"Look Raphie, I'm walking again!" Mikey laughed, taking another cautious step. The corners of his mouth were practically at the side of his head, smiling the whole time he was walking through the lair, holding onto his crutches with great care.

Raph grinned back at his youngest brother, not even bothering the nickname for once. He was just happy Mikey was able to walk again, even if it were still slight steps, and they still had to give him support, either crutches or them being used as living crutches, he was walking again.

Mikey grinned, taking another step while supporting his full weight on his crutches but moving his legs along with the crutches, almost making it look like he was actually walking. He still wasn't able to walk far, but Mikey didn't even care.

He was already happy he was able to walk again, and if that meant walking with crutches, he was already happy. Sweat was trickling down his forehead and his chest was heaving with the strain on his muscles, but he never dropped the smile and kept on walking, training his legs more and more.

It had been three days already. Mikey had started to walk, or attempting to walk again just three days ago. And he had progressed so much already. He still couldn't walk without any proper support but he could walk better again. Almost taking normal steps already, although it was still with the support.

Raph was getting better too. His fever had broken 2 days after it had spiked up, and although he was still very tired, he wasn't bedridden all the time, much to Raph's delight. He hated not being able to move around, and having to rely on others.

His arm was now carefully wrapped up by several layers of bandages and other stuff to protect it, making it unable for him to even wiggle it a little bit. The cast was bowed in a 90 degrees angle at the elbow and it was firmly pressed against his plastron, wrapped up with more bandages around his shell and side to keep it there.

Rap hated it, he could absolutely do nothing with his right arm, and that bothered him so much. He was right handed after all, so he practically had to learn to do everything with his left arm. And even though everyone was willing to help, they also understood Raph would want to do it alone, just to prove himself worthy.

Donnie was getting better too. He was still under heavy painkillers, but he was now being able to sit up straight again, and when he was careful, he could walk around the lair a little bit with the crutches April had brought down to the lair, two pair of crutches. One for Donnie and one for Mikey.

His waist was now tightly wrapped in bandages, just like Raph. Although he was still able to move it, even if it was just a little bit. And even if he was allowed to walk through the lair, he mostly avoided it since it would always cause him some pain, depending on how long he was walking.

Leo and Splinter were trying to help their brothers and sons in every possible way, helping them with changing their bandages, getting up, moving them around, getting them food and other things, and most importantly helping them recover.

Splinter would always be there when Mikey would try to walk again, and he didn't care if that was almost every moment of the day. Mikey was so focused on being to walk again, it was almost like he never wanted to stop trying, until he was completely healed of course.

Raph never left Mikey's side, like he'd promised. He was still a bit weak and tired of course, but he could walk around freely and still he stayed at Mikey's side. Encouraging him and supporting him in every way he could, talking to him and assuring him when he fell down again.

There were times Mikey would cry about not being able to walk, or when he had fallen down again, but his father and Raph would always cheer him up again, making him wanna try once again, until his legs were getting a little bit better again, and every time they could hope a little bit more, that their little family would heal after all it had been through.

TMNT

Every time Mikey would start training again, and Splinter and Raph were helping, Leo used that time to check on Donnie in the lab, check on his stitches and see if they were holding on and changing his bandages again to avoid infection.

"So, how does it look?" Donnie said, trying to look down at his hips but being unable to see it due to the angle. "No swelling, pus or irritation?" Even after all the times Leo had told him everything was going fine, Donnie was still very cautious about his injury.

Leo rolled with his eyes at the worry in his brother's voice but couldn't contain a snicker, shaking his head in amusement. They were indeed holding nicely, and it wouldn't be long before they could be taken out. After all, it had already been 2 weeks.

Most stitches were taken out after a week or two, but they would rather be safe than sorry, so Leo had decided to let them in for a few more days, just to give the wound enough time to heal properly, minimizing the damage to his body.

"You need to stop worrying, they are holding nicely, but I'll let them stay for a few more days" Leo said as he took out some clean bandages. Carefully he helped Donnie with sitting up. Donnie's face contracted with pain as he was moved, figuring there weren't any bandages to minimize the pain but Donnie never gave a cry or a protest.

Leo hated seeing his little brother in so much pain but he knew it had to be done in so Donnie could heal, at least as much as possible. Once Donnie was in a sitting position Leo started to wrap his side in some sterile gauze, covering the wounds with the stitches with some soft pads on the stitches so they wouldn't receive too much pressure.

And it still horrified Leo how many stitches were needed to stitch his side up properly. 14 at each side. 28 in total. And it sure wasn't going to be nice to remove them all. They all hated stitches, but the worst part was taking them out.

After a few layers of the gauze had been wrapped around his hips, Leo picked up the bandages and started to wrap them around his hips, covering a far larger area than needed, but he wanted to be sure. After that was done, Leo picked up some tape, the same they used to wrap sprained ankles and stuff and began to wrap it around all the bandages.

It was strong tape, which was necessary to support him enough, but the fact that it was applied on top of his bandages made sure that they didn't have to pull it off his bare skin, which would only worsen the damage, and could even tear the stitches.

TMNT

Days quickly turned into weeks and with every single day they seemed to get better and better. Mikey continued to train his legs, regaining his footing with every second he tried. He was still a bit shaky on his legs, but after a few weeks he was able to walk around the lair without the crutches again, occasionally still using furniture and walls as crutches.

Only improving from there, hours of training to get him back to the level he used to be. And although he was still feeling the effects, and the strain, on his legs, he was getting better and was even allowed to train again.

He would get tired very soon, his legs almost feeling like they were freezing, and Mikey was forced to sit down again. But apart from that he was doing fine again. Happily training with Leo and his brothers again, who were also steadily recovering.

The stitches from both Raph and Donnie had been taken out a little over 2 weeks after the whole incident, and the skin was healing just fine, which they unfortunately couldn't say about the muscle and nerve damage.

Raph was healing. The bone healed well over the last few weeks, and so did the stab wound on his shoulder but it was clear he would never heal completely. His arm would always be a disadvantage for him. He could do everything with it, kick, punch, pick things up, hold his sais, but it was weaker than his left hand.

The muscles around the shoulder was damaged beyond repair, and they were just lucky it was only lightly damaged, instead of completely destroyed. Splinter was doing everything he could to help his second oldest son, gradually helping him regain his strength but he too saw that the damage was something they could never fix.

Pain would shoot up his arm when he was over doing himself, while his left one was just completely fine, and sometimes it would start to spasm during their training, forcing him to stop immediately. The attacks and the pain went down as they progressed, but it was never going away.

The only possibly was operating on him, but Donnie wasn't a doctor, nor did he have the right tools to do so. Not like that would stop him in other cases, he would study as long as he had to to cure Raph but the operation was simply too complicated, repairing muscle was something that couldn't be done without proper training.

And the chance of failing, or his body rejecting it was just too big, so they had all agreed that they should leave it, and Raph had assured his younger brother he was okay with it. He was alive, and that was all that mattered right now. He could fight again, he just had to favor his left arm a little more.

Donnie was doing better too. The stitches were gone and the bandages were slowly decreasing in quantity, giving Donnie time to learn everything over again. He had grown too attached to the security of the bandages that he had to learn how to walk all over again, because his back couldn't quite hold the weight.

But just as they all did, Donnie managed to. He was still a little weak while fighting, and he would sometimes collapse in the middle of an attack, but he was starting to get better. But just as Raph, the injury would always bother him.

He had been so close to dying, and some organs in his body were lightly damaged by the sword. Leo was able to repair them, but Donnie had to keep swallowing medicines to keep his body from rejecting whatever Leo did to Donnie, to keep him alive.

They were all doing better but there would always be scars, something that would remind Hamato Yoshi what he had done to his sons. Mikey would never be the same again with his walking. He had always been the fastest, and though he still was, he wasn't as fast as he used to be.

He still had problems coordinating his movements. He could walk and run, but evading attacks when they trained was still a bit of a problem, and handling his nun chucks at the same time was difficult for him, but that was something he could overcome eventually.

His knees had been dislocated, and he was forced to wear the same wraps around his knees as Raph had. But they were thinner and Mikey's knees weren't popping like Raph were, and Mikey had assured his father he was okay with it. They were helping him walk after all.

Raph would always feel the effects of the incident. There was a large scar on his right shoulder, where Splinter had stabbed him with his sword, and the crook of his elbow was slightly swollen and red, where the bone had been poking against his skin and almost breaking it.

Donnie would still be very weak the first few weeks, and while Raph and Mikey could slowly pick up training again, Donnie was forced to watch his brothers when they trained, while Splinter would do basic exercises with him afterwards, stretching and training his muscles.

Slowly building up the necessary strength until he was finally able to train with his brothers too. He had two agonizing scars on both sides of his hips and he had to take medicines every day to keep him alive, always reminding his father of the damage he had done to his sons.

Their father had tried to be strong for his sons, but eventually the guilt became too much for him, and he broke down, Leo being the one to find him. That same day Leo had called a family meeting and they had talked about everything they had gone through.

How it had been for everyone, seeing their own father attack them, hurting them and forcing them into a coma, not to talk about the recovery they were forced to make, but they all said the same, none of them blamed their father.

And even though they were still healing from the effects of Splinter's attack, when he had hurt his own sons, they were still a family. They understood that it wasn't their father, but the Rat King, and Splinter finally understood that it wasn't his fault either, just his body.

And they all understood, that this family was stronger than any enemy they had encountered so far, and even if they were hurt by the attacks, and there would always be scars, their family wasn't shattered.

TMNT

So this is really the end of my Fanfiction 'Shattered family' This turned out way longer than I thought it would, I regret nothing.

I just want to say thank you to everyone who has read it, reviewed it, followed and enjoyed it! I enjoyed writing this, even if I got lost a couple of times ^^

~Athese