I don't own the TMNT

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"Splinter?"

My mind was hazy, full of cobwebs so thick that I could hardly see through them. What was going on? My head was a mass of dull pain. Where was I?

"We shouldn't be out here, Leo. Master Splinter says not to."

I became aware of the voices, barely audible over the tumultuous roaring of water, so loud that it was nearly deafening. Then why was it that I could hear those little voices?

"NO! Something's wrong. I know it, I-OH NO! There's the wagon! And the backpack! Where is he? Daddy? DADDY!"

A cluster of cries sounded above me, the high pitched sounds bouncing off the walls, seeming to pierce my ears even through the roar of the water. The sound of panic in them urged me to do something, instilled a sense of strong instinct in me. Opening my eyes I tried to move. My head felt like it weighed much more than it should and pounded with a deep, thudding pain. My entire body was sluggish. My arms trembled as I tried to right myself, then my lower torso shifted. A sharp pain, sliced through me from my leg, causing me to cry out and collapse, panting slightly, my brain a wave of intense dizziness. Now that I was aware of it, my leg screamed in pain, seeming to be intensely worse with the slightest movement. Digging my claws into the slimy concrete, I gritted my teeth.

"Father?"

Yes. That was right. The voices. Peeking my eye open, I saw several little green heads pop over from the top of the cysterne, right where the pipe met the opening. "My sons…" I said through gritted teeth.

Then I saw the most prominent head, Leonardo, his eyes wide. He stared at me for a moment and I stared back, my mind starting to piece things together through the fog. "Splinter! What happened? Are you hurt?"

The food. The fair. The pipe. The fall…

My eyes finally snapped open to reality. Gritting my teeth against the pain, I quickly shoved myself up. Might have been a mistake. The pain got so intense that for an instant I saw nothing but white, unaware of anything else. Then my vision cleared and I could do nothing but lean back, clutching my upper leg to steady it I looked up again, pausing to acclimate myself from the intense dizziness that I felt from my head injury. The pain was so intense that I was fighting the urge to vomit. Then the sight of them peering over the ledge, the same height that I just fell made my breath catch in my throat, signaling a deep, primal fear. "Leonardo! My sons! Go away! It is too dangerous for you here!" I looked up, eyes desperate. I could not allow them to risk themselves, especially for me.

"But Splinter, you look hurt-"

"Leave me now! This is an order! You WILL NOT risk yourselves for me!"

My sons just stared back for a moment. As I looked them in their eyes, tears starting to form in mine. If I was to die here, who would take care of them? Could they survive? Had I just killed us all with my stupid blunder? Had I just committed the ultimate failure as a father? If only they would listen to me. If they fell, if their little bodies broken at the bottom of the cisterne…I was not sure if I could go on. I might just let the waters take me.

Their heads disappeared from sight and I allowed myself to take a deep breath. With luck they had listened to me. They were headed to safety. Yet still the fear within me refused to be quelled. What would they do without me? Surely they would die or continue their lives in horrible conditions.

I had to get myself out of this situation. I had to get myself to my sons. I could not let them go through life alone or risk their death. Not if I could help it.

Yet each time I tried to move, the pain from my leg combined with the pain and intense dizziness in my head made me stop. After each attempt I laid there, panting, frustrated at my own weakness. I inspected the injury. It was a fracture of my shin, closer to my ankle. That must be one reason why the pain was so bad, the movement from my foot affected it greatly. At least it was a closed fracture, and didn't look very deformed, so it was likely a clean break. If only I had something to splint it with. But there was nothing around me, only concrete, water and slime. How would I even get up? It was already starting to swell. My head pounded, yet I felt tired and my vision was blurred at the edges. I must have hit my head harder than I had thought. How long had I been out?

Struggling, I tried to clear my head and take stock of the situation. It was difficult, my thoughts were sluggish and my body wracked with pain. Every instinct in my body seemed to want me to sleep, yet I knew that this had the potential for disaster. If I suffered a concussion, then I may never wake up. So I settled for trying to fight through the confusion in my head. I must get up. I must get to my sons. I must care for them.

How long has it been since I had seen my sons at the top of the cisterne? With the pain and the situation it likely seemed much longer than it was, but I was not sure. The time was filled with me struggling to tamp down the pain, failing again and again to get up. Each time I fell it was as if I had received a new blow, each of which seemed to take longer to recover from. If my head wasn't a solid mass of pain and dizziness then I may have succeeded but as it was, the two together seemed to be too much for me. Weak. You are failing your sons. They will die because of you, Hamato Yoshi.

Then I heard some squabbling above me. Looking up my pupils dilated at the sight. There was my sons, all balancing on the pipe, a line of rope tied between them. "WHAT do you think you are doing?" I snapped, then gritted my teeth to hide the moan of pain from my leg. I dug my claws into the ground, desperate to try to regain my feet once more. To get them to stop such a dangerous action. My elbows trembled at the motion, betraying my body, not wanting to go through the effort.

Leonardo would not meet my eyes. He looked so grim it hurt. "You need help, Master!"

Sure enough, my claws slipped in the grime and I landed hard on my side, my head hitting the surface. "DAD!" He called. For a moment, I could not move as my head struggled to collect itself once more. Panting, I rolled to my back, watching my disobedient sons as I caught my breath once more. Then, as I watched him tie a loop of cord around the pipe, speaking softly to his brothers who seemed to be listening to him in rapt attention, another feeling began to come over me.

Pride.

It was clear that my Leonardo had taken charge. Almost as if he was leader of the group. That grain of thought cemented within me, and I began to see it differently.

Maybe I could secure a stable future for them after all.

If I lived to see it, of course.

Leonardo tied the line around Donatello's waist. He looked anxious but resolved and serious. Slung over his shoulder was a small satchel. He helped Leonardo tie two more large loops, open to the air, along with a smaller one. Raphael frowned. Though he was obviously frightened, he needed to be doing something. I was familiar with the attitude. "Why is he going? I should be the one to help Splinter!"

Looking thoughtful for a second, Leonardo responded, looking at him delicately. "Don knows the most about the body and stuff. Plus, you're the strongest, Raph! We need you up here to lift them up. There's no way we could do it without you!"

Raphael blinked at the thinly veiled compliment then nodded and puffed his little chest out in apparent pride. "You're right. Good luck, Donnie." He said and patted the little turtles shoulder.

With the rope securely tied around him, Donatello used the smaller loop as a foothold, the two larger loops still open to the air. Working together, the three turtles lowered him down.

I watched him near me, such a flood of odd emotions swamping through me. At one point, I did not want him doing this. He was putting himself at unnecessary risk. The thought that he might get injured, or worse, was enough to make my heart go cold. Especially if he did it because of me. Yet at the same time, I could see something different in my sons that perhaps I had never seen before, likely because of my own blindness. I was so focused on caring for them that I had never truly considered what they could do. For themselves. By themselves. They were working together towards a task, to save me. If it worked, what were the implications? Had I so seriously misjudged them simply according to age?

His eyes wide with fright, Donatello nonetheless kept his face adorably solemn as he approached me. Once he touched down on the ground beside me, his eyes swept over my body. For an instant he froze, his breath hitching in his throat as the reality of the situation instilled real fear in him. Before I could offer any words of comfort I could hear Leonardo call from above. "Don't worry, Donnie! You've got this! We're all here for you! Together, we can do this!"

The words seemed to wash over him like warm water. Taking a deep breath, Donatello nodded to himself and approached me gently, as if he was afraid that I would shatter upon his touch. "Daddy? Master Splinter? What happened?" His eyes were already zeroing in on my leg but his furtive glance to my eyes looked for concurrence.

I looked at him for a moment before answering. "I fell. My leg is broken, and I had hit my head."

He nodded, then scooted forward. Gently touching my shoulder he had me bend over slightly as he looked at the back of my head. I complied, but mostly to comfort him. After all, though he was my most intellectual son, how much could he know about medicine and wounds? I know that he had been reading books, but books would only tell you so much.

Getting down on his little knees, he carefully looked at the back of my head, his fingers palpating the flesh gently. I winced, but quickly covered up the expression before he could see. "Looks like you probably suffered a concussion, there's a large hematoma developing, but it doesn't look like the skull is fractured or anything. You'll probably have a lot of pain and dizziness for a while, though." He breathed a sigh of relief even as my own breath hitched in surprise. What was a hematoma? Before I could ask, he was scooting to face me. "Can you look at me in the eyes please?"

Curious, I did as he said. In his little bag he pulled out a light. It was one of the cheap keychain lights that I had given him some time ago. Holding it up, he quickly flashed it in each eye. I was temporarily blinded as he did so, blinking at the motion. I remembered seeing people do this on television shows. Was he merely mimicking them? "What are you looking for?" I asked gently, not wanting him to see my doubt.

He sat back with a smile as he put the little light away. "I read it in the emergency care book you got me. The pupils should be of equal size, and dilate the right way with light, without bulging or anything. Yours is normal, which means that your brain isn't bleeding.

I blinked back my surprise. Yes, I had gotten him those books, but that he had understood so much, I had no idea.

Then he scooted over to my leg. Gently, he ran his fingertips over it, barely brushing my skin beneath my fur. I grimaced in pain at even this light contact, but allowed him to continue. First he inspected my upper shin, then the muscle below it, prodding lightly at the sides. I was almost at the point of snapping at him when he stopped. "Looks like a tibial fracture, though not a complete one. At least it's still supported by the fibula." Reaching into the small bag beside him he took out two metal gardening poles and some rope. Gently placing the poles on either side, he wound the rope around them, slowly tightening, his eyes on my face to make sure that the pain wasn't too great, until they were rigidly in place. While he was doing so the pain was intensifying, but as soon as he was done and tied it off, it slowly got reduced to a low throb. "There." He said, taking a deep, slightly shaky breath. I stared at him, suddenly aware of how scared he was the entire time.

"How do you know such things, my son?" I asked softly. "I know that you read the books, but…" I trailed off, unable to finish. It even seemed shameful to ask. Of course he would know things. He was my little genius. How could I have underestimated him so?

He got up, bringing the larger loops over to me, slinging the first one over my chest so that it held me underneath my armpits. Shrugging, looking down, face bright red with embarrassment and a little bit of shame he answered. "I dunno. Reading. And sometimes, I find hurt animals, see if I can fix them…" Immediately his eyes darted to mine, expecting punishment. After all, I allowed no animals in the Lair. It was an ironclad rule. We already had enough trouble feeding ourselves after all.

Yet punishment was the last thing on my mind. In fact, I was finding myself near tears at my small son's accomplishments. All done right under my nose. "That is very good, my son. Did you know that many doctors practice on animals? It is very professional." I smiled, struggling back the tears. All I wanted to do was to embrace him, but at the moment the most important thing was getting out of the situation.

His face lit up as, gently, he helped me arrange the second loop so that it was nestled against the tops of my thighs. "Really?" A grin split his face as he checked the knots one last time and rechecked his splint.

"Yes. You are truly shaping up to be a handy doctor, are you not Donatello? You already are our official electrician and so much more. Perhaps, after this is over, I could find some more medical materials for you."

He was now practically glowing. It was amazing to be basking in my son's light. "Yeah, that would be great! Now, ah, we're going to go up. I need you to hold onto the rope, make sure that you don't wriggle too much, okay?"

I smiled at him. "Yes, doctor."

At the words his face turned beet red and got split in half by his smile. I could not resist smiling back

I clearly had a lot to reflect on.

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A/N: In case you haven't noticed, I'm kinda placing this before the turtles had their defined 'roles.' I don't think that they would've had it right away, and seeing as how parents are VERY imperfect, it might've taken something big to get Splinter to see past the little babies that he took care of and see them as growing kids who can do more than he thought they could. Please leave a review and let me know what you think!

P.S. If your into romance and RL issues, I have another fic featuring Mike called My Camouflage is Orange.

P.P.S. We are hosting a horror fanfic competition! It is on stealthy stories, the link is on my profile. Contact me or NerdFighter if you have any questions.