New York

Cont.

The car was still now, but only for a moment. The driver opened the door and quickly jumped out, running to the turtle and nudging him with his foot then reached down, rooting through Raphael's jacket pocket.

Raph moaned, his mind dragging itself back towards lucidity. Surprised by his intended victim, the thief jumped back and drew a revolver from his waist strap, aiming it at the turtle's head.

Across the street, hidden in the shallow dimness beside a dumpster, Donatello watched the events unfold before him. It took him only seconds to run the distance to where his brother lay helpless under the stranger's gun, and when he struck the man it came as a complete surprise.

Don's foot hit the human dead-center of his back and the he fell forward, on top of Raphael. The gun fell from his grip, rattling to the ground without going off. The man scrambled for it - but Don reached the weapon first, flipping the it up with his foot, into his own hand. He grabbed the thief by the shirt and hauled him to his feet… pressing the business end of the pistol to the bridge of his nose.

"Don't fuck with my brother!" Don yelled, his finger tightening on the trigger.

The human gasped, looking into the angry green face. "Jesus Christ!" he yelled, clawing at the turtle's hand, trying to get him to release his grip on the shirt. "Shit! I thought you were dead!"

Raphael shook his head and gathered his senses. He pulled himself to standing but stopped when a stabbing pain worked it's way up his left leg and into his hip. He forced the pain away and after a few seconds the confusion cleared. He could hear Don and… someone.

"Dead? Who the hell said I was dead?" Don demanded.

"Marie did it! I swear!"

Raphael looked up and gasped.

There stood Donatello - holding a gun to a man's head. Such a thing Raphael had never thought possible. Raph bit down and put his full weight on his uninjured leg, hopping over to Don. He placed his hand on the gun's barrel and stared into his brother's face. The other ninja didn't look back at him, but tightened his grip on the handle.

"Donny…" Raph said evenly. "Donny, put the gun down."

"I want to know what this asshole is talking about," he said, letting go of the shirt and wrapping his hand around the man's throat.

"Let him go," Raph said. "For God's sake... think about it what you're doing..."

"Oh, trust me... I'm thinking about it." He pushed the gun harder into the man's skin.

Raph gripped the barrel tighter. "I'd expect this from me, Donny… not you."

Don's eye's focused on the thief, but his thoughts were on Raphael's words. Several anxious seconds passed before he let go of the gun, thrusting it into Raph's palm. Raph breathed in relief and stuck the revolver into his own pocket, safely away from both Don and the human.

Donatello, still glaring at the man, tightened his hold for a few seconds before pushing him to the ground and walking away and turning his back. Raphael watched him go then moved towards the stranger and tried to kneel, but ended up collapsing to the ground. He clutched his leg against the sting.

"Now," Raph said, grabbing the man's sleeve. "Have you seen me before?"

The human nodded in shock. "There are two of you..? But..?"

"Tell me what happened!"

The guy was shaking and trying to back out of the turtle's grip. "...You... you don't remember?"

"Oh, I remember," he pulled the man closer until their faces touched. "I just want to hear it from you."

"Shit! Okay!" he wiggled and Raph shoved him away. "I, uh... I was fighting with Marie..."

"And?"

"You... you came by and... pushed me on my ass. It was… it was you, right..? Or… you..?"

Donatello turned around and stepped up to the two, looking down. "Go on," he said.

"I... uh, you was going to go away, but Marie..." the man stuttered, looking from the face of one turtle to the other. "Marie... she... she stuck you..."

Raphael growled. "Where?"

"Shit! Uh... the neck! In the neck!"

Don grabbed the human by the hair and threw him onto the hood of the car. "You son of a bitch!"

Raphael struggled to his one good leg and hopped over to his furious brother, who shrugged him away and bounded towards the cowering stranger. He wrapped his fingers around the man's collar.

"Jesus Christ, Don! Ease up off him!" Raphael yelled.

"You hear what he just said?" Donatello yelled, lifting the man up so only his toes touched the ground. "Did you hear what this bastard did to Mikey?"

"Put him down!"

Don looked over his shoulder at his brother then threw the man onto the asphalt. The turtle crossed his arms and glared down at him, an action reflected a moment later by Raphael.

"Now," Raph said to the man, but glancing at Don out of the corner of his eye. "Where is Marie?"

"She died, man! She OD'd!"

Don scowled. "When?"

"Last month!"

Raphael looked at the sky and then at brother, turning his back to the man. "I think we've got something here."

"No shit, Sherlock. What was your first fucking clue?"

"Shut up," Raph snapped, then lowered his voice. "Let's get this guy to the cops."

Don's own voice rose. "And then what? You think they're gonna do anything to him for what he did to Mikey? That's bullshit and you know it."

"Think about it, Donny. I bet he has a ton of drugs in his car, he's probably pulled that hit-and-rob thing before… and if it was him that attacked Mikey that night his fingerprints are already on that knife in police custody..." Raph pulled the gun out of his pocket and held it up for his brother to see. "And we've got this. What do you want to bet that this'll match up to one or two cases floating around out there?"

Don walked a few steps away. "Fine."

Raph lowered the weapon and sighed. It was usually Don that handled the logic of the situation and Raphael that sought out individual revenge. The turtle shook his head as he saw himself in Donatello's actions. Is that what I'm like?

Before his mind could offer up an answer, Raphael heard a rustling behind him. He began to turn, to find out what the human was doing, but as he twisted he felt something strike his injured leg. The turtle yelled and fell to the ground, grabbing his leg and grimacing from the pain. The gun rattled out of the ninja's grip and the human crawled to it - his fingers wrapped themselves around the handle and he brought it level with Raphael's head.

Don saw the action before his brother even had a chance to look up. "Raph!" he screamed.

The warning was a brief one, but Raph understood what it meant. Ninja instinct took over and he ducked, punching the man in the face. The gun went off and Raph heard a cry of alarm behind him. One more punch and the stranger was unconscious, and the turtle struggled himself around to look at his brother.

Donatello was by the wall, hunched over and clutching his arm, thick red fluid dripping from his fingers. Raphael pulled himself to his side and drew up to standing, resting one hand on the Don's arm and the other on the wall for support.

"Are you okay?"

"Son of a bitch..." Donny pressed his hand harder to his arm, blood welled up from between his fingers.

Raph looked behind his brother and saw that blood was soaking through the other side, as well, and ran down his sleeve in a slow stream. "Looks like the bullet went right through," Raph said. "Lucky he missed the bone."

"If I was lucky," Donatello said between clenched teeth, "I wouldn't have gotten shot."

Raphael pulled the belt off his coat and tied it around Don's arm, just above the wound.

"Still… could'a been worse." He looked into Donny's face. "You could be bringing me home dead tonight."

"Was that a thank you?" Don smiled despite the pain. "You owe me two for tonight."

Raph grinned but said nothing.

Down the street they could hear three sets of feet sprinting in the darkness, then three familiar figures hurried near. Leonardo ran to his brothers while Splinter and April made their way to the stranger.

"Your timing is a little off, guys," Raphael said.

"What the hell happened?" Leo asked. "We heard a gun..."

"Well, les'see..." Don said sarcastically. "Oh, yeah... I got shot."

Leo drooped his shoulders. "I can see that. Now what happened?"

Splinter and April joined the turtles and looked on silently, each expecting something to be said.

"I didn't kill that jackass, did I?" Raph asked, motioning towards the human lying on the ground.

"No," April said. "But I don't think he's going to feel too good when he wakes up."

Raph cleared his throat. "It's complicated, but this guy..." he pointed at the man then looked at Don.

"He hit Raph with his car," Donatello said, straightening up.

"I think my leg might be broken," Raph continued.

Splinter kneeled and looked at his son's limb. "Perhaps. We will need to examine it."

The sound of an approaching siren broke the relative silence and the group looked towards the noise as one.

"Shit," Don said, stepping away from the wall. "Let's take this below."

Leonardo pried open a manhole cover and motioned that it seemed safe inside. April wrapped an arm around Raphael and helped him to their escape route and they slid inside, followed soon afterwards by the others. After all were safely underground the cover was replaced, and moments later the sirens arrived above them, then stopped and were replaced by the static of a police radio.

Confident in their escape, they made their way back to the lair - Leonardo and April helping Raph along the trek as Splinter kept Don's arm braced at a safe position. They all remained quiet, neither Don nor Raphael saying anything more about the confrontation. Once home, they made their way into the lab, still unspeaking.

"Let's see about this leg," Leonardo said to Raph, then looked over at Donatello's blood-stained arm. "Master, would you and April tend to Donny, please?"

Raph struggled onto an examination bed and glanced across the room at Don. For many long moments the two brothers shared a gaze, then Raphael nodded.

"Wait," Don said, squeezing his wound and stepping forward. "Could I ask you guys to leave me and Raph for a minute?"

"Can't this wait?" April asked. "You need to get patched up."

"No," Raphael said, sitting straight. "I don't think it can wait."

Everyone looked to Splinter, who acquiesced to the appeal. "Very well. But please, be swift."

Leo, April, and Splinter marched out of the room, leaving the two estranged brothers to one another's company. Don didn't move for a few moments, then walked to the bed and hopped up beside Raphael.

"I... I really don't know what's wrong with me lately," Don confessed without preamble, then suddenly ran out of words.

"I think that some of it must be me," Raph admitted. "I know that some of it is me."

Donatello hung his head. "I've been on the warpath since... since Mikey..."

"We all have."

"No, not really. You've been..." he shrugged and bit down at the pain. "You've been so different. It's almost..."

"Almost what?" Raphael pressed.

"It's almost like you stopped caring."

Raphael put his hand on his brother's uninjured arm. "Hey, all those times you stayed calm when the rest of us were pissed off… you still cared, right?"

"But that's me. You're different. You get mad and throw fits and go out bashing heads... acting like..." he let his voice trail off.

"Like you lately?"

Don scowled and looked up. "Yeah."

Raph scratched the back of his head. "What you said up on the street - about not being able to do anything right lately..."

"Yeah?"

"You don't actually believe that, do you?"

Don shook his head. "If I'd have just stopped dicking around and gotten that damn search done we'd have been able to do something before everything got out of hand. Before Mikey tried to kill himself..."

"Well, if I'd have just looked a little harder," Raph said, letting out a breath, "maybe I would've found the drugs in the first place."

They both went quiet as they considered one another's words. The superficial apologies from the previous month had done little to relieve the turtle's feelings of failure and anger, towards themselves or each other, but now it seemed as if they were finally breaking through.

"So..." Don started, "Why have you been so calm lately?"

"Somebody has to be. Why have you been so angry?"

Don grinned. "Somebody has to be."

"Beware the fury of a patient man," Raphael let out a quick laugh. He looked at the confused expression on the other turtle's face. "…John Dryden," he clarified.

"Since when do you quote John Dryden? Or anyone else, for that matter?"

"Since I started reading Mikey's books."

Don looked down. He had seen Raph reading a lot more lately, but it had never occurred to him to wonder what had been on the pages. It was nice to know that it was something that Mikey liked, as well.

"We gotta' tell the others what we found out. I mean, about what happened to Mike. About Marie and all that."

Raphael nodded. "Did you want to tell them anything else?"

"Like what?"

"Like about the fight."

Don squeezed his arm. "I'm willing to call it a sparring session if you are."

Raph reached out and pulled his brother into a hug, squeezing him just a little too tightly around the shoulder. Don let out a little noise of surprise, then brought his good arm up and returned the embrace.

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SPLIT DECISION

(Steve Winwood)

Sometimes I think he knows too much

His confidence never needs a crutch

One man is a real one, the other wants to hide

One man has his mind made up, the other can't decide

By the time there's nothing left to choose

One man puts the fire out, the other lights the fuse

Sometimes I think I know too much

'Bout what goes on in the real world and such

Half of me is certain, the other isn't sure

One half has the symptom, the other has the cure

By the time there's nothing left to choose

One half has the answer, the other looks for clues

Sometimes I think we've come too far

If we're lost and if not where we are

Half of us is easy, the other half is hard

Even though we do our best, we end up being scarred

By the time there's nothin' left to choose

One man puts the fire out, the other lights the fuse

Sometimes I think I know too much

When confidence never needs a crutch

One man is a real one, the other wants to hide

One man has his mind made up while the other can't decide

By the time there's nothing left to choose

One of us sees red, while the other sings the blues

It's a fine line, a very fine line

It's a fine line, a very fine line

Split decision