Leonardo blinked rapidly from distorting vision. The initial brightness was gone, but the odd cloud left behind was still impacting his eyes. It took several moments for the turtle to realize he was on the ground, and another beat to recall the family members laid out around him.

The thirteen-year-old rubbed his eyes fiercely while sitting up. Judging from the sudden spinning sensation in his head he'd moved too fast, but he didn't care.

Leo spotted the red-masked turtle first, and breathed a sigh of relief when he found their youngest brother nestled beside him. "You guys okay?"

"Yeah, I think..." Raph returned with a grimace.

"Just stay put for a minute, all right?"

Despite not knowing exactly what was going on, the end of gunfire was a good development in Leo's mind. The next thing he spotted was his purple-masked brother bunched up on the floor, in a manner that instantly concerned him. Even as he staggered toward Donny, the sight of the ten-year-old stirring with a choking cough relieved him too.

Leonardo carefully maneuvered his younger brother off his side and onto his shell, supporting his head in both hands. He found dazed chocolate-brown eyes staring up at him vacantly and winced at cuts and abrasions starting to bleed through his face.

"Leo?" Don seemed to see him after a couple more seconds. "What-"

"Don't move," he instructed. "You're hurt."

"No. No, I'm fine." Donny insisted on sitting up partially.

"Have to disagree with you, bro. You're definitely bleeding."

"No, it..." Donatello paused to wipe the back of his hand against the worst gash on his cheek. "It's superficial. No big deal. I only caught ricochet from the flash-bang."

"Flash bang? Donny, quit trying to get up and let me look at you!"

Donatello sent him an irritated glance. "That cop was gonna throw a stun grenade! I saw it coming, tried to stop-" The younger turtle's eyes suddenly went wide. "Sensei! Where is he?"

Leo's head jerked around at once with a curse. "I lost track of everyone in the blast. I found the guys, but-"

Don lunged to his feet, avoiding the oldest turtle's hands in the same motion. His wild gaze took in the slight damage of their surroundings, then focused on the broken remnants of the railing. "No."

Leonardo got a hand on his brother's shell, but it didn't stop him from bending through twisted metal, and peering at the level beneath them. The blue-masked turtle let go of Don and ducked his head for a better look too, praying for some sign of their father.

He got his wish, but it wasn't exactly what he'd hoped to find. Their Sensei's familiar form was crumpled at an unnatural angle, sprawled on top of one of the storage containers below. Leo barely had a chance to weather the shock of seeing Splinter that way, before Don careened off the platform without any warning.

"Donny!"

The volume of his cry echoed far too loudly in his ears, but that wasn't what currently worried him. He watched anxiously while his brother finished out the leap with a tucked somersault, landing on top of the container. Then the blue-masked turtle didn't hesitate to follow him.

Leo felt his ankles nearly give out upon hitting the shipping unit. He wasn't sure if it had to do with after-effects from the grenade or a simple mistake. His over-correction nearly knocked him off the container, but the turtle lurched to the right and managed to keep his balance.

He held his breath while going to join Donny and looking over his shoulder. Donatello had his flashlight in one hand, and was carefully probing their father's skull with the other. "Don, is he-"

"Leo, stay back! Give me some space."

Swallowing hard, Leonardo didn't quite retreat. "Donny, gimme the light. You need both hands."

Wordlessly, the purple-masked turtle extended the flashlight back to him, and returned to gently fingering the motionless rat. "Bro, how bad is it?" Containing the tremor in his voice was almost impossible. The amount of blood leaking from his forehead was disturbing enough without the memories of recent nightmares to fall back on.

"I'm not sure," he ventured. "I don't think his skull is fractured, but he's got a serious laceration. Head wounds tend to bleed a lot. He's gonna need stitches. Probably means a concussion too."

"But Sensei's okay? Don, he's got to be all right!"

At the raising of his volume, Raphael's voice floated down to them.

"What's wrong with Master Splinter?"

Leo caught the flash of two more shadows descending to the ground, and Donny grabbed his arm with surprising force.

"Don't you dare freeze up again," Donatello ordered under his breath. "If you panic, they're gonna panic. So don't do it."

"I—I'm not panicking," the teen fumbled. "Will he be all right?"

Don was distracted from answering by both their brothers clamoring over to the side of the container. "Guys, don't come up! I need a little time to assess him."

"There's uh, another cop down here," Raphael announced with obvious discomfort. "Looks like he fell."

Leo glanced over the side to where his red-masked brother indicated, and his heart sank at the broken figure of the officer. "Raph, would you...um..." He struggled to tell him what needed to be done, but Raphael took mercy on him.

"I'll check," the twelve-year-old said mechanically, and headed for the stranger.

When Leonardo looked back at Donny, the purple-masked turtle was continuing his examination. "Don, what do you think?" he asked quietly.

"I'm picking up some minor injuries, no real sign of internal bleeding yet. Nothing else of concern, except..."

The oldest turtle noted the way Donny hesitated before delving into the rat's lower extremities. The fear in his younger brother's eyes then shifted to grim acceptance.

"Left leg is broken in at least three places, starting at the hip."

"Don, can you fix that? He's going to be in horrible pain. What are we supposed to do?" Leonardo hardly managed to keep his voice down.

"I'm not sure what I can fix. A splint will help with the pain, at least temporarily."

"Donny, I don't want to hurt him, but getting out of here has to be top priority. If we don't escape, a broken leg will be the least of his problems. I can't stand the thought of damaging him worse either, so you've got to figure this out fast. Tell me what to do, and how we can help."

"We need a splint, without question. I could probably use a few of our layers to help pad his leg, but I also need something to tie everything off. I wish we could improvise a backboard, but it would be hard to run with one."

Leo waited for his brother to continue, but he didn't. When Donny returned his full attention to their father's leg, he lightly grasped his shoulder. "We can't sit here. Those officers radioed for back up. Whatever we're going to do, it needs to happen immediately. We have limited time before this place is probably gonna be overrun, and the situation gets worse than it is now."

"It might already be close to that," Raphael offered grimly from the ground. "I...um...this cop, Leo..."

Leonardo gazed down at his shaken brother, and surmised what he was having trouble articulating. The teen jumped off the container to see the man for himself, and found Michelangelo cringing a couple of feet away.

A part of him didn't want to approach the stranger, but he needed to know for sure. The awkward angle of the officer's neck made the blue-masked turtle avoid it, and reach for his wrist instead. When he found no pulse, Leo leaned close to hear if he was breathing. There was no life left in the disturbing wide-open eyes which stared back at him.

"He's gone," Raph proclaimed. "Think the dude broke his neck."

Leo agreed with his judgment and was about to tell him so, when the sound of approaching footsteps made him jump to his feet and back away from the cop.

"Don, grab Sensei, we have to move now!"

"No – it could kill him!" Donny's unexpected reply squeaked from the roof of the shipping unit.

"What?" It was the wrong time and place for a sensitive medical conversation, but this couldn't wait.

"Part of the break is near his femoral artery! If it gets severed, he'll bleed out uncontrollably. We can't run until his leg is at least splinted!"

Leonardo gasped through a shuddering breath. "That would have been helpful information a couple minutes ago!"

"I didn't know the extent of the fracture a couple minutes ago!" A surprising curse left the normally mild-mannered ten-year-old.

The appearance of flashlights around the corner told Leonardo what his brother had already seen.

"Guys, you have to get rid of them!" Don shot down. "I'm not kidding. If we don't do this the right way, he could die!"

Leonardo exchanged a quick glance with the others. "Pressure points. Don't hurt anyone."

"Of course not, but let 'em try and kill us," Raph grumbled, sending an anxious look to the shipping unit. "We've gotta move."

Leo heard the echo of someone's voice and the static of a radio before witnessing two figures cross into the open from the hallway. The sight of one of them with communicator in hand made it feel like a bowling ball had fallen on his stomach. The sensation was suddenly replaced by cold awareness, and instructions left his mouth without thinking about them.

"Raph, stay here. Don't let anything near Don or Sensei. Mike, I need your help to distract them. You've got to be fast. Can you draw their attention, and I'll attack from another angle?"

"Yeah, Leo," the youngest turtle readily agreed.

Raphael only grunted at the mention of his task.

"Please, Raph, work with us, not against us!"

There was no chance to hear a reply. Mike was off like a shot, though he remained in plain sight where men could see him. Leonardo was irritated when only one of the two pursued him, but had to accept dealing with a single officer at a time.

The blue-masked turtle would have preferred to trade places with Raphael to make certain his Sensei was okay, but had to chase after the stranger drawing a gun on Michelangelo instead.

His mind was still being driven by instinct while he allowed the cop to "corner" Mikey so the orange-masked turtle would have no escape. In actuality, it was the officer who had nowhere to go.

"Stop where you are!" the man barked at his brother. "Put your hands on your head and face the ground! Do it, right now!"

Mike snorted in spite of the serious situation. "Nuh uh, dude. You didn't say Simon Says*."

"Simon who?" The bewildered officer glared at him.

"You know, Simon says! Didn't you go to Kindergarten? I've never been to a real school in my life, but I still-"

Leonardo interrupted his young brother's explanation with a quick palm strike to the cop's neck, which sent the officer sprawling on his face.

"Rude to interrupt, bro," Mike told him. "I was trying to teach the guy something."

Leo shook his head sharply. "No time, Mikey! We need to get the other-"

As the words left his mouth, the sound of a shattering blow made Leonardo spin back the way they'd come. The blue-masked turtle growled through gritted teeth when he saw the other officer flat on his back in front of Raphael, blood already seeping from his nose.

"I told you not to hurt him!" the teen thundered. "We're gonna make things worse-"

"Worse than one of 'em dying because of a flash grenade, and us probably being blamed for it? Knocking that idiot out don't make it worse, Leo!"

"Argue about it later!" Donatello urged. "I need supplies, quick! I'm thinking of a utility room, a janitor's closet, anything!"

"There's a utility room upstairs!" Michelangelo mentioned.

"No, we're not getting trapped up there again," Leo negated. "We'll find something, even if we have to fan out." He sharply inhaled to control the urge to panic.

"There's no time for separating!" Don returned. "I'd bet my shell the backup is coming. What do you remember about this place, Mikey?"

"Running around the first night, I might 'ave seen something about maintenance. It was down..." Mike twisted in a circle, picking over the hallways which led in different directions, and then glanced at the stairs.

"I came from that way." Michelangelo pointed east. "It musta been down there."

"Mike, are you sure?" Raphael pressed. "'Cause if you're not, we don't got much opportunity to correct it."

"I'm sure!" he snapped, much harder than usual. "You haven't been here! You don't know what Sensei and I already had to do, even last night. If I was good enough to at least get a message to you guys, can't you trust me to remember a dang door?"

Leonardo grasped his little brother's shoulder to calm him down. "Yes, Mike, we trust you. Show us where it is."

The orange-masked turtle still bore a sullen expression, but motioned a curt hand for them to follow him. Leo heard Donatello's anxious grunt the moment they took off, and glanced back to see his younger brother supporting their Sensei's leg partially while Raphael carried the rat.

"Donny, there's got to be a better way to do this!" he called back.

"It has to be splinted, Leo. That's gonna take a few minutes, which we probably don't HAVE!"

"Don't think about it right now. How do we stop him from bleeding out? How do we know he already isn't?"

"I've been keeping track of the pulse around his knee. As long as it stays strong, that's a good sign the femoral artery is intact. Bracing his injury will help protect the artery too."

"Just focus on what you gotta do for him, Genius, and we'll do the rest," Raphael filled in. "Nothing's gonna get near you two."

"Raph, I'm going to need help from at least one of you for this part. Prefer you or Leo since you're stronger, and I don't know what Mike's been through already."

"Not having any problem staying ahead of you!" the turtle in question offered indignantly from the front.

"You also probably haven't been eating or sleeping enough!" Don yelled back. "Don't worry, Mike. I doubt any of us are getting out of here without a fight, so you'll have plenty more chances to prove yourself."

"It's here!" was the only reply the orange-masked turtle made that time. "Door is locked. Do we break it?"

Leonardo didn't wait for affirmation from the others; he kicked the door directly at the handle, sending remnants of shattered wood tumbling to the ground. The blue-masked turtle ducked inside to find the light, then got out of the way for his brothers. There wasn't enough room for all of them in the closet, so Leo stood back nervously while Donatello took quick stock of their surroundings.

"Okay, I need both the broom and mop for their handles, but they need to be pared down somewhat. Raph, can you break me manageable pieces? First one has to be longer than the other two. I'm going to need everyone's clothes, or maybe..."

Don trailed off, rummaging through a plastic bin on the nearest shelf. He came up with a handful of rags. "These ought to work for padding. Shouldn't have to sacrifice all the clothing, unless I can't find anything else to bind the splint."

"Bind it, like you need to tie something up?" Mike asked.

"Exactly, the splint needs support-"

"How about these, Donny?" Michelangelo produced a box from his bag. "Picked 'em up for you the other night."

Leonardo stared at the open box of plastic pieces curiously, and was startled by Donatello's enthusiastic reaction.

"That's perfect, Mikey! You're the best! Zip-ties will do the trick, but we have to be careful not to pull them too tight." Donny paused to direct Raph with Splinter. "Put him down here, and you've got to work on those handles for me. First one needs to reach from his armpit, down just past his heel. The second piece has to bridge between the inside of his groin, to the end of his foot."

"And the third one?"

"It only needs to be long enough to strap the other pieces together under his foot. Do you see how we can get two parts from the broom handle, as long as you break it in the right spot?"

"Yeah, Donny, I got ya. I'll get on this."

Leonardo watched with growing nerves while Donatello fingered their Sensei's scalp again. "Is it worse than you thought?" he made himself ask.

"No, I don't think so. I wanted another look under the brighter light. I told you head wounds bleed quite a bit. I'll use the opportunity to get this bound up too."

The blue-masked turtle nodded stoically. "What if he ends up needing blood? What will we do?"

"Ideally, we can't let it go that far," he replied honestly. "His best chance for making it is getting that leg properly braced."

Leonardo sensed Michelangelo edging closer to him, and automatically cast an arm around his shell. "You've done great, Mike, and you're not alone anymore. We're gonna figure this all out. Hang in there a little longer, and we'll be moving soon."

The orange-masked turtle sniffed. "I'm the reason this happened. If he's not okay, it's all my fault."

At his smaller brother's tremor, Leo gripped him tighter. "Sensei said you were there for him, Mike. I know you haven't had time to share any stories, but-"

Michelangelo held up a hand to stop him. "Forget it. I'll tell you the whole thing later. Donny, what can we do?"

"There's really only room for Raph and I. Watch and listen outside. Be paranoid for me, so I can focus on this."

"I've got it, Don," the nine-year-old piped up.

"There is one other thing you could help me with," Don realized. "Attach a bunch of those zip-ties together. We need some that will be wide enough to encompass his leg, and a few with enough length to cross Sensei's torso."

Leonardo was grateful for the task too, and settled down with his youngest brother on the floor to begin zipping the ends of ties together.

"Raph, we need to stretch his leg out, carefully," Donatello explained. "This part will help make sure pieces of broken bone don't rub against each other, and hopefully prevent us from nicking the artery en route. After we get traction set under his foot, we can start to apply the splint. I'm gonna need you to hold on to Sensei's heel, and keep his leg straight for me."

"What if I hurt him, Donny?"

"If we do this correctly, he'll be in less pain. Take your time and ease it down, Raph. You're fine."

The red-masked turtle mumbled something unrepeatable about the task, but Leo knew he was only scared about messing up.

"You're all right, Raph," Leonardo encouraged him. "You've got this."

"I ain't got nothing, Fearless. I feel like I'm about to break what's left of him. Why don't you come over here and do this?"

"Raph, please cooperate," Don requested. He paused his work with the first handle to probe Splinter's knee again. "Good pulse. I'll be checking this periodically, bro. It doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong."

"I'm not the gentle one of the bunch, Don. You need to use someone else. I'll knock together as many heads as I have to, but this part scares the crap outta me."

"Scares me too," Donny replied. "Doesn't mean we quit."

The red-masked turtle shook his head violently. "Why did it have to be Sensei?'

"He was protecting me,' Donatello admitted quietly. "He put himself in the path of the flash-bang, to keep me safe."

Leonardo squinted for another look of Donny's face. "Eventually, we have to clean you up."

"Leo, I'm fine. Not even dizzy. The abnormalities from the stun grenade didn't last, because they aren't supposed to. They're not technically lethal—"

"Tell that to the guy with the broken neck, or our dad," Raphael interjected.

"Yeah, I know, Raph. Stun grenades can still hurt people, but they aren't designed to." He lifted his hand from Splinter's knee. "I'll get started, and you keep him steady, bro."

"I'm trying, Genius. How the shell do you know so much?"

"I read, Raph."

"Bull," he countered. "How'd you learn everything this fast?"

"I've been studying advanced first aid for almost two years, even since Sensei and I first started dropping in to the library. Started out by having to print material a little bit at a time, but now, I can copy things to a disk."

"Why? What's the disk do?"

"This is why I wanted the computer up and running," Donatello explained patiently. "I can't access the internet from home yet. But I can download information from the library, copy it to a disk there, and use it from my own CPU. I've been breaking chapters down and piecing together sections for my medical journal."

"Your what?" The teen cocked his head curiously.

"My journal, Leo," he repeated. "It contains all the information Splinter has been teaching me to this point in regards to herbs, along with what I've been garnering from the internet for months. I'm trying to build up a medical history too."

"Yeah, you know when you guys think he's just fooling around?" Mike cut in. "That's when he's writing the book on savin' all of our lives."

"I wouldn't go that far yet," Donny told him.

"You better be going that far," Raph retorted. "Donny, tell me you can help Sensei."

"I can't make you any promises. I'll do my best, but..." Donatello strangely faltered, and Leonardo thought he was getting emotional.

Then Leo noticed their father's chest rise with a deeper breath, and realized what Don already had. Onyx eyes fluttered, but only opened part way. It was followed by low moan of pain that ripped the blue-masked turtle's heart out.

Donny shifted up front at once, gathering their Sensei's chin in his hands. "Don't move, Otosan. Don't. Move. You need to let us do this."

Another gasp left the rat while he lifted his head slightly.

"Please, Sensei, stay still," Don urged.

Among Splinter's struggle to breathe normally and the obvious pain he was in, Leo also saw his mouth moving, trying to speak.

"Don, work on his leg," Leo ordered, and climbed carefully over them to reach the rat's head. The cramped, small spot was uncomfortable, but he didn't care. "Shh. Sensei, we've got you, but you need to relax. Donny's doing everything he can."

"They..." Splinter forced out.

"We're all here, Otosan. Everyone is okay."

"Police," he pronounced under duress.

Leo nodded bleakly. "They found us, Master, but we'll get out before we're cut off again."

"I hear-" he wheezed with the difficulty of delivering the word. "Sirens. Police...are...here."

*It's irrelevant to their current dilemma, but I don't own Simon Says.