Raph:

I heard the startled yelp of one of the humans as she sprang back to avoid my spew of barf. She didn't need to worry about it, because all that gut-filth landed hot, sticky, and nasty, back all over my jaw, my neck, my plastron. It was the grossest thing that I had been through in a long time, but it was a bit of sick mercy-literally. I could focus on that pathetically small annoyance instead of the horror of what was looking more and more like Leo's corpse. They still had him strapped down on that gurney, and they were wheeling him until he was parallel with me.

I heard a sigh of disgust, and a worried voice from one of the humans, as she stared at me. "That thing just got sick all over itself. Should it be reported?"

I heard an answer, bored and indifferent, as a man answered, "Don't worry about it. We'll be wheeling that one back into the lab for an assessment anyway. I suppose we might as well move both of them, while we're at it. That blue one still hasn't come around yet, and the boss wanted them monitored."

I tried to snarl out that I wanted this crap cleaned off, and I needed to know if Leo was alive, and what in the hell were they doing to me, but I couldn't manage more than a pathetic grunt because of the muzzle over my mouth. It was a weird contraption, one that looked as if it had been made specifically for me. That thought was more terrifying than I could really deal with at the moment, so I didn't.

My growling got their attention, but that was pointless too. Aside from a curious glance or two, they ignored me, and I watched as they adjusted the wheels to Leo's bed, left the IV pole dangling between us, and left.

And, I couldn't do much but stare at Leo's limp, still body, and tear up. That was stupid, too, because the tears were pooling around the puke, and I wasn't bawling enough to wash any of it away, but I ignored that.

Leo lay there, so still, that I thought that they had just wheeled his corpse into the room to mess with my head, but that was stupid, too, because why would they go through all this trouble with a dead body?

I watched the sluggish rise and fall of Leo's plastron, his slow, ragged, deep breathing, and for a few seconds, I was happy as hell just to see that he was alive, however cut up he was now, and how much of a monster he had been before. Any thought of revenge, or resentment just dribbled away when I saw him lying there so helpless and frail. I couldn't hate him. I was just so damn glad to see that he was alive.

I tried to call his name, but all that I could manage was another grunt, and a garbled sound that didn't sound much like language at all. I couldn't flip or roll or bring my hands to my face, and I had nothing to clean my face off with, so that made it sound even worse. I didn't care at that point. Surely Leo would know my voice by now, even if I wasn't yelling at him or cussing him out. The thing around my mouth wouldn't let me.

I heard a soft moan of pain, and watched as Leo's face twisted in pain. I saw that sharp line between his eyes as he breathed in a long, drawn out groan, and then, his fists tensed up, helplessly. I saw him arch up a bit as if to see if he was still strapped down, and I swallowed back another sick thought.

They had done this to him before.

Leo's eyes slowly fluttered open, and he stared, languidly at the ceiling until I grunted even louder for his attention. He flinched as much as the straps would allow, and I saw his dark eyes shoot wide open as he whipped his head towards me. I saw his eyes brighten over and then spill as he stared at me, mouth open, and looking like he couldn't make up his mind about crying, screaming, or both.

"Raph." He whispered my name, disbelieving, as he stared down at my new scars, the metal thing around my mouth, the rigid way I tensed when he spoke.

He let his head flop back a bit, as he closed his eyes, and swallowed hard. I heard his breath hitch, and then, he started crying.

"Raph." He shook his head, rolling it back and forth against the bed, as he shut his eyes, and crumbled into an all out sob.

"What are you doing here?!" He spat at me, heaving. He lost it then, choking on his snot, and falling apart completely.

"I went through all of this to keep you safe! To keep them from getting you! And now…." Leo shut his eyes, shuddering and bawling.

"They have you anyway." He whispered, bitterly, in a tone so harsh and dead that it scared me.

"And now, everything I went through, everything that I did to you…..was pointless torture."

I grunted, wildly rolling my head back and forth in disagreement, confused and somehow even more terrified to see Leo collapsing into insanity.

He looked up at me, narrowing his eyes. "Did they hurt you? Did she try anything?"

I shrugged as much as I could, not really sure who they or she were, and trying damn hard to follow Leo's derailed train of thought. On one hand, I was damn glad to see him awake and speaking, but on the other hand, I was getting scared, because he seemed completely out of his head. What in the hell had they done to him to make him so crazy? What were all those scars on his plastron? Why would anybody hurt him like this?

My questions were useless, and I ignored them, because Leo lay his head back, and shut his eyes again.

"Master Splinter, and Donny and Mikey…..are they even alive?"

He cracked open his eyes, and I shrugged, numbly. If I started thinking about me and Leo being the only ones left, it would have been kinder if they had left me to die in the Lair. Life without my family wasn't a life I was interested in prolonging.

Leo's eyeridges withered at my shrug.

"Raph….are they alive?" I heard the tendril of hysteria in his voice as it rose higher.

I nodded and grunted, even though I felt my gut quell in terror. I didn't know if Splinter, Donny, or Mikey had survived or not. Splinter had gone back to give us a running start, and I had bought my baby brothers a bit more of a fighting chance with my own flesh.

They had to be alive. They had to be.