* For those of you unfamiliar with my other fics, you may be wondering why there has been no mention of Master Splinter up to this point. He actually passed away, about two-thirds of the way through Sacrifice.
Marcus had pulled off the highway at the following exit, stopping in the parking lot of a big chain store. He and Jenna needed to pick up supplies for their now extended road-trip anyway, and at the very least it gave them a chance to do that.
Three hours had passed since they'd stopped, and Leonardo concern was growing with intensity. Not simply over the fact that Luke's signal didn't seem to be recoverable, but over the way that Donatello had completely crumbled. The glazed look in his dark brown eyes was vacant, almost as if he didn't see a single thing in front of him. He hadn't uttered a word in over forty minutes, and he looked as if every ounce of hope had been drained right out of him.
Luke's important to all of us...but he and Donnie have always been extremely close. How are we supposed to get anywhere with him acting like this? What would Sensei say to him?
Leonardo's thought trailed off slightly, as he pictured his father's calm assurance, and never failing wisdom. What could he possibly pull from those memories with him, that would actually get through to Donatello right now?
The sandwiches that Marcus and Jenna had brought back for the brothers had long ago been consumed, with the exception of Donatello's.
"Genius, will you eat something already?" Raphael asked him, a little less gruff than he normally would have been.
Donatello's glance flicked over to look at him, but he said nothing in response.
"You can't quit eatin' every time you get upset." Raphael pushed him. "You know exactly what--" He cut himself off suddenly, before Luke's name could leave his tongue.
Leonardo came to Donatello's side at once. He didn't know what to say, but that didn't stop him from plunging ahead.
"Donnie, this isn't helping. Do you hear me? We're all feeling it right now, but you can't shut down on us! We have to take some kind of action, we can't just sit here until the end of time."
"What exactly would you propose that we do Fearless?" Donatello asked, much more sharply than he usually gave vent to. "I mean, besides calling Kat to inform her that I managed to lose her husband." He added more softly.
"Donnie, this isn't your fault!" Michelangelo exclaimed indignantly.
"Fault is irrelevant - it's my technology that's failing here."
In an explosion of rare anger, Mike grabbed him by the shoulders, literally shaking him.
"Would you STOP feeling guilty long enough to get your head back on straight?! This isn't the end of the road!"
Donatello's shocked expression shifted almost immediately, and he sat up a little further on the seat. "I'm sorry." He said quietly. "Let me just...think for a minute here."
"First, you're gonna eat something - then you'll be able to get the proper brain power." Mike said a little more calmly, but no less firm.
As Donatello moved to obey him, Raphael made a slightly scoffing sound that only Leonardo heard.
"I coulda done that." He remarked.
"I doubt that it would have had the same effect Raph." Leonardo told him with a half smile.
Donatello had his signature probing "thinking" look again, before he'd even finished his sandwich.
Leonardo came over to sit by him again, feeling a little hopeful. "What is it Donnie?"
"I've just been sitting here, wondering about the information that the FBI has. I haven't had very much faith in them, particularly because we know they've been traveling the opposite direction that they should be. But they still have access to all kinds of evidence that we don't...and just because they don't know what to do with it, doesn't mean we won't. In any case, I don't know where else to turn Leo. We've got to try and get all the information out of Kat's partner that we possibly can."
Katherine was at home - she'd barely moved from the living room since she'd gotten there. April and Jenna's mother Victoria were there now too, trying to do things for her. She was grateful to them, but part of her also really wanted to be left alone. She got a little excited when her phone rang, and it was one of the guys.
"Talk to me Leo."
"Hi Kat." He sounded a little tired. "We have a situation - are you sitting down?"
"I don't like that question Leonardo. Tell me what's going on right now."
"Luke's signal has disappeared, and it doesn't seem like we're going to be getting it back this time."
Katherine had the distinct sensation that all of the air had been suddenly sucked out of the room, as she still clenched her phone to her ear inside a balled fist.
"Donnie's done everything that he can technically speaking, without getting a response out of it. I know this is difficult to hear Kat, and I'm sorry. I hate to bother you at all, especially now but...we need help. We need help bad Katherine - we can't move forward without it."
Katherine swallowed back a sob, refusing to be overcome. "You need me to get Greg on the phone."
"Yeah Kat, we really do. We're stuck inside this holding pattern, until we've got something else to go on."
"Alright, I'm on it."
"Kat--"
"Leonardo, don't. I've got it together. I'll call you back." She told him, more strongly than she really felt. Then she hung up to call her partner.
Greg answered on the third ring, "Hang on a minute baby." He said into the earpiece, and came back to the phone roughly two minutes later.
"Okay Katherine, now I can talk."
"Who are you calling baby?"
"I'm sorry James, I had to make some excuse to leave the table. What's going on?"
"I'm in a desperate spot here Greg, and you're the only person I have to turn to. I need information, all the evidence you have to go on with this case."
Greg hesitated for a few seconds. "James, I cannot keep doing this. They're going to catch on that I'm feeding information to you."
"Greg, I'm being crushed up against a brick wall here. Please, please tell me what you know!"
He had never heard such desperation in her voice before. He also knew very well something was going on, that she wasn't telling him. He had suspected that she had to be somehow acting on the information that he gave her, and had been purposefully vague on some points, leaving others out altogether. In his mind's eye he could just see his partner trying to charge down the road herself, to catch these idiots single-handedly.
"James, I can't. Henceforth, I am a vending machine."
"You're a what?"
"You heard me. You're not getting anything out, unless you put something in first. That's the deal. You wanna come clean about what you're really doing right this second, then we can talk about what I know. If I'm going to risk my job and prison time, I deserve to know what's actually going on!"
"Greg I...I'll call you back." She said, sounding more flustered than he'd ever heard her before.
"He actually called himself that?" Leonardo said incredulously.
"Yes Leo, he's absolutely serious too. If I don't tell him how I'm using the information, he's not going to give it to me anymore! What am I supposed to do here?"
Leonardo paused for a beat to glance at his brothers, and then turned back to the phone.
"Tell him whatever you have to Kat. I see no reason why our physiology should be forced to come up, but other than that...whatever you think will get him yapping his trap again. We really are screwed if he won't help us."
"Okay Leonardo." Kat said a little flatly. "I'll get him back on the phone."
