A/N: To everyone who reviewed, added me to their favorites, and/or sent me a PM, thank you so much for your kind and constructive feedback. I am humbling in awe by your reviews. I'm glad you guys are enjoying the story as much as I'm enjoying writing it! As promised, here's a 'B-Team' chapter. Enjoy! :)

Chapter 6

Nothing like a game of Galaxy Invaders to unwind the mind. I reach level 50 just as I feel a sharp thump on the side of my head. I yelp as I rub the tender spot while still zapping the alien creatures. I ignore the pestering jab and deepen my concentration as the alien warlord blinks unto the screen.

"Move," Raph demands. He flops down on the couch, nearly sitting on me in the process.

"Hey!" I whine, "I'm trying to beat the boss level!"

"Don't care," he says heartless of my dilemma as he looks for the remote. Our eyes spot the remote on the coffee table at the same time.

"No!" I roar, reaching for the remote with my right hand, while still working the game controller in my left, but Raph is faster. "Don't you dare!" I say threateningly, my attention fully on Raph's hand as his finger hovers over the channel button.

Accepting the challenge with a mocking raise of his brow, he promptly changes the channel. I bellow a heart-wrenching cry of defeat, "I was here first!"

"You've been hoggin' the tube for the past hour, so shut your trap."

"You could've at least let me save my game, Raph!" I complain in frustration.

"Whatever," He mutters, totally blowing me off. He leans against the armrest causally flipping through the channels. He props one leg in the couch and shoves me to the floor with the other.

I scrunch my face into an ugly sour expression, "Jerk."

"Twerp." He says dismissively as he settles on some sort of do-it-yourself autobody show.

I huff as I walk out of the den. I want…no I need to tell somebody what a jerk Raph's being. I peek into the dojo and see Leo talking to Master Splinter. I'm about to walk in and voice my complaints, but Leo's words stop me in my tracks.

"He never listens….." I pause, my foot hanging over the threshold. With ninja finesse, I pull myself back and hide against the outside wall of the dojo. "….it's like he doesn't understand the importance of anything unless it's a comic book or a video game."

I can't make out everything Leo says to Sensei, but I hear enough to know complaining about my video game probably isn't the best idea right now. I turn on my heels and head for the only brother who hasn't treated me like crap this morning.

I stand in front of Donnie's lab door. Wasn't he in the dojo with Master Splinter before Leo? How did I miss him passing by the den? Sometimes I think Donnie has Leo beat in the stealth department, and that says a lot. But, hey, that's just Donnie; he's always been the quiet one out of the four of us.

"Knock, knock!" I shout at the closed lab door with a grin.

"I'm busy, Mikey," I barely hear his quiet response.

"Knock, knock!"

"Mikey, the door isn't even locked! I don't have time—"

"Knock. Knock." I emphasize both words with pretend aggravation.

An inflated sigh comes from the other side of the door, "Who's there?"

"Mikey," A smile is obvious in my voice; I'm thrilled my brother is playing along.

"Mikey who." He doesn't even say it as a question, just a deadpan response, but I'll take what I can get.

"Mi-Key doesn't work, that's why I'm knocking!" I beatbox the sound of a rimshot and I'm pretty sure I hear a huff of laughter on the other side. I take it as sign it's safe to come in as I crack the door open, slide inside, and gently shut the door behind me. "I've been waiting to use that one all week!"

As usual, Donnie is tinkering at his lab table with a whole bunch of wires, metal scraps, and thingamajigs scattered in front of him. He's wearing those magnifying eye glasses that make his brown eyes look super huge like an anime character. He finally looks up at me. I give him my most endearing smile.

He sighs before looking down at his work again. I almost think coming in his lab was a bad idea, until he finally speaks, "Delivery: I give it an eight. Comicality: a nine. The fact that you used your name as an actual pun: Full ten points."

"Yes!" I exclaim as I pump my fist with a little one leg hop. Donnie shakes his head at my antics, but shows no other expression as he continues to work. Across the room, there's a rolling chair beside the infirmary bed. I promptly sit in it backwards, and using my feet, push off the infirmary bed until my shell bumps the edge of the lab table Donnie's working on.

"Whatcha doin'?" I ask in sing song kind of way as I spin around twice before facing my brainy brother.

"There's a shortage in one of the security cameras. Found another one," he explains dejectedly as he holds up the camera for me to see, "just tweaking it."

"Cool," I give a head-bobbing nod, but then pause thoughtfully. That was way too short of an answer. He didn't tell me what kind of camera it was, how he was going to tweak it, or any of the other stuff he usually goes on and on about. His knuckles turn slightly off-white as he grips the camera a little harder than he needs to. He snatches up a screwdriver with his free hand and proceeds to unscrew the back of the camera. Arching a curious brow, I watch him try three times to unscrew the camera casing, before tossing the screwdriver roughly on the tabletop. He scratches at his leg before picking up another screwdriver.

Donnie never tosses his precious tools, and since when does he not know the difference between a flat-tip and a cross-tip screwdriver? He's the one who explained the difference to me!

Something's definitely bugging him. I wonder if he got in trouble with Sensei? Donnie getting in trouble is pretty much unheard of, unless he's blown up something. I think back for a moment….nope, don't recall anything going 'ka-boom' lately, so something else is up. I quickly forget about the crappy morning I'm having and decide it's up to me to crack this case. It'll take some sneaky ninja-know-how to get Don to tell me what's wrong. It's a real delicate process. He's kinda like Raph, but instead of exploding into rage, Donnie sort of caves-in on himself and totally ignores everything and blocks everybody out. One wrong move and he'll clam up. Game over.

"What did Splinter want?" I ask as innocently and causally as possible to test the waters.

"Nothing important," He gives a clipped response as his lips tighten into a thin line. Alright, so whatever happened between him and Master Splinter must have been pretty deep. He obviously doesn't want to talk about it, right now. No need pushing that button any more.

He clears his throat asking how I'm feeling. He's changing the subject—already trying to block me out.

"I was fine after I ate something," I answer him coolly. I don't want him going all Dr. Don on me. His eyes scan me like a turtle-humanoid-computer. He seems satisfied with my response and overall appearance and goes back to his tinkering. Alright time for a different approach. If he doesn't want to tell me what's bothering him, then I can at least try to make him feel better with a few jokes.

"Hey, Donnie," I start and then continue when he absently hums a response, "Why don't cannibals eat clowns?" I wait a moment for him to answer and when he doesn't, I eagerly blurt out, "Because they taste funny!"

No response, but that's okay; I've got plenty more where that came from.

"Why can't you trust an atom? Because they make up everything!" I chuckle at the last one, but the laughter dies on my lips when I look up at Donnie.

He doesn't even crack a smile! He loves these silly puns just as much as I do, especially the science ones. We share a love for corny jokes. It's one of the few things we still have in common. I remember when we were kids and Leo and Raph fought all the time (some things never change). I use to get really upset about it and Donnie would tell me jokes to distract me. Nowadays, Donnie and I are so different, it's crazy, but the jokes are just something we never outgrew. When either of us is frustrated or upset, we tell each other jokes. It's just our thing.

So now I'm disappointed that he's not laughing at my awesome jokes. I can practically see him sinking deeper into his work. At this rate, it'll be days before he surfaces again.

I sober into a more thoughtful expression. "Okay, D, serious question. I know H20 is water, but what is H204?" My question seems to capture his attention. He never passes up a chance to flash around that big brain of his.

He straightens his posture in a very scholarly way as he speaks, "Well, technically, H2O4 is a compound containing 2 hydrogen and 4 oxygen atoms. However, it's pretty much an unknown-"

"Nope!" I exclaim abruptly cutting off his bookworm explanation. I can barely hold back the smile inching across my face, "It's for drinking, for swimming, for washing….get it? H20 for?" My eyes dart back and forth waiting for his reaction.

Donnie stares and blinks at me for half a minute before a nerdy puff of laughter escapes his lips. It starts out as a tiny snort but then the snorts become louder and more repetitive as he laughs. I join in with my own dorky treble of a giggle. It's good to see him smiling. He hasn't snort-laughed in weeks. He's been pretty busy trying to recreate that retromutagen.

"That was pretty good," He admits to me as his laughter subsides. "Do you mind grabbing the cutting pliers from my toolbox?" Sweet! When Don starts asking me to grab tools, it's pretty much a given that he's not going to block me out and I can stick around for awhile. I feel his mood shifting; I'm still not sure what happened with Splinter, but at least he's coming out of his funk.

"Sure thing," I reply still sporting a smile. I bound over to the shelf where he keeps his toolbox. Peering inside his box of treasured tools, everything is in order by tool, type, and size. It's ridiculous how organized my bro is. He labels everything. I look beside his toolbox and see a handheld label-maker, which is conveniently labeled 'Label-Maker'. I'm not sure if it's meant to be a joke or just another one of my brother's many quirks. I wonder if he labels his labels?

My short attention span wraps me in its coils again, because I hear the slight impatience in Donnie's sigh as he speaks, "Did you find it? All the tools are in alphabetical order and subcategorized by type, so it should be pretty easy to find," he continues to prattle over his shoulder, "They're the pliers with the zig-zag edges, they look like little teeth and—"

I feel a frustrating warmth rush to my face as my brother's patronizing tone makes me blurt out, "I know what cutting pliers look like, Donnie; I'm not stupid!" The words leave my mouth like pressured steam from a tea kettle. I hear something clatter from the table as Donnie slowly turns around in his squeaky swivel chair to face me. He idly scratches his ankle.

I didn't mean to yell, but Donnie's tone reminds me of Leo and Raph and their words still hurt. They both think I'm dumb and don't pay attention. And now Donnie thinks the same. Well, I do listen and I'm not dumb!

I snatch the pliers from the toolbox and shove it toward Donnie, "Here!"

He pushes his funny looking eyeglasses to the top of his head and stares at me with questioning eyes, "I never said you were stupid." He says slowly as he carefully takes the pliers from my hand and places it on the table. His eyes never leave mine. "Do you think you're stupid?" My shoulders slump as my momentary anger dissipates into thin air. I look at Donnie. He's not Leo or Rap; he isn't being sarcastic. His tone is easy and kind; he's trying to figure out why I just blew up at him.

"Yes…no….I mean…" I make a wordless sound of frustration before plopping down into the other swivel chair, "I don't know." I sit on my thumbs wrapping my other fingers around the bottom of the seat. I twist side to side in the chair and look away, embarrassed by my mini outburst. I came in here to forget about feeling like an idiot, but I guess Leo and Raph's words are more difficult to forget than I thought.

"Does this have anything to do with your condom conversation with Leo and Raph?" He asks cautiously, scratching the bottom of his foot before leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms over his plastron.

I take a deep breath before going into a explanation, "Leo thinks all I do is goof off, don't try hard enough in practice, but I do try and I work really hard to be as good a ninja as him, but he says it's my fault we had to do blackflips….Raph says I'm stupid cause I didn't know what condoms or white lightening were, but it's not like Sensei went into detail about that stuff, ya know?...And Raph totally messed up my game and kicked me out of the den, I was on level 50. Level 50! Totally not cool….Then I heard Leo tell Master Splinter that I didn't know anything, and now Sensei's going to be disappointed in me," My heart races as the pitiful narration comes pouring out in less than two minutes.

"The pliers," I continue quieter than before as I catch my breath, "I thought, you thought I was stupid, too."

Donnie frowns and sits there for minute trying to understand the words I just vomited into his listening ears. "Okay," he says with care. For a minute, I think he's going to agree with everyone else about my level of stupidity, but then he continues, "First of all, in case it wasn't clear when I said it earlier, I do not think you're stupid." He gives me a dead serious look before getting up and walking to his toolbox. He comes back with another set of pliers. My face crumbles. I can't even find a dumb pair of pliers.

Donnie does a double take from the pliers to my crestfallen expression, "No, no, no," he waves his hand in front of me as if to wipe away my current feeling of uselessness, "Completely my fault. I didn't tell you what size I needed. Right tool, wrong size, see?" He gives a reassuring smile holding both tools in front of me, displaying their obvious size different. I nod my understanding, sniffling slightly, despite my best efforts not to.

"No one thinks you're stupid, Mikey. You know that." Donnie chastises me gently as he sits down again. He turns around to face the lab table again, but this time waves me over, "Come here. Hold these two wires like this. Perfect, thanks." I hold the wires as still as possible. You would think a guy as smart as Donnie would be super arrogant and talk down to people every chance he got, but he's not like that at all. Donnie has a way of making even the dumbest turtle feel like the smartest person in the world. That's how I feel right now, like holding these wires is the most important job ever, cause Donnie asked me to do it.

He starts tinkering again as he continues, "You know how Leo is when he goes into 'Leader mode.' He knows fully well you are just as awesome a ninja as the rest of us. He just worries and wants to make sure you're prepared. You just need to focus a little more that's all." When Donnie says focus, it sounds like the easiest thing in the world to do.

"I do focus!" I say huffily. He arches a brow as he stops tinkering to move my hand back where he originally told me to keep it, "Sorry," I mutter sheepishly. "Well, he doesn't have to be so conceited and bossy about it. And Raph?...God, he totally ticks me off! Okay, I know I tease him and stuff, but just to make him laugh, never to make him feel…" My words trail off but several words come to mind.

Stupid. Dumb. Idiotic.

"Raph is…" Donnie chimes in as he cuts a stray wire, "Well, Raph's just living up to his obnoxious, tyrannizing, crass, and barbaric nature." His voice changes to one of disdain as he describes our red-clad brother. Apparently he's just as ticked off as I am.

"If that's you're way of calling him a jerk, then I totally agree, dude."

"I got it now," Donnie says allowing me to release the wires, "Here, twist these wires together really tight and then slide them through this PVC tube," I nodded an 'Ok' and put my fingers to work, "Don't feel so bad about the whole condom thing. Just between you and me, the first time Raph saw a condom he thought it was chewing gum; and Leo thought sanitary pads were neckwarmers."

I chuckle in disbelief.

"Our big brothers don't know as much as they'd like you to think," Donnie says with a smirk. He pauses for a moment before looking at me, "You know what sanitary pads are, right?" I can hear the dread in his voice as he waits for my response.

I wave off his worries with a 'pssh' sound, "Dude, I found out about those the hard way." He gives me a curious look, so I elaborate, "April told me….after she whacked me in the face with a box of them."

"WHAT?!" I wince at Donnie's shrilled reply, "What did you do, Mikey?!" He's yelling now in that panicked tone he saves for needless freak outs.

I put my hands up as if to calm down a frightened puppy, "Chill out, dude. It was an accident."

"Telling me it was an 'accident' is not helping me 'chill out'…" Donnie eyes me with obvious doubt.

"Seriously, after the initial screaming, she was actually pretty cool about telling what they were. FYI, 28 days from now, I would totally stay out of her throwing range if I were you."

Donnie's eyelids lower suspiciously at me, he opens and closes his mouth twice, but sighs and finally give up on whatever he was going to say, "Never mind. I really don't want to know."

I shrug indifferently, but then another thought comes to mind, "There's one thing I still don't get," I start off as I try to push the twisted wiring through the tiny PVC tube.

"What's that?" Donnie says picking at the splayed guts of the camera while scratching his leg under the table.

"How do you use power tools with condoms? It sounds pretty painful." Donnie looks at me puzzled by my question, but seconds later his eyes widen as his mouth forms an 'O'. "Leo and Raph busted my chops so bad about condoms, I didn't ask about the power tools." I sigh as I finally give up on pushing the wires through the plastic tubing.

"Actually, power tools have absolutely nothing to do with condoms. It's just a figure of speech."

I think back to practice this morning…what did Master Splinter call it?..."You mean it's a double entrée?" I answer with uncertainty.

Donnie winces a bit at my wording, "Close. It's called a double entendre, or more specifically a sexual innuendo." Yeah….that doesn't make things any easier to understand. I stare at him prompting him to continue, "Sexual innuendos use everyday things to make sexual references."

Still staring. Sorry, bro, no dice. Try again.

He taps his chin and hums thoughtfully as he looks around his desk for something. He eyes the wiring and PVC tube in my hand, and promptly takes them. Holding the PVC tube and wiring in front of me, he says, "Prime example. In your own words, female junk," he wiggles the PVC tube in his right hand, "male junk," and then waves the wiring side to side in his left hand. He swiftly slides the wiring back and forth inside the PVC tube. "Voila, sexual innuendo."

He looks proud of his demonstration, but the only thing he really proves is that he's better at putting wires through tubes than I am. I still don't get what that has to do with—

"Oooh!" I say in sudden awe as I make the connections. Aside from Sensei, Donnie's the only one who tries to explain things in a way I'll understand it. "So you use other stuff to talk about sex?"

"Pretty much," Donnie agrees as he hands me another wire and tube.

"So putting the 'car' in the 'garage' is a sexual innuendo?"

"Yes. It can be." He answers casually as he installs the new wire in the camera.

"What about putting the ball in the hoop or the chip in the dip?"

Donnie rubs his hand down his face and groans with a smile he's incapable of hiding, "Great. I've created an innuendo monster."

I laugh out loud at his dry wit, and snap my fingers as I think of another one, "Hey, you can put the vomit in the barf bag!" We both give pause as Donnie stares awkwardly at the absurdity that just came out of mouth, "Uh…too much?" I cringe as I hand him a newly wrapped wire.

"Too much." He agrees, adjusting something inside the camera as he rubs his foot against the floor.

"So when Raph said I played with your tools…." My mood darkens with embarrassment as I realize what my crude older brother really meant.

"Yeah." Donnie says, his bitter tone confirming my realization to be true.

I grow quiet as I think about what a dummy I must have looked like last night. All the inside jokes suddenly make a lot more sense, and Don got the bulk of the insults. I look up at Donnie sympathetically; he's really touchy when we tease too much about him and our friend April.

He catches me staring at him, but he dismisses my concern with a waning smile, "Its fine, Mikey. I told you it wasn't your fault."

"I am so pranking Raph big time for this." I say in a tone that demands justice for little brothers everywhere.

"What are you going to do this time?"

"I'm thinking hot sauce in his Gatorade." I smirk at the thought.

"Hot sauce pranks are so cliché." He criticizes while screwing on the camera casing again.

"Well, what do you think I should do, Mr. Smarty Pants?" I challenge. I watch him press a few buttons on the camera before turning to his keyboard to press a series of keys.

"Well," he starts as he turns back around to face me, but he's holding the camera up concealing his face. I look at the computer screen behind him to see his gap-toothed smile staring back at me, "I think we could kill two birds with one stone on this prank: Get revenge on our dear older brother and prove how brilliant you are."

"Did you just say 'we' as in you and me?" Donnie never joins me in prank wars, though he does sometimes offer his room as neutral hiding ground. "Wait did you call me brilliant?"

"Yes, and yes," Computer-screen-Donnie smirks at me, "Unfortunately, I suffered through Raph's recent victimization as well and would like to partake in constructing the proper ramifications for his actions. I have a plan. Between my knowledge of simple machines and your creative skills in causative spatial awareness, I think we can pull it off. What do you say?"

"Dude, I barely understood a word you just said, but if it means we get to bust Raph, then I only have one word to say," I grab the camera from Donnie and turn its lens toward my lips, "Booyakasha!"

"Excellent!" Donnie says with a chuckle as he turns back to his computer and starts typing. My mouth disappears from the computer screen as he pulls up a bunch of videos from the internet. "Check these out," and with the tap of a key the videos play.

I place the camera on the table as I stare in confusion, but within seconds a smile practically splits my face in two. Every tantalizing detail is just amazing and makes me so giddy I can barely stop bouncing in my seat. Six videos and several brainstorms later, I look at Donnie, my eyes glistening with anticipation. This is going to be crazy fun! I can't wait!

"When do we start?" I say between giggles.

He smiles brightly at my enthusiasm, "Well, I have a few supplies here, but I'm pretty sure we'll need to make at least one trip to the junkyard for the other items. We'll definitely need to draw this out and-"

"Hold up!" I put my hand up in mock seriousness, "Before we do anything this operation needs a name." I glance over to Donnie, who is genuinely smiling. He's totally forgotten about whatever upset him earlier. I didn't exactly cheer him up in the way I expected, but hey whatever works, right?

I should probably be a good little brother and point out the fact that he has other things to do which are way more important than pranking Raph, but I don't. Everybody needs to have a little fun sometime, even my workaholic brother. "Bro, you should totally name this operation." I urge with an eager nod. He looks a bit surprised—he knows how defensive I am when it comes to naming things.

He quickly recovers with a quiet laugh, "Okay, well, what about Operation: Pink Love Glove?...PLG for short."

I'm grinning like a fool now. "I see what you did there," I wag my pointing finger at my bro with a knowing quirk of my brow, "And I love it!"

Donnie snort-laughs again before rubbing my head affectionately, "Come on, goofball, help me set up the new camera in the west tunnels."

With an 'okay', I start gathering up a few tools into his messenger bag.

I follow behind him as we head for the door, but frown as I notice a trail of olive green flakes on the floor that stop at Donnie's feet. I look at his feet and legs. He's been scratching the whole time I've been here, and it looks gross now.

"Dude, your skin's falling off." I stick out my tongue in disgust as I point to his legs. He looks down to where I'm pointing, but seems more annoyed than disgusted.

"It's just dead skin." He mumbles as he brings his leg up to scratch it again. More flakes drift to the floor.

Before I can bombard him with gross hygiene questions, his T-phone makes that catchy jingle sound. When he checks it, his lips quirk into a lopsided smile and a small blush paints his face. I already know who it is.

"Was that April?" I stretch her name as I practically sing it out loud.

His blush deepens, "Stop that." He swats his hand at me which I easily dodge. He sends a quick text and puts his phone back in his belt pocket.

"Well?..."

"She, uh, just wants me to come by later and help her study."

I raise my eye ridges and squish my face to make duck lips.

"Stop that!" He complains, even though I can see the cheerfulness dancing across his face as he pushes pass me to leave the lab.

Laughter tickles my throat as I trail after my brother, "Hey, wait up, D!"

TBC...Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed this little Donnie and Mikey moment :) Donnie and April coming up in the next chapter. I know it may seem slow-paced right now, but I assure you its for a reason. Just hang tight and enjoy the ride! If you have a moment, please review! Thanks!