Trouble That Brews Within The Family (pt. 2)

Now that Jeffery was convinced to tell his tale, Master Splinter decided that the turtles should hear it also. Being at this was important for them, he was willing to let their punishment chores be put on hold for the moment.

But one thing needed to be done before anything else and that was to have Jeffery at least look decent. After all, he was human. Shouldn't he try and look somewhat like it? At least the young man could take a shower that was seriously needed…perhaps get a hair cut…maybe a shave, and of course he would need some clean clothes.

In order to get one or all of these tasks accomplished, a phone call to April was made. "Don't worry Splinter, I'll call Casey and we'll take of everything." The redhead told him. "See you in a couple of minutes."

"M…Mr. Jones?" Splinter stammered.

"Of course." April laughed. "We're dealing with a guy after all. Casey would be the perfect person to have help out."

"I suppose you are right Ms. O'Neil." Master Splinter sighed.

"Don't worry Splinter, Casey's clumsiness has gotten better thank to the joint business." April assured the elder rat. "He isn't breaking half as many things as he used to."

"That is good." Master Splinter said. "Thank you for the warning."

"What?"

"Nothing. See you in a few minutes, goodbye." After Master Splinter hung up the phone, he pointed Jeffery in the direction of the bathroom. "Our other human friends will be coming momentarily, so you go ahead and take your shower." He told the young man. "They will have clean clothes when they get here."

Jeffery shoved his hands into his pockets. "Alright." He sulked as he shuffled off towards the bathroom. While making his way there, he continued to grumble under his breath. "Don't see why though. I am in sewers after all. Can't smell any worse than this place does."

Master Splinter rolled his eyes. "Act just like them." He muttered to himself as he went over to the dojo.

In the dojo, Donatello was not taking his punishment as seriously as he should be. He was standing in a relax position, his left arm dangling by his side while his right one rested on his hip and one leg was cross behind the other. Leonardo was just finishing mopping up the water that was spilt on the straw mat and Raphael was drying the last of himself off.

When Splinter entered the area, Donatello snapped to attention. "S…sensei." He stuttered. "Um…about Mikey…" A nervous look came onto his face.

The elder rat put up a hand. "No need to explain my son." He said. "I know what has happened here. I just came in here to end your time-out and to have you all prepare for Mr. Jones's arrive."

Leonardo jumped to his feet. "Casey is coming over?"

"That is correct. I need Ms. O'Neil's help cleaning up that young human your brothers have brought home." Master Splinter explained. "Unfortunately she needs his help, so we need to put everything up."

"Yes sensei." All three turtles answered in unison while they bowed. Splinter gave a nod of acknowledgement before leaving the room.

Raph quickly gathered the cleaning supplies he used into the two pails Mike was supposed to hold and followed out after his father.

Leo was in the process of collecting his cleaning supplies too when he got paged. "Hey Leon?"

"What is it Donnie?" Leonardo asked as he looked over at his brother.

The purple clad turtle gave the blue one an embarrassing grin. "Could you help me let go of the pail handles?" He asked. "My fingers are kind of frozen and I can't move them."

"Yeah, sure." Leonardo smirked. He put down the supplies and went over to the helpless turtle. He took one of the hands and slowly uncurled the fingers.

Donatello bit his lower lip as the pain coursed through his stiff fingers. He let out a quiet whimper. "Niiiii."

"Just one more hand." Leonardo assured Don as he took the pail from the hand he just freed. After placing the metal container full of liquid on the floor, he took the other hand and slowly uncurled it.

This time Donatello grit his teeth until Leo was done. "Nerf." He said while wiggling his fingers. "Thanks."

"No problem." Leonardo laughed. He took Don's pails and Don took his cleaning supplies. Then the two turtles walked out of the dojo.

With the lair was being Casey-proofed by his other sons and Jeffery enjoying a nice hot shower, Splinter went up to Mike's room. He rapped lightly on the door. "Michelangelo?" The elder rat called in while he slowly opened the door.

A barely audible answer came in return. "Yes sensei?" This was followed by a couple of thunks.

"May I come in my son?" Master Splinter asked while being curious about the strange noise that followed his son's response.

Another thunk was heard. "Yes…"

Splinter opened the door fully and enters the room. Not seeing Mike anywhere, the elder rat looked around for him. To the left of the door was a drawing of Raph's face taped to the wall. The red clad turtle was drawn with horns on his head, a wicked grin showing pointed teeth, and a thought balloon saying 'I'm such a dork'. A few ninja stars were stuck in the picture and there were markings showing that they had been imbedded there many times before.

To the right was Mike's bed. It sat on a high platform, almost like a bunk bed, except with no bottom bed. Usually one could see underneath the young turtle's bed, but at this time there was two large blankets pin to the frame like curtains.

A smile curled onto Splinter's mouth while a small memory wandered through his head as he carefully made his way over to the bed. "My son?" The elder asked while poking his head through the small slit the two blankets made in the middle of the frame.

"Yes…" Michelangelo answered quietly. He was laying in the dark on his back, looking up at the bottom of his bed. A small baseball was in his hands.

"I see that you are feeling quite nostalgic of late." Master Splinter commented.

"Yeah..." Michelangelo threw the ball up at the bottom of the bed and caught it when it came back down; it made the same thunk sound as was heard before.

Master Splinter hooked the edge of the two blankets on the sides of the frame, in order to shed some light under the bed. "I am getting to old for this." He grunted while crawling under the bed and Mike sat up to make room for him. "But I do admit that it has been a while since you made your little fort."

"You mean the Fortress of Sulkitude." Michelangelo scowled as he threw his baseball out from under the bed and it hit the drawing of Raph, knocking all the ninja stars off it. "The name stupid Raph gave at his dumb attempt to being funny."

"I know that you are angry and you are hurt by your brother's words," Master Splinter says calmly, "but you must know that all of this is quite sudden." He put a hand on Mike's shoulders. "From this moment on, nothing will be the same. What is happening here, now, is a life changing occurrence and it can be a scary experience."

Michelangelo looked down at the fingers he began to mess with. "…guess…"

"And you do need to understand that your brothers might be feeling forced to revisit that that they are not comfortable revisiting." Master Splinter pointed out.

"Yeah, I know…but…" Michelangelo fumbled for words he wished to use to express himself. "They…they were going to write this whole thing off without a second glance, like this whole thing was nothing. But…but I couldn't do that, I mean, this was a part of our lives. We can't just turn our shells on it and pretend he didn't exist. He is the reason we're still around."

"Michelangelo…why did you not come to me about all this?" Master Splinter asked. He hid the fact that he felt a little hurt that it was not he who his youngest came to with such a problem, but to one of his brothers.

"I…I don't know." Michelangelo sniffled. "The poster…owner…Leo said…but Raph…and…there was Don…want…" At this point the young turtle had lost the ability to form any one thought in his head.

Seeing Mike upset, Master Splinter went into a technique he used to use to help calm his sons. First he inhaled deeply and slowly let it out. Then he did it again and again, until Mike did the same. "That's it my son. Take a deep breath and ease your mind." He said calmly, once Mike and he had a rhythm going. "Everything will work itself out."

Michelangelo nodded. "…yes sensei…" He continued to do the meditative breathing.

Suddenly an alarm came blaring over the speakers; only it was more of a song. It was 'Casey Junior' from the Disney cartoon 'Dumbo', but some of the words were somehow changed.

"Casey Jones is coming to our home, coming to our home.
With his reckless act.

Hear him stompin', trompin' around the turn.
Casey's here to burn,
Our most priceless urn.

Every time his funny little cycle sounds,
Everyone hurries to avoid the pounds.

It's time for stockades and safety jacks.
Casey Jones is back, Casey Jones is back."

Forgetting about how upset he was, Michelangelo dashed out from under his bed with Master Splinter following close behind. "Dude, was that your new alarm?" He asked his tech-savvy brother. "Was that to warn us of when Casey was coming?"

Donatello was in his lab, by his computer, beaming with pride. "Yup." He said proudly.

Raphael was standing in front of the lab. "That was horrible." He groaned. "It hardly rhymed at all."

"It did too rhyme." Donatello protested.

"Barely." Leonardo laughed from couch.

"Well I could have down worse." Donatello huffed. "I could have used that recording I have of Raph singing while in the shower. Off-key I might add."

"You what!" Raphael roared. "When…? Why…?" His face was turning a dark red of embarrassment.

"I was testing some audio equipment I had fixed up and thought you were the perfect test subject to use it on." Donatello said nonchalantly.

"Oh, oh, oh." Michelangelo started bouncing around like he had to go to the bathroom or something. "Do you really have that?" He asked. "I wanna hear it. Can I hear it Donnie? Can I?" He ran up towards the lab.

"Sure." Donatello laughed. He went into one of his drawers and pulls out a hand-held tape recorder.

"No!" Raphael yelped. "I want dat tape." He jumped up into the lab and tried to snatch the recorder away from his brother.

"Mikey, head's up." Donatello said as he threw the recorder out of his lab.

"I got it! I got it!" Michelangelo cried while jumping up to catch the thrown object.

Raphael jumped out of the lab after Mike. "Mikey! You better give me dat tape if ya wanna live." He warned.

"Catch me if you can." Michelangelo pulled down the corner of his left eye while he stuck his tongue out at his livid brother.

Not wanting to miss out on all the fun, Leonardo jumped up off the couch. "Mikey, I'm open." He cried from behind Raph, waving his hands about.

Michelangelo threw the recorder. "Comin' at ya." It sailed over Raph, right into Leo's hands.

"Leo." Raphael growled.

Leonardo shrugged sympathetically to his brother in red. "Sorry Raph." The blue one tittered. "But this is too good to pass up." He managed to jump over Raph when the turtle lunged at him.

At this point, Splinter decided he was just going to stay out of the way by making tea and snacks. Just as he disappeared into the kitchen, the doors of the elevator that led to the upstairs garage opened to reveal April and Casey.

"Hey guys, what's up?" April asked when she stepped out.

"Oh, nothing much." Leonardo said casually as he threw the recorder over to Don, with Raph chasing after it.

"Really." The redhead laughed. "Where is Splinter?"

"Kitchen." Donatello answered before throwing the recorder over to Mike. "He making tea, I think."

April started for the kitchen. "You coming Casey?" She called back.

"In a minute." Casey answered as he stepped out of the elevator, carrying a large bag of stuff. He was quite intrigued by the 'keep away' game.

"Right…" The red-haired woman sighed before entering the kitchen. She saw Splinter with his head in the fridge. "So…"

The elder rat removed his head and looks at the young woman. "What?"

"So what is he like? How do the turtles feel about finding him?" April asked anxiously. "You didn't give much detail over the phone."

"He…" The ninjitsu master hesitated a bit before giving a full answer. "He's not what I expected." He finally said. "It would seem that life had dealt him quite a hand, but I do not wish to make that assumption until I get the full story."

"I see." April said with a nod. "So what's going to happen now?"

"Well, once he is cleaned up and dress, I hope to have him give us a full story about himself." Master Splinter answered.

"And that's where Casey and I come in, right." April gave her forehead a light smack. "We'll get right on it."

Suddenly Raphael's off-key sing bellowed throughout the lair. Both April and Splinter popped their head out of the kitchen to see what was going on.

Poor dumbfound Casey stood in the middle of the lair with a hand massaging a purple bump on his forehead while holding the recorder blaring Raphael's awful sing in the other. Somehow he had managed to accidentally get into the middle of the 'keep away' game and got clobbered. When he caught it, he accidentally hit play and that got the tape going.

Laughter broke throughout the lair. Leo leaned over, his right hand on his thigh while the left one smacked the other one. Don grabbed his stomach and fell to his knees, like someone had belted him, then bent over so his forehead was pressed into the ground. Mike, who had fallen on his back, was in a mixture of different laughs while rolling from side to side.

Meanwhile Raph was frozen with embarrassment. He didn't know what to do or what he wanted to do first. Finally coming to a decision, the red clad turtle marched over to Casey and snatched the recorder from human's hand. He contemplated throwing it at one of his brothers, but he couldn't decide which one would get the privilege of being bludgeoned and also figured it wasn't worth the extra punishment it would entail. So instead he did the next best thing, he put it on the floor and brought out the sledge-o-mantic he had bought from one of those infomercials he saw on TV.


A/N: Ok, so I said that This chapter was going to give Jeffery's story. But I let my mind wander, my fingers doing all the typing, and this is what I ended up with when I was done. So now I'm doing a three parter.
Upon watching Dumbo, I heard the 'Casey Junior' song and thought it would make a cute funny tidbit to have in the story. And I know full well how bad the rewite of the song was, hence the self put down within the story; but do feel free to experss your feelings about it.
So thanks for reading, until next time.
By the way, the 'sledge-o-mantic' idea came from Galagher (The Watermelon Man)