Rating: T

Warnings: Overall story - Brief mentions of torture. Bit of language.

Disclaimer: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and all related characters belong to Nickelodeon.

Summary: For months now, Mikey's been through hell with no one to count on but himself. He's finally been rescued but there are still two major problems; he's still desperately missing his family and he has no way home. No OCs. 2k3/2k12 crossover.

Comments, thoughts and concrit are always welcome.

A/N: Sorry for falling out of my regular posting schedule. Things happened that disturbed it and shook me, then I fell into a game I've been playing on and off the last couple of years. Hard. All because I joined a guild that just clicked with me. I have at least written in this time, just not typed up or seriously edited. Didn't help that AO3 logged me out either and I couldn't log in again for a few weeks. Turns out when they say to log in with either your user name OR email, they mean, email only. Anyway, I'm sorry and will try to do better. This may not be as polished as I like but you've been waiting more than long enough.

ZuppaDiTartaruga, KaylaMicael, Shelly Hamato, T420000, Minnie1015, FireFoxy and Guests: Thank you for your thoughts and support. It means more than you know :-)

Special thank you to Minnie for getting on skype and giving me that (small) push I needed to post.

AOtGO – Aftermath

Ch 18

Date: 24th Sept

"Why is Mike sleeping in the beanbag?" April asked in confusion as she entered the kitchen early the next morning. Around the table sat Leo, Donnie and Raph, each nursing mugs of hot drinks of choice. Casey wasn't there as he'd promised to look after his sister for the day, though he'd insisted he'd be there come nightfall. In her hands, she brandished a packet of fruit toast, freshly baked and still warm as evidenced by the faint condensation on the inside of the packet.

"He has nightmares," Leo frowned, gazing through the door as if he could see Michelangelo asleep in the pit. "He goes to bed each night but every morning we find him back out here with the TV on."

April nodded, her eyes filling with concern. She'd had more than her fair share of nightmares over the years, what with first her mother's disappearance and presumed death, (she had shadowy nightmares from back then that filled her with fear – child psychologists had put them down to fears about what happened to her mother but events of the last almost year now had her convinced it was more than that) and then her father's disappearance and subsequent mutation and all that happened in between.

"Actually," Donnie piped up thoughtfully, "I think it's more than just that, though nightmares are almost certainly a large part of the problem. He's likely having trouble getting used to a real bed again and then there's the fact that the pit is far more open than the bedroom."

Leo gave Donnie a questioning look.

"Claustrophobia. He doesn't like being shut in," Donnie explained quietly. "At least it's not a severe case but it does make him uncomfortable. A full night is probably too much for him which is why I keep telling you guys not to shut his door, by the way."

Leo flushed in embarrassment. "Maybe you should have explained why, Don, then I would've left it open," he said dryly. "I only keep closing it because he's such a light sleeper."

"He doesn't like the silence either," Raph added, not bothering to stifle or cover his yawn. "That's why the TV."

April opened the bag to take out four slices which she dropped neatly into the toaster. She turned to Donnie, suggesting, "Maybe having a radio or music to sleep with could help. Do you have one you could give him to try?" As she spoke, she walked over to get the butter from the fridge.

Donnie shook his head. "No but I've been working on building a new T-phone for him so he'll be able to use that if he wants to when it's finished. I'll make sure to download a music app onto it before giving it to him."

At that moment, the first batch of toast popped up and April pulled it out to butter, replacing it with four new slices immediately.

"I wish we had a way to get him home where he needs to be but even if we could somehow get control of TCRI's portal, it will honestly be easier for me to find a way to retro-mutate Mr O'Neil than to find the right dimension," Donnie sighed miserably.

"If you want me to go, all you have to do is tell me and I will," a hurt voice suddenly spoke from the doorway, prompting everyone to whirl to see an exhausted-looking Michelangelo there with a blanket clutched tightly around him, forlorn and looking completely out of place.

"What? Mike! We didn't say that!" Donnie protested with an indignant splutter. "Besides, you can't go!"

"It's not safe for you out there," Leo frowned.

"I can look after myself," Mikey insisted, though he really didn't want to. His heart ached at the thought of being entirely on his own again. "I'll be fine!"

"Yes, you'll be fine by staying here with us," Leo commanded sternly. Mikey's eyes flickered to him uncertainly.

"Maybe normally you could look after yourself but not right now, you can't," Raph scowled fiercely. "Besides, it's not safe for any of us to be out there alone for long."

Leo and Donnie both nodded emphatically. "You're much better off here, both for your sake and ours," Leo insisted. "Even if our brother turned up today, we'd still insist on you staying here with us where you have a roof over your head, food and family to help you."

Hope crept into Mikey's heart at the word 'family'. Deep down, they were, he knew that but he didn't actually belong here and he was painfully aware of it. "Are... are you su..."

"Stay," Leo insisted, smiling warmly. He pushed back from the table and walked over to Mike. "Come and sit down, okay? April brought fruit toast."

Mikey forced himself to perk up. "Fruit toast? Sweet!" he exclaimed as he allowed Leo to escort him to the table and sat down, still clutching that blanket tightly like a lifeline.

Smiling, April nodded as she loaded the toaster with yet another batch. "It's from a local bakery near my aunt's. They'd just opened for the day as I was coming down so I thought I'd buy a loaf. Do you want some?"

Trying to appear eager, Mikey nodded. Raph gave him a look that clearly questioned him but Mikey plastered a smile on his face and ignored it. "That'd be great, Ape!"

April groaned good-naturedly. "I won't complain about you calling me Ape all the time if you promise to never use the words great and Ape in the same sentence to me ever again."

Mikey blinked a moment then realised how it sounded and laughed. "Can't make promises I can't keep, Ape," he teased, already filing it away for future use. If he ever made it home, he'd definitely try it on his April.

She groaned again as she buttered the toast and put it aside in the oven to keep warm.

Watching her a moment, Mikey pushed himself back to his feet, leaving his blanket behind on the stool he'd occupied and wandered to the bench. "You're just doing toast?"

April nodded so Mikey grabbed a cutting board and knife and began cutting fruit from the bowl and fridge for a simple but small fruit salad which he divided into six bowls after asking if Splinter would be joining them. As he worked, he frowned at April. "Weren't you meant to stay the night?" he asked curiously.

"Yeah but I didn't bring a change of clothing with me so I decided to just go home and get up earlier instead," April replied easily as she worked. "Besides, this way I could stop at the bakery on the way down."

Mikey smiled at that, though he had a sneaking suspicion the reason she didn't have a change of clothes was that she'd brought down all those art supplies for him and didn't have the room for spare clothing. Her backpack had been pretty full before he'd emptied it.

"You know we've told you before to just leave a change of clothes here," Leo piped up with a frown from his seat at the table. "We don't mind washing them with our stuff during the week."

April immediately burned a bright shade of red. "After what happened when I was living down here? Not a chance in hell!" she spluttered indignantly and Mikey started laughing, for real.

"That was an accident!" Donnie cried, also turning bright at the memory.

Raph snorted derisively.

"Which part?" April countered hotly. "The time you gawked at my underwear or the time someone threw everything in the one wash and completely ruined my delicates!"

"That wasn't my fault!" Donnie cried again. "The former, I mean, not the latter, that is. Actually, neither were my fault! Someone left them sitting on my chair and I walked in on it and then when I was trying to move them, you walked in on me!"

"Likely story, Donnie," April scoffed.

"Oh, come on, April! You know I'd never..."

A small smirk lit Raph's face which he was obviously trying to hide, leaving Mikey wondering what he actually knew about what really happened. Mikey forced himself to rein in his laughter – which he admittedly needed after such a bad day yesterday and last night.

In control of himself, at last, he distributed the bowls around the table, placing one with decidedly less in it at his own seat and grinned at April. "You know, you don't need to be embarrassed about your underwear, April. It's normal for humans to wear that kinda stuff."

April's blush deepened again. "It's not normal to be seen or fondled by others though," she said crossly, shooting Donnie a dark look. He shrank shamefully into his seat at her look.

"Oh, I dunno," Mikey said lightly, trying to swallow down his amusement enough not to rile her up more, "our April lived with us for a few months while her home was being rebuilt and she didn't care if we saw it or not. Shell, she didn't even care if we accidentally walked into it either."

April levelled a ferocious glare his way that he happily ignored.

"Actually, it was pretty annoying, dudette. She kept hanging it up to dry in the bathroom and we couldn't walk in there without literally running into it facefirst or having to duck if we noticed in time," Mikey explained, his shoulders shaking in amusement. "Totally not saying you should hang it up in the bathroom or anything but if she didn't care about a bunch of fifteen-year-old turtle boys seeing it, you shouldn't worry so much either," he exclaimed, beaming broadly.

April made a sound like a cross between a growl and a groan.

"Why did she live with you guys there?" Leo asked curiously, diplomatically trying to shift the conversation for April's sake.

Mikey glanced at Leo and his jovial mood dropped at the reminder of the horrible events leading up to that. "Uh... it's actually a really long story, bro and a bit of a downer. Maybe... some other time, okay?"

Leo nodded, thankfully dropping the subject.

"Uh... how's your eye today, anyway, dude?" Mikey asked self-consciously when Leo thankfully didn't press any further.

"It's a lot better," Leo reassured calmly, pulling his mask away for Mikey to see. The green skin was still mottled with purple and black but the edges were beginning to yellow already and the swelling had gone down almost fully."It'll probably be completely healed in a few days."

Mikey nodded and marvelled at how fast Leo was healing but before he could apologise again, Splinter walked in and sat down. Leo promptly shot to his feet, offering to make tea and the family and Mikey soon settled to eat. Mikey barely managed to finish his minuscule bowl of fruit and one slice of toast, drawing worried looks his way.

"You didn't eat very much, Mike," Leo spoke up sternly as Mikey began clearing his dishes.

Raph glanced at Mikey who had imperceptibly stiffened and back to Leo with a frown. "At least he's eating. Don't push it," he warned.

"He needs energy for training," Leo retorted, visibly bristling at the challenge.

Mikey stiffened more noticeably, annoyed at Leo talking about him as if he wasn't right there. "I've had enough for now," he said stiffly. "I'll have something more later." He dumped his plate and glass into the sink and stalked out to go freshen up and Raph whirled in his seat to outright glare at Leonardo.

"Good one, Lame-o-nardo," he practically snarled in disgust.

"What?" Leo retorted, annoyed by the seemingly unprovoked attack. "I was only trying to help! Mike doesn't eat enough, you know that!" He turned to Splinter and Donatello for support but Donnie's sharp gaze was fixed on Raphael curiously.

"You got him to talk last night, didn't you?" Donnie realised in amazement and Raph cringed. "What did he tell you?"

Scowling, Raph realised he couldn't keep what the other-dimensional turtle said to himself. "Ugh... yeah, I did." His eyes narrowed in warning. "I doubt he'd appreciate me repeating what he said without permission, I know I wouldn't but look, I'll tell you some of what he said later, okay? But only what you need to know. The rest of it is private until he decides otherwise."

-:-

Much later in the day, his eyes sore and realising he never finished making his new mask the previous night, Mikey turned up in the doorway of Donnie's lab for his first session of facing his fears. It wasn't exactly what Donatello had suggested given he wanted Mikey to keep the Kraang tech in view the entire time but Mikey figured he could finish making his mask in there, hopefully with the other turtle's help.

April was already inside, chatting away as she worked on homework, Donnie giving her the occasional advice or them talking through thoughts and bouncing off each other and before Mikey could back out, April had smiled and offered to give them space to themselves – obviously, Donnie had explained beforehand about Mikey coming – and that she needed a break anyway.

"I don't mind if you stay," Mikey smiled back warmly. He definitely liked April. She was kind and friendly, even if she did have a sharp edge on her like his April when pushed the wrong way. "It'd probably make this easier with two of you here to distract me anyway."

Donnie made a small derisive noise. "Somehow, I don't think you need our help to get distracted," he teased and Mikey grinned back at him disarmingly.

"You're probably right about that, dude but still," he shrugged, waving his hands slightly. As he did, he caught a flash of the supplies in his hand and his eyes narrowed slightly as he remembered the secondary purpose for coming in here. "Hey, I know you wanted us to talk while I keep that," he waved dismissively to the corner he so wanted to avoid, "stuff in view but..."

"You're backing out?" Donnie asked, face falling in disappointment.

Mikey shook his head emphatically. "No, I..." he took a deep breath to steady himself. "I need to finish my new mask and since I need some wire, I thought baby steps, you know?"

Donnie gazed at him in consternation. "You want to work on that instead of keeping the Kraang tech in view," he realised. When Mikey nodded frantically, Donnie considered it and agreed. "I don't see a problem as long as you keep it in front of you where you can at least see it peripherally. But uh... what do you want wire for?" he asked suspiciously.

Mikey beamed and forced himself to bounce deeper into the 'mad scientist's' lair. "For shaping," he explained, showing Donnie and April the inside of the mask where he'd sewn a 'pocket' to tuck the wire into before stitching it sealed. "I'll set the shape, then sew the stocking material to it to stop it bunching weirdly and screwing up my sight."

Donnie frowned thoughtfully. "I hope that's not what you used to do. Having wire so close to your eyes is dangerous. You could poke an eye out if something bent it out of shape.

"It's not," Mikey promised, shaking his head as he frowned thoughtfully down at the mask. "Donnie designed these soft, flexible lenses that kept their shape and wouldn't shatter into pieces that could've put our eyes out if a well-placed punch hit but I don't have that here and I don't know how to make it." His gaze came up to meet Donnie's again. "And since you guys don't need it, you wouldn't have designed anything like it either. I'm just trying to do the best I can with what I've got."

Donnie's expression softened as he regarded Mike and he hummed thoughtfully. "How about..." he turned, searching the contents of the lab about him, "instead of a wire frame, we make a stiff rubber frame? That won't shatter or bend out of shape if damaged. It'll probably be more comfortable too." He hummed thoughtfully and drifted across the room, calling over his shoulder. "We'll have to make a mould, maybe with some plasticine to shape it initially with and it'll take time but in the long run, it would be far safer."

Mikey nodded eagerly. "I can live with that. Do you have any plasticine?"

"No," Donnie admitted reluctantly. "However..."

"Well, I can make some! We don't need it long-term, right?" Mikey asked, inadvertently cutting off the other turtle in his excitement. "I mean, once the mould is made around it, we won't need it again, right?"

Donnie shook his head in bemusement, unused to someone else ploughing ahead with the creative ideas.

"Then I just need flour and water since we don't need to preserve or colour it!" Mikey proclaimed cheerfully. "I'll be right back!" He dashed out of the lab with more life than he'd shown since they found him. Making and creating, along with playing games, was his lifeblood and he was never more in his element than when working on an art project (or prank) of some kind and while this wasn't strictly art, it was creative enough to energise him.

A short time later, he returned to the lab with a cutting board and a ball of simple dough and set up somewhat happily in the spare chair as he kneaded and began to shape the dough into the right size and shape. He'd also brought a skewer back with him as a shaping tool, crude as it was compared with what he had collected for his kitchen back home.

Doing his best to ignore the niggling feeling of danger from the remains of their tech in the corner, he began to hum loudly and soon had what he wanted. He held up an oval-shaped dough strip to his face, adjusting it carefully to make sure it wouldn't mess with his vision and felt comfortable. Then he turned to a surprised April and cheerfully asked, "How do I look?" as he waggled his eyebrow ridge provocatively.

April couldn't help but laugh. "You look ridiculous, Mike," she answered teasingly and Mikey's grin widened.

Donnie shook his head but a ghost of a smile along with a hint of pain appeared on his face. "If that's ready, it would be best to harden it. Would baking it warp the shape too much?"

"Yeah," Mikey replied, carefully placing them down again. "It depends on how long you bake it for as to how badly though. I think... do you have any lacquer? That'd probably be best for giving it a hard surface and keeping its current shape."

Donnie cast Mikey another look of surprise. "I do," he confirmed, already heading for the door. Within a couple of minutes, he'd returned, a small can in hand which he passed to the other turtle.

Mikey looked at the label and nodded. "This should work great," he cheered. "I can give them three coats a side and in a couple of hours, we can use them to make the moulds."

"You've done things like this before, haven't you?" Donnie asked, regarding Mike curiously.

"Yeah," Mikey agreed. "Proper homemade plasticine, though. You don't have the ingredients for that but it wasn't really needed for this," he explained, looking down at the nascent eyepieces. "We used to make figures and stuff out of it. Even game pieces to replace missing ones from games we'd found at the junkyard. Depending on what it was being used for, we'd either bake it to set it or coat it in lacquer or paint." He shrugged nonchalantly. "It's amazing what you can do with so little, right, dude?"

"Right," Donnie agreed, watching as Mike put down some cardboard and carefully placed the eyepieces on it to spray. "So are you alright staying while that sets or are you coming back later?"

Mikey looked up in surprise before realisation filled him and his gaze drifted across the room to land on their tech remnants. "Yeah," he answered, only sounding a touch wary as he did. "As long as I've got my mind on something else, I'm good."

Donnie smiled in relief.

"Um, speaking of which, I've been wanting to ask... do you think you could teach me Japanese when I come each day? " Mikey asked suddenly, a little unsure.

Donnie startled in surprise, then he smiled. "Of course, though I have to warn you, it won't be easy."

Mikey relaxed in relief. "Long as you don't get frustrated with me, I can live with that, dude."

-:-

The next few days passed slowly with Mikey settling into life with his other-dimensional family. Sunday turned out to be a rest day with no training and free time abounding. April spent much of her day sequestered with Donnie in the lab as he worked on trying to create a retro-mutagen, whilst simultaneously trying to work out a way to find and rescue their missing brother. Leo, likewise, spent a large portion of the day with them and otherwise watched a couple of episodes of his show, read or did chores. Raph left the lair early with Casey and Mikey did his rehab exercises, finished off a couple of masks and worked out a meal plan for the next couple of days. He didn't plan too far in advance though, as he preferred spontaneity but some of the ideas he had needed significant preparation time. Otherwise, he took advantage of the art supplies April had brought down for him and drew.

The first two drawings he spent time on were of Klunk. One of his kitty sitting upright and gazing at the 'camera' and the other of him curled beneath a warm shaft of sunlight on a carpeted floor. Passing through to the kitchen where he was working, April stopped to admire both his talent and Klunk, asking all sorts of questions which Mikey happily answered.

While the days passed quickly, the nights became longer with Mikey finding it harder to sleep with each one. Not only was it difficult to get to sleep in the mostly dark silence but he found himself with nightmares galore. It became so bad he dreaded even thinking of going to bed and he had to fight not to snap at those around him. In desperation late one night, he approached Donnie, asking for something to help him sleep and left miffed, with Donnie not only denying but barely even paying attention to him as he distantly suggested Mikey start talking about what was bothering him. As he left, he grumbled just loud enough for the other turtle to hear that his "Don would've stopped working to listen or at least asked for a few minutes to finish up first."

Seeing Michelangelo becoming more tired and irritable each day, Splinter suggested meditation before bed and some cleansing teas. Leo suggested sleepy teas. Raph didn't try to suggest anything, thankfully, and mostly just steered well clear when Mikey was particularly irritable. April, however, brought a journal down with her after school, which she handed to the bemused turtle.

"Honestly, Mike, the best thing you could do for yourself right now is choose someone to talk to but I understand why that's hard," she said quietly, sitting down beside him. "After my mother went missing and was presumed dead, it affected me badly. It... probably didn't help that we'd been living out at the farm when it happened but afterwards, to get away from the bad memories, we moved to the city where I didn't know anybody. It was really hard to look around and see all these other kids with what I didn't have and have some of them mock me for it. Dad tried to get me to talk to professional councillors who specialised with kids dealing with grief but it didn't help. What did help though, was my father giving me a journal with a lock on it. He suggested that if I couldn't talk about it to someone, then I should write about it, write down my nightmares and anything else I needed to say but couldn't bring myself to talk about. He even suggested writing to the journal as if I was talking to mum or anyone else I wanted to talk to but couldn't."

Mikey looked down at the bound journal in his hands, focusing on the simple lock.

April smiled and shrugged as she saw what he'd fixated on. "I know a lock doesn't really mean much in a home full of ninja but it's mostly symbolic. Trust me, they know better than to invade your privacy and read something like that." She reached out and gently touched his arm a moment. "I know it's not a perfect solution but it's worth a try, right?"

"Right," Mikey replied dully. "Thanks, Ape."

"No problem, Mike," she replied softly. "If you ever need anything, you know I'm here," she reminded him as Mikey stood and left, heading for his borrowed room to drop the journal off.

-:-

* If you ever see my stories posted anywhere other than under the name Zelgadis55 at Deviant Art, FFNet, AO3 or Live Journal, then they have been stolen. Please report them.