It seemed like no time at all when awareness came back to him. It was the annoying beeping sound that pulled him from his dreamless slumber. Ugh… Mikey must have been in his room and was playing one of his video games with the sound on again.

Leonardo tried to ignore it. He was so tired he just wanted rest; couldn't Mikey at least turn the volume down? If he wasn't so tired, he'd have pulled the pillow over his head to drown out the noise…
He sighed, listening to the consistent beeping. He supposed in a way it was soothing. He listened to the beeping for a while as he shifted against the bed. The too hard bed. The uncomfortable bed.

Sigh.

Med Bay. He was not in his room.

Drat.

He tried to force his tired brain into focusing, trying to remember what it was that had landed him here.

His mind came up with a blank. It was like trying to search through a thick fog, only the fog refused to part for him.

Leonardo sighed, giving up. He was too tired to think. But he was sure he didn't need to stay in the Med Bay. He felt fine. Better than fine. Donatello had probably given him some of the good meds. But still, there was no reason he couldn't make the trip to his own bed… Donatello could yell at him later. Anything was better than the cot in the Med Bay.

Leonardo opened his eyes and slowly sat up; he could feel the twinges of his injuries as he moved. Painful, but bearable. Yep, Don had definitely given him the good stuff. Sweet. His headache would thank him for it later.

He clicked his tongue against the top of his mouth. His mouth was so dry. Had he been sucking on cotton balls? Must be another side effect of the drugs.

He sighed looking around the Med Bay and was disappointed to not see any water anywhere. Michelangelo too was absent from the Med Bay. Must be the TV downstairs making that noise then.

Slowly, being mindful of any injuries he might aggravate, Leonardo lowered his feet to the floor and pushed himself off the cot. His head spun for a moment, and he felt the vertigo hit him with the subtlety of a sledge hammer.

He blinked his face inches from the floor. When had that happened? He groaned as he pushed himself back onto his knees with shaky arms.

Ok, maybe moving around wasn't the best idea. But where were his brothers? Surely one of them would be nearby?

As if in answer to his unspoken question the Med Bay doors slid open and Donatello half walked, half stumbled in as he tripped over his own feet.

He was holding a cup of coffee in his hand, and muttered a curse under his breath as he caught his balance, while trying not to spill any coffee down his plastron. It resulted in what almost looked like a pirouette from that Nutcracker ballet Raphael had made them watch one Christmas.

Ignoring his own discomfort Leonardo grinned. "Nice entrance, Donny. You have an audition for the ballet later?"

Donatello's eyes slid over to him, but his eyes seemed dull and unfocused. Even through the mask it was hard not to miss the bags under his brother's eyes.

"Dude, you need some sleep. We could use those bags for a full month's worth of groceries."

Donatello shook his head and downed the hot beverage in a quick gulp.

Leonardo gaped at his brother.

"Trying to get rid of all your tastebuds in one go, Donny?"

Donatello set the empty cup down on the desk with a sigh and rubbed the back of his head in a tired gesture.

"Ok, Leo. Let's see how you are doing today."

"Uh, Donny. Right here, bro. And I'm fine. Right as rain. Fresh as a daisy… well, might need a shower… but I feel great."

Donatello ignored him and made his way across the room. But to Leonardo's surprise he did not crouch down next to him on the floor but instead went straight over to the cot.

Suddenly all humor vanished and a horrible icy feeling seemed to trickle down his shell. If he hadn't known that Donatello's hands had been empty, he would have thought his brother had poured a cup of ice water down the back of his neck. He shivered.

But Donatello wasn't paying him any attention. Instead, he was hovering over the cot. The blankets rustled and he heard his brother muttering to himself.

Leonardo's limbs all prickled and felt as if he'd fallen asleep with them inside his shell. He'd done that a few times, and it always made them feel tingly. This was similar, but not quite the same sensation. He didn't want to look… he couldn't look! His brain was telling him to just get up and walk out of the room now and never look back. He closed his eyes steeling himself.

Ok on three. One… two…

"Donny?" Raphael poked his head into the Med Bay doors.

"Raphie!" Leonardo's eyes snapped open, for a moment he felt relief flood through him. But that vanished quickly, Raph wasn't looking at him either. His eyes trained on their brother.

Beside him Donatello's shoulders slumped.

"Mikey said breakfast is just about ready. You should get something to eat, bro."

"I'm not hungry, Raph."

Raphael sighed. "Still think you should try, Donny. Leo needs you… he needs all of us."

"Raph…"

The snapper had now joined his brothers and put a hand on Donatello's shoulder. "Come on, Donny. Come get some food in ya. I'll help you out in here after, ok? He's not going anywhere while you get some breakfast."

Donatello was either too tired or too hungry to argue with their eldest brother. He allowed Raphael to steer him out of the Med Bay doors and out of view.

Leonardo sat frozen where he was. If this was a sick prank it wasn't funny. And he knew funny.

"Ha ha guys, you got me. Time to end it."

But his brothers didn't come back. Was the beeping in the room getting louder?

His head was reeling and he felt as if the room was swaying. The beeping was getting louder, filling his head. Filling up every ounce of his being. The sound was deafening.

His plastron was rising and falling with his desperate breaths. Was he even breathing? There was no relief from the action. He couldn't catch his breath! He couldn't…

This had to be a dream. This had to be…

He reached over and pinched his arm.

OW!

Ok, not a dream.

He looked up slowly to the cot, from his vantage point it was hard to see much. But he could see the blankets were resting over a figure, and he caught the familiar flash of green along with a yellow marking on the bicep.

No! No! Nononononononono!

His arms shook as he slowly pushed himself off the floor, unwilling to support him. His legs wiggled like jelly as he took the two steps back to the side of the bed before collapsing against it. At least he thought he did. Maybe he was still standing. He couldn't feel his legs properly.

His brain was spinning, unable to comprehend what he was looking at.

His own face was reflected in his eyes. Half of it was hidden underneath the oxygen mask that Donatello had designed to fit their beaks, after a lot of persistence on Leonardo's part. One eye was black and completely swollen over. The other was closed. White bandages covered his forehead and a few butterfly bandages lined his cheek and swollen jaw. His face as a whole looked very swollen actually. Black stitches all over his face made him look like a makeshift Frankenstein monster.

"So much for my striking good looks," Leonardo swallowed dryly. This wasn't very funny.

It took a long time for his eyes to stray away from his own beaten, puffy and almost unrecognizable face to examine what he could see of the rest of his body. Most of it was hidden underneath the blanket. He could see a tube protruding from underneath the blanket, the pink and red foamy substance inside of it definitely couldn't be a good thing. One arm was clearly in a sling from the angle it was at. The other had white bandages all over it. He could see the telltale edge of the epoxy resin just edging out from under the top of the blanket; letting him know that his plastron had taken damage and had needed repair. Whatever other injuries he might have had, he could not see.

Curiosity had him reaching, wanting to pull back the blanket to check, but something told him that it would be a futile effort. If his brothers weren't pulling some sick prank, then they really couldn't see him. Besides that, he still couldn't feel his own lungs filling with oxygen how was he supposed to touch anything? Was there a point in even trying to touch anything? He wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer. Perhaps if he ignored this, it would just fix itself. That could happen right?

The annoying little medic voice in the back of his head clicked on. It began to ramble on about some of the medical terms and situations similar to this, but Leo couldn't focus. Instead, it seemed to come across as an annoying buzzing sound. He chose to ignore it.

He let his eyes wander over to the beeping monitors. The heart monitor was what was making the noise that had woken him. Well, kind of. It only took him a glance to see that his heart rate was normal, but his blood pressure was elevated. That definitely wasn't a good thing. His blood pressure wasn't at a dangerous level yet, but it was bordering it. A response to his injuries no doubt.

What had happened to him? How had he ended up like this? Had Draxum thrown him off another roof? That didn't seem right… wasn't he a good guy now?

Leonardo scowled, rubbing at his head. The fog inside his brain seemed to thicken, keeping the memories out of reach. No matter how hard he tried to push through it, the fog pushed him back. Too thick to penetrate.

His jelly legs no longer wanted to hold him and Leonardo sank to the floor next to the cot. Holding his head in his hands.

His mind was spinning, or was it the room? He needed… something. He needed to figure this out. He was the medic. Surely, he could fix this, right?

He found himself struggling to breathe. His chest rose and fell, but still there was no relief from the action. His stomach clenched uncomfortable and the edges of his vision began to gray.

Think, Leo! Think!

But his mind was blank. Something had happened to him. His spirit was out of his body! And he just expected himself to stay calm?

He gripped his head tighter, his chest rapidly rising and falling. A ringing had replaced the sound of the heart monitor. A shrill white noise that drowned out everything else. He was falling into an abyss. Something that his brothers couldn't get him out of this time.

He didn't notice the heart monitor's beeping change. Or the sound of rushing footsteps when an alert went off.

"LEO!"

The sharp sound of his brother's panicked tone broke him out of his own panic attack for a moment. For a second there was absolute clarity as he watched his brothers rush into the Med Bay. Their eyes wide with fear and alarm.

"Raph, check the oxygen mask! Mike…"

The white noise returned, filling Leonardo's ears and drowning out his brother's voices.

He found himself floating, watching from above. Apart, but not apart. Well, this was new. If he wasn't completely terrified out of his mind, this would have been so cool. He'd have to remember this. Mikey would be so jealous.

Mikey…

Mikey was down there along with his other brothers. They were working over his limp form frantically. The blanket was yanked off of him. With his aerial view, Leonardo could see just how dire the situation was. There didn't seem to be an inch of him that wasn't injured in some way or other. Bruises littered his body like confetti, his left leg was in a cast, his left arm as he suspected in a sling, the shoulder still swollen. He could see the epoxy resin's length across his plastron clearly now. Dark bruises covered his neck and throat, a drainage tube was connected between his plastron and carapace draining the foam from his chest.

Leo wasn't sure when the ringing stopped but the frantic and shrill racing sound of the heart monitor replaced it. Leo wasn't listing to that though, because through the beeping he could hear Michelangelo's desperate sobs. The sound was more painful to him than any of his injuries were. It sounded like Michelangelo's heart was shattering.

Over him?

"Leo… no please… Leo… don't… don't do this…"

That was Donny. His voice more frenzied and frantic than Leonardo had ever heard from his brother.

Raphael said nothing. But was doing everything that Donatello instructed him to do. However, his own raspy breaths rattled like chains in Leonardo's ears.

Why was he up here? Why was he floating? His brothers clearly still needed him here. He couldn't be up here when they needed him down there!

As if whatever force holding him up had heard his silent thoughts, he found himself falling. He face-planted on the floor, but there was no pain associated with it.

"If there was an Olympic sport for falling, I'm pretty sure that one deserves the silver medal." He quipped as he pushed himself up off his stomach and rested his weight on his knees.

The beeping of the monitor no longer sounded so frantic, but had fallen back into a normal rhythm.

Donatello was breathing hard, his hands resting on the cot next to Leonardo's side. His eyes locked on the heart monitor screen. "He's… he's stabilizing."

Beside him Michelangelo's whimpering went quiet, as he too looked at the screen. His light blue eyes were locked on the steady peaks and troughs of Leonardo's heartbeat.

"He'll be ok now right, Donny?"

Donatello screwed his eyes shut, as if in pain and turned his head away from his youngest brother.

"Donny…" Raphael's voice was quiet. But the push for the answer was there.

"I DON'T KNOW!" Donatello snapped. "This isn't… Leo is better at this stuff than I am! He would know the answer! He would know what to do! Even with the binders he's made, I just… this isn't my thing! He's not responding to physical stimuli anymore, Raph! He's on the highest dose of painkillers I can have him on and his blood pressure keeps getting worse! It has been two weeks and every day he stays in this coma… the less chance he has of ever coming out of it! I just… "

Donatello's hands balled up next Leonardo's limp figure, gripping at the stark white sheets. His breaths coming in hitched, almost desperate sobs.

"Hey, buddy…" Raphael was quick to move around the bed and was beside their brother in a heartbeat. "We know you are doing everything you can for him. Leo couldn't be in better hands. I'm sure if he could, he'd tell you that himself. He's stubborn and fighter. You know that. He won't give up. He knows we are waiting for him."

"Raph… he's not sleeping! He's not just going to wake up just like that!"

"I know, Donny. But this isn't helping you… or Leo right now. I think you need to sleep. You look exhausted."

"I'm not going to just go lie down and sleep, Raph! If Leo's condition changes and we miss it…"

"Raph and Mike will take turns being with him. We won't leave his side, Donny. If something changes. We'll get you. But you said right now he's stable right?"

"Yes, but you saw how quickly that can change. Plus, his bandages need to be changed… so do Mike's."

"Raph has this. Come on, buddy. Let's get you to bed. Mike, you good to stay with Leo? I'll be right back."

"Yeah, Raph. I'll be here."

Donatello opened his mouth to protest but before he could argue Raph picked up the softshell and carried him out of the Med Bay, ignoring Donatello's loud protests.

Leonardo watched his youngest brother as Michelangelo sat in a chair next to the cot. Being mindful of the tubes and IV lines all over Leonardo's arm, Michelangelo gently covered Leonardo's hand in his own.

"Leo… I don't know if you can hear me bro. But, it's me… Mikey. I just wanted you to know that we are here for you. You have to keep fighting bro. You can't stop. We need you… I… I need you."
Michelangelo's voice cracked and fresh tears splashed down his cheeks.

Leonardo grunted forcing his jelly filled legs to hold him as he slowly made his way over to his brother.

"… you… you can't leave us now… Leo. Not like this… please…"

Leonardo felt his chest tighten with the amount of pain in his baby brother's voice. He reached out not sure if he could actually touch him or not. Somehow, he doubted he'd be able to. Instead, he rested his hand just above Michelangelo's shoulder as if he would touch him.

"I'm here, Mike. I won't give up. That's a promise."