Title: "The Family Who Stays Together"
Author: Pirate Turner
Rating: PG
Summary: The family who stays together . . .
Warnings: Drabblish
Challenge: For a TMNT Tuesdays LJ comm weekly challenge
Word Count: 500
Date Written: 24 June, 2012
Disclaimer: Master Splinter, Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo; all other recognizable characters mentioned within; and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are © & TM their rightful owners, not the author. Everything else is © & TM the author. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.

He almost didn't make it in time, but with his other three brothers shielding them, Raphael reached the Footbot and broke its chokehold on Mikey just before his little brother could breathe his last. He caught Michelangelo as he collapsed. His eyes met their Master's. He remembered their lesson and knew immediately his answer: A family that fights together stays together.

Mikey was soon feeling his ever-fun-loving self again. He busied himself in the kitchen, making pizzas and joking, but there came a quiet moment during the meal when the young Turtle looked around him and reflected on his father's lesson. For a change in their busy lives, they weren't trying to save the world or fighting for their very lives, but their family was together. A family that eats together stays together. He'd heard the phrase before and agreed with it. He smiled, knowing his answer to his father's question.

Another attack, as always, and although they beat the Foot back once more, their success in battle wasn't without its cost. Donatello worried constantly over the many injuries that were continuously dealt out to his beloved family, and he doctored them, sealing cuts, fixing broken bones, and praying over those gashes that looked so bad that they caused him to worry if they'd ever heal properly, he, too, like his brothers before him, thought of Master Splinter's lesson for the week. He'd wanted to tell him that a family who reads together, even if Mikey's and Raph's chosen reading is limited to their comic books, stays together, but upon surveying the damage done to his brothers, Donnie knows the sad truth. It's the family who survives together that stays together.

He looks up as Leonardo clasps his shoulder. "Will they be okay?" he whispers, knowing how badly Mikey's shell was damaged and the life-threatening blows Raphael received when he yet again rushed to his rescue.

Donnie nods silently, unsure of the truth and not wanting to voice a lie but also not wanting to worry their leader who's not as fearless as he pretends. He knows Leo's afraid every time they charge into battle, just as they all are. Every single one of them fears not for himself but rather for his brothers and father who might not come out of the next battle alive. Leo doesn't see Donnie blinking back tears as he walks away.

He goes to the domo where he's surprised to slowly be joined by every one of his family. Raph comes next to last and kneels silently beside him. Leo's beginning to wonder if perhaps the answer to Splinter's question is that the family who meditates together stays together when their father arrives himself. He looks at his sons with eyes full of love that hides his sadness and concern, and he tells them then, quite simply, the answer. "A family that loves together stays together." His smile is true, then, as his children surround him, and their family is covered with loving hugs.

The End