Splinter looked liked he was asleep as Donatello entered his quarters, but the slight twitch of the rat's ears suggested otherwise.
"Good evening, Sensei." Don smiled warmly when Splinter opened his eyes. "Are you hungry?"
"Not exactly, but your brother's soup may still have the power to tempt me." Splinter returned his smile faintly.
"It's nice to know that your senses are as sharp as ever." Donny set his tray down on the small side table. "Mike made a huge batch, so you could be eating this for two weeks," he teased.
His Sensei sat up partway on his side, pausing to summon the energy in order to rise the rest of the way.
"May I, Master?" Donatello enjoyed seeing his father reassert his desire for independence, but Splinter also needed to accept help when it was required.
The rat nodded wordlessly, and the purple-masked turtle adjusted the cushions behind him so that he could sit up easier. Once he was sure that Splinter was settled, Donny carefully rolled the tray table over the bed, and took a seat in the chair next to him.
Splinter fingered his tea cup first, sipping it slowly. A few moments of silence passed between them, and his Master looked up once more. "I enjoy your company, my son, but I fear it will take me a while to get through things. You need not feel like you have to stay the entire time."
Don chuckled, intentionally sounding light. "I don't exactly have somewhere else to be, Father. I like being with you."
Whiskers twitched as he set his cup down. "You always have something to keep you busy, Donatello."
"Too busy," he replied. "I'm good at loading up on several tasks on at once, whether necessity requires it or not. Right now, I just want to be here. You're a good excuse for me to take a break."
Splinter laughed softly. "Then I really cannot discourage you, can I?"
"You don't have to bother. Take your time, Sensei. No rushing."
The room was quiet as Splinter worked through his soup, but the silence wasn't uncomfortable. Donatello never felt like he had to talk constantly in his Master's presence. Splinter enjoyed the peace, and spending time together didn't have to mean making a lot of conversation.
Splinter was a little over half-way through his bowl when he fixed Donatello with another gaze. "Tell me, my son, how is Jenna-chan faring at home?"
The mention of the woman's name made Donny smile without meaning to. "She's enjoying the time with her parents. I'm glad she decided to stay in Australia for a while after she graduated from NYU last winter. Sometimes I've felt guilty about the amount of time she's spent in the States. Victoria and Michael are the ones who rescued her from foster care and gave Jen a new life. It's almost like they're being left behind now."
Splinter's furred hand stretched out toward him. "At no point in time have you asked her to come to you, Donatello. In memory serves correctly, you have done the opposite."
The purple-masked turtle looked down at the floor. "Master, we've been down this road a thousand times, and I still don't have an answer. Just because I don't ask her to give up everything for me doesn't mean she won't try to. Jenna's stubborn like that."
"As you have proved to be," his father pointed out.
"What would you do, Master, in my position? I love Jen. I'd be lying to say that I don't. She fits in with our family and she says she wants to be here. But the amount of things she'd be giving up…Father, it's mind-blowing."
"This is not the kind of decision you should make for her, Donatello. If a course of action is to be decided, it should be discussed between the both of you."
"What about her family, Sensei? We can't possibly stay together without her parents ever finding out about us. Is Jenna supposed to live a bi-continental life until the day she dies? That's ridiculous."
"I no more have the answer than you do, my son. But I repeat, this is not something for you to take charge of on your own. You are not the only one inside this relationship. Jenna-chan's feelings need to be considered."
Donny groaned under his breath. "This isn't helping."
"Would you prefer that I made the difficult decisions for you?"
The turtle gazed at him hopefully. "It'd be easier if you did."
Splinter shook his head. "It is not my place…nor could I tell you to break things off with Jenna-chan in good conscience."
"Okay, so you're not going to tell me what to do. Could you give me a clue what you would do?"
"I believe I would keep my options open."
"Options?"
"There may come a day when introductions could safely be made, Donatello. There is no guarantee that Jenna-chan would be forced to give up her parents in order to be with you."
"You'd consider allowing…"
"Donatello. Though windows may be few and far between…there exists a right time and place for the right people to enter our limited world. Has our family not grown in the last two years alone? Jenna-chan and Dr. Barrows arrived in the same evening, and then Dr. Sloan later."
Don snorted. "Marc wasn't introduced. He broke in the door."
"That is not my point. We have placed a tremendous trust in each of these lives. I do not know if the appropriate moment will come to meet Jenna-chan's parents, but I will not say I am opposed to it."
The purple-masked turtle sighed. "What am I supposed to do? Invite her to bring them on down?"
"I do not suggest that you try forcing anything, my son. But if the chance arises, and you discern it to be the right time…I would not let it pass."
Donatello nodded bleakly.
Splinter took a shaky breath. "What do you tell her of me?"
Don stiffened. "Not very much," he admitted. "She knows that you're sick and you've been fighting some bug for months. I don't want to go into major details, not with her in Australia. I don't see how it would help anything."
"Mmhm." Splinter's gaze was thoughtful. "I would not want Jenna-chan to have great reason to worry either. And it is hard to be specific when there are things you do not know. But at the same time…"
While his father searched for words, Donatello decided to change the subject, even if he knew he was in for a fight.
"Sensei, have you given any more thought to the biopsy that Doc suggested?"
Onyx eyes narrowed in a fraction of an instant. "I have made my feelings clear on the matter."
"I know you have, Father, but you need to think about this logically. What do we have to lose by taking a biopsy of your lungs? If there's nothing there, we can rule a lot of things out."
"And if you find something, there will be no end of procedures. I know you too well, my son. I ask only to be comfortable. I do not want to become your project."
"You wouldn't be a project, Sensei. We're trying to help you. I'm respectfully asking you to reconsider. If the roles were reversed and it was one of us sick, would you still want to blow off the biopsy?"
The rat's silence was now deafening, but Leonardo's raised voice filled the void a moment later.
"Are you KIDDING me? Did you actually ask Donny to cover for you just so you could sneak out again?"
Donatello grimaced. He knew Leonardo had seen him enter their Sensei's quarters, but when the blue-masked turtle hadn't challenged him, he thought it was unnecessary to offer an explanation. Apparently Leo had arrived at his own conclusions.
"Who said I was leaving?" the red-masked turtle retorted. "Every time I've shown my face today, you think I'm doing something wrong!"
"Why are you dressed if you're not leaving?"
"Why don't you back up out of my face before I do something about it?"
Donny swallowed, backing away from Splinter's bed. "Excuse me, Sensei."
"Donatello…"
"No. I have to stop this." He quickly left the room, not wanting to hear any further discouragement.
The purple-masked turtle stalked to the bottom of the stairs where his older brothers were obliviously arguing. "What the shell is wrong with you two? Sensei can hear everything you're saying!" He barely kept his voice down.
The seething glare his brothers were sharing didn't falter.
"I didn't start this, Donny," Raphael said through clenched teeth. "He did – because he knows everything!"
"You're unbelievable," Leo hissed. "One minute I think you're finally growing up and being a real member of this family, and the next one you're back to only caring about yourself!"
Amber eyes widened in what appeared to be shock, but then Raphael's features hardened as he uttered a low curse. "I don't need this! You can be 'god' all by yourself, Leo, 'cause I'm giving you the night off."
"Go then! Leaving's what you do best!" the oldest turtle retorted.
The red-masked turtle stumbled as he whipped around toward the door, and his hand shot out to steady himself on the wall. He recovered his dignity rapidly and resumed stomping out of the den.
Don cringed as he expected a crash, but his brother didn't exert enough force to even shut the door all the way. By the time Donatello looked back over his shoulder, the oldest turtle was already striding across the room.
Donny had no desire to pursue Leo, so he held his ground, slowly shutting the door with resignation. Sometimes, I wish things weren't so predictable.