I made fanfiction for the rottmnt 40th anniversary comic! You can read the full first chapter by clicking here, but I will be posting a little preview below, so SPOILERS AHEAD!
Chapter 1 - Family Movie Day
Leo placed some breakfast on a wooden tray – toast with strawberry jam and a warm cup of tea – and walked it out of the kitchen and down the hall. When he finally made it to the dilapidated subway car that was Splinter’s bedroom, he stopped short of the door. Taking a deep breath, he put on a brave face and tapped the door with his toes.
“Hey, Dad, I’m coming in. You better be halfway decent in there,” Leo called. He gently kicked open the door and let the light from the hallway illuminate a path to Splinter’s bedside. The sickeningly sweet smell of flowers bombarded his nostrils, and he had to tread carefully to avoid knocking over the vases that lined the floor. At some point, he would have to water some of those roses and discard the wilting bouquets, he reminded himself. And at the rate that his family was receiving flowers from friends, he was going to have to find some more vases, too.
The bed was a mess of pillows and blankets – but no Splinter. Leo nearly dropped the tray. No matter how many times he and his brothers had told their dad not to get up and wander around the lair without their supervision, he did so anyway. It was as if he didn’t care that it gave them a heart attack. Or maybe it just was payback for all the times they snuck out of the lair and got into trouble when they were kids. Leo set the tray down on the bedside nightstand and rushed out of the room, sending a flurry of petals flying in his wake.
Thankfully, Splinter was right where Leo thought he would be: curled up in his favorite armchair in front of the TV. “Blue! There you are,” he said. His voice was raspy, and it was obviously painful for him to talk, but he spoke with enthusiasm nonetheless. “I think we should watch Enter the Tiger today, hm? How ‘bout it?”
Leo planted his hands on his hips. “I think you should stop with the vanishing act and just stay in bed until I get you.”
Splinter crossed his arms. “But it’s stuffy in there. It’s like living inside the perfume kiosks in the mall. I mean, the flowers were nice at first, but now it’s kind of overkill.”
“We can move them out if you want, but – hey, where are your socks?!” Leo asked, suddenly noticing his dad’s bare feet.
“The grippy socks? Eh, they were making my feet sweaty.”
As much as Leo wanted to be mad, he couldn’t blame him. If he were bedridden for months on end, he would probably go stir-crazy, too. But man, he’d be lying if he said his dad wasn’t driving him insane already. “Nothing. I’ll get your breakfast, and then we can watch that movie, ‘kay?”
He returned to Splinter’s bedroom and retrieved his breakfast tray. On his way back, he found Raph stumbling towards the bathroom, bleary-eyed and yawning. “Mornin’, Leo,” he said. “You taking care of Pop’s breakfast today?”
“Nope!” Leo said. “I’m taking care of Pops though.”
The scowl that crossed his brother’s face was almost as funny as his own joke. “Wow,” Raph said. “That was horrible, even for you.”
“Really? I thought it was pretty good.”
“Well, it wasn’t. Raph gives you a C minus for that one.” His tone grew somber. “Seriously though, do you need any help?”
“I got it covered,” Leo said. “Wait, actually, could you do me a favor and try to find Dad’s grippy socks for me? They should be around here somewhere.”
“He took them off again?”
Raph groaned. “Fine, I’ll look for them.”
By the time Leo returned to the TV room, the familiar sounds and images of Enter the Tiger was playing on the screen. Splinter was snuggled in his armchair and fiddling with the volume controls on the remote, as if he hadn’t obviously gotten up to put the movie into the VHS player in the first place. But Leo didn’t feel like reprimanding his dad for the umpteenth time, so he pretended not to notice. “One carb-heavy breakfast, on the house!” Leo said as he rested the tray on his dad’s lap.
“Yay, my favorite: flavorless toast,” Splinter said, rolling his eyes. He took a slice from the plate and nibbled one of the corners.
Over a year ago, when Splinter first cracked a joke about his food tasting funny, Leo had chalked it up to Draxum’s cooking. Although he wasn’t as bad of a chef as Donnie or Raph were, there was no telling what he put in their lasagna that night. In Leo’s opinion, it hadn’t tasted any stranger than it normally did, and his brothers all thought the same; Splinter was the only one who insisted that it tasted different. Everyone assumed that he was taking a jab at Draxum, but it should have been the first clue that something was wrong.
For the next couple of weeks, he complained that everything tasted bland, from his favorite froyo to Mikey’s homemade pizza. It wasn’t until he mentioned that he also felt pain in his throat and ears that Leo and his brothers realized that things were more serious than they seemed. It took days to figure out what was making him so sick; meanwhile, Splinter’s health worsened. His pain became unbearable, he lost his appetite, and he became even more lethargic than normal. Eventually, Donnie narrowed down the diagnosis: oropharyngeal carcinoma. Tonsil cancer.
None of the turtles slept much in the following weeks. Donnie often pulled all-nighters trying to develop a chemotherapy drug that would get rid of the cancer without being too aggressive on Splinter’s already frail body. Mikey started having nightmares, ones that usually made him wake up screaming. Raph and Leo threw themselves into vigilantism. If he were honest, Leo only went on nightly patrols to make sure Raph was okay. But if he had to guess, Raph went on patrols looking for an excuse to take out all his anger and frustration on whatever hapless crook crossed their path.
Then, slowly but surely, things started looking up. Donnie completed the chemotherapy drug and started treating Splinter with Leo’s help. The drug took its toll on his body, and his fur fell out, but when it grew back months later, it was a hopeful sign that he was improving. Mikey started getting more sleep and having less nightmares. Leo and his brothers started going on regularly scheduled missions again. Of course, Splinter’s health was still much worse than it was before, and they weren’t out of the tunnel yet, but at last they could see the light at the end.
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