"Hey April!"
Mikey's voice when he greeted her was a little hoarse, and April prayed prayed he hadn't been crying. He was tucked snugly against Raph's side, under a strong arm, and his smile- tiny, compared to the usual stretching grin, but still warm- gave April the courage to take another step inside.
"I came to see how you were doing," April said, attempting a smile of her own that didn't seem to sit right on her face. She watched Donnie's shoulders heave in a barely-there sigh, and he rubbed his forehead wearily.
"There's still no change."
While the king bed was huge, large enough that Mikey and Raph could sit comfortably against the quilted headboard without disturbing the bed's still occupant, Donatello was in a wooden chair he'd drug from across the room. The edge of the seat had to have been digging into his thighs painfully, but he leaned forward anyway, his hands folded gently around one of Leonardo's. He hadn't even looked up at her yet.
April sat gingerly at the foot of the bed and didn't reach out to touch his arm; though she wanted to. "I meant you three. We haven't seen much of you since we got here."
She didn't mean for Raph's eyes to cut away, or for Mikey to look so sad, and her heart ached when the youngest turtle reached plaintively for her. "We're sorry. It was really great of you to give us a place to go, and we haven't even said thank you."
There wasn't a force on earth that could have stopped April from taking Mikey's outstretched hand, thinking of the way he'd put his arm around her in the living room the day the invasion started, and again in the sewer that same night when Raph shoved her to one side in the wake of anguish and rage.
"You don't have to thank me for this. Or for anything! What's mine is yours."
It was usually pretty easy to cheer Mikey up with a kind word or a gentle touch, but his smile came slowly this time, an uncertain, creeping thing, and she let him go when he pulled away. She knew all about needing time and needing space. And God help her, if April had to fight tooth and nail to earn each and every smile from her boys then she would.
Getting to her feet, she said, "Casey found some pot pies in the deep freezer out back. Come and eat with us." When none of them moved except to find something else to look at, she put a hand on Donnie's shoulder and continued gently, "He'll be okay here."
"What if he wakes up while we're gone?" His voice was only barely louder than a whisper, hands curling tighter around Leo's. They'd taken Leo's mask off with unending care, along with his wraps and joint pads, and under the warm lamplight their older brother's face was beaten and bruised. "We have to be here, he can't wake up all alone."
"Leo has nightmares about that," Mikey said softly, and April closed her eyes against waves of empirical misery and secondhand sorrow.
"Okay," she murmured, when she was sure she wouldn't scream curses at the Kraang or cry, "then how about you take turns? That way someone is always here, and everyone has a chance to rest and eat. And to- and to run a nightly perimeter check, make sure the house is safe and secure," she continued quickly, trying to sell it. April knew they'd be interested in protecting what they could, knew they were the type to find safety in each other's safety, and she could see hard lines in Raph's face relenting already at the idea of doing something to keep his ragtag family out of harm's way.
"But Mikey stays with me," he said after a long moment. Glancing down at his baby brother, something fond and fierce in the green of his eyes, he added, "Gotta keep an eye on him in a place this big."
"Of course," April agreed right away, not about to lose the ground she'd gained, and pretended not to see the relieved little cant of Mikey's shoulders or the smile that dimpled his cheeks in the next second, because they weren't for her. Turning back to Donatello, moving her hand along to his opposite shoulder so she was almost hugging him, she asked, "What do you think?"
"I think..." April couldn't really see his face, nothing save for the barest profile, but his voice was thick with tears when he blurted, "I think the last things I said to him were awful."
And then he was crying, shoulders shaking silently, the weight finally too much to bear without bowing. As much as it broke April's heart, she'd kind of been expecting it since she walked into the room. At this point he probably needed the emotional detox.
"He didn't deserve that. He didn't need me fighting him, not when our home was gone and the world was ending and he had all of us to worry about. I wish he'd wake up so I could- so I could tell him- "
Mikey leaned over, moving out from under the safe blanket of Raphael's arm to touch Donnie's face as tenderly as a mother might have.
"He already knows, bro," the little turtle said, round blue eyes searching red. "It's Leo, you know he knows."
Raphael looked torn somewhere between miserable and exhausted when he looked at Donnie. It had to be so easy for him to look after Mikey, who adored Raph clear for everyone to see; being a big brother to brilliant, independent Donatello must have been difficult in comparison. But the desire was still there in every inch of Raph's face to pull Donnie in across the distance their personalities put between them and make him safe.
He settled for saying, "You'll see, when he wakes up he'll tell you himself." Then, fumbling and achingly sincere, "There's nothin' you can't fix, Donnie. Leo's in good hands."
Donnie blinked, meeting Raph's eyes from his side of the bed; and maybe sometimes it wasn't that hard to little brother him, after all, because the creeping, leeching guilt in Donnie's face was clearing, love and gratitude taking its place with alacrity. He covered Mikey's hand with his, the shadow of a smile tugging at his lips, and when he finally leaned into April's arms, she squeezed him tight.
The elephant in the room had finally been given the boot, the brittle silence gone the way of tree leaves in the fall. Mikey was helping Donnie wipe his face with the edge of the duvet, doing more harm than good, but accomplishing an ulterior feat of his own; Donnie was grinning when he finally wrestled his person out of Mikey's helpful hands, and Mikey's face shone with joy at the sight of it.
"And when he sees you're all hungry and exhausted he'll kick your butts," April added pointedly, raising an eyebrow. "So maybe you should do what I say and come down for dinner."
Donnie finally looked at her and his shy smile was the sweetest thing she'd seen all day.
"Can I sit with him a little longer?"
"Sure Don, me and Raph will go first." Mikey pushed at Raphael's arm until he rolled his eyes and stood from the bed, freeing room for Mikey to hop after him. "I need to check on Kitty, anyway, she might be freaked out in a strange freezer."
Raphael pushed open the door, let April step out first, and called back over his shoulder, "Countin' on you, doc. Take care of us."
Then he tucked Mikey against his side again- the orange ninja chattering a mile a minute about leftovers and freezer burn- and Casey called their names from down the hall with a grin in his voice that April could hear, and with whole pounds lifted off her chest, April closed the door on Donnie's soft, "Forever."