* The following adventure you're about to embark upon is a work of pure fiction, in which none of the TMNT's belong to me. However, the circumstances surrounding the country that will serve as a primary location are absolutely true, and in many cases, inspired from headlines of their current conditions abroad. When I first started conceptualizing Unbreakable, I saw the country as a destination, nothing more than a backdrop for the story to take place in. As I began my research into the tumultuous atmosphere to educate myself on the country, my focus shifted somewhat. I sincerely enjoy writing fan-fiction, and it's my hope that you enjoy reading it as well. At the same time, I'm attempting to give you a glimpse into a reality that you may have heard very little, or nothing about. While my story will not depict actual events, I have striven for accurate portrayals of what people are actually facing there even as you read this.
This fiction follows a continuing story-line, and contains several OC's that have been established over the course of the stories before it. I will do my best along the way to catch people up who aren't familiar with my other fics. Reviews are heartily welcomed, and seriously appreciated.
A big thanks to my betas who've assisted me so much with this project, Mikell, Jadedolphin, and Fire in the Ice. Taking on the help turned out to be an even more rewarding experience than I expected, and I appreciate the time you all took out of your lives to help with this little fiction of mine. If you're a writer like me, who's hesitated to take on betas in the past because of fear or intimidation, I encourage you to bite the bullet and go through with it. I wish I would have done this a long time ago.
With that introduction done, we can now return to the story...from the beginning.
(Three Weeks Earlier)
The faint whimper building made the already tense red-masked turtle look around swiftly, hoping for someone to rescue him. "Hey Mikey, get in here would you?" he called a little urgently. "The kid wants you, she was asking for you!"
Michelangelo rolled his eyes at his older brother as he hurried into the living area, but he was actually more than happy to take the baby off his hands. Of all the four turtles, he'd been the most confident handling her over the last couple of months.
"Sure, you give her up when she's about to explode," the orange-masked turtle replied as he took her from him. "Aw, it's okay Reina, your uncle Raphy loves you, yes he does. He's just scared of a few tears, but it's okay. Big Mike's gotcha now."
Raphael watched with some exasperation as his brother bounced the three-month old lightly on his side, managing to get a smile out of her almost immediately. "Why does she always calm down for you? Don't tell me it's the baby talk, I'm really not there yet."
"If you'd relax with her, she'd relax too," Michelangelo explained to him, as Luke was ducking out of the Lab back into the living area.
"Are you torturing my child again Raph?" The man couldn't resist teasing the turtle, who looked back at him with something close to a forlorn expression.
"I'm tellin' you Doc, the kid doesn't like me."
"Give her a chance bro, it takes people awhile to warm up to you." Michelangelo laughed, and then resorted to patting her softly on the back, as she started getting close to tears a second time.
"She's probably hungry," Luke asserted.
The orange-masked turtle brightened at once. "You wanna take her Doc? I'll make the formula if it's handy."
"It's in the bag with the rest of her stuff - I left it in the kitchen," Luke instructed as he took the baby, and pressed her gently to his shoulder to try and calm her down while she waited.
Raphael shot a quick glance at Michelangelo as he disappeared into the kitchen, and then turned back to Luke. "How'd he get so good at this Doc? It's not like he's spent time around a baby anymore than the rest of us."
Luke shrugged without ever taking his eyes off the object of his affection. "I don't know Raph, but you can get good at it too. Don't give up so easily, you'll get there."
When Michelangelo returned with a bottle about a minute later, Luke offered it and Reina over to Raphael, who was still sitting on the couch.
"Why don't you try feeding her? You'll see, it's not so hard," Luke told him.
The turtle exhaled softly, but didn't fight him on it. He shifted the baby a little awkwardly to find a good position for her head, and then held the bottle in place for her. Her father's blue eyes stared back at him for a couple of minutes, as she sucked contentedly on the bottle. As Raphael lightly tapped the bottom of it the way he'd seen the women do countless times, he couldn't fight the smile that was creeping up on his face.
Raphael had been afraid to even touch her the first time that Luke and Katherine had brought Reina down; she seemed so tiny and fragile. He'd all but refused to lay a hand on her that night, carefully avoiding any opportunity he could have had to hold the baby. There were enough people around that she never did without, but even in his large family, he hadn't been able to shy away from her forever. Karina had been quite emphatic that he perform his duties as an "uncle".
The women were all together on the surface tonight; enjoying their first complete Girl's Night since Katherine had the baby in March. It had taken a fair amount of coaxing on behalf of the other women to arrange even that. Katherine had fallen harder and faster for that little baby than she'd ever imagined she could, and had barely spent more than an hour away from her since she was born.
The bottle was close to being drained by the time Reina had fallen asleep, and Raphael found himself a little afraid to move and risk disturbing her. Luke could see his quandary, and gave the turtle a warm smile.
"It's okay Raph, she's a heavier sleeper than any of you are. Do you want me to take her? I'll go lay her down," Luke offered.
Raphael shook his head. "I think I got this. You set it up back in mine and Kari's room, right?"
"Yup. Go ahead then, and leave the door cracked a little, will you?"
The red-masked turtle rose without making a sound, and carried Reina down the hall to the room he'd moved into with Karina after the two had been married months ago. The play-pen was already waiting for him, and all he needed to do was lay her down. One finger traced her head before he withdrew his hand completely, barely grazing the blond hair that adorned it. Another smile snuck up on him as he backed away, and left the baby alone to get some sleep in the bedroom.
Michelangelo was leaning against the back of one of the empty desk-chairs, with a somewhat imploring gaze as he tried to remain patient with his purple-masked brother. Donatello had already assured him that he was nearly finished with the modifications he needed to make on Marcus' cell-phone. Donatello avoided his younger brother's look for the moment, and nodded at Marcus instead as he glanced up from his work.
"You're almost set here Marc. I'm hoping that the satellite feed will be reliable, and that it's not going to need further tweaking when you actually get over there," Donny said with a hint of disquiet.
"I guess you'd better come with me as my tech support, just in case," Marcus suggested with a smile, trying to lighten the heavy mood that resonated almost as strongly from Donatello as it had been from Luke. "We still have a couple more days before we fly out Donny, don't put all this pressure on yourself tonight."
"I want to make sure it works," The turtle replied emphatically. "You know we're going to go crazy if we can't keep regular contact with you two."
"Something tells me that you won't completely relax either way, but I appreciate the effort you're putting into this, I really do," Marcus assured him. "In all honesty, I'm ready to go. These last couple of weeks have felt like I'm sitting at a dead stand-still."
"You'll be on vacation soon enough Marc," Michelangelo cracked from his corner of the room.
"I doubt vacation is the real word for it Mike," Donatello said dryly.
Mike shifted from one foot to the other, and shot another pleading look in Donatello's direction. The purple-masked turtle wasn't supposed to be working at all tonight, but he'd taken a free pass to at least continue with the project until Leonardo got back. Donatello seemed to feel Michelangelo's blue eyes boring into him again, and reached over to shut off the additional lamp he'd been working underneath with an acquiescing nod.
"All right Mikey, I know I promised. Has anybody heard from Leo in the last eight hours or so?" He joked as he wheeled away from the desk.
"Raph talked to him half an hour ago, so he should be pretty close by now," Mike replied hopefully. "I've got a couple of games picked out, and if you leave the Lab right now, I'll give you first dibs on playing."
"How can I pass on that?" Donny grinned, bumping his brother's outstretched fist with his own.
The squeal of the door from the living area indicated that the blue-masked turtle had indeed arrived home. He was slightly damp from the rain that had been falling on the surface, but the smile on his face was irrepressible.
"You can't even leave your girl alone for Girl's Night," Michelangelo teased him. "Do you see the irony?"
The oldest turtle made a face at him, but the grin reappeared as quickly as it had been displaced. "I didn't stay that long, and she was the one who asked me to come."
"We all know your girlfriend can't live without ya Leo," Raphael spoke up. "But it still feels like you took your sweet time. You knew we weren't gonna start without you," the red-masked turtle complained.
"I am sorry to hold you up," he replied glibly. "But at least I didn't come back empty-handed."
Raphael and Michelangelo's heads were the first to shoot up in curiosity at that statement. Leonardo shrugged out of his coat first, and then set down the bag he'd been toting by the coffee table, where the two of them could get into it. Inside they found Calley's stash, what must have been a portion of about every kind of snack the girls were enjoying on the surface.
"Forget what I said Fearless, you're allowed to crash one of their little parties anytime you want," Raphael remarked, as Leonardo settled back into one of the arm chairs.
"I thought that'd change your tune." Leonardo laughed, and then glanced around the room as if just noticing that someone was missing. "What'd you guys do with Reina?"
"She's playing with the microwave," Michelangelo volunteered. "We figured the more experience she gets early on, the better off she'll be."
"She's asleep," Luke said a little reproachfully over the turtle. "Don't say anything like that where Kat can hear you, she's still kind of sensitive about the whole cooking issue."
"I wouldn't dare. Your wife can pretty much take me." Michelangelo chuckled in response.
"Do me a favor, and don't tempt her into trying." Luke smiled at the turtle. "I'm hoping that the 'slightly mellowed out, baby loving version' can take precedence for awhile, before she gets the craving to start kicking tail again."
"I thought that was what she's keeping Brandon around for." Raphael snorted.
"It is pretty interesting to see the two of them go at it," Luke acknowledged.
In the midst of their conversing, Donatello had been sneaking a furtive glance at his oldest brother. Leonardo was still their fearless leader, the one they could always count on to be calm and centered, but there had been subtle changes in his personality since Calley had come into the picture. A smile seemed more ready on the blue-masked turtle's face than it had ever been before, and the sound of Coldplay was heard around the Den much more frequently. Leonardo's music of choice had usually been reserved for occasions when he was in a particularly good mood, so it actually made perfect sense to Donatello.
While Leonardo and Calley weren't exactly awkward in front of the others anymore, they were still more private about their relationship than the rest of them had been, though it wasn't exactly a deep dark secret. Donatello wasn't sure if it had more to do with their mix of personalities, Calley's father, or their youngest brother.
With that thought Donatello's gaze shifted to Michelangelo, who was already on the floor with a cookie in one hand, and setting up the first gaming system with the other. The orange-masked turtle met his look with one of his trademark smiles, which Donatello faintly returned. To Donny, it felt like Michelangelo had been putting a lot of extra effort into the act of making sure everyone knew that he was happy. While he believed it was true, the mere length that Mike had been going to didn't make it feel that convincing or natural anymore, and it left Donatello a little concerned.
All of them had made a joint effort not to pair up completely or leave their youngest brother out of things, but Donatello sensed that Michelangelo knew they were trying too hard, in the same sense that he was trying too hard. It left the purple-masked turtle with an awkward feeling inside, and he didn't like it. It gave him the sense that Michelangelo was holding back a little from the rest of them. That in particular was hard for Donatello to take, but he also didn't know what to do about it. He certainly didn't want to keep pressing the issue, so he'd gotten to the point where he tried to ignore it, as much as Mike himself was trying to.
They were still a family, and the dynamic between the four of them hadn't faltered. But at the same time, Donatello recognized how much Jenna completed him, and true satisfaction that his older brothers had found with Karina and Calley as well. Michelangelo had to know that all three of them felt some kind of guilt deep down for the fact that he was alone on that front, and Donatello was sure it was the reason that he was working overtime to convince them that he was okay.
"What are you being so quiet for?" Michelangelo asked of the purple-masked turtle, who hadn't said a word out loud since Leonardo had gotten home.
"I'm just thinking," Donatello replied at once, as his younger brother shoved one of the game controllers into his hand.
"Didn't we ban that activity for tonight Donny? C'mon and rot your brain with the rest of us," Michelangelo urged in his own characteristic fashion.