The Donnie Christmas Caper

Epilogue

Almost A Full Year Later

"How's this, Don?"

Leo held up the toy airplane he'd been working on, his genius brother glancing up to see he'd placed one of the wing a couple inches to low, making the plane off-centered.

"It's... Not perfect." Donnie replied honestly. 

Leo let out a long sigh and began taking it apart, mumbling "Twelfth times the charm, I suppose."

"You'll get there." Donnie assured him, setting down the toy train engine motor he'd been tinkering with and getting up from his chair.

He glanced over to April, his crush sitting at her own table nearby, having been told about what they were doing by Donnie's brothers - without his permission, he might add.

Just like Mikey, she had insisted on helping, saying that she would hate herself if she passed up the opportunity to help out the less fortunate.

She really was amazing...

He felt his face heat up when his crush glanced up from the stuffed bear she was mending and saw him staring.

Wondering how long he'd been to doing that, he gave her a small nervous smile, April returning it with a bright one of her own before turning back to the bear.

Trying to calm his suddenly racing heart, he made his way over to Mikey, who was laying across his plastron on the floor, carefully solving the multiple puzzles in front of him.

Icecream Kitty sat next to him helping to solve the puzzles, though Donnie made a point of insisting she wasn't allowed to touch. He was incredibly nervous about having the half melting kitty sitting so near to the puzzles, but it turned out she was very good at them, helping Mikey to speed up the process while also keeping his focused on what he was doing when his attention span began wearing thin.

While solving puzzles may have seemed like a fun way to spend the afternoon, sorting puzzles definitely wasn't. Many of the puzzles Donnie found came from destroyed boxes, the store workers throwing them out when they didn't feel it would sell. This caused the puzzles to mix together at the bottom of the dumpster and hours were spent sorting through them to figure out which puzzle belonged to which box.

Replacing the boxes was the easy part, it was discovering which pieces were missing and replacing them that was much more difficult and time consuming.

"How's it going?" Donnie asked, getting down on one knee and viewing the multiple puzzles in front of Mikey.

Icecream Kitty meowed proudly and Mikey explained, "We're doing real good, D! Got three puzzles done already." The youngest turtle high-fived the Napoleon cat at his side and Donnie nodded his approval, standing up when he recognized the sound of the lab door opening.

Leaving Mikey and his pet to their work, he walked over to Raph and Casey, the two hotheads finally returning from Marlo's with the toy parts Donnie had requested.

Now inviting Casey had definitely not been Donnie's idea, but once he told about it, the hockey player refused to take no for answer.

Apparently, he felt that if the rest of them were going to be spending all their time hiding out in the lab, he should be involved in some way. Donnie had a feeling he was just trying to impress April, but kept his mouth shut. He had to admit, he appreciated the extra pair of hands.

"Kraang-brain." He stated as a greeting when they set the boxes on the edge of a work table.

"Nerdaholic." Casey replied coolly, stepping to the side when Donnie began looking through his box.

"Great job, guys." Donnie told them as he dug through Raph's box and pulled out a half destroyed train. Moving back to his station, he took off the still intact wheels and moved them onto the train he was working on, tossing the rest of the crushed toy into the box of unusable items.

"You need anything else, Don? Me and Casey were gonna head out for awhile." Raph stated, noting that Donnie didn't even bother taking his eyes off of his project as he gave a barely noticeable shake of his head. 

Unlike the rest of them, Raph was unable to stay cooped up in the lab without his anger flying out of control and him breaking something. Leo had given Raph the task to patrol the city because of this fact, making sure he knew to call the moment he saw something Kraang or Shredder related went down.

Raph knew that Donnie's attention would no longer be focused on anything but his project so Raph figured that leaving would be fine. "Come on, Jones." He stated. "Let's go beat some thugs."

"Sweet!" Casey cheered, tossing his hockey stick in the air as he followed Raph out. Helping was great and all, but he were tired of carrying the boxes and was excited at the prospect of finally having some fun.

Once the hotheads had disappeared, the others continued with their work undisturbed. Once he was nearly finished with the train, Donnie realized that the top tunnel was beginning to become loose.

Reaching to his side, he was surprised when the screwdriver he'd been trying to grab suddenly appeared next to his arm.

He looked up to see his father smiling down at him, the genius accepting the screwdriver as Splinter announced. "It is getting late, so I took the liberty of ordering some pizza. I suggest you come and enjoy it while it's still warm."

Everyone paused in what they were doing to glance at Donnie, the genius nodding his approval.

Almost instantly, they stopped what they were doing and headed out of the room, Mikey leading them all with Icecream Kitty held up above him, shouting. "Yah, boi! It's pizza time!"

"Donatello?" Splinter had been about to follow when realized his purple-clad son wasn't following.

"I'll be right there... Just need to finish up a couple more things..." Donnie mumbled distractly, his attention now one a remote controlled racecar he had placed in front of him.

Moving back to his side, Splinter placed a hand on his shoulder and Donnie glanced up, his father explaining. "You're brothers and friends have been helping you so that you would be able to rest and spend time with them during this holiday season. Are you really going to ignore their sacrifices?"

Donnie paused in his work as he considered what his father was telling him.

Finally setting down the car, he gave his father a guilty smile before replying. "You're right... And I suppose I am pretty hungry. "

Leaving his work behind, Donnie followed his father out of the lab and into the main room, the sound of laughter and talking filling it as the family sat down for well-deserved pizza break.