The next morning, Splinter gathered his sons around and described to the them his experience of he night before.

"We may have saved your brother's body, but the battle for his heart and soul has just begun. We must do our best to bring him back to us, though I fear it will be the most intense battle we have yet to face."

That said, Splinter encouraged his sons to spend as much time, individually, with their brother as they could. Although it was uncertain whether Leo could hear them, or even if he would listen to them, at least the sounds of their voices would give him something to latch onto should he elect to return. It wasn't much, but it was all they could do; the rest would be up to Leo to decide. By mutual agreement, Michelangelo was allowed the first watch.

As the youngest turtle took his place beside his brother's sick bed, an unprecedented amount of grief came over him. Thinking back to his behavior towards Leo before his oldest brother had disappeared, Michelangelo could not help becoming disgusted with himself. Although never intended to be intentionally cruel, the younger turtle knew that the practical jokes and snarky comments he had aimed at Leo had hurt the older turtle more than he had let on. Sorrow lacing his voice, Michelangelo took his brother's hand and began to talk.

"Hey Leo, it's me, Mikey. Well, I guess it's actually Michelangelo, since ya' got a new Mikey. Bro, I just wanted to tell you how sorry I am. I don't really have an excuse; there's not really an excuse for using your brother as a verbal punching bag, huh? I can't even really say I did it for the laugh, because none of those pranks I pulled, or the jokes I made about you were all that funny.

I guess I never stopped to consider that you had real feelings, just like the rest of us. I got so caught up in the myth of you as the 'fearless leader' that I stopped thinking about you as an individual. Guess your new brothers remembered that. Watching you with them, it made me remember what it was like when we were little, before this team thing got in the way. Dude, when we were little, you were my hero; actually, you still are, even though I haven't shown it in a long time. No one was as strong or as brave as my big bro Leo. I know Raphael always gives me a hard time about my fascination with superheroes, but I think it comes from the fact that as a youngling, I was convinced you were one. Dumb, huh? It always amazed me that you seemed to know what to do, no matter what was going on. You seemed invincible, so I forgot a cardinal truth: heroes are people too.

I really want you to come back to us Leo. I have so much to share with you, so much time to make up for. But bro, I'm not going to insist. We hurt you bad, and not just before. If it wasn't for us showing up uninvited like we did, you'd still be happy living with your new family. Master Splinter, Donatello, and Raphael wouldn't be happy if they knew I was telling you this, but you have to decide what's best for you. Do I want you do leave us? No. But if you decide that's what you have to do, if returning here would only make you miserable, then know that I, at least, understand. Just remember something, okay? I love you. I haven't shown it like I should have, but I do."

At that point, Michelangelo could not bring himself to say anything more, as tears clogged his throat. Instead, he just sat in silence, gently running his hand over his brother's arm, and soothingly rubbing his plastron. Deep down inside, Michelangelo knew that somewhere, somehow, Leo had heard him and had, at least on some level, forgive him. But the damage was too deep; Leo wasn't coming back.

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Donatello was the next to take his turn with his older brother. Unaccountably nervous, the second youngest turtle fussed around his older brother, checking his wounds and the IV lines for problems, rather than talking about the real problem.

"Everything's looking good," Donatello told his lifeless brother as he finally took his seat. He licked his lips nervously. "It's all healing up like it should. So…so…so I should stop dancing around the subject, huh? It's just, I, well I feel like the world's biggest moron. Here I am, the so-called 'genius' of the family, the trained scientific observer, and yet I completely missed what was taking place within my own family. No, I worse than missed it; I ignored it. Your Donny was right to kick my shell. What I did in refusing to treat your wounded shoulder was unforgivable, as a 'medic,' but even more as your brother. I don't have an excuse why I did what I did. You could have died from that infection, and it would have been my fault. Just one more in my list of wrongs I perpetrated against you, though. Let's see, there were also the nasty things I said to you, or laughed about when Mikey said them. Your Donny took me to task for those too. But even worse, as he pointed out, I didn't stand up for you like I should have. Shell, I can't count the number of times you have stood by me and my crazy ideas, even when was apparent you had no clue what I'm talking about, or even why my idea was relevant. You just accepted that because I said something would work, or that it needed to be done, that it would or did.

Leo, we need you to come back to us. We…I have missed you. I miss our late night talks when you would come to send me to bed early in the morning after I had put in too long a night at the lab. I miss having you lead our team and our family. I miss your strength. Please, let me have another chance."

By this time, Donatello was crying. Unable to speak, all he could do was hang onto his brother's hand. As he cried, Donatello was forced to admit that while a good portion of his tears were in sorrow of his horrible treatment of his brother, a greater part of them came from the soul deep "knowing" that the destruction of their bond was too extensive, and Leo wasn't coming back.

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It took several days of Michelangelo, Donatello, and Splinter sitting with Leo before Raphael was ready to take his turn. Entering the infirmary reluctantly, the red-clad turtle took a seat next to his brother, but he couldn't bring himself to actually touch Leo. Raphael, unlike his brothers and sensei, had seen first hand how much his touch had terrified his older brother. Deprived of touch as a means of communicating his feelings, Raphael was forced to rely solely on his words.

"Hey big bro, it's me. I know, you probably don't want anything to do with me. I can't blame you. I wouldn't want anything to do with me either. But I was hoping you would at least maybe hear me out. The first thing I'm going to say, is I'm not going to say I'm sorry. And that's not because I'm not sorry; I am. But what I did to you goes beyond the ability of 'sorry' to fix it. I have never been so ashamed of myself in my entire life, and I've said and done some pretty shame-worthy things. But I don't think I've ever done anything so dead wrong as my methodical, piece by piece destruction of you, big brother. I don't even deserve to call you by that title anymore. Your new brother was right. I forfeited that right, and I was an idiot.

The one thing I would like you to understand is, it was never you. I never, ever hated you. What I hated were my own weaknesses, highlighted, at least in my eyes, by your strengths. Nothing I did ever could compare to you, and I hated myself for it. But rather than admit that, and accept the help I know now you would have offered me, I instead tried to bring you down to my level. Unfortunately for both of us, it worked. I knew I had gone too far that night I called you a disgrace, because it was never you who disgraced our family. But I did. There was no honor in the merciless way I ripped your soul to pieces. Shell, I'm no better than the Shredder. I have to tell you, though, that I have never hated myself more than I did that night I walked in on you hanging yourself, except for maybe that night I attacked you in your new home.

I was jealous, you see. Not so much of you, because I was so happy to see you content and at peace, but of your new family. I…I just wanted what they had. I wanted it to be me you turned to when you needed a shoulder to cry on. I wanted it to be our family you were sharing your laughter and joy with. And at the same time, I knew I had lost that forever, because I had driven you away. Your Raph was right to take a piece out of my hide. He was doing what I should have been doing for all these years: throwing aside my blasted pride to protect you from anything and everything that would hurt you, even myself. It's funny, but event though you were not the brother he was raised with, I could see your strength of character in him, in all of them.

Leo, I'm begging you to come back. I will do whatever I have to do to convince you to return, even if it means leaving the family for good. Just, please, come back to us. Michelangelo and Donatello need you. If it matters to you, I need you. Please, don't let it end like this."

At last, unable to restrain himself any longer, Raphael snatched his brother's hand up. He desperately hoped for a sign that Leo had heard or acknowledged him, but there was no response. Leo remained as still as the night they had brought him home.

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Days passed, and the small family continued to plead and beg for their lost member to return, but there was no response. Leo just lay on the bed, comatose and unresponsive. As the days turned into weeks, it became apparent that wherever Leo was, what he needed wasn't in this place. Hope became displaced by despair, and the little family began to wait for the day when their beloved member would stop fighting and, finally giving in to the inevitable, would leave them for good.

A/N The writing of this chapter was deliberately rough. Because of the destruction of the family bond, none of these brothers was able to connect with Leo the way his other brothers can. They don't know him anymore, so they don't know how to reach him. Boy, it sure would be nice if they knew someone who could, wouldn't it? ;)