From The Shadows || TMNT 2012 FanFiction (BOOK 1)

Chapter 17. The Garden

     Mikey frowns. "Dude. You called him his real name."

     "My bad. I meant Buxton Bugbrain."

     Mikey's frown turns into a wide smile. "Thank you."

     "I'd say that's worth the risk," Raph says.

     Leo nods. "Easier said than done, though. If-"

     April and Carrie burst into the lab, cutting the leader off and turning all attention onto themselves. Carrie was timider and silently followed April into the room. She let April do the talking.

     "Hi, there buds!" April says. "How ya guys doing?"

     "Good," Donnie responds. His brothers knew the conversation they had just had completely gone out the door to him. "What are you up to, April?"

     "Oh, nothing much. Just finished dinner." April smiles. "I got a question for you guys."

     "What is it?" Donnie asks.

     "Carrie and I were wondering if you four would be cool with us going out tonight?"

     Leo crosses his arms and shakes his head. "No way."

     April pouts. "Come on! Why not?"

     "Because it's dangerous," Leo says.

     "But you four could come with us! We'll show you where we hang out!"

     "I'll go with you guys," Donnie volunteers. He stands, joining April and Carrie.

     "The rest of you should come too. You all could use a break."

     Leo shakes his head once again. "We were just in the middle of coming up with a-"

     "I'm in!" Mikey asserts. "Sounds like a party!"

     Raph groans. He so badly didn't want to go but he wasn't about to stay here with Leo while his brothers go out and have fun without him. "I'm in too," he grumbles.

     Leo's arms fall to his sides. His face expresses disbelief in his brothers. "Seriously, guys? Don't you know how dangerous this is? We should-"

     "You can spare one night, Leo," April says.

     The leader sighs. He grudgingly decides to join the rest of them. Leo knew his brothers weren't going to follow his orders. It's best Leo joins them instead of staying behind. There was some truth in the saying "safety in numbers," after all. Besides, if anything grave did happen, he could be there to prevent any harm that may come to his brothers, April, and especially Carrie.

     The team made their way through the sewers and up towards the surface. April and Carrie led the brothers down the route they took to get to the garden. The turtles climbed up to the rooftops while the girls stayed on the ground. Carrie wasn't ready to jump across the tops of buildings and nothing could persuade her to even try yet.

     A few minutes later and they arrived at the garden. The turtles cautiously climbed down the building they were on and joined the girls at the back door. They looked around constantly, making sure no one was watching.

     It was dark inside the building but April quickly changed that. She flipped on all of the string lights she and Carrie had put up. The garden illuminated, revealing to their turtle friends just how beautiful this place was. They all awed and gasped in unison. This certainly wasn't what they were expecting.

     April and Carrie ran over to the tree where they had laid blankets and pillows in front of it.

     "Welcome!" April announces. She pats the blanket, signaling the turtles to come to join them.

     "How did you guys find this place?" Donnie asks. He shakes his head. "No. How is this possible?"

     "There's literally a tree growing in the middle of our dojo, dude. In the sewers. That's crazier than this place," Mikey says.

     Carrie smiles. "My dad bought it when I was just a baby. He cleaned it up. I don't know how he made this all possible."

     "Yeah," April says. "Carrie and I hung out here all the time when we were kids. So we spruced it up and added all this cool stuff over the past couple of days."

     "It looks awesome!" Donnie exclaims, sitting next to April. His brothers sit around the blanket, their eyes wandering around all the pretty plants and pretty lights.

     "It's better than awesome, dudettes!" Mikey throws his arms up in the air. "It's magical! It's whimsical! It's-"

     "It's relaxing," Raph mumbles. He leaned his head against the tree and closed his eyes. The tension between himself and Carrie remained so he hadn't wanted to say anything about this place, to begin with. Raph felt the need to keep up the attitude but he couldn't help but compliment the area. Besides, April had helped too, so really he was complimenting April. Either way, it made Carrie happy that he thought kindly about it.

     They all talked amongst themselves. It was a nice break from their regular lives. The turtles hardly ever got to just sit and relax and talk about life. Of course, Mikey quickly got bored. He stood up and began to frolic around the grass, as one does, leaving the others to continue their conversations.