Call

Leo knew Donnie was upset even before his brother started talking. It was in his shaky breath, in the few seconds of silence before he dared to say what he had to say.

And Leo had no doubt it was important. As much as he had emphasized that Donnie should call if he needed anything, right before they left for their evening patrol, he hadn't expected Donnie to actually call him.

He had expected him to bury himself in his work, like he had done most of the time since they had buried their father.

So Leo's concern skyrocketed when he heard his brother's voice. It was shaking, and the tone was all wrong.

And Donnie was suggesting that Leo sit down, like Leo wasn't running across the rooftops to catch up with a car of burglars.

Leo still finished his jump before he prompted Donnie to go on.

"I'm listening."

To his right, Raph gave him an inquiring glance. Leo motioned for him to lead the way with Mikey.

"We… We have a problem. Or not a problem. A situation. It's complicated," Donnie uttered.

It was never a good thing when Donnie was rambling.

"Donnie, just tell me what happened."

Leo's tone was calm and reassuring, a million miles away from the way he was feeling.

"I… I was in my lab, and… I didn't hear anything, but… I was working on this enhancement to my last invention, and it was requiring all my focus..."

As his brother couldn't see him, Leo allowed himself to roll his eyes in slight exasperation. He needed his emergency calls to be straight to the point, thank you very much.

At least it reassured him that Donnie was in no immediate danger, or he would have been more straightforward.

"Yes, Donnie?"

He heard Donnie take a short breath.

"Splinter is here."

At first, Leo thought he hadn't understood correctly.

"What?"

"Splinter is here," Donnie said. He was talking fast now, and his voice sounded on the verge of breaking. "Time-travel. Remember the scepter we found two years ago? When Splinter glitched in front of us? He traveled to the future."

Leo tried to say something, anything, but words remained stuck in his throat.

Splinter? The father they had buried a few weeks ago? He was in front of Donnie now? And not as a ghost, like he had appeared to Leo, that day in the farmhouse.

A younger Splinter, Leo's unrelenting brain supplied. Alive.

He had stopped running. He didn't know how he looked, but something in his posture must have alerted his brothers, because Raph and Mikey were running back to him.

"Leo?" Donnie said, pleadingly.

Leo instinctively reacted to the despair in his brother's tone, and he found his voice.

"We're coming, Donnie. Stay right where you are, okay? We'll be back soon."

"Okay," Donnie said.

Then he hung up, and Leo realized he hadn't even asked to talk to Splinter.

Raph had been worried when Donnie had called Leo, which was why he hadn't run as fast as he could after the burglars but instead stayed slightly ahead. Mikey had tacitly done the same, and unlike Raph, he hadn't tried to hide his frequent glances towards Leo.

So when Leo's face had frozen in a mask of incredulity and confusion, and something else that looked too much like sorrow, the same kind Leo never let show unless he thought he was alone, of course Raph had forgotten all about the burglars and followed Mikey back to their brother.

"Leo, what's the matter?" he asked, his heart beating faster—and not only from the race.

"It was Donnie," Leo said.

Raph wanted to roll his eyes, hard, and maybe punch Leo, too. They already knew that. They would rather know what Donnie had told him to upset him this much—in this shocked, silent Leo-way that made Raph want to scream.

Mikey must have been experiencing similar feelings, because he grabbed Leo's plastron. "What happened, dude? Is Donnie in trouble?"

"No," Leo said, his voice as blank as his face. "He's not in trouble."

Raph breathed a discreet sigh of relief. He didn't like it when Donnie stayed at the lair on his own these days, but Donnie hadn't wanted to come and Leo hadn't wanted to make him. And Raph needed to breathe the air of the surface way too much to stay with Donnie.

Mikey didn't move an inch, his face so close from Leo's that Leo should have been annoyed, but instead Leo grabbed Mikey and held him tight.

"He's saying we have a visitor," Leo went on. "From the past. It's… It's Splinter."

Raph blinked.

"Splinter is dead," he said, sheer incredulity in his voice. "Donnie lost it."

Mikey froze at the word Splinter, images of dread and desolation and a fall from a rooftop and the way his father's body had lost its warmth while they carried him home filling his mind.

"He says Splinter time-traveled," Leo was insisting.

And Mikey knew time-travel, knew it was possible, but they were always the ones time-traveling and having wonderful adventures and not their father.

"Splinter is dead!" Raph insisted.

Mikey knew that, Raph didn't need to remind him, this was one of the things he couldn't forget even if he did forget a lot, and sometimes he wished he could, because then it wouldn't hurt so much, so much, so much.

But he also didn't want to forget, because Splinter was his dad and he wanted to love him forever.

"I know!" Leo replied, and he didn't sound mad at Raph. "Raph, I don't think Donnie was joking."

Mikey didn't think Donnie was joking either. Donnie had a terrible sense of humor sometimes, but he wouldn't have joked about this.

None of them would have.

Which meant it must be true. It must be true… And then Splinter was at the lair… Splinter was waiting for them at the lair...

"Let's go!" Mikey said, his voice pleading.

He wanted to run to Donnie and Splinter now, but he also didn't want to leave Leo and Raph's side. And his brothers were discussing instead of doing the sensible thing like Mikey wanted them.

"But… But..." Raph uttered.

Mikey wasn't sure exactly what Raph wanted to express, but it didn't matter. Mikey understood that feelings were something difficult for Raph.

"Mikey's right, let's go," Leo said, softly.

And Mikey reluctantly released his iron grip on him so his brother could run and lead them to the lair—to lead them home.

Raph followed his brothers, too stunned to protest.

Splinter was dead. Raph had been there when Shredder had killed him, Raph had been unable to prevent it, because Shredder was deceitful and they had thought they had won, and Raph was smiling right before his father was killed and… and…

And now Leo said that Donnie said that Splinter was at the lair.

And Raph wasn't ready for this.