Chapter 11: Surprises

With a sigh Raph closed the book and placed it on the shelf at the head of his bed. This had been the third book of "Realms" and he still was highly intrigued with the story. Actually, he had spent nearly all week reading, and now only two more books were waiting for him until he had to face a hiatus before the new book was out.

Well, maybe he had to wait even longer than that because these were April's books, and when she bought the new book, she probably wanted to read it first.

So he better rationed his reading material wisely.

And this meant, no more reading for him today.

He glanced around his room. So what else could he do?

He had grown so used to reading that he somehow lacked ideas here.

He set eyes on his dumbbells. Maybe he could train with them for a little while. As long as he could do that while sitting, it should be okay.

But then he remembered what had happened last time when he had tried to train a little. Yes, this had been a bit different with the practice dummy and an office chair being included, but he still was a little cautious.

He of course could ask Donnie about the dumbbells, but this would mean he would have to get up and walk around the lair looking for Donnie, and he really didn't feel like doing that. Or maybe he could call out as loud as possible for Donnie. Or maybe not. This could put his family on alert, and that was another thing he didn't want to do.

So he could either sit around here and do nothing or get up and grab his crutches. He hated sitting around, but right now, he hated getting up just as well, so what should he do?

"Of course!" he called out and picked up his T-phone from the shelf, typing a text to Donnie.

Think I can train with the dumbbells?

The reply came almost immediately.

As long as you stay in a sitting position and don't put weight onto your ankle, yes.

Thanks Don!

Welcome!

With a relieved sigh Raph placed the T-phone back on his shelf.

He then glanced over to his dumbbells again and realized that maybe he would have to get up to get them. Or maybe if he just leaned out of his bed wide enough, he would be able to grab them without really having to get up.

His bed was so nice and cozy, and he wanted to stay in bed as long as he could.

So he leaned out of his bed, supporting himself with his right hand while his left tried to reach his dumbbells.

Just a little more, just a liiiiiiiittle more, he thought while he stretched his arm, stretched his whole body a little more.

He realized too late that he overbalanced and his one arm couldn't support his weight any longer. He tried to break his fall by using his other hand for support, too, but it was too late already, and he landed on the floor with a loud thud.

Greeeeeeat!, he thought as he tried to move into a sitting position without setting his broken ankle on the floor, being super-cautious to not put any weight onto it. And he did a great job, until he hit his broken ankle in the support splint on the bed frame. This sent a jolt of pain through his body and made him cry out.

"What's wrong, Raph?" a voice asked and Raph found Leo standing in the door and looking at him worriedly. "Are you okay?"

"No, I'm not okay, Leo!" Raph called out as he finally managed to heave himself up onto his bed again. "This is all so stupid! Reading is stupid, lying around is stupid, training with my dumbbells is stupid! And the stupidest thing is my broken ankle!"

"Raph…," Leo started in a calm voice, but Raph interrupted him.

"Just leave me alone, Leo, will ya?"

Leo frowned at him, but he knew when it was okay to argue with Raph and when not, and today it was not. So he just nodded and left.

Before he was back in the living room, Donnie and Mikey came running to him.

"Leo, what happened?" Donnie asked. "We heard a loud noise and Raph crying out."

"Oh, that was Raph?" Mikey asked. "I thought some creepy monster had made it to the lair."

For a moment, Leo anticipated the whacking noise when Raph hit Mikey on the back of his head when he said something stupid, but then he remembered that Raph wasn't even there because Raph had a broken ankle and thought everything was stupid and was annoyed by all of this and…and…

He sighed. "Yes, this was Raph, Mikey."

"You sure?"

"Yes!"

"Oh, okay."

"Now that this is resolved, would you mind telling us what happened?" Donnie asked again.

"Raph fell out of his bed, I think, and he somehow must have hurt his ankle. And now he's angry again."

Donnie shrugged. "Well, this is Raph. What did you expect him to do? Laugh?"

Leo sighed again. "It would have been a nice change."

"I better check if he's okay," Donnie said, but Leo blocked his way.

"Better not now, Donnie," he said. "Let him cool off first."

Donnie nodded.

And then they all walked to the living room.

But somehow Leo couldn't get the look on Raph's face out of his head. All this anger! But yes, he should have expected that. What he hadn't expected was that there seemed to be more to it, something he couldn't quite place.

And then it hit him. What he had seen in Raph's eyes had been despair. Of course Raph had to be a little desperate! He was used to hit people, to give Foot soldiers and Purple Dragons a proper beat down, to run, to jump, to compete with his brothers during training. So being forced to do nothing must be terrible for him. And boring.

Leo had known that beforehand, but only the hint of despair in Raph's eyes, had made him realize how much.

And then Leo made a decision. They needed to do something about this.

With a grumpy look on his face, Raph was walking to the living room on his crutches. Leo had told him that he should join them in the living room.

Raph had no idea what this was about. It was time for the evening patrol. Did Leo really want him to watch his brothers leave? Raph usually stayed in his room and read to distract himself from the fact that his brothers were leaving and he had no idea if they would come back, although a patrol usually wasn't as dangerous as a mission that led right into a Kraang-facility.

"Okay, Leo, what is it?" he asked, but then he stopped abruptly, as he realized what was going on in the living room.

His brothers were standing there together with April and Casey with big grins on their faces, the start screen of one Raph's favorite video games was on the TV, six game controllers were spread out on the couch, and a little table with pizza and pizza gyoza and drinks was prepared, too.

Raph blinked at the others.

"Surprise!" they all called out.

"What?" Raph asked with wide eyes. "It's not mutation day, you know."

"No, but we realized you've managed the first two weeks of your forced training pause without totally going insane, and we think that's pretty awesome!" Leo explained.

"Yeah, I was afraid you'd take apart the lair after three days," Mikey announced and rushed to his brother, patting his head gently. "But no, you did well, Raph!"

With an annoyed growl, Raph whipped Mikey's hand away, but there was a small smirk plastered to his face.

"Well, you managed one third, Raph," Donnie said.

"And that calls for a celebration!" Casey chimed in with a big grin. "We have pizza and pizza gyoza, and we are going to play video games in teams. And since you had so much time to practice, you'll have April in your team."

"Hey!" April called out.

"Sorry, Red," Casey said with a shrug. "But you're really bad at video games."

"I'll give you bad, Jones!"

"Bring it on, O'Neil!"

Raph choked a chuckle.

"Come on, April," he said then as he managed the last few steps over to the pit. "Let's teach Casey some manners."

"Alright!" April called out and when Raph had sat down on the couch, they high-fived/threed, and then they took their controllers.

The game was on!