Chapter 5

Hours later I heard the unmistaken sounds of a battle.

"Where is she?" I heard a voice say with fury. It sounded like Mike but Mike never got angry.

"T-t-that r-r-oom" the man stammered. I heard a ticking sound and seconds later the door blew up. I raised my head off of the floor as far as I was able to, and looked with interest out the door. My savior, an orange clad turtle named Michelangelo walked through the gaping hole that used to be a door.

"Oh my God," Mike said taking in my condition. He rushed forward and pulled a blanket out of a bag he had around his arm. He carefully wrapped me up in the blanket and picked me up. Mike cradled me to his chest and took care not to jostle me too much.

"Guys I've got her!" he yelled to his brothers and immediately my other three brothers were by Mike's side.

"Fuck!" Raph swore once he had looked at me. I smiled at him and began to close my eyes.

"She's lost a lot of weight, is bleeding from several places and is bruised pretty badly," Mike said. "Plus I think a lot of things went on that we don't want to know about, because she was naked when I found her." Leo and Donnie both swore which I found to be comical because my two golden brothers never swore. A cold breeze blew my hair from my face and I began to shiver as I felt the coldness against my legs and face. I must have dozed off because the next thing that I knew was we were in the Lair. I found my father and weakly protested Mike's hold upon me. He put me down on the ground and helped me to my father.

"Daddy, is now the right time to cry?" I asked him, kneeling in front of my father. My blanket had loosened and fell off of my shoulders, pooling to my waist. Father looked startled and whispered yes. I began to cry, which I had been holding in. Furry arms wrapped around my shoulders and I felt tear drops fall onto my back and I sobbed harder.

"Father, I need to get Snow to the infirmary." I heard Donnie's calm and gentle voice. My father nodded and disentangled himself from my arms. He gave me to Donnie who put me in the infirmary. He came at me with a needle and I shook my head.

"No needles." I told him, remembering when Hun had used the needles on me. He nodded and crushed up a pill and put it in a glass of water.

"Drink up," Donnie commanded. I drank as much as I could without becoming sick. I felt like I had just been taken out of my body. I felt like I was on the table but I didn't feel anything. I just sat back and allowed Donnie to examine me, but I was wary when he took off the blanket covering my bottom half. He cleaned me up and then applied a type of antibiotic/pain killer to the immediate area. He pulled a blanket over me and left me. I faded off to sleep.

When I awoke, I looked around me. I was laying on a burgundy couch and my father was sitting in the armchair to the left of the couch. My two idiotic eldest brothers were standing in front of the TV arguing and Donnie and Mike were sitting on the floor atop of large pillows inhaling Chinese food. April was sitting in front of the couch attempting to watch the movie that was on, but Leo and Raph were moving and not allowing April to view the screen.

"Guys you can stay here if you don't block the TV," she said with a smirk.

"Why are we here?" I asked sleepily. Everyone in the room turned to look at me and then rushed to my side.

"My daughter, you are awake!" Master Splinter said. He brushed some of the hair out of my eyes.

"How long have I been asleep?" I asked confused.

"About two weeks," Mike told me.

"Two weeks!" I exclaimed. I sat up and swung my legs off the couch. "I need to get back to school!" I stood, but immediately I fell. Luckily Raph caught me in his arms. I didn't notice the glare that Mike sent Raph, I was too busily blushing and being dizzy.

"My daughter, you need rest before you can go back to school," Daddy told me.

"Daddy, my grades will suffer because of this!" I exclaimed. "I must go back to school, immediately!" I said. Raph gently deposited me on the couch, and tucked the blanket around me. I smiled at Raph as he kissed my forehead.

"Now, tonight, ya are gonna get some more sleep. Then tomorrow ya can argue about going back to school." Raph had always made a point to me, and I had always listened to Raph rather than my brothers. Raph and Daddy were the only two who could get me to listen. Leo and I clashed all the time. Mike and I just goofed off too much to take each other seriously. I still remember that day when Raph came running into my room, about eight months ago ––

Flashback

It was a day in May. I remember waking up and just waiting there for Leo's customary yelling at me to get my lazy butt out of bed. But after a few moments that didn't happen. I wondered what had happened. I glanced at the clock and noticed that the time was 10:00 AM. I looked around bewildered as I knew that my brothers hardly ever left me to sleep in late, as I joined them in the dojo before breakfast to train.

This was when I noticed something wet on my bottom half. I thought that maybe Mike had put something in my bed and reached down to pull the whatever from the sheets. However I didn't feel anything but wetness. When I removed my hand I noticed that it was crimson. I pulled the sheets back and looked down at myself. I was covered in a crimson fluid. I smelled it and it smelled acidic like blood.

I screamed. "AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" I remember Raph running in, followed by Leo, Donnie, Daddy, and Mike. Raph stood there and looked at me covered in blood. Then he rushed to my side and helped me into a sitting position. I groaned and clutched my lower stomach.

"It hurts," I whimpered. I just wanted to curl into a ball and sleep for the next twelve hours.

"Donnie what the shell is wrong with her?" Raph asked rubbing my back. Donnie looked helplessly at us.

"I don't know!" Donnie said holding up his hands.

"I think I do," my father said.

"Am I dying Daddy?" I whimpered. Raph tightened his hold on me.

"Princess, I won't ever let that happen. I can promise you." Raph said glaring at Donnie.

"No, baby. This is all you becoming a woman." my father said with a bit of a smile.

"If becoming a woman hurts this bad, can I just go to hell instead?" I asked. "Or maybe just forfeit being a woman and become a boy?"

"Honey, this is called a period. You will have one every month and it will last about three to seven days. And no one knows what a woman's symptoms are going to be. And that stomach hurting?" he asked me. I nodded. "Those are called cramps. Usually they occur when a girl gets her first period. Sometimes though the woman has cramps throughout her period. Just depends on the woman. And I prepared myself for when this happened. Come with me and bring a pair of clean shorts and your underwear." My father beckoned. "Leo, Raph, Mike, and Donnie, clean up the bed and put clean sheets and blankets on it." With these last words my father left the room with me in tow wearing bloody shorts. And I learned all about being a woman.

End Flashback

In the morning I awoke to Mike frying eggs in the living room. My stomach growled and I noticed none of my siblings around. I swung my legs off the couch and managed a few wobbly steps before I managed to crash to the floor. My brothers raced to the scene and Leo helped me to my feet this time. I fell hard against Leo's plastron and he held me up by my waist.

"What were you doing out of bed?" Donnie scolded me. I had to fight back tears as Donnie hardly ever scolded me. It was mostly Leo and Daddy who were the appointed punishers. I was even used to Mike yelling at me for ruining his perfect score or something. But Donnie and Raph? They never yelled or scolded me. Which is why when they did, I burst into tears every time.

"Oh, Snow, I'm sorry!" Donnie hurriedly tried to make peace with me. He knew that I was emotional because of what I'd went through but he didn't know that I was crying because he of all my brothers hardly ever scolded me.

Donnie had a hard time hugging me with Leo attached to my back but he managed.

"I know that you are having a hard time, but maybe you should talk with someone about it?" Donnie suggested. I began to cry harder.

"N-no! I-I-I'm not crying because of that, but you never reprimand me. It hurts when y-yo-you do!" I managed to say. These words seemed to make Donnie feel more guilty.

"I'm sorry, Snow. I wasn't trying to yell at you. I just forgot that I wasn't dealing with any of these shell heads right now. I should have known that yelling at you would have an ill effect. But you really do need to talk with someone. To keep all that info in your head won't get you anywhere!" Donnie said looking at me expectantly.

"I just wanted to eat!" I cried harder. Leo turned me around and hugged me gently, pressing me up against his plastron while making soothing circle motions along my back with his huge hand. But as soon as he began to make the circles on my lower back I tensed in his arms. He immediately stopped and began the circles higher on my mid back. Soon I calmed down enough to listen to what Donnie had to say.

"You can come eat, but what you're going to eat is going to be broth for the next couple of days. Then I will see how you handle solid food." Donnie said, going back into the kitchen. Leo seemed to think that the fastest way to the kitchen would be to pick me up, which is exactly what he did.

In the kitchen my brothers, Daddy, and April indulged themselves in a hearty breakfast of eggs, bacon and toast. While I ate chicken broth.

"Snow?" Donnie asked tentatively. I looked up.

"Yes?" I answered him, blowing on a hot spoonful of soup.

"When do you want to talk about what you experienced?" Donnie said a bit nervously.

"Um, maybe we should start today. And could all of you be there?" I asked a little nervous myself. What if they thought wrong of me? What if they didn't love me anymore, because I was impure? I pushed these thoughts out of my head and they all nodded and resumed eating their breakfasts. Yet mine didn't hold the same appeal that it first had when I began to eat.

"Leo?" I asked urgently. He looked up.

"What's wrong, firefly?" he asked.

"Bathroom," I said pressing my hand against my mouth. He immediately got up and picked me up. He deposited me in the bathroom and held my short hair out of my face. I threw up the contents of my stomach into the toilet.

"You ok? Imouto?" Leo asked me, calling me by one of his affectionate nicknames. I smiled as an answer. He laughed and helped me to my feet where I proceeded to wash out my mouth in the sink.