Thanks for sticking with me, Readers! This story has become my favorite and I am so glad for all the devoted readers which had pestered, bribed and threatened me to write more!

Disclaimer: Don't own it.

"…my bed. Just like the whole…thing, had been a dream. Then I smelled blood."

He paused his eyes still closed and a visible tremor to his body.

"There was a dagger through- right next to my head"

Donnie managed not to question as he watched his brother with furrowed brows.

He waited for several minutes before Mikey managed to speak again.

"Klunk."

He took a breath, yes to some it was just a cat, but he loved that cat.

Donnie nodded quietly and let his hand move from resting to quietly rubbing small circles on his brothers leg. Mikey kept his eyes closed and forced himself to roll onto his good side, it made it easier not to look at Don as he continued.

"I held Klunk for … I don't know how long. At some point I started calling for you all. After a while, I noticed you hadn't come. So I looked."

It seemed calm, simple enough. The strained and forced tone struggled to allow it to seem that way. He didn't say of the hours he searched and screamed or the empty rooms. The way each yell echoed back to him as if taunting him. He didn't tell the way he collapsed with Klunk in the empty den in a panicked mess with no voice, no home, no family…nothing but his fear.

He would have been happy to leave it like that, but Don couldn't.

"What did you find?"

His eyes shut tighter and he turned his face into the crook of his elbow. He knew from the moisture he was crying, but some how that didn't seem so important right now. After the mess he had been, his brothers had seen him far worse.

"Mikey?"

Please, leave it.

"Mike - What did you find?"

Don…don't.

"Where were we?"

Something in Mikey snapped. Aside from the first time he had spoken to them when he was returned, he had said nothing about the way he felt.

Now he had lurched himself up with his remaining arm. Once sitting up he grabbed at Don's plasteron. There was a good spot for a grip since they were all still thin.

"Nothin! Not a damned thing! You had abandoned me! Every last one of you! Didn't leave anything, any proof that I had ever had you! You just left! All of you left! Why did you do it!? Am I not smart enough?! Not brave or noble enough!?"

With each trait he would gesture to either Don or one of his other two brothers.

Both Rapahel and Leo had been awake during most of the exchange but now they gave up their ruse and sat poised on their mattresses. Each looked as though they had been struck but were to pained to move.

"I screamed for you! I screamed until I didn't have a voice, and then I kept screaming! I looked everywhere! I would never abandon you!"

His shouts dissolved into pained gasps as his hand slipped from Don's plastron to fist against Don's chest as he slumped forward. Exhausted and humiliated by his own definition he keened against his brothers chest.

"Why…why would you abandon me?" He whimpered, completely defeated against a dazed Donatello.

"I-I wouldn't Mikey, not ever." Don flustered trying to find anything more that might comfort the glob o' turtle against his chest. He would bring his arms around his shell.

Leo was on his feet by the end of Mikey's tirade and soon at his side. He let his hand rest on the back of his neck.

"None of us would." Leo offered, attentively.

Raphael didn't say anything, he wasn't sure reassuring words were really the ticket. As upset as Mikey was…and justly so, he wasn't entirely sure his little brother even heard the words they said. So instead he just put his hand on his head and gave it a soft rustle before sitting back on his knees watching them.

Splinter stood in the doorway keeping both Casey and April back. He knew they would have to discuss what had happened. Though this may not have been the way he would have expected at least they were talking.

Still, as they huddled around the keening Mikey, Splinter couldn't help but worry all the more. He had expected torment, the physical proof was clear enough. But this mental assault would be much harder to overcome.

Mikey had settled back against the pillows which made sitting up easier. His brothers close around him.

"I feel so stupid that I bought into it." He muttered wiping his face with his forearm in a frustrated way.

"Its not hard to do…" Don offered quietly.

The eyes shifted to the thinker of the group.

"Even when you know its faked you have to try…even if its not real."

Mikey swallowed and nodded.

"You too?"

Don let his eyes drop and gave a simple affirmation of a nod.

"But that's for later, huh? Lets just take a breather."

Mikey wanted to argue with Don and make him say what happened to him, the way Don had done it to him. But after Mikey's bombshell he had a lot to digest and he was very tired.

"Hey, Mikey?"

It was Raphael, as all eyes shifted.

"Hate to ask, but I gotta. Since the door is open and all…what happened to your.."

He gestured to his shoulder.

"I mean why hurt you and not Don, or us?"

Mikey grew quiet in thought for a moment before he smiled. It was a tired smile, but a smile none the less.

"I hit him."

There was a moment of silence before 'atta boy' and ' way to go' came from several in the room. All but Leo who now focused on the stone. How positive would they be when they knew he had taken his life. Everything he was trained to do told him when to stop. When there would be no threat from your opponent…but he hadn't stopped. Given the chance he might have made him suffer longer…but the end result would have been the same.

Some how he just couldn't feel bad about that.

So sorry again for the wait but I am glad I got a chance to sit down with little one asleep. I really love this story thanks for all who have stuck around and read. Also I have been thinking about getting some fanart done for this story. Any takers?