Leonardo looked up in surprise as Brandon suddenly came barreling through the door of the Lab, and bolted through the living area. In the time it took the turtle to get confused, Katherine had leaped to her feet to follow her brother, and Luke had swiftly gone to check inside the Lab.
Leonardo made eye contact with Raphael and shook his head. "I don't think leaving the two of them alone was such a good idea," he said morosely.
"Leo, Raph," Luke called tensely. "C'mere."
Both turtles got to their feet to join the man under the door frame and peered into the room. The sight of Donatello crying was almost too much for Leonardo to handle.
"It would probably be better for you guys to deal with Donny, and I'll go help Kat with Brandon," Luke offered.
Leo exchanged another glance with Raphael, and nodded at the doctor. "Okay, Doc. We'll try and calm him down."
Luke quickly departed as they ventured inside the Lab. Leonardo didn't bother with sitting down; he was too concerned with figuring out what Brandon could have said or done to get his brother worked up.
And he can't tell us…so we're going to have to figure it out on our own.
Leonardo felt Raphael's eyes on his back as he hesitated, and he decided to do something. The blue-masked turtle walked over to the sink and retrieved a wash cloth off the top of a pile. He dampened it under the faucet and went to sit down at Donatello's side. Leonardo saw his brother's grimace of frustration right before Donny tuned his head away.
"Don't do that, Don," he said softly. "We're your brothers – we want to help."
Donatello shook his head and intentionally kept his face buried.
"Donny," Leonardo said more sternly. "Stop avoiding us."
He softened the instant Donatello's chocolate brown eyes met his, still brimming with tears. "You don't have to be ashamed of crying, or being frustrated. This is an insane situation you're stuck in, and I think you've been handling it really well. But at some point, something has to give."
Leonardo folded the washcloth over and dabbed his brother's face lightly. "What happened just now? Was Brandon mean to you?" he asked carefully.
Donatello shook his head immediately.
"But he's the one who upset you?" Raphael asked.
The younger turtle nodded, and his face screwed up with irritation.
Shell, he wants to tell us something so badly, he can hardly stand it, Leonardo thought to himself. We're going to have to start making guesses to get the ball rolling.
"Did he tell you what happened to him?" Leo asked.
He saw the hesitation in the way that Donny shook his head, suggesting Brandon had shared something, but not the entire story.
"Did Bran sound hopeless?" Raphael suggested. "Did he say stuff that's making you worry about him?"
Donatello nodded, and his gaze traveled to the door.
"Don't worry, Don, Brandon didn't go anywhere," Raphael reassured him. "He's still here; Kat and Doc are looking after him. I know that doesn't help you much, when all you could do was listen to him without saying a word."
Donatello nodded mournfully, and fixed each of his brothers with a pleading look.
"He wants to know what's going on, Fearless," Raphael said. "Wouldn't you?"
Leonardo agreed with his red-masked brother's assessment, but he was at a loss as to how to proceed. The scowl he received from Donatello's direction indicated that his brother wasn't pleased by the way he was holding back.
"I'm sorry, Donny," Leo apologized. "You deserve to know what's going on with Brandon, and what happened to you. The only reason we held off was because we didn't want to overload you. You realize that what happened to Bran and your own injuries are connected, don't you? That is, the same people attacked you separately."
Don nodded, and motioned with his head for him to continue.
"There's no easy way to say this, so here it is. The Akiudo is still out there, Don, some of them at least."
Leo was silent for a few seconds to give Donatello time for the news to sink in. His brother didn't appear to be as shocked by the news as he'd expected him to be. "They were only a small band led by Daichi. They tracked Greg down to the apartment, and they took Brandon the evening that he was supposed to be flying to Jamaica. I don't suppose you remember anything about that night."
Donny shook his head.
"You and Brandon had a disagreement over something, and he accidentally left without his—"
Don's nod cut Leo off mid-sentence.
"You remember that?"
A pained look came over Donatello's face as he shook his head.
"Bran told you, didn't he?" Raphael asked.
Donatello nodded once more.
"I don't know how much he told you, but Brandon was gone before you got there, and the Akiudo was waiting when you arrived. We have to take one of their warrior's word for it, but he said that they had a lot of trouble taking you down. You were hurt in the process of trying to escape, and Bran…" Leonardo choked on his friend's name. "Don, they did things to him. The Akiudo really hurt him, and we didn't even know they'd kidnapped him for three days."
Donatello's reaction to the news was multi-layered, starting with something that resembled shock, and ending with his eyes narrowing angrily.
"We took the men down, if that makes you feel any better," Leo said weakly.
"It didn't make us feel any better," Raphael added bitterly.
"At least Daichi is no longer a threat," Leo went on. "Kat had to shoot him to protect Tim."
The lines in Donatello's forehead were more pronounced than ever.
"The real problem now, besides everything that you and Brandon are dealing with, is that someone else was commanding Daichi," Leonardo told him. "He deviated in taking Brandon and attacking you, but he had real instructions he was supposed to be carrying out."
Donatello's eyes ridges rose questioningly.
"We don't know who was directing him," Leonardo explained. "Our source from the Akiudo said that Daichi claimed to be conversing with Yukiko, as crazy as that sounds. Whether that's true or not remains to be seen."
Donatello closed his eyes as he laid his head back against his pillow.
"I hope you understand that we aren't trying to hide things from you, Don," Leo said. "It's just complicated. Brandon will make a complete physical recovery, but his mind is going to take longer. Doc says he's displaying signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Even if he does sound hopeless, no one's giving up on him.
"Brandon's going to need time and patience in order to fight his way back, but we all believe that he will. Whatever he said to you tonight, just know that we're on top of him. We know he's severely depressed, and we're not going to let anything happen to him again."
Don's face relaxed slightly, though worry was still etched in his eyes.
"We're also trying to catch up on what could be going on with the Akiudo." Leonardo sighed heavily. "Sayuri is researching things in Okinawa, and looking for outside links to Takashi. Even though it feels like a long shot, he's still following through on the appeal process. I heard Daichi say that Takashi wants to get back into the United States. We're not counting him out just because he's behind bars."
Donatello looked overwhelmed as he rested against his pillow. Leonardo could only imagine what was going through his younger brother's mind, and he hated that Donatello was incapable of releasing any of it.
Leonardo reached toward Donny and squeezed his arm tightly. "We won't rest until we get to the bottom of everything, Don."
Raphael nodded his agreement. "You can say that again, Fearless. I don't care what it takes, or where we've got to go. They went too far."
Donatello opened his eyes to look up at them. Leonardo hated the helplessness in his gaze, and it made him feel even angrier.
The blue-masked turtle pounded his fist against his palm as he shook his head. "Once and for all, the Akiudo is going down."
Katherine stared mutely at her younger brother, wishing that she knew the right thing to say or do. The woman had no doubt that he didn't want company at the moment, but that didn't mean she was leaving him alone in this frame of mind. The man before her more closely resembled a caged animal than her familiar sibling.
Kat threw a glance over her shoulder and saw Luke hovering behind her, looking as if he was lost inside his own questions. Neither she nor Luke had said anything in several minutes, and the sense of awkwardness in lingering around Brandon was only growing.
Katherine took a deep breath as she balanced against the edge of the mattress on which Brandon was perched. "Bran, we're here," she said faintly. "Maybe this isn't very much help, but I still need to say it. We're not leaving you. Eventually, you're going to have to talk about everything. Maybe in small pieces at first, but it's going to come out. It can't stay repressed, or it's only going to hurt you worse."
"Kat, don't. I can't do this." His tone was flat and detached. "Just leave it alone, leave me alone."
"I can't leave you alone completely, Bran, because I'm your big sister," she replied. "I'll let you have some space, within reason. But I'm not going to watch you drown without saying anything."
"It doesn't help," he told her. "Nothing anyone can say will help. This isn't going away."
"Not quickly," Luke spoke up, crossing around to the end of the bed. "It's not going to be an easy battle for you, Brandon, but that doesn't make it impossible. I know it seems like nothing will ever be the same again, but that isn't true. You may have to live with the effects of what was done to you for a long time, but you're too strong of a person to be beat by this."
Brandon shook his head without looking up. "You don't understand."
"No, I'm sure we can't," Luke allowed. "None of us were there, and we didn't go through what you did. But you can't tell me that Daichi or any of those idiots are worth giving up the rest of your life for."
"I asked you to leave this alone," Brandon said sharply. "You don't get it, and you never will."
Luke took a physical step backward. "No one wants to push you, Brandon. I hope you realize that we're only here to help and support you. If it was your sisters or one of the guys in this position, I know you'd be trying to help them too."
"Can you just stop? Stop talking," Brandon ordered. "I didn't ask for any of this, and I don't need anyone to unload on."
Katherine backed up from the mattress as Brandon maneuvered further away from her. "We love you, Bran," she faltered. "Nothing's going to change that."
His eyes flicked up to meet her. "I have to do this my way, Kat. I can't force it; I tried to force it…" He trailed off. "Please leave me alone."
Katherine looked at Luke as the man grasped her shoulder, and then focused on her brother one last time. "I'll be back to check on you," she said quietly.
"I know." His reply was muffled from the way he was already facing the wall.
Luke led the way into the hall, and Katherine shut the door slowly behind them. Luke's arms enveloped her immediately, as though he knew she was about to collapse under the weight of her emotions. He didn't say anything; he didn't need to. Katherine didn't speak either, as she gave full vent to the tears that had been bottled up for far too long. She rested her head against the man's shoulder and clung to the love of her life for all she was worth.