I apologize for the lateness and hope this chapter does something to make up for it.

Disclaimer: nada.

~TMNT~

Leo took in another deep breath. And another. And another. The patience Raph was always going on about him having didn't seem to be around when he needed it most. He felt like he'd been in this room forever. He was antsy, to say the least. He wanted to know who had him and where he was. At least when he was fighting known enemies it gave him some ground to fight with. Unknown enemies were often the most dangerous.

Leo took another deep breath in. Fear and worry niggled at the back of his mind. What if he wasn't the only one captured? What if him calling his brothers had caused them to get captured also?

It wasn't often Leo wasn't able to meditate. In fact, he could count on one hand the number of times he hadn't been able to focus enough to meditate. One time was when Raph and Mikey had failed to show up for a week after a quick pizza run. The first time any of his brothers had run into serious trouble. They'd been captured by the Purple Dragons and quite shaken up when they finally managed to escape. Seemed the Purple Dragons had been new to them, too, and they got away shaken up and a little roughed up, but otherwise fine. The second had been after the Shredder had sent all his forces after him and he ended up crashing through April's window. He hadn't been able to meditate again until after Raph had helped him forge new swords. The third time was after Karai's betrayal, when she had run him through with her sword. The Ancient One had been the one to snap him out of that.

Leo took another deep breath in. He knew he should try contacting his father. He needed to know if any of his brothers had been captured, also. He was far too antsy for that, though, and probably would be until after this new enemy had introduced itself.

He debated for a long time, wondering if it was Bishop who had captured him once again, but had finally decided that was not it. Bishop would have been in by now, to gloat over his capture and to start his experiments. For such a calm man, he didn't have much patience when it came to things like Leonardo and his brothers.

This place also didn't remind him of Bishop's at all. Bishop's place smelled of humans. Fear, excitement, hate, resentment. It was so thick in that place Leo was surprised Bishop didn't choke and die on it.

Leo briefly entertained the notion that the Foot had captured him after all, but that didn't hold up for soon. Karai would also have been in by now, or at least some Foot ninja would have been. Karai's and his past was just too emotional for the both of them, especially since Saki had been killed. She'd prefer physical torture and more direct mental torture over this kind of mental torture.

Which led him to the scariest thought of all: that this wasn't actually meant as torture.

This place smelled sterile. It had government written all over it. Where Bishop's hatred for all things non-human and his insane desire to create the ultimate army took over his work, this place was stale and dry and smelled too much of a sterile cleanliness.

There were no guards watching over him. No one to come taunt him with words of his failure and how he'd been captured. No one at all, in fact.

No, this wasn't meant as a torture. Leo took another deep breath in.

He had been given plenty of time to study what parts of the room he could crane his neck to see. He'd immediately took stock of the three cameras obvious in the room. They were studying him. Trying to determine how to handle him. Seeing what kind of precautions would need to be taken with him. If he were in the hands of any of his enemies, they'd already know this.

This reeked of the government. Government above Bishop.

He wasn't sure if he should be relieved or terrified. If this was better or worse.

Leo settled for taking in another deep breath. It seemed that was all he was going to be doing until his captors decided to introduce themselves. He settled down to wait and just hoped his brothers weren't with him. Especially Mikey, who'd developed a phobia for all things government, sterile, or lab-like after their capture at Bishop's hand.

Leo took a deep breath in, half-hoping his captors got what they were looking for soon, half-hoping they never did.

~TMNT~

"I just don't know what to make of it, sir," Greg Shtall told his boss. Greg was in charge of watching the creature and taking notes on its behavior. He didn't really have many notes. "It acts…almost human. There's been basically no reaction to its capture and lock up. Mostly just sits there breathing. It's looked around the room a few times. It seems almost like, well, hell, almost like it's actually studying the room. Not just in a normal animal way. Its like it recognizes the cameras and is waiting for something."

"For what?" his boss asked, frowning. This was a lot less interesting than he had thought it would be, but a whole lot more odd.

"Us," Greg stated, both men falling quiet as they turned to watch the creature on the screen some more.

~TMNT~

Raph paced outside the door to Donnie's lab, growling every few seconds. Waiting was not doing anything for his already bad temperament. Don had locked himself away ever since he'd seen the news report and could be heard violently typing away at his computer at all times of the day.

Raph had wanted to go bust some heads, try to get answers that Don didn't seem to be finding, but one look from Splinter, and he always wandered away from the door again. It was driving him stir crazy, but he wasn't going to make his father lose two sons to some government lab. He would be as patient as he could be and wait this one out. They'd solve this as a team.

It wasn't breaking the nose of some Purple Dragons or Foot ninja's was likely to help him find Leo, anyway. Bishop's goons, on the other hand…

Mikey walked in at that moment. Even with his mask on, it was easy to tell that his eyes were puffy and red. Just as Don's typing reverberated around the lair, so did the sounds of Mikey's nightmares. Seemed Leo's capture was bringing back memories from their capture with Bishop, along with new ones of what might be happening to Leo at that very moment.

That was the breaking point for Raph. He managed a sickly smile at his unusually subdued brother and burst into his brother's lab.

Don didn't flinch, didn't even blink, at Raph's entrance. His fingers flew across the keyboard and words flashed across the screen so fast it gave Raph a headache. He wasn't even sure Don could read what was flashing upon the screen it was going so fast.

Raph counted to ten in his head, waiting to interrupt Don until it seemed like an okay moment to do so.

Don beat him to it. "Nothing," Don muttered, and said nothing more.

Raph sighed, and decided against asking what he was doing. He didn't really care, anyway, he just wanted to know that something useful was being done. Raph backed out of the lab, and closed the door again.

Damn, the lair was quiet. Leo was by no means the life of the party, not usually speaking a huge amount during the day, but his capture by the government, the very thing they'd all feared as far back as they could remember, all of them having nightmares from Splinter's warnings about showing themselves to the world above when they were little, shook all of them up immensely.

Splinter was going between constant meditation to constant training. Raph didn't know the last time he'd seen his sensei eat, even. Mikey did almost the same. The television set hadn't been turned on since the news report, four days ago. After that he went through a mechanical routine; try to sleep, get awoken by nightmares, train, eat something, train some more, try to sleep. Don, of course, stayed at his computer. Raph wasn't sure the last time he'd eaten, either.

Not that Raph had done much better than the rest of his family. At least he didn't feel his routine was as mechanical as Mikey's was. Try to sleep, guiltily listen to Mike have nightmares, join him in training when he finally gave up on sleep, pace outside Don's door, eat, train some more, pace outside Splinter's door during his meditation, train, and try to meditate, only to end up falling asleep, waking up at the sound of Mike's nightmares. Rinse and repeat.

Raph sighed, and went to go join Mikey in a quick bite to eat. Food was stale and tasteless in his mouth with his family in such upset, but he needed the strength and energy. He needed it to save Leo.

Maybe today he'd try breaking it up a little, and coax Splinter and Don into eating before they passed out. Yeah, maybe he'd do that, he thought, staring at his younger brother who was silently nibbling on a piece of fruit.

~TMNT~

Splinter sat in his stuffy room, willing the kinks and cramps away, ignoring the heat the fifteen candles he had lit was giving off. He was aware of all that was happening in his home. The sounds of his two youngest training from the dojo, not stopping for enough water. The constant click-clacking that came from Donatello's lab. There was barely any dishes sitting in the sink, since his two youngest were mostly sticking to quick and easy foods. Not enough considering the little rest they had each gotten, especially Michelangelo, with his nightmares. Donatello had not left his lab yet, though he heard the fridge in there rattle once or twice, and his purple-banded son had not left even to relieve himself.

He was painfully aware of his tiny, fragile family, seemingly so lost without their brother, this time captured, and not hiding away in a forest. He was painfully aware that he had not eaten yet, though he could manage just fine; he had done so many times for longer when his sons were younger and he was still learning to scavenge food for all of them, and that his withdrawal from the family was only hurting them more. He was painfully aware of his eldest's' absence and that with him gone, he needed to take back up the duties he had placed on Leonardo.

Donatello needed food and rest. Raphael needed guidance and companionship. Michelangelo needed comfort and support.

It wasn't until Leonardo had returned from the jungle that he had realized just how much his son had taken on. He knew his family had fallen apart while Leonardo was away, and had expected Donatello to keep them together.

But Donatello was not Leonardo. His katana-wielding son knew his brothers better than he knew himself. When to lend a few words of wisdom to Michelangelo and when to listen, when to fight with Raphael and when to let him have his way, when to guide Donatello away from his lab and when to let him stay. He drove his family in routine, spending time with each of them, even Splinter himself, who had not realized how lonely he was until Leonardo had returned, and running them as a unit.

Donatello loved his brothers, but he did not understand them like Leonardo did. He could not run them in the same routine because he was his own person. In turn, the family didn't understand Donatello's routine, too used to following Leonardo's.

When Leonardo came back, Splinter had finally realized that his family falling apart was more on his shoulder's than anybody else's. Now Leonardo was gone again, and yet he still could not bring himself to take the head of family again. He had not realized that he had even handed that over to Leonardo, and didn't know when it had happened, but it had, and it broke Splinter's hear to take it back.

His son would come back and taking his spot seemed like admitting defeat, and so Splinter sat in his room, painfully aware of everything going on, but unable to bring himself to fix it.

Meditation was a lost cause.

~TMNT~

Greg gathered all his notes together and left them in the computer room, glad to finally be allowed freedom. Six days since they had found the creature. There was no sign of more than one of them. Whatever this one was didn't seem to be a threat, either, but he'd leave that to whoever it was that was supposed to take care of that.

Greg spent five days in that room, constantly downing aspirin with a bottle of Dr. Pepper, waiting for the creature to do anything interesting, but it hadn't. Now he was just happy to be able to go kiss his wife again, and then sleep off the kinks in his body.

He nodded to the guard on his way out, glad to be put back on his regular assignment. Even deskwork would be more interesting than the creature had been.

~TMNT~

Dr. Forlaux had read through all of Mr. Shtall's notes and was not impressed. The man took notes like he was watching a suspect, not like he was observing an experiment. His notes mostly consisted of "the creature looked around the room and studied the cameras for a bit, as if he actually knew what they were" and "the creature seems almost bored. He keeps studying the room, tapping his fingers, and then doing what seems to be a series of breathing exercises". The notes were not scientific in the slightest, and they also had to be wrong.

Dr. Forlaux had been briefed on the situation. A large, turtle-like creature was not normal, and the way Mr. Shtall had described it, the creature seemed boring.

But what a scientific feat! Miraculous to have stumbled across such a different form of life. Mr. Shtall seemed almost bored by the creature, but Dr. Forlaux was glad to finally be able to study it up close. So many possibilities, including many potential awards for what he might find studying this creature. The Nobel Prize was a constant thought in the back of his mind, but he dared not get his hopes up too much. He had thought his last four discoveries would earn him the prize, too, but nothing had yet to happen.

He'd had far too long to compile a team to help him study the creature and he was itching to get to see it in person. Dr. Forlaux impatiently went over Mr. Shtall's notes one more time, finally gave up on the badly formatted notes, and went to collect his team, unable to wait any longer.

~TMNT~

Leo had long ago lost track of time. If he had hair and could move his arms, he'd have pulled out chunks of it in frustration and boredom.

Yes, he, the "most boring turtle of his brothers" as they had often told him, was bored. He could sit and talk about philosophy with Splinter for hours, meditate forever, read The Art of War over and over again, and many other things his brothers found boring, but even he was bored out of his mind sitting in this lab room waiting for something to happen.

Just when he thought he might lose his calm façade, something finally did happen.

A woman he did not recognize walked into the room, in full on government lab uniform. His heart leapt into his throat. Three men and one more woman walked in after her, all in the same uniform. One of the men stared in shock at him, but the other four handled the sight of him much better, and bustled about, giving orders to each other, pulling tables around, and setting up instruments. Another of the men avoided looking at him, turning his back to Leo and prepping a metal table with instruments that Leo was blocking out the names too.

One of the women kept giving him sideways glances, as if trying to study him without his knowledge. The man who stared in shock jumped into action when another man, in a slightly different uniform walked in, obviously their boss.

"Ready, sir," the man who was avoiding looking at Leonardo, said.

"Excellent," said the man in charge. "Let's begin."

And so it began. They started with medical stuff, and it reminded Leo of the routine check-ups they had with Don. Their…professionalism surprised him. He had expected dissection almost right away. Instead they took his blood pressure and listened to his heart and took measurements, bustling about him as if he was just some animal.

He had been bored out of his mind, but he was willing to play this dumb animal routine for as long as it took for him to escape, be rescued, or, heaven forbid, die or be killed. From a young age, Master Splinter had drilled into all of them that they must not be seen by the topside world, they must not be discovered, and if they were, they must keep the rest of their family safe. A few exceptions had happened and they had been blissfully lucky – April, Casey, Angel.

Leo knew it couldn't – wouldn't – last. Splinter had taught him well, and he'd let these humans jump to their conclusions, and lead them on. He'd sit by and let them take their measurements, act like some dumb, tamed animal, hopefully until they grew bored, and he was able to escape without too much fuss. That was the best case scenario. His escape would bring enough questions and doubts as it was, he didn't want his family to come after him, putting even more suspicion on them and even more danger in their life.

The doctor – veterinarian, even, maybe – and his assistants were surprisingly cool. There was no freaking out about him, though they shot him sideways glances and stares. There was no mention of cutting him open right away, though they mentioned samples quite a few times. There was no staring in shock at him, though he could hear excitement brimming in their voices, about what a "scientific marvel" he was.

Their coolness scared him more than anything. He could deal with fear, hate, loathing, judgment. He'd faced that plenty of times. He was used to it, though it still hurt to face, especially from someone he'd saved, who hadn't even seen anything but his shadow, but he was used to it.

This collected nature, though, was odd. Even Bishop, government scientist that he was, showed loathing towards he and his brothers. It felt wrong to be studied like this, instead of tortured.

Leo sat through their tests, breathing evenly and listening for clues of what was to come, and he wished he'd listened to Donnie closer, now, asked him more questions about what things meant. He was unable to decipher a lot of their technical talk and terms and he did his best not to frown at this, trying to keep his face straight, as he had done for all these days.

They finished up rather quick, and the man in charge ushered his assistants out, ordering them to go prepare something that he didn't know what it meant. The man who had stared in shock at him was last to go, shooting him another confused look, before closing the door on his way out.

The man lit up as he was left alone. He stood over Leo, who suddenly felt like he was two inches tall and being towered over. He averted his gaze, and stared up at the ceiling, painfully aware of the man's eyes roving all over his body. Leo had never felt so exposed as he did in this moment. And there were lots of times, living in a house with three other teenagers, were he felt oddly exposed.

The man reached up and brought over a recorder, flipping it back on, from where it had been turned off after his measurements had been read into it.

The man spoke with barely contained excitement, something he'd never come across in anyone else he met, not even Bishop. This man was practically giddy he was so excited. "Dr. David Forlaux," he said, rambling the date and time into the microphone – and holy crap, he had already been here for six days, receiving no food or water or anything else, not even an IV in his arm. "We've deemed the creature homo testudines for now, based purely on its looks. From human standards, he's in amazing shape, even for being denied food the past few days. We're going to start off with some samples – blood, skin, semen," Leo did his best not to let his eyes go wide at that last part, "but we don't want him losing too much. We'll put him on a steady diet and test what he can do physically. This is an amazing opportunity and we won't be wasting it –"

The woman who had first walked in came back in. "We're ready, Dr. Forlaux."

The man smiled and shut off the recorder. "Good. Get Tim in here to prep him for movement," he said, pointing at Leo.

The woman nodded and returned a second later with the man who had been avoiding looking at him. Dr. Forlaux left the room, his body still radiating excitement, and Leo wasn't sorry to see him go, especially after hearing about his samples.

If he had gotten to see the layout of the building more, he might attempt escape. He was weak after six days of not eating, but he'd gone for longer in the jungle, doing more physical stunts than just lying here. The woman bustled about, moving things out of the way, as Tim pulled another table up. This one was metal and looked like it had just as many straps on it as the one he was currently on.

"Aren't you going to knock it out, Kathy?" Tim asked, his voice rough and scratchy. Leo frowned. If they knocked him out every time he moved, escape would be even more difficult.

"Oh yeah!" the woman, Kathy, nodded, pulling a needle out of her pocket. She flicked it for air bubbles and smoothly inserted it into his skin. "Just for a little while, big guy," she said brightly, patting his arm gently. Tim's frown was bigger than his.

"Really, Kathy? Big guy?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow.

Leo's vision swam and his hearing dropped, so he missed Kathy's reply. Wow, that was quick, Leo thought, and then his eyes dropped closed.

He wasn't out, exactly. He could feel his body jostling around, but hearing was distorted and his world was black. His movements seemed exaggerated and he felt sick. He did not like this drug, whatever it was.

Soon enough, he was cracking his eyes open again. Dr. Forlaux was peering worriedly down at him. The worry cleared up once Leo had blinked a few times to clear his vision. The doctor smiled, and poked him with a needle. Leo couldn't help but twitch a bit, away from the small sting. "Good, he seems to have taken the drug well." Leo fought the urge to snort.

This room smelled even more sterile than the last, but it was nosier with the hum of a machine or two. Leo attempted to blink away the last of the drug, as two strong arms gripped down on his arm, rubbing a cold cloth over it, and tying a band on his forearm. He nodded his head to look down, just in time to see a rather large needed being plunged into his arm. His head swam as the world swayed and his blood was drawn. He didn't even get a glass of water before this?

"Fascinating," he heard who must have been Dr. Forlaux mutter. Typical, just another experiment.

The needle was withdrawn and his arm was wiped and quickly bandaged, the band untied. Not moments later and his head was being lifted up, water forced down his throat. He wasn't going to say no to essentials. He gulped it down and they took it away before he had his fill. He forced down an annoyed sigh, as his other arm was grabbed. He felt a sharp stinging and realized they were scraping away some of his skin. While someone dabbed at his arm with a cleansing pad, his head was roughly grabbed again, and his mouth forced open. They took saliva samples from his cheeks, leaving his mouth tasting of cotton and once again dry.

He blushed at the thought of the other sample that had been mentioned and had to be coming next.

~TMNT~

Crit welcome, as always. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!