Hey, Roxy Goth here presenting the third chapter of 'Shaken but not broken' for your enjoyment. After an interesting point made by Jadebabe2000 I am informing you that when I was writing this I was not imagining them as humans, however if you want to consider this human AU, then go ahead.
Jadebabe2000's point, will be addressed in the next chapter, I wanted to write a little about the incident has affected don, look out for brotherly comfort and general fluff.
I thank everyone who has reviewed/followed/favourite and please, keep them coming.
I do not own TMNT in any way shape of form.
They'd stayed all huddled round the sofa for god knows how long until Leo suggested they go to bed, despite the fact it was only 10 o'clock. Raph looked ready to argue, until he saw how exhausted Donnie looked and quickly agreed.
They decided to take turns looking after Donnie during the night, just in case he woke up in a panic or had a nightmare or something. Mikey had first shift, 10 – 12. Raph had second, 12 – 2:30 and Leo had third, 2:30 – 5:30, which was technically when training started. The three brothers had decided to see how Donnie was during the night and if all was well, training would go ahead, if not it would be cancelled.
It was during Leo's shift that Raph woke up and he numbly looked around while waiting for his brain to kick into gear. When it did the first thing he heard was the sound of screaming…oh damn!
Cursing every word under the sun Raph ran to Donnie's room where Leo was desperately trying to shake the young genius awake. Mikey was there as well, looking anxious and a bit out of place. Don was quite clearly in the middle of a nightmare; he was tossing, turning and yelling in his sleep.
"No, no, please don't…STOP IT! HELP! HELP!"
On about the thousandth shake Don was startled awake. He was crying, shaking and confused. "Where… where…where am…i?"
"Easy, Donnie." Raph said soothingly, going over to the bed and taking Donnie in his arms. "You're at home. Alright? In bed. And I'm here, Leo's here and Mikey's here" To be honest he felt ridiculous, like it was a scene out of the wizard of OZ, but it worked and Donnie's breathing slowly returned to normal.
"Nightmare?" Mikey finally spoke from the corner. He'd felt useless at first, watching Donnie screaming with only Leo helping, but now Donnie was calm Mikey was determined to be of use.
Numbly Don nodded, this time wiggling out of Raph's arms and lying with his head on Leo's lap and his feet on Raph's knees. Mikey came over and perched on the edge of the bed, resting his hand on Donnie's shell. "Wanna talk about it?" He asked, gently.
It seemed like forever until Donnie answered but eventually they heard. "It just… happened again, like a… re-enactment dream-style. Except this time I couldn't get away, he seemed to be… stronger than before. I…don't know how to explain it…but it….it was terrifying." Don shuddered suddenly and all three remaining bothers instantly tightened their grip. There was silence for a couple of beats before Donnie said, in a rush. "Please don't let him get me, will you? Please, I'll do anything just don't let him near me…"
"Whoa!" Leo said, in alarm. "Donnie, slow down. We won't let him get you, trust me. He won't come near you ever again." Leo had no idea how he was going to make that happen, but it would happen one way or another.
"You sure?" Don looked at him with those big brown eyes that Leo hadn't seen since Don was five and afraid of monsters under the bed.
The eldest remembered he'd often wake up to find his genius younger brother had crawled into his bed. When asked why Don had only replied. "The monsters, I can't stay there, they'll eat me. Leo, will you protect me from them?" Of course, they had only been five.
Now however they were fifteen and Leo repeated the response he'd told Don nearly every night for a year. "Of course I'll protect you, little brother."
Next to him Raph and Mikey nodded their agreement. "Yeah, we'll look after you, Donnie. Trust us, we're you're bro's right?" Raph said, doing his best to appear confident, although like Leo he was wondering where how they were going to protect him from that creep.
"You'll be fine, Donnie. We're next to you. Go to sleep, we'll be here when you wake up." Mikey said.
Leo settled down in his make-shift bed next to Donnie's, and Raph and Mikey dragged blankets and pillows from their rooms. All four of them were asleep within minutes.
Needless to say, training was cancelled.