Editor's Note: This final chapter of Broken is dedicated to one of my best friends, with whom I was recently lamenting my apparent inability to capture the true essence of Mikey. Erin, I took your advice, so this chapter is for you.
Mike didn't go back to sleep right away - instead he hopped down from the top bunk, and told Donnie he was going to the bathroom. Donatello stared at the mattress above him for a few contemplative moments, imagining Jenna's face in his mind.
It was only going to be a few more weeks yet, he reasoned with himself, she'd be back in New York soon enough. Time had seemed to pass so agonizingly slowly over the last couple of summers.
Mike had been gone for about ten minutes, when he arrived back at their bedroom door.
"Donnie! Hey Donnie!" He hissed softly through it.
"What?" He called back.
"C'mere, you gotta see this."
Donatello rolled his eyes and got up, quietly joining him in the hall.
"What are you doing?" He asked his brother.
"Look down there." Mike said, pointing over the railing to the living room below, where Raphael was snoring on the couch, the TV casting the only light over the darkened room.
"Raph fell asleep with the TV on again. So what?" Donnie whispered.
"Wanna see something funny?"
Donatello looked behind him, and laid eyes on the biggest water balloon he'd ever seen.
"Mike you can't!" He insisted.
"Oh yes I can! Don't you remember how he sold me out yesterday?"
Donnie couldn't hold in a smile now. "Well...there is that I suppose."
"Payback is a kicker, huh?" Mike said with a little chuckle. "Let me get a feel for this."
He tested the weight under both hands, trying to figure out how much force he needed so that he wouldn't overshoot him.
"He's gonna kill you." Donatello warned him.
"He's gonna have to catch me first."
Without further thought, he lobbed the balloon over the railing into the den, making direct contact with Raphael's unprotected chest. He woke up with a mighty gasp from the thorough drenching, and shot upright from the couch even as he rubbed water out of his eyes.
"Bullseye!" Mike said a little too loudly, and Raphael whirled around to see him at the top of the stairs. He was bounding towards him in what seemed to be less than a second.
"You little cretin! Yeah, you better run! I'm gonna kick your shell so hard you won't sit for a week!"
He was up the stairs faster than Mike ever could have anticipated.
"Donnie, help me!"
"Sorry Mikey, you picked a fight with Raph, you're on your own bro. I'm going to bed."
"You heard him Mike, now shut your mouth and take it like a man." Raph mimicked his younger brother, as he yanked him down the hall.
"Where are we goin'? Donnie!"
"You'll find out." Raph said evenly, only tightening his grip when his brother struggled.
"Just remember to let him breathe Raph." Donnie called after him, and Raphael glanced back to wink at him, then turned a fiery glare back on Mike.
"C'mon numbskull, you're in for a taste of yer own medicine." Raph told him crossly and pulled him farther down the hall, and then pushed him into the bathroom. Mike nearly fell, but his brother kept him firmly on his feet, and dragged him across the room. Holding him firmly in an underarm grip, he used his other hand turn on a shower faucet all the way on cold.
"What are you doin'? Get offa me!" Mike yelled at him.
Raph only shook his head, and then shoved his brother under the spray, holding him there for several seconds while he sputtered.
"It's cold, it's cold, it's cold! Lemme go!"
"Raphael, let your brother go this instant." A firm voice startled him out of his wits, and he turned around guiltily to face his Sensei.
Mike emerged like a shot, dashing for a towel.
"I wasn' gonna hurt him Sensei, honest, he started it." Raphael grumbled.
"I do not care who started it, I am going to finish it." Splinter proclaimed with serious irritation, then rubbing his throbbing temples.
Did I actually just say that?, he wondered to himself.
"We're sorry Sensei, we were just playin'." Mike spoke up swiftly to explain.
"It is not even 3am. Go to your rooms immediately. We can talk about the extra exercises you have just incurred in exactly three hours." He told them reproachfully.
"Yes Sensei." They said together, though not particularly happy about it.
"Way to get us in trouble bonehead." Mike said under his breath the minute they reached the hall.
"Who's the bonehead?" Raphael countered.
"NOW, my sons!" Splinter ordered from behind them.
The following days passed pretty slowly for Donatello, with Jenna's 21st birthday coming and going. He was getting anxious to know what on earth she'd sent to him, but April had said more than once she hadn't seen anything yet. The day before his actual birthday, his brothers casually informed him they were going to be celebrating it that night. He was just along for the ride, so he easily agreed to it, if a little curious.
"Okay, so I'm just a little confused. If my birthday's tomorrow, why are we doing this today?" He had to ask.
"Don't you ever get tired of waitin' around for stuff Donnie?" Leo asked with a half smile.
"I guess so. It's all for fun anyway, right?"
"That's right, so sit back and enjoy it. We're gonna take care of everything."
April arrived around 6pm with a few pizzas, and a brown package under one arm. The other guys immediately took the pizzas off of her to the kitchen, while she sauntered over to Donatello on the couch.
"Got something for you Donnie." She teased, holding the package over him. He grabbed it from her hand faster than she could blink, immediately noticing the postmark.
"April, did this just get to you today?" He asked her.
"No," She admitted. "Sorry Don, Jenna asked me to wait."
"Ah, I don't care, I'm just glad it got here okay." He said, and tore promptly into it, pulling out a card first.
Hey Donnie -
You're a hard one to buy for, do you know that? But I just happened to run across something when I was in the UK last month on one of our journeys, and you could say my Dad pulled some strings. I thought it was something you could appreciate. I love you, and I'll see you soon. I'll be back in New York before you know it.
Jen
He lightly set her card down on the coffee table, and paused to pull another paper wrapped item out of the package. As he was starting to open it, his brothers came back into the room, and sat down to see what she'd sent to him. The object was clearly a book from the way that it was shaped, but no one was prepared for the reaction it elicited from Donatello. He shot upright from the sofa with a gasp, disbelief in his eyes.
"Oh my gosh!"
"What? What is it Donnie?" Mike asked him.
He didn't answer right away, he was too busy carefully flipping open the worn binding.
"Oh my gosh." He said under his breath again. "1937...oh my word, do you know what this is?" Donatello demanded of Raphael, who happened to be the closest to him.
"A book?" He stated obviously.
"It's a first edition! A first edition of the Hobbit! They printed like...like 1500 copies of it that year! This is amazing!"
"I thought you'd like that." Someone said from behind him, familiar, but completely unexpected.
He put the book down in slow motion, and turned to look over his shoulder.
"Jen!"
He rocketed over the back of the couch, not believing she was standing there in their living room.
"How did you get here?"
"They're called frequent flyer miles Donnie. You see, when one flies half-way across the globe as often as I do, they start to--"
He didn't give her a chance to finish, drawing her in immediately by the waist, and kissed her for a long moment. She relaxed into his embrace, firmly kissing him back.
"It's about time y' know! I think your brothers already know there's something going on here!" She laughed, referring to the fact that he'd never kissed her in front of the guys before.
"I think you just made this the best birthday I've ever had." He said genuinely, and looked down to see the ring that he'd bought for her, adorning a curious finger on her left hand. She caught his glance and simply smiled.
"Just tryin' to send the message that I'm not available Donnie." She said smoothly, and he laughed.
"You are something else. I can't believe you did this."
"I had to try and top you somehow, didn't I? So are we having a party, or what?"
Donatello shot a sudden look back at his brothers. "Ya'll knew, didn't you?"
"That's the thing about surprises Donnie," Leo said with a laugh. "If they're not secret, they're not a surprise."
Donatello shook his head as Splinter finally joined them with a mischievous smile of his own, and then Luke and Marcus ducked inside from the tunnel.
"Thanks guys...thanks a lot."