Disclaimer – Oh my, I can't believe it, with all the stories I've written – I still don't own them. Life can be so unfair. Also, get ready for ickies:0) Oh, and for all of you taking the time to review, hugs and cookies! Thanks!

Chapter 4 – A Wet Towel Would Be Better

Splinter thought back to that day he discovered the baby turtles and how hungry he was. Up until that moment, he had found himself eating just about anything. After nearly two months roaming the streets and alleys of New York City, the rat had long given up feeling disgusted with his foraging. He realized that his survival became paramount to what he ate. Even so, the memory still bothered him. Dead cats, rotting vegetables, even his own kind – and only if nothing else was available – made the difference between life and death for him. He was glad those days were over with and even more so that he had mutated, but he wished that his memory of those dismal times had gone the way of his former self, as well.

Nevertheless, they hadn't and he had to rationalize years earlier that his life back then was desperate. In short, he had to see it as one would about something that no longer mattered. He was wise enough to know that to keep one 'foot' in the past, while the second remained in the present, would prevent him from moving forward with his life. So the master had left his previous existence, and all that he had done, behind him.

Now though, in his sharing, Splinter felt the full-force of what he almost considered doing when he first came across the four baby turtles. And because of that, he paused.

After a long, pregnant moment, "Um, Splinter? You okay?" Raphael queried in concern.

Shaken from his recollecting, Splinter looked up suddenly as if startled. He smiled thinly and answered, "Yes, Raphael, I am fine, just – remembering things is all."

"You sort of zoned out there for a moment," his son chuckled lightly, "not like you."

"Yes, you are right, but – recalling the past brought up things I have long tried to forget, but it doesn't matter now." He saw a questioning expression cross his son's face, almost as if Raph was trying to discern what could have possibly distracted his father. Quickly, the rat pushed on with his story, hoping to interrupt his son's discerning thoughts.

"In any event, when I found you and your brothers, you were all wallowing in a shallow pool of what we've termed as 'ooze'. The green mutagen glowed as if harboring its own light. Although that part of the sewer was dark, the luminescence from the ooze gave off enough illumination for me to see that you were babies." Splinter, once again, wondered if he ought to share what he thought of doing in that moment so long ago, and again steeled himself against it. "In any event, my civility returned and I forgot about how hungry I was. I felt compassion for your plight, for you and your brothers seemed to be suffering. Whatever this green substance was, it was hurting you." He sighed, "You made sounds of despair, not loud, but more like small squeals and tiny grunts." The master then looked past his son, as he remembered the moment, "I quickly noted that I would have to enter the ooze in order to rescue you. Considering your behavior at that time, it wasn't something I wanted to do, for I feared for my own life. Yet, the more I waited and the more I pondered what to do, the more you seemed to be suffering. I finally made up my mind, gathered my courage, and plunged in."

Raph was mesmerized. He and his brothers only knew about how their father rescued them, in that he had removed them from the mutagen. Splinter, however, had never shared what he thought during that time. This was all new stuff to the young ninja. His attention now fixated on his father's next words. In so doing, Raphael ignored his gradually numbing tail – and the random thought that had begun to form in his mind.

"One by one, I pushed you out of the green slime. Each time I entered the ooze, I felt the burning on my feet and my face, as I tried to nudge under your shells to leverage you towards escape. Each time I freed one of you and myself from the pool of green, I felt different, more – aware of things. My task became more important, now, than before, as if I knew what I was doing was the right thing. I didn't know it at the time, but the mutagen had begun its work on me and it had already begun with you and your brothers. You had obviously been in the solution far longer than I had, so you had more of a 'head start' with mutating."

"It burned…" Raph said, almost rhetorically and not as a question, "I kind of remember that, but it's not like I remember the feeling as much as I remember it happened. Kind of like a fuzzy dream, actually…"

"Yes," Splinter remarked, "but I suspect that where your species' natural level of intellect was on a different plane than mine, and where you were far younger than me, you're memory of the event will not hold much information other than that." The rat took a breath and continued, "Regardless, though, I did manage to free you from the ooze." He smiled then as an afterthought occurred to him, "You were all eager and excited, running around as fast as your little legs could carry you, seeming happy to once again be free. The ooze had a sticky ingredient, though, and it covered your feet, chests, and coated your face. Considering your heads were closer to the ground, where your feet were, I was certain you had accidentally swallowed some of the mutagen, too." Nodding, the rat added, "More than likely, this is why it affected us so severely, because in true rat fashion I cleaned all of you with my tongue."

Raph's reaction was one of shock and distaste, "Ew! You have…to be kidding me?"

Splinter softly replied, "No, I am not."

"But…that's disgusting!" Raph made a face, grimacing at the thought of his father licking him clean. "That's sooo wrong and on sooo many levels." He shivered then and rubbed his head, "You know, Sensei, you don't have to tell me about certain things, I'll understand, I really will."

"I have already kept much from you, but, I agree, I don't want to dwell on the basics. This is, after all, a talk about my temper."

"Yeah, sounds more interesting, too, all things considered!" Raph agreed eagerly, squirming a bit as he felt the beginning stages of numbness growing over his poor, squashed tail.

"In any event," the master went on to say, "I herded you along, knowing the dangers that could befall you, given my own experiences. Fortunately, most of the other rats had pretty much ignored me by this time and left me alone for the most part. I didn't have too much fear about them discovering you." Splinter sighed, then, "Nevertheless, I found a can big enough for the four of you and myself to sleep in. Looking back on it, I realize now that it was one of those five pound coffee cans, empty of course. I positioned the four of you behind me in the back of the container, while I slept near the opening to keep you in and to defend you from any predators. Fortunately, I never had to, not until years later, when you encountered your first human, but that's a different story all together."

Raph raised his hand as a sudden thought occurred to him, "What did you mean, 'given your own experiences'?"

Splinter's nose twitched in that moment, his ears turned back insecurely, and he wrapped his tail protectively around his feet. It was all instinctive of course, but his father's physical reactions told Raphael that whatever it was that Splinter meant behind his words, it disturbed him. As the turtle processed everything his father had said up to that point, a sudden dread and an almost nauseating realization slammed into him like a wet and ice-cold towel.

With eyes wide in disbelief, "You…could've EATEN US?"

A/N And…there it is. Had to do it, I mean, Splinter had already said in so many words how hungry he was, how he had to get the turtles to safety, to protect them from predators, and he mentioned his own kind just before that. Any intelligent mutant turtle – even Mikey (apologies to Mikey fans) – would figure it out eventually. Bwahahaha…this is so much FUN:0)