Even without his eyesight Leonardo dashed over the rubble and through the hole in the side of the ruins of the old warehouse and out into the street, staying close to the walls and the alleys until he could reach the abandoned building which he'd turned into his temporary home. He waited over half an hour crouched in a shadow and huddled in his black trench-coat to make sure he hadn't been followed before pushing aside some wooden crates and trash to crawl into the wall before tugging everything back into place. Once he had settled into his bedding piled up on the thin, smelly mattress on the floor he pulled a smooth box from his pocket with shaky hands. He breathed in slowly and pressed the side of it with a thumb.
"Entry two, one, one, four," the recorded voice began. His voice... he'd almost forgotten how it sounded and had to choke back a sob as he listened to his long lost brother talk about an idea he'd had to upgrade the shell cells.
He pressed the side of the box again and the voice stopped, he couldn't hear what he was saying through his ragged breathing anyway and he needed a moment to compose himself.
He was still so very shaken up after coming across this find, he wasn't even sure why he'd gone back to the old, destroyed lair after all these years. Walking amongst the debris he'd kicked the little box by accident and it had turned on, Donatello's gentle voice echoing through the dead silence of the room chuckling to himself about an amusing invention he'd come up with to get Mikey back for some prank. For a moment his confused mind could only think one thing.
He's back.
But soon after, the voice paused and read out another number and he knew how silly it was to have thought otherwise. He'd only come across a little sound recorder Donatello had probably used to keep track of the many ideas that popped up in his head too quickly to sit down and write them out.
Leonardo sat up on the bed and hesitated for a moment before coming to a decision. It was probably not a very good idea but he couldn't help himself.
"Hey, Donnie, what are you working on?" He said out loud in a quiet voice before pressing the side of the box again.
"It should be a simple process to upgrade the shell cells to record the last locations so even if the device is turned off or is damaged in any way we still have a log of where it's been in the last... hmmm... say, twelve hours? Maybe twenty four would be better."
"Yeah, good idea, Don." Leonardo whispered to the empty room as Donatello's voice went quiet and then read out another number. For the rest of the night he closed his eyes and imagined himself back in the lab, speaking softly with his brother who in turn told him about discoveries, thoughts, ideas or just complained about something that had happened to him or some experiment that had failed. Donatello ask to be reminded to do something and Leonardo would agree to help or offer words of comfort and sympathy and praise.
When the little box beeped and went quiet on its own after what could have been hours, Leonardo cradled it to his chest tightly and slid down to lie on the bed. "It's late, you can finish all that tomorrow. Get some sleep, okay? Good night Don, I love you."