"What are you doing?"

Casey turned around to see Donnie. "Oh, hey, dude. Nothin' much, just messin' with stuff. What are you doin'?"

"I.. came to do the same."

Casey smiled a bit. "Alright, sounds good. You want me outta here?"

"Whatever you do is fine with me," Donnie replied. "I'm just going to be mindlessly assembling things."

"Ya wanna mindlessly assemble things together?" Casey asked. Donnie raised a brow at him. "Ya never know, dude, it could be fun. With our two brains together, we might think of crazy, stupid things that turn out somewhat okay, or at least give us a laugh. Whaddya say?"

Donnie rolled his eyes and huffed a bit, crossing his arms. He thought about it for a few seconds. "...what's the worst that could happen? Let's do it."

Casey grinned, a cheeky look on his face now. "Let's."

Donnie walked over to the desk with the dimly lit lamp, looking over Casey's shoulder and trying to see what Casey had conjured up. He saw a bunch of things laid out, but nothing assembled. Donnie raised a brow. "You really were just messing with stuff."

Casey shrugged. "What, you think me, Casey Jones, would lie?" Donnie gave him a playful scowl, making Casey laugh. "I couldn't really think of anythin' to make. I'm just tryna pass the time, man."

"You're telling me," Donnie sighed. "You have any big ideas you wanna try?"

"...actually, yeah," Casey replied, sounding a bit enthusiastic. "Might sound like a lot, but I figured since we've got a car in here, I could fix it up, work out the kinks, do test runs, and make the baby a great racing car. Or y'know, another car to run errands or whatever. The van's a gas guzzler, man, and we aren't exactly rollin' in dough. Fixin' somethin' that's broken'll be tough and frustratin', but I know it'd pay off super well." He finally looked up to see Donnie's reaction, only to reel back a bit as he saw a strange look on Donnie's face. "B-but that's just a really out there suggestion, I'm not sayin' that w- -"

"- -we should do it," Donnie interrupted. "That's a great idea, Casey, we should do it. I-I mean, you should do it. It's your project, and it sounds awesome."

Casey gave Donnie a look. "...you're gonna help, yeah?"

"If you want me to, I'd be glad to."

Casey looked at Donnie for a few seconds. Those few seconds felt like an intense century for Donnie. Finally, Casey broke eye contact and looked to the car, a happy look on his face. "Alrighty, man, let's see what we're dealin' with." They both walked to the beat-up car. They opened the hood, looked under the car, looked at the interior... there seemed to be an endless list of things they needed to fix. "At least it'll be a time killer."

"Some of the things that need to be fixed would be fixed when we fix one thing- -" Donnie glanced at Casey, who looked a bit confused. "Sorry- - some of the functions are connected. If we fix one thing, it could kinda help fix some other things, and it'd make things less complicated. You know what I mean?"

"Yeah, yeah," Casey replied, a little pep in his voice. "You're right, D. This ain't as hard as I made it seem. When we're done with this baby, she'll be a sight for sore eyes."

"Aw, true love at its finest," Donnie joked, placing a hand over his heart. "What's her name?"

"No, no," Casey cut off. "She can't be named until I know I'm fully committed. When I know I am, I'll let ya know. For now, we'll call her... Angel."

Donnie stifled a laugh, rolling his eyes. "Classy, Jones."

"Whatever, man," Casey jokingly growled, shoving Donnie playfully as he walked to the desk. "What should we work on first? The engine, under, interior, pedals..."

"Everything starts with the engine, so let's go engine."

"Good deal," Casey said, grabbing different tools and shoving them into a tool box. Once he had a firm grip on the tool box, he carried it to the car, setting it aside. "Let's look at what we needa fix first, yeah?" Donnie nodded, and they both took a good look over the engine. "...definitely needs a new battery, uhhh, looks like we need new coolant... we do gotta check the ignition whenever we get a new battery..."

The words from Casey started to fade, and before he knew it, Donnie had zoned out. He was lost in his thoughts now. He wasn't even sure why he had zoned out, it just... happened. Random, intrusive thoughts that had been popping into his head for the past couple of months started blaring inside his mind. 'Everyone hates you.' 'Everyone blames you.' 'They're just saying those things to be nice, they don't really care about you.' 'If you won't give them the time of day, what makes you think they'd try to check up on how you're doing?' 'If you didn't have such a big ego, everything would be okay.' 'You think you're so smart- - you're a dumb piece of shit.' 'Look where your decision led everyone- - it's your fault and you know it.' There was a point in time where Donnie would try to deflect the thoughts, but trying to deflect them just made him think more about them. Either way, they were going to be in his head. He thought, 'might as well just let it happen rather than trying to look at things any other way.' People were telling him that there will be bright times, but he wondered how long he would have to wait for those times to come again.

Casey looked over the engine again, trying to pinpoint other things to work on. Feeling lost, he glanced over at Donnie, about to ask if there was anything that he looked over, when he saw that Donnie seemed to be out of it. Casey straightened his back and felt a little unsure of what he was about to do. He set aside his uneasy feeling and clasped his hand on Donnie's shoulder, snapping Donnie out of it. Donnie quickly looked over to Casey, who had a confused look on his face. Not exactly confused... it was something different, but Donnie couldn't find the words to describe it.

"You needa talk about it?" Casey asked. This surprised Donnie- - mainly he wondered could Casey tell what was wrong? He wouldn't be surprised if Casey had some idea of what was going on with Donnie. It was only them in the outskirts, after all. "Yo, D. Do you wanna talk about it?"

"...I don't know," Donnie replied. He rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry, I didn't mean to make it all about me."

Casey slid his hand off of Donnie's shoulder, bringing it up to cross over his chest along with his other arm. "Don't be sorry for how you're feeling. Look, if you're not feelin' it, we can always do this another time. Do ya want me to go?"

"N-no," Donnie replied hastily. "I feel like I've talked about myself too much today, so, no I don't wanna talk about it. But, uh, thanks for offering."

Casey watched as Donnie trudged to the desk on the other side of the barn, sitting down and slumping into the chair. Casey had his fair share of internal struggle, so seeing someone else go through it... he wanted to try to help. Casey grabbed the top of the hood and slammed it down, grabbing Donnie's attention. Casey hopped on top of the hood and sat, looking at Donnie. "I've had some days where things were really bothering me, but I didn't wanna be a downer or whatever and kept it in. Lemme tell ya right now, D, that... never ends well. Exploding isn't fun. If somethin's botherin' ya, out with it. If ya don't wanna tell me, tell someone."

Donnie looked at Casey for a moment, sighing and spinning the chair around to face Casey. "It's dumb. I feel like everything- - how everything went down back home- - is my fault. I was stupid and wasn't open-minded, and now we've kinda lost everything. We're stuck out here, helpless. New York is probably gone by now, and it'd be all my fault. I just feel like I... I really messed up this time, Case."

Casey lowered his head, sliding his fingers into his hair. "D, we can't change what happened, even though we really want to. I can't sit here and tell you that how you're feeling is gonna magically go away and whatever, 'cause it won't. It's gonna take time, dude. But we're all in the same boat. We all blame ourselves for somethin'." Donnie looked at Casey with disbelief. "Ya don't believe me?"

"You didn't do anything wrong. You, April, Raph, Mikey, Leo- - none of you messed up. It was all me."

Casey snatched off his trademark bandana, gripping it tightly in his hand. "That's how you see it. Everyone looks at somethin' different." Casey sighed loudly, sounding a bit exasperated. Donnie thought Casey was already annoyed of hearing about Donnie's woes and was about to apologize when Casey suddenly mumbled "if you tell anyone else what I'm about to tell you, I'm gonna put another gap in your mouth." Donnie was confused but intrigued. Casey slid off of the hood of the car, starting to pace around a bit. "I keep thinkin' about what went down. We weren't ready for that sudden invasion. But that's not what I'm mad at myself about. I'm mad that I took so long to go check on my family. I know that we were all making plans to fight back, but I... I shoulda called. I shoulda went by and checked on 'em. I shoulda done somethin' to see where they were, if they were okay way earlier than I did. Now 'cause I took so long to do that, I don't know where they are. They could be mutated freaks. They could be trapped somewhere. They might be hiding somewhere and worrying about me. They might be..." Casey paused, trying to get the strain out of his voice. "...they could be dead, D. They could be dead, and it'd be my fault. A simple phone call coulda saved them. I don't know what happened to 'em, and it's my lagging stupid ass fault." Casey faced the hood of the car and slammed his fist down onto it. His fist immediately started aching, and there were some indention marks on the hood, so he knew he was really gonna feel the pain later. "Shit."

Donnie didn't know what to say. He had been so worried about his own troubles that he failed to notice that Casey had his own inner demons. What if he had failed to notice the others' struggles? Was he that self-pretentious that he ignored everyone else who needed help? By how strained and angry Casey sounded, it seemed like he had been holding that in for a long time. Had he ever talked about it with anyone?

Casey took in a deep breath, tightly wrapping his bandana around his hand and turning to face Donnie again. "My point is, we all made mistakes. We all wanna go back in time and change what happened, but we can't do that. We gotta be there for each other- - look after ourselves. Life ain't easy, D. We had to learn that the hard way. But with all the bull crap we've had to deal with, I'm sure as hell, when we're ready, we'll get our home back. We gotta keep goin' forward if we wanna do somethin'. I'm not gonna tell ya some cheesy crap, I'ma be real with you. It's gonna be hard to try to be less hard on yourself. It's gonna be hard to try to forgive yourself. You're gonna have those thoughts creep back up on ya every now and then. But if you just sit here and do nothin', nothin's gonna change. All ya can do is try and give it your all. There's no guarantee that the way you're feelin' is ever gonna go away, but just letting it consume you won't help. You wanna try to right the wrongs you think you did? Do something about 'em."

Casey walked up to Donnie, slapping his hand on Donnie's shoulder, a loud smack echoing throughout the barn. "Just remember, dude: you ain't alone. You got us. Ya got me. I'm not givin' up. They're not givin' up. Whaddya say? Wanna take back our home?"

Donnie looked down at Casey's hand on his shoulder for a moment, then up at Casey. Casey had an intense but hopeful look in his eyes. Casey was carrying such a heavy burden, but he was still determined to go forward. He might not have the exact same fighting spirit as Casey, but he thought, 'maybe I could get there. It might take time, but I can get there.' Donnie stood up from his chair, slapping a hand on top of one of Casey's shoulders. "Let's."