I don't own the TMNT

A/N: I know that this one is short, but the additions that I put on it seemed like they didn't belong. Hope that you guys still like it! Special thanks to sleepingseeker for the motivation! She especially had a heavy hand in the next few chapters lol

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A week dragged on as plans were made. This was hard, but things had to be done right.

The hardest part was holding back my brothers. I knew that their minds warred with their emotions.

At first, when I told them of my plan, they were disbelieving. I could tell that they had hoped, for so long, that there was something we could do only to be stymied that it was hard to wrap their brains around it. That there was an actual chance to get him back.

Then, of course, they wanted to storm off right away, go to Sophia's apartment and drag him back. But I couldn't allow that. There were too many things to consider. Yes, we all wanted to kill Sophia, but her live apprehension was one of the carrots that we were using to rope the detective into the deal. We needed it for any evidence that they might find. Even if we torched the entire apartment, at the risk of all the other tenants in the building, there was still the risk. If we made any sort of scene, the police would be called. It wasn't like before, where they were largely ignorant of complaints. Everyone was on high alert because of the killings, and the police force was feeling the pressure from everywhere. The chances that something could go wrong was too high. I couldn't take that chance. With all the media buzz around this, we needed outside help whether we liked it or not.

They grumbled about it, but I could see that they saw the point. I still felt the need, though, to keep an eye on them just in case.

One of the best parts was telling Splinter. For the first time I saw his face come alive. When it finally sunk in that we were going to get him back, he started to cry. He grabbed my hand, pressing it to his forehead, his entire body shaking. "I knew that you wouldn't fail us, Leonardo, that you would come through for us." Though it felt wonderful to see him actually start to move around as he insisted on taking part in the plan, it still put an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. So much was riding on it. So much was riding on me.

I was talking to Detective Marshall several times a day. After all, he knew the human side of things, and I didn't know what to do to tie things up on his end. Luckily he seemed to have everything well in hand. I think that he was just happy to have everything over with. It was clear that everything was weighing on him. Perhaps as heavily as it was me. In any case, as each new preparation and segment of the plan went into place, I felt a little more relieved.

Timing was everything. I had no idea how long the sensors on our phones were turned on, but it made sense that Don hadn't made his move yet as it was. After all, if I were in Don's shoes, I wouldn't risk taking on more than one of us. The best way would be to get us alone. But our new routine didn't allow that opportunity. I rarely went out alone, instead I stayed in the Lair with Splinter as I healed from the gunshot wound. Don probably didn't want to risk an attack when we were here. Then he wouldn't be in control of the situation. And, for once, Raph never went out alone either. With Mike in his new, aggressive mindset, they mostly went out together.

Perhaps we could provide him with the perfect opportunity.

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The passing week was tense.

I made plans. Found a flaw, scrapped them, then did them again. Some of them were actually good, but my nerves were getting the best of me.

The issue was, I wasn't getting the opportunity that I wanted. Taking any of my brothers together while keeping track of Sophia while making sure we left behind more evidence was virtually impossible. I needed to do it one at a time.

I considered setting a trap. First, thought about using the technology around the Lair to my advantage. So I went down to the sewers, by the Lair. It felt so off to be down there. The entire time my heart was thudding hard against my plastron. What if they saw me on the cameras? But my worries were for naught. The big freeze and heavy rains a few weeks ago had damaged the wiring. When I lived there, they required almost constant upkeep. Closer inspection revealed that all of my plans for using the sensors and all the other technology around wouldn't work. I hadn't been down there in nearly half a year, and it showed. Everything fared poorly in the wet area. And we had such a hard winter right after I left, that it affected things even worse. Honestly I would be surprised if all the electricity still worked.

For some reason that thought threw me off. The very image of them sitting in my old home, with no electricity. It didn't fit with my image of them. They were always so strong. Could my absence really have that much affect?

And I remembered clearly what they said about Splinter. How much pain was he in during that winter? With his delicate nasal structures inflaming, not healing.

Thinking about it made me sick to my stomach.

That trip threw me off for days.

Of course Sophia noticed my apprehension. I could tell that she saw the wisdom in my wanting to catch them alone. That didn't help her mood, though. She blamed me for the delay. How could she not?

She tried to bring me into conversations about how to kill them. It was almost like she was baiting me, which couldn't be true. Oh, I couldn't do it. She would stare at me, bring up different vicious ideas for their demise, then smile and ask me how I liked it. How could I respond? Each time she spoke about it, I was forced to think about it. But the thought of them in pain like that, with blood pouring from them, that look in their eyes that was in the eyes of so many of our other targets…Several times I almost failed to hold back the bile that rose at that mental image.

Part of me railed against it. After all, if I couldn't even think about it, why was I going with Sophia's plan to kill them? Think of it logically, Donatello.

But how could I do anything else? They didn't see me for me. They didn't support me the way I needed so long ago. Sophia, though, for all her instability, she loved me. Loved me like nobody has before. She needed me, just as I needed her. She just needed help, is all. And love. She needed me. And when she spoke, it made sense. It made sense when she talked about why they needed to be out of the picture. It made sense when she talked about our need for no interruptions, to live our lives as a true couple. Just because I was sometimes weak enough to doubt it afterwards didn't mean anything. That was my own insecurities. I wasn't as strong as Sophia was.

She showed me her love. Instead of getting angry like I thought, she would touch me. Especially my tail. Once she realized how it affected me, she went for it regularly, whenever she saw me waver. When I resisted, she would push. Gently or forcefully she would lay me down, and soon I was quivering in her arms. Her eyes would glint as she looked at me, as she worked me over. In a way it was as if she was exercising a newfound power, but I know it wasn't really that. It couldn't be. Instead, she was just showing me part of what could happen when I truly opened myself up to her as I should at all times. If I completely gave her my trust. Stopped doubting her.

So I served her. Willingly and with love.

All that I had to do was wait for the right time.

With her support, I finally hashed out a plan. It was one that I'd had before but scrapped, but it would work. It allowed flexibility to adjust things if something changed, which was always important when working with Sophia. It was simple, and to the point.

All I needed to do was wait for one of my family to be isolated. Then it would begin.

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We picked the time and place. I needed everyone in the know for this one, which was more difficult. Both brothers were more rash. And Marshall was clearly thrown off, at least at first, at having all three of us in the same room discussing it. But it needed to be done. They needed to be involved in at least this part, partly just to soothe their own savage nerves.

The hard part was selecting the bait. Mostly because all of us volunteered to do it. That caused an argument, to say the least. My first instinct, of course, was for me to do it. But then, I realized that it couldn't be that way. I was needed to keep things together, and instinctively I knew that I would feel better in the background, making sure that nothing went wrong. My next thought was for Mike to do it. Even with his new mood (which was thankfully levelling out now that we had a solid plan), I trusted him not to go against orders more than I did Raph. Then Marshall pointed out the obvious. How often did Mike go out alone? Rarely. He was right. It might look suspicious.

This only left Raph. He said that he wouldn't deviate from the plan, but I wasn't sure. I knew my brother too well. Could I Raph-proof this plan? I'd done it before. Of course, so much wasn't riding on this as it was before. But it was decided.

Then we had to prepare for other things.

We didn't want to bring him back to the Lair. It was too deep in the city. It held too many memories. Deep down I knew that bringing him back physically would be the easy part. The hard part would be the repair and rebuild of his soul. It had gotten broken down so deeply, we needed to be in a more peaceful place.

Of course the only other place we knew was the farmhouse. It belonged to April, which might help or hinder everything. I wasn't sure. Marshall checked for us. It had gone on the market after her death, but the economy was so bad in New York state that only two half-hearted buyers had looked at it. When he asked the real estate agents, they said that they predicted that it would be on the market for months, maybe years more.

Strange, how it felt, when we all got ready.

After all this time, we were finally going to get our brother back from her. We were going to bring him back to us.

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A/N: Not the normal kind of chapter, a little bit slow, but I like to think of it as the calm before the action lol Please let me know what you guys think!

PS: The annual TMNT Fanfiction Competition is here again! It is being hosted by the TMNT fanfiction site stealthystories. You don't have to be a member of the site to participate. The link to the site is on my profile. All the rules and timelines are found there. PM me if you have any questions. Hope that you guys participate, the more that do the more fun it is!