Emma's clinic was closed on Fridays, open Saturdays - a system that was more convenient for her clients, as well as making it easier for the team of specialists who took care of David to fit visits into their own work schedules.

Early rising, however, was for every day, and after spending a few minutes watching the sun come up, Emma went back inside to take care of the inpatients and catch up on some paperwork. She had plenty of time before Ron arrived. He wasn't much for early rising himself - and, to be fair, he had to come over the bridges from Connecticut.

He was more or less punctual, though, and at a few minutes after 10:00 the front doorbell buzzed. Emma got up to let him in.

"Hi, Ron."

"Hi, Emma." He came inside, sparing only a quick glance for the familiar waiting room. "David said he had something interesting to show me. What's going on?"

"I think you had better come and see," Emma said, and she led him back into the exam room.

The small, spotless space was crammed with seriously deformed humans, and as the usually-unflappable Ron looked around at them, his jaw slowly fell open.

"Well, David," he said. "It seems the number of known cases of your syndrome has increased by 300%."

"Sort of," David said. "They have a different presentation."

"Obviously." Ron's gaze lingered on the boys, then moved to Splinter. "And one quite different."

"Ron," said David, "these are my brothers and my father."

The other night, over donburi - which Michelangelo had insisted on serving in bowls - Emma had explained about Ron, and about the other colleagues they had gradually recruited to deal with David's various medical crises, and to keep him as healthy as possible in between. Though she had assured Splinter and the boys that everyone on David's team was a consummate expert and exceedingly discreet, the family had been pretty uncomfortable about the whole thing, and they didn't seem any more at ease to be meeting Ron in person. They did, however, look quite pleased at how David had introduced them.

"Also," David went on, "I brought you this."

"All right," Ron said, as he took the two halves of the broken TCRI canister. "I have to admit I'm not finding this as immediately fascinating. What am I looking at?"

"They say that I was born - or hatched, I guess - as an ordinary turtle," David said, "and that whatever was in this container changed me to how I am now."

"Really." Ron studied the canister with much greater interest, before setting it on the counter. "Well, this certainly is a breakthrough, isn't it? Let's get started." He raised his hands as though they were all about to do something extremely exciting. "Blood draws for everyone!"

"What?" Mike yelped.

"Oh, relax," said David. "It's no big deal. Ron has a whole swimming pool full of my blood in Connecticut."

"That is a slanderous lie," Ron said, even as he pulled open a drawer and began preparing a syringe. "I don't have a swimming pool full of anything, in Connecticut or elsewhere." He reached back to pat the exam table. "Who wants to go first?"

The boys all looked uncertainly at the gleaming metal surface.

"This will help you?" Leonardo asked, his gaze sliding to David, even as it was clear he wasn't letting the syringe out of his sight.

"Absolutely," David said.

Leonardo set his jaw. "Then I'll do it."

"If Leo's gonna do it, so'm I," said Raphael.

"If Leo and Raph are gonna do it, I don't really need to, right?" said Michelangelo.

"Michelangelo," Splinter said.

"Fiiiiine."

The boys lined up, and with remarkable fortitude for teenagers obviously not accustomed to doctors and needles, they let Ron puncture their veins and withdraw samples.

"And you, sir?" Ron asked, raising a brow at Splinter.

"Certainly," Splinter replied, and rolling up the sleeve of his robe, he permitted Ron to shave a small patch of his arm in order to locate a vein.

"So, how did this happen?" Ron asked, as he packed the samples carefully into a tray. "Emma, did you know about this?"

"Not until a few weeks ago," Emma said, and she sensed something ease in David at the confirmation that Ron had known no more about this than he had.

"Well, where did you all come from?" Ron asked. "Where have you been?" He flexed his hands. "Can I do a full exam?"

"We will offer anything you need," Splinter said.

Emma leaned back against the wall for what was obviously going to be a long session, but David touched her elbow. "Mom, can we have some privacy?"

"Oh." She glanced around the room; no one was exactly clamoring for her to stay. "Of course."

She went upstairs and tried to focus on a book.

The next few weeks were a blur of her co-parent and stepchildren - as Emma had begun to think of Splinter and the boys - coming and going. David pretended to take Michelangelo's strange medicine, gradually emptying the jar's contents down the sink. His health stayed about the same as always.

There were bills to pay and patients to see and homeschooling lessons to plan. September came, and Terri had only one child to send off to class. Sharon had graduated college in the spring and landed a job in investment banking on Wall Street.

"When do I get to meet David's brothers?" Terri kept asking.

"I don't know," Emma said.

And then, one day, David called her from the back hallway while she was examining a pregnant dog.

"Mom," he said, keeping himself carefully out of sight behind the doorframe. "Mom, you have to come right now."

"Excuse me," Emma said to the unimpressed client. "My son. I'll be right back."

"What is it?" she asked David, herding him back from the doorway with quick steps.

He pressed the phone into her hands. "It's Ron."

She lifted the phone to her ear. "Ron, what's going on?"

"Emma, you won't believe what we've found," came the familiar voice of her friend. "I'm coming down right away. I think we have a cure for David."