The week passed. Another started. Then another. The only connection the turtles had was the news and internet. Nobody was able to get in contact with April. Nobody was able to get in contact with Casey. Worry about them, though second to the sickness in the farmhouse, skyrocketed. And both, especially the t.v, was getting, well, unreliable. Donnie looked at the television whenever he found a spare minute, but he couldn't figure out how to get the static to clear, and finally decided it was the network getting weird.
He didn't have a lot of time, however. He lived in his lab when he was not in one or the other sickroom. Then Leo came by with a sandwich to make him eat and found him practically blue from the cold and the walking through the snow to and from. He flipped and made Don move the lab to the farmhouse. Donnie didn't argue because it kept him closer to Splinter and Mikey.
Raph meanwhile worked almost as hard as Donnie. He did chores, chopped wood, hunted when food started running low and fetched and carried as needed. He also was present in the sickrooms, but his impatient nature at first made that hard on everyone. When he needed some down time, he turned the t.v. on to the news. So far, there been very little news about the flu, and what there was of it, was like the first day, hopeful and vague. Too vague for Raph's liking. He was soon certain that there was some kind of cover-up going on, but he kept watching, with the hope that, if his family had it, and if a vaccine would be put out for the public, then he would be the first to know, to go grab some.
Leo no longer slept. He rested by meditating exclusively. He lived in the sickrooms, meditated when both were sleeping, and serving whoever was awake hand and foot. He left only to help Raph and Don keep some food going, but the three brothers rarely ate. It was mostly to make sure there were enough soup and sick food ready for the ill. He kept the herb-seeped vaporizer going, and the water filled. He made sure the rooms was clean and as comfortable as he could make them. He was the one who cooked the sick food. Sadly, he was the one who now cooked. But there was a lot of canned soup and Ramen for quite some time, and Donnie took the time to cook the food they had originally brought for the Thanksgiving meal. Raph afterward said he preferred his turkey charred.
Then, as the food dwindled, and Raph took to hunting, Leo forced himself to learn how tho throw meat and bones into a pan of water and cook the snot out of it to make broth and stock. Donnie was forced now and then to mix flour and water and make bread and crackers since baking was something he actually enjoyed. Otherwise, the three didn't really care, as long as there was soup for Mikey and Splinter. But, despite all their care, the sick only got sicker, weaker and less and less aware of the world around them.
Splinter was more aware, for longer periods of time, and was always asking how his sons were doing. He instructed Donnie on the mixing and steeping of herbs for the vaporizer. And Donnie let him because he felt like a refresher didn't hurt anyone. Splinter advised Leo on what to add to the broths and stocks he made and praised all of their efforts to grow and take care of each other. And when he was at his strongest, he asked to be helped to go to Mikey's room and sit by him so Raph and Don could do something else for a time. He had resigned himself to Leo's care and presence since for once, his most obedient son was far too stubborn in this one thing. But his last trip was long past, and his illness was wearing away at him. He seemed to lose ground more slowly, but he lost it steadily.
Mikey no longer fully woke up. He rose partly to consciousness sometimes, but never managed to wake fully. He lost weight at a scary rate. He swallowed broth when it was put in his mouth. But otherwise, he was pretty unresponsive to everything. HIs fever never seemed to drop below a hundred and three, and Donnie worried over the possibility of brain damage. Mikey just laid in bed or was moved to the tub in an effort to cool down his raging fever, his breath rasping in short spurts, his skin dark with dry fever, his neck swelling with the look of dark bruising. Raph said it looked like someone tried to strangle him and didn't quite finish the job.
So taken was Raph and Leo in watching and worrying over Mikey and Splinter, that neither noticed that Donnie was starting to cough as well. Donnie noticed it, but he wrote it off as just a cold, forgetful of the fact that Mikey thought that his sickness was just a cold at first as well. So, since it was only a cold, he dosed himself with Dayquail, and kept working, feverishly studying blood samples and working toward a cure. Because the results of the blood samples filled him with fear. Without really telling them why Donnie started demanding samples from Raph and Leo. And it showed how preoccupied they were when neither ever demanded why.