(quietly sneaks in, looks around, takes a deep breath) Eh, hi. Bet you didn't expect me, eh? I am sorry, really, I am. It's just that… well… all the inspiration left me, just like that, and I couldn't seem to find it. Each time I opened the document and tried to write something, I just sat there and blankly stared at the screen. I promise that I have really tried!

There are several people who deserve one shell of a thank you for helping me out with updating. First sunnysunshineRM and Sewer Slider, who both threatened to come and kick my butt if I didn't get off my lazy ass and update (well, they might not have used those exact words, but that's what they meant). Also Mickis, whom I met in Stockholm a couple of months ago, and who gave me some tips about what could happen to the turtles there. AC Poole/Efiwyvan, who technically hasn't had anything to do with this at all, but updated her stories much quicker than I and thus, unknown to her, put a lot of pressure on me. Also, OWanwaEldo has given me such nice comments that I felt like updating was the least I could do for her. CrazyRabidPony also sent some plot bunnies after me. And, last but not least, all of you readers and reviewers. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't feel guilty for not updating the story. Thank you all! (bows)

Oh, and Nils? If you're reading this, hi! Glad this story caught your interest.

Disclaimer: I don't own the TMNT or Gröna Lund (and I know that not all of Gröna Lund is open in the winter, but what the shell, let's pretend, shall we?). However, I do own the plot and the OCs. Try to plagiarize and you're dead.

Chapter 17: Fun and games at Djurgården, part 1

Donatello turned to his family members with a wide smile on his beak. "Detta, mina vänner, är Gröna Lund! Himmelriket på jorden när det kommer till karuseller och berg-och-dalbanor och sånt. Vi kan ha kul hela dagen!" (1)

Mikey jumped up and down. "Oh, it's an amusement park! Can we stay for a while, Sensei? Can we can we can we?"

"Michelangelo, I really don't think this is the right time for–" He was interrupted by a familiar voice just around the corner.

"Where'd they go? Prince Albert, see if you can pick up the scent!"

"Oh shell." Leonardo knew that he had to come up with a plan quickly, since he was the perfect son and leader. "Here guys, take some balloons!" He ran up to a little girl selling balloons for charity, and grabbed a dozen of them. "Sorry, girl, you'll get them back."

The girl's eyes widened. "Men, herrn…" (2)

"No time to talk. Besides, I don't get what you're saying anyways." He handed out the balloons to his brothers and father, ignoring the almost-teary-eyed rightful owner. "Here, hold them so they cover your faces!"

The mutant family had barely put up the balloons in front of their faces before Shredder and his minions came into view. Saki wildly looked around. "They must be here somewhere!"

Foot Elite numbers 1, 2 and 3 split up along with Hun and they started searching through the little square they'd ended up at. Splinter and the turtles held their breaths as number 2 edged closer and closer, and he had just passed when –

"Lyssna herrn, jag vill inte bråka, men ge tillbaka ballongerna! Ni har inte betalat för dem!" (3) The little girl with(out) the balloons had started pulling on Leo's coat. He tried to fend her off without moving said balloons from his face, which proved to be easier said than done.

"Get off me!" he hissed, and glared at the girl. "I don't need this right now!"

"Ge tillbaka ballongerna!" (4)

Number 2 raised his eyebrows (although no one noticed, since most of his face was covered with that red fabric thingie) and slowly turned against them.

Now, as we all know, Raphael had always been pissed with Leo since said older brother had the leader position since, like, ever, so he decided to do something leader-ish and save the situation for one freakin' times sake. So he grabbed the little girl – and handed her over to Donny while hissing "Do somethin'! Do somethin' now!"

Don understood the body language, if not the words. He bent down and whispered: "Lyssna, raring, om du bara håller tyst i några få minuter så ska du få glass! Vad sägs om det?" (5)

The girl's eyes widened. "Säkert?" (6)

Don nodded seriously. "Med jordgubbssmak." (7)

The girl seemed to go through an inner crisis. Donatello gave her his sweetest smile. "Snälla?" (8)

"Tja… okej då." (9) The girl held out her hand for him to shake. Don beamed and shook hands with her. "Avgjort." (10)

The girl backed away and stood behind Donnie silently.

Number 2 looked suspiciously from the girl to the group of people with their faces hidden by balloons. Fortunately, the Shredder wasn't known for hiring the sharpest tools in the box (even though they most often were a lot sharper than himself). The Elite ninja shrugged and left. The mutant family let out a breath that they'd actually known they'd held, to make a difference from all the times people let out breaths they didn't known that they'd held.

"Shell, did it feel good to let out that breath," Mikey sighed. "I was suffocating."

"Then why did you hold it?" Leo asked and raised an eye ridge.

"Hey, you shouldn't talk, Fearless," Raph snorted. "You did the same. I can inform you that the colour of your face now matches your bandana."

Leo frowned and had no doubt an awesome remark ready, but unfortunately couldn't express it since he was interrupted by the little girl who was tugging on Donatello's coat. "Herrn? Jag vill ha min glass nu. Och jag vill ha tillbaka ballongerna också!" (11) Then she tilted her head to the left and scrutinized his face, as if she hadn't really looked at him before. "Varför är du grön i ansiktet?" (12)

"Varför jag är grön i ansiktet?" (13) Don looked confused, as if he wasn't sure of the answer himself. "Jag… öh… mår illa. För mycket glass. Kanske du inte heller borde äta glass, annars kan du bli lika grön som jag. Vad tycker du? Är du säker på att du vill ha glassen?" (14) He looked hopefully at the girl.

She frowned. "Självklart! Jag gillar glass. Och det ser jättetufft ut att vara så där grön!" (15) She smiled.

Donatello sighed. He'd thought he had a chance to get away there, but it messed up. Now what to do? He had no money. As he gathered up the balloons and gave them to the girl, he looked around warily… and suddenly spotted a familiar person on the other side of the square. "Ser du den tjocka gubben där borta?" (16) he said and pointed. "Gå till honom och säg att killen i rustningen vill att han skaffar glass åt dig." (17)

The girl smiled and nodded. "Det ska jag göra! Tack så mycket herrn!" (18) She skipped off.

"Now that that's over with, can we take a ride in the roller coaster? Please, Sensei?" Mike begged.

"Our first priority, Michelangelo, should be to take cover. The Shredder and his minions might be back any second," Master Splinter said.

Leo, as the teacher's pet he was, quickly nodded. "Master Splinter is right, Mikey. A true ninja doesn't go for a ride in a roller coaster, a true ninja takes cover. You really should show some respect for your Sensei and take your ninjitsu lessons more seriou–"

He was rudely interrupted by Raphael. "Hey, cut 'im some slack, kill-joy! Ya know, ya really should try ta get rid of that stick you've got up yer…"

"Raphael!"

"Sorry, Sensei."

Leo snickered and was smacked with Splinter's cane. "Leonardo, just because you're my favourite and perfect son doesn't mean you can laugh at your brother."

"But Sensei, he said I've got a stick up my arse…" Leo whined pathetically.

"No, I didn't," Raph said, not mentioning that that was what he'd intended to say, even though he'd never gotten to that part. "Language, Leo," he smirked and high-three'ed Mikey as Leo blushed. A day where they got to embarrass Leo was a good day.

Master Splinter decided to ignore them all. "Now, let us blend in with the shadows."

Michelangelo tapped his shoulder. "Eh, Master? There are no shadows here for us to blend into."

"There aren't?" The mutated ninja master looked around, and sure enough, every square inch of the area seemed to have its own spotlight. (AN: This is probably not the case IRL, but it fits with the plot.) Splinter swore in Japanese (he would never use an English swearword so his sons heard it). Then he quickly found himself, as he realized he couldn't seem oblivious in front of his sons. "Of course there aren't. I was only testing you. So, what would our next step be? Any suggestions?"

Raph raised a hand.

Splinter pretended not to see him. "No one?" He secretly hoped that Leonardo would come up with a plan, since mentioned turtle always was perfect and his favourite son on top of that.

Raph raised his hand as high as he could. "I've got an idea, Sensei!"

Splinter continued to ignore him. "Leonardo?"

Leo now felt obligated to get some kind of idea. "Eh… maybe we could… uh…" – he scratched the back of his head. Raph started jumping up and down to get his father's attention – "… pretend to be… mascots?"

"Well done, Leonardo! I knew you could do it."

Raph lowered his hand, disappointed. "But Sensei, that was my idea!"

Splinter turned to him sternly. "Raphael, do not attempt to take the honour from your brother. He has been thinking like a real ninja, and you have not."

Raph crossed his arms and made a mental note: 'Note to self: Put some laxative in Sensei's tea and blame Leo.'

Meanwhile, Julia and number 4 (you didn't think I'd forgotten about them, now did you?) had made their way to the Ferris wheel for a romantic ten minutes to themselves. They sat down in one of the carriages and the wheel started moving. Julia leaned into number 4's embrace.

Now, I guess the most appropriate happenings would be these two lovebirds getting romantic and say sappy things to each other, but since I'm such a sucky romance writer, you have to imagine that part. Just pretend to press the fast forward button and jump over five minutes.

The couple was in the middle of a passionate kiss, as number 4 spotted something on the ground (which shows that he still had a lot to learn. I mean, who keep their eyes open during a passionate kiss? Ts ts ts). He got so surprised that he took a little jump backwards. Unfortunately, this made Julia lose her balance and tumble over the railing. But, since the author (AN: have you noticed that I sometimes refer to myself in first person and sometimes in third?) is feeling kind today, there will be no gory killing with blood splattering all over the place – plus, number 4 would never forgive said author if she wrote that. So Julia, former gymnast, managed to grab hold of one of the spokes of the Ferris wheel just before she met mentioned gory death.

"Julia!" number 4 gasped and leaned out, only to see his fiancée dangling 17,32 feet over the ground with her face paralyzed in a grimace of fear (or maybe excitement, or extreme happiness, or need to go to the ladies' room. I'm not sure and neither do I care). "Hold out, Julia! I'll save you!" He started climbing down to his darling, not bothering any more about what he'd seen on the ground, and what you'll get to know more about in the next paragraph.

Hun had looked for the turtles and Splinter but hadn't found anything, as the big failure he was. He had gotten thirteen hot dogs from a stand – he had no Swedish money, but had threatened the owner of the stand with offering protection and thus received the snacks anyways – and was eating the fourteenth as a small voice was heard from somewhere around his kneecaps.

"Öh, herrn? Hallå?" (19)

"Huh?" Hun looked down and saw the little girl with the balloons. "Hey, get away from me, kid. I don't like little girls with balloons." There was actually a story behind this, a story that went all the way back to Hun's tragic childhood, but there's no time for that now.

"Han med rustningen sa att du skulle köpa jordgubbsglass åt mig!" (20) the girl informed him. As Hun just stared at her quizzically, she pouted and started kicking his shinbone repeatedly. "Jag vill ha glass, jag vill ha glass, jag vill ha glass, jag vill ha glass…" (21) Hun tried to ignore her, but it was hard since she wouldn't stop kicking him.At last, he ran out of patience and he bent down, with some difficulty, since he wasn't used to such movements. He stared into her big blue eyes and snarled: "Listen, kid, if you don't piss off at once I will…"

"Här ska du få glass, gumman!" (22) a voice said and a big strawberry ice cream was pushed into the girl's hand. "Spring iväg och lek nu, okej?" (23)

The girl looked up at the woman who had been talking and beamed. "Tack så mycket, frun! Det ska jag göra!" (24) She ran off.

Hun stared at the woman standing before him – or, more exactly, before and a bit below him. Physically, that is, not in the social position way.

"Karai? What the heck are you doing here?"

There you go, a nice long chapter, with a lot of Swedish. In fact, it's the longest chapter so far. Cool, eh? Maybe my way of apologizing for the long wait…

1. This, my friends, is Gröna Lund! Heaven on earth when it comes to merry-go-rounds and roller coasters and stuff. We could have fun all day!

2. But, sir…

3. Listen sir, I do not mean to make a fuss, but give me those balloons back! You haven't paid for them!

4. Give those balloons back!

5. Listen, sweetie, if you just be quiet for a few minutes, you'll get ice cream! How 'bout that?

6. Really?

7. With strawberry flavour.

8. Please?

9. Well… okay then.

10. Deal.

11. Sir? I want my ice cream now. And I want my balloons back too!

12. Why is your face green?

13. Why my face is green?

14. I… eh… feel sick. Too much ice cream. Maybe you shouldn't eat ice cream either, or you might become as green as me. What do you think? Are you sure you want that ice cream?

15. Of course! I like ice cream. And it looks really cool being that green!

16. You see that fat man over there?

17. Go to him and say that the guy in the armour wants him to get ice cream for you.

18 I will! Thanks a lot, sir!

19. Uh, sir? Hello?

20. He in the armour said you'd buy some ice cream for me!

21. I want ice cream, I want ice cream, I want ice cream, I want ice cream…

22. Here's some ice cream, sweetheart!

23. Run off and play now, all right?

24. Thanks a lot, ma'am! I will!