Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo, April and Casey had all stood in an awkward silence as Leonardo secluded himself in the farmhouse. Mikey headed over to April and Donnie, feeling a bit at fault for it all.

"April? Uhm, I'm really sorry for hurting you," Mikey said, looking down at the grass.

"Mikey, I'm not mad. This is what I wanted- fair and square sparring. You won, and that's it," April smiled, giving him a reassuring smile as she hugged him. "It's really okay, Mikey. But next time, I'll wipe those freckles off of your face."

"Oh, you're on," Mikey smiled, hugging her back. He pulled away, looking at his older brother Donnie. Donnie gave Mikey a small smile and patted his shell.

It had been a while since Leo charged in the house. During that time, Mikey went to feed the chickens, Donnie went to his lab in the farm shack, Raph secluded himself and had his back turned to everyone, sitting on the tree stump, and April went to get her tessen. Casey didn't know what to do, so he just stood where he had made a big mistake. He went over to April, waiting for her to stand up so he could talk to her. As soon as she did, she looked up and gave him a mean look.

"Look, Red, I-"

"You shouldn't be apologizing to me, Casey. I asked for legit sparring sessions and that's what happened," April turned around and headed to go sit down by Raph.

She slowly sat down, at first saying nothing to him. She knew Raph was extremely upset with Casey- heck, they all probably were. Casey had basically made fun of Leo for something that he couldn't take control of. She then turned to him, waiting for him to do something. Raph was looking out into the woods, his breathing slow and steady. She could hear him letting out little puffs of anger. Raph tightened his grip on the rim of the tree stump, closing his eyes. He couldn't wait anymore. He had to go see how Leo was holding up.

"I'm gonna go see how Leo's doin'," Raph stated, standing up.

"Do you want to go alone?" April asked.

"You can come if you want. I just think I gave him enough time to himself."

"I'll just wait out here and spar with Donnie."

"All right. You better beat him down for me, April," Raph joked, elbowing her slightly. "I'll be out soon enough."

"I'll try my best," she smiled.

Raphael gave her a little smile and started to head for the farm house. Casey was eyeing him and was debating whether or not he should go with Raph. As Raph was a little ahead of him, he started to follow. Raph stopped dead in his tracks and quickly turned around, meeting Casey's trembling face.

"Raph, please, dude, just let me go see him," Casey stated, taking a step back.

"Why should ya go see him? You hurt him. You're lucky I haven't hurt you yet," Raph sneered.

"C'mon, Raph, I'll jus-"

"Stay back, Jones," Raph growled, pushing Casey back a bit. "I ain't lettin' ya try to get near my big brother."

"Raph, I," Casey didn't know what to say, so he backed down. He went around and stepped in front of the farmhouse.

"Oh no you don't, Jones, I'm not gonna let ya even hear us talk."

"Let me go talk to him, Raph. He's not a limp or anythi-" Casey stopped himself quickly. "I- I meant wimp, I-"

"That was fucked up, Jones," Raphael growled, pushing Casey aside as he made his way to the farmhouse. "That's a new low, even for you."

Raph went upstairs, knocked on the door slightly and entered the house, looking outside before he shut the door. Casey looked up at him, which Raph returned with a glare. He shut the door, starting to look for Leonardo.

Raphael had looked in the kitchen, the living room, upstairs, and in the back of the house. He even looked in the bathroom. He triple checked just to make sure. Where the heck was his big brother? He heard a noise coming from below the floorboards. He opened the hatch to the basement and saw that the weak, flickering light was on. He climbed down and looked around. The Kraang ship lights weren't on, so he suspected Leonardo wasn't in there. He ran to the back of the ship, jumped up at the top- not there. He jumped down and found Leo sitting in a wooden chair, slumped down with his head in his hands. Raph frowned, sighing. He couldn't stand to see Leo being down about his leg. Leo couldn't help it and it was a long road to recovery.

Leo sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, his eyes closed. It was aching a bit. He had been slumping like this ever since he came down to the basement. He just didn't know what to do. He knew it was a good thing that he resisted his bad urges, but it was eating him up. It irked him so much that one of his close friends would use something that made him feel so upset about himself against him. He can't help having a stupid bum leg. Recovery is a long road and recently, it hasn't bugged him. He was so deep in thought that he didn't even hear his young brother kneel down in front of him. Raph placed his hand on Leo's knee, making Leo jump a bit. He opened and laid his eyes on the hand on his knee, instantly knowing which brother was with him based on the skin color. He tilted his head up and met Raph's gaze.

"Hey, Leo," Raph said softly.

"Hi, Raph," Leo replied, his voice husky. He hadn't spoke for a while. He cleared his throat, smiling a bit. "Sorry. Hey."

"Fallin' asleep?"

"Heh, nah."

"I can get you a pillow and a blanket."

"Psht, okay, Raph."

"How ya feelin'? You look... irked. Is it 'cause I woke ya up?"

"No, Raph," Leo chuckled, then sighed. "N-no. I am irked."

"Why?"

"I just- I've never been that defensive- that aggravated around anyone before. I really wanted to teach him a lesson- like, I wanted to stand up for myself, but I didn't want to stoop down to a low level like he did. I'm glad I defended Mikey before Casey could hurt him 'cause then Casey would have been a pulp by now, but he used my own weakness against me. Tha-that isn't right. That's down right disgusting. Using something that could hurt someone's feelings against them is just awful. I don't know how to get over this. It isn't the fact that my leg makes me less of a leader, prevents me from doing things or that people are less threatened by me. It's just the fact that Casey used something that I'm touchy about against me. I didn't think he was that kind of person."

Raphael didn't know what to say at first. Leonardo had a point. It was really wrong of Casey to do something like that. How could anyone forgive something like that? It's horrible! Raph tried to gather the most positive advice he possibly could for something like this.

"Listen, Leo. I don't know what to tell ya. I'm really ticked at him, too. But, sometimes people use stuff like this to win an argument. It's low, but it's how it is sometimes on the bad side of town, and sometimes it works out for them. Casey probably didn't mean it- I dunno- but I'm not really sure. You know how he is- he's got the rules of the road and all that shit-"

"Raph," Leo sighed, giving him a little stern look.

"Can't help but to cuss, Leo, don't interrupt, dork. Anyways, maybe he just did it to win. It's a stupid and disrespectful thing, but yeah."

"Well, that's a shitty thing," Leo mumbled, looking at his bum leg. Raph's hand was still on the knee of his bum leg. Raph gave Leo a little squeeze, making sure Leo knew he was there for him. Leo gave a little smile and placed his hand on top of Raph's, giving Raph a squeeze.

Raph looked up at Leo. Leo eased up and smiled warmly at Raph.

"I'll kill ya if you tell anyone I did this-" Raph started.

"Did wha-" Leo was cut off. Raph wrapped his arms around Leo's waist, laid his head down on Leo's lap and hugged him.

Leo was startled. He just looked down at Raph's head. He felt- warm. He felt wanted, loved, important. He felt like everything was going to be okay. No good feeling between his family could compare to this. This feeling made him feel like he was on top of the world, like those that surrounded him really wanted him in their lives. He just felt good. He smiled a big, dorky grin and teared up, leaning his head down and placing his forehead on the top of Raph's head. He felt so happy. He started to shake a little bit.

Raph could feel Leo shaking. Leo hadn't shook since they were kids- he knew Leo was tearing up. Raph huffed out the breath he'd been holding in since he started the hug and smiled. He slowly pulled away from Leo. Leo looked up and looked at Raph, a bit disappointed. Leo felt the hug wasn't long enough.

"Calm down, dork," Raph chuckled. He grabbed Leo's wrist and pulled him down from the chair onto the floor. They were now both on their knees. Leo looked at Raph confused. Raph leaned into Leo and gave Leo a proper hug, hugging him tightly.

"R-Raph," Leo choked, his arms at his side at the moment.

"You can cry if you need to. I won't tell anyone. I'm always gonna be here for ya, big brother."

"Oh my god," Leo choked, grabbing onto Raph tightly, bringing him closer. He laid his head on Raph's shoulder, violently sobbing.

"It's okay, Leo," Raph cooed, rubbing Leo's shell. "It's okay."

"I just-oh my god," Leo croaked, trying to explain himself. "This- I really need this-"

"Leo," Raph said.

"Y-yeah?"

"Shut up and cry."

Leo laughed and quickly went back to crying. He let out all sorts of sobs; pained sobs, guilty sobs, happy sobs- he let out all the feelings he's been holding in for so long. He dug his fingers into Raph's skin, which Raph didn't mind. After a while, Leo started to cease his sobbing. He felt... light. He felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of his chest. His head wasn't hurting, his chest felt better, he wasn't tense. He was better. He sniffled and lifted his head up. He pulled away and smiled at Raph.

"Thanks for being there for me, Raph."

"Anytime, bro. Let's go watch Donnie lose," Raph said, standing up. He helped Leo up and grabbed the wooden crutch, heading out of the basement. Leo followed and walked out of the farmhouse to the outside with Raph by side. He forgot what he even went inside for until his eyes fell on Casey.

He stopped on the way down the stairs, which caught Raph's attention. Raph turned and looked behind him. Leo huffed and looked at April and Donnie, who were ready to spar. Leo made his way down the stairs with Raph helping him down. Leo took his spot on the tree stump. Mikey scooted his way next to Leo and looked up at him.

Leo smiled and rubbed his hand on Mikey's head, reassuring Mikey he was okay now. Mikey smiled and examined Leo's eyes. Leo forgot he cried and probably didn't think as to how he looked. Raph sat down next to Mikey, smacking him upside the head, directing Mikey's attention away from Leo. Leo smiled and put his focus on Donnie and April, who were about to spar.

"Leo," Casey said, looking up at him.

"Hmm?" Leo hummed.

"Look, I'm really sorry I said that. It was an asshole-y thing of me to do. I didn't mean it- I just wanted to let it be known that I wouldn't back down."

"Well, you could have said 'I'm not gonna back down'. That's a way to state it."

"I know. I'm really sorry, Leo. Can you forgive me?"

Leo thought about it. Could he forgive Casey? He looked around. He looked at Mikey and Raph, who were playing around and poking each other. He looked at April and Donnie, who were talking to each other. Donnie trying to be his cool self slips a bit but jumps right back in the conversation. He thinks of his father and Karai. He thinks of all the allies he's made and the friends. He sighs.

"Yeah, I can. I'm not going to hold this bad moment in your life only to use it against you to my advantage. Even though you really don't deserve to be forgiven, I will."

Raph looks at Leo and gives him a respectful smile. It takes a lot to look past something as serious as this.

"Thanks, Leo, it won't happen again."

"All right, Don, are we gonna see some sparring or what?" Mikey yelled. "I'm getting bored!"

"Let's spar then," April said, giving Donnie a challenging smile.