A/N: The last chapter, folks. Hope it is satisfactory :)

Thanks to Who am I. Well. I'm just Me, BlowMyHeartUp, ChiakiAngel, Hapax Legomenon, finem, Smile-I'mTheEndOfAllThatYouSee, Simone Robinson, LilNinjaWolf and Magiccatprinces for their awesome reviews!

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience by which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, "I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

Epilogue

Raph can't sleep.

He's exhausted, both physically and emotionally. They've all been through hell and back in the past few hours. He deserves sleep. But he can't. Or rather, he won't.

They brought Mikey back to the lair, and he had calmed down slightly once he was home. Looking back, everything seemed fuzzy. Like he was sleepwalking through everything that happened after they got out of the Battle Shell. They took him to Don's lab, where Donny was forced to shed his role of concerned brother, and shift to objective doctor. After a few minutes of testing, Don declared Mikey physically healthy—Raph didn't like that. How he said physically, not just healthy. It implies something, something that they're all thinking, but don't want to acknowledge.

Because none of them know just how mentally affected Mikey is by this ordeal.

Part of Raph doesn't want to know. He wants to assume that in a few days, or weeks, everything will be back to normal. This time next year, it will all be just a distant memory. But another part of him worries that it isn't over, that it will never be over. And he knows at least one of his brothers is thinking that as well.

After a few hours of trying to sleep, Raph decided to grab something to drink from the kitchen. His trek to the fridge led him past Donny's computer. His brother was sitting there, looking dog-tired and determined at the same time. Raph wondered what he could be researching that was so important, when clearly Don needed some rest. So he glanced at the computer screen, read the title of the online article, and immediately regretted it.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Causes, Symptoms, Treatment

He inadvertently made a small noise in the back of his throat. Don turned around, caught him watching, and gave him a sad smile. Donny was already thinking about how he was going to handle this situation, and all Raph wanted to do was sleep.

Suddenly, he didn't want a drink anymore.

So Raph lies awake in his hammock, staring up at the ceiling that he can't quite see in the dark. In part, it's guilt that keeps him awake. One little brother scarred, and another thinking about an anxiety disorder that they should never have had to face. All he wants to do is sleep. He wants everything to go back to the way it was before. But he knows that it's impossible, and that thinking like that is unfair to his brothers.

It isn't just the guilt that deprives him of sleep.

Maybe "deprives" isn't the right word. Earlier, he wanted to sleep. Now, he's not so sure. His thoughts are haunted by nightmarish visions. Whenever he closes his eyes, macabre images are projected in front of him. It's been getting worse all night. Even now, with his waking eyes, he can see them.

It starts in the lair.

Something slows them down. Maybe Raph trips. Maybe Donny stretches out his bunched up shoulders and stops typing. Maybe Leo isn't there when they get the location. Maybe they take a wrong turn. Maybe they get stuck behind a slow driver. It's never the same, but something slows them down. They get there, two minutes, one second later, and everything changes.

Sometimes they haven't quite hit the box yet, and they hear the bang. Sometimes, Raph clears the dirt away just a second too late. He sees the flash of the muzzle, hears the thundering explosion, sees red splatter across the Plexiglas. Sometimes, he can't grab Mikey's hand in time. Blood splatters his cheek.

They were so close to being too late. The future could have changed in an instant.

He's angry at Mikey. He hates himself for it, but he can't help it. After the relief died down, his brain began to process everything. Mikey had a gun to his head. That meant he had given up. That he didn't trust them to find him. That he thought they had failed him. He knows he'll never be able to understand his brother's thought process. Even if he was put in the same situation, they are two different people. Raph wouldn't experience it the way Mikey did.

But that doesn't make him feel any better. He gets a tight feeling in his chest, and suddenly he needs to check on his brother. Not because he thinks that Mikey is suicidal. He just needs to see him, to reassure himself that they managed to do it.

He hops to the floor, and walks silently towards Mikey's room. On his way, he glances down into the main room. There is still light coming from Don's computer. But maybe he has fallen asleep, to his own dreams. Hopefully Don's dreams are not as tainted as Raph's.

He stops at Mikey's doorway, and peers in. He can see his brother's sleeping form under his blankets. He sees the rise and fall of his chest as he breathes. Slow, normal breaths. He leans against the doorframe, unsure of how to proceed. Does he go inside? Does he go back to his own room, to battle his nightmares?

"I …"

Even though it's barely a whisper, the sound makes Raph jump a little. He didn't think that his brother would be awake. But he is, and doesn't want Raph to leave. So he slips inside Mikey's room. He stops halfway to his brother's bed. For some reason, he can't make himself go any closer.

"I would dream you rescued me."

Mikey's voice is small and pitiful. It's missing his usual wryness. It doesn't sound like him at all. But Raph listens.

"I'd dream you found me, brought me home. And I was so happy. But then I'd wake up, back underground. It was so crushing, so frustrating. And I just …" He trails off, but Raph knows what he wants to say.

It doesn't make everything okay. He's still angry with his little brother for giving up. But he also knows that Mikey can't take his disappointment right now. He'll keep it inside, deal with it himself. This is his problem. Mikey has enough of his own.

"Raph?"

"Yeah?" His voice is hoarse, a reflection of the stress and pain that he's just getting over.

Mikey hesitates for a second. Raph debates egging him on with a joking rib, but bites it back. Too early.

"How do I know this is real? How do I know that, when I go to sleep, I won't wake up back there?"

He doesn't know how to answer this. Because he knows this is real. He knows this, because the other versions of his reality are too gruesome to allow him to slip into a false, happy hallucination. But how can he prove this to Mikey, who has been through so much, whose tortured mind he can't begin to understand?

"You're just gonna have to trust me, bro," he says eventually. "It's real. It might be scary to go to sleep, but you're gonna wake up here. You're gonna wake up safe."

It's a lame answer. Leo could come up with something better. Don could ramble on about some scientific shit that somehow proves his point. But it's the best he's got.

"Okay."

He stands there awkwardly for a few seconds. He was expecting to have to justify himself … but apparently Mikey believes him. His answer is enough to get him to sleep. Good. He needs it, more than any of them. Raph takes a step backwards.

"Raph?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you stay? I know it's kinda lame … but just for tonight … I won't tell anyone …"

On another night, this would seem childish. They're teenagers. But this is different. This is how he can help his brother. And so, without a word, he slides under the covers of his brother's bed.

"Goodnight, Mikey."

"Night, bro."

Bro.

Raph smiles, and closes his eyes.

It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer.

- Samwise Gamgee