Fifteen minutes after the A team returned from their mission, the three Mutanimals and Casey were sitting in the living room, waiting for Donatello to finish mending Leo's wounds. Slash and Leatherhead were having a quiet conversation to themselves while Pete and Casey were butting heads at the pinball table. Suddenly, the door to the lab was opened and he exited with a straight back.

This caught the eye of Raph's former pet who drew attention to the purple clad turtle. "Donatello." this caused the rest of the team to turn in Donnie's direction "How's Leonardo?"

"Nothing too serious once I gave him those antibiotics." he sighed "He'll be asleep for a little while though." He explained with a somewhat depressed tone that he'd failed to hide

"That's certainly relieving. Rest should put his mind at ease after all this chaos." replied Leatherhead with a grin and gingerly voice

"How I envy him." Donnie added, folding his arms and leaning on the side of the door, staring at the floor.

After hearing that remark, the four misfits looked to each other in concern. Slash had mentioned that something felt a little off with the young genius, but hopefully it wasn't very serious.

Attempting to be sensitive, Casey suggested something, "Listen, D, Leo ain't going anywhere. Why don't you chill with Ralph and Mikey? We'll watch your older bro?" he explained as he pointed a thumb behind his back towards the dojo.

Donnie peeked his head up with puppy eyes "Really?" he asked with a strange glimmer of hope

"You don't have to ask, buddie." replied Pigeon Pete "Go ahead. We'll stay out here."

With that, Donnie gave the four of them a quick nod and ran into the dojo to meet his younger and second oldest brother. When he got there, it was oddly quiet considering the two who were left alone. Raph was sitting next to April's frozen body with his back leaning against the wall, while Mikey on the other side of the room, innocently balancing a ninja star on his nose.

"H-hey guys." the gap toothed ninja waved, announcing his presence.

Both of them sat up and widened their eyes in surprise "Donnie." they unintentionally said in unison. While the hothead stayed in his place, the youngest reptile stood up and gave his brother a hug

"How's Leo?" he asked hastily

Donnie chuckled his little brother's innocence and concern "He's sleeping the pain off. He'll be awake in a little while." the green scientist explained, and was met with a sigh of relief from his two remaining brothers. "Yeah, I wanted to sit in here with Sensei, I'm gonna join you in here."

This caused a sudden gasp from the blue eyed ninja, "Wait, you just left our guest alone?!" he exclaimed rhetorically "That is so rude, D!"

"Take it easy, Mike." replied Raphael in a calmer tone "They're big boys, they can handle sitting in a living room without a babysitter."

"Yeah, but still, dudes, I feel bad." Mikey added with a frown. However, his frown quickly transformed into a smile with an idea "Tell you what; we're all probably hungry after that battle, so how about I make everyone a pizza?"

Raph and Donnie hesitated for a moment, but shrugged it off and agreed to it

"If it makes you feel brother, bro." Raph said with little care "Go ahead."

"Alright! I'll be in the kitchen." Donnie hid his laughter as Michelangelo rushed out of the dojo. Odds are he was probably doing all this distract himself from their current situation. Again, the overthinking turtle was jealous that one of his brothers has been blessed with something else focus on. With a deep breath, he walked over to his hotheaded older sibling and stood over him

"Um, do you mind if I sit next to you?" he asked with a somewhat awkward tone.

Raphael turned his eyes the other way for a moment and shrugged his shoulders "What's stopping ya?" he asked shrugging his shoulder once again. How peculiar for his intelligent brother to request the right to sit next to him after the day they've had.

With that, the young genius modestly sat next to Raphael and curled his knees up to his chest. After an awkward moment of silence, the red turtle was almost going mad with suspense. He noticed that Donnie wouldn't stop staring at Splinter's body, and their two friends entranced by their powers. The hot head was shocked to remember this, but he recognized that glow in Donnie's eyes; a gaze that display a child like fear and sadness, a childish expression in his mahogany pupils that rivaled Michelangelo's baby blue ones. There just one time Raphael could remember his intelligent little exposing those eyes; when they were eight and the second oldest turtle was struck with Pneumonia and his recovery chances were quite slim. Little Donnie stared into Raph's blood ridden dead ones.

"Why is he so afraid though?" the red cladded warrior quarreled in his head. What on earth could have his little brother so apparently troubled right now? They defeated the Rat King, Splinter's recovering, and Leo's going to alright, what's on his mind?

"Hey, Don," Raph announced to catch Donnie's attention. The genius blinked as he looked his older brother in the face "What's eating ya?" he asked curiously

Donnie was silent for a moment, wondering how to explain how he was feeling to the one brother was least likely to understand. As he turned his head back down into his lap and answered Raph's question with his own question

"Raph... were you worried about Sensei during your mission?"

The red masked turtle gave Donnie a look indicating he was staring at one crazy mutant, "What's with all the stupid questions, Bro?" he nearly laughed at how confused he was by the "smartest" ninja "Of course we were worried about him"

"I know, but.." he gulped in response, "did you have that tiny little voice echoing to you 'what if Sensei doesn't get better? What if this memory loss is permanent?" he vented with a hollow tone of voice

The red masked turtle took somewhat of an offense to Donnie's last remake. Overall, however, he gave his brother a bleak stare and uncomfortably sat up from his seat "Well, Jeez, Donnie, you didn't think we could handle ol' Skeleton King by ourselves?"

"No.." the purple warrior replied, meekly shrugging his shoulders, "it's just while I- while we were watching over Splinter, we tried telling him about his past life. But no matter what we told him, he was terrified and angry with himself, and I had no idea what to do." he explained as he resumed looking Raphael in the face "I actually ended up crying in front of him, it just hurt so much to see him that way."

Donatello had just poured his soul out to the brother who was least likely to comprehend such emotions. Much to his surprise, the hot headed ninja did understand Donnie's point, in hindsight "...I-I guess I hadn't thought about any of that." he widened his eyes in realization "Man,.. I was so focused on taking down the Rat King, I forgot how much pain Splinter was in."

"That's my point." the purple clad ninja exclaimed as his voice began crack "I didn't have a distraction like you guys did," he stood up and paced the floor to further articulate his thoughts for how seriously they were affecting him "I had to listen to him deny ever knowing me. I had to look him in his eye; those lost, horrified eyes that replaced those loving, fiery eyes that chased every fear we had when we were younger. It's just so horrifying to see someone I hold in such high regards be so vulnerable." with that, Donnie stared Raph in the eye once he finished releasing all his raw emotions and was now fighting off tears.

The second oldest ninja was paralyzed by Donnie's monolog of emotion that just flooded against him. At first, he assumed he intelligent little brother had the easy side of the mission, but he appeared to be even more shaken up mentally than Leonardo was physically "Man, bro, I..I didn't think your end of the mission would be so draining." Raph approached the young genius in sympathy

Donnie than blushed in shame "Ah, I'm just being a wuss. I mean look at what you guys've been through." he added, gesturing over Raph's entire body "You look like you've walked in front of a war zone." he lightly chuckled

"Yeah, but if we had known how hard this would be on you, we could've left Mikey behind too."

"It's not just that, I did have April and Rockwell with me, so that's not the problem." the purple turtle crossed his arms in thought

After another moment of silence, Raphael grinned gingerly, knowing exactly what his little brother needed "Listen, Bro," he said as he placed a hand over Donnie's tense shoulder "This isn't nearly the end for Master Splinter, ya got that? We won, the Rat King's gone, and April and Rockwell are taking good care of him. He's safe, and you three kept him safe."

Donatello stared into his older brother's eyes with his own reassured ones. As if he needed to find his breath, he replied ever so softly, "Wow,... Thank you, Raph," he said rubbing his eyes "I didn't realize how much I needed that." he showed off a toothy smile that he was known for.

"No problem, ya know you can always come to me when you need something off your shell." the red masked ninja added to console Donnie even further

"He, do I have wait for Leo to get knocked out for that to happen?" the young genius joked

Raphael was somewhat sadden by that last statement, but Donnie made a valid point from that simple comment "Good question." he replied as he sat back down with his knees pulled up to his chest "It's kind of funny; I used to always want to be leader, but now I'm terrified of being leader one day."

This question came out in a tone similar to Donnie's did before, but this came out of nowhere for the purple clad warrior "What are you talking about?" he asked while kneeling next to him

"It's like you said; between the farmhouse and today, I'm always the one taking Leo's place as the head of the team." he replied remorsefully "What if something really happens to Leo or what if he dies?" the second oldest brother started tensing up "I don't care about beating the crap out of bad guys if it costs me any of you guys." Raphael cover his eyes to hide the little tears forming in his emerald eyes.

Donatello dropped his jaw at what just heard. How long had his older hot headed brother been feeling like this? Why didn't he say about those emotions before? Donnie asked this he's certainly had those fears in the back of his crowded "Jeez, Raph, now look who's getting deep." he responded, sitting up next to Raph

"Oh, come on. Even with all the science mumbo jumbo, you're telling you've never thought about that?"

Donnie grinned with an idea he knew would cheer Raph up, "Well," he shrugged "I guess I've had my own distraction over that stuff."

"What?" Raphael tiled his head in curiosity

"I'm one of four awesome brothers all looking out for each other." he replied, lightly punching the hothead in the shoulder.

This caused Raphael to chuckle and relax from his previous, "We are pretty sick, aren't we?" he rhetorically asked

"Only when we've got each other." Donnie winked as the two brother fist bumped each other. It's not very often that the turtle of brain and the turtle of brawn bond and console each other in such a manner. Hopefully, this experience will have made the entire Hamato clan realize how precious family truly can be

(TO BE CONTINUED)

Only 3 more chapters after this, that's what I'm planning to do. Please leave an honest review and tell me how I did in terms of dialogue and characterization