Author's Note: This story is entirely the work of the Terrapin Tarts RP team, made up of Winnychan, DeeMG, Tori Angeli, and KameTerra - check out their fanfics!

It was bad enough that anyone should be sneaking out. And Mikey couldn't really help following in Raph's footsteps. But Donatello was someone he counted on to balance out the rashness of the other two. It made him furious to watch Donatello and Raphael working in tandem to defy him! (Splinter had given them a vocabulary quiz that week, which he had naturally aced.) Leonardo grit his teeth and adjusted the lens of his binoculars. What on EARTH were his brothers thinking?

"Wicked. I can't BELIEVE we found this."

The trampoline was stuck under part of an engine block. "A little help, please?" Don grunted.

"Oh! Right." Raphael hunkered down to assist him, but the engine block was too much for him. "MIKE!" he hollered. "Stop playing around and help us, will ya?"

"Coming!"

Leonardo winced, unable to believe the amount of noise they were making. He ought to turn around right now and tell Splinter! But he also wanted to know exactly what they were up to in the first place. There had to be a good reason, if Donatello was involved. He was certain of it.

"Look, I found some really great rubber tubes."

"Is that what you been mucking around with over there? What are we gonna do with some lousy tubes?"

Donatello released the half buried trampoline with grunt and peered at Michelangelo's find. "Actually - remember phase three? I think these will be perfect." He pulled out a battered stack of papers and unfolded them.

Raphael squinted at the plans dubiously. "But we haven't even finished phase one yet."

"Well, Mikey was thinking ahead for once!" Donatello defended with approval, clapping his brother on the shoulder.

"Yeah!" Mike beamed like he was only half following the conversation. "Great trampoline! Need some help?"

Together the three turtles struggled while young Leonardo watched from the distance. He could pick up some of what was being said with his lipreading ability, and he still couldn't believe it. Donatello was not only going along with their antics - he appeared to be the RINGLEADER!

"I dunno, dudes," Michelangelo said, falling to the ground with a flump. "This trampoline might be a lost cause."

"You ain't putting your back into it!" Raph accused, though he was huffing and showing just as much exertion as any of them.

"What we REALLY need," Donatello decided, "is to do this smarter. We need PHYSICS on our side!"

"Physics is never on my side," Michelangelo protested.

"Tonight it will be," Don grinned. "Watch and learn!"

Five minutes later they had gathered all the junkyard items Donatello had requested. "Now what?" Raph grumbled.

"This looks complicated," Mike complained.

"Actually," the brainiac retorted archly, "it's a very simple machine. Get it?"

No one got it.

"Right. Why do I bother?" he grumbled. "Will you just help me anchor this here, please? And we'll loop this around here. Yeah, this oughta do it. Okay, Mike - make sure this stays upright. Raph, get behind this beam and push with both hands. Ready? Annnnd heave! Ho!"

"How come you aren't helping?" Raphael griped.

"Look, I don't even need to help! You're doing it all by yourself, Raph!"

"Holy crap! I am the HULK! Rrrrrh!"

"Easy does it!"

"You're talking to Raph," Mike reminded him.

"Will you just grab the trampoline already?"

"Uh oh! Strength... giving out!"

"Don't you DARE!" Mike whined, yanking his hand back.

"He's just messing with you," Don chided, while Raph snickered and gave the pulley system another heave.

The squeal of the improvised pulley reached all the way to Leo's ears, and he cringed again at the noise they were making. Didn't they remember any of their training? Didn't they care at all about being ninja, and the Way of Silence? Didn't they care that they were going to get in trouble? He bit his lip and wondered what he should do.

"There's a tear in it," Donatello frowned as he looked over their treasure.

"It's not too bad," Raphael argued, poking his finger through the torn fabric. "See, it's not big - you c'n fix it."

"It might not be structurally sound - Mikey! Get off of that!"

"Whee!" Mike bounced. "It works, guys!"

"C'mon, Don, it's gonna work out! It's like it was meant for us. How many trampolines you think we're gonna find in the junk yard?"

"Look! I can fly!" Mike called, bouncing higher.

"True, it's not like we'd be this lucky next time," Don glanced over the plans again, mostly to reassure himself. "I guess it'll be okay. The tear's not too big, it's off to the side..."

"Guys, I'm a super hero - ow!" There was a metallic crunch, and suddenly Mike was on the ground next to the scavenged trampoline. He rolled around, clutching his knee. "Ow, that hurt!"

Don checked him over. "It's not bleeding. You'll be okay. Help me figure out how we're gonna get this home."

The three of them stared at the trampoline in silence for a moment. "You mean...you don't have a plan for that?" Raphael asked in disbelief.

Leonardo had gasped out loud when Mike started bouncing around like he didn't care if he could be seen as far away as New Jersey, and gasped again in fear when his little brother suddenly disappeared under the trampoline. Now he squinted through the binoculars, trying to make out what his brothers were up to as they huddled together around the large papers that Don spread out across the edge of the trampoline.

What transpired next was difficult for Leonardo to interpret. Donatello was pointing at different parts of the paper, gesticulating like he was explaining something intricate, and they leaned in close together in quiet discussion. Raph leaned over to help Don overturn the trampoline, and then suddenly leapt up with a yell and began flapping his arms dramatically as he hopped around.

And once again, they were making way too much noise. Leo stiffened and waited in suspense, hoping one of his other brothers would have the sense to tell him to be quiet. Don stood and put a hand out to calm Raph, and the turtle in red, still frantic over something, backed away and tripped, accidentally striking Mikey while flailing his arms to keep his balance. They both went down, and Leo squeezed his eyes shut at the ensuing crash.

"Raph, easy!" Don hissed, "I'm telling you, it was just a roach!"

"No fucking WAY, Donnie—that was a black widow! It CRAWLED ON MY HAND, okay? Jesus, the thing could a' bit off one a' my fingers er somethin'!" He tried to hide the slight shakiness of his hands—bad enough that he'd just flailed around like he was having a seizure. At least he could take some solace in being able to use as much profanity as he wanted without anyone getting on his shell about it.

"I'm telling you, this just isn't the right habitat for black widows. They're very secretive, and they—"

"Secretive as in hiding in dark crevices? You're right—nothing at all to hide under in a JUNK YARD," Raph said venomously as he picked himself up, inspecting his limbs for more monstrous carnivorous insects. He nudged the prone Michelangelo with his foot. "C'mon, Mike, no one's buyin' it," he said.

No answer from Mike.

Raphael snorted, and rolled him partway over with his foot. "Get up, doofus."

Still nothing from Mike, and Don furrowed his brow and went to crouch beside his brother, tentatively reaching to feel his neck. This was the part where Mikey usually sat bolt upright and yelled in his face, or grabbed his arm while making a noise like a buzzer, or tackled him so he fell backwards, laughing insanely. This time, Don's fingers made it all the way to Mike's neck without incident. "Mike?" he said when he'd satisfied himself that the pulse was strong. He gently shook his brother's shoulder, and then leaned in close and peeled up an eyelid. By this time Raph was crouched in behind him.

"You'd better not be fucking messing with us, Mikey…" Raph growled. "Get up now, an' I'll only give ya a mild ass whooping."

No answer.

Don was inspecting his temple now, tilting his head slightly to get a better look in the dim glow of a distant security light. "You must've clocked him pretty good, Raph." He sat back, and looked up at the turtle in red. "He's out cold."

Raphael wrung his hands together, looking more dismayed by the moment. "There's no way I clocked him that hard!"

"You might have," Donatello replied with a shrug. "You are the Hulk, after all."

"Isn't there something... can't we do something to wake him up?" Raph demanded when the other turtle gave up his inspection of Mike and rose to his feet.

"Like what?" Don blinked at him.

"I don't know! Dump some water on him?"

"That only works on TV, or with sleeping people. And I didn't think I would need to pack smelling salts for this adventure. Silly me, right?"

Raph took offense to his sarcasm and balled his fists. "You know it was an accident! You should be pissed at the spider if you want to be pissed at someone!"

"I'm not pissed!" Don shot back. "I'm just saying that unless you want to dig through all of this garbage in the hopes that someone threw out some ammonium carbonate, there is not a lot we can do!"

"You think they really might have?" Raph asked in a smaller voice.

"NO," Don shot back in frustration. It was loud enough that Leonardo, crouched many yards away, did not need to lip read in order to hear him. Leo also had to admit that Donatello did, in fact, look pretty pissed.

"Then... what..." Raph dropped to his knees beside Mike.

Don seemed to soften then, his shoulders slumping just a little. "I'm sorry, Raph," he sighed. "There's nothing to do except suck it up and get out the walkie talkies. We've got to call Master Splinter."

Leo felt a wash of relief spill over him. Finally, someone was stating what seemed to him like the sensible and obvious thing to do.

"But... we can't! Damn it, Don. You heard what he said! He's trusting us! If something goes wrong, you know he's never gonna let us go out on our own again for a whole year!"

Leo dropped his binoculars in surprise.

"If something goes wrong and we don't call him immediately, he's never gonna let us go out on our own again for a whole year." Don intoned in a flat voice, already poised with the walkie talkie to his ear. "Remember?"

"Oh," Raph agreed glumly. "Right."

Don depressed the button on the walkie talkie. "Master Splinter?"

Leo approached cautiously while his brothers were distracted and shook Mikey a little with no result. He felt for a bump on his brother's head, trying all the while to remember if a bump was a good sign or a bad sign. Heads are lumpy enough by nature that he was having a hard time telling what counted. In the meantime, Master Splinter wasn't responding.

Don depressed the button once, listening carefully, then sighed. "We're out of range."

Leo glanced up sharply.

"How can we be out of range?" Raph argued. "We take this way all the time."

"It's not where we are, it's how far away Splinter is. I don't think we ever tested these things at this range." Don looked more than a little disappointed in himself.

"Never mind, Don," Leo said quickly, causing both his brothers to jump and look towards him. "Raph and I'll go back home and get him. You stay with Mike."

"Have you been following us?" Don said disbelievingly.

Raph's eyes flared. "I ain't going back!"

"Yes, you are," Leo said matter-of-factly. "You're gonna tell Master Splinter what happened."

"That's exactly why I'm not gonna go back!"

"Listen, Raph, he'll just make you explain anyway. This way you can at least make it sound like it was your idea."

"Hell, no." Raph folded his arms and planted himself where he stood.

"Well you can't stay with Mikey!" Leo yelled without. "I think you've done him enough favors for one night!"

"Shhhhhhh!" Don hissed, and Leo recoiled in horror at how he'd forgotten himself. And here he'd been angry with them for all the noise they'd been making…

"Sorry," Leonardo whispered sheepishly, "I forgot—"

Don silenced him with a sharp shake of his head and a hand raised in the air, neck craned, obviously listening, and Raph and Leo instantly copied him, straining their senses for whatever Donatello had detected. They stood frozen, hardly daring to breathe, eyes scanning around the junkyard.

Nothing.

Finally Don exhaled. "Sorry," he whispered. "I thought I heard—"

Clank.

That time they all heard it.

Leo knew there was no stalling, now—they had to get out of here, and they had to take Mikey with them. He broke into a sweat, collecting his thoughts and preparing to issue orders on the quietest, most efficient way to do this, when he saw a movement out of the corner of his eye. His eyes flew to where he'd seen the movement, to Michelangelo's prone body, involuntarily switching to a defensive stance as his body was flooded with adrenaline…

And what he saw was Mikey's hand reaching, fingers curling around a crumpled soda can, then eyes peeking open as he silently flung it out into the junkyard.

Clank-crash.

Why that lousy...! Leonardo had to suppress his initial reaction to Michelangelo's treachery. He looked at his other two brother who were peering into the darkness intently... in completely opposite directions.

"Why you lookin' over there?" Raph finally noticed and turned around to growl at Don. He jerked his thumb over one shoulder and said, "The sound definitely came from THAT way!"

"Yes. But I caught a glimpse of the direction of the movement, and the second and third sounds it made as it bounced were quieter, as if we heard them from further away. Ergo, someone is very likely trying to deceive us by throwing things from THIS direction!"

"Really?" Raphael looked dubious, but he was peering in several different directions now.

"Definitely! Whoever it is, they're very sneaky. Hey, do you think it might be the Foot?"

"I'm not scared," Raph announced, puffing his chest a little.

"Then you're definitely an idiot," Leo interjected.

"Agreed," Don murmured.

Leo was very tempted to tell them what he had discovered, but it would be a lot more effective to catch him in the act. Also, the fact that they were spooked meant they were more likely to reveal what they were doing out here to begin with. "Guys, we have to get out of here," he said firmly, in what he liked to think was a leader-ish kind of voice. He flicked his eyes down to see Michelangelo still playing possum, and rolled with it. "We're gonna have to carry Mike, at least as far as the tunnels. Don, you get his feet. Raph, get his arms."

"Why don't you get his arms?" Raphael shot back, still scanning the mounds of junk with an expression that was probably meant to be dangerous, but looked more like petulance to anyone who knew him. "I wanna be ready to pound any Foot goons who try to mess with us!"

Donatello rolled his eyes as he gave up his own survey of the other half of the junkyard. "That doesn't seem like the most effective tactic, Raph." He stood next to Mike, frowning thoughtfully.

"Tactic, schmactic! They're out there, and we gotta be ready," Raph argued, dropping into a crouch. "Are you guys gonna help me, or what?"

"It's what, definitely what," Don muttered. He glanced away, looking at their brother doing his most aggressive posturing.

KLANK!

Another noise, this time from somewhere closer. Leo glanced down barely in time to see Mike's hand fall to the ground again.

Raphael jumped and spun around. "It came from over there!" he pointed past his brothers and the (forgotten) trampoline, at a pile of junk that rose up higher than all the rest of the piles in the junkyard.

"We don't have time to mess around, just grab Mikey," Leo said in a commanding whisper. It felt pretty good to be In Charge, and knowing there wasn't really any danger out there made it much it much easier to be confident and assertive.

"Leo, we can't risk being followed," Don reasoned. "We have to make sure it's safe, first, or else we—"

"Too much talk," Raph cut in, and he started make his way toward the trampoline, weapons drawn, movements stealthy.

"Raph!" Leo hissed after him, but his brother paid no attention. Figured. "Watch out for black widows!" he called, and this time he saw his brother falter, though he recovered himself immediately. Still, it had the desired affect of slowing him down.

"Shouldn't…one of us go with him?" Don piped up.

Leo sighed. Why did Raph always have to ruin things?

Or possibly...

"You go with him," Leo said confidently. "I'll look after Mike."

Don nodded, head weighed with the importance of his task, and ran after Raphael. "Raph! We're supposed to stick to the shadows!"

Leo watched them both dash out of earshot, then squatted down beside his prone brother. "You realize you're asking for a real concussion, right?"

Mike didn't respond.

Leo did not sigh. He did not even bother to get impatient. He reached underneath Michelangelo's nearest knee and tickled instead.

Michelangelo jumped. Leo's hand covered his mouth a split second before his brother shrieked into it.

The tickling hand became a fist, drawing back and socking Mike hard in the plastron. He grunted, but Leo's hand was sealed tightly over Mike's mouth.

"Now tell me what's going on!" Leonardo hissed.

"What do you mean?" Mike groaned, rolling and clutching pathetically at his plastron. It couldn't really hurt that bad, but his little brother was never one minimize the drama of a situation.

"We were WORRIED about you. You are a wimp AND a jerk for playing games like that!"

"I'm sorry, geez! It was funny from my end! Let me up, okay?"

"Maybe. But you're going to have to answer some questions. What is it you guys have been doing night after night?" Leonardo ground Mike's cheek hard into the gravel. Later he would marvel at himself for behaving like such a bully, but his feelings were hurt now. It made him really pissed. "Why have the three of you been coming here without me?"

"Dude, I'm sorry! I'm not allowed to tell!"

"Wh...what?" Leo squinted at Mike, non-comprehending. "On whose authority?"

"Splinter's, duh!" He swallowed. "Look, I said I'm sorry!"

Leo stared at Mike in silence.

"Well. Good to see you've woken up." Donatello murmured as he and Raph returned to the clearing. "How long has he... Leo?"

Leonardo flung Mike away and took to his feet. He spared the briefest glance in the direction of their startled faces. A moment later Don was beginning to glare down at Mike, and Raph was sidling up next to him and growling, "WHAT did you say?" But he didn't stay to hear whatever lecture they were brewing.

None of you have honor! Leonardo though fiercely as he took off running.

"It's totally ruined!" Mike hopped up from the ground, rubbing at his cheek. He ignored the glares aimed at him in favor of looking mournfully off in the direction that Leo had disappeared. "We didn't even get through phase one before he found out, and now it's all ruined! All of our hard work -!"

"It's not like you did much work, shell-for-brain," Raph snarled. "What did you say to him?"

"Nothing!" Mike insisted. His eyes fell on the trampoline, now half-collapsed on its side. "I didn't tell him anything, swear!"

"Since you were faking a concussion two minutes ago, your trustworthiness is a little suspect," Donatello said tartly. (Splinter may have given the vocabulary quiz, but Donatello had helped him write it.) "Honestly, Mike, it's like you've been trying to get us caught, all night long!"

"I haven't-" he protested, only to be overridden.

"Yeah, it is! You come out here and goof around, you don't pay any attention to what we're lookin' for, you get hurt - and then you pretend to get hurt, so you can get outta workin'!" Raphael was working up to fine fury, and totally losing all sense of ninja-ness. His voice rose as he went along. "What, did you wanna get carried home, too? Didja think we were just out here for kicks - "

"What was that?" Mike interrupted. His eyes were wide as he scanned the area behind his furious brothers.

"Don't try that one!" Raph raved.

"No, I'm serious, I hear something!" Mike drew closer to them, looking in all directions as fast as he could. "It's not me this time, dudes, I swear - "

KLANK!

That time, they all heard it. As one, they fell silent.

...klink...

There was a moment when Mikey was sure they were all asking the same question in their heads—towards the noise, or away from it. Mike was pretty sure he knew which one Leo would choose, were he here. Melt away into the shadows, an' all that ninja stuff. But Leo wasn't here…and that fact in itself decided it. They couldn't just split without Leo. And with all the noise they'd just been making, they couldn't stay where they were if whatever was making that noise was coming for them.

Raphael nudged Don, and canted his head in the direction of the noise, and then caught his brothers' eyes. Reluctantly, Donatello nodded, and Mike added his unspoken agreement. Silently, the set out, following Raph's lead and circling wide, pausing frequently to listen.

Klink klank!

Mike was breathing shallowly, breath hitching in his chest. This wasn't an exercise in the dojo—this was dangerous. Or at least, potentially dangerous. Then he smiled in the dark. This was awesome.

A tiny but piercing squeak came from Don's direction. Mike glanced sharply in his direction. Donatello was nowhere to be found.

"Donnie?" Mike called as an automatic reaction, heart rate suddenly spiking.

"Don't play games, Don," Raph growled, whirling in the direction of his vanished brother. "It's just Leo."

"EVIL Leo," Mike added with a nervous laugh. "Getting revenge, right, Leo? You can let Don go now."

Suddenly a weighted net came sailing out of the darkness and neatly wrapped the pair of spooked turtles together. Both of them recognized the klink-klank noise from earlier as the tiny barbells struck on the uneven ground.

Mike gave only a small yelp of surprise as the ropes closed over him. He and Raph both fought them instinctively.

"They won't take us without a fight!" Raphael panted into Mike's ear. Already the net was dragging them into the shadows.

"Raph!"

"But stay close to me, okay?" His brother sounded terrified.

Mike stopped thrashing and twisted to grin over his shoulder. "It's gonna be okay, Raphie! These are Master Splinter's nets."

Soon they were all dangling upside-down in front of their Master.

Donatello gave a sheepish wave from his individual net. "Hey, guys."

"Geez, Master Splinter," Raphael complained. "You really scared the crap out of us."

"I nearly peed," Mike agreed cheerfully. "Which woulda been SO bad for you, dude!"

"GROSS," Raph reacted violently, kicking his brother.

"Ninja Voices!" Splinter reminded them all sharply, giving Mike and Raph's net a shake. Then he swiveled to peer down his long nose at his other dangling son. "Donatello, I would have used the tiny radio but it has stopped working. None of the lights will come on."

"Oh! That's a relief Wait, not because you couldn't reach us! Just, I thought it might not be able to handle the range, but now I'm thinking that it must be dead batteries or something. You know, now that I think about it, I remembered to change OURS, but…"

Splinter cleared his throat. "Soda may have spilled on it."

"Oh." Don gave his father a sheepish look. "Yeah, that'll do it."

"Nevermind. There is a matter of greater importance. Your brother Leonardo has gone missing."

"No kidding," Raphael agreed sourly. "He just took off!"

"Then he has already found you!"

"Yeah."

"And after we were SO careful!" Mike lamented.

"Please. You were hardly careful at all!" Donatello scoffed. "Just the other day we were all watching TV and you almost—"

"No more bickering!" Splinter hissed, dropping the nets simultaneously. The turtles landed with a groan of protest. "If I'd known you would be so careless…" He shook his head gently and decided, "We must find your brother. Tell me, how long ago did he depart?"

"You seriously just missed him, Master Splinter!" Mike supplied. He was the quickest to scramble free of the net.

"Then perhaps he is not far." The elderly rat lifted two thin, clawed fingers to his lips and blew a whistle that would have sounded like birdsong to an untrained ear. It was a signal they knew well, one that meant: come to me at once!

Leonardo had never been one to ignore it. They searched the shadows expectantly – all but Michelangelo, who kicked at the garbage dubiously. "He was pretty ticked, guys. Maybe he won't come. Or maybe he was running super fast and now he's too far away…"

"He is already here," Splinter observed.

The three turtles jumped, simultaneously realizing that Leonardo had materialized behind them.

"That's twice tonight," Donatello marveled. "How do you DO that?"

Leo's arms folded and his sullen gaze fixed on the ground, refusing to look at them.

"I was worried about you," Splinter said, his tone more relieved than scolding.

Leonardo said nothing.

"You are angry?" the rat frowned with genuine surprise. "What have you deduced from what you have seen tonight?" Still the young turtle stewed in silence. Finally Splinter finally threw the nets over one shoulder and gave an incredulous laugh. "Can it be the Silent Treatment, from my Leonardo? Ah, very well. Children, we are going home."

"Wait," Donatello protested immediately."What about my plans?"

"Fetch them, quickly."

"What about all the great stuff we found tonight?" Mike asked.

"Leave it."

"Aww, man!" Mike and Raph whined, almost in unison.

As they were surrounding the hatch they would use to depart from the junkyard, Splinter noticed that even Leonardo spared a regretful backwards glance for the torn trampoline.

"So that's it?" Don finally looked up from the rumpled papers in his hands. He was the last one to notice that they were leaving empty-handed, apparently. "Our plans are finished?"

"Looks that way," Raph answered, kicking up some sewer water and looking especially glum.

Don's head swiveled to regard the figure of authority, decending the ladder. "How is that fair, Master Splinter?"

"What is the point of pursuing these plans," Splinter countered solemnly, "now that they have hurt the one you intended to surprise?"

"Nobody hurt me!" Now that Leonardo had decided to speak up, he sounded even more angry. "I just don't like being deceived! I don't know what games you guys are playing, but I wish you would knock it off. I hate surprises! So tell me what's going on!"

"You got no reason to be pissed at us, buttmunch! Everything we been doing is for you!"

"Raph, that isn't the best way!" Donatello admonished.

"Then why don't you explain it better!" Raph shot back.

"Well - I wasn't volunteering," Don faltered and looked pointedly at Splinter. "Also I don't know whether or not we can."

Master Splinter sighed and said, "I believe, at this point, your brother deserves a full explanation."

An uncomfortable silence followed.

"Do not all begin at once," the old rat prompted wryly.

Raphael glared at Don. Don fiddled with the plans and studiously ignored him. Raphael grew impatient and socked him in the arm.

"Raphael!" Splinter warned.

"Well! Ya said not to bicker," Raphael defended in a gruff near-whisper, remembering to use his Ninja Voice.

"Look, it wasn't even my idea!" Don retorted, rubbing his arm.

Now it was Leonardo's turn to show impatience. He snatched the papers out of Donatello's hands and accused, also using his Ninja Voice, "Well, you ARE the one holding a bunch of documents that everyone keeps calling The Plans. And they do seem to be written in your ugly and very hard to read hand-writing."

"Well, yeah! THOSE are my plans. But that doesn't mean The Plan is my plan! These are just some plans for The Plan. Not even all of them! Raph's got some back home that are even HARDER to read."

"Hey!" Raph exclaimed.

"I didn't say they were BAD plans, Raph," Don smirked. "But they are quite hard to read… mostly because you wrote them with a crayon."

Raphael seemed mollified, backing down and mumbling, "Crayon was all I could find."

"Thank you so much for clearing that up, guys!" Leo said, flushing with new fury and straining against the confines of using his Ninja Voice. "I thought we might not get to go to the surface for years, after all the trouble we got in because of that Jones kid! But, we're not in trouble. What a great surprise! I guess it turns out you guys have been going without me for – who KNOWS how long! Months?"

Every one of them gave him a stricken look.

"No, Leo!"

"Ain't like that!"

"And YOU!" Leonardo whirled on Splinter. He was tired and it showed in his shaky stance and glassy eyes. "Why would you WANT them to hide this from me?"

"Ninja Voice, Leonardo!" Splinter reprimanded automatically, though his eyes had widened, quite surprised at this uncommon outburst.

"Stop. Calling it. That," Leonardo warned, speaking through his teeth - still very confrontational, for all that he would not disobey a direct order. "Do you think we are children? Do you?"

"You are only eleven."

"Then WHY were they allowed to go? Why SHOULD they? Do you think they were being safe? What if someone had seen them, and you and I weren't here? What if-"

"We were FINE, Leo!" Raphael insisted.

"Leo," Don interjected , wringing his hands, "we weren't even going to be alone that long. Splinter was going to follow us, as soon as his show was over!"

"It was the season finale," Splinter agreed wistfully. "My poor dear Jessica was voted off the island."

Leonardo stared at him. "Unbelievable!" he spat at last. He sped up and was out of sight before his family had time to fully register that he was leaving them behind.

"Okay, you guys really suck at explaining things to Leo," Mike sighed, and went sprinting after him.

It was an easy enough thing to catch up. Leo was no longer gunning down the tunnel at a full run, but doing a rather angry sort of power walking. He managed to do this at a glide that Splinter would have approved of, with hardly any splashing.

Unfortunately, catching up to him involved some splashing. So did going in circles around him, and finally powering-walking almost side-by-side while poking his big brother in the arm and going, "Leo? Hey Leo? Leo? Leo? Um, Leo? Leo? Can we talk, Leo? Hey, Leo? Le-"

"WHAT?" Leonardo finally demanded, coming to a full stop and balling his fists.

Mike stopped too and gave him a sheepish half smile. "It was my plan."

"Great. So it's all some elaborate prank."

The others were coming into earshot now, but they hung back to let Michelangelo explain.

"No way! Not even close, dude! It was supposed to be a surprise, right? And we totally blew it! But if you REALLY have to know, we're working on something for your birthday!"

The taller turtle said nothing at first, but merely peered and blinked rapidly six or seven times before he finally said, "My what?"

"Your BIRTHDAY, dude!"

"Uh, Mike? We just had our birthday. Not even two months ago."

"No, man! That was our birthday. I'm talking about YOUR birthday!"

Leonardo's confusion became a stubborn frown. "We already discussed this. We even voted, and it was a split vote. And we do not overthrow over a decade of family tradition on a split vote. It IS still a split vote, isn't it?" He turned his stern look on Donatello, who was lingering in earshot with Raph and Splinter.

"Oh! I'm still on your side of that issue, definitely!" Don assured him with haste, putting his hands up. "While I'm not opposed to gift-giving and receiving, to be honest, I don't have much emotional investment in celebrating the day Splinter found us. And I certainly don't require a whole bunch of… completely made up, theoretical hatching days… just so we can all feel like a super special snowflake once a year. I mean, biologically speaking, we each make up one fourth of a whole species, which means we're pretty darn special three hundred and sixty-five days a year, right? Plus, confining our celebrations to a single day is way more cost effective AND time efficient."

"Okay," Leo nodded, looking a little confused, like Don's supporting argument might be changing his mind on the subject.

"It does suck, though," Raph spoke up, quiet and heartfelt enough to catch them all by surprise. "We gotta share everything. Even our birthdays."

"Yeah, I'm with you, bro," Mike agreed with equal feeling. He turned to Leo with a smile and tried to give it a more positive spin. " Also, what harm does it do? Look how much more celebrating we'd get to do! We don't even get a summer break like topside kids. Would it really kill us to have a few more birthdays, Leo?"

Leo tried to hold onto his stubbornness in the face of Mike's shiny-eyed plea. He gently shoved Mike aside and looked sternly at Don. "Let's get back to you for a second. If you feel the way you say you do about birthdays, then WHY are you involved with their plan?"

"Well, see." Don's grin went very sheepish. "In their plan, I get to build stuff."

Leo's frown deepened, growing thoughtful. They could all sense that it was a very good sign. "Building what KIND of stuff?"

"You're HOLDING the plans for all the stuff he's building," Raphael reminded Leo.

"Phase one, anyway," Don interjected.

"You could read 'em if you really tried to."

Leo eyed them all warily. Then he lowered his eyes to the plans.

The other turtles waited with held breath.

Then they ran out of breath, and had to take one before it became obvious to everyone else that they'd been holding it. They watched Leonardo's eyes widen. They watched him turn the page this way and that to read extremely tiny margin scribbles and watched him follow elaborate arrows and dotted lines. "Is this part… is that supposed to be a climbing wall?"

"Yeah!" Don beamed.

"Huh," Leo commented. He had always wanted a climbing wall.

"It's a new training room, dude!" Mike finally exploded, unable to contain his pride in The Plan any longer. "Except it takes up several rooms. And that one's an obstacle course! And it can be configured in a bunch of ways. It'll be like American Gladiators and Ninja Warrior combined, except even sweeter! And we can-"

Leonardo held up his finger exactly like Master Splinter when he was commanding silence. Mike's mouth clacked shut. Without looking up, he said very seriously, "No more chatter. Reading." Then he went back to being absorbed by the rumpled pages.

They crowded around him, watching his reactions, agreeing as one not to interrupt him. It was finally Splinter who broke into their circle and loomed, taking a classic Parental Stance. "Boys, we are going home. It is way past your bedtime and I have been very lenient today."

"Yes, Master Splinter," Leo agreed, rising immediately and falling into step beside Splinter. The others followed suit in a shuffling way, obedient but with far less snap or urgency "I'm sorry for my… my disrespect earlier," he said at last.

He was hugging the plans for the obstacle course to his plastron as he walked. Splinter glanced down to observe this and smiled. "Am I to understand that the vote for separate birthdays is no longer split? The great debate is finally settled?"

"I guess so." Leonardo yawned and finally flashed a reluctant grin. "So, do you think maybe tomorrow we could go back for that trampoline?"