Chapter 18: Training Begins Anew

The faint light coming off of the televisions in the front room was almost hypnotizing as the credits rolled from the last movie. Delaney repositioned herself against Mikey and made sure not to bother Coral who was nestled between them. She reached for the remote and found that Mikey had fallen asleep yet again before the movie was over. She had noticed that Coral had fallen asleep half way through the climax of the movie and now kicked every once in a while as she dreamed. Delaney smiled and carefully got up and turned off the television. She quickly put the blanket they were all using over both Coral and Mikey. Coral’s whimpers and kicking died down and she settled closer to Mikey.

“You’re right. He’s just like a big kid,” Carson said softly from the loveseat. She nodded and watched him yawn and stretch out.

“Maybe you should think about going home to get some sleep, partner,” she laughed quietly and patted him on the back, “You have to actually go in tomorrow and get going on the Karten case again.”

“Everybody going to be okay here?” he picked up his coat and then nodded to Amity slowly descending down the stairs.

“Eventually everything will calm down around here. It’s been going good this long without you here, I think we will all survive,” Delaney sighed and shook his hand before he left.

“Evening Delaney,” Amity greeted and headed for the kitchen. Delaney checked that Mikey was asleep and followed her in, “Carson going home finally? It’s close to eleven-thirty.”

“Yeah, the poor guy fell asleep on our loveseat,” Delaney leaned back against the counter top, “And the really bad thing… I haven’t fallen asleep yet.”

“That isn’t good, Delaney. We all need our sleep.”

“I was so tired earlier, but now I just can’t fall asleep. How are you doing, by the way? Feeling any morning sickness yet?”

“No,” she smirked and looked up towards her and Leo’s room, “Where is everybody anyway? It seems so empty.”

“Cal and Eros are with their guys out somewhere. Raph said something about a late night movie and Eros wanted to drive around in the sewer glider with Donnie until she fell asleep. Tracie and Rhonda were fighting over which rooms they wanted. You know, our old rooms?”

“What is Raph doing taking Cal above ground?” Amity asked.

“The trackers are off. They should be just fine. Besides, neither Raph or Cal are not ones to follow rules.”

“Don’t we all know that?” Amity smiled and got some tea bags ready, “Tea?”

“Sure,” she shrugged, “Never really been a big tea person, but I haven’t had it in a while.”

“Good,” she put the water in the pot and stood next to Delaney, “Would you mind being an ear to listen too?”

“Never do I mind that if I can help a friend,” she smiled and hopped up to sit on the counter, almost falling off from her shell, “Is this about Leo and how he’s taking it?”

“I don’t know yet,” Amity shook her head slowly, “The last time that I checked, he was still out cold from the news.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Delaney grinned, “He’ll be ecstatic.”

“I hope so,” she paused, “Am I ready to be a mother?”

“You’ve been one to me for years,” she chuckled, “You’ll be a wonderful mother and Leo will be a great father. No one is more diligent about things than you two. He just needs to recover from the shock and you need to stop over analyzing.”

“I think that she’s right,” Leonardo walked into the kitchen with a hand on his head, “Coral is looking for you and Mikey won’t wake up. I’m kind of surprised you didn’t hear her whimpering and crying.”

“He’ll wake up as soon as I get done with him,” Delaney nodded and smiled at Amity, “Rain check on the tea. It looks like I’m being paged. Come and find me if you still need an ear.”

“Sure,” Amity smiled back and watcher her leave. Leo sat down and looked up at her, “How’s your head?”

“Still spinning,” he confessed, “I just can’t believe that we are going to be parents. Did Donnie say anything else after the big announcement?”

“He did some extra tests and confirmed it,” she looked down and then got the tea ready, “I guess all of those commercials were right.”

“What’s that?” Leonardo got the cups out for the tea and set them on the table.

“Once is all it takes,” she smiled as she poured them each a cup. He smirked and sipped on his, “So now what happens, Leo?”

“What do you mean?” he looked at her, “I keep you as comfortable as I can until the baby arrives and life continues on.”

“You’re okay with the baby?”

He grabbed her hand and squeezed it softly, “I’m surprised? Yes. I’m worried? A little, yeah. Do I regret it? Never. And I am ecstatic. Especially to know that you are going to be there with me all the way through.”

Amity’s smile grew and she nearly jumped from her chair and hugged Leo around the neck, “I love you, Leo.”

“Love you too, Amity,” he hugged her close, “Come on, let’s get some sleep. You need it more than ever.”

“You’re going to baby me now, aren’t you?”

“I haven’t even begun,” he stood up and pushed his hand toward her.

“What about the tea?” she took his hand, but nodded toward the two cups and teapot.

“We’ll get it in the morning,” he wrapped an arm around her, trying to get used to the new shape.

Outside the kitchen Delaney had Coral balanced on one hip and the little girl’s sleeping top half draped over her shoulder. Mikey was still fighting waking up to go to bed.

“Mikey, come on…” Delaney hissed at him and then hit him upside the head.

“Ow!” he opened an eye, “Morning?”

“Not yet,” Delaney sighed and pulled at his arm, “Come on, time for bed.”

“But I was already asleep…” Mikey whined as he got up and sleepily trudged toward the stairs. He saw Leo and Amity at the foot of the stairs and smiled, “Since you probably didn’t hear it earlier, bro- Congratulations on the baby. And good night.”

“Thanks Mikey,” Leo patted his brother on the shell as he passed by.

“Good night, you two,” Delaney nodded as she followed Mikey with the sleeping Coral weighing her down.

On their way up to Leo’s room, Amity lightly chuckled to herself.

“What?” Leonardo opened the door for her first.

“How is it that I am the one that got pregnant first and Delaney is the one first of kid duty?” she smiled at him as she pulled him into the room after her.

“Delaney?”

“Hm?” Delaney frowned at the intrusion to her wonderful dreams, “Wha…?”

“Come on, honey,” Mikey shook her side, “Time to get to training.”

“Uh…” she sat up and looked at him, “How can you be so bright and cheery every morning?”

“It’s one of my talents, dear,” he grinned and rubbed the top of her head, “Just like one of yours happens to be burning water.”

“I was trying to make some mac and cheese and you know it,” she growled at him and then stretched deciding it was too early in the morning to get into any real arguments, “How’d Coral sleep?”

“Check yourself,” he nodded to her side where Coral was totally wrapped up in sheets and plastered against the wall, “She’s a good little dudette.”

“Yeah,” Delaney nodded and hoped off the loft bed, “You think that she’s happier this way?”

“Compared to what?”

“Compared to being just a puppy,” she held his hand as they walked to the dojo, “I mean, that’s a pretty plush life when you think about it. Everything is given to you and your comfy for the rest of you life. Being a mutant could be very confusing compared to that.”

“Yeah, but think of everything she has to look forward to,” he checked to make sure she had both sets of nunchakus on his belt, “I mean, if I was still a turtle, I doubt that we’d be together and about ready to get married, right? Being a mutant can be difficult, but it has personally changed my life for the better.”

“Hey guys,” Eros came up from behind with a sleepy and pissed off looking Callista in tow, “We going to start our training today, too?”

“We’ll see,” Mikey said.

“We better. Because if I got up for nothing…” she shook her fist at Eros for waking her up at such an ungodly hour.

The group of four walked into the dojo where Leo was already warming up and Amity sat off to the side as she tried to stretch out before training.

“Surprised to see you out here, mother to be,” Callista smirked at Amity.

“Against better reason,” Leo said concentrating on his stance and katana angle.

“Just because I’m pregnant doesn’t mean that I can’t train,” she rolled her eyes at Leo and then turned back to her friends, “I’m surprised to see both Callista and Eros in here with out Don or Raph.”

“They’re coming, just running a little late,” Eros nodded and sat next to Amity, “We’re going to train with you all and possibly learn some weapon while we’re at it.”

“What?!” Leo almost dropped his katanas.

“I mean, with your approval of course,” Eros added with a grin.

“It was just an idea, Leo,” Delaney walked next to Eros and stretched out his arms, “Since Amity and I have to learn from scratch, night as well get them lessons on how to defend themselves.”

“This isn’t some game.”

“I never said it was,” she frowned, “I am one hundred percent serious here, Leo. That lab is a very big threat and we all need to be prepared for the worst. Besides the fact that at one point or another we have to go back and get the rest of the people and mutants out of there and away from Kanin. Including Sandra.”

“I know… it’s just that…” he paused and looked at Amity for some kind of help, “I…”

“Look Leo,” Callista sighed and pulled Eros to her side, “This one got me up this morning and Raph- whenever he decides to get his tail in here- thought that it was a good skill to have. Please don’t tell me I got up for nothing.”

“I’m sorry,” Leo sighed, “I just don’t think that I can teach it like… like Splinter. I don’t want to fail you all before you even begin.”

Amity stood up and put a hand on his shoulder with an encouraging smile, “You will never know until you try. And even if it may take a while to perfect training, you can never fail unless you never try.”

“Something Splinter said to you?” he asked and looked down at her.

“Yeah,” she nodded, “And I think that they deserve the right for you to try.”

“Good, because I really didn’t want to kick anybody’s ass this morning,” Callista yawned. She jumped a little as she felt arms wrap around her from behind.

“Speak for yourself,” Raph smirked behind her, “I think that’d be damn sexy.”

“Please don’t make us puke,” Delaney said as Mikey did a gagging motion behind her. Donatello walked in after Raph and rolled his eyes.

“Okay Delaney, since this seems to be your idea,” Leonardo motioned Amity to step back, “You want to show them how to spar?”

“Just take it easy on me. I’m still unbalanced.”

“They don’t take it easy on you out there,” he lunged forward and made a kick to her head which she blocked with her forearm, “Good. Now go on the offensive.”

Delaney took a deep breath and jumped forward to deliver a strong kick toward Leo’s midsection. Surprisingly, she didn’t trip. Didn’t fumble. She was perfectly balanced. Leo began to fight back harder to make her step up in her moves. Mikey’s head tilted to the side in thought and watched Delaney closely.

“Hon, how’d you get so good overnight?” he called out to her as she ducked from one of his high kicks, “Last night you were falling on your tail.”

“Your guess is as good as mine, dear,” she flipped backwards from Leo and grabbed one of the weapons from the all. Leonardo took out his katanas and ran after her. She turned just in time to catch his katanas within the 2 ½ foot chain of the weapon she pulled. She held on to part of the chain and the two foot stick at the other end of the chain. She tried to avoid the small ball of spikes that was swinging between her and Leo.

“The chigiriki,” Leo said off hand, “Interesting choice.”

“Been looking at it on and off lately,” she smirked and watched as Leo’s eyes followed the ball of spikes, “Draw, Leo?”

“For now,” he nodded and smirked back. They both stepped back from one another and bowed to each other, “I’m curious, how did you get balanced?”

“ I don’t know. Like Mikey said, I was falling on my tail yesterday when I was sparing with him,” she said off hand as she looked over the chigiriki. She pulled on the end of the stick and watched the chain fit into it and the weapon became a mace with the ball of spikes sitting at the top of the stick, “Very nice.”

“Any guesses on how she got so good, Don?” Mikey turned to him.

Donatello watched the spar closely and tried to figure out the solution to the same problem, “I have a theory.”

“Well…” Mikey rolled his eyes.

“Eros, come here for a minute,” Don held out his hand for her and led her to one of the corners of the mat, “Stay right here.”

“Okay…” she quirked an eye ridge at him, but let him do what he needed to.

“Don…” Delaney looked at him and then at Eros cautiously.

“Just trust me,” he said slowly and then hit a button on the side wall. Eros barely saw it coming and quickly jumped back and flipped over the dummy’s weapon with what looked like ease. She landed in a crouched position on the floor and frowned over at Donatello.

“I thought so,” he nodded and smiled sheepishly at Eros, “Sorry, sweetheart.”

“Uh-huh,” she dusted herself off.

“Everybody knows that when you four were mutated your DNA merged with ours,” Donatello began to explain, “In a way you also gained our anatomy and muscle memory. Including moves and reflexes as for ninjitsu goes.”

“But why did it wait to get here?” Delaney swung the chigiriki mace at her side, “I was falling on my face yesterday when I could have been doing some serious training.”

“It took you a couple of hours to know how to walk again, right?”

Delaney nodded.

“It just took you longer to get your ninjitsu back,” he motioned with his hands, “Besides, your skills and muscle memory is different from Mikey’s. The two different skills were fighting with each other to assert dominance. That’s why you were so clumsy with it yesterday.”

“Gotcha’,” Delaney nodded, “And Eros did it off the bat on her first try because she never had any ninjitsu training and her muscles just reacted from your training, right?”

“Exactly,” he nodded, “So everything should be instinct. But we need to fine tune everything and find what is comfortable for everyone. Besides, everybody needs to pick a weapon and stick to it.”

“I like this,” Delaney smiled at the chigiriki and kept experimenting with the chain and making it come in and out of the stick portion. She smiled whenever the weapon looked like a mace, “But I’ll still retain nunchakus, right?”

“You should,” Don nodded.

“Good,” Delaney looked at Callista, “How about it, Cal? What calls to you?”

Callista yawned and paced along the weapon wall staring at all her choices. She stopped toward the end where Raph’s extra pair of sais laid next to a few different sharp objects. She looked at the knife to the left of the sais and weighed it in her hand, “What’s this?”

“A tanto,” Leonardo nodded at it, “It’s a good multipurpose tool too. Not just a weapon.”

“And this one?” she held up what looked like a small sickle combined with a long chain and a small weight at the other end of the chain.

“Should know you would go with the mean weapons,” Raph smirked at her. She smirked back and spun the small weight by her hip.

That’s a Kusari-gama,” Leo squinted a little, “And yes, it does get a bit messy.”

“I like messy,” Callista grinned and held on to both weapons.

“Oh! I like this one,” Eros squealed and headed toward the wall where two iron fans were hanging above some more swords. She took them off and opened them to find sharp edges instead of colorful paper, “Heavy and deadly. So noted.”

“They’re called Tessens, Eros.”

“Tessen… hm, couldn’t they have just stuck with fan?”

“Different culture, different name,” Donatello sighed and hit his forehead with the palm of his hand.

“Amity?” Delaney turned to her unsure friend.

“Knowing not only my concerns, but Leo’s as well,” Amity looked back at Leo and then at the wall, “I’m going to stick to katanas for close range, but I want something I can used from afar too.”

“What about the long bow?” Donatello looked at the opposite end of the wall at the bow, “Kunoichi were proficient at them back in Japan.”

“Kunoichi?” Eros tilted her head.

“Female ninjas,” Delaney smiled, “Whatcha’ think, Amity?”

“Sounds like a good idea,” she nodded, “And it will keep Leo off my shell at least a little bit.”

“Okay boys, we got out gear,” Delaney smiled and held her chigiriki in both hands, “When do we get started?”

“Mikeyyyy!” a small scream erupted from upstairs.

“Sounds like someone’s up,” Callista smiled.

Michelangelo looked toward Delaney with a pout, “Um…”

Delaney shook her head and held a hand out to him, “Oh no. She’s calling to you. You can get her and bring her down to watch, but I’m not going to baby her.”

Mikey sighed and went up to get Coral out of bed.

“Okay, so everybody but Mikey- let’s start with some breathing exercises,” Leo sat on the ground in a lotus position waiting for the others to join him.