A/N: This fic was written in response to a challenge made at another site (SS). Quotes and character options were given. This is my first response to the challenge.

Disclaimer: I do not own the ninja turtles or any associated characters or places. They are the property of Mirage Studios. I make no money from this and I mean no harm. Please do not sue.

Eye of the Storm

He had needed a break. A break from everything, from his brothers, from the lair, from his projects. Had it been possible, he would have been more than willing to take a break from life itself. As that was not an option so he had settled for the next best thing. Somehow, this always managed to soothe his battered spirit. At least it usually did. Tonight was proving an exception to the rule.

She had opened her window to let a little fresh air into her apartment when she spotted him.

"Donnie?" April asked, surprised at the turtle's presence half a floor below her.

"Oh, hi, April." The purple-masked ninja responded. He had not meant to disturb her. It was just that the fire escape provided such a nice, safe place to watch the world go by. Normally, he would find a rooftop, but with the helicopter patrols that had been out searching for him and his brothers lately, he had felt it safer to stay a little lower than usual. The fire escape had provided such a nice, safe haven between the dangers of the rooftops above and perils of the streets below.

"What are you doing here?" The woman asked when the turtle looked skyward again.

"Oh, nothing. Just watching." Don replied.

There was something in the tone of his voice that told April her friend was not giving her the whole story.

"Are you ok?" She asked as she climbed out onto the fire escape and took a seat next to Don.

"Yeah, I-" Don paused and shook his head. That was a lie. He was not ok. If he was then he would not have come out here in the first place. Time seemed to stretch out to infinity between the two friends. Donatello looked at the human woman who he had come to consider an older sister. "I don't know." He admitted.

April smiled sadly at Don. She said nothing because she could see him sorting though his own feelings so he could attempt to put them into words. She could see the confusion and frustration that he tried to hide and yet could not keep from wearing on his proverbial shirt sleeve.

"I guess I just can't see an end to all of this." Don finally admitted. His soft tenor just a little shaky. "I feel like I'm trapped in a whirlwind and can't escape."

April watched her friend. She knew that Donnie was capable of amazing things, but he was still a teen. At the end of the day he still had a measure of scared little boy in him that even ninja training and what his family had been through could not banish.

"First Shredder," Don started suddenly, "then Bishop. What's next? It's all so..."

There was a long pause in which the turtle considered himself and tried to put feelings into words. It was a much harder task than he would have normally thought. April gave him the time he needed and sat there patiently, waiting for him to continue.

"I just want this to end. I want to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I feel like I'm stuck in an infinite loop. We go around and around. The enemy changes, the input changes, but it only gets worse." The turtle paused there, taking another long moment to collect his thoughts.

"It's like we're just circling deeper and deeper into some maelstrom that can only kill us and tear us apart."

It saddened April to see him like this. Don normally had such a lust for life. A need to be continually faced with new challenges and new experiences.

"Does it ever end, April?" Donnie asked quietly. "Does it ever stop? Or is it all one giant storm that doesn't even have an eye?"

With a sad smile April wrapped her arms around her reptilian friend. She had no answer for him and so said nothing. This was a question that Donnie was going to have to find an answer for on his own. She held him for a long moment, just hugging him, being there for him.

Tense muscles relaxed under her touch, almost seeming reluctant to relinquish their taut state. A tired head dropped gently to her shoulder. Slowly, ever so slowly, thick, muscular arms returned her embrace and she pulled him a little tighter.

For a brief time, for one, fleeting moment, Donatello felt at peace. He could still feel the storm raging around him. That had not changed and yet it had. Powerful winds no longer buffeted his fragile spirit.

Maybe the next foe would be worse.
Maybe there was no end to this tunnel.
Maybe that is how it is meant to be.

But maybe, just maybe, things could get better too.

In that evanescent moment, Donatello felt his soul heal and he was once again ready to face the storm.

April felt her friend pull away from the embrace. She let him and looked at him. Even there in the dark of the New York night she could see the unspoken thank you in his eyes. In return she gave a gentle, reassuring smile and before she knew it he was gone. Vanishing into the night like the ninja he was and leaving her with the old, familiar feeling that what she had just experienced had not really happened.

Still, she knew that in the chaos that was the turtles' lives she had managed to give her friend a much needed moment of peace, and that gave her a little peace of her own.

Perhaps one could not exist without the other.

Without the storm, how could one ever recognize the eye?