Chapter 20
"So, they say you got to grow up twice."
"Yep."
"What was that like?"
"I fixed every mistake I made in my first life, saved all my money, and married the woman I loved."
"Really?"
"Yeah.But there was a downside."
"Like what?"
"I made new mistakes, saved all my money, and married the woman I loved."

Next Day
Leo groaned slowly as he pulled himself up from his bed- the fight yesterday had gotten to all of them- it hadn't seemed any worse then any other fight they had gotten into before, but the fact that they were a turtle short had made the bruises feel just that much worse. On a normal day, he would have thought of it as a lesson…

Today he just wanted to go back to sleep.

He could hear Raph snoring soundly in his own bed, quite loudly too if he could be heard all the way in Leo's room, and like always Donny's room was as silent as the dead. He wondered how his brother could be so still when asleep, but decided it was probably a good thing.

Normally right now he would have already been able to hear Mikey in the kitchen, the scent of eggs, bacon, pancakes and whatever else already heavy on the air. Though Leo was the type to get up early for practice, Mikey had always been an early riser. The simple fact was that he had too much undirected energy to deal with- and he didn't seem overly interested in directing it to an early morning practice with his oldest brother.

Instead he would cook breakfast for the family, and do a little cleaning on the side. Not that he would admit it of course, but his brother hated cooking in a messy kitchen. He preferred to make the mess himself, and leave it up to his brothers to clean as 'payment' for the meal.

Slowly Leo dragged himself from the bed, knowing that no such meal would be forthcoming for a while now; the last few days each turtle had cooked their own meals, not thinking about the others simply because they'd had a system that had been working for fifteen years now.

Knowing that they had to get some new system going until Mikey came back (and who knew how long it would take until he was even tall enough to reach the stove again) Leo began to pull out the ingredients for oatmeal. It wasn't quite a Mikey's breakfast standard, but it was hot, and filling.

It was only five minutes later that Donnie walked into the kitchen, obvious bruising on his face made him look like he'd had a horrible nights sleep. "That for you?" He asked tiredly, "Or all of us?"

"Everyone," Leo replied.

And they fell silent as they ate their oatmeal, noticing not for the first time in the last three days just how much dead space Mikey's jokes and conversation made up.

Meanwhile
Mikey lay back on his small cot, trying to ignore the fact that he was in a small cage for yet another morning. How he wanted to just leave… he missed his brothers. He missed Splinter. He missed the lair. …And he was missing his Saturday morning cartoons, which just ranked.

It had to be almost seven o'clock before Bebop came into the room with a tray of cereal and juice, surprising the young turtle. He had been awake for a while, but had always figured that Bebop and Rocksteady were the types to get up at noon.

"Morning," Mikey said through the bars.

"G'Mornin'," Bebop replied, setting the tray down, "Youse sleep well after yesterday?"

"Sure," Mikey replied, "Never better- on that note, about the cage…"

Bebop shrugged, but there was something in his eyes that looked like he felt guilty about it. "Shredder says this is where youse gotta' sleep, so this is where youse gotta' sleep. But since you were real good- 'specially yesterday, he might start thinkin' about puttin' ya somewhere else. That ninja teacher youse have says you seem real smart for your age…"

"Yeah?"

"Somethin' about makin' sure youse get an education or something'." Bebop continued, "'Cause if you were made in a lab, and you're smarter then your family, they might as well see what youse know fer like… school stuff. Not jus' fightin'."

Mikey, surprised and not too thrilled with the idea of sitting in a room trying to learn his math all over again, scowled at the thought- making Bebop smile. "Yeah," he continued, "I know. School stuff… I don't get it either, but people with school smarts always turn out cool. My sister did those things."

"You have a sister?" Mikey asked, curious about his 'friend' and his family.

"Well, sure," Bebop continued, "Haven't seen her in a long time, 'suppose I should call. But me and her ain't never really got along- and now I'm a mutant, right? So… nah."

Mikey nodded, as if understanding- he couldn't call his brothers in this state, in this place. He didn't know what they were doing, or just how hard they were trying to find him… all he knew was he was still here, and getting a better deal by the moment. No way in shell he ever wanted to work for Shredder, and he wanted to be here even less at the thought of school…

But he wasn't completely angry about the way things were turning out, captured by the enemy.

…And that kind of worried him.