Chapter 20

I stumble on the stairs. Every muscle in my body hurts and I can barely feel my left arm, for Donnie still hangs on me. But at least we're here. I scream when I fall on my right knee. "Ugh…!" Which is quickly followed by louder - "Help!"

"What is-"Raphael starts to grumble as he walks into the living room. His expression changes in a second when he notices me on the floor with Donnie. "What happened?" He yells and runs over to us.

I yelp when he lifts D off of me.

"We found Krang's new lair." I breathe out. Before I can explain further everyone else enters the room.

"Karai, what happened?" Mikey yells when he sees me.

"What happened to Donnie?" April squeaks.

"Miwa, what is going on?" Father asks with glimpse of fear in his brown eyes.

"You're bleeding." I look into Leo's concern eyes. Adrenaline is gone and my arm begins to hurt again.

"I'll be fine." I stand up while he helps Raph gets a hold on Donnie. "You take care of Donatello. It's not as bad as it looks. At least nothing that bandage, medicine, sleep and water won't cure." I tell them.

"Take him to the dojo." Splinter orders. Before they leave Leo scans me once again with sadness and curiousness. Mikey and April follow them and soon they all disappear behind corridors walls. "Miwa, tell me what happened." Father demands when we're left alone.

"Donnie detected a signal coming from sewers. It sounded like Krang and we wanted to find out if it was them. So we did." He doesn't look pleased. I should expect him to get angry, punish me. But that's what Shredder would do and he isn't him.

"I will need more details." I nod to that. "I have to take care of Donatello first. Then I'll take care of your wound."

"It's only a scratch. I'll manage." He sighs quietly and I can barely hear it. But I do. "Donnie needs you more, I'll come if I required any help."

"I'll come to you when I'm finished. We need to discuss some matters."I get a feeling it's not going to be pretty.

"Of course." Then I head to my room. I don't even bother to take clothes from wardrobe. Shower is my first priority and until my body is hit with hot water my muscles don't relax. The wound begins to stick more but it is nothing I haven't experienced before.

When I get out of the shower I wrap towel around myself, then I cough my reflection, or rather my arm's, in the mirror. It looks worse than I expected. My skin is burnt and will take months to heal. But even when it does a scar will stay. I grimace. Maybe Donnie has something for that…

I leave bathroom and begin looking for fresh clothes.

And then someone knocks on the door.

**** Leo ****

Raph and I lay Donnie on a mat as he begins to wake up. Whatever happened to him and Karai happened because I wasn't there to watch their back. They didn't take me with them for neither of them trust me.

"Aghhh!" Donnie yelps, his eyes flicker open. As few seconds passes they adjust to the light. "Where am- Guys? Where's Karai?" I conceal a pang of anger and jealousy brought by care and fear in his voice. It's not time nor place to behave like a five years old.

"She's fine." I ensure him. "And you'll be, too, just… don't move okay? The wounds aren't deep, but they need a clean-up and short treatment." I calm him with a steady look.

"I'm sure, it's not necessary." I sigh. Donnie always behaves like this, but after our last argument I feel like he refuses help from me.

"Raph, bring water. Mikey, I'll need first aid kit. April, in the kitchen should be some pain killers." I ignore my injured brother and am given nods from other two and Aps. When they're gone I turn back to D. "Just lye still." I tell him and put both of my hands on his scratched plastron.

"Leo, I'm fine." He argues and tries to sit but I hold him down.

"No, you're not!" I scold him with gritted teeth. "You're going to lie down like I said and you're going to let me help you." He gives me a small nod as he stops moving. I try to stop a sigh from escaping from my lips but fail miserably. "I'm sorry." I say. He doesn't look at me, he doesn't look anywhere in truth. He just… stares blankly into space above him.

"It isn't your fault. I got myself into this mess." I hate how calm, yet emotionless his voice is.

"It is my fault." I keep trying to get his attention. "You're hurt because of me." His eyes shift from ceiling to me. "I'm supposed to be the leader, but also a brother and I know I failed at being both. I'm sorry you couldn't trust me."

"I trust you, Leo." I want to ask him why he didn't tell me about Krang then, but bite my tongue this time. I have to make it up to him, figure out how he feels, how to get him to forgive me.

"I don't need you to say this nor do I want to make you feel like you should. I just want you to know that I care for you, Donnie. Maybe I'm not good at showing it or just focus on other stuff more recently, but that doesn't mean I don't care. And I appreciate everything you do for us. I just want you to know that."

"Everything that I do?!" His voice is rarely so high and sharp. I look at the floor scared I offended him. I kind of did, it seems. "All I do is try to help but somehow I always end up destroying things I care about!" This is definitely not what I expected.

"What are you talking about?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about you," I gulp. "Being in coma for three months because I tried to help." I see what our problem is now. I can't believe it took me him screaming it out at me to realize, but at least I did.

"Donnie-" I don't get why he would blame himself for what happened. I was being reckless and got hurt, he had no fault in it.

"Shredder could have killed you!" He looks away from me to his side. We argued back then, too. I didn't consider any advice Donnie gave me. I got hurt because I try to handle things on my own. It wasn't the first time...

"It's not your fault." I tell him. At the sound of my calm voice he gets more irritated.

"Don't give me that shit." I've not heard him swear for quite a while. "We could have lost you, because I had to have a Raph syndrome moment." I cannot help the laughter that escapes my lips. Although, it is the worst timing for that it seems to get us both out of our shells.

"Raph syndrome?" I need to cover my mouth to control myself. "Where did you take it from?" Hopefully he understands everything for I cannot be sure if I would.

"Just made that up." He stops laughing and the atmosphere gets thick with the tension.

"Donnie, what happened back then... None of us could have predicted it. I, too, am to blame. I got hurt, because I thought I could handle the fight on my own. I didn't listen to you nor to any of your plans." I tell him. "You're not guilty of my recklessness. I'm so sorry, Donnie." I say looking at the floor. "Not only for that. I'm also sorry for what I said at your lab. You need to know I never meant any of it."

"I didn't mean it, either." We look at each other, and when we know we're finally in the clear again we manage to smile. His is soft and soon changes into grimace.

"Oh, your wounds." I remember and tell him to lye still. I put both of my hands on his plastron and use healing mantra on him.

Soon guys come back with everything I asked them to bring. We clean up rest of the wounds just before Sensei walks in with few scrolls in his hands.

"How are you feeling, my son?" He kneels next to Donnie's head.

"Better." Splinter watches him carefully. With precision he looks at his wounds and thanks us for taking care of them.

"Your condition is stable. One or two mantras plus few hours of sleep will pull you back on your feet." Then Sensei asks us to leave.

"Are you sure you don't need help?" April intends on staying, where I eave as the first one. It is not because I don't care about Donnie. I do, a lot, but I also care about Karai, who is also hurt and alone... and still mad at me.

I hope for amends when i knock on her door.