Missing scene from "Tales of Leo." So, I own nothing.

Soon after Raph and Leo had climbed into their hammocks as Splinter ordered, and the candy had been eaten by their brothers, Splinter himself climbed back into his nest to sleep. While he insisted his sons have beds that hung above the floor, he rested in a nest much like the one he'd taken them all to years before.

Raph watched his father carefully. He lay still as a little mountain, till he was certain by the sounds coming from his father's nostrils and the slow rhythm of the rise and fall of his chest that Splinter was asleep. Then he turned over in his hammock. He leaned over its side, waited for it to stop rocking, and punched Leo in the arm.

Leo turned over in the hammock below his brother's and glared at him. His whisper was a hiss. "What?"

"Don't ask 'what' traitor! Why did you go and tell Splinter about going through the boards of that old tunnel and wrestling that alligator?"

"I didn't tell him about you wrestling it! I just told him we 'saw' it, where it was when we last saw it, and that I used the nerve-pinch he taught me on it! That's all!"

"Oh yeah, just enough for the teacher's pet to show how well he learned his lesson!"

"So! He, Donnie, and Mikey 'had' to know about it! I don't want them eaten by it!"

"They wouldn't ave been!"

Before Raph knew what was happening, Leo reached up, grabbed his arm, and yanked him down while twisting in his own hammock. Raph fell on his shell into the thick, layered mats underneath all their hammocks Splinter had scavenged and placed there. Leo landed on top of Raph straddling his plastron. He pinned his arms with his hands and glared down into his face. "How do you know? That thing could swallow Donnie and Mikey, and snap Splinter in half! I wasn't going to let that happen!"

Raph stared up at him a moment and then murmured, "But … I wouldn't have 'let' it do that to them."

Leo gazed down at him his glare crumpling away till he looked like he would cry. He shook his head. "Raph … Splinter goes off to forage all the time for us by himself ..."

"But … he smelled it …"

"Yeah … what if it came upstream at him, in the dark, with a loud roar of water through tunnels to cover up the sounds of its approach? What if it was where he didn't expect it to be, because we invaded its home? And Donnie and Mikey, they sneak out sometimes too … What if it got one or both of them? We have to protect each other Raph. We're all we've got!"

Now Leo was crying, and Raph was staring up at him gaping. "You … you didn't tell just to get me inta trouble?"

Leo cocked his head and squinted his eyes while rearing back over Raph. "You didn't think 'I' wanted some of the candy? 'I' don't like doing extra pushups or missing out on treats! I just … couldn't stand it if … if one of you just . . . disappeared."

Raph stared up at him. "You were willing to do extra push-ups, even flips?"

"Yeah!"

Raph stared at him blank-faced a moment. Then his face crumbled slightly as he whispered even softer, but so his blue-clad brother could hear, "You really are fearless!"

What do you think?

God Bless

ScribeofHeroes