Rum soaked ship's biscuits

Slowly she put on a flannel over her pajama tank top, and groaned a bit. She could feel the results of the three shots of whisky taken in short order last night, but she was functional. Once the flannel was on she quickly peeled it off again when she reconsidered putting on a bra…then thought that worrying about that was beyond stupid and angrily shoved her arms back into the flannel and stalked out of the bedroom. When she hit the second floor landing she started to hear muffled voices and movement downstairs and her steps slowed, creeping down the stairs in bare feet and stopping on the seventh step, which was where she could slowly lean down and peer into the kitchen while still remaining relatively hidden. Sure enough, there was a large, man-like turtle sitting at the kitchen island with April.

There were actually two turtle men in the kitchen, Elise noted as she tentatively made it down to the fifth step, avoiding the sixth, which creaked. Whatever bandanas or masks they had been wearing the night before were gone and she had no idea which of the four these two were, especially since their shells — oh god they had really big shells — were turned towards her so she couldn’t see their faces. Was one the friendly one? Was the other Leo? Neither was the red beer thief as neither of them were large enough. Was one of them making pancakes? She spotted Daisy and Gio patiently begging from the turtle at the stove as he poured batter onto a skillet.

At least they are ok with dogs, thought Elise.

Now, did she pretend like this was all normal and grab a cup of coffee, or did she ignore everything and take the dogs straight out for a walk and then hide outside? A dozen different thoughts flew through her mind before she reached the bottom step, where she froze with indecision on what to do. Before she could finalize a plan of action, though, April called her out.

“Don't be shy, Twerp,” using the moniker she called all her younger cousins back when they were kids. “Come get some coffee before Donnie drinks it all.”

Elise crossed her arms over her chest and padded into the kitchen and stood at the threshold. 

“Good morning!” The one making the pancakes grinned cheerily at her, revealing a full set of rather white teeth in a rather large mouth. Definitely the dog-whisperer orange one, Elise confirmed, and instead of the orange mask he was wearing an apron with little ducks on it. 

“G’morning,” she replied, trying to make her voice sound even and calm. She wasn’t totally pleased with the outcome, but it was passable. After a short pause where April looked like she was trying to find something to say Elise robotically went to the cabinets and pulled out a mug and then busied herself with pouring coffee and doctoring it with milk, no sugar, and keeping her back to the kitchen island the entire time. Her movements were awkward and nervous as she popped the mug into the microwave for an extra thirty seconds to buy herself time and then stared intently at the machine the entire thirty seconds until it pinged and she had no more reasons not to turn around and face them.

“That coffee was already hot,” April said casually, acting like this was the most normal thing in the world to be doing, sitting and drinking coffee with two giant turtle-men, one of which could flip pancakes with incredible accuracy. Elise lifted the mug to her lips and took a sip, burning her mouth a little and pretending like she didn’t. The turtle sitting at the big kitchen island glanced at her once or twice, but was otherwise engrossed in a book and his own coffee. He was also wearing glasses, which was so bizarrely mundane that her brain got stuck on that for a moment.

“So…uh, I have questions,” she leaned her back against the kitchen counter, sipping her coffee again and tucking her arms in so that the mug was cradled just below her chin. 

“Questions go perfectly with pancakes. Give me another fifteen minutes and we can all eat and ask questions,” chirped Mikey as he finished one batch of pancakes and poured the next. He then plucked up two little pancakes from a plate where they’d been cooling and turned to the dogs, whose ears perked up immediately. “And these are for you! Such good puppies!”

While the dogs gobbled down their treats and resumed their positions intently watching Mikey work, April pulled out a stool for Elise at the island and cozied up shoulder to shoulder with her.

“How did you sleep?” her voice was low and almost conspiratorial and there was a definite quirk in the side of her mouth.

“I’m not entirely sure I’m awake,” Elise deadpanned and watched Mikey heft the heavy cast iron skillet up and flip three pancakes perfectly in unison. April just hummed into her coffee before taking a sip and Elise turned to whisper in her ear. “How did you…for how long…?”

Suddenly the book reading turtle gave a polite cough and the two women looked up, whereupon he stretched his alien three fingered hand out across the kitchen table.

“Hi, I’m Donatello, although Donnie or just Don works. We weren’t really introduced last night.” His eyes were hazel green and she was taken aback at how completely human they were, especially as they were a little exaggerated from the lens distortion of his glasses. He was farsighted, by the looks of it, and the glasses had been modified to make them wider to fit his face and head.

She then used the few seconds she had to really look at his face. Was it more turtle or human looking? It was certainly green, for the most part, although the area around his mouth had a more human-like shade to it. His mouth was also wide and he had lips instead of having a proper beak. Turtles would have beaks, right? His face was sloped in kind of a hint-of-beak shape…could she call it a snout? No real nose structure to speak of, just nostrils that were wide set slits in the area where a nose should be on a human face. She noted his glasses were held on by a band that wrapped around his head. No hair at all, not even eyelashes, and he had a small cleft in his chin.

“Hi. Elise,” she shook the turtle's hand because to not do so would be rude, and when they touched she noted how calloused it was and how it absolutely dwarfed hers. Common politeness and the intense desire to not laps into awkward silence then asserted themselves over the weirdness of it all and she asked, ”what are you reading?”

The turtle suppressed a small smile and said “a biography of Oppenheimer,” which should have been obvious, as the title on the book jacket clearly said American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.

“Don’s a bit of a brain,” April chimed in.

“Don’s a nerd,” said Mikey without turning around from the stove.

The awkward silence came back when no one said anything else and Elise looked at April, who she found was watching her with… amusement? Was this funny to her? How was this funny to her? Elise tried to talk to April with just her eyes, begging her to say something, but April just sat back and sipped her coffee, the lull in conversation slowly pressing down on Elise until she cracked.

“I’ve been in the room where Oppenheimer taught,” she blurted, then added a little more calmly, “I live right by UC Berkeley.”

“Did you go there for college?” Don’s interest looked piqued, but she had to disappoint him.

“Lord no,” she sort of snorted, “Berkeley is competitive as shit. I went to a community college for two years, then transferred to UC Davis. But my best friend went, and some others. One was a physics major, hence how I got in the building.”

“Elise has a horticulture degree, don’t you?” April finally offered something to the conversation.

“I do,” Elise confirmed and Don’s eyes slid back to his book. Ouch. Thankfully Mike seemed more interested.

“What’s horticulture again?” he blurted.

“She studies gardening, Mikey,” Don said absently, his eyes fixed on the pages of his book.

“That’s a basic way of putting it…” she trailed off.

“Oh, well that’s pretty cool. Don’s got a hydroponics set-up at home,” Mike said nonchalantly as he flipped pancakes again. Elise was surprised.

“Do you? What kind? NFT? Deep water? Drip? Aero?”

Don’s eyes lifted from his book again and she felt a little triumphant. “Deep water,” he said, and even laid his book down.

“What are you growing?”

“Greens, mostly. But tomatoes and peppers, too.”

Before Elise could ask how big his set-up was the back door opened and snapped shut with a loud thwack and the big turtle and Casey entered the kitchen, both sweaty and wearing running shorts. Casey came up behind April and bent over to give her a kiss.

“How was the run?” April asked, smelling her husband’s shirt and then making a face.

“Honestly, Red’s getting a little out of shape, I whooped him in the last mile,” said Casey, wiping sweat from his forehead with his forearm.

“Yeah yeah. I just let you,” the big turtle grumbled and walked over to the sink for some water and leaned against it as he drained the glass and filled another. The hard stuff that made up his…chest? It moved as separate plates as he inhaled for each big gulp of water so that they almost looked like armored abdominal muscles, which of course was weirdly fascinating and Elise stared at his midsection while trying to figure out how it all worked. 

“See something you like?” he winked at her, then turned to Michelangelo. “What’s the ETA on this? I got time for a shower?”

“Yeah yeah, get your smelly ass away from the food,” Mike shoulder checked his much larger brother away from the stove, to which Raph shoved him back and ruined the perfect circle of pancake Mike had been pouring, annoying Mike. “Well this one is yours now, you big dildo, and I’m going to burn it!” He huffed at Raph as Raph chuckled and walked away.

“Don’t take all the hot water, Red,” Casey called after him, then turned to Elise. “Hey, how’s your mom and dad? I still think of your dad. What he said about my swing when we went golfing actually helped my stickwork.” He was still leaning over the back of April’s chair and was now smiling at Elise.

  “Who knew the subtle art of golf could be applied to hockey,” drolled Don as he picked up his book again and turned a page. He was watching Elise, though, and they made eye contact for a second and again she was fascinated at the very human eyes looking back at her. Then he smiled just enough where she could tell he got little creases in his cheeks when he smiled wide enough. Casey either didn’t catch Don’s tone or just ignored it.

“I know! Who would have thought,” he said, then with a knowing look leaned in closer to ask Elise how she was doing, and as everyone was acting so normal about all of this Elise felt that she had to act normal, too, which was an effort because this was so not normal.

“Um, fine. Looking forward to pancakes,” she said cautiously and Michelangelo grinned with that wide mouth of his.

“Nice to have someone appreciate my talents! These losers here take me for granted. April excluded. Love you, girl,” he made a kissy face at April, then winked at Elise. “I am making you a special pancake with extra blueberries, Elise.”

“Laying it on a little thick, Michael,” Don smirked and took another sip of his coffee.

“Shaddup! We haven’t had a new friend in ages. Why don’t you put that book down and be friendly,” Mike comically whisper-shouted back at him. For what it was worth, Donatello did put the book down.

“How is San Francisco?” he asked and Elise blinked at him a few times before answering. 

“It’s, uh… it's great. I actually live across the bay, in, uh, Oakland.”

“Do you surf?" Michelangelo cut in and Elise wrinkled her nose in distaste.

"God no. The Pacific is freezing."

“What do you do for fun, then?” Mike continued, removing the last batch of pancakes from the skillet and placing them on the ever growing stack of the largest stack of pancakes Elise had ever seen. 

“Elise likes going to those renaissance faires, don’t you Elise?” Casey said as he stood to go take his shower. He smiled at her as a way of showing he was proud that he remembered that about her, however Elise groaned inwardly. She wasn’t embarrassed by her love of renaissance faires, but she might not have shared that information right off the bat.

“Well that’s cool. You, like, dress up and stuff?” Mike jumped right in.

“Yeah…I, uh, like to make my own costumes. I like to sew.”

“Got any pictures?”

“There’s a few on Facebook,” Elise offered, and her eyes flicked over to Donatello who she found was looking at her again, and again they held eye contact for several moments before Elise pressed her lips into a tight smile and looked away.

“What made you get interested in that?” Don asked, bringing her attention back to him.

“Ah…” she faltered, momentarily baffled that she was having this conversation with two giant turtles. She also felt that she was talking way too much about herself and not learning enough about them, but they kept asking questions. “A friend took me, our junior year of high school. I just… kind of got hooked. I like the costumes. I like figuring out how to make them.” She was not about to offer up any more info than that, though goodness knew there was a lot to dig into. Renaissance fairs and the people who attended were hilarious.

Any would-be hilarity was suddenly cut short when Leonardo entered the kitchen and Elise felt her posture straighten. He wasn’t wearing his blue mask from the night before, either, instead he just had a simple pair of brown khaki pants on. That’s when Elise realized that the only real clothing they wore was on their lower half. She’d been too distracted with everything else to pay attention to that.

“So we’re doing this over breakfast, then?” Leo’s voice seemed calm enough, but then again, what did Elise know.

“Figured everything goes down better with maple syrup and bacon. Oh and I have your water hot,” Mike shrugged, and after thanking him Leo then turned his eyes on her.

“Did you sleep alright, Elise?” he asked, putting on the smallest of smiles and looking thoroughly uncomfortable.

“Oh ho ho. Being polite this morning,” muttered Mike, then quickly turned away to check the bacon cooking on a sheet pan in the oven when Leo’s head snapped around. Elise thought she heard Don make a tired sound.

“I did. The uh, whiskey did the job,” nodding, she drank more of her coffee and also felt thoroughly uncomfortable. Leo cleared his throat.

“Good…good,” and then gesturing to a bowl of chopped melon and some jams and butter asked, “Mike, did you want this all in the dining room?”

“Yessiree,” chirped Mike.

Turns out they weren’t going to wait for Casey, and once Raph reappeared downstairs everyone migrated into the dining room which wasn’t enormous, but did at least have a decent sized table and six chairs. Casey would have to take the spare folding chair. 

“Dig in Elise, don’t be shy,” said Mike as he set down the platter of pancakes in their proper pride-of-place location at the center of the table. She then quickly realized they were all waiting for her to go first. So they had good table manners, that was interesting. Normally she would not be shy in a setting like this, but having four sets of eyes watching her every move was unnerving and she self-consciously reached for the serving fork and speared a pancake to move it to her plate.

“Take more than one, you haven’t seen these guys eat yet,” April leaned in and whispered to her as she likewise served herself, so Elise speared two more pancakes and two pieces of bacon. As soon as she and April had their plates filled four sets of green hands began helping themselves and April was not kidding — most of the pile was divided out in what seemed like a few seconds. Then the syrup got passed around so quickly that Elise lost track of it, but then it suddenly appeared in Leo’s hand, who had taken the seat next to hers and held it out to her.

“Thank you,” she said and turned her eyes downward so she wouldn’t stare and Leo shifted in his seat, still looking uncomfortable. Then Raph slugged Mike hard in the arm.

“Dude, what was that for?” Mike yelped.

“For calling me a dildo earlier,” Raph stated, his mouth already full of pancake and about to shove a piece of bacon in to join the rest.

“God, you’re such a fucking drama queen. You’re worse than L—”

“Guys, seriously? Can we not?” Leo snapped, and the other two shut it.

“So, how about I just jump right in, eh?” April’s voice rose an octave and passed a pointed look at each of the turtles, but waited for a nod from Leo before continuing. Clearly they had arranged something prior to this. “You’re no doubt wanting to know how I met these guys…”

“It was on Match.com,” Mike snickered and then yelped as somebody clearly had kicked him under the table. By the look on his face it had been Don. April, clearly used to this, just rolled on, unphased.

“Raphael saved me from a mugging down in the train station. The…guy…managed to knock me unconscious, but it was really late and the station was empty and this was before everyone had a cell phone so…Raph ended up carrying me back to their home and they took care of me until I woke up.”

Elise listened, fascinated, a piece of pancake perched on the tines of her fork. By this time Casey had come back down and was piling his plate full.

“When was that?” She asked.

“I was working at Channel Three at the time, so…1998?”

Elise had been thirteen. She looked around the table to all four turtles, and then back to April.

“And…you…became friends?”

“The best of friends,” April smiled.

“We adopted April as our sister. Although Don–” There was a definite kick sound this time and another yelp from Mike and this time April looked at him with genuine big sister exasperation. Elise should know, she’d employed that very same look on her two younger brothers at times.

“So…what…I mean…” Elise was trying to find the right way to ask ‘so you’re turtles, but like, what are you?’, but before she could formulate her words, Leo set his knife and fork down and cleared his throat.

“Before we get much farther, there are some things we need to establish first,” Leo looked at April, holding her gaze a moment. They seemed to battle with just their eyes for a few seconds before April backed down and clenched her jaw. Leo then turned to Elise and she felt like a small prey animal under his stern gaze. “You may be April’s cousin and she is our friend, but we don’t know you. As such, there are rules. These are for your safety as well as ours. Follow them, and everything will be fine.”

Elise nodded, wide eyed, because what else was there to do and April squeezed her knee under the table. Leo went on.

“The first rule is, the less you know the better. As you can guess, the secrecy of our existence is what keeps us alive. There are people out there who would harm us if they could, and harm you if they thought it might get them to us. So I cannot stress this more,” he leaned slightly in which made Elise lean slightly back and he pitched his voice lower, “do not speak of us to anyone or there will be consequences.” 

“Leo!” April huffed, but a sharp look from the turtle cut off whatever protest she’d been forming. 

”Yeah, but we’re not dangerous,” grumbled Raph, giving Leo a hard, frustrated look as he grabbed more bacon. 

“We’re not aliens, either,” added Mikey. He’d gotten up and shuffled over behind Elise’s chair without her noticing and was now pushing some melon slices onto her plate and flashed her a smile. Leo sighed.

“We’re not aliens, no. But you don’t need to know the specifics of how we came to be. We just are.”

“April and Casey know, though,” Elise phrased it like she needed confirmation. Because she did. They could be aliens.

“Yeah, we know. Trust me, it’s all right,” April’s voice was straining to be calm and reassuring.

“April and Casey have been our friends for many years now,” Leo stated as if that was all that was needed for an answer.

“But you are turtles.” It seemed obvious, but she needed confirmation on that at least.

“What gave it away?” Raph quipped and reached behind him to knock on his own shell. 

When no one said anything else Leo rolled on.

“Second rule. No unauthorized outside communication until we can trust you. Donnie has your phone. If someone calls or messages, he’ll let you know.”

Elise hadn’t even noticed her phone was missing. In the shock of last night she hadn’t even thought about it.

“Your laptop, too. Let him know if you need to use it.”

April didn’t look pleased about this, but held her tongue. She knew what was at risk if they didn’t put her cousin through these paces, but that didn’t mean she liked it. For some reason holding the laptop hostage triggered Elise and she mustered up a small protest.

“I have work…I mean, I have to look for work,” she faltered, mind reeling. When six pairs of eyes just looked at her, she added lamely “I’m between jobs, at the moment.”

“Don will have to monitor you, then. But no surfing the internet. Work only,” Leo nodded to Don.

“You can surf the internet with me. You can show me your ren faire pictures,” offered Mikey, stuffing his big bite of pancake into his cheek so he could speak quickly before Leo took a turn kicking him under the table.

“I know it's—” Leo started.

“Prison-like,” Raph suggested, and Leo scowled.

“...strict, but our safety is paramount. Prove you're not going to tell our secret to the world and we can relax this.”

Elise was now even more anxious and picked up her fork to slice a bite of pancake while she gathered her thoughts.

April isn’t afraid of them, so you don’t have to be, either, she reminded herself, and also damned if she wasn’t at least a little miffed. They just rolled in here like they owned the place and they sure as shit didn’t have more claim to it than she did.

“And if I don’t somehow prove this to you before my flight home, you’re going to what…hold me hostage?” She stuck the bite of the pancake with the fork tines and looked right at Leo.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” Leo looked right back at her.

“Jeezus, Leo. No need to scare her more than she already is,” said Don, a piece of bacon poised to eat between thumb and finger, just as April uttered a ‘Christ, Leo’ at the same time with her hand coming down on the table hard enough to make her silverware clink and Leo’s gaze then turned to her.

“Maybe if someone checked their messages—” he began, his voice low, but April cut him off.

“Don’t start that right now,” she snapped, but also looked chastised somehow.

After a beat or two of silence Elise quipped, “so you’re not planning to waterboard me.” 

Don nearly choked on his coffee and Mikey halted the fork full of food that was halfway to his mouth. Raph smirked and all three turned their eyes toward their leader.

“No…of course not— we just…” the intimidating leader's persona slipped for a moment and there was a hint of…what was it? Embarrassment? Mortification? And then it went up again and he straightened his shoulders. 

“Rule three: when we part ways, it will be like we never existed. You will never see or hear from us again. You will not contact April about us. Understood?”

Elise just nodded, having used all of her bravado on that waterboarding jab, and Leo let out a soft, frustrated sigh.

“I need to hear you,” he said calmly.

At this both Raph and Mikey made small noises of protest, but Leo kept his eyes locked on Elise and she swallowed hard.

“I understand.”

“Good,” he picked up his fork and knife again and resumed cutting up his pancakes and the entire table was silent for several moments until one of the dogs started lapping noisily at the water bowl in the kitchen and then the oven timer went off. Mikey got up wordlessly and went into the kitchen, returning with a new sheet pan of bacon, then scraped the second helping onto the empty serving plate on the table. With a nervous smile he pushed the plate toward Elise.

“More bacon?”  

For the rest of breakfast Michelangelo did his best to lift the mood, but everyone was stilted and unsure and in the end he had to concede defeat. Donatello left the table first to go check on Splinter, quickly followed by Raphael, who gave Leonardo a rough check with his shoulder as he passed. Casey and April looked at one another and Elise was absentmindedly stroking Daisy’s head under the table while she picked at the remains of her breakfast.

“Come on, let’s take the dogs for a walk,” suggested April and gently took hold of her cousin’s elbow to steer her toward the door that led out to the back porch.

“April…” Leo’s voice was low and questioning and she smiled at him.

“Relax, Leo. I’ve got it. Mikey, leave the dishes, we’ll get them when we get back.”

Elise was eager to get out of the house after that breakfast and shoved some shoes on and soon the two women and two dogs were outside and walking away from the house. It was about 9:30 now and the air was still cool, promising to not be too hot today, and the constant sounds of birds in the woods felt so much lighter than the oppressive anxiety of the house. April steered them towards the barn and presumably towards the path that lay beyond it that would eventually wind its way down to the small river that cut through the property. It was about this time that Elise realized that she was still braless and wearing pajamas while April had had the good sense to get fully dressed before breakfast. 

“I’m sorry. I did not mean for you to get involved in this,” April’s voice was quiet as they walked into the woods where the temperature dropped a few degrees and the mosquito level rose. As they made their way further into the woods Elise started noticing familiar trees that marked the path as Daisy ran along ahead of them and Gio trailed right at Elise and April's heels. 

“I still don’t really understand what I…what…there are talking turtles in the kitchen and there’s a giant rat-man in our grandparent’s old room. How is this real?” Elise’s voice momentarily bordered on frantic, but she tamped it down. She didn’t like big swings of emotion, and besides, April was calm, so she could take her cue from her cousin. 

“Seems like something out of a movie, huh?” April chuckled and then Elise grabbed her arm, effectively cutting her short.

“They said that there are people who will hurt us if they know that we know…are you ok? Are you safe?” Elise was trying to stay calm about all of this, but those words had really scared her and her voice had ratcheted up at least an octave again. She then threw her head back and breathed deeply through her nose in an attempt to recenter. “Fucking hell, is it too early to drink?” she said on the exhale.

“I’m fine,” April soothed and gathered her cousin into a one armed hug and rubbed her arm placatingly. “It’s all fine. Believe me. You don’t need to be afraid. Leo’s not lying, but…he’s also very… dramatic, sometimes. Nobody is going to come for you so long as you keep their secret. Nobody would have any way of knowing you ever met them, especially not all the way out here.”

In a totally normal response to learning that her life really could possibly be in danger, Elise suddenly felt a little light headed and she quickly squatted down in an attempt to control it. Totally normal reaction, she thought. Head between knees, she took a few deep breaths and watched a line of ants march by until the feeling subsided.

“It’s a lot, I know,” April squatted down and rubbed Elise’s back, remembering when she was first in Elise’s position and knew the overwhelming feeling that life as you knew it had changed, but she also knew that it was just best to push through it to the other side.

“Yeah…yeah. I’m fine. Keep my mouth shut. Got it. Can do. Friends of yours, friends of mine,” Elise looked up, took a steadying breath and stood, then swatted mosquitos away from April.

“Seriously. You can not tell anyone, not even your boyfriend. You have to swear to me, Elise.”

The deadly seriousness in April’s tone and face and the fact that April was giving her shoulder an iron grip sobered Elise and she took a deep breath.

“I swear I’ll never breathe a word. I don’t want to be on some weird government agency’s list. And don’t worry about Chris. That one is easy because he broke up with me four months ago,” Elise replied, and felt a little relieved because saying that was getting easier. It still hurt, but not as much.

“Oh, I’m so sorry—” April began, switching from protective older sister to sympathetic cousin, but Elise waved her off.

“Ha! The least of my brain power right now is going towards being depressed and sad about that,” she sounded a little hysterical again.

“Look, I know Leo came on…well, harsh. And trust me he and I are having words later, but they’re actually nice guys…the best guys, honestly, just…going through a really tough time right now. You don’t need to be afraid of them, I swear on it.”

“You’ve known them ten years, really?”

“Getting close to that now, yeah.” 

“And I take it the tough time has to do with…the rat in the back bedroom?”

They had reached the end of the path where it opened up to the lazy meandering river and the two dogs eagerly ran ahead to sniff along the water's edge. When April and Elise sat down on a dry stretch of bank, April gave a big, weary sigh. 

“Yeah…that’s Splinter. That’s their dad.”

Of course it was their father. That made total sense. Why not.

“And he’s sick, yeah? I know I’m not supposed to know anything, but couldn’t really hide that.”

“No, I suppose not. No way you can avoid seeing it, anyway, the house isn’t that big. Splinter…yeah, he’s sick… pituitary cancer, Don thinks. He’s been gradually getting worse and worse over the last few weeks, and…well, the prognosis isn’t good. It’s in the brain, you see. Apparently not super common for rats, but common enough,” she trailed off for a moment and looked out over the water, taking in the beauty of the morning. “Last week he took a bad turn, and…things were tense. Poor Don is out of options and…well, they all thought that maybe the clean air and quiet would…oh, I dunno, work some magic. That’s partially why I didn’t see any of your messages. I was a little…distracted.”

“Ah, fuck,” said Elise, realizing that not only had she unwittingly inserted herself into their lives, that she’d done it when they were grieving over a dying parent. April shrugged.

“It’s not so much of a shock…not really. We’ve all been somewhat preparing for this for a long time. Normal rats only live a few years, and, well, Splinter’s at least twenty five…which seems young, I know, but…that’s a long life, for a rat.”

Elise took in that that was practically her age and also looked out over the water and watched a few ripples break the surface where fish were still eating their breakfast. A nervous feeling coiled around in her gut and she took a deep breath. 

“Are they going to…hate that I’m here? I mean — Leo clearly hates it, and it sounds like I’m not allowed to leave until I’ve passed this trust test — not to mention I have nowhere else to go until the contractors give the all clear at Ann’s place, unless I can come stay with you.”

“No dogs allowed in the building, I’m afraid.”

“Ha. Well, that’s that, then. Ann would kill me if I kenneled her babies. Whole reason I’m out here.” And they both knew that was true. One of said babies, Daisy, was currently getting muddy as she walked in the shallows, snuffling along and followed a scent further down the river bank.

“They’re not going to hate that you’re here,” promised April, and with a grin said, “and I’ll beat them up if they give you any problems.” When Elise simply raised an eyebrow at her and looked dubious she added with a laugh, “I’m not joking. Nobody crosses big sister April.”

“Aren’t you full of surprises,” Elise rubbed at her forehead and again just tried to take it all in.

“You know, having you here might be a good thing,” April said after a pause, suddenly looking optimistic. “Casey and I…we have to go back to the city in a couple days. We could only arrange these few days off on short notice and—” The look on Elise’s face cut her short. “But don’t worry! We’ll try to be back on the weekends, so you’re not going to be on your own. And you can call me anytime—but you won’t need to. But all the same, it makes me feel better that you’re here.”

“Why…?” Elise was confused as she could not see herself being anything but in their way at this moment. She was also going to ignore for now that April had just told her she’d be leaving her alone. One thing at a time.

“I’m worried about them. They may seem big and tough, but…well they can’t just go into town and buy groceries. I mean, they have their ways, but having an actual human here would be a big help. A big worry off my mind. Especially if Splinter needs something.”

Ok, that made sense, Elise supposed, although she wondered how she would accomplish that if Leo was going to follow through on his threat of house arrest.

“Also you’ll be new and interesting,” added April as an afterthought.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Elise didn’t know what to think of April’s smirk.

“They don’t get out much. It’ll be good for them to try to talk to another human who isn’t me or Casey or online. Or just a woman that isn’t me, for that matter.” Then April laughed with genuine amusement. “Oh, no. Now that I think about it, be prepared to be annoyed with chivalry. They’re not trying to make a pass at you, I swear, it’s just Splinter drilled that into them. Splinter watched a lot of old movies.”

“...I don’t even know what to say to that,” frowned Elise as April continued to chuckle.

“Don’t worry about it. God, they’re goobers,” she laughed more to herself, but then to Elise she said, “well, Mike might make a pass, but don’t take him seriously. He is a cuddler, though.”

“I really don’t know what to say to that,” Elise didn’t think her concerned frown could get any deeper.

When April’s giggles died down her expression turned more earnest and she took Elise’s hand.

“I’m going to need you to be my eyes and ears when I’m not here,” she began, squeezing Elise’s hand then letting it go. “Could you maybe help look after them for me? Just…oh, I don’t know what, run errands if they’ll let you? Make sure Don and Leo eat? I’d ask you to make sure Don sleeps, but sometimes that is a tall order and— Whatever you can, you’d be doing me a huge favor.”

“Your friends are my friends,” Elise repeated and gave a wary, yet supporting smile and since Gio had wandered over to them she bent down and gave him a smacking kiss on the head right between his fuzzy old man eyebrows. 

They stayed there some time, using this moment alone to catch up like two normal cousins would in a normal world, and when they finally got fed up with the mosquitos and got up to leave Elise noticed there were a few turtles napping on a sunny, half-submerged log a little ways down the bank and she turned to April.

“Those aren’t cousins, are they?”