A/N: I'm getting some good feedback about this. And I've gotten a question about me continuing straight up into one of the shows. Yes, I fully intend to take them that far, maybe farther. I've no set series in mind, I think I'll just take the parts I like and mash them together. It'll probably be mainly 2k3 though, since that's the one I know the best.

Disclaimer: This is awfully repetitive and no one ever seems to care. This is the last one I'm putting up. I don't own TMNT!

Chapter 11: Children Grow Up, With Or Without Their Parents.

Finding Don was a lot easier than I had feared. He hadn't gone far, and in fact I think he was turning around to come home when I caught up with him. He took one look at me and flinched. That...it hurt. I don't want my children to flinch like that when I walk up to them. I'm their mother, and I would never hurt them.

"Hey, do you want to talk?" I ask, kneeling down in front of him and smiling, quietly, like the smile is a secret between him and me.

"Why's everyone mad at me for helping?" He asked helplessly. It takes a lot to make Donatello angry, like Mikey he's more of the opinion that things happen and life marches on. He looked mad though. I think, if the only reason he trained at all wasn't for me, Splinter, or his brothers, he wouldn't fight at all. He's the kind of guy I can picture being happy with his calm machines, keeping the peace through less direct means than Leonardo.

"Their jealous." I answer honestly. I don't approve of lying, even little white lies. And I certainly don't want to say that they wouldn't understand or something. Their all smart, yes even Mikey, and not being given a reason would worry them more than the reason themselves. I'm still a kid too, I know how that feels.

"They're not as smart as you, so they get angry. It's not your fault." He sniffed and anger drained away. I smiled a little brighter and took him to a part of the sewer junction where we could sit and swing our legs over the side. I kept one arm around his shoulder, just in case.

"How do I get them to stop being mean then?" He asked.

"Simple, you talk to them, tell them you don't like how they're behaving. If that doesn't work, tell them that you won't listen to them anymore. If they've got nothing but hurtful things to say, then they shouldn't get a chance to say them." I told him. He smiled a bit and we started back home. Now I just had to pull Leo and Mikey aside to talk to them and hopefully put this whole thing to rest.

"Mom?" I looked down at where I was holding his hand.

"When we get back, do you think they'd help me make a new car?" I chuckled and told him I didn't see why not.

I did talk to Leo and Mikey. I held off on any punishments and talked to Splinter after he was through teaching me The Way of Failing To Hit Whatever I Was Aiming For. I think he's rather unamused by my many creative nicknames for his lessons. Shuriken throwing looks so much easier on tv.

"Leola, there is a matter I wish to speak with you about." He announced as I tried to regain my breath after being knocked flat on my bum for the second time in as many minutes.

"Well, I am a captive audience." I panted, referencing my current position as being held down by the point of his cane. Stupid stick thing, it shouldn't hurt that bad to get hit by a stick.

"I believe we should begin showing the boys how to scavenge for supplies, at least in the sewers." It would really help if the boys pitched in a bit, and as long as they stayed in the sewers, I had no problems with it. I said as much too.

"I will take Leonardo with me tomorrow morning then." He nodded. He always did things like this by order of age. Personally I did it by eenie meanie miney mo, but I'm not going to tell him that.

"I'll take Mikey in the afternoon then." It was going to cut into performance time, but there wasn't much I could do about it. It had been raining all week but the weatherman said we were in for a nice dry patch. That left plenty of floating debris in the sewer waters.

The boys were excited to learn of our plans, I helped by making it seem less like work and more like a scavenger hunt. Mostly we needed cloth and recyclables that I could sell or reuse at home.

"Are we going topside?" Mikey asked at breakfast, he was eating so fast I was half afraid he'd choke. Doing the heimlech on a turtle would be needlessly complicated. Not that I know how to do the heimlech in the first place. I'd probably make things worse.

"No, absolutely not." I said firmly, stomping on the idea. Topside seemed more and more like a mythical land of dreams to the boys. The promised land maybe, or maybe something similar to Area 51. Something to dream about, be forbidden from, and strive towards. It hurt that I'd never be able to show them the world I had come from.

"Aw!" It came from all around the table. Every little turtle slumped in their seats and started pushing their cereal around their bowls. I had just killed the enthusiastic mood.

"My sons, the surface is far too dangerous for you." Splinter backed me up at least. I'd hate to be the only bad guy.

Leo and Splinter left a few minutes later, and despite the adventure we'd denied them there was an undoubtable feeling of excitement when they left. Leo had tied his blue mask on tight and was standing just as tall as he could. He was just tickled pink to be picked to leave the lair with his father for the first time ever.

I got the remaining boys to focus on their morning excercises, taking no small pleasure in watching them lose their balance. They had shells to protect them though, so it wasn't as satisfying as I'd hoped.

Lunch time came sooner than anticipated. With it came the return of Leo and Splinter. Something was wrong, I knew it the minute Leo walked in with his head slightly bowed and only half heartedly telling his brothers all about what he'd done. I tried to catch Splinter's eye but he had something else on his mind.

"Splinter?" After lunch and before I left with Mikey I pulled him aside.

"Leola, I believe Leonardo harbors a fear of heights." Well, that wasn't what I was expecting. That at least explained why Leo was acting weird. He was probably embarassed and worried about his brothers teasing him. They hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary though.

Oh, to be six years old and hopelessly naive again. Why didn't I savor it the first time?

"Take Michelangelo out, I will handle this." I sighed and nodded, going to meet Mikey at the door. Splinter had handled my fear of hurting him during training, mostly be making it very clear that I couldn't, so he could probably handle a simple height thing easy.

"Ready Mikey?" I ask, handing him a cloth sack. It probably used to be a potato sack. Or maybe one of those bags bank robbers use to hold their loot.

"Yes Ma'am!" He giggled, giving me a salute. I returned it and we closed the door behind us.

"Alright Mikey, we just had a lot of rain, so the water's high and fast. Be careful not to be pulled in." I lectured while we got to walking. He either ignored or didn't hear me because he ended up reaching to far for some brown cloth and almost lost his footing. I gripped the edge of his shell and pulled him, and the tarp, back to dry land.

"Oops!" He chuckled, trying to look oh so innocent. I gave him my best amused-but-not-impressed look.

Splinter's idea of 'handling it' obviously differed from mine. I don't know if it's a japanese thing or a rat thing. I'm leaning towards rat personally. Sure, Leo's a little trooper, but making him walk across poles while blindfolded, when he hasn't mastered the Way of Balance yet? I anticipated many bruises, even if these poles were only a few inches high.

Days went on, we took the boys out one at a time, teaching them how to find their way home again. I got a hold of a map of the sewers and showed the boys all the neat pipes that were nearly dry in low tide and which ones entirely under water. Splinter showed them how to not leave muddy tracks, I showed them how to tell when maintenance men were working. The lessons were pretty thourough.

And as days went, I learned new things beside master Splinter. The Way of Invisibility, or as I like to call it, The Way of Getting The Cookie From The Cookie Jar, was a lot of fun to learn. I'd been given the basic stealth regiment, you know, stick to the shadows, don't look people in the eye, take the high road 'cause people have this weird aversion to looking up. This was cool though.

Behold my awesome sneaky power! I can now catch my children shirking on their chores without them knowing! I think they're convinced I have eyes on the back of my head!

The boys learned the basic katas on the poles. Leo still got extra lessons in blindfolded pole-dancing, and the poles crept higher. He never realized that they got higher, Splinter or myself would pick him up and place him on them so he couldn't tell. He did pretty well, I was halfway convinced Splinter had been mistaken when he said Leo had a fear of heights. Or maybe Leo got over it.

And then he reached mastery, which involved poles that almost touched the ceiling and the tarp Mikey and I had saved strung out like a net. I insisted on the net. The poles were really high and I don't care if Leo's got some sort of amazing sense of balance he's still a little kid and little kids should not be up that high without a safety net!

"Now my son, remove your blindfold." Splinter ordered, smiling proudly up at his little protoge. Leo fixed his mask back around so he could see and then he...well he froze. Just looked down and turned into an ice-cicle!

"Leo, it's okay baby!" I called, trying not to show how nervous I was, trying to act all confident that he'd be okay. Did I tie those knots good enough?

" !" He cried as he panicked and began flailing. I flinched when he lost his footing and watched him fall. The net held, which was good because it had been my turn to freeze in fear.

"That is enough for today my son, go and play." Splinter sighed, dismissing us both. I helped Leo to his feet and we bowed, I kept my hand on his shoulder as I led him to the kitchen. If anyone deserved a stale cookie, it was Leo.

"Feeling better?" I asked when he wiped away the sugar. The stove I had sometimes went on the blink but I did manage to make some sugar cookies a couple days ago.

"Why can't I do it?" He asked me, slumping at my reminder.

"Don't take it too badly, you're doing better than I did!" I pointed out. I still remember all the bruises and spills I took. Admittedly now I can jump across buildings in a single bound, without really looking, but even I still take a tumble.

"I am?" He asked. Kids always assume that their parents are infallible. We don't make mistakes, we're just all that and a bag of chips. Most kids don't learn the error of this belief until they're teenagers. I have to let Leo learn when he's hardly six.

"I still fall down when I try to do backflips because I'm afraid of falling on my head." It's sad, but painfully true.

"Really?" Ah, to be six years old with all knowing parents again.

Well I don't know if it helped much but he went to the living room and left me to get lunch ready. I was looking over our options for dinner when Michelangelo came in and asked for two onions.

"Why?" I asked. Food was not something to be wasted, they knew that.

"I'm hungry!" He tried to convince me, clutching his stomach. Mikey knew better than to play with his food, bottomless pit that he is, so I gave them to him. I don't like onions anyway, they stink.

I was curious though, so I followed him using the Way of Getting The Cookie From The Cookie Jar. He went to the living room and stopped in front of a frozen Leonardo. Not frozen like on the poles, more standing-in-place because of a game of freeze-tag frozen. He had his arms outstretched and one leg up in a crane-style kata. What was Mikey doing with those onions?

I could smell it from here. Satisfied that the onions hadn't gone to waste, and hoping Mikey could cajole Leo into a better mood, I went back to trying to decide what I was making for dinner.

The thump and "Oh, was I bothering you?" let me know Mikey got what he deserved.

Dinner was a lively affair, what with Raph being oh so proud of bringing home an unopened pack of loose leaf lined paper. It was awesome, all clean and new. Apparently some careless student had dropped it in the gutter and never bothered retrieving it. I announced the continuation of writing lessons for the next day, promising ten sheets to each turtle for personal use.

Splinter took out Leo again, sharing with me a plan to get rid of his fear once and for all. I wanted to come along but I knew that this was too important for an overprotective mama to participate. I'd want to baby him, and kiss it all better. He didn't need that.

Mikey's actually pretty good at writing. He especially likes writing new stories and I think when he gets a little better I'll start reading them at story time. Today he wrote a story about a brave super hero named Turtle Titan, who saved people left, right, and center even on his bad days. The hero's mask was blue.

It's warmer weather now, and we again try to teach the boys how to swim. This time I take part to help Donnie through. He's a little braver when I'm there to catch him when he falls. No one got sick, and we made sure to always have a supply of medicine just in case. The first time Don crosses the little pond all on his own we celebrate.

Rather than mocking his slow pace his brothers help him along. Raph shouts encouragements, Mikey demonstrates ways to preserve strength, Leo provides unflinching support. It's a far cry from just a month ago.

"They are growing up." Splinter sighs as we watch the boys splash in the water. They're quiet, for boys having a water fight, and with us grown ups on watch there's not much danger.

"I don't know why, but I thought it would take longer." I chuckle, watching Raph hold Mikey's head underwater. Leo and Don team up to force Raph down in turn, letting Mikey catch his breath.

Children grow up, and even when I hang one of Leo's paintings on the fridge or help Mikey build whole cities with his blocks, I'm watching time slip away. I want to have the ultimate pause button, so I can just stay here when they're little and need me. I know Splinter feels the same way, but he's more accepting of it. I guess having a rat's instincts make it easier to let go to your children's childhood.

Even when I'm helping Don fix a toy, or showing Raph how to punch so he doesn't hurt himself, I'm watching them grow up. Even when I'm not watching too, especially then. When I turn around, that's when it seems to happen the most.

When you turn around, don't you know
That is when the children grow.