A missing scene piece inspired by the 2003 series "Tales of Leo" episode. So, obviously I own nothing.

Leo and Raphael as turtle-kids ran up to their home. Leo called out as he did so. Raph raised his eyebrows at the sound. "Father! Father!"

Splinter came to the doorway of their tunnel-home, his eyebrows raised too. "Leonardo, ninja are supposed to be silent. I was just asleep." As the turtle-kids slid to a stop before him, Splinter's eyes narrowed. He glanced between them. "Where have you both been?"

Raph and Leo glanced at each other, and then looked back to Splinter. The rat sat up, crossed his arms, and glanced between them again. "You both know you are not to leave home when I am away or sleeping."

Raph closed his eyes, let his head hang back, and groaned. "But Sensei, you're hardly ever both home and not asleep."

Splinter closed his eyes and shook his head with a sigh. "It can be difficult to both find all we need and even things you 'want' below or above ground." He opened his eyes before narrowing them again. "But now you are all getting older I might be able to soon take you with me."

Both the blue and red-masked turtle kids before him grinned and Donatello and Michelangelo whooped behind their sensei further into the tunnel behind him. Then Splinter's gaze grew hard again. "Now, where have you been?"

Leonardo fell to one knee behind him and pointed over his shoulder. "Sensei, we both saw a huge, white alligator in the sewers."

Raph turned a wide-open mouth to his brother. Then he clenched his teeth. His fist clenched and shook. He felt like hitting his brother with it.

Splinter, however, raised a few fingers to his chin and stroked a short beard there. "Was it to the west of here beyond a tunnel entrance that was boarded up?"

Leonardo and Raphael glanced at each other and looked back to him. Splinter nodded down to them. "I have smelled something unusual coming from there for a long time. That is one reason," he narrowed his eyes and them, "I told you both not to play there."

Leonardo grit his teeth briefly before nodding. "I'm glad you are aware of it, Sensei."

Splinter hummed and looked to Raphael, who was staring at him with wide eyes. Then Splinter looked back to Leonardo raising his eyebrows. "And how did you learn of it, Leonardo?"

Leonardo looked Splinter right in the eye but spoke softly. "We were playing there, Sensei."

First Raph's mouth dropped open. Then it snapped shut again, and both his fists balled up and shook at his sides. Splinter kept his gaze on Leonardo. "Behind the boarded-up part?"

"Yes, Sensei."

Raphael raised his face to the ceiling and tried not to scream. Splinter sighed and looked to him next. "And did you help with this?"

Raphael's chin snapped back down, and he blinked. "No way …"

Leonardo looked his way with a long face and blinked, but Raphael did not look back as he continued. "We were playing Follow-the-Leader, and I was just now following Leo's lead …" Not that I was then …

Splinter gazed back into Raph's eyes without blinking as the turtle looked back the same way, neither glanced at Leo who was watching Raph with the corners of his mouth turned down. Splinter turned and slipped back into their tunnel home. "Come inside."

The two turtles followed. Splinter sat down on an old mat made of older carpet. He sat on it cross legged and looked down to his two sons who yet followed him. Then he looked to the other two inside the home who were watching but hadn't moved. "Come Donatello, Michelangelo, line up in front of me."

Donatello rose from the pile of parts he'd been examining and assembling and Michelangelo from a small stack of comic books one of which was open. They all got down on their knees in front of their sensei, who watched them with warm, tired eyes. "My sons, I do not forbid you to wander from home when I'm away or asleep, nor tell you not to travel down certain sewer lines, because I don't want you to have fun."

Raphael squirmed a bit where he knelt looking down at a string protruding from his sensei's mat and lying near his knee. Leonardo leaned forward staring up into Splinter's face. Both Donatello and Michelangelo leaned back, their bodies seeming lax, but their eyes intent as they tried to keep them from looking back to their former activities.

Splinter smiled a bit. "I tell you to do these things, because I only have four sons, and I don't wish to lose any of them." Both Mikey and Don laughed a little at this. Leonardo's face got longer and Raph re-crossed his arms and mumbled something under his breath. Splinter fixed his gaze on him and raised an eyebrow. "Do you have something to say, Raphael?"

"Naw, Sensei, I'm good."

"Hmmmm …" Splinter looked to Leonardo. "Have you something to say, my son?"

Leonardo's voice was soft. "No, Sensei …"

Splinter looked back to his two sons who hadn't left the lair. "Leonardo and Raphael have both confirmed something important today."

Leonardo blinked and Raphael's head snapped up. Splinter continued. "They both learned what I expected from scent in other parts of the sewer system to be true. There is a large alligator, apparently a white one, living beyond the boarded-up area of the west tunnel sewer line. Likely it has been there a long time. It smelled to me as if it was quite large." He looked back to his sons who'd seen the beast. "Did it look so to you my sons?"

Raph and Leo both nodded. Leo said, "He's a giant Sensei!"

Raph shrugged. "Eh, he's pretty big."

Splinter smiled slightly. "I see, and did he seem dangerous to you both?"

Leonardo nodded and replied softly, "Very dangerous, Sensei."

Raphael shrugged and waved a hand. "Nah."

Both turtles turned toward each other and scowled. Sensei coughed into his hand. "And did it seem like it would leave his area of the sewers and venture into those I 'haven't' forbidden you all from following me into?"

"No." Both turtles said in unison.

Sensei "humphed" to himself again this time while staring off into space between his sons. He seemed to be talking to himself too, but his sons listened in just the same. "Still, we should probably avoid the tunnels that connect to them for now and see."

Now Raph was staring down his arms crossed again. Splinter looked to Leonardo next. "And it did not seem like he followed you both home?"

Leo smiled for the first time since he called out to his sensei when he was nearly home. "Oh no, Sensei, I used your pressure point lesson on him!"

Splinter smiled. "Very good, my son." He stroked Leo's head lightly.

Raph muttered "Teacher's pet …"

Splinter looked to Raphael. "Have you anything to add, Raphael?"

"Just that I don't think it was a big deal. It's not like it hurt us or nothin!"

The other turtles all stared at him including Leo. Raph's mouth screwed up beneath their gazes. Splinter gazed down at him and sighed. "You have no knowledge of how 'big a deal' it would have been to me or your brothers if you or Leonardo had been eaten by this alligator, Raphael?"

Leo gazed at Raph with one eyebrow raised. Raph growled a moment before exploding. "It's not like it did!"

Splinter sighed and shook his head. Then he turned and went to his sleeping nest. He reached under some rags and brought something out he came back to them with. All the turtles eyes bugged as they saw it was an unopened chocolate bar. Splinter smiled. "I smelled this out in a dumpster last night. It was in a gift basket beneath some wrapping paper. I was going to share it with all of you."

He looked at Raph whose mouth was closed and slack in misery. Leo's head was bowed and eyes on the floor. Splinter continued "But since two of you disobeyed me, I fear only Michelangeo and Donatello and I will share it." Both the other turtles glanced to their brothers, but Donatello's stare lasted longer than Mikey's, who grinned as he reached out for his third of the candy bar Splinter gave him. Donatello received his next, but stared guiltily at Leo and Raph as he ate it. Splinter watched his two sons whose mouths were not filled with chocolate squares his arms crossed. "Now, since you both have had such an exciting time today, I think you should both go to bed."

"Hai Sensei."

Thank you for reading.

God bless

ScribeofHeroes