Chapter 46 ~Sleep and Schematics~

The night seemed surreal, a dream within a dream, to Karen when she woke the next day. Sunlight was streaming through the window, bright and warm for the first day of February, as if Spring was raising her head early, to banish the horrors that had come with the winter with the hope of new life to come. Karen stretched, feeling lighter, somehow, less burdened. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and smiled, remembering.

Was Splinter really here? Or did I dream that too? She wondered.

Making her way down the hall, she smelled coffee already brewing in the kitchen and headed in that direction. She came in to find Michelangelo rummaging through the refrigerator. Three cups sat in the sink, two from the night before and one more, indicating Leonardo had already come and gone. Karen smiled, despite the unexpected tears that stung her eyes.

I am going to miss them so much.

"Hiya, Karen. Wanna show me how ya make that fancy French toast? I wanna make it for April after Donny figures out how to get that machine working." Michelangelo beamed at her.

Karen couldn't help but return his grin. "Sure, Mikey," she replied. "Just let me get some coffee…" She reached for the pot, but was startled to find it nearly empty. "Good grief, who drank all the coffee already?"

"Oh, probably Donny. I don't think he ever went to bed last night," said Michelangelo over his shoulder as he carried eggs, cream cheese, peanut butter and honey to the counter.

"Donatello… didn't sleep last night?"

"Oh, it's ok Dudette, he does it sometimes when he gets in a project," replied Mike cheerfully. "He probably drank two or three pots of coffee last night."

"By himself?" Karen stared at the Turtle, horrified.

"Yep."

"Good grief." Suddenly, coffee didn't sound very appealing to Karen. Instead she put on a pot of water to boil for tea. "Maybe I'd better check on him," she mused.

"I wouldn't bother 'im. Donny gets kinda… touchy, when he's workin'."

"Well he can't be staying up all night working," said Karen firmly. You guys are growing boys. You need your sleep."

"Oh, don't worry. Leo'll make him go to bed tonight," replied Mike with a grin. "He never lets him get away with more than two nights in a row, and then only if it's really important."

"Good to know," murmured Karen. Still, she headed down the hall toward the office.

Pushing the door open, she gasped. Donatello was slumped over the desk, his cheek resting on the keyboard. One hand was stretched out to a notebook covered in notes and scribbles. The other hung down limply toward the floor. To Karen's relief, his shell moved slightly, indicating his breathing was regular. She approached cautiously, remembering her earlier experiences with waking a sleeping ninja, and laid a tentative hand on the Turtle's shoulder.

"Don? Donatello?"

"Mmmm… wha'?" He shifted slightly, lifting his head a few inches off the keyboard and grimacing, and Karen stepped back hastily, but he didn't strike out.

"Don, have you been in here all night?"

"What? No, Leo, I've almost got this… just a few more minutes…" The sleepy Turtle's gaze was unfocused. He blinked at Karen, looking dazed.

"Donny." Seeing that he was at least partially awake, Karen came forward again and laid a firm hand on his shoulder. "You need to get some rest. Now."

"Almost… done…" Donatello was turning back to the desk, his hand stretching toward the notebook.

Karen stepped around him and snatched it up. He stared blearily at the desk and blinked.

"Donatello," said Karen firmly. "It's time you got some rest. Now."

"Donny, are you still in here?" Leonardo asked, coming into the room. "I swear, Donatello, if you don't stop with these all-nighters… Oh! Good morning, Karen."

Karen laughed. "It looks like you and I had the same idea," she said. "I'm trying to convince your brother that he should get some sleep but he's being a little less than cooperative."

"Come on, Donny," said Leo. He reached down and hooked an elbow under his brother's arm. "It's time for bed."

"Leo, I'm busy." Donatello perked up enough to give his brother an annoyed glare. "I've got to figure out this vector, or we'll never get home…"

"Don, it's ok." Leonardo hauled his brother up, relentless. "Get some sleep. It'll be there when you get back."

"No! Leo, cut it out. I've got to do this…"

"Donatello." Karen said sharply.

The Turtle's head snapped around. "Oh! Hi, Karen."

She shook her head. "Donatello. You've been up all night. Listen to your brother. Go. Get some rest."

"You don't understand…" Don pulled free of his brother's grip, shooting him another glare. "Karen, I've got to figure out these numbers… Hey! Where'd my notebook go?" He reached for the desk, searching.

Karen chuckled. "Relax. It's right here."

Donatello whirled, and she held out the notebook to him. He took it as carefully as a mother might handle her infant, giving her a relieved grin.

"Don't scare me like that."

"Sorry. Seriously, Don, you've got to get some rest."

"I'm not tired!"

Karen sighed and put her hands firmly on her hips, staring him down. "Donatello, you have been up all night. You're not thinking clearly, and there's no way you can perform accurate calculations under these circumstances. You are going to bed for a few hours, and then you can come back to this." She saw his worried gaze flick to the computer. "I'll lock the door so no one touches the computer."

"You don't understand," pleaded the Turtle. "Karen, there isn't much time. Sheriff Darlee was talking about bringing in the FBI. Once they lock down Santino's files, it'll be a lot harder for me to get into their system undetected…"

"Donatello," Karen interrupted gently. "How long do you think it will take for them to move?"

"I… I don't know. Maybe… twelve hours?"

"It's after 9AM," Karen told him. "It's been about twenty hours since Pete made that call."

Don groaned. "Oh no…" He brushed past his older brother, who was watching now with his arms crossed, frowning. "Oh, no… It's too late." His fingers flew over the keyboard. "They're in… I must've fallen asleep… no…"

"How bad is it, Donny?" Leonardo sounded as if he were repressing annoyance.

"Bad enough. I can't get back in… I downloaded all of Haig's files I could get to last night, but I wanted to explore the system, see if there was anything else that could've been of use to us before the system crashes…"

"You downloaded Haig's files? Were you able to track Stockman?" Leo asked.

"Stockman never crossed over. They communicated, but he never actually came here," answered Don.

"Typical." Leonardo snorted. "He wouldn't want to get his own hands dirty if he could get someone else to do his work for him."

"Why would the system crash?" Karen watched the Turtle's hands, fascinated at the way his fingers flew across the keyboard.

"What? Oh! Oh, I erm… I umm… sort of…"

"Donatello! What did you do?"

"I had a bit of… umm spare time last night, so I… I sort of…" Don rubbed a hand over the back of his neck, looking embarrassed. "I… wrote-a-virus-that's-gonna-crash-the-system," he said, his words running together. He met Karen's incredulous glance with a sheepish smile. "I figured… if they had Baxter Stockman's tech…"

"You crashed the system to get rid of this Stockman guy's files, is that it?" Karen leaned on the desk, trying to wrap her head around what the Turtle was telling her.

"Well, Karen, he's crazy. Nothing he comes up with can be good."

"Don's right," said Leo. "Stockman's nuts."

"Ok. So the system's crashed?"

"Looks like it." Donatello's fingers flew over the keyboard. "Yep. Totally inaccessible."

"You sound entirely too satisfied for someone who just hacked into a very expensive computer system and crashed it," grumbled Karen.

"Well, it was a neat little virus," said Don with a cheeky grin. "See, I didn't disable the entire system. The FBI should still be able to get what they need to prosecute Doctor Haig. I just corrupted some of the data, scrambled a few numbers…"

"Made the technology Stockman shared with Haig useless." Leonardo nodded in satisfaction. "Good job, Bro. Now, go. Get some sleep."

"Ok, ok…" Donatello clicked out of the page, closing the computer down. "I guess it wouldn't be bad to sleep for a little while…"

"Two hours. Minimum," said Leo firmly.

Karen nodded. "Yep. At least."

Don looked from one to the other, and shook his head. "Great. Just what I needed. Two Leonardos," he grumbled.

Karen met Leo's eyes as the purple-banded Turtle meandered out of the room, and grinned. Leonardo held up his hand, and Karen high-fived him with a laugh. He grinned, sauntering out of the room after his brother.

Hearing a knock at the front door, Karen headed in that direction. She glanced over her shoulder, but there was no sign of the mutant family's presence, so she opened the door.

"Good morning, Karen." John smiled, looking a bit haggard. The bruise on his face was fading to a yellowish brown, but the pain of his injury had carved lines of pain into his brow.

"John! Come in. How'd things go with Pete yesterday? Are they charging you with anything? Are you all right?"

The man held up his hands, smiling tiredly. "One question at a time, Karen. I'm fine. A little tired. Pete called the Feds as soon as he got back to the station. They rolled in by noon yesterday, and they had questions." He shivered. "A lot of questions. I did my best to answer them without rousing any suspicion about our friends." His gaze flickered past Karen. "Hello, Leonardo."

"Hello, Mr. Vincent. How are you?" Leo's tone was neutral, wary. Karen turned to look at the blue-banded Turtle.

"I'm doing well, thanks." John's smile faded. "I did my best, Leonardo. Please believe that. I didn't tell anyone about your presence here, or about the device."

Leonardo watched John with an inscrutable expression for a moment before giving him a short bow. "Thank you," he said. "We are in your debt."

John shook his head. "No. I'm in yours. You saved Karen's life yesterday. I'll never forget that, and I'll never be able to repay your family for all you've done."

"So what happens now, John? Will you need to talk to them again?" Karen asked worriedly. "Why don't you come on inside? We can sit down and talk."

"It would be great to sit down," said John. "They told me not to leave town, so I'm sure they'll have more questions. They were particularly interested in Haig's notes and files, but it seems there was a problem with the computer system this morning. They weren't able to access some of his work."

Karen met Leo's eyes, and smiled, but let the matter rest for now. There would be time for explanations later. She led John out to the kitchen and put on a pot of coffee.

"So I take it Donatello wasn't able to configure the settings on the machine yet?" John asked, sinking into a kitchen chair. "I was afraid I'd come by and you'd all be gone."

"Not yet," replied Leonardo. He sank into a chair with a sigh. "He was up all night, going over Haig's notes, but so far, he hasn't been able to figure it out."

"Well, can't he just make a best-guess and open the window? Surely he'd be able to figure it out in a couple of tries."

"No." Leonardo shook his head. "See, that's the thing. I was talking to Donny last night. It seems the machine runs on a power pack, a sort of battery. It will need to be recharged… He showed me. You can't just plug the thing into your wall socket. From what Don said, it takes a pretty strong power source to recharge the thing."

John was nodding. "Santino has an independent power supply," he said. "There are several huge generators in the basement which provide power to the entire lab. We don't have access to anything like that."

Leonardo sighed. "Donny says we have one, maybe two shots at getting it right," he said quietly. "If he gets the coordinates wrong… We could end up trapped here."

They sat in silence for a moment. "Well, you know you guys are welcome here," said Karen. "No matter what happens. Your family can stay with us for as long as you need to."

"I appreciate that, Karen. I really do," said Leonardo. "But we have a life, back in the city. Friends, family, who will be going out of their minds with worry by now. We have to get back. We just have to." The Turtle stood up. "I'm… going out for a bit. Thanks, Karen."

"No problem, Leo," she replied softly. "Hey." He paused, turning to look at her. "It's going to be ok."

The Turtle nodded, and headed out the back door.

"I wish I could do more to help them," said John. He rested his head in his hands, his elbows on the table. "I'm not a scientist. Haig's crazy, but he's a genius. If only we could've gotten the coordinates from him…"

"John, the night the Turtles were brought here… The way you described it… were you actually in the lab that night?" Karen sat down, watching him.

John nodded. "I was there working on mock ups," he said. He shivered. "I'd just finished getting the final details of the drawing down, but Haig wanted to give me a sample of what it was capable of. He wanted drawings of it actually working. It was supposed to be a dummy run, I don't think he meant for anything to actually come through. Hun came through, which I think shocked Haig as much as me, then there was an even brighter flash… to be honest, Karen, I hightailed it out of there. I knew Haig was a little nuts, but I figured he'd finally gone too far, and I wasn't about to stick around to be implicated in his crazy scheme. He called me in the next day to 'meet' Hun."

"So you were there the night the Turtles came?"

"Yes, I just told you, I was making drawings of the machine."

"Drawings…" Karen frowned. "John, just how detailed were the drawings?"

"Well, they had to be pretty precise," said John slowly. "It's a complicated device, and I needed to convey that to the shareholders… In fact, Haig encouraged me to include as much detail as possible. I think he wanted to impress everyone… show them that it was far too complicated for anyone but him to understand…"

Understanding dawned on the man's face as he looked up at his ex-wife. "You're thinking… I might've drawn the settings?"

"Do you still have the drawings?"

"They're at the house. I'll get them."

"Ok. But John?"

"Yes?"

"Let's not say anything to them just yet. I can't bear to disappoint them."

"All right Karen." He got to his feet. "I'll be back as soon as I can."