This is the final part of his b-day.
Leo looks around and follows Heather on the path. He had changed into a pair of swimming trunks and has a towel around his neck. Heather had also changed into a two piece swimsuit, but still keeps her shoes on. Leo doesn't know where they are going, but something tells him that they will be near water.
"Heather, where are we going?" Leo asks, finally. Heather looks back.
"You'll see." She walks into an opening and Leo soon joins her. He sees the pond on the far side of the space, with a stream coming from it. He looks at Heather and waits for her to tell him. "Put your towel on the ground and I'll meet you at the water," Heather says. Leo runs over to the pond and stretches the towel out on the grass. Then he climbs the boulders on the pond edge and dips his feet into it.
"Do you come here a lot?" Leo asks. Heather lays her towel on the grass and takes off her shoes. She slips into the pond and dips under the water. "Heather?"
Heather resurfaces and smiles at him, "Not as often as I would like. C'mon in Leo, it's warm. You said you can swim." Leo looks at the water and joins her in the pool. But he doesn't like the feeling of his swim trunks.
"Do I need my shorts?" He asks. Heather shakes her head. Leo quickly gets out and sheds the clothing. 'Turtles weren't made to swim with clothes.' He runs at the pond and jumps in. He looks around under the water and finds a hole at the bottom. He points for Heather to see. She shakes her head. He listens and doesn't go down to investigate.
They swim around for a little, thinking of a few games to play. When the water starts to cool off, Leo gets out and suns on his towel. He has to have his shorts on again, but they had dried as they swam, so he is okay with it. Heather takes out a ball from the bag she brought and they toss it back and forth. But Heather tosses it a little too far and Leo drops it. It rolls down the hill into the forest.
Leo looks after it. "Leo, do you want me to get it?" Heather asks.
"No, I can get it," Leo walks to the forest edge and takes a step through. He is used to the forest, due to those tag games they had tried before. But he can't see the yellow ball they used in the brush. He looks around and finally spots the ball in a tree. Heather had followed him so he doesn't get lost. She surveys the area.
"Looks like it bounced up there," she decides, tracing the path it must have taken. Leo goes to the base of the tree and finds a foothold. He climbs up the trunk, getting in arms reach of the ball.
"Almost, got it," his green fingers brush the ball, loosening it from it's hold in the tree, "Whoa!" He looses his footing and falls. But Heather catches him under the tree.
"Careful, I could have gotten it Leo," Heather says, setting him down. He's holding the ball in his grip.
"I could do it," Leo defends. Heather doesn't push it. They walk back and get out the picnic Heather prepared. It had Japanese noodles and chicken in it. Leo eats for a little, then goes back into the pond. He swims down to the hole he found earlier and peers through. He doesn't see anything but black. He swims down into it and finds that it goes up. He follows it until there is a break in the water. He climbs out, overlooking the pond. "Heather!" He calls. She looks up at him.
"What're you doing up there!?" Heather yells back, not freaking out at where he is. He looks at the water below him.
"Uhh.." Leo realizes how high up he is. "I, I don't know." Heather gets up and goes into the pond.
"Leo, can you jump?" She asks. Leo looks down and shakes his head. "You can do it, just don't look." Leo closes his eyes and feels for the edge.
'I don't want to do this, but if I can't go down the other way, then I have to.' He jumps. Heather watches him land in the water and then hugs him.
"How do you feel?" She asks. Leo looks at the water, seeing he is okay.
"I'm okay.. that was really high up."
"Yes it was, but you were brave. You were really brave." Leo smiles. "I think that's enough excitement for one day. Between the space mission to the ball in the tree, are you ready to go back?" Leo nods. They wrap themselves in their towels and put on their shoes.
They walk back to the A-house and change out of their suits. Steve had left and they have the house to themselves again. Leo looks at his homework for a little, but his mind wanders to his new gifts and ends up drawing. Heather was in their room, putting up a new piece of furnishing.
She walks back down and finds Leo making a sketch of his brothers in his notebook. It was getting late and Leo had to get to bed. "Leo, I have something to show you." Leo nods and puts his notebook away. He follows her up to their room and sees another bed inside.
"What is that for?" Leo asks.
"You are getting bigger Leo, so I thought you could try sleeping in your own bed. If you get a nightmare, you can join me, but you need to start sleeping on your own," Heather explains. Leo walks over and climbs on top. He deems it alright and changes into his sleep wear.
"Training tomorrow?" Leo asks.
Heather nods. "Back to the usual."
Leo yawns, "I'm okay with that." He snuggles down and falls asleep.
For the first week, Leo had to wake up from nightmares. But one of the days after, he decided to test something. He had a nightmare, but he didn't go to Heather. He instead holds his blanket close to him and tries to go back to sleep. And he does that the next few days and it works.
He no longer needed Heather, for the most part, to sleep. Also he had progressed in school work and training. He was doing less work with Heather and going straight to the dojo sim in the morning and in the evening. He draws in his spare time and watches Heather on the obstacle course once in a while.
Autumn turned to winter and Leo reviewed what Master Bācharu had taught him, since it was too cold to go outside. He talks to Mikey a lot, exchanging information about life in the country to life in the city. Thor had visited at Christmas and Thanksgiving, Steve showing up more frequently. And Heather watches Leo grow, being her most important mission she's ever started.
I decided to use this time to do a time skip. This is going to be really awesome. I will work on my other stories before coming back to this one.
So, how long do you think Leo will be at the Ranch? So far, it's been about a year.