WOW, the amount of reviews after that last chapter was staggering! Thank you all, it really made my day! And thanks also for all the follows and favs. Anyway, here you go...
CHAPTER TEN
"We have to be careful," Leo said as Raph opened the lab door and turned on the lights. "We've already messed around in here earlier, but now that Donnie's back he's going to notice if we move anything around. And we also have to be quiet, or else we'll attract Master Splinter's attention."
"Right," Raph whispered, "What do we get first?"
"You get the blood." Leo whispered back, "I'm going to try to figure out which of Donnie's medical books can tell us how to do the transfusion safely."
"Yer gonna find the book without bein' able ta touch any of 'em?" Raph asked.
"Just get the blood, Raph."
Raphael rolled his eyes, but walked to the back of the lab. There was the small fridge where Donnie kept all of their blood for emergencies. It wasn't locked. After all, who was going to steal from Donnie's lab in the sewers?
"I'm in," Raph said as soon as he opened it. Give the turtle a prize, he got into the unlocked vault.
"It's this book," Leo said, pointing at one of them. "It looks about right."
"What, like you've read his books before?" Raph asked, moving the blood bags around to try to find out whose was whose.
"Sometimes," Leo said.
Raph gave him an incredulous look.
"It gives me something to talk about with him," Leo responded, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Um Raph, the blood?"
"Got it," Raph said, grabbing one of the blood bags.
"Better get more than one." Leo said.
"Yup." Raph said, grabbing four more bags.
"And don't forget the book," Leo said, pointing.
Raph huffed, grabbing the book off the shelf. "Anything else, your majesty?"
"Let's grab any tools we're going to need," Leo said, "Turn to page 482."
"What?" Raph asked, "Now you've got Don's books memorized?"
"Just do it Raph!" Leo snapped, "We don't have a whole lot of time here."
Raph growled, but even as he did so he turned to the page.
"Hm," Leo said, reading over his shoulder and pointing to one of the instruments on the page. "I've seen that here. Don keeps it in the third drawer down on the left."
Raph rolled his eyes, but went over to the drawer without comment.
By the time they had gathered everything they needed and put it all in Raph's room, Mikey and Donnie were coming back through the front door.
"We just waved to them through the window," Raph overheard Mikey tell Splinter, "But April and Casey seemed happy to see us."
"Good," Leo said, standing next to Raph as the both of them stood outside Raph's door.
"Let's get going," Raph whispered to Leo, "Before anyone finds anythin' missing."
He entered his room closed the door behind him before walking over to Leo's body.
"Right," he said, "So how do we set this up?"
"According to this, it's not that hard with the tools we have." Leo said, reading from the open medical book on Raph's dresser.
"Okay then," Raph said, picking up one of the blood bags, "Do ya think we need ta wait fer these to warm up first, or-"
"Raph," Leo interrupted, pointing to the bag, "Look."
Confused, Raph turned the bag around to read the label.
Raphael.
"Oh no," he said, picking up another bag off the dresser, "Shell. Shell, shell shell!"
Every single bag was labeled Raphael.
"Raph," Leo said softly, sitting on the floor.
"It was under your name, I swear!" Raph said, "There was a shelf fer each of us. I-I was getting yours, Leo! I swear! I thought-"
"I know. It's okay Raph," Leo said softly, "We should have both checked before we left the lab."
"We need ta get back there," Raph said, "We need ta-"
"Not today," Leo said, "There's no way we can get Don out of there today. We'll have to try again tomorrow."
"Leo," Raph said, looking his brother in the eye, "I'm sorry."
"I know," Leo said, "It wasn't all your fault, Raph. It was mine too. We're not going to worry about it, alright? Look, so far my body's been waiting around just fine. It can wait a little longer. We'll try again tomorrow."
"But what if Don notices that stuff is missing from the lab?" Raph asked, "What if he locks it?"
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Leo said, "In the meantime, why don't we go make dinner?"
"Yeah, sure." Raph said. "Wait. You want me ta make dinner? Fer everyone?"
"Why not?" Leo asked, smirking, "We want to pull the family together, don't we?"
"Well, yeah but-"
"Then dinner is the perfect way to do it." Leo said.
"You know you're weird, ya know that?" Raph asked, pointing a finger at his brother, "Ya get bad news an' all you can think of is other people."
"Hey, it's just one more day," Leo said, still smirking, "Now are we going to make that dinner or what?"
"Why can't we just use the leftovers?" Raph asked Leo, mixing a bunch of ingredients in a mixing bowl.
"You're the one who said you wanted to make a breakfast dinner," Leo answered, leaning against the fridge, "And all our leftovers are not breakfast material."
"Watcha doing?" Mikey asked, sticking his head in the kitchen.
"Makin' pancakes," Raph responded, "Wanna help?"
"Sure," Mikey said, "Why not?" But his voice lacked his Mikey-ness as he spoke.
"He's bothered by something." Leo said.
"No kidding," Raph said, "Mikey, what's wrong?"
"Nothing." Mikey said, sitting down in one of the kitchen chairs.
"Ya wanna make yerself useful?" Raph asked, "Take over here at the pancakes. I'm gonna start the tacos."
"Only you can make a traditional breakfast dinner that includes tacos, Raphael." Leo rolled his eyes. Raph ignored him.
"Tacos for breakfast?" Mikey asked.
"Eh. I'm in the mood." Raph said, raiding the pantry. "So, Mikey. Ya never told me how April and Casey were when ya saw 'em."
"They were fine, I guess." Mikey said.
"So what'd you see that got you all upset?" Raph asked.
"Nothing." Mikey said harshly, mixing the batter harder than necessary.
"Mikey," Leo warned his brother, momentarily forgetting that he couldn't hear him.
"Whatever it was ain't nothing," Raph said, "I think you've mixed it enough, Mikey. Want me ta put the batter in the pans, or do you wanna do it?"
"I'll do it," Mikey said, taking the bowl to the counter next to the stovetop.
"So what's wrong?" Raph asked.
"It's just that...they were laughing." Mikey said.
"Oh." Leo said.
"What's wrong with that?" Raph asked, confused.
"They were happy," Mikey said, looking at Raph with tears in his eyes. "How could they be happy, Raphie? Leo only just died..."
"Shut up," Raph said, grabbing Mikey's head and putting it up against his shoulder in a weird kind of half-hug, "They're still sad, ya know. They love Leo, and nothing's gonna change that."
"But they were laughing," Mikey said.
"Let 'em," Raph said, "They probably cried their eyes out earlier, ya know. Laughing is good for them."
"Oh. Okay." Mikey said.
"Nice, Raph." Leo complimented.
And with those words, Raph remembered that he wasn't alone with Mikey.
"Now get those pancakes going," he said, pushing Mikey away, "I gotta get the tacos started."
When it was finally time for dinner, Mikey dragged Donnie from his lab and Master Splinter surprised them all by coming out of his room to eat with them.
"It certainly appears to be an...interesting dinner," Splinter said, looking at the food on the table. There were pancakes, eggs, tacos, rice balls, bacon and cereal. "Which of you made the rice balls?"
"Raph," Mikey said, his mouth already full of pancake, "He thought you'd like it."
Actually it was Leo's idea, but Raph wasn't going to say that. Leonardo's face was beaming though, from where he was leaning against the wall near Raph's chair.
"Thank you Raphael," Splinter said, taking some of the rice balls.
"Welcome, Sensei."
"So," Donnie said, reaching for the eggs, "Mikey thought of the breakfast dinner?"
"Nah. That was Raph's idea too." Mikey said. Donnie looked a little surprised.
"Yer welcome," Raph said grumpily, his mouth filled with taco.
Everyone was silent as they ate, going through their own individual thoughts.
"So Donnie," Mikey said, turning to his purple masked brother, "Everything alright? You've been spacing out all dinner, bro."
"Huh? Oh, yeah. Everything's fine, I guess."
"He's hiding something." Leo told Raph.
Apparently Master Splinter noticed the same thing.
"What is the matter, my son?" Splinter asked.
"Nothing," Donnie said, "It's just that...I've been misplacing things lately. In the lab."
Raph and Leo exchanged glances.
"I did a complete inventory today after we got back from Casey and April's," Donnie continued, "And I'm missing some things. Most importantly, I'm missing 5 bags of Raph's blood."
"What?" Mikey asked, accidentally scratching his fork on his plate in surprise. The harsh sound made Raph, Donnie and Splinter cringe.
"Donatello," Splinter said, rubbing his ears, "Are you certain they are not simply misplaced?"
"No, they're completely gone." Donnie said, rubbing his eyes, "Unless I used them and forgot to log it in my books. And I could have, I was kind of out of it for a while. But it's okay, Sensei. I can get more blood from Raph anytime."
"Hm," said Splinter, thoughtfully rubbing his chin.
"And anyway," said Donnie, "There's still Leo's blood."
"What about Leo's blood?" Raph asked.
"Yeah Don," Mikey said, "Why are you still keeping Leo's blood?"
"Don't worry guys, it's just that-well, I can use it if there's an emergency." Donnie said, "I've done it before when I've been low on blood with one of you."
"Wait a minute," Leo said, straightening up off the wall, "Raph, does he mean-"
"After all, Raph and Leo-well, you two shared the same blood type." Donnie finished.