So, this is my new fic. This idea popped up in my head today and it took me a while to realize that I was actually typing on my laptop trying to take it to some level where the idea would form into a chapter that will start everything. And here it is. I hope that you'll like it, and I hope that I'll be able to update it on regular basis. But, I'm busy with faculty, since the semester just started and I have to prepare for the other exams as in right now, because there is little time to do that later on.
I'll at least try to update every now and then, same goes with all of my stories. If I have left a story somewhere, it doesn't mean that I stopped writing it, it means that its due time it's prolonged and that at some point it will be finished.
Now, enough babbling of mine, enjoy the story and tell me what you thought about it
Summary: Something bad happened to the brothers. Leo is separated from them. A woman finds him lying sprawled on a sidewalk, barely breathing, unconscious, and with second degree burn marks. She takes him home. When he wakes up, the memories from that horrible night come to him and he realizes that his brothers are dead, he saw them dying in front of his eyes. What's going to happen to Leo now that he is all alone? Who is that woman that helped him? Is everyone from his family truly dead?
Just an idea that came to mind and I want to try it out.
TMNT currently belongs to Nickelodeon, I don't own them.
Prologue
He breathed in the warm LA February air and thought of that night that took him everything, that stripped him off of everything. What happened to him, well let's just say that he didn't want anyone to experience that on their own skin. In one night he was left with empty hands and every time he looked himself on the mirror he had a reminder of that night.
He closed his eyes and tried to picture his happy and slightly dysfunctional family leaping on rooftops in NYC, joking. Only in his memories he saw the happy faces of his brothers. It's been almost two years since he last saw them. As the anniversary of the day when he lost them approached, he was more edgy, angry, and nervous, you name it. First it was Splinter, few months prior. He died peacefully in his sleep. He was old and with his mutation, it was a miracle he lived this long. They finally decided to continue their life where they left off when Splinter passed away, when that thing happened. That fire happened.
The woman that saved him after he was knocked unconscious and flown through glass and pure fire that burned his body, was like a Godsend gift. She healed him and helped him stand on his own feet again, after all he went through, both figuratively and literally. She got him out of NYC when she saw that the city where he lived was causing him too much trouble whenever he thought of his brothers, and delayed his healing process. It was painful to help him get back to his old self, and a lot of convincing of him to open up about his life. It was mutual feeling. She told him everything about her.
She was honest with him, told him about her own healing process when she lost everything she had on a night just like Leonardo.
Sylvia Abbey was the pillar that supported Leonardo Hamato in all of his stages of grief, and the life after the accident, when he has faced the raw and cruel reality – a life without his brothers, scars on his face and body that would never fade away, and no home anymore. He refused to go back to the sewers.
One day Sylvia, with Leonardo's help, managed to find the old pump station and fish Leo's things, without anyone noticing.
What Leo and Sylvia didn't know was that at the time she picked up his stuff, there was indeed someone living in the lair. But they weren't home at the time.
Leo opened his eyes and let the breath he was holding in. He got used to LA's mild weather and he found few favorite rooftops, where he ended up after he was having some hard time coming around.
It was time to go back to New York City, he thought as he leaped to another roof and gracefully landed in the yard of the house where he and Sylvia lived. She waited for him.
He smiled at her, and flew in the warm embrace that waited for him every single time he left their house.
"You want to go back there, am I right?"
Leo simply nodded.
"Then we'll do that. We'll go back."
They didn't know what waited for them in the city that never sleeps, but they were willing to take the risk. Like their lives weren't risky already.
…
In the morning Sylvia loaded the car with supplies they will need on their long drive. Their destination wasn't close and they needed to be prepared for everything. She stuffed Leo in few pieces of clothes she bought that morning. No one should suspect a thing while they drove on the busy streets with curious drivers staring at them.
As they left the city of Los Angeles behind them, Leo relaxed even more in the back seat and allowed his mind to drift once again to that horrible night.
…
He lost his family and his team in a heap. One moment they joked about who should take the lead in their night patrol, the next they were mingled in a fire that started in a 24/7 store, that was going to burn the building down and kill all the people inside.
They thought of calling the fire department and let them deal with the fire, but the screams that echoed in the alley was stronger than stealth and the way of invisibility and their honor won the battle. They jumped in the heat – literally and started helping people to get out. Most of them went limp in their arms when they saw who their savior was. But now, there was no time to think. It was time to act.
Everything seemed to go normal, until they all heard a creaking sound. One moment Leo looked in their eyes that pictured the fear he felt deep inside his gut. It told him that nothing will ever be the same. He somehow felt that he was seeing them for the last time.
And indeed it was the last time he saw them.
The ceiling crumbled and separated him from his brothers. He inhaled some smoke and he heard himself coughing. Spitting splinters of wood and dust he tried to move, but it hurt. His body hurt, and he had an awful headache. It was damn hot in there, like he was stuffed in the oven, like the chicken with curry that Mikey wanted to make on special occasions. His breathing was shallow, and he could see grey and black spots on the edge of his vision. He was nauseated and all he wanted to do was to get off of that floor, take his brothers and go home. Pretend everything was dream, and that nothing happened. He felt sleepy.
But, the reality was harsh as he heard another sound. Coughing. Another sound, someone was yelling.
He was stuck between the floor and a large piece of ceiling that trapped him. In no way whatsoever would Leonardo pull it off of him in his weakened state. He couldn't move, but certainly he could talk.
"Raph?" he yelled top of his lungs that burned with every effort he did to get oxygen in them. His voice was raspy. He didn't recognize his own voice as it rang in his ears.
"Fearless! Where are you?"
"I don't know… Raph where are you? Mikey? Donnie? Are they okay?"
"Yes, they are okay. They are a little shaken from the crumbling of the ceiling, but they are okay, no big damage. How are you?"
The way Raph asked him that question, brought tears in Leo's eyes. "I'm f… I'm not okay Raph… Everything hurts… Everything fucking hurts." Leo grunted in pain. "I can't move. I think a piece of the ceiling fell over me, and I can't move. I'm trapped."
"I'll try to dig our way through to you Leo." Raph said. "Just keep talking."
"Leo you might have a concussion, so take it easy okay? Don't strain yourself too much." Donnie's voice sounded through the empty store where only the fiery flames could be heard. They were swallowing, eating at everything inside the store. Like it wasn't enough damage. They were hungry for more.
"Leave it to Donnie to play doctor even in the toughest circumstances Leo." Mikey cheerfully said. At least one of them was himself in this tough situation.
"Yeah I know Mikey, but you know how Donnie is." Leo said, smile tugging at his lips. "He'll always be like that."
"Yeah, I know. Hang on Leo, we are on our way."
"No worries Mikey, I know you are. We are going to pull through this like we always do." Leo coughed some more, and now he felt pain in his ribs. He must have broken some.
The minutes went by painfully slow. Leonardo was feeling worse by the minute. Why the shell did he have to separate himself from his brothers? The answer was easy, a kid needed his help. He got him out of the store and went inside to see what the status is. After he scanned everything, he told them to follow him. They were going to get out of the store and go home, the firemen were on their way.
Instead they stayed inside because of that stupid ceiling.
Leo felt his life leaving him, as he could listen to his breathing that hitched every now and then and the screaming pain that spread through his body like a lightning.
"Guys?"
"Yeah?" Raph answered from afar.
"Please promise me that no matter what you'll stick together." He shivered violently and felt cold.
"What the shell are you talking about Leo?"
"Just in case something happens to me… Please promise me."
The pleading voice of their older brother sobered them all, and they felt something was very wrong if Leo was talking like this.
Three voices spoke in unison "We promise Leo".
On the inside Leo prayed that they would get to him soon. He smiled at his honorable and brave brothers that couldn't see him.
And then it happened.
The fire must have hit a gas tank because the store exploded like a firework. Leo was pushed outside the store, through the storefront and landed on his shell on the sidewalk.
He saw as the flames ate the last of the store, his brothers nowhere in sight. His vision was clouded and his eyelids grew heavy. He could hear sirens in the distance, but it was all the same now when everything he lived for, was gone.
Next thing he remembered was that he lay in a bed wrapped in warm blankets at a place unknown to him.
…
As he remembered that time of his life, he wasn't aware that he was mumbling something, half-asleep on the backseat of the car. "Going home… I'm going home."