding door right behind him where it hung there, stuck as it pierced the thin paper the door was made of.

Would there ever be a day when I could come to this place and not be afraid for my life?

"Pretty much, yeah," Leonardo said as we all stared at the sai.

"Anything else you'd like to talk about, Donnie?" Raphael said as he walked past us and pulled the sai out of the door.

"Nope," Donatello said, smiling uneasily at him. "Nope, I'm all good."

"Glad to hear it," Raphael said, walking back over to the attack. He smiled at me. "Morning, Dani."

He was actually being nice. Sort of.

I wondered vaguely if it had anything to do with last night.

I waved back at him uncertainly. "Good morning."

He went back to beating up the attack dummy.

"So," I said, turning back to Donnie and Leo. "It's like I said, I'm really sorry about earlier. I didn't mean to blow up like that."

Donatello scoffed playfully. "It's cool. Don't worry about it – what your dad is doing is pretty disrespectful. I'd be upset, too."

"Anyone would be," Leonardo said, nodding.

Anyone with a heart, anyway, which didn't include Dad.

I nodded and started to walk away from them, facing backwards. "I should let you guys get back to your training, and I need to finish my homework."

"No problem," Leonardo said. "Just let us know if you need anything."

I sighed as I turned and continued on my way back to the kitchen where my bag was. What I really needed was for people to stop bringing Dad and Camille. The last thing I wanted to think about right now was their wedding and how Camille would take it out on me if even one little thing went wrong. I couldn't wait to see what she had planned for me when I got home – more broken glass, perhaps?

Maybe she would smash the new china Dad had just bought for her.

I ended up dragging my homework with me back to the training room just so I wouldn't have to be alone. The noise everyone made while sparring and practicing actually helped to keep me calm rather than distract me, and I ended up finishing my homework sooner than I had expected. And I didn't even need to ask Donatello for help.

I put my algebra book back inside my bag and fished around inside until I found a pair of earbuds I hadn't used in weeks. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and plugged the earbuds into the phone and accessed my music app. I bobbed my head in time to the music as I watched the others continue their training and pretended I was watching a ninjutsu/mutant-themed music video. It almost made what they were doing interesting.

The music video thing worked for a few minutes until the app decided it was time to play some Taylor Swift songs and, well, it was just weird watching Mikey and Leo fight each other to the tune of "Love Story". I decided to play a game on my phone instead. Maybe ping-pong or something. I found the game and started playing it, but as soon as I did, a small metal object landed on the ground beside me.

It was a shuriken.

I picked it up silently and looked up to see Raphael, walking over to me. "You know, if you have to be in here while we're training," he said, snatching the shuriken from me, "the least you could do is watch, especially if you aren't doing anything important."

Well, it was nice to see that his good mood had finally worn off. That meant he was back to normal.

The others paused in their training.

"Yeah, I got to say," Michelangelo said, "I'm a little hurt, Dani – humans usually love to watch us train and you just sit there, looking bored and playing video games."

Donatello frowned, nodding. "It is a little rude, Dani."

I smiled at them. "I'm sorry," I said. "I'm not trying to be rude. I'm just not all that into sports."

Mostly because I sucked at them, but let's not get into that.

"Ninjutsu is more than just a sport, Dani," Leonardo said, frowning. "It's an ancient Japanese art –"

"Practiced for hundreds of years and revered for it's techniques," I said, nodding. "I know. We went over that last time and you guys are amazing at it. I'm just not really interested in it."

"Well, have you ever tried it?" April asked me, fanning herself with her tessan.

I looked at her and shrugged. "I took tai chi when I lived with my mom. That's sort of a martial art, right?"

Michelangelo face-palmed as the others exchanged unreadable glances.

"Look," Raphael said, "if you took tai chi, then you already know martial arts."

"I do?" I asked him.

"Yes," Raphael growled at me. "You just don't know how to use it defensively. That means that if you ever decided to take up something, like, karate or whatever it would be easier for you to pick up because you already know a form of martial arts."

Somehow, I doubted that.

I nodded. "Right except I don't plan on taking up anything like karate."

"Wait a second," Leonardo said, looking at me with raised eyebrows. "You're telling me that there's about an eighty-percent chance that you've got that Luke guy from the Purple Dragons after you, his cronies, and potentially all of our enemies after you and you haven't even considered learning about how to defend yourself?"

He had a good point.

"Well," I said, "I've been kind of preoccupied. I mean –"

"Just come here!" Raphael said, grabbing me by the wrist and pulling me to my feet.

He dragged me into the center of the training room and all the others moved off the platform quickly. Splinter came out of his room and stood in the doorway of it. He looked interested, amused, and a little bit irritated.

Raphael thrust the shuriken he had thrown at me before into my hand. "Throw this at that." He grabbed me by the shoulders and spun me around, so that I was facing the attack dummy. "Aim for the head."

I looked from him to the dummy and back again. I could feel everyone staring at me. "I'm not sure I want to do this," I said, and every trace of amusement from earlier was gone from my voice. I sounded scared now.

Raphael's expression softened, but only slightly. "We're not going to be there to protect you all the time," he told me. "You've got to know how to do something."

I frowned. "But if Camille finds –"

"She won't find out," Raphael assured me. "Now, just throw it."

He was kind of cute when he was pushy. Whoa! Wait a minute – did I just think that? About Raph – a turtle?!

I tried to ignore the argument I was having with myself inside my head. I held the shuriken in my hand the way I imagined I would hold a gun.

Raphael shook his head. "Nope," he said. "Like this." He grabbed my hand and situated my fingers, so that I was holding the shuriken between my thumb and forefinger. "Now, aim for the head, snap back with your elbow, and throw." He retreated backwards a few feet.

I tried my best to do as he said. I aimed for the head, snapped back with my elbow, and released the shuriken, but I missed. Instead of it hitting the head like it was supposed to, the shuriken flew through the air and hit the dummy in the chest. But in the background, I could hear the others cheering for me and congratulating me. I didn't understand why, though.

I hadn't done it right. That meant I had failed, didn't it?

"You did great, Dani," Raphael said, clapping me on the back.

"Yes, Daniella," Splinter said, walking over to me. "You have done quite well for someone with so little knowledge of ninjutsu."

I looked at them both with raised eyebrows. "I did?" I asked them.

"Hai," Splinter said, smiling. "The fact that you were even able to hit the dummy was an accomplishment for you. If you wish to continue training, I would be more than willing to take you on as a pupil and I'm sure Raphael would have no qualms about assisting you in your training." He smiled at Raph.

"None of us would," Leonardo said, laughing. "Raph is right. You did a great job for a beginner."

"Yeah, you were awesome," Michelangelo agreed.

"And," Donatello said, "if you were to train under Master Splinter, then we would have two kunoichi on our team. I mean, of course, April would be your senior since she's obviously way better and more experienced than you, but still, you could be real asset to our team." He flashed a smile at April.

A real asset to their team? Was he serious – I had hit a motionless dummy with one shuriken. I had good hand-eye-coordination. No big deal. Why was everyone so excited?

"Thanks, you guys," I said, forcing myself to smile.

As much as I knew they were right and that I had to learn to defend myself, I wasn't sure if this was something I wanted to do. I mean, what would happen when they all realized I didn't need them to look out for me anymore?

Would they go away forever – did I want them to?

I felt my smile falter. I felt so confused. There was so much happening with my life lately and now there was this. I didn't know what to do.

A/N: Sorry it took me so long to get this chapter up. It was just really hard for me to write because there's so much happening in it. I hope you enjoyed it :)