A/N Sorry it has take me so long to update (at least, long for me). I'm getting ready for my big "Final Test" for my master's degree, so I'm rather preoccupied getting ready for that, escpecially since I have to take it on the 20th. In any case, I haven't forgotten this story (nor the two to three ideas I have for follow ups in this series), it's just going to take me a little longer to get them posted. Just have patience, and they'll get there. Anyway, enough of my blathering. Hope you enjoy this.

After Donny, Mikey, and Raph were done making things right with their deceased older brother, including a pleasurable reunion with their father as well, they all returned back to the living room of this alternate Lair where the rest of the family was waiting.

"Excuse me," Donatello said as the rest of the family rejoined them. "Madame Bridger? I had a quick question before you send us all back. You said that Leo would still have to overcome the remainder of the darkside poison's effects. Just what are they? I mean, if we're going to help Leo any, we'll need to know what we'll be facing."

"As I said, there will be very little you'll be able to do," the Bridger replied. "What the darkside poison did to your brother's body was convince it that he was still suffering from all his old wounds; the ones he gained during his trial. Since those injuries by themselves were life threatening, even without your brother choosing to give up his life, once his adrenaline rush following his battle with Darktide had run its course, his body just gave out on him. What the Council has done is removed the poisonous element itself. However, although your brother will not actually be injured, his body will feel and respond like it is. Eventually the effects will wear off, but he is going to be in considerable pain until then."

"And I accept that," Leo interposed before his brothers could begin to second guess their request. "After all, I'll eventually heal. Besides, I haven't been beat up in a while; I'm beginning to feel like something's not quite right," he added with a smirk.

"So not funny, bro," Michelangelo snapped, scowling at his brother.

Leo placed an apologetic hand on his younger sibling's shoulder. "I'm sorry," he said, instantly contrite.

"Just…just don't joke about that, Leo," Michelangelo said. "Not even I can find anything funny about it."

"You got it," Leo promised.

"Okay, okay," Raphael said impatiently. "Let's get this show on the road."

"Very well," Bridger said. "I will send you, Leo's brothers, back first. As soon as you have him removed from your chryo chamber, Leo will be sent back to his body. Good luck my friends."

TTTT

An instant later, the six turtles found themselves once more in their living room. Without breaking stride, Donny and Donatello disappeared upstairs into Leo's old room, which was where they had stored the chryo pod; Raph and Raphael, as the two strongest brothers, quickly followed behind them. The Brats immediately moved to their Sensei's side.

"He's coming back," Mikey exclaimed. "Leo's coming back!"

Splinter's eyes filled with tears. This third loss of his oldest son, fourth if you counted Leo's giving himself to Saki just over a week before, had hit him hard. He had begun to despair at ever seeing his son alive again. Just then, a clatter from the stairs pulled his attention away. He looked up to see the four older turtles carrying the chryo chamber down from the upstairs bedroom.

"My sons, what are you doing?"

"Well, it's kinda like this, sensei," Michelangelo explained, his voice atypically solemn as his brothers moved toward Leo's new room. This unusually serious side of his typically light-hearted son disturbed the elderly Ninja Master. "Leo's coming back," Michelangelo continued, "but the Council said they couldn't fix everything. He's gonna be okay, but he's gonna be in some pain. See, he still has to get over all the stuff that poison did to his body. It's not going to be fun, but he will get better."

The news made the aged rat's heart hurt. Hadn't his son, no, his sons, been hurt enough? Leo had paid his dues in pain already, as had the rest of the family in watching their beloved brother suffer. When would his beloved oldest and his siblings finally be granted a reprieve?

"Father, are you coming," Michelangelo asked from the doorway between the main part of the Lair and the younger turtles' suite. Pulling himself out of his thoughts, Splinter turned and followed his sons into Leo's room. Once there, the Brats and their father were forced to remain outside the bedroom as the Geeks, with Raph and Raphael's assistance, manhandled the heavy pod open, and pulled Leo's unmoving body from it. Very carefully they maneuvered Leo onto his bed, tucking him in as if he was simply sleeping rather than lifeless. They had no sooner finished smoothing the blanket down, when Leo suddenly gasped, sucking in a huge breath of air. At the noise, the three family members still outside the crowded chamber pushed their way in to the crowded room to also gather around the bed. After a few moments of simply breathing deeply, Leo finally was able to open his eyes. He gave his family a small, heartfelt smile, and then drifted off quietly to sleep. He was back; everything was going to be okay.

TMNTTMNT

The next two weeks were absolute hell. Leo hadn't slept very long that first day back; agony had forced him from his sleep only half an hour after he fell asleep. From the moment on, he had been in perpetual pain. Leo was absolutely miserable, for about the only place that didn't hurt was the bottom of his feet. From his head to his feet he felt like one big bruise, thanks to his beating at Hun's hands, in addition to two ribs he hadn't realized at the time were bruised. Michelangelo, upon hearing just how badly his brother had been hurt was overheard wishing he could rip Hun apart with his bare hands. Splinter assured him that Leatherhead had, literally, done just that, to which the young turtle had simply said, "Good."

Donatello's fear, that once again his older brother would lose his eyesight, had proven false, but that didn't mean Leo escaped completely. Although he didn't lose the ability to see, he might as well have done so, for his eyes once again burned like Saki had just placed those drops in his eyes. Additionally, Leo's body continually twitched as he once again relived the violent mutations cause by the experimental agent Saki had injected into him in that final round of torture.

Worst of all, nothing his brothers did could alleviate Leo's torment. The Geeks had tried pain relievers, one after another, and nothing worked. If they were lucky, they simply didn't touch the pain. If they weren't, they made Leo sick to his stomach. The only things he seemed able to keep down were his herbal teas and very bland foods. Any sort of pressure on his hyper-sensitive skin likewise caused incredible pain, so even the comfort of his brothers' touch was denied to the oldest turtle. Yet through it all, not once did Leo regret his choice to return. Even in the middle of his worst times, his pleasure in back with his family offset the anguish he was forced to endure. His brothers, conversely, were not nearly as blasé about his suffering as he was.

One day, after a particularly bad bout, Donatello murmured forlornly under his breath, "Ah, bro, I would give my right arm if I could stop this."

To which Leo had lightheartedly replied, "Given what I did to let you keep your hands right where they are, I'd appreciate if you didn't go wishing them away."

Donatello lost all the color in his face, and he whirled on his brother in fury. "That was not even close to humorous," he hissed. "How dare you make light of…of that. Do you know what it was like for me, watching you lie there in pain and…and unable to do anything about it? It was killing me, Leo. I never wanted you to…to…to suffer like that for me."

"Don—"Leo said regretfully, but his brother just ignored him.

"If Saki had taken my hands, it would have hurt, but it wouldn't have been the end of the world. I would still have my mind, my ability to think, and Donny would have been around to act as my hands. Besides, with him, April and me working together, we probably could have created some sort of cyborg replacements. Instead, I could only watch as you were hurt in my place once again. I think if Shredder had ripped my still beating heart out of my chest it would have hurt less than watching you lie there suffering like you were, on my behalf, as you were slowly going blind. And though you will probably deny it, you were terrified, and somehow that was even worse. I never wanted to experience anything like that again, but here we are. So don't you dare make jokes about it." Donatello turned his back to his brother, too upset to even look at him.

"Donatello," Leo said sharply as his brother looked obdurately in the opposite direction. "Look at me!"

Donatello looked in his brother's direction. "What," he asked surly.

"No, I want you to 'look' at me," Leo reproved. "Look me in the eyes." He waited until Donatello did so before continuing. "My eyes are fine, bro," he said in a softer voice. "Yes, they burn like the dickens, and yes my body feels like I tried to use it to stop the five o'clock train, but I will be okay. I get a little bit better every day. And don't you ever, ever tell me not to stand up for my brothers. I will always be willing to die for you and the others as necessary."

"But we don't want you dead," Donatello all but yelled. "We want you alive and with us. Why do you think we so blindly tried to follow our connection to where you were? Because we need you here. You can't just keep throwing your life away for us."

Leo considered his brother for a long moment. Then a look of comprehension crossed his face as his brother's emotions washed through him. "Donatello, come here," he ordered softly. His brother shook his head stubbornly. "Donatello, I will get off this bed and come to you if you don't get your butt over here this instant," Leo warned, reaching for the edge of the sheet draped lightly over him; he had finally reached the point he could stand the light covering on his sensitive skin.

"What," Donatello asked tersely as he sat on in the edge of the bed. Sitting himself up, Leo grabbed his brother's hand and pulled him into a gentle embrace, his brother's head tucked under his chin. Donatello tried to shake off his brother's hold, but Leo refused to let go. Finally Donatello just stopped fighting and allowed his brother to simply hold him. As the fight went out of him, the tears began to fall, much to Donatello's surprise.

"It's okay, bro," Leo whispered softly. "I'm sorry you had to go through that. And it's okay if you're angry. You have every right to be. I apologize for making fun of the situation; I just wanted to lighten the mood a little bit. So, go ahead, cry if you need. Hell, scream at me if it will make you feel better."

Donatello burrowed in closer to his brother. The dam holding back his emotions finally gave way, and everything began to pour out. "I was so scared," he whispered. "When I walked in and you were…were chained up, and so badly beaten like that. And then Saki presented that horrible choice. I'm embarrassed to admit my first, selfish thought was how I couldn't lose my hands because I need them too much. Then I realized I could get by without them. But, your eyes; what would you do if you couldn't see? It would have killed you to be blind, to be unable to look out for us. But you didn't think about yourself; you thought only about me.

As I watched you suffer, it was tearing me up. I couldn't do anything except sit there, holding onto you and watching you go blind. And still you did what you could to reassure me. You were suffering, but I was the one being comforted. What kind of brother does the make me? And…and then Saki brought out that whip. The first time he struck you and you…you screamed. I've never heard anyone or anything make a sound like it, at least not until Shredder gave you that poison; it's a sound I hope I never hear again. I'm ashamed to admit, I couldn't look. You were being tortured in my place, and I turned away and didn't watch."

At that confession, the sobs came even harder for Leo's brother. Leo simply tightened his hold, gently rubbing his brother's shell and broadcasting supportive emotions to his brother until the storm receded. Once Donatello had calmed down, Leo said, "Bro, I want you to listen to me. There was no way in this good Earth that I was going to let Saki get anywhere near you. Did I want to lose my eyesight? Heck no, but I wasn't planning on getting out of there alive, remember? That being the case, what did it matter if I couldn't see? But I wasn't going to let him mutilate my little brother. As for being scared, yes, I was. But I was also comforted by the fact that you were there. It would have been so much worse if you hadn't been, because then I would have been worrying that Saki was hurting you anyway, on top of the pain my eyes were causing. Besides, you made the pain bearable. And if you need to hear it, I forgive you for your so-called selfish fears at the thought of having your hands amputated, even though there is nothing really to forgive. It was a natural reaction; stop beating yourself up over it.

Now, as for not watching while Saki was using that whip, I'm glad. That is not something I would ever have wanted you to see. The humiliation was bad enough, but being forced to crawl in front of you was even worse. It's better for both of us that you didn't see that. It's not a memory you need, and it's certainly not something I want you to remember."

As Leo's voice trailed off, Donatello just continued to lay against his brother's plastron, the reassuring sound of Leo's heart pumping beneath his ear doing as much as his words to sooth him. Leo was alive; he was here, and soon he would be completely well again. Saki and Darktide hadn't won; rather, they'd gotten their butts kicked. Still, Donatello could only be humbled by the love his big brother had just for him. It was mind-boggling to think that, had the threat been to him alone, with none of their other brothers involved, Leo would have made the same choice. Leo would give his life for any one of his brothers; an even, one-for-one trade. It was nearly incomprehensible for the genius.

Wrapping his arms around his older brother, Donatello declared, "I love you Leo. The words are too simple to describe just how I feel toward you, but they are the best I have. You are my hero. And thank you; thank you for loving me, too, even when I don't feel like I deserve it."

"You're my brother, Don," Leo replied simply, as if that explained it all, his love shining brightly through their bond. And it did, Donatello thought. They were brothers; enough said.