Any references to TMNT or anything from popular media and culture is NOT MINE. I only own my OC's.

Chapter #22

*Sunday August 10th*

Raph was quickly and forcefully hitting the speed punching bag in his room. He had barely left his room since the incident unless it was for necessities like food. He was prepared to leave if one of his brothers called about another robbery or about any type of criminal activity that they could try to stop, but from what all the turtles knew, no serious crimes had been committed besides the robberies where Sam was involved. As soon as he even thought of her name and her face Raph instantly started growling and hitting the punching bag even quicker and harder. He was pissed at her for tricking him the way she had, and he was even more pissed at himself for falling for her tricks. Mikey had always been the soft-hearted member of the family who was vulnerable to tricks like these, yet he had allowed himself to fall victim to the girl's lies as well. How could he be so stupid? How could he let her take advantage of him like that?! And why couldn't he hit this bag with more power?!

Just then the small bag flew off the hinges and slammed into the wall. Now that he wasn't punching the heck out of something, Raph started to calm himself down. It wasn't until that moment that he had realized how loud and fast his breaths had become. He began to wonder how long he had sounded like this, but then just shrugged it off as he walked out of the room and across the living room to the circular opening near the dojo that had a bunch more workout equipment and supplies.

"You need another bag?" Came a voice from one of the tables at the eatery nearby.
Raph looked over and saw their family friend April sitting down by herself.
"Oh, hey" Raph said as he took yet another bag from the pack, and then shrugged his shoulder as he dropped that bag back into the packaging and then decided to take the pack of all ten to his room instead. "Yeah, these things must be getting lighter and lighter, they fly off the hinges and get messed up when they hit the wall."
"That or you're getting stronger" April said, making a statement but making it obvious that she was questioning him and was curious as to why he was doing this in the way she said it.
Raph just shrugged, acting like he had no idea what she was talking about. "So why are you out here all by yourself?"
"Well, I came to check up on you guys after I heard what happened, but I can tell that no one really wants any company" she said as she stared down at the table. She wasn't used to the lair being so quiet, or quiet at all really, so she wasn't exactly sure what to do with herself.
Raph grinned over at her and nodded his head for her to follow him, and with a small smile she did so.
The two went back to Raph's room where they both continued to talk about various different things. They both talked about the members of their family, what they had been up to lately, typical small talk. This continued on until Raph eventually knocked his third punching bag off of the hinges and into the wall.
"Okay, I know you're incredibly strong, but you NEVER destroy this huge number of punching bags in one day. What's with the immense amount of strength being used today compared to usual?" April asked sternly but with concern.
"I don't know what you're talking about" Raph said as he started setting up another bag.
"Raph…"
He could tell by her tone that she was really getting worried, so he dropped the bag and turned to make sure his door was shut before he stood and faced her.
"Look, you know I won't do anything, but please-"
"You should know by now that I won't tell anyone anything, and if you don't know that then I'd feel extremely insulted. Just saying" April stated as she crossed her arms across her chest.
Raph gave her a small smile before going back to his serious expression.
"I don't know how to explain it. I just…I keep thinking back to that night. It's the same as when we first met her, I knew we never should have trusted her. I don't think I've ever felt so betrayed in my entire life. I know I'm the hot head, but when…but when…"
Raph hadn't realized how worked up he was getting and how fast his temper was increasing, and this was just from thoughts of what had recently happened.
"But when what happened?" April asked.
Raph paced back and forth across the room as he spoke.
"I kept hoping that it wasn't her. I kept telling myself it wasn't her, and when I pulled the mask of their leader, it was her! When we first met her, the second time she had ever stepped foot into our home, I got a bad vibe from her and knew that something was wrong about her. Ohhhh she did a good job at convincing all of us that she was this innocent girl who had been through tons of hardship from losing all of her family to the Foot, but all those bad vibes came back the moment I saw her face under the mask, literally and figuratively. I should have known better than to believe all her lies about her and her past and about her family."
"Is that what you said to her that night, that her past was a lie?" April asked in a concerned tone.
Raph paused as he realized what he had just accidentally confessed to doing, but he knew he would have to come clean about everything that had happened that night eventually, and now seemed to be the time.
"Yeah, I called her out on her bluffs. She had gone on with the act long enough, so I told her that I wasn't taking her b.s. anymore. How could she say that she hated the Foot and feared them when she was wearing a leader's armband? That's proof that she had to have been a member for a long time in order to earn that" he stated as he shook his head the entire time.
April sighed and hoped that Raph wouldn't hate her for what she was about to say.
"Raph, I know you don't want to hear this, but everything Sam told you about her past was true."
Raph stopped walking and stood still. He turned towards April and shot her an angry look. "What?"
"There's a woman that I'm good friends with at my work and she's the mother of Jay's girlfriend, aka she'll eventually be part of Sam's family one day when Jay and his girlfriend get married. The woman's name is Irma, and she's told me about her future son in law's past and about his family. I didn't know that Sam was the girl in her stories until I met Sam the day you guys met her for the first time. But I've talked to Sam about it and confirmed that she was the girl that Irma talked about in the stories about Jay. So everything Sam has told you about the Foot killing off everyone except for her and Jay is accurate. Those weren't lies, it was all the truth."
Raph clenched his fists as he heard this information. "Then why is she with them? It doesn't make any sense! And those weren't the only things she lied about, what about…" he trailed off as he looked down at the ground.
"What's wrong Raph?" April asked.
This was the part that Raph was truly embarrassed about.
"She…she was different that night, the night we caught her and brought her back from the initiation. The others went to go talk about how to handle the situation, and after her and I started arguing…she literally kicked me into the wall. And her eyes, her eyes are brown right?" he asked as he looked back up at the woman in front of him.
April nodded. She was shocked to see him transition from his pissed off attitude to a more nervous one.
"The white part of her eyes turned blue when she kicked me, and gusts of wind flew away from her. It was like she was possessed. Somehow she had this incredible strength, I mean she was stronger than me! But she didn't look any different. There's no way that she just magically became that strong within a few days, that doesn't just happen to people."
"Raph, are you afraid of her?" April asked gently. She didn't want him to feel offended, but his tone had become much more timid compared to his usual rough voice.
"I don't think so, but…I don't know. I'm more angry than anything, but, but I thought we knew so much about her, and then she shows up like that. Nothing makes sense anymore. And then when we fought, she was so strong that she could have killed me. Mikey literally saved my life that night. I wasn't even that scared when we fought Shredder. How did she become so strong? Was that something she kept from us? How much else has she kept from us? What if that wasn't even the full extent to whatever powers she has?"
"Do you think there was anything that might have set off her powers?"
"What do you mean?" Raph asked.
"You said you two were arguing, right? Maybe she had a trigger, like you accusing her of lying." April then stood up and walked over to the turtle that towered over her, and she gave him a hug. He was a bit shocked, but he still hugged her back, and in the moment it actually felt nice.
She then pulled back and looked up at him.
"You have to put yourself in her shoes Raph. I know that's the last thing you want to hear, but if someone had said you were lying about something serious about your family, don't you think you might go berserk as well?"
Raph paused, not wanting to answer the question.
"I feel the same way as you in wondering how much she was and still is hiding from you guys, but something just doesn't add up in the whole situation."
"Hmph, you should be telling all this to Mikey. He's the one that's still infatuated with her."
"That's because Mikey is the only one who hasn't given up hope yet."
Raph was speechless at that point. He knew April wasn't wrong though. Raph knew that Leo and Donnie were on his side in never wanting to see Sam again, at least he thought they still felt that way, but Mikey still had all this faith that he would find Sam again and that she would talk to him. Raph slowly turned away from April. He grunted as he looked away and down at the floor.
"I hear what you're saying, but things will never be the same now, not after what she's done. If she had something to tell us, then she should have told us. If all this is some crazy mixed up situation, then it shows how much she trusted us."
April sighed and went to exit the room. "If you want her out of your life, then you have that right. You experienced a situation with her that no one else will ever understand. But think of it this way, whatever her reasons were for joining the Foot, would you have really supported her to begin with, or would you have treated her the same way you did that night?"
Raph paused, not moving and not saying anything, not sure how to respond.
"I'm going to go check on your other brothers. Please, just don't hurt yourself or do anything you'll regret."
And with that April walked out of the room and shut the door behind her.
Once the room was silent, Raph walked back over to his bed and laid down. He understood what April was saying, and being brutally honest he did regret saying what he had to Sam that night. He knew he had pushed the boundaries too far, but she still could have killed him. That was the first thing that he couldn't get out of his head. The second was that she obviously didn't trust them, so he would no longer trust her. She made it clear where all their relationships stood and that was something he would never forget. There were still so many secrets she was hiding from them and this infuriated Raph more than anything. After all the time they had all spent together, for his brothers to basically call Sam their sister, for all of that to happen just to find out that she was still sneaking around behind their backs and lying to them. He hadn't realized how hard he was clenching his fists together until he was able to smell the blood that was coming from his palms.
He sat up and walked to the entrance to the bathroom in the corner of his room and started washing his hands.
"I don't care anymore what her situation is or was, the girl is bad news. The fact that she's getting me this worked up, she's bad for my health, and I know she has everyone else all messed up as well. I hope we never see her again."
And these were Raph's final thoughts before he went back to his bed and fell asleep from exhaustion after the non-stop workouts he had had from punching the speed bags over and over and over again.

*In the lab*

Donnie kept furiously pacing back and forth in his laboratory. Usually just working on one of his multiple projects would calm him down and soon after things would be normal for him again and he could think clearly about whatever it was that had upset him in the first place, but this was a rare case. Nothing had ever upset him so much that even nerding out couldn't help him think straight. His stress reliever was useless this time, and that began to make him even more upset. He was upset at how betrayed he felt but he was even more heated about the fact that he had been defeated. He knew that he and his brothers had won in the moment by stopping Sam from hurting Raph anymore than she already had, but he felt that they all were beaten in the game of reality. In Donnie's eyes the worst part was that he wasn't even sure what was and wasn't true, so he wasn't sure how much he had been crushed. Did she beat them a little to the point that it was like she had pushed their faces into the dirt, or were they buried underground from how much Sam had crushed them?

He slammed his hand down on the desk. He couldn't believe that he who was the genius of the group had let someone toy with him as much as Sam had. He wanted to believe that she was telling the truth, but god she made things so difficult. Of course they would have helped her if she said that she had any reason where she needed to join the Foot…right? He thought about it and wondered how he and his brothers would have reacted if she had told them before that night, but now it didn't matter since she went against any possibility that would have come from that decision, and obviously she didn't want their help anyway or else she would have given them a chance and would have gone straight to them. That's what family does, they rely on each other and help support each other no matter what, didn't she know that?

Donnie slammed his fist down on the desk once again. "Obviously she doesn't know that because she's not our family! Family doesn't betray each other the way she did! God what am I thinking?!" Donatello thought as he grabbed the sides of his head with his hands and continued to furiously walk bath and forth across the room. He kept wondering where he went wrong. Was hanging out with her at places like the museum going too far and letting her get to close to him? Or maybe helping her out during training sessions was letting her get to close? No, what if letting her into his lab, or even letting her visit the lair was where the lies and secrets began? Was any of what she had ever told them the truth? Was everything fake, or was it true? But then that didn't explain why she had a leader's armband which signified she had been a part of the Foot clan for a decent amount of time. None of it made sense. The only thing that made sense was that she had played them with her sob stories and had taken advantage of the friendship they had all shared and that she was planning something ten times worse than what had happened the other night, and that made Donnie furious.

He had become so livid that he stormed over to where his computer was and had pulled open a draw and yanked out a flash drive. It was going to be a surprise for Sam and Donnie thought that it would mean a lot to her, but now he wasn't so sure. Nights before Sam had disappeared, Donnie had asked her if he could borrow the flash drive with all the pictures she had shown the boys on the night of her siblings anniversary, and before he had gotten to work he had asked Sam if she would be interested in him combining pictures of the two families so that even though they had never met, it would look like the two had grown up together. He reassured his friend that both the real and the edited pictures would be saved to the flash drive, and Donnie couldn't recall a time where he had seen Sam any happier than after he had explained to her all the details of the project.

After he had picked up the drive, he clutched it in his hand and launched his arm backwards. He was ready to throw it and he wanted to so bad. This would both be him getting revenge on the girl for all that she had done to endanger his family, but it would also be a way for him to help wipe her clean from his memories. If there weren't any more pictures for him to remember her by, then eventually she would be wiped from his memories as well. He stood there with his arm launched back…and he stood there…and continued to stand there until finally he gave up and tossed the drive back onto the table. He sighed as he plopped down in his swivel chair and put his hands behind his head that he now let carefully rest on the table.

"Hey" came a gentle voice from the doorway.
Donnie moved his arms so that they were in his lap, but his head was still on the table as he turned it to face the person in the doorway. He saw April standing there with a concerned expression on her face.
"Sorry if I'm barging in. The door was closed and I knocked a few times, but you never answered, so I slowly opened the door and walked in" she said softly.
"Don't worry its fine" he said as he sat up and nodded his head for her to come in.
April closed the door and walked over to the bed that Donnie had in the corner of his lab.
"So, you finally found a case you can't crack?" April asked, trying to carefully cheer her friend up from his mental struggles, and she succeeded slightly.
"Heh, yeah. Something like that" he said as he turned his head back the other way towards his desk.
"Well, at least you're not breaking things like the second oldest."
"He broke another bag?" he asked, the concern leading him to turn his head towards April again. "Man, those things aren't easy to get ahold of" Donnie said as he rubbed the side of his head.
"It's gotten so bad that he took an entire pack of the bags to his room, and within the first 45 minutes of us talking he broke another 3" April said.
"Ugh, well from now on he can go find new ones" Donnie groaned.
"Everyone has their ways of coping, and his way is by physically letting out steam, and apparently he can only do so by breaking things" the woman said with a shrug.
"At least his coping method is working" Donnie stated.
April gave him a puzzled look. "You always build or fix something whenever you're stressed. Isn't that what you were doing with that flash drive? I assumed you were a bit distracted and had messed up somewhere and that's why you were going to throw it against the wall, because it wasn't perfect enough to meet your standards."
Donnie looked down at his hands as he answered. "It had pictures of Sam on it. I was working on a project for her. But it's not needed anymore." He looked off to the side as he finished speaking his thoughts.
April wasn't sure whether she should continue to question him or not, but she decided to give it a shot and see if it would help her friend out in anyway.
"So did you want to destroy the flash drive to erase Sam from your life, or to get back at her?"
"For both of those reasons honestly. I'm still cross about what she did to Raph, I mean jeez she literally could have killed him if Mikey hadn't intervened. I don't even know how she got that strong. How long has she been hiding that from us? Was having us train her just for show and really she could have beaten all of us to a pulp at any time? What's even real anymore?" Donnie said, not realizing he was clenching his fists together while talking.
"And that's why you want to erase her, right? Because you guys all feel so betrayed?" April asked softly.
"Not just betrayed, or at least I feel more than just that. I feel like a complete idiot for letting her into my life. I'm frustrated from the fact that I let someone get close to me that I fell into their trap. I'm supposed to be the genius of the family and know the outcome of anything that we gamble with, and I was wrong. Usually I can tell what's really happening behind the scenes and for the first time I couldn't see through the cracks. She took me to the Natural History Museum, did I ever tell you that?"
April shook her head.
"Well she did. I let her talk me into it and we went to a few other places that were similar to that nature. She played me and I NEVER let people play me like that because I can tell what they're up to. She did what she needed to get past me and she succeeded. I can't believe it, and because I fell into her trap I gave her the chance to harm my family."
Donnie shook his head, making it known how ashamed he was in himself.
April hated seeing the guys this way. She hated seeing Raph so lost in his fear and worry about the way Sam had treated them, and she hated seeing Donnie seem so broken and defeated from not being able to read Sam's thoughts and actions beforehand.
"If it means anything, I can confirm some of what you're worrying about" April stated.
Donnie looked her straight in the eye. "How?"
"There's a woman that I'm good friends with at my work and she's the mother of Jay's girlfriend, aka she'll eventually be part of Sam's family one day when Jay and his girlfriend get married. The woman's name is Irma, and she's told me about her future son in law's past and about his family. I didn't know that Sam was the girl in her stories until I met Sam the day you guys met her for the first time. But I've talked to Sam about it and confirmed that she was the girl that Irma talked about in the stories about Jay. So everything Sam has told you about the Foot killing off everyone except for her and Jay is accurate. Those weren't lies, it was all the truth."
Donnie's jaw dropped a bit after hearing what April had to say. "But, if all that she said about her siblings was true, then why would she be with the Foot? It just doesn't make sense, nothing makes sense" he said as he grabbed the sides of his head in frustration again.
"Sadly I don't have any answers to that part. I don't know anything about her powers either. Something seems off about this whole situation, but I get the feeling that you don't want to go into depth about all the possibilities just yet" April said with a small smile.
Donnie returned the expression. "Not just yet, the wounds are still too fresh. Maybe when I'm able to work on some type of project again then I'll talk more about it. But I really don't want to keep talking about her, it just makes me angrier. Heh, I sound like Raph, don't I?" he said with a light chuckle, proving that talking to the woman had somewhat helped him feel better for the time being.
"At least you're willing to talk about it one day and figure out what's going on. Apparently Raph is set on keeping her out of his and the rest of your lives" she said with in a sorrowful tone.
"Well, that's how he wanted things to be the first time around, yet he opened up to her to. I have a feeling we're all eventually going to look into what happened, but only when the time is right. I think we'll still need a long time to get over the damage that's already been done."
April walked over and put her hand on her friends shoulder. "I understand, and I can't imagine how you guys are feeling right now."
Donnie looked up and smiled at her as he placed his hand over the woman's that had been placed on his shoulder. "Thanks April."
"It's what family's for. Oh, and if you ever get your nerd funk back, let me know. My lab top has been acting weird and I could use some assistance" she said as she clasped her hands together in front of her lips to thank him ahead of time.
For the first time in days Donnie displayed a teeth filled smile as he replied. "Yeah, I'll let you know."
With that, April exited the room and made sure to shut the door behind her.

Donnie looked back down and then picked up the flash drive. He still felt the urge to just throw it in the trash and get rid of it, but at the same time he agreed with April in feeling like something just wasn't right about this whole situation. He thought over every possible scenario and wondered which of the hundreds he came up with could have possibly been the correct one. He let out a long sigh as he stood up and walked the drive back to its spot in the drawer. As upset as he was about everything that happened, he still had a small bit of hope that maybe everything was just a huge misunderstanding. The percent chance that this was a misunderstanding was very low, but it wasn't at 0% yet, so he decided to hang on to the drive until proof and evidence was able to sway his final decision.

*Living room of the lair*

Leo was sitting in front of the television, but he was doing so just for the white noise. If someone had walked in and asked what he had been watching then he would have had no idea what to tell them. This had become a normal routine for him. He would just sit somewhere and stare off into space and listen to nothing but his thoughts until someone or something had awakened him from his daydreams.

He just couldn't escape from what he had seen days earlier, and he knew that all his brothers had similar feelings about the events that had taken place that night as well. He could sense that Raph felt anger but also fear from what he had experienced, Donnie felt frustrated and defeated in not being able to sense these events coming ahead of time, Mikey felt regret and sorrow for not being able to make the situation better, and Leo himself felt more confused than anything, especially after what he had just learned. He wasn't sure where this conversation took place, but while he was in his room he had received a call from April and heard her talking to Raph. That's when he heard her talk about the woman named Irma from her work and what she had to say about Sam's past. And then there was Raph's confession about what he had said to Sam, and Leo still wasn't sure what to make of that, but he would deal with that at a better and more appropriate time. He assumed that April had butt dialed them since she never acknowledged Leo in the call, and he knew that Mikey must have been a part of the butt dial as well since the youngest brother had stormed away as Leo went to walk over to the couch where Mikey had been sitting.

This information definitely brought a huge amount of questions into play. If what Sam had said about her past was true, then why was she with the Foot? This was the biggest question of all and of course all of the brothers wanted to know the answer, but right now only one of them was ready to search for that answer, and that one was about to walk by right now.

Leo wouldn't have noticed him if it wasn't for how loud his footsteps were, but because of the volume coming from how he walked Leo had sensed Mikey walk past the screen in front of him.
Leo stood up. "Where are you going?" he asked with strict concern as he picked up on his brother's angered expression.
"Same place as usual" Mikey replied in a nasty tone, not once looking at his older brother.
Leo disliked the way his brother spoke, but he made sure to keep himself calm since he knew his brother only replied this way because of how much pain he was in.
"Mikey stop."
"Why?" Mikey asked as he deadpanned and stared his brother right in the eye as he stood by the exit way from the lair. "My best friend could be in danger and if she returns home then maybe I can talk her out of returning to the Foot clan."
"We don't know her reasoning for joining Mikey and we don't know if-"
"If what? If she's plotting to attack us? I'm not that stupid Leo. I know that if she was truly trying to harm us then the Foot would have found us already. We'd be bruised and bloody from some type of attack if they knew our location. Hell, Sachs talked to April for a few minutes and within those couple hours later our home was destroyed, so why would he now be kind enough to give us 5 days to prepare for him? Why would he make us wait?"
Leo paused. He was shocked at how much his baby brother, the goofball of the family, had thought about this. While the rest of the brothers were to hurt to think further into what had happened, Mikey was already thinking about what was going on and was looking for answers to what had already happened.
"Even so, we still don't understand everything."
"What else is there to not understand and question?"
"How about the fact that she had monstrous strength that almost killed your brother?" Leo asked, unintentionally shoving the nasty tone back at his brother. However, this did get Mikey to settle down some as he realized that Leo was right.
"Still," the youngest stated softly yet sternly, "something isn't right. I'm outraged from the fact that Raph could allow himself to say something so cruel to Sam, but Raph had treated her like shit when they first met as well and she never responded by treating him like that, she would never mean to kill…" he paused as he tried to fight himself from getting emotional, "she would never purposefully do that."
"Mikey," Leo said in a softened tone, "there's a chance that everything we knew about Sam is wrong. We don't know what was and what wasn't a lie and what else she has hidden completely from us."
"I know you got that call to Leo, and you know that what she said about her family is the truth."
"That's one thing out of many things Mikey. We don't know about where her powers came from and if us training her was just and act or not, we don't know if she truly was alone or if she had others watching and spying on us, we don't if her interests are real or if she pretended to like things we did just to get close to us or not, and we still don't know her official reasons for joining the Foot."
"And that's why I'm going to question her once I see her again. I'll be the one to get answers while the rest of you just hang out here" Mikey said as he began to turn and walk away.
"You think we don't want answers? Do you honestly think we're okay with what happened and are just moving on like nothing happened?" Now Leo's blood was beginning to boil a bit.
"For people that want answers, none of you are doing anything but lying around!" Mikey shouted.
"Maybe the wounds are still too fresh and deep for some people to treat them yet" came a softer voice on the other side of the room.
The two turned to see April exiting their brother's lab space and walk over towards where they were standing. "At least, that's how Donnie said he felt about the situation."
Leo was a bit shocked to see April leaving from Donnie's lab since he thought she was still with Raph. Knowing her, she probably saw him spacing out and decided to talk to Donnie first. As Leo realized how bad his thoughts were controlling his sensory skills, he made sure to continue on with the conversation and try to calm his brother down as best as he could.
"See?" Leo said, "Donnie is curious as to how things got this way as well, but it's too soon to look into it Mikey."
Mikey bit his lip to prevent himself from losing control and saying something he would regret. "Fine. You guys take your good old time and figure out things your way when you're ready, but I'm still leaving."
"And what will you do if you find out that you're the one that's been wrong this entire time? That everything we thought and hoped was true was nothing but a lie?"
Mikey paused briefly before answering. "I'll deal with that when the time comes. Until then, I'm going to wait for my best friend to come back so I can help her and get the answers that I've been waiting for."
And with that, Mikey continued on his way up to the surface by his friend's apartment building.

April sat on the couch. "I guess that's his way of coping?"
Leo closed his eyes as he sat down and leaned back into the couch. "Yup. He goes up to her room and waits for her until the sun comes up, hoping she'll return for something and that he can talk to her then."
"I guess you guys don't like that?" April asked as she put a pillow behind her back and leaned back against the arm of the couch as she also kicked her feet up onto Leo's lap.
"Yes and no. We didn't mind him doing it for a couple of days to cope with losing his best friend, but we didn't expect him to go there every night. I would have been really upset if he had ignored our calls if we needed him to help us catch criminals, but that's the strange thing. Besides for that one robbery, there hasn't been any real criminal activity for the past ten days."
April titled her head in confusion. "Do you think the Foot are planning something?"
"I don't know, and sadly none of us have really been looking ahead for signs of any deadly plans like when Sachs and Shredder tried to take down New York last year. Knowing Mikey is away every night makes me worry even more. What if she really is plotting something and he's the bait? Like, say she attacks him when he's in the room with her? Or she talks and convinces him to follow her to headquarters and they capture him there? They know we'll come after them to save Mikey and that could easily lead to all of us getting caught and killed. Maybe that's why nothing has been happening. What if they're waiting for us to come to them rather than them coming to us?"
"Alright calm down" April said. "I'm worried about him to, but he just proved to you that he's smarter in these type of situations than any of us realized. He knows better than to go to headquarters without you guys."
"He's done it before. WITH SAM. Crap, what if that day she was trying to capture him then?" Leo remarked, his eyes going wide at the thought.
"Nooooo, because from what I was told of that day, the only reason he went was because they were sneaking around and listening in on Shredder's plans, and then when things went sour Sam helped him to escape, and then eventually she helped all of you guys escape."
Leo paused as April's words washed over him. "You're right, that's all true. Ugh then what the hell is she doing?" he asked as he rubbed his hands down his face in exhaustion.
"It looks like you're closer to where Mikey's mind is than you are to the others" April said with a small smile.
Leo sighed. "I'm still just as pissed as Raph and Donnie are, but I'd be a liar if I said I didn't want to hunt her down and figure out what the heck is going on. I so badly want to believe that this is all a huge misunderstanding, but at the same time I'm so confused about what we do and don't know that I'm worried about how everything could go wrong, and how quick it could go wrong. I'm stuck in the middle. I want answers as badly as Mikey does, but I still feel the same amount of fear and pain as Raph and Donnie do to want to wait before trying to confront her."

April put a hand on Leo's shoulder.
"I definitely think that everyone should do their part in trying to figure out what happened to Sam and learning the real truth, but there's nothing wrong in waiting a bit longer to do so, especially after what she did to Raph. All of you are filled with fear for your own reasons: you fear what could result from all of this, Raph is afraid of the power that almost killed him, Donnie is frightened by the fact that someone may have outsmarted him when it comes to mind games and manipulating people, and Mikey is terrified of what could be happening to his best friend at this very moment. Each of you is experiencing thoughts and feelings that in some ways are similar to the others, yet are also different based on the ways that you each knew and interacted with Sam, including that final time you all spoke with her. Because of this, it's understandable that you're not all ready to face her just yet, and some space between you all might be best so that you can all act rationally when you do finally see her again. Mikey wanting to confront her so soon just defines how he knew Sam and what type of emotions he's feeling right this moment."
Leo gave his friend a small smile. "You should really write a book one day, you're good at explaining things."
"Well that's what four years of journalism does to a person" she joked.
"Thanks April. This really helps."
"That's what I'm here for. I help with your people problems that you guys are newbs at understanding" she said as she stood up. "Let me know when you guys are ready to start hunting down Sam and I'll let you know what I've found by then."
Leo squinted his eyes at her. "What are you going to do?" he asked with concern.
"I'm going to talk to Irma some more and find out what else she knows about Sam's situation."
"But you're going to do that tomorrow," Leo said as he stood up next to her, "because it's late and you should be heading home now."
April rolled her eyes. "You know I'm older than you right? As in I can tell you to stay home and you'd have to listen to your elder."
"Well when you become a giant mutant who can defend them self from being picked up and carried around by others then I'll leave you alone" he said with a triumphant smile.
April put her hands up in defense. "Alright, alright no one needs to be picked up. I can walk, and I'm walking now."
"I'll walk with you" Leo said.

After Leo had made sure that April arrived home safely, he began to think about what she had said about them all looking for Sam on their own time. He knew that his confusion was leading to curiosity, and he knew that this curiosity was beginning to override his other thoughts and emotions about the whole situation. He decided that he wasn't emotionally ready to search for Sam tonight, but even when he was ready, he thought it would be best to keep this to himself for a little while until all his brothers were ready to look for Sam. Mikey would rush into things too quickly, and rushing the others would just lead to more arguing and chaos. So, after spending some time that night meditating on it, maybe he'd be ready to look for her tomorrow night, alone.