Hey guys! New chapter yay! Get ready for fluff cause this chapter is 100% fluff. The gang is finally all back together and the smooches may now commence.

I know a couple of you saw but for those of you who didn't see... I wrote a Prologue for Kismet, and thank you so very much to SupernovaWolf for giving me your thoughts about it! I definitely agree that I need some kind of system to let you guys know when the chapters have been updated so here's my thought. You may have noticed but all of the chapter titles in Kismet are all one word. I did that on purpose, trying to kindof stick with a theme, but my thought was that I could change the chapter titles to two word titles just like Letters from Home chapters have. That would be a quick, easy way to see which chapters have been edited and which chapters haven't been without needing to necessarily go to each and every chapter to check. And for new readers there's not some weird asterisk symbol or something on the chapter titles that might be confusing or off-putting.

For the rest of you, I really hope you liked the Prologue that was added. And I promise there will be answers in Book 3 to the questions that the Prologue raises. I've taken inspiration from lots of sources and I really really think this is going to be a fantastic direction to take this series. I'm very very excited!

Until then, I'll try to let you know when I get to updating the Kismet chapters as well as changing chapter titles. And I hope you enjoy the direction that Book 2 is headed! There will be plenty more action coming your way! Getting the band back together is only going to up the ante for our boys in green! Better leadership is going to mean badder baddies and hopefully some happy readers ^-^ Stay safe you guys!

"So what was so important that you had to call us out here in a big hurry, eh? It's almost daylight!" Raphael hollered at Casey over the rooftop, Donatello and Michelangelo in tow behind his swaggering gate. Casey just grinned a shit-eating grin and held up a white rectangle, the dimensions of which were easily recognizable.

"Got a special delivery here for some kinda big-ass toad and his brothers, and you aren't gonna wanna wait for this one."

Mikey gasped loudly and rushed forward with his arms outstretched, shouting, "ANOTHER LETTER FROM LEOOOO! GIMME GIMME GIMME!"

Raphael stuck his ankle out at the last second, sending Mikey sprawling across the rooftop so he could pluck the envelope from their friend's hand before his little brother. Mike whined loudly and flailed at his largest brother but Raphael was already impatiently ripping open the paper to get at the contents inside.

"Easy, Raph! Careful, you'll rip the letter again!" Donnie chided, peering over Raphael's shoulder with a half-hearted swipe at the paper that was being crushed between eager fingers.

"Yeah yeah, settle down, I'm workin' 'ere."

"Well what does it say, Raphie, what does it say?"

Once the paper was open Raph held it up in the clear moonlight to read the hastily scrawled message that sat squarely in the middle of the paper. "Race you home."

"No way Raph, I wanna hear what the letter says first! Casey said it was gonna be a good one!" Michelangelo insisted, grabbing at the paper though an expertly aimed elbow easily evaded the assault.

"No, dingbat, that's what it says on the paper! All it says is "Race you home!" " Raph grumbled, oblivious to the way Donnie's eyes had widened owlishly and risen to meet Casey's smirk.

"Guys..."

"What? No way! Lemme see! I wanna see! It's gotta say more than that!"

"Guys."

"Get offa me, Mike, I'm the one readin' the letter today! You had your turn last time!"

"GUYS!"

"WHAT!?" Raphael and Michelangelo both shouted, turning around without detangling their mass of arms and legs. But instead of accidentally smacking Donnie with his outstretched arm intent on keeping the piece of paper out of Mikey's monkey reach Raphael's arm only passed through empty space. Raph and Mikey blinked in confusion at the place where Donnie had been standing, looking around curiously to find him now that they were missing another brother mysteriously.

"Donnie?"

"Don? Donnie-D? Where you at brah?"

Casey just chuckled and shook his head, folding his arms and shifting his weight onto his other foot. "Looks like Donnie's gonna win second place easy peasy."

Furrowed brows turned back to Casey, staring him down until sudden realization dawned on the two remaining brothers simultaneously and in their hurry to disengage themselves they ended up falling over and hitting the pebbled rooftop with an impressive crash. They didn't stick around to hear the end of Casey's raucous laughter at the sight though, as their feet were already flying over New York City in a rush to get home. It was rather hilarious to see them dashing away with huge grins like kids on Christmas morning, a sight that Casey was grateful he had agreed to see and continued to replay to himself on the short walk home.

Unlocking his door he tossed his keys on the little kitchen counter and shrugged out of his coat. It may have been May now but winter wasn't so eager to let go of its grip on the city and he brought plenty of the outdoor chill in with him on his way back. Shaking his head with a chuckle he called out, "You should have seen 'em. Donnie figured it out first, of course, and then Ha! Raph and Mikey! They were fighting over the letter so much they fell over! You should have seen 'em, you would have loved it."

A feminine giggle rounded the corner, clad in a towel tightly wrapped around her middle, using a comb to pick through a wet tangle of tresses. Aaliyah's warm grin spoke volumes without speaking a word, though she did finally speak once she seated herself on the couch. "Thank you, Leo and I both really appreciate what you did. You didn't have to, but I know getting them out of the lair long enough for Leo to sneak in is going to really make today special."

He nodded, looking out the window over her to watch the sun come up. "Eh, it's no biggie. I was getting up for work anyways. But... You know Don's gonna be pissed that Leo didn't bring you with."

"I know." She certainly didn't hesitate with her reply but it was quiet enough he almost missed it over the sound of the comb. "They just need some brother time first, whether Donnie likes it or not. I'll go down in a little bit. At the very least it was nice to have a real, actual shower again." She snorted quietly to herself, looking up at Casey with muted humor in her smile. "Let me tell you, the whole 'showering in a waterfall' thing is definitely Not as glamorous as the movies makes it seem. And riverside sponge baths get old Very fast."

He huffed a puff of air through his nose in an acknowledgement of her nostalgic stab at humor. "Yeah, I can imagine. So... uh... you... need anything? Or... uh..."

"Oh, no, if you need to go about your morning routine, please. By all means go ahead. I'm going to see if I can't braid this hot mess and my clothes should be done drying by then. Thank you again for that." The comb was sliding more easily through her hair now in spite of the occasional snag from a missed little tangle of hair. "I kindof suck at it so it may take me a minute."

Casey nodded once and put his hand up in quick thanks as he strode into the bathroom, closing it with a click behind him. The pleasant smile dropped from her lips and eyes alike, leaving her alone in the quiet to finally feel the melancholy that had been tugging at her chest ever since she'd cheerfully suggested the surprise to Leo on the plane ride home. She knew it was going to be hard but imagining it and living it were two very different things.

It was so, so painfully hard imagining the reunion happening a dozen blocks east and four stories beneath her feet, what Mikey's laugh and Leo's expression were probably like as Raphael bear-hugged the air right out of his lungs. Dad's eyes brimming with tears as he finally got to see his son home and well, Leo dropping to his knees to cling to his furry father. But no matter the weight in her heart it still couldn't change the fact that their family needed some time to just b-

BAM! BAM! BAM!

Aaliyah jumped and squealed at the hammering coming from the window, being ripped from her private thoughts so suddenly only to look up in terror and be met with the intensity of Donatello's eyes on the other side of the glass. Frozen in shock she could only blink with wide eyes at the sunlit figure until a gentler, but more insistent, knocking finally dragged her to her feet and had her rushing across the hardwood.

"Donnie!? What the ever living hell!?" She chastised him as she unlocked the window and tugged one-handedly at the glass to crack it open. "Dammit you! It's fricking daylight outside! You could be seen! Why aren't you with Leonardo?"

Eager green hands finished the task of opening the window wide enough to slip inside in one fluid motion and close it behind him, yanking the curtains closed with perhaps a little more force than absolutely necessary. "Why aren't I with Leonardo? Why weren't YOU with Leonardo?"

"BECAUSE FAMILY BONDING TIME THAT'S WHY!" Her one arm gestured wildly towards the outside world he'd just come from as he turned on his heel, still panting from the sprint that had carried him here, and pinned her under an incredulous look.

"Fam- Aaliyah..." His hands reached forward, hesitating between them as he bashfully considered her state of undress before finding chaste purchase on her cotton-swathed hips and digging his fingertips in greedily. "You are family."

The creases of fury on her forehead smoothed out as she sighed in defeat, a little smile tugging at her mouth even as the rest of her was tugged against his plastron. It was impossible to avoid stiffening up when the bare skin of her arm met the freezing cold armor but other than a little jump and the silent clench of teeth against the cold she didn't try to resist the almost crushing embrace. The sweetness of his lips first touching her forehead, and then her cheek, and then nuzzling a path to find her mouth might have had her forgetting just how cold her reptilian boyfriend was... if Casey hadn't chosen that moment to come striding out of the bathroom and groan loudly at seeing who had joined them in his apartment.

"Seriously... Donnie... listen, I gotta go to work. I know it's daylight out now but really? Just..." He grumbled as the two love birds blushed in embarrassment and stepped a quarter of a step apart, drawing Casey's eyes into a bemused eye roll that was underpinned by him snatching his keys off of the countertop. "Just Do Not have sex on my couch ok? I mean it. And lock up when you leave. Later."

The slam of his door as Casey quickly exited had both of them standing there a bit awkwardly in silence for a moment until Donnie asked quietly, "Do you think that means we have permission to use his bed?"

Aaliyah choked a bit and ended up having a coughing fit that was mostly laughter in reply, the buzzer of the little closet-bound clothes dryer pulling her out of Donnie's grip towards the tail end of her fit. "Absolutely not, besides I'm trying to get dressed, thank you, not undressed."

"Heh. And here I thought I was being given a present I could unwrap." He joked quietly, though his tone and his eyes betrayed just how much truth was hiding behind the tease. It didn't go unnoticed either, and the half-lidded smirk that was tossed over a bare shoulder at him had his hands itching and his throat dry in an instant.

"We are Not having sex in Casey's apartment five minutes after seeing each other for the first time in almost a year." She reaffirmed as she plucked her worn clothes from the machine, warm and soft and fragrant in a way that almost melted Aaliyah into a puddle right there. "But I do need to take this off to put these on, so Maybe there's something you can unwrap today if you promise to behave."

Donatello quickly nodded and hurried forward, only to be walked backwards to the couch by the press of a dainty finger to the center of his pectoral scutes in a way that felt intimately erotic and his shell tightened reflexively long before his knees hit the back of the couch. In full gear he couldn't just fall backwards and drop onto the soft cushions, not that he would have even without the gear considering his bulk. So he eased himself carefully down and, literally on the edge of his seat, reached once again for the soft cotton towel.

It slid through his fingers and parted immediately, rather suddenly falling away, and Donatello's nostrils flared to drink in the dizzyingly glorious scent of her. It hit him like a brick wall made of pillows and he couldn't help himself, head dipping instinctively to press into the softness of her navel while his hands cradled her back and pulled her closer. Gooseflesh erupted all across her skin and delicate hands that had been holding laundry tossed the bundle onto the couch in favor of peeling off his goggles and running soothingly over the dome of his head.

A trail of kisses led from her belly button up to her collar bones before a new puckering of the flesh there drew his attention and his eyes finally began to trace the constellations of new scars that littered her previously flawless skin. Three fingered hands soon followed after, tracing their sizes and shapes as they silently worked out their age and just exactly how bad the wounds had been. It broke his heart to know, and see plainly, that there had been pain he wasn't there to fix and it twisted his gut to see that some had been rather nasty at the time of their origin.

A set of round marks that patterned her right arm were particularly troublesome and once he'd fished out her undergarments from the pile he brushed his fingers over the scars and asked, "What did this to you?"

Her shoulders lifted in a slight shrug as she turned around to allow him to fit the clasps of her bra together, care carefully crafting her words to try to avoid worrying the owlish eyes that poured over her skin and left weighty trails in their wake. "Snake. Leo had to help get him off."

Reproachful eyes begged her for more when she turned back around and relenting she finally explained, "It was our first week in Costa Rica, the day we sent a letter to you guys. I was on my way out of the village when a huge snake grabbed my hand. I didn't even see him there, to this day I don't even know what kind it was actually. But it had these wicked, backwards-angled teeth so when you try to pull your hand out it just digs the teeth in harder. Leo almost got spotted trying to help me drag it deeper into the jungle so we could figure out how to get it off."

The subtle tightening of his grip on her waist was telling and her little hands smoothed over his to reassure him that everything was ok now. "He wanted to just cut it open, behead it basically so I didn't lose my hand. I kindof agreed but I just couldn't tell him to do it. The poor thing really was trying to get away once it realized I was not a super great thing to latch onto and it just didn't seem fair to kill it over a misunderstanding. Basically I had to shove my hand deeper down its throat to get the teeth out of my hand while Leo held its mouth open and then we ran like hell. I may possibly have developed a slight fear of snakes after that..."

While she spoke Donatello helped her into her pants, taking note of a few deep, long scars that he'd have to ask about later. Pulling her into his lap next came socks and a smattering of kisses to her shoulders and the back of her neck. "And what about this one?"

The gentle brush of one finger over the shining line of skin at the apex of her shoulder tugged her lips into a grin and she shook her head. "Mongolia. I was lucky, I could have been shot but it just grazed me. I think it was a ricochet but the whole mess is kindof a blur, honestly. I was just trying to get Leo close enough to the fire to warm him up so he could move again."

Donatello growled at the thought of anyone shooting at her and cuddled Aaliyah closer, burying his face into her neck despite the difficulty his glasses presented. "The one on your ankle?"

Donatello couldn't see the bemused smile that spread softly over her face but he certainly did feel her turning around in his lap and take his cheeks in her hands. "Are you really going to ask about every single one? You know it's not going to do your nerves any good."

"I just need to know who hurt you." His brow knit together and he sighed, arms wrapping snugly around her bare waist. "I need to know what it was Leo couldn't protect you from."

"My own stubbornness and blonde-ness, Donnie, and nothing more than that. Leo can't protect me from myself and neither can you. So please, honey, don't blame any of this on your brother."

Donnie's eyes dropped to the floor off to the side, feeling a bit stung but unwilling to argue the point further. Instead he just clung to the soft, lithe form seated in his lap and wished he'd been there. It wasn't a new feeling, it had become something of a habit over the past seven months to fall back on whenever things weren't flowing smoothly at home. But he never thought that feeling would hit him as hard as it did then, with the evidence of missed toil and pain etched forever into her skin finally staring him full in the face.

He was pulled from his thoughts by the feel of her lips covering his, the unfamiliarity of it heating his cheeks into a flushed forest green but he'd be damned if he let his own natural shyness deny him this. Pushing through the butterflies in his stomach and the pounding in his chest he kissed her back, one hand snaking up her spine to hold the back of her head tenderly in place while the other anchored itself on her waist. The taste of her was just as addictive as before and doubly so when the wet heat of her tongue slipped between his teeth and traced the shape of a tiny, searing little heart on his.

A choked whimper snuck its way out of his throat and if his eyes had been open his glasses wouldn't have helped the swirling behind his eyelids now that his senses were completely suffused in everything he'd ached for since she'd left. Donatello was finally home, finally tasting freedom and the weight of worry and fear that had held him captive without his knowledge dropped away so suddenly he could feel himself growing emotional.

She was here, alive, whole, and still wanted him.

As a rational turtle he didn't believe in miracles... but this was a miracle if there ever was one.

Breathing heavily through the swelling in his chest his kisses grew desperate and greedy, wanton and sloppy in the safety of the empty apartment where prying eyes couldn't reach. Aaliyah's moan, light and airy, in response to his silent plea pulled his mouth lower so he could taste the tenderness of her throat. It was an automatic response, performed without question in a dreamy haze of want. The constant whirring of his mind was quiet now, and it was a state of peace that not even sleep was kind enough to grant the frazzled terrapin most days. But here it was in her arms and though she squirmed and giggled at the teasing tickle of his lips lighting over every inch of her skin he could reach it was still the quietest moment he'd had in a very long time.

"Aack, Donnie, stahp. That tickles! And we need to get you back home." She chided, lightly pushing him away. He grumbled through a mouthful of neck and nipped at her, making her jump and yelp in surprise before her nimble fingers found their way to his tender sides and prodded for that sensitive place up under the rim of his shell so she could retaliate. His ninja training had her hands captured easily before she could get him back, though, a shy smirk urging at his lips.

"Do we really have to? I mean, we could stay here today. We don't have to go back. Logically it would actually make much more sense to stay indoors where the likelihood of being seen-"

He didn't get to finish his argument, however, as a sneaky pair of lips attached themselves to his neck just beneath his jaw and began to trail a path of nibbles and kisses down to the junction at his shoulder, leaving him a stuttering mess of fluttering eyelashes and trembling hands that no longer had the strength to keep her captive. "Donnie, I missed you."

"I- I missed you too. So much, every day."

"And when the time is right," Aaliyah promised with a grind of her hips against his that had him moaning loudly in her ear, "I will strip every piece of clothing from your body and kiss every single one of your scales. I will ride you until you forget I was ever gone and not even Karai can wipe the smile off of your face. But until then-"

Donnie whimpered at the mental picture that was being painted for him even as her hands dipped between them to rub the insides of his thighs and cup his tucked tail, muscular legs easily lifting up to eagerly press against her for more. "Aaliyah, please…"

"Until then, Donnie, we really do need to get you home so you can spend time with Leonardo. Your brother. The one you haven't seen in over six months?" She reminded him, grinning wolfishly against the scales littering his neck as he strained to get just a little more friction out of her teasing touches. It had been a very frustrating time apart for both of them and the feel of her hands on the neglected places below his waistline was making it very hard to remember why he needed to be home like she was trying to tell him.

"Please, princess, please..."

It wasn't hard to pick out the desperation in his tone or the need driving his hips upwards to hold her up off of the couch cushions. But the thought of keeping him waiting just a little longer, knowing that he would be thinking about her for the rest of the day, was too good to pass up and after a teasing squeeze to his thickening tail through the fabric of his pants she slid out of his lap and snatched up her shirt. "Later, Donatello, I promise. But we're getting you home now before New York wakes up too much for you to sneak out of here."

His head dropped backwards with a low 'thunk' against the rim of his shell and he groaned miserably at the ceiling to feel the almost painful frustration of arousal pulsing in his tail and his shell. "That was cruel, Aaliyah. Vexing, cruel, malicious-"

"You can call me an alphabetized list of adjectives once we're below ground, Donatello. Come on."

And he did, though by the time he'd made it to the letter N the adjectives were more sweet than frustrated which meant that Aaliyah entered the lair in a full blush. Not that it was any deterrent for Michelangelo, who immediately vaulted over the couch as soon as she was within sight and scooped her off of her feet.

"AALIYAH!"

The rest was a nonsensical garble with his face buried in her shoulder and the speed at which he was trying to talk. She didn't mind, though, and simply squeezed him back. It was nice to be able to watch Donnie over Mikey's shoulder as he hurried over to Leonardo to embrace him. But Mikey wouldn't be satisfied with clinging to just one reunited family member, no matter the number of hugs he'd already given to Leonardo. He followed on Donnie's heels and sandwiched himself between the two brothers after a moment of waiting, one hand keeping the little lady tucked closely to his chest while the other clung desperately to Donatello.

Now stuck right in the middle of a turtle pile it was impossible to see anything except for plastrons and scales so she couldn't see Raphael get up from his place on the couch to join in but she certainly felt the impact of him bumping into the pile and the extra hard squeeze that was crushing her rib cage. It was a special moment, though, one Aaliyah didn't want to ruin by complaining about a lack of oxygen. Who needed air anyways?

Thankfully the hug didn't last so long that the crushing strength of four ninjas knocked her unconscious, and she was extremely grateful that when the group hug broke up Michelangelo still had zero intentions of letting her go. Her bruised ribs wouldn't have been terribly happy about needing to walk around, even being carried made them ache in protest. Not enough for her to do anything about it, not when everyone was migrating to the couch and starting to speak in rapid-fire succession.

"Leo Leo Leo! The next one! Read the next one!"

"C'mon Fearless I'm gonna start getting' gray scales if you're gonna take forever just admirin' ya handwriting!"

"Alright, alright, take it easy."

"Mikey did you pull out the letters?"

"Sure did Dee!"

"Shaddap, Leo's readin'."

"But Donnie asked!"

"Shhhh!"

"You shhhh!"

"SHHH!"

"Alright, here we go. This one was from Kazakhstan."

"Where's that?"

"Technically it's the Republic of Kazakhstan and it borders Russia, China, and the Caspian Sea. Did you know it's also the world's largest landlocked country?"

"It sure felt like it."

"What was it like Leo?"

"Flat."

Aaliyah snorted her agreement and Mikey bounced her in his lap, suddenly remembering that she had been there too and could be equally pestered for information about the trip. "Aw come on you gotta be able to say more than that about it!"

"It really was pretty flat. There were a lot of hills too but it was dry, grassy, and flat most of the time. We hitched a ride on several freight trains to be able to get across it. But Leo's the one telling the story Mike."

"Yeah read the letter, I wanna hear the story behind this one." Raphael prompted Leo, who was back to rereading it silently from the scrapbook he held in his lap.

"It says:

Dear Family,

It's getting colder now that we're well into winter. I don't know if it's still December or if we've made it into January by now but if the wind and the snow are anything to go by I'd guess January. More and more I find myself grateful for the tin foil space blanket Donatello packed for us, it's probably saved our lives a handful of times already. There's no shelter from the wind out here, only my shell and our packs, which makes sleeping almost impossible. It's hard to write with how badly my hands are shaking from the cold. We've had a few nights where the wind was blowing enough that we gave up on sleep altogether and just walked through the night. At least when we're moving it feels a little bit warmer. Kindof hard to write while walking though.

It's hard to tell how much distance we've walked when everything looks the same. But the night sky... I never knew there were so many stars. It's rare to be able to see stars in New York but out here there are so many stars we can almost see where we're going even without the moon.

I wish you guys were here to see it.

Leonardo"

"Yeah that one!" Mikey exclaimed, wiggling eagerly in his seat.

Leo chuckled and shivered at the miserable memory, Aaliyah catching his eyes as they glanced her way. They both remembered it well and Leo's cheeks darkened just a little bit at the memory of all the creative ways they'd tried to keep each other from freezing to death.

"It's … pretty self explanatory. We were trying to get to Japan and we had to do a lot of walking in the winter to get there. That was before we met up with this little town in the middle of nowhere. They outfitted us with warm winter clothes and I don't think we took those coats off more than maybe twice until we got on the freighter to Panama."

"What about the next letter Leo?" Aaliyah suggested casually and he nodded quickly while turning the page.

"The next several are just all more of the same. Complaining about the cold mostly. Heh... None of these must have been very fun for you guys to read."

"No way brah." Michelangelo immediately refuted, scooting closer on the couch. "We were just happy we were getting any! I mean you were gone, and without these we didn't know if you were ok or anything."

"No news may be good news in some cases," Donnie added with a push to his glasses, "but in your case no news would not have been the preferred option."

"Read the one from Japan, speakin' o' the place." Raphael grinned smugly, slinging an arm over the back of the couch. "Hearin' about how ya got your ass kicked always makes my day."

Leo rolled his eyes and flipped a few more pages in spite of Donatello's protest that he wanted to hear more about the Yeti family, the resident genius pacified only by Aaliyah's promise to tell him all about them later.

"Dear Family,

I'm not sure what I should write today. These past few days have been a real eye opener for me and... I think I may have been wrong about a lot of things. More than I even talked to Aaliyah about. It's hard to realize that every right, good thing you thought you were doing was actually completely and totally wrong but I think that's where I'm at.

I finally got to see the greatest sensei of Ninjutsu there is here. I thought I could offer myself as a student and he would take me in and train me since I'd sacrificed so much to get here. He was able to disarm me in less than a minute and put me flat on my shell. He called me names and left me alone after beating me and I don't think I've ever been so humiliated in my life."

Raphael's smug smirk had slowly been replaced by solemnity as Leo's tone of voice betrayed the weighty emotions he'd been going through at the time, even just remembering it filled his mouth with thick emotion. It took some deep breaths and clearing his throat a couple of times for him to be able to continue, words wavering a little bit even after taking a moment to collect himself. Mikey clung to Aaliyah in empathetic pain for his brother and a hush fell over the whole lair.

"This isn't what I came here for. I didn't come to have him destroy me and if I would have known what was going to happen when I stepped foot into that dojo I never would have come to Japan.

But maybe that's the good thing about not knowing. Because after talking with Aaliyah about it, the first she's really said anything to me since we left home, I think this is exactly what I needed. I've been... maybe a bit of an asshole. But I was so caught up in myself that I didn't realize it. It makes me wonder just how much I was affecting the team without even realizing it because I was caught up in my own self importance as the Leader.

I'm sorry.

I don't think I'll ever fully know just how much damage I've done to the people around me but if I ever hurt you because I was too caught up in myself I am so, deeply, sorry. And I promise that I'm going to do what I need to so I can be better. Better for me, better for the team, better for my family. Maybe freezing my shell off for the last few months has been some kind of karmatic retribution for all of the times I froze you all out. Though if it is I'm not sure what I should think about Aaliyah freezing out there with me. I can't believe she stayed around and Donnie I'm so sorry for everything that I've put her through. I'll make it up to the both of you some how.

Raph, I think now would be a good time for me to say that I was really skeptical about dad making you the leader while I was gone. I would have picked Donnie, personally. But I hope that you're doing ok. Being the leader isn't easy and taking responsibility for everything that happens isn't easy but I really hope that putting you in charge was the right thing to do and that you're learning as much as I am while I'm out here. And I hope that you can forgive me for all of the times we butted heads because of stubb because I wasn't listening to you like I should have.

Mikey, I love you. And I'm sorry that I didn't listen to you as much as I should have either. Sometimes I don't understand you and that frustrates me but I promise that I'm going to try harder. Same goes for you Donnie. I know you work the hardest out of all of us and part of that is my fault. I give you a lot of jobs and I make a lot of demands for gear and I just expect it to be done and that was wrong of me. I'm sorry.

There's so much more I could say but I'm running out of paper and if I keep going I think I'll just end up talking myself in circles but I just want you guys to know that I'm finally starting to figure things out. Hopefully I can come home soon. I miss you all so much.

Take care of each other,

Leonardo"

Nobody said anything for a long moment after that, Leo feeling the shame of his actions so acutely he couldn't bring himself to look up from the letter. He'd almost forgotten that his brothers hadn't been around for the grueling work he'd put in to his transformation that had finally brought him home but reading this letter he'd sent months ago brought it all back and he barely knew what to say or where to start.

"Guys... I..."

Aaliyah had exactly .5 seconds to roll out of Mikey's lap before she was crushed in another turtle pile as the brothers all launched themselves at Leo and tackled him to the ground. The binder went flying and Splinter caught it in his paws easily, smoothing the pages carefully in his seat. She decided that it would be safer to sit by the old master for the time being while everyone was still feeling a bit excitable, something her tired and sore body was definitely not feeling in that moment.

Sitting at Splinter's feet, leaning against his knee to watch the boys fuss over Leonardo, there was a quiet peace that radiated throughout the whole Lair in a way that almost instantly had her eyes closing in exhaustion. She and Leonardo had traveled for a full night and a day to make it to an airport that they could use to make it to the United States and then the rest of that night was spent plane hopping from location to location until New York soil was beneath their feet. Casey had been kind enough to pick them up from the airport and drive them close to home, allowing Leonardo to take their packs within easy walking distance of the underground lair while Casey sought pity on Aaliyah and took her to his home so she could shower and wash her clothes. Leo was too excited to worry about getting clean first. He just needed to be home.

And now that he was home there was a deep, almost universal peace that Aaliyah could feel seeping into the very fabric of the place. One that sucked her into unconsciousness without much of a fight and had her slumping in place even before kind claws brushed gently through her hair and an old father whispered his thanks for bringing his son safely home while he clutched the evidence of all the hard work it had taken to bring his family full circle to the place where they all belonged.

With each other.