Work Text:
Title: Collapse and Collaboration
Day: Whumpuary 2023, Day 5: Natural Disaster/Stabbed/Collapse
Word Count: 8417
Author: aquietwritingcorner/realitybreakgirl
Rating: T
Characters: Donatello, Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, Splinter
Warning: Injuries, Blood
Summary: All Don wanted was an sheet of a metal alloy that had been left years ago at the Y’Lyntian lair. He didn’t think that an earthquake would hit at the exact wrong moment, causing even more collapse to the old lair, and he definitely didn’t anticipate being stabbed by a metal pipe. Good thing he’s got a family that’ll throw all in to rescue one of their own.
Notes: Set post-Back to the Sewers. Small appearance of an OC in here. But I needed someone, and when that happens, why not use a character that you’ve had hanging around in your writing for years?
Collapse and Collaboration
“I thought you stripped this place of everything useful years ago, Don,” Leo said as he stood in the middle of the Y’Lyntian outpost that had once been their home. “You haven’t wanted to come back here since we moved in at the pumping station.”
“No, I stripped this place of everything useful that we could transport,” Donatello clarified as he dug through some debris. “We didn’t exactly have a lot of time for stripping it properly, not with the enemy keeping a watch on it. It was hard enough to get what we did get.”
Leo watched as his brother shifted through some rubble, moving some of the bigger pieces aside. He’d offer to help, but when Don was on a mission like this, sometimes it was better to take a step back and let him do what he was going to do and help him when he was ready for it.
“That’s true,” Leo said. “But why come back here now?”
“Because,” Don said as he knocked on a wall, “we’re rebuilding again. And while I don’t think that Karai is going to attack us at the pumping station lair, there are still too many enemies that know about it for me to be completely comfortable stripping what I need from there.”
“There’s a lot of enemies that know about here too, Don,” Leo pointed out.
“That’s true,” Don said, squirming behind something. Leo eyed the overhand that was above his brother, hoping it wasn’t as unstable as it looked. “But they don’t expect for us to be here.”
Leo just sighed. It was next to useless to talk Don out of an idea once he got it in his head. “Let’s just be quick. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
“You sound like you’ve been watching too many movies with Mikey,” Don said, clearly teasing Leo.
“Can you blame me? There’s been strange things going on,” Leo said.
Don popped up from where he was, and quickly made his way over to another area, still under an overhang. “I admit that the recent tremors have been unusual,” Don said. “But the last few have been weaker, which indicate that the tremors are dying down. It’s definitely a mystery as to why it’s happening, especially since we haven’t been able to detect any problems with the underground city, but I don’t think we’re in any danger.”
Leo eyed the overhang again. “I don’t know,” he said. “That still looks unstable to me, and I don’t like you being under there.”
“As long as the supports here,” he pointed, “and here hold, it should be fine,” Don said. “I checked them first, for structural integrity. They would have to be knocked out for the second level to collapse. Nothing I’m doing should do that.”
“Uh-huh,” Leo said. “And how many times have our plans worked out like that.”
“I’ll be careful, I promise,” Don said. He stood back a bit from the wall he had been going over. “Besides, this should do it.”
“What should do it?” Leo asked, looking at the wall quizzically.
“I reinforced this wall years ago using a special alloy I lucked into,” Don said. “I covered it back to look like a regular wall because, well, I wanted to see if I could. But I always regretted not being able to come back and get it.”
“But you figure now you can,” Leo said.
“But I figure now I can,” Don confirmed. “All we have to do is clear away the outer wall, and I’ll be able to get to it.”
“How long do you think that’ll take?” Leo asked.
“Well, if we do it carefully, it should only take an hour or so to clear the wall away. Then I can get to the alloy. That’ll probably take a few hours to get down properly.” Don looked back over at Leo. “You know I don’t expect you to stay with me the entire time.”
“As if I’d leave you here alone,” Leo said. “Besides, like I said, I—”
“—have a bad feeling about this,” Don finished with him. “Yeah, I know. But seriously, Leo, this is really important. If I can get it down, then we can use this to help protect the new lair. It’s going to be super helpful in lair defenses.”
Leo sighed. “Alright,” he said. “What do we do first?”
Don gave him a smile before turning back to the wall. “Well, I’ve already taken out the anchors that’s holding the Y’Lyntian wall to it. We need to start from the top and carefully take the pieces off so that they don’t fall and knock out the suppo—”
Don’s words were cut off by a sudden shaking that started up. It was just a small tremor at first, but it was enough for both turtles to be alarmed. Leo’s head snapped towards Don.
“Don! Get out of there!”
Donatello was already scrambling to get out from under the overhang, but there wasn’t time before the earthquake hit harder. The ground moved, and with it, so did the old lair’s walls and structure. Leo had to move fast to avoid being hit by falling debris from the ceiling, the more open area working to his advantage. Don didn’t have that advantage, though, and it was with horror that he watched the supports Don had pointed out earlier crumble in the force of the quake. They fell, and so, too, did the part of the second floor they held up. The wall Don had just loosened also started coming apart, big chunks of it falling to the undulating ground.
“Donnie!”
Don had tried to get out of there, but he had been thrown back by the force of the ground’s movement, leaving him no way out and no way to dodge. Leo could only watch in horror as the wall and part of the second floor fell on Donatello with a mighty crash, could only listen as he heard his brother cry out as a chunk of their former home fell on him, could only try not to panic as the sound of his cry seemed to be cut off.
“Don! Donnie! Donatello!” Leo called out to his brother, as that was about all he could do as the ground moved and rolled underneath him. Leo grit his teeth, but he could figure out nothing else to do but wait out the quake. Realistically, it probably didn’t last that much longer. However, to Leo, it felt as if it lasted an eternity.
As soon as the quake stopped and he felt like he could get to his feet again, Leo was up, rushing to the collapsed area. He had to be careful, making sure that there wasn’t a compromised area about to fall on him, but panic gave him speed.
“Donnie! Donnie!” He called for his brother, but he didn’t hear anything. “DON!”
Nothing. No sound. No anything.
He ran his hands along the debris, trying to figure out how to get to his brother. He couldn’t risk more of the area falling, but he also couldn’t keep from trying. There was no easy way to move anything, though. Everything that was loose felt like it would cause more to collapse if he moved it, and other pieces seemed to be stuck solid.
Leo cursed as he reached for his shell cell and was never more grateful that Don designed them to stay on their belts even in the most violent of circumstances. It was still there, and he immediately dialed Raph. It only rang once before his brother picked up.
“Leo?! Leo, are you—”
“Is everyone alright?” Leo asked.
“Yeah, just some bumps. Are you—”
“Get everyone you can,” Leo interrupted him, “And get whatever you might need.” His heart was pounding in his chest, but the words came out easily, mostly because they had to come out if Donnie was to stand a chance. “Part of the second level fell on Don and I can’t get him to answer, and I can’t move it myself. It’s unstable and I don’t know what kind of condition he’s in.”
Raph had fallen absolutely silent as Leo spoke. “On it,” he said. “Leo—in Don’s old lab, kinda in the corner, he used to have a cabinet that had some poles and stuff he used for securing areas before he could get supports under them. I don’t think he ever went back and got them.”
“I’ll get them,” Leo said. “Hurry.”
The line went dead, and Leo looked at the pile of fallen stonework. He put his hand on it, trying to see if he could sense his brother on the other side of it. He couldn’t tell if he could, or if it was just what he wanted to feel.
“Don’t die, Donnie. We need you.”
Don wasn’t sure what woke him, but he wasn’t entirely sure that he wanted to be awake. Intense pain flared out from his shoulder, making him gasp with pain before he was even sure of anything else. His hand went instinctively towards it, which was difficult in its own right, seeing as he was laying on his plastron, but even that little shift sent waves of pain through him. He wasn’t sure how long he laid there after that, riding out the worst of the pain. It was long enough to realize that he was in utter darkness. It was long enough to realize that he wasn’t home, or even in a cell or cage. It was long enough for him to realize that he was going to have to find a way to think around the pain.
He held still, taking a moment to try to compartmentalize the pain to a tolerable level. He let realizations settle in his brain, things he didn’t consciously think about, but unconsciously realized, such as being in a collapsed structure, being injured, being alone. Those he didn’t even think about, but just knew as he laid there. That didn’t mean that he didn’t have other questions, though, and he would have to find answers to them.
Carefully, taking care not to move his pain-filled shoulder this time, Don reached over with his other arm and gently probed at the wound as best he could. It still hurt, but he was prepared for the pain this time. What he wasn’t prepared for was to find a long, cylindrical piece of metal sticking out of his shoulder.
“Impalement,” he muttered to himself. “Best not to remove.”
He could still feel that hand, though, and wiggle his fingers, wrist and elbow, so that was good, if incredible painful. Other injuries were making themselves known now that he had tried to push the pain of his shoulder away. He was being very uncomfortably pressed into what felt like rocks and stones, and it felt like one very large piece was pressing down on his thigh and shell. There was pressure on his shell, which meant something was on top of it. More rock and stone felt like it was on top of the rest of his legs as well.
A cave in? No. An earthquake. Yes, Don knew that’s what this was. Of course. There had been an earthquake and the loosened wall had given way, hit the supports, and part of the second floor had come down on him. But what about Leo? Leo had been with him as well.
“...Leo?”
His voice was weak, with pain lacing it. “L-Leo?” he tried again, this time a little louder.
There was no answer.
His brother hadn’t been right next to him, so there was a good chance that he hadn’t gotten caught up in the collapse from the earthquake. He needed to be sure, though.
His shell cell was on the side of him that was impaled. It would have been impossible to get to, except that Donnie still had feeling in his arm and fingers. It was agony, but he got it, flipping it on. To his relief, the light from the phone broke through the darkness confirming, at least, that he wasn’t blind, just in utter darkness. He couldn’t bring the phone closer to his face, so he simply went off muscle memory and dialed Leo.
It rang. It rang once, twice, and Don was starting to get concerned. He couldn’t hear the phone anywhere nearby, although Leo was likely to have it on silent and—
“Donnie!?”
He picked up on the third ring, sounding panicked, and it sounded wonderful to Don’s ears.
“Donnie? Come on, say something, bud.”
Right. He needed to respond.
“Leo?” his voice sounded weaker than he expected, and he cleared his throat, trying to make it stronger.
“Don? Don, how badly are you hurt?” Leo asked.
“…Not entirely sure,” Don said, and he could hear the pain in his voice. He had no doubt that his protective older brother could too. “I’m pinned down on my plastron. Think… think my shell has some stones on it. My legs feel trapped. And…” he took a breath. “…my shoulder is impaled.”
There was a pause. “How badly, Don?”
“I can still move my hand around. And there doesn’t seem to be too much blood from what I can tell.” At least on the outside. He knew that he could be bleeding internally from this, and he wouldn’t be able to tell, at least not now.
“Okay. Okay, you hang in there, Donnie. I’ve already called the others. They’re gonna bring in help. The collapse isn’t stable, so we’re going to have to be careful. But I promise you, Don, we’re gonna get you out of there.”
“…Okay, Leo. Hey, Leo?”
“Yeah?”
Don knew it was a silly request. He should be saving his phone’s battery. He should let Leo save his phone’s battery. But he couldn’t help himself. “…Don’t leave me.”
“I won’t, Don. I promise.”
Leo stared down at his phone, his heart twisting at Don’s words. He could hear the fear and the pain in it. His hand tightened on his phone. He wasn’t going to leave Donnie. Not physically, and not over the phone.
Leo continued to talk to Don as he pulled out the supports that Raph had told him about, dragging them closer to the collapse, and then poked around for anything else useful. Don remembered where a few things were, and Leo very carefully went to check those out and add anything he could to the growing pile of useful things. He had just finished laying out a mattress for a first aid area when he heard the rumble of the sewer sled outside of the old lair.
“Hey Don? Hang on a second. I’ll leave you on speaker, but I think the others just arrived.”
“…okay.”
Sure enough, Raph came rushing in, Splinter with him, both of them carrying supplies.
“Leo! We’re here, we’ve got more supplies on the sled,” Raph said.
“Have you heard anything from Donatello?” their father asked, the worry in his voice evident.
Leo nodded. “He’s on the phone,” he said, holding out his shell cell.
Splinter seized it. “Donatello?”
“Hi, Father,” he said, and Leo watched as both Splinter and Raph looked concerned at how weak Don’s voice sounded.
“Donatello. It is good to hear your voice. How injured are you, my son?”
Leo gestured for him and Raph to unload the sled, while Splinter talked to Don. “He’s trapped, pressure on his shell, pressure on his legs, probably a concussion, if I had my guess. But he also says that his shoulder has been impaled.”
Raph’s head snapped over to Leo. “Impaled? How bad?”
Leo shook his head. “He can’t really tell. He’s flat on his plastron and his movement is limited. He can move his hand and feel his arm, but he’s in a lot of pain.”
There were lots of supplies on the sled, and Leo was glad that Raph had been home to grab them. While all of them knew how to do things, Raph was the one who spent the most time with Don when it came to building and construction. He didn’t have the scientific prowess that Don did, but he was good at the building part of things. Raph would have a better idea of what to do then Leo would have.
“We’ll get him outta there, Leo. I promise you,” Raph said.
“I promised him the same thing,” Leo said with a quickly fading smile.
“Then we’d better keep it,” Raph said.
“Where’s Mikey?” Leo asked as they started unloading the sled.
“Gone to get April,” Raph said. “Figured we could use her. She’s a robotics engineer, but she’s still an engineer. And I’ve heard her and Donnie talkin’ about stuff like this before.”
“What about Casey?” Leo asked,
“Bringin’ some more things we might need in their van. He’s gonna park nearby. LH is on his way too. Mike said somethin’ about seeing if the Justice Force could help.” Raph said.
Leo and Raph hoisted a load up together and made their way back into the half-collapsed lair. “They probably have their hands full with the city,” Leo said. “I can’t imagine that there’s not damage topside.”
“There is, least accordin’ to the news there is,” Raph confirmed. “We’re probably gonna be on our own for a bit.”
“Then let’s do the best we can.”
Splinter’s voice was soothing to Donatello, his father doing all he could to encourage him. In the background he could hear Raph and Leo, and then, a little bit later, Mikey and April. Leatherhead arrived not long afterwards, and Casey was right on his heels. They took turns talking to him, even as Don could hear the beginnings of construction through the phone. He couldn’t hear any of it through the crushing debris around him. That, he knew, wasn’t a good sign. It meant that he was in deep and there was a lot on him. It would take a while to get to him, more than likely.
Don also found that he had trouble staying awake. He didn’t even realize that he had fallen asleep or passed out until he was being awoken by someone on the other side of the phone. He knew that it worried his family. It worried him, too. But there wasn’t anything that they could do about it.
Right now, Mikey was keeping him company on the phone, telling him what the news was saying about the earthquake.
“And they’re saying that it was a, uh, six something earthquake.”
“A six? That’s pretty high for this area.”
“Yeah, that’s what—yeah, here, this one? Okay—yeah, that’s what they were saying. And, like, they had a guy on saying that they’ve never been able to prove that it’s the Rambo fault line’s—”
“Ramapo.”
“—Ramapo fault line’s fault before, but they think that the epicenter came from there.”
“How long has it been?”
“What?”
“Since the earthquake. How long?”
“Uh… a couple of hours, maybe.”
A couple of hours. Don closed his eyes, thinking. If the earthquake had been somewhere in the 6 to 7 range, then the aftershocks would be lower than that. But with the precariously balanced lair, even a smaller earthquake could cause a problem.
“—onnie? Donnie, you there, bro?” Mikey’s voice broke into his thoughts.
“What? Oh, uh, yeah. Just thinking,” Don said.
“Well think out loud. It makes the rest of us feel better,” Mikey said.
“Sorry,” Don said, then fell silent.
Silence obviously wasn’t what Mikey wanted. “So? Gonna share your thoughts with the class?”
Don wished he could sigh. He didn’t have enough room. “I was thinking about aftershocks,” he said.
“Aftershocks?” Mikey asked.
“Yeah. There’s likely to be one coming. And the lair is pretty unstable. You would all need to get out if—”
“Whoa, partner,” Mikey said. “I get and appreciate the warning, but there’s no way we’re leaving you behind.”
“You could come back,” Don argued. “After the aftershock had passed.”
“We’re not leaving you,” Mikey repeated, “There’s no way, so you might as well stop saying that now.”
“…alright,” Don agreed, just because he knew that arguing was pointless and he was growing tired again. “…tell me what all of you are doing out there.”
Mikey launched into an explanation of how they were trying to remove the debris without letting any of it shift, but also how they were placing structural supports where they could. He tried to describe it in as much detail as he could for Don, but Don felt himself slipping away anyway. He was having trouble staying awake again, and he knew he was about to pass out again.
And then there was a tremor.
Don’s eyes snapped awake. No. No, no, no, no, no! A tremor now and aftershock quake now could bring the whole place down. It could kill his family. It could crush him. But there was no stopping it, and he could hear the chaos on the other side of the call.
“What’s going on?”
“We can’t let if fall!”
“Look out!”
“Everyone to a safer area!”
“Aw—shell!”
He tucked the phone as close to his leg as he could, trying to keep it safe. The ground shook, and that meant that Donatello did too. He cried out as the movement shifted his shoulder, shifting the metal pipe in it too. He felt himself be pressed against the rocks that were entrapping him. He cried out again as they squished him closer to them, and then released the pressure, only to squeeze it again. Don could hear the rocks shift and move, felt some of the cascade down. He felt some hit his head and prayed that it didn’t make everything worse.
And then—
Everything shifted.
Don couldn’t help the scream of pain that ripped from his throat as pain ripped through his shoulder. The pipe in it shifted, moved, and it was agony to him. He had heard the phrase “like a hot poker” in reference to pain before, but this was the first time he really, truly understood it. The pressure from the rubble above him increased, weighing heavy on the pipe on his shoulder, and he could feel it. Even as the aftershock settled down, the pain seemed to increase until finally he couldn’t stand it anymore and passed out.
Mikey gripped the shell cell hard, looking at it in horror. The aftershock had come from almost nowhere, it seemed, and it had left them scrambling for cover, trying not to get hit and hoping that it didn’t make anything worse.
They didn’t hope hard enough. Mikey had been holding the phone when Don’s cry of pain had ripped through it. Everyone’s attention had snapped to it, and through the calls of his name, Mikey could still hear Don’s noises of pain. There was, though, nothing that could be done about it, about any of it, until the quake died down.
“Donnie?” Mikey asked, half afraid of what he would hear—or not hear.
There was silence.
“Donnie!” Mikey repeated, with a sense of urgency.
Still nothing.
“Donatello!”
Still nothing.
Mikey was beginning to panic now. What if that cave in had killed him? What if he was in such bad shape that he was dying right now? What if they couldn’t get to him in time? What if—
“Breathe, my son.” Master Splinter’s voice broke through, and he looked down at his father. “Let me see the phone.”
With a shaky nod he handed the phone over. Leo and Raph both put a hand on his shoulder, while Splinter put the phone to his ear.
“Do—Do you think—” Mikey began.
“Hush,” Splinter cut him off. “No one speak. I am listening.”
Mikey didn’t dare breathe. He didn’t think anyone else did either. Instead, they all stood there, watching Splinter and waiting. After a moment, Splinter lowered the phone.
“I hear his breath,” he said. “But he sounds as if he is in pain. We must move quickly.”
“The aftershock destroyed some of our supports,” Leatherhead said as he looked over the area. “However, it may not have all been to detriment.”
“There. And there,” Raph said, pointing. “It cleared those areas a bit. If we can shore ‘em up, that oughta help us move some more rock outta the way.”
“If we can clear that much away, then we might be able to get to whatever pocket Don is trapped in,” April said. “Once in, hopefully we can direct things better to get him cleared out.”
Casey took a step forward. “Just point me ta what needs movin’,” he said resolutely.
The group started moving to work again, but Mikey cast one last look at the shell cell in Splinter’s hand. He hoped that Don’s scream was not going to be the last time he heard his brother’s voice.
Donatello wasn’t sure how long he was out for this time. When he woke, he knew that his shoulder was on fire, feeling ten times worse than it had originally. It was still dark, except for the meager light of the shell cell. And he was still alone. He groaned.
“Donatello?”
Well, mostly alone.
His hand twitched around his phone, sending rays of pain throughout his arm. He groaned again.
“Donatello. Donatello do not fear. We are coming for you. We are trying our best to break through the wall.” That was Master Splinter’s voice, and one that Don was grateful to hear. He tried to speak, but nothing but an odd assortment of sounds came out. It was enough for Splinter, though. “Donatello?”
“—Fath’r.” It was slightly slurred and nowhere near as loud as he had hoped, but he thought it was recognizable.
“Donatello.” The relief in his father’s voice was palpable. “Donatello, how are you feeling?”
“…hurts.” He hurt so badly. He was sure it could be heard in his voice.
“Can you tell me how it hurts?” Splinter asked him.
Don was quiet for a few moments as he tried to comprehend and answer Splinter’s questions. “Shoulder… on fire,” he said. “Pressure. Lotsa pressure. Hard t’ breathe.”
He hadn’t realized that it was until he said it, but there was a lot of pressure on his shell that was making it harder to breath.
“Try to keep steady breaths, my son,” Splinter said. “We are getting closer to your location.”
Don paused for a moment. Trying to think past the pain, he listened. “…C’n hear it,” he said.
“You can hear it?” Splinter asked. “You can hear them getting closer to you?”
Don paused again, listening. The sounds he heard didn’t sound like debris or rubble settling. They were purposeful, and he was pretty sure that he was hearing some whips of voices.
“Yeah,” he said. “Digging… tools… voices.”
“Then they are getting closer. Hold on, my son. We will be there soon.”
“…’kay.”
Splinter continued to talk to him, his voice edging in and out as Don found himself drifting more than a few times. The passage of time meant nothing to him. He wasn’t even entirely sure when he was awake and when he wasn’t. However, when light poked into his darkness, he took notice of it.
It was only a little at first, small spots of it that played along the “floor” of his prison. But soon they got bigger and bigger, and he stared at them, finding them fascinating. Sometimes they were blocked and disappeared. Other times they grew. Sometimes they shrunk. But there seemed to be more of them the longer he stared.
It was when they were no longer on the floor that he realized the lights weren’t being blocked out, but that there was someone in his line of sight, the spots of light on that person. He blinked, and then blinked again, trying to clear his mind a bit.
“Raph?”
“Easy, Donnie. We’re gettin’ you outta here, okay? Just hang on.”
“Okay.”
For a moment, when Raph had first managed to squirm into the space where his brother was, he had thought Donnie was dead. He was more than half covered in rubble and debris, with a metal rod or pipe through his shoulder. He wasn’t moving, didn’t acknowledge Raph even being there, and his eyes were half-open, but staring at nothing. It scared Raph down to his bones.
It had taken him just a second more to realize that Donnie was breathing, and that his eyes were focused, just not on anything Raph was aware of.
“He’s here!” Raph had called back. “I’m gonna check on him. He’s in a little cavern kind of area. Looks like the metal he was after made him a cave.”
“Can we get through the metal?” Leo had called.
Raph had considered Leo’s question. “No, I don’t think so. But we can support it from in here and dig Don out, I think.”
He had managed to work his way over to Donnie at that point and called his name. “Don. Donnie. Donnie!”
It was only after Raph had placed his hand on an uninjured part of Don that Don seemed to realize he was there at all, calling out his name. Now Raph was trying his best to give his brother a reassuring smile, and a little bit of hope.
“We’re gonna get this place shored up real good, Donnie, and then we’ll dig you out,” Raph said.
Don let out a little sigh. “...’kay. But I don’t feel good.”
“Yeah,” Raph said. “Yeah, I bet you don’t.”
Aside from Splinter, April was the smallest, so she was sent in next, although with the supports. She helped Raph position them and set them up, even as the others worked on clearing more of the rubble away. With an exact location on Donatello, and people in there to tell them if anything looked like it was going to fall, they were able to move faster. The top was cleared off quickly, and then the front of the area he was trapped in. Splinter was in there as soon as room allowed Reassuring Don and looking over his wounds.
Raph found himself grimacing as more and more light revealed his brother’s state. The pipe looked nasty, and it went all the way through his shoulder. There was more blood than Raph was comfortable with, but he knew that if it was pulled out, then it was likely that Donnie would bleed out right then right there.
Getting Don out was the worst part to Raph’s mind. The metal pipe was actually acting as a brace for the slowly sagging wall above Don. They had to replace that support, and then they had to cut the pipe so that they could get Don out of there. That had obviously caused Donnie huge amounts of pain, from the way he finally gave in a screamed. Raph had considered it a blessing when he passed out.
Uncovering Don was just as bad as cutting the pipe, but in a different way. As they moved the rubble pieces and revealed his body more and more, dark bruises, and large cuts were revealed. His shell had some significant dings in it too, but nothing that made them worried about moving him. It was clear, though, that Don wasn’t going to be up and about for a while.
He was, however, in and out of consciousness as they moved him. Splinter and April had both come in to look him over and had done their best to do whatever they needed to there. And then, gently, he had been handed through the little cavern, out the opening, and into the main room, where they could lay him on the old mattress and finally fully see all the damage.
It wasn’t pretty. His shoulder was the worst of it, with the metal rod going right through it. Raph had no idea how they would heal that. Sure, they had noticed a long time ago that they seemed to heal faster and better than humans, even with less resources available to them, but that wasn’t a cure-all for things. Some injuries were harder to heal than others. This one wasn’t one Raph was sure could heal without intervention. There was also a rather large gash that was still bleeding on Donnie’s head, which probably accounted for some of his grogginess. Dark bruises and other cuts ran together over him. Some were bleeding, some were not, but all of them looked bad.
“Donnie…” Raph knelt next to his currently unconscious brother, hands hovering as he wanted to place them somewhere comforting, but he was afraid of touching his brother. Instead, he turned his eyes towards their father. “What do we do?” he asked, hoping that his father had an answer.
Splinter looked just as concern as the rest of them. “First, we get him home, and get us all to a much more secure and safer area. Then we will assess Donatello to see what our next steps are.” Raph saw Splinter’s gaze fall to Don’s shoulder, and the resolve in it waver a bit. “I… am not sure what can be done for his shoulder. We will have to see.”
Raph looked up at Splinter, stricken. If Don’s shoulder couldn’t be repaired, that would put him off the team. He needed to be able to use his arm. If nothing else, it would sideline him for a while. Raph could see the same sort of panic he was feeling in Leo’s eyes. None of them wanted this. But when he looked to Mikey, he was surprised by what he saw.
“I’m gonna find out if something can be done about it,” Mikey said, his voice and face determined. He had his shell cell out. “Maybe the Justice Force couldn’t come help us here, but I’m a member, and we’re friends with Silver Sentry, Raptor, Nano, Zippy Lad, and most of them. They’ve got a state-of-the-art medical center there. I betcha they can do something about Donnie’s shoulder, and I think they owe us one.”
“Good thinking, my son,” Splinter said, putting a paw on Mikey’s shoulder.
“We should still get outta here,” Raph said. “It’s unstable.”
“Raphael is correct,” Leatherhead agreed. “My place is closer, and I have supplies. We can adjourn there and tend to what we can of Donatello while we wait for the Justice Force to respond to Michelangelo.”
Mikey shook his head. “No, guys, you don’t get it. I’m a member. I have access. We can take him straight there. I’ll deal with any problems, but he’ll be seen.”
“Mikey, are you sure?” Leo asked.
Mikey nodded, resolute, and Raph couldn’t help but wonder when his goofy brother had grown up so much. It probably happened over time, just like with all of them.
“They gave me a full scan when I got there, to have a baseline, they said,” Mikey said. “But I’m sure they could still use any help we can give them.”
“LH, can you come with us?” Leo asked the giant crocodile. “You have medical experience with us. That might be useful.”
Leatherhead nodded. “I shall accompany you,” he agreed.
“Then let us begin our journey. Raphael, will the Sewer Sled hold all of us, and is it capable of getting to the Justice Force Headquarters?” Splinter asked.
Raph slowly nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I think it should be able to, but we’re gonna need to hold onto Donnie. It wasn’t built with the injured in mind.”
“We will do what we have to. Raphael, you drive. Michelangelo, accompany him up front,” Splinter said. “The rest of us will be with Donatello.”
“Yes, Sensei,” they both snapped out automatically.
Everyone started to move then, getting what was needed quickly, but Raph stopped when he heard Don groan.
“Donnie?” he asked, returning to his side. “Donnie? You there, bro?”
“…Raphie.” Don’s eyes were blinking open slowly, and he seemed to be coming around again.
“Hey, Donnie,” Raph said. “There you are.”
Don blinked up at him from the mattress, his expression open, pain clear in his face. “…hurts,” he said. He tried to shift, but stopped, grimacing in pain. “How bad ‘s it?”
Raph gently squeezed Don’s hand. “It’s pretty bad, Donnie. But you hang in there. We’re gonna get you some help, okay? And everythin’s gonna be fine.” Leo subtly moved into view, he and Casey clearly ready to pick up the mattress and take it to the Sewer Sled. Raph looked back down at Don and gave his hand a squeeze. “We’re gonna take you to the Justice Force, okay? Mike’s callin’ in some favors. I’m gonna drive us there in the Sewer Sled.”
Don’s eyes closed, but he kept ahold of Raph’s hand. “Take it easy on the curves. The balance ‘s been off…”
Raph squeezed Don’s hand. “I will, Donnie. I promise.”
Raph gave Don’s hand one last squeeze, and then let go, standing back so that the mattress could be picked up. Don grimaced at the movement but didn’t protest. Raph hurried on around them, getting into the driver’s seat and making sure that everything was in working order. As soon as everyone was settled in, Raph took off, expertly handling the machine even as the high speeds they were traveling at. They shot through the sewers, and then across the bay, towards the Justice Force Headquarters.
“You sure about this, Mikey?” Raph asked, over the roar of engine.
Mikey was messing with something and looking as serious as Raph had ever seen him. “I’m sure,” he said firmly. “This’ll get us in, even though it’s not my day on, and I don’t think that Kari will turn us down.”
“Kari?” Raph asked.
“One of the healers. She’s kinda the head honcho there when it comes to medical stuff. She’s a real doctor, too, so she’ll know what to do and who to call if she needs help,” Mikey explained. He glanced up at Raph a smile that was nowhere near his usual brightness on his face. “She likes me. I’m sure she’ll be willing to help.”
“Alright. If you say so, then I believe you, bro,” Raph said, and refocused on driving, pushing the Sewer Sled as much as he dared.
The pain Don was feeling was both horribly intense, but also numbing in a way. It was like he had so much of it, that he was almost not feeling it at all. Of course, when he did feel it, it felt awful, and there really wasn’t anything to do about that.
He wasn’t exactly sure what was going on, if he were honest. He was having trouble focusing, his attention and maybe even awareness fading in and out. He knew that he mumbled something about the Sewer Slider and Raph’s driving. He knew that Splinter was with him, his father gently stroking his head, especially every time Don felt a stab of pain. He knew Leatherhead was there, from the comforting rumbling of his friend’s voice, and sensing his bulk nearby. He knew April was with him, her soft hands holding his rough one. He knew Casey was there, could hear him relaying things from the front to everyone else. He knew that somewhere in front of him, probably in the driver’s area, were Raph and Mikey, as he could catch snatches of their voices every so often.
He also knew that they were going fast, and that there was a sense of urgency about it all. He was fairly certain it was because of him. He couldn’t recall the particulars, but he was pretty sure it was because of him. He tried, a few times, to turn his head towards his shoulder, where the most pain was, but every time he tried, someone turned his head away. He was aware, at some point, that they were in open water, because he could feel the sun, see the sky, and feel the spray of the water.
He was aware when they were slowing down, and when they came to a halt. He wished he wasn’t aware when they moved him. The pain clouded his senses again, and everything became mixed up. He wasn’t sure exactly what was going on, but he could hear Mikey talking rapidly about something, and a woman’s voice. He was moved somewhere else, and he felt cool hands on him. He tried to make sense of his sight, but everything was all mixed up, especially when the hands went to his shoulder.
The moment they touched his shoulder, his vision went white, and he was sure that he yelled or screamed out. There was a flurry of activity, and then, suddenly, a blessed relief and a release into darkness.
When Don woke up next, it was to a soft but steady beeping, a soft mattress that was definitely not one that they owned, the warmth of a blanket and a heat lamp, and a definite reduction in pain. He wasn’t sure, at first, what woke him up, until he realized that someone was standing next to whatever he was lying on.
“I know you’re awake,” a soft, feminine voice said. “It’s alright. You’re safe here. You’re at Justice Force Headquarters with your family.”
Cautiously, Don opened his eyes, seeing a dark-haired woman smiling down at him, her pale face framed by half-pulled back curls. She had on a white coat, like one a doctor would wear, but her outfit underneath didn’t quite seem to be normal wear. Her hands were on him, gentle, and Don blinked, trying to make sense of this.
“Hey, bro!” Mikey was standing next to the woman and smiling down at him.
Don blinked. “Mikey?” He coughed a little, and almost immediately Mikey was offering him a glass of water with a straw in it. Don glanced at the woman, who still had her hands on him carefully running them over him, occasionally doing something different with the one that seemed to be in some sort of black skeletal frame. She didn’t seem bothered by it, so he took the straw and drank.
Once he was finished, Mikey moved the glass away, but he didn’t move away from Don’s side. “Glad to see you back with us, bro,” he said. “You really put yourself through shell.”
“I… um…” Don was more than a little confused, glancing at the woman again. Her hands were glowing white as they moved, although it was barely there, and Don wasn’t sure what to make of that. Mikey seemed to catch on.
“Oh, don’t worry about her,” Mikey said. “She’s just my best girl, Kari.”
“You say that about all the girls,” the woman, Kari said, with a bit of fondness in her voice, before turning her attention to Don. “Hello. My name is Dr. White. I’m the chief medical officer around here, so to speak, and a healer. I was just giving you a look over to make sure you’re healing nicely. Healing is a process, and sometimes even when it’s sped up, small problems arise.”
“You had a lot of injuries, Donnie,” Mikey said, a bit more serious than before. “Concussion, chips in your shell, so many bruises you were more black and blue than green, cuts and scrapes, broken ribs.” He paused for a moment, indicating the shoulder that Dr. White’s hands were hovering above now. “Your shoulder was the worst. Some kind of metal rod or pipe or something through it.”
“I’ll hand you the chart later,” Dr. White said. “Your family seems to think that you’ll want to look over it. Now,” she moved her hands back up towards his head, “can you tell me what happened to you?”
Don recognized the standard questions of an awareness assessment, and he obliged, giving her a quick rundown of what happened.
“That sounds right, from what I was told,” Dr. White said. “Sounds like your concussion healed well. The shoulder will take a little longer, but it will heal.” She glanced over at Mikey. “Turtle Titan is your brother, right? It’s good he got you to me so fast. I was able to take care of a lot of the damage before it started to heal wrong.”
Mikey beamed at her. “I knew I could count on you, Kar!”
She looked at him with an amused look, one eyebrow raised. “You may be one of my favorites, Turtle Titan, but you still better watch it.” She looked back down at Don, stripping off the skeletal glove as she was talking. “For some reason, I like him. He’s honestly one of my favorites. He’s wormed his way into my friendship, somehow, and I’m usually one to keep my distance.”
“He’s like that,” Donnie said. “Kinda annoying, actually.”
Kari grinned at Mikey’s affronted “hey!” and Don thought that he might like her too.
“I’ll let your family in, now. It’s a good thing I already had a base to use for understanding how to heal you, two other enthusiastic volunteers for references, and three other people with a knowledge of your anatomy and physiology. It certainly made treating you easier.”
Dr. White made her way to the door of the room, opening it up and stepping out. Not but a moment later everyone else was piling into the room. He was greeted enthusiastically, and Don waved back at them, pushing himself to a sitting position. Mikey automatically reached for him to help, even though Don was pretty sure he’d have been alright on his own.
“Donatello, it is good to see you aware and significantly less injured, my son,” Splinter said, walking up to him and laying a hand on his arm.
“Indeed, it is, my friend,” Leatherhead said. “Before this I was afraid that you would have a months long journey to even begin to heal.”
“That bad, huh?” Don asked, a bit sheepishly.
“Mostly the shoulder,” Raph said, giving the arm a nudge. “Wasn’t sure how we was gonna deal with that.”
“How are you feeling, Donnie?” Leo asked.
Don paused a moment to consider his state. “I’m… tired. Very tired. And my shoulder hurts some, but it’s more like… like I’ve been in a lot of fights and took a hit or two to the shoulder.”
“So nuthin’ that ain’t gonna heal up on its own,” Casey said.
Donnie shrugged, and then regretted it. “That’s what she said,” he said.
“I’m just glad that you’re going to be okay,” April said, leaning in to hug him. “I was so worried.”
“Justice Force membership comes with perks!” Mikey said with a grin.
“Is that my chart?” Don asked, nodding at a strange piece of technology that seemed to have words on it.
Most everyone blinked blankly at it, but Mikey snatched it up and looked over it. “Looks like it, bro. You sure you wanna learn everything?” he asked.
Don nodded and held out his hand. “I am,” he said. “Besides—I’ve not seen technology like that, and I’d like a closer look at it.”
Mikey handed it over amidst a bit of good-natured ribbing that was flying over Don’s head as he read the report. The report on his shoulder was the worst, and Don wasn’t sure that they would have had a way to fix it, if Mikey hadn’t of brought him to the Justice Force.
“I’m really sorry, guys,” Don said, and the squabbling stopped. Don didn’t look up at them but looked at the report. “I really shouldn’t have put myself or any of you in that position. The metal I wanted is really valuable to me, but it’s not worth any of our lives. I should have waited until the quakes had passed before I went looking instead of being anxious to get things done.”
“And that would have been how long waiting?” Leo said. “And made your job how much harder?” he sighed. “No, I understand why you wanted to go on,” he said. He reached over rubbed Don’s head. “A little patience next time wouldn’t be a bad thing, but I get it.”
Don ducked from under his hand but smiled up at his family. “I’ll work on it,” he said.
“Good,” Raph said, sitting beside Don and slinging an arm around him. “Because we’ll be making sure of it, bro.”
“Just as soon as Kari lets you out of here, that is,” Mikey said, crowding in and nudging Don from the other side. “She’s pretty protective of her patients especially when there’s no secret identity cover to keep.”
Don grimaced. “How long do you think she’ll keep me here?” he asked.
“Hard to say. Until she’s satisfied with your healing, or you turn yourself into enough of a nuisance,” Mikey said.
“That must be how you get out of it,” Raph said.
Mikey gasped dramatically. “How dare, you, Raphael. I am one of her favorites!”
“Are you one of her favorites, or is she one of yours,” Leo said, a teasing grin on his face.
Mikey pulled a face. “Ew, no, like she’s sixty or something!”
“That pretty lady?” Casey said, surprised. “You sure you didn’t hit yer head too, Mike? She looked like she was in her twenties, maybe thirty at most.”
Mikey shrugged. “Healers live longer,” he said. “She just ages really slowly.”
“Handy,” April said with a quirked brow.
“Anyway,” Mikey said. “I’m sure Don will have no problems getting out of here—she’ll be sick of him by the fifth machine he takes apart.”
“He will not be taking any machines apart,” Splinter said firmly. “He will be resting and recuperating instead.”
“Good luck with that,” Raph said, clearly teasing him.
“I do have lots of questions,” Don admitted, and then grinned when his family started teasing him about it.
Don relaxed into the good-natured teasing and the presence of his family. After being trapped alone and injured in that rubble, this time with his family was exactly what he needed, and he wasn’t going to pass up a moment of it.
Although that didn’t mean that the moment he could, he wasn’t going to be making his escape to look at some of the advanced technology Mikey had told him was here.
Maybe he could find a better way to get to that alloy. It would be a shame to go through all of this, and have nothing to show for it, after all.