DISCLAIMER: I don't own the TMNT

"The sewers never looked so empty before." Don thought to himself, "it never felt more colder…"

He shivered and rubbed his hands against his arms, trying to keep warmth while he still could.

Mike walked up to Don from behind. "Hey, bro, what's shakin'?" Mikey asked.

Mikey stood up looking down at Don waiting for a response.

Don slowly looked up at him. "Nothing, Mikey… nothing at all." And Don looked back down, trying to not look to see if Mike was watching him.

Mike leaned down to face Don. "Look, dude, it wasn't your fault to what happened to April, it was no one's fault- -"

Don interrupted "Mike, I could have done something to prevent something from happening. Don't you get that?"

Mike stayed silent for a few minutes and Leo grabbed Mike's shoulder. Leo bent down and whispered, "Let me talk to Don" in his ear.

Mike stood up and walked back to the lair.

Leo leaned down and wiped a tear off Don cheek. "Listen, Don, don't get bent out of shape over this."

Don looked at him. "Then how I am suppose to deal with this pain? There is nothing for me to do."

"You want to know what you can do? Fine, stop bending yourself out of shape, it happened, it's in the past. Nothing you or I can do to make it better." Leo said strongly.

Don looked down again, in silence.

Leo stood up. "You know… that's what April would have said if it were Mikey or I that got hurt instead of her…"

Leo walked off leaving Don to be alone.

***

Leo walked back into the lair with Mike and Raph.

"So how's our bro doin', Leo?" Mike asked.

"He's doing fine… I think I went a bit too hard on him… but he looks like a wreck, though." Leo commented.

"Oh, you need to be rough on people these days…" Raph said while spinning a sai on his index finger. "I mean, if we were too nice to him now then he'll never be fine."

"That may be, but I just think we should give him some space… from all this, so that he can clear his mind." Leo suggested.

"Sounds good to me, bro, Donnie needs a li'l break anyway, I mean he has done a lot for us before. Want me to go fetch him?" Mike asked.

"No" Leo replied, "let him come back to us, that's was Master Splinter would have said…"

Raph looked at Leo and then walked out of the lair.

"Where are you goin'? Mike asked.

Raph kept his shell at Leo and Mike. "I'm just goin' out for a li'l jog… nothin' big, I'll see yah guys later." Raph said and then took off.

"Man… what is up with everyone today?" Mike asked.

Leo looked at Raph walking away. "He needs to get things off his mind… I know the Master Splinter thing is still bothering him…"

**

Raph is off in the sewers, punching and kicked walls and punching pipes.

"Da** it! Why'd that hafta happen to Splinter!" he punched a hole in the wall.

"Why wasn't I good enough?!" Raph punched a wall again, scary the mice and rats in the sewers.

While Raph is punching the wall with a cold sweat on him, three-foot ninjas stand behind him and stare at him, with a smile on each of their faces.

Raph stops punching the wall and turns around slowly and the middle one punches him between the eyes.

**

Mike looks at his King Kong alarm clock and goes to Leo. "Dude, Raph has been gone for four hours now… it never takes him this long to cool down…"

Leo looked at him. "You might be right, Mikey."

"Should we just go out there and look for him?" Mike asked.

"No… we should stay here, I'm guessing for like twenty more minutes, then we'll go."

To be Continued…