yukio87: Leo is in a ton of trouble right now but at least he knows his brothers are on the way! I'll say nothing more here. :)

Guest: I love that you love it! I loved writing it. This chapter took me the longest time to figure out and I'm glad that it turned out as well as it did.

Insanity 21: (Flattered that you're also following and reviewing 'Brother Mine'.) Thank you so much!

Guest: Apparently, I love cliffhangers far too much. That's my bad. I will tell you nothing here but, please, continue reading for further information. ;)

wooftmnt: His logic really is flawed, isn't it?

StitcherBell: You tell him, StitcherBell!

Natalie Ryan: I'm thrilled you found it gripping! Raphael is more intuitive than his brothers give him credit for, that's for sure.

TheMaskedTimelord: Like I said, it's a disease. If you know of a cure for the love of cliffhangers, let me know. ;) And thank you for loving another of my stories.

tarin2014tfan: Thank you! That's kind of you! :)

jlin678: Thank you so much! I do plan on finishing this fic, definitely. :)

DragonChild157: Um...my bad? :D

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 3: Happy Birthday

He was alone now, very and absolutely alone. He tucked the phone into his belt, not wanting to keep it clenched in his teeth and not caring that the phone would get water-logged. He tried pushing against the grate's sides, staying as much as he could away from the metal, but he was just so tired and everything hurt and it was frozen.

He closed his eyes, warm tears trickling down his cheeks, and then immediately snapped them open again. No. No, he would not despair. He would not fall asleep. He would stay alert and conscious and alive. He would not give up. He had promised.

'G-guys?" His voice came out in a tremulous rasp. He licked his lips, cleared his throat. "Guys? D-Don? Raph? Mikey? I'm over here!" He paused to listen. Nothing. Not even an echo of footsteps or whispers. His resolve didn't waver and he shouted. "Guys! Guys, I'm over here! Donatello! Raphael! Michelangelo! Over here!" Another pause. More nothing.

He shouted himself hoarse and when nothing more than a weak gasp came out of his mouth, he still continued calling for his brothers. They had to get here. He didn't want them to find his body today, not today.

His throat ached, his hands no longer stung and he couldn't feel much below his knees or maybe his hips... He half-treaded, half-floated, his numb hands braced against the stone above him, and there was still no answer, no sign at all of his approaching brothers. Leo's head drooped. His arms ached from holding on but still he held on. "It had to be today," he whispered.

Then, unmistakably, an unnatural noise: a rapid cadence of one, two, yes, three pairs of feet.

"LEO!"

He lifted his eyes and found blue – kind Fate bless and keep that colour forever. Mikey was above him, kneeling on the grate, and he instantly became aware that his brother's warm hands were reaching through the bars and curling around his freezing fingers. "M-Mikey," he rasped. "M-my ph-phone died."

"That's okay," his baby brother assured him. "We don't need it anymore. We got you."

"Hang on, Leo," Raph ordered, his amber eyes narrowed and intense. "We'll get ya out in a minute. Mikey, get off the grate, bro."

Mikey's reluctance to let him go was almost tangible but he obeyed, and Leo flexed his momentarily-warmed fingers.

Don smiled tightly at him. "Hey, Leo. I brought you a present." He pulled something out of his duffel and Leo had to blink several times before understanding what it was: a blow torch.

"You're a g-genius, Donnie," he whispered, a weak smile falling across his mouth.

"All right, guys. Stand clear. This will take a few minutes."

While Don got to work thawing the grate, Mikey tried to smile at him. "What do you want for your birthday dinner, Leo? Name it and I'll cook it."

As much as Leo didn't want to make a big deal out of occasions his brothers forgot, he also didn't want Mikey stuck with doing dishes (since it was his turn this week). "I was actually thinking of that Chinese place on forty-ninth. By the Lutheran church, you know?"

Mikey grinned wide. "Dude! They've got the best dumplings there! Chinese food it is!" He whipped out his phone. "We'll order once we get home but I can make a list now of what you want."

The blue-masked turtle blinked and almost forgot to reopen his eyes. "Um…Sensei likes their chow mein, and we should get ginger beef for Raph and Donnie. Maybe two cartons of dumplings, so you can have one to yourself, Mike. We can make our own vegetables and rice so we don't need to order any…and shanghai noodles."

"Hey, Leo?"

"Mm?"

"Do you want anything in particular? Sesame chicken? Sweet and sour pork? Egg rolls? Battered shrimp?"

"The pork sounds good… and make that three things of dumplings. I like their dumplings."

"Well, why don't I give you mine? It'll be your birthday present."

"Only you would think a carton of dumplin's would make a good gift, Mikey," scoffed Raph.

"Be quiet, Raph, or no ginger beef for you," Mikey warned.

"But that means I won't get any either," whined Don over the flame's whoosh.

"Aw, Mike, let them have the beef," said Leo. "Want to watch a movie after dinner?"

"Thinkin' of somethin' specific, bro?"

"How about 'RED'? Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren…"

"That is one of the greatest movies ever made!" Mikey exclaimed. "When did you get such good taste?"

Completely deadpan, Leo replied, "I reserve it for special occasions."

"Clearly," Don quipped with a chuckle. "There! All right, guys, I think that did it. Pull!"

Leo allowed himself to close his eyes but stayed focused on his brothers as they grunted with strain.

"The damn thing's stuck!" Raph snarled.

"C'mon, guys! Keep pulling!"

"It can't be still frozen. There must be gunk or rust."

"Ya got a sledgehammer in that bag of yers, Braniac?"

"Raph…" Leo mumbled his warning, not liking the heat in his hotheaded brother's tone. "That's not helping…"

"Forget this! Here, Mike, catch! Don't break it. Don, use yer staff!"

A high-pitched squeal of metal on metal made Leo's teeth ache and he opened his eyes to find red-wrapped steel gouge into the grate's side. His two youngest brothers attacked with Raph's sai while Donnie braced his weight against his bo which he winkled between iron and stone.

Somewhere off to his left, in the belly of the sewers, he heard the telltale and familiar rumble of an oncoming rush of water. Oh, Fate, no. Not right now. Not when they were so close.

But just in case: "G-guys?"

"Just hold on for another couple minutes, bro. It's loosening," Mikey assured him.

"That's not… Seriously, guys. Look at me!"

Chocolate, gold and baby-blue eyes locked with navy ones.

He had to say it. Just in case. Please, don't let this be the last time I say it. "I…I love you guys. So much."

Water poured in. Leo took a deep breath, shut his eyes, and the water closed over his head.

He heard them shout. He heard them scream. But the words were lost in the water in his ears. He did not panic. He willed his heart to be calm because he knew a pounding heart used up more oxygen than he could spare right now. He held perfectly still, his numb fingers still braced against the stone above him, his only tie to life. Vibrations reverberated through the metal as his brothers worked to pry it free.

He tried not to think about how cold the water was, how its chill seeped beneath his skin and into his organs, muscles and bones, how it stabbed behind his closed eyes, how it swamped through his brain and set it aching – or maybe that was the lack of oxygen? His lungs hitched, already beginning to burn. He was disappointed in himself; he could hold his breath for three minutes straight and it had only been forty-five seconds. It was probably due to hypothermia. It was probably due to exhaustion.

Please, Fate, not today, he begged. Not on my birthday. Not like this. Not in the cold. Not when I'm separated from them. Let it be tomorrow. Let it be on patrol. Let it be an ambush. Let it be because I protected them. Let me die in their arms. Please…not today… Please…

His lungs were on fire…

His heart hammered against his ribs…

He was just so cold…

He felt his fingers loosen. He didn't even have the strength to open his eyes, to look up at the people he loved most in the whole world…

I'm sorry…

A sharp, ringing clang was muffled through the water. Something grabbed his hands, his arms, and his shell and hauled him upward into air. Wonderful, beautiful, marvelous air. He coughed, eagerly rejecting his death, and even though he was freezing, he was warm because of the three bodies nestled against him, draped over his carapace and shoulders. Slowly, so slowly, he opened his eyes. Mikey was curled against his chest, his warm tears splattering down his plastron; Raph was on his right, his arms wrapped loosely but strongly around his neck; and Don was on his left and slightly behind him: he was the warmth at his shell, trying to work heat back into his body.

Leo lifted his weak arms and let them fall across his baby brother's shell. He leaned forward to touch his forehead to the gentle crown. "Thank you," he rasped. He didn't care that he was crying. The tears were welcome heat on his skin.

-:-:-:-

Moderate hypothermia.

We need ta get him home. April's waitin', right?

Leo? Leo, can you hear me?

Yes, Mikey, I can hear you, Leo garbled. He blinked and then something heavy shook his shoulder and his eyelids lifted a fraction.

Stay awake, Fearless. Ya gotta stay awake.

But it's my birthday. Let me sleep.

Get him up! Stop shouting, Don, please. Raph, take his other side!

No, I don't wanna stand. Don't make me walk, guys. Come on. I just almost drowned. Give me a break here.

But his brothers weren't listening and there were three of them and only one of him and, holy shell, was he ever tired. Warm fingers drifted along his plastron and shell, and a weight he hadn't even known he carried was lifted free.

What was I doing lugging around a sack of bricks? he wondered absently as more hands took his arms and waist and urged him forward.

Leo tried to move his feet. Rather, he tried to tell his brain to tell his spine to tell his legs to tell his feet to move. At least his feet listened to the game of Telephone; message received: he walked…staggered…stumbled forward.

Dumb, numb feet, he growled. I'm gonna kill you when we get home.

That's it, Leo. Keep talking so we know you're conscious.

Dudes, he's threatening his own feet. Is that a good thing?

Frankly, no, it's not. His temperature is doubtlessly still dropping. This cold air isn't helping. Leo, I know you're tired but you got to stay awake and keep moving. Can you do that, Leo?

I don't want to.

I know but it's not that far. April's waiting for us topside in the alley between eighteenth and fourth.

Why'd you tell April? April was a worry-wart. April would hover no less than two feet away and look at him with those green eyes, so wide with fear and horror and worry and fear.

Because you'd die before we got you home. We're not going to run you nine miles through the sewers, understand? It's only twenty yards to the manhole, okay? Can you do that?

Now that he was forcing his body to move, it was excruciating. Chilled blood swam sluggishly through his limbs and each step was agony. I don't want to.

I know you don't want to but, please, Leo? ...For me? For us?

His reaction was automatic: a tilt of his head to lean against his brother's cheek, a squeeze of their hands. Anything for you, Donnie. Anything for my little brothers. And he forced to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

He supposed that sleeping in his own bed at home would be preferable to sleeping in this dark, dank and chilly tunnel.

It was quiet for a moment, just them walking as quickly (which really wasn't that quickly at all) as they could through the half-frozen sewer muck. Leo smiled at the thought of a warm bath before his nap. Or maybe not. He didn't want to accidentally fall asleep in the tub. He'd almost drowned once already today, after all…

Whoa, Leo! Stay awake, man!

Leo shook his head and tried to steady himself. Come on. You can do this. For Don. For Raph. For Mikey. Come on.

But somewhere in his confused and hypothermic brain, he knew he was done. Or maybe it wasn't his brain telling him? Maybe it was his heart as it prepared to beat its last. Maybe it was his soul as it patiently awaited the moment when it could fly away.

His body slid sideways – into Raph, he thought.

Leo! Leo! No, bro! Stay awake! Ya gotta get up! Get up, Fearless!

Anything for you, Raph. Anything…for you…

Donnie, do something!

-:-:-:-

Leo awoke slowly, very aware that he wasn't where he'd been. This place was not the dark, freezing, water-logged shaft. This place was bright, warm and dry. The last thing he remembered was being pulled from the shaft, from his death. His brothers had come for him, rescued him, saved him…

He was home. He had to be.

"G-guys?" he moaned. Why did speaking hurt? Why did everything hurt, period? He tried to sit up but his arms refused to take his weight.

"Easy, Leo." Don came into view and his face was taut, his eyes red-rimmed and swollen. "Just stay still, okay?"

Leo just nodded and found that was worse than talking; his aching head throbbed sharply. He relaxed against the pillows and his arm brushed against something stiff and rubbery and very, very warm. Hot water bottle? If that was the case, then he had about six more packed into his sides and against his legs; one was even on his feet.

"Will I live?" he asked weakly. Raising his eyes to his brothers was a trial but he did it.

Donnie nodded. "Yeah," he breathed, "and there's no permanent damage."

"That's good." Leo closed his eyes again.

Fingertips ran along his forehead. His face scrunched and he shifted. "Your hands are cold, Don," he mumbled.

"Sorry," his brother replied in a whisper. "Stress does that to me."

"Mm hm. Sure. And running through the sewers in February doesn't?"

"You're insufferable."

A smile fell across his lips. "I know."

"How…how do you feel?"

"I've had better days." A sudden thought occurred to him and he opened his eyes again. "Is it still February first?"

Donnie looked away as he sat down in the chair mere inches from the cot. "…No… It's…it's the fourth."

Three days. He'd been unconscious for three days.

"It was touch and go for a while," his little brother continued. "Your heart stopped beating. We had to do CPR in April's van on the way here. We had to be so careful to warm you up or your heart would have failed again. Leo…" Tears welled in those liquid brown eyes. "I've never been so helpless. We're cold-blooded. We couldn't do anything for you. It was Sensei and April. They managed to bring your temperature to a safer level, enough that we could apply hot water bottles and electric blankets without causing you cardiac arrest."

Leo's left fingers crawled across the heavy quilt and took his brother's hand, ignoring the stress-induced chill. "It's okay," he murmured. "I'm okay. You guys did a great job."

"Raph and Mikey have been going berserk. I told them yesterday that you were stable but…you scared us, bro. You scared us so badly." Tears slid beneath the purple mask and Leo pulled slightly on his hand to bring his little brother closer. Donnie collapsed from the chair to his knees, clinging to his hand and weeping, his head bowed; tears landed on their hands.

Leo winced as he reached over with his right hand and curled it over his precious brother's head, stroking and soothing. "It's all right, Donnie. It's all right. I'm sorry I scared you but it's over. It's over."

The door creaked open. "Don? Sensei has supper on the ta…. HOLY SHELL, LEO! RAPH, DAD, CASEY, APRIL, GET IN HERE!"

Leo barely had time to look up before the cot tipped dangerously when Mikey jumped and almost landed on him, his arms thrown around his neck.

"Leeeeooo," his baby brother sobbed. "You're awake…"

"And…trying to…breathe… Mikey…"

"Oops! Sorry, sorry!" Mikey eased his death grip but nestled closer against his plastron.

Leo did not fail to notice that his little brother had his head positioned perfectly to hear his heartbeat, and he sighed. "You're such a worry-wart, Mike," he told him, enfolding him in his arms.

A stampede of feet raced into the lab and suddenly, his whole family was there. Casey whooped with glee, April wept openly, Father had tears in his eyes, and Raph looked about ready to burst into song if he actually did that kind of thing: amber eyes shone, his chest swelled with a deep breath, and he was…smiling?

"What did Donnie give you, Raph?" Leo demanded teasingly. "You look like you're riding a high."

Mikey snorted against his chest and made room for the inevitable pileup when Raph crossed the room.

"Yer lucky yer bed-ridden right now, Fearless," his brother said, still smiling away. "Otherwise, I'd punch ya."

Leo smiled up at his red-banded brother. "Good to see you, too, Raphie."

"Don't call me Raphie." The grumble was ruined by the fingers that ran along Leo's left shoulder.

Sensei materialized on Raph's other side with a sober but heartfelt, "It is wonderful to see your eyes open, my son. You gave us quite the scare."

"So Don said. Sorry, Sensei."

Splinter moved forward to rest a gentle but firm hand on his arm. "It was certainly not your fault, my kame."

Leo opened his mouth, that's debatable on the tip of his tongue, but then he closed it and allowed himself to not be responsible for this one thing. He could do that. It wasn't his birthday anymore but it had been his birthday. That could just be another gift to himself. "Hai, Sensei," he murmured instead.

"Does this mean we can open presents now?" Casey put in, loud and boisterous.

"What presents?" Leo asked, confused. What had he missed?

"Your presents, smarty-pants!" Mikey sat up with a chuckle. "With you being unconscious, we had time to go shopping!"

"Can't you just give me my dumplings and leave it there?" It was futile to ask but, dang-nabbit, he hated attention!

"Nah, bro," Raph said, laughing. "Yer gonna sit there and let us do this. Besides, ya owe us fer makin' us run through the sewers in the middle of winter and bringin' ya back from the dead."

"Can't that count as a present?" Leo wondered weakly.

Don chortled. "Sorry, big brother. Here. Let's get you upright. Mikey, Raph, go help Casey and April with the presents."

"On it!"

"Take his other side, Sensei? On three. One, two, three!"

Leo bit back a moan of pain as his father and brother dragged his weary body up against the pillows, and he took a moment to orient himself around a sudden punch of vertigo. "Can I have something to eat first?" he asked.

Don smiled at him. "Nice try. We feed you and you conk out for ten hours straight. Not going to happen. You'll get some soup once you finish with your presents."

"You're all cruel people," Leo grumbled bitterly.

Splinter cupped his cheek tenderly and pressed a rare kiss to his forehead. "True," he agreed, "but we're only cruel because we love you."

At that, Leo could not stay mad, and his expression melted as Sensei sat on the edge of the cot and wrapped an arm over his shoulders. "I am glad you are awake and safe, Leonardo."

"Me, too, otosan." Leo wiped his eyes and if his eyes were a little red when the others returned, no one commented.

"Here, Leo." Casey thrusted a poorly wrapped box at him.

His fingers trembled too much to let him unwrap the thing but Don thoughtfully assisted, though he did let him open the folds of cardboard.

"Thanks, Casey," Leo said, holding up a new bottle of choji oil.

April smiled when he opened her box which was full of incense packets of his favourite scents: anise, basil and sandalwood.

"Thank you, April."

"You are welcome, Leo."

Mikey handed him a strip of paper with a simple I.O.U for a large carton of dumplings, and grinned, Leo grinning back.

Don was next and placed something no bigger than a dime in his palm.

Leo stared at it for a moment before realizing what it was. "Donnie…isn't this…?"

His little brother smiled. "I finished it. Tested and tried. A hands-free communicator. Mikey still has yet to come up with a name for it."

"What do you mean?" Mikey gasped, defensive. "I've come up with loads of names!"

"Mikey still has yet to come up with a name for it that doesn't stink," Don amended, deadpan.

Mikey frowned while everyone chuckled, and Raph gave him a small package wrapped in tissue paper. That, Leo was able to successfully open without Don's help and he stared down at the pair of brand new shuko. The claws were gleaming steel and on the palm guards was a magnificent lion rampant threaded in blue.

Leo hadn't known his brother could sew.

Everyone else didn't know what to say, either, all of them stunned by the shuko and their extraordinary design.

Leo cleared his throat, wincing as he did, and spoke, so quietly, "Thank you, Raph." Then, because he had to say it, "They're beautiful."

Raph tried to be nonchalant, to brush off the gushiness, but his eyes shone like liquid gold under the fluorescents as he shrugged. "Yer welcome, I guess." There was no denying the pride in his gaze, how proud he was that he had made something (instead of destroying it) and also proud of how much Leo loved them. Leo smiled at his brother, conveying in a single glance that he knew just how proud he was, and Raph smiled back.

Splinter got his attention with a quiet, "This is for you, my son" and passed him a package.

It was a nobori, a Japanese banner with a cross rod to keep the fabric in place. The fabric was a luxurious shade of navy and the kanji symbols for honour, intelligence, strength, and happiness were sewn in a blue hue that was suspiciously close to the blue lions on his shuko…to the bandana currently lying on the table on his right.

"Arigato, otosan," he whispered. "Thank you, everyone."

"Happy birthday, Leo!" they all chorused, and Mikey added a cheeky, "Better late than never, right?"

Leo chuckled and gave his youngest brother a hug.

"Now, you can have something to eat," Don said superiorly as he gathered the gifts and set them aside. Five minutes later, Leo had a bowl of chicken noodle soup in his hands.

"We'll save your birthday dinner for when you can actually eat it," said Mikey. "And Don said you're going to fall asleep right after that anyway so we'll save 'RED', too."

"Sounds like a plan, Mike," Leo said between bites.

His eyelids grew heavy halfway through the bowl, and Raph lunged forward to save it from tipping onto the blankets.

"All right, Leo. Bedtime." Don eased him slowly down until he was horizontal. Leo barely noticed and yawned.

"We will let you rest, my son." Father nuzzled his head and left. "Come, Michelangelo."

"Leo?" Mikey's voice wafted through his fading consciousness. "Leo, can I stay?"

"Of course, little brother." Leo lifted one corner of the quilt and Mikey slid in, settling against him with his head on his chest.

The five pairs of feet stepped out and Leo clung to wakefulness even as Mikey began to snore lightly. Give them two minutes. Two minutes tops.

Thirty seconds after they had left, one returned and crawled in on his other side. Twenty seconds after that, the third and last brother arrived and took up position on his feet, wrapping an unused corner of blanket around him.

"What're ya smilin' fer, Fearless?" asked the voice from down by his feet.

"Nothing, Raph," was the sleepy reply. "Just…I love you guys."

"We know, Leo," Don and Mikey mumbled in unison.

"That and, you know, best birthday ever."

To say the least, nobody ever forgot Hamato Leonardo's birthday ever again.

-:-

Please review. I was also this close to separating the two sections into Chapters 3 and 4 but I figured you guys were done with cliffhangers, and the last bit was ready anyway. You're welcome. :)