Sensory

I don't own anything.

If you get the chance to check out RealityBreakGirl's works, please do so. Her OC, Dr Tamara Alexander, is a piece of work.

The night air on his skin. The concrete under his bare feet. The sound of traffic and sirens in the distance. The smell of the sewer.

Don would never take those things for granted ever again.

The doors of home opening. Warm, familiar lights and the scent of incense.

"My sons?"

His father's voice, his feet running towards them.

"My sons! My sons!"

"Papa!" Mikey cried, and they all ran to meet Splinter.

He needed a moment, so he wandered around the lair, taking in everything he could. The sight of Raph's hammock, waiting for him to collapse in it and sleep. Mikey's pile of comic books.

The smell of sparks and chemicals in his lab – it was still there, after all those weeks.

Feet sounded on the floor. Don turned around to see Leo striding towards him purposefully.

"Hey. Sorry, I guess I just…"

Leo caught his legs under one arm and the back of his shell with the other and lifted him up.

"Hey! What are you…"

strong secure safe

Don went still. Leo's carapace was warm and rough in his grip, and his steps quick and precise. Don didn't protest as his brother carried him; a quick glance over his shoulder showed him Master Splinter sitting in his chair, and Raph and Mikey on the sofa. Raph was in the middle, one arm wrapped against Mikey, keeping him against his side.

Leo sat in the spare space on the sofa, Don tucked into his chest. Normally Don would have protested this – he wasn't a hatchling – but he sensed that Leo needed this just as much as he did.

"I'm sorry you had to see that," he mumbled. The scratches on his arms still stung, and his throat ached a little from all the yelling he'd done.

Leo's arms became even more secure, as if his brother was saying Not another word.

"Tell me what happened to you, my sons," Don heard Master Splinter say.

Tell me who has hurt my children.

"It was similar to that time we were kept in an enclosure and made to do trials," Leo said, his voice vibrating in Don's ear, "but this was worse." He took a deep breath. "One time, they took me and Donnie out of the enclosure and tried to make us to a trial. When we refused, they put Donnie in a sensory deprivation room – like Mikey was in the first time – and put me in an observation room."

"I was put in the deprivation room before that," Don mumbled. "That's how they knew it would work."

"They tortured you and made Leonardo watch." Master Splinter's voice shook with barely concealed rage.

Now Raph was speaking. "The next time we refused to do one of their tests, they put Donnie back in the room again but for longer this time. I'm sorry, bro. We should have figured out they'd do that again…"

Don shook his head. "Not your fault, Raph. I don't blame any of you. It was a test, Sensei." He sat up a little, but not enough to leave the safety of Leo's arms. "When I was put in the deprivation room the first time, and when Leo watched the second time, that was a test. They wanted to see how we'd react. They were working out the best way to keep us obedient."

"Every time we showed reluctance or refused to go along with the trials and examinations, they'd threaten him, or they'd put him in the room," Leo said.

"What I wanna know is, why pick on Leo and Donnie?" Raph's voice held a lower growl than usual. "They coulda put any of us in that black room – why was it always Donnie, and why was Leo always the one watching?"

Mikey had an answer for that, although his voice was partially muffled by Raph's shoulder. "Leo's the leader, Don's the smart guy. They must have thought they were the biggest threats and needed to be dealt with."

"Well, we proved we were a threat, huh Mikey?"

"Yeah. You shoulda seen their faces when we broke out, Sensei!"

Splinter smiled proudly…but then a thoughtful expression came over his face. "Is it possible the same person was involved in both instances? You were kept in an enclosure and made to endure trials – and they would have seen what effects sensory deprivation had on Michelangelo."

Don had never thought of that.

"And if Michelangelo is correct, this person already knows that Leonardo is the leader, and that Donatello is the one who comes up with the ideas." Splinter shifted around in his chair. "Do you have any idea who was behind the experiments, my sons?"

The turtles looked at each other and frowned.

"No, Sensei," Leo said. "It was always handlers who put us through the trials. We never saw who was behind it, but I gave someone a message to pass to them."

"What was that message, my son?"

Leo's voice hardened into ice. "That if they, or their employer, ever comes after me or my family again, I will kill them. And I will."

"Not if I get there first." Raph's eyes were smouldering embers.

"They never used our names," Mikey mumbled. Don could hear the tears he was trying to hold back. "We told them our names, but they never used them. It was always Red, Orange, Blue and Purple. They didn't want to…"

He crumpled. Immediately, Raph shifted him into the same embrace Leo had Don wrapped up in.

Splinter came out of his chair and put his hand on Mikey's shoulder. "Hush, my son. You are safe now. You are home."

"We ain't goin' back there." Raph's voice was like distant thunder. "We ain't ever goin' back there, Mikey. Ya hear that, Don? They ain't ever gettin' their hands on us again."

Splinter looked at Leo. "To whom did you give your message, my son?"

"Some woman in a lab coat."

"Could she have been the one behind the experiments?"

Don tensed. He and his brothers had no idea if the person behind the trials was a man or a woman, but whoever it was, they were cruel, and Don did not want another encounter with them.

Leo's arms tightened around him again. "She'd better not have been, for her sake."