AN: Long while since an update, you may have to read back a few chapters to remember what's going on, I know I had to, heh.

Humblest apologies to those who were waiting for an update and gracious thank you's to those who reviewed. :)

Disclaimer: I don't own the TMNT but I do like to write about them for fun and no profit.

Chapter Eight.

I'd followed Leo when he'd left the meeting in such a hurry, I knew that he was seriously pissed at Don's suggestion of confronting Mabe for any information that she possessed. The fact that our intelligent brother wanted Leo to use his charm to make her talk was below the belt, but somehow I felt he wanted to hurt Mabe. If Leo was to get close to her, find out what she knew and then dump her it would certainly send a heavy blow and Don hated her that much that he would recommend just that. Did he think about how Leo would feel when he came up with that plan?

Needless to say, I was still shocked to walk in on him and Mabe tongue-tied… literally.

I wasn't angry with Leo, no that's not totally true, I was but more so at her. I had no doubt that she played on his emotions to get that close and I wasn't going to let him just walk away from me until I had some answers from him. If she did manipulate him then I needed to know if he was still fit to lead the faction, I didn't want to be right, he was the best leader I knew and I felt terrible for even thinking it but I have no choice. I contacted the control room and asked for Leo's location, the said room was fitted with a locator system that surrounded the Community, it could locate mutants by their specific species. The system located four blips that related to mutated turtles and I narrowed it down obviously ruling out my location. Mike was in the infirmary and Don had apparently reported to his team in the engineering section. The final blip showed Leo heading towards his room.

When I arrived I knocked gently on the door, no one answered but I knew he was in there. "Leo, it's me. Open up."

"I'm trying to get some sleep, Raph." He replied with a heavy sigh.

"You've only just got here, you can spare a few minutes to talk to me."

"Don't bother, I know what you're going to say."

I could already feel the frustration building as I stood outside his door, it was irritating the hell out of me. "You know you're starting to tick me off out here, open the damn door."

Moments later the door opened but not too far, Leo stood peering through the gap his expression mirroring mine in obvious frustration. Somehow I knew that it wasn't to do with my intrusion and more to do with Mabe.

"You gonna let me in?" I mutter softly. I had no intention of pissing him off further by commanding him to let me in.

The door opened completely and he walked away, I moved inside and peered along the corridor before closing the door. He reached the messed up bed and sat down heavily and I moved towards him dragging the chair from his desk as I went. I swung it around and sat across it, my arms resting on it's back. I stared at him for a moment as he paid careful attention to something else in the room, not willing to look at me. I could see the pain in his expression, his heart was pounding in his chest loud enough for me to hear it and I knew that he was fighting some internal battle deep inside. I sighed and dropped my head onto my folded arms. "What happened, Leo?" I looked up again quickly to see him close his eyes, his head still looking away from me.

"You lost control, I guessed that part when you kissed her but I need to know what happened before I got there."

His head dropped down but he still didn't speak, I thought for a moment that I wasn't going to get anything out of him but he looked up to meet my gaze. "We talked," he replied, "she told me a few things that we need to look into."

"And?"

He let out another sigh, "she asked me to take her back, to love her again."

"You can't do that."

Suddenly Leo jumped up and started pacing the room, his fists clenched, "Do you have any idea what this is doing to me? To have desires that I can't satisfy because it would irreparably damage so many lives? I can't take her back because of what she did to Don, I had to give up one love or risk losing both!"

"Don didn't ask you to exile her." I stood from the chair, finding it uncomfortable to be submissively lower from my ranting brother.

"He was too busy grieving for his wife!" he bellowed back to me, I raised my hand to try and placate him but I knew it wouldn't work. "I had to do it! I couldn't let her stay!"

He stopped pacing and leaned against his desk, "I've spent all this time raising my defences against her and as soon as she shows up they're blown apart."

I suddenly felt very angry, my brother's confused and erratic words and actions made me eager to push Mabe out of the door. He wasn't focused anymore, he seemed dazed.

"She's outta here, Leo." I stated harshly. She was messing with his head a little too much for my liking. "I'll order a team to escort her out of the compound and send her on her way."

He turned, stunned.

"We need you focusing on the task at hand, I could come up with a plan for trying to fix this mess but you're the best at it. I don't want to lose anyone in a combat situation because she's screwing with your emotions." I wanted to order my team to do just that right now but the look on his face told me it could wait.

I walked forward and wrapped my hand around the back of his neck, drawing him in close. "I know this is killing you, it's hurting me to see you so upset. This whole thing has been screwed from the day they launched those missiles, the world's fucked and we've only got each other to survive whatever it throws at us."

His head dropped onto my shoulder as his hands weakly wrapped around me, he was emotionally drained from the toll of being the leader of so many and dealing with so much these passed years. I pulled him into a tight embrace. "I promise you're not alone, we'll deal with this."

He was silent even when the tears fell onto my shoulder, I held him for a while before leading him to the bed and letting him rest.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

In another time and place it would be funny to watch the people move out of my way as I stormed along the corridor, the holding cells only a little further ahead. I hadn't mentioned to anyone about my discussion with Leo but when Mike appeared he seemed to know in part that something was wrong. He paced along side me and kept swivelling his head to and fro to study my face and watch where he was going.

"What happened?" he asked quietly so others would not hear him, "why is Mabe in a cell? What did she do?"

"Nothing for you to worry about, Mike." I responded just as cautiously, "I'm dealing with it, get back to whatever it is you do in your infirmary."

"Adrian said that she and Leo went for a walk to the arboretum, did something happen? Where's Leo?"

I know he's concerned but he really was starting to annoy me, "Mike, I said I'd deal with this."

He suddenly gripped my arm and spun me to face him, he didn't say anything but I knew what he wanted. I sighed exasperatingly, "She's outta here, don't ask me why 'cause I ain't telling."

"What about Leo?"

"Don't disturb him, he's sleeping and he needs it right now." He nods in understanding and I reach up placing my hand on his shoulder, "do me a favour, keep Don busy. I don't want him bumping into her whilst we're throwing her out."

Mike's eyes widened, "What did Leo do?"

I look away from him and towards the holding cells, "What would you have done if it were you in his place?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I didn't tell Mike anything more after that and a part of me wondered if he thought it was more than just a kiss, in truth it was but not physically. She had messed with his head more and that's something that I won't tolerate from anybody.

I hoped that Don hadn't found out about her leaving (considering how soon Mike had put two and two together), curiosity would get the best of him and he'd want to know why we were forcing her out. Mike had insisted that he would keep Don away but I knew that short of knocking him to the floor and sitting on him it would be difficult to prevent him. It meant that my time was limited and I and my team had to move fast.

Mabe walked behind me with two guards at her sides, another two immediately behind her. We arrived at the main loading bay where one of the few armoured trucks were kept, I reached for the keypad to open the door and punched in the code, it hissed open and we all stepped inside. Mabe was remarkably quiet and calm, I was surprised that she wasn't showing any emotion to the news that she was to leave.

I pulled open the rear door of the nearest truck and stepped aside, I ordered her inside and waited for two of the guards to climb in behind her. There was a shout from the door and I watched as Don stood there, Mike stood behind him and shrugged his shoulders in apology.

"What's going on?" Don asked as he approached.

"She's leaving," I replied coolly as I gestured for the two guards to climb in.

"Why?"

"We've learnt all we can, she doesn't know anymore so she doesn't need to stay." I hoped that Don would remember the meeting earlier and my protests at allowing her to remain here as long as she had already. Unfortunately our silent 'prisoner' chose that moment to speak out and I glared at her as she grinned.

"He didn't like what he saw."

Don's eyebrow raised, "What did you see?" he asked me with a hint of displeasure, I knew he didn't like to be kept out of the loop.

"Ignore her," I replied as I started to close the doors. She leaned forward and called out to Don.

"After all this time, Leo still knows how to kiss a girl." She smirked and Don's hand suddenly gripped mine, stopping me from shutting the door. I pulled his hand away and shut the door quickly then pounded the truck to signal they could go, I stood with my back to it as he glared over my shoulder. Mike stepped closer and I waited for Don to start yelling but he spun on his heels and stomped away, we glanced at our retreating brother and instantly followed. Somehow I knew Leo's sleep was about to be interrupted.

AN: I hope this is okay, it's sounding extremely wacky to me right now but due to my inability to successfully write something decent, this is the best I could come up with.