A gentle runaway

Chapter 4 - settling down

April arrives in the Lair to the shock of everyone, Leo had just walked out of Mikey's room, Donnie was standing on the Lab's door waiting, they were all quiet and looking as worn out as they've ever been, Leo's face was red and so was his eyes, Donnie just looked tired, eyes empty, spaced out like if he was disconnected from reality, bags were forming under his eyes, Raph's face was soaked and he refused to make eye contact, April picked them one by one and brought them to the couch, demanding an explanation, What happened? How did it happened? When did it happened? And most importantly, she asked how they were feeling, the silence was broken seconds after as the brothers sat tightly and told her everything, it was difficult, sometimes, words would struggle to come out of their mouth, or maybe they wouldn't leave at all, April was devastated, despite trying to stay put, she couldn't hold herself together and broke down in front of them, with Leo and Donnie providing some comfort through a hug.

As for Michelangelo, he was playing house with little Suzan and her twin sister Sophie while a Barbie Ballet movie was passing on the TV, the girls were telling him all about their day in school, the things they learned on baking class this afternoon, Mikey was listening closely while the 3 of them were cleaning the mess before going to take a bath, it was almost bedtime, Mikey had already took a bath earlier that day so he just prepared the girl's bed and waited for them to come back, wearing their cute pajamas, Suzan wore a yellow duck pj and Sophie was wearing a blue pj with lilac ponies stamped on, if cuteness could kill, there would be no God that could stand these 2 little choco pies, immortality would be a unachievable and impossible concept.

Finally prepared for bed, the girls go to sleep and miss Barbara comes to the room and sings a lullaby for the kids, by the song's end she notices the young turtle laying in the carpet nearby fast asleep, she carried him to the guest room and set him up on the bed, covering him with the blankets and not being able to help it, she kisses goodnight the side of his forehead and leaves, that boy... doesn't has a mom in his life, Barb feels a sense of responsibility over that young man, she always wanted more kids, specially a boy, but her husband had passed away and she didn't wanted to jump in another relationship, she liked Michelangelo like if he was her own kid, he was sweet and hard working, it had only been 2 nights now and he still wants desperately to find a way to "pay back for her kindness", those are the words he used to put it, and the same words that make her think, why does he feel like he can't just receive something good without this immense need for immediate return of favors, he did said he has some lots of family problems, what weird kind of love did he got from his family?

She went to check on her father, an old frail man, with thousands of stories to tell, he's incrediblely healthy for his age, he was fine, so she made her way to her own room, laid in bed, and sleept like a baby.

By the morning, she heard a noise in the kitchen, she slowly went there and checked, what she saw, surprised her, Michelangelo and her father, preparing her favorite breakfast while chatting about something silly, her glance soften, she watched quietly that scene, such a sweet scene, the view almost glowed by the light of the rising sun through the window, their soft and big smiles as they talked about old recipes and weird choices for pets, like bees and iguanas, she finds the scene so adorable that it feels like time stopped, her brain immortalized that moment like a picture, to be always in her memories, but Michelangelo notices her presence and turns around to see his new caretaker looking at them with light and shiny eyes, he shows her a big smile that makes her smirk and let out a small laugh, she joins the party and the three of them make breakfast together in the  kitchen, when the girls finally wake up, they get surprised when they see the table filled with delicious food and sweet treats like pancakes and pastries, they all sit by that big buffet and enjoy the first meal of the day with happiness and fun, the food ends up being so much that the girls had to take some to school and distribute some of it to their classmates or teachers, and there was still a lot left, what a morning...

By request of her father, Barbara makes a stand in the corner of the book store and places the rest of the food for the people to take for free, it ends up being a success, the 15 minutes of fame turned into a whole day, it was so much fun.

In the afternoon, She takes down the stand, all the goodies were distributed successfully, a bunch of customers were very very satisfied, Michelangelo walked into the closed store and the following dialog happened:

🌻- "Oh, hey there little one. How may I help you?"

🟠 - "Huh? Nothing really, actually, I came to see if YOU were needing ma help."

🌻 - "Ohohohoho!! How lovely my child! Yes, it would be of great help if you could give me a hand with these."

🟠 - "Right away, ma'am!"

(After that)

🟠 - *Phew* "The last planks are all at the backrooms, do you need anything else, ms. Barb?"

🌻- "No dear, I'm alright, we're done for today, you should go and take some rest as well."

🟠 - "Ok then, see ya, Mom."

Mikey walks away, leaving Barbara with a shocked face, her hand reached out for her necklace and as she gently rubbed it she reflected on what just happened, mom? Her? I mean, she did act a bit much like a mother to him for him to say that, Does he sees her as his mother now? The conflicted woman asked herself, before settling down on a chair with a cup of tea, as mikey calmly walks to his own room, he suddenly realized what he said, he called miss Barbara "MOM"! What on earth? Where did that come from? He stood in front of the opened door unsure if he should walk in and forget this has ever happened, or turn and go back and explain his poorly made sentence, he chooses the first option, jumping and rolling in the blankets out of embarrassment, his face turned red and he felt like he was going crazy, why did he call her "mom"? He doesn't have a mom, he never needed a mom so... why now? These words echoed in his head and Michelangelo started to give himself a review of his entire life and try to see what led to this whole situation.

Night falls over, the 3rd day of Mikey's passing, I wonder what will happen next....

(chapter 5 being prepared)