Hey loves. For a bit, I'm going to talk about things and blah blah yeah. If you wanna skip to the story, please go right ahead!

First of all, I'd like to apologize for my absence. A lot has happened in the past year, hence the reasoning in which I haven't updated in over a year or so. However, I'd like to also THANK each and every one of you who has left a review, a follow, or a favourite for me on this story. It means the absolute world to me!

As well, I'd like to address something. I received a review today, informing me of the re-posting of this story on wattpad without my consent/permission. Honestly, this is the first time this has ever happened to me, so I'm not exactly sure how to react in these sort of situations. However, it still gives me an icky feeling that someone thought it would be okay to do something like this.

Reposting art/stories without the authors/writers permission is extremely disrespectful. As well, without giving them any form of credit?! Please. Don't be a dick. Please don't take credit for work that is not yours.

So anyway, I checked out the story on WattPad and stuff. Yaddayadda. Obviously, no credit towards me. I guess it's safe to assume that the other stories this person has posted isn't theirs either. Anyway, I won't release their name unless they REALLY start to irritate me by constantly releasing even more of my chapters. They even tried to rename the story though. Really man? Really?

Yeah, I know maybe I'm over reacting. But hey, people put a lot of time into their work, so it's kind of sad when other people just try and take that away from them!

ANYWAAYYSS. Thank you again guys for the reviews. Thank you to Ella who brought the issue to my attention!

I'll start trying to do my best again. Sorry if this chapter sucks, I'll make the next one even better. I promise.

Happy to be back.

My eyelids lifted up slowly. The surface I was laying on was soft, and felt familiar. I focused my eyes and looked around to see where I was. My room... I thought to myself, How in the world did I get here? All I remember is... the memories of the most recent events flashed through my mind. I turned my head slightly, and saw Mikey facing me, slouched over in a chair beside me. I looked back at my doorway, and saw Raph leaning against it, looking out the door.

"Mikey?" I whispered suddenly. He jumped up in surprise.

"Lea! You're awake! That's awesome!" He grinned at me. His grin... it looked... too forced.

"Yeah. What happened?" I spoke louder this time, and tried to give him a small smile back. I felt a sharp pain on my bottom lip as I smiled. I quickly stopped smiling.

Mikey's smile faded. "Eh, a lot happened I guess. Me and Raph are here to look after you. Are you okay? Want anything to drink or eat? Comics to read? Games to play?"

I giggled a bit, trying not to smile. "I'm alright. But hey... where are Leo and Don? And Flynn? And Furl-" I stopped in realization. "Furly! Where is he? Is he okay?"

Mikey paused and looked over at Raph. I guessed that Mikey gave him some sort of signal to speak up, because as soon as Mikey looked away from Raph, Raph walked over to the end of my bed.

"Since ya' passed out, which was... what, 30 minutes ago? We brought ya here, along with Furly. Don... looked 'im over but there was nothin' he could do. Yer bro... suggested he bring him to the animal hospital. Leo and Don are on their way there now with them. We were told to watch after ya," Raph explained to me.

My eyes widened. "What do you mean he couldn't do anything? It's DON! Right? He patched me up, I'm sure he can patch up a dog? It's not like he was hurt that badly? Right guys?"

Mikey bit his lip. He looked so nervous. "No, Lea... he... I mean, yeah I guess... he was... you woke up a lot earlier than we thought you would. I mean they just left 5 minutes ago."

I pushed myself off the bed, "Take me there." Suddenly, I felt an aching in my stomach. I held my stomach with both arms, and noticed the bandages covering my palms. I lifted my hand and lightly touched my bottom lip, feeling the same sharp pain.

The two brothers watched me cautiously, not really know what to say.

The images of Furly covered in blood were flashing through my mind. I was starting to feel anxious. "Take me there, guys. There's only one animal hospital near here, and you guys can get me there the fastest," I requested again.

"That isn't really a good idea, Lea..." Mikey replied sadly, "You cut your lip and one of them punched you in the stomach, didn't they? You have injuries practically all over your body. Maybe you should just re-"

"Nope. Don't you dare say it. I will not rest until I see my dog. If there was a freaking earthquake I would still go to see my dog. That dog is my best friend. Now you better take me to him, or so god help me I will make sure you suffer. You hear me?" I hissed at them. I didn't mean to sound so cruel. My patience was just running thin; and I was in a bad mood. I was having a bad day. Bad week. Bad year. Bad life.

"You are so god damn stubborn, ya know that?" Raph said, shaking his head slowly. Mikey's eyes were full of sadness. My stomach and head was throbbing, but I ignored it.

"Whatever," I responded. "Take me now."

I quickly changed my clothes – again – and I rode on the back of Mikey's shell. We jumped from building to building making our way to the hospital. I could tell he was slightly hurt by what I said to them earlier and quickly decided to apologize.

"...Mikey, about what I said earlier... I'm really sorry. I really didn't mean it. I'm just having a bad day. I'm sorry." I noticed how Raph slowed down to listen to what I was saying.

I saw his lip curl up slightly. "Don't worry about it, Lea. I'm not sad because of your threat."

I furrowed my eyebrows slightly. "Then what are you sad about?"

He sighed. "I'm sad because of the look on your face when you were talking about Furly. You care about him a lot, I can tell. Even though things aren't really looking good for him..." he stopped himself short.

I flinched. What did he mean that things weren't looking good for him? "...What?" I squeaked out.

"Damnit, Mike," Raph cussed at him. "You idiot, we agreed we wouldn't say anythin'!" Raph gave him a small smack on the back of the head.

"I'm sorry..." Mikey replied quietly.

"It's okay," I said before Raph could say anything back to him. "Just bring me there as fast as you can. Go that way now, it's just around that corner." I pointed to the direction of the animal hospital.

We jumped down in an alley beside the hospital, and I ordered them to stay hidden while I went inside. They didn't argue and I quickly ran inside to look for my brother. After asking the front desk if they had seen him, they pointed down the hallway and I saw him pacing around beside a room. The operating area. I ran towards him, ignoring the pain in my stomach and rest of my body.

"Flynn!" I cried out from the end of the hallway. He looked up and saw me, his face relaxed a little, but not completely.

"Leanne! Why are you here? Are you okay? Are you in pain? Sit down." He pushed me down onto a chair.

"I'm fine. But where's Furly? Is he okay?" I asked anxiously.

He looked towards a door he was pacing in front of. "They might have to do an emergency surgery on him..."

I stared at him shocked. "What do you mean they need to do surgery on him? He wasn't hurt that bad! Right? He wasn't... right?"

He didn't reply. Instead, he just continued to stare at the door I was sitting beside.

Time went by slowly. We stayed silent the entire time, waiting for some news on our dog. Memories of my dog flashed through my mind. Giving him his first bath, teaching him his first trick (to sit), taking him on his first walk and almost losing him in the park. The times when I would sit in my room feeling empty and craving the feeling of viciously tearing at my arms, he would sit closely beside me and lick my hands. That dog knew when I was sad. He knew when I felt alone. And he was always there.

After what felt like hours, the door finally opened. I jumped up and stared at the veterinarian. I was standing right beside my brother now, and we were both anxious at what she had to say.

She wore a long white lab-coat, and her brown hair was tied back. We watch as she slowly pulled off a long glove from her right hand, then her left. She pulled down the mask covering her mouth and looked at us. "Are you the owners of a white poodle?"

"Bichon poodle," I corrected. "So what's up? How's he doing?"

"Yes – " she paused and her eyes looked sad. "I'm sorry, but we've done everything we could. There's nothing else we can do. His wounds are too severe... Even if he were brought here earlier, I still don't think we would've been able to do anything. I'm so sorry..."

My eyes widened. She was kidding right? Was that really it? There was nothing else they could do? I was trembling. " I… wait… let... let us..." I didn't finish my sentence. I couldn't choke out the words. My throat felt like it was closed shut.

"Of course. Right this way." She led us inside. I noticed a few people walking around a table. Laying there on the center of the table was none other than Furly. My brother and I walked over anxiously and came beside the small dog covered in dark red. I could hear my little brother sobbing quietly as he lightly patted Furly's coat.

Furly's eyes were slightly opened, and his chest was moving up and down slowly. My heart broke at the sight of him. His eyes slowly looked up to mine as he breathed slowly. He was in so much pain. I could feel the tears rolling down my cheeks as I slightly bent over and placed my hand on Furly's head, stroking his fur slowly with my fingers.

"I... I love you Furly, okay? You're the best dog ever," I whispered to him trying not to break down. "We love you. The... the pain will be gone soon... okay? It'll be okay." I bent over a bit more so I could kiss his forehead. I didn't even care if it was covered with blood. I looked over at the vet, and saw that she was ready. I looked over at my brother. He had his face covered for a moment, but soon moved his hand to reveal the tears streaming down his face. Flashbacks suddenly filled my mind as I thought back towards our younger years, when my brother would cry over the silliest things. That time he lost his teddy bear named DC, or the time when he got yelled at for breaking my mother's favourite coffee mug. He was of course forgiven for the incident. I hadn't seen him cry at all since those times, but seeing him now made me realize how much he's grown since then.

Furly was that one addition to the family that didn't cause any stress or disappointment. Other than the cost of the vet bills and the occasional accidents around the house, he was the most well behaved dog, and the greatest listener. He kept my brother and me company when my parents couldn't, and he was there for me. I couldn't have asked for a better dog. A better best friend.

My brother came beside me, and bent over to give Furly a kiss on the forehead as well. I placed one hand near Furly's mouth as I stroked his fur gently with the other. I felt the cloudiness in my eyes worsen as Furly attempted to lick my hand – as if to comfort me.

I gave the vet a tiny nod to signal that we were ready. I bent over and lightly rested my head on Furly's paw as he felt our warmth for the last time, and eventually drifted off.

I sat on my bed, resting my elbows on my knees. I couldn't even think about packing right now. The past few days just had been horrible. Worse than horrible. I felt numb. As if all of my emotions had been sucked out of my body and just thrown into the garbage. It was strange; I wasn't feeling sad nor happy, I was feeling nothing. What happened today was nothing. I was nothing. I fell back into my bed and held myself in fetal position, trying to figure out what to do, and how I was going to get on with doing anything. My chest hurt.

I thought back to earlier, when we found the spot we were going to bury Furly. It was by one of the oldest park's in my neighbourhood, which was also the park with the least people and dogs. I only allowed him off leash at this park, because he got too excited when there were too many dogs around. It was his favourite place to be. Only good memories happened there. Leo and Mikey helped dig a hole that was big enough for his little body. The sight of Furly's limp body wrapped in a blanket gave me the worst feeling in my stomach. That dog was once alive. Just the day before he was jumping around, trying to get me to bring him on a walk. I gave him one last kiss before watching Raph gently place him into the hole we dug out for him. After saying a few words, I couldn't help but let out a scream of frustration. I startled everyone around me, and thinking back to that moment gave me a bit of irritation. I let my emotions get to me too easily.

I couldn't help but think about the time I brought Furly on his first walk. He dragged me around, trying to investigate every single tree, every lamp post, every flower he could get in touch with. The first time he saw another dog, he pulled on the leash so hard that it was freed from my grasp. I pushed myself off the bed, and over to my dresser. I couldn't waste anymore time thinking about the past. The turtles were waiting for my brother and me downstairs, and we needed to speed things up. I threw as much as I could into my bags, not caring what they were, and zipped my bags closed. I hurried over to the bathroom to grab my tooth brush and all my other hygienic products.

I reached for my cell phone, only to remember what I had done to it the day before. My day was only getting worse and worse. My arms shook as I grabbed my bags, and stumbled towards the stairs with my eyes half open. Walking down, I noticed one of Furly's chew toys on the ground. I swiped it up without thinking, and stuffed it into my bag.

"Leanne?" Mikey's voice was quiet.

"Hm?" I responded, not having the energy to really say anything. I didn't look at him. I didn't look at any of them. I didn't understand why they were all standing; I would have been completely fine having them sit on our living room couches. It's not like I ever really had friends over to sit on them. My parents never sat on them anymore either, so whatever happened to the couches didn't matter to me.

"Let me hold your bag," Leo offered as he reached for the bag I had stuffed Furly's toy into.

I flinched backwards, causing Leo to also pause, but I immediately regretted it. I sighed. "Don't touch it. I'm fine. Thank you." He didn't respond. I felt bad, causing so much drama for them. I heard stomping was my brother hurried down the stairs, but to my surprise he hadn't packed his bags. I dropped mine to the floor, suddenly pissed off.

"What the hell are you doing? Hurry up and pack," I muttered angrily towards him. I knew it wasn't something to be mad about, but I just needed to take my anger out on someone.

My brother stood in front of me, and it made me realize how much bigger he has gotten. He wasn't the tiny cry baby anymore, he was basically a teenager and he was an independent one at that. "I'm not going."

"What?" I looked up at him in surprise. I could feel the turtles behind me staring at him too. The air was getting tense. "Why?"

"Okay, think about it…" Flynn looked as if he was going to doubt himself, but pulled himself together and spoke again, "I can't just go with these turtles, and I don't think you should either. Or maybe you should, I don't know. I mean, it's great that they were here to help and all. But I don't know them. You don't really know them either. I just… I don't know. If I'm going to have to move out, I'll go live with a friend. I really will. But I feel like there isn't really much danger in just living here on my own. If you need to go, then… I can't stop you." He suddenly turned to Raph and Don. "Yes, I know about the whole "sickness" thing being fake. Anyone could tell that you guys were lying, let's be honest here." Flynn sighed, and turned his head back towards me, waiting for a response. I could hear Raph scoff in the background. I wasn't surprised that he knew that it was all fake; our performance wasn't exactly Oscar-worthy.

"So… you won't come? What the hell? Just go upstairs and pack your bags. Dude, I'm serious. I trust these guys, even if they're turtles. They're real awesome, and they helped me out a lot. Are you just going to ignore what they did earlier? They basically saved my life," I tried my best to explain, but I knew that it was hopeless. Once my brother had set his mind to do something, nothing would be able to change his mind.

Flynn nodded, "I understand that, but I was doing a lot of thinking and I feel like this is more of your issue than mine. I'm not trying to imply that this is annoying to me or anything, I just..." he sighed, "I just feel like me being around wouldn't do you any good. And it wouldn't do me any good either. Plus, I still have school to attend. You're on exam break right now aren't you?"

"Yeah," I completely forgot about that. It didn't really feel like a 'break' to me, since I was at home 99% of the time, alone with my thoughts. "But I… you'll get lonely won't you?"

Flynn smiled. "Nah, it's cool. I've been basically bringing myself up these past few years, haven't I? I'll be okay. Whatever is happening right now with you, because I know that there is much more to this than you're telling me, will get better. Everything will be okay. If this is really for the best for you, then I'll respect your decision. Though I may not like it, I'll respect it."

My eyes suddenly got cloudy, but I forced my tears back. It was weird having my brother say such sentimental things to me, but it was comforting. He really wasn't such a "little" brother anymore, despite his age.

I noticed that the turtles were unusually silent, and turned back towards them. Don was biting his lip, along with Leo. Mikey pretended to be distracted by one of the paintings on the wall as Raph fiddled around with one of the drawstrings on his hoodie.

"Okay," I finally sighed, turning back towards my brother. "Look, I'll be back tomorrow and see how you're doing. If anything is out of place or if you look even the slightest bit unhealthy, I will drag you out of here if I have to."

Flynn smiled. "I can do this, don't worry. Our parents gave us our own debit cards for a reason, right? I'll order food when I'm hungry. I'll also have friends come over. Don't worry, I won't have too many parties." He grinned. I snorted at that. My brother has never been the type to party a lot at all. Our mother and father one day came to me and my brother when I had just turned 14 and my brother 11 and presented us with the gift of debit cards. They continuously refilled our accounts monthly, though we rarely used them for reasons other than food-related situations. It made sense to give us a way to buy our own food, but honestly it just confirmed even more that they weren't going to be coming home too much anymore.

"I don't mean to interrupt…" Don's voice mumbled behind me. I felt a hand come down on my shoulder. Probably Don's. "We need to get going. Don't worry, Flynn, we'll find out who did this to Furly. And why."

I paused for a second. I completely forgot about that. How did Furly get out in the first place? How did they know that he was my dog? How did they happen to find me at that moment? Nothing was making sense anymore.

Flynn nodded. "Got it. I know I don't really know you guys, but I'm seriously counting on you." I could tell Flynn was really holding back. I could tell he wanted to break down, but not in front of me. I wanted to say something, but I respected the fact that he was waiting for us to leave so that he could go on with his own business. Flynn then stuck out his hand and Don immediately grabbed it and shook it. It was strange to see, but I was glad that Flynn was at least okay with them. I sighed before giving him a quick one-armed hug.

"I'll be back tomorrow to bring you some lunch or something, kay?" I said after pulling back from the sudden embrace. I could see Raph and Mikey already at my front door, waiting to leave. They were probably tired from all the waiting and standing around.

Flynn grinned. "Make it Taco Bell."

I plopped myself onto the very same couch I had awoken from the night before. I was tired. Exhausted.

"Leanne," the Brooklyn accent. I could recognize who it was immediately.

I pushed myself up into sitting position on the couch before turning to look in the direction of his voice. "Yeah? What's up?"

Raph stood there holding a plate of pizza and a glass of water, "I uh- well, I just… wanted ta see if you were okay? I mean, this day was probably real tough," He looked down at the food as if he had forgotten why he had them in the first place. After a second, he remembered what he brought them for and placed them on the coffee table in front of me. "This is for ya, I guess"

"I'm alright, I guess. Thanks for asking." I forced a smile despite my lip still stinging in pain. "Ah- I'm not too hungry at the moment, I'll eat a little later." I stood up from the couch and dragged my bag behind me. "I'm a little tired," I said quietly, "I think I'm going to just sleep now."

"Wai- wait. Ya' gotta eat somethin', it's already past twelve in tha mornin'," I heard him starting to follow behind me, but I quickened my pace towards the room that I was spending the rest of my stay within.

Upon entering the room, I quickly slammed the door and locked it. "I need to change," I called out, knowing that I probably shut the door right in Raph's face. "Just… please don't come in…" I whispered this time, my eyes starting to water. I threw myself onto the bed I had slept in the night before, and stared at the empty wall parallel to the door.

Don't cry… I repeated this to myself as I felt myself starting to dig my nails into my skin. I'm so damn… so... useless. It was my fault Furly died, wasn't it? If I hadn't left the house that night to get some stupid snacks, then he'd probably still be here. I would have noticed if he had left the house or not, and I would have found him early enough to prevent this from happening. I knew I was being ridiculous. Dwelling over the past wasn't healthy, and I knew I was just making the situation a lot worse for myself. However, I couldn't stop the thoughts from repeating over and over in my mind.

Suddenly, I felt the warmth of an object rub against my leg. My heart stopped for a second as I remembered the times in which Furly would climb onto my bed and join me. He always rubbed against my leg to let me know that he was present. I looked down to my legs expecting to see a white ball of fur laying at my feet, but instead saw Mikey's cat, Klunk.

I grabbed the pillow from under my head and clutched it towards my face, trying to hide the tears were already beginning to spill over. I could hear the sound of sobbing echo off the walls in the once silent room. I came to the realization that these sobs were coming from me, and this only caused me to clutch the pillow even harder towards my face, in an attempt to muffle the sounds coming from my own mouth.

Okay, finally next chapter we'll be getting started with the plot and all that shit! I'm kinda excited to start writing about it cuz i've got so many ideas, and I hope you all stick around!

Sorry if this chapter was strange. It's sort of been sitting in my computer for a year, and I just reopened it today and started writing and editting it again. Apologies for the spelling errors, grammar errors, etc.

Thank you thank you thank you all for reading!