*Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise.

*'TMNT Shell Shots' Summary: This story is a collection of random TMNT one-shots.

*'Fractured Trust' Summary: After Leonardo's decision to secretly help Karai puts his brothers' lives in danger, he must deal with the consequences of his actions. *Note: this is a 'Broken Foot' one-shot about what transpired during the turtles' trip back to the lair after the chemical plant explosion.

*Author's Notes: I'm excited and a little nervous to post my first ever one-shot on FanFiction. This short story takes place during the episode 'Broken Foot.' It starts right after the turtles escape the overturned Party Wagon and leads up to their return to the lair. I wanted to write a little something to convey what Leo was feeling inside after the incident at the chemical factory. I also wanted to explain why Raph was such a wreck by the time they reached the lair.

If you like this one-shot, please favorite, follow, and/or review it to let me know. I would really appreciate the feedback.

Thank you so much for reading. ;) CJ

Fractured Trust

The full moon was radiating particularly bright over the streets of New York City. So bright, the two oldest turtles could easily see the rage smoldering in Tiger Claw's yellow eye while he visually scanned the alley in search of them. The mutant Bengal tiger stood in all of his immensity atop the turtles' upended vehicle with his huge, powerful front paws clenched into tight fists at his sides. His chest was heaving with untamed fury and each breath came out as a gravely sounding growl.

Leonardo and Raphael were currently crouched over the ledge of a roof overlooking the beast, their eyes glowing stark white as they silently watched their enemy from above, but only for a few fleeting seconds. A moment later, they receded into the shadows, out of sight, knowing that it was only a matter of time before Tiger Claw would veer his gaze upwards. They could not chance being seen right now. Not with one brother already down for the count.

It was actually a bit of a miracle that they hadn't been spotted when they had clumsily scaled up to the rooftop just after their enemies had rolled the Party Wagon up onto its side, putting a rather unpleasant end to the brief high-speed chase that they had been the unwilling participants of.

The turtle brothers' souped-up former hippy van had tipped over and skidded to an abrupt halt in a darkened alleyway not long after Rocksteady and Bebop had used a claw-like attachment on the front end of their very own souped-up van to rip one of the Party Wagon's back wheels off.

Luckily, the four brothers had all managed to escape the 'accident' virtually unscathed, but the Party Wagon had not fared nearly as well as they had. Donatello was going to pitch a fit when he woke up and saw the damage that Shredder's goons had done to their vehicle.

If he woke up . . . Leonardo thought with the heaviest of hearts. He then let out a tremulous sigh as he turned and looked down at his second youngest brother, whose limp body was presently cradled in Michelangelo's protective arms. If the expression on Mikey's face was any indicator, their injured brother had still not shown any signs of improvement. The smile that Mikey normally wore was missing and Leo could see that his youngest sibling's bright blue eyes were glossy with tears.

Tears started to sting Leo's own eyes as he knelt down next to his unconscious brother and gently brushed a hand against the side of his face. Donnie's mouth was slightly ajar and his eyes were sealed shut. He still had not made any attempts to move, which was starting to make dread fester in the pit of Leo's already uneasy stomach. The oldest turtle wasn't sure just how extensive Donatello's injuries were at this point. As much as he had desperately wanted to check on his incapacitated brother's condition, they had been too busy trying to save their shells from Shredder's cronies for Leo to stop and assess his purple-clad brother's wounds. The only information that Leo had gotten on Donnie's status so far had come out of Raph's angry mouth.

"We were looking for you when Donnie got blown up!"

Just thinking about what Raph had said made Leo's chest tighten with horror.

Donnie got blown up . . .

The gut-wrenching words repeated in Leo's head, over and over again.

Donnie got blown up . . .

Everything had been such a blur since Leonardo had discovered that his brothers had come after him . . .

He had been running along the rooftops, trying to get away from the enemy, when he had caught a glimpse of his three brothers out of the corner of his eye. His heart had nearly leapt out of his chest when he had seen Raph and Mikey carrying Donnie away from the burning building that he himself had just fled. He had never expected that his brothers would show up.

They were supposed to be back at lair sleeping . . .

They weren't supposed to even know that he was gone . . .

They weren't supposed to be there . . .

But they were . . .

Leonardo's heart started to pound wildly inside of his chest again and the once simple task of breathing suddenly became a challenge. Things had been so crazy since going inside of that factory. Leo hadn't really had a chance to fully process what had happened, but now that things had slowed down enough to think straight, realization was hitting him like a stack of bricks and it felt as though his insides were being crushed.

"We were looking for you when Donnie got blown up!"

The sudden awareness that his brothers had been inside of Shredder's chemical factory when it had blown up was nothing short of mortifying. That was because it had been the very same factory that Leo himself had helped Karai and Shinigami blow up in their ongoing efforts to covertly take down Shredder's operations. The oldest turtle had once again put his brothers in danger because he had let his feelings for Karai cloud his judgment.

His brothers could have been killed because of him . . .

Finally, Leo realized that he had gotten in way over his head this time, and now, he was staring down at the devastating consequences of his actions.

Donnie got blown up . . .

Leo's entire being filled with unspeakable remorse as he reached out and squeezed a hand around his genius brother's slack forearm.

Donnie was hurt and it was all Leo's fault. The guilt was overwhelming, but the oldest turtle could not allow himself to be consumed by his burdens right now. Not with Tiger Claw still trying to hunt them down. What the leader needed to focus on at the moment was getting his injured brother to safety. The sooner, the better.

With newfound purpose, Leonardo made several hand gestures to signal that it was time to go. Both Raph and Mikey nodded their understanding, although the hotheaded turtle did so with a deep scowl fixed on his face.

The three brothers then carefully lifted their injured brother up and carried him across several rooftops, using as many large objects and shadows as they could to cloak their movements. Other than a few soft moaning sounds from Donatello, they remained silent as they passed from building to building. Leonardo was not sure if the silence was just because they were trying to elude the enemy or if it was because Raph and Mikey were giving him the cold shoulder treatment. Either way, the oldest turtle decided that it was probably best if he kept his mouth shut for the time being.

Once they felt that it was safe to do so, they climbed down the side of a building to the pavement below. This was a lot more challenging than normal with an unconscious brother in tow, but they managed to make their way down to the ground without incident. Now, they just needed to find the nearest manhole and slip down into the darkness of the city sewers so that they could start the long journey home.

Yes, it would have been quicker and easier to stick to the rooftops, but with Donnie injured, they couldn't risk a possible confrontation with the enemy. They needed to stay hidden, and what better way to stay hidden than in the depths of the city sewers?

As they gently lowered their genius brother down the maintenance ladder, he whimpered and fussed a little, but the commotion did not appear to have disturbed his slumber. He still seemed to be completely oblivious to the world around him as his brothers began to trudge towards the lair.

Leo was on one side of Donnie, holding him up by his shell, while Raph was on the other side, doing the same. Donnie's feet were practically dragging along the concrete as his two shorter, older brothers hauled him through the underground caverns.

Hearing the sound of Donatello's deep and steady breathing beside him somehow made Leonardo feel slightly better. The eldest turtle instinctively pulled his injured brother closer, more out of comfort than necessity.

Though there was only the distance of their wounded brother between them, at the moment, Leo felt as though he and Raph were miles apart.

No one had spoken a word since their escape. Not even Mikey, who they normally couldn't get to stop talking.

The youngest turtle was currently walking in front of his three older brothers, keeping an eye out for any potential threats lurking in the darkness. In his hand, he clung to Donnie's bo-staff with a white-knuckled grip. Leo couldn't help but to wonder if Mikey's hold was that tight because of anger or fear. Maybe it was a little bit of both . . .

The further they got down the tunnels, the more tension Leonardo could feel hanging in the already dense air of the sewers. He could hear that Raph was breathing heavier than normal and he pretty sure that it wasn't just from the exertion of carrying Donnie. Leo guessed that the change in breathing was more likely the byproduct of his confrontational brother fighting like shell to internalize his rage.

To say that the situation was awkward would have been a severe understatement.

They were a little over halfway home when oldest brother couldn't stand the unvoiced friction any longer.

"Let's take a break, guys," Leonardo suggested, and without waiting for any of his brothers' consent, he stopped his forward momentum. This forced the red-masked turtle to stop as well, which did not please him one little bit. Though Donnie was blocking Leo's view of the expression, the oldest turtle could feel the murderous glare coming from Raph as he reluctantly ceased his movement. An objection was on the tip of the angry turtle's tongue, but he did not put voice to it for fear of saying or doing something that he might regret later.

Leo and Raph then carefully lowered their wounded brother down onto a dry slab of concrete.

Mikey was instantly on the ground next to the genius turtle, gently lifting Donnie's head up so that he could scoot his crossed legs underneath his injured brother. Mikey then rested Donnie's head in his lap, letting his brother use him as a pillow. The youngest turtle was just doing whatever he could to make his big brother as comfortable as possible.

"How is he, Mikey?" Leo asked, crouching down beside his two baby brothers. For the first time since Donnie had been injured, Leo now had an opportunity to take a good look at his brother, but it was difficult to see much of anything in the scant lighting of the sewers. As far as Leo could tell, Donnie didn't appear to have any broken bones or open wounds, but that didn't mean that his injuries weren't life-threatening. The fact that he was still unconscious was proof that there were internal injuries and this had Leo teetering on the edge of panic. A considerable amount of time had passed since the explosion and Donnie had yet to show any signs of waking. Leo was scared of just how badly his genius brother had been injured by the blast.

The blast that Leo had caused . . .

Raph's words once again repeated in the back of Leo's mind.

Donnie got blown up . . .

His youngest brother's frail voice then interrupted Leonardo's troubled thoughts.

"He won't wake up," Michelangelo stated the obvious to his two older brothers, but it still hurt to hear it, just the same.

"I know, Mikey." Leonardo used his soft, big brother tone in an effort to soothe his distraught baby brother's nerves. The leader then placed his hand on Donnie's upper plastron and felt the rise and fall of his wounded brother's chest as he asked his next question. "Can you tell me what happened?"

Finally, Raph couldn't hold his anger back any longer and it poured out of him in the form of words.

"I'll tell you what happened! You snuck out of the lair to go off on your own! Again! And because we were stupid enough to go after you, we almost got killed! If it weren't for Donnie, we would have been blown to bits and it would have been all your fault!" Raph snarled, throwing his hands in the air in utter disgust.

Just the thought of what Donnie had done back at the factory made Raph's muscles tense with anxiety. In the back of his mind, Raphael could still hear Donnie's panicked voice, screeching out from behind them . . .

"Guys! Out! Quick!"

Donnie had saved them. If not for his quick reaction time and him promptly shoving them into a slightly more secure location, the three of them would have been incinerated by the explosion. Donnie had protected them, but in doing so, he had left himself more vulnerable to the blast that had followed a few seconds later.

When the explosion had gone off, Donnie had taken the worst of it.

Raph cringed at the memory. The awful mental image of Donnie splayed out on the top of that car after the blast had violently thrown them from the building would forever haunt him. He was never going to be able to forget seeing his brother's arm dangling lifelessly over the side of the car that had mercilessly broken his fall.

The sound of Leo's voice snapped Raph out of his flashback and made his blood begin to boil. His oldest brother was the reason that Donnie was hurt.

"Listen, Raph . . . I know that I screwed up. I – " Leo attempted to apologize, but his now irate brother cut him off.

"You're darn right you screwed up! We would have never been inside of that building when it blew up if it weren't for you!"

The sheer malice in Raph's words made Leo wince, but he knew that he had deserved it.

"I know, I know . . . I'm just so thankful that you're okay," Leo said, thinking about how much worse it could have been. He hadn't meant for his words to come off as offensive, but Raph had taken them as such.

"Okay? Okay! Does Donnie look okay to you?" Raph roared and the volume of his voice threatened to collapse the entire sewer system. He then pointed a thick forefinger at his unconscious little brother to stress his point, though the gesture was not necessary. His meaning was already crystal-clear.

"No," Leo gasped out as his sorrowful eyes fell upon Donnie's sleeping form.

"You can't keep doing this to us, Leo! We're your brothers! When are you gonna learn to trust us? Huh?" Raph's tone held anger, but there was disappointment mixed in as well.

"It's not that I don't trust you." Leo quickly denied the accusation, but he had no actual evidence to corroborate his statement. After all, he had gone behind his brothers' backs and disobeyed his father in order to take down their sworn enemy. To make matters worse, he had secretly teamed up with their former enemy, who had tried to kill them multiples times in the past, and a girl that he barely knew, who seemed to him to be slightly unhinged. How was that not a violation of trust?

Leonardo turned his head away in shame, wondering how he could ever expect his brothers to trust him if he didn't trust them?

Then, Raph spoke as though he had been reading Leo's thoughts.

"Yeah, right, Fearless! If you trusted us, then you would have told us what you were doing! You wouldn't have been out sneaking around with your girlfriend, trying to take out Shredder on your own! We're supposed to be a team, Leo! You could have come to us! You could have asked us for help!" Raph barked with his usual bite.

Leonardo gazed up at Raph for a moment before casting his eyes down to the ground. The leader found it somewhat hypocritical that Raphael, of all turtles, was criticizing someone for not asking for help, but he did not question his hotheaded brother. Not after all that had happened. He just let his brother continue on with his rant, feeling as though Raph had earned the right to get this off of his plastron.

"I'm sick and tired of you keeping secrets from us! We're your brothers! Brothers aren't supposed to keep secrets from each other! This never would have happened if you would have just told us the truth!"

"I . . . I know," Leonardo breathed out before his voice momentarily failed him. He wanted so much to apologize for all the wrongs that he had committed against his family, but the words were trapped in his throat. Not that an apology was going to fix what he had done.

"You should have been there, Leo! You should have been with us, not her!" As Raph spoke, he turned his back to his older brother, acting as though he had done so out of anger, when he had really done so to hide the pain.

"I'm here now," Leo said barely above a whisper, knowing that it was of little consolation after the fact. His sapphire stare remained fixed on Donatello, not just because he was too ashamed to look at Raph at this point, but also because he felt obligated to look at the damage that he had done. Seeing Donnie this way was more than Leo could bear and he figured that he deserved every last bit of agony that it brought. He had done this to his little brother.

"It's too late, Leo. You weren't there when we needed you. If you would have been there . . . Donnie – " Raph had to pause for a moment, as his voice was starting to fade and crack without his consent. He gruffly cleared his throat before finishing what he had to say.

"He wouldn't have gotten hurt. He would have never been inside of that factory if you would have just trusted us."

The words still came out softer than Raph had intended, but he couldn't help it. He was struggling to deal with the onslaught of emotions that were suddenly inundating him. Leo had essentially betrayed them, and as a result, Donnie had gotten hurt. Raph hated it when any of his brothers got hurt, because it meant that he had failed to protect them. But what Raph hated even more about this particular situation was that Donnie had gotten hurt trying to save his shell. Big brothers were supposed to protect their little brothers, not the other way around.

"Uh, guys, speaking of Donnie, I think we should get him back to the lair now. He doesn't look so good," Mikey announced and there was no mistaking the worry in his tone.

Upon hearing the obvious concern in his youngest brother's shaky voice, Raph immediately knelt down beside Donnie and began to check his injured brother over.

Though Raph wasn't about to openly admit it, Mikey had been right. Donnie didn't look good at all. He was much paler than before and his breathing sounded more labored than it should. Raph had also noticed that the constant cooing and moaning noises that his brainiac brother had been making earlier were getting further and further apart. The hotheaded turtle reached out a hand and placed it over Donnie's forehead and he was appalled by how cold his brother's skin was to the touch. Raphael's head and heart both began to pound hard as fear took hold of him. The adrenaline that he had been running on since the explosion had all but worn off and reality was now starting to sink in.

"What's wrong with him? He's getting worse! Shouldn't he be getting better by now? And if he got blown up, why's he so cold?" Raph asked Leo, abruptly setting his anger and their differences aside so that he could concentrate on worrying. It was obvious that the most volatile turtle's grip on his composure was rapidly weakening.

"I . . . I'm not sure. Maybe he's going into shock," Leo said in a voice that lacked his usual confidence. He was all of a sudden at an uncharacteristic loss for answers, which was something that Raph didn't have the patience for right about now.

"Shock? What the heck does that even mean? Wh – What do we do for that?" Raph asked, attempting to sound undaunted, but it wound up an epic fail. Mikey and Leo could both hear the tremor in his voice and they could plainly see that their rough and tough brother was scared out of his shell, which in turn, started to scare the youngest turtle out of his.

"Dudes! I'm freaking out! Why are Raph's eyes going all crazy like that? What aren't you guys telling me?" Mikey whimpered as he volleyed his gaze from big brother to big brother, using his waterlogged eyes as a means to beg for answers to his questions.

"Mikey . . . Donnie . . . He's gonna . . . He can't . . . His . . . I – " Raph's attempt to respond to his youngest brother came out as nothing more than a jumbled up mess. It hadn't sounded at all like it had inside of his head.

As the team leader, Leo quickly recognized that the situation was spiraling out of control, fast. Raph was having some sort of a panic attack from the extreme stress and his behavior was already beginning to get Mikey all spun up into a tizzy as well. The last thing that Leo needed right now was for his two conscious brothers to have simultaneous nervous breakdowns. That certainly wasn't going to help their unconscious brother in any way.

Leo drew in a deep, cleansing breath, attempting to keep a level head amidst the chaos brewing. He knew that they needed to get Donnie home before Raph completely lost it and took Mikey down with him. Leo wasn't going to be able to carry all three of his brothers home.

"Okay, guys, we all need to calm down. Master Splinter will know what to do. We just need to get Donnie back to the lair. Mikey, you get his arms and I'll take his legs," Leo said in his take-charge manner, and then, he moved towards his genius brother's lanky legs, but Raph was already there. Without so much as a word, the turtle in red curled his hands around the backs of his genius brother's knees and readied himself to lift. Despite being an emotional wreck, the hothead was evidently lucid enough to know that he didn't want Leo being the one to carry their injured brother. There was an unspoken 'Don't you dare even think about touching him after what you did to him' look burning in Raphael's fierce, green eyes.

Once again, Leonardo did not question his temperamental brother. Right now, the only thing that mattered was getting Donnie home to Master Splinter.

Master Splinter . . .

Leo shuddered at the thought of having to face his father after all that had happened. How could he tell him what he had done? How could he tell Sensei that he had gone against his wishes and tried to help Karai take down the Shredder? How could he tell Sensei that Donnie had gotten hurt because of his actions?

The turtle dressed black rather than his usual blue stared down at his makeshift costume and silently cursed himself for letting things come to this.

Emitting a defeated sigh, Leonardo then resigned to his fate. He had no other choice than to tell his father what had happened. Not because he had gotten caught, but because it was the only way to begin to rebuild the trust that he had fractured.

Perhaps he had already damaged things beyond repair, but he still had to try to make things right . . .

"Let's go, guys," Leo commanded, temporarily pushing his feelings of fear and doubt aside for his injured brother's sake.

"It's gonna be okay, D. We'll get you back to the lair and Sensei . . . He'll fix you right up," Mikey reassured his unresponsive brother. The youngest turtle then hoisted up his brainy brother's upper body at the same time as Raph picked up his legs. A second later, Leo came up beside Donnie's left side and tried to help with the genius turtle's weight as best he could, even if Raph didn't approve. Again, right now, the only thing that mattered was getting their wounded brother home.

Donatello's three brothers then carried him all the way back to the lair, moving as fast as their legs could possibly take them. Their voices did not sound out again until they pushed through the turnstiles and the word 'Sensei' rang out three times.

They were finally home and it was now time to heal what had been broken.

Leo just hoped that everything that he had broken that night could be fixed . . .

The End

*Author's Notes: I really hope that you enjoyed 'Fractured Trust.' Thank you very much for reading. Please review/favorite/follow this short story if you liked it. I would LOVE to know. If you have any special requests or suggestions for future one-shots, please feel free to PM me. ;) CJ

*Update: I have already received a couple of requests to write an epilogue for the episode 'Broken Foot' where Leo apologizes to Donnie, so it looks like that's the next one-shot I'll be working on . . . Thank you so much for the suggestions ICantFindAnotherName and Kamechan98! ;)