Mikey was pounding on the door, shouting through the thick steel in a voice Raphael almost didn't recognize at all.

"Raph, let me out, let me out, please let me out!"

How the kid even got stuck behind the storm door, Raph had no idea. They were helping Donnie set up some wires and cameras along the tunnels Donnie marked for him on a map- a new security system, their techy brother had explained- and Mikey had disappeared ahead around a corner while Raph struggled with a twisted length of cord, then bam- yelping brother, screeching metal, and probably ten years shaved off Raph's life for good measure.

At the sound of his brother's distress Raphael doubled his pace, calling out, "Mikey relax, I'm coming."

"Raph!" Almost instantly there was a violent scrambling, and he could hear the soft shuffling noise of hands along the opposite side of the door. "Raph, I, heh, I dunno what happened. I tripped, and I caught onto the handle, and it- it slammed shut, and I can't get it open."

Worked himself up, Raph thought with an uneasy twinge, and grabbed the handle and pulled.

And pulled.

"Raph? What are you doing?"

"The uh, the door ain't budgin', Mikey." He was braced for a shriek, but the dead silence was somehow worse. He patted his belt uselessly- he knew his T-phone was in the charging dock back in Don's lab, he knew he didn't have it on him, but a small part of him was kind of hoping for a miracle so he wouldn't have to say, "I gotta go get the guys, Mikey. I'll be right back, alright?"

"No!" Something slammed against the door, hard and sudden enough that Raph winced, and Mikey was pleading from his side, "Don't leave, Raph, please! Don't leave me here!"

Heart in his throat, Raph almost took a step back; fear and alarm flooding him ruthlessly, until it felt like he was underwater. "Mikey, I'm going to get help to get you out, okay? I'll be right back, I promise."

And then he had to turn and sprint away, because it sounded like Mikey had started crying. He tore into the pit and found Leo in front of the T.V.- wasted no time in horse-collaring him and dragging him bodily back toward the stupid door, despite his stupid protests. Donnie looked torn between ignoring the altercation and following, and with a sigh Raph only heard- because he didn't stop to look back- Donnie set his computer aside and trotted to catch up.

"Raph, what is wrong with you?" Leo bit out, struggling against the arm locked around his neck. "I can walk fine, just tell me where we're going."

"It's Mikey," Raphael replied, too fast, and in the pause that followed he knew Leo was looking at him, reading his face like a book.

Then Leo was twisting away, falling out of Raph's hold like water. "Take us to him."

By the time they found the right tunnel, the pounding had started up again on the other side of the storm door. Raph's heart sank in his chest, and Donnie almost tripped over himself rushing over.

"Mikey," Donnie called, pressing his hands flat against the door. "Hey, can you hear me?"

The thudding stopped, and after a split second, Mikey's voice soared. "Donnie?"

"Yeah, I'm here. Raph and Leo, too."

"We sure are." Leo gave Donnie a sharp nod, and the purple-masked turtle went sprinting back toward their home without a word. Then Leo settled down on his knees in front of the door, talking all the while. "Donnie's just run back to get some tools for the door. I promise we'll get you out."

"Don't leave," Mikey said shrilly, and Leo shook his head even though Mikey couldn't see, blue eyes cool and focused.

"I'm not leaving you. You know that."

"I know. Okay." There was a shifting sound, and when Mikey's voice came through again it was closer to the floor, as though he'd sat down too. "Is Donnie back yet?"

"Not yet, buddy. You okay in there?"

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine, I just... I want out."

"I know you do. But I'm right here on the other side of this door, okay? Just hang on." Leo tapped his fingers against the metal, then murmured almost to himself, "So he's claustrophobic. Did you know?"

Claustrophobic?

Of course he didn't know; the fact that Leo even had to ask felt like a slap in the face. But there was something burning behind the loaded question, like hot embers waiting to be stoked into a fire. Like Leo was daring him. And for the first time in his life, Raph didn't want to take the bait.

"I didn't know."

And then he was shuffled to one side as Donnie reappeared, dropping an armful of equipment at the base of the door. "Gonna torch off the hinges," he was muttering, "we can open it from the opposite side much easier. If that doesn't work we'll just break it down."

Leo nodded, and called out, "Mikey? Donnie's back and he's working on the door, now. Move back from it okay?"

"I dunwanna," came the hoarse response, immediately. "I'll be careful."

It took close to five minutes, and Leo couldn't talk over the torch, but the sounds of Donnie's work kept Mikey quiet. And when Raph and Leo wrenched the door free, Mikey was out like a shot, practically clawing past his brothers and out into the middle of the tunnel.

He was panting, the blue in his eyes electric with something wild, and Leo took a slow, measured step toward him while Raph's heart sort of just started breaking.

"I wanna go outside," Mikey whispered, and Leo reached for him carefully.

"It's still light out," their big brother said gently, while Donnie hurriedly bundled his tools back up in his arms. "But we'll go to our basking spot, okay? We'll sit right under that grate until it gets dark, and then we can go topside for as long as you want."

Mikey nodded jerkily, twisting his hands. After a moment he blurted, "You don't have to, if you were busy. I can just- "

"Will you carry this for me?" Donatello interrupted, shoving a sledgehammer at him he must have brought along as a contingency plan. It was heavy enough to require two hands, and Mikey scrambled for purchase that wouldn't send him tipping over. "Thanks. The sooner we get back, the better- there's a patch of sunshine just calling my name."

"No, no, that's my name you're hearing," Leo corrected archly, giving Mikey a nudge that made him smile.

Raph stepped up on Mikey's other side, wrapping a hesitant hand around his shoulders- intensely relieved when his baby brother didn't pull away. They were halfway home when Raph managed to whisper, "Sorry."

Mikey leaned into him at once, warm and forgiving, and Raph could probably have fallen over he was so relieved. As it was, he held Mikey a little tighter, and looked at Leo over the top of Mikey's head.

We have to fix this, he didn't say aloud. And he didn't need to, because Leo met his eyes and nodded.

It was supposed to help him, Raph knew that. Donnie constructed the room in the middle of the dojo, just a small closet of a space with solid walls and a heavy door. Mikey was supposed to sit inside it and close his eyes and meditate, and they'd be right outside, and it would be easy and he'd be just fine.

Except it wasn't. He wasn't. It didn't take more than fifteen minutes for Mikey to call out to them, quietly, uncertain- "Um, actually, I don't think I want to do this anymore."

Leo moved forward immediately like he'd open the door, but Splinter caught his arm, shook his head. "You are alright, my son," he said, voice as soothing as it was firm. "Just a few minutes more."

"Sensei, I don't want to," Mikey said, louder. And he sounded scared, the way he sounded when he was little and a nightmare shook him to tears; the way Raph hadn't heard from him in a long time. There was a thin, almost shrill note of panic in his voice, and when he spoke up next it was with a sob. "Father, please, I don't want to anymore."

And Raph couldn't take any more.

He flew past his brothers, past his sensei, before he made the conscious decision to; wrenching the door open with the point of both sai and then throwing the precious weapons to the floor in time to catch Mikey, who came scrambling toward the light and his brother so fast he tripped twice.

"It's okay, it's okay," Raph muttered, rubbing his shoulders and then his carapace. Mikey was shaking like a leaf, and when he buried his face in the crook of Raph's neck, Raph felt the wet slide of warm tears. "I got you, it's okay now."

He could feel the rest of their family staring holes into his shell, but he wrapped Mikey against his plastron as tight as he could, planted his cheek against the crown of Mikey's head, and mentally dug in his heels for a fight.

No matter what they said, Mikey was never going in that dark room again.

But it was Leo who spoke up a few moments later, and his voice was soft. "Is he okay?"

Raph relaxed a little bit; Leo was on his side, he didn't have to be so guarded.

"He's fine, huh, Mikey?" Utter silence was his only answer, Mikey burrowing closer like some sort of tiny heat-seeking creature- which was really all the answer Raph needed, anyway. "You're just fine, little brother."

A snapping sound made Raph flinch for the sai that weren't in his belt, feeling almost absurdly protective of the shivering kid in his arms; they were home, they were in the dojo, there wasn't anything to protect Mikey from- the sound was just Donnie, already breaking the box apart, not looking their father in the eye as he tore it apart board by board.

Leo caught Raph's eye and nodded. Raph gave Mikey a little nudge to get him moving.

"Hey, let's go topside. Get some fresh air. We'll go to Central Park and feed the dumb geese. You love the dumb geese."

"Okay," Mikey said, with maybe a tenth of his usual enthusiasm. Raph avoided looking at Master Splinter, and shared troubled gazes with Don and Leo as they left. Mikey let Raph lead him like a lamb nearly the whole way, and Raph was beginning to think that nothing in the world was as unnerving as his baby brother's silence.