Disclaimer: Don't you people know this yet! I own nothing, I am paid nothing, I make nothing, I mean to harm nothing. Please don't sue. Ok, now that that little pill is out of the way...

A/N: Isis-Lament gets a virtual cookie for figuring out that numares stands for Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, more commonly seen as NMR! NMR is the same process as MRI, or Magnetic Resonance Imaging, but the word 'nuclear' seems to scare people. NMR and MRI have nothing to do with nuclear radiation, just the magnetic resonances of the nucleus of atoms. MRI is the term used in medicine, but physics and chemistry, in particular, use the original term NMR. And that is the science lesson for the day! A special THANK YOU to all who read and and an even bigger and specialer THANK YOU! To those who took the time to review!

Chapter 21: Waiting, Diagnosis and a Change of Heart.

Leonardo confronted Donatello as soon as the medical technicians had completed the Numares images. Though neither one of them were willing to leave the hospital until they knew more about what had happened to Michelangelo. Donnie was sitting in a stained, funky greyish-pink colored chair.

"You shouldn't be here." Leo repeated the sentence he had heard shortly before he'd been called to the front of the room by Merle and offered a job, well Don had been offered a job, but he'd been playing Don and... that didn't matter.

Something about the way Leo said the words told Don that it wasn't right now that his brother was referring to. "You heard that too?"

"I was meditating through your classes." Leo commented by way of explanation as he pulled a puteka packet from one of the pockets of his belt before standing and going to a hot water dispenser on the other side of the waiting room.

"Leo, is this really the time?" Don inquired.

"I don't want you lost to those engineers." Leo commented quietly, making sure no one else in the room could hear the conversation. He handed the puteka to Donnie. "Drink it."

"And I suppose I have a half-hour meditation session to complete as well?"

Leo nodded. "At least."

Don eyed the puteka in his hands for a moment before chugging the beverage as quickly as he could. It still tasted horrible. He knew that it did what Kermit claimed it could do, but it lacked the soothing sensation he associated with the teas Master Splinter made for them. He tossed the cup away and found a quiet spot on the floor where he sat in lotus position and began the familiar process of clearing his mind.

Raphael paced the waiting room like a caged tiger, just waiting to pounce on the next person to tick him off. Tensions were incredibly high. Glancing over to the corner of the room he saw Don sitting in lotus position obviously meditating, or trying to. Raph knew that, were he to bother trying, he wouldn't be successfully doing that any time soon, his mind was far too busy jumping from every bad conclusion his currently overactive imagination could come up with to a worse one. He could feel Leo's eyes on him, following his every movement, chasing him all over the room, searching for something. Raph couldn't help but wonder what Leo thought he was going to do, go all Terminator on the nurses? Fat lot of good that would do, but still, he was annoyed.

"What are you staring at, Leo?" Raph demanded loudly. "Quit watching me like some sort of ticking bomb."

"Are you one?" Leo asked calmly, raising one eyeridge.

"I'm fine. Just leave me alone." Raph snapped. "Why don't you go over there in the little corner with Donnie. You two can be all Zen master together while Mikey's in there sick, possibly dying."

Leo was slightly taken aback by his brother's shout. Though it was Raph, and not entirely unexpected. His red-masked brother had been pretty calm for the whole time they'd been here, almost to the point of it being worrisome. Somehow, it was strangely nice to have something normal at a time like this.

"That's not fair, Raph." Leo replied. "We're worried about Mikey too, but Donnie needs it if he's going to be able to stay with us, and I think you know it."

Leo was right. Raph knew it, but that didn't mean that he had to like it. Which was certainly the case this time; he didn't like that Leo was right at all. Raph growled low in his throat and caught a warning glance from Leo. Responding to an almost imperceptible nod toward the nurses' station revealed one of the receptionists ready to call security again. The look in Leo's eyes was clear enough. 'Not now, Raph.'

"Right, right." Raph said as he attempted to calm himself down, what he wouldn't give for an hour or so with a punching bag. He felt something being pressed into his hands. Looking up he found Leo there and a puteka packet in his palm.

"You're kidding, right?" Raph inquired incredulously. "You don't really think I'm going to drink this junk?"

"It might help you calm down." Leo stated flatly.

"Yeah, but it tastes like snot."

"This isn't the same stuff Don gave us for that hangover." Leo objected. He remembered the concoction that Kermit had given to the purple-masked turtle for that particular purpose, and he certainly couldn't disagree with Raph's description of the taste. "This stuff is different." Leo promised.

"Donnie didn't seem that fond of it when you gave it to him." Raph commented. "What makes you think I'm going to like it any better?"

"Raph."

"No. Leave me alone, Leo. Go meditate or something, you like that stuff. And take your stupid packet back. I'm not drinking it." He threw the puteka packet at Leo, bouncing it off of the top left scute of his brother's plastron, and stormed to the far end of the room. Picking the least questionable chair in the vicinity, he grabbed a magazine from the table that looked like it might be vaguely interesting.

Leo watched the packet hit him in the chest and fall to the floor. He sighed and picked it back up. Then he walked over and sat down on the floor next to Donnie, depositing the packet in the trash bin on the way. He needed to calm down too, and this was one of the best ways he knew how. Some time passed, though Leo wasn't sure how much time, before the cockatoo came back in. Raphael was at the bird's side in a flash and Leo wasn't far behind. He'd considered trying to pull Donnie from his meditation, but if Don hadn't come out on his own when the cockatoo came in, it was probably best to just leave well enough alone. Leonardo and Raphael approached the cockatoo with trepidation.

"We have some erm... bad news and some good news." The cockatoo told the pair of turtles. He eyed Donatello over in the corner, but said nothing. "The erm... bad news is that we found multiple inconsistencies between your brothers. The patient, erm... Michelangelo has several growths in various locations that are not shared by Donatello. The common name for the condition is bulops."

Leonardo blanched as he recognized what he was being told as a description of cancer, and some part of his mind insisted that 'several' meant 'bad'. Glancing at Raph, he could tell that his brother had come to the same conclusion. They waited for the 'good news' that the cockatoo had promised before speaking again.

"The good news is that erm... we have been able to take care of this type of erm... condition in just about every species. Treatment will take a few cirlets, but we are erm... confident that the process will work for your brother as it does for other species."

Leo blinked a moment in confusion until remembering that a cirlet was approximately equal to one day. Even as he was still trying to process the news that Mikey had cancer, Raphael found his tongue and started speaking.

"Wait a minute, you're telling me that you have a cure for cancer?" Raph demanded. "and that it will only take a few days?"

The cockatoo was taken aback by Raph's harsh words. "Yes we have a cure for your brother's condition, though I am erm... unfamiliar with this word 'cancer', but if that is what you wish to call these growths, then yes. We can cure it. As for your second erm... question, I do not understand what these 'days' are."

"A cirlet is called a day where we come from." Leo commented absently. "Can we see him?"

"Of course." The cockatoo responded immediately. "That was part of the reason for my erm... coming out here. Your brother has been moved to another part of the hospital, if you would follow?" Dr. Mareit gestured toward the hallway behind him with one large wing.

Leo had almost forgotten that Donnie was still over in the corner meditating. He couldn't believe that with everything that had happened in the last few moments that his purple-masked brother had stayed under. It simply wasn't like Don to stay in meditation this long, but it was the second time this had happened since they had arrived in this crazy world. Leo hated to pull Don out of it without him being ready to come up on his own, but he felt slightly obligated to at this point. It would be no good for Don to come out on his own and find everyone gone.

"Donnie." Leo called gently as he approached his brother. "It's time to come back now. We can go visit Mikey."

Donatello either didn't hear or ignored the prompting and Leo tried again a little louder and added a small shake to his pleas, but Don still didn't respond. Leo had been in that sort of state before and knew it was best to just leave Donnie to come out on his own, but he didn't know what to do about going to see Mikey. Feeling the cockatoo's gaze on his back, Leo turned around.

"Raph, why don't you go see Mikey. I'll stay here with Don until he comes out of this."

"Yeah, whatever, Leo." Raph growled as he turned to follow the cockatoo.

"Is something wrong with him?" The cockatoo asked of Don as he left the room with Raphael.

"Nah, it's just mind junk we were taught to do."

Raphael followed the cockatoo and spent a half hour with Mikey before Don and Leo came along to join them. He could hear snippets of their conversation as they came down the hall.

"They really have a cure for cancer?" Don asked, sounding amazed.

"So they say." Leo affirmed. "apparently it only takes a few cirlets to perform it too."

"Wow, can you believe this place? I mean, the things they can do here are just incredible. And we can walk around in broad daylight and talk to just about anyone. Maybe this isn't such a bad place, Leo. I mean, it definitely has its perks."

"We're going home as soon as Mikey is well and we figure out how to get there." Leo asserted. He'd heard the excitement in Don's voice at the idea of the cure for cancer, and felt it necessary to nip that excitement in the bud before it became a real desire to stay here.

Don quickly revised his previous statement. "I'm not saying that I think we should stay here forever. I want to get back home as much as you do, but this place does have some good things about it. I mean... If this had happened at home..." Don trailed off, leaving the statement as it was.

Leo knew as well as Don did how this whole situation would have ended had it occurred in New York. Dropping his head to his chest, Leo nodded. "I know, Donnie. I just don't want us to lose sight of the fact that we do need to get home. You were offered a job with Merle today. He's designing some sort of engine and wants your unique expertise to assist him. You start tomorrow." Leo cringed when Don perked up a little more at the prospect of this job offer. "I know that under most circumstances that would be a dream come true, but... I really don't want to lose you to them."

Don sighed. "I understand, Leo. Really I do. I know we need to get home, but I really am starting to like this place, crazy engineers with yellow goop and all. I'm sorry, but I can't help it."

A/N: Well, that's all for now! See that little 'Go' button? Don't forget to drop a line on your way out, and I'll see you next time!