As it turned out, a ninja clan needed a little bit of strife, an enemy threatening the clan, to function at its best. Or, at least, that’s the lesson the Hamato’s had chosen to take from the Winters battle. When they’d been grounded, the team had been unable to come together. When forced to come together for the safety of their clan, they’d risen to the challenge and healed some wounds that might have otherwise taken them years to sort through. Things still weren’t perfect, but Master Splinter had taken back all orders about his sons fighting, and it was helping them hold together.

They weren’t going out and picking fights. That wasn’t their way. But they weren’t avoiding battles, either. Besides: the Foot clan had revealed themselves as returned, and Karai had warned them that their fight wasn’t over. They needed to stay in top form to prepare with what could turn into another epic showdown with their greatest and most long-standing rival. The best thing about it was Master Splinter getting out more and joining his boys in some of the fights. Sensei was as much a part of the strife of the clan as the rest of them were, and him getting more involved was only improving all of their relationships. Plus, it was helping him to lose the cake-weight Donnie had been so worried about.

“Okay, what about this one?” Mikey shouted to be heard over the clanging of weapons and grunting of gangsters of The Scorpions. “Scorpions? More like earwigs!”

Raph shook his head as he knocked out an opponent with the butt of his sai. “Bonehead,” he muttered, too quiet for it to be picked up clearly, but his attitude clear enough to Mikey that he wasn’t impressed.

This fight hadn’t been planned. Leo had taken them out on a training run when they’d come across The Scorpions re-distributing a stolen shipment of guns. A quick vote between them all, and they’d dropped in on the gangsters, set on confiscating the weapons and getting them off the street once and for all.

Their defense could be described as similar to the game “capture the flag”. Leo and Don had stayed on the ground level, defending the crates of guns from further plundering, while Raph and Mikey had set about rounding up wayward gangsters, many of whom had scattered at their presence. “You know, this could be easier if we used the guns,” Don mused from his position hiding behind a stack of crates, only hoping nothing explosive got hit. It was more flippant than serious, but Leo responded as he usually did: assuming the comment was serious and in need of correction to avoid the worst possible outcome.

“We’ve never used guns yet, and I don’t plan on that changing. Using guns requires just as much training as using our weapons, and you’re still slacking on training even though Splinter has us fighting topside again.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Donnie muttered, waiting for a lull in the shooting.

“Besides,” said Leo, grinning. “Who needs bullets when you have shuriken?” Perfectly timed, as if he’d predicted the lull following his words. Donnie popped up after Leo by a millisecond, each throwing a handful of their throwing stars in a direction the shooting had been coming from. Shouts of pain and cursing confirmed multiple hits before the bullets - albeit less than before - started again and Leo and Don were forced to pop down again.

“Apparently we still need bullets,” Donnie replied, needling, “since they seem to have more bullets than we do shuriken.” But he could already see Leo’s mind flashing with strategies.

Almost absentmindedly, he responded, “well, that’s why we also have smoke bombs.” He didn’t need to say the next part of his plan for Don to understand. All he did say was “cover me”. Then, Leo tossed out some smoke bombs and ducked into the smoke.

The gangsters reactively shot faster into the smoke before the bullets thinned out as some gangsters had to step away to cough and others simply shouted at each other, asking if they could see anything. Don counted out his remaining stars and started throwing them in the direction of specific shouting voices. The smoke was clearing even as the confusion began, but Don knew for sure it was enough time for Leo to have gotten into position to start herding the gangsters out into the open, where they could be picked off more easily and the rest of the gangsters might start to scatter as their numbers dwindled.

Sure enough, shouts of surprise and fear started in one corner, where Leo had clearly revealed himself, and other gangsters started shouting to each other to check in on each other and cover each other. Don threw with deadly accuracy at any Scorpion bold enough to leave safety to run across the open plan of the floor. Soon enough, the sounds of shouting and fighting quickly lessened as the turtles succeeded in taking the warehouse.

Don peered out from his hidey-hole. He saw no one, not even Leo. He stood, just to get a better view. “DON!” Leo’s voice, full of panic, blasted through the warehouse. Don was ducking on instinct before he even registered the sound of gunfire. He hit the ground, heart racing. And then something exploded.

Sound and heat and pressure roared around Don. Fire rushed at his face, then darkness. The world seemed to cave in. Falling, he was falling. That’s why his stomach was in his chest. And BAM! The air whooshed out of Don as he landed. The harsh sound of his breathing was the first thing he registered when his brain got un-stuck and started thinking again. Why can’t I see?, he thought before he realized the building had collapsed. He’d fallen, so there must have been a basement level or two that had collapsed as well. Fortunately, his shell had taken the brunt of any impact. His limbs responded as he slowly started moving them. No mounting pain or fuzziness. He’d probably escaped gunshot, even if he was sure he was bruised and banged up. It was an absolute miracle he hadn’t been crushed or even stuck beneath anything. He took a moment to marvel at his luck as he gently started feeling the area around him, trying to deduce by touch what his surroundings looked like.

Meanwhile, outside, Raph had abandoned a punch mid-throw and Mikey had his legs swept out from under them as they both froze at explosion and building collapse. Raph barely felt the punch as his opponent connected with his jaw. Abandoning all joy in the fight, Raph stopped toying with the gangster, knocking him out with a jab, and dashed for the groaning building, cement slabs still falling and settling into place. Mikey was hot on his heels, the remaining gangsters wise enough to take advantage of their retreat, not wanting to be anywhere around the area that cops and other first responders would be pouring into very, very soon.

“LEO! DON!” Raph thundered, Mikey echoing his calls. They had no idea if their brothers had still been in the building or not. Neither of them had to debate much about it. If their eldest brothers weren’t out here, dragging them into the shadows, it was because they were under the building.

“Raph, what do we do?” Mikey asked, shrill, staring in panic at the pile of rubble.

Raph grabbed Mikey’s shoulders, looking him dead in the eyes, fighting hard to swallow down that same panic he felt rising in himself. “Call Master Splinter, April, and Casey now,” he commanded. They had very limited time to act and multiple concerns. Besides the obvious risk of injury and death, if they didn’t recover their brothers, they risked exposure and worse when first responders showed up. Raph was not about to let things end like this, not when they’d just gotten Leo back. Not when they’d saved Leo’s life from the monster portal and were finally getting to a good place with each other. Mikey nodded, snapping out his phone, as Raph set his face and began carefully scaling over the rubble. He was only vaguely aware of Mikey’s anxious chatter behind him, as he peered through cement and rebar and wood and plumbing, trying to find a way through.

Mikey was soon following in Raph’s steps, not sure what he was looking for, but trusting Raph and trusting his heart to lead him in the right direction. By some grace, April and Casey screeched up in Casey’s car minutes before Splinter popped up through a manhole cover. Spectators were beginning to wander over to the scene, though authorities had yet to arrive. Without needing to confer, April and Casey set about, yelling in strict tones for people to ‘stay back! it’s still dangerous!’ giving their mutant family members cover to work. Lighter and less bulky than his sons, Splinter crawled fearlessly over the rubble, nose twitching and ears flicking in concentration.

Back underground, Donnie paused. Even over the ringing in his ears, he could now hear the faint sounds of an absolutely terrified, surprisingly high-pitched Leo. “DONNIE! DONATELLO!”

Relief flooded through Don. “HERE! I’m here!” he shouted, pausing his search and trying to concentrate through the ringing on hearing either a response or movement from his brother. He thought he’d caught something like “hold - coming -“ but wasn’t able to make it all out clearly. Working on slowing his breathing - both to avoid panicking Leo further and hoping it might make it easier to hear - he slowly began feeling around again, trying to figure out if there was even a way for Leo to get through to him.

“Don?” Leo’s voice, strained, came from closer than he’d expected, and he jumped.

“Jeez, Leo, what? Did you teleport over here?” he grumbled, finding the hole he’d heard Leo through and sticking an arm through it.

Leo’s hand, slick with sweat, grasped his, strong and firm. “You okay?” he asked, ignoring the sarcastic question.

The hole wasn’t big enough to fit anything but an arm or maybe two through, but feeling his brother physically there with him calmed Don. “Yeah. You?”

“‘M fine. I think I found a way up, but we’ll have to get you through to me first. We can’t have much time.”

Later, Don would go over this interaction again and again in his head and wonder if there had been any other way to handle the situation. Leo would catch the look on his face whenever he did it around him and reassure him that the most important focus was on getting out in time to avoid detection and anything else would have only distracted him.

In the present, Don was agreeing, childhood fears of being caught and stuck in a lab - as the subject rather than the scientist - suddenly resurfacing. “Think it caught Raph and Mikey?”

“Doubtful, but if it did, they would be too far away for us to help from here. Out first, then we’ll assess that situation.” That’s why Leo was the leader. Or, Leo was the leader because he’d been trained to have to think that way and make those decisions. Don wasn’t sure. He just knew they weren't the kind of decisions he wanted to make. Shell, but it was nice to have Leo back. “Can you feel a way up on your side??”

“Give me a second to finish checking,” Don said, embarrassed that Leo already had a way up and had found him and Don hadn’t even finished reviewing his own situation. He withdrew his grip from Leo and felt around faster, less caught up on meaningless details and more just getting a feel for where he was at.

“No. It’s pretty roomy over here, but nothing but small cracks. I think where you’re at is the biggest hole.”

“Okay,” Leo said, clearly having already decided, no time to second guess. “We’ll just have to get you through here, then.

“How?” Don asked, immediately drowned out by the sound of snapping wood as Leo began recklessly beating on refuse and moving what he could, trying to widen the hole. Don winced, knowing how unstable the material around them was. Then, he felt around the hole on his side, seeing what he could move. Most terrifying game of tetris ever. More like tetris crossed with minesweeper. He’d always liked minesweeper - when the stakes hadn’t been his life.

Soon enough, the hole had miraculously widened. Don noted for later that perhaps he should take up belief in some god because clearly, someone had to be watching out for them. Both of them were coughing from stirring up dust, and Leo grunted, like he was holding a large weight. “It’s gonna be tight,” he said, punctuated by wheezing. “I’ll try to help pull you through.” He let the ‘hopefully, it’ll be enough’ part stay unsaid.

“Right,” Don muttered, then bodily shoved his arms through the hole, gritting his teeth as his shell hit the hole. Shoving with his feet, pulling with his arms, and Leo firmly grasping the lip of his shell, Don struggled and strained. His shell scraped and squeaked against cement. He sucked in his breath, trying to minimize any size he could and tried not to think about how bad his shell was going to look after this.

But he made it, popping through the other side with surprising speed once only the edge of his shell and legs were all that were left. He panted for breath, wondering where Leo’s legs were at if he’d been standing over Don to pull, and laid in an undignified heap on the ground. “Don, move,” Leo commanded, tone tight, panting worse than Don was. “This is gonna collapse when I drop it. There should be a bit of a tunnel low to the ground just to your left. It’ll feel like it’s going down, but just keep going through it. It slopes back up and leads to our escape area,” he said, panting harshly every couple of words.

Don swallowed. “Leo-“ he tried to say, but they’d always been eerily good at knowing each other.

“Just go, Donatello,” Leo said firmly, cutting off Don, who had indeed been about to give some sort of good-bye to Leo, just in case dropping his load crushed Don in the underground tunnel and left Leo to die from lack of oxygen before humans discovered their bodies and put the rest of their family in danger. Don swallowed again, but obeyed.

Up top, Leo and Don’s activities didn’t go unnoticed. Splinter whipped around to the cacophony of noise he could hear underground. “Here!” he shouted, not worrying about Raphael or Michelangelo keeping up. Splinter bounded up to the edge of where he could hear all the noise, settled low, and tried to peer through the rubble. He couldn’t see anything, of course. He also couldn’t smell or feel much air coming up from this area. His gut told him that his boys were digging their way out to escape. A direct path up was unlikely. If they were willing to risk such movement, then it must be for a reason. He refused to consider that it might be because one of them were crushed below slab and would not make it out to Splinter. No, it had to be towards escape. He closed his eyes and followed his nose. If he could find the likely area of escape, they might be able to start digging out from the top and make the way easier. Time was ticking down. Ms. O’Neil and Mr. Jones might have the spectators convinced they had some sort of authority, but the authority would bulldoze straight over them. The sound of sirens were always common in the city. Splinter knew - they all knew - some of those sirens had to be coming their way by now. They needed out of here, and they needed out fast.

Mikey, who’d been further behind Raph and closer to where Splinter had been, was first to his Sensei. “Look for loose rubble we can move out of the way, my son. I believe your brothers are headed this way.” Neither MIkey nor Raph - who’d caught up by the tail end of the command - questioned anything. They started in with grim determination, Raphael seeming to take personal insult at the building standing between him and his brothers, singlehandedly moving pieces that Mikey would have bet money weren’t gonna budge. Mikey couldn’t tell if they were really helping at all or just moving things for no reason when Splinter went stiff and, with terrible hope in his voice, shouted out “Leonardo!” His accent was heavier than usual, as it always thickened when he was emotional.

Raph and Mikey froze, straining for an answer. “Sensei! Be careful!” Because that was just the sort of thing Leo, still trapped under hundreds of pounds of rubble, would tell to his family even when they were in a much safer position than he was. “Don and I are coming up!” Mikey took a moment to jump up, pumping his fist in celebration, while Raph and Splinter re-situated themselves at the sound of Leo’s voice now that his and Don’s path were more clear to them.

Splinter’s nose twitched. “Michelangelo! Help us!” he commanded, though his words were much more relaxed than just a moment before.

“Yes, Sensei,” Mikey bowed his head and fell back to the task.

Mere minutes later, Mikey shrieked as a dirty, dusty, bloody hand popped up to the surface.

“Cool it!” Raph demanded, his hand already reaching out to grasp Leo’s, even as it darted to the street. If any spectators had found the screaming curious, it was now drowned out by the clear arrival of sirens and flashing lights. Raph gripped the hand tight, and Mikey scrambled with Splinter to prop up what must have been a metal door. Raph groaned, pulling upwards, and Leo burst through the rubble like a time lapse of a flower blooming. Raph continued moving backwards and Leo stumbled out into the open, grasping Donnie’s hand and pulling him along. Better than any magician’s trick Mikey had ever seen in the Square.

There was no time to marvel at, be horrified about, or even just plain assess Leo and Don’s condition. They were alive, and lights were flashing over the scene, and it was past time for them to go. “This way,” Raph herded, and Leo, still grasping onto Donnie, managed to gracefully stumble over the rubble, following where Raph had pointed. Raph stayed where he was, ushering Splinter and Mikey behind Don before he followed suit. Voices called out, telling them rescue was coming.

“No thanks, dude,” Mikey muttered. He dove through the sewer grate, right on Splinter’s tail, and had to flip off the ladder into a controlled fall to avoid crashing into his Sensei and brother in his haste.

“Mikey!” Don complained as Mikey splashed him upon landing.

Heh. “Sorry!” he said, crashing into Donnie in a bear hug, mindful to loosen his hold only when Donnie groaned in response. Furry arms tickled Mikey and told him Splinter had joined in on the hug.

“Stubborn…” Leo was muttering under his breath as he reached the bottom of the ladder.

“Me, stubborn?” Raph huffed, not bothering to mutter. “You were just buried under a building. Let a guy hold a manhole up for you, would ya?”

Mikey laughed and grabbed them both, forcing them into the hug. Both of them grumbled, but good-naturedly, and Raph’s tight grip told Mikey that he’d needed this. Leo was annoyingly slack, as he awkwardly patted Mikey’s arm instead of committing to the hug.

“Come, my sons,” Splinter said, stepping back to look over his two eldest. “Let’s get home and get cleaned up.”

“Yes, Master,” Leo said, all too quick to wiggle out of the hug. Mikey gave Don the gentlest noogie he could, and watched his eldest brother. In the dim light of the sewer, he noticed Leo’s mask was missing from his face. Something was off, but in the dark and through the grime, Mikey couldn’t quite tell what. Raph obviously figured the same. He glanced back at Mikey, flicking his gaze to Donnie, and the message was clear. You keep an eye on that one. Mikey gladly threw an arm around Donnie, partially out of brotherly relief at his brother being alive and partly to feel around and see if there was a reason Donnie might need any support, and started to follow Raph, only to have to stop short.

“Leo!” Raph said, lunging forward to catch the collapsing leader. With the same steady strength he’d showed all night, Raph smoothly gathered Leo up and hefted him up into his arms.

“Let me see him,” Don urged at the same time Master Splinter decided -

“Run, Raphael. We are not far from the lair!” and Raph was off. Don made to sprint after them, but Mikey and Splinter held him back. “No, my son, do not tax yourself. We do not want you collapsing as well. Raphael can assess your brother. We will take our time, and you will tell me how you feel.” And so Master Splinter controlled the pace as they headed back to the lair and Don gave them his self-assessment, which seemed overly optimistic for someone who’d just survived being shot at, an explosion, and an entire building collapsing on his head.

When Leo awoke, it was to dim lights and high humidity, and he needed a moment to realize he was in the sewers of New York and not the jungles of Costa Rica. The steady beeping of some medical monitor slowly brought him back to it, and he let his breathing relax. If he was home, then he was with his family. He didn’t have to take extra precaution to make sure he was alive and fine. His family would do that for him, regardless of how much it might chafe after years of only relying on himself.

“You’re setting a bad precedent here, you know,” Casey’s smooth voice cut through Leo’s thoughts. “Gone for two years, then try to die twice in such a short time period…” His tone was light, as if meant to be said as a joke, but the truth of it hardened the sentiment as he trailed off.

“I wasn’t trying to die,” Leo half-retorted, half-comforted.

“I think everyone else is gonna have some words for you about that,” Casey said amicably. Leo let the silence sit, then - “I’m glad you’re back. If I forgot to say it before. Your family was so lost without you.” Casey leaned over and placed a comforting hand on Leo’s shoulder, though it did nothing to stop the lightning bolt of guilt that zapped through his heart. “So, uh, please don’t leave us again.”

“I never wanted to leave in the first place,” Leo said softly, more honest than he meant. He must be drugged.

“I know,” Casey said, but Leo was already out again.

The next time Leo woke up, he was in considerably more pain. Conflicted between the boneless, weak feeling and the desperate need to move and alleviate the pain, he groaned and tried to sit up. He was swathed in bandages and swaddled in blankets, and his attempt left him flailing a bit like a fish out of water and wiped of energy. How long had he been out.

“Could you stop - oh! You’re up. Here, what do you need?” Don’s reassuring voice came, then his familiar face peeked over Leo’s.

Leo meant to form a complete sentence, but he ended up only choking out: “sit up. Please.”

“Sure,” Don said, and his face disappeared from Leo’s field of view for a moment. They’d done some upgrades to the medical bay while he was gone. Don pressed some button and the bed began lifting up to a sitting position. Leo sighed and let himself settle into the bed. He’d get untangled in a second. If it wasn’t dad, he was glad it was Don here at this moment. Although Splinter had assigned them as eldest and second eldest, they’d always felt like two sides of the same coin. Secretly, they considered themselves twins. Mikey was the only one who’d ever really accepted the age assignment Splinter had passed onto him, and they all thought of him as their younger brother. Raph had always chafed at his second youngest designation, but he’d at least always considered Leo as his older brother, and Leo definitely saw him as a younger brother. But he and Don had always shared the same connection, the same sense of responsibility to grow up before the others. Don accepted Leo’s authority in fighting and strategy, and Leo accepted Don’s authority in logic and reason. They’d always naturally worked together, giving them an affinity for each other that carried none of the strain of that sometimes cropped up in their relationships with their younger brothers.

Don got Leo sat up, settled, and drinking down some water before he said anything. He’d waited so patiently, Leo would grant him whatever lecture was coming.

“Why didn’t you tell me you’d be shot?” Don asked. A simple question that sent a pang through Leo’s arm that he couldn’t fully say had nothing to do with guilt or regret.

“I’d wrapped it,” he said, and he had, tying his eye mask tightly over it and not lingering over it, “and there wasn't time for distractions.” He knew he was being overly logical. There were no words to voice the pure panic that had lanced through him seeing that gun point towards Don’s head in the warehouse. He’d reacted on pure instinct, revealing himself and catching a bullet from another gangster he hadn’t accounted for. Then something had exploded, and he’d lost track of Don, and all he could think about was that he might have gotten his brother killed. He honestly hadn’t even realized he had been shot until after he’d wiggled out from under the pile of debris, broken ribs be damned, and he’d started making headway in the direction he thought might hold Don, pain shooting through him and nearly taking him down when he got down on all fours to see if he could crawl through a low opening. After that, he’d shut his brain out of his body, determined not to collapse underground without at least getting Donatello out. He’d no idea how he hadn’t passed out or died far before he did.

“No, I get that,” Don said, patient. Angry. Hurt. “When we were patching you up and looking for other injuries, I saw it.” Leo snapped his jaw shut and sucked in a breath. After everything he’d put his family through, he didn’t think he’d ever tell them about that. “On the back of your leg. Hidden by your shell. We probably never would have noticed normally. Why didn’t you say anything?”

Leo let Don’s pain and betrayal soak through him. He dropped his gaze and let his shoulders crumble. “It-“ He couldn’t tell his brother - his twin - that it didn’t matter. It clearly did. “Everything was so messed up. I just didn’t see the point.” His voice was hoarse. “I’m sure you all have stories I need catching up on, too,” he added, and immediately regretted how defensive it sounded.

“None of us got shot,” Don shot back in a clipped tone.

“It happened after I stopped writing,” he said. “It was… It was stupid. I was being reckless.” He glanced up suddenly at his brother, needing him to understand. “I was hurting that I was failing Splinter’s lesson, and part of me felt like I deserved it, and I was… I was just so embarrassed after it happened that I’d let it happen.” He closed his eyes, overwhelmed. “It shocked some sense back into me, but I didn’t know how to… I don’t know. Make up for it. Prove I was better than that.”

Leo expected a lot of reactions. Don leaning over the bed, gathering him up in a hug, and murmuring “bonehead” wasn’t one of them. He was startled by a dampness on his shoulder and panicked, struggling to move over and make room on the bed for the now-crying Donnie, awkwardly pulling at Don to encourage him to lay down next to Leo. Hoping it could be the start of his penance - for not coming back, for getting shot, for hiding it, for getting Don buried under a building - Leo maneuvered so he and his twin could curl into each other, feel each other’s heart beats and assure themselves the other wasn’t dead. They were right there, in front of each other. Leo wasn’t going anywhere. He wasn’t leaving ever again. He wasn’t letting his brothers leave either. If any of them needed to leave to train, they’d go together. Leo gathered his thoughts and imagined them turning to energy, pulsing the energy into Don through his palms on his arms.

Don had always been a calm, quite crier - unlike Mikey, who made the action as dramatic as possible - and the tears soon stopped. Still - “I’m sorry,” Leo said.

“I’m so glad you didn’t die,” Don replied.

A while later, “aw, kodak moment!” Mikey chuckled when he found them intertwined - presumably coming in to relieve Donnie of his vigil - but otherwise left them alone.

The next time Leo woke after that, he was ready to get up. Both Don and Splinter insisted on doing their own checks of him before they would let him move. Don gruffly approved him moving about a bit. Splinter cupped a gentle paw to his cheek, which Leo let himself lean into, and gave his own approval. Raph beamed at seeing him up and about and settled on the couch with him. He didn’t even complain when Leo said he’d much rather do a puzzle than watch a movie. He simple pulled out a well-worn thrifted puzzle of a New York skyline that was only missing four pieces and started hunting for edges. They worked until Mikey claimed the TV, snuggling up to Leo’s side, and Splinter brought Leo a mug of tea he insisted Leo had to drink, and Leo found himself out of arms to work on the puzzle with. Raph smirked as he moved the puzzle table to safety and came back with Don and food.

A few days later, April and Casey came down to the lair bearing a feast. “Leo!” April had beamed, setting Casey and Mikey the task of getting the food organized as she gave Leo a big hug and not-so-subtly appraised his well-being.

“I’m fine,” he laughed, and he was - mostly. The gunshot had gone clean through, and he was already doing rehab exercises to maintain the strength and dexterity he needed in his hand. The broken ribs were the most trouble, but nothing he hadn’t suffered before. He and Don were both still littered with bruises, but they’d been beyond lucky for what could have happened. Even though he was grounded from training (and Splinter was being being very attentive in ensuring Leo couldn’t sneak any workouts in), Raph had also stepped back from training to match pace with Leo (which Leo never would have asked him, too - Raph had simply done so of his own accord), and that made it all easier to bear. He was well enough to refuse pain meds and white knuckle it through the pain so he could better judge how his recovery was coming. Most importantly, his family was fine. If they were fine? Then so was Leo.

“Okay,” April said, taking his arm to lead him to the table. “I’ll do you the favor of believing you.”

“Mikey, those are for everyone!” Casey was telling the youngest turtle when Leo and April got to the table. “Stop! We only bought so many!” he said, yanking the basket of breadsticks away.

Mouth full of bread, Mikey tried to reach around Casey. “Buffmahsogud,” he said. Leo wrinkled his break in disgust at the display.

“Michelangelo!” April said, channeling Splinter’s Sensei-tone. He dropped his arms and pouted, immediately sneaking some cheese when she turned her back to call out to Don, Raph, and Splinter that her and Casey had brought food. Leo shook his head in amusement, but let his little brother get away with it.

Soon the table was full of bodies and chatter and warmth. Casey specially passed out the breadsticks so everyone would get at least one. Leo was amused to be deemed special enough to receive two. Maybe he’d sneak it to Mikey later. Maybe he’d savor it for himself. Part of the way through dinner, just as things were ramping up to a friendly argument between Raph and Mikey, Leo’s eye was caught by April and Casey sharing a look. Their human friends gave a slight nod to each other, put their hands under the table, and -

Leo grinned wide and sat up, ignoring the twinge that caused in his chest. “No way - finally, really?” he said, deliberately loudly to catch everyone’s attention.

The table paused as everyone turned towards Leo, then followed his line of sight to the engagement rings on Casey and April’s fingers.

“WHOO! I CALL BEST MAID OF HONOR!” Mikey shouted, jumping up and rushing around the table so he could grab the two in a hug, one of them on each side of him.

“You can’t claim that!” Raph said. “You have to be asked!” Then, to Casey, he punched the man’s arm, not saving him from Mikey’s grasp. “Congrats on finally popping the question.”

“Oh, congratulations, my friends,” Splinter beamed. “Michelangelo, let them go! I believe you are choking Mr. Jones there,” he said, immediately switching his tone to more serious.

“What is a best maid of honor?” Don asked. Then, he smiled at April, who he was sitting closer to. “Congrats on finally popping the question,” he said, teasing Raph’s assumption that Casey had been the one to ask.

April laughed as Casey took in a big sigh at being released. “Thanks,” she said.

“So do I get to be best maid of honor? Ask me! I’ll say yes!” Mikey said, beaming, looking back and forth between the two humans.

“We’ll see. We have a lot of wedding plans to decide,” April responded noncommittally. She laughed and kissed Mikey’s cheek at his pout.

Zef and Sera had joined you in the cave where you and Zef had first met, reviewing files over Mr. Wood. You had finally gotten somewhere with your research through the files you had been able to obtain. 

Sera had been reviewing some of the papers as well, but he had mostly been reviewing human laws. Most of the laws were from your area, but many of the laws he’d been reviewing were international, or from the Geneva convention. 

When you had asked why he was reviewing laws such as the Geneva convention and other such international laws on violence, he told you how to be able to convict Mr. Wood in Bermuda, he would have to see what human laws Mr. Wood had violated in addition to the Bermuda laws. 

And meanwhile, Zef was playing around and eating your snacks. This time, you’d brought some chocolate covered dried bananas that you’d bought earlier in the week. 

“Clemmy!” Zef called out, arms out on the rocky ground of the small cave. “Clem~” he called again, his tone drawing as if purposefully trying to annoy you. 

“Zef,” Sera sighed tiredly. “Stop that.”

“I’m just trying to get their attention to ask a question!” Zef squawked in mock offense. He bobbed under the water before coming back up. 

You shook your head fondly, putting down the file you’d been reading. “What do you wanna’ ask, Zef?” 

“How did you come to work for Mister Wood?” Zef asked, dropping another few chocolate covered bananas in his mouth. 

Your body froze as your even, calm breaths stopped abruptly. Sera looked up from his documents, holding them in one hand with the other on the rocky floor of the cave keeping him afloat as he gave you a look of concern. 

When you didn’t answer the question after a few moments, Zef spoke up again. “You good Clemmy?” he asked, concern and confusion in his tone. 

You nodded briefly. “I’m fine,” You responded, an invisible weight appearing in your chest. “I just–didn’t expect you to ask a question like that.”

Sera placed the papers he had been holding down onto the cave floor. “Zef makes a good point,” he started, swimming over to where the previously mentioned Merfolk floated. “I too, would like to know. It seems relevant to the case,” he added. 

Although Zef just seemed to be asking out of curiosity, you were nervous to reveal your relationship to the man. He might’ve been your boss, but that wasn’t the only way you knew him, and the way you knew him, you didn’t think the boys would take it very well. 

“Are you sure? I mean–I work for him, but do you need to know how I met him?” You attempted to play off poorly. 

Sera seemed to sense your nervousness, but he could also tell that you weren’t telling the full story, and that wouldn’t work for him. 

“It would be better to know as much as we could about Mister Wood,” Sera explained, his stern gaze meeting yours. “And it would most likely be brought up in our courts when he is to be convicted of his crimes.”

Your nerves only increased as Sera spoke. You logically knew that neither Zef, nor Sera–well, maybe Sera, wouldn’t hate you if you told them. Logically, you knew that, but emotionally? Emotionally, you felt as if they knew how the two of you were connected, that they would despise you for it. 

“Well–” You started, unsure what to say. You knew that whatever you said would lead to yelling and shock, but the eyes and ears were on you now. “When–when I was a child, I was so interested in marine life and biology, and constantly wished to study them even though I lived about three hours away from the closest beachside–” You chuckled to yourself. “And my mother, she wanted to to encourage my curiosity and research, urging me to study what I loved–”

“She sounds lovely,” Zef interrupted, smiling while continuing to nibble on your snacks. 

“Yeah,” You smiled warmly. “She is–and back then, her brother was living close to the coast, starting up his own marine study center,” You continued, taking a breath as your heart thumped loudly in your chest, the invisible weight on it becoming heavier. “And one summer she sent me to my uncle’s place to study and research marine life with him.”

Sera raised an eyebrow in suspicion, as if he had already been catching on to what you’d been trying to avoid stating obviously. 

“At first it was nice,” You continued, hands becoming crossed and grabbing the opposite tricep. “My uncle was stern but not strict and we would study different shells and what caused each shell to be shaped the way they did. He always had me guess what caused those hollow shells with empty caverns to be the way they were.”

Sera’s eyes widened and he opened his mouth to speak, before shutting it and locking eyes with you. The expression on his face resembled concealed shock, his eyebrows furrowed in what resembled a wild rage. 

“I went back, summer after summer after summer. Every summer he would become colder somehow, more secretive. At first I would try to ask, but eventually, I would just leave him be,” You continued, wringing your fingers nervously. “And eventually, I went off to college. I got a degree in marine biology and was looking for jobs when my mother suggested–” You paused, waiting for the realization to settle in before stating the obvious. “-that I work for my uncle, here, on the coast.”

Zef’s face dropped from interested and curious to shocked and horrified, floating in the water in stunned silence. He looked as if he had been betrayed, but he hadn’t. You hadn’t betrayed him, and you would never. But in these very moments, you felt as if you had. 

Even Sera stayed silent, his usual stoic facade cracking under the weight of the revelation that had been revealed. 

You sat in silence as you felt their disappointment seep through your skin and bones and into your soul before you spoke again. “At first, It wasn’t even bad, I was doing minor work and even though my. . .my uncle was cold, it wasn’t a bad job. I met Doctor Evander–” You smiled softly, head down and facing the ground, unable to look at your companions. “--and he was nice, a good fella, but my uncle only grew colder. . .”

Your smile dropped and you didn’t look up, not wanting to see the faces of people who thought they could trust you.

“And when he got colder, his patience wore thin, and his anger became. . .stronger and more–more forceful,” You gulped, feeling as if your throat was burning. 

“What do you mean by that?” Sera asked, his voice deep and stern. You avoided his gaze, shame spreading down your face. 

“Clemmy?” Zef’s voice rang in your ears. “Answer Sera’s question. What do you mean by that?”

“I knew–” You sucked in a grateful breath of air. “I knew my uncle had issues–events that happened in the past to change him, although I didn’t know what those were at the time–but he started to take out his anger on his employees–”

“Did he ever raise a hand to you?” Sera questioned sternly, interrupting your shaky response. 

“No-! He–I,” You stuttered briefly. “He never–not to me, my mother would’ve practically murdered him–” You chuckled sullenly at your own remark. “–if he had ever raised a hand to me, but that didn’t excuse others, such as Doctor Evander, from being caught in the crossfire.”

“Clemmy, what does that mean?” Zef asked, his tone now far more manicked and concerned than upset. 

“We would have performance reviews, every week or so, at the end of the week,” You spoke, your voice shaking. “And every week, he–he would grab an employee and degrade them in front of all of us, sometimes even going as far as slapping them–and if they made him–if he was angry enough, he would damage products or materials we used and blame it on us and subtract it from our paychecks,” You responded with a shaky exhale, wishing for the burning in your throat to cease and you refrained from crying.

“Did he ever do that to you?” Sera questioned, his tone stern and without room for argument. 

“Twice, but he only yelled, never hit. After those two times, which was a few years ago, I was his perfect little employee who performed everything up to standard, and because of that, he never focused on me and I was mostly out of his sight–and I stayed near Doctor Evander and he was nice, but Mister Wood always pulled him aside and I would see bruises on his–,” You concluded. “But he never hit me-he never–” 

Sobs wracked your body as you shook, holding yourself in your arms as Sera and Zef watched on in mystified horror. 

“That has got to be illegal!” Zef practically shrieked, his voice rising. 

“Zef!” Sera attempted to shush. “They’re shaking,” he stated. 

“Oh,” Zef uttered, his voice quiet. He frowned, watching you shiver and shake, fat tears falling from your eyes. He swam up next to you and hooped up, sitting on the cave floor. Hw wrapped you in a hug, and although it was wet, you gladly accepted.

“Just because he never hit you, doesn’t make it okay,” Zef affirmed, raising your head to lock your gaze and his. “Oh Clem–why didn’t you tell us this before?”

You were lost for words, sobs as your only answer. Sera watched on, guilt hanging heavy in his chest. 

“I had previously asked what their relationship was to Mister Wood, and they told me that they were just an employee,” Sera stated, looking at the pair of you and Zef. “But they lied, and maybe they thought of what we’d think of them if we knew.” 

“Oh Clemmy!” Zef cried. “Did you think we’d hate you?” 

“I thought–” You sniffed. “I thought you would leave me here–leave me with–with this–with, oh with–” 

“With Mister Wood?” Sera asked, raising an eyebrow. You nodded as a response. “I would never leave anyone with such a man, especially now when I see how he treats family.”

“We’ll always be here for you, Clemmy,” Zef smiled. “Even if you don’t believe it right now, we’ll always be here for you, here to catch you when you stumble or fall, or when you’re stuck on a boat in the middle of a storm or–” 

“Whenever you need to ask for help,” Sera added, swimming over and placing a wet hand on your arm. “We will be here.”

“And we could never, ever hate you,” Zef added in finality, smiling at you. He let you out of the hug, hopping back into the water, but still facing you. 

You sniffed. “Thanks guys, that means a lot.” 

“Anytime Clemmy, anytime,” Zef offered genuinely, smiling wide. 

You laughed, sniffling. “Guess I’m all wet now.”

“Oooo, yeah, that’s my bad–” Zef cringed, hissing at his own revelation. 

“How about we reconvene here tomorrow? Give some time to process, no?” Sera suggested. 

“I’d like that,” You admitted, standing up and grabbing your documents whilst Sera put his in a large ziploc baggie, courtesy of Zef. 

“Bye Clemmy!” Zef waved. “See you tomorrow!” He ducked under the water, taking your precious chocolate covered banana chips with him. 

Sera collected his things before speaking to you. “What you did today, you shouldn’t be ashamed,” he stated, his voice somehow softer than you’d ever heard it previously. “If you ever need help, and I am serious. If you ever need my help, do not hesitate to tell me. I will help you. You deserve to be treated well.”

You stood in stunned silence with your belongings as Sera took a large breath. “Take care of yourself, I mean it,” he finished, ducking under the water with the ziploc covered documents.

You stood in the cave briefly, a warm feeling spreading across your chest, taking off the heavy invisible weight that had stood prior. 

In those next moments, you walked out of the cave, somehow feeling better and lighter than you had in years.