Tapping my pencil anxiously against the table, I watched as the seconds of the clock began to tick by at a seemingly exceedingly slow rate. I think that glacier from Antarctica just passed the school, I thought.

Raph had been an odd case recently. Yes, I was almost certain that our problems had been resolved amongst each other, but why was he hardly talking to me and being so…secretively lately? Not even Leo knew where he was half of the time, and every time he tried to confront his younger brother Raph would always get defensive and snappish.

It had all of us irked. Leo was frustrated, Mikey was oblivious, and I was confused. What was he doing? Raph's not stupid. He's actually really smart, he just puts his athleticism ahead of his academics. So I didn't have to worry about him doing anything that would cost him a great deal as well as us, right?

I didn't think that there was anything to worry about.

But I was going to get down to the bottom of this once and for all. I was tired of sitting on the sidelines and just watching as my brother disappeared only to arrive home defensive and angry. Granted, anger had always been an emotion that Raph was found beyond impossible to control, but it seemed even harder for him now than usual. Even to the point of him snapping at Mikey and making him cry.

I know that Raph felt bad about it afterwards, though. I could see it in his eyes as he sat on his bed, staring up at his ceiling and listening to music through his earbuds that were connected to his phone. I had seen him apologizing to a sobbing Mikey later that same night, so he had definitely made amends afterwards.

But even after accidentally seeing that apology, nothing was any clearer. Everything was just as foggy as before. I didn't know if I was just confused or also a bit angry, but whatever I was, I wasn't going to let it stop me from figuring out the real reason of Raph's odd behavior.

"Donatello," The teacher snapped, breaking me immediately out of my thoughts and turning my gaze from the ticking clock back to him, "what is the capital of Minnesota?"

I knew the game that this teacher was playing. Since he caught my eyes wandering, he was going to try and quiz me geographically to try and have a reason to make me write a one thousand worded essay. "St. Paul."

The teacher seemed a bit angry for a moment before coming up with a new state. "Louisiana?"

"Baton Rouge."

"Ohio?"

"Columbus."

"California?"

"Sacramento."

"New Jersey?!"

"Trenton."

The teacher sighed, deciding to give up. "You are too smart for your own good, Donatello."

I felt a smirk try and make itself prominent on my lips, but I suppressed it as best as I could, forming a line with my lips accompanied by a blank stare. "So I've been told Mr. Fire."

Mr. Fire took in a breath, ready to finish the lesson he had started earlier, only to be cut off by the shrill screeching of the bell. I smiled slightly at myself before grabbing my backpack off of the back of my chair and sliding it onto my shoulder, pushing my chair in and placing my pencil behind my ear.

I rushed out of the classroom, running to the lockers, specifically Raphael's. I had to catch him before he decided to disappear for hours on end only to return home at nine at night.

Taking two steps at a time downward-a sensation I had never really been able to experience due to constant weakness-down the school's 'master staircase', I made my way to Raph's locker, happy to see that I had beaten him there.

I leaned against his locker, waiting for him to come by, counting the seconds down to get rid of the boredom making itself present in the very pit of my stomach. When his eyes fell upon me after walking from his last class they narrowed with suspicion and confusion. "Need something?"

I crossed my arms over my chest and rolled my eyes to look at my forehead in a thoughtful look and manner. "To know where you are going, why you are going, and why you return home so late. Just that. But I feel like me just asking nicely isn't going to get me anywhere, is it?"

Raph clutched his pencil in between his teeth before moving to his locker to input his passcode to his lock. "Nope," he replied through clenched teeth, "it's not."

"I didn't think so," I sighed gently, staying pressed up against the lockers. He undid his lock and opened his locker, placing unneeded books, papers, and binders away so he could go home with a backpack less burdened. "But I still feel the need to know and the want."

"Well, it's none of your business. That's my stuff to worry about, not yours."

"Worry about?" I asked questioningly, an eyebrow cocked.

He shook his head and looked at me. "Expression that means that it's none of your business."

"Welp," I said with a slight shrug of my shoulders, "I guess that's too bad since I'm already kinda, sorta worried," He stayed silent and left me alone with the thoughts running themselves ragged in my cranium. I let out a slight sigh. "Dude, you've barely been anywhere that we have. I mean, when I was diagnosed in the hospital, you weren't there and the morning of that you weren't home. Where have you been?"

Raph shut his locker and relocked the lock before beginning to walk away. "I don't want to talk about it."

I was quick to walk in front of him and block him from moving from his position. "I wasn't asking you to tell me. I'm telling you to tell me."

"That's too bad, then," Raph growled out looking away from me, "because I'm not telling you any time soon."

I was getting a bit frustrated. He had never tried this hard to keep a secret from me. I know that I am typically the calmest out of the four of us, but right now I was beginning to feel like the title of such was slipping ever so quickly from my fingertips. "You've been ignoring me, you've yelled at Mikey, and you're disrespecting Leo more so than normal-"

"Leo's not our father, Donatello! We don't have to listen to him!" Raph was about to pop a vein, I knew. This was always a touch subject for him, but pressing the subject may be the only way for me to get his secret out of him.

My eyes hardened a bit. To be Raph's twin, you had to forget about sympathy in order to keep your title up. "Raph, you have to accept everything at some point! Leo's not our father, but he was kind enough to go through several court sessions in order to keep us! He could have allowed all of us to be put into orphanages and be split up!" I yelled, thankful that there were no more kids in the school's hallways. The teachers seemed oblivious. They must have been in their classrooms with the doors shut. "He deserves respect! He's not our father, but Mom and Dad are-"

"Don't you dare fucking say it!"

"They're dead, Raphael! You have to accept this! You've been in denial for far too long! There are things that we don't want to accept but still have to anyways and this is one of them! You can't keep rebelling because of this! You can't keep acting like your actions don't have consequences because they damn well do!" I yelled, breathing heavily and harshly. During my rant at some point my hands must have latched around his wrists because that's where they were at the moment. He had been struggling to break free, but for some reason he had been having trouble detaching himself from my grip. I wasn't that strong. Especially with the whole disease thing that I had. That just topped off the cake. So why was Raph having so much trouble escaping from me?

He looked at me with fire in his eyes and perhaps a bit of wetness. "Let go of me, Donatello!"

"Not until you tell me where you go." I prompted, standing strong and my hands only clasping around his wrists tighter.

He growled, eyes fighting over which to do. I could see it. "I can't tell you. It's for your own good as well as our family's."

My eyes narrowed. "Well, then I guess we'll both be here for a while, won't we?"

Raph shrugged. "I suppose so."

OoOoOoO

I sat on my bed in a bit of a fit. Raph still hadn't told me where he was going. We had only left our spots when a teacher had forced us to leave the school, which was about five going on six. I was quite angry when the teachers forced us home, but fighting with a superior wouldn't have been a wise choice, so Raph and I had complied.

Why was middle school so insistent on tearing the two of us apart? How many arguments had we had since middle school started up? I couldn't count them. I could only stare up at the ceiling and wait for the seconds to tick by. Soon, seconds turned to minutes. Then minutes turned into hours. Then hours turned to days. And as the days passed by, not a single thing changed. Raph still avoided me, he didn't speak to Mikey, and he disobeyed Leo without a single word spoken to him.

The only time I'd really see him is when he came home at nine at night and flop down onto his bed, falling asleep in long sleeved shirts and jeans, which I found very peculiar.

He always slept in t-shirts or even just flat out shirtless sometimes during the summer. He always wore shorts though. To see him suddenly always wear long sleeves was an oddity that I never thought I'd live to see. I had tried to confront him about it several times, but not once had he answered me. He continued to walk on, not speaking.

Irritation had long since coursed through out my veins. Why was he being so stubborn?! So secretive?! I found myself having to bite my tongue back a lot more now. I had to figure out what was wrong with him. I just didn't know how.

"Raph, what the hell?! Mikey?!"

I froze on my bed. That was Leo's voice. I jumped to my feet before running out of the bedroom and making a mad dash down the steps, looking out over the railing before making it all the way down. I peered into the living room, out and over the railing. Raph stood there, panting, bleeding, and bruised. The sleeves of his shirt were torn from the seams, revealing heavily cut and bruised arms. There was a long cut running down the right side of his face, which kept his right eye shut tightly showing his evident pain.

Little Mikey was held tightly in his arms. He looked dirty. Not nearly as injured-not even close-but he definitely looked like he had been rolling around in the dirt. His shirt was tore in some areas, and he had a long cut on his arm that had long since stopped bleeding, but his eyes were wide and held nothing but fear, pain, and tears. I gasped at the each of them. "What happened?!"

All of their gazes snapped up to me, not having heard me run down the stairs. No one spoke. No one moved. No one hardly breathed. I grew frustrated. "Are your ears full of cotton?! What happened?!"

Mikey looked at me with the most tearful eyes I had ever seen. I almost regretted asking. Almost. A part of me still needed to know what had happened. Leo looked at Raph and nodded. "Go to the bathroom so we can clean you both up. After that, I'm going to need an explanation." I came down the rest of the way, looking at Raph before taking Mikey from his arms so that Raph could go get cleaned up.

Mikey is quick to bury his face in my shoulder. Leo takes Raph up the stairs to get him cleaned up. I look to the cut on Mikey's arm and begin to walk to the kitchen. "How about we get that cut of yours cleaned up?"

Mikey whimpered slightly, and I rubbed his back. I wanted to know what exactly had happened to get both of my brothers so injured, but I felt like asking Mikey about the situation would not have been a wise decision. I walked into the kitchen and sat him down on the counter before walking to the cupboard that held a few bandages and some cleaning peroxide.

I grabbed the items I needed before returning back to my injured little brother. "Let's run some water over that cut of yours, ok?" I asked, taking his arm gently. He nodded slightly with a sniffle before I stuck his arm under the water that ran from the faucet.

He hissed upon the water's contact before he got a bit used to the feeling. When the wound looked fairly clean, I grabbed the bottle of peroxide and opened the cap. He gave a gentle whimper before I even began to pour the liquid over his cut. Probably because he knew that it stung. I give him a gentle smile. "Hey, it's going to be ok. Here, give me your other hand," I said, offering my hand to him. He nodded slightly before taking my hand into his. "If it hurts that bad, squeeze my hand. I don't care how tightly. It won't hurt me."

Mikey gave out another tiny sniffle before nodding. He squeezed my hand, closed his eyes tightly, and clenched his teeth together, bracing himself for the stinging sensation that was about to run throughout the entirety of his arm. I looked at him sadly before pouring some of the liquid onto his cut and watching as it flowed down the entire cut. He hissed again and whimpered, but not once did he make a verbal complaint about the pain. The lack of a verbal response confused me, but not once did I question him.

I watched as the peroxide bubbled and simmered in his cut before eventually calming down. I poured another douse and continued the process until the bubbling stopped completely. Once that was finished, I wrapped his arm in one of the bandages that wrap completely around.

Once I was finished, I picked him back up off of the counter and walked back out to the living room. I sat him down on the couch and I sat next to him. I waited for him to say something. Anything, really. But he remained silent.

So we sat there, in silence, while we waited for Leo to come back down stairs with Raph.

OoOoOoO

We ended up waiting hours. So many hours that the time began to tick past Mikey's bedtime. Eventually, he ended up falling asleep during the long wait. A few minutes after Mikey had fallen asleep, I had ended up carrying him up the stairs and into his bedroom.

I stripped him of his shirt before placing a more loose and comfortable shirt on him. I stripped him of his jeans before putting him in some pajama pants. I lied him in his bed, tucking the blankets over him and around him. He stirred slightly, but he did not awake.

I looked at him sadly, placing a gentle hand on the top of his head and my thumb rubbing his forehead softly before giving his forehead a gentle kiss.

I stood up, just staring at him a bit. His baby blue eyes were closed, his mouth open as he slept, being his source of oxygen. I gave him a sad smile before flipping the switch of his nightlight on and heading to the door. I placed a hand on his door, looking back at him one last time. I let out one last smile before slipping out the door and shutting it behind me.

I moved down the stairs and back down into the living room where I saw Leo sitting on the rightmost side of the couch and Raph sitting in the recliner across from the couch. Each sat silent and still. I could have easily mistaken either of them for statues if it wasn't for their rising chests revealing signs of breath and life.

I descended down the stairs and down into the living room. I walked over to the couch where I sat on the leftmost side of the couch. "So," I said, placing my chin in my palm and my elbow on the armrest of the couch, "does anyone want to tell me what happened?"

Leo looked over at me. "He hasn't spoken once since I've seen him leave for school this morning."

I felt my eyes widen. "Neither has Mikey," I looked to Raph with questioning eyes. "What in the world happened, Raphael? You can't keep silent."

"And I don't intend to." Both Leo and I were startled back by Raph's words. His voice…

Oh gosh, his voice…

It sounded gravelly, unused, and…almost literally burnt out. Like he had just escaped a burning building after being inside for hours on end. "Raph…what happened? Who did this to you and Mikey? Why did they do this to you and Mikey?"

"If you shut up, I'll explain."

I looked to Leo, and Leo looked to me. He nodded, and I nodded back. "We're listening." Leo said, us both now looking back at Raphael.

Raph rubbed his hands together before he nodded. "Ok. Over the past few weeks, I've been meeting up with Nate," That alone gave me the worst feeling in the world. "He said that he'd leave Donnie alone if I met up with him and allowed him to do whatever he wanted with me. But it wasn't only for Donnie. Mikey was in danger as well. Nate doesn't fuck around with stuff like this."

"Language." Leo reprimanded, but not as harshly as normal.

Raph rolled his eyes, wincing slightly from the stitches Leo had done near his eye. "Anyways, I had agreed. So they did whatever they wished. They'd cut and burn my arms and legs, hence why I've been wearin' long sleeves. They beat me up, and I don't fight back. It's all the deal. They had been lighting fire and they forced me to keep my head over it and inhale the smoke, which is why my voice sounds burnt out like it is."

I was very uneasy at this point. "That explains a lot about you, but…why was today worse? Normally, obviously, you've been able to hide it. And why did Mikey have that nasty cut on his arm?"

Raph let out a sigh. "Mikey followed me. I don't know how, and I don't know why, but he did. He must have seen them do some…things…to me because he had been really mad. Heh, little fighter he is, he tried to take them all on. Ended badly on his part, but I had eventually gotten free of the bindings that they had had on me. All they got in on him was that cut, but I wouldn't let them get any more on him. So all of his blows went to me. We eventually escaped, but just barely. They're still looking for us now."

I clenched my teeth shut tightly. Raph was such an idiot sometimes! "So you've been letting them do this to you for how many gosh damned weeks exactly?!"

"Donnie, lang-"

"Don't you dare, Leonardo!" I yell at him, shooting up from the couch. "Don't you even try!" I look to Raph with obvious rage on my face. "Why didn't you try to get help from someone when they threatened you in the first place?! Why didn't you bother to even try?! This was extremely dangerous and stupid! You could have been killed!"

"Nate wouldn't go that far!"

"The hell if he wouldn't! He's a dog infected with rabies for crying out loud! He'd kill you the chance he got to!"

"He's had his chance for weeks!"

"But he knew that we would notice you gone! He couldn't kill you if he didn't want to be caught!"

"He wouldn't have been!"

I was fuming. I could practically feel the steam pouring from my ears. How stupid could he be?! Just how naïve was he?! "Whatever you want to believe. Fine. I'm done trying to knock sense into you." I made my way towards the stairs and up them.

"Donatello!"

But I ignored him. I opened my door and slammed it before jumping onto my bed, and lying there, staring up at the ceiling.

Nate was still searching for my twin brother and my baby brother.

Hey guys! So sorry about the delay in production of chapters! Things have been a bit crazy on my end of the screen, but I am ok! Though, I doubt a lot of you are actually reading this and I doubt a lot of you actually care, lol XD But I just felt like an apology was an order. So I apologize for not updating any stories since October. ^^; I probably wouldn't have gotten this chapter done as soon as I did if it weren't for two people who were asking me questions about the next chapter and actually ended up giving me a few ideas. You both know who you are! Anyways, did you like it, love it, hate it? Let me know! I love to read your guys' reviews! :)