This idea comes from the anguish that the 2003 Leonardo faced after Utrom Shredder's defeat and the strain that the 2016 Leonardo seems to be under at the beginning of the Out of the Shadows movie. Please note that this story took shape before the 2016 movie and is based on an AU established in the Kismet Universe. This is not meant to be an alternative to the 2016 TMNT movie. This does, however, pick up just a little bit before Kismet left off in that last chapter. I hope you enjoy this continuation of that story!

Note to readers: this is to be a companion chapter to go along with the last chapter of Kismet. If you read these two chapters side-by-side I've purposely tried to make them overlap a bit. The parts that Donnie focuses on and the parts that Aaliyah focuses on are done the way that they are on purpose. Donnie's not very big on recording anything too juicy in his medical journal... so luckily that's where Aaliyah's POV comes in ;). I told you things would heat up eventually and now you patient, wonderful people will get your juicy goodness. Enjoy the sin, children.

The first time I woke up after being sent back down here to this version of earth all I can remember is pain. Pain in my side that was like a hot knife through to my middle. I wasn't awake for very long, nor did I want to be awake for very long. I think I woke up because my throat felt like the Saharah Desert but the pain was bad enough I didn't dare move or breathe too hard. So calling out to Donnie who was probably nearby wasn't an option. Not enough of one for me to dare do anything other than just sit and endure the pain. That's basically all I can remember from that whole first week after The Battle. Waking up occasionally with some small need but forgetting it almost immediately because of how badly that stab wound hurt.

By the end of the week Donnie's nerves were pretty shot. I remember that. Mostly I just wanted to sleep. At least while I'm asleep my side isn't on fire and I don't have to worry about being waited on.

But Donnie didn't like it when I did that. Especially by the end of that first week of awfulness he wanted me awake. Wanted me eating. My stomach was punctured by Shredder's claws and he wanted me eating. Why he wanted me to eat so badly I didn't quite understand. I just wanted to sleep. But for Donnie I ate anyways, sipping so damn pitifully at broth you'd think I was 127 years old and on life support. But it takes the worry out of Donnie's eyes so against the racking pain in causes I sipped carefully at the spoon until I could not any longer.

This dragged on for days, for weeks, until finally my eyes weren't so heavy and the pain wasn't so unbearable that the need to sleep was overwhelming. I don't remember ever waking up in those days and not seeing Donatello by my side. Or Leo by Sensei's. And comforting as that should sound it was also my turn to worry a little bit. Donnie said I'd lost a dangerous amount of weight. I say he'd lost about the same between the sleepless nights and the stress. He looked about as good as I felt even though I tried to dissuade the anxious way he constantly checked on me by joking about it. I felt like crap, I'm pretty sure I looked like crap, but that doesn't mean I needed to act like crap.

I don't really remember anything significant up until basically that second week. By that time I was finally able to stay awake long enough to hold a conversation so I didn't feel 100% useless. Although Donnie probably wished that I was still sleeping 24/7 because I spent a lot of my waking hour getting after him for killing himself off while trying to keep Sensei and me alive. His mask couldn't quite hide the dark bags under his eyes or the way he drooped over basically everything. As if I didn't have enough guilt about being stuck in bed as it was.

But we did start to have some more pleasant conversations too. I told him about the last time I was holed up in bed like this to help calm whatever seemed to be keeping him up at night over my condition. I never really considered the flip side to the fact that he and his brothers were so much faster at healing, that they'd grown up all being able to bounce back from injuries pretty quickly so being faced with a normal human with normal healing rates was terrifying for him. For me it was no problem, this was status quo compared to most of my major injuries incurred during my previous lifetime. And I even managed to get Donnie to rest his head on my lap and take a little nap with me. I felt pretty proud of myself for that.

During that third week Donatello was vigilant about making sure that Sensei and I took iron supplements, a tip he'd gleaned from my storytelling apparently. I couldn't really tell that much of a difference but Donnie was convinced that they helped a lot. I was still stuck in bed, so my usefulness didn't really improve at all. I guess I was able to stay awake longer. Mikey was able to entertain longer before I fell asleep on him but that also could have been due to the amount of time that had passed. Either way now that Donatello was convinced those little iron tablets became his new little thing to obsess over. I didn't really like seeing him so distressed over our slow recovery but I really was healing as fast as I could. I did everything that he asked me to, tried to eat the things he kept offering but it wasn't until the end of that third week I could really stomach them. I did try though. Poor thing was wearing himself ragged trying to fix us and it wasn't like Leonardo was really helping his nerves any.

It was a little frustrating to see Leonardo so unhappy all the time. It wasn't unexpected, per say, since all of the incarnations of Leonardos that I'd seen could be prone to moodiness if they weren't as perfect as they thought they should be. And after the way everything had gone during the battle... and really actually the few weeks prior to the battle where I'd kindof started to take over the show and call some of the shots... I could understand his frustration with everything including himself. But that didn't make it any less difficult to observe. If anything it only made it more difficult. Because if history was anything to go by... that could only mean one outcome.

Leo was going to be sent away for some amount of time. 2003 did it. 2007 did it. IDW did it, though to be fair that was more-so because he was captured and turned evil by Kitsune Magic. The only version of turtles that I was familiar with that hadn't sent Leo away for some kind of spiritual journey was the 2012 version but since that show was highly emphasizing the teenage part of teenage mutant ninja turtles that wasn't all too surprising. These boys were more grown up. More like the 2003 and 2007 turtles. And if Leo was getting unbearably moody and short tempered then that could only mean his journey was soon coming.

And I knew what I had to do.

There wasn't any question about it. Not in my mind. Leo was going to be sent away, and I needed to go with him. This version of Splinter wouldn't have any 'Ancient One' characters to send Leonardo to, which hinted towards more of a 2007-type 'go and find yourself all alone in the wilderness' adventure and with as well as that went in that movie I could only imagine what sending this Leonardo out on his own would do. I may not have felt very physically able to keep up with a trek to South America at the time I recognized that I'd be going along with him sometime in that third week. But knowing pretty early on that it was coming did give me that little extra boost of motivation I needed to get my butt out of bed and get onto my feet.

And also to stop wasting my time with Donatello.

Time was once again a precious commodity, but unlike last time there was no imminent doom or destruction hanging over my head like a blade on a string to keep me in line. Keep my mouth shut. Keep Donnie waiting like the incredibly patient man that he was. But with his sole focus on recovery getting him to sidetrack was not an easy task. And just like a poker player I had to play my cards just right if I was going to get anywhere with him before Leo snapped and got sent away for his spiritual trip to who knows where in this universe.

The idea was simple: slow and steady wins the race. That third week was slow and steady with lingering touches, unnecessary hand holding, and working around my damn side to make some small amount of cuddling happen. Mostly that meant coercing Don, who really didn't mind once he'd been extraordinarily careful to not disturb my injury, to lay his head on my lap so I could rub his neck and shoulders while we talked. He liked the contact and once it started to become a regular thing it was easier to get him to doze off after a few dozen minutes of casual conversation. I didn't mind. My goal was reestablishing comfort with contact, and if he could sleep on my lap then I considered that a mission accomplished. I was just a little bit upset that I still wasn't quite healed enough to be able to bend down to kiss the top of his head during that third week.

By the end of week three though I didn't need to worry so much about it because Don's stress levels over my recovery were starting to diminish. Slightly. And with that came time to have a little chat about him really needing to get back to maintaining his own health too. Stern, but fair, I laid out my concerns over him and we talked it out. He did make some fair points about pressure from the brothers and inexperience with treating human injuries this extensive. But by the end of it we were both happy with his agreement to chill a little more and get back to a more regular schedule.

The moment was perfect. Happy resolution to a grown-up conversation, I tugged on his mask tails to drag him over to my face. He hesitated but only just for a moment and let me kiss him. He was such a blushy mess I couldn't keep it in and had to burst out laughing at his expression. And then drag him back in for another kiss, this one he actually reciprocated now that his brain had caught up with his mouth and had a minute to wrap around what was happening. Don't get me wrong, I adore Donatello, but for a genius and a ninja he can sometimes be surprisingly slow to process things and act on them. When he finally did, though, it was so nice to feel his lips on mine. Slow and tender, it seemed to say a dozen things that he otherwise couldn't say. I didn't try to keep him there too long but after the terrible scare of almost losing both his father and his almost maybe lover I didn't have to.

What started as a teasing retry drew him forward onto his knees, one hand reaching up to cup my jaw in a feather-light cradle that seemed to be more for his own benefit than mine. Controlled desperation slowly overtook the atmosphere of the tiny space between us, emotion anchoring his cool breath to my cheek. I couldn't quite wrap my head around just how he was able to put so much weight into those careful kisses, every press so slow and deliberate it was like he was planning every head turn and every touch. And I let him choose when he was ready to pull away so he could take all the time he needed to firmly grip onto the reality that we were both there, alive, lips touching, and that the danger of losing something he didn't know he already had was over.

And then right on queue Leonardo rolled in like a thunderstorm and barked something at Donatello about Sensei. Minimally functioning and pathetic as I might have been right then I chewed that boy out for his uncalled for attitude. He needed to know that he was being rude and hurtful by making him and everyone else in their home feel like he was the one in charge of how fast Sensei's body was able to heal when in reality he was only hurting his family with that attitude. Sensei and I would heal at the pace our bodies needed to take and no amount of his temper was going to help anything around here. He turned tail and peeled out pretty quickly after that looking even stormier than when he entered the living space, and I probably shouldn't have done it since ideally I would have liked to stall his personal crash and burn for as long as possible but I couldn't just let Donnie take his crap for no reason. He deserves better than that. And for what time we have here together before Leo's year of pulling his head out of his butt, I'm going to make sure he gets it.