By total coincidence, the two halves of this two-shot have exactly the same word count. This second part was supposed to be two words longer, but there does not seem to be a word in the English language that expressed exactly what I needed it to. The missing word throws off the rhythm of a particular sentence, and it bugs me to this day.

Notes from the Kitchen Table (Part 2)

"I just don't get it."

"I know, Raph."

Don tweaked a wire.

"Guys? We're back."

"Food in five!" Mike shouted from the kitchen.

Three seconds pause.

"Donnie?"

He squeezed his eyes closed, resisted the urge to make something explode. (Always an effective method of getting his brothers to back off for a while.) "In here."

Leo and Raph drifted to the opening of the crawlspace, some kind of gravity drawing them close to another family member.

Where was that three hours ago?

"You know we've been gone a year?" Raph said, directing his voice into the tunnel.

"Yeah, and?" Don replied blandly.

Raph seemed caught off-guard by Don's lack of surprise, but he went on anyway. "And nothing's changed."

Leo sighed and walked away.

"You were expecting a welcome-back party?" Don asked sarcastically.

"More like a – I dunno – a while-you-were-out notice. A mess to clean up. Something."

Don looked at his nearly-empty tube of sealant, and said nothing.

"I mean, we spend all our time trying to keep stuff from getting totally outta control, then we go on vacation for a year, and when we come back nothing's happened. Earth ain't been conquered by aliens, real or fake. Dragons and Foot are still on the same turf. None of the Shredders have taken over New York."

Don's eyes flickered.

"It's like – what's the point?"

"I told you not to go out," Don said quietly.

"I didn't know there wasn't any –"

Don sat up fast, banging his head on the ceiling of the crawlspace. In frustration, he hurled the tube of sealant out of the tunnel. "And what if there had been? What would you have done? We can't deal with that right now, Raph!" He did a kind of awkward sliding crabwalk out of the narrow passage, not caring that his legs and shoulders scraped against the rough brick. "The city can go to hell," he said, savagely ripping away the cables that had gotten looped around his wrist. "All I care about is getting Master Splinter back."

"Geez, okay," Raph said, standing out of the way as Don got up from the floor. "We were just doin' some recon."

"Food!" Mike shouted from the kitchen.

"I'm not hungry!" Don shouted back, and stalked towards his lab.

Footsteps behind him, hands on his shoulders. He whirled and pushed Raph away. "Leave me alone."

"See, now I'm remembering why Leo and I went out." Raph crossed his arms. "You're not exactly giving off want-people-around vibes."

Don turned and kept walking. "I have work to do."

"So let us help."

Don didn't answer.

Raph followed him into the lab, taking up a position against the wall. "You're doing the it's-my-fault-so-I-gotta-fix-it thing, aren't you. How'd that work out for Leo?" He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Oh yeah, not so good."

Don threw himself into the chair, and let it roll over to Serling. The robot had powered himself down until the electricity was fixed and it was safe for him to recharge. "I need to download Serling's memory banks to a hard drive that predates him by a hundred years. I don't think you know how to do that kind of thing."

"Yeah, Don, 'cause I'm totally useless and incompetent and I couldn't possibly know how to do anything constructive."

Something pulsed in Don's forehead. "What do you want, Raph?"

Raph moved to the other wall, next to Serling. "Gonna say it one more time, Don: Let. Us. Help."

"Just stay out of my way."

Raph smacked Don in the side of the head, nearly rocking him off his chair. "We're gonna get 'im back, Donnie! And when we do, I'm not gonna tell 'im I sat around twiddlin' my thumbs while you did all the work!"

"You don't know how!"

Raph hit him again, and then they were brawling on the floor, rolling around and pounding each other's faces in.

When they broke apart, Don was faintly surprised that Leo and Mike weren't standing in the doorway.

"I can fix the wiring," Raph said, when he had his breath back.

Don wiped away the blood seeping from his nostrils. "You think you can get your fat head in the crawlspace?"

Raph reached over and whacked him on the shoulder.

"Okay," Don said. "It's yours. When you're done, go out and get me the most high-tech computer equipment you can find. I don't care where you steal it from."

Raph blinked. "You serious?"

"Let me repeat." Don cleared his throat. "I don't give a crap where you steal it from."

Raph regarded him for a moment. "We're gonna get 'im back."

"I am going to break laws of physics to get him back," Don said. "Breaking city ordinances is just a warm-up."

They sat, breathing and bleeding.

"I'm sorry," Don said. "For everything."

"I'm not mad atcha."

Don raised a brow.

Raph sighed. "Yeah, okay, I'm mad atcha. But mostly 'cause you're bein' an idiot and that's not you." He lifted his head. "You're smarter than this, Donnie. You know we get more stuff done when we work together. Try to give us a little credit for not bein' morons."

"It's going to be hard," Don said. "I don't have time to teach you everything."

"I get that," Raph said. "But some things we can do." He stretched out his leg and poked Don with his toe. "Like makin' sure you eat food."

"I'm not hungry."

"Hey." Another toe-poke. "What did I say about bein' an idiot?"

A smile crept onto Don's face, and he didn't have the energy to fight it. "What do you think Mike made?"

"Oh, god. I'm gonna try not to look."

Raph got to his feet, and offered Don a hand.

As his brother pulled him up, Don couldn't help thinking that the immediate future looked just a little bit brighter.