When Splinter and I arrived at the turtle's lair the Turtle's all looked up from what they were doing in surprise.  Their Sensei and father had finally returned from the battlefield but he hadn't returned alone.

"What the shell is she doing here?" The turtle wearing a red mask yelled half choking on the pizza slice he had just bitten into.

Splinter frowned he hated it when his sons used the word shell as a swear. It was time to remind them once more that this was unacceptable. "Raphael ten flips now!

"What? What for?" Raphael demanded in irritation.

"You heard Master Splinter he said to go do ten flips yah shell head." Leo said with a smile.

"Why I autta... Ralph replied heading towards Leo.

"Leo, ten flips now" Splinter replied in response.

"Heh he" laughed Mikey.

"Mikey ten flips now" Splinter called to his youngest son!

"Ah man! What I'd do?" Mikey whined.

Soon the three turtles started doing flips and counting, "One, two, three, four..... "

Donnie the turtle wearing purple was the only one not being punished so he took this opportunity to ask his Master the question he knew everyone was wondering. "Umm not to sound like a broken record Master, but just what is she doing here?"

"She is going to be living with us from now on. Splinter relied helping me into the room.

"Say what?" Leo and Raph said in unison.
"Have you completely lost your mind Sensi? Raph said walking over to Splinter. " In case you forgotten, she's wanted by our biggest nemeses. Keeping her here is dangerous!"

"I hate to say it Master but I actually agree with Raph on this one" replied Leo who also had stopped doing his flips for the time being.

"The decision has been made. Aren't you two supposed to be doing something right now?" Splinter reminded them. "I don't recall you finishing your ten flips would you prefer your punishment be enhanced to the Hashi?"

"You've got to be kidding me." Raph replied.
"Do I look like I'm kidding? Finish your flips or I will punish you further."

"Yes Master Splinter, I'll finish them right now Master." Leo replied getting back to his flips.

"I'll finish them right now Master, Raplh said mockingly. Jeesh what a kiss up!" Ralph retorted under his breath.

"What was that?" Leo asked stoping his flips once more to face his brother.

"Twenty more flips now! If you stop again I will increase your punishment to the Hashi without hesitation." Splinter replied shaking his head. "Kids" he said with a sigh. "Now where was I? Ah yes, this young child will be staying with us from now on."

"My name is Catherine, and I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself, I don't need to be coddled or babysat. I never asked for your help and I certainly don't need it." I replied with a frown.

"Right, like you could have defeated the purple dragons, an  army of foot ninjas  and Bebop and Rocksteady by yourself" Raphael said sarcastically. "I'm curious kid, just how did you expect to take them all on?" Raphael said with a slight laugh.

"I was in the middle of forming a plan when you barged in all "heroically" I replied rolling my eyes to indicate that I was being sarcastic.

"Sure you were kid, sure you were!" Raphael said with a slight giggle.

"Quit calling me kid! I'm not a kid! I'm 16! I can take care of myself!" I replied angrily fighting back tears. I wasn't about to give this turtle the satisfaction of seeing me cry.

"Fine by Us there's the exit! No ones forcing you to stay, Sianara and good riddance!" Ralph replied.

"Enough!" Splinter said sternly. "Raphael apologize now!" Splinter demanded.

"Why? Why should I? I only said what we are all thinking right guys? I mean why should we care about what happens to her? It's not like she's a dear friend. She's a total stranger and we know nothing about her!"

"As I recall, April I Neil and Casey Jones were once strangers who ultimately became two of our greatest allies." Splinter replied.

"Yeah but that was different." Raph argued.

I couldn't take it anymore, the tears began to fall and soon I was sobbing. "Now look what you did Raph! You made her cry. It's ok kid, don't cry, oh please don't cry. I can't stand it when I see people crying." Said Mikey walking up to the me and handing me a hankie. I wiped away my tears and looked up at Mikey and smiled.

"If Master Splinter says your ok then I'm not going to argue. Welcome to the family kid," said Leo patting me on the back.

"Welcome to our humble home" said Donnie waving his hand in a welcoming gesture.

"You've got to be kidding me!"!Raphael said with a groan. "Ok fine, don't listen to
Me. Just don't blame me when this blows up in our faces." He retorted

"Raph, Splinter would gave never brought her here if he didn't think it would be safe." Leo said putting his hand on Ralph's shoulder.

"Yeah, I guess your right. Welcome to the family kid." Raph said putting his hand out for me to shake. "Oh and I'm sorry for what I said earlier I never meant to make you cry."

Donnie, Mikey and Leo's jaws all dropped.  "Umm...Did Raph just.????" Mikey started to say.

"Uhhuh." Donnie replied his eyes still wide in shock.

"Woah" said Mikey still shocked. "Are you feeling ok dude?"

"What?" Demanded  Raphael in irritation. "I can be sensitive." To this his brothers burst into laughter and Raph growled. "Whatever! I don't need this, I'm outa here!"

I smiled as I watched Raph leave of all the turtles she liked him the most. Things were finally starting to turn around and at last I felt like I had some hope for once in my life.

After watching Raph leave the others gave me a compete tour of the lair. With Mikey acting as the tour guide. "So here's the kitchen where we eat lots of pizza. Over there is Leo's room which is kinda boring if you ask me!" Mikey said with a laugh to which Leo frowned.

"It's not that bad" he muttered under his breath. However, the tour had already continued.

"Over here is the living room. Where we have all sorts of cool nentendo games and where Leo likes to watch cartoons." Mikey said causing Leo to blush. "Over here is Donnie's work area/room Mikey replied. "If you can't tell already Donnie has a big crush on our friend April."

"Mikey! Would you... Oh just get of here!" Donatello said irritatedly.

"Ok, Ok we are leaving. Didn't want to stay in this boring room anyway." Mikey replied back bumping into a table holding a container of strange liquid. "Oops, my bad." Mikey said as the container almost fell onto the floor.

"Hay watch it!" Donnie replied grabbing the container before it fell. "Mikey how many times must I tell you to keep your clumsy self away from my experiment area!"

"Chill out dude! I was just showing Catherine around."

"Well can't you show her something else? I'm working on a very combustible experiment." Donnie replied with a frown.

"Huh?" Mikey said in confusion.

"Oh never mind just go show her something else." Donnie replied shooing us out the door.

"Over here is my room, the coolest place here! I've got loads of comics, cool posters..."
I smiled this was a pretty neat place considering it was in a sewer. Looking over to the one room Mikey hadn't shown me. I asked "is this Raphael's room?"

"Yeah, but trust me little duddette, that room is off limits. Raph likes his privacy. Besides there is nothing in there anymore since his pet turtle Spike became a giant mutant turtle."

"So there's more of you?"

"Naw, just spike. Well Spike and Venus De Milo. Anyway, just know that Raph's room is off limits."

I sighed, "ok. Hay, What's that area over there?" I asked pointing to the room with the tree in the middle.

"That's our training area." Mikey replied.

"Training? What kind of training?" I asked with a look of confusion.

"That's where Master Splinter teaches us the way of the ninja.  We do all kinds of things there. We train with our weapons.."

"What kind of weapons do you guys have? I'd love to learn how to use them to defend myself." I replied.

"Leo has the Katana, Raph has the sai, Donnie has a bowe staff and I have the best weapon of all, nunchucks." Mikey replied proudly.

"Cool! When do I get to learn to use those?" I asked eagerly.

Splinter cleared his throat, "the best weapon you have is your mind my dear. However, when you are ready I will allow you to train with each of these weapons. For now, you must learn the basics."

"Yes Master Splinter." I said with a slight sigh. "So where will I be staying?" I asked changing the subject.

"You can have the room next to mine. I know it's not much but I'm afraid it's all that we have to offer." Splinter replied.

"It's wonderful. Thank you so much!" I replied giving Splinter a hug.

At first Splinter was a little surprised but then he hugged me back. "You are welcome young one."I began to yawn and stretched my arms. "Get some sleep young one. You've had a long day. In fact, it's time we all turned in for the night." Splinter said starting to close my door behind him.

"Master Splinter,"

"Yes young one?"

"Can you keep the door open a little bit? I'm a
little afraid of the dark." I whispered.

Splinter nodded in understanding "as you wish young one, now get some sleep.

"Good night Master Splinter."

"Goodnight young one." Splinter replied with a smile. Soon I was drifting off to sleep and I slept better then I had in a long time.