Archive of Our Own

Donnie spun in his desk chair, using his feet to push against the ground each time he slowed down. His fingertips were pressed together and he frowned at the room as it blurred by in his vision.

He would vehemently disagree if someone said he looked lost in thought, because he knew exactly where he was in his own thoughts, thank you very much, but he definitely did not notice his younger brother entering the room so…say what you will.

Mikey hopped over a few gizmos, skipped across a few gadgets, spun on one foot just a bit too far, waved his arms to regain his balance, and then successfully stuck the landing with his arms up like a gymnast.

Donnie was unaware that his lab had just been graced with Mikey’s acrobatic arts, so Mikey decided to announce his presence in a more direct way.

“AYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

Donnie’s chair screeched to a halt as he flailed and flung papers, pens, and his coffee mug into the air. Mikey caught the mug, because he chooses life, and smugly handed it to his brother. Donnie snatched it and immediately took a sip to hide his face while he calmed down, “Angelo, you know I hate it when you do that.”

“I know <3” Mikey grinned. It is a mystery to everyone how Mikey is able to verbally use emoticons. Leo says it's witchcraft. Raph says Leo needs to stop watching Salem witch trial documentaries.

Mikey crouched to pick up the papers and frowned, “Uhhh Donnie, why are you trying to kill Leo?” he asked, holding up the paper with a detailed list of Leo’s weaknesses.

Donnie ran his hands over his face, “Sigh.”

“I am not trying to kill anyone, just potentially capture or incapacitate. And if I was plotting against Leo I would notify you.”

“You better!” Mikey tossed the papers back onto the desk, “Wait why-”
“Because our family encounters situations involving mind control, hypnosis, and kraangification on a semi-regular basis.”

“Oh right…right… that’s smart.”
“I am, thank you.”

Donnie spun back to his desk and gestured at the charts and lists he had created, “At first, writing contingency plans for each of us was simple–”

“Because we know each other so well since we love spending time together,” Mikey nodded, leaning over Donnie’s shoulder to see better.

“Mhm yeah sure,” Donnie continued, “But I have been troubleshooting this one for hours and I have yet to come up with a solution.” He pointed to a mostly blank sheet with just a name at the top.

“April?” Mikey read, “Huh.”

“Exactly.” Donnie crossed his arms, “The rest of us have all these fears and obvious downfalls, but April O'Neil? I have zero data points.”

Mikey squinted, “I think she was scared when that kid made his livestream viewers think that one place was haunted?”

Donnie raised an eyebrow, “I distinctly remember Leo ranting that she was thrilled and grinning like a maniac throughout that whole ordeal.”

“Oh right, that was probably just me being scared.”

“Noted.”

“HEY! Don’t- give- you- !”

They both struggled for the pen while Donnie tried to write ‘ghosts’ on Mikey’s contingency plan sheet. Mikey clambered over the back of the chair reaching for the pen. Donnie was folded in half but he used his robot arms to push back against Mikey’s face.

Donnie felt the weight of his younger brother suddenly leave his back and immediately scribbled ‘ghosts’ with three underlines before he could be stopped, “HAHAHA.”

“NOOOOOOOO,” Mikey wailed “RAPH WHY.”

Donnie turned to see Raph holding Mikey in the air by his scruff like a cat and smirked “Thanks Raph, I was just going to bed when he jumped me.”

Mikey gaped at him, betrayed, “You were NOT.”

Raph, visibly tired, gave Donnie a look that meant “I know you are lying but I do not care, just please go to sleep so that I can sleep”.

He also gave Mikey a look that meant “I am putting you to bed now, if you protest, I will drop you,” and then wordlessly carried him out of the room.

Donnie shivered. Sleepy Raphael does not mess around.

Noted.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Aww look at the cute little tarantula!” April picked up the fuzzy creature and laughed as it started to crawl up her arm, “Hey, that tickles!”

“Test 536, fail.” muttered Donnie from a vent hidden above April as he marked down the result. This was just one of numerous tests to find out April O'Neil's weakness.

Mikey pretended like he was pushing up glasses on his face and repeated in a nasally voice, “Test 536, fail.”

It was difficult for Donnie to quietly elbow his brother while being tangled and squished in a vent, but he managed.

“You guys know I can hear you, right?”

Donnie and Mikey shared a panicked look, and then slowly looked back out the vent to see April with her hands on her hips looking up at them.

Okay so maybe he had not ‘managed’ to be as quiet as he thought. Donnie gave Mikey one last vicious poke to the side, which was apparently the last straw for the vent because the vent grate fell off and they came tumbling down to the floor.

April quickly moved the tarantula safely out of the way and watched her two friends collapse in a heap.

“Did you get that Leo?” she shouted across the room.

A phone disappeared back through a small blue portal that was open in the wall, and was replaced by Leo’s grinning face.

“Yep! They really fell for that one!”

The heap on the floor that was Mikey and Donnie groaned. Leo being forced to rest in his room after, you know, nearly dying, caused him to be very very bored which led to shenanigans at the expense of everyone else.

Except April, who was happily encouraging his behavior.

Leo rested his arms on the portal like a dramatic princess looking out the tower window, “So why have you guys been venting all morning, a little sus don’t you think?” he winked.

Donnie rolled his eyes, “Telling you would ruin my scientific process,” he sat up and started tapping on his phone, “Dum-dum,” he muttered out of the corner of his mouth.

Leo glanced down at Mikey to see if he could get the snitch to talk, but Mikey was still on the floor pretending to be knocked out.

However, Leo’s attention was quickly stolen by the tarantula in April’s hands, which had started to creak and shake. Something that tarantulas are not known to do.

As far as Leo knew, anyway, he hadn’t met many of them.

The tarantula's legs turned in on itself as the fur split and revealed mechanical insides that turned and clicked together. Before their eyes, April’s tarantula turned into a miniature doll with cracked skin paint, clouded eyes, and a broad smile.

Donnie watched her face carefully, looking for even a flicker of weakness, with his pen ready. Even Mikey peeked open an eye from the floor.

April gasped.

Yes. Yes. Yes! This was the moment! Donnie had finally figured her out!

Her eyes widened.

Donnie’s hand tapped his pen excitedly.

“AAAAAA!” April yelled with delight.

FINALLY. Wait…delight?

“THIS IS SO COOL” April exclaimed. She raised the creepy clown doll in the air and spun around, “Can I keep her, Donnie, please?”

Donnie gritted his teeth into a fake smile, “Of course. I made it for you, after all.”

“Thanks D!” April laughed.

To an outside viewer, it might seem that she was happily oblivious to Donnie's pained expression, but, in actuality, his frustration was the exact source of her glee.

Donnie pretended not to hear her snickering to herself as she left the room, if only for the sake of his own pride.

Mikey pretended to push glasses up on his face again, “Test 537, fail,” and then sprinted out of the room, cackling as he dodged past Donnie’s attempts to snatch at him.

Before he turned the corner to chase after Mikey, Donnie got a weird feeling that Leo had been quiet for too long. He suspiciously glanced back in the room and saw his brother’s face looking a bit more pale than usual in the blue light of his portal.

Leo had frozen in fear, wide eyed, in the exact position he was in when the tarantula turned into a creepy clown doll.

When Leo cautiously made eye contact with a now smirking Donnie, he looked uncharacteristically embarrassed and quickly dissipated his mini portal window.

Heh. Donnie thought.

Noted.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Nothing! I have nothing! Nada! The result keeps coming back undefined!” Donnie huffed, scowling at April’s contingency plan as it mocked him emptily with its empty emptiness.

Great now ‘empty’ doesn’t even sound like a real word anymore. Who puts the letters ‘mpt’ next to each other anyway.

Dum-dum linguists.

Donnie was unsure if this was actually the fault of linguists, but they will have to take the fall today until he figures this all out.

Dum-dum contingency plans.

Throughout his muttering and scribbling lines through his failed ‘April O’Neil’ tests, his oldest brother watched from the doorway considering whether or not bringing coffee was a good idea.

On one hand, Raph considered, coffee didn’t make Donnie hyper. On the other hand, however, it was 3 am and Donnie was starting to go into mad scientist mode.

Raph didn’t want to get zapped or something.

Donnie made Raph’s decision for him by sniffing the air and spinning to look back at him with a wild look in his eye.

Eugh, creepy.

Raph held out the steaming coffee mug as a peace offering.

Donnie accepted the mug and offered Raph the normal chair in return.

“Mikey told me about the contingency plans, I think that is a great idea,” Raph said, casually checking the chair for traps before he sat down, “What are you stuck on?”

“April.”

“April?”

“Yes.”

“Okay…” Raph tried to think of a question that couldn’t be answered with just one word, “What is difficult about her? Couldn’t a weakness be that she is human or something?”

“Scoff.” Donnie scoffed.

That was still one word.

Raph would wait to see if Donnie would expand on his ‘scoff’.

It took Donnie a moment to realize Raph was using the older sibling tactic of refusing to leave until more words were spoken.

He rolled his eyes.

“Yes. She is human, Raph. She does not have mystic powers or mutated genes. Yet, somehow, she keeps up with us. Actually, that is an understatement. She runs into the same situations we do without fear.” Donnie sighed exasperatedly, “It’s admirable and annoying.”

Raph chuckled, “Yeah, you’re right, April is pretty great, but everyone has their weaknesses.”

“Nope. Not April. I’m convinced.”

“Hm,” Raph hummed, “Well, how did you figure everyone else out?”

“What do you mean.”

“Did I willingly tell you I was scared of that bunny?” Raph shuddered.

“No…”

“Does Mikey always tell us when he is hurt, or Leo for that matter?”

“No.” Donnie’s eyes widened, “I learned Leo was scared of that clown doll today by accident too. I was unsure if it was because it was a clown or a doll so I included both in his file.”

Raph decided to ignore the clown doll comment for now, “Exactly! You found out by accident because we all hide what makes us feel weak. I am sure April struggles sometimes too, she is just better at hiding it than, say, Mikey.”

(Somewhere in the sewers, Dr. Delicate Touch felt slighted.)

Donnie looked thoughtful for a moment, “So what you are saying is that I should build a machine that remotely scans a target and then uses that data to relay how they are feeling physically. Then I would not rely solely on the word of the target to assess their wellbeing.”

Raph had a blank look on his face.

He meant something more along the lines of, be patient and eventually we will learn more about our best friend slash sister.

“Yep, that’s definitely, exactly what I meant,” Raph said.

It would be really helpful medically, Raph reasoned. With his family’s tendencies to hide injuries and all.

“Just promise me that you will leave April alone until we have reason to believe she is hiding something important from us that is hurting her,” Raph said sternly, “I don’t want you going mad scientist on her.”

“Fine, I promise.”

“And that you will test it on Leo first,” Raph added.

“Deal,” Donnie agreed.

With matching evil grins, they both shook on it. Although Donnie’s grin slipped into a yawn.

He looked accusingly at Raph. “Did you drug me?”

“What? No.”

“Raphael.”

A voice came from his desk, “It’s decaf.”

Leo had made a little portal and switched out the coffee mug when Donnie wasn’t looking.

“You DRUGGED me!” Donnie chucked a pen at the portal as it disappeared, taking Leo’s laughter with it.

“Man, Leo’s been making those little portals everywhere since you and Drax made him a new odachi,” Raph mused.

“So what you’re saying is that I should build a machine that blocks his ability to portal around the lair by emitting some sort of mystic defense shield.”

Raph’s face went blank again.

“I was thinking more like stealing his odachi after he takes his pain meds, but, honestly, your way works too.”

Hide odachi. Block portals. Lay head down for a moment. Sleep. Sleep? No wait, Donnie needed to write something down first.

What was it?

He felt Raph pick him up off the desk.

Oh.

He had nodded off.

Well, he could always make a note tomorrow.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

“RAPH THAT WAS MINE” Mikey slammed his hands on the dinner table.

Raph innocently licked his fingers clean after gulping down a totally not stolen pizza slice.

“DAAAD”

“Red!” Splinter called across the table, “Do not steal from your brother,” he paused and chuckled, “without stealing a piece for me as well!”

Raph nodded and side eyed Donnie, who immediately put up robot arm walls around his plate and hissed.

In other words, it was a totally normal family dinner.

Mikey glared down to the other end of the table where his traitor father had betrayed him traitorously. Fine. He’d show them.

He glanced to the left side of the table where Raph was poking at Donnie to try and get past his robot arm defenses, and then to the right side where April was turned toward Leo having a hand waving conversation about a snail.

“I’m telling you Leo, the snail would go around your portal!”

“How does the snail know? How would it know? Tell me April.”

“It always takes the shortest possible path! The portal wouldn’t be the shortest path!”

“But April, have you considered…I’m a material girl?”

It was at that fateful moment that Mikey struck. He yoinked two slices from April and started scarfing them down as quickly as he could.

Mikey, mid-chomp on the pizza, glanced up to see April looming over him with a dramatic shadow across her face.

“Oh it is on.” she grinned, a shine going across her glasses.

From there, chaos ensued, as the whole family agreed that pizza stolen from thy neighbor always tastes better.

Mikey lifted his plate over his head and high-tailed it away from April, who chased him around the table, “GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE—“

“NO EEEEUUUAAAHH APRILLLLL!”

Leo stretched diagonally across the table towards Raph’s plate, which gave Donnie the opening to reach under the table with a robot arm to steal from Leo.

“YESSSS” Donnie celebrated his robbery by punching his fist into the air. Although, he accidentally fist pumped with his robot arms too, so Raph took the opportunity to leap in the air and dive towards him, “COWABUNGA!”

“nonNONONON—” Donnie was cut off as Raph crashed into him, their momentum throwing them into Mikey, “HEY–”, who tripped and lost hold of his plate.

The plate spun in the air.

Whoosh. whoosh. whoosh.

It landed without harming the pizza...

(Donnie applauded centrifugal forces)

... and slid across the floor, knocking into the far wall.

The frozen moment of anticipation was broken as April jumped and went soaring over their fallen bodies. “AND APRIL O’NEIL TAKES THE VICTORY” she shouted reaching to scoop up the plate.

Mikey gasped in horror, “NEVERRRRRR” and launched himself at her to hold her back, arms and legs wrapped around her like a Mikey-sized barnacle.

He kinda expected April to shove him off and claim her prize, so he was surprised when she stiffened and stopped moving.

“April?” Was she even breathing? Did he hurt her?

Mikey let go, “Are you–?”

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

“Foot clan alert!” Leo jumped onto the table, “Let’s table the food fight, that I will totally win later, and slay some paper ninjas!” He made some slashing motions with his odachi and then rushed out of the room, “¡Vamanos hermanos!”

Raph knew Leo was really pumped to fight after FINALLY being approved to go out again by Splinter a few weeks ago, it was nice to see him raring to go again. Raph easily scooped up a halfheartedly protesting Donnie and hurried to follow Leo, “Lets go Mikey, April! Leo will leave without you.”

“Okay but–” Mikey glanced at April who looked…perfectly fine?

“Come on, Mikey, let’s go!” she rushed past him.

Confused, Mikey followed, carefully eyeing April for a limp or grimace, but he saw no signs indicating an injury as they raced to catch up with the others.

In the turtle tank, he caught her taking a few steadying breaths, but that could have been from the running. He worried that he had done something wrong and that she would be mad at him, but she didn’t seem mad.

On the way there, she talked about how she liked his idea to trap the paper ninjas to one area for ease of smashing, and even joked with him about how Donnie looked like he might strangle Leo. (“STOP BOUNCING YOUR LEG I CANNOT THINK”)

He did find it strange that she wouldn’t look at him though. Not really anyway.

She was smiling and joking, but she was looking at her hands, past his shoulder, or out the front windshield. She was still making limited eye contact with the others, but avoided it with him completely.

What did she think he would see?

One thing was clear: Something was bothering April.

…

Noted.

…

(But not noted in a nerd database, just in his head. You know, like a normal person.)

------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So to what do we owe this honor?” Leo looked over the edge of the roof to smirk at the paper ninjas below.

“Didja miss us that much? Or were you just jealous that we gave the Kraang so much attention?” He leaned on his odachi and inspected his nails.

The paper ninjas grunted angrily and started to climb the building.

“Sheesh, and I thought Donnie was rude!” Leo shrugged, “Anywayyy, please step right up! Right through the portal, thank you very much!”

He led the hapless origami menaces to a dead end where his family was waiting to trap them.

“Flawless planning Leo, thank you Leo,” he said under his breath, grinning as he switched out the odachi for his katanas and turned to face the ninjas.

Behind him, four pairs of eyes glinted in the dark and joined him to face off with the paper prey plaguing their city.

“Hey April, BATTER UP!” Raph roared as he punted a paper ninja towards her.

April whacked the ninja with her bat and it burst into green mystic flames, “and APRIL O’NEIL HITS IT OUT OF THE PARK!” she cheered.

“The crowd goes WILD!” Raph added punching another ninja into oblivion for emphasis.

Donnie zoomed by the both of them, cackling evilly as he chased a paper ninja with a chainsaw.

They were all making quick work of the twenty or so paper ninjas. Mikey’s idea to trap them had paid off. With limited space, the ninjas couldn’t organize against them.

Plus they were made of paper.

“And scissors beats paper!” Leo crowed as he sliced through a row of ninjas.

Yeah, what he said.

April saw two ninjas climbing up the fire escape. To be fair, Mikey does have mystic fire powers, so, technically, they were using the stairs correctly.

April shook her head, man, Donnie was a bad influence. She vowed to never think of the word ‘technically’ again.

She jumped from one building wall to the other, and back again until she had zig zagged her way up to the roof.

The escapee ninjas reached the top of the fire escape only to come face to face with April.

“Hello boys!” she winked and bonked them on the head. Poof! They crumbled into confetti and floated down.

“Ew, is that paper ninja guts?” Raph asked, brushing the paper off his shoulder.

“Is that all of them?” April called down.

Mikey wrapped his weapon around a still standing ninja and viciously pulled the ninja into his mystic fire where it struggled for a moment before becoming ash, “Yepperoni! All done!” he said sweetly.

“Nice work everyone, I’m very very proud of you, also …lastonetotheturtletankhastoclipdadstoenails” Leo said before portaling to the turtle tank.

A collective gasp of horror was quickly followed by the sound of everyone rushing to get through the portal.

April did NOT want to get stuck with that job.

She jumped down the fire escape landings in hopes of beating at least Donnie to the tank.

Her feet hit one of the landings, and it shifted down with a horrible scraping noise of rusted metal. The movement threw April off her balance.

“AAH!”

Raph turned back to see April falling through the air.

“APRIL!” he cried desperately running towards her with arms out-streched.

She hit his arms with a light ‘oof’ that knocked her glasses up to her forehead, but she was otherwise unharmed.

Raph breathed a sigh of relief as he looked up at the night sky “Whew, no more fire escape acrobatics for a while, okay? You nearly gave old Raph a heart attack!”

April didn’t respond right away. He looked down to see her looking a little stiff.

“Hey, April, are you-“ April started squirming in his grip trying to break out of it.

He immediately let her down, “What’s wrong? Are you hurt?” he asked worriedly. April was turned away from him, so he couldn’t tell what she was thinking.

“Come on, April, look at me! You’re scaring me! Is something wrong?”

April turned halfway back towards him and gave a wry smile, “Nah, I’m fine Raph. Just thought I had some paper ninja guts on me or something! Sorry to worry ya!”

She spun her bat up to her shoulder, “Thanks for saving me, also, havefunclippingsplinter’stoenails!”

She darted through the portal.

Eugh. Raph did not look forward to that job.

Wait, he was getting distracted. Was April trying to distract him? Distract him from what?

Concerned, Raph followed.

He kept her in the corner of his eye on the way back.

She mentioned something about being dropped off at her apartment for the night.

Thankfully, she was talking to Donnie, because Raph barely registered what she was saying.

He was too busy looking at the way her hands gripped her bat like a lifeline.

Raph frowned, about to say something, when he noticed something else.

Mikey was watching her too.

Noted.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

April closed the door to her apartment.

She put her head against the door, squeezed her eyes shut, and took a shaky breath.

Everything was fine.

She just needed a moment.

…

With her back to the door, April slid down to sit with her arms wrapped around her legs.

Why couldn’t she stop shaking? Literally nothing was wrong.

She was being stupid. Scaring Raph and worrying Mikey.

She felt her muscles complain as she hunched her shoulders up to her ears.

What was wrong with her?

April swallowed hard as she felt her eyes well up.

And now she was crying over nothing. Stupid.

She wiped her eyes angrily. Her friends were so thoughtful and caring, but she couldn’t even bear to look them in the eye.

They had gone through so much with the Kraang. Leo had nearly DIED. And here she was, crying because she really needed a stupid hug. She really needed physical proof they were okay, they had won.

April chuckled darkly despite herself. She needed a hug, but, ironically, when Mikey clung to her or Raph caught her today, she felt so scared it made her skin crawl.

She was afraid that if she hugged back, she wouldn’t let go.

It kept getting worse too. Last month, she just stopped joining in the group hugs, but recently, April wouldn’t even sit near her friends and she made excuses to spend less time in the lair.

Logically, April knew that she was isolating herself.

But she couldn’t help it. Her heartbeat echoed and her skin felt like static, humming under the surface like a homing beacon for how lonely and pathetic she felt.

April glanced up at the pretty clown doll on her shelf.

If she told them about what was going on, they would understand. They would want to help her through her bad days.

But they had gone through so much pain, surely she could work through this on her own.

She rubbed her face and sighed.

It would get better. It had to.

April took another deep breath, straightened herself up, and moved to get ready for bed.

Everything would be fine.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Oh Leo!” Donnie called in a sing-song voice, “Would you be a graciously benevolent leader and help me with something?”

Leo warily looked up from the comic he was reading, “Like what.”

Nothing made Leo more nervous than Donnie wanting a mysterious favor.

“It is a simple task, brother of mine, I just need you to pull a lever for me.”

Leo narrowed his eyes, “What does the lever do?”

(He’s learning!)

“You wound me,” Donnie dramatically clutched his chest, “But if you must know, there are actually four levers, so I need each of us to pull them to turn my machine on.”

“So we are all pulling the levers?”

“Yes yes, keep up. Are you going to help or not?” Donnie tapped his foot impatiently.

“Yeah sure, keep your shell on, I’m always down to see something blow up in your face,” Leo said, “just let me finish this chapter first.”

(Next time, Leo might learn to ask what the machine does!)

Donnie turned to go back to his lab with a sinister grin, “We will see who blows up in who’s face, Nardo,” he snickered to himself.

“What did you say?!”

“Nothing, dear brother!”

Donnie raced back to his lab where Raph and Mikey were waiting. They had compared notes on April and decided it was time to test the M-PATH or ‘Tattletale2000’ as Mikey called it.

“Why does Mikey get to wear the cool hat,” Raph whined.

The hat in question was a purple helmet with two lightning bolt shaped antennae sticking up from the sides.

“Because he is the best at identifying emotions and communicating them, I trust Dr. Feelings with the M-PATH Helmet more than myself,” Donnie explained.

Mikey broke the record for the smugest look given to an older sibling.

“He tends to struggle with lying about physical ailments, however, so in that case, I would ask you to wear the helmet, Raph,” Donnie added.

Raph broke the record for the most terrifying, ‘gotcha’ smile given to a younger sibling.

Right as Donnie finished calibrating the M-PATH, Leo entered the lab.

“Alriiiight, where is Leon’s lever? Ooh do we all get cool hats? Can mine be blue? Purple washes me out.”

Donnie gritted his teeth, “There is only one helmet, not hat, I’m afraid. And the levers are in each corner of the lab, so everyone to your marks!”

They each grabbed a lever “One. Two. THREE!” and pulled them down at the same time.

Sparks flew as a glowing purple current zipped through the web of wires on the floor and met at the center of the lab.

“Ooh! Pretty!” Mikey said, eyes wide.

There the current powered up the M-PATH machine. It was an inconspicuous box with a purple screen.

Hey, it didn’t need to look fancy. All Donnie needed it to do was use his pre-existing coordinate finding algorithm, read the brainwaves of the target at the coordinates, translate that signal into radio waves to be received by the helmet, which converted the signal into electric impulses mimicking action potentials so that the wearer felt what the target felt.

No biggie.

“Sooo what happened?” Leo asked, confused, “Not that the light show wasn’t fantastically blinky, I just thought that four levers should equal something cooler, especially since I was holding one,” he said grinning.

Raph and Donnie were ignoring him to watch Mikey’s lightning bolt thingys light up.

Rude. Leo was right here! Talking! Blessing them with his presence!

“Uh guys, this was fun and all, but I’m gonna skedaddle, let me know-“

“Leo’s arm is dislocated. <3”

Leo’s jaw dropped. Stunned into silence, for once.

Mikey continued, “He also has a sore spot on his side, feels like deep bruising, although his injuries from the Kraang must be healing well because they barely hurt at all! Ooh and, wow, those are some strong panic emotions, yeesh, chill out bro.”

Leo’s eyes bugged out of his head.

“WITCH!!! WITCH!! I TOLD YOU, RAPH, WHAT DID I SAY?? I CALLED IT! HE IS A WITCH.” Leo yelled pointing with his good arm and jumping and pretending to pull out nonexistent hair out of his head in frustration.

“He isn’t a witch.” Raph sighed.

“Nope! Not a witch,” Mikey agreed, “Just the good old Tattletale2000, baby!”

“Actually it's the M-PATH, but I’m so happy it worked that I don’t even care about technicalities,” Donnie rubbed his hands together gleefully.

“How- how did- what-“ Leo stammered.

“Oh good, he is calming down now, you should really watch your heart rate, Leo.”

“Mikey, stop freaking him out for a sec. Leo, your arm? Are you kidding me?” Raph shook his head, disappointed.

“Nononono you don’t get to be ‘Disappointed Raph’ until you give me proof Mikey isn’t a witch.”

“Sigh.” Donnie sighed, “I built the M-PATH, it gives info to the helmet, and then we know how you feel.”

“So, not a witch?”

“No.”

“Okay okay cool cool.”

Donnie raised an eyebrow, and quietly wrote something on a paper that may or may not be Leo’s contingency plan while Raph lectured him.

“Your arm. Leo. Now.” Raph pointed to a table for Leo to sit on so he could pop it back in.

Leo grumbled, but he knew Raph meant business.

“What was your plan, genius? Lose your arm?” Raph asked incredulously as he lifted and turned the arm so it slid back into the socket. “Ow.” said both Leo and Mikey.

Leo frowned and averted his eyes, “No, I can just usually just pop it back in myself, I didn’t want you to think I had to stop going out again.” He looked back at Raph smiling sadly, “I missed fighting with you guys.”

Raph felt his heart clench. Curse Leo’s ability to make him want to give Leo whatever he wanted.

He sighed and put his hand on Leo’s good shoulder, “I missed you too, but for us to be a team, you gotta tell us this stuff so we can trust you.”

“Yeah, okay, I get it…” He side eyed Donnie, “So was this like, a one time use machine orrr could we use it to make sure Donnie actually sleeps too?”

Raph smirked, “We can definitely use it again. I asked Donnie to make sure it needs at least four people to activate to prevent misuse, but I’m sure April or Splinter would be down to help us with that.”

“Tattletale2000,” Leo said in awe.

“Tattletale2000,” Mikey nodded.

Donnie was beginning to regret that his genius technical prowess had created such a spectacularly annoying invention.

“Speaking of April,” Raph continued, “We are actually pretty concerned about her,” he glanced at Mikey.

“April?” Leo looked thoughtful, “Is that why you both were watching her like hawks on the way back?”

“You noticed?” Mikey gawked.

“Yeah, well, you are not exactly subtle,” Leo teased, “But seriously, what’s wrong with April?”

Raph frowned, “That’s the thing. Both Mikey and I know April is acting…off, but we have no idea what might be causing it.”

“Hence the M-PATH,” Donnie added, “Thanks for helping us test it.”

“YOU TESTED IT ON ME?”

“That is correct. Now, Mikey, are you ready for us to change targets?” Donnie asked, beginning to type on the M-PATH screen.

“Yeah, get me outta Leo’s head, his arm feels weird.”

“Your face looks weird.”

“Nyeh,” Mikey stuck his tongue out.

Raph rolled his eyes, “Let's pull some levers, mad dogs.”

“One. Two. THREE!”

The purple current raced around the room again, and they all turned to watch for Mikey’s reaction.

The little lightning bolts lit up to show they had achieved a connection.

Mikey looked confused for a moment and then collapsed.

“MIKEY!”

It was unclear who had done the shouting. It was just a guttural reflex as all three of them quickly moved towards their youngest brother, who was now huddled on the ground.

“TURN IT OFF,” Raph thundered with his arms wrapped tight around a shaking Mikey.

“No,” Mikey lifted his face, wet with tears, “I- This isn’t me, Raph.”

They shared a moment of quiet, stewing in the realization of just how much pain their April was in.

“Can you describe what you are feeling?” Donnie asked quietly.

Mikey sniffled “It’s horrible. I don’t think I’ve ever had this before. It’s like I feel nothing and everything at the same time. Like I’m hollow, but at the same time I’m filled with static.” Raph pulled him closer and gave Leo a look.

Leo inhaled sharply, “Oh. Oh, April.”

“What does that mean? ‘Oh’?” Donnie demanded without looking away from Mikey’s face. He carefully removed the helmet and then considered smashing it for making Mikey cry.

Leo held out a hand, and Mikey grabbed it, holding it like a lifeline. “Ah. Well, Raph and I have talked about a feeling like this before, because we had a… similar problem.”

“It happens when someone doesn’t get enough positive physical contact, like hugs,” Raph explained, doing his best to hold back tears.

Donnie leaned his shoulder on Leo as a show of support, Leo smiled gratefully and continued, “We both had Kraang experiences that made it difficult to be around others because I was scared that I might wake up and realize it wasn’t real.”

“And I thought I might hurt someone,” Raph added softly.

Hearing that, Mikey's eyes welled up again as he reached up to wipe the tears rolling down Raph’s face with his thumb.

“But we worked through it together and had a lot of sleepovers in the medbay, ten out of ten would recommend a Raph pillow!” Leo grinned, winking at Mikey who tried to hide a small laugh.

“So has anyone hugged April recently?” Donnie asked.

They all knew the answer to that question, the evidence was all over Mikey’s face.

“Well then, I shall commence the mission: Hug April.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------

April took another deep breath, straightened herself up, and moved to get ready for bed.

Everything would be fine.

...

Knock! knock!

Everything sucked and the universe hated her.

April looked through the little peephole to see… Donnie?

He was here? Now? Why? She considered pretending to not be home, but she worried that something had happened.

She opened the door.

Donnie looked up, searching her face for something, so she turned to the side, avoiding eye contact. “What’s up D? I was about to go to bed, is something wrong?”

She hoped he wouldn’t hear how her voice sounded wobbly.

“Ngk,” Donnie said intelligently, “This is kind of hard to explain,” he shifted his feet uncomfortably, but when he looked up she saw a determination.

“We want to help you, please come back to the lair.”

“Ahah help me with what, D? The science fair was last year,” April tried.

“April.”

She chewed on her lip. April believed him, she didn’t know how he knew, or how much he knew, but he knew.

“I’m, admittedly, not the best at this. But I want to make sure you know that we will always be there for you no matter-“

April crashed into him. She wrapped her arms around him and finally let herself really cry, shoulders shaking as she let out a hiccuping sob.

Donnie was surprised, but quickly recovered and returned the hug, holding her close.

They stood there for a while.

Just clinging to each other.

April felt some of the static leave.

This was nice.

After a while, Donnie quietly asked, “Will you please come back to the lair? Everyone is really worried and would be so mad if I stole all the April hugs.”

“Heh” she snickered tiredly.

“You laugh now, but this is the most dangerous mission I’ve been on. Mikey might throw a building at me.”

“Hm. Maybe no more dangerous missions for a while.”

“I think we can agree on that.”

April took a deep breath, “Let’s go home, D.”

…

“Yeah, hang on, I gotta text Leo the password to use his odachi in the lair.”

“Heh. What’s the password?”

“LeonardoTamatoSux with a three for the ‘E’ and ‘sucks’ spelled with an ‘x’.”

“Pfft.”

A portal opened in the wall a few moments later, and April walked through with Donnie, his arm around her shoulders protectively.

“April!” Mikey called from the center of a Leo and Raph hug on the floor, pushing himself up to come over and greet her.

“Hey, Mikey,” April croaked, starting to tear up again because Mikey’s face was still wet and puffy and, wow, crying is really contagious.

Mikey skidded to a stop in front of her, “Can I- Can I give you a hug?”

“Yeah, I’d like that,” April gave him a watery smile, and Mikey jumped up into her arms, wrapping himself around her like earlier, but this time, they were both grinning like fools.

Raph and Leo joined in on the hug party on either side, and Leo looped an arm around Donnie to pull him in too.

“So, why were you all crying before I even got here?” April asked, looking very content even though she was being squished.

“Psychic link,” Raph half-joked.

“Mikey’s a witch,” Leo said seriously.

“No I’m not, Donnie made a Donnie-thing,” Mikey explained.

“Yes, April, didn’t you know I have superior empath abilities, I always know what people are feeling,” Donnie deadpanned.

Donnie smiled softly as his family dissolved into fits of giggles. He tried his best to hide it, but April was looking at him, and her eyes were shining with happy tears, so he gave in and smiled back.

April looked thoughtful for a moment, and then asked “Can we watch Spy Kids tonight?”

“YES of course we can watch Spy Kids! You never have to ask if we can watch Spy Kids,” Donnie ranted, pulling the group along to the couch in his excitement.

April refused to let go of Mikey, who had accepted his role as ‘teddy bear’, so he stayed in her lap, simply adjusting to face the other way so he could see the TV.

Raph took one side of April, which was perfect because she could lean on him like a giant pillow, and Leo took the other side which was perfect because he could lean on April’s shoulder and keep a hand on Donnie who preferred to sit on the floor and lean on April’s legs.

“Safe.” April mumbled, resting her chin against the top of Mikey’s head.

A quiet murmur of agreement rose up around her as they all settled in even closer, relaxing.

April felt warm and present in the comfortable moment with her family.

They were safe. She was safe.

Everything would be just fine.

…

“If the immortal snail came to get me right now, I wouldn’t even care,” Leo grinned looking up at April from her shoulder.

“What if it looked like a clown doll?”

“Stop! Noooo, that’s so mean.”

“If you interrupt Spy Kids one more _{time I will...”}

Their voices faded into the background as April closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep, safe and sound.