~!~ Okay, my computer has been without Internet for days, so I've gotten a lot done as far as writing goes, but I haven't been able to get any of it on FF. This's a bit rushed, because I was desperate to get more of this particular story up before y'all start hating me. =P Hope you like it, of course! Cookies for everyone who reviews! I also kinda bounced around as far as POV is concerned, because I couldn't make up my mind. ~!~

Chapter One

"What? Michelangelo?" Horror washed over him as he stared at the scene unfolding in his home. Casey and April were attacking one of Master Splinter's meditation tables and had frozen, as if he'd hit pause with a remote, and stared at him like deer caught in headlights. It made him wonder what all had happened while they were gone, because they looked ready to flee from some major crossfire.

Donatello was lowering his bo staff and Leo knew that he he'd probably been about to use it, in case of attack, but that was strange, considering that Donnie wasn't violent. His eyes went from that spectacle to Raphael, his eldest younger sibling, holding Mikey, his youngest. Leonardo's heart shattered. He raced forward, dodging Casey and sliding to a halt where he grabbed Mikey's arm frantically, searching for a pulse.

"He isn't dead." Don reassured, his voice turning Leo's head to stare at him in open-mouthed shock. "He got stabbed on a night's run by some gangsters. He isn't dead, but he's lost a lot of blood." His voice was so professional that it took Leonardo completely by surprise when Donatello promptly threw his arms around him in a rough embrace. Raphael's eyes narrowed slightly and the blue-banded turtle was taken aback by this as he patted his brother's head and hugged him back.

"You can do this, Donnie." He said, knowing his younger brother was looking for reassurance. "Just tell the rest of us what you need and we'll help." Donatello pulled away and said,

"Raph, put him on that table, please." April and Casey moved away from the red-banded turtle like he'd explode at any moment and Leonardo noticed this, but remembered that Mikey was the main problem right now. They needed him to be all right first. Then he could deal with Raphael. The thought made his stomach squeeze unhappily but he moved toward Mikey, hovering along with April and Master Splinter, while Raph watched in the background and Casey muttered something about a case of beer. Leo made a mental note to make sure Casey didn't give any to Raphael.

"Okay, I'm going to stitch this wound up. I need April to wipe away the blood every so often so that I can see what I'm doing. Also, once I'm finished, I'm going to need a blood donor." Raphael looked up from where he was leaning against the wall, out of the way.

"I can donate." Don nodded.

"That's great, thanks." He looked around. Leonardo stood over Mikey's midsection, gazing down at the wound with a dark look on his face, one that matched Raph's. It reminded Donnie of the time that Leonardo became, as Mikey liked to put it, Raphael's dark and evil twin. In fact, the looks on their faces were very similar. He swallowed and looked at Master Splinter, a more comforting presence, even though there was sorrow in his father's face.

"Um, guys, I'm going to need you to.. uh, step back. Go do something else. I don't need any distractions." There were no disagreements.

"Right. I'll go make sure Casey isn't destroying the refrigerator." Leonardo said, stepping away and giving Donatello his working space. Master Splinter nodded.

"An excellent idea, my son." Leo felt the beginnings of a smile and bowed to his master and father before moving away from the table. "Raph? You… coming?" The other turtle shook his head.

"I'll watch, in case something goes wrong." Don looked up from where he was gathering his things.

"Raph, that's not necessary. The more people breathing in a single space, the dirtier the air is. And you're making me nervous, standing there." Raphael didn't look as though he had a problem with that last comment, but Leo insisted.

"Come on. Donnie said no distractions."

"And he also said Mikey'd be safe." Raph sent a dark look at Donatello, who flinched. Leo didn't know what was going on, but he intervened swiftly.

"Raphael, none of us can help Michelangelo like Don can right now. So you need to give him his space so he can work as well as possible under these circumstances. Come on." Raphael got off the wall reluctantly, not looking at his younger brother as he stalked past.

"I'll talk to him." Leonardo mouthed to Don as he followed his brother out. Don nodded, and got to work, sinking into his work and feeling as if a burden was lifting from his shoulders. If he could heal Mikey, maybe he could help repair all the damage he'd caused.

Leonardo trotted into the kitchen, took the beer away from Casey and gestured for Raphael to come with him into his room. When he walked in, he breathed in and realized that there wasn't a bit of dust that had gathered during his time away. Looking around, he saw the broom that Mikey always used when he was given chores and smiled, his heart warming. Raphael didn't take that the right way.

"Why're you smiling? Mikey's lying in there and you weren't here to do anything about it!" Raphael didn't stand still. He paced around the room, clenching his fists, jaw muscles flexing in rapid movements that made Leonardo slightly concerned for his brother's teeth.

"Raph. You cannot blame just one person for what happened to Mikey. After all, you weren't there either-" Wrong thing to say.

"At least I was in the damn city!" And he swung at Leonardo, coming at him in a furious rush, all of his anger swelling around him, practically visible in his eyes.

Leo dodged, biting his lip. Is this the way to clear the anger and guilt from his sight? I'd much rather talk things over, but he's so angry.. Maybe it's best that he exhaust himself by fighting. I'm pretty sure I can keep ahead of him and make sure he doesn't hurt me or himself. Raphael promptly feinted and lunged again. With a quick twist and hand movement, Leonardo relieved his brother of the sai on his belt and tossed them away, tugging off his swords as well and throwing them as well.

"If this makes things better, then come at me." He said, keeping his eyes trained on his brother.

"Better? You left us, what are we to you? Family doesn't abandon family!" Raphael feinted and performed a rough but fast left side-kick that Leo was forced to duck under. He grabbed the fist that swung at his face in one hand and blocked the knee with his elbow, making Raphael grunt in discomfort at the bone digging into his kneecap. Leonardo turned, sliding his elbow around and pushing hard against the back of his knee, forcing the leg to give. He rolled to the side, avoiding the falling turtle and pushed upright to his feet quickly, startled to find his brother on his feet nearly as quickly as he.

There was a soft grunt as Raph's fist hit Leo's arm that he brought up to block his face and Leonardo went to sweep his feet out from under him, only to have Raph leap up and over, landing hard with his hands on Leo's shoulders in a move that he would have expected out of Mikey. Leonardo's legs nearly gave but he forced himself to fall forward and roll away, unharmed while Raphael crashed onto the floor.

Downstairs, Casey looked upward to the sounds coming from the room and muttered worriedly,

"Do you think they'll be okay?" Master Splinter gazed in that direction as well, sadness piercing his wise eyes.

"This is Leonardo's choice. As his brother, he knows that it is best for Raphael to rid himself of his anger before Raphael makes an unwise decision. But, as leader, he knows it is also best to be diplomatic at all times. This is not diplomatic. This is two brothers fighting." Casey looked sideways at the old rat.

"So you don't approve, huh, Master Splinter?" The rat met his gaze.

"Of my sons fighting? No. Would you?"

Raphael could feel dark anger pressing in on him and the feeling made his vision cloud with red and he could no longer feel the sweat that beaded along his skin that told him he wasn't in shape anymore and that he'd need to slow down soon. The red-banded turtle had so many emotions exploding in his head, pictures that continued to come back and haunt him.

The look on Mikey's face, a simple confused and slightly worried look that betrayed the violently-squirting blood, Don's eyes that gave away his despair when Raphael snapped at him, and his own feelings, how betrayed he'd felt when Leonardo had left and everything that had happened since. Everything was going wrong and he couldn't do anything right. Mikey was down, Leo had left, and Don was guilty, nothing was going right.

He swung viciously with a clenched fist and Leo stepped backwards. The light way he did it, bouncing easily on his toes and keeping his balance with ease reminded Raphael of Michelangelo. His teeth gritted and a guttural sound came out of his throat.

"Dammit!" He leapt forward this time, taking Leo by surprise by his sudden full frontal attack. The two collided, Raphael knocking his older brother into the floorboards. He immediately found two pairs of knees slamming into his back and the two promptly changed positions as Leo tossed him over his head and was on top of him instead.

"Is this my fault now, huh? Are you blaming me for this?" Raphael glared at him and struggled to rip his arms away from Leo's hands, but his brother had the better grip. He didn't want to think about this, he needed to let some of the anger go!

"Yes! If you hadn't up and left us again, for some stupid quest thing, again, maybe Mikey wouldn't have gone off on that stupid mission! You ever think of that, huh?"

"Maybe I left knowing that I was leaving Mikey in capable hands!" Leonardo came back, struggling to keep Raphael's heaving body from throwing him off. The words had an obvious affect on Raphael, who came to a sudden halt. Leo didn't relax, however, and kept his tight grip on his brother.

"Listen, Raph. Anger isn't going to help anybody right now. That just makes for more problems, and we do not need any more of those. Michelangelo needs his brothers to be united, right? He's never been very good when two of us are fighting." Raphael closed his eyes and gritted his teeth.

"Just get off!"

Leo complied and offered a hand to pull his brother up.

"I'm sorry." He said. The words made Raph look up, eyes narrowed. "I'm sorry that I left you guys. I should've known better and as your leader and brother, I'm sorry. Next time, I will be wiser and make the better decision."

Raphael looked away. Apologies made things hard. There was a part of him that just wanted to keep fighting. The violence made things simple. Punch, swing, and make the opponent feel the pain he was feeling, because that was only fair. But Leonardo wasn't just any opponent; he was as good a fighter as Raphael and he was his brother.

I don't really want him to suffer. I don't to cause him pain. That's my anger talking.

"You know what?" He said, "You're right." Raphael punched his brother. It was a glancing blow and wouldn't leave much of a bruise, but it caught Leo off guard and his mouth fell open in shock as his head snapped around.

"You made a mistake." Raphael gritted, chest still heaving from their fight. "But you weren't the only one who left Mikey all by himself. So I can't blame you." They all had hands in this; it wasn't fair to point fingers. That didn't change the fact that he felt despicable for it.

Leonardo studied him with guarded eyes, one hand on his cheek, guard down.

"We're all responsible in some way." His older brother, pointed out, always reasonable. "You know that Donnie wouldn't ever let Mikey do something reckless without thinking it over first. He must've had some sort of safety. It was a freak accident."

Raph snorted.

"Donnie's a genius. He should've seen this coming!"

Leonardo tipped his head up and looked at the ceiling.

"Donatello's got an IQ of over 200. He's a scientist, a doctor, an engineer, the smartest of all of us. But he said once, that Michelangelo's like an unknown variable. He's like the 'x' in an algebra equation, the letter that stands for something and no one can really predict what he's thinking, what he'll do next. He's unpredictable. Trouble follows him wherever he goes. He's gotten hurt with all of us surrounding him, in fights with everything from Klunk to the Foot. Mikey's gotten scars just from playing around in the kitchen. He's never the same, he's not proven, he's not predictable and you know that. Donnie couldn't have predicted that Mikey would fly off the handle. He tried to keep everything else safe, so that Mikey wouldn't get hurt, but you can't make things perfect. Don's a perfectionist and he tried. It isn't his fault that he didn't succeed, because no one's perfect."

Leonardo took a breath.

"And the whole plan was Mikey's idea." Raph looked up, mouth falling open.

"His idea? He wanted to get himself hurt so I'd come to the rescue?"

"I don't think he wanted to actually get hurt. He figured you'd come running the moment he was in danger."

Raphael remembered the exact moment when that sword had pierced his baby brother's side, his intake of breath, the swearwords echoing in his head, the gravel that stung the heel of his foot as he'd taken off to reach Mikey. He was going to experience each of those things ever y time he had a nightmare now.

"He thought right." The red-banded turtle muttered.

"Donatello was probably counting on that too. Between Casey, April, you, and him, he thought Mikey'd be safe."

Raphael nodded, rubbing his head.

I'll be apologizing twice. Geez.

"But since we have an unknown variable for a brother," Leo's voice sounded like he was trying not to smile, "Four guards must have not been enough."

Raphael leaned against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest, staring resolutely at Leo, who blinked at him, noticing the change in his younger brother's demeanor.

"Then it should be six." Raph said firmly. Leonardo tilted his head curiously.

"We'll swear. Swear that we won't leave him again. Not without someone else to watch over him, we won't."

Raphael knew that this promise wasn't actually going to be made to Michelangelo. He wanted Leonardo to promise to him that there wasn't going to be any more abandonment.

"We're a family. We need to stay like that." He said, swallowing uncomfortably at the emotional sense of the words he was saying. It was rare that he addressed subjects like this. Leonardo surprised him by smiling.

"I haven't forgotten. Couldn't, wouldn't, not ever." Raphael nodded, feeling better than he had in a long time.

That's my brother. Irritating, but he's my brother.