A gentle runaway

Chapter 5 - Doubt

Mikey woke up in the morning by the sound of giggles and tiny footsteps in the room, the twins were trying to sneak up and catch him off guard, he pretended to be asleep, the two girls jumped in the bed and crawled up to his back.

🌺🌹- "WAKE UP MISTER ANGELO!!"

They screamed while piggy riding the turtle's shell, he opened his eyes and laughed it off, Suzan and Sophie gave him a cute smirk and got off his back so he would get up, each of the girls took him by a hand and started to bring him to the kitchen so they could have breakfast together.

Barbara welcomes the kids and sets up the table for breakfast, meanwhile the children were blabbing about the wacky dreams they had last night, Sophie's dream had talking flowers and landscapes made out of candy, Suzie's dream had magic dogs and colorful hay fields full of rainbows.

Mikey said he didn't really dreamed with anything but the truth is, he had a weird dream where his libs just... separated from his body, it was first his leg, and then the other, and then his arms and head, they all just floated aroud in a way similar as if they were under water,

It was unsettling at best but it mostly felt confusing and curious, he didn't know what to think about it so he just put it aside and kept going on with his day, trying to find something to do, mostly just offering his help around the house but in the end of the day he was left without much to do, specially when the kids are at school, so after a couple of days he started to sleep a lot more during the day if not just laying around the house trying to distract himself.

Miss Barbara notices this and tries to do something about it, she had an extra gemstone to disguise him as a human, it was her father's, but since he doesn't leave home often, she asked him if he could lend his gem to Michaelangelo, she explained the reasons she had to ask him for such a big favor but he just handed over the stone to her interupting her speech and saying he won't mind gifting it to him as long as he gives it back if he truly needs it, she thanked him and took the gemstone to her room, she made some arts and crafts and ties it up in a string making it into a necklace kinda like hers, she picks it up and goes out of the room to do something.

At this time Mikey is sleeping, with his arms and legs wrapped around a rolled up blanket like a sloth cutelly holding onto a brach for a nap, his mind is was running wild, reviewing the experiences Mikey has gone through, internally analyzing every marking event in his life and manage to find something odd, to say the least.

But before he could really realize what it was, Mikey hears a knock on the door that wakes him up and accidentally makes him forget what he was thinking previously just like if it was a dream, anyway, he gets up and sees Miss Barbara walk in, he asks her if she needs anything but she doesn't respond, she sits down with him and they discuss about how his life has been like, how after a while he just stays there but doesn't know what to do, she tells Michelangelo that she has an idea, she pulls out the gemstone necklace from her pocket and gives it to him.

He didn't know what exactly it was but after taking a quick look at Barbara's gemstone on her necklace and back at the new one that was being handed to him, realizing they are one in the same, he's excited and ends up overreacting in joy after miss Barbara tells him he can work with her at the book store, he celebrates, jumping with his arms in the air squealing like a boiling kettle, the lady giggled at the turtle's happiness and join in the celebration, he was so excited about it and wanted to make her proud, the two girls who had just came back from school heard the laughter from the room and ran inside to see what were they doing and if they could play too, suddenly, Suzan asked her mother if they could get snacks, Barbara thought it was a good idea and later that night, she ordered them a pizza take out, during their little celebration, grandpa was sitting in his room reading the news papers, glad that his silly old stone was able to grant that young man so much happiness.

Back at the turtle's lair, the moarning and griefing is moving from denial to anger, and from anger to barganing and so on, each one of them is going through this in their own time. 

Leonardo is still stuck on Denial, refusing to interact with his brothers, so he haven't spoken in a while, locking himself in Mikey's room and sitting there for hours on end and staring at nowhere, even sleeping on his bed, he only leaves to eat and go to the bathroom, after he's done, he goes back inside, not even Splinter can get him out for long, no one can fully tell what is happening in his brain.

Donatello just moved on to the stage of Barganing, after a whole week of emotional fragility and break downs that came to him in all shapes and sizes, in this case, in any moment and intensity, but now, he's starting to stabilize his feelings, but still lost, trying in vain to find a solution to a problem that can't be solved, but he still tries despite that.

Raphael is working his way through Barganing, his mind is scattered but Raph has no idea what to do to put it back together, he was feeling overwhelmed and vulnerable, like if his shell and plastrol were widely cracked open with his literal and metaphorical insides were exposed and unprotected, because of that, he would always be on defensive mode, ignoring the people around him and flipping out on the ones that got on his nerves, but as well trying not to push them away too much.

Splinter was also in denial, he refused to come in terms with what happened, he was convinced that he was working through his grief with no issue when in reality he hadn't even passed by the first stage of it, he couldn't understand what happened, and how, or why, it just didn't add up, but there was no proof of his presence, if he was alive, he would have came home already, whatever the cost, he just wanted to see his son again, ask him all the questions that constantly haunt him in his own mind, i mean, who can tell? what if he's still out there? Maybe there is a reason why he wouldn't want to come back... But until then, that's not much left to do but move on, if he ever gets tired of waiting for him.