Chapter Text
Splinter paced back and forth across April’s living room, frowning heavily. “We knew this would happen, but I had not anticipated it occurring so soon.”
Soledad sat on April’s couch, watching as the adults argued over what to do about the incident from the day before. April had refused to let Soledad leave her sight, which meant not only did she spend the night with her ‘guardian’ for the first time since coming to New York, but she’d skipped school. Well. Was it skipping school if it was sanctioned by an adult?
Her friends, however, were definitely skipping school. They’d crowded together on April’s living room floor -- all while insisting this was not a proper sleepover and they’d still have that on Friday if the adults allowed it -- so that Soledad wouldn’t have to be alone.
They boys, from what Soledad had gathered after the fact, had watched over the building throughout the night. Soledad was grateful for their support, but she found herself wishing that they had been inside with her and the others. While it probably wouldn’t have been safer, it would have been more comforting.
“I shouldn’t have expected so much from that damn school,” April sighed, bringing Soledad’s mind back to the present. “That’s my fault.”
“You did the best you could,” Casey insisted. “You picked probably the most secure school in the city. Can you imagine what would have happened if Soledad was in any other city school?”
April sighed again, frustration easing only slightly.
“We cannot keep her from her education,” Splinter said, leaning heavily on his walking stick. “But we also cannot rely on the security measures at the school. I will increase the girls’ training.”
“You can’t treat these girls the same way you treat Raph and the others,” Casey warned. “They have school work, and parents who might wonder where they are. When they’re in town, I mean.”
“I will not allow these girls to face a threat without proper training!” Splinter said harshly, nearly shouting.
It was at that point the front door swung open, revealing a woman and her many, many suitcases. The woman stared at the crowded living room, eyes easily passing over Splinter and the turtles before landing on Soledad and the other girls.
“Did you adopt a litter while I was gone?” the woman asked, sounding like she was only partially joking.
“Michelle!” April shouted, rushing over to hug the woman and start helping with her bags. “You’re back early.”
“They wrapped up filming earlier than expected,” the woman -- Michelle -- explained. “They don’t exactly need the makeup team for post production. Anyway, who’re the kiddos?”
“Uh, well...” April looked back towards Soledad and Casey, clearly hesitating.
Casey wrapped an arm around Soledad’s shoulders, pulling her up from the couch. “This is Soledad. April offered to help the Splinter look after her.”
Soledad waved awkwardly.
“Must have been kinda sudden if you weren’t able to call me about it,” Michelle muttered.
“It’s been kind of crazy,” April admitted, lugging part of Michelle’s luggage through the apartment.
“Where she been staying, though?” Michelle called after April. “I know we don’t have the room for her. You better not have been putting her on the couch!”
“Soledad has been staying with us,” Splinter informed her.
Michelle shot Splinter a look. “Oh, because her living in the sewer is so much better.”
Soledad’s gaze fell to the floor. ‘I like staying in the sewer.’
Michelle blinked owlishly. “Is she one of your kids, Casey? From the community center?”
Soledad scowled and pulled out her voicebox. “No, I’m not. My name is Soledad and I ran away from an abusive foster home and the turtles gave me a place to stay so don’t be mean to them!”
The fight in Michelle’s face fell away, replaced with something akin to understanding. “No, you’re right. Sorry, Soledad. Sounds like you’ve been through something rough.”
Soledad nodded.
“And it’s only gotten rougher,” Vienna pipped up from the couch.
“Okay, now explain the rest of them,” Michelle said, pointing at the girls on the couch.
“They’re my friends,” Soledad told her.
“Father is training them to be ninjas as well,” Leonardo explained. “Because there are people after Soledad.”
Michelle held up her hand. “Okay. Full story. Now.”
“And you’re still thinking about letting her do the damn sleepover?” Michelle asked after hearing the full story. “Nuh-uh. Not happening.”
“We can’t just hide her away,” Vienna argued. “That’s not fair to her!”
“What’s fair and what’s safe are not always the same thing,” April admitted. “But her safety needs to come first.”
“Donnie and the others will be there,” Soledad said. “They’ll keep me safe.”
Soledad looked over her shoulder at the boys, who shifted restlessly. They looked half-ready to fight the next person who even looked at her. She turned back to April and the other adults, a pleading look on her face.
“Nancy already ruined enough of my life. I don’t want to let her ruin more,” Soledad said, her hands shaking a bit as she typed with how tightly she was holding her voicebox.
There was a heavy silence in the room, each adult trying to reconcile their need to protect Soledad, and their want for her to have some happiness after the abuse she’d endured -- and was still enduring to this day.
“She’s right,” Casey said finally.
Soledad blinked, unsure if she heard correctly. Did...did an adult actually agree with her?
“We can’t keep her cooped up for fear of what might happen,” Casey said. She stood, walking over to set a hand on Soledad’s shoulder. She gave it a reassuring squeeze. “Soledad deserves to have as normal of a life as we can provide...you know, considering the whole ninja training and living in the sewers with mutant turtles.”
“So we can have the sleepover?” Mikey asked cautiously.
Casey turned to grin over her shoulder at the other adults. “I don’t see why they can’t.”
Splinter hummed thoughtfully, stroking his beard -- and wasn’t it odd, Soledad thought belatedly, for a rat to have a beard -- and saying, “I suppose, so long as the girls continue to apply themselves to their training, that I will allow it.”
April sighed, smiling in fond exasperation. “Alright. You can have your sleepover.”
Vienna and Alice cheered, practically tackling Soledad to the ground with how forcefully they hugged her. Mikey also cheered, latching onto Autumn as she was the only one still enough to hug at that moment.
“But!” April said, raising her voice to catch their attention. “I want regular check-ins that night, you understand me? When you get out of school, when you get to the house, when dinner is eaten, when you’re going to bed, when you get up, and when you’re ready to leave. Am I understood.”
Soledad nodded, too excited to argue. The fear was still present, but she could feel it cower in the face of the people who cared about her. Nancy could scream all she wanted, she couldn’t touch her here.
Friday rolled around quicker than expected. And with it, the highly anticipated sleepover. Vienna practically shoved the girls into the towncar after school, barely waiting for Soledad to finish typing out her text to April and Splinter.
“Wait, do the boys know how to get there?” Alice asked as the car pulled out of the parking lot.
“I sent Leo the address,” Vienna said, waving her hand dismissively. “They should be able to find it fine. I mean, they’re ninjas!”
Autumn shushed her, eyes on the back of the driver’s head through the partition glass. Vienna slapped a hand over her own mouth, but the driver made no motion to indicate he heard anything. Soledad sighed with relief.
She turned to watch out the window as buildings passed by, the glass and steel of Manhattan’s business districts giving way to rows of brick and stone buildings as they drove further out of the city center. She watched as they crossed the Manhattan Bridge, entering into Brooklyn proper.
“You know, I did some reading,” Vienna said apropo of nothing. “And Cobble Hill is, in fact, considered part of Downtown Brooklyn. So, ha!”
“Okay, but why do you care so much about where Raph thinks you’re from?” Autumn asked with a smirk.
“I don’t,” Vienna said dismissively. “I just wanted to win.”
The car slowed as it approached a tall, standalone residence, the gate protecting the small front yard and coveted parking space rolling aside to let them in. Once the car was parked, Vienna bounced out of the backseat, babbling excitedly about all the things they were going to do. Soledad thought she heard something about a karaoke machine, but she wasn’t sure. She kept her eyes on the rooftops, scanning for any sign of the boys.
With Vienna’s driver bidding them a goodnight, the man wandered down a set of stairs towards the apartment below the main house. Soledad worried a little bit about that. Would he hear the boys when they came over? That led to a second question: would he care if he heard the boys? Vienna was his employer -- well, her mother was -- not his daughter or anything like that. It really wasn’t any of his business who she had over or what she did in her spare time.
Soledad pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind as Vienna unlocked the front door, pushing it open for everyone to see. Her home was absolutely gorgeous. A far cry for not only the sewers, but to the Williamsons’ distinctly middle-class home in Connecticut. The light streaming into the ground floor from the giant windows in the back made the whole space feel refreshing. Was that an elevator?
“Welcome!” Vienna giggled. “Mi casa es su casa, or however that goes.”
Soledad felt distinctly out of place as she stepped through the door. She had the strong instinct to not touch anything whatsoever.
“C’mon, c’mon!” Vienna said hurriedly. “Drop your stuff! We’ll hang out on the roof and wait for the boys!”
“Can we get out of our uniforms first?” Autumn asked with a laugh. “Geez, Vi. It’s not like we’ve never done one of these before.”
“Soledad hasn’t,” Alice pointed out. “And neither have the boys. And, um, I’ve never had a sleepover with boys before…”
“Can’t imagine it’d be much different,” Autumn said with a shrug, pulling some clothes out of her bag. “I’m gonna change. I will not confine myself to this awful uniform any longer!”
“You can change in the powder room upstairs,” Vienna told Soledad with a smile.
‘The what?’ Soledad signed, confusion flashing across her face.
“The bathroom,” Vienna corrected. “It’s just right next to the stairs.”
Powder room? Who called a bathroom a powder room? What powder? Soledad shook her head, chalking it up to rich people weirdness. She changed quickly, appreciating the warm comfort of her old hoodie. She exited, wondering where to go now. Vienna mentioned the roof…
“Soledad!” Vienna called, poking her head over the railing of the floor above. “Come on up!”
Soledad climbed the many, many stairs in Vienna’s house, almost out of breath by the time she reached the rooftop terrace. And then, it was the view that left her breathless.
‘Is that the ocean?’ She asked, squinting at the way the sun reflected off the water.
“Pretty sure that’s just the bay,” Vienna said, leaning against the railing. “But you can see the Statue of Liberty, so that’s pretty cool.”
It was pretty cool, Soledad decided, taking in the breeze that blew in off the water. She wished she and the boys could have this kind of view, that they didn’t have to hide underground. She knew, technically, she didn’t have to hide. She could run away from the sewers the same way she ran away from Bridgeport. Surely April or any of her friends would be willing to let her stay with them on the surface. But, even after this short time, she couldn’t stand the idea of abandoning Donnie and the others.
The sun was already setting despite the still relatively early hour, casting the sky with orange and lavender hues. Soledad counted her blessings that the accident that took her voice didn’t also take her sight. She never got the chance to appreciate these sorts of things before, but even with the threat of Nancy looming in the back of her mind, she was grateful to have the chance now.
Soledad stiffened as a pair of hands covered her eyes, blocking out the brilliant reflection of the sun off the water.
“Guess who,” a familiar voice teased.
‘Hi, Mikey,’ Soledad signed.
“How’d you guess?” Mikey demanded playfully, slipping around to lean against the railing beside her.
Soledad held up three fingers with a grin.
“Ah, yeah, that’d do it, wouldn’t it,” Mikey agreed, nodding sagely. “The others say ‘hi’ by the way.”
Soledad turned, catching Donnie’s gaze from across the terrace as the rest of the boys came bounding across the roofs. There was something odd about the look that crossed his face when he saw her and Mikey standing so close, but Soledad couldn’t quite place it. Mikey seemed oblivious, bouncing away to greet Autumn with a bright smile. Soledad watched him go, her eyes eventually ending back on Donatello, who seemed to be watching her, hesitating.
‘The view is nice, isn’t it?’ she asked, turning back towards the view of the bay.
“It is,” Donatello agreed, breaking free of his statue-like stillness to join her at the railing.
‘I wish there were more stars,’ she signed. ‘They would look pretty reflecting on the water.’
“It’d probably hurt your eyes less,” Donatello joked lightly.
Soledad smiled a little, her shoulders shaking with silent laughter. She sighed, her smile turning wistful. ‘I wish we could have a view like this.’
Donatello eyed her contemplatively. “Maybe someday.”
“Hey, guys!” Donatello and Soledad turned at Vienna’s call. “We’re ordering pizza! What kind do you want?”
Donnie flashed Soledad a smile. “Come on. If we don’t interfere, Mikey will order something absolutely inedible.”