"Anytime today, oh fearless Leader."

Said turtle shrugged off the snide remark from the hothead and continued to set the session in motion. Despite his exhaustion he wanted to get started.

"Okay guys. In today's training we'll be working on defence instead of offence. The aim is to throw your opponent off balance in close combat and to take advantage of the situation."

"As I've said before, and I think you should heed my words of wisdom this time, the more you sweat in practice, the less you bleed in battle."

"Weapons can't stop all attacks. We'll work on weapons training another time - and no, those aren't your words of wisdom."

"Well that's no fun…"

"No, you're right, Raph. It isn't. But everything is impermanent, and we have to make the best of it. Now pair up with Donnie. You'll be defending first."

"Urgh…"

"Without your weapons."

"WHAT?!"

"Now, Raphael." Raphael reluctantly placed his sais on the ground. In all honesty he felt somewhat naked without them.

"Donnie, attack him with your bo staff."

"But…he's going to hurt me, isn't he?" Donatello was hesitant in proceeding, shrinking behind his weapon whilst grasping it tightly. Raphael had a giant chip on his shell already…

"You'll be fine, Don. When you swap positions you'll get to pummel him anyway."

Donatello charged towards Raphael who took a defensive stance, arms up blocking his chest area. He dodged Donatello's first swing and immediately grabbed hold of the bo staff above Donatello's hand and kicked Donatello hard in the plastron. The purple banded brother fell back and lay winded on the course floor. He rubbed his front to stem the flow of pain.

"Raph. We're working on close combat. You have to let Donnie get closer."

"Why should it matter? I got 'im away from me. I defended myself." At that moment Donatello angrily propelled himself into his older brother's personal space, pushing the bo staff on to Raph's throat as he pinned him to the floor.

"That's more like it." Leonardo couldn't help but sneer. Raphael struggled to keep his hands under the bo staff to stop himself from being strangled but he knew he couldn't keep this up for long as his flexed upper arms started to shake. He tried to kick Donatello's legs out from underneath him, but to no avail. His brother, despite his skinny looking frame, was made of pure muscle. Raphael was allowed no movement to throw him to one side or the other. He also didn't have enough leg room to land another kick in his attacker's plastron in order to push him back.

"That's enough Donnie. He's not getting out of there."

Donatello quickly looked over to the eldest and back again with a wry expression. Raphael fumed in response to his brother's mocking.

"Mikey, what did Raph not do?"

"Huh?" Michaelangelo was quietly sitting cross-legged across the dojo, caught off guard by the question in response to what he had just witnessed. Donnie beat Raph?

"Uh, he didn't win? Ah haha!" Michaelangelo couldn't help but chuckle.

"No, Mikey. He was too cocky and wasn't prepared for Donnie's surprise attack. Raph, Donnie had most of his weight on your front, but you have great strength. You could have retracted your head in to your shell, rocked backwards - causing him to lose balance and fall forwards."

"Well I'm sorry I'm not being such a forward thinker and perfect as you, Leo. I had a bo staff to my neck and I tried to get 'im off."

"Not hard enough. You need to think with both your head and your instincts. Try again." Raphael cracked his knuckles but managed to stifle his outburst of cursing.

"Mikey, your turn to attack me."

Michaelangelo quickly hopped over and practiced whirling his nunchucks in preparation for training. As Leonardo psyched himself up for the attack, he became slightly disorientated by the fog that began to shroud his peripheral vision. Between the two bright flashes that cut across his forward vision, his younger brother's face was temporarily replaced by the face from his nightmare that morning. He couldn't forget the petrified and innocent eyes of his brother in distress; his foaming crimson mouth that frantically tried to cry out for help as he was thrown towards the leader's exposed katana. He desperately tried to blink the frozen picture away. Leonardo's knees buckled as he became unstable and distracted. Suddenly he felt a hot stab of pain cut across above his right eye and he crashed against the cold hard floor of the dojo, holding his head with his hand. He felt the presence of his brothers next to him as well as warm fluid on his palm without opening his eyes.

"Leo, are you alright?"

"Bro, I'm really sorry." Michaelangelo placed an arm on his brother's shell, hoping that his brother would forgive him for clocking him on the head with a nunchuck.

"Hah! Don't be sorry Mikey. As Leo said this is a defence class. And he failed. You're a failure just like me. Who'da thought." The others could see Raphael was clearly digging at Leo for embarrassing him earlier.

"Let it go, Raph! Leo, can I take a look?"

"I'll be fine. I'm gonna wash up. We're done for today." Leonardo quickly summoned up the courage to dash for the exit. Donatello turned to their youngest.

"Mikey, what happened?"

"He just…froze…I thought maybe he'd stop me at the last second. You know what he's like. I feel so bad."

"Don't feel bad, Mikey. It wasn't your fault. I'll check up on him in a minute. But something's definitely not right." Donatello looked concerned as he traced his brother's steps to the exit and paused for thought.

As Leonardo rushed for the bathroom, Raphael's comment of him being a failure echoed in his mind. Leo slammed the door in anger and propped himself up on the sink, head hanging low. He then focused on the throbbing he felt across his head. Looking in to the mirror he saw nothing but a shroud of his former self. He looked weary and pale and spotted the deep but small gash above his right eye. He felt he deserved it and felt his heart clench in angst at what he wanted to do.

As he pulled out one of his tanto blades (but not his personal one) he suddenly noticed one of his bandages was difficult to pull off. A previous wound had opened up and started healing but had trapped part of the bandage. He felt the fabric pull against the newly formed skin which made him feel nauseous. Fearing it would get infected and that he would have to tell at least Donnie of his shameful secret, he tried to prise back the blood stained wrapping. He hoped no one noticed since the wrappings were black. The wound opened up again and drops of blood fell in to the sink. It was deeper than what Leonardo had remembered. He didn't have the courage to stitch this up himself. Donnie was the expert in that respect. He always fixed them up when any of them had substantial injuries.

"Leo, are you okay in there?" Leonardo's eyes suddenly sprinted to the door to check it was locked. The feeling of dread flooded his mind as he quickly ran the tap and placed the dishevelled wrappings in a nearby bin. Fortunately for Leo he always carried spares, both for mishaps whilst on patrol and for personal use.

"Yeah, I'll be out in a minute. Just finishing up."

"Okay, well, I'll wait here until you're done. Wanted to make sure you didn't have a concussion and had passed out on the floor." Leonardo frowned. He knew Donatello wasn't leaving until he had checked his head. He tried to wipe most of the specks of blood that had dried on his skin, but sighed frustratingly as the frantic rubbing was causing more of his head to turn red and making the area look worse.

Leonardo unlocked the door and was greeted by the friendly but concerned face of Donatello.

"Ouch Leo. I think that's gonna need stitches."

"It's not that bad." Donatello tried to grab Leo's arm who instinctively pulled away, fearing he would touch his bad arm.

"Alright! I'll come with you." Donatello was somewhat flabbergasted at his brother's hostility at being touched. More theories and thoughts went through his mind, so Leo quickly moved towards Don's lab to keep his brother happy. He wanted this to be over as soon as possible…

Donatello pulled up a seat near to Leo who looked withdrawn but focused on something.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Leo felt as if his heart had suddenly shot up to his throat which he quickly swallowed back down.

"About what?"

"About what happened in the dojo. It's not like you to get distracted in training."

"I wasn't…distracted…I was…tired. I've not been sleeping well."

"Why do you think I've been on these?" Donatello shook a bottle of sleeping pills from a nearby table.

"Donnie, I don't think that's the answer."

"I don't think it is either, but sometimes we don't see past our own reasoning. Sometimes we need to admit to ourselves that we need help."

"What are you saying, Don?" Leonardo backed off Donatello's hand that had been wiping Leo's forehead clean.

"What I'm saying is that what we are all going through right now, we shouldn't go through it alone. We're all here for each other. You're here for us, right?"

"Of course, Donnie. I'm here for all of you."

"Do you not think that we're here for you?"

"No, of course not! I just…"Leonardo looked doubtful, not knowing what to say next. Donatello leaned in closer.

"Look, I get it. I really do. But please, if there's something you need to let out…" Unfortunately for Donatello, Leonardo shrunk away from him even further. The former took a deep breath.

"My door is always open. Just bring me coffee in case I'm not completely conscious." Leonardo smiled weakly and sat quietly whilst Donatello stitched up the small gash.

"Thanks Don."

"No problem."

But neither of them had the intention of opening up anytime soon.