Stronger

Chapter Eleven

   Mikey sighed and leaned his head back against the wall, ready to give up. "Why the heck isn't anything working?" he asked the air, listening to his brothers moaning softly. "I have literally. Tried. Everything!" Dejected, he threw the glass bottle he was holding at the floor and watched it with an emotionless mask as it shattered into a thousand satisfying crystals.

   "Stupid illness!" he cursed. He sighed again after he said that, hating the words he was using, but lately, all the stress was bringing out his bad side. Everything that he did not know that he was finally showed itself to him, and Mikey found out that he could carry a grudge when he really wanted to. Especially against somebody like Brief.

   Knowing that he could not keep the shattered glass on the floor for forever, he grudgingly got up and grabbed the broom from its corner. "I really need to put this thing back where it goes," he said absent-mindedly, gathering the shards into a small pile. But after he had thrown the crystals away, he placed it back in the corner. "Whatever."

   He stepped lightly up to his brothers who still occupied the one bed in the lab. Leo's face was calm although he shifted around a lot, but Donnie looked like something pained him, even though he did not move around as much. He felt the towels on their head. "Already hot? I placed these on them only thirty minutes ago!"

   But he took them off and placed them in the sink before taking out a couple of slightly-frozen towels from the freezer. He put them on their forehead, and both brothers writhed for a second, unaccustomed to the sudden freeze, but Mikey pushed their arms away from their face and after a minute they were too weak to continue fighting, and accepted it.

   "Sorry guys, I know it hurts," he told them in soft tones, wishing they would respond. "But this has been a long week for all of us, and I need you guys to cooperate with me. I don't see how I can do this alone."

   He stood there for a moment, feeling like he was about to cry, but the tears never came. "I almost wish they would," he muttered, rubbing his eyes. "It might lessen some stress. Or maybe I would fall into despair faster."

   After making sure they would not take off the cold towels, he walked out to see how his oldest brother was making out. Raph lay on the couch in the living room, since he was too heavy for Mikey to carry all the way to his room. Mikey took off his towel too and replaced it with a cold one.

   Raph made no movement at all except to breathe, cutting Mikey's heart. "Please, Raph, keep being strong!" he silently begged. "I can't do this on my own. If you stop fighting, then I will stop fighting!" But his brother continued to lay there, slowly breathing. Mikey watched his chest rise and fall. "Where did I go wrong?" he moaned to himself. His fists tightened and he took several ragged breaths to calm himself down.

   "Brief." The venom in his voice no longer shocked him. He walked quickly to the Dojo, feeling ready to punch the lights out of somebody. But as he walked towards the doors, a shiny object caught his gaze. In his mind, he knew what it was. But in his heart, it meant something more. He tried to step past it, but forced himself to stop and slowly turned his head toward it.

   He saw somebody he did not recognize looking back at him. This was a turtle wearing an orange bandana, glowering, practically shooting out fire from his eyes. He was so stiff and tense that all his muscles popped up, and his fists were claws, clenching and unclenching like he wanted a weapon.

   Mikey blinked at his reflection and took a step back, trying to relax himself. Taking more deep breaths, he succeeded in calming himself down, but he continued to move around in jerky movements as he walked away from the Dojo, clearing up a practically spotless kitchen.