Chapter Text
Time seemed to have flown by, and before Carol knew it they were all coming upon the one year mark of when April had brought the four turtles home.
They all had adjusted well.
Raphael, who had told her he was fine with just Raph, was the sweetest boy when he was finally able to relax and drop his guard. He loved comics and movies just as much as the others but he would always pretend he wasn’t obsessed with Jupiter Jim like his brothers. He was also quite the craftsman like little Mikey, but only when it came to teddy bears. Raph had grown a collection of the little guys, including her personal favorite: Lil’ Raph, a little bear with a small red bandana to match the real thing. Carol cherished it.
Mikey had finally been able to let his creative flag fly. He painted the walls of April’s room in swirling murals and portraits. He was quite good for his age and he only improved as the year progressed. He would always be working on the next big thing, an art piece on paper, redoing a section of April’s wall, or learning a new skateboarding trick in the stairwell.
Speaking of that skateboard. It was made by their resident inventor. Donnie had quite the way with technology and machines. He made the most innovative little inventions for everyday life, like toothbrush holders that ensured your toothbrush was clean before you used it next. He was also a bit of a “masterbuilder” as he found the term on the internet. He had the most amazing skill when it came to the snapping building bricks which often engulfed his time. Sure, his leg never fully healed, as they were never able to go to a surgeon due to ‘that whole situation’ and so the bones were never properly set, no matter how much Leo apologized for not doing it properly. Donnie didn’t let it keep him down. Mikey had bedazzled his chair and his crutches and he made sure they were the highest quality with his technical brilliance.
Leo came around eventually as well. He was a massive theater nerd, who would sing show tunes late in the night if no one stopped him. He memorized every song, and knew every word. He had taken up teaching himself how to fence through youtube videos and wooden dowels. He begged Carol to let him have a real sword one day, to which she always told him maybe, but certainly no time soon.
They found their own rhythm. Raph and Donnie were always the first awake, with Leo sleeping until noon from staying awake all night. Mikey woke up at a proper time, at least that's what he called 9:00AM.
Donnie and Raph would make coffee for Carol, and talk in the living room as Carol got ready for work on the days she was scheduled, although she didn’t need to today. So instead, she joined the boys in the living room. Donnie could go on about his inventions and projects for hours if they let him, even though more often than not they didn’t fully understand the more intricate details with his highly technical babble.
Carol sipped her coffee and listened to Donnie excitedly ramble on.
Eventually, Mikey and April slipped downstairs. Carol started breakfast now that her little assistant was awake. Mikey needed to be present in the preparation for every meal that she made. He didn’t just love to help out, but he loved to cook in general. When he was older, she would have to teach him how to operate everything on his own.
The conversations soon shifted into the kitchen as Donnie wheeled in after Carol to continue telling her about a potential upgrade to his chair’s tires.
Raph had slipped down the hall and dragged Leo down at some point during Donnie’s long explanation of how he would fix motors between the tires and the base of his chair. Leo yawned and collapsed in the seat next to his twin.
“Long night, Leo?” Carol chuckled, cracking eggs into the frying pan.
“Mhm,” Leo hummed, nodding slowly with his eyes still nearly closed.
“I told you not to stay up too late watching movies, bud,” Carol chuckled.
Leo’s face suddenly turned sour. “Yeah, I know . . . It-it wasn’t that, this time.”
Donnie’s background ramble was silenced in an instant. Raph’s booming laughter dying out. A yelp sounded from beside her as Mikey was now holding his burnt finger that had accidentally touched the hot pan when he was listening to what Leo said rather than paying attention to the cooking at hand.
Leo strung up and filled a bag with some cool water, covering it with a napkin and handling it to Mikey as he stepped down from his step-stool. Mikey sat down with the bag across from Leo, keeping it held tight to his finger.
“Leo? Mikey? Are you guys okay?” April asked, meeting Raph’s eyes at the end of the table.
“It’s nothin’ April,” Raph tried to say but it was a clear lie.
“It-it is something, April,” Mikey admitted for him, “but we just . . . we don’t wanna—”
“What Mikey is trying to say is that it has to do with events that transpired nearly a year ago now,” Donnie answered for all of them in that stiff voice he used when he was a bit uncomfortable.
April sat back. “Oh . . . sorry.”
“No need to apologize,” Donnie assured her, “it was a while ago.”
“But it still bothers you all, doesn’t it?”
At this point Carol had turned off all the burners and taken a seat at the head of the table across from Raph. She didn’t want to interrupt any of them. She didn’t want to scare them out of talking after nearly a year of progress. The look on Leo’s face destroyed her. Not only did he look like he got hit with the exhaustion bus, but he looked like he was going to start tearing up.
“I-I . . .” Leo stammered, before closing his eyes and grounding himself, “I think it’s time we tell someone . . .”
Mikey nodded, Raph looked a little spooked, and Donnie’s face was entirely blank.
“If you feel ready to talk, then I’ll happily be here to listen and whatever it is, we can work through it,” Carol’s voice was soft, not wanting to disturb the moment.
Leo looked up and it seemed the tears had gotten to him, pooling in the corners of his eyes. “I . . . just don’t want you to think less of me . . . or any of us for not being able to—”
“I would never think like that, you boys are the strongest kids I have ever met.”
Leo broke with a cracking sob, his face falling into his hands.
Raph took over with speaking and Donnie gently rubbed his twin’s back in an attempt to comfort him.
“Before we can here,” Raph began, “things weren’t lookin’ great for us. I let it go on longer than I should have. I just . . . I thought he still loved us. He was our Dad, he raised us.”
“He raised you,” Donnie added, “I don’t think he ever cared about me.”
Raph looked pained but kept talking despite Donnie’s comment. “I think our childhood was mostly all fine, when we were real little at least. Eventually though, slowly he just stopped bein’ there. I started pickin’ up the slack and so he took that as a chance to stop carin’ entirely. I thought I could handle it, it would all be fine. And it wasn’t too bad for a while at least. Then Dad started throwin’ things and shoutin’. I thought it was just a one time thing, then it never stopped. I’ll never forget the day that he first hit one of us. I shoulda done somethin’, I was right there, the whole time. I shoulda stepped in before it escalated. He struck Don and I did nothin’. Once again I let it go thinkin’ it would go away. I shouldn’t have been surprised when it continued. Then he would get at Leo. Sometimes I was able to redirect him to myself but . . . he was able to get Don and Leo too many times. I made it my mission to never let him hit Mikey. And I . . . I failed at that too.”
Raph was sobbing now. She had seen Raph cry before but not like this.
Leo was still sobbing, Mikey was tearing up now, avoiding everyone’s eyes, and Donnie was still staring blankly at the table.
“You didn’t fail them Raph, you should have never been forced to protect them like that to begin with. Your father was supposed to protect you, not hurt you.”
The table was mostly quiet, with the exception of Raph and Leo’s crying, and insistence from Raph’s end that as the big brother, he should have been able to do more for them all.
“I don’t think you could have done anything, Raph,” Donnie muttered. “There was nothing you could say or do to Splinter that would ever get him to care about me. I think, well, I think he wanted me dead. He would always tell me I was a cry baby, I was a bad influence, I was too weak . You would have never been able to change that old rat’s mind on that. Half the time he couldn’t tell us apart aside from our bandanas, hell , he rarely even noticed Mikey existed!”
Mikey sniffled loudly at that.
“Frankly I am glad to be out of there. There was nothing we could have done differently to change the outcome, the only solution was to run. I know I was so set on staying and dying like a martyr but you were right, Raph! You saved me, you saved Leo, and you saved Mikey. So don’t apologize for that, we are alive today because of your call to leave,” Donnie stated, assured in his position that his words were fact.
Leo got up from his chair and crumpled into Raph. “You did great, bro,” he cried into Raph’s shoulder.
The rest of the family gravitated to them. Mikey and Leo under Raph’s arms with Carol and April hugging him from behind. Donnie wheeled himself beside them and merely tapped Leo’s back.
Leo was not having that and pulled his brother into Raph’s lap so he was involved in the hug. Instead of hissing and fighting like he normally might, Donnie opted to melt into his brother’s hug.
Carol did not expect this day to stay with unearthed trauma and so much crying.