Leo flinched as his brother pulled the needle not so gently from the crook of his striped arm. "So, what's this for again?"

Donatello froze. "Do you ever listen when I'm explaining things, or do you just have a voice going 'wah wah wah' in the background while you contemplate whatever comic book has your full attention at the moment?"

The brother in blue thought for a moment. "Yes." His chesire grin slowly growing across his face. Donnie's teeth creaked under pressure. "What?! That was a multiple choice question not a yes/no question!" Choosing to ignore his sibling's infuriating smile, the young genius continued, "Never mind. I'm doing a genetic analysis on us all to see how our human and turtle DNA combines."

"And try out your new toy?"

"Sigh. It is NOT a toy. It is a MARVEL of engineering…"

And, Leonardo's attention wandered again. Fiddling with the little cotton ball he was using to stop the bleeding with one hand, his other started picking at the fake plastic padding of the chair's armrest. Before too long his toes were also engaged, examining the texture of the metal footrests. The transition from smooth to rough anti-slip was hypnotic.

Then there were fingers snapping in his face. Leo swung his gaze up to meet his angry brother's eyes. "For real?" Red stripes screwing up, Leonardo winced. "Sorry."

"Put upon sigh. Basically, when you were injured by the Krang," Leo winced again, "the damage to your liver was severe enough that I was considering a liver transplant. You only need part of one and it can grow into a full liver again." Donnie flicked a vial of the slider's blood a few times before placing it in the machine. "Given our unique origins, the only beings who could possibly be compatible are the four of us." He turned and leaned back against the counter as he crossed his arms. "Fortunately, it wasn't necessary; however, I noticed some factors during testing that didn't make sense to me at the time. So, I whipped this baby up to do a more thorough analysis." Sighing without a verbal cue this time, the softshell waved a hand at his "patient", "Now I have work to do, so please, by all means, be somewhere else."

Leon knew better than to push his luck. "Okie dokey Dontron." Pushing himself up off the chair, Leonardo headed out of his brother's lab. Once back in the main room, a twinge in his side reminded him that he still wasn't a hundred percent yet. He didn't have anything pressing to do at the moment, and with no one around to see his old man moment, the slider decided a nap might be in order.

Peeling his wraps off, he absently pulled the door to his subway car shut behind him and slid between the sheets of his bed. As his shell settled into its customary divot, a relieved sigh gusted out of his lungs. He was happy to help Donnie with his experiments anytime, really, he was. More often than not, whatever his amazing twin was working on was important, or would end up being a huge benefit to the family; and Leo felt a debt to his brother for all the care and sleepless nights he got after the invasion.

Flashes of the infirmary ceiling and Donnatello's tired face played behind striped eyelids. Leon's injuries had been extensive, leaving him not much more than a bag of meat packed with broken bones and a crunchy exterior. As uncomfortable as Donnie was with the "soft sciences", he'd really stepped up to help his ailing brother, and Leo knew, he owed Don his life. He owed all his brothers really, so those debts along with lessons hard learned during the invasion motivated him to do all he could since to put his family and their needs ahead of his own.

Shifting to his side a little, he ran a finger over the scars running along his opposite arm. As soon as he'd been let out of bed rest, his days had been filled with repairs to their home, getting Casey settled in and trying to help his family along with their own healing. The benefits hadn't been one sided though. Spending time with them, working together, it'd been more enjoyable than he'd expected. Leo'd always loved his family, but his inclination towards selfishness had often led him to spend time on his own or try to manoeuvre family activities into things that he preferred or was better at. Drawing with Mikey, training with Raph, even meditating with his Dad, had come be some of his new favourite things. Helping Donnie in the lab was fun in its own way, and he'd started to be able to follow along with the purple turtle's technical spiels a bit.

Anything medical though, especially in the lab, stirred up feelings. Like echoes in the tunnels, phantom pain and fear ratcheted through him. So far, the blue clad turtle had managed to power through, but it left him tired and shaken. He didn't think that his family had noticed, at least he hoped, since they had enough of their own issues to work through. Even though it was just a blood draw, this latest assistance in the lab had brought up memories of needles, and pain, and weakness and…. With a shuddering breath, he throttled it back down again, trying to settle into what he hoped would be a refreshing afternoon nap.

The dark eyed slider slowly rose back to wakefulness from a gentle hand rocking his shoulder. "Leo?" a soft voice asked, "Wake up little brother." Leonardo's snout was filled with the scent of Raphael as he sucked in a deep breath. "Mmm." He mumbled and carefully rolled over in the bedding. "Raph? Sup?" The snapper snorted. "Dinner's ready. April treated us to Chinese tonight."

Leon perked up a bit. "Chicken lo mein?"

"With a couple egg rolls."

He smiled. "Sweet. I'll be right there."

A snaggle-toothed grin and a pat on the shoulder later, Leo was alone in his room again. Without an audience he was free to stretch out the ever-present stitch in his side, then slowly get up and work out his limbs so he could walk to the kitchen without a hitch in his step.

Delicious smells of soy, veggies and grease grabbed his snout halfway up the stationary escalator, bringing a smile to his face. Ah April, you're too good to us. Signature saunter now in place, Leon swung into the kitchen/former worker breakroom with a jaunty "Good evening fam!"

A chorus of greetings from his clan accompanied a smattering of hugs on the way to the feast laid out on their counter. Once he had a full plate in hand, he gave April a little one-armed hug and a "Thanks for the eats," then plunked himself at the table to gorge himself on semi-cheap takeout.

Leo shifted a bit, trying to get comfortable on the old wooden chair Mikey'd painted pastel blue just for him. It was all so normal, everyone enjoying their supper, that it took Leonardo a second to spot what was off. His humans were good, rat Dad seemed fine, one, two, ah there it was. Twin brother was off. Now, it was normal for Donnie to sit quietly sometimes, off in his own little world; but this was different. Even with his normal order of egg drop soup and a side of dried wontons, Donatello wasn't eating; just dropping wontons into his soup and watching them soak up broth.

Leo mimed an elbow nudge near a purple spotted arm. "If you leave those too long they'll get all soggy and you won't like them anymore."

A huff. "I know 'Nardo."

"Ok, ok. Don't whine to me when you can't get your crunch on."

"I won't."

Usually, with a new experiment on the go, Don would be chattering away about it until he started repeating himself, then someone would "tactfully" try to steer the conversation in another direction. Tonight though, he was flat. Flatter than he was normally even, and it was starting to worry his immediate younger brother.

" 'Sup 'Tello? You ok?"

"Yes, Nardo. I'm fine." He answered, this time with a hint of an annoyed growl.

Leon glanced up and met April's concerned gaze on his brother's other side.

"Alrighty. Sorry for bugging you. Just tryin' to look out for my twin y'know?"

His good intentions promptly exploded in his face. "For the last time Leonardo! We are NOT twins! We're not even the same species! So drop it!" Donnie yelled shoving back from the table and stomping out of the room.

Silenced reigned until April decided to overthrow it. "Ok, even for Donnie that was volatile." When Leo tried to get up to follow, she put a hand on his arm. "No, you're the one that set him off, let me. I'll give him twenty minutes then go in there and see if I can't ferret it out of him."

The slider was conflicted. He really wanted to go after his brother, but … she was right. Donnie'd be more likely to respond to her after that and letting him cool off a bit would probably help. "Yeah, yeah. You're right." He gingerly settled back into his seat and picked his chopsticks up again. Tapping the utensils on his dish, he added, "He started some gene analysis thing earlier today. Maybe it has something to do with that?"

April nodded in acknowledgement around a mouthful of pork. "Kay."

The rest of the family began to settle back to their meals, trusting April would sort it out in time. Raph paused with a thoughtful look. "If it is the gene thing, I wonder what he found that'd make him like that?"

April cautiously edged her way into her bestie's lab bearing a plate with whole wheat crackers, peanut butter and apple slices. A mild healthy snack for her friend after he'd skipped dinner. He was obviously upset about something, and she didn't want to deal with a hangry Donnie on top of it.

Their mad genius was fixated on at least three different displays, rapidly shifting between them. As best the young woman could tell, he was comparing their information, and he didn't seem happy about the results. "Donnie?"

"Mmm?"

Well, at least he was answering. "I brought you a snack."

"You're a snack."

She stopped for a moment. Ok, auto-snark mode it is. "Well, yes, yes I am, but I meant the apples and crackers kind." He just waved a hand dismissively and kept scrolling with the other. Oh no you don't.

April dumped the plate next to him on the desk. "Nope. What's up with you? You're being all mopey and weird, like someone just killed your robo dog. Again."

The twitchy ninja rolled his eyes. "I'm fine. Just busy. Busy, busy, busy. THANK you, April, very much for the snack. Now if you'll just…." He trailed off, clearly hoping she'd take the blatant hint. She didn't.

Chocolate complexion starting to redden with anger, she grabbed the opposite side of his chair, and spun him around only to slam him to a stop with the other hand, trapping him and getting right into his face. "Ah … no. What's going on Donnie? Leo said you were working on some gene analysis thing. Did you find something? Is something wrong with you guys?"

He gritted his teeth, making a rare attempt to reign in his anger. "Of course I found something. We're genetically engineered super soldiers. There are many fascinating things to find. For example, did you know that we have an accelerated metabolism? That's why the painkillers didn't do 'Nardo much good. I wonder if I could…."

She cut him off. "Donnie. Is. Something. Wrong. With. You?"

Her concern finally trickled through. "Oh. OH! No, nothing's wrong with us. We're all fine. Honest." Don's dark eyes wide at understanding her distress.

April took a moment to bask in her feeling of relief and stood up, hands on hips. "Ok. Good. If y'all are fine, what's got you so wound up?"

And he started to fall back into himself again. "It's nothing to worry about, I promise. Just some little cawinkity dinks about how Draxum made us. No biggie."

"Doooonnnnniiieee?" She drew out his name in a low warning tone. April wouldn't tolerate his evasion any longer.

After giving her a dark side eye and weighing the probability of getting her to drop things, he finally relented. With a resigned roll of his head Donatello finally began to explain. "While studying our DNA, I expected our turtle genetics to be different, obviously. But given that we all had the same human donor, Dad, I was very surprised to see that two of us had a different but somehow related human DNA profile."

April blinked a few times. "So, two of you were made with Splinter's DNA, and the others with DNA from some relative of his?"

"It would seem that way, but I can't see how." The softshell crossed his arms. "Dad's only living relative was his grandfather back in Japan. So I ….. started to dig into Draxum's records." They both hesitated at the mention of the deceased scientist.

After the invasion, the wider effects of the battle in New York's skies gradually became apparent. Between the failed military defense, krang creatures running amok and a giant SPACESHIP exploding above in the sky; massive damage had been done to the city, causing widespread casualties. One of those was later discovered to be Draxum, crushed when debris from the krang vessel landed on April's old high school. Mikey of course had been devastated. Leo had suddenly felt a lot less guilty about all the collateral damage.

The boys had cleaned out his apartment, to make sure nothing compromising was ever discovered, and found reference to material and record caches the man had squirreled away around New York and its vast underground. So far Donny had gone after only a couple of them, finding difficulty in connecting the yokai information storage mediums to his computer systems.

Donnie shook himself out of his reverie, "So I'm still having trouble getting Draxum's storage units to cooperate, but I was able to find a couple record fragments referring to how he made us. Two of us were, as we already knew, made by fusing Dad's DNA with a turtle." He squirmed a bit. "The other two also had the DNA of another human; a female donor, from what I can tell. I haven't been able to get the records to cough up more than that as of yet."

"So, two of you have a mother?" April asked, hand on chin.

He rolled his eyes. "Essentially yes."

"Wow." She took a moment. "That's huge. Which two?"

Don settled further back into his chair, working his square jaw a bit. "Nardo and I."