My Favorite Son
Disclaimer: I deny any ownership of any adolescent transformed shadow warrior chelonians.
Author's Note: Please note that the order in which I write this chapters up might not be the order in which the turtles open the letters Splinter has left for them. Two turtles down two to go! Who should I do next Raph or Mike?
Red Turtle: You get your wish Donatello it is! YOU would ask for him! Don and I don't get along too well his technical genius scares me. Of all the four boys I relate and understand Don the least that is why in my fics he is usually in the background or puttering about in his lab. Off by himself doing Donny things. I figure Splinter himself probably didn't understand a lot of that due to the same problem. This chapter took longer for me to write then MOST chapters do. Don as usual for me was uncooperative.
Oh well, hear it is and the last two ought to be easy.
Chapter Two
DONATELLO:
Don glanced down at the jumble of wires he needed to connect. It was delicate work but one that he was quite adept at performing with his thick fingers. It was something that he had done numerous times on countless projects. This was what he enjoyed.
His brothers all had things to keep them occupied. Leo had his katas and practices in ninjitsu, Mike had his cooking and writing, Raph had his brooding solitude and his need to take out his aggression on street punks and criminals of New York.
Don smiled he enjoyed his solitude too but he used it to stay with in his lab working on experiments, and projects. Doing his best to learn more about other areas in mathematics or science whenever he could.
He knew he wasn't much of a fighter; he was a bit of a pacifist at heart. Of all the weapons at the ninja's disposal he had chosen one of the ones that could do the least amount of damage against the foe.
He finished the last few connections and sat back the next step would require the use of his needle nose pliers and he reached into the left hand drawer of the desk he sat at where he kept some of his tools and dug around in search of the pliers he wanted. His hand encountered a piece of paper and he withdrew it pulling it out of the drawer.
He looked down at it recognizing it almost immediately as the letter Leo had found in Splinter's room just a few days after Splinter had died.
He hadn't opened it at that time but now six weeks after his Master's death he admitted to feeling a bit curious on what Splinter had to say to him. He could use a few moments break he thought to himself as he slid open the envelope and withdrew the letter from inside.
Donatello,
Your inquisitive nature and interest in electrical gadgets started at a very young age an omen of things to come. You were ever interested in how things worked wanting to know the whys and how. You pestered me often with why? Far more then any of your brothers and often I was unable to answer your questions.
I think you my son must have been the first to learn that I was not all knowing but I did my best to find the answers that you sought for you and give them to you at a later time.
I would often find small electrical items thrown out in dumpsters and bring them home in hopes that they would work, most often they would not but they became in essence your toys for you would tear them apart to see how they worked and some part of you seemed to know what needed to be done to make it work. It was a natural gift and talent.
I did not understand this talent you had for such knowledge was quite beyond me but I felt I didn't have to understand it, to encourage it in you my son, for I felt no talent or skill should go wasted.
So I continued to bring you whatever I could find on my prowlings topside that might help you along, these included old books or magazines and any electrical item for you to tear apart often putting it back together in working order something I myself could never achieve.
You learned to read at an early age and where soon reading far above what I considered your level, and age group. You had shown great memorization skills when you memorized an old radio shack catalogue talking often of the interesting bits that could be found on any given page.
As you grew older, your interest and knowledge in this area also advanced and you started to take what you had learned and apply it to our own lives greatly improving our home and our lifestyle.
I well recall the day I learned you were planning to set up an advanced alarm system in the sewers as a warning to us. You tested the alarms in our lair. I turned on a lamp one night and was rewarded by a high piercing noise, which hurt my all too sensitive ears. I at first blamed Michelangelo as being the practical joker I felt it was something he had done. Only then did you come forward and admit rather sheepishly that it was your doing and not your brothers.
At least you were honest about it, and I didn't have the heart to punish you for startling me so when you had explained why you had done such a thing.
Since I did not have your understanding in this area I had to let you be and trust that you knew what you were doing. It was not an easy thing for me my son, but I could not tell you if what you did was wrong or not so I had to learn to let you use your own good judgment and have faith that your natural talent and skill would not cause some major hazard or problem that might put us all out of a home.
Often when you were having a problem you would come to me and we would talk Donatello, of course the most advice I could give you in that area was to check out books. However sometimes all you needed was someone to vent your frustrations and failures to and once you had purged you were then able to think of a new way to tackle the problem on your own. Which was usually quite the relief to me, as I would not have been much help to you otherwise.
I know my son that being ninja was not a part of what you desired, you seemed to ant to be at peace with the world around you. Living and letting live as it were you were not a dedicated in the art of ninjitsu but you learned it and then applied your skills to searching out dumpsters on your own, haunting the dumpsters at the back of electronic stores for the best selection of goodies you could find.
You might not have ever felt like much of a ninja Donatello, but a true ninja comes to the point where he accepts all life has value and killing is not honorable for them and they will not kill preferring to live in harmony with everything.
In this aspect my son you were always a powerful ninja because your gentle nature had instilled in you the true aspect of ninjitsu which usually is only obtained after many long years of hard work and training.
And of course when you learned Ninja often made their own explosives and potions you thought you had finally found a way to make your ninja lessons interesting to you. You trained yourself in this area as you trained yourself in others.
I was nervous of you using such skills for messing with explosives and chemicals are not the wisest of choices but once again I had to trust in you and you made some mistakes, learned from them and moved on.
So your knowledge and skill greatly benefited the entire family in more ways then one.
There is something that I am going to tell you now that I wish you keep to yourself and share with no one.
You Donatello, were always my favorite son, for you were the child of wisdom.
You took what little schooling I provided all of you and improved upon it learning more in your own time slowly becoming far more advanced and surpassing my teachings.
It is said the mark of a great student is that of the one who listens intently to your lessons takes all of them to heart and then goes and does one better then the teacher.
You did far more then one better my son.
But you did not just read for knowledge you read for enjoyment enjoying the classical books Shakespearean Plays, the works of Dickens, or other books of that style were read quickly and then you would seek out a new one to read.
Ever inquisitive you learned as much on any subject you could satisfying your curiosity and then retaining what you had learned to be dredged from your mind at a moments notice when something arose that required that little extra knowledge or skill.
It amused me to no end when your brothers would tease you about being a geek or nerd and then they would find that they needed your help in some area learning that having a geek for a brother was a good thing. You always came through for them and were proud to share your knowledge though you never held it over them for knowing more then they did.
We all benefited from your knowledge and expertise for not only did you provided us with a better life with your skills when we were forced to move you would spend the most hours and time getting the place up and running putting your free time ever to good use.
You insured that almost any new device that came out was at our disposal either by creating it yourself from spare parts or by finding and repairing one that had been junked not many people have the advantages you have provided us.
Though you were never one to spend much time with your brothers, feeling more that there were other things you could be doing, you still spent enough time with them as to not be a total loner.
You're gentle nature and kind soul made it easy for you and your brothers to get use to and accept one another on more casual terms while you were able to maintain your own projects and individuality.
For you were content with your lot in life as long as you had new things to learn and new things to build.
You my son were ever inquisitive, intelligent and resourceful and I never had any fear that you or your brothers would fall into some predicament that you would be unable to get them out of. I had learned to have faith in you over the years.
Gentle and compassionate you were far happier learning and doing then you would ever be in hurting others. You knew what many of us take years to learn and some may never gain no matter how hard they try.
The advantages and the knowledge that you gave and shared with us so willingly were always appreciated my son. I don't want you to ever doubt that and my only wish for you my son I that you continue to grow along the path that you desire.
I always admired your skill Donatello and you achieved a great deal while improving our lives.
Splinter.
Don smiled he knew that his Master had never understood but accepted his choice in life now. He had often wondered if Splinter had been hurt by the fact that he had not been as interested in ninjitsu as some of his other brothers had been but now he knew the answer.
Splinter had accepted him for who he was and for Don that was the most wonderful gift his father and Master could have given him.
TBC
