Chapter 4
I looked at the clock again just to be sure. Six o'clock. Raphael had now been gone twelve hours. At first after he took off into the sewer tunnels I had been too pissed to even consider going after him. Fine he wanted to go be the lone ranger again? Fine not my problem! However, as the day wore on and I mulled over the impact my words had on him during our fight I felt I finally had some level of understanding as to what was going on.
Raph had never been one to discuss his feelings. Even when we were little I had to pry it out of him, but I could do it. However, over the last few years that slowly started to change and before I knew it I felt I had lost my connection to the brother I had once always felt closest to. I felt I finally got it now though. All this time in his own weird way Raph had desperately been trying to be strong to help keep us safe. I wondered if part of the reason why he wanted to go out on dangerous missions alone was because by keeping us out of the loop he was keeping us out of danger.
Sigh. Still little did he know that by doing that he was not only constantly worrying us, but putting himself in potentially mortal danger. Why did he get to protect us, but we weren't allowed to protect him? It had gotten so bad the last couple of weeks that I approached Don and Mikey about my concerns. It was my responsibility as the leader, as his brother, to keep him safe. If I failed at that what good was I? That's why Don secretly cooked up a tiny tracking device. Mikey did the job of placing it on the inside of Raph's shell when Raph was tackled him for putting hot sauce in his OJ. It had worked like a charm – well almost. We did manage to find Raph and get him out of a pretty bad situation, but Mikey would be nursing his burns for a while. That and I totally lost it again and the next thing I knew Raph was gone.
I shook my head and admitted that I was starting to get as bad as Raph in the anger department. We were all stressed about Master Splinter's absence but Raph and I were struggling the most and instead of turning to each other for support we were starting to tear each other apart. I was seriously starting to worry that something bad was going to happen if we didn't find Sensi soon. That had to wait though. I was worried about Raph and it was time to find our brother.
"Hey Don, is that tracker we put on Raph still functioning?"
"I'm one step ahead of you Leo. He is at Kurtis and Wilson." Don turned his laptop screen toward me so I could see the map. "I've already uploaded the signal to the Shell Raiser so we can track as we go. He's been in the same place for hours, but if he moves we'll know it."
That's our Donatello! He was always one step ahead of me, but I had to secretly admit that I was glad that I wasn't the only one worried about our hot-headed brother. "Excellent Don! Mikey get down here! We're hitting the road and bringing our brother home."
Mikey grinned from his room upstairs, "Alright! It's about time Leo!"
He jumped down and grimaced as he landed. Mikey was still in one piece but the backs of his arms and legs had been pretty badly burned. If it weren't for his shell it definitely would have been a lot worse. I felt a shock of anger run through me towards Raphael. Enough Leo it's time to move on and bring him home.
The three of us went to the elevator that would take us to the abandoned warehouse that held our diverse array of vehicles. As we descended I looked at Mikey, "I want you to take it easy Mikey. Those burns are going to be bad for a while and you need to let them heal."
"Ah don't worry about it Leo we're just going on a road trip across the city. I bet the only trouble we'll have is explaining to Raph how we mysteriously knew how to find him. I get to drive!"
We hadn't been driving more than ten minutes when Don spoke up from the monitor. "Hey Leo it looks like he's on the move."
Just great, I thought. He'd better be staying out of trouble.
Hello dear readers! So now we've just gotten a glimpse into Leo's mind. For the most part I will be writing in Raph's POV, but I think to really get the two brothers' relationship across I need to write in Leo's POV a bit too. Thanks again for reading!
