Leatherhead looked down to see the panicked, and very embarrassed face of Michelangelo, contemplating whether or not he should tell the three older turtles their baby brother's thoughts on them. His friend should be the one to tell them, not him. If he was to be honest with himself, he has been very sick and tired of waiting for Mikey to speak out his feelings. His voice needed to be heard and not be, although unintentionally, silenced by his brothers. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

He'll respect his baby brother's privacy...half of it anyways.

"Alright, Michelangelo. I shall only tell them the other half of the story, then. Unless, you want to..."

Mikey quickly hid behind him again.

"...Very well."He said, looking straight towards the three who cause his Mikey so much joy...and pain.

"He loves you...he loves you three dearly. You have no idea how close he holds all of you to his heart. I hope that one day...I will also have a place in his heart...and be loved much more than what I really deserve. The three of you don't seem to realize that..."Leatherhead growled out the last sentence, glaring at them slightly.

"The three of you are always underestimating him, looking down upon him, and disrespecting him whenever you can. What makes it worse is that those are only the few things that you have done to him. You have done so much more damage...Michelangelo has said so."The three turtles eyes widened at hearing this. They were all thinking the same thing with this new information.

'Mikey's hurt? Because of us? Why didn't he...and he told LH...th-that can't be true...It can't be. No.'

Michelangelo has said so.

'No...'

Michelangelo has said so.

'No!'

"You insult his intelligence, his demeanor, his entire being as a whole, and at times...you don't seem to care that you do this. Whether it is intentional or by accident, it still hurts all the same to Michelangelo. Right, Mikey?"

Mikey didn't look at him, but nodded his head. He was playing with the mutant alligator's scales on his big tail, slowly tracing a little pattern on them with trembling fingers. He was scared, Leatherhead could tell.

"We hangout and have a good time together. I enjoy his company and his presence immensely. What I don't find enjoyable are the days he comes to me crying, or having a mental breakdown of sorts in the middle of our activities. Sometimes, we don't really do anything at all...we just talk. We talk about his thoughts, his feelings...and how our time spending together is not only beneficial for us...but for you three, as well."

Their eyes couldn't have gone any more wider, and if they could, their eyeballs would fall right out of their sockets. Crying? Breakdowns?! Mikey didn't just want to hangout with Leatherhead...he wanted somebody to talk to. He wanted someone to comfort him...to be there with him. An emotional support...

"He tells me how much he loves to spend time with me, how great it is to feel like somebody understands, or atleast listens to him and try to relate in some way. After awhile, he realized that he was unintentionally giving you three space. Some time for yourselves...something that you constantly tell him to give you, what with all the mistakes and slip-ups he creates. I didn't want to believe any of this, of course. Yet, I knew it had to be true if it was causing Michelangelo so much distress."

He looked down at the small turtle behind him and pushed him forward towards his brothers, who were silently tearing up and staring at their baby brother with big eyes. Mikey was startled by Leatherhead's sudden action and tripped on his own two feet. Luckily for him, his brothers caught him and held him in their arms.

Big, blue eyes stared back at reddish brown, green, and dark blue ones. None of the turtles said a word, until a mutated alligator did.

"I've done all that I can to help Michelangelo...now it is your turn. As for you, Master Splinter..."Leatherhead smiled."He has nothing but good things to say about you. However, I believe even you don't know the extent of how much he admires you, either, but your son will tell you soon enough. Another story for another time, correct?"

Mikey just nodded his head in response, his eyes starting to tear up the longer he stared into his brothers wet eyes.

Splinter closed his eyes, feeling himself tearing up as well, and bowed his head slightly to his friend."Thank you, Leatherhead, for helping my son, for being his friend, for being his family. Maybe one day, we can all be a family...when this whole issue resolves in time."

Leatherhead nodded and smiled."I would like that very much. I hope that day comes soon. Until then, I will take my leave. I will give you and your family some time to yourselves."He walked behind Mikey and gave him and affection rub to his head."See you later...little brother."He said, making his way out of the lair and back to his own home.

Mikey didn't say goodbye to him, still finding it hard to look anywhere else but his brothers faces, or talk for that matter, but mentally bid him farewell in his mind.

'See you later, alligator...'

For what seemed like an eternity for the four turtles, one of them finally decided to speak up.

"I...I...I'm s-sorry..."

Cracked.

Broken.

Their baby brother's voice sounded so wrong...and his words were even worse.

"S-Sorry? You're...sorry?"Donnie asked in disbelief."We're the ones who...who didn't realize...un-unntil it was t-too l-l-late..."His lips trembled, and he couldn't say anymore with his cracked voice. Honestly, he didn't really know what to say anymore.

So, Raph decided to help him out.

"You shouldn't be s-sorry for...f-for our...we're so stupid. Not you Mike, n-not you...every mean thing that we've ever said to you...w-we just...we d-didn't..."

Leo saw how much his brother was struggling, and helped him out, too.

"We love you, baby brother. W-We're sorry for everything we have ever done to make make you feel so down...we're i-idiots for not realizing your problem. We're even bigger idiots for n-not realizing our own problems. You're our baby brother...our best friend...o-our Mikey. I don't know when we started treating you so badly, when we stopped acting like your big brothers...but I promise you...we will be y-your big b-brothers again."

He grabbed Mikey in a tight hug as if his life depended on it. He felt Raph and Donnie's arms wrap around them as they all cried. They felt their baby brother return their hug and sob along with them. Splinter approached his weeping sons and held them close, whispering soothing, comforting words to them. It took awhile for him to calm them down, but he managed to stop them from crying any further and watched how they nuzzled each other while they spoke a few words.

"I should have known about your jealousy..."

"We should of known about your suffering."Leo whispered, and kissed his forehead.

"I should have given you guys the attention you wanted...you needed..."

"We should have given you attention more often...the attention you deserved."Donnie said quietly, and kissed Mikey's left cheek.

"I should have been a better baby brother..."

"We couldn't have asked for a better baby brother."Raph said in a hoarse voice, and kissed Mikey's right cheek.

"My sons, there is a lot of problems we have to discuss in order for us to come to terms with them, and in turn, heal ourselves from our own personal demons. However, this is an issue that will take time. Our hearts will not mend until we pick up all the broken pieces together. Our mind will not clear of such clouded thoughts until we shine a light through the dark together. We will fix this matter together...as a family."

His sons gave him small smiles with hopeful eyes on their tear-streaked faces. With his fur coated in dried up tears, he gave them a smile of his own. A glint of hope in his own eyes shone as he thought of the upcoming battles they were going to personally face with each other. It wasn't going to be easy, that he knew for sure. It was going to be a while until they all fully healed from this predicament.

As for the older brothers tale? It was up to Michelangelo to help them finish it. He had to heal his brothers jealousy, to guide them away from such negative thoughts and false feelings. He needed to tell them the other half of his story. Leatherhead already told them his negative thoughts of his brothers, or what he thought that they thought of him anyways. Now, it was his turn to tell the rest of it.

The positive thoughts.

The upside to his story.

Once his story was complete, so will his brothers tale.

It was getting late, though. They were all emotionally exhausted from today's events, and just wanted to sleep the night away. Splinter guided his sons to his room, and held them in his arms while he sung them an old lullaby he once sang to his little Miwa. The three oldest brothers wrapped their arms protectively over Mikey, who cuddled them all in response, and each gave him a goodnight kiss on his freckles. Mikey blushed and kissed them between their eyes, earning him tired smiles and rosy cheeks, too.

The Hamato family slept peacefully that night. Each having a dreamless, but pleasant, night of sleep. When they woke up, they didn't go get breakfast. They didn't get up to do any morning stretches, or train at all. They were too happy being in each others arms, and basking in the warmth of each others embrace.

It was a nice feeling, something they hadn't felt in a long time.

They could talk about what happened later, and work their problems out, but right now...

They just wanted to enjoy this moment.

As a family.

Besides, it's just like what Mikey said before...

That's another story for another time.

To Everyone: Thank you. Thank you for having an insane amount of patience and tolerance for waiting so long for this final chapter, and going through this whole story with me together. You've all been such great supporters to this story with all your comments, feedback, and suggestions. I didn't think this story was going to be that great, but you all apparently proved me wrong! Just as I've said before, I will publish a one-shot that is this story's epilogue, but I'm not certain when. Hopefully, it will be soon, maybe this or next week.

As for another new story that would be one of my more serious works, that I'm also not certain when that will be published, hopefully that will be up at least sometime this month.

Theres also another thing that I want to address, for the people that are kind enough to take the time and review this story. I've noticed some of you are fanfictioners, and some of you are not. For those that are, thank you for reading this story( that pales in comparison to your own amazing stories) when you probably have much better things to do. For those that are not a fanfiction member, I would like to thank you too for your kind and helpful words, it really makes my day! :D

To both fanfictioners and non-members, I encourage you to write your own stories. What I mean by this is with some reviews from both sides have suggested ideas that I have either used (and appreciated) or not (but still appretiated). Some even said my idea for this story was great! So, what I'm trying to say is if you have the time, wrote your own fanfic. Because I really think you could make something great out of it (and most likely a better story than this). I've seen fellow fanfictioners scared to write something new or non-members wanting to write, but are scared to do so for many reasons.

I, however, encourage you people to write to your hearts content. If you need help along the way, guess what? There's a whole community right here in Fanfiction! Ask one of your favorite authors for tips and advice, experiment and collaborate with them for practice, share ideas and inspire one another. If reading isn't enough for you than don't be shy, just write!

Sorry for my ramblings, and with that, I bid you all a good day (or night), a farewell, and a thank you.

See you all in the next story! :)