Chapter Text
“Alright team, here’s the situation: some new goons have broken into the Museum of Art and Framing. We need to get whatever it is they’re stealing back before they can take it and… do… whatever it is they want to do with it!”
“Yes, we know this. Why are you saying that like we don’t already know this?”
“Personally, I appreciate the reminder. Thanks, Leo!”
Leo threw a smile to his favorite younger brother, ignoring Donnie’s eye roll in his direction. The four of them were crouched on a rooftop just across the street from the museum, eyes on the back doors.
“But why are we on the roof?” Raph was crouched next to him, eyes not wavering from the building as he spoke. “You don’t want to get in there?”
“I thought it would be better if we kept the fight outside this time, just so we don’t end up breaking everything in the museum. …Again.”
“At least no dumb-dumbs stuck us together this time.”
“Donnie, that was one time!” Raph finally broke eye contact, sitting up so he could glare over Leo’s head. “And we came out of it an amazing team!”
Leo opened his mouth to retort to that, but he was cut off by the piercing sound of a security alarm, as the back door furthest from them was flung open, three cloaked figures darting out onto the alley.
“There’s our cue!” He sprung to his feet, already unsheathing his katana. “Let’s go, everybody!”
“Wait, do we have a plan?” That was Donnie again. Leo could hear the whir of his battleshell as its turbines fired up.
“Same plan as always, Donnie - beat up the bad guys and save the day!”
“That’s more of a victory condition than a plan aaaaaand he’s already gone.”
Leo heard the last of Donnie’s sentence just before his portal closed behind him. He’d appeared in the alley in front of the group, grinning as he raised his katana.
“Alright, drop whatever thingy it is you stole. I wanna wrap this up quick, there’s a half price sale on garlic knots at my favorite pizza place and they close in like an hour.”
He’d never seen this group of guys (gals? theys?) before; all three of the figures were shorter than him, wearing dark cloaks that dusted the ground, with high collars and wide brimmed hats that kept their faces in shadow. He guessed they were yokai, based on the mystic readings Donnie saw earlier, but who they were and what they were after was a mystery to Leo. Not that it mattered; they’d stop them and figure out the rest after.
The group turned as one to flee the opposite way down the alley, but his brothers had already made their way off the roof, and Raph blocked their escape. “Raph loves garlic knots! So hand over the thingy, and no one gets hurt.”
One of the cloaked figures responded by raising his hand and blowing into his palm, and abruptly the alley was filled with a putrid smoke, like one of their own smoke bombs but much stinkier. He could hear Donnie make a gagging noise, and Mikey’s “Ewwwwww!” echoed off the walls of the surrounding buildings.
The smoke cleared after a matter of seconds, and Leo squinted through burning eyes to catch sight of their opponents again. They’d split up: one had slipped past Raph and was on their way back down the alley, another had peeled off around a corner, and the last one…
Leo looked up, just in time to catch the third figure floating toward the same roof they’d just been on, something gold clutched in their palm. An amber stone was at the center of it, glittering as it passed the light from windows.
Oh yeah. That had to be the thingy.
“Raph, to the left! Mikey, Donnie, you take that one that went back!” The three immediately moved to follow his directions, and Leo swung his katana again, looking up. “I’ve got this one.”
A quick portal later and he was back on the roof, steps behind the robed figure. They were fast, but Leo was confident he was faster, and he tore off after them, ready to attack.
“Why’d you have to do it the hard way? Now I gotta- whoa!”
The stranger thrust out their free palm, and the wind gusted so strong it batted Leo off the side of the roof like a kite in a storm. He only just managed to grab the edge, and by the time he pulled himself back up the figure was floating over the gap to the next building.
Another portal and Leo was ahead of them this time, within grabbing distance. “That’s enough bluster from you. Heh, get it? Cuz wind- aaah!”
This time Leo was whipped up into the sky, twirled in rapid succession by his own personal tornado. He gritted his teeth, feeling his lips and cheeks billowing, his body buffeted by the wind and debris. He closed his eyes to protect them and hoped his shell would be enough to keep all his insides inside.
He had to fight against the rampaging wind, but after several seconds he managed to force one katana up, opening a portal above himself. The momentum of the tornado sent him corkscrewing through it, landing on yet another rooftop face first.
“Ow.”
Relieved his brothers weren’t around to see that inelegant move, Leo pushed himself back to his feet. A quick check told him his face was not smashed to bits and all his teeth were still in place, so he put the crash landing behind him in favor of locating the museum thief.
He finally caught sight of them just as they floated off the lip of the next roof over, and this time, Leo portaled to catch them in the air.
“Going down?” He smirked, grabbing on to the bottom of their cloak, and the two of them plummeted.
It was an eight story fall, give or take. Not that Leo had many seconds to consider it. He was bracing himself for impact when the thief twisted and held out their palm, creating a gale so hard it shot them both back into the air. The two of them spun wildly, Leo holding on to the cloak for dear life.
And then the thief kicked him, with a strength that surprised Leo; though, not as much as the ground suddenly rushing to meet him did.
Leo tried to create another portal, but a downdraft struck him so hard it drove the air out of him, hastening his descent. He only had enough time to roll onto his back and curl in to protect his head before he struck the pavement with enough force to hear it crack.
He really hoped that wasn’t his shell cracking, too.
He groaned as he laid in his own Leonardo-sized hole, trying to take stock. His weapons had been knocked out of his hands, and had skittered across the alley in opposite directions. His ears were ringing, and he already knew his limbs were going to be one big bruise tomorrow, but nothing felt broken. At least, not irreparably broken.
I’ve had worse, he thought, struggling to sit up and failing. I can handle it. Just… gotta…
He only managed to sit up a few inches before another gust of wind pushed him back down (he was really getting tired of that), and then the figure landed softly next to him. Now, from Leo’s more vulnerable position, they seemed to tower over him, holding the thingy (a pendant, pendants were never a good sign) up and pointing its big amber gem right at him.
“There’s a massive mystic signature coming from the building,” Donnie had said earlier, on the roof, “so let’s just assume whatever they want it for, it’s not good.”
Leo had a feeling he was about to find out what it did for himself.
He struggled again, but the relentless press of air against him would have been difficult to fight off even if his limbs didn’t currently feel like jello. He grit his teeth and pushed with all his might, trying to leap up or pull off a cool ninja move or do something, but he already knew he was sunk.
As though in agreement, the cloaked figure started speaking, a raspy voice that sounded like it got little use.
“Nevermore to be felt.
“Nevermore to be seen.
“Nevermore to be heard.”
The amber was glowing. Bad, bad, very bad news.
Leo stretched out his hand as far as it would go, breathing fast through the pain. One of his katana was inches away from his outstretched fingers - if he could just… get…
“Soul torn from flesh, nevermore to return.”
Amber light flooded over him, blinding him to his surroundings, and Leo screamed.
He was being ripped apart, his skin peeling from his muscles, his bones torn from the sinew. His heart and lungs and all his organs were scooped up and tossed aside, his scutes plucked one by one. It was pain like nothing he had ever felt. It was what he had imagined the Krang would have done, if he hadn’t been rescued, and maybe he hadn’t been, maybe the last few months spent with his family were all a pleasant dream his dying mind gave him at the end, one small comfort before he was torn to shreds.
“Raph!” he screamed, or maybe only thought he did, because his vocal cords had been yanked from his neck and fed to the empty black void of the sky - “Donnie, Mikey, Dad, somebody, please-”
And just as suddenly as it started -
It stopped.
“-eo!? Leo!?”
“Leeeeoooo!”
Leo groaned and lifted his head at the sound of his brothers’ voices, feeling groggy, like he was coming out of a deep sleep. He looked blankly around the alley for a moment, wondering what he was doing lying on the ground, before it started coming back to him.
Right; the fight, and getting smacked into the ground, and then that bad guy using the… whatever it is on him. And then escaping with it. Leo groaned and ran his hands over his face; he really, really hoped that this thing didn’t also unleash an Earth destroying evil.
Knowing his luck, it definitely did. At least no one from the future had come back to warn him about it… yet.
“Leo! Where are you!?”
“According to my tracker, he should be on the next street.”
“Great! …Wait, tracker? Donnie, did you put trackers on us!?”
“Uh… Nooooo…?”
Leo snorted, sitting up and rolling his shoulders. Right, Raph hadn’t been with them when they’d had this conversation the first time… because Raph had been captured after Leo’s last failure.
Guilt surged in his chest, and Leo took a deep breath to try and tamp it down before it overwhelmed him. It would be fine; it would be fine. Once his brothers caught up, they could regroup and go after the yokai, and everything would be fine.
Heck, he thought as he stood up, he was raring to go. Nothing had been broken in the fall after all - in fact, other than the mild disorientation, he didn’t even feel sore. Guess all that training was really paying off, if he could survive a fall like that and feel just fine after.
Leo let the thought buoy him, a cocky smirk growing back on his face. Yeah, no problems here - everything was great!
“Hey guys, I’m over here! What’s taking you so long, you’re moving like turtles! Heh heh.”
The three of them rounded the corner, Mikey leading the pack. Leo noticed right away that things didn’t seem to have gone much better for them: the trailing ends of Mikey’s mask were singed, Donnie had smudges of smoke on his face, and Raph was soaking wet.
But they were okay, all in one piece, not looking particularly injured, and… staring down the alley at him with looks that were steadily growing more and more horrified.
Leo blinked, staring back. “Uh, guys? What’s wrong? Something on my face?”
They said nothing back, and he glanced quickly over his shoulder, thinking there must be some hideous monster behind him, but just as he realized there wasn’t, they were running toward him.
“Leo!? Leo!”
Mikey was screaming, and he flinched at how scared his little brother sounded. The innate need to comfort him kicked in, and Leo stepped forward, holding out his arms to him invitingly, smiling to let him know everything was alright.
“Hey, Mikey, what’s wrong-”
Mikey didn’t open his arms to hug him back.
Mikey ran through him.
Leo’s eyes widened in shock, watching as Raph and Donnie did the same, not so much as flinching when they sliced through his plastron. They couldn’t see him, and more importantly couldn’t feel him, and he hadn’t felt them either, hadn’t felt anything at all.
Icy cold dread gripped Leo as he turned to look at an impossible sight.
Himself, lying on the ground right where he’d woken up, body still and lifeless and battered and broken, his brothers crowded around him, frantically calling his name and reaching out for him.
This is a bad dream.
Leo approached slowly, cautiously, waiting for the scene before him to disintegrate, for himself to wake up in his bed, to laugh off the whole crazy thing. But it all stayed so solid and real in front of him, Raph bent over his head, Donnie grabbing for his wrist, the panic and fear on Mikey’s face, on Raph’s, even on Donnie’s.
“Crap, he ain’t breathin’- Donnie?”
“Can’t get a pulse.” Donnie sat back long enough to type something into the screen on his wrist, then he bent over Leo’s body again, placing his hands over Leo’s heart.
“G-guys?” Leo ventured, but none of them acknowledged him. He trembled, watching as Donnie started to do CPR, best as he could on their unique anatomy, to try and restart the heart that apparently wasn’t beating. “Guys, it’s okay, I’m… I’m right here, guys, hey, guys, look at me!”
None of them did. Raph’s face was set in a hard line, eyes glued on Donnie’s hands as his face stayed bent to feel for breaths from Leo’s inert form. Mikey sat back, hands up like he wanted to help, tears streaming down his face as he watched.
“Mikey, Mikey don’t cry, it’s fine, I’m here, it’s okay,” he tried, but when he went to put his hand on Mikey’s shoulder it passed through, catching nothing but air.
Nevermore to be felt. Nevermore to be seen. Nevermore to be heard.
Leo gasped, yanking his hand back to himself like it had been scalded. He couldn’t deny it anymore: this was real.
He was here, and his body was on the ground, apparently not breathing on its own. Raph had picked up his wrist in his hand and was feeling it intently. Donnie was doing CPR on his chest, the way he had taught him, years ago now.
“Wanna hear something fun?” he’d said at the time, grinning wide. “You’re supposed to do the hand presses at the same BPM as Stayin’ Alive.”
“That is fun, thank you for sharing,” Donnie had replied, and it sounded like sarcasm, but Donnie Sarcasm (Actually Sincere), not Donnie Sarcasm (Actually Sarcasm).
“Hm, hm, hm, hm, stayin’ alive,” Leo hummed nervously to himself now, rounding his body to stand behind Raph. “St-stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive-”
“I-I think I feel a pulse.” Raph’s voice was shaky. “But it’s real faint.”
“Ooooh thank the Pizza Supreme in the Sky,” Leo gasped, leaning back and grasping at where his heart should have been. Across from him, Donnie paused long enough to feel for it too.
“H-he’s not breathing, though,” Mikey reminded them, and his voice was so scared that Leo ached to hear it. Once again he reached out, on impulse, but aborted the movement. What was the point while he was like this?
Just then there was a familiar whir, and something that could only be some tech of Donnie’s landed next to the group, carrying a case. “Raph,” Donnie said, and Raph snapped, “Already on it,” and grabbed for the case, ripping it open.
He pulled out what looked like an oxygen mask, and without having to ask he lifted Leo’s head and got it strapped on his face. There was also a small tank in the case, and Donnie quickly walked Raph through setting it up and turning the device on.
There was tense silence for a moment as everyone, Leo included, stared at his body, waiting for something to happen.
Then, his chest rose, and sank, and rose, and sank again, and Leo sighed in relief.
None of his brothers looked as relieved as he felt, both Raph and Donnie feeling for a pulse. “It’s getting stronger,” Raph said, his voice sounding so, so tired.
“Sorry for scaring you,” Leo said, genuinely, reaching for Raph’s shoulder, but just as with Mikey, his hand went straight through.
“So what now?” asked Mikey, eyes up and locked on Raph. Donnie was looking at him, too, both of them falling right back into step with Raph as leader. A strange mixture of rejection and relief churned Leo’s stomach, and he forced it down to join the guilt before it overwhelmed him.
“We get him back to the Turtle Tank, then back to the lair. Once we have him stable, we’ll know what to do next.”
“Points for confidence,” Leo muttered.
“Moving him is risky,” Donnie said, eyebrows furrowed. “We don’t know if he has any spinal injuries from that fall.”
“What else are we supposed to do? We don’t have a stretcher.” Raph tapped the tank on the ventilator keeping Leo breathing. “And how long is this going to last?”
“Thirty to forty minutes, give or take.”
“Then we got no choice. We have to lift him.”
“I know, I know, just… Let’s do it slowly.”
Raph nodded, then carefully slid his hands under Leo’s shell, prepared to cradle him. “Donnie, get his head; Mikey, legs.”
Mikey jerked forward, looking relieved to finally have a job to do. He pushed his arms under Leo’s thighs while Donnie supported his head from the other side, both of them watching Raph closely.
“Alright, one, two, three… up!”
They lifted him slowly, carefully, trying not to jostle him. Once they had him in the air, Raph shifted his arms until he was holding Leo’s body in a more stable position, supporting his head like he was a very large infant.
“Good thing you’re big as a truck, huh, big guy?” Leo quipped, to distract himself from the jarring weirdness of watching his own limp body get lugged around. Having an outsider’s perspective on his life sucked; he’d rather be unconscious for this.
“His shell looks okay,” said Mikey, who had crouched down to take a look. “No big cracks or dents or anything. Donnie, that’s good, right?”
“Probably more good than bad? No idea what it means for him internally, though.” The other two looked at Donnie, and he held up his hands. “What do you want me to say? Medicine is Leo’s thing, not mine.”
“It’s definitely a good thing, Donnie, I know you know where my spine is,” said Leo, but of course no one acknowledged it. “Buuut it would be good if you guys checked me for internal bleeding sooner rather than later.”
“We can get a better look at him back at the lair,” said Raph, carefully stepping around the hole. “Let’s get out of here.”
He headed off down the alley, moving slowly to not jar or shake Leo. Watching the care his brother took with his body made Leo choke up a bit, and he didn’t move right away, just staring as Donnie turned to follow, staying close in case he needed to help.
It took Leo a moment to realize Mikey wasn’t following; he was still crouched by the hole, frozen, his gaze far away. A few stray tears tracked over his cheeks, but he didn’t do anything to wipe them away, just kept his eyes on the ground.
“Oh, Angelo, it’s okay.” Leo crouched next to him, again reaching for him, even though he knew it was futile. “I’m here, I promise. We’ll figure it out.” He swiped his fingers over the tears, trying to remove them even though he knew he couldn’t. “Remember a ninja’s greatest weapon? You gotta have hope.”
Mikey stiffened, his breath stopping short. His head shot up, looking back and forth frantically like he was searching for something; it was so abrupt that Leo leaned back in alarm, also looking around for whatever trouble Mikey had sensed.
“...Leo…?”
Mikey’s trembling voice snapped Leo’s attention back to his face. Mikey was still scanning the alley, his eyes wide, but when he turned his gaze Leo’s way he didn’t show any recognition.
It didn’t stop Leo from lurching forward again, grasping for his brother’s intangible shoulders. “You can sense me!? Mikey, hey, I’m right here, come on, look at me! You can do it, you’re so close!”
But Mikey didn’t look at him again. After a moment he pushed himself to his feet, and took a step like he was about to search the alley, but then Donnie called to him from around the corner.
Mikey hesitated one more second, looking reluctant, but then he scrubbed the tears off his face and turned, breaking into a jog. “Coming!”
Leo was left standing alone, breathing fast even though he doubted he even needed to. Mikey hadn’t been able to see him, but he’d sensed him, and that was a start.
“Okay… Good sign. Definitely a good sign, definitely proof that I won’t be stuck like this forever.”
He wished the words reassured him at all.
“Can’t we turn on some music or something? It’s way too quiet in here.”
Leo’s request went unanswered, his brothers all quieter than he’d ever seen them as they drove the Turtle Tank through the streets of late night NYC. Raph and Donnie kept their focus on the road, while Mikey sat cross-legged by Leo’s body, watching him for any signs of waking.
There had been a moment when they’d gotten to the tank that Leo worried he wouldn’t be able to actually get inside it, that he’d just fall through the floor and then have to chase after them on foot. But he’d climbed inside like normal, even if he couldn’t really feel the floor under his feet. He also rode in it like normal, without tumbling out the back, even though some experimentation showed that he could stick his hand through the walls and instruments just like he could everything else.
So there were some data points: he could pass through walls but not floors, and the physics of moving vehicles still affected him even though he was incorporeal. Donnie would be so proud of him.
He was still holding on to some small hope that once his body was stable he would wake up and this out of body experience would end on its own, but he doubted it would be that easy. He tried a few things, like touching his body, and then laying down fully inside it, but that didn’t do anything other than weird him out.
Soul torn from flesh, nevermore to return.
Leo shook his head; thoughts like that wouldn’t help him. He would return his soul to his flesh, as soon as he figured out how to do that.
Speaking of…
Giving up on trying to will his brothers into breaking their vow of silence, Leo walked around himself and sat down so he could face Mikey. His little brother had Leo’s hand held tight in his, and he wished he could actually feel it; holding someone’s hand would be nice right about now. A hug would be even better.
Focus, Leon, focus!
“Sooo, Mikey. Are you planning on actually telling our brothers that you most definitely sensed me in that alleyway with your superior mystic abilities?”
Mikey said nothing, eyes on Leo’s body. If he could still sense him, he wasn’t showing it.
“I would, if I were you. It’d be the perfect chance to show off!” His eyes caught the white scars that still crisscrossed the skin on Mikey’s hands and forearms, the ones that would likely never go away, and he winced, hunching in on himself. “Then again, you’ve got nothing to prove.”
The Turtle Tank hit a bump, and he heard Raph hiss something under his breath from the front. Mikey leaned over Leo’s body, examining it like it might fall apart from the slightest jostle, but nothing about him seemed to change. At least his chest was still rising and falling like it should.
“And, yeah, they would definitely think you were crazy. Or tell you you’re just imagining things. So I get why you don’t want to say anything, I do. But I really think you should tell them. Just, you know. So they don’t get any funny ideas about drawing on my face with sharpie.”
Still Mikey said nothing, and Leo sighed, letting his head fall back against the wall (which was less satisfying when he couldn’t actually hit it). “There’s no getting through to this kid,” he said to no one.
The tank rumbled through its entrance into their lair. Raph put it in park, and his brothers all crowded around him again, ready to lift him a second time.
Leo decided not to stick around to watch.
He ended up in his room, feeling more than a little like a coward. He should be in their improvised medbay, trying to find out how badly his body was broken. But like so many times before, he left his brothers to deal with it, and went off on his own instead.
He first tried to flop onto his bed, but ended up falling straight through it. “What are the rules, then!?” he groused to no one, throwing his hands up in frustration. It was tempting to just lay here, inside the platform, but it wasn’t long before he felt claustrophobic, even if he couldn’t actually feel anything pressing against him.
“Uuuuugh,” he groaned, rolling out until he was laying in the floor in the middle of his room, staring up at the ceiling. He spread his arms out, wishing he could feel the press of the cold sewer floor against his skin, the air current from the A/C vents, the comic books that were scattered within reaching distance. But it all stayed as intangible as ever, like he was floating in the emptiness of space and all he saw was an illusion.
Don’t, he begged himself, already feeling his breath hitch, his chest going tight. Don’t think about that, not now.
It wasn’t fair, really, that he didn’t need to breathe anymore, but his mouth still spluttered and gasped like he was drowning. He twisted onto his side and curled into a ball, trying to will himself to calm down, as if that had ever worked before. His eyes were squeezed shut, and usually he’d be sweating by now, but he wasn’t sure if he’d still do that.
This was usually about the time he would call for some help, if he could get his voice to work well enough. He hadn’t at first, of course; he’d ridden out his attacks alone in some dark corner, hating himself the whole time, feeling useless and broken and so, so drained. Then Mikey had found him once, and Raph had flown into a big brother panic, and Donnie had threatened him with a wearable heart rate monitor, and that had been the end of suffering alone. Mostly, anyway.
They all had their different ways of helping. Donnie gave simple, clear instructions to calm him down, then sat with him quietly until Leo was able to crack jokes again. Mikey held his hands or rubbed his back and whispered to him about whatever nice things he could think of until Leo came back to himself. Raph was always a bit overbearing in the moment, never able to let go of his worry for his little brothers, but he was endlessly supportive in the aftermath, and it was the only time when Leo felt like his every move wasn’t being evaluated, measured.
No one came for him this time, though. They would have, if they knew, he had to remind himself of that, but they didn’t know, and so there were no clear instructions on when to breathe, no warm hands holding his, no big arms that circled him to protect him from the world. He was in his own home, surrounded by his family, but he was so, so alone.
Splinter’s voice was what finally pulled him out of it.
“What happened, my sons!?” he heard him say, and Leo could almost imagine that his dad had come directly for him, curled up on the floor, and not the limp body in the bed in the other room.
Splinter wasn’t exactly the best at comforting him or anything (he usually left the brothers to deal with each other, after all), but whenever he found Leo like this he stayed with him until one of his brothers could come, and hummed an old lullaby from when they were kids (that Leo now knew was the main love theme from a Lou Jitsu film), and that counted for something.
But no one was coming for him now, so Leo sighed and pushed himself up off the floor and dragged himself to the medbay (taking a shortcut through the walls, the only cool part of his current situation). He wondered how long he’d been laying in his room; whenever he had a panic attack he lost track of time, and it was easy to imagine his brothers were too busy dealing with him to go get their dad. So, however long it took Splinter to notice all his kids were back and in trouble. Which could be minutes or hours.
Leo decided not to worry about it as he made it to the room; it’s not like he didn’t have plenty of other things to worry about, anyway.
“We aren’t sure,” Mikey was saying, and his voice sounded firmer than it had back in the alleyway. He wasn’t crying anymore either, thank goodness, because Leo couldn’t keep watching his baby brother cry over him today. He was standing at the foot of the hospital bed they “borrowed” from an abandoned hospital wing. “We think he got thrown off a roof again.”
“Actually, I portaled off the roof on purpose this time.”
“A roof!? How high up?”
“Hm, well, the building he seems to have fallen from was eight stories high, but judging by the impact crater left behind he didn’t just fall but was pushed down with force.” Donnie rattled this off without looking up from a monitor he was bent over, typing away with rapid speed.
Leo watched his dad approach his bed, focusing more on him than the body stretched out there. Splinter’s face was pinched with pain, and he reached out like he’s going to touch Leo’s shell, but aborted the motion halfway through.
“He’ll be okay, Pop,” Raph said. He was standing next to Splinter, his eyes not leaving Leo’s body. “A few cracks in his shell, a cracked tibia, some bruises… nothing he can’t come back from.”
“Yeah, listen to Raph! I’ve had way worse than this.” Leo sauntered into the middle of the room, summoning up the rest of his energy to smile (a smile they couldn’t see, but it didn’t matter to Leo). “So all of you can just stop your sad sack routine and get on with your life. I’ll be out of that bed in no time!”
“But he has not woken up?” Splinter asked, oblivious to Leo’s opinion on the matter. Mikey flinched, turning his head away, and Leo saw Raph’s shoulders tense.
“His heart was stopped when we found him and we don’t know how long he was like that before we got there,” said Donnie, his frank tone hitting the others like a bomb. Leo could see it in all their faces, the way it ripped open the fresh wounds for his brothers and gave Splinter a new one to contend with.
“Donnie,” Raph hissed, giving him a light smack on the shoulder. Leo knew it couldn’t have hurt, especially since it mostly hit his battleshell, but it was still enough to get Donnie to spin around in his chair, glaring up at Raph.
“What!? Are we all just going to pretend that didn’t happen!?” he snapped, his voice rising.
“No! I’m just… you don’t have to say it like that!”
“Well how do you want me to say it!?” Donnie got to his feet, his hands flying up. “Leo just had an eensy weensy cardiac arrest!?”
“Donnie, can you not do this right now!?”
“Ooookay, guys, don’t fight over little ol’ me.” Leo moved between his brothers, not that he could actually keep them apart. “Raph, listen, I know Donnie’s a jerk, but you know he only gets like this when he’s upset. And Donton, just, don’t even worry about the heart thing. I’ll figure out how to get back in my body and it’ll all be good!”
Unsurprisingly, his words went unheard.
“Hey, guys?” That was Mikey, who came around the group now, laying a hand on Raph’s arm. “We’re all worried about Leo, that’s all. Gettin’ mad at each other won’t help.”
Raph deflated instantly, putting an arm around Mikey and pulling him in, a hug Mikey reciprocated immediately. “He’s right. This isn’t doing Leo any good.” He held out his free arm, offering Donnie a spot in the hug.
Donnie hesitated, his eyes flitting between his brothers’ faces and the hospital bed, before his shoulders went slack and he shuffled into Raph’s side, not protesting when he was wrapped into the hug. A moment later Splinter joined in, wiggling himself in against Mikey, which actually made Mikey laugh, though it was more wet and sad than mirthful.
“Wow guys, having a group hug without me,” Leo said, stepping back. His chest felt tight again as he watched them, his family, with no way to reach out or let them know he was here.
He had to turn away before the scene overwhelmed him, leaving through the closed door of the medbay. Instead he wandered the lair, quiet save the faint sounds of one of Splinter’s game shows.
“It’s okay, Leon. Find a way to get back in your body and this whole mess will be over. Yeah. Easy peasy.”
He hoped, for his family’s sake as much as his own, that he was right about that.