A/N: - You will need to read the author's note at the bottom for the explanation as to why who got shot got shot!

Mikey awoke to a low groan and realised that his brother was stirring beside him.

"Ugh, what happened?"

"Donnie, you're ok!" Mikey bundled his brother without a second thought and Donnie screamed with pain as one of Mikey's limbs connected with his gunshot wound. Upon hearing his brother's yell, Mikey hurriedly scrambled off of his brother, who was clutching at the bandages and almost desperately trying to loosen them to stop them touching the wound but stopped when he realised it hurt a lot more to take the bandages away. Raph was grumbling incoherently about something which Mikey assumed would involve Shredder. Leo yawned, stretched and stood up. He walked over to his two youngest brothers and bent down in front of Donnie.

"How're you feeling?"

"Like crap."

"That bad, huh? Well, we need to check on the wound to make sure there's no infection of any kind." Leo gently unraveled the bandages and ordered Raph to bring an antiseptic wipe from the first aid kit they had 'borrowed' from the pharmacy. He wiped Donnie's wound carefully and with very little resistance from the wounded Turtle save for a brief attempt to push Leo's hands away from the sensitive raw skin of the wound. Donnie was grateful to his brothers but he wasn't particularly fond of the pain…after all he was only a Turtle at the end of the day. He gritted his teeth together to hold back the scream that was threatening to erupt as the antiseptic wipe sent a stinging sensation up his right side. Leo was soon finished and had re-bandaged his brother while Raph and Mikey watched in silence, waiting to be told what to do. Donnie forced a small smile and flopped back against the wall and was asleep in seconds.

"What do we do now? Where do we go from here?" Raph asked Leo gloomily.

"Yeah, dude, how do we find the others and get a safe place to stay?"

"I don't know. This battle has just got a lot more complicated."

"You're telling me," Raph snorted.

"We need to get some sort of food and drink or we'll be in a lot more trouble than we are now. We also need to find somewhere safe to keep Donnie until he's in a fit state to walk. And we also have to find the others. We'll rest up by day and search for the others by night. One of us stays on guard here each night while another of us searches for the others and the other searches for food."

"So who's doing what tonight?"

"Any volunteers for any of the jobs?" Leo looked round hopefully.

"Uh, not trying to take the easy way out or anything but I think I'll stay here and keep an eye on Donnie, ya know?"

"Ok, so Mikey stays here. Raph, which of the other jobs do you want to do?"

"I'll search for food – you'll probably have better luck finding the others than I will…"

"Right; we leave at sunset."

Sunset came quicker than any of them would've liked and there was a silence as the three conscious brothers stood facing each other. If one of them was found by Shredder then what could they do to defend themselves? And with no back-up then they wouldn't stand a chance.

"So, when do I start panicking?"

"If we're not back by sunrise then get Donnie out of here as soon as possible without getting yourselves seen. If Shredder takes any of us then the others must keep moving, got that?" Leo spoke gravely as he faced his brothers and Mikey and Raph hesitantly placed their hands on Leo's in the middle of them all in a silent agreement. Leo glanced quickly at Donnie before turning to his red clad brother, "ok, Raph, let's go. You take the town and I'll check the docks."

"Got it – good luck, bro," Raph clapped his brother on the back as the two of them prepared to go on their separate missions.

"Yeah, you too," Leo replied. And then the two of them were gone and Mikey was left alone with Donnie. The responsibility now rested on his shoulders; if Raph and Leo didn't return then he would have to leave them behind – something he didn't want to do.

"Man, you'd think there'd be more food up for grabs but the place it being watched by swarms of police," Raph whispered under his breath in frustration. He was searching through the garbage and there was nothing. There were no shops still open but maybe…maybe there would be a take-out he could go to without being seen. Impossible, he decided. Without his trench coat and with the Foot all over town he would be spotted before he could say the word 'pizza'. He walked down a dark alley and kicked a crumpled drinks can along as he fruitlessly searched for some food. But then he saw it, something so beautiful it made his mouth water. There was a pizza delivery boy walking along with a stack of about five pizzas. Raph crept forward to see where he was taking them. The boy disappeared into a building and came out about ten minutes later with one pizza still in his hand. He made sure the shadow hid him and called out, "hey, kid! You need that pizza?"

"What's it to you?"

"I'll pay you for it…"

"No point, it's ruined."

"What d'ya mean ruined?"

"I mean, I dropped it down the stairs and it got all screwed up so the dude on the top floor wouldn't pay for it. You can have it for free if ya want,"

"Really? Bring it over here, kid," Raph grinned in the shadows. The kid walked over and held out the pizza cautiously. Raph's hand shot out and grabbed it, opening the box and inhaling the rich smell of pepperoni on a thin base with extra cheese and tomato. He exhaled in pure bliss, "Thanks, kid, I won't forget this,"

"Nah, it's ok," the kid waved his hand and mounted his bike, driving off in a cloud of smoke.

"Pippy-roni's Pizzeria, huh?" Raph muttered to himself, "I will recommend you guys to the biggest pizza eaters in New York." He smiled and began going in search of any other useful items or any food and drink that would enable them to keep their strength up. He found the cord to an old dressing gown in a bin and used it to strap the pizza to his back so he didn't run the risk of dropping it and continued on his search.

Meanwhile, Leo was searching the area around the island. The fire service was there and putting out the flames while carting the homeless people off to somewhere where they could sleep in safety. He had to find the others before the firemen did. If the men found Master Splinter then they would be done for. Their mutant world would be exposed and they would then have a lot more than just Shredder and a gun to worry about. He cursed under his breath and slipped silently onto a boat and hid under a fishing net as a fireman shone his torch in Leo's direction. The thin and wavering beam of light moved slowly and steadily over the boat but no-one spotted Leo from where he was hidden. After the light moved on and all was dark, Leo crept out and saw a flash of movement in an alley in the shape of a rat. His heart was racing as he headed towards where he'd seen the movement but, when he got to the alley, there was no-one there. He looked round, bemused, squinting into the darkness to try and see who was there. He felt a warm breeze on the back of his head. Wait a moment, he thought, freezing, breezes don't smell of garlic! Oh shit. He turned round and was greeted by a gun, which pointed directly at his head.

"Shredder!" he exclaimed. How had Shredder managed to creep up on him so effectively like that without him noticing?

"Yes, Leonardo. And this gun is that which shot your brother."

"Are you going to shoot me?" Leo asked, trying to keep his voice calm and fearless but failing as his voice began to quaver.

"No."

"No?"

"I merely want to offload a burden onto your shoulders which I have carried since last night. I do not believe I could kill you without letting you experience the full guilt of what you have done."

"What I've done?"

"I was aiming for you – you're the one I wanted to shoot, but when all four of you tried to move out of the way Donatello simply walked in front of you for a split second and that was when I fired. It's your fault he's wounded; although he would have been dead had I not moved my arm last minute in the heat of the moment."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Guilt is the greatest destroyer." Shredder smirked and then vanished leaving Leo bewildered in the alleyway.

"My fault." He whispered, voice cracking as the full realisation of what was happening dawned on him. Shredder had been aiming for him and had Leo not tried to get them into a defensive position then maybe Shredder would've hit his original target. He shook off the guilt that was pressing down on him while he searched but knew it would return as soon as he had nothing to focus on. Shredder had planned it, of that he was certain, but he still couldn't get rid of the thought that it could've been his fault that Donnie was lying injured and scared in an old garage.

"Oh man, oh man, oh man, oh man," Mikey jumped up and down as he saw the first rays of light crawling through the streets of New York. Raph and Leo still weren't back and he was worried and hungry and Donnie wasn't looking too good.

"Had ya worried there, bro didn't I?" Raph's gruff tones echoed through the empty garage as he stepped into it and put down a large box of stuff.

"Yeah, you did. I guess Leo's still hiding up there and you're gonna try and fool me into thinking he's not come back."

"No – I haven't seen him. We went our separate ways and I've been nowhere near the docks."

"You haven't?"

"No. Why, hasn't he turned up yet?"

"Nuh-uh. I'm worried about him, Raph. I don't like the idea of him being out there in the daylight. What if something happened to him and he's been discovered by people and they take him off for experiments or something?"

"We leave here without him and get as far away as possible," Raph's voice was emotionless.

"NO! We can't do that! I know it was a kind of silent agreement and that's what Leo told us to do but you always never listen to him so, this once, I'm entitled to follow your lead even if I get throttled by Leo when he turns up."

"You mean if he turns up."

"No, I mean when he turns up. You gotta have more faith in him. Give it a little while longer, please Raph? If he's not here by tonight then I'll search for him tonight and then we'll leave if I don't find him by midnight. Please?"

"Alright, but you'd better hope nothing finds us." Raph shut the garage door.

At about midday there was a knock on the garage door.

"Guys? Let me in," came Casey's voice through the door. Raph leapt to his feet and opened the door, hurrying Casey, April and Splinter into the garage.

"Is Leo with you?" Mikey asked them.

"He was but he said he needed time to think so he's gone off for a while. He'll be back by tonight." Splinter explained, smiling at his sons' relief on hearing their brother was safe. Donnie listened in on the conversation, keeping his eyes shut. His guess was that Leo blamed himself for what happened. Even if it wasn't his fault Leo would always blame himself if something bad happened to one of his brothers.

"Mikey…" he whispered, voice raspy. Mikey walked over and dropped to his knees in front of his brothers.

"Yeah, Don?"

"Where's Leo?"

"He's ok and he'll be back by tonight."

"But what if Shredder finds him?"

"Look, Don, I wanna go after him but I got Raph watching my every move like a hawk. I need a diversion."

"I can cause one of those. When I call Raph over then the others will follow. You get out when that happens and find Leo. Bring him back here and don't get yourself into any trouble, Mikey. Maybe you'd better convince Raph to go with you…"

"Nah, Raph-------" but Mikey was cut off by a yell from Raph.

"WHY THE SHELL DIDN'T YOU SHOW UP LAST NIGHT?!"

"I'm sorry, Raph, but I couldn't."

"WHY THE SHELL NOT?"

"Because I needed to think."

"WELL YOU CAN'T HAVE BEEN THINKING THAT SUCCESSFULLY IF YOU DIDN'T THINK OF ME AND MIKEY AND HOW WORRIED WE'D BE!"

"Raph, quit yelling. I'm not in the mood," Leo pushed past his brother but Raph grabbed him and swung him round.

"You're not going anywhere until you give me a proper reason for why you didn't show up."

"I MET SHREDDER, ALRIGHT?!" Leo shouted, swatting his brother's hand off his shoulder and making to leave the garage.

"You met Shredder?" Raph's voice cracked. Leo turned round again slowly.

"Yes."

"Did he hurt you?"

"No…not physically. He just wanted to talk, to tell me something."

"Tell you what, Leo?" Raph stepped forward.

"None of your business."

"WHAT DID HE TELL YOU, LEO?" Raph's voice rose dramatically in volume again as he yelled at his brother. Leo cowered and Raph stopped yelling. Leo had just cowered from him, something he'd never done in an argument unless Raph had started throwing hard objects at him.

"He told me the truth about when he shot Donnie…" Leo's voice was soft but dangerous.

"The truth?" Raph walked over to his brother so that no-one else would hear what Leo said, "What's the truth?"

"It was my fault he shot Donnie."

"He could've hit any one of us. He wasn't aiming."

"Yes he was. He was aiming at me but, when we tried to get closer together in defence, Donnie got into his line of fire. It should've been me that got shot, not Donnie."

"Leo, it wasn't your fault. Shredder's just trying to destroy you from inside out because you're too damn good at avoiding him and outwitting him and you're a great leader. And that's the truth because I don't give real compliments lightly. I thought you would be intelligent enough to know that Shredder was leading you on, but clearly not." Raph turned and walked back to the group that was now gathered round Donnie, who had distracted the attention from the quarrels of Raph and Leo. It wasn't until he heard the garage door shut that he realised something had gone wrong. Everyone turned round.

"Shit," Raph cursed as he realised that Leo had gone again.

"Nice going, Raph. I don't think you could've been more considerate if you'd tried." Mikey teased his brother, "you should go after him before he does something stupid."

"Leo doesn't do stupid stuff." Raph retorted.

"I thought you hinted that he wasn't intelligent in your little quarrel." Mikey whispered.

"You heard that?"

"Dude, the Mikester hears all, sees all and wants to know what food you found."

"There's a pizza in the box along with some flat soda and slightly stale bread and cake. I'm going after Leo." Raph sighed, leaving to go after his older brother. Please don't do anything stupid, he thought worriedly as he ran towards the docks. That would be where Leo had gone and Raph had to follow him as quickly as possible, Damn you, Leo, if you've done anything stupid – you'll only regret it later. Please be ok. Stupid brother, always causing trouble.

"RAPH!" a terrified screech pierced the crisp morning.

"Leo? LEO!" Raph picked up his speed and ran even faster. He was almost at the docks when he heard a gun being fired and a scream of desperation. Desperation but not pain. Raph had expected to round the corner to see Leo dead on the floor and braced himself for the worst but a searing pain cut into his left thigh. He cried out and sank down to the floor in agony. The pain was worse than any he'd ever felt. He heard the pounding of footsteps but everything was going out of focus and he could see three Leonardos sat beside him. His eyes were watering with pain and his vision was swimming.

"It's ok, Raph. I'm here. Oh God, Raph, I'm so sorry. This is all my fault. First Donnie and now you," Leo's voice was trembling.

"It's ok, Leo," Raph gasped through the bursts of searing pain. He felt Leo's arms lift him into a sitting position but felt too nauseous to speak any more or open his eyes to face his brother. Leo was checking the wound and Raph flinched as his brother's shaking hands came into contact with the wound.

"This is gonna hurt, Raph, but it's got to be done." Leo apologised as he pulled Raph's Sais out of his belt. He couldn't leave the bullet in the wound because, knowing Shredder, he may have put poison on the bullet. He used the longest spike of each Sais and got the bullet out after about ten minutes. Raph passed out through the pain but felt the Sais slipped back into his belt and Leo lift him up. He tried to cling to his brother but couldn't move.

"What happened?!" Mikey rushed forward and helped Leo lower Raph to the ground.

"He was shot, what does it look like?"

"Is the bullet still in there?"

"No, I removed it. I guess all Don's medical knowledge is rubbing off on me…"

"My sons, I will deal with Raphael. Michelangelo, fetch the first aid kit. Leonardo must rest."

"No, Sensei, I want to stay with Raph."

"You will rest, Leonardo. But first you will let Michelangelo clean your shoulder."

"What did ya do to it, Leo?" Mikey asked as he walked back and handed the first aid equipment to Splinter, who took out an antiseptic wipe and a bandage and handed them to Mikey. Mikey took Leo to one side and looked at his brother's shoulder, eyes widening in shock. He looked into his brother's face as if seeing him for the first time, "How did this happen, Leo?"

"Shredder stabbed me when I tried to stop him shooting at Raph." Leo muttered.

"No offence, dude, but it would have been so much easier to warn Raph."

"I tried but I only got as far as calling his name before they gagged me. Then I tried to knock the gun out of Shredder's hand but he stabbed me and then shot at Raph."

"Where did they go after that?"

"They left,"

"Just like that?" Mikey looked surprised but never took his eyes off Leo's shoulder as he cleaned it. He was gentle and, although clumsy a lot of the time, seemed to know what he was doing but then again they'd all fixed each other up enough times to know what to do in most situations.

"Just like that." Leo confirmed, grateful to Mikey for keeping conversation going so Leo couldn't concentrate too much on the pain as the wipe got into the wound. Mikey finished with the wipe and bandaged Leo's shoulder diagonally across his chest and then around his stomach area to keep the bandage in place. Leo flexed his arm and winced slightly. Mikey helped him up and they headed back over to Raph who was sat up and leant against a wall talking to Casey on the wall underneath the only small window in the garage, which was high up and barely let in any light.

"Do you think Shredder was trying to kill Raph?"

"Almost certainly but he didn't stop to see if he'd succeeded after he'd shot at Raph," Leo grimaced, receiving a grimace from Mikey in return. It wasn't often that the Turtles were petrified of a piece of shaped metal. They weren't scared of Katana or of Bo staffs but guns were different. The bullets shot like lightning out of the guns so you didn't have time to analyse the situation; you could only wait for the sharp pain to hit.

"We have to kill him."

"Stating the obvious there, Mikey," Donnie was crawling towards them (he didn't feel confident enough to walk).

"Yeah, but it's true."

"We know – but how do we defeat a guy with a weapon that we don't fully understand?"

"We could fight fire with fire." Donnie pointed out.

"But Shredder's not fighting with fire…" Mikey said, baffled.

"It's an expression, Mikey," Donnie chuckled, "we get a gun and use it to fight back."

"Where do we get a gun?"

"That's where Casey comes in. He knows tons of gangs with guns in their possession so all he has to do is steal them from the gangs."

"But none of us have used guns before."

"Casey will hide and spring his attack when Shredder aims for us."

"Hey, dude, isn't that a bit dangerous with you and Raph being injured?"

"It's a risk we'll have to take."

"No, I won't let you take that risk. You and Raph will stay with Casey and tell him when to shoot." Leo sternly told his brother.

"What?! Leo, you and Mikey can't handle all the forces of the Foot, Hun, the Purple Dragons and Shredder!" Donnie stared at his brother in disbelief at what Leo seemed to be planning, "I will help you. Raph can stay with Casey because he can't walk. I can manage some normal members of the Foot. Shredder will just shoot blindly – it's not as if he ever actually aims."

"He does." Leo whispered, "He was aiming at me when you got shot…you just got in his line of fire."

"Leo, it could've been any one of us. And if I moved in the way then that makes it my fault; I won't let you blame yourself for what happened to me. And Raph will literally murder you if you start blaming yourself for what happened to him."

"I'm sorry, Don, but I don't want any more of you getting hurt. You and Raph will stay out of the way and won't come into battle unless it's vital."

"I don't like this. Mikey, what do you think?" Donnie turned to his younger brother, looking for support.

"Sorry, dude, but I'm with Leo on this one." Mikey shrugged apologetically. Leo smiled at his brother in purple but only received a scowl in response. In a way, Donnie was right and it was likely that he and Mikey wouldn't stand a chance against Shredder and his forces. But Leo refused to let his already injured brothers join in with a battle which could result in one of them dying. And he'd planned for if his two injured brothers were discovered; he'd offer himself as a sacrifice but escape last minute. He didn't want any deaths or, if he could avoid it, any bloodshed in the battle. But, first things first, they had to get hold of a gun and find a way to lure Shredder into a foolproof trap so that there was no way he could escape from them. This war had gone on far too long and it was about time they ended it once and for all. And they knew that they had sworn to defeat him multiple times before and failed but this time just had to be different, because this time they had one thing on their side that Shredder would not expect; he and the Turtles would be fighting as equals with equal weapons.

A/N: - Don't worry Leo's Girl; Leo will get his moment of glory. Donnie was shot because when I looked back through the story I realised that there wasn't nearly enough Donnie action – he's got them out of trouble but he doesn't get into much of it. And as for the medical knowledge, when you hang round Donnie so much and go through so much of it then you kinda pick it up – it's the same with most things – but enough of my ramblings. Sorry this chappie was shorter but I am a little bit busy at the moment moving house and…umm…making emus for a carnival…honestly, you don't want to know!