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It's been a few months since Casey got back his uncles. And both the future versions and the present versions have been getting along (mostly) the older ones scold the younger ones all the time. But Casey feels guilty, his family tries to help
“Sensei? Uncle Tello? Uncle Raph? Master Michelangelo? This isn't funny. I just got you back! I can't lose you again!” Casey runs, his family nowhere in sight. He's in an old style Japanese house, running to try and find someone. He slides a door open and freezes, horror dawning on his face. There everyone is, but horribly injured.
He drops to his knees next to Leonardo.
“Sensei? Hey, can you hear me?” The boy screams. Leonardo's head snaps up, his blood making an awful squelching noise. His prosthetic arm raises to the boy's shoulder.
“We were already dead, you brought us back. This was inevitable. You shouldn't have been so selfish, now look at us.” The blue clad turtle snaps at Casey, forcing the boy to look at everyone, broken and bloodied on the floor.
“Sensei,” Casey cried, his breath coming in short panicked gasps.
“I'm sorry, let me fix this.”
“There is no fixing this, you've done enough!” Leonardo bites out.
Casey jolts upright, breathing in short gasps with tears rolling down his cheeks and sweat beaded on his forehead. Where was he?
He panickedly looks around…Draxum's lab? A groan comes from a few feet to the right of Casey. He looks over, it's Leonardo. His prosthetic leaned on the wall as he slept in a bed roll.
Right. Everyone's fine, in Draxum's lab. Michelangelo is sharing a room with Raphael, and Donatello is probably working on something. He never seemed to sleep despite there being no apocalypse anymore. But if he was asleep he'd be in here too.
“Kid, you okay?” Leo groans tiredly, turning to look over at Casey. Casey looks back at him, eyes still wide with panic. Tears are still on his cheeks and he's still not breathing properly.
“Okay, definitely not.” Leo answers himself, starting to get up.
“Little circuit, your heart rate is ele-” Donatello comes around the corner of the doorway, cutting himself off when he sees Casey's panicked expression. Leonardo glances over at Donnie and they both walk over to Casey.
“Bad dream?” Leo asks, sitting down next to Casey. The boy nods slightly.
“...uncle Tello…bringing you all back won't have like, consequences to the timeline or whatever it's called…right?” Casey asks hesitantly. Leonardo shares a look with his twin.
“If it did, we likely would have already started experiencing them so I highly doubt it.” Donatello answers. Casey nods slightly, shifting to press against Leo's side.
“You wanna talk about it?” Leonardo offers, the bot shakes his head. The blue clad turtle just nods and pulls Leo against his side.
“Do you want to try sleeping again?” Donatello asks. Casey shakes his head. Leo frowns, he hated seeing his kid like this. Donatello thinks for a moment.
“I was planning to save this for your birthday, however I have something to show you.” The turtle in purple states. Casey looks up.
“I'll be back in a moment, little circuit.” He tells the boy, leaving the room again.
“How'd he know my heart rate was high if he wasn't even here?” Casey mutters. Leo chuckles.
“He has at least three trackers on us, I'd be surprised if he didn't get alerts about our vitals too.” Leonardo answers.
“He's really paranoid, huh?”
“Don wasn't all that great at showing he cares through words when we were kids, he would do stuff like that to show us that he did. I think the only reason he started learning how to tell us that he cares is because of you, kiddo.” Leonardo says, Casey looks up.
“Really?”
“Mhm.”
“Nardo, would you please shield Junior's eyes for a moment?” Donatello comes back in with something behind his back. Leonardo confirms and covers Casey's eyes with his hand.
There's some quiet noises, but Casey can't tell what they could be. Leo makes a surprised sound that's barely suppressed.
“Alright, he can look now.” Donnie states.
Leo's hand leaves Casey's face, but goes to his shoulder.
“Whoa.” Casey breathes. The room is coated in a blue and purple glow with star shapes on the ceiling.
“I know you've never seen the stars in their entirety as going outside at night wasn't safe when you were growing up and the city has too much light pollution. And I would prefer to take you on a trip sometime for you to experience them in full. I figured this would suffice.” Donatello explains, clearly proud of himself.
“This is awesome, Dee.” Leo comments.
“I know.” Donnie replies with a grin. Casey is looking up now at the projected constellations.
“Happy early Birthday, little circuit.” Donatello whispers, sitting down next to him and effectively sandwiching Casey between him and Leo.
Casey's earlier panic is set aside as he watches in awe.
It doesn't take very long for Casey to fall asleep. Donnie and Leo look at each other.
“I’m worried about him, he keeps having nightmares. It’s nearly nightly at this point. He won’t talk to any of us about it either.” Leo whispers, Donatello nods.
“All of us had died in pretty quick succession, less than three years went by after I did before all of you were gone. Then he went and saved the world. It’s very possible it’s some kind of survivor's guilt or PTSD.” Donnie replies grimly.
—--------
“Aw, look at ‘em, Raphie!” Mikey coos quietly in the doorway.
“Raph’s lookin’.” He replies quietly as to not wake them.
Donnie and Leo had fallen asleep next to Casey and now they were all tangled up in a hug despite all being asleep.
Raphael drapes a blanket over them.
“I think we can let them sleep in a bit, dont’cha think?” He asks Mikey, Michelangelo nods with a grin, already taking a million photos.
*A few weeks time jump*
Leo sits down with a sigh. The younger versions of themselves wanted to hang out with Casey so they had decided to do some brother bonding time at Run of The Mill Pizza in the hidden city.
“Something on your mind, Lee?” Micheal asks. Leonardo shrugs.
“Just worried about Casey.”
“What about him?” Raph pipes up next.
“He’s been having nightmares pretty regularly.” Donatello answers. Both Mikey and Raph look concerned.
“Poor kid, what should we do?” Mikey asks.
“We could do something you guys used to do when he was young. What’d you do when he was a kid and had a nightmare?” Raph suggests. Micheal snorts.
“He used to have Leo read him that stupid dino book while they were curled up.” Mikey asks. He had always hated that damn book.
“I don’t see why that wouldn’t work now. I mean, not with a children’s book of course. But we could try a turtle pile?” Leo says.
“Statistically closeness to family brings peace of mind during times of stress.” Donatello adds.
“We could make a movie night out of it!” Mikey exclaims. Everyone else agrees.
—-----------------
It’s the next night when they decide to initiate the plan.
“Hey, Case. Wanna watch a movie tonight?” Mikey asks.
“Sure, Master Michelangalo.” He replies with a smile. Micheal grins and slings an arm around Casey’s shoulder and starts leading him towards the room chosen for movies.
“Hey, when am I gonna get upgraded to Uncle?” Mikey teases. Casey chuckles.
—-------------
“Greetings, little circuit.” Donnie says to Casey as the orange turtle and the boy step into a room set up with a pillow fort on the couch and snacks.
“Hi, uncle Tello.” The boy smiles, sitting down between Leo and Donnie.
The turtles argue over which Jupiter Jim movie to watch for nearly fifteen minutes. But it doesn’t matter to them as much when Casey falls asleep on Leo and doesn’t show any signs of nightmares.