Home is Where the Heart is (TMNT 2012 Raphael x Oc)

Part 1 Chapter 1: She Deserves to Know

Have you ever thought that there were mutants in the world? I've thought about that many times so here's a little story about what you want to hear.

A long time ago, there was a baby named Rachael. She was born with brown hair, brown eyes, and a great sense of adventure. She loved to play outside and imagine she was some sort of superhero saving the world, only her world was her adoptive mother and father.

At only a few hours old, our protagonist was left in the care of a local hospital, unaware of the serendipitous moment that was about to occur between her and a couple of misfortuned parents; kind and gentle, but plagued by the loss of miscarriage—soon to be replaced by hope and new beginnings when the poor couple was informed of a new babe in the NICU, left in the hospital without official papers nor the love needed to nurture such a young and frail life.

"If... if I could," Said the poor woman, clutching her wrinkled hospital gown, "take the baby home with us... give it the life I couldn't give my previous one... then I'd do right by them."

When the woman was presented with a squirming babe, she felt a bond forming the moment her shaky hands cradled the bundle of cloth, peeling the covers so gently to reveal a rosy, beautiful child. The husband leaned over his wife's sitting form in her bed, squeezing her shoulder and trembling just as much as she was. "Rachael," She breathed softly. Tender. Full of love and pain and loss and hope. "You will never know sadness as long as I'm alive to prevent it." And home they went, clutching a baby that they'll raise with all the love that they can provide.

The couple raised Rachael in a secure household in a small town in the outskirts of New York City, where she learned many things and made many memories. Her childhood was filled with great bedtime stories and toys that any kid could only dream of; however, that all came to an end when her parents came to finally tell her the truth.

You see, Rachael's parents never told her that she was adopted, for they had just raised her on their own and didn't feel the need to explain to her because, after all, Rachael was their daughter. They were a family and nothing could change that. One day, when Rachael was fifteen, she came home from school with a heritage project called the Worldwide Genome Project. She could learn about her distant family and bloodline by a simple DNA sample sent to this company, though she still had other parts to do for this project instructed by her teachers.

.~.~.~.~.

"And what else did my grandpa do?" Rachael asked as she was interviewing her mom for the project.

Both were sitting around the kitchen table while Rachael had a notebook in her hand and a pen to document what her mom was saying about her distant family members.

"Well, you see, your grandpa was a very strong man, and he worked very hard to uh..." Rachael's mom stopped speaking and pondered a little before fully pausing.

Rachael spoke up when she noticed her mom zone out.

"Mom?" Rachael put out her hand to her mother's shoulder and lightly shook her, "Mom, are you okay?"

Rachael's mom snapped back into reality and chuckled nervously letting Rachael know she was fine and that she just needed some air. As she stood up to step outside for a bit, Rachael looked down at her notebook and made a frown.

"I guess grandpa either did something to her when she was younger or he died and she hasn't told me, but how could that be? I just saw him two weeks ago."

While Rachael was deep in her thoughts, she stood up, put the kitchen table chairs in, and gathered her belongings heading up to her room.

I suppose Mom will let me know when she's ready to talk again, lately she's been acting very weird for some reason but I guess she'll come to me when she's ready. Rachael thought to herself as she headed up the stairs.