ALL THE THANK YOU to SkitsMix for extensive headcanon sharing discussions and ALL THE HELPFUL BETA-ing!

Waking Up

The first thing he's aware of is the pain. He feels as if he has been gutted. But there's a gentle pressure on his shoulder - it doesn't hurt, but he's so utterly drained of strength that it feels as if it's holding him down...

"Leo?"

The voice sounds muffled as if his ears are full of wax. He isn't sure who's speaking, but the weight on his shoulder feels familiar, and underneath the myriad of cold, chemical odors flooding his senses, there's warmth and the scent of leather. Raph.

But he can't stay awake. As much as he wants to reach for his brother's hand, his limbs are cold and leaden and he sinks into the dark again.

The next time he wakes, it's silent, but not the muffled silence of before. His hearing is clear. He doesn't know where he is, but despite the pain, his bed is comfortable and he hopes that means he's among friends. His brow furrows as it registers that there's cloth over his face. A mask? He hasn't worn a mask in years…

His hands shake as he reaches for his face, but before he's moved more than an inch or two, a voice interrupts. "Leo, don't." Gentle fingers wrap around his own to ease his hands back down. "You need to leave the bandage in place a little longer." April's hands knead his cold fingers. "We didn't want to restrain your hands, so someone's been sitting with you 'round the clock. Raph's been up and around, probably more than he should. He's been here, too. I don't know if you can hear me, but…"

He pulls in a breath. It hurts, but he tries to speak. It comes out as a thin croak.

"Leo?" He can hear her lean forward hopefully in her chair. He tries to speak again but he can't - something catches in his chest and he grips convulsively at her hands, because it feels like he's going to tear open. April squeezes back, then pulls one hand free to rest against his forehead. "Go to sleep," she says softly. "We'll be right here." Leo doesn't have the strength to argue, so he obeys.

When he wakes a third time, a strange humming is in his ears. The pain is nearly gone, though he feels weak as watered-down tea.

"Leonardo?" The voice is high-pitched and resonates in a way that triggers the shadow of some long-dead memory, and he doesn't know if he can trust it. The humming grows closer and he tries to flinch back in the bed, but he has nowhere to go.

But April's voice reaches him, slowing his heart. "Leo, it's okay. You're safe. We're going to remove the bandage over your eyes. Just sit still."

Leo swallows through a dry throat and waits. He does wince when two cold metal clamps brush against his temples, but the touch is fleeting. There's a firm little tug and the cloth comes free. Leo blinks - then cringes back with a ragged gasp, because it's too much, there's too much light -

"Leo!" The mattress dips as April sits next to him. She takes his face in her hands, steadying his head and shielding his eyes. "Someone dim the lights, please? Leo, you're all right. Open your eyes." Leo carefully eases his eyelids open, staring in amazement as light enters his eyes for the first time in over twenty years. April gives a watery laugh, smiling down at him. "Hey, there."

"Hi," he manages to say, gazing up at the familiar stranger. Her brilliant red hair is now short and gray, and the years of war and grief have left their stamp in the lines of her face, but the sight of her fills him with the wistful sense of home as much as it ever did.

The humming sound had retreated to the far side of the room, but now it returns. Leo's breath catches in his throat as his newly-restored sight shows an Utrom floating toward him on a hover pad, the bandage from his eyes still gripped in the pad's metal pincers that serve as arms. "Hello, Leonardo," the alien says. "It is good to see you again."

"What?" His exclamation of disbelief comes out as a dry rasp.

April lifts his head and holds a glass of water with a straw where he can reach it. "The Utroms showed up just after the battle," she explains. "They saved you. We didn't know if your eyes could be restored, but they said they'd try." She smiles down at him. "I guess it worked."

Leo sinks back against the pillow, breathless and overwhelmed. The last thing he remembers is Karai's blade sinking deep beneath his shell and the sound of Raphael screaming. "What...what happened?"

"I'll fill you in on the details later," April replies. "But you're all okay. Raph's been up and around for a few days now, and Mike's hanging in there."

Just two of his brothers? "What about Don?"

Her smile turns bittersweet. "He's gone, Leo. Back to wherever he came from, I guess. But I think…" She pauses for a moment, deciding whether or not she will finish her thought. "...I think you should focus on the brothers who are here with you." She speaks very gently, but Leo feels the reproof rest like a cinderblock on his chest. But April is still smiling at him and smoothing the worry wrinkles from his forehead with her palm. "Get some sleep, Leo. We'll talk more when you wake up."

Leo doesn't want to sleep. There are too many questions unanswered - April said "after the battle", but how did it end? What happened to the Shredder? And what did she mean that Mike was "hanging in there"? - but even as he shakes his head to protest, he can feel his eyelids getting heavy.

"Trust me, it'll be okay," April assures him. "You need rest."

"When I wake up, we talk," he says, words already slurring from exhaustion.

She leans forward and kisses his forehead. "I promise."

Leo knows Raph is there before he opens his eyes. So he keeps them closed while he awakens, waiting until the cobwebs are gone from his mind before attempting to speak. Raph isn't fooled, though. Leo hears him sigh and shift in his chair. "I know you're awake." His gruff voice sounds loud in the quiet room.

So he opens his eyes, turning his head in the direction of his brother's voice. It's been even longer since Leo has seen Raphael - they parted ways even before Leo's eyes were damaged. The brothers look at each other, and Leo feels his heart twist. Raphael has aged. His face is lined and weary beneath the one-eyed mask, and Leo recognizes the pinched look that comes from still-healing wounds. The frown is familiar, but the expression on his face is wary, not hostile.

Leo swallows through a dry throat. "Hey, Raph."

Raph nods. "Leo." He holds out a glass the way April did before. "Here. That Utrom goo can really dry you out." He doesn't help to prop his head, but Leo can drink easily with the straw.

"Thanks."

Raph just grunts in reply, setting the half-drained glass back on the narrow bedside table.

They look at each other in silence. Leo isn't sure what he should say. He isn't sure what he can say. How do you erase three decades of hurt and anger? The years weigh heavier on him now than they ever did before. Leo knows they're going to have to talk about it eventually but it's too much right now. And, if he's honest with himself, it's not important at the moment. So he takes a short breath and asks, "What happened?"

Raph makes a wry face. "Well, not that I saw any of it firsthand, but from what April tells me, after the three of us went down, Donny kinda lost it and...well, his exosuit worked. He took out the Shredder. Guess he got zapped back to wherever he came from right after. That sent a lot of the Foot running, but most of 'em just got mad. But that's when the Utrom spaceship came screamin' down. Leatherhead was the first one out, if you can believe it."

An incredulous laugh huffs from Leo's chest. "You're kidding."

"Nope." Raph smirks. "Came roaring out full-speed and bit the nearest Karai-bot in half. Sparks and metal everywhere. Between him, the Utroms, and the rest of April's crew, it didn't take too long to clear out Shred-head's headquarters. Lucky for us."

Leo waits for Raph to say something more; waits for him to say that Leatherhead returned successful from his mission to ask the Utroms to help search for Donatello, but Raph remains silent and the faint hope withers and dies as quickly as it bloomed. Leo can't honestly say he expected anything else, but the loss still aches. He lets it go, though, focusing on questions that he can get answers to. "April said...Mike's still recovering."

"Yeah." Raph sighs. "They got him first, remember?" Leo nods. "So he was down the longest. They've still got him in one of those…" He backhands the air irritably. "One of those tube things. Like...like they did with Splinter."

Their father's name hangs in the air, sharp like a spear of ice. Leo tenses, watching Raph carefully for any sign of animosity. Raph senses his scrutiny, and once again the pair of them are trapped in watchful silence. And suddenly Leo just feels tired. He doesn't want to walk on eggshells anymore. He doesn't want to fight. He just wants his brothers back. He sighs sadly. "What are we going to do, Raph?"

Raph shakes his head. "I don't know." He doesn't speak again, but he doesn't leave. He stays until Leo falls asleep.

Days and nights begin to sort themselves out. The third day after his eyes open, Leo starts to feel restless. The lights in his room don't need to be dimmed now. He still feels exhausted but he can't stay in bed anymore.

Sitting up takes more effort than he expects and the world swims a little when he makes it upright. He looks down at his plastron. There are a couple new gouges and there's still traces of blood between the scutes. He doesn't hurt anymore, not really - which says a lot for whatever the Utroms did to heal him.

The soft rattle of the doorknob makes him turn his head. A dark-haired young woman pokes her head in, breaking into a brilliant smile when she sees him sitting up. "Hey, you're awake!" She pushes the door wide and crosses over to the bed. "Sorry I couldn't be here sooner, but we've had our hands full clearing the city perimeter. Shred-head and the Queen of Darkness might be gone but the Foot isn't ready to go belly-up just yet."

He knows her voice, knows her, but it's been years since he's spoken to her, and the last time he saw her face, she was a little girl. Shadow grins at him when she sees his astonished stare. "What? You didn't think I'd be taller than you?"

"I - I don't know," he fumbles.

The teasing glint in her blue eyes fades, but her smile doesn't. "I'm glad you're okay, Uncle Leo. It's good to see you." She takes a tentative step forward, half-raising her arms. Leo's throat is too tight for him to speak, but he manages to smile at her, and that's enough of an invitation for her to throw her arms around him. The sharp smell of gunpowder clings to her clothing.

Leo wraps his arms around her in return, half embrace and half simply holding on to keep himself upright. "You, too."

"It's my turn to check on you and make sure you were behaving yourself," she says when she lets him go. Her mouth quirks. "Good thing I showed up when I did."

Leo chuckles a little, but his humor fades quickly. "I can't stay in here any longer. I need to know what's been happening."

She puts an affectionate but restraining hand on his shoulder. "What do you want to know? I can answer any questions you have."

He doesn't answer right away, sifting through the blank spaces in his memory. Staying in this room isn't going to happen no matter what Shadow tells him, but he can delay a few minutes if she's concerned...and, okay, to make sure his body doesn't tire of being vertical. So - first things first. "How long was I out?" he asks finally. "And where are we?"

"We're in the main resistance base, and It's been a little over two weeks."

"Two weeks?" Leo has lost time before due to injury, but never this long.

Shadow sobers a little at his surprise. "You nearly died, Uncle Leo. If the Utroms hadn't shown up right when they did, you would have. As it was, they had to hold the three of you in their stasis field just to keep you alive until their stasis tubes were set up. You were in the tube for over a week before they could risk taking you out."

Mentioning the stasis tubes gives Leo pause, and he's silent for a moment before haltingly asking, "Raph said…" He swallows against the sudden tightness in his chest, averting his gaze to look at the far wall. "How's Mike?"

"What did Raph tell you?"

The lack of an answer doesn't help dissolve the cold knot that has been sitting in his gut. "Just that the Utroms were still keeping him in the stasis tube. But he hasn't been back since, so I haven't heard anything else."

Shadow lightly socks him in the shoulder. "That famous ninja sixth sense of yours must be on the fritz. Raph has been here. You've just been asleep." She shakes her head, a rueful huff of laughter escaping her chest. "Honestly, Uncle Leo, the three of you…" She doesn't finish, but Leo hears what she leaves unsaid as clearly as if she had shouted.

He doesn't remember her commenting on the estrangement between himself and his brothers before. April had said something when he'd first awakened, come to think of it. She definitely had tried to talk to him about it early on, but the subject hasn't been broached for years. Leo wonders if perhaps this brush with death has smashed any sort of restraint or filter April and Shadow may have had...or if perhaps they have been speaking to him all along and it's only now that he can hear it.

Shadow notices his unease, and she does her best to give him an encouraging smile. "Uncle Mike is still in the stasis tube. There hasn't been much change. But you know he's not just a pretty face. He's hanging in there."

It's not enough of an answer, and Leo frowns. "That's exactly what April said."

"It's all we can say." She rests a hand on his forearm. "But Mike's not giving up yet, and neither are we."

The cold knot in his gut shifts, moving up into his chest. "I want to see him."

"You did hear me say I was here to make sure you were behaving yourself, right? How would it look if I aided and abetted your escape attempt?"

His jaw tightens. "Are you going to show me where he is or do I need to wander around until I find him?"

Shadow rolls her eyes, but she's smiling. "I knew I shouldn't expect anything different. Okay, if you promise to sit tight and wait until I get back, I'll take you there."

"Depends how long you expect me to sit."

"Just give me a few minutes, okay? I promise I won't be gone long." She pats his shoulder and hops off the bed, pausing in the doorway to jab a warning finger in his direction. "Don't try to stand up." And with that, she slips out the door.

Shadow is gone a long time, long enough that Leo starts to wonder if he should try to get up on his own after all. He shifts on the bed and swings his legs over to hang off the edge, but just one attempt to stand up causes the room to tilt alarmingly and he decides that it would be best to follow her instructions. At long last he hears footsteps in the corridor outside and Shadow pushes the door open again, hauling a chair behind her.

"Look what I got for you," she sing-songs. "Pretty sure it's the only one in existence, so you should feel special."

Leo's brow ridges lift, then draw together in a skeptical frown as he eyes the contraption Shadow has brought in. The chair frame seems sturdy enough to support him, but there are no legs or wheels. Instead, the chair is hovering three feet off the ground, bobbing slightly like a duck on water. "What is that?"

"Well, we only have two wheelchairs, and they are currently occupied by people who actually use them full-time," Shadow explains. "So Mom and I appropriated a few of the Utrom hover pads and screwed them to the bottom of the chair, and...voila!" She spins the chair with a flourish, smirking at the look on Leo's face as he watches it twirl in midair.

Leo grimaces. "I'm not sure about this."

"Oh, come on," Shadow huffs. "It's fine. Look." She drops down heavily into the chair. The chair dips deeply and the hover pads whine a little, but it steadies quickly and she pulls her legs up to sit cross-legged on the wide seat. "I promise, it'll hold you." Her grin takes on a mischievous slant. "And if you promise not to complain, I will promise not to let Uncle Raph drive."

Leo laughs in spite of himself. He's still not completely sure how he should react to hearing Raph mentioned, but his brother isn't here and Shadow is, and she's still got the same playful gleam in her eyes that she had when she was ten. A familiar pang of regret tightens his chest at the reminder that, aside from a few brief encounters and the letters she faithfully wrote to him (that he seldom answered), he missed her growing up. She's in her early thirties - older than April was when he first met her - and it's time he'll never get back.

But she's standing there smiling at him without a trace of reserve or accusation on her face, and she's waiting to take him to his brother.

"Okay," he says with a sigh. "Let's do this."

Shadow steps up to the bed and ducks so he can drape his arm across her shoulders. It's a little awkward getting him to the chair. She's taller than April, having inherited Casey's height, and Leo can't lift his arm much without causing a painful tug inside his shell. The chair scoots around coyly as she maneuvers him into it, but she manages the transfer fairly smoothly.

"There we go!" She grins, just slightly breathless. "That went way better than I thought it would."

"You've got a gift for inspiring confidence in others," Leo says dryly. He glances dubiously at the floor. He's weighing the chair down a bit, but his feet still don't touch the ground.

Shadow tugs the blanket off his bed and tucks it around his legs. "There. Nice and snug." She puts her hands on the back of the chair and steers him towards the door. "Sorry to say your goth-and-Lennon fashion phase might be over," she tells him. "Your coat got cut up pretty bad. Although the shades survived, now that I think about it. I'm not sure where they got to, though. Probably one of the Utroms took them."

Leo snorts at the image of an Utrom on a hover pad floating around wearing sunglasses. He glances up at her over his shoulder. "'Goth-and-Lennon'? Really?"

"I just call 'em like I see 'em. What, nobody told you what you looked like?"

He rolls his eyes. "Well, it's fine. Clothing can be replaced. And I guess I don't need the glasses anymore."

"Why did you wear them, anyway? Doesn't seem like you to be self-conscious about how your eyes look."

"I wasn't. The chemical burns just damaged my corneas. My eyes still worked, I just couldn't see. I could still tell the difference between light and dark, though, so the glasses blocked out flickers of shadow that might throw me off. It was easier to move around in total darkness than in shifting gray and black."

"Makes sense." She's quiet for a moment, then asks, "So what now? You thinking about bringing back the blue mask?"

It's a simple question, but it trips him up. "I...don't know."

The chair tilts alarmingly as Shadow pushes him around the corner, and Leo puts his hands on the arms to keep himself centered in the seat. He realizes that he doesn't know where she's taking him. He was only in April's base a handful of times, but he was able to navigate the halls well with only minimal directions. Now that he can see, he's not sure where he is. It's a disorienting feeling. "Are we almost there?"

"Just about."

They've moved to a busier part of the base now that they're away from the infirmary. People are brushing past them along the sides of the hallway to be out of the way. Leo can feel them staring at him from time to time. He's well aware of the resentment that rippled through April's base after he and Raphael walked out, but if any of the soldiers are harboring feelings of hostility, they hide it well.

Shadow lets the chair drift to a half in front of a wide set of double doors and tugs one of them open to push him through. The room they enter is large and busy, with maps spread out over card tables and people talking with quiet urgency into headsets. April is standing in the far corner, leaning close to a radio terminal. She smiles as she catches sight of him but doesn't break her focus.

"That's great to hear, Vinnie. Ever since we raided the Foot headquarters we've had more than enough ammunition. We can definitely send a truckload your way."

"Excellent. We'll have someone meet you halfway and we'll swap you for some drums of diesel. The usual rendezvous point?"

"Yes, and thanks."

Leo feels someone watching him. He's ignored the other stares, but this time he turns his head. Angel is standing in the corner of the room, arms folded loosely across her chest. Her face is older and harder than he remembers, and although her long mane of hair is its natural black instead of purple, one broad violet streak remains to frame her face on one side. She doesn't smile, but she breaks away from her small group and crosses the room.

"Leo. Good to see you up and around."

"Thanks," he answers carefully. Angel has always treated him with respect, but her attitude towards him has remained noticeably cooler ever since he left. "I understand we have your commando team to thank for clearing the way so we could get into the Shredder's base."

That coaxes a faint smile out of her. "They're a tough crew."

"Yeah, we've managed to start mopping things up pretty good here," Vinnie was saying over the radio. "The squishy little creeps aren't exactly ready to get out of town, but I think we've got 'em on the run. Your plan worked."

April's smile widens. "Looks like. You need anything else?

"Nah, we're good. Hey, how's the Mikester? He up and gettin' into trouble yet?"

Leo can see the worry in her face, but her voice is steady as she answers, "Not yet. But hopefully soon."

"We'll keep our fingers crossed. Keep us posted, yeah?"

"Sure thing."

"Okay, we'll talk soon. And hey, say hi to Angelcake for me!"

Leo casts a sideways glance at Angel. "Friend of yours?" he asks in a low voice.

Angel rolls her eyes. "He wishes." But she can't quite hide the hint of fondness on her face.

April smirks, continuing without missing a beat. "Okay, I'll pass the message along. Take care of yourself, Vinnie."

"You too, April. Later."

April switches off the radio and turns, propping her hip against the table with a sigh. "Well, that's the last one to report in." She looks tired, but satisfied. "We coordinated with Chicago and some of the other major cities the day we hit the Shredder's stronghold. If they were busy, they couldn't send help. We took heavy losses in a lot of places, but in most cities, the attacks were a success. Or at the very least, the remnants of the Foot have lost a lot of ground."

Leo nods slowly. The coordinated attack had been one of the last-minute aspects of the plan Don and April had put together. He hadn't given it much thought at the time, too focused on the battle ahead, but now that it's over he's forced to realize how much still has to be done to stamp out the radical Utrom faction and the rest of the Foot clan that had followed Ch'rell. And suddenly he's glad that he's sitting down.

April advances and rests her hand on the arm of the chair, giving it an experimental nudge. "Looks like it's working pretty well," she says, looking pleased. "Not a bad idea if I do say so myself."

"Yeah." Leo nods, then says after a moment of hesitation, "Shadow was taking me to see Mike."

April pats his shoulder. "I know. Come on." Shadow starts pushing the chair again, following behind her mother. April looks over her shoulder at Leo as she walks. "The stasis tubes are a little far from the infirmary, but they eat up a lot of power. It's better for them to be near the generators."

They pass through another set of doors and enter a room where the light is dim and tinted orange like a perpetual sunset. A few clusters of stasis tubes are spaced throughout the center of the room. Most are empty, but Leo sees a few Utroms and one human suspended within the tall cylinders. One Utrom drifts slowly around the tubes on a hover pad, monitoring readouts. And on the far side of the room…

Leo's heart clenches as Shadow brings him up to the stasis tube that holds Michelangelo. Like Raphael, Mike bears scars on his body that Leo doesn't remember. His mask and gear are gone. Even the metal cap over his truncated left arm has been temporarily removed, leaving the scarred end of the stump exposed. It makes him look more vulnerable than he already is. The readout screen near the base of the tube flickers periodically with numbers and lines of Utrom script, but Leo can't understand it and it makes his anxiety for his brother worse, leaving his shell feeling two sizes too small.

"Leonardo." Leatherhead lumbers into view from behind the group of tubes. "It is good to see you, old friend."

It's not easy to startle a ninja, but Leo is staring so hard at his brother that Leatherhead has approached unnoticed. Leo flinches hard enough to make the hoverchair tilt, and it takes him a moment to recover. "It's good to see you too, Leatherhead," he manages to say. Truthfully, he'd given up on ever seeing Leatherhead again - in the few times he'd remembered him over the years. The Shredder had not yet openly come to power before Leatherhead left, and then afterwards...afterwards Leo hadn't had time to spend wondering about the fate of a friend who had disappeared on a mission that seemed increasingly futile as year after year slipped by.

Leatherhead's slit pupils flare and shrink as he studies Leo, and his gut twists guiltily as he wonders how much April has told the giant crocodile about the past thirty years. But when Leatherhead speaks, it isn't about the past. "I have been watching Michelangelo's condition carefully," he rumbles. "His progress is slow, but he is improving."

Leo turns back to watch viscous orange fluid swirl across deep cracks in Mike's plastron. "Why is it taking so long?" he asks hoarsely.

"Michelangelo was badly injured and lost a lot of blood," Leatherhead replies. "We've had to keep him in an intermittent stasis field to allow his body to produce more blood cells. If he had been allowed to heal in real time, I do not think he would have survived."

"But he'll be okay now?" Leo can't keep the desperation out of his voice.

"I hope so," Leatherhead says. Leo swallows hard, trying hard not to lose faith - but on the other side of the room, the lights on one of the stasis tubes holding an Utrom abruptly flicker and go dark, and the Utrom monitoring the room lets out a low, keening cry. It bustles around the tube for a moment or two, then sweeps dejectedly out of the room on its hover pad.

Leo curls his hands into fists in his lap, gulping against the aching knot in his throat. "Can I have a minute?" he rasps.

April pushes his chair up close to the stasis tube, touches his shoulder softly and withdraws, beckoning for Shadow and Leatherhead to follow her. Leo waits until he hears the door close behind them, then lets out the shuddering breath he's been holding. His eyes sting and Mike's form blurs. Leo bows his head and leans forward to rest his hand against the smooth curving glass. The stasis tube is warm beneath his palm. "I'm here now, Mikey," he says in a choked whisper. Too little, too late, his mind hisses. But he grits his teeth and forces the cold accusation away, focusing on his wounded brother. "I'm here. Don't give up." But the only answer is the mechanical hum of the stasis tube, and his shoulders begin to shake.

Leo doesn't hear the door open, doesn't hear the sound of footsteps, but he knows when he's not alone.

Raph doesn't come into his line of sight, but his unmistakeable presence looms just behind his left shoulder. "When he gets outta there," he says gruffly, "if he says one word about being like Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back, I'm gonna bap him so hard he'll think he's in a galaxy far, far, away."

On the list of things Leo was expecting Raph to say, that wasn't one of them. A sound escapes him - a laugh or a sob, he doesn't really know - and he pulls his hand back to wipe the damp streaks from his face. "I won't stop you." The pair of them gaze at Mike in silence until Leo abruptly sways in his seat. The hover pads exaggerate any movement and there's no way to hide his moment of dizziness.

"O-kay," Raph says, "time to get you back in bed." Even though Leo doesn't have the strength to resist, Raph waits until he sees him nod, then grips the back of the chair and guides him from the room.

The command center is empty aside from April, Shadow, and Leatherhead, and Leo's grateful that any prying eyes have been sent away.

"I can take him back, Uncle Raph," Shadow says lightly. "I promised him that if he behaved himself, I wouldn't let you drive."

Raph takes one hand off the chair to wave her off. "Nah, I got it."

Shadow exchanges a fleeting glance with Leo and April, sees agreement from one and approval from the other, and relents. She crosses her arms and gives Raph a playful frown. "No hot-rodding," she says sternly. "That's the only hover chair we have and we don't need it dinged up."

Raph just snorts in reply and continues on his way. Leo had been anxious to see Mike when leaving the infirmary, but talking with Shadow had eased his tension and made the trip seem shorter than it was. The way back with Raph's heavy, brooding presence behind him feels interminable, and Leo almost sighs in relief when they reach his room. Raph pushes him up to the edge of the bed, but doesn't move to help Leo out of the chair. Instead he stands behind him, mute and unmoving.

The silent minutes crawl past until the air seems to hum with tension. Leo braces himself, takes a deep breath, and ventures, "Raph...I think we should talk about - "

But Raph cuts him off with a growl. "Shut up, Leo."

Leo's heart sinks. Was Raph going to hang on to their grudge even now? No, Raphael. You're not going to do this. I won't let you. "No," he says aloud. He tries to speak firmly but it just makes the word tremble. "Raph, we have to - "

"Shut up, Leo!" The rebuke is even more vehement than before, but this time, the tension in Raph's voice strains and breaks, and Leo feels a warm droplet land on his shoulder.

And understanding washes over him, leaving him breathless. He feels a thrum within his chest, a rippling along his nerves, and it's as if he and Raphael are two tuning forks that have suddenly rediscovered the same resonance after decades of being in discord. Raph is right. They don't need to talk. Talking about the past won't change it. They don't need to talk about where they were wrong, because they know. They don't need to discuss what to do next because they know the right thing to do. Tears fill Leo's eyes for the second time that hour, but they are tears of relief, because he has not lost his connection to Raphael after all.

He blinks his vision clear but can't quite steady his voice as he asks, "Forgive me?"

"Yeah," Raph says hoarsely. "You?"

"Yeah." Leo closes his eyes and lets his head fall back to rest against Raph's chest. "We're idiots."

"Yeah." Raph gives a choked little laugh. "Mike's the smart one."

(to be continued...)

Two brief notes:

1. This story comes from the slight 2k3 AU element that Shadow is Casey and April's biological daughter, born sometime after the "Back to the Sewers" season.

2. April's discussion with Vinnie is an allusion to the TMNT/Biker Mice crossover fic I wrote titled "Alliance". You don't have to read it to understand this story. I just put the reference in for funsies. :D