I was requested to write this fic on tumblr a little while ago, and kept forgetting to publish it here. Som here it is.
I'm really quite proud of it, honestly. So I hope you all like it.
"Donnie, that bite looks really bad, I think you should tell Sensei..."
"Its fine, Leo. Seriously. It doesn't even hurt."
"Still, what if it's infected?"
"If it'll make you feel better, when we get back to the lair I'll run some tests. But it's no reason to get Sensei worried. He has enough to deal with already."
The conversation he had with his older brother had been two days ago, and true to his word, he had done some tests when he got home.
His findings, however, were not exactly as he had hoped.
The venom injected into him from the bite was extremely toxic; to a lethal point. And if Donnie's calculations were correct, as they usually were, he had roughly 5 days left to live. Only 120 hours.
Well, 119.62.
He sat over his work bench, a bandage tied tightly around his wound, as he tried with all his might to fix up an antidote.
It was a difficult task, to say the least.
He had been before able to create antidotes for all sorts of things, even while in the back of an extremely bumpy vehicle, but for some reason nothing was adding up when it came to this bite.
Obviously, it had been a mutant. They knew that from one look at the beast, but its venom was something completely unique in every way shape and form.
Even what it did to his arm was completely unheard of, the bite marks disappearing from existence and instead being replaced by a greyish-red ring.
Of course, he couldn't tell his family.
They would only over-react, crowd him while he tried to work, and most likely cause more panic then needed. This is what he did, used science to fix problems, and he was good at it. But when it came to having his brothers around while he attempted to fix said problem, it usually just caused more problems.
Besides, like he had said to himself over and over, becoming some sort of mantra in the past 48 hours, he had this.
At least, he hoped he did.
But when another 24 hours passed and he was no closer to a cure, he started to worry.
Another day and his family started noticing.
"Donnie, you've been in there for days, what's going on!?" Leo shouted, banging on the, locked, lab door.
"Open the door, braniac!" Raph pushed Leo aside to bang louder.
"I'M BUSY!" Donnie shouted, hovering over his lab equipment, absent mindedly itching at his wound before catching himself and halting the action.
He had lost 12 hours the day before after passing out from fatigue and had a lot of work to catch up on.
"SENSEI SAYS IT'S TIME TO COME OUT!" Raph yelled back, and Donnie sighed.
Last thing he need was to enter a shouting match with the loudest of his brothers.
"Really, dude. It's not healthy locking yourself up like this."
Apparently it was Mikey's turn to reason with him, but it was unhealthy for him to not do this. If he didn't find the cure, he wouldn't have any health to worry about.
"I'll be sure to keep that in mind." He said more to himself but he knew his brothers could hear him.
It was when the banging stopped did he pause.
It took him roughly two seconds too long to realize he hadn't locked the bay doors, and as he whipped around to run to them Raph was already throwing them open.
"It's time for bed, Don." He said, cracking his knuckles as he advanced on him.
"Raph, I don't need to sleep, I just slept, I'm fine!" Donnie prattled off, moving from one side of his desk to the other, then further away.
"Yeah, right." Raph rolled his eyes.
Leo and Mikey waited on the other side of the door as they listened to the screaming between their middle brothers.
Eventually the door banged open, Donnie being pushed through first, with Raph close behind. He had his wrists pinned behind his back, the skin turning a lighter green from the pressure.
And though Raph remained calm, or as calm as he could be in this situation, Donnie was thrashing, trying to get away.
"LET ME GO, RAPHAEL!" He screamed, trying to pull his hands away. "I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS! I DON'T HAVE TIME- I DON'T-"
The other two brothers looked on sympathetically while Donnie's movements became slower; his screaming quieter, as he slowly wore himself out.
"Please, Raph," He let out quietly as he dropped to his knees. Raph let go of his arms then, moving to support his brother instead.
Raph weaved his arm around Donnie's shoulders as the taller brother's head slumped to his chest, and now that he was still his brothers were able to get a good look at him.
His face was plainly visable, his mask discarded days ago, and it looked horribly pale, with dark rings around his eyes. He looked week, and skinnier than usual.
"I think he's sick." Mikey said, voicing the obvious.
"Idiot. Over-worked himself, probably. 'Doesn't know when to quit." Raph muttered before going to move him to his room. "He barely weighs anything."
Leo frowned as they all followed Raph to Donnie's bedroom, making sure he was comfortable.
Donnie's eyes opened slightly and he groaned.
Not out of pain, though that was a huge contributor, but merely out of the fact that he had let himself pass out. And in front of his brother's no less.
He turned over, examining his room and giving a weak smile when he saw that no one was watching over him.
Honestly, he thought his brother's would have learned by now.
He got out of bed as quick as his body would allow him too, grabbing his staff for good measure.
He poked his head into the dark hallways and gave a silent cheer. It was most likely late at night, which meant his brothers were either out or sleeping, and the walk to the lab would be easy.
As he snuck across the main room, he caught sight of a clock and cursed. He had slept for 16 hours.
He was running out of time.
Setting out to work the moment he stepped into the lab; he could feel himself getting weaker. He knew he didn't have much time left, and was beginning to panic. He had to find a cure now, or else he didn't think he could keep working much longer.
The mark on his arm had turned an ugly, dark brown colour in his sleep, and seemed to be darkening before his eyes.
Seven hours passed without result.
Countless experiments failed and left sitting on the desk, ready to be disposed once he needed the equipment they were left in.
Only 44.21 hours left.
As his brain reminded him of that, something snapped.
That wasn't even two days and he was no-where's near creating a solution.
He was going to die.
The thought left him breathless, tears springing into his eyes.
"I don't want to die." He let out, quiet though it echoed around the large room.
With an anguished shout he set all his strength into pushing a table full of discarded experiments over, the contents falling to the ground in a crash.
In the back of his head he knew he shouldn't be making so much noise but the thoughts didn't make it past the louder thoughts of grief.
He grabbed his staff and sent it swinging through a stack of empty mutagen canisters. They shattered upon impact with the ground, and the door banged open.
"Donnie, stop!" Leo shouted, running at his brother, but Donnie was already finished.
He sank to his knees, holding his staff upright and resting his head against it, letting out a painful sob.
Though he was confused by the act, Leo's instincts kicked in and he had a comforting arm wrapped around his little brother as he openly cried.
"Donnie, what's wrong?" He asked, the rest of their family now standing around them.
Donnie could hardly get any words out, but the few he managed confused the family more;
"I don't want to die, Leo."
"What do you mean, Donnie? Why would you die? You're just sick, you need rest and you'll be fine." Leo tried to comfort him from what he thought was some form of delirium caused by the ailment.
"I'm not sick," Donnie choked out. "I was infected by that mutant we fought, the one that bit me." He wiped his eyes, though it seemed redundant as more fell in their place. "I've been trying to make an antidote but everything I've tried has failed, and I'm getting too weak to keep going."
Leo's eyes widened throughout the exchange, the other's in the family following suit, as Master Splinter leaned down next to them.
"Donatello, why did you not tell us?" He asked.
"I didn't-" He let out a sob, "I didn't want to worry you. I thought I could fix it."
"Oh, my child," Splinter wrapped his arms around both Donnie and Leo, as the older brother had only hugged his brother tighter after the reveal.
Mikey, for once in his life, was too shocked to speak, or do anything but stare at the group on the floor. Raph reacted in a similar fashion, the news being too much at once for him to process correctly.
Eventually Splinter helped his two sons to their feet, though Leo supported Donnie heavily as his actions left him more drained then before.
He slowly untied the bandage around his upper arm and winced as the once green skin had finally turned a deep, horrible black. The skin around it seemed to be changing slowly, the black area getting larger. He could feel his arm start to go weak.
"I need to keep trying," he announced, and no one was willing to speak up to stop him.
Instead, Leo spoke; "We'll help however we can."
Donnie nodded, sitting in his chair, before clearing his voice and beginning to relay some instructions.
It was another 17 hours before their last attempt was finished. Donnie had relayed the few instructions to Master Splinter an hour earlier before he had finally given in and shut his eyes, for what his family feared would be the for good.
But the small bits of infected DNA Donnie had supplied reacted to the solution just as they were supposed to, and with that being the only encouragement to try it out on their brother they needed, Raph was soon pushing a needle full of the stuff into his brother's arm and they all stood back to wait.
It was a strenuous 34 hours that they waited by their brother's side.
He had been moved to his bedroom in an attempt to keep him comfortable, but he was completely unresponsive to anything.
The only thing that kept the family going was that he had not stopped breathing, and that the black of his arm was slowly starting to shrink. But for all they knew, the antidote hadn't worked, and they were merely waiting for Donnie to stop.
But he didn't. At the end of 34 hours and 23 minutes, Donnie's eyes fluttered open and it had been Leo who had gotten to call his brother's to the good news.
There brother was weak, mal-nourished, mostly skin and bones, and back to sleep by the time the rest of the family entered the room, but he had been conscious, for that one shining moment, and as his breathing slowly returned to normal, and his colour returned to normal, and they knew he would be fine, and that he would recover.
Well, yeah, I wrote that. I am proud.
My favourite scene is the 'I don't want to die' scene.I feel like I did a pretty good job on it.
Anyways, review please, if you could. Makes me smile and junk.
Byyyyye~