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Raph paced back and forth in the living room of the lair with a deep scowl set on his face, Leo was sitting on the couch nursing his fourth cup of tea, steam gently dancing upwards as his eyes followed Raph’s pacing form. Donnie sat scrunched beside Leo, practically slumped against the eldest brother as his face was lit up from the brightness from his laptop, extenuating his dark eyebags. It was silent apart from the clicking noises from a keyboard and the sound of footsteps emitting from the living room, accompanied by the occasional quiet sip of the tea in Leo's hands. A tense atmosphere seemed to swallow the air around the three brothers. No words had been exchanged for the past hour due to an obvious lack of a certain orange masked turtle, who has been radio silent and missing for the past three weeks.
This silence was broken by Leo, swallowing his mouthful of tea, he commented “Raph, you’re going to make a dent in the floor from your pacing,” His tone was quiet and deep from exhaustion.
Raph suddenly paused and slowly turned to glare at his immediate older brother, “I’m thinkin’,” The red clad turtle retaliated sternly, his tone low and tired as well. Raph was retracing his steps in his mind, trying to find any clues he had missed from their outing a few hours previous, which only proved to be futile.
Leo opened his mouth, about to speak back until Donnie suddenly straightened up from his previously scrunched position with a shout “I’ve got Mikey’s location!”
The once tense atmosphere dissipated immediately from the revelation, now replaced with one of a growing hope, the other two brothers settled beside Donnie and leaned against him to see his screen. The doors of the dojo slid open from behind them, revealing Master Splinter. As he walked closer, Donnie repeated his previous statement, looking up to face Splinter momentarily before looking back down at the laptop. On the screen were various colour coordinated dots showing the location of the current three turtles. An orange one was off to the side away from the group, showing the location of Mikey.
Three weeks ago, in the basement of an ordinary building, the turtles were sneaking in, hiding in shadows, to get some key information on the Shredder. Once spotting the computers, Donnie immediately walked over to complete his task, the rest on the lookout to make sure Donnie could transfer the data. Once logging in, an alarm started blaring. Purple Dragon members suddenly sprung out and surrounded the turtles. Raph and Leo engaged in combat with the offending members, attempting to mislead the majority of the group of enemies, trying to defend Donnie to stall him some time to put information into the flashdrive he brought. Mikey was closer to Donnie, fighting against some Purple Dragon members who broke off from the main fight involving Raph and Leo. Little did the turtles know that the fight was a distraction to lead the orange-banded turtle away from the other three to kidnap him for the Shredder. Purposely leaving some easy to grab, not important information to lead the turtles to the base, for the sole purpose of taking Mikey. The few Purple Dragons that started fighting Mikey trailed him through the door they came in from, which happened to be the only door in the room, away from the elder brother's view. The last thing Mikey saw in the dingy hallway was black as he was knocked unconscious by someone behind him.
The alarms that were blaring throughout the ordeal naturally caught the police's attention as both groups heard the tell-tale wail of sirens. The Purple Dragons were gone within a blink of an eye at the noise, with the youngest turtle successfully in their grasps. Donnie lifted his head from the screen with a purple coloured flash drive in his hand and nodded to the other two in the room.
“Alright guys, we need to get out of this basement now or-,” Leo started, before noticing a very obvious lack of a turtle, “Wait, where’s Mikey?”
“He’s clearly not in the buildin’, we, however, we need to get out NOW,” Raph responded gruffly, turning away to quickly leave.
“Okay, fine. We’ll go a distance away and regroup,” Leo stated, turning on his heel to follow after Raph.
Donnie’s eyebrows furrowed nervously but he still made a hum of agreement and followed after his older brothers, he made it into the stairwell until a flash of light caught his eye, Donnie recognised the familiar shape of his younger brother's nunchaku. Frowning in worry, he went over to quickly pick it up and ran to catch up to Leo and Raph.
The three turtles slowed to a stop once they had gotten a distance away from the flashing blue and red lights, all collectively catching their breath after the quick escapade.
Donnie showed the other two Mikey’s abandoned nunchaku, “I saw this on the ground back in that basement, Mikey may be forgetful but he doesn’t just leave his weapon anywhere… do you think something happened in the time we were all occupied during the fight ,” He questioned, his tone heavy with worry.
Raph and Leo shared a look of concern before looking back at Donnie. Leo thought for a moment before responding to his younger, purple wearing brother, “ Are you able to track him? Using the tracker in our t-phones?”
“Yes, I recently put a programme into my own t-phone so I’m able to track any one of you guys while on the move,” Donnie rambled nervously, pulling out his t-phone to start up the programme to try and track their youngest brother, he continued rambling in an unspoken act of self comfort, “although it only works if the t-phone is in tact and on your person-” Donnie stopped abruptly, a look of panic on his face, his voice quieting in focus “Nothing is showing up? I think his t-phone has been broken somehow… I’ll try and hack into my code and check the location that way..”
Raph promptly made up his mind “guess we’re doin’ this the old-fashioned way. Next time I see Mikey I'm beating his shell for dissapearin’ like that...” he trailed off, putting up an angry front at Mikey’s disappearance, though the other two knew he was concerned.
As Raph turned to do his own investigation, Leo stopped him in his tracks with a firm hand on Raphs shoulder, “Let’s not wander off, we should stay together before another one of us goes missing.” Leo retaliated in a stern but underlyingly soft tone. He was already on edge from one of his brothers not being at his side. He’d rather avoid adding to his stress. Raph stared at Leo’s face for a moment, reading his worried expression before grumbling quietly and turning back to face the little circle the three brothers formed.
Donnie paid no mind to Raph and Leo, there was a nervous ringing in his ears as his fingers quickly retyped commands, attempting to give himself access to the code in Mikey’s t-phone so he could access his last known location. A loud blare from Donnie’s t-phone could be heard as the screen lit up red, denying him access as well as replacing the ringing in his ears.
“What? Access denied?” Donnie groaned out, frustration slipping into his tone. Donnie raised his hand to his face, rubbing at his head soothingly as he sighed, “I need to go home to try and get into Mikey’s t-phone from my computer, I don’t know why it’s not working..” he trailed off, keeping his gaze on the ominous red glow from his t-phone.
Donnie was snapped out of his daze by Leo’s voice, “Do you want to head home then? Raph and I can try looking on foot” Leo offered, his concerned gaze on Donnie now.
Donnie paused for a moment, considering the option, before nodding affirmingly, his gaze flicking up to meet Leo’s. Leo looked around, taking in his surroundings to locate where they were, “We’ll walk you back to the lair” Leo said off-handedly, setting off in the direction of the lair. Leo turned around occasionally, checking to see if his brothers were following after him, which they were, although distractedly as they were keeping an eye out for their youngest.
A few hours later, Leo and Raph returned home silently, a bone deep tiredness on their faces as they walked towards the sound of muffled chatter, they could tell from the sound of a deep rumble and a responding higher pitch that it was their brother and their sensei.
Entering into Donnie's lab revealed a tense atmosphere of mutual worry. Splinter turned to look at his sons, to which Leo shook his head. Splinter sighed in concern, standing stiffly beside a seated Donnie, who was hunched over his computer. Leo walked closer to the pair, shifting his gaze to the computer screen, which displayed green text and symbols that he didn’t understand.
“Any luck, Don?” Leo asked, staring at the fast-paced text streaming down the screen, leaning his hand against the back of his brother's chair.
Donnie didn’t look up from the screen as he replied in a distracted tone, “Unfortunately no, there seems to be some sort of block on my own code… But I don’t think Mikey has any service since his last known location is just a few feet away from that building we were in, without service Mikey’s location won’t update”
Raph made a scoff noise, speaking in disbelief “and that’s it? A dead end?”
Donnie sighed tiredly as he turned away from the screen, rubbing at his eyes as he responded in a disheartened tone, “there’s no way for me to force service to Mikey’s t-phone, the most I can do is set my computer to automatically save Mike’s location whenever he gets service, but for now we can investigate the last known location and see if there’s any clues”
Raph took an audible breath in as he continued fidgeting in his spot near Splinter and his brothers. To any other person, Raph would seem rather agitated in his body language, but Donnie and Leo knew otherwise. Deep down, Raph was worried about their youngest brother's wellbeing and the fact that they were, in fact, not all together.
Splinter chimed in, voice deep with unease, “Leonardo, where have you and Raphael searched?”
All three of the brothers piped up at the sound of their sensei’s voice, Leo straightening up as he responded in a clear, professional tone, “We checked all the places we frequent as well as where the Purple Dragons frequent”
Master Splinter hummed at this, assuming that his youngest son wasn’t in any of those places, His eyebrows furrowing deeply as a lump of worry settled into his heart.
“I see…” Splinter muttered under his breath, weighing the options for a minute before speaking up, addressing all three of his sons, “it will be daybreak soon, check the location Donatello has found for any sort of clues and come back quickly” Splinter took a moment to look at each of the three turtles one by one, noting that they all hummed or nodding in understanding. Accepting the response, Master Splinter turned around to leave, calling out over his shoulder that he would meditate, wanting to be of some use.
The doors to the lab closed, leaving the turtles in the dimly lit silence of the cold lab, the sound of Splinter’s cane hitting the ground in a repetitive way going further and further till it wasn't audible any longer being the only thing that could be heard in the mutual silence.
Leonardo took a deep breath to clear his busy mind as he turned to his brothers, a serious expression on his face as he spoke, “Donnie? Do you happen to know if the police have left the area we need to go to?”
Donnie blinked at his older brother at being suddenly acknowledged before clearing his voice to respond, “o-oh um, it’s been a good few hours, so i believe the coast should be clear, yes”
“Perfect, let's go be detectives, fellas” Raph grumbled as he walked past, roughly smacking his warm palm onto Leo's shoulder for a moment while passing him. Raph opened the metal door to the lab, leaving it open as he left to wait at the entrance of the lair.
Leo and Donnie made eye contact for a moment before Leo nodded his head to the open lab door, motioning them to move out. Donnie quickly took out his t-phone and put in the coordinates from the laptop to the maps on the t-phone, marking it with a dot of a darker shade of orange. Looking back up revealed Leo waiting at the doorway for Donnie, causing him to dart up from his chair and speed walk the short distance to the eldest, arriving at his side in seconds.
Leo and Donnie both walked out of the lab towards where Raph was leaning against the wall closest to the exit. Raph straightened at the sight of his brothers as all three of the turtles left the lair to the last known location Mikey was at.
At first sight, the turtles didn’t find anything out of the ordinary in the alleyway they got the last signal from, but upon further investigation, Donnie found a familiar looking gear belt in a nearby bin.
Donnies eyes widened in surprise as he neared the bin. He quickly opened the pockets, finding smoke bombs and other various weapons he knew Mikey carried around. Donnie immediately called over to his brothers at the confirmation, “uh– GUYS?”
Raph and Leo turned their heads at Donnie’s unusually loud voice, quickly dropping what they were doing to go to the second youngest. Raph and Leo jogged the short distance to the purple-masked turtle, said turtle, lifted up the utility belt to bring it to the older two’s attention.
Raph and Leo paused in their tracks in shock before going closer a second later. Leo took the belt carefully into his hands, as if it would break if he so much as breathed on it. He furrowed his brow, “this is Mikey’s.. Right?” He breathed out, tone quiet and soft in a sort of denial. Donnie nodded darkly, and at that, Raph turned his back to the pair, crossing his arms as he breathed deeply, silently raging.
Leo ran his thumb over the seam of the leather, his gaze locked onto the belt as if it would tell him where Mikey was at that moment. Leo stayed silent, the sheer determination the Purple Dragons had to make sure that finding his little brother was as difficult as possible was infuriating, he felt his blood boil and the pit in his stomach grow deeper. The blue-banded turtle leaned his head back and took a deep breath, taking note of the sun starting to rise.
Facing his brothers again, his voice was devoid of any tell-tale emotion as he addressed the two “guys, the sun is starting to rise, we’ll bring this back to the lair for further investigation”
With that, Leo scaled a nearby building, the other two following Leo up the same building, hot on his trail as they headed back to their home after the unsuccessful search.
This was the first of many failed searches, each one creating a deeper pit in the family's stomachs. Hope was growing dimmer and dimmer until the signal they finally received after the three weeks of radio silence.
Leo, Raph, and Donnie leaned over the edge of a building, the darkness of the night not affecting them in their search for the location of the new signal. Leo was the first to spot the hunched figure, the familiar green immediately making him think of his younger brother. He had no doubt that it was, in fact, Mikey.
Hopping off the edge of the building, Leo broke his fall with a roll, quickly making his way to the youngest, bringing him into his arms.
Leo ignored the flinch Mikey made at his contact, instead choosing to fret over the orange-banded turtle, “Mikey! Oh my gosh.. you're alive, you're okay” Leo muttered against Mikey's head, holding him tight against his plastron, Leo felt his little brother practically melt against him, the voices of their other two brothers growing closer until they were right next to the oldest and youngest, joining in on the hug as all the stress from the previous three weeks went away in the rare moment.
Donnie ran his hands over various deep red scabs on Mikey’s skin, his brow bones furrowing in concern as he checked over his brother. All the injuries on the younger were either scabbed over or bruised. The fact that his immediate younger brother was injured at some point deeply unsettled the purple-masked turtle. Donnie decided to ask about them later, not wanting to ruin the sentimental moment.
Leo pulled back, cupping Mikey’s face in his hands as he looked over his brother's face, Mikey’s eyes were wet, but distant, it was clear that their youngest had seen some things and this knowledge caused the elders' gut to twist in guilt. He should have found him sooner, tried harder. He should have kept an eye on him during that fight three weeks ago. Leo felt like a bus hit him running at 120 miles per hour and he hated it. He felt incredibly responsible for that look in his brother's eyes.
Mikey, despite looking straight at Leo, didn't notice the eldest’s inner turmoil like any normal time. But this wasn't any usual moment, he continued to have that distant look in his teary eyes. It only caused Leo to spiral further into guilt.
By this point, Raph broke off from the hug, snapping Leo out of his mind, “Let’s go home” he gruffed out, his voice low with unshed emotion, but this reminder was what Leo needed to get ahold of himself, taking a deep breath before nodding, he may have failed the his responsibility as an older brother once, but he'll make it up to his family.
The four of them, now reunited once again and with a renewed sense of determination, made their way back to the lair. Donnie and Leo were holding each of Mikey's hands, half dragging, half guiding their youngest back home as he completely withdrew from the situation.
Donnie closed the manhole cover after him, climbing down after his brothers, quickly following after them once he was safely on his feet. He entered the living room a few seconds later and took in the sight of Mikey and Raph sitting together on the couch after weeks of silence. It brought a lightness to his heart that he hadn't felt in a while. Looking around, Don saw that Leo was walking towards the dojo, most likely going to tell Master Splinter about the youngest finally being home.
A sense of a boulder being lifted filled the lair, weeks of no sleep and arguing have finally ended once they got Mikey back through the manhole and donnie felt glad, he always disliked when they all argued but the high stress situation they were in is now over. Though, Donnie knew this would be the start of a new stressful situation, the way his little brother held himself so stiffly, the way he was holding his wrist so tightly and seemingly dissociating was concerning him deeply, all his nights of hyper fixating on psychology was paying off as he mentally noted all the symptoms Mikey seemed to be displaying.
That was a problem for future Donnie though. He decided that, for now, he'll join in on his brother's cuddle sesh, not wanting to ruin the good but exhausted mood that was finally surrounding the family. Mikey was finally home, for better or for worse.