Chapter 18

NOTES AND STUFF: First, I do not own anything associated with the TMNT Universe. All of my OC's are of my own creation.

This chapter will be about April's time at the McDougal estate. The next chapter we will set up a major story line centering on Ghost Labs, then everyone will have a bit of a respite before the shit hits the fan for our girls, the turtles, Splinter and April. This is where Casey Jones will be introduced in a most… shall we say interesting way!

Where Do We Go From Here?

April's Journal – day 20

I've been kept at the McDougal estate, not allowed to go anywhere and someone is always watching me. After Rose beat the hell out of me, I was bandaged up and brought to a room to rest. After several days of touch and go, my wounds began to heal. I was also instructed to call my work to take some time off; for personal reasons. Rose and I have had many, many talks, some pleasant, some not so much; however, one thing I have learned from this is, as a reporter, getting a good story is not always a good thing. Respecting a person's privacy; well, that is something that I had to learn the hard way, however, I see the full picture now, I understand why people just want to live their lives in peace and not be hounded.

I have met the turtles and Splinter; and, I have to say that at first, I was scared out of my mind; they are quite intimidating, to say the least! However Michelangelo has won me over with his character and wit; always making me laugh, even when I wanted to still write my story about them! He was the reason why I am not going to write that story; watching him relate with the others; cheering them up when they were down, making sure everyone had enough pizza to eat and so on. He also explained that, if I were to write that story, that people would come and take them away; most likely to do experiments on them. In my mind I saw that; could hear Mikey begging them to not cut him open; that he just wanted to live in peace. With tears in my eyes I promised him I would NEVER betray them to anyone, and he accepted that.

After, things started going a bit better for me, although Rose was not completely trustful of me, she gave me a little leeway and let me have a journal to write in.

Journal – day 27

It's been a while since I last wrote in here; why? Well, things have been… hellish around here. It seems as though the cameras that were planted her the night I came snooping around were from Ghost Labs. This week, there have been two attempted break-ins to plant more cameras; however the men were caught and dealt with by Rose and the turtles. Then yesterday there were at least a dozen men in the woods by the Northern side of the estate; and they had guns. Some of them had tranquilizer guns, others had long range rifles, and the rest of them had whatever types of guns, I'm not an expert on them, sorry. There was a LOT of shooting, some close quarter fighting' however, in the end the shooters were all dead.

It seems as though Ghost Labs has found out about the turtles and Splinter, and they not only want them, they want Rose as well. It also seems as though we have a spy in the house who has been feeding Ghost Labs info about Rose and the setup of the house. Rose was NOT happy to learn that is was Isleen who did this, and a big fight broke out. Donnie stepped in between the two women to stop it. He cares for them both, although Isleen hurt him with her betrayal, he still loved her. It wasn't until afterwards that they found out that Ghost Labs was holding Isleen's parents at one of their other facilities down in Virginia that Rose eased up on her. She told Isleen that she should have come and talked to Rose about it; and they could have rescued her parents. It was too late for that now; Ghost Labs had figured out by now that they could no longer count on Isleen, so they murdered her parents. Will write more later as they are all gathered now, starting to talk about what to do.

Journal – day 29

Everyone has been busy these last two days getting things ready. It seems as though they are getting ready for the 'big guns' to rain down on them; Ghost Labs really wants those six, and are going all out to get them any way they can!

I've even been put to work doing things around here, from filling sandbags, to prepping food for long term use. This is VERY serious, however I have decided to stay here and help, even though Rose said I should go back home. Now I understand how this family works. Yes, I said family because that is what they are. They all love and care for one another, and they will do what is necessary to survive. Rose and Raphael impress me the most; they have overcome boundaries that most would find disgusting, they do not care about people's opinion, save what their family thinks. They love one another fully and they complete each other as well. I've seen them dance while no music is playing, and when they look in each other's eyes; the emotion they show just brings me to tears. Someday, I want a love like theirs.

Journal – day 30

Well, everyone has done what they could here. All the animals were brought in from the fields to a safe place underground, the crops; well, there wasn't much we could do about it except pick everything that was ripe or close to it. We have enough provisions to last quite some time, don't have to worry about electricity because everything is solar powered. House, barn and outer buildings are secure, and Rose assured everyone that there was enough ammo and other weapons to last us through a war. Now we wait to see what move Ghost Labs will make.

While we wait, life still goes on. Matter of fact, tonight, Mikey is making is famous bacon and chocolate pizza. It's not that bad, really! Afterwards, everyone is just going to sit around and tell stories, and I am sure that Michelangelo will tell some… interesting, stories as well! Looking forward to it!

*After dinner, in the living room*

"Hey, remember Mikey's first attempt at making pizza?" Raphael was in a good mood tonight, and, as always, he HAD to being teasing his youngest brother. "Man, what was on that thing? Let's see if I can remember it all; pepperoni, mushrooms, sausage, anchovies, onions, green peppers…"

Leonardo picked it up from there. "Bacon, ground beef…"

"But it sounds all normal to me," Rose injected, her face looking a bit confused. "I mean, it's a lot of toppings, however, I don't see anything wrong with it."

It was Donnie's turn next. "That's because the list isn't finished yet! He put in marshmallows, M&M's, peanut butter and jelly; and to top it all off, hot sauce!"

"Hey, that was one excellent pizza!" Michelangelo came back with, trying to defend his choices. "It tasted good to me!"

"Oh my god Mikey, that's way too many toppings for a pizza, it must have weighed 5 pounds!" Rose was wrinkling her nose, and then looking at the other turtles, she asked, "Did you guys eat it?"

"No babes," Raph answered for himself and his other two brothers, "We took one look at it and almost hurled."

"Almost? I DID hurl!" Donnie stated; remembering that day and looking a bit queasy.

"Hey, you guys missed one hell of a good pizza!" Mikey defended, putting a hurt expression on his young face. "I enjoyed every bit of it!"

"That's cuz ya got a cast iron stomach Mikey!" Raphael was laughing; he really did enjoy razzing his youngest brother. "Ah; Mikey, ya know we are just kiddin' with ya', right?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know." He replied. "I've come a long way from that day."

"Yep! And thank God for that!" Donnie boomed.

Everyone laughed.

Rose turned to face April, who was trying her best to stay out of the way and just listen. "Uh, April: I just wanna say thank you for staying around to help us out. I know we got off on the wrong foot, however, I think that you have proven yourself a good friend and ally to us, and you have my respect."

April smiled, "Thanks Rose. You all have shown me what family is really about, and for that, I am very grateful. I can assure you that I will never betray your trust in me and thank you again for opening up your lives to me, I have learned a lot in my time here."

"Aw angel cakes, I'm glad you wised up; I sure didn't want Rosie to beat ya up again!"

"MICHELANGELO!" Rose warned, trying to sound mad, but it got spoiled by her giggling.

More stories were talked about and jokes were told till late in the night. Raphael and Rose were on first watch; they stopped having April guarded several days ago, so she was free to roam anywhere in the house she wanted to. After everyone was settled for the night, Raphael checked the doors and windows, making sure they were locked up tight and the curtains were closed. The security system was upgraded last week by Donnie and Isleen; if anyone would come within a half mile of any building, a silent alarm would trip and they would instantly know. Cameras were everywhere, inside and outside the house. They were small enough to fit in anywhere, being about the size of a dime. You would have to really know what you were looking for to even spot one of them; and there were so many places to put them, one would have to literally comb through every single inch of the property to find them. There were lights all around the buildings, and if one got broken, an alarm would sound, alerting them exactly where it was. The windows were all enforced with bulletproof plexy glass, and light reducing curtains were put up, blocking anyone outside from seeing what was going on inside. The doors were all reinforced steel; they would have to run a car into it to break it down. It was as good as it was going to get, so Rose and her man settled down for the next four hours.

"Tonight was enjoyable, huh big guy." Rosie cuddled up in the big turtles lap.

"Yep, it was good seeing everyone relax and smile for a change." Wrapping his muscular arms around Rose, he pulled her close to him. "Let's not wait so long to do this next time, k babes."

"You got it big buy!" Smiling up at him, she then rested her head on his shoulder. "Mmmm, so comfy!"

Chuckling, he placed a kiss on her head.

The ending to their night was a pleasant one; talking softly to one another; making plans for the future together; talking about the possibility of having kids someday as well. These two relished their alone time together; it was something that rarely happened these past days, what with all the preparations and such.

Leo and Brissen soon came downstairs to relieve the two lovebirds. Wearily, Raphael and Rose made their way upstairs and to their beds, Rose not even bothering to take her clothes off for how tired she was. They fell asleep in each other's arms, on top of the covers, Raph just getting the throw from the chair for them.

April was still awake; she wanted to write in her journal today about the fond memories that were reminisced about and the funny jokes that Michelangelo told. She smiled to herself as she wrote; nobody but her would read this, however she didn't care about that. All she wanted at that moment was to preserve the wonderful moments she would spending with these awesome people. One day, she would look back on this and say, "I met wonderful people who taught me about family; and now they are my family. I am blessed that they have entered my life… so very, very blessed!"