Leo has notice something strange since they've returned from their jaunt around time and space. They've all talked about the weird worlds they ended up in...all of them except Donnie. Every time one of them brings up anything from their time spent in a different world Donnie gets oddly quiet, and often times he slips away and heads straight for his lab. Leo doesn't know what he's been doing in there, but Donnie has been spending more and more time locked away in said lab, sleeping less and less as he tinkers with something in there. The most concerning part of all of this, however, is the way Donnie looks at them all sometimes.

During training Donnie will often just stare at Master Splinter as though he's afraid their sensei is going to disappear at any moment. He tends to stick to Raph's left side for some reason, and always breathes a little sigh a relief every time he catches the other turtle's eye. Sometimes while Leo is watching TV, he'll notice Donnie silently creeping close to him, and just staring at the back of his head for innumerable moments before walking away without a word, but the oddest thing by far is the way Donnie interacts with Mikey. Much like he does with Raph, Donnie tends to stick to Mikey's left side, but unlike with Raph, he'll periodically grab Mikey's forearm, wrist, or hand. Usually, Donnie just squeezes Mikey's arm for a moment, and then walks away as though nothing happened. The first few times it happened, Mikey just shrugged it off as brotherly affection, but it's been happening with increasing frequency, which, along with Donnie's lack of sleep, has all of them worried.

Leo has spent the last few hours meditating, trying to figure out the best way to approach his brother about his progressively abnormal behavior, but he has yet to come up with a viable solution. He doesn't want to make Donnie defensive, but it's clear that something is bothering his younger brother. Leo sighs as he gets to his feet. It's late and he needs sleep before training begins. He's sluggishly making his way to his bed, when all of a sudden he hears a scream coming from down the hall. Leo runs out into the hallway, nearly crashing to Raph, who has also been disturbed by the sound. They both stare at each other for a moment, dazed by the near collision, before another shout is heard.

The two of them rush towards the only room the abrupt noise could possibly be coming from, and find Donnie, lying on his stomach on the floor, his chair toppled over onto its side. Raph huffs out an annoyed breath as he moves to help Donnie off of the floor. "You fell asleep in front of your computer again, doofus. You have a bed for a reason."

Raph gets Donnie into a sitting position on the floor, and for a moment Donnie looks absolutely petrified before staring at both of them as though he's looking right through them. Raph tries to move away, but Donnie clutches at his arm. Raph freezes and turns back toward his brother, kneeling beside him. Wordlessly, Donnie brings his hand up to trace the area around Raph's left eye. For once, Raph doesn't say anything. Instead, he simply stays kneeling by his brother and lets Donnie trace his brow bone over and over again.

After a few moments, Donnie finally drops his hand away from Raph's face only to place it back on his arm, keeping Raph where he is. Donnie's attention falls on Leo, who merely kneels on the other side of his brother without uttering a single word. Donnie's right hand reaches up and traces over Leo's head a few times before he sighs in content. Leo can tell that Raph is two seconds away from demanding to know what all of this is about before Donnie turns wide eyes on Leo and mutters, "Mikey, I need to see Mikey."

Neither one of them get a chance to say anything before Donnie is on his feet and moving toward the door, with the two of them are left staring blankly after him for a moment before they both get to their feet. They hurriedly follow their brother all the way to Mikey's room, and watch as he goes to his still sleeping brother. Neither of them is surprised that Mikey is still sleeping, despite all of the commotion. The turtle could sleep through almost anything, and apparently that includes Donnie's nightmares. Donnie suddenly grabs Mikey's left arm and squeezes it. Mikey shifts in his sleep, but doesn't wake. "It's okay. I'm home. They're okay. They're whole. They're alive." The only reason they can hear Donnie whispering the words over and over to himself is because of how still and quiet it is with Mikey still asleep and the two of them standing stock still by the door.

Leo catches Raph peering at him imploringly out of the corner of his eye, silently asking him what to do and how to fix this. Leo wishes that he knew. He feels sick. He knew something was wrong with Donnie ever since they got back, and he's been ignoring it, hoping that it would just go away, because he was too afraid of making everything worse. Leo knows now that his inaction has caused far more harm than any of his words could have possibly done. Leo grabs Raph's arm, and drags him over to where Donnie is kneeling on the floor beside Mikey's bed murmuring to himself. They kneel down beside him and gather him into a hug. "Donnie, I'm sorry. We should have asked if you were okay and done something when we realized that you weren't."

Donnie shakes his head. "No, I should have said something."

Before Leo can say anything more, Raph suddenly kicks out, hitting Mikey fairly hard in the leg. Mikey startles awake and falls out of bed. "What? Huh? Hey, why wasn't I invited to the family hug?"

Raph rolls his eyes, but Leo can feel his arms tightening around both Donnie and him. "You just were, pizza brain, so get over here."

Mikey clambers over towards them and wraps his arms around them the best that he can. Leo doesn't know how yet, but he silently vows that they will help their brother in whatever way they can. He has a feeling, however, that it's going to need to start with a lot of talking. "So, tell us about the world you visited, Donnie."

Donnie takes a long, deep breath, and then begins to speak in low tones. "It was pretty ghastly, and I never want to visit there again." They remain on the floor huddled together as Donnie tells them every detail of world he visited.

XYZXYZ

Leo blinks awake sometime later. He isn't sure when they all passed out or what woke him, but as glances around the room to see his brothers lying on floor, still clustered together, using each other as pillows, he figures they've earned the sleep. Leo catches a glimpse of Master Splinter's tail retreating from the room and smiles, because apparently his sensei agrees with him.

The End