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Braving it in the New World	By : EvaBrick Category: Comics > Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Views: 10091 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I do not own the Ninja Turtles, nor am I making any money from them. I'm just borrowing the boys for a while. I do own my original characters.

Chapter List
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Leonardo balanced the box of books in one arm as he slid down the drainpipe at the back of the church where Charlie and Donnie had gotten married. He looked around to see that he was alone before he slipped in the back door and looked for a place to leave the box. They’d found the old Bibles and prayer books while they’d been cleaning out the basement in their new home and it hadn’t felt right to just throw out someone’s sacred texts like common garbage. He shoved them into a supply closet for someone to find and was just about to leave when he heard footsteps. He ducked into the closet and held his breath as someone passed slowly by.
He peeked out of the keyhole and saw a young woman with a white cane. She used the cane to tap her way along the flagstones until she got to the main sanctuary. Leonardo remembered that this church worked closely with a school for the blind, which was how they’d found the blind priest to perform the wedding ceremony. He watched as she tapped her way up the dark stairs to the organ loft. After a few moments, organ music filled the church. Leonardo decided to stay and watch her play and he crept silently up the stairs and sat in a dark corner of the choir stalls.
It had been a long day. He had taken on the dirty job of cleaning up the basement so they could install a new furnace and build a door into the sewer. Raphael and Donatello had nearly finished putting a floor across the rafters of the old church to make a second story. Michelangelo had spent the day unbolting the pews from the floor. They stopped at suppertime and headed down to the lair to eat. It was nice sitting around their old table, although Leo thought it was a bit sad, knowing they would only be living there for another few weeks.
He shifted a bit in the pew and flexed his sore muscles. Mike had been working him hard in the gym and his body ached. He watched the muscles ripple in his thighs and he smiled… the pain was worth it. He’d missed being strong.
The organ music swelled and Leonardo shut his tired eyes. Everything had been so nice at dinner and then Charlie had gone to pee for the fiftieth time that day. As soon as she was gone, Raphael had turned to Donatello and said, “Donnie, I’ve got an insensitive question for ya.”
Donatello groaned and dropped his fork on the table. He leaned back in his chair and folded his arms. “Well ask me fast so we’re not talking about vaginas when Charlie comes back from the bathroom.”
Raphael chucked. “Nah, bro, it’s not about that. It’s just…” he leaned back in his chair as well and looked at his dinner while he thought of the most tactful way to voice what was on his mind. “Biologically speaking, we’re Master Splinter’s clones combined with some random turtle DNA, right?”
“Right,” Don said.
“And, biologically speaking, the turtle part of us is sterile… I mean, our sperm is human sperm… Master Splinter’s sperm, if you want to be gross about it.”
Michelangelo shoved his plate back. “Seriously, dude? I was trying to eat.”
Donatello rolled his eyes. “Yeah, we’ve all got the same sperm. What about it?” Suddenly he gasped and sat up. “Holy shit, Raph! That never even occurred to me.”
Raphael nodded. “I just thought of it now. So it’s true then?”
“Is what true?” Leo asked.
Donatello sighed and picked up his fork again. “Biologically speaking, you’re just as much a father to my baby as I am.”
The turtles were all quiet for a minute.
Michelangelo frowned. “So Splinter’s the dad and so are we?”
“Genetically, yes,” Donatello muttered. “It also means I’m my baby’s grandfather… and so are you.”
“And if one of us has a kid someday, it won’t be your kid’s cousin… they’ll be half-siblings,” Raphael added.
“Weird,” Mike said. He stabbed his chicken with his fork and chucked. “I thought we were a class act, but we’re like something off Jerry Springer.”
Leo rubbed his eyes and wished for the millionth time that he was fully human… his own person with his own DNA. He sighed. He could still hear Mike singing, “I’m My Own Grandpa.”
It took Leonardo a moment to realize that the beautiful organ music had stopped.
“Is someone there?” The organist was looking right at him, but she couldn’t see him. It was so dark that he could barely see her, but he supposed she didn’t need a light to play since she was blind. He watched her unfocused eyes blink as she turned her head to listen.
Leonardo panicked for a moment, then decided he’d better fess up in case she was getting scared. “Uh, yeah,” he said, sheepishly. “Sorry… I just wanted to listen to the music. I should have told you I was here but I didn’t want to bother you. Sorry… I guess that was kind of creepy.”
The woman shrugged. “People try to sneak by the blind all the time, especially when we’re collecting donations at the mall. They don’t realize how loud they are or remember that they’re wearing cologne. I could smell you.”
Leo cringed. “Uh yeah… I’ve been working all day. I could really do with a shower.”
The organist chuckled. “It’s not that bad, but the choir loft smells like old books and dust so you stand out a bit.”
“Story of my life…” Leo muttered before he could stop himself.
“What’s that?”
Leo shrugged before he remembered that she couldn’t see him. “I stand out a lot,” he said. “I’m uh… I’m deformed.”
“You look fine to me,” the organist said.
For a moment, Leonardo panicked. “You can see me?”
“No,” she laughed. “It’s a blind joke. Relax.”
Leonardo let out a relieved breath and sat back in the pew. His shell clunked against the wood and he winced, hoping she hadn’t heard.
“So you like organ music?” she said.
“I haven’t really heard much organ music before, but I like it so far,” Leo said. “What were you playing?”
“That last one is an old hymn called, ‘For the Beauty of the Earth’ but I can play you something else if you like… my repertoire is a bit limited. There aren’t a lot of music books in Braille and they’re expensive… pipe organs aren’t the most popular instruments, y’know. I mostly play from memory.”
“Well, why don’t you play me something you like,” Leo said. “I don’t really know anything about music.”
“Sure… um I know the first half of Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in C. I lost my sight before I learned the second half, so it’s kind of all prelude and no fugue.” She chuckled to herself and started adjusting the organ stops. Before Leonardo could say anything else, bright, crisp music filled the air around him. As she played, the clouds uncovered the moon and light shone through the big stained glass windows in the choir loft, lighting her face and curly red hair with rainbows of colour. Her eyes were closed and Leo thought she looked like an angel. He grabbed his shell cell and took a picture before the clouds rolled back in and took the vision away.
The song ended abruptly. “That’s all I learned,” she said.
“That was amazing,” Leonardo said. “You’re really good at this.”
She shrugged. “I was gunning for a job as a cathedral organist, but I guess it wasn’t in the cards. You need to be able to see to lead the choir and stuff. Now I teach music at the school for the blind.”
“I work at Better Books,” Leo said. It felt so weird to have a normal conversation with a human. He talked to customers all the time, but this was different. It was personal.
“I’ve been there a couple of times with friends. I usually just go get a coffee while they browse.”
Leonardo rubbed the bridge of his nose. He felt like an ass. “We don’t have any Braille books, do we?”
“No,” she chuckled, “you don’t.”
“I will fix that first thing in the morning,” Leo promised. “What do you like to read?”
“Blind people? We like the same thing as you normals… Popular Mechanics, Hustler, Blind People Monthly…”
Leonardo opened his mouth, then closed it. “That’s not a real magazine, is it?”
“See,” she smiled, “now you’re catching on.”
Leonardo chucked and rolled his eyes. “I actually wanted to know what you liked to read.”
“Oh,” she said. “I used to like romances back when I thought I could still get a man. The sappier, the better.”
“You mean those racy ones?”
“Is there any other kind?”
“I wouldn’t know,” Leo said. “I’m more of a Tom Clancy kind of guy.”
The organist snorted. “Yeah, there isn’t much bodice-ripping in ‘Rainbow Six.’”
Leonardo smiled and rested his elbows in the back of the pew that was in front of him. “Clive Cussler writes in a lot of love scenes but they’re not great.”
The organist moved her face like she was rolling her eyes, but her dead gaze never wavered from the organ. “I can’t stand Dirk Pitt. What an egotistical male fantasy.”
Leoanardo laughed out loud. “What are you talking about? Guys save the world and get the hot girl all the time. Besides, Cussler always makes the women into doctors or anthropologists so it’s slightly-less sexist.”
“Doctors and anthropologists with no personalities.” The organist giggled, and shook her head. “I’m Evelyn Potts. What’s your name?”
“Leonardo Hamato.” Evelyn stuck her hand out to shake his, but Leo hesitated. “I’m um… I’m kind of shy about my hands.”
Evelyn pulled her hand back. “I understand,” she said. “The only benefit to being blind is that I don’t have to see people staring at me. But hey, maybe I can feel your face sometime.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Leonardo said.
“Want another tune?” Evelyn asked. “I’m playing at a wedding on the weekend and they want to walk down the aisle to Handel’s ‘Water Music.’”
“That’d be nice.” Leonardo sat back as she began to play and the church filled with music. He looked at his three-fingered hands for a long time before closing them into fists.
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Braving it in the New World