Leonardo silently stared at the ceiling above his bed. It felt late, but he couldn't tell what time it was without his watch. If one of the docs was nearby, they were being extremely quiet. It's been four days already…they probably don't think they need to hover as much. The only thing the blue-masked turtle could hear within their curtained enclosure was his brothers' steady breathing.

The fact that he was wide awake made little sense, but for the pulsating throbbing which was increasing in his forehead. Someone must be close by. I'd better speak up before it gets worse. He fumbled around for the remote that was secured to the side rail of the bed. Leo squinted in search of the "call" button under dim light that banished total darkness.

He was only centimeters away from activating the remote when someone's breathing broke from a regular pattern, heaving quicker than normal. Leo raised his head slowly, bracing a hand carefully against his temple while he rose a few inches on his other arm. The direction the sound traveled from and its close proximity led him to look toward his purple-masked brother.

"Don?"

"Yeah?" he responded after a beat of silence.

"Is something wrong?"

"I'm fine."

The oldest turtle sighed. "How about the truth now?"

Donatello turned his head his direction. "Not being able to sleep is hardly a crime."

"I'm with you so far, but there's usually a reason for it."

"What's your excuse?" his brother challenged.

"Headache is picking up. I was about to call one of the docs when I heard you."

"You heard me what?"

"I'm going to ask for help anyway. If something's bothering you, it'd be a good time to speak up too."

Donny shook his head. "I don't need anything, Leo."

"Then why are you awake?"

"It's really not unusual. I've always been a night owl."

The blue-masked turtle held his brother's gaze. "Don, can you be honest with me, or should I enlist one of the docs to help me wrench the truth out of you? What's it going to be? My head's starting to pound, so I'd appreciate if you made up your mind quickly."

The younger turtle huffed softly, and Leonardo thought he wasn't going to answer.

"That's fine. I'll go ahead and call one o—"

"Leo. This isn't physical, all right? It's only in my mind."

"What is it, Bro?"

"Honestly, it's not serious enough to worry about. I'm finding it easier to sleep during the day when there's more activity."

"And what, you're lying awake all night?"

"No, it's just interrupted. There are a lot reasons my sleep pattern could be out of whack—"

"You already said it's mental, Don, so there's no sense in trying to blame it on something else. Are you struggling with…" Leo hesitated. "Look, whatever it is, you can tell me."

Donny broke eye contact with him. "If it was simple to explain, I'd have done it sooner. I've dreamed and relived some of that night, but the silence is the most uncomfortable part."

"Silence?"

Don nodded. "There's no logic or rational thought to apply to this. It's all inside my head."

Leonardo's eye ridges rose. "It may be inside your head, but that doesn't mean talking it out won't help. When you say the silence bothers you, how bad is it?"

"It's not so much when we're lying here like this, Leo. It's waking up from a dead sleep, and feeling like I'm completely alone. There are moments when it seems like I'm suffocating, or something is crushing me."

"And you find yourself panicking?"

"I know what it sounds like."

"Then why are you ashamed of it? We've all experienced that type of stress on some level. Have you talked to anyone else?"

"No, but that doesn't mean I wasn't going to."

"Don…" His first instinct was to reprimand his brother, but something stopped him. "You really bore the brunt of this one, huh?"

"Hardly," Don murmured. "My shoulder may be out of commission for a few more weeks, but I think I got off easier than the rest of you."

"Maybe physically. But you also dealt with more trauma in the moment than anyone else. You had to watch the rest of us go down, and I imagine that contributes to what you're experiencing."

The purple-masked turtle didn't say anything for several seconds. "You know how we secretly always thought it would be better if the four of us died together, rather than being separated one by one? I blew a hole in that theory."

Leonardo winced. "I don't think there would be anything great about it either way, Don."

"You know what else wasn't great? Being forced to choose what happened next." Bitterness added volume to Donatello's voice.

Leo sat up farther on his elbow. "I'm grateful for what you did. We all are."

"You wouldn't know it from talking to Raph."

"It's going to take him longer to admit it, Donny. Whether he's willing to or not…I'll say I'm thankful you made that phone call. If I'd been in your position, I hope I would have done the same thing."

Don shook his head. "When it came down to it, keeping my mouth shut felt like it would have been an act of betrayal to our family and our kids. You know, these people weren't put in our lives to be under our protection, Leo. We call them our friends, but how many times have we tried to control their actions? I believe we've been very unfair to them through the years."

Leonardo didn't have to think hard to find examples that confirmed exactly what his brother said. He exhaled heavily, intentionally avoiding Donny's gaze this time.

"What gives us the right to tell them to hold back, Leo? And you know why we do it? Because we don't want to lose them. Yet if one of us gets lost in the fray, that's something they just have to deal with? The expectations we've put on them are not only unreasonable, they're hypocritical. We'd never back down from helping them without a fight. How can we force them to do something like that to us?"

"Practically speaking, we can't. We've never been able to stop them from risking their lives for us. Think of Hillsboro, Dayton, the Congo, or numerous other times when our friends dared to help us without our permission," Leo finished sarcastically.

"Then why do we still bother to give them such a hard time?"

The blue-masked turtle shrugged. "Because they matter to us so much, and because…we sort of see it as our duty to put our lives on the line."

"You don't think they have a sense of duty toward us, Leo?" Donatello shook his head.

"I didn't say you were wrong." Leo sighed again.

"I think we need to take into account the fact that our allies are adults, and not our children. We don't get to decide what's best for them or tell them what to do. That doesn't mean we're not allowed to have an opinion about the risks they take…but we've got no right to shut them down."

"You guys gonna set all our friends free to be loose cannons?" Raphael inserted suddenly.

The purple-masked turtle grunted. "Perfect timing, Raph. One round with you ought to tire me out enough to sleep."

"Ain't that why you invented your fancy drugs, Donny? Why haven't you asked the docs for something?"

Leo turned his head toward his other brother. "I hope we didn't wake you up, Raph."

"You forget that none of us are sound sleepers, Fearless. Is something wrong with you two? There some reason you're having this talk at…well, I don't know what time it is, but I'm still tired."

The soft swoosh of a curtain prevented either of them from answering Raphael.

"You should be tired," Caleb informed him. "It's only about…oh…four in the morning. I'm sure you could all use at least a couple more hours of sleep."

Leonardo raised a hand. "I could use a little more painkiller too."

The bespectacled man turned on a brighter light and stepped over to examine his IV unit. "I meant to check that earlier. My apologies, Leo."

Leonardo offered him a smile. "You've had a lot to do over the last couple of days. I didn't know you were taking the overnight watch."

"We split it up so no one has to be up all night. Is there something I can do for you other two, or is there another reason you all happened to be awake?"

Raphael nodded his head toward Leo. "Ask them. Their jabber-jaws woke me up, but I should probably thank 'em for not leaving me out of an important conversation."

"Raph, you're wrong," Don said bluntly. "You're wrong, and you know it. I don't even care if you admit it openly."

"Why 'm I suddenly wrong, because you said so?"

"We've been wrong all along!"

"We're not gonna agree on this, Donny, so you're probably only wasting your breath."

"Hold it," Caleb cut them off sharply before another word was spoken. "I don't know what you two are arguing about, but this isn't the time to do it. I'll bring the hammer down if I have to."

The way the man raised his eyebrows was more comical than threatening, and it only succeeded in drawing laughter from all three.

Raphael gasped painfully, but the grin never left his face while he clutched his chest. "Oh shell, Caleb. That was funny."

"It won't be funny if I have to drag Luke out of bed, will it?"

The red-masked turtle instantly shut his mouth, and it was Caleb's turn to smirk.

"Yeah, I thought so. I know how to instill a little fear."

Leonardo cast a glance at Donatello. "Do you want to consider taking something?"

"I'm okay, Leo. I'm ready to go back to sleep."

"Taking something for what?" The man pressed. When Don didn't immediately reply, Caleb glanced at Leonardo. "Would you like to share something with the class?"

The blue-masked turtle stared at his younger brother instead of the doctor.

Donatello rubbed his eyes tiredly. "I'm having some…symptoms. A little Post Traumatic Stress, probably."

"How'd the rest of us miss that?" Raphael demanded. "Donny, what's going on?"

"You missed it because it's been pretty minor," Donatello replied. "No real panic attacks, just…trouble going to sleep and staying asleep."

Raphael's response was a muttered curse. "How long were you gonna try to hide that under your shell?"

"He didn't hide it," Leo spoke up. "Lay off him, Raph."

Michelangelo pulled himself up a couple of inches by his railing. "Is it breakfast time yet?"

Caleb shook his head. "Not quite. It was nice of all you to keep me company for a while, but you should be getting some more rest."

"But I just got here," Mike murmured.

"And you'll probably have the easiest time going back to sleep," Caleb said. "I'm going to get a couple of things, and I'll be right back."

The instant the man was out of earshot, Raphael cleared his throat. "You ain't gonna try to do this by yourself, right, Genius?"

"Do what?"

"You know what I'm asking ya."

"Raph, I'm okay."

"You say that now, but it could get worse."

"I understand the tendencies, Bro. I have no intention of fighting anyone. I'd appreciate if you'd make the same consideration toward our friends."

"Not gonna happen, Donny."

"Would you at least consider looking at things from their perspective?"

Mike sighed dramatically from his bed. "I have no idea what's going on. Why did I bother waking up?"

"Sorry about that, Mikey," Leo apologized swiftly. "All of this needs to stop for the time being." He glanced at Donny on his left side, and shot Raphael a stronger look on his right.

"You can put it off all you want, Leo. Doesn't mean I'll change my mind." Raphael dismissed him with a wave of his hand.

The blue-masked turtle rolled his head the other direction and held Donatello's gaze for several seconds. He rose off the pillow and pointed at his brother as he mouthed his final words on the matter: I'm with you.