The fifteen story climb down the building's fire escape was simultaneously the fastest and slowest thing Leonardo had ever done. Time seemed to melt away from him as he drew closer and closer to the discovery of his baby brother's corpse, yet he acknowledged every rough step that he took in absurd detail.

His sweating hands kept slipping off of the buckled metal railing. He gasped every time.

The pattern of the rust on the seventy-eighth step looked like a dancing elephant. Mikey would've giggled at that.

Donatello was sobbing.

Leo wanted to shout at him and tell him to stop, but they were ninja, and they had to be silent, even when their baby brother was dead.

He ran faster instead.

After it seemed like both a split second and an eternity had slid by, Leo's feet hit cold concrete, and he cast his eyes desperately around the gloomy alley. A glint of metal caught his gaze. His little brother's kusarigama lay on the ground, unspooled and carelessly arranged in loose coils. The sickle was snapped into two pieces and showed signs of great trauma. Leo's breath froze in his throat as he noticed a dark shape sprawled in the lazy embrace of the broken weapon.

"MICHELANGELO!"

He hadn't noticed that he had sprung towards the still form of his baby brother until a sharp cry from Donatello halted his movement.

"Don't touch him!"

Leo's knees stung beneath his kneepads from his frantic slide across the concrete, and one hand was frozen in the middle of being carelessly flung toward Michelangelo. He shuffled backwards slightly, his eyes swimming as he raised them to Donatello.

Incredibly, Donatello smiled.

"Listen, Leo. Listen."

Leonardo obeyed. Over the sounds of his own thumping heart, he could hear a strange hitching, snuffling noise. It was shallow and thin, but it was unmistakable. His heart leapt with a joy so fierce it was almost painful, and he exhaled shakily alongside the wild sound of Donatello's suddenly renewed cries.

"He's alive, Leo…Leo!"

Feeling weaker than he ever had in his life, Leo just stared.

By a supreme force of will, Donatello managed to silence his sobbing and kneel carefully next to his baby brother, setting his T-Phone next to them for more light. He extended trembling hands towards Michelangelo's neck, and oh-so-gently felt for his pulse. It was slower than he was comfortable with, and slightly unsteady. However, he could feel no abnormalities in Mikey's neck, or the top of his spine, which relieved him greatly. A broken neck leading to paralysis had been Donatello's main fear after he had discovered that Mikey was alive.

More distressingly, his probing fingers encountered a good deal of blood at the back of Michelangelo's head. Further investigation revealed a nasty, swollen tear in his baby brother's skin. Donnie grimaced, whilst simultaneously knowing that it could have been so much worse.

"How do you always manage to get knocked in the head, hmm?" he murmured sadly. "You're gonna end up even sillier than you already are."

He stroked a finger down his brother's pallid face, and grinned brightly when he was rewarded with a flinch.

"Hey, can you hear me, Mikey?" he coaxed. "Come on, now, you've got us all worried sick."

Donnie looked up at Leo, who hadn't said anything (nor, indeed, moved any closer) since his initial frantic outburst. His navy blue eyes were fixed on their youngest brother, and glazed with something Donatello vaguely recognized as shock. He couldn't blame his brother. None of them had ever been in this much danger before, after all.

"Leo."

A violent shudder shook Leonardo's kneeling frame as he dragged haunted eyes to Donatello. Don pulled his expression into something he hoped was encouraging. "You can come closer if you want, now. I don't think he's injured his spine at all, which is a miracle considering…considering the fall he took."

Silently, Leo shuffled forwards until he was at Michelangelo's side. He lifted a hand uncertainly, obviously unsure of where he could touch his baby brother without causing any additional damage. Eventually, he settled on placing his hand lightly on Mikey's plastron, and took a deep breath.

When no words were forthcoming, Donnie turned his attention back to his little brother and started speaking aloud his diagnosis, partly to fill the unnatural silence, but mostly to organize his racing thoughts.

"The head trauma is our biggest concern, but I can't feel any fractures in his skull, which is great, obviously. Left shoulder is dislocated, left wrist is either fractured or badly sprained. Both hands and feet are terribly abraded. Judging from these injuries, and the damage to the weapon itself, he used the kusarigama to slow his fall to a non-lethal speed. That would mean that he got the head injury in the fight with the Foot. Multiple superficial lacerations from their weapons. Scrapes and bruises." His bandana creased as an affectionate smile made its way onto his face.

"Looks like you fought like a tiger, little bro," he said with immense pride. "Thank you…for keeping her safe."

Unable to say more around the lump in his throat, Donnie continued to put temporary dressings on the worst of Mikey's injuries. He almost jumped out of his shell when Leo's rasping voice broke into the unobtrusive background music of snipping gauze and Mikey's shallow sighs.

"He shouldn't have had to take on the Foot alone. We…we should've been here to help them."

Momentarily stunned by the self-loathing in his brother's voice, it took a few seconds for Donatello to formulate a response. "He wasn't alone. By the looks of things, April took a few down. And we were asleep when they snuck out, Leo. There wasn't a lot we could've done."

Leo slammed his free hand into the concrete, his breaths coming in short staccato pants that sounded worryingly like hyperventilation. "We're NINJA, Donatello, and we let a rookie kunoichi and our little brother sneak out and almost get themselves killed. I can think of a few things we 'could've done'!"

Brown eyes narrowing dangerously, Donnie leaned carefully over the prone form of his baby brother and, not so carefully, slapped his big brother across the face. Leo reeled backwards, unhurt but startled, and finally moved his gaze from Mikey to look into Donatello's furious expression.

"Mikey is a good ninja. April is no slouch, either. If they didn't want to be heard, we wouldn't have heard them, simple as that. They're both still alive, so stop with the guilt trip, because you're distracting me from keeping him that way." He returned to his first-aid duties. Leo's breathing slowed, and the tension left him in a long exhale.

"…sorry Donnie."

"That's fine, bro. Wanna help m—"

His offer to Leo was interrupted by an almost inaudible thump from the direction of the fire escape. Leo leapt seamlessly into a defensive stance standing over Mikey. Don's reactions were a split second slower as he whipped his bo up behind his big brother's ninjato, but his protective intent was no less deadly. They relaxed a moment later as they recognized the hunched form of Raphael exiting the shadows with April draped over his shell. She was still crying, her sobs muffled as she curled around his carapace. Their hotheaded brother's pace quickened as he caught sight of their small huddle, and the expression of distressed increased dramatically as he caught sight of his baby brother.

Raph, ironically, had never been good with the sight of blood, Donatello remembered. Especially when it belonged to his family.

"M-!"

Biting off the cry of Mikey's name with a visible effort, Raphael sprinted the last few feet and skidded to a halt. He turned burning eyes to his brothers, visibly distressed and trembling hard.

"Is he…is…is-"

Donatello wasted no time moving around Leo's shell to seize Raph by the shoulders, narrowly avoiding poking poor April in the eye.

"It's ok, buddy, he's alive. Calm down, Raph. Don't…"

For Raphael had slumped in boneless relief at his brother's reassurance, a high-pitched sob catching somewhere in his chest. April buried her face into his neck, and Raph reached up a clumsy hand to grip the one she was using to hold on to his shell.

Giving them a sad, but ultimately resigned look (they were useless for now, and he had more pressing concerns), Donnie moved back to crouch over his youngest brother. "Leo, I'm pretty sure it'll be safe to move him now. I've wrapped the worst of his injuries, but we need to be careful. The abrasions to his hands and feet must, under no circumstances, come into contact with any sewer water. The chance for infection is quite high, and I'd rather not risk it."

Leo nodded, his expression marginally less tragic that it had been earlier. He motioned with his hands.

"Give him to me. I'll take him."

Though Donnie himself would've been the more logical choice given his greater height, he recognized the look on Leo's face. Arguing would be a waste of time. Sighing gustily, he carefully maneuvered Mikey into his arms, and stood with a grunt of exertion. Leo turned so that his back was facing them, and Donnie draped his unconscious brother over the presented shell as gently as he could. Leo took the precious burden without a word of complaint; making sure Mikey's injured hands were resting over his shoulders, and holding him securely under his legs. Gathering the huddled forms of Raphael and April, Donnie led them to the nearest manhole cover, and into the dank security of the sewers.

April had finally stopped crying, Raphael noticed, and was now curled limply over his shell as if all her strings had been cut. He could understand how she felt; he was exhausted. Her weight wasn't a problem, although getting them both down into the sewers through a manhole cover hadn't exactly been a picnic. No, their current pathetic state was down to the immense relief that Mikey wasn't dead, he was gonna be ok. Not now, not for a while, but soon. That was fine. He could live with that.

Raph's two older brothers were slightly ahead of him and April, but he could still hear snatches of their muttered conversation.

"…watch…don't let…feet, Leo…"

"…hear…not…moron!"

"No-one said…thing…moron! I…on, is…waking up? Stop!"

Donnie's last word had been loud, and there was a quiet whimpering sound making itself known in the stale air of the sewers. Leo and Don screeched to a halt up ahead, and Leo allowed his purple-masked brother to slip Michelangelo off of his shell. Raph caught up with them just as they knelt in the muck and rested a squirming Mikey across both of their knees.

"Mikey," Donnie was calling. "Mikey, can you hear me? Open your eyes if you can."

They all leaned over him as his beak scrunched up, whether in pain or concentration, it was impossible to tell. Then, miraculously, two slivers of dazed blue appeared, and a slurred, almost unrecognizable voice spoke.

"Donnnnnn…ie?"

Raph watched as poor Don lost any composure he'd been holding onto, bending low over Mikey and cupping his freckled cheek. "Yeah. Yeah, it's me, buddy. What have you done to yourself, huh?"

Mikey's eyes swam aimlessly as they tried to focus on Donnie. "Dunnnno…hurtsss…" he mumbled.

"Did you guys…steal my feet?"

Raph's heart lurched, and he stole a glance at Don. "He can't feel his feet?" he hissed.

Donnie's gaze didn't leave his littlest brother. "There may be some nerve damage, or he's just out of it," he said quietly. Then, raising his voice slightly, "Mikey, your feet are still there, no-one stole them, okay?"

"Good…tell them…April was the one who…who trod on the pizza…"

Raph's breath quickened again, but April let out a surprising, huff of laughter against his neck. "We were talking about that earlier," she clarified.

He huffed. "So he hasn't completely lost it."

Leo abruptly broke the silence he had maintained since Mikey came round, his voice slightly distorted by his clenched jaw.

"Mikey. What the hell did you think you were doing?"

Raph and Donnie's eyes shot to their trembling older brother.

"…Leo, don't-"

"You could've gotten both you and April killed! What were you thinking!?"

Mikey's expression fell into sad confusion. "S-sorry Leo…"

"Leo, he doesn't even know why you're mad. And it wasn't his fault. I made him come with me."

April's voice was stern, but wobbled on her last sentence. Raph shifted his head back slightly so it bumped against hers, a comforting gesture, but one he hoped wasn't noticed by his brothers.

He had a reputation to maintain, after all.

Leo held April's gaze for a moment, then exhaled noisily and looked back at Mikey, who was gazing up at him with anxious, wandering eyes.

"It's okay. I'm not mad at you, little brother. You j-just scared me, that's a-all." His voice broke, and he pressed his forehead gently to the small turtle's. "I was so s-scared."

Distressed, Mikey tried to lift his hand up to comfort Leo, but was gently restrained by Donnie. Instead, he nuzzled weakly against his big brother's face. "Don't…sad, Leo, don't…"

Sniffing hard, Donatello bumped his shoulder against his older brother's. "We need to get him home."

Leo nodded, and together they heaved a semi-conscious Mikey up between them. Raphael felt sure that he jostled April uncomfortably during their speedy flight back to the lair, but she didn't complain once. Instead, she curled close to his neck.

Raphael pretended he didn't feel her guilty tears.

A/N: One more wrap-up chapter to go!