Chapter Text
It all happened so fast. One minute his hands were glowing, Ninpō coursing through his veins, burning his skin. He can feel every nerve ending getting shot. Leo is right there. He can see his busted up brother; floating in the endless void in front of him. His body and mind are screaming at him to stop. To make the pain stop, but he's right there. He glances down to his hands, the Ninpō energy was decorating his speckled skin in bright glowing orange and it HURT. He shakes his head, closing his eyes, forcing his brain to shut down and just focus, willing to sacrifice himself for his big brother.
Raph yells, but Mikey's ears are ringing so loud he can't focus. Raph lets his shoulder go, stepping in front of his two little brothers. He yells, forming his giant fist and plunging it into the rip in time/space Mikey was making. Mikey opens his eyes watching. The fist flies inhumanly fast as it grasps Leo. There was a soft grunt from the wounded slider as he gets collected into the large fist.
Not to long after, do the three boys spot the Krang. He grips Leo's ankle, tugging him back in. In a panic, Donnie lets Mikey go, flinging his bo staff around, letting it form into a drill ten times his size. He aims, lets the drill go and it barrels into the prison dimension, bypassing Raph and Leo and digging straight into the eye of the Krang. He lets Leo go and Raph stumbles and the Slider flies out of the dimension back into the safety of Raph's arms who collapses at the sudden extra body weight.
Mikey closes the portal. His Ninpō energy continues to glow on his arms, stinging and he suddenly feels much, much weaker. His eyes flutter close. “Mikey-”
Donnie flies into action, springing up from their squatting position to Mikey, grabbing him before he falls to the ground. He gently puts Mikey down, holding his head in his lap, pulling his goggles down.
“Shit Raph-” Donnie begins, assessing the fifteen year old. “Fuck, fuck,fuck, FUCK! Raph!” Donnie glances to the oldest who’s holding Leo carefully. “Don’t jostle him around too much! One of his ribs could puncture a lung!”
As carefully as he can manage; Raph picks up the beat up Leo. Mikey shifts a little to the relief of the purple clad. He glances down to his coms device on his wrist. “Dad? April? Are you there?” He asks.
“Purple?!” Donnie chokes hearing the rat respond. “Purple, is it just you?!”
“No” he nearly sobs out, “no, no we’re all here! But we need you to come rescue us! Leo and Mikey are really hurt!”
“Donnie too!” Raph interjects through the comms. Donnie glares at the Snapper.
“I’m fine!” Donnie argues. “We’re on Staten Island. You guys need to hurry! I have no idea how long Leo will remain stable!!!” He continues to scan over Mikey, pulling up both his and Leo’s vitals. “Leo is stable, I don’t know for how long.”
“Don- I-” Raph starts, glancing at his hands. Donnie’s eyes follow slowly, his breath stopping. Raphs hands are dripping blood. “I don’t know where he’s bleeding from…” he trails.
Donnie glances at Mikey in his lap, gently putting his head down. Mikey is stable. He rushes over to the slider who was bleeding profusely. He scans him quickly. “He has a lot of internal bleeding. Looks like pneumothorax in his left lung… um BP is 80…” He chokes. He couldn’t do a full analysis on his injuries or the severity of them. “Fuck…okay… uh. Raph. put pressure on his right side, here.” Raph follows. “Most of his bleeding is from there. I-” He looks around frantically. Anything they could use as a tourniquet for his arms and legs. Anything.
“Dad. How far are you? We need to put Leo on oxygen now! I don’t-” Donnie begs into the microphone. He was trying to hide his panic, but failing.
“We are almost there. Casey found one of Leonardo's katanas’. Hold tight Purple.” Donnie starts opening and closing his fists in anxiety, running all the numbers in his head. He could take all their bandanas, tie off from his thighs with two of them and-
“Donnie, I need you with me.” Raph says, glancing at the softshell. “I know you’re scared. I need you here, just until we can get these two stable.” Donnie stares at Raph, shaking his head.
“Right…I need your bandana.” Donnie says, untying his own bandana. He walks over to Raph, untying his bandana. “If I can find the worst of the bleeding on his arms; I can cut the blood flow from there. I still need you to keep the pressure on his waist if we even want a chance of him surviving.” He bites his lip.
He tosses up Leo’s vitals into a hologram above his wrist, starting to look at where the worst of the surface worlds were before tying off Raphs bandana. “Looks like he has a mild case of pneumothorax. I really need him in the medbay before he developed tension pneumothorax…”
“Donnie. I Need English!” Raph argues.
“One of his ribs punctured his lungs. I need to decompress the airways before his good lung collapses. I need him on oxygen!” Raph throws his hands away. “NO! No Raph. His lungs are up here. I need you to put pressure here.”
“Boys!” Donnie and Raph look up, April and CJ following behind a surprisingly frantic looking Splinter. Splinter reaches the eldest and holds his cheek, eyes welling up with tears.. “We’re here.” Raph tears up at the touch.
“Is everyone okay?!” April pushes herself next to Donnie, gently touching his battle shell earning a hiss from the genius. She pulls her hand away, getting up to go check on the unconscious Mikey.
“We’re fine! Leo and Mikey are less fine.” Raph begins, sniffling as Splinter takes charge of checking over Leo.
“Mikey is burning up!” April yells. “Like he’s boiling hot!” CJ and Donnie dash over to the baby of the family. Donnie moves Leo’s vitals to the side, pulling up Mikey’s.
“We need to get everyone home! Leo needs to be on oxygen now! And we need to get Mikey in a bath as soon as possible. He still has an extremely high amount of Ninpō coursing through him. If we can’t get either of their temperatures to normal; Mikey is at Risk of a seizure and brain damage and Leo is already a high risk.”
Splinter wastes no time, using Leo’s Katana and opens a portal. They all fall through and land in the lab. Donnie goes to stand, ignoring how unstable to world has suddenly become. He stumbled to go and grab the medical supplies.
~~~~~~
April quietly enters the lab with a yawn. “Donnie?” She asks, but it sounds more like a statement. He gives her a hum without actually looking in her direction; acknowledging her presence in the room. “Donnie, it is three am. You need to get your shell cleaned up. The others are stable.” She says walking closer to him. He grunts, looking to his computer and writing down more of Leo’s vitals on his paperwork.
“Yeah yeah, I’ll clean it up after I listen to the recording on the Comms so I can further assess Leo in his medical needs.” He shrugs away his best friends’ concern. “Leo is in an incredibly fragile state. I’m not sure if any of his surface level wounds are infected. They were left dirty and disgusting with some kind of dust from the prison dimension and I have no idea ho-“
“Donnie!” She forces his chair to spin and leans on the arm rest, glaring at the exhausted turtle below. “Why are you being difficult?! What are you hiding?!” She snaps. He blinks a few times from the sharpness of her voice.
“I’m not-“ he squeaks out. “I’m fine. Leo and Mikey need my-“
“Donnie, so help me if you do not sit down on your bed, and remove your battle shell I will get Raph in here and force you to go lay down.” She warns. “And we all know how annoyed he is going to be if I have to wake him up.” Donnie bites his lip, digging his fingernails into his palms.
“Okay.” With a disgruntled sigh, he stands, heading to his bed. He didn’t realize just how much his head was throbbing until he stood up in that moment. He knew when to admit defeat; especially with big sister mode April. She was a force to be reckoned with. April walks to a few cupboards, grabbing some towels, disinfectant, gauze, scissors and a wrap.
She wasn’t fully prepared to see the damage which she knew there was. The dried blood on his shoulders was a dead giveaway of how much trauma his shell had endured. “Okay.” She says with a soft sigh.
“Uh, April?” She hums. “I don’t….I don’t know how it all is going to look.” She touches the top of the shoulder straps, humming a gentle tune as she thinks.
“That’s okay Don.” She says softly. She presses the button on the strap. It hisses as the gears begin turning. Donnie tenses, “We can face the wounds together. You don’t have to deal with it alone.” That earns a soft chuckle from the soft shell.
“I appreciate the sentiment April; but you aren’t a fan of blood. I have no idea how bloody it is going to be under there.” With a heafty tug April gently pulls on the battle shell earning a stifled grunt from the purple clad. The blood had dried to his battleshell and made it more painful to take off.
“I’m sorry.” She says softly. He bites his fist, closing his eyes, taking several shaky breaths, trying to ignore the searing pain. The purple shell falls heavily onto the bed, “okay~” she trails off studying the damage.
“What’s the verdict?” He asks quietly, suddenly feeling far more nauseous than before. April takes several breathes, thinking before speaking. She wanted to be very careful with what she says.
“Yeah…I’m gonna clean all this up and get Draxum to take a look at you.” She stands up, going to get a bowl of warm water and a wash cloth. “It doesn’t seem all that bad; most of the blood has dried from what I’m seeing; but I do want you to get checked on.” She returns to the bed shortly, dabbing the rag in the water and letting it glide down the soft shell, earning a hiss from him.
“It’s fine. Leo and Mikey are still in need of my attention.” Donnie objects, before yelping as the towel gets caught briefly, “shit! April careful!”
“I’m sorry!” She quickly says, slowing down her strokes. The two fall into silence, letting the heart monitor be the only noise in the room and the occasional pained grunt from the soft shell.
“Hey, Don?” April asks after several minutes of silence. He hums, head dropping as he feels exhaustion eat at him. “How come you aren’t letting any of us listen to the recordings of what happened in the-“ Donnie flinches, making April stop.
Memories of what he listened to replay in his mind like a broken record. Leo isn’t the kind of person to ever be afraid or at least show his fears…nor has Donnie ever heard Leo so broken. The sounds of his shell cracking. Bones being shattered. His breath being taken from him over and over is something Donnie can’t get rid of.
He shakes his head, feeling his heart rate spike.
“Oh crap.” April says softly as Donnie flinches from her touch, covering his ears; the monitor beeping suddenly feeling thousands of times louder . “Oh crap crap crap!!” April backs away, dropping the rag in the water. Blood flows out of the rag and into the water turning the water red.
Donnie continues shaking his head, closing his eyes and bringing his knees to his chest. April climbs off the bed running to go get someone. She knows how to handle Donnie going into sensory overload, but having his brother and father there might ground him better.
Less than thirty seconds of him being alone, does he feel a pressure around his back. A warm, soft pressure. Followed by his ears being covered by a soft, synthetic leather. He slowly opens his eyes, being greeted by the soft eyes of his older brother. He softly smiles
Hey purple rain! Raph signs, studying the smaller turtles face. The grey weighted blanket resting heavily on his shoulders. You okay buddy? What happened?
Donnie shakes his head. Too loud. He signs weakly. Bad feeling. He adds. Raph pulls the blanket closer around Donnie. Donnie stares at the red clad briefly before falling forward, his head resting on Raphs lap. He closes his eyes as Raph starts rubbing circles over his weighted blanket
“Is purple okay?” Splinter looks between his two sons. Raph just nods.
“Just overstimulated.” Raph explains, his hands rubbing upwards towards the back of Dons neck as Splinter adds his own rubbing movements. It was slowly calming Donnie down.
That is until the monitor on Mikey starts screaming, pulling Donnie out of the warm embrace of his blanket and brother.
Mikey jerks awake, clutching his chest and panting like he just ran a marathon. Donnie wastes no time, jumping out of his bed, jumping over the comatose Leo and stopping at the youngest. “Angelo!” Donnie forces himself to speak, running his hands up to Mikey’s cheek.
Breathlessly, Mikey responds, “Hi Don.” Donnie just stares for a moment, taking in the youngest. “Hey, Donnie?” He hums.
“Why are my hands hurting?” Mikey asks softly.