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Raph's technically not the leader anymore. Okay. Fine. To be honest, Leo has real potential as a leader. He's good with making plans. Especially ones that play well with everyone's strengths. Raph had always been the type to just jump in and wing it. And while things seemed to work out with Raph as leader, a great leader has good plans.
But he's still the oldest brother, and that's not exactly a job that Leo can completely take over as new leader. Raph's the one the worries about how his younger brothers are doing. When Leo is stressed with his new leader role, Raph takes care of it. When Mikey has nightmares, Raph takes care of it (or dad. It depends who the youngest decides to wake up). When Donnie starts isolating himself more, Raph tries to take care of it.
Whenever they go places or hangout, Donnie's always on his phone or tablet. More so than usual. And he's very... private about what he's looking at. Once, Mikey puts his chin on Doonie's shoulder, not an odd thing for him. The purple-clad turtle jumps, and quickly holds his screen to his chest while telling Mikey not to sneak up like that. Leo tries once to snatch Donnie's phone, joking that he's looking up something bad. Donnie freaks out for a moment, then quickly leaves when everyone asks what's up with him.
Raph is worried, but he needs to time it right if he wants to confront Donnie about this. One day, everyone was going to go topside. there were things they still need since rebuilding the lair. Donnie says he was going to stay behind. Something about work in his lab. Raph has concerns, so at the last minute, he decides to stay behind at the lair, just in case something happens with Donnie. And it's a good thing he does.
There's a shuffle, klang, and clatter from the lab. "Donnie?" Raph calls out. There isn't an answer. He tries again. "Donnie? Is everything okay in there?"
"Yeah, Raph!" He hears his brother swear and groan. "One of my experiments just didn't work out like it's supposed to." There's a pause. The oldest turtle thinks about pushing aside the makeshift curtain and entering the lab. "Could you... get me a towel?"
That gets him worried enough to enter the lab. "Donnie-" whatever Raph was about to say disappears. He sees a small trail of blood across the floor, blood smeared across Donnie's worktable, and his little brother over there, pushing himself up from the floor. "Donnie!" He rushes over to his brother, holding him by the shoulders as he looks for injuries. "What happened? Where're you hurt?"
"I'm fine! Just a little accident."
"Seriously?" Raph gestures back to the blood trail. "It almost looks like one of those horror movies we used to watch! That's, like, a lot."
Donnie sighs. "Look, I just need a towel, a some pressure on it. Then I'll be totally fine." He doesn't look fine. He looks like he's barely keeping himself sitting up, even with Raph holding him up. The eldest finally notices the arm held behind his brother's back. Raph pull it out with little resistance from his brother. Oh god. It looks horrifying.
His little brother has a gnarly looking gash on his arm. Blood is oozing out quickly. Raph wants to throw up. He tries to keep himself from gagging. "I'm really fine," Donnie insists again. "I just need a towel. Or two."
Raph doesn't want to leave his brother, but they really do need to get something to stop the bleeding. He runs out of the room and grabs an entire roll of paper towel. He moves fast enough for Donnie not to be alone for more than a minute. The teen genius did not move from the floor. He practically snatched the paper towel and pressed in to his own arm.
"Donnie..." Raph takes a breath, trying to calm himself down. "What happened."
Donnie huffs, annoyed. "I already said. An experiment went wrong."
"But what happened?"
Donnie doesn't say anything. He avoids looking at Raph and focuses on getting more paper towels to put on his arm. The older turtle has never seen something bleed that fast. It gonna need more than paper towels and band-aids. "I'm calling Dad."
"Wait, no!"
Raph doesn't listen. He presses their father's contact on his phone. Donnie continues to protest as Splinter answers. "Hello?"
"Something happened in Donnie's lab, and now he's hurt bad." Donnie huffs, and would probably cross his arms if he could.
"What happened?"
"He won't say what happened. He's bleeding pretty bad though."
"Where from?"
"His arm. There's a lot, though."
"We're coming back. Keep pressure on the wound and keep it elevated. Call again if it gets worse, okay?"
"Okay." The call disconnects. Raph moves quickly. He takes over holding paper towel to the wound, despite Donnie's protests, and lift the arm up higher. "Donnie?" The younger turtle pouts and still refuses to make eye contact. "Donnie, please-"
"Fine! Here!" He picks up his tablet from the floor and gives it to Raph. "I took notes on what I was doing on here. Read it yourself!"
The notes app is already open, and the cracked screen isn't bad enough that he can't read anything. As Raph reads, he feels his heart break. This wasn't an accident. Donnie hurt himself on purpose. "Oh, Donnie..."
"In case you can't tell, It was very scientific," Donnie speaks, "And it was pretty stupid, so you don't need to point that one out for me."
"I wasn't going to call you stupid." Half of Raph believes that Donnie did this for some dumb curiosity. The other half insists there's more. "How... how did you even think to do this?"
"Just some stuff I came across online. Look. Don't tell Dad? I don't think he'd allow me in my lab again, like, ever." Donnie's eyes droop and blink, like it's hard for him to keep them open. "Crap. It's getting cold."
"Cold?" Raph doesn't feel like the room's any different. Is that bad? Is it a bad sign? Blood is dripping through the paper towels. He needs more again. The oldest turtle really hopes Dad gets back soon. Times like these make him wish Leo still had his Ōdachi. Sure, teleporting with the swords is cool, but it relied on having one of the swords where you want it to go."maybe I should call dad again-"
"No, no. Just... It's not THAT cold. It's not like I'm..." Donnie trails off. It only takes Raph a few seconds to know where the sentence was going.
"Wait, are you dying?"
"No! I... maybe I'll lose my hand. Maybe."
"Donnie!" Raph can't believe his brother isn't panicking or otherwise upset. He's gathering more and more paper towels for the blood, and the teen genius barely shows a sign of panic. "Why would you do it?"
"Science."
"No." Raph leans over to try to get in Donnie's view. He would try a reassuring hand on the shoulder, but his hands are busy with the bleeding.
"Why would you even think of stuff like this?"
"I have reasons. It's complicated."
"Don-"
There's the sound of people entering the lair, followed by shouts of their names. The rest of the fam's back. They can patch Donnie up. Said turtle grabs on to Raph's arm. "Just don't tell them."
"I-"
"Red! Purple!" Splinter hurries into the lab, along with Draxum. Of course. Both are the parental figures, he adults, and Draxum possibly has some kind of healing magic spells. This is the point where they take over dealing with Donnie, and Raph is carefully made to leave. He almost walks right into Mikey and Leo.
"Woah. Raph." His brothers stare at him horrified.
"What?" Raph looks down at himself. He notices the blood covering his hands, and some places where it dripped down his arm. "Oh."
"Is..." Mikey looks scared. "Is Donnie gonna be okay?"
"Dad's looking after him now. He should be fine."
"Yeah, don't worry, Miguel." Leo casually leans on the youngest brother. "I'm sure Donnie isn't as bad as Raph looks."
"Yeah, I think I'm going to clean all of this off." Raph awkwardly dismisses himself to head to the bathroom. Cold water gets blood out easier, he remembers. As he scrubs his hands in the cold water, he thinks. He has to tell Dad Donnie hurt himself on purpose. Splinter had to understand better how to handle it when a person hurts themself on purpose. But would it break Donnie's trust? Donnie doesn't want anyone else to know what he did to himself.
And what is he going to tell his brothers about it?