Donatello stuck his tongue out; he was concentrating so hard that he didn't realize he was biting down on it. Squinting through his makeshift microscope, he manipulated the tiny piece of semi-conductive metal into place with tweezers.

"And….there!" he exclaimed. Blinking his eyes rapidly and looking around to relieve his strained ocular muscles, he spotted a red dot on his desk. "Huh?" He wiped it up with his finger. "Blood?" Sticking out his tongue again, he touched it and then examined his finger. "Ow! Aw, man, not again…" Reaching for a tissue, he blotted his tongue gently. "I oughta get myself a teething ring or something."

"Do you always mutter to yourself while working?"

Donnie glanced up at the doorway. Aunt Mei stood there with an amused expression on her face. "Oh, hey, Obasan," he said.

"You need to work on your pronunciation," Aunt Mei said, shaking her head. "You make it sound like 'grandma,' not 'aunt.'"

"Sorry, Aunt Mei. I know how to say it, but I just bit my tongue a little, that's all. How's April?"

"I think that she's making progress," Aunt Mei replied. "I've been teaching her some of the meditation skills I have used to deal with…my past." A shadow crossed over her face.

Donnie still wasn't one hundred percent sure what exactly Shredder had done to Aunt Mei during the year he held her prisoner, but after what had almost happened to April, he didn't especially want to ask. He still shuddered to think what would have happened if he and Mikey hadn't gotten there in time to save April—and then how things would have gone if Leo and Raph hadn't made their appearance at just the right moment. "I try to get her to talk to me," he said, "but she's been really clammed up lately."

Aunt Mei gave a short laugh through her nose. "I'm no psychologist. I am quite certain that any respectable counselor would not approve of my techniques. But, until we have a better option, it will have to do. Speaking of which, how goes the project?"

"Pretty fantastic. The silicon pieces fit into the groove so well I didn't need any sauter."

"That's the difference between laser cut and—whatever it is you normally use."

"Thanks for getting the equipment for me. I think I've almost got all the components finished now. Let's just hope it's enough to do the kind of calculations I need it to handle." The supercomputer he had been working on for weeks on end was finally starting to come together; however, he knew that setting up the machine itself was still only equivalent to putting up the frame for a house—an exceedingly complicated house.

"Once you have all of your programs written, how are you going to get the data from the mutagen into the system?"

"That part's pretty awesome," Donnie said, feeling a rush of excitement. "I developed this input program that theoretically will extract readings directly from my molecular centrifuge."

Aunt Mei stared at him blankly. "Where on earth did you get one of those?"

"Oh, you know, from New York's resident mad scientist, Baxter Stockman."

"I thought you were our resident mad scientist, Donnie," said Mikey, walking into the lab. "Whatcha working on?"

"Nothing that you are allowed to touch," Donnie said curtly. "I mean it. It's very delicate equipment. What do you want, exactly?"

"Geez, I just wondered what you were doing. Why are you so touchy lately?"

Donnie sighed. Between working on this project all hours and April's nightmares, he hadn't been getting very much sleep. It had made him very short-tempered and caused his training to suffer. Splinter had been nagging him about getting enough sleep incessantly—so Donnie had taken to doing his work in his bedroom at night.

Even more than that, his relationship with April was confusing and strained. It was weeks since their first kiss and she still insisted that Donnie keep his mouth shut about it. When he asked her why, she just said "It's too soon," and refused to elaborate on it any more than that. The only person who had been officially informed of their relationship was Aunt Mei—who, as it turned out, had caught them kissing even before April 'fessed up to her.

"Sorry, Mikey," Donnie said heavily. "I'm just—really wrapped up in this project."

"Dude—you seriously gotta cut loose. When was the last time you worked on an invention for fun?"

"I don't have time for fun, Mikey, I…"

"You need to make time, then," Aunt Mei said.

Donnie was frustrated. If anyone should understand how crucial it was to get April's dad back to normal, it would be her. He sputtered a few unintelligible syllables before Mikey cut him off.

"Dude. Skateboarding. Now."

"Mikey…" he protested.

"Don't make me bring Splinter in here," Mikey said, putting his hands on his hips.

"I am not going skateboarding…"

"Now!" shouted Mikey. Raph and Leo leapt into the room with ropes, and before Donnie could react, they had him all tied up.

"This is not funny!" yelled Donnie.

"Well, we're not untying you until you agree to come with us," Leo said. "Come on, Donnie. You'll be able to work better if you take a break."

The irrefutable logic of that statement only made Donnie more frustrated. "Are you the one behind this?" he snapped, looking up at Aunt Mei.

"This is America," Aunt Mei said. "If I read the literature correctly, I believe I have the right to avoid self-incrimination."

"Oh, fine. I'll go skateboarding with you guys. Then will you leave me alone?"

"Yeah, if you mean by 'leave you alone,' make you actually sleep for once," Raph quipped.

Before Donnie could protest, Master Splinter walked into the room. "My son, do you seriously think that sleep deprivation will make your project more likely to succeed? Remember: nin means patience. You are more likely to err in your work if you rush."

"Consider this an intervention, Donatello," added Aunt Mei.

"Fine. Can you untie me now?"

With his skateboard strapped across his back, Donnie ran and jumped along the rooftops with his brothers. Mikey, as was typical, already had his board out. It mystified Donnie that Mikey—so seemingly clueless and clumsy—had the innate ability to calculate such jumps and moves with precision. In fact, Mikey was usually more graceful on his deck than on his feet.

"Whoa—check it out!" shouted Mikey, gesturing to an especially inviting skate spot.

"Nice find, Mikey," Raph said approvingly.

In spite of himself, Donnie enjoyed his skateboarding break. The combination of physical exertion, fresh—well, at least not sewer—air, and just letting his mind turn off was incredibly refreshing. When they had finished, they sat on a rooftop eating pizza together.

"Hey guys," Donnie said, "it kills me to say this, but thanks."

"No problem, bro," Mikey said.

"So, I have to ask," Leo said through a mouthful of pizza, "what exactly put the fire in your shell over that supercomputer? I mean, I get why it's important, but you're practically killing yourself over it."

"I'm really worried about April," Donnie said, poking at his slice of pizza. "Her PTSD seems to be getting worse. I just—well, the sooner I get that retro-mutagen figured out, the sooner her dad will be able to help her."

"We're all worried about April," Raph said.

"But we're worried about you too, man," Mikey said.

"Maybe you shouldn't spend as much time around her, Donnie," Leo said. "I think her depression is kind of rubbing off on you."

Donnie felt a twinge of anger. "I'll spend as much time around April as I want to, Leo."

"Did it occur to you that maybe she needs some space?" Raph said. "I mean, I'm no expert, but if I'd just been through a bunch of crap that bad I know I'd want to be left alone."

You guys don't get it! You don't know how much she needs me, Donnie thought. Still, Leo had made valid point about her depression affecting him. He wasn't really sure what to expect from being in a relationship with April—but he had never imagined it would be as emotionally stressful as it had turned out to be. He had been slightly saddened by the fact that most of their time together wasn't overly fun. Occasionally, however, a glimpse of that sweet old April peeked through.

Those were the moments that made it all worthwhile.

"I still can't believe Casey dumped her out of the blue like that," Mikey said. "It's like he dumped all of us. I mean, it's not like we were that bad at hockey."

Raph frowned. "I don't get why he'd want nothing to do with us all of a sudden. He's a stupid punk. It's no great loss anyway."

Donnie could clearly tell from Raph's tone that Raphael did, indeed, find Casey's absence from their circle of friends to be a loss. He glanced at Leo, who just shook his head.

"Forget about Jones, guys," Leo said. "We don't know that there isn't something bigger going on with him—maybe something we don't understand. I'm sure it's nothing personal."

"I kinda prefer to think he's just a jerk," Raph said.

Donnie sighed heavily.

"Sorry, Donnie," Mikey said. "We wanted to cheer you up and now we just all bummed ourselves out."

"I'm not bummed out," snapped Raph.

"Maybe it's time we hit the hay, guys," Leo said hastily.

With that, the four grabbed their skateboards and headed back to the lair.