Chapter Text
Mikey’s sure that the whole cause of this will strike him as funny later. Not that the situation itself is funny, he’s sure of that. Nothing about the position he’s found himself in right now, tucked under his oldest brother’s arm as they trudge one step at a time to a somewhat hidden location, is anything resembling funny.
But, like...come on...
“Hello? Mikey—”
“Raph! Put Don on, Leo got hit by a bus—”
Hit. By. A. Bus.
Literally.
So, a week from now when Leo’s complaining to him about Master Splinter and Donnie tying him to his bed so he’ll rest some more, Mikey can’t even say, ‘Relax Leo! You were hurt bad— looked like you got hit by a bus.’
Because he did.
“Woah, woah, wait,” Mikey can hear Raph’s huffing breath through the phone only slightly more than Leo’s own right next to him. That means that Raph’s running from, or to, something, “He what? The Hell did you do this time, Mikey?”
Mikey grunts when the two of them lose their balance, tumbling sideways. Luckily it’s Mikey’s side, so he easily throws out the hand that his phone is in, catching them on the chipped brick wall of the alleyway.
There’s puddles everywhere, sprinkling rain falling on him and Leo and he can feel the small trembles emanating from his older brother every few seconds. Like Leo’s trying to suppress them or something and, honestly, that leaves a bad taste in Mikey’s mouth as he shuffles, supporting them by his elbow against the wall and presses the phone back to his ear.
Raph’s still talking, “ —ust put the idiot on the phone, would you?”
“Yeah, uh…” Mikey glances sideways at Leo. The guy has his eyes scrunched closed, probably because he couldn’t open his right one if he tried— with the blood running down to it, but his pallor suddenly strikes him like a slap to the face and he quickly looks away, “ That’s not gonna happen, I don’t think.”
Raph, for all his brashness, actually pauses. Mikey knows it's not just because of a loss of signal or because he’s gotten distracted because all he can hear on the other end is his heavy breathing. When Raph does speak, however, Mikey could have mistaken it for anyone other than Raph, “Is...is he okay?”
“ Uh—” Leo’s body jerks spasmodically as a cough erupts from him, his arm tightening around Mikey for a moment. Raph apparently hears it judging by the hitch in his breathing at the miserable sound, “I, uh, I don’t know...don’t think so…”
There’s another pause.
“Right,” Raph’s voice is back to normal, thank God, “ I’m on m’way to Donnie right now, we got split up on our side. I’ll catch him up on the situation, just focus on moving. Get to our meetin’ area like we all planned and we’ll be there soon, ‘kay Mikey?
Mikey nods despite himself, “ Yeah, no prob, dude.”
“Call if ya need help— I mean it.”
Then the call ends without another word edgewise and Mikey struggles to slip the phone back into his belt. He takes a moment to gather his thoughts before pushing off the wall. Leo doesn’t say a word as they begin trekking back through the brightening alleyway.
Brightening…the sun is coming up already?
“Shit…”
Leo grunts, offering a halfhearted glare that Mikey can’t help but smirk at. It’s sort of... sad looking. Like a kicked puppy. Leo’s got blood coating the left side of his face, forcing his left eye shut, from a nasty gash on his brow. Seems like something’s wrong with his left leg. A totally nasty collection of bruises run down his left arm. If Mikey really looked, which he really didn’t want to, he’s pretty confident that Leo’s left shoulder is completely misshapen. And just hanging there. Leo wasn’t even attempting to move it. Mikey’s no medical expert, Hell, Donnie ’s not even a medical expert, they’re all just 15 after all, but it looks dislocated.
Mikey’s had a dislocated knee before. When they were 7 or so, he thinks… took a fall off his newly acquired skateboard at an intersection in the sewer tunnels. He doesn’t really remember much of what happened after that, just that he stumbled home crying his eyes out. That was back when Splinter still took care of their injuries and illnesses so Mikey remembers being given some funky tasting tea and then conking out for what ended up being five hours. Blue eyes behind a book was what greeted him when he finally woke up accompanied by giggles from his other older brother...he didn’t live that event down for years. Even Donnie teased him about it when it benefitted him.
The point being that dislocated limbs were not fun.
And Leo glaring at him about cursing of all things while he limped alongside him was just... sad.
“Raph said to get to our meeting spot,” Mikey tells Leo through his pants for breath. He was getting tired bearing both of their weights already, “He and Donnie got split up, though—”
Leo twists his head sharply and Mikey already hears what he’s about to say before Leo conjures the breath to say it, “They’re both okay! They’re both okay and once they meet back up they’re headed for where we’re going. So, y’know, it’s kind of a race I guess.”
He doesn’t mention how they don’t actually know if Donnie’s okay because Raph didn’t say anything else about him, but since Leo doesn’t seem to catch onto that fact Mikey foregoes bringing it up.
“That’s good,” Leo mumbles, and Mikey starts at how his head bobs his eyes staring tiredly ahead of them, “It’s good...that they’re okay.”
“Heck yeah it is,” Mikey stops for a second to get a better grip on Leo before continuing forward. He can see the sun illuminating the street at the end of the alleyway. They need to get to the other side of the road, but...with traffic starting to pick up and Leo’s breath already sounding like it was echoing through a garbage disposal (he doesn’t quite think he’s ready to think about that either, at this moment. He’s done pretty well at ignoring it up to this point, too, but he’s certain it’s gotten worse since they first started moving. Get to Donnie. Just get to Donnie.) Mikey doesn’t think they’d be able to sneak their way across.
And heading underground isn’t an option either. Leo’s arm is messed up. He wouldn’t be able to climb down the ladder even if he had the energy to do so.
“Uh…” Mikey comes to a stop glancing up and behind and all the way around him, suddenly realizing that he isn’t sure how they’re going to get where they need to go. There was a reason they always did their business at night when the streets weren’t so busy and people weren’t literally everywhere , this just so happened to be a messier task for all of them, Raph and Donnie, too apparently, “Leo?”
Leo inhales sharply, a hitch in his breath turning into a low and most likely unintentional whine as he speaks, “What’s happening?”
It kind of startles Mikey how out of it Leo is...like how he’s sort of on autopilot unless Mikey speaks to him directly. It’s just...weird, “I...don’t know what to do.”
Leo straightens up slightly beside him and God , Mikey did not want him doing that. Didn’t want Leo to feel the need to put on a ruse and pretend like he has an idea just to put Mikey at ease. Only then does he notice the rain washing the blood down Leo’s body, turning the water collecting on the ground beneath them a coppery color. Mikey bites his lip.
“Explain.”
It’s clipped, short, and stronger than Leo’s voice has been for the past ten minutes, at least.
“The sun’s up and we need to get across town to our meeting spot,” Mikey explains quickly, glancing around them to be sure they still weren’t being followed. That reminds him, “I don’t know if we’re being tracked so I think we should keep moving.”
Leo hums, his one open eye glassy but flickering around their area in thought. It moves skyward and Mikey already feels himself rolling his eyes, “Roof— safety from another ambush. Is an apar-apartment complex...might have a supply shed. Could get across...across the street. The roof access over there…”
“Yeah, forgive me oh enlightened one but I don’t think we’re really capable of roof hopping at the moment—”
“Just—” Leo chokes on the word, a croak erupting from his throat and Mikey feels the hand around him scramble to unwind from around his waist. Mikey doesn’t really process what’s happening until Leo’s falling away from him, his now freed hand clutching at his chest plates as he collides into the opposite side of the alley.
A pained yelp makes it past the intense gasps when Leo’s shoulder takes his full weight. Mikey’s distantly aware of his phone buzzing in his belt.
“Leo,” Mikey rushes towards him on uneasy feet, “Jeez, Leo calm down, just—”
There’s one high pitched inhale before a heavy cough that sends blood splattering down Leo’s chin. Ice encapsulates Mikey’s heart and he feels himself covering his mouth with both hands, eyes wide. One step away is all Mikey gets.
Then Leo’s knees give out.
Mikey finds himself on the ground without really knowing how he got there. He doesn’t see Leo and he only notices then that he’s pressed chest-to-chest with his oldest brother, barely holding him up anymore, after listening to the gargled breathing for a long moment as though it were a mantra.
“Oh…” is all Mikey can think to mumble.
Leo whines out repeated breaths, body trembling against Mikey, before whispering in the softest voice he thinks he’s ever heard from his oldest brother, “M-maybe not?”
And Mikey just has to huff a laugh at that because, yeah! Duh! Maybe not.
Only Leo could get hit by a bus...no, no scratch that. To go even further, only Leo could manage to get to Mikey just in time , not only watching his own back but always always watching his stupid little brother’s back… his stupid little brother who had gotten pushed into the middle of the street by their pursuers. Too distracted by their guns to actually pay attention to the giant, lit-up vehicle shooting towards him like a bullet itself. Driving down a darkened street in the middle of Jersey, it wouldn’t have even slowed down…
And Leo, fucking Leo, charging through the crowd of Purple Dragons separating them as though they weren’t armed with guns and knives and clubs and shoving Mikey out of the way with enough force that the air got shoved from Mikey’s lungs at impact. It was a decking that would have made any hockey player proud and Mikey had been angry.
Too focused on his own spasming diaphragm to notice the fact that the bus was a good twenty feet past where he remembered seeing it last with a random katana a little further than it. And Mikey had hesitated because...
Without Leo’s shell...well, he would no doubt be dragging home a corpse at this moment.
Mikey’s nails dig into his brother’s shell, fingers ghosting over the single spider webbed indent on the lower left side, and he doesn’t feel shame when he feels the overwhelming need to press his face into the trembling crook of Leo’s neck for just a moment. Because, damn it, he’s the little brother and he’s having a difficult time keeping it together at the moment.
He isn’t surprised when he feels Leo’s hand on his shoulder in the comforting way Leo always does, and he isn’t surprised when Leo’s whispering voice comes through to him and he realizes very suddenly that this isn’t right—
Mikey pulls his face away from the crook of Leo’s neck and and pulls back just enough to look Leo in the eye, “We’re not going to make it to the meeting place, Leo.”
The watery sound of his voice and his no doubt glossy and red-rimmed eyes have Leo tightening his hold on Mikey’s shoulder. He has to focus, and Mikey notices how he forces his feet back underneath him, “You can.”
Mikey’s blood runs cold, “ No— ”
“I don’t have...I don’t have time, Mikey”
“What is it?” Leo doesn’t just admit to something being wrong with him and even though it’s blatantly obvious, the admission is what has Mikey’s heart pumping wildly, “Please say you broke a tooth or something.”
Leo closes his usable eye, “Don’know...some-something inside.”
“Oh...oh, um, jeez,” Mikey knew deep down, but the affirmation...the fact that he’s the one in this position when Leo needs literally anybody else . Even Raph would know more about what to do. Or, would at least have been able to throw Leo over his shoulders and charge across the street without a care. Donnie would have had Leo bandaged like a mummy by now. April and Casey would have a car , probably, and would already be back at the lair. And Splinter...Splinter’s just mystical as Hell and would have done something.
“M-Mikey…”
Mikey suddenly realizes that he’s been staring off into the space past Leo’s head, dead silent as Leo struggled to simply stay on his feet. Mikey shakes his head violently, pulling Leo’s good arm back around his shoulders and hefting the oldest up higher.
“You...mmm,” Leo’s head thumps against Mikey’s shoulder, “You need’t find Raph and...and Don.”
“And how am I going to do that dragging you around?” He snaps, and yeah, maybe he’ll feel bad about berating his obviously somewhat delirious brother later once they’re all home and warm and safe . He doesn’t feel much guilt now, though. At least not about that . Leo looks over to him pathetically, and Mikey has enough left in him to feel some satisfaction at getting no response, “I’m not leaving, dude. You have a better chance of hearing a genuine ‘good morning’ from Raph than that.”
Mikey knew he couldn’t handle this by himself. This situation wasn’t where he shone the brightest, and so—
Ahead of them was a cellar access— lock easily broken and obviously never used by the occupants.
—he was going to go with what is always his plan B. Call his brothers.
Well, his other brothers.
He manages to get Leo down the stairs into the cold cellar. And it’s relatively simple to get Leo down to the floor. The problem comes with keeping him upright however, and it becomes so obvious that that isn’t going to happen that Mikey just let’s Leo lay down for a second. Just to give his big brother something to be comforted by in this situation.
He pulls his phone from his belt as soon as the cellar door has slammed closed and a broom handle has been threaded between the handles. The last thing they need in this situation is for the Purple Dragons to make a reappearance.
He presses the speed dial for Donnie, rushing back over to Leo’s prone form as the ringing continues. Two times...three times...four—
“Mikey?”
“Don, I need—”
“We’ve been trying to call you for, like, ten minutes! What happened? Are you alright?”
“Erm,” Mikey looks down to Leo’s panting and gurgling form, “ I’m perfectly ready to rumble personally but I really need you to get here, Donnie.”
“Oh, sh-shoot...is it worse? Raph told me Leo got hit by a bus? You gotta tell me what’s wrong with him, Mikey.”
“Just get here and see for yourself, man!”
Raph’s the one who answers, so he’s apparently on speaker, “We just got to the Battleshell, Mikey. We’re still on the other side of Jersey.”
Mikey’s shoulders shoot upward, “What the shell is taking so long, guys!”
“Mikey, you need to tell me what’s wrong so I know when we get to the meeting spot.”
Mikey pauses, forcing his gaze away from Leo’s struggling form. He brings a shaky hand up to cover his eyes, “We’re not going to be able to get to the meeting spot, Donnie.”
Raph mumbles a collection of expletives and Mikey knows from his lack of comment that he must be driving, probably pressing even harder on the gas and weaving in and out of traffic. He can almost picture it from all the other times Raph has gotten worked up while driving.
“Mikey, is it serious,” Donnie asks, “ Like... serious serious.”
Leo chokes just as Mikey is about to answer, struggling to throw his head and shoulder sideways as he hacks out globs of blood that paints his lips, chin and neck crimson. Mikey drops the phone without another thought, shoving his hands under Leo’s body and rolling him onto his side, supported by the wall behind him. Leo doesn’t respond more than a suffering gasp as he’s rotated, a far away look in his eyes as he rests his head on the floor, a puddle of blood already pooling around his unbruised cheek.
Mikey grits his teeth, wanting so very badly to scurry away from the carnage but simultaneously wanting to just wrap his arms around his brother and force all the pain away. What ends up happening instead is that fat tears just start rolling down his face as he grapples with his phone.
“Yes, yes, Donnie!” Mikey sobs into the phone, “It’s serious, God, he’s having problems breathing and, and he’s not talking anymore. We talked the entire time before the Dragons attacked us! Why isn’t he talking now? Fuck, when are you getting here?”
Leo doesn’t even respond to Mikey’s outburst which just increases the franticity of his sniffling.
“Mikey, deep breaths, deep breath—”
“Leo can’t take deep breaths!” Because that somehow relates to his problem, but it seems to have the desired effects.
“Mikey, listen to me, alright?” Donnie’s voice comes across the line and for once Mikey wishes that Raph would say something, too, just so he feels even more less alone, “Listen. You need to calm down and focus now, alright? I know this is freaking you out, I’m sure Raph and I would be freaking out too, if we were in the same situation, but what the two of us need right now are answers so we can help you, alright?”
Mikey nods, as though he thinks that Donnie can see it. He takes a deep shuddering breath, shakily placing a hand gently on Leo’s wounded arm, “Okay.”
“You’re a badass, Mikey, ” Raph says before once more going silent. Mikey hopes that later he might feel some comfort in the rare compliment.
“Okay, firstly I’ve already input your coordinates into our GPS from the tracker in your phone,” Donnie explains. Leo shudders underneath Mikey’s palm, a miserable gasp escaping him and Mikey just closes his eyes, “We’re on our way. We’re going as fast as we’re able. But, where are you? Are you hidden somewhere? On a roof?”
Mikey shakes his head to himself, “No, I got us into a cellar. It’s in an alley right next to the hotel. You’ll...you’ll probably be able to see blood to tell which one it is.”
That comment hangs sinisterly in the heavy-breathing occupied silence, but Donnie moves on almost gracefully, “Okay, now, you have to tell me what’s wrong with Leo so I can be prepared and treat his right away.”
Mikey feels a pit form in his stomach, “Okay, um…”
He looks to Leo and notes off the basic stuff first, “Hit his head pretty hard—has a cut above his eye. I think there’s something wrong with his leg, but I don’t know what. And I am almost confident that his, um...his arm is dislocated. Shoulder. Y’know...all bruised and stuff.”
“I got it, Mikey,” Mikey can already hear Donnie moving around. Probably digging through bags and searching for containers that they have in the back of the Battle Shell, “What else?”
Mikey prepares himself, “Jeez, he can’t breath. He keeps coughing and hacking up blood and, it’s just...I don’t know what to do for him, Don. Leo said he thinks it’s something inside.”
“I, um,” Donnie inhales shakily, all his movements halting and Mikey thinks he can faintly hear Raph saying something in the background, though he can’t understand it he can tell that it’s said quickly and questioningly, “ I think he’s right, Mikey.”
There’s a long pause and Mikey feels like it might as well be torture. The gasping has turned desperate, Leo’s teeth clench every few breaths, tinted red. Mikey’s fairly surprised when he sees Leo’s gaze meet his own. He refuses to turn away once their eyes have met, “Donnie?”
Donnie sighs and Mikey can tell that it’s the product of bad news. He feels cold at that. Even more cold then the rain and the cellar have made him, “ You’re going to hate me, Mikey.”
“I won't, I promise. Please tell me that it’s not...that he…”
“You will, Mikey. You will,” Donnie sighs again, “I don’t think we’re going to get there in time, can you put the phone closer to Leo, please? Speaker?”
Mikey scrambles to do as he’s told, holding the phone just inches away from Leo and clicks the speaker button. Leo, for his part, glances dazedly away from Mikey to the device. He seems to realize what is going on almost immediately. His eyes light up for a moment, “D—nie? D—”
“ Hi Leo ,” Don’s voice is warm, and refuses to spell out the complete and utter anxiety ridden venture they’re in the middle of, “ Listen, Mikey. I know what’s wrong.”
Mikey lets out a relieved laugh, “Good! What do I need to do? Get him some water or something or?”
“He has something called a tension pneumothorax,” Donnie says and Mikey can hear how Raph begins pummeling the steering wheel in the background. The ice around his heart grows even colder, “It means his lung is collapsing. Air is crushing it while blood is going into it simultaneously.”
Mikey flinches as if jolted with electricity, “What? H-how the shell did that happen?”
“It means his ribs are broken, and one of them moved and punctured one of his lungs,” Mikey feels the panic rising back up into his chest. When he looks to Leo, he can see his older brother glaring down to the blood puddle growing by his face, “ But, Mikey, before we fix it we need to find out which side and which rib. You remember how to check for broken ribs, right?”
The ‘we’ in his directions are taken graciously. Mikey doesn’t even answer, because he knows that Donnie’s aware that he taught them all that basic skill. Since they had their plastrons and their shells they couldn’t feel much else other than the side where the slightly softer material covered.
Mikey leans further over Leo, setting the phone down on the ground by Leo’s head. He manages to get Leo’s wounded arm out of the way with little more than a grunt from his brother and feels up and down his side. Sure enough— the left side’s ribs, just like everything else, give under his prodding.
Leo practically yowls, a gurgling and wispy sound accompanying it and Mikey pushes himself away like he’s been slapped across the face. The distressed look on Leo’s face shatters Mikey’s heart, but the sudden tear streaks running down his face as he battles his own body for breath brings back the stinging behind Mikey’s eyes.
“The,” Mikey clears his throat when he finds it garbled and weak, “The left side has at least 3. That’s the side that all his other injuries are on.”
“The side he got hit?”
“...yeah,” Mikey whispers.
“Alright,” Donnie says, and then, “Okay. You need to roll him onto his stomach, Mikey. The shell will be too unstable for what you’re going to have to do.”
“Woah, woah, woah, what am I going to be doing?”
“To get rid of pneumothorax, you have to create a passage for air to escape out of,” Donnie pauses, as though he’s searching for the right words, “You’re going to have to stab him, Mikey.”
Mikey’s pretty sure he’s stopped breathing himself.
“Right between the 3rd and forth ribs so you don’t end up stabbing his heart.”
What the…
“About 4 inches into his chest cavity.”
What the fuck?
“Donnie,” Mikey mumbles, “Donnie, Donnie, Donnie no. No!”
“I’m sorry, Mikey.”
“Nope, I-I-I can’t, Donnie. How the...how am I supposed to—”
“It has to be done, Mikey. I can hear Leo...rather, I am beginning to have trouble hearing Leo’s breathing. He doesn’t have the amount of time it’s going to take us to get through this traffic to the two of you, okay? This is our only option—”
“I can’t!”
“— or Leo’s going to die.”
Mikey freezes, noticing Donnie’s earlier observation. Leo’s breaths, which only moments ago were desperate pants for air, are now barely moving his chest. His eyes are open to slits staring at the phone sitting right by his head in bewilderment.
Mikey’s lip trembles.
He can’t do this. He’s barely even practiced with a sword. That’s almost entirely Leo’s thing. He remembers holding one for when they were young, before being assigned their weapons. If it had been a real metal sword instead of a wooden practice one, he would have chopped Raph’s head clean off.
And now he’s being expected to stab his brother gently .
What the—
A soft pressure against Mikey’s fingers snap him out of his daze. Right beside his hand is Leo’s, the one not pinned under his body. The dislocated one, moves slightly towards Mikey’s own hand, bumping it knuckle-to-knuckle.
Mikey sniffs, glancing at Leo who’s watching him with warm eyes despite the situation, “Mi…”
Nothing else comes out. Mikey clenches his teeth. Leo jumped in front of a bus for him earlier. And if it was Mikey in Leo’s place, Mikey knows that Leo would do whatever it took to save his life. Even if he had to risk killing him to do it.
Mikey takes a deep breath, “Okay, Donnie.”
Leo’s eyes close.
Mikey rolls him over to his stomach, pulls a sword out from a scabbard as though they’re made of artisan glass, nauseatingly places the tip of the sword where Donnie explains thoroughly. When Leo doesn’t react to the stab, Mikey feels like he might actually throw up, but once Mikey begins slowly pulling the sword out he feels a weird gust of air.
His brother gasps in a greedy and long awaited breath.
Donnie and Raph arrive at their location fifteen minutes and thirty-seven seconds later.