I don't own TMNT

"I don't get it," Mikey said, staring at the paper Donny was showing them all.

"It's simple Mikey it's just F=ma and E=mc^2," Donny said with a sigh.

"And what's the point?" Raph asked with a sidelong glance at his punching bag.

Donny frowned and let his hands fall to his sides, "Just forget it, I wouldn't think you guys would understand the factions that manifest reality."

"Whatever dude," Mikey said, turning back to his video game.

Raph grunted and walked back to his punching bag. Donny glanced at his sensei's room and shook his head. No way, he wasn't even going to try to talk this out with him. After a hopeless glance at his immediate younger and older brother Donny silently slipped back into his lab. He set the paper down on one of the tables and dropped down into his computer chair. He sighed and reached for a piece of shale rock he had sitting on the desk. It was four inches thick but felt so unstable and weakly constructed. Turning the shale over and over in his hands he sighed again.

He finally stilled and picked up a small gavel to ship of a piece of the stone. He rolled the smaller piece over and over in his hand as he put the larger stone back on the desk. He tossed it lightly, the stone simply falling back into his hand every time. He glanced up and over to the bulletin board he had hanging a few feet away. He turned and hit a button on his computer. Glancing at the screen and over at the camera mounted on the side wall he took a deep breath. His eyes locked on the bulletin board and he threw the small stone at it. He watched and he felt fear suddenly grip his heart as the stone shattered.

After regaining his composure he turned back to the computer and replayed the video from the camera. He gulped as he saw the stone shatter for a second time. He typed in commands to recover the speed data and mass of the small stone.

He muttered the results and wrote them out on paper. He was determined to do it all by hand, not trusting his brain since he could make a mistake, another foolish mistake. He scowled at the data and wrote the equations above.

F=ma

E=mc^2

He then just stared at the numbers. His hand was right there with a pen. Ok, maybe he should use a pencil. A pen couldn't correct mistakes. He slipped the pen into a cup filled with different writing utensils and grabbed a normal pencil. Setting his hand back onto the paper he froze yet again. He growled a bit, the numbers were right there, the equation was above, he had a pencil and erasers to fix mistakes so why couldn't he just start solving the problem!

He just sat and stared as the world around him seemed to just fade away, darkness surrounding him. A sudden movement brought him out of his trance. He glanced over to see his eldest brother in the doorway.

"Don are you ok?" he asked, walking into the room.

"Leo, you're supposed to be resting, in your room, not walking around didn't I clearly explain that walking around could apply-"

"-Uncomfortable pressure to my spine. I know Don, I always listen but I haven't seen you all day."

"All day?" Donny questioned, glancing at his clock.

10:00pm

Donny's head fell, "Sorry Leo."

Donny put down the pencil and slapped his forehead, he was supposed to have tested Leo's heart rate and blood composition hours ago!

"Just sit down, I'll get everything," Donny said as he pushed himself to his feet.

"You look like you need rest," Leo said, sitting in a chair resting his bandaged arm on one of the tables.

As Donny was gathering his medical supplies Leo glanced at the paper on the table and then over at the paper on Donny's desk.

"What's with Einstein's and Newton's equations?" he asked.

Donny slightly smiled as he made his way over to Leo, "Well at least you know their names and can recognize the equations."

"They're not that difficult," Leo said as Donny took out a needle, "Einstein's theory of Relativity is simple, Newton's second law of motion is even simpler."

"Well, it is at least to me, I can't seem to make Mikey or Raph see though," Donny said as he cleaned Leo's arm with rubbing alcohol to eliminate any germs that could enter the small hole going to be made by the needle.

"Small things like that will come in time Don," Leo said, raising his other hand to rest on Donny's shoulder.

"At least you can understand me," Donny said sadly with a sigh, "Without you here I'd probably go insane with no one to talk to."

"So what's with the shattered stone," Leo asked, motioning towards the shattered stone on the floor.

"Just an experiment," Donny mumbled but Leo caught the slight shiver and fault in his voice.

With a slightly shaking hand Donny reached for the needle his mind remembering the stone as it shattered against the board. Leo reached out and pulled his hand back.

"Don, what's bothering you?" Leo asked, "You've been in here for hours, you probably haven't moved."

"It's nothing Leo," Donny said.

"That's a lie Donatello and we both know it," Leo said, narrowing his eyes a little.

Donny sighed, Leo always referred to him as Don or Donatello. Donny had just become default with their friends but Leo rarely if ever called him Donny. He knew why, he had told Leo years ago that the name made him feel insecure. Donny, was the name of a young child. He couldn't go by that name if he wanted people to take him seriously. So Leo had started just calling him Don, a more mature name. Sometimes though, he wished Leo would just call him Donny so he could be a little brother again.

Donny shook his head and reached for the needle again. Leo reached out and grabbed the needle from him. Donny looked up in shock at Leo, did he not trust him? Just because he was a little shaken up didn't mean he still couldn't be a doctor.

"It's not that I don't trust you," Leo said, as if reading his thoughts, "I just think you need to explain whatever it is you're feeling."

Donny laughed shortly, "And I thought I was the doctor."

Leo sighed and put the needle down, glancing at the paper again, "I'm not trying to be a doctor, just a brother."

After a short silence Leo got up and walked over to Donny's desk, pulling the paper and pencil with him as he walked back to his little brother.

"I don't see why you can't finish this. Heck, even I could do this in my head," Leo said setting the paper and pencil down.

"I just don't want to make a mistake," Donny said, looking at the figures as if they were in an entirely different dimension beyond time and space.

Leo looked at the shattered stone again and then raised his hand to rest on his shoulder, his fingertips lightly touching the edge of his shell.

"Is this experiment about yesterday?" Leo suddenly asked.

Donny's breath hitched in his throat. Leo frowned and his eyes softened, yes, that was indeed it.

Leo held out the pencil, "Come on, you can finish it."

Donny took the pencil, "I know I should be able to this in my head but-"

He clamped his eyes shut and shuddered. Leo placed his hand on Donny's.

"Come on, it's easy, the mass times the acceleration will equal the force."

Donny forced himself to write out the figures as he mumbled and tried to focus.

"Good, now for Einstein's theory," Leo said with a calm and patient smile, "The mass times the speed of light squared equals the energy."

The equations annulated and figures printed, with no eraser needed, Donny dropped the pencil and only watched as it rolled away and fell off the table. Neither bothered to reach for it as it rolled a few inches away from them. Leo glanced around uneasily at the dark room. While he liked hiding in shadows a whole world of them didn't seem right or healthy. He preferred the soft glow on candlelight as shadows danced across the wall of the room. He shook off the thoughts and stood up to face Donny's downcast gaze.

"Don-" Leo started.

"No," Donny said in a quick voice, "Leo, please just let me…"

He trailed off.

'be a little brother.'

The words were unspoken but Leo still smiled at the invisible echo. The blue banded turtle reached out and placed a hand on Donny's shoulder.

"I'm ok," Leo said slowly, "You did all you could."

"But I froze," Donny protested, his voice rising higher with each word, "You needed me then and I just froze!"

He eyes closed and Donny let a short sob escape his throat. Leo frowned and pulled his little brother to him in a hug. Donny immediately buried himself in his big brother's embrace. He cried all the harder when his hands met the cool metal on the back of Leo's shell. It appeared as a simple band of metal but inside thin wires held the shell together. It would eventually heal but that didn't lessen the pain in Donny's heart.

Leo could've died from that hit!

The equations on the paper had been measuring the force of that rock shattering but mentally replacing the small stone with Leo's weight he found reason to cry all the harder. At that rapid speed and the impact such a force could kill and shatter their shells and that's where their spines were! It could've killed any of them but Leo had taken that hit, that force, and defied very logic yet again!

Because…he was alive.

Donny remembered Raph had had to hit him in the head to get him to pay attention. The purple banded genius had frozen at the sudden crunch and crack of a shell and plastron and the only thing he was able to say was that they had to wait. That's why he had shown those equations to Raph and Mikey. They had to understand what specific limitations they all had. They had almost lost a brother because of that.

"I'm sorry Leo," Donny said, not really caring that tears were rolling down his face.

Leo held Donny a bit tighter and pulled him into his lap as he sat back down in the chair. His head tucked under his big brother's chin Donny cried it all out and frequently mumbled out different statements like, "You can't leave," and "We need you."

Leo shushed him and held him tightly until Donny was half asleep, his head resting against Leo's shoulder. Leo sighed and got to his feet, still cradling his little brother in his arms.

"Leo?" Donny mumbled.

Leo smiled down at him, "Let's get you to bed, you're exhausted."

Leo walked out of the dark lab as Donny sagged against him, falling into a deep sleep. The eldest glanced into the bedrooms of his other little brothers and smiled as he heard Mikey's normal sleep mumbling about superheroes and Raph's loud chainsaw-like snoring. He laughed quietly and walked into the bedroom he shared with Donny. He quickly made his way across the extremely clean room and tucked his little brother into his bed before ducking down and climbing into the futon below.

After an hour Donny opened his eyes to find himself in his bed. He glanced over the edge to see Leo was asleep as well. The intelligent turtle glanced at the clock they had over the doorway.

1:00am

He took a deep breath and got out of his bed, dropping down silently next to Leo's sleeping form. He glanced out at the darkness beyond their room and took a deep but silent breath. He saw he had two options, he could either crawl back into his bed or he could head to his lab and find something to do. He was denied both options when Leo spoke up.

"Going somewhere Donatello?"

"I-I uh, nowhere," Donny whispered.

A hand reached out in the darkness and pulled Donny back. Although it was difficult to see clearly in the dark Donny knew the dark chocolate shade of his eldest brother's eyes. He felt Leo's hands come up to wipe away unnoticed tears he had let fall from his eyes. Donny clamped his eyes shut, he couldn't even hold in a few measly tears!

"Don?" Leo asked quietly.

The genius turtle kept still and quiet.

Leo was confused, Don usually responded when he said his name. Then he remembered…

"Leo, please just let me…"

'be a little brother.'

Leo sighed and pulled his stone still little brother to him while he whispered.

"Donny?"

Donny let out an almost silent sob.

"Donny," whispered clearly, "I want you to open those soft light chocolate eyes and look at me."

Donny cracked his eyes open, aware more tears were falling down his cheeks.

Leo frowned, "Look, little brother," he said with a slight smile that became visible in his voice, "Tell me. What can I do to make you stop hurting?"

"Forgive me," Donny mumbled, closing his eyes again.

"Forgive you? Donny, you saved me," Leo said with a slight laugh.

"B-but I," Donny took a deep breath before continuing, "If I had, would've moved, then maybe I could've-"

"Donny," Leo sighed, "There's nothing to forgive and it doesn't matter anyways."

A moment of silence stretched between them. Then, Leo raised Donny's head so their eyes met. More tears fell from the younger's eyes as those dark chocolate eyes of his loving older brother pierced his heart. Leo gently ran his fingers over Donny's cheeks to wipe away the tears and then spoke as if he pulled words from a vocabulary beyond comparison with any language or voice.

"Donny, no matter the words said or the actions done, nothing changes. In the end you're still my little brother and no matter what…I love you."

That's all Donny could take before he collapsed against his big brother and cried out everything.

If you would've glanced in the room an hour later you would see one little brother snuggled up and in the arms of his older brother, his protector.

Ok, that's all I got.

~Moonsetta