Fifty Reasons to Stay (Book Three)

Chapter Eighteen- Diminish

(Leo's POV)
10.31.25
Good morning, Donnie. 😘
I'm glad your nurses are letting you check your email. We've got to work on your reading.
After lunch, I'm taking you home.

☺️Good.
-Donatello

~~
Today's the day today's the day today's the day!!!!!!!!!!!
The sun was shining, the temperature was fair and the house was immaculate for Donnie's return home after almost two months of being in the hospital.

Raph and Mikey were coming over that night to help out for a few days. And mostly because Mikey wanted to see his brother. I woke up early and made the bed that Donnie and I would soon be sharing again, making sure everything looked good. I had framed the picture of us—he'd like that even if I didn't.

I felt like time was dragging on and on as I waited for the clock to strike 12. It was only 8:30 am.
Ughhhhhhhhhhhh.

I handed Andrew his lunchbox. "You have everything for today?"
"Yeah. Don't worry. When's Donnie going to be here?" He asked impatiently, slipping his jacket on.
"He'll be here by the time you get back. Okay? He really misses you."

"I miss him too.. but his brain is messed up right? How can I help him?" Andrew looked up at me.

"By giving him lots of hugs and talking to him. He may not be able to respond but he won't want to be ignored, okay? Watch movies with him or play board games and don't treat him differently than normal. We want things to be relaxed."
"I got it." He briefly hesitated before throwing his arms around me tightly. "Bye.."
~~
Once the school bus was down the road, I went upstairs to the entirely pink room and peeked over at the bright pink toddler bed where my little princess was asleep, hugging her pink teddy bear. I smiled slightly, closing the door again. She was going to be asleep for a whi-

"I up, I up!!" Teresa opened the door, rubbing her eyes. "Don't weave me.."
I knelt in front of her. "I'm not. But in a few hours, you're coming with me to go see Donnie."

"Go so he come home?" She jumped up into my arms and I carried her downstairs.
"That's right. But please be nice. We don't want him getting scared, so we will use our quiet voices."
"Quiet.." She shushed herself. I kissed the top of her head. "Right. You got this, kid."

The ride to the hospital only took ten minutes but felt more like ten hours. I was so very excited, also nervous, scared, and anxious. The doctors had been explaining what I would have to do for him once he got him home. He could not bathe alone or go to the bathroom alone, and wasn't allowed to walk by himself yet. He needed to read for at least an hour each day, thirty of those minutes needed to be out loud reading if he could. They told me to assign him simple chores to do so he wouldn't feel like a burden, and always to praise him when he did something right.
Because even though speech and coordination were his worst problems, we weren't supposed to forget the reason he got admitted into the hospital in the first place- his suicide. He was definitely going to be on anti-depressants now and would start seeing a doctor to talk about what happened once his speech improved. In the mean time I wanted everything to be as easy for him as possible. Our relationship problems and everything else were on hold. All that mattered was his happiness and comfort.

I led Teresa up to his hospital room and immediately grinned at what I saw.

Donnie was seated on a chair, (finally out of bed..!!!) in clean clothes and looked like he just got out of the shower. He looked excited and his cheeks had a little bit of color to them. "Donnieeeeeeeee...!!" Teresa ran over and hugged him tightly. "Miss you!!"