The sound was just as worse as the smell from sanding the jagged edges of Don's shell. They were slowly chipping away at him, breaking apart sensitive bits of Don's carapace and reaching inside him. It kind of resembled one of those plush animals that you could unzip its back and put your whole hand inside the mesh pocket. He wasn't sure why he instantly conjure that image but it made Raph nearly vomit. His eyes quickly found something else to focus on anything but what was happening. He groaned softly as a sudden pain in his own back surfaced. The reality was that everything that was there in Donnie was also in him. He wasn't sure if that made the phantom pain worse but Raph hated the sensitivity and hyper awareness of his own flesh and bone. He couldn't imagine the pain on the scale of what Donnie had to endure while he was awake. The intense emptiness, that very wrong feeling of being exposed and vulnerable. It infuriated him.
Their search had died after the discussion of repairing Donnie's shell now became the main focus. Raph wasn't happy about putting on the shelf but he knew how important it was to be by his brother's side. Donnie was, thankfully, knocked out during the whole surgery. The Foot had plenty of equipment and medics to assist in the operation. Leo only trusted a few and April to help. Harold had constructed the perfect mold of the epoxy glass to fit over the gaping hole in his brother. Now they had to get it to fit and stay. Raph had no idea what that process would entail. Glue? Staples? Their shells were tough but from the infection and side effect of damage, Donnie's shell had become even more frail. They had to be extra careful.
Leo sat with his hands tightly folded as if he was silently praying. His eyes were open, watching the operation from a far and paying close attention to what they were doing. It was only him and Raph. Leo wouldn't let Mikey watch and for a good reason. A lot of this was hard to stomach.
By the time they finished, Donnie looked worse than he had before.
The fiberglass fit perfectly over the damage. It was secured by drilling in several painfully thick screws along with thick metal plates temporarily holding everything together. They had to tighten it and everything else was lost in Raph's mind and out the ear. The only thing he cared about now was pumping a ridiculous but safe amount of morphine into Donnie's body.
"He's going to be ok," Leo said. His voice was weak, tired but the long hours of keeping himself awake and on his feet. There were bags under his eyes and crooked smile. His hand nestled into Raph's as they stood by Donnie's bedside. "He's going to pull through."
Everything looked so wrong. It didn't even look like their brother was still alive with all the bandages and weird metal sticking out of him. They were trying everything to put him back together, to make him whole again, Raph didn't want him to fall apart. Words were lost at the back of his throat. His mouth felt warm as he struggle to keep a sudden tug of agony in his chest.
Raph squeezed Leo's hand and bit his lower lip. Tears quietly fell from his eyes and Leo stayed quiet.