A/N – I do not own the TMNT's neither the song "The Secret Still Remains". Yes, redundant, but necessary.

The following chapter is initially done in the first person in either present or past tense – depending on the circumstances. The last part of the chapter is done in limited third person narrative.

This is a rewrite. I hope I've improved upon the first attempt. Some parts I kept, some I enhanced and some are newly added. I tried different versions and angles, but I still like the one that puts Min 20 years later after the TMNT's leave New York. I may or may not do an epilogue. Depends on what inspires me. Feedback would be greatly appreciated. And as Porky Pig says, "Th-th-that's all folks!" Be blessed.

"I'm sitting here with the recorder and am now wondering, Don, if I've done the right thing in telling my story. There are parts to it that I know the general population and the world at large are not privy to; the wharf incident, for example? Hmm… Well, use your discretion as far as who may listen to this, but please know that I'm doing it just for you and the guys. It's entirely up to the clan if you want your nieces and nephews to hear it, though. Goes for Rahab, too!

"Anyway, the machine is obviously still running since I don't know if I will still be here when you finally arrive. I understand about the demands put upon you with your businesses, but I want to make sure that my feelings are understood while I share about you and your family."

I hit the pause button on my cassette recorder to think about what to say next. As I gazed out of my bedroom window I smiled. My view was of the garden and it was slowly filling with daisies! Yes, for me they were nature's announcement that winter, as beautiful as it was with its white mantle of snow, was now gone. Even with the scattered snowfall that might stubbornly revisit, spring undoubtedly would win the contest of wills. My daisies would then bloom forth and take over my backyard - and just as tenaciously as the snow had done, too!

I touched the pause button to release it…

"I'm looking outside my window right now and I can't believe it's spring already. The daisies are blooming again and…well…they remind me of you, Don. Has it been twenty years already? Good grief time flies, doesn't it?"

I pushed the pause button again to give me another breather. I was currently creating a verbal account about how I had met my friend, Don, and his brothers. I was almost finished, and quite frankly I was glad. The effort was tiring. It had taken me nearly two weeks to fill three cassettes to the brim with my meanderings. But, my time was short and I needed to get it done. I had put it off for far too long. I became too busy with life and with teaching, thinking I would have all the time in the world.

It's funny how we never anticipate the unexpected. It often surprises us and turns our world upside down. Cancer has a way of doing that, it seems

Currently I was propped up with pillows on my old brass bed with an I.V. drip injected into my arm, feeding me my 'morphine cocktail'. It gave me just enough drugs to ease the pain but not so much that it put me in la la land. One thing I wanted in my final hours was a clear head. The drug combination had been Don's recipe and over the years it had helped many a cancer patient in their final days. It was only administered, however, when their time was short.

Well, my time had been 'short' for over three weeks, now. Call it my own stubbornness or just fate, but I figured that if God was giving me that much extra time, I'd better make good use of it. Deciding on recounting my experiences with Don and his family became my obsession because I knew I was now dying.

I touched the record button and resumed my discourse into the recorder…

"In case you hadn't noticed, Don, I'm not directing this to you as much as I'm telling it as if I were speaking to an assembly. Blame my way with lectures on history and the way I like to recount events in past tense, but it's how I remember experiences. It's easier; keeps me from - well – you know, crying. So, without any further explanations, I guess I'll finish this thing up…."

Thinking back to that time so many years ago and when Bill and I discovered that my van was missing, I had to smile. I was elated, of course, to see it gone. After discovering my van missing I knew my friends had succeeded in fixing whatever it was that was wrong with it. But I wouldn't know the whole story about what happened in the lair until years later. Knowing that they were on their way out of town was enough for me. However, it took nearly five years before I would hear from any of them again but almost a decade before I heard from Don.

However, I later learned that along with my bed they had also left in the garage all of my books! That was a miracle in and of itself. When I saw my reading stash piled along one side of the garage, I cried like a baby. It filled me with joy to know that they cared so much that they took the time and the chance to make sure I didn't lose anything. They knew I would have never been able to find the lair; I had told them too many times how directionally challenged I was!

I paused the recorder again as I felt my energy wilt just a little bit. I took in some of the oxygen that was afforded me and placed within my reach. Slipping the mask over my face I breathed in the blessed air. I felt some relief.

I sat there contemplating how much longer I really had; frustrated that my friend had been delayed once again. I wanted to see Don one last time before…well, before I went home to be with Brandi. I missed him so much and there was much that we both had missed. The plans we both kept in our hearts from each other, never to realize them and always frustrated about how time and fate had robbed us of opportunities. Yet, in all honesty I think it was meant to be that way.

However, whenever I recollect about the day I found the fan missing, I still get a giddy feeling. The promise of a new beginning is still fresh in my memory; the happiness it brought to my heart as real as if it had just happened yesterday And I still have that one daisy that had bloomed through the asphalt. It was the one that I saw just before I noticed the tire tracks and the one that I picked when Bill and I returned to the diner. She sits mounted in a picture box, dried and wilted, but a reminder of the hope and the victory of so many years past. Every time I look at it, she reminds me that all things are possible. But my remembrances are bringing on a need for me to cry again, so I went back to recording.

Considering the decision I made back then about staying behind, I've wondered all these years if I had gone with them maybe my friends wouldn't have made the mistakes they did? Of course, those mistakes ultimately brought them into the known world. True, it probably would have happened anyway even if I had gone with them. But then again maybe Raph would have avoided the heartache that his temper brought to him as a result. I truly felt I could have influenced him to exercise better self control.

Ah…maybe not. We were too much alike, that turtle and I.

But as I sit here and record all of this, I'm thinking about the choices I made while waiting to hear from Don after he and his family left New York. I won't offer a comment if those choices were good or not. But suffice it say they were made and, for the most part, I did find a large measure of happiness from them. I also grieved, as well.

I'm a true believer that all things work together to bring about what is to be. To second guess myself and do the 'what ifs and the 'if only' game would just make me unhappy. As it's turned out I am very content for all of them, although Don seems less happy these past few years. I've yet to find out why, exactly, and maybe for his sake as well as my own it's better that way?

Guess I'll never know for sure.

Mike told me years later that the Foot did in deed invade their home the day I went topside to the police. The battle tore up the lair pretty much but amazingly enough the alcove where I slept was spared. My friends did suffer some minor injuries but once the turtles had bested the Foot once again, it was Raph who insisted that my bed and my books be brought back to my garage. When Mike told me that I nearly barked out a laugh. Raph, worried about my stuff? It just amazed me.

Initially, after they first left New York, I again learned from Mike that Leo's driving proved he was better used as a slice and dice machine. It was Don who had to wrestle the steering wheel from out of his brother's hands after Leo crashed twice and nearly ran the van off the road. And all within city limits, too! I had to laugh at the fact that their illustrious leader couldn't handle driving.

Well, but at least he could lead.

The crashes were minor fender benders with already parked cars. That by itself was hilarious. Defrocked of his pride, though, Leo had settled in the back of the van to nurse his ego while Don took over.

Don told me much later that for the first time in as long as they had been a family, Mike and Raph kept their mouths zipped. Part of the reason was, of course, Leo had nearly scared the shell off of them. However, I think Leo was probably just as frightened. Don told me he had heard his brother mumble something about preferring the Foot to the open road. I almost couldn't blame him there.

But they did succeed in getting out of town and almost to California. New Mexico was their downfall, however. The state didn't have anything to do with it, but my poor old van just wouldn't go any farther. To add insult to injury the registration was no longer valid. Yet their troubles were not quite over. While Don was trying to find a way to get the van to start again, a sheriff in his patrol car stopped to 'help'. Fortunately, Leo had seen the squad car approaching long before the officer could tell what was going on. Credit the long flat roads along that part of the highway that gave an endless horizon and Leo's keen eyesight. They hid their weapons in the desert not far from the van, unaware that it would be the last time they would see their equipment for quite a while. By the time the sheriff had approached them, a consensus was taken that all of them whould be as cooperative as possible.

But, the resulting confrontation with the surprised and shocked officer eventually had all five mutants arrested and in custody.

I won't go into details of what happened after their arrest and subsequent exposure to the world at large, since it is known history. Simply put, once the world accepted them, they all had their own measure of success and tragedy.

But the five years it took before any of them paid me a visit seemed like forever to me.

The wait had been heart wrenching. If it weren't for getting back to what I loved to do best I think I would have gone crazy. As it is, my professorship at Cornell kept me busy and mentally distracted. I became even busier when at the start of my third year I was given the opportunity to head up the history department. It was a dream come true for me and I relished my new position. Despite the misery that Jack went out of his way to hand me, I finally found enough success that was professionally and personally rewarding.

Amazingly enough I still missed Jack. Yet, it was bittersweet at best. The ten years of our marriage were what I would describe as pleasant. It was those years and the kind of husband Jack had been during that time that I missed the most. Whathappened between then and the night he was killed is still a mystery to me. However, as time went by my jaunts to the cemetery to visit both my ex and our daughter became less frequent. I was finally realizing that Don was right. Brandi would have wanted me to get on with my life and to leave her behind, if only so she wouldn't become a millstone to my happiness.

Living life to the full is the best way one can honor those who have passed on to the next one. I think Brandi was ready to let go. I think I was, too. However, I have carried her in my heart every day since then and always will until my last breath.

When I finally heard from my friends, I forgave them, of course, simply because I had missed them so very much. The fact that they had all become intoxicated with their new found freedom pretty much explained why it took them so long to get back to me any sooner. I was quite amused, too, that they had amassed a small fortune from the movie that was made about them. Considering how harsh their life had been while living under the streets of New York, it was quite a contradictory bit of good luck for them.

But out of all five of them who either called me or stopped in to visit, Don was the only one who was AWOL. Mike explained that his brother's inventions and ideas had tickled the fancy of scientists around the world and he was taking full advantage of it. However I was assured that Don had every intention of seeing me – just as soon as he found the time.

Until that happened, though, I went about my life hoping and living each day for his call. Mike and Raph both phoned a few times and visited once, each repeating the same excuse about how busy Don had become. Mike explained that Don tended to draw into himself whenever he had a plan going or an invention to figure out. It wasn't out of character for him to close off from the world when he was like that. I wasn't sure if they ever told him of my inquiries about him and I certainly wasn't going to badger them regarding it. But I was terribly disappointed and I was definitely lonely.

So, along the way and as the years passed by, I finally met a man that turned my heart - Lloyd Williams.

It ended up taking over eight years before Don contacted me and by then Lloyd had whittled down my resolve to staying single. I guess if I had to describe Lloyd, he reminded me a lot of Don; brilliant, patient, kind, and wouldn't take squat from me.

Basically, my kind of man!

What I found intriguing about the whole thing was, Lloyd taught genetics at Cornell; his main focus of interest being – you guessed it, mutations. I had already fallen in love with him before even knowing about that, too! It's funny how things turn out.

I felt a little guilty about Lloyd, but if there was one thing Don taught me to do, it was to let go when it was painfully obvious that I needed to. I knew when I met my future husband that I had to cut Don off. It was hard, but I thought I had waited long enough.

I never regretted marrying Lloyd – he was a gem of a husband – but I do regret not waiting maybe a little longer than I did for Don. Still, when I think about it, waiting over eight years to hear from someone who professed to love me was more than I could take. I was lonely and Lloyd was willing.

But wouldn't you know, though, six months after we said our 'I do's', Don finally called me. Talk about timing? I remember the conversation well, too!

"Kind of late to RSVP the wedding invitation, don'cha think?" I grumbled good-naturedly. I had sent a verbal invite through Mike to the rest of the family since I didn't have any addresses. Only Mike had shown up, though.

"Been busy, Min." was all Don said to me in reply.

It was an awkward moment to be sure. There was a bit of silence between us at first and then I dove right in.

"So, how've things been for you, Don?" I was just a little cool towards him. After all, I had waited patiently for almost a decade.

"Busy." He replied simply.

Okay, redundant doesn't work for me. Never has.

"Been there done that, okay? Guess I need to get straight to the point….what took you so long?" now I was steaming up a bit. I still had feelings for him, but they had been shoved to one side because of Lloyd.

Silence, again. Sheesh, with all that gray matter you'd think he'd have rehearsed this call a little more.

"I – ah – was…" he started to say, but I finished it for him.

"Busy, yeah, I kind of get the picture. You want to fill in the gaps with detail, though? You know how much it turns me on!" I said sarcastically to him.

A noticeable sigh could be heard from his end of the phone, so before I allowed him to hang up dejected, I swallowed my pride and tried to make it easier for him. Lying, I said, "I've forgiven you, okay? I understand about all the attention you and your brothers received after New Mexico and the movie. I understand about the effect you've had on the world at large. I even understand about the kind of stress Raph put upon the family when he killed that man!"

Another sigh from him but this one was almost as if he seemed relieved. Well, now that I had his guard down a little bit, I thought I'd get back to my main angst.

"But, I waited eight years for you, Don. I really did!"

"I know; Mike told me." Don confirmed quietly. "But things were so hectic and so much was happening. I just didn't know how to handle all of it. I wanted to call you; I really did."

The sadness in his voice was clearly discernable. I was sure that part of it was due to finding out I had married Lloyd. Still, I had the distinctive feeling that there was much more to Don's sadness than the fact I had broken his heart once again.

I offered, "You want to talk about it, Don? I still care about you, you know! Always will. You had such an impact on my life…" I was starting to choke up so I let my words trail off while I attempted to regain a measure of self control.

"You impacted mine, too, Min." he said to me. "In more ways than one, in fact."

Now it was my turn to take a deep breath, "So what's bugging you, aside from the fact that I married someone else."

In a startled and surprised tone, Don asked me, "Would you have married me!"

"I would have considered the possibility; yes! The church would have had to give its approval first, of course." I replied back honestly. I would have, too, but now it was too late. Though I still cared for Donnie, I was very much in love with Lloyd..

Don sighed again and then said, "I thought for sure with how long I was taking that you – might have – hated me for it." His voice became soft, almost melancholy in tone.

"No, Don, I could never hate you, you know that. Pissed off at you, maybe, but hate? Not on your life!"

Well, that seemed to be the catalyst for Don to open up to me. For the next thirty minutes Don shared with me how he had to fight to be heard by my human counterparts. But once they listened to him and heeded his ideas, his life completely upended. The whirlwind of financial backers and the way he instinctively knew how to invest his money steamrolled Don into Wall Street like a twelve ton locomotive. Before anyone could even blink, he had become almost the richest entity in the states, if not the world. He had every conceivable luxury thrown at his feet with people scrambling to jump on board. Those who did found themselves immeasurably better off as a result.

"But, Min, one thing that surprised me out of all of this was that it did not make up for not getting in touch with you. With all that I have…." Don began to explain to me, but then he hesitated. I could hear him focus on controlling his voice; his emotions coming through very noticeably.

"What, Don? You can tell me; it's okay." I encouraged. I could tell he was struggling.

Finally he continued; his voice nearly breaking, "With all that I've gained, with all that I have at my fingertips, I think that what I've lost with you was greater. I'm truly sorry about not making a better attempt at calling you."

I couldn't help but forgive him. I had to admit that I still had strong feelings for Don. Maybe I still loved him, but I had to keep all of that to myself. Believe me, it was a secret that could not afford to be known by anyone!

"Well, maybe it's as much my fault as it is yours." I ventured. "I could have told Mike that I was starting to get involved with Lloyd. I could have insisted on so many things. But, he said you were hard to get a hold of, so I didn't try to…."

Don cut me off this time, "No, it's not your fault; it's mine. If I had realized the kind of power I had at my disposal, I could have flown out to New York to see you. I just allowed things to take over my life. It's my fault."

There had been silence for a moment or two and then he finally said before we hung up, "I'm happy for you, Min. You deserve some joy for all that you've gone through. I'm sure Lloyd is a fine man!"

"The best there is, Don. He reminds me of you!" I countered.

I didn't hear from Don again for at least a year. I felt kind of badly about that, but I guess for him he had to move on. Over time, the world became his oyster but it also became his mistress, as well. Consequently he had very little personal time to himself. I would hear from him now and then, but as his financial empire grew, Don's demeanor became distant and aloof. It was hard to converse with him when his attention seemed to be elsewhere. I guess when you have businesses world wide, you can never take a mental break from them. He had always been rather on the quiet side, but after accumulating all that wealth and power, he became more so. Additionally, he seemed sadder, too.

I learned much later after the fact that he had witnessed the suicide of a female assistant that he had been quite fond of. Mike told me about Bara and how much Don liked her. I wasn't privy to their relationship, but as it was explained, Don had been asleep when she did the deed. I suspected that they were quite close, considering her proximity to him when she killed herself. Anyway Don had woken up just in time to see her impale herself with one of his own swords. From that point on, his level of contentment plummeted. He stopped calling me for a while so I thought he was just trying to grieve privately. I allowed him that. I couldn't imagine watching someone commit suicide and then just going on with my life. It must have been very traumatic for Don.

After six months he started calling me again. He seemed more distant, though. Occasionally Don would drop in to visit when Lloyd was at home. With Lloyd's involvement with genetic mutations, they had a common interest. Lloyd knew a little about my friendship with them, but only from the standpoint that they had rescued me from a mugging and tended to my wounds. I made sure, though, that he never learned anything else other than I had given them my van.

But I would sit there and observe them interact. It pleased me to no end that Don had the kind of class to accept his loss. That he could sit in the same room with my husband and not get all jealous spoke volumes about his character. I quickly saw why Don was able to interact with my own species so well; he was non-judgmental and it was catching. Lloyd had the highest amount of respect for him as a result.

It was during these visits that I started noticing that Don adopted wearing coats. I never said anything to him about it. I figured that maybe it was easier for him to move among his social circles that way.

Though our relationship had changed, what did not was Don's king-size heart. His ability to improve the quality of life for others became legendary. The medical field garnered most of his attention. As soon as Don learned that I had developed cancer, he immediately took over.

But his insistence to taking care of my medical needs did not sit well with Lloyd, however.

Like any husband Lloyd felt that position was his responsibility. But, Don told him that he owed his very freedom and the life he now led to the one selfless act I committed years earlier. Paying for and administrating over my care would be his job and his alone. He would not concede. Lloyd wisely backed down.

Now I was in the final stages of my disease, at home in my own room, and surrounded by a swarm of nurses that Don hired to help me. With Lloyds passing only ten months earlier, I needed the professional assistance.

My beloved husband had been felled by a heart attack. It was sudden and unexpected. I was at a total loss over it. I had just started my chemotherapy so I was able to grieve without it affecting my health too much. Of course Lloyd's daughter helped me through the worse part of it. Danielle became indispensable to me!

Dani was just sixteen when Lloyd and I married, so I was more of a friend to her than a mother. I have to say, though, she became a balm for my grieving spirit; the daughter that I just knew Brandi could have been! I loved Dani as deeply as I would if she were my own child. She filled a void in my heart that I thought would be forever empty. With Dani I new I had been blessed more than I felt I deserved.

Don did make more frequent visits after Lloyd passed away. His reserved behavior lightened up a bit and maybe a little of our feelings for each other rekindled. But I was sixty-one by then and in no mood to put up with a world traveler for a husband. Still, we remained close friends and I have to say that Dani handled it all very well. Of course, Don had a way of placating anyone's nervousness and hesitations; my step-daughter was no exception. He was easy to talk with and she found him quite interesting; his wit and his intelligence surpassing his unique physical self.

All in all, I have to say that the events that took place twenty years ago virtually changed my life. I had been in such a state of self pity back then when I first saw Mike and Raph in that alley. Though I would have preferred a different kind of reality check, I wouldn't change a thing about what I went through – except maybe Jack having a change of heart in how he lived. He was the only glitch for me.

Yes, living with Don and his family had been one of the most amazing experiences of my life. At the very least, getting to know them and then getting them out of harms way had helped me to get back onto my own two feet. Though I often teased Don about how much he owed me for giving them the van that took them all out of New York, in all honesty, I owed them a whole lot more.

"Well, Don, I guess this concludes the story regarding my adventures with your family! I hope that when you have the time to listen to this that you will not guilt-trip yourself about my decision of not going with you when you left New York. I think about how things turned out and I believe it was for the better. I certainly hope and pray that you regain a measure of happiness that I know you've somehow lost. For all that you have done for me and the world at large you – of all people – deserve it!

I love you and I guess I always will. See you in the next life, my dear!"

Don studied the machine as if waiting for it to say something more. However, the voice that he had been listening to for the past three hours was now silent. He took off the headphones and sighed deeply in disappointment. He pushed back the undulating emotions that threatened to overtake him. With being just two hours shy of setting down in San Jose, Donatello was dog tired.

He smiled wistfully as he thought back to Min's concern if he would see her before she died. The God she believed in so fervently had granted her another five days after she had finished archiving her experiences. He admired her stubborn resolve not to depart this world before he was able to see her once more. They had four days to talk about 'old times'.

Dani had insisted that he stay at the house, making up the guest room to be as comfortable as she could for him. He admired her willingness to let him stay there, her attention to detail encouraging him to relax more as a result. Knowing that his old friend was just down the hall and within easy reach comforted his own tortured soul.

Don thought back to when Min handed him a ribbon tied box. Upon opening it he saw the three cassette tapes. He had been surprised by her gift and thoroughly intrigued when she told him it was her 'take' on what happened two decades earlier.

"Just listen to it, Don. When you have the time, that is." She had teased him. Don smiled, recollecting the glint of mischief in her eyes. "You may find out some things about me you never knew before; but I honestly doubt it. You always seem to know more about me than I do myself!" she had chuckled.

They had laughed together and had several good cries during those four days. Don learned once again he could always be himself and not have to be the stoic and in charge conglomerate mogul that he had become known as. With Min, he was still 'Donatello of the sewers'! She had a way of making him see the irony of his own successes. Min knew him far too well!

He finally filled her in, too, about how Bara tried to kill him before killing herself. Though he rarely told anyone of that horrible deed, Don started remembering how easy it was to share his soul the way he did with Min so many years before. Just revealing the still fresh hurt of losing someone and then that someone betraying him in the worse possible way was healing for him. Though Donatello was concerned about the affect it might have had on Mindy, in the end she had just held and comforted him instead. She had encouraged him then to seek out assistance in dealing with his unresolved grief and trauma; a bit of advice that seemed to mirror what Rahab had told him to do not too long ago.

Don was at Min's bedside when she finally passed on. Her decline was sudden, like a deflating balloon. One moment she was lucid and talking. Then, she rapidly took a turn. It was almost as if she had finally said as much as she wanted to say and then willed herself to leave. Though it wasn't the first time he had seen someone die, it was a still shock to Don. To watch someone he loved deeply just expire with a single last breath was something new all together. Min had never harmed a single person and it grieved Don to see her die so young. She was only sixty-two, far too youthful in his opinion.

When her time came, Don was amazed how panicky he felt inside, as if he wanted to 'catch' Min before she was beyond his reach. But he couldn't. All he could do as he sat there by her bedside was to hold her cold still hand and weep silently.

That was a week ago. Now he was on his way back to California from New York after presiding over Min's wake that morning.

Earlier Don had persevered strong and in control of his emotions throughout Min's service. Speaking before the assembled collection of her colleagues, friends, and his family in particular, Don had done a bit of recollecting of his own regarding Mindy. It wasn't as detailed as she had been on the three cassette tapes he listened to hours later, but he felt his words conveyed the truth of who she was.

He had noticed all three of his brothers shedding tears off and on throughout the eulogy, making it very hard for him to remain unmoved. Splinter couldn't attend as his own health was weak, which presented another concern for Don that he kept at bay. In the end, he had to be strong for all of them even though deep within himself he wanted to join them in their grief.

Even Crazy Bill attended, bent over with age, but still spouting that Bronx wit. His wife, Marie, had died several years earlier but you would think it had just been the day before the way Bill cried at Mindy's funeral.

With bouquets of daisies littering the front of the church and all of her friends in attendance, the true essence of whom and what Min was to everyone was clearly defined. All in all she was well loved and remembered.

Now, Don was heading home alone on his jet, as he had requested. Despite the insistence from his family to be with them on the 737, Don elected to take the smaller Lear. He needed solitude and not the banter of remembrances he knew the others would be engaging in.

Don thought about the tape he had just listened to. There was so much to what she shared. He did blame himself for not getting her to go with him and for not trying harder to contact her once he became established in the world. He would always regret that.

Yet, he had to admit to himself that discovering Min had married surprised him. But how could he blame her for not wanting a bit of happiness? He had been so mesmerized by all the attention the scientific community showered upon him that in all honesty he had lost track of time. He discovered as the years went by that it was all too easy to get absorbed into whatever project he was working on and completely forget about those around him. In fact, he felt that it was the main reason he didn't recognize Bara for the kunoichi she ended up being. He truly loved her. But he also recognized that living topside had its price. He had lost his edge and his defensive instincts had been weakened as a result. Bara's attack on him had come as a complete surprise.

However, as he thought back to Min's funeral, if what she believed about heaven was true then she and Brandi were now together again but this time for all eternity. He wondered if Jack was in hell for what he had done, but he was the least of Don's concerns. He knew that Min would remind him about grace and forgiveness, but Don wasn't quite ready to accept that yet.

Donatello worked the inside of his cheek as he contemplated the possibility of maybe seeing Mindy again, but in the next life as she had said. He also wondered if maybe had they married his life would have been different; more content?

He realized almost immediately that it was the wrong missive to consider. As Don thought about his own measure of unhappiness, he realized he was losing the war against the tsunami of emotions welling up inside of him. The control that he had worked so hard to ensure for so many days was slowly starting to fall apart.

Before it overtook him, though, he stood up to close the door to the pilot's cabin, instructing the men there not to disturb him until they landed in California.

Once he was secure in the knowledge that he would not be disturbed, Don took the farthest seat in the rear of the jet. Looking out the porthole, he finally let loose the pent up grief that had plagued him for so many years. It was a grief that had culminated with the death of the one true love he that had never quite realized. He cried openly and with unabashed passion.

For as long as he would live, Donatello knew that he would never stop loving her. Mindy Johnson would always remain forever first and foremost in his heart.