Donnie sighed as he typed on his computer. Raph and leo were out on patrol, but donnie had opted to stay in his lab, and try to locate Mikey, the gps signal had been lost in the area of the canadian/american/ border, donnie could only guess that his t phone had died, or he disabled it. Narrowing His eyes he leaned closer, the area Mikey was last known to be in was a dense forested area, just over the Canadian border.
"Don?" leo called, looking in, they must have come home early from patrol. "any luck?" Donnie sighed and dejectedly shook his head.
"Nothing." he said, "still the same, I think he must have disabled it." he frowned, "I wonder if he's thinking of coming back."
"I don't know." Leo said, shaking his head, "we don't even know if-"
"Shut up!" raph said, shoving leo aside, Donnie shot up.
"Raph! Don't!" he said, Raph sighed.
"Mikey's fine." he growled, "leo had better not have been about to say what I thought he was." Leo looked at the ground, and raph snorted. "Looks like he was."
"He, he didn't mean it." Donnie said, "he was only trying to be realistic." Raph now glared at donnie, and then sighed.
"Sorry leo." he muttered, "I'm just…." Donnie knew raph had a hard time admitting he had weaknesses, such as worrying about missing brothers.
"It's ok." Leo assured his red masked brother, "I was wrong to think like that, Mikey is fine."
"I hope so." raph said, "I, I can't believe i…" his gaze hardened, Don knew this meant he was about to go back into his protective tough guy shell. "I'm gonna go train." he said, and left. Donnie heard him talking to sensei for a moment, and then there was the telltale silence that meant sensei had convinced him to meditate.
"I'm sorry don." Leo said, "I didn't mean it."
"I know." donnie said, closing his laptop. "But moping around won't do us any good, let's go meditate with raph." leo nodded, and they walked to the dojo, without speaking, the two brothers sat beside raph and closed their eyes. Donnie concentrated on clearing his mind, which had always been hard for him, because of all the things he was always thinking about. Like the new radiator belt for the party wagon, and the oil check for the, he was doing it again. Donnie clenched his fists and forced his mind to empty. That's when he felt the horrible feeling.
He was alone, his brothers on either side of him vanished, and sensei was gone too, no one was near him, they'd all left. Donnie took a breath and tried to convince himself that it was just because of his stupid paranoia that they would all leave him.
"That is enough for today." Splinter said, breaking the spell that had fallen on the four of them, donnie opened his eyes. Raph and Leo were, as usual, right beside him.
"Thank you sensei." Raph said, and Donnie glanced at his immediate older brother, he did seem more relaxed, it was clear neither of his brothers were afraid of being abandoned. He shook his head, that was a stupid paranoia, of course they'd never leave him. As they walked out of the lair, raph put an arm around Donnie's shoulders.
"How you feeling brainiac?" he asked, and donnie mustered a smile.
"Fine." he said, "I'm sure everything will work out." raph pushed him playfully, and donnie wondered what raph had seen in his meditation to make him feel so much better.
"Duh! It's not like we all left!" raph joked, and donnie felt himself pale, what was raph saying? Did he somehow know about the dreams don had been having? "Whoa, you ok?" raph asked, surprised at the look on Donnie's face, donnie quickly put his grin back on.
"Fine." he assured his older brother, "just, tired I guess."
"You have been staying up lately." leo pointed out, "maybe you should take a nap." Donnie rolled his eyes.
"I'm fine." he promised, "i swear I'll take care of myself." no matter what happens he added silently.
"Good." leo said, "then take a break today." donnie sighed, leo wasn't going to give this up, was he?
"Ok, I'll sit on the couch and watch cartoons all day." he joked, "come on leo, it's not like you haven't stayed up with me." Leo opened his mouth, and then closed it. Evidently having no response to that.
"Heh, he got you on that one." Raph laughed, walking to the pinball machine, "I bet I'll beat your score." but then he looked at the machine. "Hey, Mikey beat it already…" donnie frowned, had raph really not played pinball in two weeks?
"Oh." Leo said,a nd donnie suddenly had a strange thought.
"If mikey was here, he'd be like, beating his own." he laughed, and his brothers faces lightened.
"Thanks don." Leo said, "let's watch tv."
"Sure." raph agreed, and they settled on the couch bench thing that was in the pit in the center of the lair. Donnie grabbed the remote and clicked it on, the news came on first and raph snorted in disgust.
"Change it." he said, "i hate the news." Donnie flipped through the channels, finally settling on a documentary, one about prehistoric creatures. Raph was ok with this it seemed, because it started out with a vicious battle scene between an Allosaurus and a Sauropod. While they watched, Donatello found himself zoning out, thinking of all the things he should be working on. Oil for Raph's stealth bike, cleaning the microscope...he got up.
"Nuh uh." leo said, "this is your day off Donnie."
"I like working." Donnie grumbled, but sat back down. That's when the power went out.
"Aww man!" Raph said, "they were just getting to the good part!"
"So, seeing animals ripping each other apart is good." donnie observed, "I'll make a mental note of that raph." they sat silently for a moment, as if waiting for Mikey to start freaking out, thinking the world was going to end, or for him to make a wisecrack about raph liking a documentary. Whatever they were waiting for, it didn't come. Suddenly Donnie stood up again, leo scowled.
"What are you doing?" he asked suspiciously, donnie sighed,and walked to his younger brother's room. It was just as Mikey had left it the morning he left, the blankets rumpled, pizza boxes stacked on the floor, Leo and Raph followed him.
"What are you doing?" raph asks,and donnie crouched
"If he comes back, he might like a clean room." he said, and raph nodded.
"Ok, we can help you." Donnie's two brothers kneel and help him clean the room, it takes all day, but they get it organised and they end up with a pile of things that have no obvious place, these donnie picked up. He might as well put them somewhere they can see them,so they never forget their little brother. Don places the things on the table in front of the tv. They stand and look at the pile for a long silent moment. Leo breaks the silence.
"Tomorrow we restart regular training and patrols," he declared, "get some sleep." the two middle brothers watched leo go to his room. Donnie was sure raph understood as well as he did that this meant leo was giving up on locating mikey. Raph ignored his attempts to catch his older brothers eyes, so donnie went to raph to stare at the pile of Mikey's belongings.