After spending a month out at the farmhouse, the mutants, humans and monster were coming back to the city. April and Casey both had jobs to get back to, but had needed some vacation time.
Randall was more than ready to get back to the city. He just wasn't much of a country fan. But he was glad for the extra survival techniques. But he was still a little stand offish to everyone but Mikey, but he put up with Don too.
The first night back home, Don took the brace off of Randall's arm to see how it did. "Does it hurt at all?" Don asked.
Randall shifted his wrist around and even stood on it. From two weeks ago, it had drastically improved so much. "No, not really."
"I want to get a new x-ray to see how the bone looks."
Randall had no objections to it.
A new x-ray was taken and the bone looked to be completely healed. But Randall was still welcome to use the brace if needed. "I'll just keep it in here should you need it." Don said.
"Thanks, but I don't think I do." Randall said. Then he went to the living room and he and Mikey played some video games.
The family was all unpacked now, but they were still weary of Randall, considering he had been so mad at them and he still was upset with them.
That evening, the turtles went for an evening patrol. Randall didn't feel up to going. His lungs were still recovering a little bit from his cold. Splinter had gone to bed.
Randall was up watching the news. He saw that there was bad news going on upside. He hoped the turtles would be alright.
The turtles had taken the truck when Don said he wanted to surprise Randall with something, but first, they had to find one. They visited three different junkyards. They did find what they were looking for: a mattress!
Randall had been with them for over two months now and he still didn't have his own bed in the lair. But the better question would be, where would the mattress go?
"Mikey could share his room." Leo said. "Since Randall seems to trust him the most."
"Why do I always have to share my room?" Mikey whined.
"At least this time, it's with another guy." Raph said.
"Yeah, April was different when she stayed because she's a girl." Don said.
"True. And I care about Randall as if he's another brother. But it would be nice to keep my room to myself." Mikey said.
"Well, unless there's another lair around somewhere. Then Randall can have his own space." Don said.
It almost did sound like a good idea. Randall's mind hadn't been tampered with by Bishop, but he did have a temper too. But first thing first was getting him his own mattress to start out with. Perhaps it would do all of them some good if Randall did move a least a little ways from the lair, like Leatherhead, so he could have his own space.
The turtle brothers got the mattress out of the dump and took it to the truck. This was going to be a special surprise. They were doing this out of how much they did truly care. But until a new lair could be found for Randall, Mikey would be sharing his room again with him, temporarily.
The mattress was left up in the warehouse and Randall was later brought up when they got it home and he was surprised. He was allowed to try it out and it seemed fine. He would take it as his own. The turtles were happy for him.
After the others had left, Mikey sat down on the mattress with Randall to talk. "How do you feel about moving to your own lair, Randall?"
"Well, sometimes it does feel a little overwhelming in your family. I've just always been on my own and I loved living on my own in my world. But there, I had a job to go to every day. Here, I can't walk around in public like I could there. I don't have a job. What would I do?"
"You would still be welcome to hang out with us. I like having a best friend when most of the time, my bros just ignore me and they wonder why I do pranks on them just to get their attention." Mikey said.
Those words made Randall smile. It was often funny to watch. But it did warm his heart to hear Mikey call him his best friend.
The two of them went back down to the lair in the elevator. They watched a movie together and after that, while Mikey went to go read some comics, Randall went to Don's lab. He needed to talk to him.
Don was working on trying to get his newest software to work.
"Donatello." The turtle heard his name and he jumped a little. He turned. He let out his breath.
"Oh, Randall. I didn't know you were there. Is there something you need?" Don asked.
"Why would I be standing here if I didn't?"
"You aren't still mad at us, are you?"
"Now why would I be mad at you? Just that no one stood up for me before being forced to do that just so suddenly and no time to prepare for it. But that's not why I came here. I came to ask about a new lair that was mentioned to me." Randall said. "You guys want me out of here, don't you?"
"It was more of we figured that you seem to handle yourself so well on your own and that it might get to be dealing with us all the time that you might like a place of your own. It's not about punishment anymore." Don explained. "We had to find Leatherhead a home of his own because his temper was more than we all could handle and when he nearly killed Mikey, and he knew he was too dangerous to keep on staying with us. But that wasn't his fault. Bishop had tortured him and tampered with his mind."
With hearing that, Randall was sure he wouldn't want to meet this Bishop anytime soon.
"With what I told Mike, yeah, I'm all for living on my own to have my own space and time for myself, but when I'm up, what would I do to feel like I have a purpose? I don't have a job anymore. Of course, Mike said I was welcome to come back here anytime I felt like it."
"That's true. You are welcome to come here anytime. But as far as jobs go, you can help me here in the lab, hang out with Mikey. You have your own rambunctious behavior, you make a good friend to him, and give him someone to talk to when we decide to do our own things." Don said.
"And April could even use help at her shop at times." Then something popped into Don's head. "I have an idea. April does have a room in her basement that used to house a tenant there. It's not in use now. What do you think?"
"I could try it out. But no one goes down in the basement besides her, right?"
"April doesn't go down in the basement very much. Though she does call me over sometimes to fix her water heater. So the basement would be all yours. And you could help her out and it would give you time for yourself too. And we all come over for sleepovers sometimes too." Don said. "So we would still see each other."
"And I would need to call before coming over."
"I can give you a shell cell of your own and show you how to work it." Don said. "And you could use April's phone too. This is all something to think about. But until it's decided, you could stay in Mikey's room again."
"No. I like the living room better. No one stays there when you all go to bed and Mike's cat sleeps in his room. I don't need claws in me every morning." Randall said.
"I'll talk to April about letting you move into the basement apartment or the room." Don said. "But you have to be trustworthy that you won't steal or do things that are not right."
"I have always been responsible with my money and how I did things in living in a home somewhere. I always paid my bills on time."
"I don't think April will make you pay rent at least."
"It would be nice to have my own money."
"True. But you would need to talk to her about that." Don said.
"Well, you talk to her soon. I'm going to go do something else." Randall said.
Randall went to the kitchen where he did make himself a cup of tea. He was sure Leo wouldn't mind if he used it. He just needed time to think about this.
It would be nice to live in an actual home again and not be hated for it. The turtles had done much for him such as letting him live with them and helped him with his injuries and when he got sick. But the sickness had been from a punishment that didn't need to happen from something that was from way in the past.
He just hoped April would trust him enough to live in her basement. He did want to learn how to use Earth money too if he was going to live here. Of course, April would have to be willing to do the shopping for his food.
When Randall had left the lab, Don felt relieved that he hadn't lost his temper with him. He knew by now that Randall did hold grudges. But if he really wanted to remain a better person for himself, he really needed to know what forgiveness was.
Sure, it was never easy to forget punishments, but the ones who got them also needed to forgive their punishers. But Splinter had thought it was the right thing to do.
It was late, but Don got out his shell cell and dialed April's number. He went to his room and closed the door so they could have a private conversation.
April picked up. "Don, you sure are calling late." She said.
"I know April. Look, I'm calling because as I know that you have that empty basement room after Kirby was lost to that different dimension." Don said.
"Yes. What about it?"
"Since it needs a tenant and someone here needs some more space from us, would it be alright if Randall had the room?"
"I'm not sure, Donny. I don't know if I can trust him."
"He said he pays his bills and everything, though here he doesn't have any money. He liked having his own space. He kept his place clean enough. He's pretty quiet when he's by himself, April and he's serious enough. He said he's even willing to help you if you need it. He seems to trust you more than Casey."
"Well, Casey does come over and we hang out together as a couple too. I don't need him trying to tell us what our own business is."
"I'm sure he would leave you alone in that department. He would have his room when you and Casey get together. But he just wants to feel useful too, April, and have his own place to live."
"I'll think about it, Don. I'll get back to you in a couple days." April said.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome. Good night." She said.
"Good night." They hung up.
Don now left his room and went to go find Randall. He was still in the kitchen.
"Randall?" Don said.
The lizard looked up at him. "What?"
"I called April."
"What did she say?"
"She said she'd think about it. She's still weary of you. But she'll get back to me in a couple days."
"Alright."
Don sat down close by him. "You know, we do want to continue being your friends. You shouldn't hold grudges against ones that care about you. Yes, if they are a deadly enemy, that's one thing, but you make yourself a better person when you forgive the ones in your home who you feel wronged you."
"I know you feel like my father hurt you like he did when he wanted you out for what you did and yes, it was awhile ago. Back when my brothers and I were kids, he was always telling us not to go to the surface and once we got the lid off, we did. We tried to help this kid who was having trouble with other street kids. They were always beating him up. I'm not sure what happened to him, but we were found out about it and Splinter made sure we trained for about three days straight." Don explained. "He could have done something like that instead."
"At least you were at home and you had food and supplies and you didn't have to worry about struggling for your meals." Randall said.
"We did struggle to get our food often times, Randall, when we were younger. Before we had human friends to help us out, life down here was a struggle just to get by with little to no food at times. Splinter had to do everything himself and it was often stealing. It was hard to be a single parent raising four sons, but he was still a good father to us."
"Even though he adopted you as his sons, at least you had someone to call a father. I didn't have any parents. Foster parents and orphanages just don't like reptile monsters in our world. I'm lucky to be alive. The little to no food thing as kids is something we had in common, when I had to compete with older kids and bullies among them and when you're last to the table, and too many others to feed, you often go hungry." Randall said.
"I'm sorry to hear that. Master Splinter always made sure we got our fair share. He would go hungry before letting us go hungry when he did find food for us." Don said.
"No one ever stuck up for me. Even I had to steal out of the fridge or a piece of bread off the counter so I could at least eat something."
"We'll make sure that never happens again to you, as long as you are willing to stay our friend. If she lets you have the room, April would be more than happy to get you food that you need. I know you want to do it yourself, but you have the same limitations here as we do about going above ground."
Randall knew Don was right. Whatever April decided, Randall would promise to hold up his deal in the end to make the apartment deal work out. He would keep to himself when he wouldn't work alongside her or he would go visit the turtles.
After this talk, Randall knew he could forgive Don for what happened. He was one to go to for problem talks. Splinter and Leo could also be gone to for it, but he was still weary of them. Leonardo might have been leader of the turtles, but Splinter was still patriarch of the household and he decided who stayed and who went.
I had moved this past week, so that was why I didn't post all week. But I hope you enjoy this new chapter.