LEO - POST MOVIE

[semilethal]

[ nobody asks where april found the van. some mild criminal activity feels irrelevant in light of the day they just had anyway, and they couldn't exactly walk all the way back to the lair.

not with leo like...this. not just leo either; raphael couldn't hardly hold his head up, hunched and clearly wearing his 'i'm the eldest and i won't complain' face as he cradles leo so carefully on their way to the van. mikey's hands and arms won't stop trembling, even when he twists them together and presses them to his plastron. donatello is sore all over and his skin and shell feel raw, like someone rubbed him down with sandpaper.

and leo's quiet. leo's too quiet.

so there they are in the cargo van, raph tucked toward the front with a leg stretched out for mikey to use as a pillow to doze upon. april and casey sit up front, throwing concerned glances over their shoulders as often as is safe while april slowly weaves the vehicle through the half-destroyed streets toward the nearest access point. splinter sits near the doors as their only other capable fighter, though he keeps his tail curled around leo's uninjured ankle.

and donatello, he's stripping off his gloves because he's going to have to touch his brother to get a better idea of his injuries, and his skin doesn't feel like his own and that'll interfere with his judgement. the fewer layers between he and his brother, the more accurate he can be. ]

Alrighty Leon. Look alive, let's...let's diagnose.

Comments

[neonleon]

[Stares up at the ceiling.]

Like I got dropped off a building and then thrown around against a bunch of space ship walls?

[A normal answer, and as honest as he can allow himself to be right now at least with Casey. It's not that he doesn't like Casey - like the guy, great kid - but right now he just... Honestly wishes it were dad or Donnie in here. Dad because he'll just talk and Leo doesn't have to, and Donnie for that detached way of emotion he has that Leo could really use right now. But his muscles are relaxing now with the morphine.]

You doing okay?

[semilethal]

OH, my god, yes everyone else is doing okay and yes, Leonardo still was very recently run over with a garbage truck, [Donnie complains loudly as he comes in, immediately going for a tablet plugged in nearby and scrolling through it crankily. Eavesdropping on this conversation is painful.] Casey, Raph wanted to know if you were up to helping and if so, to go meet he and Mikey at the A-junction.

[Casey does actually want to help, and he extracts himself from the stilted 'so how ya doin' back-and-forth he and Leo were having sheepishly enough. He's still finding his footing with this Leo; that's what happens when you are raised by a guy, practically worshiped that guy, then met his teenage self who was being kind of an asshole lbr, and then started again to worship even the teenage version because he was sort of being like your sensei who you love and miss.

........it's complicated.

Either way Casey bids his goodbyes as Donnie puts the tablet back and circles around Leo over into his open lab door, not at Leo's bedside but within talking distance.] Most everybody else is helping out topside. Raph, Mikey, and Dad are at Hueso's, humans doing human stuff.

You need anything?

[neonleon]

[Did Leo mean that he could really use Donnie's particular brand of detached way of emotion? Because it grated immediately before he settles for letting out a controlled breath. Everything does still hurt but it's slowly loosening up.]

A brain transplant maybe? Cyborg body? I dunno.

Am I allowed to move my arms? Is that legal?

[semilethal]

You're on thin ice. [taps a button on his wrist computer and the straps originally around his shoulders retract, hopefully permanently this time.] Don't stand and if you must sit, have Shelldon adjust. I want to keep the pressure on those vertebrae to a minimum until I can get a new X-ray.

[neonleon]

[Hopefully. He's already reaching carefully to rub at one shoulder where the straps had been for honestly too long. He misses physical contact, he misses hugging and draping on his brothers, he wants to HUG THEM.]

Got it, got it. Still a lump on a log for now, understood.

[It's miserable. It'll get better, with time, if Leo doesn't fuck it up. But for now, it's still miserable.]

...Thanks, Dee.

[semilethal]

You may express any and all gratitude to me in the form of monetary compensation. [Picks up that tablet near his bed again and starts flipping through charts.] I had to dip into the uranium fund for all this equipment. Go steal me a radioactive core.

[neonleon]

You have a uranium fund?

[Does dad know you have that.]

[semilethal]

Obviously not anym- were you listening?

[neonleon]

Yes, and might be the morphine, but you said you want me to pay you?

Pay my twin brother for helping save my back so I am not succumb to a lifelong potential disability that would have kept me from doing what we do??

[semilethal]

It must be the morphine because I do recall offering an alternative. [the theft]

[neonleon]

The secret third alternative that is be grateful to my brother for helping save my back from a lifelong disability because it's the right thing to do and because we are brothers who love each other very much? That alternative?

[semilethal]

Well that doesn't sound like it'll get me uranium, soooo...

[neonleon]

Maybe not right this very second, but it may make me more inclined to help get it further down the line.

[Why did he want his brother here again? Oh right, distraction.]

[semilethal]

I don't believe that you will either remember that or will uphold it honorably. You're signing a contract. [ok do u still want him tho]

[neonleon]

Not without a lawyer present. [Unfortunately, yes, this is easier than heartfelt conversations with anyone else.]

[semilethal]

Oh yeah? [TOSSES TABLET BACK DOWN, who cares about monitoring vitals] Call him up, get your counsel on the phone. I'd love to hear the defense's argument.

[neonleon]

I just came out of a major medical procedure and [looks at the iv drip, then back to Donnie.] am currently under an influence so this conversation can't happen.

[semilethal]

Struggling for excuses. [picks it back up with a barely concealed pout] No matter. I can dismantle your case at any time. [because this is small claims court and not just negotiation now, why have mediation when u can have a fight]

[neonleon]

Uh huh, I'll have my lawyer call you. [It's just Mikey. He's calling in Mikey at some point. But for now, he settles in and just watches Don.]

So how long am I still out of commission?

[semilethal]

[gives stink-eye, but acquiesces. don't you dare sic michelangelo on him, you bastard] I mentioned new x-rays. [begrudgingly looks down at the charts with leo's most recent post-op bloodwork.] ...but you're healing up quickly. Various enzyme counts down, introduction of BMPs took well, no sign of infection or inflammation near the surgical site.

If recovery proceeds at this pace, you should be able to start physical therapy in a couple days.

[neonleon]

[Too bad he's going to.

He doesn't exactly look pleased by the idea, but it's better than bedridden.]

I'm sure that'll go well. Be back to kicking your butt on the ramp in no time.

[semilethal]

Mm, latest trends show that even at perfect health, you would struggle with that. [WHO WON THE LAST LAIR GAMES? Who does not care that he had to fill the vent above his bed with insulation and duct tape it closed? This guy.]

[neonleon]

[Maybe Leo just won't tell him this second that Don's win was entirely by design. Instead he just looks mildly put out because oooh noooo Don beat him that one time the infamy, the tragedyyyyy]

Yeah, we'll see. In the meantime, I get to lay back and relax for now.

[semilethal]

You gonna actually do that? [DOUBT. VERY BIG DOUBT]

[neonleon]

[AND HE'S RIGHT TO.]

When would I ever not take the opportunity to chillax?