(Sorry, this is not the end. The Epilogue just kept growing and growing, so I split it in two. Brotherly fluff stuff and learning lessons, etc, etc abound! SO, epilogue 1 )
Michelangelo stared up at his ceiling, passing the time by imagining shapes in the way the shadows interacted with the different cracks and crevices. He glanced at the clock on his communicator and sighed. It was just after midnight. There hadn't been much in the way of conversation between the members of his family once they got back to the lair. Splinter and Don had spent about an hour patching everyone up from their fight with the Foot Soldiers. Leonardo had the worst of the injuries, but even those cuts and abrasions didn't require stitches.
Mike wiggled his toes and stared down. His worst injury had been a few shards of glass in his feet from their quick run across the city. He wondered, not for the first time, if he could find shoes that would fit and be comfortable. Maybe he could invent his own line of shoes for mutant turtles.
Air Mikey's. I could make a fortune.
It had occurred to him that he had a limited supply of clientele. He may have to expand his operation. Shoes for all mutants….and people with oddly shaped feet. People who want to be like Mike.
Michelangelo grinned in the dark. Who wouldn't want to be like Mike? Mike was awesome. Mike was cool. Mike…almost got his brothers killed today.
Thoughts of shoes and wealth gave way to the darker thoughts that he'd been pushing back all evening. Splinter hadn't let them talk to each other. In his infinite wisdom, their sensei had suggested that everyone go to their rooms and meditate on the events of the day. As a dutiful leader, Mike offered to stand guard to make sure all his brothers obeyed the directive. There was a look that Splinter reserved for when he was on the verge of losing his patience.
Mike had coined it, "The Look of Impending Parental Smack Down."
The look of IPSD could sometimes be counteracted by the Mikey patented, "Puppy Eyes of the Adorable Michelangelo." Not this time. Such was the force of tonight's IPSD, that all four brothers high-tailed it to their rooms without further objection. Even Casey who happened to still be in the lair at the time, had pretty much ran home with his tail between his legs at the Look.
Mike sighed. His objections to the whole meditation thing wasn't in being sent to his room. Hell, that was a weekly occurrence and he had more than enough to occupy his time for an evening. He just didn't want to think about the events of the day. He wanted to forget them. Quickly. Every time he closed his eyes, he could see Leonardo being pushed back further back towards the edge of the roof until he went over the side and to certain death. He could see Donatello locked up some cell somewhere, with the Shredder torturing him until Don was just a broken shell of himself. He could see Raphael moving just a second too late and getting his throat slit with the kama. He could see Splinter watching all of his sons die and in his overwhelming grief just choose to end it all. Most of all, Mike could see himself, watching all this and not being able to do anything to stop it, because it had been ALL his fault to begin with.
He had been the leader. He chose where to run their patrol. He had lost Don. He had decided against retreat. His brothers were following him, and they nearly followed him to death.
Mike's eyes burned and he scrubbed hard at them. Sitting up in his bed, Mike stared down at his toes again. Leadership sucked. Maybe it was better to be a shoe maker.
ooooooooooooooooooooo
Leonardo had readily disappeared into his room when Splinter suggested they meditate on all that happened that day. He was grateful for the time to decompress and relax before having to deal with all that transpired. The leader had chosen a quiet corner of his room to attempt to sit. His hands arranged carefully on his lap, his feet just so, and he closed his eyes and began to clear his mind. Several frustrating hours later, he realized that clarity and peace were elusive that night. His mind kept straying back to his brothers, despite his best attempts at ignoring them. Damn little brothers can't even leave him in peace when they weren't in the room. Donatello, in particular, had reacted to the exercise in a way that Leo would never have predicted. He wasn't sure exactly what had made his genius brother skip out on the training run. Michelangelo's "encouragement" was nothing new. He often used his speed to his advantage and wasn't shy about reminding his brothers that he was the swiftest and most agile of the four.
It wasn't even just his running off, but he had also went to a strip club with Casey and drank himself into a stupor. Raph had been suspiciously quiet during this admission, and Leo just KNEW that Raphael had been going to that place with Casey himself. Don had refused to comment on that possibility and Splinter didn't ask. Yet. Leo took a deep cleansing breath and rose to his feet. It was pointless at the moment. He was too wound up to meditate. Leo though to go to the dojo to work out, but he knew Splinter would not be too happy with that. The turtle glanced around his room. Maybe a game of MineCraft? A knock at his door interrupted his musing.
Leo opened the door and frowned at his little brother slightly. Mike was standing in the doorway, looking up and down the hallway before his blue eyes settled on Leo.
"Can I come in?" Mike's eyes darted down to the floor before skipping back up to read the reaction on Leo's face. At his eldest brother's confusion, Mike hurriedly explained. "I mean, Sensei said that we needed to think about things that happened today, but…technically, it is tomorrow, so I've already done my thinking for today um…yesterday."
Leo's eyes narrowed in confusion, but he stepped back and allowed Mike to enter. "Shouldn't you be doing important leader things, Mikey?" He was just joking, but he instantly felt bad when Mike winced as he passed by.
Michelangelo sat down on Leo's bed and shook his head. "You can have it back now. It's tomorrow, remember?"
Leo closed the door and sat down at his desk chair across from Mike. "What's wrong, Mikey? I was just joking."
The sigh from the younger brother seemed to originate from his toes. He wasn't one to hide his emotions and Leo was usually pretty easy to talk to about stuff. "I made a mess of things today. Donnie ran out and then I lost him. Then I lead us into a fight and you almost…." He trails off and shrugs. "If Sensei hadn't shown up…." Mike stopped talking again and Leo had no doubt that the unpleasant scenarios had played over and over again in his brother's active imagination.
Leo abandoned his spot on the chair and moved to sit next to Mike. "Mikey, let me tell you something that I learned not so long ago."
Mike looked up at Leo, hopefully. This was what he was looking for when he came to his brother's room. Some sage wisdom that would keep the nightmares at bay.
There was a small pause as Leo exhaled slowly. "Don't borrow trouble."
There was another pause and Mike stared expectantly at Leo. When no further advice was forthcoming, Mike held out a hand. "That's it? Dude, I can get that kind of advice from a fortune cookie."
Leonardo laughed and grabbed Mike's hand to squeeze it. "Feel that? I'm here. You're here. Raph and Don are here. You can review your mistakes and learn from them, but at the end of the day, you lead us home safely. That's what matters."
Michelangelo considered Leo's words for a minute and then shook his head. "We're here safe because Sensei showed up, not because of anything I did or said." He exhaled. "Being leader sucks. I hate it. I don't know how you do it."
"I do it because it's important to me. I do it because…." Leo thought about his answer for a moment. "I do it because someone has to." He knew that wasn't the complete answer, but instead of elaborating he asked, "Why didn't you call for the retreat? Why did we stay and fight knowing we were outnumbered?"
That was an easy question to answer. "Because I thought they had Donnie." Mike withdrew his hand and brought his knees up to his chin. "I couldn't leave without knowing for sure."
Leo nodded, feeling sympathy for his brother. "You made the best decision that you could, based on the information we had at the time. No one blames you for that decision. Not Raph, and certainly not me."
The expression on Mike's face soured a little. "But Donnie took off in the first place to get away from me."
Leo watched the emotions play across Mike's face and vaguely wondered if he looked so defeated when he was dealing with Raph. "Mikey, Mikey, Mikey. First of all, Don is responsible for his own decision. Regardless of what was going on, he made the choice to run off. Secondly, I really didn't help the situation. "
Mike looked at him in confusion. "What do you mean?"
Leo got to his feet, pacing for a moment. "I took your suggestion to annoy Don. I made his chores harder for him, even knowing that he was being unfairly punished for something Raphael did. I tried to bring him into a scheme to…."
Leo trailed off, not wanting Mike to know that his oldest brother had tried to derail his day of leadership. "Just a scheme. Something Don didn't want to do, but I tried to talk him into it. "
Michelangelo considered that for a moment. "And Raph was the one that dumped the crap on his head. And Splinter was the one that grounded him." Mike's eyes stared straight ahead, but his expression seemed to brighten just a little. "And I mean, he was probably grumpy because of a lack of food. No offense, dude, but your cooking sucks.
Leo folded his arms, glaring at Mike.
"And you know, having Casey around just automatically puts Don into a bad mood," Mike continued, oblivious to Leo's annoyance. "I think he has a crush on April. I mean, that's just kind gross because Ape is like our big sister and all. But, Donnie definitely has that creepy crush vibe going on. "
A pillow smacked Mike hard in the face, and the turtle fell back off Leo's bed with a startled yelp. His head peeked up a moment later, looking at Leo sheepishly, who was standing by the bed, with another pillow in hand ready to smack the babbling turtle again.
"Still, I was kind of being a jerk, huh?" He offered Leo an apologetic smile and crawled back onto the bed.
Leo dropped the pillow onto the floor and sat beside him again. "We all owe Don an apology." He looked at Mike up and down before admitting, "I owe you one too."
Mike held up his hands defensively. "Owe me what? You just gave me whiplash with a pillow, Leo!"
"No, I owe you an apology, Mikey. I definitely have misjudged you. When it came down to it, you made the hard decision. Not everyone can do that. Hell, not every leader can do that." He gave his little brother an appreciative smile. "You were a good leader, Michelangelo. "
Mike's smile lit up the room at the praise. "Really? Thanks, Leo." The two sat in silence for a moment before Michelangelo's face fell. "Oh shit. Does this mean you aren't going to cut me anymore slack in training?" He gave a little shriek at the evil look Leo gave him.
ooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Donatello turned on his laptop and searched though several pages of notes at his desk to determine which projects would be best to start once he was permitted access to his lab again. His sensei hadn't banned access to the internet and Don had long since given up meditating. He tried, but his mind was racing too much to for that task. The genius turtle was pretty sure he was in for the worst punishment he'd ever faced. Maybe worse than when he'd caught his lab on fire trying to make his own Bunsen Burner. Maybe worse than when Mike had begged him to distract Raph for a day, and Don slipped him a compound that turned his urine blue.
Almost without him realizing it, Don had brought up the browser to Medieval torture techniques. A cursory glance through the section told Don that these options were much too energy intensive for Splinter to attempt. When Splinter was really annoyed, he relied more on psychological torture…er constructive discipline. Don sighed. The waiting was the worst part and he wished Splinter had let him have it right when they'd walked into the lair. Splinter hadn't really said anything to him about ditching his brothers, or drinking, or going to a strip club and coming home drunk, or ditching Casey in an inebriated state, thereby placing himself and his family in danger
In fact, no one had said much to him at all after they found out where he had been. Of course his brothers would want to know how he came to be at the lair while they were fighting the Foot Clan and looking for him. Don couldn't and wouldn't lie to them. So he was pretty much up front.
Everything about that day had served to get under his skin. From the never ending list of chores, to Mike's constant badgering, and the knowledge that he had no way to escape. He couldn't go into his lab, and he couldn't settle his mind enough to just read. Besides, Leo was so caught up in his "be annoying" act, that Don was pretty sure that one more prank would send him over the edge.
His only recourse had been to get away. Everything else, well, that was just extra. It had felt nice to be out with the public and he understood what Raphael meant when he said it almost felt like he was human. He could have done without the humiliating staggering home and vomiting all over the lair. His head was still pounding.
Why would his brothers want to talk to him? He'd had a tantrum and gone off to have a good time while they were looking for him. Don hadn't meant to lose his cool and just run off. He hadn't meant for his family to think the worst and engage the Foot Clan in attempt to find him. His temper had just got the best of him. Without his normal coping methods to deal with the stress, he'd just…snapped.
That wasn't a valid excuse. His anger had caused him undue embarrassment (how was he to ever look Casey in the eye again after everything he'd told him), and caused near disastrous consequences for his family. Why would they ever talk to him again?
Don leaned on his hand and sighed again. He brought back up the history on Medieval torture. Maybe his brothers could give one of these a try.
