Chapter 7:

With her hand on his arm and the computer monitor lighting both of their faces, Donatello was able to relax for a few hours. It felt good.

She had pointed to the screen, had talked him through her new program. He had grumbled to himself, and to her amusement, shook his head muttering words like "obviously" and "so simple." Of course, she also received a fair share of compliments from him, but with much of his pride lying in his mental capabilities, he inadvertently compensated for his previous inability to crack her code by belittling the structure of the program.

She knew he didn't mean it in an insulting way, and so she didn't allow herself to be offended. On the contrary, it was nice to see his face light up the way it used to.

With a high-pitched ringing her timer went off, and she went to retrieve the pizza from the oven. Slamming the metal pan down on the stove, she threw down her mitt and turned to him, leaning the kitchen doorway.

"Get whatever you want to drink. Sorry, I think I might have some soda left somewhere. Should've grabbed some earlier."

"You know I'm not picky." Comfortable with his surroundings, he moved to the fridge.

She laughed. "I also know you like your 'Dew." Glancing at the pie, she added, "You can take the leftovers back to the others. I'm not going to be able to finish it all by myself." Truth be told, she could probably do without pizza for a couple of months, but knew mentioning that would cause Don to bend over backwards insisting that they have something else to eat. Besides, frozen pizza was easy to make.

Chuckling dryly, he shook his head as he neared the still-steaming food. "Nmm. My wonderful brothers."

Glancing at him, she took two slices for herself and moved to the table. "How are things?"

He waited until he was seated before he answered her. "Somewhat better, mostly worse."

"What's better?"

He laughed, the bitter ring tainting the sound with unfamiliarity. "Nothing, really."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

He shifted uncomfortably. "I dono. I guess that's why I came here, but…" Debating with himself for a moment, he finished, "It might be kind of difficult to talk about."

He regretted the words as he watched her reaction. Pulling her arms closer to herself, she leaned forward to the table, looking cold. Her eyes were distant, voice soft. "He's still doing it?"

"Moreso. He won't eat. His sleep is constantly interrupted, from what I've seen. For whatever reason, the past few nights have gotten progressively worse. Every time I think he's getting better, something happens, and-" He watched her pick up the pizza slice, only to stare at it distantly. "April, I'm sorry. We really don't have to."

She shook her head. "I just don't understand his fixation."

"Raph… he gets really close to people. Even though he likes to act otherwise. It's in his personality. You know that."

"But not Splinter…?"

He sighed. "I don't know why."

"Do you try to tell him?"

"He freaked out the one time we did. Leo and I don't think its… safe to try again."

"How's Leo coping?"

"He's all talk of training. We 'practice' in the morning. Definitely not how it used to be. Raph's exhausted, and Mike's not feeling it. Then we finish and Leo goes off for most of the day, in his room or topside." Don shrugged, "I can't tell if he's coping or not."

"He's still not willing to talk?"

"No. Maybe he never will."

"You need to give him time."

"Or maybe he's just not a talker."

"From what I saw, he mostly confided in Master Splinter."

"Right, I know. But what I mean is I can't tell if his distance is making things better or worse. That's why I don't want to push it. You've seen how he dwells, and how can twist things against himself." He took a bite of food and yanked to break the strings of cheese. "Every time you think you've beat him, that you've said something that even he can't flip around… he does."

She sighed in agreement. "Mikey?"

"He's still angry. At Raph, and at the fact that Leo wants to continue training." He bit his bottom lip, "I just don't know what to do."

"Oh, Don…"

They sat in awkward silence for a few moments, each staring in a different direction. Finally, Don spoke, his gaze directed at the miscellaneous uprooted tiles at the far side of the kitchen.

"Remodeling?"

She nodded her head. "Yeah. I need a change of scenery here. I'm putting in new cabinets, and I'm rearranging." She cleared her throat against the sudden frog there. "Casey and I talked about it, anyway…"

Watching her, he reached across the table and took her smaller hand in his. Her skin was warm and soft… with the exception of the wedding band there.

"I know."

With Leo back in the house, it seemed Michelangelo had nothing else to say. Head beginning to pound, feeling of nausea returning, the red masked turtle moved as though through molasses.

Raph took the ladder, slowly ascending, somehow registering through the fog that Leo was waiting above for him.

"Hey."

"What, Leo?"

"Just seeing how you're doing."

"Peachy, as usual." He straightened up and turned to face the blue-masked brother. "The hell were you all day?"

"Out."

"Descriptive."

Leo peered at his face. "You don't look so good."

Huffing a sigh, Raph shifted on his feet. "Thanks for the compliment."

Measuring the probability that he would raise his brother's hackles, Leo allowed some of his concern to seep in to his voice. "You should go rest."

The response he received was not normal. Instead of the usual heated response, Raphael eyeballed his bedroom door. "I'm probably gonna end up whether I want to or not."

Silence. Leo stared at his brother with his arms folded over his chest, still weighing his words. "Well if you're tired why wouldn't you want to?"

"Tsh." Grinning suddenly, the red-masked turtle shook his head, spreading the fingers of one hand from temple to temple.

Holding his stance, Leo continued to watch him. "What's keeping you from resting, Raph?"

Not only did that stop the laughter, but it dissolved Raphael's willingness to talk. He started moving toward his room. "Take a wild guess, Leo, and run with it."

"If you talk about it, maybe it'd help you."

"Nothing's gonna help it. Especially telling you."

"I just… We're getting worried, Raph. You're gonna crash if you keep it up!"

"Tsk. Bro, don't talk to me about crashin'. If you keep up the 'watching over my little bros' crap, you're gonna be right there in the grave with me."