Chapter Two

Raph was holding April's body. The blood was becoming thicker and thicker. She was gasping for air and there was nothing he could do to save her.

The tears made their way to the surface when he spoke, "I love you, April. Please, hold on. I'll get you help." He whimpered.

April couldn't speak. She placed her hand on his cheek because it was all the comfort she could offer and her eyes closed. The sobs were uncontrollable and Raph laid his head on her chest and cried as loudly as he could, as hard as he could for it to stop hurting. Then he felt something holding him. Raph jerked his head up to April smiling at him. She was laying in his arms perfectly fine and very much alive. The blood was gone. It was like she had never been touched.

"I love you, Raphael." She whispered.

Raph's eyes jerked open. He was in his bed in the lair. It had been the first time he had had that nightmare that didn't end with April dying. Something about that made him feel rejuvenated, like everything could be alright again. He would get April back. He reached under his bed and pulled out the half empty bottle of tequila. He got up and walked to the bathroom and poured it out and tossed the bottle in the trash. He knew if he was going to hold on to April and find her, he had to get himself together again. He looked in the mirror and he didn't even recognize himself and it was scary for him to think this is what April saw. The smell of breakfast made its way down the hall and Raph went and sat down with his brothers for the first time in a year and a half. They all stared at Raph waiting for an explanation.

He met their stares and looked at them like they were the crazy ones, "What?! I'm hungry. Mikey, can you pass me some bacon, please?"

Mikey kept his stare on Raph and handed him the bacon, "Sure."

Raph nodded at him and took the plate, "Donnie, after we get done training can you hack into the cities facial recognition software and see if April's been caught on any of the cameras around New York."

"Watching a lot of CSI, are we?" Mikey snorted.

Donnie rolled his eyes at Mikey, "Actually, yeah. It may take a little time, but sure."

"It's good to see you back at the table." Leo whispered.

"It's good to be back." Raph smirked.

After breakfast and training, Donnie immediately went to work on hacking into facial recognition to see if he could create a visual map of April. Mikey, Leo, and Raph all went out on patrol and split up as Donnie called with a previous sighting. Donnie went back to when April was taken and worked his way up. About eight months after she was taken, Donnie had a hit. Out at the docks in Brooklyn, where the turtles had had many run in's with the Foot before. Donnie rewound the scene and watched it from the beginning. It was late and rainy a van pulled up after hours to the gate and tossed an almost lifeless April out onto the ground and left her for dead. She was barely even wrapped in a dirty prison blanket and covered in blood and gashes.

Donnie had to take a deep breath to keep his emotions calm as he watched her lay there. He fast forwarded to see what happened to her and the video cut out to nothing. Then when it came back on, April was gone and there was no sign as to who found her, "What the-" Donnie went back over it again and again, but it was simply gone.

He picked up his phone dialed Leo, "What's up, Donnie? Find anything?"

"I think you guys need to come look at this before we go any further." Donnie suggested firmly.

"Can it wait?" Leo asked.

"Now, guys." Donnie confirmed and hung up the phone.

The three turtle filed back into the lair and to Donnie's lab area.

"Alright, what's the deal?" Raph questioned.

Donnie sat his brothers down, "Before I show you this, you have to keep in mind, this was been done and over for months, so please keep your tempers calm. Agreed?"

The brother nodded hesitantly at Donnie and he began the video back at the van. They watched her get tossed away like garbage when they were done with. Mikey couldn't take it. He turned away. Raph gritted his teeth as he watched her lay there unmoving and alone.

"It's amazing it could even recognize her face." Leo whispered in disgust.

Donnie fast forwarded the video to where it went blank and loses April's trail.

"What happened? Where is April?" Raph jumped up in confusion.

"That's why I brought you guys back. For some reason the footage is gone." Donnie answered.

"Meaning?" Leo pushed.

"Meaning whoever found April is covering up that they found her. I don't know who has her, but they have pull. Enough pull to make her disappear." He explained further.

"Disappear from us." Raph stated sullenly.

"It makes sense why this was never reported. If the papers had gotten a hold of this, everyone would have known about the half dead news reporter at the docks." Leo said matter of factly.

"I'm just making the point that April said she was protecting us. She wouldn't have said that for no reason. What if us uncovering her could reveal us to the world?" Donnie looked at his brothers and realized one was missing, "Where's Raph?"

Leo and Mikey looked around, "Shit. He's probably heading to Brooklyn."

"We need to catch up with him." Donnie said hurriedly.

Raph lurked around the outskirts making sure there was nobody left to see him before he did some investigating. He didn't know what he was looking for, but he had nowhere else to start. He tried not to imagine her laying there on the ground, left for dead. He climbed over the gate and started snooping around and her scent was so strong.

"What are you doing?"

Raph snapped around and there she was. She had her hair pulled back on one side and she was wearing a fitted black jumpsuit, like she was ready for combat. What the hell have these people done to her? , "Tryin' to find you."

"Raph, you have to stop this. I don't want you to get hurt. I'm alive and you know that now. You have to stop looking for me." She said harshly.

"Why would I ever stop looking for you, April? I have been looking for you every day and night since you were taken." He told her.

"I know you have and now you have to stop." She replied and turned to leave him.

"You know I have?" His voice sounded so hurt that she had to turn and face him, "What all do you know, April? I suddenly have a feelin' you've been very close for a while now."

She looked down and back up at him. He thought she was trying to hold back the tears, "I've been keeping an eye out for you, yeah."

His hurt was turning into anger and confusion, "Why'd you not come to me?"

"I can't do this with you now."

He grabbed her arm, "No, you're gonna give me some answers! I have been killing myself to find you and you've been what? Right around the corner of every step I made. I have been devastated and lost for so long and you can't do this with me!"

"I don't want them to hurt you guys." She whispered.

"Who? What have they done to you?" He questioned.

"They saved me. I would have died."

"They changed you. You're not my April. My April would have come to me and told me everything and made sure I knew she alive and loved me."

"What do you want me to do!?You're April would have gotten us killed! I can't change the way things happened. I can't go back to that night and make it different." She argued trying not to let the tears show in her eyes.

Raph shook his head in disappointment, "This is so not the reunion I had in mind when I finally saw you again, but I guess it's good to know that there's nothing to hold on to anymore. You're gone and we're not us anymore. You don't love me, fine. I'm so happy that you are alive. I'm just sorry we aren't Raph and April anymore." He turned to leave.

"You think that's what this means? That I stopped loving you?" She laughed to keep from crying, "You have no idea what the Foot did to me. You have no idea how much I love you. You have no I idea what I endured to keep them from finding all of you and now you're going to fuck it up because you're so selfish you can't see passed our relationship. If you reveal yourself to them now, me staying away for all this time will be for nothing. I didn't come home because I couldn't! You think I wanted to stay away. You think every part of me didn't want to run to you all these nights I've been following you. If you think anything else of me, you can fuck off. I was beaten, tortured, starved …" April stopped herself before she could say the last thing to him, "And anything else you could imagine, they did it to me because they wanted you guys. Then when they realized they weren't going to get anything out of me, they left me out here to die. Guess they didn't think I make it through the night, but I did. And the thought of you is the only thing that kept me going. So, go on, Raph, have your little pity party because I know what you've been through. I've been watching you. I know you haven't been sleeping and I know you've developed a little alcohol problem and I am so sorry you had to go all this time without knowing if I was dead or alive. I truly am, but what you went through doesn't compare to what I went through. So, how dare you talk to me like I didn't do right by you. I have done nothing, but watch out for you!"

Raph wanted to kill himself right there. He couldn't believe he even let his mouth say what he said to her. He didn't deserve her then and he doesn't deserve her now. All she needed was him and he fucked it up and whined about their relationship. He felt light headed suddenly and his knees hit the ground. The tears fell freely now, he didn't care and he wasn't ashamed for April to see it now, "Please, forgive me, April. I didn't save you. I'm always supposed to save you and I let them get away with you and here you are still saving me from everything including myself. I've had it in my head for so long that if we were just together again, that we could somehow forget everything and move forward like nothin' happened. But I know we can't and I'm sorry I just said all that stuff to you. I just don't have the strength to be without you anymore. I can't take it."

April kneeled down in front of Raph with tears in her eyes. She placed her hands on either side of his face and he could see his April in there. Before he knew what was happening, April pulled his mouth down to hers. She kissed him with more feeling than ever before. Raph wrapped his arms around her and she deepened their kiss before pulling back to look at him, "I'm still completely, one hundred percent yours. You never lost me. I'm so in love you."

Raph smiled shyly, "I'm so in love with you, babe."

"You have to have faith in me. You can't get caught up in this. You'll see me again soon, I promise." She kissed him again.

"Ahem."

Raph jerked his head around and saw his three brothers standing there.

"Angelcakes?" Mikey wondered as he watched her run and climb up a shipping container.

Raph watched her as she moved like she wasn't even human anymore. She turned to give him one last look before she had to go, "Soon." She whispered to him and gave the others an apologetic look and took off into the night. She knew it was stupid enough to stay with Raph as long as she did.

"That was April?" Leo questioned in shock.

"I told you. She's different now. They've done something to her." Raph said exasperated and he began walking away with his brothers.