Chapter 10

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Raph woke up near four in the afternoon. He was too tired to get up so he pulled an old magazine from under his bed and read. When he finally pulled himself out of bed, he hobbled into the living room and watched TV with Leo.

After two hours of watching Captain Ryan slap his crew members, Raph couldn't take it anymore. Why in the hell would they thank their captain for slapping them? Raph turned to Leo, the question on the tip of his tongue when he noticed Leo's gaze went past the TV.

Raph shut his mouth with a small pop and stared back at the TV.

Dinner was mostly a silent affair. With everyone together, it felt like everything should be normal. Like they should be laughing and talking and every few minutes someone was supposed to hit Mikey over the head for something stupid he did. But it was painfully quiet. Don and Mikey kept trying to make small talk and Master Splinter kept staring at Leo and Raph, as if he was trying to fix everything with his mind.

After dinner, Master Splinter asked Leo into his room for a talk. Earlier, Don had spoken with Master Splinter and now Raph was pretty sure the talk had to do with whatever plan Donnie came up with.

Even though Raph had just woken up a few hours ago, he was exhausted. He was taking off his mask when Don and Mikey came into his room. Mikey bounced onto his bed and Don moved Raph's crutches off of his chair before taking the seat.

"Thanks for knocking." Raph said.

"How are you doing?" Don asked. His eyes went over all of Raph's bandages and he started to check over Raph's injuries.

"Good."

"No new pain?"

"Nothing I didn't expect." Raph said.

Don smiled, leaned back, and put his feet up on Raph's bed.

"Master Splinter is talking to Leo." Mikey wiggled around the bed and Raph pushed him to keep him still.

They were quiet for a long moment. Raph wasn't sure how to broach the subject. He's always been the one to jump into things, but there was no good way to start.

"So…" Raph watched Don, hoping he somehow held the magic answer. "What now?"

"I have no idea." Don blew out a breath. "I'm not a psychologist. I can't do this right. All I know is what I can get off the internet and read from textbooks, I've got no idea if anything we do will really help."

"It's alright, Donnie." Mikey patted Don's knee. "We trust you."

"But that's the thing!" Don said. "Your trust is misplaced. I can fix things. Cuts and broken bones have an exact process. But this – this is different. There're too many variables. And I'm emotionally involved, we all are. It clouds our judgment. What if something goes wrong?"

"Then we'll work through it." Raph said. "Like always."

"Yeah." Mikey smiled. "What do we do?"

Don sighed and rubbed his head. "We'll need to be careful. Leo's not doing too well." Don clenched his hands. "We need to get Leo to talk, but we can't force him. Okay, Raph?"

Raph nodded and raised his eye ridges.

"We have to be patient, Mikey." Don raised his eye ridges at Mike. "And be careful not to touch him."

Mikey nodded solemnly, it rocked the bed in what might have been comforting except Raph just felt angry. He's never been the touchy feely type, but they've always been pretty physical with each other. They had to be. They got into fights and they crawled through tight tunnels. They cuffed Mikey over the head at least three times a day and pushed each other too many times to count. It was odd to think that they'd have to control themselves and restrain from natural instincts.

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Raph bolted up to a crash and realized his mistake when his ribs felt like they punctured his lungs. It was hard to take in another breath, until it stopped feeling like he was getting stabbed by a red hot poker. Then he snatched the crutches beside his bed and slowly got up. He flicked on his light and opened the door, looking down the hall towards Leo's open door.

"Leo!" Don said. "Leo! Come on, bro. Calm down."

Raph quickly hobbled to Leo's room as Mikey and Master Splinter's doors opened.

"Leo?" Don said.

Raph leaned against Leo's doorway. Leo's lamp had been knocked over and it cast the rest of the room in an alien yellow light.

Leo huddled against the wall on his bed and Don kneeled on the floor, his hands gripping his knees.

Mikey came up behind Raph, his arm looped around Raph's shell and Master Splinter stopped on the other side of the doorway. Leo probably didn't want an audience to this little freak out, but no one wanted to leave. It felt unfinished. Awkward and tense and so very, very lacking.

"Just – please go." Leo's voice was gravely and he stared intently at his covers. "I need some time."

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AN: Slow chapter sigh. But sometimes they're needed. Anyways, thanks for all the reviews so far! We're almost to the end.