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Donnie sighed as he and Casey carried Bernie into his shop, which was still pretty trashed from the little chainsaw incident. Neither of them really knew where Bernie's house was, so finding him somewhere comfortable in the shop to sleep was good enough.
Casey slowly put Bernie down on the floor. "Hang on a sec Donnie, I'll go check out the back of the store, see if there's anywhere we can put him." Casey then disappeared into the back before Donnie could say a word, and he was left with a very loud snoring Bernie.
Donnie looked around as he waited, wondering how long it would take Bernie to sort out this mess. Maybe he should help? Knowing Casey, he'd get distracted by something and end up taking half an hours. So with nothing else to do, Donnie began picking up cans, packets and jars that had littered the floor.
He'd just picked up a small armful of stuff when he heard a quiet clicking noise behind him, like someone was tapping their nails on the floor. Donnie froze, the clicking noise bringing back pictures of that giant purple beaver from his dreams. Very slowly, he turned around, only to find nothing there.
Frowning to himself, Donnie continued picking up stuff and placing it either on shelves that hadn't been broken or on the counter. He'd only been working for another minute when a low chuckle sounded throughout the store.
This time, Donnie had his Bo staff out in seconds, holding it in front of him as he slowly turned on the spot. He knew that chuckle anywhere, only the noise that beaver could make. How was it back? They had left, hadn't they? Or was all this still the same dream but the beavers had altered it to give them this small bit of hope?
Donnie shook his head, "No, I'm definitely awake. I can tell the difference. He's not coming back."
Another chuckle. "How can you be so sure about that, Donnie?" Then that beaver was in front of him, grabbing his shoulders, shaking him. "Donnie. Donnie. Donnie!"
Donnie blinked only to find Casey stood in front of him, shaking him by the shoulders. "You alright man? You're not as, well, green are you normally are."
Donnie let out a shaky breath. "I'm fine, just alittle shaken I guess. Did you find somewhere we can put him?" Donnie motioned towards Bernie.
"Yeah, looks like he lived round the back of the shop. C'mon, let's just get this over with so we can head back to the farmhouse." Casey said as he hooked his arms underneath Bernie's. Donnie nodded as he took Bernie's legs, looking around the shop again before following Casey into the back.
Leo sat on the couch as he looked his leg over for the eighth time in the past five minutes. As much as he had hated that dream, he had enjoyed being able to fight, run and even walk again without the pain in his leg. It did seem to be getting better, but not fast enough. New York needed them, they would be back there if he wasn't taking so long to heal.
He was letting the others down.
He was letting Master Splinter down.
April was still checking on them. Obviously she was still worried about how close to death they had come. That only made Leo think about those last few moments in that dream. They'd been stuck in their shells, riding a conveyor belt to what would have been their deaths. And what did he do? Nothing. He was the big brother, the leader. He had to look out for his brothers, he had to save them and he let them down.
If April and Casey hadn't woken them up, Leo didn't know what he might have done. He wouldn't have been the first to die, that would have been Donnie. Their genius brother would have died right in front of them, the only one who might have actually been able to think his way out where Raph's strength, Leo's plans or Mikey's cunning would have failed. Failed, that's what he'd done, he'd failed his brothers. His family...
Raph glanced over at Leo sitting next to him on the couch. There was no mistaking the look in his eyes. Leo was blaming himself for this, they all knew how Leo acted when he was piling the blame on himself. Raph had always wondering why Leo did this. To push himself to be the perfect student and son to Splinter? That was a possibility, but it could also just be part of being a big brother, Raph had experienced that first hand. While he didn't go and blame himself completely, he definitely took most of it whenever his brothers were in danger.
Now that he thought about it, he should have done more than go along with the beavers game. He should have thought faster, fought harder, been stronger. Anything to save his brothers. He was weak.
And now he sounded just like Leo.
But it was true.
"Hey I'm fine April! Honest!" Mikey sat upside-down in the seat Raph had been sleeping in.
April rolled her eyes. "Well you're your normal hyper and fun-loving self..."
Mikey grinned, half expecting another comment to be added by Raph, but his second oldest brother didn't seem to be paying attention. Actually neither did Leo. Strange.
The others may call him stupid at times, but it didn't take long for him to recognise the look on Leo's face to be the one which meant he was blaming himself. Now Raph would normally notice this and confront Leo about it, but Raph seemed to have the exact same expression, only angrier.
It occurred to Mikey that they were both probably thinking about their dreams. He had no clue what they had experienced until they were all dumped in the same dream. He had to be honest, the change from that candy land to facing off four evil beavers and having your shell handed to you was not fun but he was betting his brothers had it worse. Wasn't like they would be dreaming about a huge land of candy.
The more he thought about it, the worse he felt. They'd been in their own dreams for quite some time before they were thrown in the same one, and Leo and Donnie had been asleep way longer than him and Raph. While his three oldest brothers had been scared to (almost) death, fighting for their lives and trying to find a way out of that mess, he'd been playing ping pong with a beaver in a land of candy. A great help he was.
"Hey Mikey, you sure you're okay?" April asked, frowning at him. Leo and Raph had both looked up too.
Smiling, Mikey flipped himself around then jumped into the space on the couch between his older brothers and putting an arm around each of them. "Yeah, I'm fine April. We all are." He then glanced at Leo and Raph, who had both started smiling.
"Mikey's right." Leo said. "We've been through worse, we'll be fine."
Raph laughed. "Mikey's right about something? The world really is ending."