"I HATE council meetings!" Raph exclaimed.

It was nearly three hours before the Hamato brothers were allowed to leave the Council chambers. Although, the 'meeting' in this case was just the council members giving them a lecture about neglecting their duty and classes and their childish behavior and disrespect towards their tutors. They were the heirs to the most powerful ninja clan in existence, the high councilor stated sternly, it was time that they started acting like one.

The lecture ended with a thinly-veiled threat that if they continued to neglect their duties, the care of their 'pet' would be handed over into the care of Doctor Stockman until they proved they could handle everything like responsible young adults.

It took everything in Raph to not lash out at that comment.

Leo wasn't a pet. Sure, he may look like it and act like it, but even after knowing his lost brother for less than a day, Raph was beyond sure that Leonardo had more humanity than some of those that worked for the Hamatos.

Doctor Stockman came to mind as a perfect example.

"Well, it's life." Donnie commented as he glanced down at his watch, shaking his head and wincing. "It's too late to go back to the Sanctuary. Leo's probably gonna need a couple of hours before he's comfortable in his new home."

"Ooooh! Can we go to the computer room? I wanna see if I can find Leo on the cameras."

Raph scrunched up his face. "That sounds kinda stalkerish if you ask me."

"It's not stalking, Raph. I wanna see, uh, I wanna see if Leo's settling down alright."

"But why do that while he's asleep?" He shivered. "That's just weird."

"Well, night time would be the perfect time to watch Leo, so technically Mikey's right."

The two arguing froze, whipping their heads to their genius brother, typing away on his phone idly.

"Did…. did those words really come out of your mouth?" Raph narrowed his eyes. "If I hadn't been with you for the past three hours, I would say that you're not my brother."

Donnie rolled his eyes in annoyance, but there were hints of that little smile of his. "I'm serious! Watching Leo tonight could give us some info of his nightly habits. It could give us some hints about how he survived for twelve years on his own."

"I don't see the connection." Raph slowed his steps, placing his arms above his head as he went completely relaxed.

Almost immediately, Donnie went into 'Information Machine Mode'. "New York City is home to about eight-point-forty-million people. Of course, Leo's gonna feel more comfortable at night when the foot traffic is at a minimal and darkness gives way to more shadowy areas of the night. So, nighttime would be the time when he's out and about more."

"So…. you're saying Leo's like a mutant ninja?" Mikey's face broke out in a sly grin. "That's sooooo cool! A teenage mutant turtle ninja."

Raph snorted. "That's stupid."

"For now, we're only going to observe." Donnie scrubbed his face, sighing heavily. No doubt the reality of the situation really hitting him. It was really hitting all of them.

They finally found their family, and it seems as though Leo will never be able to communicate. It looked like everything had finally crashed with Donnie.

Raph eyed him closely. "It's going to be okay Dee."

"I know. It's just…."

"Hey. Don't worry. We'll figure everything out." Raph assured. It felt weird for him to be this emotional with his brothers, but he figured Donnie needed the support what with all they were going through, good and bad alike. "We could all use a break right now. Let's go get some pizzas made and get comfortable in the computer room."

Donnie nodded in agreement as they separated. Raph and Mikey went to the apartments, grabbing some frozen pizzas, as many canned sodas as they could carry and some blankets. Raph also made sure to grab some popcorn for him to munch on after the pizza was eaten. The two siblings moved on quickly, taking what they grabbed back to the computer room. When they arrived, Raph refrained from sighing when he saw Donnie sitting in the beanbag chair, typing away on his laptop. Mikey, being Mikey, went straight to the wall of monitors, switching the cameras from viewing the area down by the docks, to the black and white night-vision view of Leo's sanctuary.

But, as the pizzas were eaten and sodas drunken, there was still no sign of Leo.

Raph was absently munching on his third bag of overly buttered popcorn. Despite his exhausted state of being, Donnie was still glued to his laptop and Mikey was still watching the screens. Neither had moved much over the course of the two hours they had been there. There was a comfortable silence that lasted between the three brothers, the only sound being Donnie's fingers on the keyboard and when the genius brother would glance up and warn Mikey against being close to the monitors.

When Raph had tossed a handful of popcorn into his mouth, he heard Donnie sigh heavily. Without looking up, the eldest brother said in a warning tone, "Mikey. I'm not going to tell you again. You're going to hurt your eyes being that close to the monitors."

"I'm trying to spot Leo! And my face isn't any closer to these screens then you are to your laptop screen."

Raph absently nodded as Donnie said something, probably debunking what the youngest brother said. But when he glanced over at the genius, the brown-haired teen was shifting himself a bit so that the screen wasn't too in his face. There was another blanket of silence before Mikey sighed. Raph glanced over at his slightly disappointed looking brother.

"I tell ya what guys: Leo's gonna be awesome when we play hide and seek. It's all 'Where's Waldo' hard mode here."

"He's survived twelve years alone out in the city. Leo has probably had to be good at hiding."

The popcorn was halfway to his mouth when that sentence left his brother's mouth and suddenly, Raph didn't have an appetite anymore. "I really wish we had found him earlier. Like a lot earlier."

"Me too."

Raph was able to tell that the conversation had angered Donnie when the soothing typing noise became sharper, shorter. "I don't even want to imagine all that he's been through over the years. All those scars on his body…he didn't get those accidentally. He's been cut, stabbed. Repeatedly. I actually found bullet holes in his shell."

Raph shifted the bowl of popcorn off him so he wouldn't be tempted to throw it if his anger took hold. He bit back a growl as he grounded out, "One of the reasons I'm hoping that we can get him to communicate with us. I need a list of faces to smash in. Nobody hurts my bro and gets away with it! Ever."

Absently, he tossed a handful of popcorn into his mouth and angrily chewed on it. The way the conversation turned into one that gave the air a spark of tenseness that he was starting to feel like he was suffocating. At least his anger was justified in this regard. And it was shared with his siblings.

Above him, the vents shifted but he ignored it in favor of listening to Donnie as he sighed heavily. Frustratingly.

"And then we, his own family, hired bounty hunters who tranquilized him off a roof, taking a chunk out of his shell." Donnie shook his head. "No wonder Leo probably distrusts all humans."

A growl escaped Raph's throat before he could stop it. "We never should have listened to Bradford and hired those goons. Fat lotta good all those promises on paper not to hurt him were. If we had found Leo first, we damn well wouldn't have shot him off the fucking roof."

The sight of his brother, bleeding from a crack on his already scratched up shell, made him beyond angry. No one ever hurt anyone close to him.

If they did, they better pray to whatever deities they believed in that he never found out where they lived. Otherwise, they wouldn't be walking for the next few years without some sort of aid.

"We had been looking without success for six years." Donnie's calm words took some of the smoke out of his anger. His exhausted and wry laugh had almost all of his anger drain out of him. "I was beginning to wonder if he even existed."

Raph's lips were drawn into a thin line as he remembered those years in which Donnie spent long hours doing research and trying to track down his brother with very little luck.

There was a moment of silence before Mikey, leaning back in his chair, asked quietly, "What are we going to do if he really can't talk or understand us?"

Raph glared only slightly at the younger brother. "Take care of and protect him? Doesn't matter if he talks or not. He'll still be our bro."

"Of course, he's our brother!" Mikey exclaimed, as though Raph was suggesting something to the contrary. The young boy reclined his chair, his eyes going to the screens for a moment before turning back with a shy grin. "We've only known him for less then a day…is it strange that I already love him so much?"

Raph gave an amused snort to cover up the fact that he also loved Leo despite the short amount of time spent with him. He was glad that both his brothers felt the same way but that didn't mean he'd had to admit it out loud.

"I'm going to bake him some muffins." Mikey said matter-of-factly with a nod. "I bet he'd like muffins.

Donnie sighed heavily, sounding far too stressed than anyone their teens should be. Raph worried about his brother's future health. "I still haven't determined how much of his digestive system has changed from his beginnings as a turtle, so nothing with any dairy product in it. It's very possible that he's lactose intolerant." There was silence as Donnie's fingers flew over keyboard before he added quickly, "Also, no chocolate or processed sugar for now."

"A challenge then…." Mikey hummed, stroking his nonexistent beard. "I accept."

Raph chuckled a bit. Mikey could make anything edible if he tried. He shuddered as he remembered the pizza milkshake that Mikey cooked up one summer when he was bored.

"I really wish he had eaten something earlier." Donnie rubbed his eyes, and the jovial mood plummeted once again. "He seems underweight, and who knows what his diet's been like out there on the streets. I'm worried about malnutrition. I've been planning on putting together a dietary plan once we figure out what foods he likes."

Raph sat up, throwing some popcorn into his mouth before he shifted the subject to their dad. It got his mind off the stressfulness of the situation in trying to get his new brother settled. He hoped that their dad would like Leo as much as the three of them did.

Well, of course he is, his mind told him. Leo is as much as his son as they were. And his dad was very accepting.

Donnie had gone back to typing, still speaking as though he hadn't noticed Raph zoning out for a moment. "It's going to take a week or two to everything set up, and then I'll head over to Japan to bring him over."

Mikey had muttered something, his eyes going glassy as he spotted something on one of the monitors. It must've been something else, something other than their turtle brother. Raph had long suspected that Leo was just hiding somewhere in the Sanctuary where the cameras couldn't see him.

The vents, he noticed suddenly, had stopped creaking sometime during the conversation.

Probably nothing.