Chapter Text
Leo remembers when he first decided to be the team medic. Of course, at that time it wasn't really the team medic, it was the family medic and it rarely amounted to more than sticking brightly colored band aids to his brothers scraped knees and elbows. Still, Dad kept him well stocked and provided whatever reading material he could find. Leo drank it up. He learned as much as he could, about medicine and treating injuries and keeping his family healthy.
This was all, of course, irrelevant to what was happening now. Now, sitting in the med-bay, he was hunched over his youngest brother's quickly bruising leg, his beak drawn into a tight thin line.
Mikey is bundled in Raphael's arm, being gently rocked the tiniest bit as the snapper murmurs quietly, "You're okay, you're okay, Raph’s got you, you're gonna be just fine." It's an endless stream of words, and to Raph's credit it seems to have at least slowed the wobbly tears of their youngest family member.
Leo chewed on his lip a moment longer before clicking his tongue and straightening up. “Well, it’s broken,” he announced, as if everyone couldn’t have already figured that out. The offending limb was bent the wrong way and the sight of it had sent Donnie flailing back, choking down a gag.
Donnie had since been sent out to find painkillers, and to keep him out of the way. The first thing Leo had done was give Mikey the painkillers they had on hand. They didn’t need more painkillers.
Irrelevant.
Mikey looked up at Leo, his round cheeks flushed from crying. “Is it gonna be okay? We’re g-gonna get to go skateboarding again eventually, right?” he asked wetly, tiny hands gripping Raph’s wrist. Raph quickly shushed him, gently patting the smaller turtles hand with his own. Mikey was still shaking, doing his best to keep from starting to outright sob again.
“Of course we’re gonna get to go again. Just… probably not for a while, right Leo?”
Leo conjured up an easy smile. “Yeah! Now, uh, we don’t exactly have any sort of x-ray machine or anything so I’m gonna have to touch it to figure out how bad it is,” he said, turning away to gather up the things he figured he’d need to make sure the ankle was stabilized and braced.
As he sorted through options for making a splint, he heard Mikey shuffle a bit. “Is it gonna hurt?” His voice was small, choked by a tremble. Leo tossed a look over his shoulder to Raph and they traded matching expressions of concern.
“Uhhh. Yeah, it is, buddy,” Leo sighed. “Do you want me to get Dad? He can hold your hand?” The tears returned in force as Mikey scrunched up his face and nodded frantically. Leo looked up at Raph, swallowed hard, and then nodded. “Alright. I’m going to get Dad. You two sit here and try and calm down a minute, and then we’ll get this all over with, Mikester. You’ve got this.”
With another fake grin Leo slipped out into the atrium, fumbling for his phone as he did. He dialed up Dee, taking several long strides away from the med-bay as the phone rang.
Donnie picked up on the second ring. "I got the things you asked for and am on my way back," he answered in what most would assume was irritation. Leo knew better. He knew what his twin sounded like when he was worried.
"Good job." They already had over the counter painkillers at home. Donnie knew that. Leo knew that. They both knew the other knew that. "What’re the chances you could get your hands on uhhh, a local anesthetic?"
He heard Donnie stop moving on the other end of the phone. "Nardo, I would need to break into a medical facility," he responded flatly.
Leo knew that too. And, while they had broken into places before when absolutely necessary, breaking into a hospital or something seemed like a great way to blow their cover. Or get April arrested. Or any number of other bad things. And they were only 13. Asking Donnie to do that kind of thing alone was out of the question; Raph would have his head.
He let out a breath between his teeth and nodded slowly. “Yeah. Yeah, okay. Come back and we’ll make do with what we have.” He paused a beat. “You might wanna wait outside the med-bay till we’re done though.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice.” Donnie retorted. “Be back soon.”
Okay, that hadn’t exactly been productive, but it had filled the empty space in Leo’s head on the walk to get their dad from the TV room. Pressing around the edges of his thoughts was the ever present question, Mikey’s quivering voice, and his tear tracked cheeks.
Is it gonna hurt?
Leo had been dressing scrapes and bruises for years. The worst he’d had to do was clean cuts with antiseptic — it stung, but it wasn’t like this. This time, to heal his brother, to fix the hurt, he’d have to give more hurt first. The concept made his skull ache.
He didn’t like it.
He was literally the only person available to do it.
“Hey Dad?”
A cough, the sound of the rat shifting in his armchair. “Oh Blue! I didn’t think you’d be back so soon; I thought you were going out!” The game show he was watching had just gone to commercial, granting Leo Splinter’s full attention. Good, that would mean this wouldn’t be all on Raph to deal with.
“Mikey had a bad wipeout on his board and his leg’s kinda broken–” Splinter turned around fully now, his ears flicking upright and his eyes widening. “And we just– He wants you. We’re dealing with it, but he could use the moral support and stuff.” And so could I, but that went unsaid. Leo didn’t need his Daddy to hold his hand. He was the family medic.
He’d fix this.
Once he’d collected Splinter, he returned with him to the med-bay, having taken the time to mentally prepare for the impending disaster that this was sure to be. Hopefully the pills he’d given Mikey had had enough time now to at least take the edge off.
Splinter went about fussing over Michaelangelo before settling next to Raphael and taking Mikey's other hand.
Leo washed his hands and stepped up to the crowded bed. “How we feelin’ Miguel?” he asked before, gently, delicately, slowly , putting his hand on Mikey's leg a good ways up from the break. He wanted to start slow.
Mikey still jumped a little bit, sniffling. “S’a lil better, I think.” He whispered. Both of his hands tightened around Splinter and Raph’s hands respectively.
Leo nodded, bringing his hand down towards his rapidly bruising ankle to begin feeling out the break. He tried to ignore the little noise that escaped Mikey as he poked around, very purposefully not looking up. His grip turned firm and he probed around, feeling for the break as quickly as he could even as Mikey started to yank away and the little choked off cry in his throat escaped. Leo drew his hand back as quickly as he could. It felt like a clean break. That was good.
At least, as far as he knew. He hadn’t done this before.
He clapped his hands together and smiled yet again for his baby brother. “Great news! You did this in the best way you possibly could have,” he began. “It should heal up just fine once we get it all straightened out.”
Raph stared at Leo, his free hand on Mikey’s knee had been all that stopped him from kicking Leo in the face. Leo opened his mouth to add his next instructions, then closed it when he saw the resigned look on his big brother's face. His big brother. The brother who was the biggest.
The only one for the job, as much as they both hated it.
It was quiet again in the med-bay as Raph adjusted his hold on a whimpering Mikey, who looked between his family members with no small amount of fear. Geez, Leo hated that. He did not want to be anything Mikey would be afraid of, but here they were.
“You’re gonna have to hold still for me, Mike,” he said after a moment. Raph had settled, getting a better position to keep Mikey still. “Raph’s gonna help. Hold Dad’s hand, okay?”
Mikey’s lip quivered for just a moment before he seemed to brace himself, sucking in a deep breath and putting on a brave face. “M’kay.”
Leo made sure to set the supplies for the brace as close by as he could. “Okay. Squeeze Dad’s hand and it’ll be over as quick as I can make it,” he said. He didn’t pause much then, forcing himself to move and start pressing the bones back into place. If he waited, he might chicken out, and he knew that.
It didn’t help that Mikey screamed.
Raph prevented him from tearing his leg out of Leo’s grip, but he could tell it wasn’t for lack of Mikey trying.
Leo could feel him pulling, feel every jerk of Mikey’s little body as he worked to align the bones again. He wasn’t sure if he imagined the feel of bone scraping bone as he worked.
Apologies poured out of Leo’s mouth in a stream as he pressed around, and they didn’t stop until he was tying off the splint he’d made. By then, Mikey had stopped yelling, instead devolving into shuddering sobs that shook his whole body. His head plopped back against Raph’s plastron, his mask wet with tears.
Leo brushed his hands off, blinking rapidly. “I’m. Going to go get some ice. That will help.” He said stiffly. Raph was still holding Mikey, rubbing his arms down and whispering words of praise and encouragement.
They’d gotten through the worst of it. Now it was just pain management and waiting. Leo jogged out of the med-bay, and if Donnie noticed the tears in his eyes as he rushed past, he didn’t say anything.
-x-
They’d given Mikey every painkiller they safely could, bundled up his leg in an ice pack, and set him up on the couch in the TV room. Leo had told them they should take turns watching Mikey, since he couldn’t walk and if he moved his leg around too much they’d have to repeat setting it. He’d suggested shifts. Everyone had immediately dragged their things into the TV room to camp with their little brother.
They were four movies into a Lou Jitsu marathon, and Donnie’s cheek had just bumped against Leo’s shoulder, signaling that the softshell was fully and completely out. Raph had been out a movie ago. Leo was still up.
He could still see the scene in the med-bay. Hear his little brother crying because of something he was doing. His stomach hurt. His head hurt.
He felt like he was staring through the screen instead of at it.
“Leo. Leo? Leeeoooo?”
Oh.
Leo’s eyelids fluttered, and he turned as much as he could without disturbing Dee. “What can I do for ya, big guy?” He asked softly, looking up at where Mikey was perched on the couch with his leg propped up.
And Mikey, sweet, preteen, innocent Mikey, smiled at Leo with his gap toothed grin and said, “Thanks for taking care of me today.”
Leo blinked back owlishly. “Really?”
Mikey, impossibly, smiled harder. “Yeah, really! I don’t know what we woulda done without you!” He chirped, pulling up his blanket a bit higher. His smile only broke when he tried to force down a yawn. “You’re the best, Leo.” He added as he shifted about on the couch and got well and truly settled to try to sleep.
Leo found himself smiling. Actually smiling this time, not the false smile he’d been wearing all day. “Thanks Mikey.”
He pulled his own blanket up over himself and Donnie, and made a mental note to study harder. Next time–and he really hoped there wasn’t one, but it was better to be ready–he would be more prepared. He had a lot to do.
But it was worth it. Making sure his brothers would get back up was worth it.
He was the team medic, and that was worth it.