"Donnie?" 

Leo leaned out the second-floor window and peeked at the slanted farmhouse roof, spotting his younger brother sitting with knees hugged to his plastron and staring into the forest with a lost gaze. He acknowledged the leader's existence with a sigh and leaned back on the tiles as his older brother pulled himself onto the roof, expertly keeping balance as he made his way over to him. 

"Hey."

"Hey."

A silence passed between them as the sun set in the background, sending shimmering colors across the sky and over the trees, almost like Mikey accidentally spilling paint all over objects and then claiming he made art. 

Leo allowed the silence to stretch as he waited for his brother to finally break the unnaturally solemn quiet that had followed him around all day. 

"I thought it was real." Sapphire gaze strayed to autumn as Donnie resumed the self-hug. "It didn't feel like a nightmare. Not like the beavers' did. It felt like I lived every second of it and then just... Died." He snapped and the abrupt noise caused the leader to flinch. 

His younger brother stared off into the distance and shivered. "Just like that. After all that fear and pain, I was just... Poof. Gone."

Leo fought to block the images of his brothers' scarlet bodies from his mind's eye as he scooted closer, hoping to offer some comfort as he wondered how long Donnie had been trapped in the dream- nightmare- horrific illusion before they were able to find him. 

"I can't imagine how that felt." 

"No. I guess not." He stared out over the forest and Leo reached over to place a hand on his shoulder. "You think that's how Splinter felt?"

Leo jerked his hand back as though he'd been burned and Donnie finally faced him, revealing eyes shimmering with unshed tears. 

"Oh, Donnie." 

The leader felt his heart tear as he grasped his shoulders and pulled him into a tight hug,  his younger brother's shoulders shaking as a sob escaped. "Splinter's alright. I know he's still out there; waiting for us to come home. He's alright. Just like you're gonna be. You'll be alright, Donnie." 

Donnie didn't reply and simply nestled into his embrace, the leader clutching him tighter as his younger brother let out the build-up of sorrow and terror from the previous nights, holding him as the sky turned a familiar shade of black and the chill wind returned, eventually forcing them back inside to get warm. 

None of them ever tried digging deeper into what occurred that night or what happened with the transmitter. They chose to accept Donnie's theory, no matter how much mystery lay behind it, count their lucky stars that a nightmare was all it had been, and move on with their lives. 

Needless to say, Donnie never worked late in the barn again and, despite it being a dream, the nightmare was never spoken of between the Hamato brothers. Not when they left the farmhouse, or when Splinter asked about their adventures, and definitely not when one of them would suffer a nightmare of the beast during the coming months.

Some things just weren't meant to be uncovered.