Rebound

Chapter III

Leonardo stood in the kitchen with his hand clenched around the hung-up telephone, thinking about what had just transpired during his call with April. The truth was, he didn't believe her story for a minute but decided against bringing her into the situation. Doing so would only make things more complicated and it was going to be difficult enough to get a straight answer out of Donnie, who didn't handle confrontation well in the first place. As the eldest brother of a family who needed to remain hidden from outsiders yet coveted the freedom of being above on the surface, Leo had lost most of his naiveness years ago. What concerned him the most was that wherever his brother was, Donatello felt the need to lie about it in the first place. Being so inventive and having a superior talent for uncovering items and resources for the family, Donatello was given further boundaries and freedoms earlier on than each of his brothers. By now he was also the only son bringing a substantial income home to the family. Donnie was essentially free to roam topside whenever he wished, so long as it didn't interrupt his training, chores or time spent with the family. He had also been good up to this point about telling everyone where he was, remaining in contact during long absences and coming home on time. Now his story didn't check out, and it appeared he hadn't even bothered to tell April to cover for him. This carelessness was frustrating for Leo to analyze, it was conduct worthy of Raph or even Mikey but Don? If his brother really were really sneaking out, Leo would've expected him to have a calculated and foolproof scheme on top of an additional backup plan incase someone gave away his whereabouts.

"So is he there or what?" A blunt yet curious voice piped up, as if on cue. Leo snapped out of it and turned around to see Mikey setting up Guitar Hero III in the living area. Leonardo detested Guitar Hero, and couldn't fathom what his brother got out of mashing his way through the same list of noise with only two fingers available to play with. Every so often he'd be taking a shower and find himself humming the tune of 'Knights of Cydonia' and felt the urge to 'misplace' Mikey's game disc somewhere his younger brother would never look. One of their dustier meditation CD cases perhaps, or in Sensei's Gilmore Girls DVD boxed set.

"Mikey, be honest with me." Leo started as he walked towards the couch, picked the TV remote up off the arm rest and hit the mute button. "Do you have any reason to believe that Donnie is in any kind of danger? Try and remember anything out of the ordinary he might have said to you, either in confidence or in passing." He spoke sternly and placed himself between Michelangelo and the television sets. "I'm trying to be fair to you. If he really has snuck off I can get any details I need from him later. All I need to know right now is that he's safe, and maybe you can help me." Appealing to Michelangelo's better nature was always the best way to get information from him, his younger brother took secrets very seriously and would never confess to anything unless he knew that withholding information would jeopardize the safety of the one who had confided in him.

"Okay, honestly? I think you got the longer story than I did." said Mikey while tearing open a new package of batteries for his plastic, sticker plastered guitar and fishing out two double A's. "All I know is he said he'd be out late, and if anything changed he'd call home. But Leo, if he does call? Jus' let me talk to him 'cause you'll scare him off if he thinks you know something." Leo nodded solemnly, his brother was right. At this point he had nothing to accuse Donatello of except possibly being dishonest, and he reminded himself that he should know better than to jump to conclusions so hastily.

"So you think I should wait then? Talk to him in the morning?" He asked, putting the remote down on the coffee table and moving out of the way of the glowing screens behind him.

"Only if there's something to talk about at all." The younger turtle answered with a shrug, "I mean, c'mon... it's Donnie. If he really is up to something he thinks he needs to hide from us its probably because its some totally embarrassing geek-out. I wouldn't take it personally if I were you."

Michelangelo made a good point and Leo knew it, so now what was he going to do all evening? Mulling over how to deal with his possibly out of line brother wasn't going to get him anywhere. When the cement door to the lair scraped open across the floor and Raph walked in with plastic bags in hand moments later, he had a pretty good idea of how the night was going to play out.

"Shouldn't you be meditatin' or something?" Raph called neurotically to Leo down the steps as he put his bags on the floor and started removing his disguise, which wasn't much more than a black wind breaker, skullcap and some ratty pants and work boots. Mikey had almost immediately lost interest in his game and was now turned around watching his brothers avidly over the back of the couch.

"Actually, Sensei decided on an early night tonight," Leo replied cooly, sauntering towards the bottom of the staircase that lead up to the lair's main entrance where Raph stood. "So instead of honing my reflective prowess alone, I thought I'd switch things up spend some quality time with you and Mikey here."

Raphael gritted his teeth. "How thoughtful of you big brother. Special occasion huh?" By now Leo was making his way up the steps and the cornered Raphael knew there was nowhere to go. He was basically fucked, but Leo would have to be crazy to think he'd be going down without a fight. The red-banded turtle stood his ground without another word as his eldest brother met him in the doorway. Why was he smiling like that? What a shit-eating grin, Raphael thought to himself, what does he think he's doing anyways?

"We're going to have a stake-out." Leo announced to his brother, unexpectedly slapping his hands down on Raph's shoulders and making him jump backwards defensively.

"Are you out of your fucking mind!?" cried Raph as he backed up against the door, more surprised by Leo's behaviour than anything else.

"Not at all, actually." Leo replied with a smile as he crouched down and started rifling through his brother's shopping bags. "We won't even have to leave the lair, and you can drink all the..." here he paused to read the label of a large glass bottle he pulled out of the first bag, "Colt 45 you like."

"As long as you're sharing with us!" added Mikey from the living area. Raphael looked past Leonardo down at their brother in the living room, staggered by what was happening. When it all finally clicked and he realized what Leo was actually allowing to happen, Raph snapped out of it and snatched his bottle back from his eldest brother, putting it back in one of the bags with the others.

"First off, tell me what the hell is going on tonight." He demanded although it was obviously in jest. "And you!" he barked down the steps at Mikey, "Get some glasses, throw 'em in the freezer and break out the cards. You know the drill!"

"It's going to be a long night," started Leo, helping his brother with the bags of beer bottles and leading him back down the stairs, "we're gonna wait for Donnie to get home, to see what kind of stories he has for us. What happens between now and then is up to us. Are you in?"

In the back of his head Leonardo knew this wasn't the best way to approach the situation, this wasn't how he would have planned it at all. On the other hand, he could either lie awake in bed that night and pretend he couldn't hear his brothers getting hammered and goofing off in the kitchen without him or put aside his moral oppositions for one night and have a good time. Everything in moderation he reminded himself, he was sure he'd be fine and his brothers would be spent and in bed by the time Donnie came home.