A big thank you to every one who has read, reviewed, faved or followed my story. You guys are the best.

Disclaimer- I don't own the TMNT. They are owned by Nickelodeon. I didn't create them. They were created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. I don't make any money from this fan fiction and I never will. This is for entertainment purposes only.

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Note- We have skipped ahead in time and the turtles are now 15.

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It had been raining for most of the day while April had been at school and it was bucketing down now. Deciding that she would stop off at the turtles' lair before heading home, her clothes were soaked through before she could reach the nearest manhole cover.

Sloshing her way through the flooded subway tunnels, April was almost at the turtles' lair when she realised that she hadn't called ahead to let them know that she was going to visit. She hadn't known the turtles for that long so she would usually call Donnie first to make sure it was okay to stop by but she'd dropped her mobile in a puddle on the way to school and it wouldn't switch on anymore.

She doubted that they would mind her stopping by unannounced though. Whenever she'd visited in the past, Leo was always friendly, Mikey greeted her with a back breaking hug and Donatello was quickly becoming one of her best friends. She needed to find out if the turtles had any more information on the people who had kidnapped her father. There was also a school assignment that she needed Donnie's help with. She'd been putting off doing it for the last two weeks and it was due tomorrow.

"Hello, anyone at home?" When she wasn't instantly greeted by Donatello as she pushed her way through the subway turnstiles or nearly crushed by one of Michelangelo's hugs, she decided to start looking to see if anybody was around. When she couldn't find anyone in their usual places she was pretty sure that she was alone in the lair. It was rare for the turtles' home to be empty and her curiosity got the better of her as she decided to explore the only part of the lair she had never been invited in to; the turtles' bedrooms.

She didn't understand why she had never seen the boys' rooms. They had no problem using her bedroom window to come in and out of her house all the time. Although she'd never been told that she could go into their rooms, she'd never been told that she couldn't either. She had always hung out in the common area, the dojo or Donnie's lab and the subject had never come up.

She walked past the pinball machine and up the stairs to the alcoves that housed the four turtles' bedrooms. She had no idea which room belonged to which turtle so she randomly selected one and opened the door.

The room she stepped into was obviously Leo's. None of the other turtles could be this neat.

There was not a speck of dust or dirt anywhere in the room, which she found impressive considering he lived in a sewer. He had very few possessions she noticed. There was no wardrobe or chest of drawers in the room. Looking under the bed she saw that he had no junk shoved underneath it like she did. All of the few items he owned were neatly set out on a bookshelf. There was a stack of shuriken, some tools to care for his blades and a few knick knacks that he must have found down in the sewers. And neatly stacked in pride of place on the top shelf was Leo's collection of plastic covered Space Heroes comic books.

The bed itself was made with the sheets tucked in so tight that a wrinkle or crease wouldn't dare to form. This did not look like the room of a teenage boy.

The only untidy part of Leo's room was the wall above his bed that he had covered in photos of his family and Space Heroes posters. As dorky as it was, it was nice to see him adding his own personal touches to a room that would otherwise look unlived in and uninviting.

Thinking she'd pried enough already, she left Leo's room. The still, quiet of the lair urged her to take a peek into another room.

The next door had a stop sign nailed to it with posters from modern ninja magazine taped all around. The first thing she saw when she opened the door was Raphael lying on his bed with his headphones on. He had been snoozing face down with his arms supporting his head but woke up as soon as the door opened. The shocked, unguarded expression that first greeted April quickly morphed into his usual bored scowl as he took his headphones off and tossed them on top of his boom box.

"What are you doing in my room?" Raph asked uncharacteristically calm as he lay his head to the side so that he could still see her out of one eye.

April was confused. She'd assumed that the penalty for sneaking around in Raph's room was disembowelment. At least that was what she'd heard him tell Mikey. But as she stood there stunned while trying to think up a convincing excuse, she noticed Raph's eyes slowly begin to close again and his entire body relaxed like he'd fallen asleep.

"Raph are you okay?" April asked worriedly as she took a step towards him.

"Yep," he answered, not opening his eyes.

"You're acting a little different is all," She looked him over, unsure what was going on. When she got no reply, she walked up to him and tried to shake him awake but quickly pulled her hand back in shock as soon as she touched his shell. It was hot, like burning.

"Raph you're really hot," she exclaimed.

"Don't let Donnie hear you say that," Raph half laughed at his own joke before starting to drift off again.

This was starting to unsettle April. "What's wrong with you? Are you ill? Why do you keep falling asleep?" She fired off rapidly.

"I'm not sleeping. I'm basking," he stated flatly as he pointed at the lamp fixed to the roof above his bed.

"Basking?"She looked up at the light, still feeling slightly puzzled.

"Basking, you know, it's like lying in the sun for UV rays and warmth and stuff," he explained as he sat up and switched the lamp off.

"I know what basking is. I just didn't know that you guys did it."

On his feet now, Raph cracked his neck and stretched his arms above his head. April was starting to feel a little uneasy about having been snooping in his room now that he seemed a bit more like his usual self.

"I'm sorry I disturbed you. I'll wait for the guys in the living room."

"Nah, I shoulda gotten up ages ago. Besides, the speaker in my headphones keeps droppin' out. I'll have to get Donnie to fix 'em."

He left the room without saying another word. April followed as he walked into the common room. She sat down rigidly on the couch in front of the TV as Raph opened up one of the pizza boxes sitting around the room and took a bite of leftover peperoni pizza while flopping down onto the beanbag. He started humming to himself, nodding his head and tapping his foot to the beat of the song stuck in his head.

"You seem in a good mood today," April mentioned, weary that at any moment Angry Raph could return and that he might not be so casual about her snooping around. She hoped that one of the others would come home soon. She had never been alone with just Raphael before and to be honest, she didn't feel anywhere near as comfortable around him as she did the other turtles. She had witnessed his sudden mood swings towards his brothers. Getting him mad was a bad idea. That much she knew about him.

"What can I say? Basking, it makes me feel good... And hungry," he responded as he shoved an entire slice of pizza into his mouth. April had no idea how the boys could do that. It was a feat that both amazed and disgusted her.

April didn't know what to say. She'd never actually spoken to Raph before and all that she could focus on were the words, 'don't get him angry, don't get him angry,' that were playing through her head on a continuous loop.

"All turtles do it," he said after finishing his slice.

"Do what?" April was surprised, Raphael didn't sound like he usually would. It probably had something to do with the fact that he hadn't made a single sarcastic and or angry comment the entire conversation and it made him seem different.

"Basking. It's very important. Helps regulate body temperature, growth rate, boosts the immune system as well as prevent things like Metabolic Bone Disease, malnutrition and shell rot."

'Wow,' That was the longest sentence she'd ever heard him use. But she wasn't convinced that basking could be as essential to them as it was to ordinary turtles. They weren't even cold blooded.

"That stuff happens to ordinary pet turtles. What makes you think it could happen to you guys?"

"'Cause it happened to me." Raph threw his half eaten slice of pizza back into the box, staring April down like he would Leo when he was getting ready for an argument. The old Raph was back and his fuse was very short at the moment.

April shuffled uncomfortably as she quickly tried to think of a way to defuse the situation, "What happened?" she asked cautiously.

Raph sat still for a moment, looking April over as if trying to assess whether he should tell her anything or not.

"Alright then, I'll tell you. You see these scars on my shell?" His entire body was littered with scars. The most noticeable blemishes being the discoloured patches and misshapen scutes marring his golden carapace and plastron. There were also missing chunks of shell that were definitely more obvious on him than any of his brothers.

April had never examined any of the turtles this closely before. She'd never had the courage to ask if she could.

"I'd always assumed they were battle scars." She wanted to reach a hand out and trace over the scared keratin but thought better of it, seeing as this was Raph she was dealing with.

"They're not," he grumbled seriously. "You wanna hear the story?"

April nodded, more intrigued than ever now. Raph sat down next to her on the couch, ready to begin his story.

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April was speechless. She had no idea that the turtles had been through anything like that in their lives. She knew living in the sewers couldn't have been easy, but the turtles all looked so strong and healthy and she'd never seen any of them sick ever; especially Raphael. He was built like a tank, the strongest of all of his brothers and his personality; he was the stereotyped tough guy. What she was hearing seemed almost unbelievable. Raph as a sick, bedridden child, crying at his younger brother's insults. It was hard to imagine that, that child and the Raphael sitting next to her were the same person. There were so many questions that she now needed answered.

But before she could ask anything, the distant sound of Donatello and Mikey arguing caught their attention.

"You don't say a word of this to anyone. Understand?" Raph stood looming over April in a threatening gesture.

She nodded frantically, swallowing loudly out of nervousness. Satisfied that she was sufficiently intimidated so that she wouldn't blab to the others, Raph straightened up and walked out of the room as his three brothers came into the common area and crashed on the couch.

"What was that about?" Leo asked while flicking through the TV channels with the remote.

"Oh nothing, we were just talking," April tried to act nonchalant, hoping they wouldn't notice how shaken up she was. Leo looked over at her, picking up that she wasn't telling the complete truth but decided to let it go.

"To what do we owe the pleasure of your company?" Donnie asked, trying to get her attention on him before mentally face palming at how dorky that must have sounded.

"I wanted to see if you guys had any news on my father," April asked hopefully.

"I'm sorry April, we haven't seen or heard anything in weeks."

April felt a wave of disappointment and sadness wash over her.

"That's okay Donnie. I know you're doing your best." She gave Donatello a small smile of appreciation because she knew how hard he'd been working to find her father. April could tell that Donatello was genuinely upset that they hadn't been able to reunite her with her with her dad yet. It was nice having someone care about her as much as Donnie did.

"I also wanted to ask you if you could help me with my science assignment? It's due tomorrow and I haven't even started it yet."

His face lit up at her request. The only thing Donnie enjoyed more than science was spending time with April; so helping April with her science project was like a dream come true for him.

"Let's go into my lab, it'll be easier to concentrate there, less noise and distractions." Donnie lead April into his lab, looking back to see his youngest brother giving him a thumbs up from the couch.

Once April and Donnie had disappeared into the lab, Raph came out of his room and flopped down on the couch between Leo and Mikey.

"So how'd it go? Anything wrong?" He asked Leo before focusing on the television.

"Just a false alarm."

"It was kind of boring actually," Mikey joined in the conversation. "Lots of cockroaches though. There was hundreds of 'em all over the ceiling and walls trying to escape the water. You would've hated it."

Raph shuddered at the thought of the creepy things but tried to hide it. He didn't need Mikey teasing him about roaches anymore than he already did.

"So no evil villains in the sewers messing with our security then?" Raph asked, seeing as that was what they were worried had happened when some of Donnie's security cameras stopped working and the reason his brothers had left the lair in the first place.

"No. All the rain we've had recently flooded some of the tunnels. The water damaged a couple of Donnie's security cameras. That's why they stopped transmitting."

"Good. 'Cause I would've hated to miss out on giving a bad guy a beat down," Raph chuckled and left his brothers to their show as he headed towards the kitchen.

Pulling back the curtain across the kitchen doorway, Raph jumped in surprise to see his father getting a cheese-cicle from the freezer.

"Sensei, I thought you'd left the lair." Raph then tried to cover up his shock. A ninja was never meant to be caught off guard like he just had been and Splinter hadn't even been trying to sneak around.

"I did leave and then I returned," he smirked at his son.

Raphael knew what that look meant. It meant that there would be extra training tomorrow and some humiliating lesson to ensure he stayed ever vigilant from now on.

"When did you return?"

"While you were talking to Miss O'Neil. Which reminds me…" Splinter took a bag off of the counter and handed it to Raph. "Your vitamins Raphael."

"Thanks Sensei." Raph searched through the bag, checking that everything he needed was there. "How was the Doc?"

"He is well. He sends his regards."

Raph nodded thoughtfully in acknowledgement as he put the bottles of pills and powders away in the cupboard. He headed over to the curtain covering the kitchen doorway and pushed it aside. He was about to leave when he paused. He let the curtain drop back down and turned around.

"Thanks for doing this Sensei." He wrapped his arms around his father. "Love you Dad."

"I love you too my son."

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That was the final chapter of "A Young Turtles Story."

Thank you so much for reading my story right to the end.

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