Hello! This is CatOfWater here. I'm back...sort of? I honestly just wanted to get this idea (it's been floating around my head for FOREVER) onto paper and out into the world. I also don't think there are enough Leo- Centered stories out there (OK, actually there are, I just can't get enough of them!) and I wanted to try one myself. It's my first try at writing TMNT, so please don't hate me!

Here we go! Please enjoy!

Chapter 1

"Listen to silence. It has so much to say."

-Rumi

"No!" He screamed, rushing forward, into the smoke and the rubble. Small fires wafting uncomfortable heat towards him, licking toward the crumbling roof of the warehouse. He sprinted to the heart of it, turning over stone and metal frantically while the roof groaned ominously. "No!" He cried again. "Where are you?!"

"Donnie!" A voice called, and Donnie turned around to see another turtle, a red bandana around his eyes. He was standing outside the warehouse, hugging a smaller turtle with a orange mask, who looking on with wide eyes and growing horror. "Donnie!" The red-clad turtle screamed again, looking up as more of the roof crumbled into the warehouse. "We have to go!"

"I'm not leaving him, Raph!" Donnie called back turning back to the rubble and rushing into the smoke.

Raph swore before letting go of the other turtle and rushing into the burning warehouse. "Stay here, Mikey!" He called before he too, disappeared.

Mikey whimpered in fear, then gathered himself. He took a deep breath before running into the collapsing building.

Raph gasped awake, clutching his sheets tightly. He squeezed his eyes shut against the onslaught of memories, threatening to sweep him away. If only it was a dream. If only he could walk outside and see Mikey making breakfast for all of them, Donnie working restlessly on a new invention, and Leo, his older brother, smiling with a cup of steaming tea in his hands, looking upon them with happiness and serenity. Master Splinter would be there, too. Their father and sensei would walk into the kitchen with April O'Neil and their friend Casey Jones. They would sit down and eat, and laugh, and talk, just like everything was normal. And everything would be alright, as long as they were together.

Raph groaned and buried his face in his pillow. Yesterday morning had started the exact same way as he imagined. Yesterday, everyone was happy. Then it had to be ruined. It was just their lives; doomed to be lived with fear and longing of those rare happy days. Would we ever be happy? Living in a peaceful world where the only people they had to fight were themselves? Where no one got hurt? No. Raph couldn't live upon false hope. He had been doing so for too long, and now one of them may never wake up. Raph stood up and stomped outside into their living area. Mikey was sitting on the couch, staring blankly at a piece of pizza that for once, he knew he would never be able to eat. Raph heaved open the door to Donnie's lab, to see him hard at work as usual, but working hard to save something that, unusually, wasn't a machine. Raph scowled in pain and horror as his eyes settled upon the unmoving body of his older brother, Leonardo.

There was too much blood. Too much. Donnie's eyes filled with tears against the burning smoke. A green hand hung limply out from under a large piece of concrete. The puddle of blood around it spreading wider by the minute. No. No. There was too much. It was too much. Too much for survival. Donnie froze, watching the puddle grow bigger and bigger. Too much. Too much. Suddenly Raph was by his side, widening his eyes at the blood. Then he swore.

"What are you waiting for?!" Without a hesitation, Raph was hauling the concrete block off of what was left of their brother. Don shook his head to clear it and rushed forward to help.

Don wheeled his chair around, his hands and desk full of various medical equipment, tools, and supplies. He suppressed a yawn. He'd been up trying to save Leo for nearly 13 hours, without any sleep whatsoever. But if he wanted his older brother to wake up, he had to hold off sleep for… who knows how long?! However, Don's sleep cycle didn't matter. What mattered right now was Leo. Donnie studied his vitals for the third time that minute. The heart monitor beeped quietly with a weak but steady beat. Donnie was shocked to find that Leo was still alive, even for the time being. The blood he saw in the warehouse was definitely Leo's, yet there was so much of it Donnie was sure Leo wouldn't make it. But here he was, after several blood transfusions and medical procedures later, on the verge of death but still alive. Donnie check the rest of Leo's vital and smiled to find them all stable enough. The door behind him groaned as it was shoved open, and Donnie turned around to see Raph standing there with grief and tear-filled emerald eyes.

"How is he?"

"He's doing okay, for now." Donnie responded briskly. "He had serious damage to his neck, that was where all the blood was coming from, a broken arm, a few fractured ribs and some minor bruising. But otherwise, that's it." Don thought it would be much worse, but the only thing that Donnie was hugely worried about was the neck wound. It was a sharp, deep slash across his neck that could affect his breathing drastically.

Raph scowled.

"Shredder's gonna pay for this." He growled darkly, and Don eyed him warily.

"You'd better not go after him yourself." Donnie warned, knowing Raph sometimes made rash decisions like that.

"Never." Raph vowed harshly, determination glittering in his gaze. He walked over to Leo and clutched his hand tightly, watching his pain-filled face closely. "We're going to take down the Shredder, Leo. And you're going to be standing right beside me while we do it."

Donnie decided that now wasn't the time to point out that Leo may never wake up.

"We'll do it together, Leo." Raph whispered. "I swear it."

Mikey rushed forward, taking Leo's arm from Donnie as they limped out of the warehouse, their older brother's still body between them. Saying at the nick of time is an understatement. They'd just pulled themselves from the building when it collapsed, groaning and crumbling to oblivion.

"Hurry! Get him in the shellraiser!" Donnie shouted, pressing a button as their mode of transportation skidded around the corner, driving over the sidewalk in its' haste to get to the turtles. Mikey and Raph set Leo down on the cold floor of their truck, and Raph immediately jumped into the driver's seat, while Donnie screamed at him to go, to get home, before Leo bled out. Raph was shouting back at him furiously, while Mikey just stared quietly at Leo. He was too pale. The blood was trickling out of the wound in his neck, despite the gear Don had pressed to it to stop the flow. Donnie started trashing the first aid kit, searching desperately for gauze or something, something, to help Leo. Mikey's eyes were wide as he stared at his brother. He had never seen him this weak, apart from the time where he had to face Shredder alone during the Kraang invasion.

"Leo…" Mikey whispered quietly, reaching for Leo's hand and grasping it tightly. There was blood everywhere, staining the floor and Mikey's hands, and he wasn't sure if it would ever wash off. "Leo, big brother, please…!" A sob escaped his mouth, and he didn't realize that he was crying until tears began to drip onto Leo's battered face. "Wake up…" He was sobbing heavily now, not caring about the tears wetting his mask and cheeks. Suddenly, he felt something in his hand twitch. He looked down in shock, to see Leo's cold fingers wrap around his, then go still. Mikey smiled slightly through his tears, knowing that Leo would always care about them, always be with them, whatever happened. Leo would always be Leo.

Or would he?

I hope that was long enough, for now! I will be updating every week, and I'll try my best to update (though it might be hard with school and stuff). I promise it will get better, and the story of what happened with get revealed over the chapters. I will write faster with reviews! Just sayin'! Really sorry for making this one short, just make sure to follow this story and you'll see what will become of the turtles...

Thanks so much for reading this first chapter, and I promise it will get better and all make sense after a while! Please review, and thanks again!

~CatOfWater