Chapter 2

Day one

"He fainted. I can't believe it, he actually fainted!"

"Uh, Raph, I did just kinda re-break the bone which has been giving him pain for the past month or so. I think even you would pass out at that."

There was a huff and the sound of the party wagon's door opening then slamming shut.

Groaning, Leo opened his eyes slowly, allowing the light to spill through his lids. In front of him, facing the opposite way, was Donnie.

Leo went to move, but a sudden sharp pain exploded from his knee, causing him to gasp louder than he wished, making Donnie spin suddenly.

"Leo! Don't move you shell brain!" the second youngest turtle hurriedly dropped to his knees next to his elder brother, "I haven't had time to wrap it up properly yet!" He met Leo's pained gaze, "I guess I didn't administer enough anaesthetic did I?"

Leo gave a half wince, half smile as Donnie pulled some bandages and other medical stuff from his box and began carefully applying thick layers of padding and bandages to his knee.

"Now Leo- if you're gonna heal this time, you have to tell me even if you get the slightest pinch, ok?"

The blue banded turtle shrugged, but to demonstrate how serious he was, Donatello tapped Leo's knee lightly, creating a new wave of fire.

"Did that hurt?" Donnie crossed his arms.

Grudgingly, the eldest turtle nodded.

"See?" The purple banded turtle gave one of his signature goofy grins, "How easy was that?"

Leo shrugged, "How long till we can get going, doctor?" He asked sarcastically, hating the fact he was being wrapped in cotton wool, both literally and metaphorically, by his brother.

"I would say…" Don fastened the bandages with a safety clip, "five days- more if you don't rest your knee." Leo sighed, there was no winning.

The doors of the van opened again and Raph sulked in, Casey's hockey mask clutched in one hand and a long, solid stick in the other. He shut the door with a slam, turned around then froze.

"What?" He growled, then realising Leo was awake held out the stick, "A crutch- since you turned your old one into firewood." He teased, but the eldest was not amused.

"Uh, Raph," Donnie ventured, "Why do you have Casey's mask?"

Raph grinned, "That hot head was getting on my nerves, so I thought that we could teach him a lesson for acting like the big bad vigilante."

"What sort of lesson?" Leo dared to ask, but he knew that he would have no say in the matter since the usually calm and collected Donnie was rubbing his hands in glee, ready to pounce on the mask.

"Pink, flowers and of course rats." Raph stated simply, pulling a couple of cans of spray paint from his belt, handing one labelled 'pink' to the scientific turtle, and keeping the one marked 'brown' himself. "You helping, Leo?" he looked up from marking out the mask design, then rolled his eyes at Leo's reluctant-to-do-anything-bad look. "Your loss." He muttered before returning to the task at hand.

Sighing, Leo pushed himself up against the van wall, wincing slightly in the process. Already he could feel the four walls creep up on him, making him edgy and desperate to get a katana blade in hand. He needed to do something, and not just sit there watching two of his brothers paint a mask.

Mentally he walked through each of the katas he knew, imaging the weight of his blade in hand and the noise of the weapon parting air, but that only took a couple of minutes, the ones he knew were fast paced, perfect for sword work. He then went through each fighting technique he knew, remembering the names of each move, weapon and stance he was trained in. That took a little longer.

Once he came to the end of his stupidly long list, he opened his eyes to see Donatello stand up and admire the work, showing it to Leo before creeping out of the van to return it to his owner. Even Leo couldn't help cracking a grin.

There was silence for a few moments before Raph spoke up.

"Seriously bro, you have to stop doing this."

Leo looked up, "Doing what?"

"You know what."

"Tell me." Leo bit back stubbornly, sick of his current situation.

"Thinking of everybody else before yourself."

"That's a bad thing?"

"It is when you end up hurting yourself." Leo didn't have a response to that. "Look man," Raph continued, "We all know what you're like, so if you don't want us to make a fuss over you- get your injuries sorted right the first time around."

"Yeah, Raph, I just had this lecture with Donnie- I get it- I shouldn't be stubborn, I end up endangering the mission." He sighed and pulled his good leg up to his shell, "Don't you see Raph? I have to be like this or else we won't get to master Splinter. I wasn't… there… when it happened so I feel like I've got to help find him as soon as possible." He put his head in his hands, "What if Don's wrong and I won't get better, if I'm going to be stuck as a useless cripple for ever? I-"

"Stop it Leonardo." Raph's voice was firm, using the big brother tone Leo had heard himself use countless times before, "We'll get you through this. Heck, you came back from nearly being dead a couple of months ago. We need you bro, and I think you know that." Raph shuffled next to his brother and looped an arm around him, "Besides, you wouldn't be useless, you'd still be barking orders around wouldn't you?!"

Leo gave a weak smile then, before Raph could react, threw his arms around him, embracing his brother. But that wasn't the most surprising thing, for water began to fall onto Raph's shell, and it took him a while to realise that his eldest brother, the fearless leader, was crying!

"Um, Leo? You ok?"

Leo nodded, raising his head, tear streaks running from underneath his mask, "I'm sorry," he quickly rubbed at his face, removing the evidence that he had been crying so quick, Raph would have thought he had imagined the entire episode, if it wasn't for the fact he could never picture his brother crying, "It's just… things have been building up lately…" he blushed, his green face rapidly turning red, "Could we just pretend that never happened?"

Raph nodded and the two moved apart awkwardly, the silence falling thick and heavy. Then there was the scream, the loudest, most horrendous screech that the brother's had ever heard. Raph turned to Leo.

"Wasn't me." He stated simply.

Then the van doors flew open revealing an enraged Casey Jones, hockey mask and all.

"Raph!" he cried, ripping the pink flowered mask from his face, twisting it to show the fat rat painted on the inside, "Iamsogoingtokillyou!" he exploded in one go.

Leo held up his hands, "Wounded area here- please kill him somewhere else."

Raph glared at his brother, both at the mention that Leo was hurt, and because he had just forced Raph to face the enraged teen.

"You'll pay for that Leonardo!" he cursed as Casey reached in and dragged Raph away.

"Bye." Muttered Leo, thinking maybe this week won't be so bad…

How was that? Review your thoughts or any ways to improve.

If you have a request for a slight fluffy scene, I have 4 more chapters worth to fill, so please send me ideas! THanks!

LL99 OUT!