Leo frowned as he watched the door slide shut. Mikey, however was the first to speak up. "Uh-oh! Dead turtle walking! Raph must be in so much trouble! It don't even have a name for it!"

"What makes you think that?" Leo asked, curiously.

"Well, about the only time Splinter does that whole, 'come into my room, we need to talk.' speech, it's because one of us is about to get into a whole world of trouble's why."

"But for what?" Leo asked frowning in thought. "I didn't notice him acting out. He seemed to have been behaving himself for the last few days to me."

"A little too well-behaved, if you ask me." Don muttered as he typed, as though to himself. He hadn't taken his eyes off the screen. Frankly, Leo wasn't sure if Don was even paying attention to them. Until he spoke up just then, that is.

"What is that supposed to mean? Leo demanded in an irritated grating voice, as he turned with narrowed eyes in his younger brother's direction. He didn't know why he was getting irritated, at such a simple comment, one that he would have been tempted to make a mere week ago. Okay, he would have been tempted to make that kind of comment a few days ago.

"Only what I said. That he is behaving far too well." Don answered, his defensive tone seriously grating on Leo's nerves. "Stop getting your shell in a twist, will you."

"Why you little…."Leo stopped and took a deep, calming breath instead of finishing his sentence, and lighting the fuse to the growing powder keg that used to be the calmest and most peaceful of his brothers. He let it out very, very slowly. His face became calm and composed, but his thoughts did not ease from their mass of tangled knots. In the back of his mind, he felt more than saw that Mikey was glancing over at them now and then. "Maybe he's growing up. Maybe he is starting to become mature, more like an adult. Ever think of that, brainiac?"

He saw Mikey flinch out of the corner of his eye. Oops, maybe that wasn't the best thing to say.

"Sure, Leo. That certainly sounds plausible." Don answered, his voice as calm as a pond, as icy as a glacier, as distant as a dim star. "I don't know why I never thought of that. I guess I needed your brilliant mind to delve into the mysteries all around us. Keep me informed when pigs evolve the ability to fly while you're at it."

He typed of another few seconds, while Leo ground his teeth in frustration, his hands slowly closing into tight fists. Then he leaned his head on a hand, as he perused something on the screen, not even granting Leo the consideration of looking up from it. Then he continued to speak in that aggravatingly cold, hatefully sarcastic manner before Leo can gather his thoughts to retort. "While we are bringing up impossibilities, maybe Mikey might stop pulling stupid, immature pranks on the rest of us. Maybe you might have the protruding stick removed from your Lower digestive track. Maybe, it is certainly in the scope of possibility, but highly unlikely."

"What?! That is so not true. I got this great prank all planned…out…" Mikey fell silent under two glares as brown and blue fire burned his words away. "Um, you know what? I'm going to tell you more later." He grinned weakly. "I'm, well, you know, going to get really small and quiet now. Yeah, um, over here. In the corner. Not important at all, go about your business, dudes." He grinned weakly again, the perfect picture of pure innocence. He was also the perfect image of someone just a little freaked out.

"I'll deal with you later, Mikey." Leo snapped crossly, shaking his head at the irrepressible turtle.

Ignoring Mikey's muttered "oh, goody. Can't wait." He turned back to Don, who was typing again. He took another calming breath, then another, and wondered why the calming breaths were not calming him very much right now. He spoke slowly and carefully, allowing the hurt to be heard in his voice, but tried hard to hide the anger. For now, anyway, while he was still in control of it. Donnie more than Mikey or Raph, never responded to anger with anger in the way of exploding back. He withdrew into himself, becoming increasingly harder and harder to draw out. "Donnie, talk to me! What is eating at you? Ever since I came back, you been, well, you been different. You have not yourself at all, and I want to know why."

For a moment, Don actually paused in his typing. His posture, already tense to begin with, went rigid where he sat. For a moment, Leo thought maybe, just maybe, he would start opening up. Maybe they can even start dealing with what's going on in his head. Then the moment passed. Don slumped low in his seat. He typed something and hit enter. He didn't say a word to Leo's appeal, seemed to ignore his older brother completely. Leo couldn't even be sure what was going on from his expression. Donnie refused to even turn around and look at him. Complete shutdown.

Leo frowned, worry overtaking the anger he felt by a mile at the moment. It suddenly hit him. Don always got quiet when he was angry or something was bothering him. The more reserved he acted, the angrier or more upset he was. Why didn't he figure it out before? The sarcasm, the attitude, the times he left the rest of them for no good reason, eating away from the table when the others were there, and not just because he happened to be in his lab, and even all the time in his lab, it all made sense now. That was his way of hiding, of pushing them away, maybe even a way to get back at Leo. He was starting to suspect that Don was pretty ticked at Raph too. He been snarky and rude to him too, though not at the same intensity. With Raph, it was more like a bad habit that grew with time. He's been hiding from everyone with the possible exception of Mikey and Master Splinter, but now whatever it is he's hiding is starting to affect them too. Leo seen it! No, this cannot continue like this. This has to end now. This has to end, for the good of the family as a whole.

He glanced at Mikey. Mikey watched the two of them, not even bothering to hide his interest any more. His soft blue eyes were wide, as he absently scratched Klunk's head. Klunk was purring loudly, leaning against Mike's hand. Spike Jr. was at the freckled turtle's feet, chewing on a leaf. At least the animals was acting normal.

Leo walked over to the desk where Don sat at. He didn't try to sneak over, but being a ninja for so long, plus the constant need to move silently made him whisper silent automatically now. As he neared, he heard Don muttering angrily under his breath as he typed. He hadn't noticed Leo's approach, it seemed. "Stupid shell head. I mean, come on, what does he want from me?" Chatter-clatter, Clackity, clack. "Why can't he just go bother Raph or Mikey for a while? Leave me alone..." Clatter-clack, clack Click-clack-click. Beep. Ding. "What the shell. Oh, yeah, okay. Still, if he wants a punching bag, he can borrow Raph's I don't have to be his verbal…I mean, come on, get a life, Leo. Geesh..."

"Don, I want this over with. This ends now." Leo said firmly, cutting off the muttered monolog before it can go any further. Don jumped, as though surprised that Leo got so close to him without him even noticing. To be honest, so was Leo. Either, Leo thought to himself, I'm becoming really good at moving silently, or Don's becoming really, really bad at noticing what went on in his environment. This inattention was merely another change in Don that he simply did not like. And yet more proof that Don was really letting himself and his training go.

"What do you mean, Leo?" Don asked stiffly. "Let what go on? Everything's fine."

"Stop lying. We can't keep doing this much longer. Either I'm going to go crazy, or Raph is going to kill you. Are you going to talk to me or not?"

"Hmm, I'll choose not for a hundred, Alex."

"Fine, let me rephrase that. You are going to talk to me right now. What's eating at you?"

For the first time, Don looked at Leo. Not a glance or looking at him through the reflection of the computer screen, but really looked at him. Leo expected fire, an expression of rage, something, anything. But Don's normally warm brown eyes were as cold as space itse3lf. His expression blank and hard as stone. "Wow. You really are something, you know that?" He said in that cold way that is starting to really grate on every last nerve Leo had. "Are you really this incredibly dense? It's been, I don't know, weeks and weeks before you even noticed me. And now, now you pick to have some kind of touchy-feely moment? Really? You know what? Stick it in your shell, because I don't want to talk to you right now."

Don turned to face the screen again. Leo assumed that it was to glare at it, for he was not typing anymore, or even seemed to see what was on it. His hands were clinched into tight fists. He was shaking, every inch of him that Leo could see was literally shaking with suppressed tension. But the screen showed that his expression was that of cold, calm indifference. It was like a disconnect between Don's brain and body. To be honest, it kind of freaked Leo out."I don't want a touchy-feely Moment." Leo said, worry and anger so at war in his voice that it shook almost as much as Don did. He cleared his throat and tried again. "I don't want a touchy-feely moment. But I do want this attitude of yours to stop now. I want it gone. It end's tonight."

"Or what?" Don demanded, whirling to face him again. Now Leo saw the rage that he expected. He felt oddly relieved. The shaking got worse, much worse. "You going to take off again?"

"I knew it. I knew this was about that. I knew you were mad at me! So, can we try to deal with that now?"

"What makes you think there is anything to discuss?" Don demanded in a tight though surprisingly calm voice that was at war with the glare he was currently seemed to be trying to kill Leo with. It was worse than his most biting sarcasm, his most withering glare. His voice was dripping with barely repressed contempt, solidly frozen in hate and indifference. It was somehow worse than anything Raph ever did to him. For a moment, Leo missed the screaming matches, the physical fights with Raph. At least with him there was something to respond to!

Leo and Don stared at each other for a long painful moment. Neither did anything to break the tension. Just glared. Finally, Don broke eye contact, and glanced at Mikey. Leo didn't know what his thoughts were, his face stayed impassive, but Mikey's was one of worry, though he tried so obviously to hide it, that it was pathetic.

"Don't think for one moment that I don't know what this is about." Don said at last, turning to face the computer yet again. It was like facing it meant he could have yet another way to hide from Leo. "Don't worry. I won't slack."

"Slack? What are you talking about?"

"Oh, just the repairs, the techno junk none of you care about. Security. The medical equipment. You know. All the Donnie stuff you expect from me."

Leo stared at the back of Donnie's head in shock. Distantly, he realized Mikey was also staring at both of them with the same expression of shock on his face. "Is that what you think we think of you as?" He asked, barely able to believe his own thoughts. "Some kind of, I don't know, Glorified repair man or something?"

Don sank as deep into his chair as he could, and muttered darkly. "Never mind. Forget I said anything."

"No, no I won't forget this. Leo objected, putting a hand on his younger brother's thin shoulder. He was distracted for a second when he realized that that shoulder was thinner than it should be. Is it another growth spurt? Or something else? Then he was distracted by something else. "Who is that?" He asked, pointing at the screen, with a stab of a finger on his other hand. At the chat message box there.