Chapter Text
All of Leo’s practice with his portals paid off. With one swipe, he got them back home. Well, almost home. Right outside the garage entrance. It was close enough and no one complained, choosing to instead hurry inside to their medbay.
Mikey had conked out right before portalling over. It was Raph who now set their unconscious little brother down on their one infirmary bed, large hands gentle as he deposited his cargo. As soon as the box turtle was laying on the sheets, Donnie was stepping in to scan him.
“It’s bad that he’s not awake, right?” Raph anxiously wrung his hands together, worrying at his beak with his snaggletooth.
“Not necessarily.” Leo was flitting about the room, grabbing disinfectant and bandages for the few cuts Mikey had. “Even if he’s concussed, he’s allowed to sleep. We just have to make sure he wakes up every couple hours and keep an eye on him.” He grabbed some tweezers too, just in case he found any splinters from the broken table Mikey had slammed through.
“Blood pressure is normal,” Donnie said, smoothly cutting into the conversation without looking up from his screens. He typed a note into his wrist gauntlet as Leo came up to the bed, situating himself across from his twin. “Heart rate is resting, oxygen is normal.”
Leo nodded. Good, good, that was all good.
Raph stayed back, watching from the end of the bed as his two little brothers took care of their youngest. He wanted to help, but he’d never gotten into medical stuff. He knew the basics - Donnie had made sure they all did - but he didn’t know enough to help treat anybody. Really, he was best at comforting and giving hugs afterwards, and that wasn’t something he could do right now. So, he did his best to keep a cool head and let Leo and Donnie do their thing.
Once all of the minor nicks and scratches had been attended to, the twins carefully rolled Mikey onto his side to get a look at the backside of his head. Donnie’s shell provided a light and held it between them with a mechanical arm, chasing away any shadows there might have been and letting Leo get a good look at his brother’s noggin.
“It…doesn’t look that bad,” he murmured. His lack of a lopsided smile let his brothers know he wasn’t joking. He wasn’t lying for their benefit either. His brows were narrowed thoughtfully as he carefully inspected the wound on the back of his little brother’s head. The slider gently cleaned it, working carefully and methodically. When he was done, he looked up, relief and confusion adorning his face as he looked at Raph and Donnie. “I’m guessing his shell took most of the impact. This cut actually looks like it may have come from the table he crashed through. It’s gonna be tender for a while and he’ll probably have a headache, but it’s already clotting.”
While Raph sighed with relief, Donnie frowned, eyebrows furrowing. “That doesn’t make sense. He - It takes a head wound of a significant caliber to experience memory loss.”
Raph frowned at the brief stutter. He reached over slowly, giving Donnie plenty of time to see it coming and move if he wanted. When he didn’t, the snapper placed a hand on his shoulder and lightly squeezed in reassurance. “Maybe it was an in the moment kinda thing?” He suggested, looking to Leo for an answer. Now that he was touching him, Raph could feel how tense Donnie was. The guy was coiled like a spring. He was worried. Really worried. Raph tried not to let that worry him.
Leo nodded his head back and forth in a so-so motion while he finished putting a bandage on the back of Mikey’s head. “It’s possible,” he answered. He stepped back once he was done, taking off the latex gloves he’d put on while cleaning up Mikey’s injuries. Donnie’s mechanical arm withdrew back into his shell at the cue, taking the flashlight with it. “We’ll know for sure when he wakes up.”
Raph nodded along. “And when will that be?”
A quiet groan made all three of the gathered turtles freeze. On the cot, Mikey’s eyes squeezed tighter as he let out another little moan of pain.
“Now, apparently,” Leo said breezily, although his voice was noticeably quieter than his normal level. He quickly tossed the used gloves in a nearby bin. “He’s gotta be aching a lot. Donnie, grab him some Advil. Raph, think you can grab him some water? I’m gonna see if I can get him to open his eyes and check his pupils.”
The snapper nodded. “Raph’s on it!” He winced as Mikey whined and curled in on himself at his booming voice. Right. Headache. “Raph’s on it,” he repeated in a whisper before hurriedly leaving the room to grab a cup from the kitchen.
While Donnie briskly walked off to fetch some painkillers, Leo came around in front of his baby brother, making the briefest detour to grab a pen light. “Hey, bud,” he said softly. Mikey grunted, a small sound to let Leo know he was awake. The slider’s shoulders relaxed upon hearing it. Okay, Mikey could…probably understand him. He’d get clearer confirmation in a moment, but for now, Mikey was acting like he just had a bad headache and he’d been woken up from a nap. “Think you can open your eyes for me?” Mikey’s beak scrunched in displeasure, eyes firmly shut. He grumbled something Leo couldn’t quite make out. “Oh, c’mon, please? I just gotta check your eyes.”
It took a second, but Mikey sighed and slowly pulled his eyes open. He blinked groggily, gaze slowly flitting around before landing on Leo’s face. The slider smiled. “Morning, Sleeping Beauty,” Leo teased. He lifted the pen light and clicked it on, quickly inspecting the box turtle’s eyes. Donnie came to stand next to him, while he did so, one pill in hand.
“How’s he looking?” The softshell asked.
Leo hummed thoughtfully, watching how each pupil reacted to the light before clicking it off. Across the room, Raph came back in, one glass of ice water in hand.
“His pupils are the same size. They’re reacting a little slow, but it’s honestly not bad,” Leo said, tucking the pen light into one of his belt pouches. He looked down at his little bro, who’d been silently observing this whole time, and asked, “How’re you feeling?”
Mikey blinked, eyes wide like he was surprised he was being addressed. “Uh…”
“He may have brain fog,” Donnie deduced. “Giving him specific questions to answer may be easier. One moment.” He handed the Advil off to his twin and pulled up his wrist gauntlet again, tapping away at the screen.
While he did that, Raph came into Mikey’s view and smiled happily at seeing the turtle awake. “Hey, little man!” His voice was still technically a whisper, but definitely on the louder end of it. Leo silently held a hand out to ask for the cup of water. Raph handed it over before turning back towards the youngest. “Raph’s glad to see you awake. You gave us a scare back there.”
The corner’s of Mikey’s mouth turned downwards, his eye ridges faintly scrunching. “I did?”
Leo paused. All of Mikey’s physical symptoms seemed fine, minor even. None of his cuts were deep enough for stitches and his head wound had been small and shallow. There hadn’t even been any splinters. On top of that, his pupils had pretty much been fine. There were no physical signs of a traumatic injury. He’d probably be achy for a day or two, but Mikey should be fine and recover no problem. Leo even doubted Mikey even had a concussion. If the box turtle did have one, it was very minor.
He shouldn’t have memory loss.
Leo put a cap on his worry before it could spiral into panic. If he panicked, Mikey would panic, and if Mikey had memory loss, he wouldn’t even know why they’re panicking. It would be a mess. So Leo slid on his cool, collected demeanor like a well worn coat and nodded. “Yep.” He popped the ‘p’. He held out the Advil to his bro with an encouraging smile. “Here, I’m sure you’re aching. This’ll help.”
Mikey blinked, seeming to process that, before nodding slowly. While Leo helped him sit up, Raph’s big brother senses tingled. Raph knew his little brothers very well. It was something he prided himself on. He knew what textures Donnie didn’t like in food, he knew Leo had to leave the lair at least every other day or he’d feel drained and cooped up, and he knew Mikey liked all his clothes oversized because, quote, “it feels like wearing a hug!” Raph knew his brothers well.
That was how he was able to spot Mikey’s moment of hesitation.
It was a small thing, a teeny expression so small and fast it was hard to notice unless you knew him, and knew him Raph did.
He looked at the twins to see if either of them had caught it, but Donnie hadn’t looked up from his screen yet and Leo… it was hard to tell with Leo. Judging by the way his shoulders kept tensing and untensing like he was forcing himself to relax, he was in one of his “fake it til you make it” zones right now, so what exactly the slider had noticed was hard to gauge. Normally he was pretty observant, but he could also get a bit of tunnel blindness when too focused on something.
Raph opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by Donnie straightening up from his hunched position over his gauntlet.
“Alright, gentlemen, I found some questions to start us off with. We’ll see how he answers and go from there,” the purple clad turtle proclaimed. He looked at Mikey just as the smallest turtle finished swallowing down the meds. “First question. Are you feeling pain?”
Raph frowned. “Isn’t that obvious? He just took Advil.”
Donnie waved a hand dismissively. “We’re starting off easy. This is stuff he should know or be aware of right now in this moment. So,” he looked expectantly at Mikey, who’d watched the interaction like it was a tennis match. “Pain?”
Mikey glanced at Leo. When the blue banded brother didn’t say anything, just also waited expectantly, he looked back at Donnie and slowly nodded. “Yes.” His voice was quiet and…confused?
Donnie’s eyebrows twitched, but otherwise he didn’t outwardly react. He checked something off on his tech gauntlet. “Follow up question. Where are you feeling pain?”
Mikey’s eye ridges furrowed, his gaze slipping from them as he seemed to catalog his body. “Head,” he answered first. Donnie nodded. That had been expected. Mikey continued after a couple more seconds, “Neck… arms.”
“The neck pain could be explained by whiplash.” Donnie typed into his gauntlet. “Where in your arms?”
Mikey frowned at his lap, visibly thinking. “...I don’t know,” he answered. He shook his head, then winced at the movement. “They’re just…achey.”
“Good enough.” Donnie wrote something down. Without looking up, he said, “That Advil will help with that. Give it half an hour to start working.”
Mikey’s head moved slightly, like he’d gone to nod then thought better of it. He gave a thumbs up instead.
“Alright, moving on.” Donnie finished typing and looked back at Mikey. “If all is well, this should be easy for you. Tell me these numbers in the backwards order of how I say them: 87, 3, 12, 18, 24.” Mikey did it. It was slow, but Donnie got the sense he was more confused about why and what he was doing than struggling to do it. Donnie nodded, happy with the answer. “Now tell me the months of the year backwards.” Mikey did that too.
The softshell wrote down the results, silently feeling relieved, but a grain of worry was still there. Mikey hadn’t been a quip or a joke yet. Normally by now he did something to put them at ease. Or he told them to stop babying him, depending on what exactly was going on. Neither had occurred yet and it put Donnie on edge. He kept that concern to himself for now.
“What are those questions for, Dee?” Raph asked, leaning over to peek at his screen. He got a hand in the face for his nosiness.
“They’re testing his short term memory,” Donnie answered as he shoved Raph away. “Thankfully, it seems to be in working order.”
Leo grinned. “That’s great!” He said, careful to keep the exclamation at room volume for their patient. He nudged Mikey’s arm gently. “Good job!”
Mikey smiled but it seemed…uncertain. Leo filed that information away, right next to the moment of hesitation from earlier, before Mikey had accepted the Advil. He glanced at Raph and caught the snapper discreetly looking at him too. Raph had also caught it. Good, Leo wasn’t the only one that knew something was up. They were on the same page.
“Next, we move onto testing his long term memory,” Donnie said.
Despite the announcement, the slider made no move to ask the next question. Instead, he stood there, silently flexing his toes on the floor. He had a hunch about how this would go, a gut feeling that rolled and twisted in his stomach. For once, he hoped he was wrong. He didn’t want to be right about this. But…if he was right… Donnie sighed and lowered his wrist, meeting Mikey’s eyes.
“What’s your name?”
The room held its breath.
There was an expression on his little brother’s face he couldn’t quite place. Mikey bit at his lower mandible, breaking away from Donnie’s gaze to look down at his hands. He opened and closed them a few times. Opened. Closed. Opened.
“I don’t know.”
Raph’s breathing stuttered.
Donnie took a deep breath. “What are our names?”
Mikey glanced up at them, eyes quickly taking in all of their faces, focusing on each of them for just a few moments before whispering, “I don’t know.”
Leo wasn’t smiling anymore.
Donnie swallowed. “Where are you?”
Mikey was already shaking his head, albeit a lot slower than earlier. “I don’t know.” He rested his hands in his lap and Donnie finally placed the expression on his face. “I don’t know,” he repeated helplessly.
Lost. His little brother was lost.
Mikey had amnesia.