Hey everyone! Whoa, so here's the next chapter! Thanks to those who left wonderful reviews for this story and also to those who liked and followed!

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Chapter 2: Nightmares

"Look, I'm just inviting you out for a drink. There's no problem with that," a soft, persuasive voice implored, its hands raised innocently towards the pretty girl in the miniskirt. She shook her head of loose red hair with a sense of finality as she retreated a step.

"And I said no. Get the picture?" She turned on her corked heel and started trotting away indignantly. A hand reached out and grabbed her arm roughly, swinging her back around.

"Don't you turn your back on me, you little bitch." The voice snarled in her face. She snarled back and struck out at the source of the voice. There was a short exclamation of pain, a growl of indignant fury. The girl looked up for a long moment before letting out a long blood-curdling scream.

"NO!"

Donatello awoke with a start and sat straight up in bed, his sheets soaked in sweat. He panted heavily, clenching the sheets up in his fists as he oriented himself to his surroundings. The tightness in his chest lessened as he slowly convinced himself that he was safely in his own bedroom.

"Oh thank God," Donnie said softly, pulling his knees up towards his plastron and burying his head in his hands, "it was just a nightmare." He took a number of deep, purposeful breaths, trying to slow his racing heart, but it just kept pounding furiously in a suspended state of terror. A burning sensation on his cheek made him hiss in pain and pull his hands away. An irregular spot of blood stained his palm and he stared dumbly at it, not able to wrap his mind around its presence.

He couldn't get the girl's frightened face out of his head, nor could he rid himself of her unearthly screams. It had all felt so real, like he had actually been there; had witnessed the entire thing. It was just a nightmare, Donnie. Just a bad dream brought on by eating deep dish jalapeño and bacon lover's pizza before bed. His whole body trembled like a leaf as he glanced over at the clock by his bed. The bright LED display blinked 9:08 and he groaned loudly, leaning his head back against the wall.

"Crap. I slept through practice? Sensei is going to kill me…"

He dragged himself out of bed, peeling the damp sheets off of his clammy skin. His feet felt like lead as he trudged towards the door. He froze when he caught his reflection in the mirror on his bureau. His face looked awful, like he had gone a couple of rounds with the Shredder in a cage fight. One of his eyes was blackened and his jaw was swollen and blotchy with darkening bruises. He ran his fingers gingerly over the four long scratches that ran down the curve of his cheek. For the life of him, he couldn't think of where he could have gotten so hurt. And, for that matter, why he hadn't tended to those injuries.

He turned away from his reflection and slumped out of his room and down the hall towards the kitchen. From the incessant chatter and smell of frying bacon, Donnie surmised that his brothers had already started breakfast without him. Part of him wondered if they had bothered to set any food aside for him as he shuffled through the living area and into the kitchen.

Mikey and Raph sat at the table in the kitchen, each plowing into a plate of bacon and eggs. Donnie was grateful to see that someone had already set the coffee pot brewing. Pouring himself a generous cupful, he took a deep draft from it and felt the warmth trickle all the way through his system down to his toes. Raph looked up from his half eaten breakfast and raised his own mug at him.

"Mornin' Sleepin' Beauty." Raph teased with a grin. Mikey chuckled into his orange juice as Donnie glared down at his older brother.

"Ha, ha. Very funny, Raph. How come nobody came to wake me up?" Donnie pulled up a chair and plopped down next to Mikey, who inched a little to one side to allow his brother room at the table.

"Believe me, Leo tried to raise you several times but you were out, man. Might as well have been trying to wake up a statue." Raph shoved his last three slices of bacon into his mouth and belched loudly. Donnie grimaced disgustedly and flicked away a speck of food that had landed on his arm.

"It's no big deal, D," Mikey said good-naturedly through a mouthful of scrambled eggs, "Master Splinter was cool with letting you sleep in."

"That's not the point, Mikey." Donnie retorted sullenly as he swirled the coffee absently in his mug. Raph chuckled and rose from his chair, grabbing his empty plate and setting it in the sink.

"It's not really like you could keep up with us anyway, not with how you're lookin' today," he smirked as he walked around the back of the table towards the door.

A muscle twitched in Donnie's eye at the barb. Arrogant son of a bitch… He glared at Raph's shell as he sauntered out of the kitchen. Looking uncertainly between his brothers, Mikey hurriedly shoveled the rest of his eggs into his mouth and dumped his own plate into the sink as well. He cast a fleeting smile at his brother before chasing after Raph, complaining that Crognard was going to be on soon and he better leave the remote alone if he knew what was good for him.

Taking a long swig from his coffee, Donnie drained the mug and scorched his tongue in the process. Grimacing with discomfort, he rose quickly and made a beeline for the coffee pot for a refill. Hot coffee sloshed over his hand and he jerked back with a yelp at the pain, dropping the mug and shattering it on the floor. Swearing loudly, he grabbed a handful of paper towels from the roll and started mopping at the spilled coffee on the floor.

At that moment, Leo came into the kitchen, scratching idly at an itch behind his head. He met Donnie's gaze and offered him a bright, disarming smile. The purple banded turtle attempted to return the smile, but his heart wasn't in it.

"Morning, Donnie. You feeling okay?" Leo knelt down to help Donnie pick up the pieces of shattered porcelain from the kitchen floor.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Donnie retorted sarcastically.

Leo shrugged noncommittally as he tossed the shards of broken mug into the trash can. Unsuccessfully trying to mask his worried expression, he turned to the stove and scooped a helping of eggs and bacon onto a plate.

"You're working too hard, Donnie. You look awful." Donnie looked up to see Leo watching him in that mother hen way that made him feel smothered. He rolled his eyes as he grabbed another handful of paper towels and mopped at the spilled coffee on the counter.

"You know I'm working on some very important stuff, Leo," he said as he tossed the sopping mess of paper into the trash. "I've almost got the retromutagen for Karai synthesized and I've got to finish outfitting the Party Wagon with the new weapons systems." Selecting a new mug from a cabinet, Donnie filled it carefully with coffee, minding his scalded hand. He leaned up against the counter and took a large swallow of the inky black beverage as Leo bit into a slice of bacon.

"I know, but frankly, you look like shit."

"Gee, thanks. It's nice to be surrounded by such encouraging entourage." Donnie quipped sarcastically as he sat down at the table next to Leo. The blue clad turtle captured his gaze, piercing him with narrow cobalt eyes.

"I'm serious. You need to slow down. You're going to make yourself sick one day."

"Duly noted, but really, I'm fine."

Leo looked like he wanted to continue to argue the point, but to Donnie's relief, he scooped a forkful of scrambled eggs into his mouth.

"So, what happened to your face?" he asked through his breakfast. Donnie frowned as he considered, absently touching the scratches on his cheek.

"I'm not sure. I'd say that I did it in practice this morning, but apparently I slept through it." He said, putting some bitter inflection into his words. Leo looked patiently back at him, gritting on Donnie's already sensitive nerves.

"We tried waking you, we really did, but you were sleeping really hard."

Donnie sighed and shook his head. He wasn't going to get anywhere by moping about it. Draining his mug, he rose from the table and left the kitchen, leaving Leo staring after him.

As he passed through the living area, he could hear the soft accented tone of Carlos Chaing O'Brien Gambe as he read the morning news broadcast. Apparently, Raph had gotten to the remote first. Something prompted Donnie to turn his head towards the television. He stopped short and stared at a photograph of a girl that materialized behind the newscaster's head. Something about it struck a cord in the back of his mind, a strange wistfulness that he couldn't quite place. Without taking his eyes from the screen, he hopped over the back of the couch and sat down next to Mikey, pushing his smelly feet off the cushions.

"In other news, a young college student was found bludgeoned to death in an alley in upper Manhattan early this morning. Twenty-two year old, Diana Brockhurst, a marketing student at NYU, was reported missing by friends shortly after 2:00 a.m. after leaving a nightclub…"

"Goddammit…" Raph said shortly, turning down the volume a few notches and shaking his head at the news story, "Can't those perverts keep their damn hands to themselves?"

Donnie barely heard his comment. He couldn't stop staring at the photograph of the murdered girl. She was very pretty, with large brown eyes and long red hair cascading in waves over her shoulders. Her smile was bright and full of mirth as she cradled a golden retriever puppy in her arms. She had kind eyes, and Donnie couldn't tear his eyes away from hers. Only those eyes didn't look kind before… they had looked terrified…

"-lo? Earth to Donnie?"

"What?" He turned towards the sofa where Mikey was lounging, his large blue eyes filled with concern.

"I asked you if you were okay. You kinda zoned out for a second."

"Fine… I'm fine." Donnie rose from the couch like he were in a trance and trudged slowly towards his lab. That's the girl from my nightmare… Why do I keep seeing her face? He pushed open the door and stopped dead in his tracks, the nightmare utterly forgotten.

Everything was in shambles. The motherboards that he had slaved over for two weeks lay in broken pieces and the new CPU that he was planning to install in the lair's security system was shattered beyond recognition. Not to mention, several vials of chemicals were smashed, their contents splattered all over the floor. His fists clenched and he felt the irate heat rising in his face as he glared at the purple puddle that had once been the retromutagen that, in time, would have separated the snake DNA from Karai's human DNA strands. Donnie gnashed his teeth so hard that he thought one of them might crack. There was only one little pest who could have been responsible for this.

"MIKEY!"

"Yes?" Mikey called back innocently. Donnie turned on his heel and stormed out of the lab and back into the living room. All three brothers looked up at him as he loomed over the youngest with murder in his eyes.

"What the hell have you been doing in my lab?!" Donnie was fuming; on the verge of tearing his little brother a new one.

"Nothing! I haven't been in there since you threw me out yesterday." Holding up his hands in surrender, Mikey stared at Donnie with wide, worried eyes.

"Well, then explain to me it look like you and Ice Cream Kitty were holding another line dancing competition in there!" He pointed back towards the lab, not taking his eyes from his baby brother.

Mikey shrank back from his brother's accusatory tone, thoroughly speechless.

"Donnie, I-"

"Donnie, lay off." Leo said as he pushed his brother away from the couch. Donnie flashed him a dangerous look. How could he be standing up for the little creep? He's always doing this!

"But he-," Donnie started to complain but was cut off by Leo's imperious tone.

"He probably didn't do anything wrong." They both looked in Mikey's direction and he put on his most innocent face as he scooted a little closer to Raph on the couch.

"You never say anything to him when he messes up my stuff!"

Donnie continued to glare at Mikey, and was acutely aware that Raph had now turned away from the television and was glaring at him as well. Leo crossed his arms forbiddingly, looking a good deal like Master Splinter, which didn't help Donnie's mood. Just because Leo was Splinter's little clone and the leader of the team didn't mean that he got to boss him around.

"We have no proof that he did anything to your lab. He says he didn't do anything, so you need to give him the benefit of the doubt."

Donnie could feel his ire rising at the injustice. They just didn't understand how important his experiments and inventions were to him. Maybe, they just didn't care. Nobody fucking cares about how things could possibly save their lives; just that they did. Just shut up and fix it, Donnie. That's a good little nerd. Now just crawl back into your corner until we need you again. The self-deprecating thoughts bounced around his skull as he turned his back on his brothers.

"Whatever, Leo," Donnie huffed moodily and stalked into his lab, slamming the door roughly behind him. Leaning back against the door, he looked around the disaster zone and sighed heavily. If he was going to get any kind of work done, he was going to have to start getting this mess cleaned up. Grabbing a broom, he started sweeping up the shards of glass and fragments of circuitry into a little pile. Two months of work completely ruined, he thought ruefully as he pushed the refuse into a dustpan and dumped it all into his trash can.

He picked up a shard from a broken mirror and looked into it. God, he looked awful. The scratches on his cheek were deep and jagged and the bruising around his eye was purple and blotchy. He gingerly touched his cheek and frowned in confusion. What the hell happened last night? Donnie wondered as he tossed the shard into the trash and continued trying to bring some order back from the chaos that was his laboratory.

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