Chapter 48: Epilogue
Donatello was tucked safely in his bed, his soft breaths the only sound in the room. The afternoon was very busy, full of people coming to see the turtle back to normal. April and Casey had gotten into the lair as soon as they could when Raph had called saying Donnie was back to normal. April had held him tightly, mumbling to never leave again while Casey had punched his shoulder, saying it was good to have him back. Pete had been buzzing around happily while Leatherhead gave him a toothy smile, Slash nodded, and Rockwell made sure Donnie knew to take it easy.
Unfortunately, taking it easy would be harder with Mikey as a brother. The youngest turtle declared they needed to celebrate Donnie being back to normal. Raph and Casey went out to get pizza while the rest made up the party for the genius. The party lasted a couple hours until Leo noticed that Donnie had fallen asleep on the couch. Everyone else had left with promises of being kept in the loop on Donnie's condition.
Splinter carefully opened the door fully, looking into the room at his returned son. His son may have come home long ago, but it felt like he had finally return now. He couldn't help the smile that appeared on his face as he walked forward to check on his sleeping son. Splinter reached forward and gently rested his hand on Donatello's check, making sure he was really there.
He narrowed his eyes at the slight clamminess of his son. Making sure to be gentle so not to wake his son, Splinter placed his hand on Donnie's forehead, feeling a slight heat from it. Rockwell had mentioned that Donatello might develop a fever from the antidote. Splinter told himself to calm down. Donatello was fine. The nightmare was over.
Karai glanced over her shoulder, checking again for Splinter, making sure he hadn't noticed that she had disappeared from her room. She needed to do this, something she needed to do since this whole thing had started. Slowly, Karai opened Donatello's door and crept into the dark room. His fever had broken an hour ago and he was sleeping peacefully. She almost didn't want to wake him.
"Donatello," Karai whispered, kneeling on the floor, gently shaking the turtle. "Come on, Donnie. Wake up."
"Huh?" Donnie mumbled, blinking his eyes open. "Is it time for breakfast?"
"No," Karai said, regretting waking him. "I….. I just wanted to talk."
Donnie blinked in confusion before slowly sitting up, patting the bed. "Sure thing. What's up?"
Karai sighed and hopped up on the bed. "You risked your life for me."
"You're family," Donnie stated. "Leo, Raph, and Mikey would have done the same thing."
"You didn't even know for sure that I would have joined you guys."
"Doesn't make a difference. You're still family," Donnie smiled.
Karai couldn't believe his words. He was so sure of himself in that fact. The Shredder had never given her this much since of family. She wasn't sure how she felt. "Donatello….."
"Listen," Donnie started. "Even if I knew you were going to return to The Shredder, I would have still cured you. Family looks out for each other, during the good and the bad. And you looked out for me too."
"What?" Karai couldn't believe his words. When did she look out for him?
"When I mutated again," Donnie answered. "I was incredibly unstable and violent. When the others came, you could have left me there because I was a danger to everyone but you made sure I came too."
"You gave me back my mind," Karai started. "I wanted to repay you in some way."
"And you were there for me when I lost mine," Donnie smiled.
"I still owe you so much," Karai sighed, looking down at her hands.
"You owe me nothing," Donnie said, looking over at his desk. "You're my sister and siblings don't ever owe anything to each other. Like I said, we're family. Looking out for each other is what we do."
Karai blinked back the tears that formed at his soft words. She didn't know she needed to hear his words. They helped ease the pain in her heart and begin to heal. "Thank you, Donatello."
Donnie smiled and reached over and pulled her into a hug. Karai smiled. The long, thin arms were much better than the thick muscles that last held her so long ago.
Author's Note: And Unpredictable comes to a close. I hope you all enjoyed this story as much as I did writing it. I was to thank HyunaLeo96, Pilyarquitect, Fever To Write, Juanita27, carmelagaaaaiil, roxanne0910, and Alex for the reviews. I also want to thank all those who have Favorited and Followed this story and those who just read it! Until next time! Make sure to watch Unpredictable: The Other Side. I'll be updating that one next.