Casey looked up and grinned when he heard the familiar rumble of the shellcycle's engine. He dropped his tools and headed towards Raphael as Raph pulled off his helmet.
"Hey, I wasn't expecting you today," Casey said, giving Raph's shoulder a squeeze in greeting.
Raph nodded at Casey's happy lopsided grin and immediately felt nervous, knowing that Casey wasn't going to be happy about this.
"Yeah I know. Came in to talk to you and April. She free?"
Casey frowned at Raph's serious tone. "Sure. Uh, is it Leo? Is he okay?"
Raph nodded and when he didn't elaborate, Casey turned away from him to head towards the front office. Raph stayed where he was and his eyes moved slowly over the inside of their garage. He felt a tug of nostalgia which was suddenly interrupted by the appearance of a tiny dark-haired woman.
"Well good afternoon," Mona said. "Ya know we're only getting further behind while you're busy playing nurse."
"I'm gonna assume that's yer special way of asking how Leo is doing."
"Its not," Mona said, shaking her head.
Raph eyed her. "Look, Mona, you and I are about to not see each other anymore, so let me ask, is it the turtle thing? The mutant thing? What?"
Mona smiled, happy to know that Raphael had indeed noticed her attention towards him. "You're a very handsome, turtle, Raphael. And not like anyone else I've ever met."
"So yer curious," Raph said, staring down at her.
"Maybe I am. But haven't you ever been curious about a human female? We could satisfy each other's curiosity."
Raph stared harder at her. "I am curious," he said finally.
The words should've excited her, but she noticed that he was still glaring at her and his tone of voice was dark instead of flirty.
"My experience with humans has been pretty limited," Raph said, crossing his arms. "So maybe I just don't know. But is this how all humans act? With aggressive come-ons to someone who's already taken?"
Mona sighed and rolled her eyes before glancing towards the front office to make sure Casey and April weren't heading their way yet. "I'm not saying we'd be public about it. It could be our little secret."
"You've met Leonardo. You've actually looked him in the eye and spoken to him."
"I'm not going to feel guilty about him," Mona said. "He gets you all the time. I just want a little bit of time."
Raphael continued to glare at her. He'd never encountered anyone as persistent and apparently conscious-free as her before, unless he counted the Shredder. "Ain't happenin, Mona."
"Why not?" Mona asked, urgently. "Are you afraid of Leo?" Her eyes lit up as if she'd just had an epiphany. "Wait, I get it. Leo is the dominant one between the two of you, isn't he?"
Raph pressed his lips together. He had brothers. He knew when he was being baited. And he wasn't about to share his and Leo's secrets with anyone.
"I guess if I want to experiment with a turtle, I should approach him, huh?" she asked, a sudden wide smile on her face. "He might be more interested in what you do with a female?"
"Yer not goin anywhere near him," Raph growled at her and was secretly pleased to see her take a step away from him. He'd never strike out at her, but he was always serious when it came to protecting Leo.
"Raph! How's Leo?" April asked as she and Casey appeared across the garage as they exited the front office. She tipped her head at him and then glanced at Mona when she saw his harsh expression and Mona's wide eyes. She'd been hoping a serious confrontation between the two of them could be avoided, but it looked like one had just happened.
Raph attempted to take a deep breath and remind himself why he'd come into the garage when the three T-phones in the room began buzzing.
The dojo was in chaos when Raphael arrived with Casey and April right behind him. The emergency signal had come from Akito's phone and Raph was already frantic because no one, including Leo and Akito, were answering their damn phones on his attempted calls as he raced home.
He froze once he was inside the dojo's main door and lost his breath as he found Donnie and Master Splinter hunched over an unconscious Leo while Mikey, Woody and Violet hovered over an unconscious Akito. Machi was there, sitting with Gabe in her lap while Sadie and Sam were crouched speaking to a seated Usagi.
Raphael's breaths were coming out in loud pants as he dropped to Leo's side and grabbed one of his hands. Donnie must have removed Leo's blue mask to examine him because it was abandoned on the floor near his head. Raph snatched it up and twisted it around his fingers. He barely heard Donnie say, "Don't move him," as he stared up at the wall behind Leo. There was a deep shell-shaped indent and he quickly realized Leo had been thrown into the wall. He looked back down to Leo, assured himself that Leo was still breathing, and then turned towards Usagi.
"What the fuck did you do?" he snarled over the rabbit.
Usagi's eyes narrowed at Raphael, but he was sluggish and couldn't avoid Raph's attack as the red-clad turtle lunged for him.
Raphael's fist landed squarely on Usagi's jaw and he had the rabbit pinned to the floor before he could feel the hands of his family pulling at him from behind. He ignored them and continued to glare at the rabbit until he saw small red feet in his peripheral and felt Machi's hand on his shoulder. He turned to look at his daughter and watched as Machi dropped down to her knees and shook her head at him.
"It wasn't him, papa," she said quietly. "He just woke up. Akito knocked him out too."
Usagi's senses were returning and he glared back up at Raphael and pushed his hand against the bulky turtle's side until Raphael released him.
Raphael quickly moved back to Leo's side but turned to look at Akito as well. Machi sat beside him and pressed herself into his side.
"Then why is Akito knocked out?" Raph asked in a low voice.
"I don't know," Machi answered. "There was a buzzing noise. In my head. And when I got up here, daddy was trying to calm Akito down, but it didn't work because suddenly all three of them flew across the room and wouldn't wake up. I hit Akito's emergency button." She continued to look back and forth between Akito and her unconscious father and suddenly moved away from Raph to help Akito sit up as he finally began to wake.
Raph was reluctant to leave Leo's side but he did so in order to check on their son.
"You okay, buddy?" he asked, wrapping his hands around Akito's shoulders. Akito's eyes were unfocused for a moment, at least until he spotted his dad laid out next to him, and then they widened and Akito jumped forward to reach Leo.
"No, no, no, no, no," Akito said in a rush. He shook Machi's concerned hand off his arm and tightened his own hand around Leo's forearm before turning to Raphael. "I'm so sorry, pops. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to. I didn't even feel it coming. It just happened."
Raphael reached forward and pulled Akito into him, knowing that the hug would be more reassuring than anything he could say at the moment.
The dojo door opened again and Miwa, the final clan member, entered completely out of breath. She rushed towards Leo, currently the only family member who appeared to need medical help.
"Raph," Donnie finally said in a low voice. "I need you to carry Leo down to my lab."
Raph froze and stared at Donnie for a moment before looking down at his mate. He was expecting Leo to come to any second just as Usagi and Akito had.
"Don-," Raph began, but he was cut off by a sharp shake of Donnie's head. He quickly looped his arms under Leo's shoulders and knees and easily lifted him in order to follow Donnie.
"Take the kids home," he managed to say, making eye contact with both Michelangelo and Miwa. "Stay with them." Akito still looked slightly hysterical, despite Mikey and Woody's attempts to calm him, and he didn't want him alone.
Miwa's eyes were worried but she wrapped an arm around Machi's shoulders and nodded to Raphael as he passed by.
Raph rode the elevator down with Donnie and Master Splinter and a sense of dread filled him. Dr. Donnie's silence always spoke to how worried the genius was, even if he didn't say anything out loud.
"Please wake up," Raph murmured quietly to Leo as they entered Donnie's lab. He reluctantly set Leo down on the cot and watched as Donnie began hooking sensors up to Leo's head and plastron.
Their father rested a hand on Raphael's shoulder and Raph let Donnie work for a few minutes before he repeated Donatello's name, demanding some sort of explanation.
Donatello cringed as he read the output on the computer screen. He'd noticed in the dojo that Leo's pupils weren't responding as they should. And the computer was confirming his suspicion. But he continued to stay where he was with his shell to the others in the room. He just couldn't turn around and face Raphael and their father with the news.
Raph carefully lowered Leo into the tub and sighed heavily as he began to fill it with water. He pulled a chair up next to the tub and took his seat.
"A coma, Fearless," he whispered as he squeezed Leo's shoulder. "Please don't do this to me again."
He watched Leo's impassive face for a reaction and got nothing.
Donnie said this hit to the head, during Leo's concussion recovery period, had led to this terrible consequence. Donnie was working hard back in his lab. Doing research, even calling specialists around the country, to try to determine what they could do to help awaken Leo.
Raphael had finally decided to take Leo out of the lab and keep watch over him somewhere more comfortable.
"You were right, Leo," Raph said with a pause. "You hear me? You were right. We should've gone and tried to find someone to help us with the kids' powers." He watched and still got no response. "I swear, Fearless, I swear if you wake up right now, I'll tell ya that you were right every damn day for the rest of our lives."
He shut the water off. And waited.
Leo woke to the sound of waves.
He opened his eyes and felt immediate panic to find himself sitting in a tub full of water. He immediately began moving his body, especially his legs, knocking some of the water over the sides of the tub as he checked to make sure he didn't have any serious injuries.
He calmed his breathing since he appeared to be fine and pushed away memories of waking up in the farmhouse bathtub when he had felt only broken and sore. He pushed himself up and out of the tub easily and frowned when he realized he was in the beach house bathroom. He walked slowly into his and Raph's beach house bedroom, hoping to find Raphael there. The porch doors were open. The bed was made. There was no Raphael. Leo began wandering the different rooms of the beach house and found each one in order. But no family members in sight.
He exited the house with a frown and walked out onto the beach. Also empty.
He didn't remember arriving at the beach house. And their family was too large for him to have not found anyone at this point. He stood in the sand and slowly spun in a circle even though he'd already looked. Already pushed his senses out for signs of anyone.
"Raph," he called out, even though it was a half-hearted attempt. He couldn't sense Raph, or anyone else, nearby. "Raphael," he called out again, even though his voice cracked in the middle. He fought off the panic as it occurred to him that the only two options for why he would be completely alone at the beach house would include that he was dreaming or that he had died.
There was a sound behind him and he spun around and came face to face with two adult foxes. He'd never met them before, but he immediately knew who they were.
"I died?" he rasped out.
Akito and Machi's birth parents glanced at each other and then turned back to Leonardo.
He watched their mother shake her head, but he didn't feel at all reassured.
