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Dr Don - Chapter 4

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Chapter 4: That's what brothers are for

"Not bad..." Donnie commented slowly, watching closely how the pupil in Raph's green eye went from big to small at the teasing light. "Your pupillary responses appear normal, respiration is still holding up, aaaand..." He stretched out the word as he finally allowed his brother's eye to close and instead let a finger gently rest on Raph's neck.

"... your pulse is getting stronger. Alright. All in all, it seems like you're gonna make a full recovery."

"He doesn't look very 'recover-y'..." Mikey pointed out while observing his brother's limp body with an uneasy look. Despite Donnie's assurance, Raph hadn't displayed any strong signs of life at all, except from some heavy gasping when his breathing had kicked in again.

"Do you have any idea of what you've just done?" Leo asked Donnie, and shot his brother a glare. Leo was still tightly secured to the table, unable to move. One part of him was almost grateful for that. He had known Donnie for his entire life, but this was the first time he had ever felt an urge to actually hurt him.

"Progress?" Donnie suggested, while keeping his finger firmly on Raph's neck a little longer. "I've just proved that a mutated turtle can stay under water for at least twenty minutes without sustaining any serious damage or cardiac arrest, which is nothing less than-"

Donnie caught a glance of Leo's face and flinched at his leader's dark look. He made a nervous laugh and used his free hand to scratch his cheek. "Sorry, was that a rhetorical question…?"

"He almost drowned!" Leo snapped.

"Relax, I had everything under control," Donnie laughed light-heartedly, and removed his hand from Raph's neck. He looked down at his sleeping patient with a smile and gave him a reassuring pat. "I wasn't gonna let anything happen to him."

"You trapped your own brother under water for over twenty minutes," Leo continued, trying to mentally drill the meaning of every word into Donnie's skull. "And you couldn't use one of those seconds to think about what you were doing to Raph? Can you even imagine how horrifying this must have been for him? He could have died, Donnie! How can you possibly justify this?!"

"I've already told you," Donnie's voice was somewhat strained as he tried to move the bed closer to his desk. The task proved to be more difficult than expected since one of the wheels appeared to be stuck and made the transport insist on turning left. "I need to study the mutagen's effects before I can estimate how to make a successful retro-mutagen. Part of that is to analyze how far advanced our own mutations are. Like, for example, figuring out how superior we are to our original specie. I might even find out whether we derive from the Diamondback terrapin or the common box turtle- "

"That's why you sunk one of us into a water-tank?" Leo interrupted, with an agitated look. "How is any of that supposed to help you create a retro-mutagen?"

"I'm not sure yet." Donnie scratched his neck with an honest look at Leo. "I don't think it'll be un-helpful, though."

He finally deemed the bed to be close enough, and left Raph next to his brothers. He then strolled over to one of the piles of junk, and kicked some trash aside before picking up something. It was a portable tank, with a tube and a mask attached to the opening. There was a chemical symbol written on the side. Leo thought it looked like "O2", but he couldn't be sure. The purple masked turtle swiftly brought the container over to the unresponsive turtle.

"I swear, Donnie, if you're about to experiment on him again..." Leo growled threateningly at the scientist.

"It's just oxygen supplement, it's not gonna hurt him," Donnie stated tiredly, as he put down the stuff right next to the red-clad turtle. "Stop busting my shell, I know what I'm doing."

Donnie leaned over Raph and used his sleeve to wipe off some remaining vomit from his face. He then gently strapped on the mask, making sure that it covered the turtle's mouth and nose as much as possible. The size and design of it clearly indicated that Donnie hadn't gotten it from a people-clinic.

"It's not exactly a perfect fit, no surprise there…" Donnie observed, with a thoughtful look at Raph's dormant face. "But it should help him wake up faster. He'll be back on his feet in no time. I should probably take this opportunity to record my progress in my journal... Oh, and I could totally use that box with pro-markers I found to make a pie-chart! I wonder in which pile they ended up in..."

He straightened up to go look for the drawing tools, but stopped as he noticed a shiver from Raph. Almost as if a cold wind just had passed by in the sealed off lab. Donnie studied Raph's damp body for a moment. He then went over to another pile of junk, managed to free a striped, tattered bedspread from the trash, and came back with it. He wrapped the improvised blanket over Raph, smoothed it out over him, and gave him pleased smile before he left his side again.

"... I still don't get it," Mikey admitted, almost going cross-eyed from staring at the tall turtle. "Is he, like, a crazy Donnie, a bad-guy Donnie, or the real Donnie who's just having a weird day?"

"It shouldn't be this hard to tell, right?" Leo agreed, and made another attempt to pull his right arm free. It almost felt like the straps were getting a little loose. "There has to be a way to get out of here somehow. And fast. Before he gets some new mad idea, like... I don't know. Like finding out whether our shells are fire resistant, or what kind of splatter-mark our bodies would make if he dropped us from a fifteen-story building..."

"Whoa… Dude, I know!" Mikey exclaimed in a sudden light-bulb moment, and turned to Leo with a wily smile. "Do you think I can make this thing fly if I spin my legs super-fast? You know, like a helicopter?"

"Do you think that?" Leo answered his youngest brother with a pedagogical voice. The older turtle's face was a picture of doubt.

Leo's question caused Mikey to hesitate. Then he quickly started to spin the chair with his legs out like rotor blades, reaching an unrealistically high speed, but sadly without leaving the floor even a little. The freckled turtle's head wobbled with a dizzy expression when the revolving chair started to slow down.

"Wait, wait! I didn't try hard enough!" Mikey assured Leo, with a determined look, and made another attempt to pick up speed again.

"Ungh...!"

The unexpected sound made Leo and Mikey look up, their eyes immediately falling upon Donnie. The turtle was still digging through a pile of junk, but was now also clutching his head with his left hand. His expression wasn't far from how Leo had imagined his own face every time the needle had penetrated his skin. As if the scientist was trying to ignore a sudden sharp pain.

"… Donnie?" Leo asked with an uncertain look at his brother.

"Is he having a brain-freeze?" Mikey asked curiously, and then turned to Leo with his own interpretation of a discrete voice. "Cause I don't see any ice cream, and now I'd really like some."

"Hey, are you doing okay...?" Leo asked Donnie with a puzzled look, not sure what to think of the situation.

"Yeah, yeah, no problem. I'm sure I put them here somewhere..." Donnie assured him absently. He blinked hard a couple of times, as if to regain focus, while picking through the trash with his free hand.

"I'm not asking about the markers." Leo shook his head softly.

"What? Oh, right. Of course not," Donnie answered, with an apologetic glance at the leader. "I just… I guess I'm a little- OUCH!"

Donnie suddenly wrapped both his hands around his head with an agonizing look and dropped to his knees. As if someone was beating him, and he was desperately tried to protect himself. He shut his eyes tightly, clearly in pain. Judging from his tormented face, nothing he did seemed to fend off his invisible attacker at all.

"Donnie, what's going on?" Leo felt the need to ask. He didn't care that he just a couple of minutes ago had wanted to hurt Donnie. Nothing of that mattered anymore, and the only thing he felt right now was genuine concern for his brother.

"Yes. Or no. Both. Maybe..." Donnie answered, completely unrelated to the question, as he unsteadily got up from the junk pile."… sorry. I have no idea what I just said. I... I- I think I'm having a stress-headache..."

"Can I get you something, bro?" Mikey offered kindly, but quickly realized that he couldn't leave the seat. "Oh, right... Um, anything I can reach with my toes?"

"Just... I just need a chair," Donnie breathed heavily. His face winced as the pain suddenly spiked. "Or a floor. Just about anything with basic supportive properties would be nice..."

He interrupted himself with a shout of agony, momentarily losing control of his legs and almost collapsed to the ground. It was by pure luck his hands managed to grab the desk, making him hang from it like a drowning person to a boat. He dragged himself back up on his feet, and with great difficulty made it to his chair. He sat down in front of his desk, his hands cradling his neck, while trying to endure the pain with deep breaths.

"I don't think that's a stress headache, Donnie," Leo concluded with a serious look. "I'm betting it's related to why you've been acting so weir-"

Leo suddenly noticed how Donnie's calm deep breaths were inhaling the fumes from the boiling mutagen jar. The smoke was thick and green, and you could clearly see strings of it enter the turtle's nostrils. For every breath Donnie made, his face looked less distraught, as if the fumes had a soothing effect on his rampaging head.

"… Huh. What do you know," Donnie suddenly spoke, with a look of mild surprise written on his face, before making a soft chuckle. "I think it just passed. Wow, that's a relief. It's kinda hard to concentrate when it feels like someone is firing a nail gun inside your brain."

"… Donnie, what is that jar over there?" Leo asked. His eyes were locked on the object in the same manner a dog watches an intruder.

"I'm pretty certain I've already mentioned that at some point," Donnie noted, but scratched his cheek as if he wasn't certain.

"You said it was a 'project on the side'," Leo reminded him. "What kind of project?"

"Nothing important," Donnie said with a dismissive wave, as he grabbed something in his pocket he thought was a pen, but turned out to be another lollipop. He blinked at the curious mix-up for a second, but then casually put it in his mouth and picked up a new writing tool. "I'm mainly just monitoring what it does."

"And what does it do?" Leo asked patiently.

"Boiling. Mostly." Donnie observed, while scribbling in his journal.

"You have to get rid of it," Leo told him urgently. "I think the fumes are messing with your head. Think about it, it's boiling mutagen. There's no way that stuff can be good for you, and it's probably what's making you do all these things. Don't you see?"

"It's kinda funny that you'd say that," Donnie shared with an amused look at Leo, as if he found his brother's opinion fascinating. "because, naturally, I also assumed that the fumes were harmful when I first initiated the experiment."

"And what changed your mind...?" Leo asked, with a doubtful look.

"When I woke up this morning and discovered that I've been sleeping right next to it for an hour or so," Donnie explained and shrugged. "See? I've been breathing this stuff in my sleep, and I'm no worse for it. I'm working on a theory that mutagen loses most of its properties during the phase transition from liquid to gas-"

"You're telling me that you haven't noticed anything different about you since then?" Leo wondered, with an extremely questionable look at his brother.

"Nope. Well, now that you mention it..." Donnie added, and glanced at the ceiling with a thoughtful expression while sucking on the candy. "I can't be absolutely certain, because my IQ was already pretty high to begin with, but I think I'm actually getting smarter. It's hard to describe it, but I've been coming up with some ideas recently that I don't think even I would have thought about."

"Maybe because a normal Donnie knows that it's off the charts insane to experiment on your own family!" Leo agitatedly pointed out, and made another attempt to free his hand. "How exactly are you gonna explain our absence to Master Splinter when he wakes up?"

"I... haven't thought that far ahead yet." Donnie blinked, in sudden realization.

"… You haven't?" Leo asked, with a raised eyebrow. He was so taken aback by the answer that he for a split second thought that Donnie must be joking.

"No," Donnie confirmed, and turned to Leo with a puzzled look. "What? Is it that surprising?"

"Kinda." Leo shrugged slightly. "You tend to be a 'thinking far ahead' guy. You made a submarine before you even knew we would need one, remember?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Donnie admitted, and tapped his chin with the pen. "Sensei must have slipped my mind while I was busy working with you guys. I'll be back in a flash."

"No, wait... Donnie!" Leo tried to stop him, but the turtle had already left the desk and disappeared through the garage doors. "Great... That's just perfect."

"Sooo, did he do something to Master Splinter, or what?" Mikey asked, with a clueless look. The freckled turtle was clearly not a keen listener, and apparently hoped that his older brother could fill him in on the details.

"Sai..." a low, muffled voice uttered beside them.

Both Mikey and Leo's eyes widened at the sound. Leo quickly looked at the camp-bed, and Mikey turned his head so fast that it was a miracle he didn't snap his neck. Raph's radiating green eyes were blinking drowsily, his face partly hidden behind the oxygen mask. His fingers seemed to search for his weapons by pure instinct, but the attempt was futile because of the restraints.

"Raph!" Mikey called out with a beaming smile. His sky-blue eyes were fixed on his awakening brother. "He's back! Leo, he's back! Raph's awake!"

"Glad to see you're still with us, Raphael." Leo smiled in relief, feeling like a stone had been lifted from his chest. "Are you okay?"

Raph made a grimace of discomfort, and violently coughed up some water in the oxygen mask. The effort left him panting weakly on the bed with a tired look. If he ever intended to answer Leo's question, he couldn't bring the energy to do it right now.

"I feel exactly the same, bro." Mikey said, with an understanding nod.

Leo observed the red-clad turtle with a worried look. However, Raph seemed to quickly recover from his coughing fit, possibly out of pure stubbornness. He soon started to stretch the straps with a determined expression. Trying to move his arms and legs from their trapped position in any way he could.

"Don't tire yourself out, Raph," Leo advised. "You should save your strength until you-"

Raph made an intimidating growl as his muscles tensed up. He started pulling at his restraints again. The straps were tightly secured around his body to hold him down, and unfortunately they were doing a very good job. His breaths sounded strained, but there was nothing in his movements that suggested that he was planning to stop. Instead, the force in his struggle seemed to grow even more intense at a terrifying rate. It looked like he expected the buckles to give in out of sheer fear of him.

"…Or why don't you just ignore me," Leo said with a sigh. "That works too..."

"I'm just..." Raph replied with gritted teeth, trying to turn his torso to free his arm. "Nng... gonna...! This...!"

After an admirable extended battle with the opposing team of cam-buckle straps, Raph finally ran out of juice and collapsed on the cot again with a frustrated groan. His body was heaving from the heroic attempt, while his narrow eyes were aimed straight forward. He didn't look defeated. He just looked extremely pissed off.

The remaining turtles stared at him with a tense silence building up in the air.

"You're sorta tied up." Mikey helpfully informed.

"I got that!" Raph barked with an agitated look at his youngest brother, but his grumpy face soon changed into a queasy one instead. "Man, I feel like I've eaten something bad... My tongue tastes like moldy cheese and rotten vegetables."

"More like algae and yesterday's pizza," Leo corrected, and glanced in the direction of the water tank. "At least judging by the look."

Raph looked over at Leo with a puzzled expression, before he followed his eyes and discovered the pile of vomit a couple of feet away from them. He turned his face away with a disgusted sound.

"Great, just great..." Raph exclaimed bitterly. "'Cause knowing what it used to be makes it tastes so much better..."

"Do you remember what happened?" Leo wondered, and observed Raph closely. "You know, before you went down that thing?"

Raph froze at the question, his pupils shrinking in size. He didn't answer Leo, and looked away with an unreadable expression. Leo wasn't sure of how to interpret Raph's reluctance to talk. He guessed that Raph either simply didn't remember anything from the incident, or he remembered everything, but rather wished that he didn't.

"It's fine, you don't have to tell us," Leo quickly assured him, feeling that this was a subject better left untouched for the moment. "The important part is that you're alright."

"Don't worry bro," Mikey happily announced. "I'll get you up to speed on everything you missed out on while you were gone. Let's see... Um… The TV-remote is broken, then it got super-broken, I fell on it. Donnie doesn't know how to fix it, and Leo has doodles all over his shell. We have an electric saw now, by the way, and Donnie has become some sort of-"

"Mikey, shut it...!" Raph groaned in irritation, and made yet another try to escape his captivity, but without success. "This totally blows! I knew I should have punched that dork harder at training. A good old concussion would've set him straight..."

"Could we try to stay focused on the situation at hand?" Leo suggested with a firm look at both his brothers. "Right now, we need to work together. With all three of us, we should be able to come up with a plan that will get us out of here."

"Oh yeah?" Raph coughed after another failed attempt to break free, but still somehow managed to give Leo a teasing smirk. "How's that working out for ya'?"

"Hey, I've only had like 2 minutes to think of one," Leo argued with a defensive look. "Cut me some slack, I was counting on you busting us out. At least right up until Donnie fished you up from that tank."

"Well, that plan sucks!" Raph retorted, with an angry cough.

"Don't worry. I'll think of something," Leo assured Raph, and looked around him to get any ideas.

"Wait, what about Master Splinter?" Raph suddenly asked. "Isn't he around?"

"No can do." Leo shook his head. "Donnie put something in his tea, and apparently, not even he knows how long he'll be out."

"He drugged Splinter too?!" Mikey exclaimed, dropping his jaw in shock. "Oh man, we're doomed… We're so doomed!"

"So I guess you forgot to tell Mikey about that part, huh?" Raph said casually, not even bothering to look at the freckled turtles exaggerated reaction.

"I assumed that he'd figured it out by himself when Donnie said he'd go to check on Splinter, not even Mikey should be able to miss that," Leo explained with a tired sigh.

"Did you just use 'Mikey' and 'figured it out' in the same sentence?" Raph asked with a doubtful look at his brother. "You see, it's choices like these that make me question you as a leader."

"Thanks for your input," Leo answered dryly, but then realized something."… Donnie doesn't know that you're awake yet. We should try to keep it like that for as long as possible."

"What, you mean like playing dead?" Raph remarked, with a provoked look at Leo. "Heck no! What kind of wuss-plan is that?!"

"What Donnie doesn't know is an advantage to us right now," Leo clarified, and tried to sound as reasonable as possible. "If he thinks that you're still unconscious, he might let his guard down and give you an opportunity to escape."

"Have you met me?" Raph asked, and almost made it sound like a sincere question. "When I get an opportunity, I'm not using it to escape. I smash stuff!"

"Fine! Do that!" Leo caved, with a frustrated groan. "Whatever suits you the best. But please, just lie low for a while and wait for-"

There was a sound at the entrance, and Leo looked up just in time to see the purple-clad turtle come into view again. He was busy chewing up the last pieces of his lollipop when he suddenly noticed three pair of eyes staring at him.

"Hey, look who's awake," Donnie commented cheerfully, his eyes quickly singling out Raph from the crowd, and set his track for him.

"Well there goes that plan..." Leo mumbled, with an annoyed look at the green-eyed turtle, who quickly returned the favor with an equally annoyed glare at the leader.

"How do you feel?" Donnie wondered, as he reached his side.

"Like stabbing something," Raph replied casually, and fixed his eyes on Donnie like guns ready to fire. "Your face would make a good bulls-eye."

"I'll... take it that you're feeling better then...?" Donnie asked, with a wary look at the threatening turtle. He was still gnawing on the depleted candy stick as if he hadn't decided what to do with it yet.

"And I take it that Splinter hasn't woken up yet?" Leo deduced, with a bitter sigh.

"Doesn't look that way," Donnie turned to Leo with a small shrug, and rubbed his neck in an uncertain manner. "But it was kinda hard to tell. Curiously, it's very difficult to spot the difference between a person in a deep meditative trance and someone who's under the influence of a strong sedative. I couldn't even bring myself to poke him just to make sure."

"Glad to hear that you haven't gone completely insane yet..." Leo muttered sarcastically, with a crooked smile.

"I'll just have to check on him later," Donnie reasoned, and then turned his attention back to the brother with the most attitude. "And you need a follow up, by the way."

"How about you loosen these things first, and then you can follow up my fist when it punches you in the guts?" Raph suggested politely.

"Wow, I can already sense that this is gonna be a hoot..." Donnie concluded with an unhappy look at Raph, as if he just had been dealt an unsatisfactory hand in poker. Raph, on the other hand, looked like he wouldn't hesitate to bite off Donnie's fingertips if he got the chance.

"Better you than me, bro." Mikey smiled, for once looking rather pleased with his restrained position.

Donnie sighed as he took out the stick from his mouth and put it in his pocket. He bent down and carefully removed the oxygen mask from his brother, not unlike someone who's removing a muzzle from a devious pit bull. He then unexpectedly turned to Leo with a wondering expression.

"Are you feeling better?" Donnie asked, out of the blue. "No lightheadedness, nausea or anything?"

"Not that I know of?" Leo replied, but couldn't help but to add a question-mark to his answer.

"In that case, would you mind lending your analyzing-cuff to Raph?" he elaborated, and pointed at the contraption that was still attached to Leo's right arm. Leo had almost forgotten about it.

"You are the one who made me wear this thing to begin with…!" the leader exclaimed in annoyance.

"Is that a no...?" Donnie wondered with an awkward look, as if he understood that Leo didn't want to be separated from the gadget.

"Take it," he simply stated, and looked away indifferently.

Leo soon felt a slight chill as the scientist removed the cuff from his skin. Donnie then went over to Raph to attach it to him instead, but recoiled when the turtle suddenly made a violent jerk as if he was going to attack him. Donnie looked at Raph with an unamused glare, while Raph grinned like someone who just got his birthday-wish."

"Real mature, Raph..." Donnie huffed, as he made sure that the cuff was properly secured before leaving his brother to check the computer.

"Any time," Raph answered with a rather pleased smile, which was only interrupted by another cough.

"Was that a wet cough or a dry cough?" Donnie suddenly asked, and observantly looked up from his laptop like a meerkat that had detected a suspicious sound.

"It was a 'shut your yap' cough," Raph informed, with a glare that strongly advised his brother not to ask for the details.

"It was a wet one, wasn't it?" Donnie concluded firmly, not taking any notice of Raph's hostile tone. The red-clad turtle just kept glaring at Donnie, but eventually turned away his eyes in a dismissive way.

"What are you thinking about, Donnie?" Leo suddenly asked, with an uncertain look at the brooding scientist.

"I'm thinking that it's probably just residual water..." Donnie shared, but his serious face didn't match his reassuring words. "Well, most likely, anyway. But it does remind me of something else."

He left his chair and started to search the area around his desk by moving some books and notes out of the way. Leo couldn't remember last time he had seen Donnie's work desk this messy. It wasn't just covered in books and sheets of papers, but also glass beakers, colorful wires, several vials in different sizes, and a lime green lollipop which Donnie seemed to almost absentmindedly pick up and put in his pocket. When he didn't find what he was looking for, he went on to checking the cardboard boxes on the floor instead.

"What's he doing now?" Mikey wondered curiously, apparently aiming the question to Leo, but made sure to say it loud enough for Donnie to hear.

"Raph needs an antibiotic shot to prevent infection," Donnie explained, and after some digging finally found a smaller box. As he opened it, the box turned out to contain various kinds of tiny bottles. "It's standing procedure after a near-drowning incident, since pneumonia is a common complication caused by submersion. I'm pretty certain I got my hands on some rocephin when I was browsing today... Aha! Got ya'."

He triumphantly held up a small bottle with a clear liquid. He put it on his desk with a pleased smile as he went to rummage through a drawer instead. "It needs to be injected into a muscle," he continued as he retrieved a new syringe. "so it shouldn't be a problem to apply it."

"Does he really have to be tied up for that?" Leo wanted to know, and glanced at his restrained brother. "You could loosen the belts a little, you know. He almost drowned. Plus, keeping him strapped down like this kinda adds to the whole 'mad scientist' persona you got going here. Which you still claim is all in our collective imagination..."

"I know what it looks like, but I don't have much of a choice in this case," Donnie explained, as he filled the needle with the bottle's content. "Rocephin has a very dense quality, so it has to be passed slowly through the needle, which naturally makes it take a while to administer. And it's important that he lies still the whole time. Let's see..."

He pulled out the needle from the tiny bottle and held up the sharp tool in the light, flicking it with a finger and squirting out two drops to get rid of any lingering air bubbles. "Also, according to certain internet forums I've encountered, some people claim that the injection can be fairly painful."

"You're not putting that inside me..." Raph growled threateningly as Donnie approached him with the antibiotics, his whole body tensing up like a cornered animal about to lash out.

"You'll be fine. It's just an intramuscular injection, I'm sure you can handle it," Donnie assured him with confidence as he settled down by Raph's lower midsection. The angry turtle followed his every movement with deepest detest. "Now, try not to move. If I accidentally hit a vein, we'll have to do this all over again..."

Raph's fists were clenched as if they were longing to strike someone really, really hard. But Donnie seemed too occupied with the syringe to notice it. He removed the improvised blanket from Raph's body, and jabbed the needle in his thigh muscle with a quick thrust. Raph visibly winced from the action, but didn't allow himself to make a sound. Donnie aspirated the needle before he slowly started to pull down the plunger.

It was almost peaceful. Mikey and Leo were watching in silence, unable to find anything appropriate to say. Raph had tightly shut his jaws together and refused to utter a word out of spite, but Donnie was completely immersed in the task of releasing the syringe's content into his brother's body. Nobody said a thing. At least not in the beginning.

It was approximately after the first ten seconds that Raph suddenly let out a muted groan and started squirming, as if to get rid of the intrusion. But Donnie had a firm grip on his secured leg and didn't let him shake off the needle.

"Easy now, Raph, easy..." Donnie soothed calmly, still applying pressure to the plunger. "Don't fight it, I'm just doing this for you own good, okay? This will help you."

"Take... it... out...!" Raph ordered through gritted teeth, his breathing quickening as his struggles grew more intense.

"I can't do that," Donnie informed him with a serious face as he tried to keep the limb steady. "Just hold on, I'm not done yet."

"Knock it off!" Raph shouted at him. His pupils shrunk noticeably in size as his desperation grew.

"Relax, you can do it, buddy. Just a little longer..." Donnie kept coaxing, his eyes fixed at the gauge on the syringe's barrel. Only half of the liquid had been injected so far.

"Come on bro, let him go already!" Mikey angrily called out in a protective manner, and made his chair twist and turn to emphasize his demands. "You're not making him better, you're just hurting him!"

"I think you should stop it, Don," Leo said, with an uneasy look at his suffering brother. "Mikey's right. He isn't doing too good..."

"Don't worry, it's almost over," the scientist reassured him, but somehow failed to make it sound very convincing. "I know it hurts, Raph. Just bear with it, okay? You're doing great..."

Raph had closed his eyes tightly and slammed his head down on the bed repeatedly to silently endure the anguish. However, the mattress didn't allow him to cause himself any self-inflicted harm to distract him from the pain.

"Almost there..." Donnie announced softly, with his tongue out in concentration.

"…Stop," the turtle pleaded, with a strained voice. His eyes were still closed in distress as he bit down on the padding in order to maintain some sort of control.

"Just a liiittle longer..." Donnie continued slowly with narrow eyes, as he with great interest watched the plunger reach the end.

Raph screamed down into the bed's padding in unrepressed excruciation. He hid his face in the fabric, pressing down his head as hard as he could to wait for the torture to be over.

"... Done," the scientist finally declared, and gently let the needle slip out from his brother's tormented limb. He turned to him with a comforting smile. "I knew you could do it, pal."

The injection had taken almost two minutes to complete. Raph was still panting heavily from the experience, sounds of pain escaping from him with every breath he took. Donnie gave his shell an affectionate stroke before leaving his side. He went back to his desk, but gave the syringe a somewhat suspicious look.

"I'm really sorry for the discomfort," he apologized as he studied the medical tool in his hand warily, as if it alone was responsible for his brother's suffering. "The label did recommend mixing the antibiotic with a diluent to make the solution less concentrated and easier to administer. But since they made it sound optional, plus I couldn't find one that didn't contain calcium, I kinda assumed that we wouldn't need one."

A muffled, pained groan could be heard from the depths of the camp-bed, and Donnie turned back to Raph with a curious glance. "I know," the tall turtle chuckled nervously and scratched his neck. "'Should have looked harder', am I right? But believe me; compared to being bedridden for an extended amount of time with fluid in your lungs, this is the preferable option. I would never expect you to thank me, but... you're welcome."

He went back to his desk to discard the used needle, but quickly caught the sight of Raph's partly buried face. The headstrong turtle's features were contorted in silent agony. His body was still heaving heavily from suppressed pain as he bravely tried to hide his anguish from his brothers. Donnie watched Raph carefully as he left his desk and walked back up to him, crouching in front of the turtle. He kept studying his hurting face with an unreadable look, as if he knew he was supposed to do something, but couldn't quite recall what it was.

"Do you want an ice pack for the pain? Or maybe an extra blanket?" Donnie finally asked in sympathy, and reached for something in his pocket before offering him it with a smile. "Lollipop?"

Raph's eyes only briefly met the candy before they rolled back behind tightly shut eyelids, refusing to resurface again. The fact that he couldn't muster enough energy to rudely deny the offer, or insult the scientist for making it, was almost disheartening to watch. Donnie observed him and raised a concerned eyebrow. He put the candy back in his pocket and then tenderly rested his hand on his head in a caring manner. Raph was trembling with contained pain and agitation, but he couldn't stop Donnie from doing it.

"Just let me know if there's anything you need, okay?" Donnie offered kindly, with a somewhat crooked smile at the red-clad turtle. "You don't have to worry about anything. I'll take care of you. That's what brothers are for, right?"

* * *

Next time: An unexpected way to escape shows up, and the turtles have to work fast in order to stop Donnie from doing something he'll regret. Is Donnie really as far gone as his brothers think? And what about April…?

Note: If you're soon to have an antibiotics shot, I sincerely apologize for this chapter. I'm 98% certain that your doctor won't be Donnie, and in that case you should be just fine. I'm sure legitimated doctors consider the pain-factor in much greater regard than Donnie does right now. And more importantly, they have most likely graduated from medical school. Just remember that you're in good, capable hands.

Here, have a lollipop. :)

Author's Note: Had to do some extensive research for this one... :faint:  But now it's done! :squee: I hope you'll like it. I must admit, it was fun to finally get to write Raph again. And now I can't wait to finish chapter 5! Things are about to happen that I'm really glad Raph is around for... :giggle:

And as always, if you find anything grammatically iffy or ANYTHING weird in the text at all… Don't hesitate to tell me, and I'll fix it in a flash. :aww:

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Sapphyre-Krystal's avatar

I'm kinda curious what's with the damn lollipops he keeps chewing. Like are they part of the experiment? Do they play a part in what's up with Donnie?


Also nooo my poor baby!