Here we are, a nice long chapter for you all! Sorry I haven't updated in awhile, but I've been very busy, and I had to revise for my GCSE Biology exam. But here it is, the next chapter in the story. I hope you enjoy it, and it should give you some clue as to what might happen in the chapters yet to come :D
Disclaimer: I don't own TMNT or Twilight, only the words.
Donatello's Point Of View
The next few days passed in a blur, and I don't remember much of it. I wasn't allowed out of my bed for most of it, and there was no way I could sneak away, as Leo was permanently in the room with me. Not that I would want to leave, as my illness had finally beaten me.
Bella and April made sure that I was well looked after, and that I was never alone or in much discomfort. They didn't allow me to work for three days, as for most of it I had a throbbing headache.
The only two reasons I was allowed to leave my bed were to go to the bathroom, and to examine Master Splinter. Bella has confirmed my suspicions about his wellbeing. Father was ill, and he refused to admit it.
Bella did not really need me for a diagnostic, as she had studied further than I ever have, been taught natural remedies my Father in her training, and when she had been taught all she could by Father, continued to learn modern medicine. She knew far more about his condition than I did, and for that matter so did April, but Father insisted on my observation as well.
I could only be in the room with Father for a few minutes, as we were all very aware how easy it would be for the bacteria to spread from me to Father. A few minutes is all it took though to measure his pulse and check general fitness. It was exactly the same, low enough to worry and ask questions.
When I was returned to my bed, Bella followed and sat on the side of my bed.
"Leo? Would you mind giving me and Don some privacy please?" She asked. Leo looked wary, but nodded and left the room, quietly shutting the door behind him.
"I'm guessing that you want to talk about Master Splinter?" I relaxed against the pillows, making myself comfortable for what I predict to be a long talk.
"Yes, and I can't talk with Leo in here, it would take too long to explain. What did you notice when you examined him?"
"Lowered heart rate, less than 60 beats per minute. He had a temperature, and when I asked him how he was feeling, he said that he was feeling dizzy and had chest pains. You already knew this though" I pointed out.
"I do know all of this, and we need to get him back home as soon as possible. I have a feeling I know what is wrong with him, but I need to take blood samples and run tests, with accurate monitoring equipment. We also need LH."
"What is it that you think is wrong with him?" I knew that Bella was very good at what she did, but to be able to form a diagnostic this quickly? There were allot of things that lowered heart rate and chest pains could be a sign of.
"I think that Father has a condition called Bradycardia. Its lowered heart rate, and he could be fine, as this has a tendency to come and go, but considering all the stress that father has been under recently, I would rather not risk it."
"I've heard of it, and from what I know, it can be remedied quite easily." That's what I knew, but from the look on Bella's face, there was more to it.
"It can be, but Father isn't exactly a normal humane. And Bradycardia can be caused by many things, and in turn they can be caused by many things. I need to be at home to run the tests that I need, and I fear that even if all of us are there to help, we will need outside help." She looked deeply ashamed by this, but if Bella was this worried, then I was willing to do whatever needed to be done. "We cant exactly take Father to a hospital for help, and there are very few people who would be willing to help a family of mutants."
I then looked at her sharply. "You cant be thinking of making a deal with Bishop?!"
"I would never trust your lives in the hands of Bishop. There is no one on this earth that I would trust your lives to, but some are more understanding than others." She looked like she hated herself to be saying this. We all hated to have to ask for help, but sometimes it was necessary. "I don't know whether I am going to be able to treat Father on my own, I can't know until I get him home and run the tests."
"Who are you thinking of asking?" She wasn't looking at me, and she didn't answer me. "Bella? Who are you going to ask for help if we cant treat Father?"
"I'll wait and see if we can treat him ourselves, I'll tell you as soon as I know. But we need to start getting things ready to move, and quickly. The sooner I know that is causing this, the sooner I know whether I can help."
"What could be causing it? Surely there must be a number of things that could be making his heart rate lower."
"It could be anything, but I think the most likely source is an infection of some kind, though I can't tell you what it is, or how dangerous it is. I'm worried that Father might also have a chest infection, and if he does its only going to make it harder to treat him. Because he is a mutant, his genetics are obviously different to a normal human. It will be a challenge to find the right antibiotics, with the right dosage, to treat the infection, without causing more harm to Father." Bella knew the difficulties of treating us more than anyone else. We had some human DNA, but we were also originally animals, so we were hard to treat. Common drugs seemed to work fine on us, but when it comes to specific drugs for a specific cause, Bella and I (mainly Bella) are the ones to administrate them.
"So we the longer we delay going home, the more risk there is that Father will get worse?" A pretty sound conclusion, and Bella nodded. I sighed, this wasn't going to be easy, with all the injuries we still had to nurse and keep clean, but it was necessary.
"The quicker we get home, the quicker I can treat Father. I think after he is well again, we should find somewhere for him to recover, somewhere quiet for a few weeks, and safe. I think we could all use some real recovery time, where we can work on our training and relax." I think angels were singing right now, because that sounded like a miracle to me. A safe place where we could relax as a family? Even here at the farm house we had to be careful what we did.
"The only place we have that is near to that is right here Bella." I told her. I wanted desperately to relax, truly relax with my family. We were at the farm house to recover, but we were dealing with more than physical wounds, which meant that it was hard to find something that we could all laugh about. And because we were healing from physical wounds, we couldn't exactly do much anyway.
"As much as I love this place, we need somewhere that you guys can walk around and not be at risk of being spotted. I was thinking that we head to the battle nexus. The tournament is only held every three years, so there would be plenty of time for us to relax. Also there is no danger there, and they have trained healers on hand, so it would be the perfect place."
"You do have a really good point, one that I can't pick fault with. Once Father is healthy, we'll contact the Daimyo." I smiled. Even though things weren't going the way we expected them to, it was good to have plans for the future, a goal to work towards.
"I'll speak to Leo about it, as all decisions concerning where we are while Father is unwell have to go through him. I don't see him having a problem with it though, he might even get to see Usagi while we are there." Bella had gotten on with Usagi almost as well as Leo had, so Leo wasn't the only one who would look forward to seeing him again.
"Are you going to allow me to leave the room now? You know that I'm nearly healthy again, and I can help." I pleaded, begging to be allowed to leave the room, but Bella only shook her head.
"I can have Leo, Casey and April help me get everything ready to leave, and be ready for the morning. I am going to need you well to help me with Father."
"What about Mikey and Raph…? Oh wait, I see your point." I sighed. "I wish you would let me help, but I am at your command until you deem me fit to leave this room." I sighed dramatically, earning a light swat to my arm.
"Almost as bad as Mikey" She laughed at the wounded expression on my face.
"Low blow sis, low blow. Where is the prankster anyway? I haven't heard from him all day" I pondered. Normally Mikey would have hobbled up the stairs by now, much to Aprils and Bella's frustration, and bugged me until he was carried out of the room by Casey or threatened with no TV.
"Plonked him in front of the TV with a million movies and comic books. I decided we all needed a frustration free day. Raphs been going stir crazy, and Mikey buzzing around doesn't help." None of this suprised me. Mikey was always full of bubbling energy, and not being able to run around was taking its toll on him, and by consequence, everything and everyone around him. Pranks had been played on everyone multiple times. The worst one being where he dyed Casey's underwear (dont ask me where he got the dye from) pink and shrunk it in the wash so it might have been able to just fit April or Bella, bus certainly not Casey's wide frame. We had to lock Casey in the barn for three hours before we could be sure that he wasn't going to kill someone.
"So which unfortunate soul has is being forced to baby sit him?" I asked, curious to see who would take the job, as no one would want to.
"April is the only one in the house with enough patience, time or rationality to watch over him. At least I know that we're not going to be one brother down at the end of the day. Mikey wont step out of line with April watching over his shoulder." Bella shuddered, and I couldn't blame her. We had all gotten in Aprils bad books before, and it wasn't an experience we wished to repeat anytime soon, or ever.
"How you manage to get her to do it? She isn't exactly big on horror movies or comic books." I tilted my head to the side, curious.
"Told Mikey to keep the volume down low, and the screaming and whining to a minimum. I also kept all sugary food and drink well away, so April is reading one of her books. Mikey is actually behaving today."
"A weeks worth of chores says that it lasts till dinner time, and then ticks someone off" I made the bet with no hesitation. There was no way that Mikey could go a whole day without annoying someone to breaking point.
"Deal, just to worn you though, my chores for the week is keeping the bathroom clean" She said it with a wicked grin, and suddenly this wasn't such a good idea. My brothers, apart from Leo, weren't exactly the cleanest people in the world, and then Father was covered in fur...
"I'm going to enjoy this bet" The gleam in her eye was positively evil now, and I gulped.
"How many hours till dinner?" I asked, and hoped that it was quite a few, enough time to slip Mikey some sugar. I didn't doubt Mikeys ability to agitate even the calmest person, I had experienced the evil side of April. Even Mikey wasn't that stupid.
"Its one-thirty now, so four and a half hours until dinner is served." She sounded calm, but there was a glee behind the words, and I was growing more and more nervous by the second. It must have showed on my face, and she laughed, a full and happy laugh. And I had to smile at that, because that was the sound that reminded me of our childhood. When we all laughed freely, without any hesitation.
"Get some rest now Donnie. I'll get everything ready for the move, and wake you up when dinner is ready." She giggled, and then slowly got up "This way it will save you the long wait to see whether you have lost our bet or not."
"I wont loose" I said with as much confidence as I could. She only smirked, patter and kissed my forehead, and left the room without another word. She closed the door at the bottom of the stairs softly, and I could hear the muffled voices of Bella and Leo below. Leo must have waited there the whole time, waiting to be told what the situation was.
The voices stayed there for at least ten minutes, strained throughout most of the conversation, but then I heard a Leo laugh, and I smiled. Bella must have told him of our bet, and I wondered for a second who Leo thought had more chance of winning the bet. I should ask him.
I was woken at half an hour before dinner was served, and I was finally allowed out of my room for the first time in days.
The look on Bella's face as I entered the kitchen was sinful, and with a sinking heart I realized that Mikey had not managed to break April. A quick glance at the clock showed me that there was 20 minutes left before our bet was over, and I glanced around the kitchen, looking for something that could help me. I spotted the secret stash of smarties that we kept in the house, and knew that was my only hope. Mikey went loopy when he had them. I knew that he would eventually tick me off if I gave them to him, but it was that or clean the bathroom for a week...
My opportunity arose when Casey needed help carrying firewood in, and April had left the living room to quickly use the bathroom. It was now or never. I grabbed a tube of smarties, and through the living room. Mikey was engrossed in the film playing on the TV, and I was a trained ninja, so dropping the smarties next to him without him realizing it was me wasn't difficult. I looped back to the kitchen, and did my best not to look too smug when I heard Mikey shake the tube and sound of smarties hitting teeth.
When Bella came back into the kitchen to finish cooking the dinner and serve, it was 10 minutes until the end of our bet, and she looked confident that she was going to win. I kept my face carefully sculpted into the look of worry and doubt, and she didn't suspect a thing.
Once the food was served onto plates and set on the table, she grinned and asked me to tell Mikey that dinner was served. I left the room silently, delivered the message, and was pleased to see that April had a slightly flustered and frustrated look on her face. Normally I would be displeased about this, but desperate times called for desperate measures. They both went into the kitchen, and I lingered behind, picking up the empty, crumpled tube of smarties and hiding it in my belt.
At first the meal was uneventful, and the conversation around the table was pleasant and lighthearted. Bella was looking positively smug, and my confidence shrunk when I saw that everyone was close to finishing their portion.
And then I saw the signs. Casey was sitting next to Mikey, and I saw Mikey poking him with his fork, once, then twice, and then continually.
"Mike, get off me, I'm tryin ta enjoy my food" Casey grumbled around a mouthful of pasta. Mikey just continued to poke him.
If I had know what was going to happen next, then I would seriously have considered not giving him the smarties and loosing the bet. But even I have to admit, that in a few weeks time when she has calmed down, even April will find this funny.
Mikey, now bored of poking Casey, picked up a piece of spaghetti covered in tomato sauce, and using ninja training, tied it to the ends of Aprils hair.
I almost chocked on my food, but passed it as a cough and drank some of my water. No one else had noticed, and Mikey continued to tie pieces of spaghetti to Aprils hair. He was doing well, and no one apart from me, not even Leo, had noticed what he was doing.
I looked around the table, but everyone was still talking with each other, and no one suspected a thing.
Mikey managed to get about twenty pieces of spaghetti into her hair, before it all went wrong for him. April flicked her hair forward, and a piece of spaghetti stuck to her face.
She peeled it off her face, with a blank look of horror, and then turned to see Mikey sitting next to her. He looked just as confused as she did, and would have probably got away with it, if his hands hadn't have been covered with sauce.
I think April would have lunged and tackled him if he didn't have two broken legs. She screeched, and started slapping his arms. Not hard enough to hurt him, but hard enough to make the sharp sound echo and vibrate around the kitchen.
Bella and Leo moved quickly, Bella restraining April whilst Leo grabbed Mikey and hauled him out of the kitchen, yelling at him the whole way. Mikey was laughing crazily, even though he had just been attacked by April. And Raph and Casey were howling with laughter, rolling around on the floor.
April was still being restrained by Bella, and she had sauce splattered all over her face. The sight of it forced me out of my shocked state, and I joined Raph and Casey on the floor, unable to contain my laughter. I had never thought that Mikey could pull something like that off, but even I had to admit that was brilliant. Bella was suppressing a grin, but held it at bay as she calmed April down and led her upstairs to the bathroom.
Just as they were leaving the room, Leo and Mikey came on the other entrance, and this sight of April had Mikey nearly double over, though Leo slapped a hand over his mouth to stop him making a sound, so April wouldn't see him. I could see Leo's lips twitching and shoulder shaking, so I knew that he was desperate to join us all on the floor.
Bella shut the door behind them, flashing us a quick smile as she did. And then we were all laughing, unable to control ourselves.
I don't think Bella minds loosing the bet at all.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter! I know I had fun writing it! Please leave a review and tell me what you think :D It was my birthday a few days ago, so a late birthday present x
Pinguxx
