Epilogue

So I think it's fair to say that this story has been done for a while. Not that I wrote this short little epilogue a while ago-because I didn't. I just wrote it in a fit of guilt actually. I've been super busy, and I haven't really had the chance t do anything with this story recently-you know how it goes, when you get super excited about a story and then never finish it. But I am determined to finish this story (even though its been like years) I sincerely apologize to all of you. Life has been really really rough lately. Like really rough. And time has just been slipping through my fingers. So, here it is. The Epilogue. The final installment of Protect What Was Hurt. I hope you guys like it. Also, sorry again that it's short.

It was late.

Very late. Mikey reached out a hand to his alarm clock and pressed down on the side. Donnie, of course, had altered it so that it would say the time to him, because the electric numbers were nothing but a painful blur to Mikey's eyes. Actually, he had installed a lot of electronic devices with the same feature, including Mikey's shell cell. Screens just tended to be bright and unintelligible light to Mikey's sensitive eyes.

"Three thirty," Donnie's voice said through the clock, dorky and carefully annunciated.

So yes.

Very late.

Mikey would normally be waking up sometime soon in the next hour or two to train on his Octopus Mikey. But something else had woken him up besides his internal clock-something beyond the limits of his normal senses. Something he'd picked up on his spiritual plane. (Even when he was sleeping, Mikey kept out his spiritual feelers. Just to be safe.)

Mikey focused, letting the darkness of the night wash over him. He liked the darkness, because he didn't have to see the blurry fuzzy shapes of everything around him and instead could focus on seeing with his true eyes.

There. There it was again. A splatter of muffled emotions.

Raph.

Not even bothering to tug on his mask, Mikey threw off his covers and made his way towards his brothers room as quickly and silently as he could. Down the hallway, and through the door, which he slipped shut. The room was pitch black, not that that mattered. Carefully dodging Raph's drumset, Mikey expertly weaved his way through the dumbbells, crunched up soda cans, and the other trash that littered Raph's floor. Normally, Raph was slightly more clean than this, but understandably, they all had been having a rough time lately.

Finally, Mikey made it to Raph's bed, where he was mumbling in between snores. Every so often he would shudder, his hand twitching for his sais, and a bead of cold sweat trickled down his face as he began to tremble and fight against the confines of his blankets.

"Mikey...no...no...no..." Raph murmured, jerking again, voice getting louder.

Mikey frowned, wrapping his spiritual energy around him in a cocoon on warmth and happiness and love, while he reached out his physical hands to shake his brother awake.

Before Mikey could touch him, Raph jolted away, sitting up abruptly.

"Raphie."

Raph looked around frantically with wild eyes, not seeing Mikey in the darkness. The terror of the nightmare clung to him still like an unwanted skin.

Fumbling around, Raph managed to find the switch to his jack-o-lantern light and it flickered on, revealing his baby brother's arms outstretched towards him, an expression of concern twisting his mouth and widening his slightly unfocused eyes.

For a second they only stared at each other, before Raph launched himself into his brothers arms. A feeling of peace was encompassing him as he melted into his baby brother's embrace. Over these past few months Raph had been slipping up with his bigger, stronger older brother routine, and at that moment he just wanted to hug him, to make sure he was real, unhurt, alive.

He could call Mikey a dweeb later. Right now all he needed to do was make sure his selfless brother was with him.

Mikey eventually climbed up unto his bed where they just lay, side by side, arms touching because it was a twin bed and was clearly not made for more than one mutant ninja turtle. They lay there in silence for a while. Mikey wasn't sure how long, but it was long enough for Mikey to sense Master Splinter waking up and nod a spiritual good morning at his son.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Raph snorted.

"You sound like a poorly scripted chick flick," he grumbled, voice slightly hoarse.

"What else can I say dude," Mikey giggled, before adopting a pouting baby voice. "Do you wanna tawk abowt yow fweewings?"

Another snort. And then the shoving started.

"Hey, whoa whoa whoa, I thought I was your favorite little brother! O my gosh what did I do to deserve this abuse geez holy cats Raph I'm falling off the bed ahh!"

Raph only smirked devilishly when Mikey tumbled out of the bed in a flail of limbs and shell and blanket.

Mikey pouted as his head popped up from the puddle of blankets he'd dragged down with him, half-heartedly glaring up with unseeing eyes at where Raph was smirking and chuckling, a smatter of brightening emotion. Raph didn't shove him back down though, when he crawled back up.

After the giggles and excitement of shoving baby brothers off beds had died down, they returned to silently laying side by side until finally Raph sighed.

"It was just another nightmare Mikey, no biggie."

Mikey huffed in exasperation at that.

"It's not a no biggie Raph, and you know it."

Mikey tightened the cocoon of spiritual energy around them, feeling miffed. Nightmares weren't a "no biggie." They were never a "no biggie." Especially with Raph.

Raph sighed again.

"It's just..." he trailed off, lifting up a three fingered hand to gesture at nothing.

Mikey stayed quiet, feeling the throb of uncertainty and fear pulsing like thick, black blood through invisible, spiritual veins.

"It's...I sometimes just can't get it out of my head, ya know? When we first found you at Shredders dump, hanging there...and...and..."

Raph gulped, and Mikey closed his useless eyes and reached over a grabbed his brother's bicep in a tight, firm, grip.

"...and you just didn't look...you just didn't look like you were even breathing anymore...and...the smell..."

Silence. Mikey tried not to think about everything that had happened to him, but the memories dragged themselves up like ghosts from a marsh. He kept his eyes tightly closed.

"...and later...dear God what happened later..."

A hand covered Mikey's over Raph's bicep and squeezed.

"Little brother...my strong little brother...when did you become so strong? I dreamed of all those horrible things Mikey. I dreamed that I couldn't save you, no matter what I did. But...Mikey," Raph sat up abruptly, braking Mikey's hold on his bicep to grab Mikey's shoulders.

"You have to understand. You have to. You scared me so much early when you didn't see it. You have to understand. You are so strong Mikey. You're the strongest person I know."

Mikey laid still on the bed, remembering the last time Raph had told him he was a strong person. It had ended in tears and sadness because he'd been lying to them about his eyesight, and it hadn't been true. Mikey could never be as strong as his brothers. His brothers were the amazing ones who'd found him and rescued him, who'd kept him alive, who'd forgiven him when he'd lied to them. And how he'd lied to them. Over and over again, about how he could feel their pain, and then about his eyesight. And still they loved him. Still. How could Raph not see how amazing he was.

"Mikey." Raph's voice was urgent. Insistent.

And Mikey wasn't going to cry, because crying didn't fix anything.

"It's not that simple though Raph. I couldn't have made it without you guys," Mikey sniffled. Again, not crying. "Couldn't have made it without my big bros. We're a team, remember? A team shouldn't have a strongest member. That defeats the purpose of a team, Raphie."

Raph was staring at him, his form a shadowy green blur in the soft light of the jack-o-lantern.

"Yeah, we're a team, lil' brother."

Mikey nodded firmly, the sheets bunching up underneath his head.

"But we wouldn't be one without you."

Mikey laughed, but it was more of a hiccup.

"Now who's talking like their in a chick flick."

Suddenly, he was being hauled up from where he was lying down on the bed and into his brother's arms.

"I'm being serious Mikey. We would be falling apart without you. We need you Mikey."

And just as suddenly Mikey was clutching at Raph desperately, clinging to him like a lifeline.

"You think we don't notice, but we do. I see how much you give to us, Mikey. You give us everything. Everything you've ever done was to help us, to make sure we safe, to make sure we were okay. God, I hate to think where we'd be without you, dude. We'd be so lost without you. I was so scared when I thought we had lost you."

Mikey nodded into his brother's neck, for once at a loss for words. Because it was true. He'd only wanted to help them. He'd only wanted to help them.

"No one blames you for any of this. Mikey, you understand?"

Mikey nodded, pulling back from his brother to press his forehead against his brother's. He opened his eyes as wide as he could. This close, everything was even more out of focus. Looking at where his brother's eyes should be, it was blurry and fuzzy and green. But Raph was there.

"I love you Raphie."

And in that moment, the two mile radius that he had stretched out using Octopus Mikey narrowed down to just his brother, and it was in that moment that clear view of Raph's eyes fed through Mikey's vision, as if he could actually see again.

Raph hummed.

"Don't tell anyone I said this, but I love you too, you dweeb."

Raph pulled Mikey back into his arms, and Mikey felt his spiritual energy wrap around them tightly, binding with huge, big, invisible cables.

But, you see, when Raph had heaved Mikey up for their hug, they were dangerously close to the edge of the bed. Just as Mikey was about to reply, the sheets slipped and the two brothers tumbled down to the floor in a heap of screaming profanities (i.e. Raph) and absolute gibberish that only vaguely resembled the English Language, let alone actual words (i.e. Mikey).

Leo, who had been awake for a little while and was about to finish his training, heard the commotion and walked in on Raph and Mikey giggling like school girls on the floor, entangled by sheets and blankets and relief and reassurance.

He smiled, before jumping into the fray, much to Mikey's vocal dismay.

It would've been perfect if Donnie had woken up from his coma that he called sleep to join them, but there was no way in hell he was up this early in the morning. Either way, Mikey was surrounded with his brothers, and his spiritual cables just tied themselves tighter and tighter until energy was swirling and burst and whirling uncontrollably in Raph's room.

Mikey laughed.

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Bonus:

"Hey! You!"

Shredder turned around from where he was perched on top of the rooftops, Foot Clan ninjas circling around him in formation. He had felt the massive spiritual presence that had been lurking on the horizon growing closer to him, but never could he have ever imagined for it to have shown itself so quickly.

"Yeah I'm talking to you, you Metal-Head-Poopy-Face! Are you ready to eat some of my nunchuck fury?"

Shredder gasped. No, it couldn't be…

"Actually, I already know that answer to that question. No one's ever ready to handle my nunchuck fury. But it's too bad, cause you're getting it anyway."

Shredder pointed his blade at the scarred orange banded turtle, who stood proudly behind Leo and between Donnie and Raph.

"YOU! You should be dead!"

Mikey shrugged.

"I should? News to me."

Shredder growled, anger festering alongside his disbelief.

"Attack them!" he shrieked.

The Foot Clan leapt at them, weapons drawn.

Mikey smirked at his brothers, who smirked right back, and leapt to meet them.