This Machine

Even though Leo had fought impressively during the fight with the stone generals, now that the battle was over, Don could see that their brother was still off-kilter. One of his katana grated slightly against the side of the sheath when he slid it home, and when his hands returned to his sides, Don could see them shaking slightly.

Mikey was still sputtering, disgusted by the sparkling ash that had drifted over him when Winters had passed on. "Can we go home now? Because I seriously need to gargle."

"Sure we can go home." Raph crossed his arms and tipped his head in the direction of the overturned Cowabunga Carl van. "Soon as we get that thing back on four wheels. Nice driving, Casey," he said sarcastically.

"Hey, I'd like to see you drive through a monster hurricane and keep it on the road. We're lucky we made it back in one piece."

Don squinted critically at the exposed undercarriage. "I don't know, guys. We'll be lucky if it starts. There's a lot of damage."

"Well, standing around ain't getting' us anywhere," Raph said. He cracked his neck and stepped close to the van. "Come on, gimme a hand."

The four turtles and Casey hooked their hands underneath the overturned van and started to lift. The battered metal frame creaked and groaned, but it was only a moment or two before the van crunched down on all four wheels, sending up a billowing cloud of dust and grit. Leo staggered as he let go of the van, an uncharacteristic stumble. Raph caught hold of his arm to steady him.

Don blinked, surprised at the subtle, grateful look Leo gave Raph. Both brothers seemed a little uncertain of how they should react, but before either of them could speak, Splinter stepped forward with a small, worried frown.

"Leonardo. Are you all right?"

"I still feel a little dizzy," Leo admitted reluctantly.

Don stepped closer, looking carefully into Leo's eyes to study the size of his pupils. "You seem okay, but Raph wasn't out of it for quite so long. It took us several hours to get ready and come for you."

Leo's forehead furrowed a little. "I think they gave me another dose," he said slowly. "I remember starting to wake up, and I was inside the cage. When I started to lift my head, I felt another dart in my arm." Don studied his brother's arm when he held it out. Now that he was looking, he could see a second puncture in the muscle of his shoulder.

"They were trying to pass you off as the thirteenth monster," April said, tucking a flyway strand of hair back behind her ear. "They couldn't have you waking up and giving yourself away."

Mikey had climbed into the van as soon as it was righted and poked around in the debris until he found the keys. Bouncing a little in the creaking driver's seat, he stuck the keys in the ignition and gave them a tentative turn. The engine squealed and coughed alarmingly, but eventually rumbled to life.

"Wahoo! Yes!" Mikey crowed. "Come on guys, get in! And, uh, if someone could grab the passenger door for me, that'd be great."

Casey offered April a hand up into the van, then bent to pick up the front passenger door from where it had fallen beside the vehicle. He waited until Splinter and the three other turtles climbed in, then got into the front seat and hauled the battered door in after him.

It was barely five in the morning, but the streets were already starting to fill with traffic. Mikey knew the streets as well as he knew his way around the sewers, though, so he was able to take them back to the lair quickly without venturing onto any main roads. He took a brief detour to drop Casey and April off at their apartment, then turned the van toward home.

They made it just in time. As Mikey backed into the abandoned building that they'd turned into a garage, the van gave a choked wheeze and shuddered to a stop. A pitiful puff of smoke rose from beneath the hood and floated away.

Mikey hastily switched off the ignition, glancing over his shoulder with a nervous chuckle. "Well, guess it's a good thing Cowabunga Carl doesn't have any gigs this week."

"This week?" Raph echoed. "You'll be lucky if I can get this hunk of junk moving in two weeks. Cowabunga Carl is gonna have to walk."

"Nah, I'll just borrow your bike," Mikey said. Raph just growled a little, seeing the teasing glint in his brother's eyes and refusing to rise to the bait.

"Leonardo, we are home," Splinter said.

Don glanced to the back bench seat in time to see his father gently shake Leonardo awake. Leo jumped and tensed, making an aborted grab for his swords before he realized where he was. "Sorry, sensei," he said sheepishly.

"Come on, let's get you inside to sleep it off," Raph said. He grabbed hold of Leo's arm and draped it around his shoulders again, hauling his brother out of the van.

Mikey hopped out and followed close behind. "You can fix it, though, right Raph?" he asked.

"Yeah, yeah. Don't worry. Me and Donnie'll get your van back to normal," Raph said.

Don's brow ridges lifted and he stared after Raphael. He and Raph? Just like that, huh? A spasm of pain flashed through him as he walked behind his family. When the relationship between his brothers had started to fray after the first months of Leo's absence, Don had held out on hope that when his brother returned, things would get back to normal. Don had been wrong, of course – the few days that Leo had been back had been fraught with tension. Raph had been even angrier than before…

…until Leo had been taken. Don had been tied up with his tech support work when Raph had returned, so he'd had no idea anything was wrong until Mikey came bounding up, wide-eyed, and dragged him off to Splinter's quarters.

It was as if a switch had been flipped. Raphael was terse, anxious, but the black cloud of anger that had hovered over him for months had dissipated…or, at least, he had pushed it away so it no longer overpowered him.

Don didn't know the details of Leo's abduction; Splinter wasn't talking about it, he knew better than to ask Raph, and there hadn't been time to get Mikey alone to question him. But now, seeing Raph and Leo together again…well, it wasn't back to normal, but the animosity was gone.

Just like that. And, apparently, Don was expected to follow suit.

As much as Donatello desperately wanted to regain the close friendship with his brothers again – as much as he'd wanted everything to fall easily into place – it hurt that it seemed to be expected of him automatically. Don wasn't the type to hold grudges, but things between Raphael and himself had really gotten bad.

"You've got me all figured out."

"Well, I know that your rogue attitude has always been a source of contention to this team. You think fear is the best way to accomplish things, but you're wrong."

"First of all, this team you're talking about doesn't exist anymore. And secondly…"

Don sighed, rubbing his eyes with his fingers as he dropped down into his worn desk chair. That moment had played in his mind on a loop whenever he'd been alone. He and Raphael had done their share of arguing over the past couple years but that had been the first time that Don had actually believed Raph would strike him. For a fleeting moment, he'd actually been afraid of his brother. Not that he thought Raph could really hurt him – Raph was bigger and arguably stronger, but Don was a ninja, after all – but he'd thought Raph had wanted to hurt him. That had never happened before.

Of course, Don mused with a sigh, he himself had never been so cuttingly, cruelly honest. What he'd said about Raph had been true…but he shouldn't have said it the way he had. "Why couldn't you send him away for training?" He'd pitched his voice low, but he knew the acoustics of their home and he'd known his words would carry to his brother's ears.

The message light on Don's answering machine was flashing. He sighed wearily as he listened to the polite-but-annoyed messages (three of them) from his supervisor, wondering why he'd missed his shift. He slipped on his headset and dialed her number. She answered on the second ring.

"Donnie? Where the hell have you been?"

"Hi, Michelle. Sorry, I had a…family emergency."

She paused a moment, and when she spoke again the irritation had faded from her voice. "Oh. I'm sorry to hear that. Everything okay?"

"Yeah, it's fine now."

"Good. Look, I know things can get crazy, but try to call me next time, okay? We're lucky Carlos could come online early and cover for you."

"Tell him thanks for me. He can log off…I'll cover the rest of his shift. And I'll do my best to keep you posted in the future. Thanks for understanding." Don hung up and flipped on his switchboard, bracing himself for the first caller. "Hi, thanks for holding. This is Donnie, your tech support representative. How can I help you?….Mm-hm. Mm-hm. …Have you tried turning it off and on again…?"

He answered call after call, staring at his computer screen with glazed eyes. Mikey drifted near after a while, leaving a sandwich and a bottle of water at his elbow. Don gave his brother a brief, tired smile. He sipped at the water but didn't bother with the sandwich. He couldn't really take a break between calls, anyway. When his shift finally ended, he slumped forward in his chair with a sigh, reaching back to rub the stiff junction between his neck and shoulders.

"Yo, Don."

Don twitched, startled at hearing the deep rumble of Raph's voice so close behind him. "Raph! Geez, some day I'm going to put a bell on you," he groused. Raph didn't respond. His mask hung loose around his neck and his arms were covered in dirt and grease from fingertips to elbow. Don could see the familiar expectant look in his brother's eyes, so he sighed a little and asked, "You need something?"

"Yeah." Raph didn't exactly fidget, but he looked oddly hesitant. "I've started working on the van. I can fix the engine and stuff, but you've got a lot of extra computer junk in there that I don't know how to fix. Need you to come take a look at it."

Don bit back a sigh. If it wasn't his work, it was his family. Plugging him in where they needed him, expecting him to fill his role like some sort of robot. He was surprised at the cynical thought, but it didn't change the way he felt. But still…Mikey needed the van to work, and it wasn't his fault that it had been destroyed.

"Okay," he agreed. He stood and stretched, grabbing the sandwich and stuffing a few bites into his mouth as he followed Raph to the garage. "Where's everyone else?" he asked, glancing around at the empty living space.

"Leo's sleeping. Last I saw Mikey, he'd fallen asleep on top of Leo's quilt. Splinter's meditating," Raph replied shortly.

Don didn't answer, taking a few moments to survey the damage to the van. The metal was dented and scraped, and Don was pretty sure the punctures near the left taillight were tooth marks. Most of the windows were cracked. The passenger side door was still lying forlornly on the floor. Raph had removed the hood so he could reach the engine unimpeded, and the warped metal panel lay on the ground like a broken sled.

"What a mess," Don said softly.

"Tell me about it." Raph swiped the back of his arm across his forehead, leaving a dark streak on his face. "Do you need to start it up?"

"No, I can access the hard drive with the engine off." Don retrieved his handheld scanner and climbed up into the driver's seat, grimacing when he saw the battered mess in the center console. Any modern vehicle had a computer, but Don had made a lot of modifications when he'd found the van. Raphael could deal with anything mechanical, but Don's advanced computers were beyond him.

The pair of brothers had fallen into a pattern over the years: working seamlessly together on various inventions or vehicles, dividing the duties between technical and mechanical, but…it had been a long time since they'd actually worked together. If Don hadn't been so caught up in his feelings of hurt (and, yes, guilt), he might have enjoyed the chance to work with his brother again.

Don plugged in his scanner and got to work, scanning through the lines of scrambled code. Mikey had once compared him to Artoo Detoo when watching him work. Don had laughed…but now the memory just made him feel melancholy. Don the 'droid…

"I fought with Leo."

"Wha…?" Don looked up, startled at Raph's abrupt statement.

Raph was elbow-deep in the engine again, but his gaze was fixed on Don's face. "Last night. Before they took him. It was…it was my fault they got him."

Don just stared at him, face impassive as Raphael told him the full story of what had happened. Don was less surprised than he thought he'd be to learn that Raph had been the Nightwatcher; he hadn't suspected, but knowing Raphael, it seemed fitting. Raph told him about the fight on the stormy rooftop, and the bitter words he had thrown in Leo's face.

Don swallowed hard, feeling his heart give a heavy thump. "What…what did he say?"

Raph dropped his gaze to look down at the engine again. "You're gonna have to ask him," he answered. "S'not my place to say."

Don watched Raph work for a few moments, wondering if he would speak again, but he remained silent. Frowning thoughtfully, Don turned his attention back to his handheld reader.

"I was a jerk." Raph voice was so quiet that Don nearly missed it. He lifted his head, but Raph still wasn't looking at him, shoulders hunched in an uncharacteristic defensive posture. "You know. The other day. Most days." Raph looked up then, his golden-brown gaze startlingly clear and intense. "I'm sorry."

Don held his gaze for a long moment before his shoulders relaxed and he gave Raph a small but sincere smile. "It's okay," he answered softly. Raph gave a little nod in return. His expression softened – it wasn't quite a smile, but it Don knew it was as close as he was going to get.

"So whaddaya think?" Raph asked, tilting his head toward the monitor in Don's hand.

"Well, looks like being in close proximity to interdimensional portals is hard on electronics. The ol' Cowabungamobile got its brains scrambled pretty good, but I think can fix it."

"How long d'you think it'll take?"

Don pondered. This wasn't going to be a quick fix. The good news was that a scrambled computer wouldn't interfere with Raph's part of the repairs, so Don could easily put it off until the next day. He was sore, tired, and he could feel the telltale pressure behind his eyes that told him he was about to get a headache if he didn't get some sleep…

…but for the first time in nearly two years, he was in the same room with Raphael and they weren't fighting and there wasn't any tension and it was just nice to be able to work together again.

Don smiled at him. "Well, it'll take me a couple days at least. I'll need some shuteye soon, but I can stay a little longer."

Raph nodded, burying himself within the engine once more. The brothers didn't speak again, but they didn't need to. It felt like a switch had been flipped. Or, rather, it felt as if two cogs that had been out of alignment had suddenly clicked back into place. Despite his weariness, the smile didn't leave Don's face. They had a long way to go – both with fixing the van and fixing their friendship – but he knew without a doubt that they'd succeed.