It'd taken them another couple of hours to relocate the twins' mother and cover up the hole they'd dug, wanting to make sure no one stumbled onto the cache before they had a chance to clear out its contents. By the time they finished, everyone was dirty and tired. The turtles settled for dunking themselves in a large pool they'd built in part of the old tracks while their warm-blooded fam cycled quickly through the showers before they crashed in their living room.

They didn't all rest easy though. The resident insomniacs were soon both up and parked cross-legged on a table next to their mother's current … container. "What'er we gonna do Donnie?" Leon mumbled, chin propped against a fist. "She deserves the best we can manage after everything."

Don tapped his fingers against his folded arms. "Agreed. However, I'm not sure what we can realistically do. According to my research, her family is Catholic, but we are not able to perform a full Catholic funeral or bury her in their family plot."

"Her family," Leo sighed, "I wonder if they ever got over losing her."

"I checked their social media; they still post requests for tips or information on the anniversary of her disappearance. There's even a reward for information that leads to finding her." Donatello replied. He leaned back on his hands, discontent at the thought of what those poor people were still going through. Don might not be the most empathetic, but even he was bothered by the thought of a family wondering where a lost loved one was. He unfortunately had first hand, albeit brief, knowledge of what that was like.

"I wonder.." the younger trailed off.

"Sigh. Spit it out."

"Well, I wonder, if her family is the answer." Leo muttered; red stripes screwed up in a thoughtful frown.

"What are you talking about? Are you going to call them? 'Hello people still distraught over the loss of their child, could you tell us what she would have liked as an alternative to your preferred funerary customs? Just asking for a friend.'" Don finished off with jazz hands for emphasis.

Leo rolled his eyes. "No, I'm wondering if we could set things up so that THEY could bury her; the right way. Maybe we leave her somewhere the cops will find her?"

"That's … not a horrible idea," the genius mused, "Even without the preservation unit itself, the fluid has permeated her tissues and would keep her intact on its own for a month at least." He started rubbing his chin. "If we left her in a stolen van near a police station, she would be found quickly. Then her relatives could claim her body and have a proper funeral." Don braced his hands on his knees, frowning slightly. "I don't like the idea of simply dumping her for others to find though. It feels … inadequate."

"Ditto. We should leave her in a proper casket, and y'know, clothed."

That would certainly afford her greater dignity. "It still doesn't seem like enough. She never knew we existed and may not have been happy about it if she had; but she's still our mother. I … I want to DO something for her."

"I feel you bro." Leon sat, rubbing his hands together while he thought, then looked over at Donnie, head hanging low. "What if WE made the casket?"

The purple clad brother paused. "We could order materials. My equipment is more geared toward metalworking, but it would do. It would likely simply end up as evidence in the inevitable criminal investigation though."

Leonardo picked at his ankle wraps for a moment. "Yeah but... at least we'll have done what we could to send her off respectfully and give her family some peace."

Hours later, when the rest of the clan woke, the twins were in Donnie's lab, pouring over design plans and debating material choices. Raph wandered in, trying to make sense of the controlled chaos his younger brothers were immersed in.

"Uh.. whatcha doin' guys?"

Neither of them looked up as they continued going over a list on the scrolling screen. "We think we've figured out what to do with our mother." Leo absently answered. "That one Donnie," he pointed at an entry.

"I can machine the same thing out of a higher quality alloy for half the cost." Don scoffed.

"Then let's do that."

Raph tried to get a closer look at what they were working on. "That's great guys! What's the plan?" Disaster twin plans could get scary sometimes. They shared a look and Leo piped up. "Well first we're gonna make her a decent coffin and get her some clothes," Don took up the telling, "Then we are going to steal a van and leave her in it near a police station so that she will be found quickly." Leo cut in again, "We figure the cops'll contact her family so they can claim her body and give her a proper funeral. What about the lining Don?"

"How do you feel about lavender satin?"

"Donnie…"

"What?! It is literally the colour of grace, refinement and royalty."

"That explains some things."

"Hey!"

"Guys!" Raph bellowed, snapping his brothers out of their reflexive bickering.

"Sorry." They said in tandem, looking down, embarrassed at arguing over this particular subject. The oldest rubbed his eyes, chasm, and sighed. "Nah it's ok. Honestly that sounds like a great plan. Is there anything we can do to help?"

The two smaller turtles exchanged a look. "Um, we were kinda thinking we'd do this ourselves big guy." Leon replied hesitantly.

Unexpectedly, Raph was a bit hurt by that. "Oh. Right. I guess she is YOUR Mom after all." Strangely, he felt… excluded. The snapper looked down, trying to stifle the feeling of a separation building between him and his middle brothers.

Leonardo stepped closer and took one of Raph's giant hands in his own. "Raph, it's just… This is the ONLY thing we can do for her, and we want to give her our best effort. We wanna be able to say that WE did this for her. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah. Yeah, it does. Sorry." The gentle giant dropped his other hand on Leo's shoulder. "All the same, if there's anything you guys need, let us know. Even if its just tea and coffee, ok?"

They both gave him little smiles, Leo's a bit brighter. "Absolutely big guy. And thanks, for understanding."

"No problem, just remember, Raph's here for yah." Giving a last shoulder squeeze, and a quick smile to Donnie, the eldest turtle headed back out to the kitchen where their family was getting ready for breakfast. He shook his head as they looked up. "They're busy. They've figured out what they wanna do for their Mom and they're in full manic make mode."

"What do they want us to do?" Mikey asked, placing a plate stacked high with pancakes in the table centre for everyone to serve themselves from. Raph sat down and started to fork some onto his plate. "Nothing. They wanna take care of it themselves, since they figure it's the only thing they'll ever be able to do for her."

Splinter grunted around a mouthful. "Understandable. What are they going to do?"

Raph outlined the twin's plan, trying not to think too hard about adead body being in their house. "Huh. That's a really good idea." Mikey said, while serving up his own portion. "I wish we could help though." He chewed for a minute then brightened up. "Oh! We could make it easier for them! Like not bugging Donnie to fix stuff for awhile, an' I could bring them their meals!"

"We could take care of their chores and stuff too." Casey chimed in, shoveling more pancakes into his mouth.

Raph sat back a bit and smiled proudly at his family. "Yeah. Yeah! That's a great idea guys. We take care of everything else so they can take care of her. Alright Operation Support is in effect!"

For two weeks the entire family worked feverishly, some more aware of what was going on than others. The twins, well and truly fixated on their self-appointed task, made great progress. Supplies ordered and purchased through the Hidden City to avoid future police inquiries, they gradually constructed a truly beautiful casket for their mother. An amalgam of golden polished white oak, cast iron style fittings and the most lustrous mother of pearl silk lining that Senor Hueso could track down, took shape under their careful hands.

At the moment, they were painstakingly using gothic stencils with black paint on either side of the lid. Donnie on the outside, laying down her name and dates while Leo reclined on a protective tarp to leave a message from the boys inside the lid. Silence had fallen as they focused on their individual tasks, but eventually the younger of the two crumpled.

"How's it goin' Donnie?"

"Fine."

"Gotta say, this thing's more comfortable than I thought. It's like being in a cocoon."

"Mmhmmm." We almost ended up making one for you too. Donnie shook his head to dismiss the thought, then refocused on leaving an even layer of black before peeling back the stencil.

"You're being awfully broody over there Dontron. What's crawled up your shell?"

How?! "Excuse me for being solemn whilst working on a coffin for our murdered mother 'Nardo." Don snarked, hoping to distract his intrusive twin. He got his wish, for about two seconds. "Nope, there's something more Don."

The young genius rolled his eyes while carefully cleaning up some edges. "Oh, you think so?"

"I know so."

That's it. "How? How Leo? How can you possibly know that there's 'something more'?"

The tarp rustled on the other side of the oaken lid. "I just know."

Fed up, Donatello put his paintbrush down on his little rolling table. "That doesn't make any sense! You can't even see me right now, how can you know something is bothering me? You do this all the time. I say one thing, but you insist that I'm thinking or feeling another when you can't by any measurable means know it."

There was more tarp rustling sounds before Leo came around the end of the casket. There was an odd mix of frustration and concern on his face. "Don. Feelings aren't measurable. I just... get a feeling and run with it."

"But how are you RIGHT?!" That was what really got him. Leo seemed to always peg exactly how Donnie felt on intuition alone and on top of that he somehow knew that they weren't just regular brothers with no empirical information whatsoever. It was statistically impossible; it drove Donnie absolutely nuts. "How do you KNOW what I'm feeling? How did you KNOW that we were 'twins'?" He asked waving his hands about, finishing with furious air quotes.

Leo softly walked over and oh so gently took his brother's frantic hands. "BECAUSE we're twins. Don, we were literally the same person once. We have two halves of the SAME BRAIN. If regular twins can pick up on each other's thoughts and feelings, is it really that hard to believe that we can?"

"Then why don't I feel it too?!" And there was the rub. He was already unfeeling (low empathy, it's not the same thing), and he couldn't even get a sense for what his literal other half was feeling. Tears were starting to burn in the corners of his eyes.

Leonardo moved a little closer. "Aw Donnie. I think you probably do." What? "But like you always said, we're not even the same species. For us to be twins didn't make any sense. You probably just dismissed anything you picked up from me as, I dunno, a stray thought or something. You had no reason to think we had an actual twin thing going on, and you're all about reason."

The softshell let that percolate a bit. "I wasn't wrong, I was misinformed."

Leo rolled his eyes. "Yes Donatello, that's the takeaway here."

His beak twitched a bit. "According to your theory then, if I allow myself to be more… open to thoughts and feelings, I'll be able to get a sense of you?"

The firm hands of his brother settled on Donnie's shoulders. "I'm sure of it. With some practice, you'll be snitching on me in no time." One last squeeze, then Leo released his hold and stepped back. "Let's get this done. She's been waiting long enough."

Forty-eight hours later, the middle Hamato sons were dressing against a chilly New York November night. The casket was sat on a rolling table, ready to be loaded into their newly pilfered van. It'd been more than a little awkward getting their mother cleaned up, dressed and moved into her custom-made coffin; both the boys having blushed until their faces hurt, but it was done. All that remained was a short drive to park by a busy precinct and come home.

It all seemed so anti-climactic. Clad in their respective hoodies, pants and running shoes, the two looked at each other, nodded and made for the coffin. "Ahem." They turned to find their entire family plus Todd and Hueso cautiously entering the garage, Splinter in the lead. "If it is alright with you, we'd like to pay our respects before you leave."

Leo and Don were struck speechless. Both fighting tears, they silently moved to the ends of the coffin, quickly lifting the lid, before they stood straight, hands clasped, as an honour guard. Claudia Sullivan lay between her only children, hair loose, in a simple white dress, set out as a modern-day Snow White.

Todd gathered up the nerve to step forward first. "I'm sorry, pretty lady, that we never got to meet. Your boys are so nice, and my puppies love them so I'm sure I would've loved you too. I'll name a puppy just for you. I hope you're happy now." Then he bounced off. Leo shook his head a little, blinking with a bemused smile on his face.

Senor Hueso straightened his tie as he approached next. After a quick nod to each of the boys he addressed the body. "Madam. My deepest regrets for what befell you and having to consider these two miscreants your sons." Fortunately, they took the jab with the good humour intended. "However, you should know that they helped saved the world, so without them, we all would have been lost, and while nothing can make what was done to you right, I hope you will at least consider the end results to be somewhat worth it." He bowed and walked back to the others, whispering to Splinter along the way that he would be sending an order of the boys' favourite pizzas over for them later.

Casey walked up, wringing his hands. Looking up, he met his mentor's eyes and after Leo's encouraging nod, he spoke. "Ma'am. What Senior Hueso said was true. Without them we'd be lost; I know that for a fact. Personally, I couldn't have asked for better uncles growing up, than your sons and their brothers, so thank you, and good-bye." The human boy shared another watery smile with his Sensei, then back away.

April came forward, silently giving each of the twins a white rose and a tender hug before stepping back to bow deeply to their mother. "Thank you for two of my best friends in the world. I hope you'll be able to rest in peace with your family." She returned to the others, giving Raphael a pat on one massive arm as he took his turn, Mikey perched on his shoulders.

The bookend brothers paused a moment, while Donnie sniffed a bit to regain his composure, then bowed formally. Switching back and forth between snapper and box they said,

"We're so sorry for what our maker did to you."

"We wish there was more we could do."

"We promise that we'll never let anyone use his methods to hurt anyone else,"

"and, that we'll be the best brothers we can to your sons."

They backed up five paces and were replaced by their patriarch. Hamato Yoshi bowed right to the floor in front of the mother of his twin sons. "My Lady. I wish you had been able to know our sons. Though what was done to us was horrible, they are wonderful boys." Said sons were both sniffling now, fighting to maintain what composure they could. "I know that I am very proud and love them both dearly. I'm sure that you would have too, given the chance." He then stood, and nodded to them.

As one, Leonardo and Donatello turned, lowered the lid, walked to either side of the casket and hefted it up by the dark handles. With dignity, they gently bore her into the back of the stolen van where they secured the coffin with sturdy straps. Leo crab walked up to the driver's seat while Don stayed behind to give their family a small smile and a quiet "Thank you," before pulling the double doors shut.

Thirty minutes later, Leo pulled over as close to the precinct as he dared. "Welp, guess this is it." Getting up, he crouch-walked back to where Donnie was making sure everything had managed the trip intact. "I guess this is it huh?" The slider asked.

"I suppose so."

Slowly, they stood as best they could, backs to the doors. They slowly bowed, then the elder twin spoke. "Rest in peace, Mother. We wish we could have done more for you."

The younger chimed in. "We wish we could give you justice; we hope this is enough."

They exited the van, making sure it was locked up tight, and casually walked off. Once around the corner, Leo pulled the keys out of his pocket and hit the emergency button on the attached fob. A fading horn blared behind them as the twins meandered their way to a distant manhole, arms slung around each other's shoulders.

On a cold January morning, the BAU met with lots of hot coffee and a box of hefty doughnuts. Their chipper chatter cut off as Penelope and JJ strode in fast. "Ok," Garcia started, "we've got one out of New York."

"Really? Is an unsub trying to use the disaster as a cover?" David Rossi asked, while reaching for one of the files JJ had just deposited in the centre of the table.

JJ shook her head. "No; this body was left in a coffin, in a locked van outside the 20th precinct. They set off the alarm as they left." She sat as Garcia turned on the main screens.

"Claudia Sullivan. Reported Missing March 4th, 2000." A picture of the young woman came up, bright smile for all to see. "Police found nothing. Nada. Absolutely squat. After 7 years she was declared dead. Her case is still open but there have been no leads, until now."

A picture of a white van with a wooden coffin in the back was next on the screen. Emily took up the telling, reading from her file. "November 18th her body was discovered in a custom-built coffin, her name on it with her date of birth and a date of death listed as March 6th?" Penelope advanced the presentation again, revealing the coffin lid as described.

"So according to the unsub, she was killed after a couple of days? What's he been doing with her body since then?" Morgan asked, taking a sip from his mug.

"Whatever it was, he should patent his skin care program and make a fortune." Garcia answered, bringing up a picture of Claudia in repose, looking exactly the same as the day she disappeared.

Reid leaned forward, entranced. "She hasn't decomposed at all."

"Nope." Penelope answered. "Not a single hair out of place. The only thing they could find wrong, other than her being, y'know, dead, was that umm… her ovaries had been removed." A picture of a female torso with two small horizontal incisions was next. "Cause of death is undetermined," JJ supplied, "an unidentified substance was found in her body, but best they can tell it was introduced post-mortem. And the coffin was homemade with no progress thus far on tracing the materials."

"Ok," Morgan spoke up, reading further in the file, "well the careful preservation says she meant something to him. The coffin and everything could be a sign of remorse. Maybe after 20 years, something's happened to make him regret what he did? Staring an alien invasion in the face could make a person take a hard look at themselves."

David shook his head. "Maybe, but I'm not seeing how this falls into our wheelhouse. NYPD is swamped with id'ing victims of the attack, but this girl's been missing so long, waiting until they clear their backlog won't make a huge difference."

"Ah," Penelope exclaimed, "But see, with that huge backlog the NYPD have been running DNA through their crime labs and others that have volunteered their resources from around the world 24/7 ever since, and when their CSI's found blood under one of the coffin's hinges they threw that sample in too. 'Why not?' they figured." She turned back to the screen. "The results came in two days ago. The blood from the coffin maker came back as being related to Ms Sullivan as a parent-child match."

Aaron looked up from his file. "The coffin maker was her child?"

"Yep," the blonde chirped, "a son to be specific."

"But she didn't have any children." Emily said, finger on a page before her.

"Not when she disappeared." Garcia answered, clicking the remote again. "And that's not all. The DNA matched to another missing person's file. Yoshi Hamato, immigrated to America from Japan in the early 90's disappeared in 99. No trace of him since either."