A Winter Wonderland

Chapter One

The turtle woke up with a gasp before sitting up shakily in the large bed and wiped his eyes sleepily. He moved out of the bed carefully hearing a soft mutter from his partner, the mutant smiled softly and gently tucked the pregnant turtle in so not to disturb the rest he needed.

Happy that his partner wasn't going to wake up, the turtle's thoughts turned to his nightmare as he walked to the window and looked out at the snowy scene that led out in front of him.

He saw that there had been fresh snow fall overnight from the lowering moon. He sighed and sat in the window seat pressing the top of his head against the cold glass. His mind played over the nightmare's vivid images.

The undying screams from his partner, the cries that faded as they begun and the thick pools of blood followed by darkness.

The turtle shivered and wrapped his arms around him tighter. He took a few slow deep breaths to try and calm his mind down before shaking his head. It was no good; he needed air to clear his head.

Glancing back at the sleeping turtle, he gave a small smile in watching the love of his life sleep with their soon to be born children safe inside him.

Getting up and walked over to the bed, the mask-less turtle gently kissed his mate on the head before leaving the bedroom and instantly shivered at the temperature change. It was much warmer in the bedroom to make Donatello comfortable in his nest and read for his due date.

Walking quietly past the other bedrooms, aware that the others were all asleep around their room by hearing the quiet sounds of breathing, Leonardo carefully walked down the stairs and made his way out of the farmhouse wanting a quiet morning run before returning to the others.

He sighed as he stopped by the door, knowing how cold it would be out there before looking at the rough shoes his brothers had made for their workouts in the snow and slipped a pair on. They felt warm as they hugged his legs but shrugged it off before opening the door instantly shivering at the cold winds blowing in.

Taking a slow deep breath, he stepped out and quietly closed the door behind him before jogging through the yard and to the woods.

The usually blue-wearing turtle was right, the cold was helping but something deep down inside of him told him that the fear wouldn't go away, not that easily.

He shook his head and ran faster through the woods, keeping his senses up in case of anything or anyone that could be in the woods along with him. He wanted to keep running, away from the thoughts that plagued his mind late at night or early in the morning, away from the fears that plagued his dreams and just focus on what was coming up.

Christmas

Well Christmas and his mate's due date, to where they finally get to meet their children after 9 long months of waiting and watching their growth from the scans or from Donatello's changes.

With a slide to stop himself in the snow, the powder rising up in his skid, the turtle looked around and took slow long breaths. Each breath he let out, he watched it appear in a silver like cloud in the cold air.

He had reached the edge of the woods, seeing the wide open countryside laid out in front of him. As far as his eyes could see, there was a blanket of snow touching everything and he just loved the sight. It was fresh, it was crisp and it was untainted from the world.

Just like the babies his mate was carrying and would soon be in this world, he didn't want anything to happen to them.

Taking a shuddering breath, he remembered the vivid images of his nightmare that had plagued him since they came to the farmhouse a week ago.

A cold wind breezed through the trees behind him, shaking some snow from the branches above and made the cooling turtle shiver.

He turned around, wiped the snow from his shoulders and started to jog slowly back to the farmhouse, thinking of the decorations, the smells of cooking from the kitchen and the presents lying under the heavily decorated tree.

He smiled and picked up the pace a little, navigating through the woods and saw the smoke rising from the farmhouse in the clearing of the woods. It appeared he was gone longer than he thought, using the smoke to navigate back to their second home, to his pregnant mate.

April and Master Splinter worked together to get the fire up and roaring, wanting to get heat into the main room in the farmhouse before any of the turtles got up. They had moved the electric heaters into the rooms, got them close to maximum temperature, especially for the heavily pregnant turtle in the biggest guest room.

Once they were done sorting out the main room, having it clean for a short time, they moved off to the kitchen to start breakfast.

Master Splinter frowned and worked on one of his teas.

"Something wrong Master?" April asked softly, hearing a shuffling upstairs with a smile and shook her head.

"Just that will need this tea soon, and some blankets" Master Splinter replied softly before taking over for the human. "Go and I'll carry on here, he'll want to come down"

April smiled, "Even though he is suppose to be on bed rest" She said softly and sighed, "Ok, we'll be back soon" She replied and left the kitchen to see to her friend.

Once the ex-scientist had left, Splinter sighed and made the tea.

"Sit in front of the fire my son, and we'll talk" He said softly to the shivering turtle behind him.

"Y... y... yes sensei" Leonardo muttered with a bow, shivering from his run.