To Liliana Dragonshard: Thank you! I will keep it up! Happy Story Weaving to you too! :)
To Pen-Woman and Guest: Glad to know you loved the last chapter! Hope you'll love this one too! :)
Thanks for everyone who review, follow, and or favorite this story. It's really appreciated.
The three turtles turned around and saw Splinter standing in front of the dojo entrance. He heard his sons arguing during his meditation and decided to investigate the matter. Raising an eyebrow towards them, he noticed how tense and nervous they looked. He wondered what this "truth" was all about.
"Well?"
His sons looked at each other, exchanging glances with silent messages between them. Without so much as a word, Raph and Leo agreed that Donnie should be the one to tell their father whats going on. He was the first one to know, the one who felt the most guilty about it, and the one who suggested to tell the truth in the first place. And with those reasons in mind, the two push their youngest brother in front of the patient rat.
Donnie looked back at them with a glare and turned his head back to focus on his father's face. He gulped nervously and wondered why he was so nervous. He would be telling the truth and it was simple as that. Right?'What if he thinks I'm lying?'
The thought scared him if that was going to be the case.
Clearing his throat and chuckling slightly in a panicked manner, he forced himself to make the most biggest, innocent grins he could muster."Master Splinter! Sensei! Hamato Yoshi..."He stopped himself trying to talk casually as he noticed he was making himself look suspicious for nothing, and coughed in his fist.
"Sorry. It's just that...please don't freak out, father."
The old rat stroke his beard and raised his eyebrows, feeling intrigued."Why would I freak out, my son?"
"Well, I mean...you could take this the wrong way and...I don't want you to think I'm lying or anything. I'm going telling you a hundred percent of the truth and-"
Splinter raised his hand to signal his son to stop talking and listen to his words."My son, whatever it is you wish to tell me, I will believe you. I would never suspect you to lie to me...I know whenever you, your brothers, and sister lie to me."He smiled a little mischeviously as he saw how his sons gave him a bashful smile and a blush to go with their embarrassed faces."Speaking of your sister, where is she?"
"Taking care of her egg."Donnie said simply, before slapping his right hand over his mouth and realized what he just said. His eyes went wide and he looked back at his brothers. Their jaws were dropped with their eyes just as wide as his. He glanced back to his father, who stared at him with big eyes in complete shock, and panicked.
"No! Th-That's...that's not what I meant to say!"
Raph saw the trouble his little brother was in and decided to help him out."He's telling the truth!"Donnie gave him a terrified look and Raph took a moment to understand how bad that sounded."About him not meaning to say that! He's not telling the truth about the other thing that he said he was telling the truth before!"
Leo quickly stepped in, seeing the situation was getting out of hand."Father, what my brothers are trying to say is that Maddie is taking care of an egg in Donnie's lab as we speak. She wants to take care of it as her own, and as her big brothers, we'd like to ask you for your permission for Maddie to keep the egg, since we are at fault."He calmly said and smiled proudly to himself, feeling he cleared up the situation pretty good. The reactions he got, however, said otherwise.
Donnie looked at him as if he was some kind of lunatic, Raph slashed a hand across his face and groaned, and Splinter...
His father looked like he had just seen the Shredder face to face after all these years.
"Bro...seriously, just...bro."Raph said in a hopeless and shocked tone, not believing what his big brother just said.
"What?"Leo asked, confused as to why he was receiving such strange looks from his family.
"You...You made it sound like we're...that we're the ones responsible for the egg..."Donnie managed to stutter out, but in a low whisper.
Leo's eyes widened as he realized his mistake. He tried to say something to his father, who was slowly approaching him, but he choked on his words.'I didn't mean it like that!'He could feel his face heat up and could only imagine how red his face was. He gulped and hesitated to look into his father's eyes, who was just inches away from him, but immediately regretted it.
Fire was burning in the rat's eyes, and he could just feel the flames devouring him the more he looked into them.
"At fault? What do you mean...at fault?!"Splinter yelled and placed a hand on his oldest son's shoulder, holding it threateningly tight.
"I...I..."
"All of you were at fault?!"He yelled again and eyed his other two sons, who stared at him in fear and shock. Their faces were also turning red and they shook their heads furiously. The three were terrified at how this, what was supposed to be an easy conversation, turned into a complete failure and misunderstanding. A horrible misunderstanding...
"Don't listen to him, father! He doesn't know what he's saying!"Raph shouted out before Leo could say anything in defense...if he had anything to say for himself. Looking at his big brother, he could see how much he regretted saying those words in that way. Heck, they all regretted everything that they've sice this conversation started.
"Yeah, it's definitely not what you think!"Donnie exclaimed.'Why can't we talk right today?'
"Silence!"Splinter yelled once more and his sons shut their mouths. He sighed tiredly and in frustration."I think I heard quite enough from the three of you."He glared slightly at each one of them.
"Maddie is your baby sister."He said in a creepily calm tone.
"W-We know Mast-"
"My daughter."He said with a little more anger, interuppting Donnie, and gripped his cane tight.
"We-We understa-"Leo tried to say something, but was quickly interrupted like his youngest brother.
"None of you may be related by blood, I raised you all to be a family, but I would understand if one of you did not quite feel as such and wanted to be more than that with Madelynne..."
"Uuuuugh...are we seriously...? Aagh, I can't believe we're talking about this..."Raph said in a low tone and placed both of his hands on his face that matched the color of his bandanna. He felt sick to his stomach just hearing this.'Ugh...gah...I think I'm gonna hurl...'
Splinter tapped his cane harshly on the floor and glared at his three sons."One of you, would have been understandable, however, all three?! Not only do I find that to be a problem, but the fact that there's an egg involved..."He sighed and rubbed his temples, trying to ease the headache that was coming along."Please tell me that only one of you is the father..."
The three turtles couldn't believe their own father would ask them that. They felt so shocked, hurt, and disgusted by that. Their faces were practically covered in a dark shade of red. Being accused of such a...filthy act was embarrassing. Especially, since it involved their baby sister, who was probably going to get in a lot of trouble because of them.
"N-None of a-are-"Raph stuttered out in disbelief, but Splinter didn't hear and continued to speak.
"Because if you three are all the fathers I'm going to-"
"What's taking so long? Did you ask father if I can keep the egg or not?"
'Oh, we're so dead...'The three thought as soon as they heard their baby sister come in with the egg. They slowly turned to their father and saw him stare at the egg in complete horror. They expected him to whack them mercilessly with his cane, but instead, his body was swaying to and fro.'Uh oh!'
As his vision turned black, his sons caught him before he could hit the ground.
"Well...that was a disaster."Donnie said as a matter of fact.
"You think?!"Raph said, angrily glaring at him.
"I can't believe how this went...it wasn't supposed to be like this."Leo said, feeling ashamed of himself and shaking his head.
"We just can't talk today can we?"Donnie asked for no one in particular.
"We can't get a break today!"Raph said and sighed.
"Sooooo...I'm guessing I can't keep the egg?"The three turned to look at Maddie, who whimpered slightly and looked at them with sad puppy eyes, and they shook their head. She figured if he fainted, it meant he didn't like the idea at all. She was really hoping he would be okay with it.'Guess I was wrong...'
"No, no, Maddie, I'm sure Splinter will let you keep the egg."Donnie said to her in a soft tone to reassure her.
"You didn't tell him yet?"Maddie asked, confused as to why their father fainted just now if he doesn't know abou the egg yet.
"We did...but we didn't do such a good job telling him."Raph said, scratching his neck nervously.
"Huh?"She was completely lost.
"You may want to talk to him about it yourself."Leo said quickly in a panic and stood up, signaling his brothers to follow him. His brothers looked at Splinter, who was coming to, and got the message. The two got up as well and nodded to their big brother. Leo nodded at them back and the three prepared themselves to do something they know they'll regret later.
They made a break for it.
"We're so sorry, Maddie!"Her brothers yelled in unison as they ran as fast as they can to the tunnels. Maddie spun around dizzily when her brother ran past her so fast and tried to figure out why they just did that, but the situation was confusing her too much. When she shook her head and made sure the egg was safely secure in her arms, she knelt down to her father to make sure he was okay. She heard him groan and slowly open his eyes.
"Madelynne?"
She grinned at him, happy to know he was alright."Father!"She giggled.
His smiled at her, but his smile slowly faded into a scared frown as soon as his eyes caught on what her daughter was holding."E...Eee...Eeeeeeegg."
Maddie sighed as she watched her father went unconscious again.
