Little Raphael

Chapter 1

Raphael slowly walked through the snow-covered streets of Brooklyn, New York.  It was dark, and the only light in the street of the rundown neighborhood was a small, dim, yellow, street light.  But Raph didn't care about the dark or the snow, his mind was already preoccupied with other matters.  

For once it was not the Shredder, the Foot Clan, or the Kraang.  This was something more personal.  He did not know who would be able to help him with this problem.  He struggled to think of what the next best steps to take were.  He could have asked April and Casey for some advice, but it would have exposed him before his brothers and Sensei found out.  April would have urged him to tell his family, and while Casey wouldn't have been so pushy but he could not keep a secret... especially not one like this.

Raph felt like an idiot.  He knew that there would be possible consequences for his actions, but he thought he was smart enough to not allow those to happen.  Yet, here he was, and had no idea of what to do next.

Raph finally stopped trudging through the cold snow and turned to face an old rundown door of an apartment complex.  The numbers on the door were starting to rust, but they were still readable as 4305.  There was a smell of cigarette smoke in the air, coming from the apartments around him, which he thought was a fire hazard, but that was not why he was here.  Far from it.  

As Raph walked up the stairs to the door, he tried to gather his courage.  He knew that once she answered the door, there would be no going back.  He had always prided himself on never being scared.  He could run into the fire of Kraang droids, face deadly Foot ninjas, and battle the Shredder without a second thought, but he could not do that now.  He was questioning himself, and everything he thought was right.

After what felt like forever, Raph raised his fist and knocked on the door.  Now, there really was no turning back.  After a few seconds, the door was opened by a a brown-haired, grey-eyed girl.  She glared at Raph and crossed her arms.  "Raphael." 

Raph let out a sigh. "Hi, Clair.  I'm here like we agreed."

"Took you long enough." 

Raph sighed.  "I got here as soon as I could.  Just let me take her, then you won't have to see me or her again, like you want." 

Clair huffed.  "Good," She then turned into the door.  "Trae a la mocoso!" She then turned to Raph.  "You have no idea what you're getting yourself into.  She has too many problems for you to take care of alone." 

Raph sighed.  "She probably wouldn't have as many of these problems if you had stopped drinking and gone to a clinic like I told you." 

"I wouldn't have needed any of that if you had just let me get rid of it like I wanted!" Clair screamed.  

Raph sighed.  "Our baby is not an 'it'.  Our baby is a 'she'.  And just give her to me and let us go.  I'm tired of this." 

Clair rolled her eyes before turning behind the door again.  This time she turned and had a bundle of old dirty blankets in her arms.  She then gave them to Raph, obviously not being too carful.  Raph quickly adjusted his grip on the bundle, being gentle but also not wanting to risk dropping her.  He then looked up, but just saw Clair close the door, leaving him alone with his new born baby girl. 

Just like that, their relationship would never be the same.  What's worse, Clair didn't even seem to care.  Raph could feel the anger of betrayal starting to build.  This was nothing new, Clair's bad habits always brought out his anger.  Now, though, it was affecting their baby girl, not just him and her.

Raph sighed as he turned away from the door and walked back down the stairs.  He couldn't stay there any longer.  He just wanted to get back to the sewers, away from the street where he had been coming to visit Clair for months by this point. 

Raph turned into the alley he had emerged from, and went back to the manhole cover he had left open.  Going down the latter with one arm available was trickier than he expected, not to mention the bars were cold against his green skin.  But, after a few minutes, he had made it to the floor, where the damp but warmer concrete touched the souls of his feet.  

He was about to start walking back to the lair when he heard a small noise come from the blankets.  He stopped in his tracks and looked at the bundle.  The blankets were covering the baby's face, and it hit Raphael that he had not even looked at his baby yet.  He was going to raise this baby, and he knew he had to look at her.  He was afraid.  Was she a mutant, or was she more human?  Since she was born early, would she not have fully developed?  There was only one way to find out.  Raph's hand shook as he started to move the blanket to reveal the baby's face.  

Under the blanket was a baby girl with a full head of dark brown hair, like her mother, but bright green eyes like her father.  That immediately caught Raph's attention.  No one in his family had green eyes.  Splinter and Donnie both had brown eyes.  Leo, Mikey, and now Haley all had blue eyes.  This was new to Raph, but he was pleasantly surprised and happy about this.  She was tiny, delicate, and pure.  Her skin was a deep pink, and her hands were balled up into tiny little fists.  Raph was instantly mesmerized by her.  An overwhelming amount of warmth came over him, as well as a sense to protect her from everyone and everything. 

She kept looking up at him, as if waiting for him to say something, and he felt compelled to do so.  "Looks like its just going to be you and me for a while, kiddo," There was a small silence.  "I  guess I can't call you 'kiddo' forever, can I?  I need to name you before we get back to the lair.  There's no way I'm letting Mikey name you,"  He paused for a moment.  "Something you won't get picked on for, but something unique.  Don't worry, I won't name you after a renaissance artist, like me or your uncles.  Something feisty though... how about Selena?  You look like a Selena."  

He stood there for another minute, just taking in the sight of his daughter.  The only thing that brought him out of the trance was the sound of police sirens approaching, reminding him of the neighborhood they were under and how dangerous it could be at night.  "C'mon, Selena.  Might as well get it over with, and get you back to the lair."