No Escape

Part 29

Raph narrowed his eyes as he crouched down low, only his eyes peeking over the edge of the stone building. It was just after sunset and the night was still young. Raph was only going on a short recon trip; not wanting to leave Donny and Master Splinter by themselves for too long.

His eyes flicked over to Mikey, who was crouched down beside him. His baby brother looked grim, scared, haunted, and yet somehow, under all of these emotions, steely, deadly determination shone through.

Mikey also looked older, more mature. He didn't seem to laugh, smile, or joke anymore, although if Raph were honest with himself, none of them did. There was no joy or happiness left in their hearts; the Shredder made damn sure of that.

"You okay, Mikey?" He whispered. His brother's eyes looked a little too dull and haunted for his liking. Of course he knew exactly why his baby brother looked this way.

It had been two months since Leo had managed to open his eyes, and things had gone from bad to worse. It was such a cliché, but there was no better way to explain Leo's rapid decline. He had begun training again, at Master Splinter's insistence. Their father believed that if Leo began to fall back into his old routine, that he would get better. But it didn't help. It was hard to say if training was making things worse, or if there was nothing that would break Leo out of his tailspin decline into chronic depression.

They knew that there was something seriously wrong with Leo, but they didn't know what. One night, Donnie realized that a bottle of painkillers had disappeared from his medical cabinet. A few hours later – when delivering Leo's dinner tray- they found Leo on the floor unconscious, curled into a tight little ball, and foaming from the mouth. They found the missing bottle of pills next to him, and Donnie had panicked.

Leo had overdosed on Oxycodone. Whether this was purposeful or accidental, they weren't sure. They knew Leo had been suffering from severe stomach cramps and headaches from the way he would occasionally clutch at his stomach and head; but they didn't know if Leo hadn't been paying attention to how many pills he had taken to numb the pain, or if he just didn't care.

Raph had helped Donnie rush Leo into the lab. An antidote was quickly fed intravenously into Leo's arm, and a black charcoal sludge mixed with a laxative had been force fed down Leo's throat. When Leo had woken up, he had been violently ill, with headaches, a rash, rapidly beating heart, vomiting, and chest pain. It had taken a few days for Leo to recover, and they had managed to keep the incident from Master Splinter and Mikey by telling them that Leo had come down with the flu. Luckily, they had been out visiting April and Casey that night. But after this incident, Donnie and Raph had secretly discussed the possibility that Leo was suicidal.

Unfortunately, Leo still wasn't talking, so it wasn't even as if they could even talk to him to find out what was going on in his head. Anytime they tried to talk to Leo, it was like his mind would just shut off, and he would just stare blankly into space. But Raph soon learned the truth.

Raphael had just come back from another recon mission. He was determined to find the Shredder's new hideout, and after another unsuccessful night, he was exhausted and just wanted to crawl into his bed and sleep.

He was nearing the lair when his bike's headlight fell upon the figure of his older brother, standing at a junction point in the sewers. There was a deep water tributary running past him and branching off in two separate directions.

He frowned, wondering why Leo was out in the middle of the night, in the sewers, alone, and in the dark.

Raph turned off his bike and pulled his helmet from his head. If his brother even knew he was sitting there, he made no indication one way or the other. His brother's carapace was turned towards him, but Raph could just make out that there was something in his hand, that reflected in the bike's headlight.