*This was...different. One of my favorite chapters of Dominion to write, bar none.


There was something unnatural about the warmth of the air he was inhaling, but the sensation wasn't unpleasant. The peculiarity of it grounded the turtle in the understanding that he wasn't quite asleep. Have I been out of it? Sure feels like it.

He took a deeper breath, and became aware of what was definitely high-flow, humidified oxygen. Surprise caused Donatello to open his eyes and reach for the mask covering his mouth. I am on oxygen, but why...

Utter confusion deepened as he took stock of his surroundings. The room was familiar, but completely unexpected. The old lab. Why am I here? Why don't I remember anything? He sat up cautiously, imagining he would find difficulty in rising. The turtle performed the action like he'd woken from a good night's sleep.

All right, there's clearly something wrong with me. But what? He slowly searched for the source of the problem, testing limbs one by one, and then probing his forehead. Doesn't feel like I have a concussion, broken bones. I can't figure this out. Maybe I could try...

Feeling a little bolder, he removed the respirator mask and attempted to breathe unaided. His lungs felt clear and uninhibited. Next he glanced at the IV in his arm, and turned toward the machine to try and see what drug he was receiving. That was when he noticed the blond doctor slumped slightly in a desk chair, as though he'd fallen asleep.

"Doc?" His throat grated a little from obvious thirst, but it didn't hurt badly. So he cleared it to attain more volume, and tried again. "Doc!"

When the man didn't respond, Don peered at Luke closer. His friend was a notoriously light sleeper, especially when he was on watch. That coupled with the doctor's unusual coloring struck a warning note in the turtle's mind, and he went from curious to concerned in a flash.

He sat up further in slow motion, and scooted to the edge of the bed. Don waited a few seconds before straightening, conscious for cues of dizziness or weakness. When the symptoms didn't appear, he dropped both legs to the floor, and gingerly tested his weight.

Donatello stood still for a good sixty seconds, more bewildered than ever. But I've gone this far, and I feel okay. He stretched a hand to the IV unit to wheel it beside him so he wouldn't have to unhook the line, and shuffled over to Luke.

The turtle shook the man's shoulder urgently. "Doc! Wake up."

Luke started as if he'd struck him. "I'm not asleep," he defended groggily.

"Uh, yeah. You were."

"No, I was resting my-" Luke squinted suddenly and cut off with a gasp. "Donny? What are you doing?!"

"Well...I'm not sure. I woke up and I feel fine, but that doesn't explain any of this."

"You woke up and felt fine?" Luke was incredulous.

"Honestly? I feel good. How long was I asleep?"

The man blinked rapidly. "N-no. No. This is not happening, you aren't fine...!" He shot upright from the chair, only to instantly pitch forward.

Don reacted like lightning, capturing Luke around the midsection and ripping out his IV in the process.

"Don, you have to get off your feet!"

"All due respect, Doc, but you're the one who's about to fall over."

"I can walk if you'd let me-" He tried to jerk out of the turtle's grasp, but only succeeded in sliding sideways.

"Stop it, Luke!" Donatello shifted his hands under the man's arms to support more of his weight, and received a massive shock. "Doc, you're light as a feather." He pushed reluctance aside, and easily lifted his friend without an ounce of difficulty.

"Put me down!"

He deposited Luke carefully back in the chair and squatted in front of him. "Doc, what did you guys do to me? What happened?"

The man trembled so hard that Donatello braced both arms on top of his in case he was in danger of collapsing again.

"What did you do?" he repeated.

"Y-you were dying!" Luke sputtered.

"I was?"

"Yes! Overdosing on some godforsaken drug I never identified!"

"But what did you do?"

"We tried Niacin and Noraphim, and...and...modifying them about twelve different ways, and...Transfusion after transfusion, until all the blood was gone, but it didn't work! None of it worked," he babbled. "There was no blood left, except for..."

"Except for what, Doc?"

"The twins," Luke whispered. "We gave you Jayden's blood."

Donny leaned back on his heels in amazement. "It worked. It adapted without negative effects?"

Luke, however, didn't seem elated. The man was simultaneously even paler and sweating. "I don't...I c-can't...This doesn't make any sense."

"Doc, what's wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with me? I'm not the one who was at death's door ten hours ago!"

He looked his friend squarely in the eyes. "Tell me what's going on with you."

"I...I might have...I probably overdid it on the Ziprolin."

Don's eye-ridges shot through the roof. "After how many times you warned me? How much did you take?"

"I-I'm not really sure. It was over the course of four days."

"Doc. How much did you take?"

"Maybe two...thousand milligrams?"

He gaped at the man in disbelief. "Are you out of your mind?"

"Don't want to hear it," he muttered tiredly.

Don stretched to take his wrist and check his pulse rate. "When did you take your last dose? How long ago?"

"Um..." Luke looked at his watch. "Maybe...twenty minutes? Still waiting for it to kick in."

The purple-masked turtle exhaled. "There should still be time." He unceremoniously gathered the man from his chair and headed back to the bed.

"Donny, what are you doing with me?"

"Doc, you're OD'ing. You need medical intervention."

"I don't need anything from you!"

"That's too bad, because you're getting it." Don heard rapid footsteps, and turned toward the curtained partition as it opened.

"What in the world is go-" Marcus abruptly stopped in his tracks, his eyes widening like he'd seen a ghost.

"Hey, Marc," he greeted the man evenly. "You have good timing. I'm all right, but Doc has been mainlining Ziprolin. He's demonstrating symptoms of a significant overdose, so I think you need to get some activated charcoal into him. I'm going to let the family know I'm okay, and I'll catch up with you."

The dark-haired doctor merely stared at him as the turtle brushed past. Donatello hurried out of the lab in case the man was chasing him down, and entered the living area so quickly that he accidentally slammed the door into the wall.

The immediate reaction from the jam-packed room of familiar faces was nothing more than stunned silence. In that moment the purple-masked turtle didn't know what to do, except remain awkwardly in one spot.

"Hi, everyone. Sorry to keep you waiting?"

The first sign of movement came from across the space, a shock of black hair flying in the wind before his wife lunged at him. Donatello gathered the woman off the ground in a tight embrace, swallowing as she sobbed against his shoulder.

"Doc wasn't kidding, was he?" he mumbled in her ear.

The woman tried to pull herself together, but ended up merely whimpering and refusing to let go.

"Jen, I think he ought to sit down," Caleb interjected gently.

Only then did the turtle partially manage to peel his wife off his plastron. "Caleb, I'm fine. I get that I scared everyone and I'm sorry, but...I'm actually all right now."

"Are you?" Charlotte timidly approached, as if she could hurt him by coming any closer.

"Yes, Hime*."He held out an arm to her. "C'mere. Where's Jayden?" (princess)

His muscular son grinned unabashedly as he circled the back of the couch. "Faking it the whole time, huh? There are better ways to get attention, y'know?"

Donny reached for the sixteen-year-old who dwarfed him. "Want to see something cool, Jay?" Without warning he lifted his son off the ground as easily as he had Jenna. "Thanks for sharing."

The surprised youth laughed loudly. "Dude! We could have the arm wrestling match of the century!"

"I'd love to give it a shot, Jayden, but first, someone has to tell me what's going on." Donatello moved to the center of the room and searched until he came to rest on two of his brothers, both of which appeared less than well. "What happened to us? What are we doing here? And...where's Leo?"

"Bro, you better sit down," Mike urged.

Don shook his head. "I'm telling you, guys, I'm fine."

"Maybe ya are, Genius," Raph allowed. "But after you hear what we've got to say, you probably won't be."


The silence was overwhelming, but Donatello couldn't bring himself to speak to anyone yet. Even knowing the stress and fear his family had been under didn't produce enough guilt to accept their company.

He wasn't tracking the minutes he'd spent at his prone brother's side, but the heaviness in his chest was getting unbearable. In spite of the depth of emotions which had been stirred up without any notice, the turtle hadn't shed a single tear. I can't do that, because crying would be like admitting it's over. And it's not. Don fixed on his oldest brother doggedly. Darn it, Leo, I don't know what we're going to do, but it's not over.

Donny crossed his arms nervously while he gazed at the ventilator his brother was hooked up to. I'm glad we've got Tim's reserve to fall back on for Leo, but it won't last forever either, even if he donates more. We're under a serious time crunch to find a solution. He sighed heavily. Which means I don't have time to wallow.

He squeezed the blue-masked turtle's shoulder to reassure both his brother and himself. "We're gonna figure this out, bro. Hang in there, and I'll be back."

Donatello stepped out from behind the curtained partition and waved to the medical team clearly waiting for him.

"Don, let me get you something," Julie insisted.

"I'm still thirsty," he admitted.

"You're dehydrated," Marcus asserted. "And I'm not comfortable with you being up and around, regardless of how you feel. We're going to have to run tests, Donny."

"I'm aware of that, but I'd like to talk to Luke first. Is he awake?"

Marc scowled darkly. "He won't be much longer if I have anything to do with it."

"Give me a couple minutes with him, and then I'll do whatever you want."

"Can I get that in writing?" Caleb requested, then shook his head. "Sorry. Nothing's funny right now."

"Hey, it's not as bad as it could have been. It worked, Caleb. The twins' blood has the ability to adapt, at least partially. Do you get what this means?"

"It didn't just 'adapt', Donatello," Caleb answered with a tinge of awe. "I'm not sure you understand the magnitude of how sick you were. I have to take more samples from you."

"I will let you – after I talk to Doc."

"Take this with you." Julie returned from the living area with a sports bottle of water. "Karina is starting some tea."

Don nodded. "Thanks. I promise, I won't be long."

He made for the opposite partition before anyone could change their mind, and ducked behind the curtain. As he took a couple steps toward the bed, the man was so quiet that Donny wondered if he'd already fallen asleep. Luke was still incredibly pale, causing worry to resurface in the back of his mind.

The man didn't appear to hear him coming, but did stir after Donatello had been standing nearby for a few seconds. His friend gazed up at him guiltily, and the turtle folded his arms with a surge of protective anger.

"Stop looking at me like that," Luke said stiffly. "I don't need a lecture."

Don couldn't help snorting. "You're lucky you're getting me instead of Kat. That's a privilege you have to wait for."

The man groaned and turned his head to bury his face in the pillow.

"Doc, what were you thinking?"

Luke raised his head defiantly. "We were losing you."

"Was losing you supposed to make it better?"

"You've got no right to say anything, not with the number of times you've risked your shell."

"Oh no you don't," Donny said sharply. "You're not turning this around on me; we are focusing on you."

The man shrugged. "It was worth a shot."

"Doc, we designed Ziprolin together. All along you were worried about the temptation for me to overdose, and you end up doing something like this? We agreed that 800 milligrams in a week's time was the highest dosage that could be safely implemented. Anything more could have caused permanent damage. An irreversible heart arrhythmia. Is this ringing any bells?"

"Yes, I know." Luke stared at the ceiling. "I thought it was worth the risk. It was my turn to be the designated martyr."

"Doc, you never should have done it."

"You weren't here, all right? You weren't the one trying to pull a miracle out of your hat."

"What part of drugging yourself into oblivion helped matters?"

The man closed his mouth, but the way he clenched his jaw told Donatello he hadn't won the argument yet.

"You still think you did the right thing, Doc?"

"You want me to agree it was stupid? You think I don't know that? At the time, I didn't care. All I could focus on was tracking down the illicit substance that did this to you guys. Even then...I never found anything close."

Don's hand landed on Luke's arm. "Doc, I believe the answer could be right under our noses. Look at what three units of Jayden's blood did for me."

Luke's breath hitched. "You're not...seriously going to suggest we try giving their blood to Leo."

"I'm not ruling it out."

The man collapsed against his pillow like he weighed a thousand pounds, but then fought to get upright. "Don't do this to me. I can-can't take the stress."

"That's obvious based on the circumstances." He lightly pressed his friend's chest to keep him down. "Seriously – quit trying."

Luke closed his eyes. "I did what I did. I'm not apologizing for it, if that's what you're waiting for."

"Sounds like you need to talk to your wife. Or how about your daughter and son? You wanna explain to them why it was okay to risk permanent damage or death? I'm sure Reina and Jonathan would love to hear your excuses."

"That's not fair."

"What you did wasn't fair – to anyone. You didn't just put yourself at risk. You compromised your judgment. You couldn't have been thinking straight. How can you be the crew chief when you're handicapping yourself?"

"I was desperate! Once again – you weren't here."

"No, but our family was, and they needed you."

Luke finally winced. "I know it was wrong. I screwed up, and I'm sorry."

"You're allowed to have weak moments like anyone else, Doc, but you can't take that sort of risk ever again. What if you hadn't been able to tell me what was wrong, or the last dose of Ziprolin had fully kicked in? We might not be having this conversation."

"We shouldn't be," he said softly. "Donny, I see you with my own eyes, but I don't believe it. After these last few days of watching you struggle to survive, and now you're standing there like nothing happened...You don't see anything weird about this?"

"Of course it's weird, Luke, but I'm not going to let that stop me from exploring our new options."

The man's brow furrowed. "Meaning, you want to try this on Leo."

"I said I'm not ruling it out. I wasn't a perfect match with the twins, but their blood not only conformed...It has flourished inside me. Caleb needs to run more tests, but, Doc, we could be onto something revolutionary."