Ok, here's more!
As soon as his bedroom door was closed tightly behind him and locked, Leo turned to the wall and gently rested his head on it, sighing deeply. It was all confusion. He felt fine! And now his family was treating him like their little patient. And he was the leader!
He turned his shell to the wall and sunk to the floor, one arm resting on his knees, the broken one in his lap. He tried to think from their point of view. They were concerned. Apparently he'd been really sick, but he couldn't remember most of it. But what did that matter? He was fine now. His arm may be broken, but he could still do a lot.
Then there was a whole other set of issues. Mysterious green slime? It was unlike anything he'd ever heard of before. But he still felt fine. Better than fine, actually. He felt great!
He stood up suddenly from the floor and punched the wall with his good arm. He could feel all the frustration and tension he'd felt from his brothers just flow out of him with that one punch. The weak stone crumbled slightly beneath his fist. There was a knock at the door and Leo spun around.
"Ummm, hey Leo? Can we talk?" came Mikey's timid voice from the other side.
Leo looked over at the soft-ball sized indent in the wall. If he had the door wide open, Mikey wouldn't see it. "Yeah come in."
Mikey opened the door cautiously and Leo casually pushed it back against the wall.
"Leo, what was that noise?" he asked curiously.
Leo went over and sat on his bed, picking at his wrapped arm. "What noise?"
"I thought I heard you hit something."
"Oh, well I dropped a book a few minutes ago. Maybe you heard that." he replied, still looking down at his bandages.
"Hmm. Anyway, I talked to Master Splinter. Donny and Raph don't know so don't tell them, but I asked his opinion on you coming back to training. He said that if you can just wait it out a day or two and if you're up for it, he'll let you start training again, given that your still feeling better." said Mikey, sitting himself on the bed next to his older brother.
Leo let out a sigh. He was both happy and a little confused. He was relieved that he would be aloud to train again. It had been over a week since he'd trained, since before the Foot had captured him. He felt confused that he was the one stuck in this situation, instead of being the one to comfort or reassure one of his younger brothers.
"Thanks Mikey," he said half-heatedly.
"Whats wrong? I thought you'd be thrilled!" he said.
"I am. I am," he placed a hand on Mikey's shoulder and turned back to look at his feet. "I just feel like I've fallen down in the chain of command. No one listens. I'm supposed to be the strong older brother, and now no one will leave me alone!"
Mikey felt a little hurt by this. He was, after all, the youngest, and he'd never thought of that as a bad thing. But apparently Leo had different ideas about being treated like a younger sibling. "Come on Leo, we're all just worried you'll over exert yourself. We all know what you're like, nothing can keep you down, and that's why we're all trying so hard to protect you, because sometimes you're your own worst enemy."
Leo felt slightly lightened by this. At least his family still thought of him as the pain-in-the-ass they couldn't hold down. "Thanks Mikey."
"No problem. You'll be back to training in no time. And knowing you, you'll be driving us into the ground harder than ever." He gave his brother a toothy half smile as he rose from the bed and clapped him on the shoulder.
Leo returned the half smile as Mikey left his room. It was nice to see the serious side to his comedian brother. It was very, very, very rare when Leo actually opened up and voiced how he felt, but when he did, he felt comforted that there would always be Mikey, the funny guy, to take him seriously.
A tinkling crash echoed throughout the lair, resembling the sound of a smashed glass. It was instantly followed by a girlish squeal and the pattering of feet. "Raph did it!"
The clang of metal rang out through the dojo, something he hadn't heard in over a week, and boy did it sound good. He could feel the sweaty mats beneath his feet, hear the panting of his brothers by his side. Everything was back to normal.
"Leonardo, you will now turn to spar with Raphael. Donatello, you and Michelangelo will spar," ordered Splinter.
Leo had been back to training for about three days. It had been exactly a week since his "episode" and he felt fully back to normal. His strength had returned as well as his energy.
"Ah, I see you're feeling completely better now. Now I wont feel guilty about taking your shell out!" jeered Raph.
Leo returned his words with a sneer. The two hadn't sparred at all since the accident However, just because he'd barely trained in two weeks didn't mean that any of his skill was gone, or his tactics. "Bring it."
The brothers each pulled out their weapon. Leo could only use one because of his bad arm, so Raph did the same to even the odds, much to the older brothers dismay. They readied themselves into a fighting stance. Leo briefly saw something flash before his brothers eyes. He couldn't place the look. Regret? Anger? He couldn't tell, but he liked to pretend it was fear.
His brother made the first move, charging at full speed with his sais outright, hoping to catch his opponent off guard.
Leo of course saw this coming, and deflected his sais easily to the right. Next was his turn, and he jumped and aimed a kick square in Raph's chest. Raph ducked flat down to his stomach and Leo went flying over his head, landing nimbly in a one handed crouching cat pose. The two, who had their backs to each other, turned around instantly and their weapons met with a clang.
"Ya tired yet, Fearless?" Raph hissed as they tested the strength of their weapon.
Leo quickly unlocked his katana and stepped back. He knew better than to keep his swords in Raph's katana snapping sais for too long. "I'm just getting warmed up."
To their left, they heard Donny getting his butt whooped. Leo really wished that his nerdy brother would spend more time practicing and less time in the lab.
"So, question for ya," said Raph.
"Ya?" Leo replied. He was breathing rather heavy, but still full of energy.
"I was wonderin' when we could go topside again...?" Raph's tone was casual, but Leo could tell he really, really wanted the answer.
"Not until we've figured out what the Foot are up to," Leo replied sternly.
"Well we sure as shell ain't going to figure that out down here!" Raph's voice was stating to raise slightly, as was his temper, as it always did while they wer practicing, but he tried his best to keep it calm and casual.
"We just have to wait for some sort of signal. As long as they arn't causing havoc up there, then we're staying down here until further notice." Leo tried to keep his voice firm and steady as he rapid fired attacks on his brother.
"But what about all that stuff that's not in front of the public. We know their up to something, and we cant just let that go ignored, whether its visible or not!" Raph was definitely starting to loose his temper at this point, and Leo was only fueling the fire as his steady attacks began to slow. He decided to use this to the best of his advantage.
"We cant risk the safety of this family on mere suspicion." Leo deflected an attack to his right. He was now on pure defense.
"Mere suspicion? Who are you kidding Leo, this is the Foot we're talking about! There's no question about it!" Raph swept his older brothers leg and sent his crashing to the floor on his shell. He meant to lunge for Leo but the attack was blocked by the katana, and he was shoved off. Leo made his way shakily to his feet. He was breathing quite hard.
"I just don't want us to charge into something stupidly and blindly. You know as well as I that those situations never turn out well-"
Raph had had enough. He growled at Leo and ran forward. Leo just barely blocked the sais aimed at his head, but lost his balance and the two went toppling to the floor. Raph rolled on top and positioned his fist up above his head, ready to take his brother out when he noticed something wasn't quite right. He say a look of dread flash before Leo's eyes and realized instantly that his brother was stone cold. Raph rolled off his still form instantly.
"Leo?" he asked, taping his unresponsive brothers face lightly. Leo did nothing but stare blankly at the ceiling for about two seconds.
Suddenly, he grimaced in pain. Raph could see him clench his teeth together as he grabbed his head. His back arched on the floor, his eyes rolled upward.
"Whoa buddy! Oh my God, Donny!" Raph yelled across the room as he placed a hand on his brother chest, trying to steady him.
Donny picked up on the tone reactively and sprinted over, Mikey on his heels. He threw his bo staff to the other side of the room as he knelt next to Raph.
"Don I think its another episode! I don't know what happened! He was fine one minute and then he started getting really tired and then he just collapsed!" Both brothers tried to steady their slimy brother as Mikey watched in the back ground.
Without warning, Leo rolled over and heaved all the contents of his stomach. Don tried to lift him up from around the middle so that he could breath better. Dark red chunks blasted the floor and stained the mats. It was like a waterfall that just kept on coming.
"Easy Leo, easy. Deep breaths." Donny tried soothing, but he could hear his brothers raspy intakes of breath. He gagged and threw up some more. His body was shaking and soaked, almost literally dripping with ooze that was secreting all around his flesh. Donny could feel the ice cold body of his brother as it trembled within his grasp."Don't worry, bro, everything's going to be fine. It's all going to be just fine." At this rate, he wasn't sure who he was talking to; Leo, his terrified brothers and Master, or himself.
R&R PLEASE! (Don't worry, more will be explained in the next chapter)