Donatello swiveled in his desk chair, grinning when he saw both Luke and Marcus hovering in the doorway to the lab. "Well, it's about time."
The dark-haired man grinned in return. "I know, right? My schedule has been crazy lately, but I think things are starting to settle back down."
Luke rolled his eyes at Marcus. "I keep telling Marc that he doesn't have to take every single orthopedic case that comes up."
"I haven't mastered the art of saying 'no' yet."
"You can say that again," the blond doctor muttered.
"Not everyone can be as elusive as you are, Doc," Don teased as he got to his feet, stretching his arms out behind his back.
"No wisecracks, huh? I've been working my tail off in the ER because of this new strand of that stupid flu. It's the wrong time of year for cases to be multiplying."
"When exactly do you have time to sleep, Doc?" Donny wondered. "You take the night shifts at St. Joseph's, and then you come right back down here most days."
"I know my limitations, Donny," Luke said dismissively.
Donatello shook his head. "Sure. You're the only person in present company who's incapable of overdoing it."
Luke smiled, but Don noticed that he didn't quite meet his gaze. The man was an expert at outwardly managing his emotions. The subtle signals that something was bothering Luke had taken the turtle a while to decipher, but he'd gotten better over the years. Donatello snuck a glance at Marcus. The dark-haired man was easier to read, but he wasn't picking up anything unusual from him.
"Well, do you want to?" From the exasperation in Luke's tone, it was obvious it wasn't the first time the man had asked him something.
"Sorry – could you repeat the question?" he requested sheepishly.
"Why do I need to repeat it? You were looking right at us," Luke countered.
"That doesn't mean I was listening," he said glibly.
The blond man sighed quietly. "I think we need to try something different with Splinter…find ways to make him feel more included, despite his physical limitations."
Don nodded. "Even watching us spar seemed to make him happy. I thought he was going to chew Mike out for deviating from the proper style, and he practically congratulated him instead. I know these last few months have been hard on Sensei. It's been difficult for all of us, but he's the one who has to bear the sickness. There have been times when I asked myself if there was an end in sight."
Luke inhaled sharply but didn't say anything at once.
"Okay, that's it," Donny said firmly. "What's going on with you?"
Luke shook his head a little too quickly. "Nothing's going on."
"Just the way you answered me confirms that there's something wrong, Doc." Donatello switched to Marcus again, but the other man looked as clueless as he felt. He returned his unfaltering gaze to Luke. "Doc, it's us. You can tell us anything."
"No, I…I'm not sure I can, yet," Luke faltered. "Please don't ask me to. When I'm ready, when things are more…I'll come to you, okay?" The man's nerves were barely being contained.
"All right, Doc," the turtle agreed softly. "But you know we're here if you need us." Donatello wanted to press the man a bit harder, but he refrained.
"Yes, I know, Donny."
"But in answer to your original question, we'll do whatever we can to include Splinter more," Donatello continued. "We should have thought of this sooner."
"Don't be hard on yourself," Luke told him. "All of you have been helping…it's just that Splinter needs more."
"Do you feel any encouragement from the progress of the breathing treatments?" Donny asked.
"It's too soon to discern what the long-term effects might be," Luke replied. "I'm grateful for the immediate comfort it can offer him though. I think we should schedule the treatments on a regular basis for a while and see how it goes."
"I feel pretty good about them," the purple-masked turtle said cautiously, trying to gauge Luke's real thoughts on the matter. The man merely nodded, leaving Donny with a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. He's keeping something from me. I'm not going to put up with this much longer.
A knock on the door preceded his younger brother's entrance to the room. "Hey Geniuses," Mike greeted affectionately. "Who's hungry?"
"Starving," Marc spoke up. "I've been living off hospital food and take-out."
The orange-masked turtle grinned. "You've come to the right place, my friend. Follow me – your reservation is waiting."
Donatello trailed behind the men out the door and into the living area, where he immediately heard the strains of familiar soap opera music. He almost laughed out loud at the sight of Raphael sitting on the opposite side of the couch from their Sensei.
"…but does anything ever happen?" the red-masked turtle was asking.
Splinter's soft chuckle was a glorious sound to hear. "The story-lines take longer to develop than a mere hour, Raphael. Trust me; a good drama is worth waiting for."
Raphael crossed his arms skeptically, but he never took his eyes off the screen. "Yeah…I guess."
If he's not careful, he could actually get reeled in to one of Sensei's stories. Donny repressed another laugh at the thought and kept moving toward the kitchen with his friends. The smell of Mike's cooking was more welcome than it had been in days because of being sick.
"Have a seat," the youngest turtle invited. "Three bowls of my beef vegetable soup are coming up."
Marcus chose a chair quickly. "April will be mad you made it without her."
"Which is why I'm freezing part of the batch," Mike said matter-of-factly. "A good cook thinks of these things."
"It's only supposed to be a couple more days right?" Don asked.
"April gets back from DC at the end of the week," Marc supplied.
Luke's smile was amused. "And Marcus is more than ready to see his girl."
The dark-haired man ducked his head shyly. "It's going to happen to you too one of these days, Luke. I'll remember to give you a hard time."
Luke snorted. "Do you realize who you're talking to? I only run into women in the ER. It's not the place most of them dream of being picked up."
Donny laughed so hard that he choked on his soup. "There has to be someone who's tried it, Doc."
The blond man shook his head. "Could you see it though? 'Okay, now that I'm done stitching you up, could I get your number?'"
"You could pose a continuing interest in their recovery," Don offered.
Mike smirked. "The girls can't resist a guy in uniform, right? You're passing up an awful lot of opportunities, Doc. Why dontcha take a break with a few of those nurses?"
"They all think I'm weird, Mike. I am weird. I spend most of my time underground with vigilantes who have no regard for their own safety."
"Well, that's not really true," Donny protested. "If we didn't have some regard for our safety, we'd all be dead."
"Would you like to get your journal out so we can calculate how many times you all should have been dead by now? You guys have regard for safety as well as I fit in with regular society."
"Fitting in is overrated," Marcus said.
"I'm not complaining," Luke assured him and looked at Don and Mike. "I wouldn't trade this life or go back to the way things were before. I'm satisfied. I don't need anything, except for you guys to take care of yourselves better."
"How have we gotten into trouble lately?" Mike challenged. "We even managed to beat Donny's flu bug!"
"It does seem like you're overdue."
Donny's eyes widened with alarm. "Are you trying to jinx us? You can't say things like that!"
"I'm only stating the obvious. You don't believe in those kinds of curses, do you?"
Donatello exchanged a meaningful look with his younger brother. "Better safe than sorry, Doc."
Don's eye ridges rose when they returned to the living area and found Leonardo glued to the television screen along with Splinter and Raphael. The purple-masked turtle cocked his head as he looked at the dramatic scene set inside a lavish room that apparently didn't possess lamps of any kind.
"I have the results from the DNA test," a dark-haired man proclaimed, pausing for effect.
"Colton, maybe it's better not to know! We were happy before, and we could still be happy," a woman with flame-red hair cried passionately. "Neither of us ever has to know!"
"It's too late, Angelica. I already know."
"What does he know?" Don asked.
"Shh! Shut your mouth and we'll find out," Raphael hissed.
"The results won't change how I feel about you, Colton. Nothing ever could."
"I love you, Angelica, but you deserve the truth. We both do, after all these years."
"No matter what the test says, we haven't done anything wrong, Colton! Our only crime could be having the same father!"
"That is disturbing on so many levels," Luke remarked.
"But they didn't know!" the red-masked turtle returned. "Neither of 'em did."
"Angelica, you aren't my half sister. According to this DNA test, you're my fraternal twin."
The music swelled and the scene slowly faded to black.
"That is all kinds of freaky," Raphael complained. "Why would her mom lie to her? Who encourages their kid to have a relationship with their brother?"
Splinter shook his head. "Angelica's mother didn't know about Colton."
"They're twins. How did the mother not know?" Leo demanded.
Splinter shook his head. "Because her husband is a wicked man. He had a mistress at the time who desired a child of her own, but was unable to conceive. He set up a fake medical procedure for his wife and intended to steal the unborn child. When it was discovered that she possessed two eggs, he only had the doctor take one to implant in his mistress. Thereby, Angelica's mother never knew she was a twin."
"Wait a minute." Donatello held up a hand and looked at Luke. "Stealing someone else's fertilized egg to implant in another uterus? Is that even biologically possible?"
"Most soap operas aren't based in science, Donny," Luke stage whispered.
Raphael fixed on the clock. "So they're really leaving off there today? Will it start back here tomorrow?"
"No, it will be a month before they have another new episode," Splinter answered.
Raphael huffed angrily. "Why the shell do they do that? Are they just trying to torture people?"
Michelangelo snickered. "Guess you'll have to keep watching to find out."
"I'm only keeping Sensei company!" the red-masked turtle defended. "I'm not really into this."
"It doesn't sound like it either." Marcus kept a straight face.
"I would never turn away your company, my son."
The twinkle in Splinter's eyes made it impossible for Donny not to laugh, and he wasn't alone. Even the murderous look that swept the room from his older brother wasn't enough for regain the control that had finally been lost.
Now this is more like it.
::snicker:: Based on a couple of real soap opera plot lines no less...