DISCLAIMER – Once more and with emphasis, I do NOT own the TMNT's or any of their affiliates, or any stories that come to mind. I think I've run out of parodies and nods to other writers, though, not that it was ever my intent to do so when I began this fic. If a story comes to mind after reading this, however, you may make mention of it when you review. Whatever works is fine with me. Nevertheless, I had a different surreal ending that I may morph into a one-shot, or not, as it depends on my time factor. Right now, I have a house to clean. I tend to fixate on a story until it's done – if I can get it to that point – and my chores have had some serious neglect this past week and a half.
Enjoy.
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Chapter 6 – All Things Considered.
Splinter literally had to drag himself out of bed. As he stood next to it and as he stretched his arms above him, his bones creaked in protest, causing him to sigh in relief. After he brought his arms down and seemed satisfied that he had worked most of the major kinks out of them, he just stood there for a moment, trying to get his bearings. He had his eyes closed and his face impassive as he attempted to clear the cobwebs from his head.
Despite the fact that he was a ninjitsu master, he still hated mornings.
Especially mornings that followed bad dreams.
He next worked his tongue around, making soft smacking noises against the roof of his mouth to rid it of its thick coating of dried saliva. However, the lingering vestiges of flavors from Mike's strange pizza the night before all came back to him in a rush. He suddenly grimaced. Although he had brushed his teeth three times before going to bed, he could still taste the myriad of disgusting toppings in his mouth.
"Ugh, sauerkraut and pickles, what an awful combination."
He shook his head from the disturbing memory, and then opened his eyes. Seeing his robe lying across his nearby chair, he reached over to snatch it up. Slipping the garment on, Splinter next grabbed his walking cane and sighed, prepared, now, to meet the day. Turning and heading toward his bedroom door, when he reached it and as he grasped the knob, a sudden thought came to him. Pursing his lips and puffing his cheeks out in thought, the rat hoped that he was fully awake this time, and not still caught up in the nightmarish reality from which he had just woken up.
"By the gods, I better have only four sons. So help me if I don't, April will most certainly have a new roomie tonight."
Taking another deep breath, Splinter bravely opened the bedroom door and stepped out into the chill of thehallway beyond.
He stopped to listen, soon hearing snores emanating from the other nearby rooms. He smiled. So far, he could detect only four separate tones, with each tone belonging to one of his four sons. Not to rely on what he could easily detect, however, he sharpened his hearing a little more, his ears swiveling forward to catch the faintest of sounds. Smiling wider, Splinter was relieved to find that he was indeed the sensei of only four young warriors, and, considering their near baratone quality, thankfully, all males. Shaking his head and then chuckling quietly, he seemed almost amused with himself that something as simple as a dream would affect him so intensely. Then again, imagining being father and teacher to eight nearly trained ninja warriors, four of them female no less, would have given any grand master nightmares.
"Ninja masters never die, they just fade way – without a trace!" he lamented sourly under his breath. Satisfied that he was indeed awake, Splinter proceeded towards the living area and the kitchen, his mind focused on fixing himself a nice cup of hot, chamomile tea.
A while later, Splinter was languishing at the kitchen table with his cup of hot tea, enjoying the tick, tick, tick of the clock on the wall, the only sound to break the otherwise silence of the lair. He sipped at his partially cooled beverage and wondered if his sons had indeed experienced nightmares as he did.It was odd that he had dreamt about them having dreams, at least in their telling about them. Still, it would be truly bizarre if they did have them and if they were as he had imagined them to be.
He continued to sip and wonder, looking up at the clock and waiting, knowing that if his sons did not rise in the next few minutes, he would have to go and fetch them. Tired as he was himself, Splinter was a stickler for punctuality and schedules.
As the big hand on the clock reached the sixth hour, a door from the bedroom hallway creaked open. Slowly, a turtle emerged from the passageway. He shuffled slowly towards the kitchen and yawning a bit. Splinter smiled, it was Leonardo, always first of his sons to wake up.
As the turtle entered the kitchen, Leo looked over at his father. The young warrior's eyes squinted a bit from the overhead light. He was scratching himself along his left side under his arms, in the area between his plastron and his carapace.
"Did you sleep well, my son?" Splinter asked him cheerily. The rat could quickly tell that his oldest was not feeling as refreshed as he normally would be in the morning.
Answering his father's query, Leo mumbled, "Sort of…I guess," and then went over to the stove, asking in mid yawn as he popped open the teakettle's spout and looked inside, "Is the water still hot, Sensei?"
"It should be hot enough for a cup of tea, yes." Splinter replied, watching his oldest with great interest. He leaned back in his chair, taking another small swig of his drink as he did. Yes, he thought to himself, Leonardo did seem more tired than usual this morning.
Leo plucked a teabag from the tea container on the counter and, after procuring a mug from the upper cabinet, plopped in the bag. After pouring the hot water into the cup, he waited a few minutes for the tea to steep. All the while, he said not a word, but stood there as if transfixeda fingers of steam rose like wispy clouds from the container. When he thought the teabag had steeped enough, he removed the bag and quickly squeezed it free of excess water. Then, disposing it into the trash can, Leo then turned with cup in hand to join his father at the table and sat down in one of the chairs.
Slouching a bit and with his eyes closed, the turtle sipped gingerly at his tea, and hummed a little in pleasure. "Hmm…nothing like a cup of hot tea to start the morning, eh, Sensei?" he stated with a wry smile, looking over at his father with his eyes half closed.
"Yes, indeed, my son," came Splinter's reply, "nothing like it at all." He smiled then. He enjoyed this part of the day the most, where his sleepy-headed son had no more care in the world than to fix a cup of tea and then bask in its savory delights. If Splinter had his way, none of his children would have had the need for fighting – or killing. Peace was what the old rat truly yearned for and he would have preferred that heritage for them, rather than one of violence. Yet, unfortunately, the rat knew it was unavoidable, where their enemy still reigned supreme among the corrupt that lived topside. He sighed, letting go of the unattainable longings.
Soon, another of his sons found their way into the kitchen, this time it was Michelangelo. Splinter noted that he, too, seemed more tired that usual.
"Did you sleep well, Michelangelo?" the rat asked, noting the bloodshot eyes of his youngest and the sloppy way in which he walked.
"S'awright, Sensei," the turtle replied, slurring his words, as if talking in and of itself was too tiresome a chore.
"Hmm, is it, now?" Splinter was not convinced; there seemed to be a subtle undercurrent of exhaustion edging Mike's words, as well as Leo's from earlier. Still, his son said nothing further, going over to the counter as Leo had done only moments before.
However, instead of tea, Michelangelo fixed himself a cup of cocoa with marshmallows, using the somewhat warm water from the same teakettle. Soon, he joined Leo and Splinter at the kitchen table. Hunched over his drink, Mike, like his brother, savored it by sipping and humming pleasant sounds. He turned his head and gave Splinter a lazy smile, the turtle's mouth ringed with melted marshmallow and milky chocolate. The rat chuckled lightly at his youngest son's antics, realizing that, despite his twenty years, Mike still found opportunities for playfulness.
Before the master could comment to either them about their current state, however, he heard two more pairs of feet. Theyshuffled their way out of the bedroom area and crossed the living room to join those in the kitchen.
"Morn'n Raph," Don said as he paired up with his brother, walking next to him towards the kitchen with his voice thick with sleep.
"Back at ya," Raph replied and then yawned big, causing his newly awakened brother to do the same.
As they came into the kitchen, their father greeted them as he had the other two, "My sons, you look well rested this morning." Splinter knew otherwise, but he decided to attack this situation on the upside, rather than give either the opportunity to state differently.
Raph glanced over at his father, smirked once as if he alone held a delicious secret, but then sighed and only said, "Whatevah," before heading over to the counter and the upper cabinet where they kept their meager collection of mugs.
Don shrugged and answered honestly, "Not the best night for sleeping, Sensei, but I'll be fine."
Both Raph and Donnie made themselves a cup each of instant coffee, the kettle water not as hot as it was for Splinter's tea, but hot enough for two, obviously, very tired turtles and their need for caffeine.
For the longest time, only silence echoed in the kitchen as the five sat passively and soundlessly around the small, battered table. Then, clearing his throat, Splinter asked nonchalantly, "Would any of you be willing to tell me about your nightmares?" He obviously assumed they had had one, but it was an educated guess at best, yet one that he was quite certain was true.
"Wow," Mike exclaimed quietly, his eyes wide and, except to drinkhis cocoa,seemingly the only part of his body willing to move,"how'd you know that, sensei?" He took a casual sip of his drink, keeping his attention riveted on his father.
Chuckling, Splinter replied just before taking a sip of his beverage, "You have been my sons for most of your twenty plus years; it should not surprise you, then, that I would know these things." More often than not, Splinter usually guessed correctly about what was bothering them. Yet, as far as he would let his sons know and as far as they were concerned, he would let them believe he had such discernment. It was a powerful weapon for any parent to wield in raising children and one that he would never let slip from his grasp.
Yet, he had to admit to amazing even himself at times with his ability to sense things.
Leo hunkered down into his chair a little more, obviously not eager to be the first to share. Raph became intensely interested in his mug of coffee, quickly bringing the rim of the mug to his mouth and taking a long, sustained pull of the lukewarm brew. Don pursed his lips, a sudden look of discontent crossing his face as he considered his father's query.
Mike, however, huffed a bit and then volunteered himself. "Well, my dream had to be the worst one I've ever had."
"Really?" Splinter asked, "Why so?"
"Well," he looked over at his father and then at his brothers with a horrified expression, "I dreamt that Congress declared pizza illegal!" He went on to tell about his dream, his worst nightmare ever, garnering a few laughs along the way as he recounted his attempt in his dream to stockpile the pizza. When he came to the part where the SWAT and HAZMAT people raided the store and caught him, he received a sympathetic pat on his shell from Donnie, who sat next to him. "Man, all I could think about, though, was not having any pizza ever again!" Mike lamented. "It – was just horrible, just horrible." He sat there and sighed deeply, truly traumatized by his experience.
Throughout the telling, though, Splinter had sat there with one raised eyebrow. This was exactly the dream he had dreamt Michelangelo as having. Again, it truly amazed him when he did things like that, almost scaring the fur right off his back the way he could discern his sons the way that he did. Maybe the mutagen had tied their minds together, where the green goo had affected them at the same time, or, maybe it was the ninjitsu. It mattered not, though, where it had kept the rat a step or two ahead of them. Splinter then smiled inwardly, wondering if Raphael would share about his nightmare.
After Mike finished, Raph chuckled, "Leave it to you, Mikey, to have a nightmare about illegal pizza." He shook his head and smiled, sipping his coffee some more.
"Well, what about you, Raph, what was your nightmare about?" the orange-banded turtle asked, squaring his shoulders as if challenging him.
"Who said I had one," Raph shot back, glaring at Mike, as he banged his nearly empty mug against the kitchen table. The action caused the others to startle a bit, but it also caused one of them to smirk.
"The simple reason that you're questioning him – and getting defensive," Leo offered smugly, his smile growing along his face.
"Leo, stay out of it, 'kay?" Raph declared hotly, "It's none of yer biz'ness what I dreamt about."
"Ooo…I think Raph had one of THOSE dreams!" Mike snickered, clasping a hand over his mouth as he did so and receiving understanding nods and giggles from his other brothers.
With eyes glaring at the implied meaning behind Mike's words, "I did NOT have one of THOSE dreams, Mikey, so get yer head outta the gutter," Raph bellowed, his next words rushing out as he defended himself, and maybe a bit too quickly, as it turned out, "I dreamt I had an English accent, okay?" Immediately, Raph knew he had said too much. Especially when total bedlam erupted around the table as his three brothers broke into a round of laughter.
"An English accent? You dreamt you had an English accent? That was your – nightmare?" Mike chortled, "Oh, man, that would have been something to hear," as he nearly rolled out of his chair, chuckling and snickering.
"What else did you dream about, Raph," Leo laughted, "did you drink tea,or, or…" but Don interrupted him.
"Or perhanps you had some scones and lemon curd?"
"Hey," Mike perked up between giggles, "Maybe – he read...Pride and Prejudice, too!"
Raph's temper was cut short and replaced with amazement, "Why would'ya even think that, Mike? Did –did I talk in my sleep?"
Realizing the truth of the matter, another eruption of giggles exploded around the table. Now, three turtles tried their best to keep to their chairs and not fall onto the floor in a laughing fit.
"You read Pride and Prejudice – in your dream?" Leo asked, chuckling almost uncontrollably. Tears rolled unabated down his face as he laughed, truly amused.
Knowing it was a lost cause, Raph shrugged in defeat and quietly said, despair replacing his anger as he sighed, "No, Leo…I watched the movie, it seems."
Mike now had his head buried in his arms, his shell quaking as he sniggered, "Oh, goodness, I guess for you that would be bad." He looked up and saw the reddening of his brother's face, and remarked with a grin, "I suppose that is a pretty bad nightmare." He smiled wider, certainly entertained with his brother's dream.
"Okay," Raph snorted, turning his head around to face his oldest brother, "Leo, what'd you dream about?"
Splinter had sat there, stunned to silence with Raphael's accounting. He kept his expression flat, though, realizing that he had evidently tapped into his sons' nightmares and knowing, now, what Leo had dreamt about. Hecleared his throat and said, "It is not necessary for all of us to hear what the other dreamt. Maybe some of it is too personal and, thereby, unqualified for sharing." He took a sip from his cup and waited.
"No, Sensei," Leo challenged respectfully, "If Raph and Mike shared, it's only fair that I do, too."
Sighing in acceptance, the rat then remarked, "Very well, then, Leonardo, but I must impress upon all of you that dreams or nightmares are nothing more than fears and events manifested through our imagination. They rarely come true and are rarely the source or products for real life events yet to be."
All four turtles nodded in agreement with their father and then three of them turned their attention to their oldest brother. Leo swallowed a bit and sighed before beginning, "First, I dreamt that – Saki was in our training room working out." A notable gasp of disbelief and surprise whispered around the table, with Leo continuing, "And then I found out that he was living here…after…" he looked up at his father and then at Raph, wondering if he ought to say anything more. Quickly, he decided to augment his nightmare a bit, "I dreamt that Raph and Splinter both – died, and that - Saki had made peace with us, and that's why he was living here."
A noticeable bit of silence fell over the five figures, a deafening quiet coming over them like a suffocating blanket. Finally, Mike spoke first, almost in awe, "Dude, that was some nightmare, all right." He then looked at Raph and saw a visible amount of sobriety cross his brother's face. It was obvious thatLeo dreaming that Rapphael had died affected the red-banded turtle more than he would probably admit. "And, Raph died? How?" Mike asked. The same three pairs of eyes riveted back onto Leo's face again, waiting for his response. Splinter sipped at his tea and listened curiously.
Leo sighed again, yet determined not to share about why his brother had died in his dreams, "He, died with honor – in battle – after Splinter did." He looked over at his father. His eyes glistening with repressed tears as the telling of the dream brought back to him his nightmarish grief once more.
Splinter reached over and, with his paw, graced the back of his son's head with a kind stroke, saying, "As I said, my son, dreams are not the foretelling of things to come, they are just our fears manifested - nothing more."
"Yes, I know, Father, but –" Leo looked down into his empty mug, his expression full of remorse, "It all seemed so real to me. Everything did."
"I'm certain it did, Leonardo, but it is quite apparent that losing me, Raphael, or any of your brothers would affect you deeply. If anything," the rat looked up at his more temperamental son and then at the other two, "you have shown great love and dedication to your family." Splinter then glanced back at Leo and advised, "Maybe this knowledge will allow them to see you as I do – someone who would do anything to keep us safe and free from danger."
A subtle calm fell over the group in the kitchen, a somber mood entrenching them further into their seats as they sat around the table. Then, remembering Donatello, Raph chirped, "Hey, Donnie-boy, did ya have a nightmare, too?"
Perking up a bit and with a new focus to take their minds off Leo's dismal dream, three turtles faced the last one who had yet to share. Splinter smiled, knowing what Donatello had dreamed about, even though in his own dream his genius son had yet to say. Why he knew, Splinter did not know; he just did. One would think that, if he 'heard' in his dream his other son's accounts of their dream, but had not heard Donatello's yet, it would make sense that he would be ignorant of such information. Yet, knew he did and he knew that out of all of his sons, Don's nightmare would provide a bit of interest and sway their troubled minds away from Leonardo's depressing phantasm.
"Well, I dreamt that I had gone back in time, to the age of dinosaurs!" Donatello began and then continued with his long-winded account of everything that happened. He shared details about the forest, the air, the smells, and describing with great clarity the dinosaurs that roamed the area. As he spoke, Mike's attention wrapped solidly around the idea, giving occasional gasps and smiles throughout Don's account of his dream. He was truly mesmerized with the story.
When Don came to the part where the T-Rex's were going in for the kill, where he thought he was truly going to die, he said, "And then, almost as if by magic – and you know that I don't believe in such things – a door appeared in the tree. You can bet I didn't waste a precious second. I had the door opened and I shot through it so fast, I almost passed out from the sheer terror of what I left behind."
Splinter's ears swiveled forward a bit, his whiskers twitching in curiosity, since this was something he did not remember. He was certain in his dream that the dinosaurs had eaten Don. There hadn't been anything about a door, other thanwhen Don attempted to go topside to find out why the electricity had gone out.
"And then what happened?" Mike asked in awe, totally taken in by Don's dinosaur tale.
"I – woke up in my bed." Don said and then took a sip of coffee from his mug. He seemed rather pleased with his storytelling, at least as far as Mikey was concerned.
Splinter pursed his lips and realized that maybe not all things were for his knowledge. After all, the crux of Donatello's story was about dinosaurs. The fact that the loss of technology would be one of his son's greatest fears seemed to be the underlining meaning. It also made sense that Don would 'imagine' a door materializing in the tree for him, in order to escape such a world. It was a technique that Splinter, himself, had used on more than one occasion to get 'free' of such disturbing nightmares.
Except for the most recent one, that is.
"Well," Raph declared, "I have to say that gettin' eat'n by dinos would be a nightmare. Guess when ya sum it all up, we all sort'a had our worst fears realized, eh?"
The remaining three turtles nodded in supportive agreement, with one rat remaining stoic and non-responsive. As the four brothers sat there and pondered each other's personal nightmares, it occurred to one that their father seemed to have escaped such a horrific experience.
"Sensei?" Mike asked solemnly, "D-did you have any bad dreams?"
The rat sat there for a long moment, debating about whether or not to share. He knew that he had dreamt about how his brood had doubled in size with four daughters, only to 'wake-up' to yet another dream and finding that same number and gender of turtles in the dojo. In the first nightmare, however, he had tried to commit seppuku. In the second one, he had only passed out. Yet, he knew they were, in actuality, only dreams. Still, he did not want to worry his sons about such topics as his 'self-inflicted death'; imagined or not.
Finally, after a long, pregnant moment of contemplation, Splinter replied softly, "Yes, I did."
"What – was it about?" Raphael asked eagerly, his other three brothers as interested with their father's reply.
"It was...nothing my sons; simply a fear that I have since dismissed," came Splinter's simple answer.
"But," Leo asked, "was it scary?"
"Was it terrifying?" Don asked next.
"We're – you scared?" Mike wondered aloud.
"Hey, maybe he had one of THOSE dreams," Raph snickered, but as Splinter shot a warning look at him, the turtle realized he had, again, spoken too soon. He lowered his gaze and mumbled, "Sorry, Sensei, wasn't thinking."
"Indeed not!" was the rat's stern reply.
Composing himself once again to serenity, Splinter sat there and saw the expectant expressions on his sons' faces. He silently recalled their telling of their nightmares and the sense of foreboding and fear that each one of them faced within their dream-cycle. Although the thought of having four daughters in addition to four sons nearly made him 'weak in the knees', wisely, the old rat replied instead, as a smile creased his face, "All things considered, my sons…compared to what each of you had to suffer with yours…,mine could have been worse."
Then, as his four sons realized their father wasn't going to tell them, they pushed away from the table and stood up. "Now, my sons," Splinter commanded, "It is time for your morning katas. Everyone in the dojo."
As all four groaned a bit, yet resigned to the inevitable, Leo lead the way out of the kitchen with Raphael following closely behind. Mike strode beside Donnie, saying, "Hey, except for that 'getting chased' part, I think you had the most intersting dream!"
Nodding his head, Don had to agree, "Yes, I think so. It all seemed so real, too. I mean, I can still 'smell' that forest and the heat from the T-Rex's breath! It was - just amazing." He chuckled then as the foursome walked towards their training room, "The mind is a powerful thing, Mikey. It's just fantastic what it can conjure up!" As the confines of the hallway narrowed,the purple-banded turtle eased in front of his brother, all of them walking in single file,now, as they marched towards the dojo.
As Don walked on ahead of him, Mike continued to think about his brother's amazing dream. As he did, he looked up at his brother. It was then that he almost did a double take. As Don tried to scratch along the area between the back of his neck and the underside of his carapace,sticking out from underneath like an errant feather from a bird's wing,Mike spied something odd. Only because it was so close in color to Don's did he not notice it from earlier. Now, as his brother walked, his movement caused the thing to wiggle a bit, making it's presence more noticable. Mike watched in fascinationand studied it.Thelonger he did,the more his heart beat as he realizedthat it was horrifically out of place.
As his heart rate- and his intrigue - picked up pace, Mike's quavering voice echoed within the concrete hallway, "Er...ah...Donnie, what exactly did those ferny things look like?"
Glad to share such intricate information with his little brother, Don smiled and replied eagerly, his voice smug with confidence, "Well, Mikey, the leaves are tiny, giving a sort of a lacey look to them along their branches, they're very delicate, unlike regular leaves."
"Ah huh..." Mike mused. "Well, bro," he quirked his head, "I don't know about that dream of yours, but - ah - some of it woke up with you."
The End.
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COMMENTS – I chanaged the ending a bit from what it was originally. Just did this as of 9/6/06. This is the ending I wanted, sort of gives the thought - did they really have dreams, were they really awake in this chapter, or did only one of them have a true experiece? Yeah, love thosetwilighty zoney endings.
Anyway, much appreciation to all who read and reviewed. SASSYBLONDEXOXO – RELUCTANT DRAGON – AMBERLI RAVEN – CHIBI ROSE ANGEL – RAMICA – THE REAL CHEESE MONKEY – DIERDRE – PACPHYS – LUNAR-NINJA – MIKAELA'S SPADE –