Archive of Our Own

The lights in Science Lab 7 were low when he got there, and Don left them alone as he walked in. His improved night-vision was good enough it wasn't a problem, and the lab's recent long-term resident didn't seem to mind the reflective red glow of his eyes.

As the door hissed closed behind him, there was a quiet clatter from the compact containment field. Moments later, his adopted nanite swarm's robot body peeked over the raised edge. "Daddy!" it chirped happily, waiving an arm.

"Good morning, Nano," Don quietly greeted the child, smiling as he moved closer. He dropped his bag at his feet and leaned over the control panel. After quickly adjusting the containment field's settings with practiced ease, he reached in to pet the little bot's head. As usual, Nano leaned into the contact and grabbed his hand with both tiny arms.

"Hello, Daddy!" Nano replied, proudly showing off its new ability to form multi-word sentences. It couldn't manage more than two at a time, and they often sounded disjointed due to it mimicking the inflections from the simple language learning module on the PADD it had built its body from, but it was progress. Mikey assured Don that at Nano's developmental level, it was actually excellent progress.

"I have a surprise for you, today," Don said with a grin, rubbing the side of the child's head with his thumb before gently extracting his hand.

Nano bounced in place and flapped its little arms excitedly. "Yes! Yes good! Please! Thank you!"

Don chuckled as he bent down to rummage in his bag. "I haven't even told you what it is."

"Please please!" Nano squeaked.

Straightening, Don hid the object in his hands from the child's view. "Well how can I refuse such a polite request?" he said, grin widening. "How…would you like to take a walk?"

Nano stared up at him for a moment, then started hopping and emitting a sound like high-pitched electric feedback. Don laughed and patted the air with one hand in a futile attempt to calm it down. "Okay! Okay, it sounds like you like the idea."

"Yes! Yes please! Daddy yes! Thank you!"

"First there are some rules," Don said, holding up a finger. "And a…present. To help with the rules."

Nano stopped bouncing and stood up straight. "Yes please!" it chirped.

Holding up his other hand, Don opened it to reveal the flat, hexagonal box of a personal forcefield emitter. "This is the present," he said, holding it closer to the containment field so the nanite child could see it easier. "It creates a forcefield around your body that moves with you instead of being stuck in one place. I made some modifications so it should last longer and continuously draw from the same power source that you do. Which means more recharging for you, but also more freedom."

Nano tilted its little head in confusion.

"That's where the rules come in. I know I've explained how you came to be here, that you're made of the shed nanites from Lobeling. Remember?"

"Yes!"

Don smiled at the answer. "Good. Well, Captain Sentry doesn't want you shedding all over the station. And because Captain Sentry is in charge, we have to follow his orders. This personal forcefield will keep all of your nanites together, so you don't lose any. And if you're not in danger of shedding, you can walk around the station!"

Nano bounced in place again, excitement returned. "Yes! Good! Thank you!"

Chuckling, Don leaned over the control panel and reached into the forcefield again. The nanite child wiggled the ends of its arms in clear grabbing motions as Don held out the forcefield emitter to it. When Nano picked up the emitter and held it up to study it, Don patted it on the head affectionately.

"You should be able to integrate yourself into it like you did with the PADD," he explained.

Nano tilted the emitter from side to side consideringly, then pressed it to the flat plane of its torso. There was a blurring around the emitter and torso that Don assumed was the nanites breaking down the material of both to better merge them. He would check the scanners later for more details.

For now, Nano had centered the emitter on its torso in such a way that Don assumed it was meant to be decorative. The nanite child spread its arms as if to show it off and he nodded seriously.

"Yes, very stylish," he agreed. "We'll have to show your Uncle Mikey later."

Nano hopped and flapped its arms happily. "Yes! Good!"

After Don explained to the child how to turn on the forcefield, even though he probably didn't need to, there was a familiar buzz and sparkle as it activated. Nano twisted itself around as if looking itself over with the invisible forcefield in place, then tilted its head up and held its arms out to Don.

"Ready?" Don asked, carefully picking up the child with one hand. With his other hand, he tapped the control panel to enter the command to drop the containment field.

Belatedly, he realized this was his first time picking up the nanite swarm. Before he had time to overthink it, Nano was wiggling excitedly in his grip and patting at his wrist like a bongo drum. There was a faint hum from the forcefield, but he was used to holding things that emitted all kinds of energy fields so it wasn't off-putting. Slowly, he pulled the child closer, clearing the edge of the containment field without issue and uncertainly holding it against his chest.

Nano responded to this by bouncing a little and patting his chest. "Yes, Daddy."

"Uh…hm." Don looked down at the little mech, then down at the ground, eyeballing the measurements. He was pretty sure the child didn't even come up to his knees. "Well…do you want to walk or do you want me to carry you?"

Leaning back in his arms to look up at him, the child tilted its head in thought. Then Nano snuggled closer and pointed to the door. "Daddy good."

Don's heart did something funny at the simple trust and affection so easily given by the little nanite swarm. He had to clear his throat before he could speak. "Okay," he agreed, starting for the door.

A thought hit him and he paused, then turned back to the control panel and his bag laying on the floor in front of it. He hummed consideringly as he returned to it. Balancing carefully on one foot, he hooked the other foot under the bag's strap and lifted it enough he could grab it without bending over. He was pretty sure he wouldn't drop Nano if he bent over, but he wasn't sure how the child would react to that kind of jostling.

Lifting the bag's strap over his head, Don secured it diagonally across his chest and smiled down at the child. "Okay, now we're ready."

"Good!"

Their first stop was Mess Hall 7, where Don found Mrs. Morrison bustling about making sure it was ready to serve breakfast. "Good morning!" he greeted her.

The woman paused in the middle of setting a tray of biscuits in the stasis case. Looking up, she sent a kind smile in the direction of the door. "Good morning, dear!" she replied cheerfully. "Is that Donatello?"

"Yes, ma'am, and Nano," Don answered, walking closer and holding the nanite child up so it could see the human easier. "Nano, this is Mrs. Morrison. Remember her?"

"Yes!" Nano chirped, bouncing excitedly and waving at her. "Hello!"

Don chuckled. "It's waving," he told her.

"Oh, call me Mrs. M, your brother does," she said. "Now refresh my memory, Nano is…the nanites the doctor found on me when I was sick?"

"It was my brother Mikey who found them, but please don't let him hear you call him a doctor. I don't think we'd survive his ego."

Mrs. M chuckled and swatted the air in his direction. "Well either way, it's lovely to meet you properly, Nano."

She opened her mouth to say more, but was interrupted when the door behind her hissed open. "Hey, Mrs. M, where ya want th' eggs?" Raph asked, walking out holding a large tray of fluffy scrambled eggs. He looked up and froze, eyes widening when he caught sight of Don. His cheeks flushed brown in embarrassment and Don pressed a fist to his mouth to help bite back a laugh.

Unaware of the brothers' silent reactions, Mrs. M smiled and turned to face Raph. "Boiled or scrambled, dear?"

"Er, scrambled," Raph said, looking down at the tray as if he had forgotten what he was carrying.

Mrs. M sniffed the air and nodded. "Of course, I can smell the garlic. Right in the middle is fine for now. We'll sort out the order when we have more trays out."

"Yes, ma'am," Raph mumbled.

"Your brother was just introducing me to…Nano, was it?"

"Yes!" Nano chimed in, waving at her again before squirming around to wave at Raph. "Hello M! Hello Uncle!"

Names were a bit more complicated than the child could manage yet, but the language modules programmed into the PADD that made up its body included alphabets and family members. So Nano was doing its best with those and Don was proud of its efforts.

"Yeah, hey there, squirt," Raph replied, setting the tray down where directed and giving a quick wave back once his hands were free. "Ya finally get sprung from th' galaxy's most high-tech playpen?"

"Yes! Good!"

Raph snorted and shook his head. "Really exercisin' that vocabulary, huh?" He glanced over at Don to ask, "So what's the occasion?"

"Captain Sentry wanted the lab freed up for regular use," Don explained, looking down at the nanite child in his arms and smiling when it tilted its tiny head. "But he also didn't want a repeat of the nanite shedding problem. So we're testing out a possible solution!" He held up Nano so his brother could see the hexagon now embedded in its torso. "I modified a medical-grade personal forcefield emitter. I figured if it could keep something as small as a virus out, it could be adjusted to keep singular nanites in."

"An' how'd ya do that?" Raph asked suspiciously.

Don beamed innocently at him. "Reversed the polarity."

Back in their second year at Starfleet Academy, Raph had taken an intro to engineering for non-engineers class. He'd claimed it was so he could better tell if Don was pulling a fast one on him with technobabble, but Don suspected it was really so Raph could better understand him when he went on science tangents. Don hadn't shared his suspicion, but had nonetheless been touched at the effort his brother made. It also meant that he could actually discuss ship designs with Raph, which they both enjoyed.

During that semester, Raph had complained to him that it seemed like every test problem they went over in class, the solution was to reverse the polarity. He'd complained at length about it, especially when Don had laughed at him and pointed out there was an entire upcoming unit in the class on when reversing polarity actually worked.

Raph's breaking point had been the class's midterm exam. Apparently as soon as he sat down to take it, his mind had blanked on everything he learned in the class. So he had gone through and answered "reverse the polarity"on every multiple-choice question that had that option and everywhere else that allowed him to write it in, then fudged the rest to the best of his ability.

He passed the exam.

The final grade on it didn't even bring down his total grade for the class.

Afterward, Raph had declared engineering to be BS and Don had a new method for teasing his brother. Don would often tell him that his solution to a problem was to reverse the polarity, even if that had nothing to do with it, and see how long he could keep a straight face.

It was extra funny when it was actually the solution. In this case, changing the forcefield from keeping things out to keeping things in had in fact involved some amount of polarity reversal, thought it wasn't all he had done to the emitter.

Raph growled irritably at him and Mrs. M chuckled, reaching out to pat Raph's arm. "I'll leave you two to catch up. It was lovely to hear you again, Donatello. And to meet little Nano." She waved in their general direction and walked toward the door in the back wall.

"Bye, Mrs. M!" Don called after her, then turned back to Raph. Grin widening, he cuddled Nano close again with one arm and gestured toward the tray of scrambled eggs with his free hand. "So…"

"Shut it, Don."

"I was just going to say how nice it is of you to help out your mom!" Don said innocently.

"Don!"

Snickering, Don backed away toward the entrance. "I promised Nano a walk around to station, so I should get back to that."

Raph pointed at him threateningly. "I ain't goin' easy on ya in trainin' this week, Don."

"Looking forward to it!" Don yelled over his shoulder as he made his escape.

The turbolift was apparently a new experience for Nano and it made a squealing electric feedback noise when it started moving. Don chuckled and absently petted the child's head as it flapped its arms excitedly.

"Daddy!" Nano exclaimed, as if Don might have missed that the small room they were in was moving.

"This is a turbolift," Don explained. "It moves up and down between the levels of this space station. In some ships and stations they can also move horizontally, but due to the partially Triceraton design of Manhattan, they're only able to move vertically here."

He continued telling the child everything he could remember about turbolifts until they reached the habitation level. As they exited, Nano peeked over his shoulder to wave goodbye to the turbolift. Don bit his lip to hold back a laugh at the child's actions.

Thinking back to the brief tour Mikey had given him when he first arrived on the station, Don pointed out a few things. Such as the bent guardrail where Raph and Monza Ram had fought, and the not-donut shop Mikey liked.

Nano twisted and turned in his arms to look wherever he pointed, its tiny hands flapping when it caught sight of each landmark. Occasionally it would pipe up with a happy "Good!" and bounce in Don's grip. Don's own hands twitched with sympathetic movement and he grinned at the little bot's excitement.

"And here's the infirmary," he said as the door slid open in front of them. "This is where your Uncle Mikey found you on Mrs. Morrison."

"Good!"

"Good morning. May I help you?"

Only biting down on his tongue kept Don from letting out an embarrassing yelp of surprise. A human-looking man with lavender hair was just exiting what looked like an office.

"Oh! Uh…no, sorry. Just…showing them around the station." Don tried to hold up Nano in explanation, but the child clung to the strap of his bag so tightly he only managed to raise it about an inch. "Do you work here?" He tried to ignore the unease creeping down his shell at the very likely possibility that the seemingly-human man was a doctor.

The man gave an amused smile and murmured, "I'm Dr. Mortu, I'm the CMO. I've recently been cleared to return to work."

"Oh, I thought Dr. Leatherhead was the CMO," Don blurted, mentally berating himself as soon as the words were out.

Dr. Mortu actually looked proud at that, though. "Yes, he managed the recent medical crisis with exceptional professionalism and grace under pressure. I couldn't have asked for a better stand-in while I was ill." He tilted his head curiously. "Are you one of Michelangelo's brothers?"

"Donatello," he answered, shifting his grip on Nano so he could offer a hand. "Call me Don. Actually, is Mikey in right now?"

The doctor took his offered hand and gave it a quick shake, then glanced over his shoulder. "I think he and Leatherhead were discussing something in my son's office."

"Your-?"

"Leatherhead," Dr. Mortu clarified. "He's my adopted son. You're welcome to go back and speak to them if you wish." He pointed toward a closed door. "His office is the third door on the left down that hallway."

"Uh…thanks!" Don very carefully walked toward the door at his normal pace. Though he may have rushed a bit as soon as it hissed open, then slumped as soon as it closed behind him.

Snuggling up against his neck, voice quieter than usual, Nano said, "Daddy."

"It's okay, buddy," Don reassured it absently, counting the doors as he passed them. "Dr. Mortu seemed nice. And I'm sure he is if he raised Dr. Leatherhead."

Nano just patted his collarbone.

As they reached the third door, Don lifted a hand to knock but froze when the muffled sound of Mikey's flirty giggle drifted out. Don stared at the door for a moment and grimaced as he considered his options. Then he decided that interrupting whatever his brother was doing with Dr. Leatherhead would be infinitely less awkward than explaining to Dr. Mortu why he changed his mind about visiting.

Mind made up, he lifted his hand again and gave a firm knock on the door.

From inside the room Mikey gave a muffled yelp, followed by a thump, and then came the sound of Mikey cursing. Smirking a little, Don cupped a hand around the side of his mouth and called out, "You better not teach my kid to curse before it can even say your name, Mikey!"

Moments later the door hissed open with Mikey leaning both arms against the frame, blocking the entrance with his body. His face was flushed and his uniform jacket was hanging open, though Don honestly wasn't sure if his brother's state of dress was notable. Mikey seemed to have some weird aversion to keeping his jacket fully closed.

Except when he was at risk of being vomited on.

Mikey glowered at him, then sniffed indignantly. "Just for that, I'm teachin' it all the swears." Then he grinned and reached out for Nano, who was making grabby-hands at him. Taking the child from Don, he spun away and skipped back into the office, cooing, "Hear that, buddy? Your Uncle Mikey's gonna be a bad influence on ya."

"Uncle!" Nano squealed, waving its little arms in excitement.

Mikey squealed back and held the child out to Dr. Leatherhead. "Look how cute my nibling is, LH!"

Smiling indulgently, Leatherhead replied, "The cutest nanite-based lifeform I've ever seen."

"Thank you!" Nano chirped, reaching out for him.

"Awww, it wants ya to hold it," Mikey said, handing Nano over to the startled doctor.

Leatherhead fumbled his grip on the child before holding it up awkwardly. "Oh! I don't know if— I'm not very good with children."

"Relax, LH, it's made of metal," Mikey reassured him flatly. "I doubt you could hurt it even if you tried."

"L H!" Nano happily wiggled in the doctor's grip.

Leatherhead's eyes went wide as he stared at the nanite child. "I… Yes, that's me, child. Have you been having a good morning with your father?"

"Yes! Good!"

"I'm pleased to hear it."

Nano made one of its buzzing little electrical happy sounds and snuggled up against the doctor's large hands.

Distracted by their interaction, Don didn't notice Mikey's hand on his arm until his brother was tugging him out of the office. Mikey shoved Don a little further down the hall and the door hissed closed behind them.

"I'm only forgiving you for interrupting because now I know LH is unfairly adorable with kids and I want to adopt like a zillion war orphans with him," he said with fake irritation.

Don made a face at him to show he didn't appreciate the confirmation that he had in fact interrupted something. "I was taking Nano for its first walk through the station. I thought you would enjoy a visit from your nibling."

Mikey held a glare for a moment longer before he dropped his head back and groaned. "Yes. Obviously I'm happy to see my li'l buddy." He sighed and shook his head, leaning back against the wall next to him. "So I take it your little experiment was a success?"

"It appears to be so far, but I'll be checking in with Chief Honeycutt at the end of our walk to make sure it didn't shed anywhere," Don said, barely able to stifle his enthusiasm for the upcoming data collection.

Based on Mikey's snicker, he didn't stifle it enough to get past his brother.

"Just be sure to mention the help and inspiration I provided when you write a paper on it," Mikey teased, flashing a wink and a smile at him.

Don snorted and leaned over to bump his shoulder against Mikey's. "I always properly cite my sources."

"Think I could get a co-author slot if I wrote up a thing on how we used the forcefield emitters to investigate the Stockman Virus?" Mikey asked, grinning.

Shoving him, Don laughed. "You can get co-author on the paper we write about discovering Nano was sentient."

Mikey actually stumbled, too startled to catch himself. "Wait, for real?"

"Well who else is going to write up the results of those tests you gave it to prove sentience and determine its developmental age?" Don asked, motioning to himself with exaggerated disbelief. "Me?"

"Good point," Mikey admitted, shoving himself away from the wall so he could face Don and spread his hands between them. "Okay, segue so I don't have to deal with how touched I am: I found a guy in the Triceraton crew who can do tattoos on scales! Sooo, if you ever want some help getting a little more settled in your skin, that's an option."

 "Oh, that makes sense." Don tilted his head as he considered it. It had been a fun thought experiment ever since Mikey originally suggested it, but not something he had considered as an option any time soon. Somehow he hadn't made the connection that if tattooing scales was possible, the Triceraton contingent of the Manhattan crew might know something about it. "Let me think about it a little more. I had some ideas I was toying with, but nothing I'd be comfortable doing right now."

Mikey nodded. "Option's there if you're interested. Along with the offer to get inked with ya."

Grinning, Don ducked his head. "No matching tramp stamps."

"But how else will I let everyone know I'm down to party?" Mikey asked, pouting.

"By getting one yourself and leaving me out of it?"

Mikey sniffed dramatically. "Not as fun. And then no one'll know you're down to party."

"I'm not!" Don squawked, startled.

"Well not with that attitude," Mikey said judgingly, pointing at him and squinting a little.

"I'll get back to you on the tattoo idea," Don told him firmly. "After I've thought about it seriously, we can talk about it over midnight orange slices or something."

Mikey snickered and leaned back against the wall next to him so he could elbow Don. "Sounds like fun. Think we can manage it with less crying next time?"

"I'm game to try if you are," Don said dryly.

Cackling, Mikey leaned on his side and jostled his arm. "That's the spirit! C'mon, let's go rescue LH from your weirdly cute robot kid." He pushed off the wall and headed for the office door, but paused in front of it with a thoughtful look on his face. "Hey Donny?"

"Yeah, Mikey?"

Turning back to him, Mikey grabbed his shoulders and gave him a serious look. "Be honest with me, bro."

"Okay?"

"You think I can get LH to agree to elope so we can snipe 'first to get married' from Leo, too?"

Don stared at him.

"Since you already stole 'first to give Sensei a grandkid'."

Don blinked. "Honestly, Mikey?"

"Yeah?"

"I think Leo might actually kill one or both of us if you did."

Mikey stared at him.

Don stared back.

Mikey's lips twitched.

Don broke first, snickering as he hung his head and shook it.

"Ha!" Mikey crowed in triumph, letting him go and turning back to the door. "Okay, but I am gonna tell him I did."

"Just don't expect me to help you hide from him."

"Betrayal from my favorite brother!"

Before Don and Nano left the infirmary, the child made sure to show off the metal hexagon embedded in its torso. Mikey gushed exaggeratedly about how fashion-forward his nibling was, and how it must have gotten its sense of style from him instead of Don.

When Don half-heartedly protested, Mikey leveled an unimpressed stare at him and reminded him that Don had tried to wear his uniform to go work out with Raph until Mikey intervened.

"Daddy!" Nano squeaked, somehow managing to convey disappointment with the same inflection it always used.

"Quit badmouthing me in front of my kid," Don told his brother petulantly.

Dr. Leatherhead politely covered a chuckle with a cough, while Mikey stuck his tongue out and reluctantly handed over the nanite child. Then Mikey sat on the edge of Dr. Leatherhead's desk and made shooing motions at Don.

"Get outta here, I got stuff to do. Let me know when we need to meet for orange slices."

As the door closed behind him, Don could hear Mikey saying in a low voice, "Now where were we…"

Don made a face and hurried down the hall before he could overhear any more. Though he technically wasn't trying, he managed to avoid Dr. Mortu on his way out of the infirmary. The spike of anxiety he felt at the thought of encountering the humanoid doctor was probably something he needed to work on.

Some other time.

For now, he was taking a walk with his child.

There were a few more landmarks he wanted to show Nano, that he had scouted out ahead of time in anticipation of showing them to the child. There was the station's classroom for teaching any children that might join their parents on Manhattan. Then Don found a nice big window so they could watch a routine test flight of the station's runabouts.

Since it was Raph piloting and he knew they were watching, he did a barrel roll to show off. Nano cheered and waved its arms, happily chirping, "Uncle! Uncle!"

After that, he didn't think he had enough energy to keep exploring. So, mentally cursing the reduced stamina he still hadn't fully built back up, Don decided it was time to check if the experiment was a success.

"Let's go visit Chief Honeycutt in Ops," Don murmured, bouncing Nano a little in his arms. "We'll get to take a turbolift again."

"Yes! Good!"

Smiling at the child's enthusiasm, Don headed for the nearest turbolift.

To their mutual surprise, Leo joined him a few levels up. Nano excitedly chirping "Uncle!" at him as soon he appeared in the doorway.

"Don!" Leo blurted, absently waving to the nanite child. "What are you doing here?"

Leaning against the back wall of the turbolift, Don gave a tired smile and held up Nano. "We're testing if the modified personal forcefield emitter will be enough to keep the nanites contained, so Nano doesn't have to stay in the lab. I just need to check in with Chief Honeycutt so he can scan the station for stray nanites."

"Well good luck."

"Uncle!" Nano insisted, making grabby hands at Leo while leaning away from Don.

"Do you mind?" Don asked, holding the child up to his brother.

"Oh, um, okay?" Leo stammered nervously, holding out his hands to take the child. He held it up awkwardly and stared at it for a moment before glancing at Don for direction.

Don rolled his eyes. "Just treat it like a metal teddy bear, Leo. It's not going to bite you. It doesn't even have a mouth.

"I'm more worried about hurting it than it hurting me," Leo grumbled, nonetheless holding the child close against his chest. Nano responded by happily patting at his arm with both hands and leaning its head against his shoulder.

Closing his eyes, Don gave his brother a tired thumbs-up.

"You okay?" Leo asked quietly.

Don grimaced. "I think I overdid it a little today. I'm going to need a nap after this." His tone clearly communicated just how disgusted he was by the necessity.

Snickering, Leo absently patted Nano's head. "Ah, sleep, your archnemesis."

"If my kid wasn't here, I'd flip you off," Don told him flatly. "It already learned that from Raph and I'm trying to unteach it."

"Good luck with that too, I guess," Leo said, handing Nano back to him as the turbolift came to a stop at Manhattan's operations center. "Though unless you're planning to ban Raph from seeing it, that's probably a lost cause."

"Let me dream," Don sighed, cuddling Nano close and following Leo off the turbolift.

"Daddy!" Nano squealed, patting his collarbone and pointing at their surroundings.

"Yep, turbolift and a new place," Don agreed. "Exciting stuff, huh, kiddo?"

Leo snickered again, but mercifully didn't comment. "The engineering station is over there," he said, pointing to the side. "That's where Chief Honeycutt usually works when he's up here."

"Thanks, Leo," Don said, stifling a yawn.

"Thank you!" Nano chimed in. "Uncle!"

Grinning, Leo waved to Nano and then shot Don a sympathetic look. "Get some rest after this, Don. You really look like you need it."

Don just stuck his tongue out at Leo, too tired to inject the proper level of sarcasm into a reply. Turning away from his quietly laughing brother, Don made his way over to the Ops engineering station. He could see Chief Honeycutt half hidden behind a structural pillar.

As he got closer, he could hear the man was humming to himself, a metallic undertone to his voice as always.

"Hey, Chief!" Don greeted him, joining him at the control panel he was working on.

Honeycutt startled and looked up quickly. "Oh dear! Mr. Hamato, it is good to see you, my boy, but I could do without you sneaking up on me. Ah, and our little test subject!"

"Nano," Don corrected firmly.

"Of course, of course, Nano. Hello there."

"Hello," Nano said quietly, snuggling up against Don and tentatively waving a tiny hand.

"Adorable," Chief Honeycutt proclaimed, smiling.

Don cupped a protective hand around the child and gently told it, "Remember I told you Chief Honeycutt's the one who found you all over the station and brought you together?"

"Yes. Good."

"He's also the one who gave me permission to let you stay in the lab until we could find a more permanent home for you," Don added, trying to reassure the child that there was nothing to fear from the man.

Nano perked up at that and lifted its head to look at Chief Honeycutt. "Thank you!"

"My absolute pleasure, Nano." Honeycutt chuckled and turned back to Don. "I take it this is the last stop on the station tour?"

"Well…one more stop if the test was successful."

Honeycutt nodded and turned back to the control panel, opening a map of the station and a scanning program. "In that case, let's not put it off any longer!"

As Don watched, data from the scanning program scrolled by on one screen, too fast for him to read. But on another screen, various sections of the station map were being highlighted in red. Unless Honeycutt had changed the settings since the last time Don saw him run the program, that meant it wasn't finding nanites in the areas it was scanning.

"So far so good," Don murmured, absently petting the nanite child cuddled against his chest. In response, Nano patted his hand.

If Chief Honeycutt heard him, he didn't mention it. The man started humming to himself again, watching the results of the scan as they came in.

Finally, the computer beeped to indicated the program had run its course. Based on the map, nanites had been found in only one area of the station: a very dense cluster in the Ops Center.

"Daddy!" Nano chirped, pointing at the map.

"Yes, that's you!" Don agreed, holding the child up so it could see the map easier. "You didn't lose any nanites, kiddo!"

"Well done," Chief Honeycutt said, closing out the program and smiling at them. "I had the utmost faith in your abilities, Mr. Hamato. Congratulations."

"If congratulations are in order, I assume the experiment was a success?"

Surprised by the voice, Don clutched Nano to his chest tightly, getting an electrical whine of protest from the child. He spun around to find Captain Sentry one level up, gazing past him to Chief Honeycutt.

"A complete success, Captain," Honeycutt replied, motioning to the map still up on the screen. "The only nanites on Manhattan are the ones contained within this ingenious little collection of repurposed parts. I'll send you the results of my scan."

"Good," Captain Sentry said, leaning on the railing. "I want weekly scans for the next month. If there aren't any accidents in that time, we'll meet to discuss if we can discontinue the scans." With that, he turned to look at Don. "Mr. Hamato, do you still feel confident in your ability to continue to care for the nanite swarm?"

Don stared at him for a moment, then blurted, "I had a choice?"

That got a reluctantly amused smile from the captain. "You didn't have one before. I'm giving you a choice now."

Pursing his lips and narrowing his eyes, Don considered his answer. Finally, he sighed as he held Nano close and replied, "Honestly, sir, I don't think I ever really had a choice. At this point, I'm just following a long-standing family tradition."

Captain Sentry chuckled. "Can I take that as a 'yes'?"

"Yes, sir, I'll be continuing to care for Nano."

Nano waved an arm at the captain and chirped, "Thank you!"

Smiling down at the child, Captain Sentry waved back.

After Captain Sentry left to attend to other duties, Don leaned against the nearby support pillar and chatted with Chief Honeycutt about the modification he had made to the forcefield emitter. The man seemed to think there were other potential applications for it and was eager to discuss the possibilities with him.

However, after the third time Don badly-suppressed a yawn, the chief had chuckled and dismissed him. Cheerfully telling him to get some rest, Honeycutt returned to the work he had been doing before Don got there.

Another exciting turbolift ride brought them to the crew quarters level. Don got a little turned around, initially starting down the hallway in the wrong direction. But doing an aboutface only one door down from the turbolift, he quickly reoriented himself and headed down the hall in the correct direction.

"I actually have a second surprise for you," Don told the child, moving Nano to hold in the crook of one arm so he could see and talk to it easier.

The child flapped its arms excitedly. "Yes! Good yes! Please Daddy!"

Chuckling, Don petted the child's head with one finger. "Well, wait until you see if before getting too excited."

"Good Daddy!"

Don idly hoped he never did anything to shake the child's faith in him, even though he knew it was an impossible hope.

Finally, they reached the correct door and Don entered his code. The door hissed open and they stepped inside for the first time.

After staying with Mikey so long, it was strange to not immediately be greeted by Klunk. However, the quarters also weren't filled with ugly pottery.

And he could always visit his brother if he needed fluffy cuddles.

"These are our new quarters," Don said in a hushed voice, his free hand tapping against his thigh as he turned in a small circle to take it all in. Maneuvering around the child carefully, he pulled the strap for his bag over his head and dropped it onto the couch that came with the standard crew quarters.

Aside from the lack of decorations, it looked almost exactly like Mikey's quarters. There was nothing particularly special about the rooms.

But they were his.

"Welcome home, Nano," he murmured, hugging his child closer.

"Thank you, Daddy!"