Chapter Text
A dimmed light was coming from under the doorframe of Donnie's old lab, as someone was carefully flipping the pages of a dusty notebook filled with blueprints of complex machines, notes, datas and ideas impulsively dropped on pages, mixed in some kind of mess that most people would find too hard to understand.
Since the accident 2 years ago, this place had been a safe haven for Harper: filled with many memories, the echo of their late night talks with Donnie still printed on the walls, almost like if he was still here, sitting at his desk, eyes locked on his work, his usual focused expression on his face while Harper was happily dumping infos about missions, new ideas to improve the base, or just gossiping about a thing or two that had been going on around the Resistance. Listening to their endless chatting was always helping him to focus and ground himself. It had been their routine every night. And as soon as the sun was down, their voices were resonating in the hallways like a melody, filled with the hope of a better future.
After the accident, everything changed. The lab became silent, the burning flame of hope in the heart of the Resistance had been blown out and Harper was grieving. Even 2 years later, they were still looking at the same old pages, the same computer files, the same unfinished machines, trying desperately to keep Donnie's legacy alive. A part of him was still living through his work... as long as Harper was taking care of it, everything should be fine right?
But was it? After Raph and Cassandra died, Leo had to step up as a true leader and as a father figure for the young Casey Jr, who was barely one year old at the time. April had completely withdrawn from the rest of the group after their death, refuging herself inside her responsibilities as a Commander, Splinter was ill, Draxum was burned-out and Mikey was desperately trying to keep everyone happy. The Resistance had been deeply affected by this event. But no one expected to see Donnie disappear so suddenly a year after his big brother. In addition to all of these events, another burden was resting on Harper's shoulders.
After Raph's death, Leo was left without his biggest support as a leader and got quickly overwhelmed by this role, since April was not in capacity to help him as a Commander, still affected by her friends' disappearance. In order to release the pressure a little bit, the leader had suddenly decided to make Harper his lieutenant. A big responsibility. Too big. Harper was not made to lead. How could they take care of an entire army while they could barely take care of themselves? No. Harper was not a leader. More of a protector. They cared. Deeply. They had spent their entire life protecting their friends, even if it meant they had to put their life at stake. They had always been here to lend an extra hand when needed, like helping Donnie with his inventions! Thanks to his patience, Harper had learned a lot of things about technology and machines. They maybe weren't as good as the softshell, but it was sufficient to build simple things on their own once in a while. So maybe becoming the war technician's right hand man would have been a more fitting choice? But not a lieutenant. They couldn't make decisions. They couldn't help Leo… but they couldn't help Mikey either, he was doing fine on his own. And now, without Raph or Donnie… Harper felt useless.
Harper shook their head in an attempt to chase away the bad thoughts from their brain, immediately sinking back inside the notebook they were examining.
Donnie's handwriting was a pain to decrypt. Harper softly smiled as they were remembering how annoyed the softshell used to be when they were mentioning that his scrawls were reminding them of an old doctor's writing. Always letting out a scoff before lightly punching Harper in the shoulder. Sure, Donnie was always writing as if he was running out of time, filling notebooks after notebooks of inventions, but to be fair, Harper couldn't care less about how illegible his notes were. With time, they had learned to understand the words behind those rushed and rough lines, sharp and precise, just like Donnie's ideals.
How bittersweet was it to see that somehow everything was filled with his essence, almost like if at any moment, Harper would hear the clear sound of his stride, rushing in the hallway, before entering his lab, a bright expression on his face as he was bragging about a newest invention of his genius brain.
By habit, and maybe in a desperate attempt to hear the familiar pace of Donnie's step, Harper started to pay attention to the noises around them.
The lair was silent. At this hour, everyone was probably asleep. Leo had surely put Casey to bed, as usual, the little boy would have cried, held onto the Slider's scarf and asked him to stay here and protect him because he was afraid of falling asleep alone. Leo would have sighed, laid next to the little boy, and too exhausted to stay awake until his protégé was asleep, he would have drowsed until they were both sleeping like logs. Mikey had surely started meditating a few hours ago, but completely drained after goofing around all day, he would have ended up drooling on his mat, head upside down, in the most uncomfortable position ever known to man and mutantkind, snoring like if he was having the best night of his life. Draxum, without a doubt was at Splinter's side, fighting against Morpheus as best as he could, so if anything went wrong, he could aid him, checking regularly if his fever was getting worse or not. As for April, she was most certainly peacefully asleep, finding comfort in her own dreams, Mayhem curled-up next to her, in the security of their own room. Finally, Shelldon was surely not too far, charging his batteries somewhere in the lab.
As Harper's mind was wandering around the lair, a voice pulled them out of their reverie.
"Harper?"
Startled, they leaped out their chair and threw the notebook at the voice, in an odd attempt to defend themselves. The notepad bounced against something in the shadows before landing in a corner next to a pile of spare parts.
"Rude dude." Two glowy purple eyes glared at Harper. "You're lucky I don't have any pain receptors."
"Shelldon?" Asked Harper.
"Well, do you see any other awesome robots around this lab?" The purple Droid joked as he stepped out of the shadows, firmly standing on both of his metallic feets. He looked nothing like the little drone he was before Donnie had rebuilt him after the Shredder attack.
"You scared me! Aren't you supposed to charge up your batteries?"
Shelldon waved some cables under Harper's nose and said, "Well… Something was wrong with these. I wasn't charging correctly so uhh- I came here to change them."
Harper observed the wires for a second. They look perfectly fine? They were not an expert, but something was off.
Harper looked back at the robot who was standing there awkwardly, surely knowing the lieutenant had sensed something was wrong. The emoting antennas on his head were moving from side to side, as he was readjusting the bright pink bandana wrapped around his neck.
"Shelldon, are you sure these cables are broken? I changed them last week. Aren't they supposed to be brand new?"
The droid looked around the room as if he was visually looking for an excuse.
"You're just like Donnie, you know? A terrible liar" retorted Harper. "Now tell me… what do you really want, Shelldon?"
The robot stepped closer to them before placing the cables on the desk to talk.
"I really can't hide anything from you-" He joked, with a slight sad tone in his voice. "I'm just… kind of worried for you that's all. I've noticed you were spending way more time in the lab than usual."
"I guess you're right." Harper replied, turning to face the large computer screen next to them so they could look at the time. "I've just been trying to keep my mind busy. Tomorrow won't be an easy day and I fear the moment it will come… so I'm not really it the mood to go to bed and wait for it to happen"
Tomorrow…Harper's jaw clenched at the thought of this day. Tomorrow would be the 2 years anniversary of the terrible accident which took Donnie's life. And just like for Raph and Cass', every year, a speech was given in their honor, to remember their heroic actions, and grieve once more, just for a day. Though it had been a long time since Harper had pretty much healed physically and mentally from this loss, or at least they tried to believe it was the case, they couldn't lie to themselves… they missed the softshell dearly.
They had been together since they were teenagers and without him, Harper's life would have been way different. For a second, Harper was taken back to the day they had met these strange turtles. It was a weird day for sure. In just a few minutes, they'd been attacked by a monster and the moment after, poorly rescued by four humanoid turtles. Even though Mikey was the first one to truly open up to Harper, becoming friends with them quickly, Donnie, this softshell who seemed so unemotional and a little scary at first, turned out to be one of the most passionate people Harper had ever met. And after realizing that they both had similar hobbies, they became inseparable. How Harper missed these good old times, when everyone was happy… and alive.
"Uh, you're with me Harper?"
Shelldon's voice once again made Harper snap back to reality. It took them a few seconds to realize they'd been zoning out and to readjust themselves to the conversation.
"Right. Sorry… I was just thinking" Harper mumbled, their vision still a little blurry. To be fair, they couldn't tell if it was because their mind had drifted away, or if it was because while doing so, tears had started to fill up their eyes.
The robot placed his cold hands on Harper's shoulders and stared at them for a second. It honestly felt like he was scanning their soul, looking for any sign of distress in Harper's body language. His metallic emoting antennas went back, as he took note of Harper's subtle crying.
"I know tomorrow won't be an easy day…" He gently grabbed Harper's face with his other hand, his glowing eyes filled with a deep sadness. " I know how you feel… I miss him too… but you're going to be okay I promise. Just like last year, everything is gonna go well." He whispered.
Harper finally let the emotions flow out of their body, as they suddenly wrapped their arms around Shelldon.
"Thank you for being there Shelldon…"
"Careful with the crying! You're gonna drown my circuits!" He kidded, softly. "Now you better go to bed. My sensors are saying you're exhausted AND dehydrated so please for the love of pizza, drink some water and rest. Your body needs it. Plus you know Leo, he'll surely wake you up early for tomorrow's speech and he'll be pissed if you don't wake up."
Harper wiped the tears off their eyes and released Shelldon. The robot emitted a cheerful sound, almost like a cat purr, before taking the lieutenant to the entrance of the lab. The big metallic doors opened, revealing the dark hallway extending behind them.
"Good night Shelldon.."
"See you in the morning, sleepy head!"
Harper stepped inside the dark hallway as the lab's doors were closing behind them. It was silent. The lieutenant stood there, eyes closed, drained of all energy, everything around them was numb. Though they didn't want to admit it, fusing with their bed was actually not such a terrible idea now.
They mechanically started to walk in the direction of their room. As they passed in front of Mikey's room, they noticed the door was open. The soothing candlelight was emanating from this gap. Curious, Harper approached the room and carefully peeked inside. Mikey was curled on his mat, his hair falling in front of his face. Well, actually, the word "tangled" would have been more fitting to describe the absolute hell of a posture in which the box turtle was peacefully asleep. Harper smiled. Mikey.. one of a kind. I wonder how he never gets insufferable back pains after that. I guess he felt worse. Harper's eyes landed on his shell. Halfway through his back, a bandage was wrapped, and the top part of his shell was completely replaced by a Genius build prosthesis, covered in stickers. No matter how impressive this injury was, Mikey was never complaining. He was such a kind soul… no matter how hard the times were, he was always happy, always cheering everyone.
Harper slowly closed back the door to leave the orange turtle alone and headed to their room. This time, nothing interrupted their walk to their bed.
The lieutenant arrived in front of a large circular door, with the Genius Built logo engraved on a disk in the middle of it. Harper pressed their palm on it and the door silently split in half to reveal a room. It was messy, filled with notebooks, pictures, memories they had salvaged from their old habitation. There was a small dog plushie, with a red collar, resting against some books on a shelf. It made Harper smile.
In the corner was laying a simple mattress covered with ragged blankets and a dirty pillow. Maybe not a king sized bed with clean and soft covers, but Harper was so tired that they could have literally slept on the sewers' floor.
They didn't take the time to change and immediately collapsed on the mattress right after gulping some water from a can. Harper's mind started to put itself to work, thinking about tomorrow. It will be okay. Why wouldn't it be? Sure, this will sadden me for a few days, but I'll get through these days just like every year right?
The thoughts slowly faded away in the night as Harper finally let the sleep take over their body.
Tonight would be a good night for Harper. But somewhere, in a place far far away from the Resistance's hideout, but somehow close to Harper's heart, something was awake, something which was about to change their life forever.