Sorry. Our cat died and my sister is absolutely devastated. I did want to get this up by this week, though. I have a plan for where I want this to go now, though.

Disclaimer: I don't own.

0000TMNT0000

Lights. There were lights everywhere. He was a ninja. His home was in the darkness. It didn't matter where they were darkness always comforted him. Even as children, they had been taught to be comfortable in the dark. They were trained to see well in it and seek safety there. It was light that held the monsters and unlike the boogeyman their monsters were real. And now he was bathed in light. And heat. He was on fire. He couldn't see. He couldn't breathe.

No, wait, he couldn't really breathe, he thought as he sneezed and coughed on dust. "Ugh, Lenny, you're getting makeup everywhere. You're making the poor guy choke."

"Poor guy? Poor guy? Are you not looking at the same thing as me? If you had this job, you'd be using that much make-up, too. Its skin is so weird. I'm going to have to scrub my hands forever to get the germs off."

What sounded like a slap. "Don't be a jerk, Lenny. He's a living thing, just like us. He deserves a little respect. The lights are already freaking him out. Just do the make-up right, okay?"

"Geez, Diana. Didn't know you were such a bleeding heart."

"Jerk."

"Slut."

"Chauvinistic pig."

"Jealous."

Then there was a looming hand and wetness on his face. Some of the dust disappeared and he recovered slightly. He had to calm down. He had to plan. The recording commenced in an hour or so. He had no idea when it aired. There was always a way out. There had to be something to do, some way out of this.

But if there was, he couldn't think of it. He could barely think at all.

"Doctor! I wasn't done with your make-up yet. You'll look washed out by all the lights."

"Sir-"

"Dr. Forlaux, thank you very much." The good doctor sounded annoyed.

A sigh. "Doctor, look. You have to let us do our jobs. We have our wildlife team here. Your subject is being very complacent and calm. We're not hurting him. Now let Marcia finish your face."

"Your putting make-up on him!?" An incredulous Dr. Forlaux. "You have no idea how he'll react to that."

"This brand has been animal tested in the past, sir, before the bleeding hearts passed laws on that," the voice deadpanned.

Leo squinted, trying to make out faces. Everything seemed blurry. He could see blurs of white and blue and gray and brown. Probably clothes. No faces. He was effectively blind. Nothing was naturally this bright. Were they pointing the lights directly in his face?

"If anything happens to him!"

"It won't." A door shut. "Stewart, will you go keep an eye on him. Hit him if you have to." Laughter.

"Gladly." The door closed and opened again.

"Alright, Lenny, that looks good. Get him some water. Wouldn't want to dehydrate him and give the doctor a heart attack." Giggling and then a water bottle thrust in his face. He drank gladly. The lights were killing him.

"It's just so freaky," a feminine voice sounded next to his ear. The darkness accentuated his hearing, but light seemed to dim that sense as well. "He moves so much like a human."

"Don't get attached, Lily. You can't keep this stray."

"Of course he's tame. All the heat from the lights are probably making him sleepy," somebody joked. Leo despaired, though. He was slugging; his body and his thoughts felt like he was fighting through drying cement.

The female, presumably Lily, huffed. "I'm just sayin'."

"Yeah, yeah. Kinda boring. After stalking lions for months, something so seemingly tame tied up like this… It's a little insulting."

Laughter. "You're impossible."

The door opened, hitting the wall with a thud. "Ten minutes and this is where we're at? Get moving! Let's try to do at least one job on time this month, yes?"

Yes sir's sounded around the room. He heard footsteps storming away. The room was subdued.

"Make-up is finished," a male, had to be Lenny, quietly said.

"He looks great, Len. I think we need to move some of these lights still."

"Yeah, help me with this one."

Leo blinked the black spots away from his vision as a tiny increment of the heat focused on his face was removed and the heat started spreading on his arm. He lightly shook his head, but it wouldn't move too far. He could almost fall asleep from the heat if his heart weren't pounding frantically in his chest. Or was it? It felt like it. He wasn't sure of his own body.

"Alright, we're all set up here. The doctor should be arriving any minute."

"Pompous windbag," someone near him muttered.

Right on time, Leo heard Dr. Forlaux's voice.

"See, he's fine?"

"Hm, yes, we'll see," Dr. Forlaux said.

"So, this airs tomorrow night. That's a little bit of editing time, so if you mess up a few times, it's okay. We want to do a few takes of a few different things, anyway. But just act natural and stay calm. You'll do fine."

"Yes, of course," Forlaux snapped. "I have a PhD. I think I can handle the simple task of talking."

"Of course, sir. Can you stand here? Good, that's good. Okay, look right over there. Are the note cards clear?"

"The writing on them is certainly big enough. I'm not that old," Dr. Forlaux said. He sounded more emotionless than offended, although there were still so many lights on Leo that he couldn't see the doctor's face.

"These are the lines we sent you. You'll go through them first and then we get into the facts you want to share based on our questions. Anything extra you want to add in, that's fine. We'll finish with our closing lines. We're just going to go through this in order and then we'll re-do any scenes we need to or if you want to add in something more. We won't have time to send you the final version before it airs, but we can send you close to the final version if you wish."

"No, no," Forlaux said. "Let's just get this over with."

"Sounds great," the directing voice grated out. "Just breathe and don't speak too fast. Okay, are you all ready?"

"Yes, yes. I'm ready," Forlaux replied.

"Okay," the director said. "Clear set! And action in 5, 4, 3…"

Leo's heart dropped into his stomach. He had doomed them all.

~TMNT~

Raph stared in horror at the television screen. At some point, he'd sat down in shock. "Don," he whispered. At some point he realized that Don hadn't come. He forced his vocal cords to work again. "Don!" and on second thought he added "Mikey, Master Splinter!" Mikey and Master Splinter came quietly. Don came grumbling. His grumbling didn't last for long before he trailed off and thumped onto the floor. The knot of fear that grew each day they couldn't find Leo was suddenly suffocating and Raph had no idea if he was actually breathing or not. In the background, he vaguely registered the ringing of a shell cell, but it never crossed his mind to answer it. For the first time in days, Raph was still, couldn't move, and had no idea what to do. Hope was surely slipping away from them all.