"I wish my brother was more considered of other's feelings."
His eyes would immediately fall upon his brother.
He lay so still on the bed, with the cover drawn up to his neck as though he was sleeping. Yet, there was no mistaking the truth of his situation.
It was striking… the contrast between life and death.
Donatello would cross the room and take the seat next to his bed. His hand would seek that of his sibling and feeling the coldness in his limbs almost immediately release it. They are cold blooded, so they are never warm on the best of days. Yet, this was different, and feeling that differences, he drops his face into his hands and wept.
"Raphael, I am sorry."
This was his fault.
He had played the part of their medic, he was the scientist, the genius, and yet, he had failed them so utterly. Something had been wrong with his brother, something that he should have caught.
Why didn't he check him more thoroughly?
They had all been blown off the side of a build thanks to an explosion. They had landed on the fire escape, but only Raph had been hanging over the edge of the railing. His head pointed towards the concrete that would have ended his life if he slip forward.
At the time, Donnie had thought that the worst threat.
Simply pull him back to the side of the living, and everything would be alright. He hadn't been alarmed, he had remained unconscious all the way home; their eldest brother had been the same. So, there was no fear there, but if he knew what he did now. He would have checked his brother from head to tail.
Leo had woken up.
Raph had woken up.
Everything should have been okay.
And it had been, they had watched a movie together.
They had eaten together.
Then everyone when to sleep.
Everyone should have woken up, just like normal, but Raph.
He must have missed the injury.
It had to be something internal.
It was his fault.
Donnie's eyes went to the silent figure. His heart quivering at the sight, as more tears ran down his face. Logic no longer had a home, rationale was forgotten in the wake of everything that had happened. His eyes were big and puffy.
His brother was being inconsiderate of other's feelings again.
Donnie left the room to his eldest brother.
"I wish he would just follow my commands for once"
He was rude, loud, and disrespectful. He never followed my orders, and he did everything I didn't want him to do. And, I wouldn't change a thing, if I could do it over again.
Leonardo sat with his brother.
Acceptance has finally filtered through.
Before, he had spent the last twenty minutes raving at his brother …commanding him to get up. Trying to order him to open his eyes, to simply squeeze his hand. Though he knew, Raph almost never did what he was told. Just once in his life, he had begged …just once.
Now, now …time was running out.
There was nothing more he could do.
No more commands he could issue, nothing more he could threaten or bargain with. No, there has been just cold acceptance.
His brothers ….once he had three …now it would be two.
He closes his eyes, and imagine his fallen brother getting up to yell at him. His voice would scream out, and he would feel his own heart beat with a similar pose. Rage that would break his control would shine through for a moment, and he would throttle it down to keep from throttling him. Yet, somehow no matter how bad things got, no matter how much they fought, he knew. They always work best together. His longer range weapon, and Raph's short. They generally sought each other out in battle, and would work together to take down the worst enemies. IF they weren't together, they still worked together apart.
They kept the other two safe, and now …it all rest on his shoulders.
Leo pats his brother's cold shoulder.
He was sitting right there beside him, but they were never further apart.
"I found out why you disobey my orders on the mission before your last. Mikey told me, you struck first because you saw the phone in the Robofoot's hand, and we all figured you were trying to keep them from radioing them for reinforcement. It was why they were so few, they had broken apart to search for the mutagen. Then, Donnie summarized, the reason you broke formation was to keep him and that one footbot with the canister separated from everyone else. You made sure it couldn't get away, and that there was no accidents that way. It was tactically sound."
Leo's own voice started to crack at the end.
Yet, he couldn't make the words stop as the tears flowed.
"It's funny how …I never saw you that way …until you were gone."
The thought ran through his head …of recklessness that if he looked at it differently wasn't reckless at all; of moments of hotheadedness that had level headed results. All the times they fought, because he couldn't look back and see what was so obvious to the others. Now …Now…he was only one side of a broken coin. They were yin and yang. Fire and Water. One mind, one body. Brothers forever.
"Why can't you just follow this one command, Raph? Wake up …don't be dead."
"Please."
(chapter 2 finished)
(I will apologize ahead of time for combining these two, but I didn't want to spend much more time on this part of the story. I am ready to get to the important bits, but I had to go through the angst first.)
