"Come on guys hurry!" Donnie continued to plead with them to pick up the pace.

"Donnie...it's almost midnight, couldn't this wait 'til morning?" Leonardo complained as he wiped the sleep from his eyes and let out another big yawn.

"Guys...I did it!" Donnie announced to his brothers which snapped them all out off their lacidazical moods to get right in Donnie's face.

"You found a cure?" Leo said.

"You can save April's dad?" Raph followed up quickly behind him.

"You made Pizza flavored Pancakes?" Mikey then added on grabbing onto Donnie in delight which resulted in him getting a collective stare from everyone in the lair around him. He let out a quiet chuckle to the reaction. "Just me huh?" He then stepped back and twiddled his thumbs to wait for Donnie to break the real.

"Guys...behold!"

With that Donnie pointed behind him which his brothers stared behind him to find Pulverizer still in his containment area.

"H-H-Hi guys!" Timothy muttered...followed by stunned silence...then.

"AHHHH!!" Donnie's three brothers screamed in horror followed by them falling to the floor before quickly gathering themselves.

"I set up some equipment to help Timothy talk. Isn't it great guys?" The cheerful turtle boasted about his feat.

"Oh yeah! Great Donnie..." Raphael muttered in a very unlighthearted fashion.

"Go ahead, say something to him." Donnie encouraging to talk to their "friend". They all had glum looks on their faces though, but Donatello insisted, they felt they shouldn't let their brothers work go to complete waste.

"Hi Pulverizer..." They all moaned in a very mononic tone.

"I-It's good to t-t-talk t-to you guys ag-gin." Timothy said to all of them putting a grin on Donnie's face hearing them all talk to each other again.

"Well, we're going back to bed Donnie." Leonardo told his brother followed by another yawn as his brothers began to head out, but Donnie wanted them to stay a little longer.

"Wait, don't you guys want to talk so more." He questioned them, they had only been in there for a couple minutes, he figured that they would approve Donnie's first big step in help Timothy get his humanity. But his brothers didn't seem all that interested.

"Sorry Donnie, but training's in a couple hours. You should probably get some sleep too." Leo told his brother before walking out. Mikey and Raph weren't far behind him either.

"Hoping I can dream now." Mikey said to himself which was followed by a slap on the back of the shell by his brother in red."Dream? You'll probably have nightmares now." Raph joked, well half-joked cause he knew it was probably true.

"Oh great..." Mikey whined as they soon left behind Leo.

Then just like that, the lab was empty again, no one there but Donatello and the remains of Pulverizer.

"Well...that went well..." Donnie glumly said to himself. Donatello didn't appreciate the lack of support they were giving his feat, but at the same time, he couldn't really blame them.

After what had happened to April's father, they had most certainly thought that Donnie had found a cure to help fix everything and what Donnie had woke them up for was in their minds a huge let down, and now Donnie couldn't help but feel that he let them down in getting their hopes up in something that wasn't meant to be. Donnie just sighed at the reaction and thoughts of his brothers.

"T-They still d-don't like me, d-do t-they?" Timothy told his friend in front of him still adapting to his speaker box being his line of communication.

"What? N-no Pulverizer, it's not you. It's been a hard couple days for us. We...we lost a friend. I think I got their hopes up." Donatello told Timothy in an attempt to cover for them. As Donnie walked back over to the picture of himself and April reimaging that night and thinking over again of how desperately all of them wanted to help April so much. Timothy then looked over top Donnie's shoulder and noticed the photo himself and became curious about the girl that appeared with Donatello in the picture.

"W-Who's the girl D-Donnie?" Pulverizer asked, Donatello turned around to look at Timothy and then back to the photo.

"Her name's April. She was the first human I ever met." Donnie answered. Yes for Donatello it was a true teenager feeling that all teens had.

'Love at first sight.' At that was the ultimate case for him, even a turtle could have that happen it seemed.

"She must r-really like you." Timothy added on, but it was followed by a sigh from his friend.

"Actually, she's the friend we lost. We..." He stopped what said to change his words. "...I really messed up, it was all my fault. I've been trying to call to tell her how sorry I am...but...she won't even talk to me."

There was just a silence that followed, neither one of them knew what to say to the other. Either one of them had ever been in a relationship so it wasn't like they knew what to say to another about the pain of failure.

All Donatello could do was just hope. Hope that April would one day talk to him again.

XXX

April was in the 24/7 noodle shop owned by Mr. Murakami, it was a place where she felt welcome at any time and the blind chef was always more than happy to fix a meal a for her. She began to drink the last bit of broath from the bowl in front of her as she placed it back on the counter.

"Thank you Mr. Murakami, the soup was delicious." April said bowing slightly to the fine meal prepared.

"You are welcome April sun. Would you like me to make you some pizza goyos for your turtle friends?" He stated to her with charm and glee. But April was hesititant in her responce. Even when she left the apartment, something came back to the turtles. She tried quickly to make an answer stick.

"Ah...no, it's alright. They'll be...fine." The pauses in her statement raised an eyebrow from the chef, April wouldn't have noticed being she was busy staring at the floor. Murakami decided to speak up to her as he walked slowly to her.

"April sun, I need not see to know that something is greatly troubling you."

April responded with a quiet murmur and nod. He would be the first person she talked to about the matter. Even though he could not see, e could still sense emotion and feeling, and he would be a proper man to talk to about this subject. She of course would probably need to remove a few important details, like say...the mutagen. But she still knew that explaining the matter would make her feel better.

"My friends did something really bad, and because of it, my father's gone. I don't want to speak to them again." She was very out front with it and the tone of her voice was very deep and crackly. Murakami frowned to the news to which he heard.

"My my, that is indeed sad to hear. Why would your friends purposely do something like that?" He questioned, obviously not knowing the full detail.

"Well...they didn't do it on purpose...but..." She stopped during her sentence, which he filled in shortly afterward.

"But you are still mad at them?" Murakami assumed.

"Yeah..." She responded in a regretful tone.

"I understand your pain, but I feel that if it was truely an accident April, you should find it in your heart to forgive them."

Marukami's words struck hard, it really made April question herself and her anger to the turtles. It was a terrible turn of events...but it was an accident, and that they vowed to fix. But it seemed nearly unthinkable, mutation hadn't been reversed yet, there was no reason to believe it could either. April decided to grab her purse and head back home to have a long, hard, train of thought of what she should do.

XXX

In the lair, Donatello had finally succomb to the lack of sleep that he had put himself through over the past days. He was passed out, face first on his lab desk still with papers and equations all around him still working on a way to find a cure. But he was quickly awoken by the tone of his father in the dojo.

"Donatello!" His sensei hollored out.

"HUH?" Donnie gasped in shock snapping him out of his daze that he was in. He looked around to see where he was and why he would called upon, until he remembered. "Oh great...I'm late for training..." He let out a huge yawn and slowly stepped to his bo staff in the corner as he picked it up, barely able to walk or see straight. "Nothing good is going to come out of this." And he reluctantly went to his training.

As Donatello feared, training was in full effect. Today they were running an obstacle course designed by their sensei to improve on their quickness and agility, something the tallest turtle had neither of at that point in time. While his brothers were avoiding swinging sandbags, and rolling logs with ease, Donnie struggled as the session went on, barely getting over the logs, and nearly missing each sandbag but by running into them rather than dodging them.

"Oh yeah, a breeze." Leonardo declared as he finished the test for the third time barely breaking a sweat. Raph was close behind, Mikey had a bit more trouble trying to keep up, but he was miles ahead of Donnie at that point as he looked behind him.

"Come on Donnie! You're giving us turtles a bad rep." Mikey called behind him. The statement made Donatello pause while in the middle of the session, the others then screamed out for him to move, but his lack of sleep made his reaction time drastically slowly.

"WAHH!" Donnie screamed as a very heavy sandbag drilled him straight between the eyes as his brothers oohed at the sight, Donnie fell to his knees completely dazed and out for a loop.

"Yame!" Master Splinter had seen all he needed to see and slowly walked past three of his sons and walked directly in front of the one who was rubbing his eyes more than his injured head. Once Donatello realized who was in front of him, he slowly looked up with worry. "Donatello, do you wish to tell me something?"

"Uh...maybe I haven't had much rest." A hesitent Donatello responded to, which Splinter stroked his beard in displesure.

"Your speed and reaction time is drastically reduced from our last session, I believe "maybe" is not the appropriate word." He strenly said.

Donnie knew the jig was up, no more playing around. He had to come forth.

"I haven't slept for three days Sensei..." He wimpered in regret with his eyes closed in defeat.

His brother's eye grew wide hearing the confession and his father let out a unsatisfied sigh of desplease.

"I am highly disappointed Donatello. I would expect myself to give this lecture to Michelangelo, not yourself." Sensei said with a raised voice pacing back and forth around the turtle on his knees.

"Thank you Sensei...wait, is that a good thing?" Michelangelo spoke up, getting a slap in the back of the head from Raphael afterwards, Splinter directed back to his scolded son.

"Would you like to explain why you have made sleep an optional objective?" Sensei then asked with a slightly lighter tone.

"Well..." Donnie started, but was quickly finished by his younger brother.

"He's been trying to find a cure for April's dad..." Mikey wasn't able to finish as Raph put his hand over Mikey's mouth as they all looked to their Sensei with concern.

"Hmm...I see." Splinter accepted rubbing his chin.

"I'm sorry Sensei. I should have told you sooner." The apoligitic turtle stated with a bow of regret. Splinter soon walked to his son and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I am aware you have good intentions my son, but remember, all of us will be much better off if you are healthy and well rested." He lectured.

"Hai Sensei." Donnie responded quickly and stood up with a slump in his stance.

"Now go to your room, and get plenty of rest, you and I will have a solo training session when you awake." Sensei stated, with that Donatello pulled his staff from his holder and handed it to his father and bowed to him and then slowly walked past his brothers in great shame, embarrassment, and defeat.

After Donatello disappeared into his room, Raphael questioned his sensei for his tactic.

"Sensei? You just let him go to bed, with no punishment for being late for training and being tired on top of it?" Raph questioned in a mix of question and annoyance.

Splinter did not question his son's displeasure for his course of action, but made it very clear why he took the route of result.

"For your brother Raphael, not being able to help the ones he cares for by being forced to rest, is punishment enough." Splinter lectured to Raphael.

Raph then looked down in shame and turned to his brothers who shared the same look as him. Splinter then spoke up again.

"Now, let us begin sparring session." He announced.

"But, there's only three of us. How will that work?" Michelangelo questioned.

"I will be your sparring partner..." Splinter stated.

Mikey then chuckled and gulped in horror.

Mikey screaming in horror during his sparring session with sensei could be heard from Donnie's room as well, but Donnie knew it wasn't appropreate to laugh at that, after all, he caused that to happen too. It seemed everything was his fault lately. Sensei was right, the only way that he could be relied on was if he was at full strength, and that meant getting as mich sleep as possible. He tried to sleep, knowing full well the session his brothers were getting right now, would be nothing compared to what he was going to get from Splinter when he awoken.

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