(5653 Words)
"I'm burning." It was quiet but the brunette across the room could hear it clearly. "Raph?" Donnie asks, looking up from a journal he had been writing in. "Raph, what's wrong?" Donnie asks, worry leaking into his voice as he speaks. "I'm burning." Raph says louder, still laying on his side in his bed. He had been changed into a white T-shirt to get rid of the sewer and blood smell.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa whoa, whoa, Don't do anything just yet." Donnie says, quickly closing journal and standing up. "Burning how? Burning like you're really hot, or burning like burning?" Raph flings off his blankets, springing lively out of bed "I'M BURNING!" he shoves Donnie out of his way and sprints out the door, Donnie staring at him in shock from the floor.
Donnie stands up and goes running after Raph. "Raph, come back! You're fine!" Donnie shouts as he starts catching up to Raph. "It burns so bad!" Raph yells, cutting a corner too close and running straight into a wall. He falls to the floor, starting to curl in on himself. "Raph, Raphael, settle down, you're fine. I promise you're okay." Donnie says, crouching down by his brother.
Raph shakes, dragging his nails against his skin. "It hurts!" Donnie pulls his hands away so that he couldn't scratch himself. "Raphie, please-" Raph reaches up, quickly slapping Donnie in the face. Donnie sits, horrified at Raph's actions. "Get off!" He shouts, scrambling up. This time Donnie doesn't chase after Raph right away.
"He hit me..." He mumbles, watching Raph sprint away. He shakes his head and stands up, taking a deep breath and running after his brother who was halfway down the hall and shoving random people out of the way. "Raph!" Donnie shouts again in vain. "Oh God, please don't hurt anyone Raph..." He whispers.
"Mr. Higgs, Where am I? What's going on?" Leo sits on the floor of his therapist's office, staring up at the man he'd known for so long like a lost child. "Leonardo you're in my office, you remember that right?" Leo starts standing up. "Y-Yeah, I remember your office. Wh-Where's Donnie? He... He said we'd play cards as soon as- as soon as..." Leo looks at Mr. Higgs. "How long ago was that?"
Mr. Higgs frowns. "Since the last time you were lucid? About a week and a half." Leo face-palms. "It's so choppy. Was- Was I-?" Leo sniffs his shirt. "Aw- Was I in a sewer?" Mr. Higgs laughs a bit. "Uh, yes." Leo tugs at his shirt. "Awe man! Did I do anything? Like other than somehow ending up in a sewer?"
Mr. Higgs nods. "Yeah... Uh You... Last week you got a little violent. You and your brother had a fight and you knocked him out cold for three days." Leo covers his mouth. "Who? Which one?" Mr. Higgs scrunches up his face. "Raphael." Leo smiles. "Well, I guess it's okay then." He says sarcastically. "Is he okay now?"
"Oh yeah, he's okay now. Well, sort of. He and your other two brothers followed you. He ended up hurting himself as well." Leo groans. "Not again! Raph's smarter than this!" Mr. Higgs shrugs. "It's not good but like we've told you multiple times it's an emotional thing, not a smarts thing." Leo rubs his head, blond hair getting pushed out of place.
"One of these days I'm going to become- I'll wake up and I'll find out that Raph's dead." Leo says, laughing breathily. "Don't say that." Mr. Higgs says, rubbing Leo's arm. "We're helping him as much as we can, just like we're helping you. Now, how about you come sit and we can talk."
Leo nods and starts towards the desk. "Gosh, I feel so... So clear right now... Like-" Leo stops when he hears a scream from the hall and turns back to the door. "Hey, that sounded like-" Another scream flows under the door. "It hurts!" Leo springs at the door. "It's Raph!" He tugs on the handle and looks back at Mr. Higgs.
"Please open the door! I need to get out to Raph." Mr. Higgs motions for Leo to sit down. "Someone else can and will take care of him, right now come sit and we can talk over what all happened." Leo shakes his head. "You don't understand, I need to get out to him. He's hurting and I'm his older brother, I need to help him. I'm never able to help him because I'm never okay- I'm never there for him, but I am now and I can help him now!"
Mr. Higgs frowns, rubbing his chin. "As long as you're back in..." He looks at the clock. "Exactly eight minutes you may go help." Mr. Higgs unlocks the door with his secret button and Leo flies out the door and runs down the halls, trying to locate his distressed brother. "Raph!? Raph?!" Leo calls, running straight into his brother.
"Leo!? Leo, I'm burning! It hurts so bad, Leo make it stop!" Raph says from the floor. Leo crawls over to Raph and grabs his hand. "Hey- Hey buddy, Raph. it's okay, you're okay. You're not burning." He says softly. Raph looks up at Leo with pure panic in his eyes. "I-I am. I am!" Leo grabs Raph's other hand as an out of breath Donnie runs down the hall from the other end. "Oh gosh Leo!" Donnie huffs. "Thank God you caught him."
Donnie collapses to the floor next to Leo. "I've been chasing him for five minutes at high speed- I'm so out of shape." Raph struggles on the floor, trying to catch his breath. "RAPH!" Leo shouts. "Listen. You are fine. Listen!" He shouts again when Raph starts squirming again. "You're. Not. Burning." Raph nods, still squirming. "It still hurts." He says more calmly.
Leo frowns and looks at a clock a bit down the hall. "I don't have time.." Donnie looks Raph over, lifting up his shirt slightly. "Hey Leo, I think Raph might have actually be burning. Just not in the same way as we thought." Leo looks as Donnie lifts Raph's shirt again, revealing reddened skin. Bumped up in most spots. "A rash..." Leo mumbles.
Donnie ignores Raph's grunts of protest as he folds the clean, white t-shirt up. "It must've been from being in the sewers." Donnie trails a hand around the rash taking up most of Raph's chest. Leo cringes at how red the rash was. "Donnie, I can't stay out here for very long, can you make sure you keep an eye on Raph? Call someone to help or something?"
Donnie nods. "Yeah, I-I'll make sure he doesn't move from this spot... Wait... Wait! Are you- ?" Leo nods with a small smile. "Oh my gosh, Leo!" Donnie springs forward, hugging Leo as he holds Raph down. "It's been way too long!" Leo lets go of Raph with one hand to hug Donnie back. "Are you still up for that game of cards?" Donnie pulls back, confused for a second. "Oh! Oh yeah! Totally, once all this is cleared up." He wipes his eyes from the small pooling of tears.
Leo nods and takes Donnie's hands, putting them over Raph's. "Keep him here until someone comes to help." He stands up and starts jogging away, going back to the office. Whenever Leo was lucid he ended up taking charge of any and all situations concerning his brothers, even if they really didn't need to be.
Leo finds his way back into the office, just as his eight minutes were up. "Ah, punctual as always. I trust you handled everything alright?" Mr. Higgs says. Leo nods. "Perfectly. Raph had a rash or something on his chest and I guess that induced some... Tactical hallucinations."
"Is anyone with him now?" Mr. Higgs says, writing something down as Leo sits in the chair across from him. "Yeah, Donnie is holding him in place until someone can come help... He's really having a bad day..." Mr. Higgs nods. "Indeed. Now, back to business. How much of today do you remember?"
Leo folds his arms on the desk and lays his head in the middle. "Well, I remember I didn't eat breakfast but I was really hungry... I remember getting out of the building and then... Then I remember seeing..." Leo stops and turns his head, looking away. "What did you see Leonardo?" Mr. Higgs asks, leaning forward a bit.
Leo curls his hands into fists. "I-I don't want to say." Mr. Higgs looks down at his notebook and back up at Leo. "It's okay. Just tell me what you saw." Leo puts his head all the way down in his arms and shakes it slightly. "I thought I saw my sister." Leo tenses up tenfold. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I tried so hard for her to go away but I won't stop seeing her." Leo pushes his chair back.
"I tried so so hard. I know you said this one is bad. I know you said this one is so bad but It won't go away, I'm sorry." Mr. Higgs just looks at Leo calmly. "Leonardo, I know you're trying... I know... But you cannot keep seeing this." Leo pulls his feet up onto the chair with him. "Maybe we should change your medication back."
At this Leo shoots out of his chair. "No!" Immediately he recoils. "I-I mean... I- That stuff makes me feel so... out of control. When I take it I already feel like I'm drowsy and out of it." Mr. Higgs nods. "Fine, We won't change it back just yet, but you may need extra counseling." Leo shakes his head. "Just-... Why? Why does this one have to be so bad? I see things all the time!"
"If you didn't think this one was so bad, nothing would have to change!" Leo says, throwing his hands up. Mr. Higgs motions for Leo to sit back down. "Leonardo you had an unhealthy obsession with that creation of your mind. Your sister died when you were three and ever since then you've been seeing her and calling her your 'friend.'"
Leo frowns. "You started to get into trouble after a while because of this hallucination. In trouble with the law Leonardo." Mr. Higgs adds when he sees Leo roll his eyes. Leo's eyes widen slightly. "I-I don't remember that..." Mr. Higgs continues. "Yes. You hurt your brothers and father defending this ghost and you nearly got yourself killed multiple times." Leo looks terrified at this.
"Do you see now why that I believe this hallucination is bad? It's dangerous to yourself and others. I don't want to see you get hurt." Mr. Higgs finishes. Leo hugs himself. "I'm sorry. I understand. I'll try harder."
Raph sat up against a cold white wall, his stomach and chest burning like the fires of Hell. He wanted to do something about it, itch it, bite it, peal it off, something. But he was being held in place by his older brother who kept reassuring him that he would be okay and that he couldn't touch it.
He didn't know or understand why not? His skin stopped burning except for that spot. Why not get that part to stop too? "D-Don... Donnie... Donatello, I- Please? I need ta' get it off." Raph says shakily. Donnie shakes his head. "Nuh-uh. You can't. If you 'get it off' you'd be taking off your skin. And that'll hurt a lot more than it does right now."
"It hurts though." Raph says pleadingly Donnie holds him tighter as he struggles more. "D-" Raph starts to say something but he freezes, something in his brain goes off and he stiffens up, grabbing onto Donnie's wrists tightly. He shakes subtly and his eyes widen to the size of golf balls. His breathing comes out is short huffy breaths as his shaking gets more violent.
"Raph? Raph, oh boy... Hey, come on man, you're gonna be okay." Donnie says, pulling him away from the wall. He tries to hold Raph in place as best he can for the full two minutes that he convulses. Raph goes limp but he was still obviously conscious. He groans and slowly moves his arms to wrap around his chest, letting Donnie go. "HELP!" Donnie shouts, realizing how badly they needed someone now. "HELP! MY BROTHER JUST HAD A SEIZURE!" It was amazing that nobody had come to their aid yet.
Raph groans again, turning over to his side. "W-whath happolnd..." Raph slurs, his speech messed up. "H-Hey buddy, hey... You-you had a seizure, do you feel okay?" Raph tries to sit up, placing a hand down on the floor while the other stayed tucked by his chest. "I-... Doth- Donth feel g-g-gooood..." Donnie nods and puts a hand on Raph's shoulder. "Okay, okay someone will come help us okay?"
Raph doesn't say anything, bringing his hand up to his chest and tries to stand up. He doesn't seem to even care that he had just had an episode. "Hey, Raph, don't get up. You might fall. In fact, you probably will fall." Raph still doesn't listen, standing shakily and stumbling over to the wall. "I wanna go to bed Dondie."
Donnie stands and puts his arm around Raph's waist. "Raph." Donnie wines. "Why do you always have to be so stubborn?" Donnie looks around, helping Raph to wherever it was he wanted to go, anxiety building up in the older brother. "Someone! Please help us!" Donnie yells again, just as a man in scrubs dashes around the corner.
"Boys, boys, boys. What's the problem, what's going on?" The man says, helping Donnie steady Raph. "H-He had another seizure. His speech is slurred and off. Please help him?" The man nods and takes Raph from Donnie completely. "I'll help him, I promise." Donnie holds his stomach and bites the inside of his cheek, bouncing up and down a bit on his toes.
Raph tries to push the man away, grumbling. "Hey, hey, I'm gonna help you okay?" Raph grumbles again and looks back at Donnie. "Donnie..." He says, his words still slurred. "Ngghhh-" Raph moans, pushing the man off of him and stumbling to the floor. "Gooo awaay..."
"Raph please don't make this difficult for them. They're just going to help." Donnie says, helping his younger brother up. "We need to get you cleaned up." As if on cue three other orderlies come around the corner holding cleaning supplies, medical kits, and a few other things seeing as they didn't know the extent of the problem at hand.
Raph groans and glares at the new orderlies. He leans against the wall and tilts his head against it. "Hey bud, can you tell me your name real quick?" A younger looking man says. "Noooo... Go away." Raph drones out. "Come on, just a couple questions, can you tell me your name?" Raph shakes his head and slides to the ground. "IIII... I'm Fiiiinne- Stooop it."
Donnie taps Raph's shoulder. "Come on, they just need to make sure you're okay. You know these questions, I'm sure. Just answer them and you'll be done." Raph groans and drops his head forward. "Mmmmm... K..." Raph finally complies. He goes through the 'four W's' easily and they check him over for any cuts or bruises from falls. They put ointment and a bandage over his rash to make sure he wouldn't mess with it.
One of the nurses leads Donnie away. "We'll take care of him, don't worry. For now just we'll just go back to your room. You wanna play a game of checkers? Chess? I think I could get a board for us to play on." As two people help lift the boy up to leave, Raph has a muscle spasm causing his arm to fling out to the side, hitting one of the men in the neck. "Ah- Shiiiiiiit. Sor-Sorry." He tries to say. "Not your fault, it's okay..." The man who had been hit says. They sit for a minute, letting the man recuperate.
"Come on ya big lug, you're still pretty out of it." The second orderly says, both helping Raph up a bit further so that they could take him to a safer place to rest. As the orderlies help him walk down the hall He looks around and frowns. "Where's Leo?" He asks sluggishly. "He probably went back to your room. No need to worry." Raph slowly shakes his head. "Nooooo. Leo has- He has to be here." Raph slurs, pulling against the two strong men with incredible strength for someone who had just had a seizure.
"No, now come along. You need to rest. Staying in the halls isn't going to help anyone." One of the orderlies says as he pulls Raph down the hall. "NOOO!" Raph shouts. He yanks on his captors arms, wanting to be let go. "I-I neeed- I need- MIKEY." Mikey rounds a corner, holding a stuffed bear and a letter. "Raph, I was just looking for you! Donnie said- He said you had a seizure and I thought I'd bring you this guy to make you feel better." Mikey waves the bear's arm.
"You're such a dor-dorrrk..." Raph says with a small, lopsided smile. "Yup, that's me." Mikey says, holding the letter closer to his chest. "Hey, so are you going to go get fixed up so that we can chill?" Raph mumbles a bit to himself and nods before allowing the orderlies to help him down the hall. "I'll see you later man!" Mikey shouts, walking away.
He could tell Raph wasn't lucid and he could tell he was feeling the after affects of a seizure hard. Acting like everything was normal helped on both ends. As Mikey walks away he hugs the bear to his chest. He was hoping that by now Raph would be in a bed somewhere. Somewhere where he'd be calm and he could give the unstable boy what he needed.
He wanted to make sure Raph knew what happened. Most of the time Raph didn't remember what happened in his seizures or after so Mikey had planned that he'd give his brother the letter and once he was alright enough to understand he'd read it and he'd know what happened. Raph always hated not knowing what was going on with himself.
Mikey goes to the room he shared with his brothers, sitting down on Raphael's bed and staring at the bear. "Didn't go too well?" Donnie asks, his gaze stuck on a journal. He had told the nurse that he just wanted to be alone. "Raph was still in the halls. He was fighting against the orderlies... again..." Mikey flops back on the bed. "Donnie?" Donnie doesn't change his stare. "Yeah Mike?"
"Why do you think it's so hard being the most lucid out of the four of us?" Finally Donnie puts the journal down. "Why do you ask?" Mikey shrugs and plays with the bear. "I don't know... Raph's just had a weird day and Leo hasn't been lucid in a while and you and me seem like the only ones who actually are slightly in touch with reality... You know?"
Donnie turns to be facing Mikey completely, though he was across the room. "I kinda know how you feel. We can be out of it sometimes but Leo and Raph? They're out of it a lot, like all the time. It's scary you know? Like with Leo he's always a danger to himself and sometimes others. But he's much less scary than Raph..."
Mikey nods. "Raph's really scary sometimes... Not just scary like I'm scared for me, but scary like I'm scared for him." Donnie nods and walks diagonally across the room to the only bed on the right side of the room. "Yeah, when Raph hurts himself, and I've caught him a couple times, it was really bad."
Mikey and Donnie share a shiver. "I'm also afraid he'll get himself in trouble. Like one time he was in solitary. For a week. Because he went into a rage and broke someone's arm. I was there Mike. It was terrifying." Donnie sits down on Raph's bed along with Mikey. "I'm never that scary am I?" Mikey asks, putting a hand on Donnie's wrist.
Donnie flinches and Mikey lets go. "Oh, Sorry." Donnie puts his hand on Mikey's "It's fine. Raph just has a tight grip... No, you're never on Raph's level of scary. The most you've done is maybe startle me with a scream or something. You're the most lucid out of all of us so I wouldn't expect you to be too scary."
"Am I?" Donnie finishes quietly. Mikey wants to destroy any idea of Donnie thinking he was scary to him but he couldn't lie. "Well... Sometimes... When you're completely out of it... You say some scary things, do some scary things." Donnie furrows his eyebrows, propping himself up. "Like what?"
Mikey hugs the bear to his chest tighter. "I-I really don't want to talk about it..." Donnie sits all the way up, turning his torso towards Mikey. "Mikey, come on. You have to tell me. If there was something about you that you didn't know I'd tell you, one hundred percent."
Mikey picks at the bear's fur. "You-you uh... You've talked about death statistics and talked about how likely we are to die here. Sometimes you'll act like everyone here isn't really here. Like you think your mind has made all of this up and you're actually in some abandoned building or something. That's when you start doing scary things." Mikey says, not looking at his brother.
Donnie puts his head in his hands. "I know I'm not gonna like the answer... But what did I do?" Mikey grabs Raph's pillow and shoves it over his face. "You started to shut me- us out. You stopped doing anything and you just laid in bed. You didn't eat for a week and that was the longest you've ever been out of it. You'd also start talking to the... 'Demons' you called them. Talking to them about morbid things you could do to us."
Mikey fiddles with his fingers. "So I guess it's not mostly what you did, but what you didn't do." Donnie bends his fingers into fists. "I'm sorry Mike..." Mikey shakes his head through the pillow. "It was a while ago now. It's fine. You don't do that as much anymore." The two wallow in the silence until their usual check in opens the door. It was a tall black man who Mikey swore didn't own a hair on his body.
"Hey boys-!" He says in a peppy voice. When he sees them in the state they were in he walks up to then and places a hand on their shoulders. "Hey, lets get you guys out of here. You're starting to look like shriveled up prunes." When the boys don't move he sits next to Donnie and folds his hands in his lap.
"What's going on? What's going through your heads right now?" Donnie shakes his head. "Nothing, just... Stuff." The man pushes further. "What kind of 'stuff?'" He makes air quotes with his fingers. Donnie turns his head away, leaning forward on his hands. "Stuff about our brothers." The man smiles a little, his yellow scrubs being the only other bright thing in the room.
"Mind filling me in?" Donnie sighs and closes his eyes. "We were talking about how Leo and Raph aren't doing so hot... Actually Leo is lucid for the first time in a long time." Mikey throws the pillow off his face, small forgotten tear tracks were left there. "Leo's lucid!? How come you didn't tell me! That's like not telling someone their brother is home from the freakin' war Donnie!"
Donnie fumbles with his words. "Well- uh I um... You were so worried about Raph when I told you about his seizure so I didn't think to tell you." Mikey throws the pillow in Donnie's face and jump up. "We need to go find him, now!" Mikey starts out of the room, leaving his brother and the man behind.
"Hey! Mikey wait up!" Donnie shouts, pushing himself off the bed. "Hey, hey, hey. Hold up. Do you even know where your brother is?" The man says, grabbing Donnie's wrist. "Ow!" Donnie jolts back and snatches his wrist from the man. "Oh, I'm sorry!" The orderly says. "I didn't know. What happened?"
Donnie bounces on the balls of his feet. "Uh- Uh, Raph. He grabbed me during his seizure. Can I go make sure Mikey doesn't tackle our brother or something?" The orderly gestures to the door and Donnie takes it as an okay, running after Mikey with a smile on his face.
When Donnie finds Mikey he was on the floor on top of Leo. He latched onto him in a hug before glancing through the large window in the door beside them. "Leo! I can't believe you're lucid! Are you visiting Raph too?" Donnie chuckles and helps Leo by yanking Mikey off his chest. "Oh, yeah, I heard he had a seizure after I left and I thought I'd make sure he's okay. Was it a bad one?"
Donnie nods. "Kinda. You know that one seizure he had just before you came here?" Leo nods. "It was like that." Mikey slumps in Donnie's arms. "Have you seen him yet? Is he upset? He was last time." Donnie shakes his head. "No, I haven't-" Mikey interrupts. "He seemed mad but he was with a couple guys at the time so who knows how he'll be around us."
Leo cringes. "And... He seemed pretty out of it too." Mikey adds. Leo sighs and pulls Mikey to his side. "You know what? As long as we're all together and alive, I'm okay with it." Donnie walks up and hugs Leo. "It's so good to have you back." Donnie says. "I never left bro." Leo says, opening the door to the room Raph was in.
There was a medical ward where anyone who was hurt or had hurt themselves would stay. Raph ended up there a lot. "Oh man, I think he's sleeping." Mikey says in a whisper. "Of course he's sleeping Mikey, he just had a seizure." Donnie says, elbowing his little brother. "They're going to have to wake him up soon to make sure he's okay..." Leo mumbles to himself. All three crowd around his bed and Mikey sets the bear next to Raph.
"Are they gonna wake him up soon?" Mikey asks, looking to his older brothers for answers. "I don't know Mikey, They don't do it at exact times or anything." Leo says as Mikey pokes Raph's cheek. Donnie nods and puts a hand on top of Raph's. "He'll be okay though. He's been through worse." Mikey puts the letter on Raph's chest and watches it as it moves up and down steadily as Raph breathed.
Leo points to the letter and gives Mikey a confuse glance. "In case you forgot?" Leo says, reading the print on the letter. Mikey nods. "Yeah, I thought that since he sometimes forgets things after seizures I'd write out what happened for him so that we don't actually have to talk about it, especially if it's embarrassing and he gets to know what happened."
Leo nods. "That's cool of you Mike. Good idea." Mikey beams at his older brother's approval. "Guys, I think he's waking up." Donnie says in a hushed tone. They watches as Raph moves around in the bed. "Raph? Are you awake?" Mikey asks. Raph flings an arm around, lightly slapping Mikey's arm. "Nmmm..."
"Mikey..." Raph groans. Mikey leans closer. "Fuck off." Leo snorts and Mikey crosses his arms. "I guess you don't want the letter then seeing as all you have to say to me is 'F' Off.'" Raph opens his eyes and blinks slowly. "Wha' letter?" Raph says, his speech not completely there yet. "The letter I wrote you just in case you couldn't remember what happened." Mikey says with a huff.
"Where-?" Raph looks down at his chest and rolls his eyes. He picks up the letter and tears it open. "Mike... I don't know what I'd do without your stupid ideas." Raph grumbles, unfolding the piece of paper. "If they were so stupid you wouldn't want them at all." Mikey says, smirking and leaning on Donnie. "How much can you remember?" The aforementioned genius asks.
Raph shakes his head as he starts reading the letter. "None of the start of this letter, that's for sure." As he continues down the page his eyes grow narrower and narrower until he crumples the paper and chucks it across the room, crossing his arms and glaring away. "Uh... Hey Raph?" Donnie says.
"Wadd-ya want." Raph grumbles, sinking lower in the bed. "Are you mad at us?" Donnie asks cautiously. "because technically we didn't really do anything. And to be mad at us would be uncalled for and unjust seeing as-"
"I'm not mad!" Raph interrupts. All three of his brothers look at him with wide eyes. Raph looked very child like. He had his arms crossed still but it was accompanied with a small pout and watering eyes. "I'm upset." Leo wraps an arm around his brother. "It's alright Raph. Everything's fine." Raph shifts. "You don't know anything. You're never even lucid."
Leo shakes his head. "I am now and I know you're having a rough day-" Leo stops when he sees Donnie and Mikey shaking their heads. "A rough day?" Raph says quietly. "A ROUGH DAY?!" Raph slams his fists down on his thighs. "That's all you have to say?! You're having a rough day?! It's way fucking more than that!"
"You brought us all out and into that sewer! You made us all get in trouble again and because of that shit. I raged against someone and fucking BIT them! I got a rash on my stomach, I cut myself, and I had a fucking seizure an' I can't remember shit of it! So don't tell me I'm having a rough fucking day, I'm having a rough fucking LIFE!" Raph slams his fists into the head board of the bed, a cracking sound emanating from the action.
Leo sits, completely unfazed by Raph's outburst. "Come here." He says quietly, just now noticing Donnie and Mikey had moved away a few feet. Leo pulls Raph into a tight hug as slow tears start scrolling down Raph's face. "I know. I know it's been bad. But all you need to do is remember that we're here for you no matter what."
Raph goes limp in Leo's arms, bloody hands dropping onto the white sheets. They had cracked the head board, leaving Raph with open wounds all down the sides of his hands. Raph's slow, quiet tears start turning into loud sobs wracking his whole body. If they didn't know any better they would've thought he was having another seizure. He hated crying.
Donnie was the first of the two to get closer to Raph. He places a hand on his shoulder and rubs it. "I'm here Raph." He says calmly. Mikey steps closer slowly before crawling on the bed and hugging Raph from the opposite side as Leo. "I'm sorry Raphie. I shouldn't have given you that letter." Mikey says, knowing that Raph knowing what he'd forgotten pushed him over the edge.
If Raph could say anything he would've told Mikey it wasn't his fault. He would've told Donnie Thank you. He would've told Leo that he loved him. Instead Raph just sits there sobbing in a comforting circle of his brothers while orderlies charge the room after hearing his shouting. Raph could only form one coherent thought at that moment: 'Anger issues suck.'
AH, I had so many changes I had to make in this chapter! I had something written into the entire chapter having to do with Raph's seizure that I had to change. Anyways, I hope you liked it! These first few chapters are going to go up pretty fast but after five it'll slow down quite a bit. XD
