Ch. 22-Cold hands, warm heart

Raphael's POV

I woke up in the middle the night. The first thing that hit me was the cold. It was the middle of winter, which is never good thing for us. See, we're cold blooded, so extreme cold makes our bodies shut down, most of the time into a kind of deep sleep, but if it get too cold…

And right now it's freezing. I shivered.

I reached over and pressed the button on the heater. Donatello had installed one in all of our rooms as soon as he was old enough to figure out how the damn things worked. The heater made a humming noise, then something fizzled and it broke down. I stared at it for a moment, my breath coming out in warm visible puffs. I pulled my sheets around me and cringed. It's way too cold to live without it, at least not unless I want to go into hibernation.

I have no doubt that my old turtle luck is acting up again.

Much as I hated to do it, I pulled out of the sheets and stood up, making my way out of my room and down the hall.

It was so freaking cold!

Maybe I should have brought the sheets with me…I thought, But that would have looked weak.

I went into the lab, and my hope was dashed away as I found Donatello asleep in his desk chair. I let out a sigh of relief as the warmth of the lab began to thaw my frozen fingers. I was about to wake Don up when I realized that he'd practically been working double time lately. He doesn't sleep well, or on a regular basis, for that matter. I shouldn't wake him.

Maybe I could just sleep on the floor in here…

No that won't work. It wouldn't look good. And it would probably make Don feel bad.

On a totally different train of thought, Don keeps lots of extra blankets in here…I could probably just bundle up in a bunch of those and be okay.

I went over to the cabinet and took out a stack of blankets. I turned to leave the room, but I glanced back as I left and saw that Donnie was doubled over, which meant he'd really ache when he woke up. I frowned, set the blankets down and approached my brother.

"Relax Don, it's just me." I whispered. I knew he couldn't hear me, but Sensei always trained us to be aware, even when sleeping and I really don't want Donnie to wake up. Like I said earlier, he needs sleep. I pushed the chair away from the desk and lifted my brother out gently. I was amazed that the brainiac was that so zonked out. I lay Don out on the lab table. He stretched a little and shivered. I frowned. I went back over to stack of blankets and pulled one off, laying it over the genius' sleeping form. Donatello hugged the blanket tightly and I smiled.

I retrieved my pile of blankets before padding silently out of the room, closing the door and turning off the lights as I went.

A violent shiver ran down my spine and I trembled in spite of myself. I jumped onto my bed, sitting up and laying the blankets out one on top of the other. After all the blankets were laid out on the bed, I snuggled down and pulled them all the way up to my chin.

I was still a little chilly, but at least I wasn't totally frozen. After that, it didn't take me too long to fall asleep…

I jolted awake in excruciating pain. One minute I was sleeping, and the next I was being bombarded by something so cold, it burned, sending a sensation of pins-and-needles all over my body. I couldn't help but let out an anguished wail, shooting up and out of bed. I began to tremble violently from the cold. I glanced back down at the bed. The bed was wet, and so were the blankets. I looked down at myself, and realized that I was dripping water everywhere. I'm wet. I concluded.

Finally I realized something else. I wasn't alone. Mikey was standing off to the side, looking guilty. He had a bucket in his hands. At any other time, in any other conditions I would have glared at him, yelled as loud as I could and chase him through the lair vowing to bash his head in, but I couldn't. I was barely cognizant. My mind was getting fuzzy.

Somehow, I managed to stumble my way out of the room, and bang on Leo's door directly across the hall. The door opened and my older brother stared wide-eyed. Leonardo reached out and put a hand on my shoulder, only to pull it back with gasp as he undoubtedly discovered my incredibly cold body temperature. "Raph, are you alright?" He asked.

"L-l-leo," I managed to grind out, "I'm s-so c-c-c-cold."

He looked me over and must have realized I was wet because he pulled me into his room and dried me off with an old piece of fabric. After I was dry, he maneuvered me to stand in front of the heater. I was still shaking violently and Leo frowned, pulling the blanket off his bed and draping it over my shoulders. I snatched the blanket and sunk down onto the floor with a long sigh of relief.

Leo raised an eye-ridge, but didn't protest. As my mind began to clear a little, I realized he was debating whether or not he should say something. I stared at him and he spoke softly, "I heard a scream a few minutes ago. I assumed it was Mikey getting up to his pranks again. Was it…?"

"Yeah it was me." I answered.

Leonardo nodded, his expression very serious. Mikey will probably be getting a lecture later, if that look is any indication. See, Leo knows more about me than other people do. For instance he knows that I usually don't scream unless something really bothers me. Yell, yes. Scream, no. There was a very distinct difference between the two. In this case, it was a scream, I screamed because it hurt. Damn, did it hurt. I shuddered lightly.

The next thing I knew, Leo was on his knees, looking down into my eyes. "You okay?"

I nodded solemnly. "Yeah. Just hurt like hell."

"What exactly did he do?"

"I'm not sure. I think he dumped a bucket of water on me."

"You think?" Leo parroted.

I rolled my eyes, and pulled the blanket tighter around me. "I was barely able to fight the urge to go into hibernation! Excuse me if my brain was a little foggy." I stated.

Leonardo frowned. "You were that cold? He's dumped water on you before and it wasn't that bad."

I nodded, but corrected, "Yeah, but that was when it was warmer, or my heater was on."

"Your heater wasn't on last night?!" Leo asked, disbelievingly. "But it was freezing!"

I refuse to meet his gaze. "Damn thing broke. I went to get Don, but he was sleeping, so I didn't want to wake him. I just got a pile of extra blankets from the lab and bundled up."

"So when Mikey dumped the water…"

"It was like shell shock." I finished. My older brother stared at me. I sneezed loudly and his shocked stare turned into a concerned one.

"Maybe you should have Don look you over…just in case."

I smiled, wiping my nose, which was now running, with the back of my hand. "Just make sure he fixes my heater. That's all I want." I yawned.

Leo smirked. "Something tells me you're going to be out sick for the next couple of days."

I frowned and glared at him. "What are you talking about? I'm not sick. I'm perfedly fine."

"Oh really? Well, I'm sure that when you tell Sensei you're 'perfedly' fine he'll come to the same decision I have."

"Which is?"

"No training for a sick turtle. Lie down and get some rest, Raph. You can stay in here for the rest of the day until Donnie gets your room warmed up. I'll take care of talking to Sensei." I continued frowning at him and he smiled at my rather put-out expression. "I'll even beat some sense into Mikey for you."

I rolled over and turned my back to him, stretching out on the floor of his room in front of the heater. "Yeah, you do that. I'm just gonna…sleep." I said with another yawn, the warmth making me feel at ease.

Third Person POV

Outside, Leonardo frowned. He knew Raph would be just fine, but he still had other things to take care of. The eldest turtle was late to breakfast, and when he entered the other faces around the table looked up at him.

"Leonardo, my son. Where is Raphael?"

"It's a long story Sensei." He replied. "But Raph will be staying in my room for the rest of the day."

Splinter raised an eyebrow in both surprise and inquiry. "Oh? And what is wrong with Raphael's room?"

Leo made himself a bowl of cereal and sat down before answering. "His heater broke last night." Leo's dark blue eyes caught the way Michelangelo stiffened uncomfortably.

The youngest turtle's eyes widened in shock and he shifted nervously.

If Master Splinter noticed Michelangelo's behavior, he said nothing.

"Why didn't he come and get me?" Don asked.

Leonardo muttered, "He said you were already sleeping and he didn't want to wake you. He got some extra blankets out of the lab and went back to bed. Of course, he would have been fine…" Dark blue eyes narrowed at Michelangelo, "If he hadn't been almost thrown into a complete state of shock when Michelangelo dumped a bucket of water on him this morning." Leo said, his voice scolding.

"Michelangelo is this true?" Their father asked.

Mikey shrunk down in his seat. "Yeah, it's true. But I didn't know his heater had broken!" He insisted.

"Didn't you feel the temperature difference?" Leo asked.

Mikey looked affronted. "You know Raph always keeps his room colder than ours! I didn't even think twice about it!"

"Yeah, Mikey, and you're just lucky Raph's body didn't shut down and send him into hibernation!" Leo yelled, losing control slightly.

"Look, I'm sorry! It was just a prank I never meant to hurt him! Goodness sakes, Leo! How do you think I felt when he let out that scream of pain huh? You think I was laughing then?! God, I was so—terrified. Seeing Raph in that much pain…I never knew how well he hid his pain from us before. But this time he wasn't hiding at all. It was all just raw emotion. Excruciating pain. I-I—" Mikey was crying and Leo's shoulders sagged slightly. He hadn't realized how deeply Mikey was affected. The eldest stood and moved over to his youngest brother, hugging him gently.

"I know you didn't mean to. I'm sorry it sounded that way. But I hope you've learned your lesson."

Mikey nodded. Leonardo could feel the smaller turtle shaking, and hugged tighter, patting the little one's shell reassuringly.

Master Splinter excused himself, telling his sons that he was going to look in on Raphael. The old rat moved swiftly down the hall to Leonardo's room and let himself in. He walked in and glanced around. There was no one to be seen. A quick glance around the room changed nothing. There was no one. The heater whirred softly. Splinter frowned.

As Master Splinter returned to the main room, Leonardo, Donatello and Michelangelo were discussing what was to be done about Raphael. First and foremost Mikey was brainstorming ways to make it up to his older brother.

"Eh-hem." Splinter murmured. Everyone at the table looked up at him. "Your brother is not in your room, my son." He told Leonardo.

Leo frowned and thought for a moment. "Was my blanket over by the heater?"

Master splinter nodded. "Yes, your sheet as well." Splinter raised a curious eyebrow at his son's question. "Along with just about every other piece of fabric the room."

Leo's eye-ridges furrowed. "All of them, huh? Hmm." The eldest smiled. "Come on, Sensei. I have a feeling I know exactly where Raph's hiding."

Leo's POV

My brothers and father followed me to my room. I moved over to the large, nondescript pile of fabrics. "Donnie, your staff."

He handed me the bow without hesitation.

I used the long wooden stick to peel back the covers. Dull green eyes glared sleepily up at me. "What the hell 'r you doin'?"

I let out a snort of laughter. He looked ridiculous. "You're not that cold are you?" I asked, only half kidding.

"It's comfy." Raphael whined, in a voice both childish and sincere. "Go away, let me sleep in peace…" He sneezed and sighed tiredly, "…and warmth."

I rolled my eyes at him. Sensei was smiling, incredibly amused by the whole thing. "Leonardo has told us about what happened my son. Are you feeling well?"

"Not really." He stated, receiving concerned looks from all of us. If Raph was straightforward, it was a sure fire sign that things were worse than they seemed.

Don bent down by Raph's side. "What's wrong?"

"Feel like shit." The hothead slurred.

"Language." Sensei chided gently.

Raph tried to push himself up, but he gave up and lay calmly on the floor. "More like a piece of shit."

"Raphael, your current state does not excuse your language." Sensei warned.

The hothead rolled his eyes and remained silent. For a moment, he seemed almost dazed, Raph rubbed his temples with two fingers.

Donatello reached out and pressed two fingers to Raphael's forehead. "I think you have a slight fever."

Raph's bottom lip pushed out, in a pouting expression. He swatted Don's hand away gently. "Go away and let me sleep."

"Well someone has bad sick manners." Leo grumbled.

There was silence. "What, no snarky comments? Nothing along the lines of: Raph doesn't have any manners?" Raph asked. The red-masked brother turned to Mikey expectantly.

Mikey said nothing. He only stared blankly with a frown on his face.

"Mikey?" Raph asked, before going into a severe coughing fit. The entire Hamato clan regarded their sick member with worried eyes.

When they were younger, it had always seemed as though Raph had been very susceptible to sickness. Not only that, when Raph was sick, he was sick. He would barely eat, barely drink, stay holed up in his room wrapped tightly in a self-made burrito of blankets, and sleep for days on end.

It was very worrisome.

Splinter patted Raph's shell gently. After a few moments the coughs died down, Raph tried again. "Mikey," he called reaching out towards his younger brother.

Michelangelo grabbed Raph's hand, and spoke softly. "I'm so sorry Raphie."

Raph grinned. "I know you didn't mean to." He stated, then he added as an afterthought, "But that doesn't mean I won't beat you up the second I get better."

That made Mikey smile. "I'll take your word for it, bro."

Raphael relaxed and closed his eyes. Everything was right again. Mikey was happy, his family was here, he had blankets, he was safe, and he was warm. A few days of sleep, and things would be back to normal.

Well how was it? Review please. Thanks for reading everyone! Anybody have any suggestions for upcoming chapters? I could use some suggestions...