104Here is chapter two. I hope you enjoy it. This story is going in a direction I hadn't originally planned, and it keeps growing. I hope it doesn't become a monster! TMNT are the property of Mirage. I had hoped that for my birthday they'd let me claim them for a few hours, but no...
It had been a kind of shock waking up on their own without Splinter standing in the room wishing them a good-morning. For a moment their world was on the verge of shattering. It was stranger to them than not having him tuck them in the night before, and Mikey looked on the verge of tears again as Leo- the last to fall asleep but the first to wake up- roused him out of bed in imitation of their father.
"It is time to start the day," he said, smiling cheerfully, hoping to keep his youngest brother from crying.
"Can it, Leo, it's still early," Raph complained, pillow over his head to shut out the sounds of his brothers getting up.
"Come on, Raph, we have to take care of Splinter today," Don prodded him- none too gently. Raph, caught off guard, rolled off the other side of his bed and thunk onto the floor, tangled in his blanket, with his pillow still wrapped around his head.
The growl coming from the other side only set Don to laughing, while Mikey, still feeling the strangeness of Splinter's not being in the room, made sure Leo was between him and the coming fight.
Raph exploded out of the twisted pile of blankets and pillow, eyes alight with vengeance, hands clenched, teeth grinding, and focused with killer instinct on Don.
Don, surprisingly, just stood there on the other side of the bed, a smile on his face- a calm, knowing, "I'm ready for you" smile on his face!
"Guys-" Leo barely had time to say, when Raph dived across his own bed, straight for Don, who stood there with that smile never wavering.
Mikey and Leo watched in horror as Raph's hands were inches from Don.
"You agreed," Don simply said, staring Raph dead in the eyes.
Raph froze, hands barely touching his smiling brother. He froze as if his body had locked up and refused to move. His expression, still full of anger, was now registering shocked comprehension. He stood like this for perhaps a minute or so, his fingers wriggling in protest as if demanding to be turned loose to finish the job the entire body had started. But with great great effort, plus a whole lot of frustrated growling that turned into an ever-growing song of protest, Raph brought his body into stand down.
"AAAAHHH! When Splinter is better, I OWE YOU ONE!" he bellowed impotently.
"Is there a problem, my sons?" came the faint, hoarse rasp of their father. He had heard the fuss, and had been waiting for the fight to break out.
"Nothing's wrong, Sensei," Don called cheerfully, still smiling into his brother's anger-filled eyes. "Raph just fell out of bed, that's all. Right, Raphael?"
Raph had to take many deep breathes to get his voice under control, then, by sheer dint of effort, he echoed Don's reply in a tone that matched his brother's perfectly.
"Yeah, sorry to disturb you Sensei!" he managed. "We'll be right there." Then he whispered once again, as fiercely as he could, "I owe you one!"
Don, pushing his luck, put his arm around Raph's shoulder and walked out of the room with him, allowing him first use of the bathroom, keeping Leo and Mikey from beating them to it.
"Good morning Sensei," they chorused, bowing in respect, then piling onto Splinter's bed to start taking care of him. Four small hands took turns feeling for fever, four concerned voices chattered at once.
"Does your throat hurt?" asked Don, trying to peer into Splinter's mouth.
"How about your tummy?" Mikey asked, placing a concerned hand on the blanket. Raph rolled his eyes and grimaced, but kept quiet.
"It's not a tummy, Mikey- it's a stomach," Don corrected him, thwarted in his attempts to look down Splinter's throat.
"But he always calls it a tummy!"
"For us, Mikey. He's a grown-up. Grown-ups don't have tummy aches," Raph couldn't stop himself from saying.
Mikey turned back to his father, ignoring Raph's know-it-all tone of voice.
"You should let us take your tempashure."
"It's 'temperature', Mikey," Leo corrected him. "We should go make some breakfast for him."
"Yeah, what would you like to eat?" asked Don, feeling Splinter's forehead as he asked.
"How about pancakes?" Mikey suddenly grinned in reply, bouncing up and down with excitement.
"Not for you, Mikey, for him!" Leo responded sharply.
"I meant for him!" Mikey responded in an injured tone of voice. "He likes pancakes, don't you Sensei?"
"He can't eat pancakes if he's sick," Raph snapped at his little brother.
"But he doesn't have a tummy ache, so why can't he?
"Listen, shell-for-brains-"
"My sons," Splinter calmly, though hoarsely, interrupted, and four anxious pairs of eyes immediately turned to him. "My sons, I am feeling much better, and I believe that I will get up and fix breakfast for all of you."
"No!" four voices, united in brotherly concern, refused him. The tone, indeed the force behind that denial momentarily shocked Splinter. It wasn't disrespectful- it was caring. But it was also adamant.
"We can do it, Sensei," Leo affirmed, backed up by his brothers. "We can make simple things, and we will be careful of the stove. We know how to do our chores, and we can even do training in here if you wish, but you need to stay in bed."
The other three crossed arms, eyes locked in determined gazes on their father, and nodded in agreement with Leo.
"I'll make the tea, Sensei," Donatello said, taking the depleted kettle and the used cup to the kitchen to fetch water and clean up the cup as well. "I'll be back to mix up the medicines."
"Come on, guys, let's go get breakfast," Leo led the way, and they marched out cheerfully in charge- all except Mikey, who couldn't help himself- he suddenly turned at the door, ran the short distance to the bed, and launched himself into the waiting arms of his father. Splinter had known he needed a hug, and had just been anticipating how long it would take this youngest son to finally claim it.
He cuddled Michelangelo as though he were the ill one, and was going to soothe him with words- but before he could speak, Michelangelo looked into his eyes.
"It's all right, father," Mikey said, patting his head. "You'll be better in no time! I'll take care of you."
Then he climbed down from his surprised father's bed and ran to the kitchen.
"Hmmm" Leo, lost in thought, stared at what they had. "I think the last time I was sick I was able to eat toast and scrambled eggs. What do you think, Raph?"
Raph pondered this request for his opinion, thinking of the times he'd been sick.
"The last time I was sick, I couldn't eat much of anythin'," he remembered. "I was pukin' all day and all night. I think I just had tea and toast."
"Well, that's two votes for toast," Leo decided, and he got the bread and butter and approached the toaster warily.
Leo was a dedicated student. He did his lessons faithfully, he studied even in his spare time, and he practiced everything he was taught in the dojo until he had perfected it. He could scavenge with Splinter, finding choice items that even the rat had overlooked, and was even learning to read Japanese.
But the one thing he hadn't mastered was his way around the kitchen.
He approached the toaster with a growing dread in the pit of his stomach. No matter how hard he tried, no matter how careful he was, this device always managed to burn the toast whenever he used it.
He reached his hands with the slices of bread closer and closer to this gleaming nemesis. It seemed to be mocking him as it reflected his face, forehead wrinkled in trepidation, mouth pinched with nervous anticipation; his hands, getting closer to those two slots, began to shake, and Leo pulled them back as if they had been about to do some unimaginably dangerous stunt, like leap from the highest railing into the main drainage junction below, or sucker punch Raph while he's in a bad mood.
Raph, laughing, snatched the bread from his brother's hands and with a "here, baby," he quickly made the toast.
"I'm not a baby," Leo said under his breath, face burning with embarrassment and growing annoyance at the smug expression on Raph's own countenance.
"Some ninja in training you are," Raph teased, getting the knife and a plate. "You can do the perfect kata but you're scared of a toaster."
"I'm not scared of the toaster, Raph!"
"Scared of a lil' ol' machine that toast bread!"
"I'm not scared!"
"Hey, Leo- TOASTER!"
"I'm warning you!"
But Raph laughed in his face, as he buttered the perfectly crisped toast, and sauntered out of the kitchen to take it to Sensei.
"You just wait Raph," Leo called after him. "I owe you one!"
Mikey had come into the kitchen, and witnessed the last bit. He put an arm around Leo.
"Don't listen to Raph, Leo," he said, trying to soothe his big brother. "He's a doo-doo head."
Leo, looking at the comical face that Mikey made when he said this ridiculous phrase, burst out laughing, causing Mikey to join in with relief.
"Aww, Mikey! I owe you one," Leo grinned, giving his brother a hug. "Now, what can I do to help you make breakfast?"
Mikey's grin froze on his face. It was true, Mikey had been learning to cook, and was quite good, but he never did it without the supervision of Splinter. Now Splinter was in bed, and the only one to supervise was Leo- Leo, who could start a fire by opening the fridge.
Well, Mikey thought, maybe not as bad as that, but still...
"Umm... why don't we have cereal this morning?" Mikey suggested as nonchalantly as possible, getting a chair so he could climb up to the cupboard where Sensei kept the dry goods. "You get the milk and bowls, and I'll get the -"
There was no cereal.
Nuts.
"I think I'd like some pancakes, Mikey," Leo said, trying to ignore Mikey's lack of enthusiasm. He got out the ingredients and mixing bowl and turned on the stove for Mikey. Then, to put his brother at ease, he moved away from the fire and sat down at the table.
It hurt that his brother didn't want his help, but he would swallow this down for Mikey's sake. And for Sensei's.
But I still owe you one, he thought sourly, and this time he didn't mean in a brotherly way.
Later, with the dishes washed up and the morning's chores finished, the four turtles assembled in their father's room to report.
Each could see that, despite his reassurances, he looked unwell. He seemed tired, as if he hadn't slept well, and his voice was getting worse. They began to wonder if this was going to be longer than a day or two of simple bed rest.
"I looked over the medicines," Don was saying, "and we have plenty, so there will be no problem there."
Splinter, his eyes bright with fever, nodded to Donatello in gratitude.
"Still, I will need to go out later for supplies," he croaked. "We are out of some things I believe."
"Just cereal," Mikey piped up. He was still shaking from the experience of fixing breakfast under Leo's watchful eye. The pancakes had turned out nicely, though oddly shaped, and a few eggshells had found their way into a few of them, but on the whole the food had been tasty.
"We're all set for dry goods, Sensei," Raph spoke up suddenly. "You've brought back so much stuff lately, and we already had a bunch. We've got plenty of unpreschi- unpershipu- unpershisha- you know, stuff that won't spoil! I figure we got enough canned stuff to last for two or three weeks, and the rice will last a month, even if we eat it three times a day with seconds. The only things low are milk and eggs and butter, and what we got can last three days tops."
Splinter looked at Raphael with pride mixed with wonder.
"You inventoried all of this on your own, my son?"
"Yep. We knew you'd worry, so I checked the foods and Don checked the medicines," and he said it without bragging- an even bigger surprise to his brothers than it was to Splinter. Splinter smiled his approval on these sons of his.
"So, see? You don't need to go out for a while," Leo said, fussing with the blanket. "Everything is okay."
Splinter sighed though, wishing it were so simple. There were still other things that had to be looked after. With all the rain that had been taking place topside, Splinter had been checking the area to make sure nothing would impede the flow of extra water. He wanted to be sure that their home would be free of flood, as well as make sure that the surface dwellers had no reason to come that far to repair anything.
But Leo had read his mind.
"I've already checked, Sensei," he said without being asked a question. "Right now the water is only a bit higher than usual in the channel outside the door. I watched it for fifteen minutes and nothing acted like it was backing up anywhere or moving faster than normal at this time. Me and Raph are gonna go out later and just check the immediate area, if that is okay."
Splinter shook his head, which was aching again with such pain.
"No, my sons," he rasped out. "I do not think you should go out of the lair alone. I will bundle up and come with you- you have only gone that far with me, I do not like the idea of your going alone."
A sudden coughing fit startled the Turtles. It startled Splinter as well- he'd felt the itchy beginnings of such irritation earlier, but had mastered it until now. Donatello was quick to offer him a soothing cup of tea and medicines, and after a few moments he got it under control.
"It's okay, Sensei," Leo insisted. "Raph and I won't go farther than the out of bounds areas, we both promise. If anything bad is happening, we'll come get you! But please stay in bed! We can do this!"
Splinter was going to protest, but his throat refused to allow him to speak at that point. Sighing in frustration, he reluctantly nodded his agreement. He suddenly wanted to lay down and sleep. But how could he? They needed milk and eggs and the water might back up suddenly, and...
Then he was aware that four young voices were urging him to lay down; four pairs of hands were covering him up snugly. Four concerned faces were beaming reassurances at him as they confidently told him to don't worry, they had everything under control.
Then four loving sons, united in their concern, tiptoed out of the bedroom and assembled in the kitchen.
And once again became four quarrelsome brothers, stressed by their fear.
"Don, you and Mikey take care of Sensei while Raph and I are gone," Leo needlessly ordered as they found flashlights and rope "-in case one of us falls in again."
"I didn't fall that time, you pushed me," Raph hotly replied, stung by the reminder.
"Jeeze, Leo, what would we do without you to tell us what to do?" Don sarcastically said, causing Mikey to laugh.
"Look, we agreed to not get into arguments," Leo reminded them, sensing that this was about to turn into one. "So just do as you're told and be quiet."
Don inhaled sharply. He suddenly did not like Leo's authoritarian tone, or Leo's assumption that he was in charge. Sensei hadn't put anyone in charge!
"Look here, Leonardo!" Don snapped loudly, getting angry. "You're not the boss of me, get it? I will take care of Sensei 'cause he's our father, not 'cause you're my brother!"
Leo, wondering what the heck had upset Don, nevertheless couldn't let it go.
"I'm the oldest, and I'm the one he usually leaves in charge, and don't you start yelling at me, Donatello!"
"Is everything all right, my sons?" came the hoarse call from the other room. They realized that their voices had carried to their father, perhaps waking him up.
"Everything's all right, Sensei!" Raph called back, suppressing his laughter at the two quarreling brothers. Usually it was him in trouble for getting into a scrap; it amused him that Mr. Perfect Leo and Mr. Brainac Don were the ones to be going at it!
"Yes, Sensei! Sorry, Sensei!" Don and Leo, still facing each other as if they were going to spar, cheerfully called to their father. Then, still in unison, they whispered angrily to each other, "I owe you one!