Four months before Splinter's birthday, Leonardo and his brothers had already thought about what would be a good birthday gift for their father. Everyone suggested something. Some of them were adorable and some of them were clever. But then they came up with something that master Splinter would love. A DVD collection about his favorite soap opera TV show. With this, he could watch his favorite episodes or scenes over and over again. Sure Splinter could just borrow Donny's laptop and watch them online, but honestly? Splinter didn't know much about technology and he might mess things up.
So the four turtles nodded to the DVD collection idea. Donny would do the work, but of course each of his brothers had a job as well. While the genius turtle worked on the DVD collection, the others kept Splinter away from Don's lab to keep it a secret.
Weeks had passed, closer to Splinter's birthday and Don became more restless. He spent most of his days downloading episodes with the best quality he could find, but sometimes there were other projects he needed to do. Like repairing machines in their lair, helping April and Casey out and of course fighting against Shredder and other bad guys. And sleep wasn't an option either. Donny only slept one or two hours at night. Luckily his good old coffee helped him out to finish the project before the deadline.
Splinter's birthday has come. Donatello is tired, but it's almost done. The percentage counter goes up, closer and closer to one hundred and the DVD is done. Don wanted to grab his mug and sip his strong coffee as a celebration of his hard work, but he accidentally pushed the mug onto its side and all that delicious coffee leaked on his computer.
"NOOO!" He yelled and tried to save the project. "No no no no!"
Error. Blue death. It was all lost. All the hard work. Months of sleepless nights ruined in seconds. Don went into a rage and started to hit his desk as hard as he could, while shouting that one word "No". He was tired. He sobbed.
Raphael and soon his brothers arrived at Don's lab, checking what all these noises were. They saw their broken brother.
"What the hell happened?" Raphael asked.
The genius turtle looked to his brothers with teary eyes. "It's gone." His voice trembled. "It's all gone."
"What's gone?" Raph didn't have any clue what was going on, but Mikey realized sooner.
"You mean the project?" Mikey asked and Don nodded slowly.
"I accidentally poured the coffee on my computer and it shut down."
"You did what?!" Raph growled.
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!" Don sobbed harder.
"Cut it out Raph, it was an accident!" Leo stepped in, tried to stop Raph.
"Yeah sure, we told him to go to sleep earlier, but did he listen to us? No."
"You can't just blame Donny like that! He did his best. In fact, he did all the hard work!" Leo shouted at Raph.
"Dudes, keep your voices down, or master Splinter will hear us!"
After Mikey finished his sentence, Splinter just arrived. "What are all of these noises, my sons?"
"Master Splinter, we-" Leonardo tried to explain, but Donatello interrupted.
"I screwed up, Master Splinter."
Splinter raised up one of his eyebrows, not knowing what was going on.
"We had a great gift idea for your birthday. A DVD collection of your favorite soap opera show. All of the episodes, with extras in it, deleted scenes, behind the scenes, interviews, everything. And my brothers' job was to not let you get close to my lab. But I ruined everything. I'm so sorry."
Don lowered his head and sobbed. Splinter sighed and smiled.
"My sons. I deeply appreciate all of your hard work, but you don't need to give anything to me. Especially if it is a burden to you all."
"But father, it's your birthday today. The least we could do is to give you something." Leo felt guilty as well just like Donatello. It felt really bad that they didn't have a plan B.
"Don't feel guilty, my sons. In fact, you all four already gave me the best gift I could ever get. And not just today, but everyday."
"Oh? And what is it?" Mikey asked curiously. But Mikey wasn't the only one surprised by what Splinter said. They had no clue.
"I have four sons. From the very beginning, raising all of you, teaching you ninjutsu, protecting you, fighting with you against our enemies, and more importantly, seeing all of you safe and healthy. This is the best gift a father could ever get. And I feel lucky to have all of you. I have never been so proud."
The turtles started to smile and nodded, Mikey teared up a bit though. Splinter's speech warmed up their hearts.
"Now, if you all excuse me, I am going to the kitchen to drink some tea." And Splinter walked away.
"So..." Don started. "Should we buy something for him?"
"Well, he loves tea. A new tea set would be perfect." Leo suggested.
"Great idea, Leo!" Mikey smiled wide.
"Then let's go!" Raph agreed and everybody nodded and gave each other high threes.
