AN: 108,265 words, three months of writing, countless edits, self-doubts, and unbelievable amount of views, my NaNoWriMo novel is now done. All thanks to you, fine reader. You successfully accessed my head (and my heart) in word form and did not turn away. And I thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for your loyalty and your care. I appreciate every person who has set their eyes upon this thing I lovingly call a monster. So this final chapter is dedicated to you. Yes you. Again, thank you for this beautiful time in my life. I may not be making money from this long endeavor, but I feel like the richest person in the world.

Oh, is that too sappy. Too bad, I feel sappy. Thank you.

Beta'd, as always, by one of my dearest friends, Kamerer220.

Epilogue – Hello World

-o-

"There is a destiny that makes us brothers, no one goes his way alone;
all that we send into the lives of others, comes back into our own."
– Edwin Markham

-o-

Hamato Donatello stared out into the darkening sky. The sun had just set which allowed him the pleasure of hiding out on the roof of April's apartment. It was still a bit nippy, being that it was the beginning of April. Nearly six months had elapsed since he brought down the Oroku Saki Tower and he was still getting used to the new skyline. He was still getting used to a lot of things.

So many things have changed since that fateful night he decided that he could no longer sit on the sidelines while his brother tried to take the fate of their family into his own hands. He had always been a turtle who was quick to think, but slow to act, weighing the pros and cons of each decision before he made them. It was yet another thing he envied his older brother for, he could think quickly and immediately take action. Donnie's mind was his greatest strength, but it had proven to be also his greatest weakness also.

"Not my fighting skills," he murmured into the void. "Just my perception of them."

It had taken a few dozen tea time with Splinter and a couple of knocks to the head from their more physical brother for him to start to realize that his perception of his own skills were greatly underestimated. He had been too busy comparing his abilities with those of his brothers, counting every flaw in every category, that he overlooked his own positives and his brothers' weaknesses. Especially Leo's. He still didn't like to think about it, because it only highlighted his own failings as a scientist. His observations had always been a great strength, but he had allowed his own prejudices and self-doubt to color his view to be an unbiased observer of what was going on in his own family and he felt more ashamed of that than his lack of belief in himself. It was a slow process, he knew, getting him out of one mindset and into another, and he still had a long way to go. They had a long way to go.

His family had been there at every turn, sometimes very literally. Part of his punishment was that he was not allowed out by himself. It was a punishment that Leo shared, and this had been one of the few moments he had been allowed a moment of respite aside from bathroom trips and most bedtimes. Don smiled at that. More than once he found himself waking up to a brother snuggled up against him (in Michelangelo's case, on him). Months ago, he would have been irritated by this, this constant shadow everywhere he went. The smothering had been a factor for his little act of… rebellion, but, strangely, he didn't mind it that much now. Of course, the lack of privacy was a little irksome, but whenever he would see the silhouette of one brother slip away only to be replaced with another one was oddly soothing and comforting. He was built to be a team player, after all. He was not meant for solo missions. He doesn't want to partake in another one any time soon.

It was nice though, to have a brief moment to himself, though he knew it would never last long.

"Enjoying the view?" Don smiled and turned to one of his shadows, though this one he knew was more sympathetic than the others. Leo moved from the ladder and went to sit next to his brother. Don turned back and his eyes immediately went to the empty space that used to be occupied by their greatest enemy's base.

"Immensely," Don said, a small smile resting on his faced. He could feel the answering smile on his brother's face even though he couldn't see it. They shared a few moments of silence, appreciating the new skyline of New York and each other's company.

"They are going to start missing us soon," Leo stated, his voice filled with fondness, as if he found their brother's recent proclivity for mother-henning to be amusing. Don certainly did. He called them mama and papa pit bulls in his head. He was just waiting for the right time to tell them. He wanted to see Raphael's face when he found out he was 'mama.'

"I give it a few more minutes though," Don said, finally turning attention fully to the blue-masked turtle. "Mikey is too busy going gooey eyed at April's ring and Raph still has some of his 'this is the end of your bachelorhood' and 'you are going to be so boring now' speech to get through."

Leo laughed, "Yeah, I don't know why I'm surprised he finally popped the question."

"I wasn't." Don saw Leo's gaze turn from merriment to something close to pitying and he quickly had to bite down the irritation at that look. He still had a long way to go.

"How?" Leo asked hesitantly, and Don shrugged.

"Casey asked for help picking out the ring."

"Not Raph?"

Don rolled his eyes. "As if Raph would know what kind of ring to get April."

The olive-skinned turtle gave a hearty chuckle at the thought of Raph looking for diamond rings. He remembered Casey's blundering epiphany as he tried to explain to Don what he had wanted from him two weeks before. The two had gotten closer since the downfall of the Foot. When their two human friends had found out that Don was actually alive, they had raced down to the sewers to check on him themselves. Donnie barely remembered the exchange, only that he had been awaken from his sleep by a crying and mad April, who alternated between punching his arm (hard, he swore he still felt the bruises) and throwing her arms around him over and over again. She gave him a mixture of scolding and praise before storming out of his room, leaving all parties stunned in her wake. Casey had been surprisingly the calmer of the two, giving him two punches (unintentionally on top of April's) of congratulations, told him he was happy he was alright, and that he thought it was "awesome" that he blew up the Foot all by himself. The following months were filled with praise from the vigilante, something both Raph and April had been unsuccessfully trying to curb. Now Casey Jones thought the geeky turtle was a hero and wouldn't let anyone say a negative thing about him. He would invite Don out whenever Raph and he would go out to bash some heads or just to watch some hockey on T.V. and offered to go with him to junkyards from time to time. Don appreciated the gesture greatly, but had to decline each offer due to his punishment. The human never stopped, though, and Don hoped that one day he could get a chance to hang out with the big lug once everything got back to normal.

Don shook himself out of his musing and turned to look at Leo. There. There was that look again, much more prominent than before and Don couldn't hold it back any longer and decided to set his brother straight.

"I'm not heartbroken, Leo," Don said, his voice only a touch terse. "And I would appreciate it if you stopped looking at me like I was."

It wasn't just a readjustment on his self-perception that he had been working on, but also his emotional responses. Master Splinter had been correct, he had been allowing his over analytical mind to sequester his feelings and his reaction to them away until he felt the time would be more appropriate to express them. Though that release would never happen, because he either would forget about it or find it was never the appropriate time. It would build and build until his whole emotional being became unstable and he would be prone to strange outbursts that could lead to self-harm, or, in the most recent case, go on solo suicidal missions and blow up buildings. They worked on mediation that allowed his thoughts and feelings to flow through and out of him instead of allowing them to stay locked up in him and allow the pressure to build. While he was taking great strides, it was still a very slow process, far too slow for their infinitely patient father so he had acquired some outside help, someone who was an expert in this department and had no problem expressing their anger, in particular. Raphael had been surprised about their father's request to help Donnie find multiple ways to express his emotions, but Donnie couldn't say he was. Raph had plenty of experience not holding back his emotions. If there were one being in the entire universe that could help him in this endeavor, Don was glad it was a brother and someone he could trust. So he had spent a lot of hours with Raph in the dojo and the garage, finding activities that would suit their purpose. They were still experimenting on several techniques, but he was already seeing improvement. Before that night, he wouldn't have even whispered out loud a word of what he had just said to Leo. He would have internalized it and ignored it. Now that it's out, it can be discussed, then let go.

"I-" Leo started, then stopped himself. "Really? Because…"

"Because I love her?" Don inquired, a small smile forming on his face. "Of course, I do. I also love Master Splinter, and Raph, Mikey, and that bonehead downstairs."

Don stared intently at Leo. "And you." His voice was soft. "I love you all very much and I just want you all to be happy. She deserves to be happy. Unbelievably, after everything that has happened, she's happy. I can't want anything else for her."

"That's…" Leo said, his voice sounding a little choked up. He had evolved in the last few months also, less stoic, more prone to allowing his emotions be seen by his brothers, especially his love for them. It was a bit mushy at times but Don figured they could live with it. "That's really nice."

"It is," he replied. "It's really nice. We deserve a little happiness in our lives."

Leo's smile turned slightly mischievous, a new trait that read that their leader had spent too much time with the youngest for his own good.

"Careful there, Donnie. You're sounding a little whimsical there for a moment."

"Shut up," Don said with affection, and they allowed a comfortable silence to blanket them as they continued to watch the dark sky. Several moments passed before Leo spoke up again.

"Do you regret it?" He asked and Don turned to him and tried to gage his posture to get a clue at what his older brother meant, but the dim lighting made it difficult.

"Regret what?" Don asked.

"Regret what you did," Leo clarified. "Killing all those people. For blowing up the building."

Don gave a funny look, almost disbelieving. "I have killed before, Leo. That wasn't the first time I had to take a life."

"I know." They all had taken a life by now, it was the price they had to pay to live their lives. It was brutal and ugly, but every kill they had made had been to protect life, never with malicious intent. "But never that many at one time."

"No," Don agreed and paused for a moment. "And no, I don't regret it."

He felt Leo's eyes on him, so felt the need to clarify. "When President Harry Truman was asked about if he regretted ever dropping the Atomic Bomb, he said that he regretted a lot of things, but that wasn't one of them."

Don turned to his brother. "He as a man thrust into the role of leadership and was forced to make countless decisions to save the lives of every man the president before him had sent out. He said what he did was to save the lives of a half a million people, on both sides. Two hundred thousand people died in total of the bombings to save more than double that amount had he not given the order. It was a call he was willing to make, and under the same circumstances, would have made again."

Leo gave a gentle smile. "So you blew up hundreds to save the millions that the Foot threatened?"

"No," Don said calmly. "Only four."

He saw Leo looked stunned and Donnie smiled.

"Only four. The only ones of their kind. An endangered species." Leo continued to look surprised, but a sense of understanding emerged and Don knew his point was coming across.

"I know you worry about me, worry about my conscious, but honestly, I have no regrets. I minimized the damage. I had given Karai a choice and now she and all of her generals are gone. I quite honestly never slept better in my life. Probably because you all are forcing me to honor my bedtime." That had the desired effect as Leo let out a laugh. "I mourn for the lives I took, for I still believe that every life is sacred, but I did what I needed to do to protect my family. I don't dwell on it. And neither should you."

Leo gave him an indescribably look before it softened and he rested a hand on Donnie's shoulder. "If you are at peace, then I am at peace." Don grinned and reached up and gave a returned squeeze. They only had a moment to bask in this brotherly closeness when a slightly panicked voice rang out.

"Donnie?!" Don would have snickered at his normally rough brother sounding like a terrified father if he hadn't been the cause for his overprotectiveness to come out in full force. Both turtles on the roof turned to the roof access ladder where Raphael's voice had come from.

"He's up here with me," Leo called down and there was a relieved snort that answered.

"Yeah, that ain't any better," Raph grumbled, only partly good-naturedly. By then, he had made his way up and was giving a mock glare that couldn't fully mask the relief of having his eyes on his two missing brothers.

"Raph?" another voice called out, belonging to their youngest brother.

"Yeah, they're up here."

Michelangelo's head popped up as Raph moved to stand behind Donnie. "Doing what?" he asked.

Leo smiled at the two new arrivals to their rooftop hideout. "Enjoying the view."

Mikey moved forward and settled himself between Donnie and Leo, kneeling on the cool concrete and put his elbows on the roof's ledge, holding his head up as he gave out a mock-dreamy sigh.

"I know we're supposed to honor our Japanese heritage and all, but that building was atrocious." He gave Don a cheeky grin. "All of New York thanks you for improving their market value, Donnie."

"What about getting rid of the threat of thievery, torture, murder, and general violence the Foot threatened them with?" Leo asked, his tone just as mocking. Donnie didn't even try to suppress the grin that formed as he watch Mikey scratch his chin as if to think about Leo's rebuttal.

"Nah," he said, his mouth wide in playfulness. "Just the sight."

It was the closest a 'thank you' his family had given Don about taking down the Foot single-handedly, and it was more than he wanted. He knew his family felt gratitude for the sacrifice he was willing to make for their protection, once the anger and the hurt started to fade away. He felt it with the soft looks and the gentle pats on the back. They never vocalized their appreciation for what he did, and that just shows how much his family knew their brainy brother. Everything he did for them, whether it was fix the toaster or build the Battleshell, or take down an international crime syndicate, was for their benefit and not for their recognition. While praise and thanks were nice, for him, having his brothers and sensei alive and whole was gratitude enough.

Raphael slung an arm over Don's shoulder and kept his eyes forward, even after Don turned to look at him. He then looked to his left, were Mikey leaned up against his leg as he continued to watch the New York horizon. Don then looked up at Leo, who was looking at him, and Don felt the warmth of his brother's gaze as real as if he had actually been touching him.

As he felt the weight of his brothers around him, whether physically or spiritually, and thought of the loved ones in the apartment below, Don finally felt like things were well on their way to going back to a semblance of normalcy. He knew that his and Leo's trust were still going to be hard-earned, and that the fear and pain he had caused his family were slow to fade, but Donatello knew that it would be worth the wait.

After all, they now had a lifetime to do it.

The End.

-o-

AN2: Okay, that's it. I'm done. You guys can go home now. Nothing to see here… nothing at all…except…

Maybe…

Possibly…

Something else?

"So promises had been made. They thought the debt had been paid. But did do they really know where the blame was laid?"

Coming sometime around Fall 2015.