"I get it dad, you can't come…" Leo whispered, nervously glancing back to the living room where his baby brother was seated, he needed his father right now but it just wasn't safe. The foot had picked the worst possible moment to scout the city. And Leo was called just seconds ago by Splinter that he had spotted the group all over the surface.
They were even in the sewers, forcing him to stay in the lair so he wouldn't be spotted accidently, and eventually giving away the location of their lair. But that also meant Splinter couldn't leave the lair to go to April's house, and be there for his youngest son, but they couldn't return to the lair either. And with April's aunt coming home tomorrow, that would be a problem.
"Michelangelo doesn't need me specifically" Splinter cut in, his voice gentle but still stern. "I can't risk our lair being discovered, you must be there for him while I am gone, you and your brothers." Leo's hand sighed and tightened his grip on the phone in his hand. He didn't like this, he didn't like this at all.
Mikey needed his father right now, the plan was to get some old drawings of Mikey to remember him, or to ease him slightly. But they never thought about their enemies that were still looking for their lair, and Leo was just grateful they hadn't seen his father when he entered the sewers and discovered the lair.
"Dad… he needs you right know. I need you… I don't know what to do anymore. He's talking again but he refuses to talk about what happened, or say something without us asking him first.." Leo said, biting his lip slightly. Tears were again threatening to form in his eyes but he wouldn't cry again. He was the oldest, he needed to be strong.
But as soon as the first tears appeared he knew he wasn't strong enough. He sank back in to the chair in the kitchen, hanging his head low but still keeping the phone against his ear so he could hear his father. He honestly had no idea how they could help Mikey, his little brother was so scared and traumatized.
"Some wounds can't be treated right away my son, some wounds are too big for us to handle at first. You have to make sure you keep it clean, and do the best you can to mend it until you know how to treat it" Splinter said lowly, and even Leo could hear the sadness in his voice. And just like all of them, he was worrying for Mikey too.
"I understand" Leo cracked, taking a deep breath to calm himself down, and prevent himself from breaking down completely. "Just call me as soon as they are gone, we can't stay at April's house another day, and we can't go anywhere else, okay?" And it was true. April had told them they could stay as long as they wanted.
It was no problem to provide them with all the things they wanted, food, water, shelter and a warm house. But her aunt was still coming back the next day, and they had to move in the dark otherwise they would get spotted, so they had to move tonight, but with the foot patrolling the sewers, they had no chance.
They could fight of course, but Mikey was in no state to fight anyone. He was still scared, and meeting the foot and forcing to fight them, would do no good. It could even ruin everything they had achieved in the last 2 days after they had rescued him from the lab. And they still had to deal with those guys.
"I will my son" Splinter assured his oldest son. "I have faith in you all, Michelangelo's wounds are deep but they can be healed with time. Don't push him Leonardo, I love you all" And with that the line went dead, leaving Leo alone with the silence. Leo angrily dropped the phone onto the table in front of him and buried his face in his hands.
He wasn't angry with his sensei, his father. He wasn't angry with his brothers or friends. No, he was angry with himself. His father trusted him, his brothers relied on him and yet he wasn't strong enough, he wasn't strong enough to be the leader he was supposed to be, he couldn't help Mikey, not a year ago, and not now.
Leo took a deep breath and looked up slightly, outside the window. It was still light outside, almost 2 pm, it was long until they had to make a decision and Leo wasn't looking forward to that. There was simply no option other than leaving the house and risking being spotted by the foot, or staying at April's home and meeting her aunt.
And neither of those options sounded like a good idea, Leo just hoped the foot would be gone before they had to go otherwise they would really be in trouble. Mikey couldn't fight, and they couldn't go through the trouble of moving Mikey to an unknown location, he wouldn't be able to handle that.
Leo could hear his brothers and friends talking softly, keeping it low so they wouldn't startle Mikey, and occasionally Leo could hear his baby brother speaking. His voice was still raspy and obviously painful for him to use, but the more he talked, which wasn't that much, and the more he drank… it wasn't as it used to be, but it was slowly getting better.
"How'd it go?" Leo's eyes snapped open when the sudden voice interrupted him. His eyes flew to the red haired teen, who was walking over to the refrigerator. Leo took a few deep breaths, he never heard April approaching him, some ninja he was. He forced himself to relax again and looked down again in shame.
"Not good, the foot is still in the sewers, Sensei can't get out, and we can't get to the lair without any of us being spotted." Leo explained with a heavy voice, not wanting to let his own desperation to show too much, but obviously April caught his distress and walked over to him, wrapping her small arms around him.
And somehow the hug actually made him feel better. The hug was tight but April hadn't trained for a very long time, not like they had, so Leo barely felt any pressure around his own muscular arms, but it relaxed him in a way. April smiled and squeezed to assure him slightly, and yet he couldn't seem to relax.
"It'll be alright Leo, the foot will be gone tonight, you'll see" She whispered in his ear, squeezing a little bit more. It felt weird having April's tiny arms around him. They could hardly reconnect again because of his muscles but it felt weird. He was supposed to be the one comforting her, not the other way around.
"And even if they are gone, we will put Mikey through all this pressure, he isn't ready to go out yet" Leo protested, squirming slightly to get out of the hug, but April wouldn't let go. Eventually he let out a long sigh and relaxed slightly in her hold, dropping his head on April's arm a bit awkwardly, but April didn't seem to mind.
"I know Leo" April sighed, and only then she released him again, walking over to the refrigerator to get some fruit, presumably for Mikey, and set it down on the countertop next to the refrigerator. "But it has to be done, you know that. You are always welcome, but if you don't want my aunt to know…" She explained with a heavy voice.
"I get it April, I really appreciate it, but I rather want to keep me and my brothers a secret… but if the foot is really in the sewers, I'm afraid we'll have to stay here. We can't move Mikey to an unknown location, it would only frighten him more" Leo said with a sigh. He honestly didn't want to be seen by April's aunt.
But if they had to choose between April's aunt, or the lair being discovered by the foot, and eventually the Shredder. He would go with the first one, besides everything April had told him about her aunt, it still wouldn't do anything good to them, and her aunt. April quickly finished cutting the fruit and pushed them onto a plate.
"We'll just have to wait Leo" April said softly as she picked up the plate with the fruits and walked outside the kitchen but turned around before doing do. "Mikey's asking for you, I know that probably don't want to see him because you think you failed him or something stupid like that, but he needs you right now" And with a small smile she left the room.
That was the thing Leo loved the most about April, she was straight to the point, mostly. She wasn't dancing around the subject but was telling what was happening, like with Mikey. And yet she did it in such a way it made Leo feel better, and he couldn't prevent the smile that slowly appeared on his face and he slowly stood up.
TMNT
Mikey mumbled slightly in his sleep, whimpering and curling into a ball. Sweat was trickling down his forehead and he was weakly flailing with his limbs. Donnie was watching, feeling his heart painfully against his chest. They had made so much progress the last 2 days, but still Mikey was far from the way he used to be.
The scars being one thing to remind him, but the nightmares were probably the worst. Reliving everything that had happened to him, sometimes they were worse and sometimes they weren't, but they would always wake him up screaming. Crying and begging for someone, even when he didn't specifically said so.
They all knew he was longing for a hug, something to ease him, to give him the feeling of safety. And that was the thing that hurt Donnie the most. He was getting better with trusting them, talking to them, but the nightmares didn't improve a single bit, and he would always wake up screaming just as hard as the first time he came here.
"Shouldn't we like, wake him up or something?" Casey muttered, helplessly watching as Mikey continued to moan and thrash weakly. He was sitting on the edge of the couch with a frown on his face. He felt bad for the little guy. He didn't hear a lot about the freckled turtle, but he knew he was the happy one, laughing and pranking his brothers.
And this was far from the small description April had given him in the last year. He was scared by everything that had happened, by everything they didn't know about. Even if he improved greatly already, he still wasn't ready to talk about anything he had gone through. But they knew they did horrible things to him.
Another quiet moan escaped Mikey's lips and a few tears were beginning to seep through his eyes, mixing with the few drops of sweat trickling down his side. His eyes were squeezed shut and his knees were drawn to his plastron, but not quite touching it, his arms tightly wrapped in between his legs and plastron and his head resting on top of his hands.
"He needs his rest Casey" Donnie whispered, not wanting to wake up Mikey. "Besides, you know what happened the last time we did" Casey winced slightly at the memory, sure he hadn't seen Mikey attacking his own brother, but he had seen Raph passed out on the floor and the glass shards all over the floor, and some even cutting in his shell.
And even Casey couldn't ignore the huge bags under the eyes of the freckled turtle. He was exhausted and it was clear he hadn't been sleeping correctly in who knows how long. He needed his sleep for now. But it still pained them all to see Mikey struggling like this, obviously suffering from a bad nightmare. Casey nodded slightly and looked outside the window, sighing slightly.
"What is taking Leo so long?" April suddenly cut through the silence, gesturing to the closed door behind her. They could all hear the muffled sound of Leo talking on the phone, but nobody could actually hear what he was saying. He had already been on the phone for half an hour, and the rest was starting to wonder what he was doing.
"He's talking to dad" Donnie explained in a quiet voice. "The foot is still in the sewer so we can't bring Mikey back to the sewer, but honestly it would be better if we did." Donnie sighed and ran his hand carefully along Mikey's forehead with a soft towel, wiping away some sweat lingering on his skin.
Casey was watching him carefully, occasionally glancing back to the moaning turtle and then back up. They were both sitting on the edge of the couch, Donnie at one side, where Mikey's head was, and Casey on the other side. Donnie slowly looked up, meeting Casey's eyes, auburn eyes meeting Casey's brown ones.
Soft snores were coming from their left side and they all quickly glanced to the source of the noise. Raph was resting on a pillow with a blanket on top of him, just like Mikey. Casey and April had found him this morning, sleeping along with Leo and Donnie, and Mikey supporting Raph but the little turtle didn't seem to notice it at the same time.
They had woken up a few hours later for some lunch, and Leo went to call his father for his absence. Leo and Donnie weren't that exhausted but Raph had barely slept the whole night, and the previous one so he passed out on the couch after lunch, and that was 5 hours ago already, and Raph still hadn't woken up.
"You know you don't really have to leave right?" April whispered after a few seconds. Her eyes were filled with worry and hurt. They last 2 days had been hard, for all of them and it was only getting worse. They had to move Mikey back home, but the foot was probably still in the sewers and looking around, and her aunt was coming back tomorrow.
She loved her aunt, she really did but at the same time she loved to be alone for once. Her aunt was really sweet, almost too sweet. She would always ask her about everything, and every time something had happened, she would get concerned, way too much. But the problem was that she would definitely freak out by seeing 4 giant turtles.
And hiding them in her room wouldn't be an option either. Mikey's screams would eventually alert her, because no matter what they did, they couldn't prevent Mikey from having them. And her aunt would surely come into her room during the day, so they would get discovered no matter what.
Donnie was about to open his mouth when the blue banded turtle walked in. Small tears were in the corners of his eyes but he had no emotion written over his face. His t-phone was tucked in his belt and he looked around the room with a pained expression, his eyes eventually catching the sleeping form of Mikey.
Despite Mikey being his long lost little brother, Leo still couldn't face his little brother without tearing up again. He couldn't stand seeing all the wounds on Mikey's body. And the nightmares he had because he had failed to protect his little bro a year ago. And every time, no matter how hard he tried, he always ended up crying again.
He was supposed to be the older brother, the strong one, and to be a rock for his family. Only that faithful night he had broken in front of Donnie, but after that he had accomplished to remain strong. Hiding the aching of his own heart, and hiding the desperate cries at night for the sake of his family, he had to be the leader, not the other way around.
"What did dad say?" Donnie cut in, noticing the tears in Leo's eyes as he continued to stare at Mikey. The moans had died out slightly but Mikey would eventually whimper and he was still curled into a tiny ball, his blankets tightly folded around him. Leo tore his gaze from the freckled turtle and sat down in a chair.
His eyes trailed from Mikey to Raph, and again he felt his heart clench painfully. He wasn't thrashing or struggling from a nightmare but it was obvious Raph had exhausted himself these last days, dark bags were under his eyes, just like Mikey's. Though Mikey was worse. And Leo couldn't help but to blame himself again.
Of course there was no way he could've seen it with Raph wearing his mask all the time, and the only reason he was seeing it now because he had removed the mask when he discovered Raph had passed out on the couch, and brought him a blanket to get him comfortable. But he still had to notice the tiredness with Raph.
Casey and April were holding up well, but even Leo could see that the discovery of Mikey was taking a toll on them too. It was Sunday right now and none of the two had any plans on going to school tomorrow. Casey would mostly skip school to hang out with the guys, and April had assured them she would be there as much as possible now Mikey was back.
And with her dad being kidnapped, the teachers would let her go for a few days without questioning, if she would still make her homework and it wouldn't mess up her grades. She had only done it one time before. The day Donnie had made retro-mutagen for her father, but it was all spilled in the fight.
Donnie had promised her he would make new retro-mutagen for her father, but it would take a long time before he had more, and once they found Mikey, he hadn't continued, and April understood that. They had to focus on Mikey first, and how much she wanted her father back, she knew she couldn't ask Donnie to make retro-mutagen, not now.
Leo took a deep sigh and looked up, April, Casey and Donnie were all watching him closely, waiting patiently for him to say anything. Raph shifted slightly next to him and Leo glanced at him for a few seconds before returning his gaze to the rest again and taking a deep breath, his eyes narrowing slightly.
"The foot is gone, we are going home tonight"
So the foot is gone, and they are taking Mikey home tonight, what can possibly go wrong? :3
Also, this Saturday I'll be going to Austria with my school to go skiing :D But I won't be posting until Sunday afterwards because of that, and the house doesn't even have wifi so I can't respond to anything :(
But I'll be buying a ticket with a low amount of internet, so I'll be able to read the reviews (Hint hint ^^), but responding will cost too much of that internet and it'll be gone before I even get there… :/
See ya in a week and a half!