Please Don't Go

The Dreams we left Behind

Things finally started settling down a few weeks after the Kraang were defeated.

At first, there was nothing but chaos. The city had practically exploded with fear and paranoia in the aftermath, and even Casey and April had been forced to take cover during those first few weeks. Given that their visages were plastered all over the internet.

As it turns out, quite a few people had spotted the duo's attempts to fight back the Kraang while the turtles took control of the technodrome. And even if the responses to the videos were largely positive, as Splinter used to say every time they went out as kids. "All attention is bad attention."

So, to the sewers, it was.

Luckily, they still had some people to rely on, Cass and Sunita, for one. Who, once Cass had quickly made her way back home, had cemented themselves as the supply runners.

They'd needed lots of medical supplies that first day. What little they had was barely enough to stabilize Leo's various wounds. Let alone the rest of the team's.

As for the wounds themselves, things had been touch and go at first. As much as Donnie loved to brag about his superior intellect, medicine had always been Leo's field and Leo's field alone.

That's when Casey stepped in, his innate knowledge of medicine cementing his status as Leo's apprentice.

Admittedly, most of his knowledge had to do with field medics, quick ways to stabilize wounds on the battlefield that could be finished later in a safe location, but what little knowledge he had was leagues more than anything anyone else knew. So, Casey was quickly upgraded to defacto medic, at least until Leo was lucid enough to actually understand the labels on the medications he was reading.

Of course, Leo wasn't the only one injured. Mikey especially, though there wasn't much to be done other than to tightly wrap his intensely shaking arms.

At some point, they managed to get ahold of Draxum, who luckily had experience with mystical exhaustion. He'd instructed Mikey to rest and cooked up some sort of mystical ointment, the contents of which he refused to elaborate on. They all had a feeling it was something illegal, but no one had the energy to care.

Eventually, Leo, who'd passed out the minute he'd been taken from the prison dimension, finally woke up. He did so as dramatically as he possibly could, of course, nearly scaring Casey half to death.

"Careful with that..." he'd murmured quietly, though his voice echoed in the otherwise empty medbay.

Casey, who had been organizing some medical tools at the time, shrieked in surprise, nearly chucking the scalpel in his hands halfway across the room.

Leo had blinked then, still delirious, and turned over with another tired mumble. "Careful....jeez."

When he finally woke up properly, Leo nearly laughed himself hoarse at the story, clutching at his aching ribs as he giggled.

It had been a few weeks since then, and though no one was completely healed yet, they were on their way.

Leo had finally been moved back to his room, something he'd been complaining about for ages. Though he hadn't been able to stop his family from constantly checking in, even with the addition of a door with a lock. (not that he ever used it. None of them did anymore)

Mikey was healing. It wasn't perfect, and he'd had more than a few screaming sessions when his aching hands refused to cooperate with him, but progress was progress, no matter how small.

Donnie hadn't touched anything squishy for weeks, and he audibly gagged at the sight of even the tastiest of pancake batters. But he and Leo had been talking. Quietly and deep into the night. No one knew what these conversations comprised of, but when Donnie managed to sit at the breakfast table long enough to actually eat one of the pancakes once they'd been cooked, they all shot Leo a grateful look.