Hey everyone I'm back! Glazier Blue and I have come up with another thriller/hurt+comfort/family story for you all! This time it's about Donnie! I will try my best to update on regular basis due to work and the fact we are still planning on where this is going to go, but overall I hope you enjoy!

Also a thanks to XxTurtletrancerxX for helping with the editing stage.

"Next!" The screeching voice yelled making them all flinch in fear.

Donatello remembered that he could feel the ground under him sway from side to side. Had he been able to move he likely would have fallen over. As it happens he couldn't move at all. He wasn't allowed to move, nor were any of the others for that matter. The one Donnie only knew as 'the Keeper' wouldn't let them. Vaguely Donnie thought about how odd it was that he couldn't see the Keeper's eyes. They were covered over, and a part of him was grateful for that. When they were staring at him Donnie felt nothing less than the terrified teenager that he was, the man had a way of looming over him blocking out all light in the world, which in this case only included a couple dim light bulbs hanging just above them. Why was he doing this to them?

"Next."

He was next! He caught the glint of something silver in the Keeper's hand and Donnie knew it was for him, and yet he couldn't object... None of them could object. He couldn't talk or hardly breathe. Then he felt it. The place clawed and cut away into his body, then the burning started. When he was finished, Donnie's vision blurred. Whether it was from the pain or he was just trying to blink back some tears, but he was aware that something cold was been placed around his neck...

Tick, tick, tick... on the end of a chain. His count down had started.

"Next," Another one had just run out of time.

He moaned and slumped, his legs failing completely as the space kept spinning. But Donatello was more concerned for the many others that were here. They were lined up like cattle. He remembered another stood beside him bound with his arms high, such as he was. The other couldn't have been much older than him... They had never spoken, and yet the constant glances provided some kind of strange comfort. They were both trapped in this Hell.

"Next," it was now this one's turn.

Donnie would never forget the kids bulging eyes that were filled with terror as the Keeper burned off the others skin. Donnie remembered watching in horror as it melted away for a new skin to materialise. The kid screamed, choked, before dropping as the fog made him forget and then he fell quiet. "I'm so sorry," Donnie could only mumble silently. It was all he could do.

Tick, tick,tick...

"Next," The Keeper looked at him again. Donnie knew that he would again be 'next' and his time would run out!

He was going to die today, he knew it. It was an astoundingly clear thought that pierced through everything else, and the fear of it hit him like a big black truck! Then something happened and all Donnie remembered was telling himself to run! He knew he couldn't run away from a bad dream, but that wouldn't stop him from trying. The world spun so hard and fast he couldn't figure out which way was up in time to stop his stomach from heaving.

Everything was left behind as he began to run as fast as he could... Soon silence fell, everything was gone and it was as cold as shell. A deathly chill ran through him and he shivered trying to pull his arms up to fend off the sudden cold. At least he wasn't having that nightmare any more. Donnie was sure if he woke up he would find himself safe at home in his bed, or more likely slummed over on his lab table.

"Come on Donatello! Wake up!" It was only then that Donnie's brain kicked itself into gear. He shook his head and the world started to come back to him. The purple clad turtle groaned, automatically his hand travelled to his head trying to relieve the pressure. "Ok what new fresh hell have I been subjected to this time?" He moaned miserably. Opening his eyes Donnie found himself looking up at the night sky. There were no clouds, no wind... nothing. Everything was still. The entire city was dead. A consistent bombardment of images burned into his mind as he tried to shake out the nightmares... Donnie blinked a few times before he could turn his head to see that he was surrounded by clutters of garbage... He was at the garbage dump!

Specifically one of the older DSNY garbage dumps, it was Donnie's favourites to salvage from. Still used but not too active, it was the perfect balance. He has spent so much time at this garbage dump looking for things to reuse, but not recently... "How did I get here?" Was he coming to this place in his sleep now? The last word eased out in a long, frustrated sigh, for he didn't actually remember coming to the dump. It wasn't safe to be out alone at the moment, Leo had said so. "Leo!" Donnie sat up too quickly making his head spin. Then he was gasping. Donnie suddenly realised that there wasn't enough air in his lungs. He was choking! Quickly but reluctantly he had to lay back down, returning his scaly body to the cold mud until his breath came back, hopefully more memories would soon follow.

He had been out with his brothers. That was the last thing he remembered clearly. They were together, trying to take control of the current crisis…. Whatever that had been…. But then what happened? No matter how fast they were running out of supplies at home he was never frustrated enough to do something stupid, like disobey orders and go off to the junk yard on his own. Maybe something had happened and they got separated? What if his brothers were out on their own somewhere? What if they were hurt? Or maybe someone jumped him? No. If that had happened he would be waking up seeing the walls of a cell right now, not the sky.

Again Donnie tried to sit up, slowly this time, as his bottom half sank deeper into the muddy pit he had been laying in. His head was pounding and every muscle, every bone in his body, had turned to jelly... and he still couldn't hear anything except a light buzzing sound...where was that coming from? Either way it was causing the dull throbbing headache to build up behind his eyes. What seemed to bother him more was his hands... Pins and needles vibrated through the tips of his fingers. His arms numb from the lack of circulation, except his wrists. They both hurt and they looked swollen, but mostly they were filthy and soaking wet in ice cold mud from head to toe, in a garbage dump. Nice... At least it was Summer for New York at the moment. Had it been winter, he wouldn't have been waking up at all and oh gosh he was thirsty! The crisp cold air grate at his throat making him wish for liquid, yet his gut ached like he had just eaten all of his brother's pizza at once. Not likely. But the feeling also made even the prospect of drinking a dread.

After some time contemplating, which mainly consisted of him staring blankly up at the sky, he willed himself to stand. The wet mud pit came up as high as his ankles. It was going to be a struggle to reach the Exit. Thankfully he knew where he was. He knew this place like the back of his shell, but the opening exit of the high fence seemed to be taking a very long time to reach as dizziness consumed his vision. He couldn't be walking in a straight line... Could he?... His limbs were so light, and yet every step he took seemed to drag. It was a weird sensation. Donnie gasped as pain suddenly shot up his leg, tumbling forward he caught himself before his face hit the dirt again... He should call his brothers, tell them where he was. At the very least he should tell them that he was alive. Only when Don went to reach for his shell-cell he realised it was gone... which meant his tracker was gone to! Oh shell this was NOT good. If his brothers had been out looking for him, they wouldn't have had a clue where to start... and running around blindly looking for a brother was a good way to put yourself in danger. Out of all his brothers how could he be the one to lose his phone! It was their number one rule. Or had someone taken it? But that wasn't all that was missing. All his miss-matched gear he remembered wearing before was also gone! Saturated in mud he stood in only his usual knee pads, arm pads, and hopefully still purple mask.

Not that it was hard to figure out, but Donnie decided to make it official and quickly concluded that he was sick or injured... Probably both. Either way all he could hear was that buzzing. It blocked out all other sound from the street. Buzzing? No... it was more a... a ticking ...like a clock. That was strange. "I wonder what the time is?" He looked at his watch only to find that that too was missing... Then where was the ticking coming from? It sounded close by...Oh it could be his heart beat! Just the normal rapid beating of his blood pounding in his ears… He must be in shock... Although it was odd that he had the presence of mind to even know that he was in shock. Donnie decided to take it as a good sign.

He had to get out of here. He must have been gone for a good few hours since their last patrol. His family would be worried to death about him. A sudden painful attack of the shivers under his shell caused him to gasp. He was going to catch his death first if he stayed out here much longer and decided all these very important questions would have to wait, at least until he got home. He had to find his brothers first. He hoped they were in better shape than he was.

Donnie somewhat believed that Leo and Raph were going to have his shell for this since they are very overly protective. With some effort he pulled himself to his feet again as the lit up EXIT sign continued to sway in and out of his vision. Was this how being drunk felt? The genius hadn't had much experience in drinking alcohol. That was Raph's thing. But he imagined being intoxicated pretty much felt like this. Why would anyone willingly want to feel like this is insane!

Don stumbled his way out of the rubbish pile into a dark street. He didn't know what to make of the day he had had so far, and he had no idea what to expect from the rest of the night... All he did know was that he was in no shape to climb a building right now. In his current state that would be suicide. He would have to take the long way home, down the back alleys, and just hope he didn't run into anyone on the way, which at the moment seemed more than possible to accomplish as the feeling of isolation grew. There was not one soul to be seen, human or otherwise, which was pretty unusual for the city that never sleeps.

But the streets didn't just feel empty, they were also swaying, like the deck of a ship in a hurricane. Donnie knew it was him he just couldn't walk straight as the nausea increased. The street lights above him spun as he looked up. He didn't even realise he was falling again until he caught himself on the side of a car.

Struggling to catch his breath, the teen caught a glance of his reflection in the black wind-shield... What he saw made his breath catch slightly and the tightening in his gut increased. He really was a muddy mess, and a bloody one it seems! He gasped as he tried to wipe the dirt from his face but it was his eyes that stood out. The white of his eyes were huge... Almost bulging. And even with the filth and his mask the dark circles around them looked more like bruises, with cliché sunken cheeks to match. For some reason his lips were cracked, obviously from the cold. Don opened his mouth in drunken experimentation. He watched as a dot of blood pooled out of one of the lower cracks that slit open his bottom lip. The same sick kind of feeling gripped Donnie as he looked himself over. What had happened to him? And why could he not remember?

Pushing himself again, the turtle headed down the nearest dark alley he knew and back to the safety of the shadows. Almost right away more feeling in his limbs started to come back to him. When it did however, he wished it hadn't. At the beginning he was only shivering from the cold, but the icy air pressing against him only seemed to increase the sensation of the burning growing in his left thigh. It was spreading across his hip and down his leg... but when Don looked all he could see was a small puncture. There was some swelling around it, and thanks to the narrow light from off the street he could see that blood had already dried on the skin. It looked like a nasty bee sting... but it felt like someone was taking a blowtorch to his hip. It was probably infected from sitting in the garbage dump. "Marvellous! Another mystery to freak out about and solve later," the genius mumbled. He would normally have questions coming out of his ears, but his brain was too spaced out at the moment... was this how Mikey felt? No wonder he could never focus!

It took some time... way too much time… but Donnie stumbled further down the alley using the wall to guide him until he found what he was looking for. The storm drain cover called out to him like a life line. He didn't even have the frame of mind to check that the surrounding area was clear before he slipped down into the sewers. Even with the help of the ladder it wasn't at all a graceful landing. Again the turtle found himself on all fours shaking uncontrollably. He may not remember what had happened today, but he was already sure that it wasn't good.

On the way Donnie thought about what was coming...Oh he was in cataclysmically BIG trouble! They weren't meant to separate on patrol, not in the current situation they were facing. He could have been seen, or taken, or even killed lying out in the open in the garbage dump for all those hours. When they asked what happened what was he going to say? That he didn't remember? Oh that was going to go down well!

It was a miracle he knew where he was going. But luckily he had installed security cameras to pinpoint which tunnel to take to the lair. He wasn't far from home... but his steps seemed to drag more than before. The short burst of adrenaline that got him up was fading while his migraine only grew. "Almost there, hold on," he ordered his body. Hopefully Splinter and Leo and Raph would hold off giving him a hard time till after he felt better.

It felt like forever but soon the lair entrance was just around the next corner. He was almost home. Over there was the main door that entered straight into the main living quarters. With a short surge of warm homely energy Donnie pulled back the pipe that released and tripped the switch, the secret door automatically flew open and to his great relief the teen saw his brothers a few seconds before they saw him.

Pushing his dizziness aside and shaking around his frozen limbs he kept his eyes on his three brothers .They all just seemed to be standing around in the entrance glaring at one another. Leo had his shell to him, standing in such a way that was blocking Raphael from leaving the lair, while Mikey was trying to get in between the two. When the door opened, everything suddenly stopped dead and three pairs of wide eyes turned to greet him. Donnie got the feeling that he had just interrupted something. The red and blue clad brothers had been in the middle of a somewhat heated discussion... probably about him not checking in. There expression was that of shock and... oh dear, fury. Like him they had inexplicably become frozen. Even Mikey hadn't said a word as of yet.

A full five long lingering seconds passed before finally Donnie plucked up the courage to break the ice. "Guys I can explain everything... well sort of... I think." He wanted to say. However when he went to actually speak out loud he found his throat had seized up. Wiping a hand about his sore throat he tried again, but this time his brothers beat him to it.

"DONNIE!" Mikey yelled at the top of his lungs before pouncing on top of him. Well at least his hearing had come back somewhat. The next thing Donnie knew he was being surrounded by coloured green turtles as they all gathered towards him. "Donnie where the shell have you been!" Don almost staggered backwards as his younger brother practically sobbed onto his shoulder with a bone crushing hug before the poor guy could noticed the trail of mud the genius had brought home with him. "Whoa Don you're a mess! Are you ok? Are you hurt?" the orange clad spoke a million miles an hour until a blue clad cut him off and swam into view.

"Donatello what...?" The shaky voice trailed off. Seemingly dazed the smart turtle looked to face the voice which apparently belonged to a mortified Leonardo. Other than his name Leo seemed to be at a complete and utter loss of what to say to him, but his face said it all. He was clearly lost between his anger, his indignation, and his joy. After a moment the big brother settled on relieved as he took Donnie into his arms, not caring how much mud he was covered in. Obviously he was still deciding what to say first? Donnie was sure he could see tears forming, but the leader held them at bay. Donnie felt a little taken aback by their reaction. He had only been missing a few hours. Yes they may have thought him dead with so much danger top side right now, but that was normally a last option after being missing for a few days, not a few hours.

Now it was Raph and his bulging eyes turned to swim into his line of vision. Donnie just knew he wasn't going to dull his razor sharp words, they were going to be delivered loud.

"We looked freaking everywhere for you!" Raph snapped.

…Yup loud. But there was something in his voice, a background tone that the genius knew his hot-headed brother only had when he was given a big scare. He could tell Raph wanted to hug him, but he was just too angry. "FIVE days Donnie! Five freaking days you couldn't get to a phone? We were just on our way to the Shredder's lair to search for ya!" He yelled more exasperatedly upset than angry now. "We thought that..." he trailed off not able to continue his sentence. All his words were getting sort of jumbled together into a long infuriated roll of anger and relief. Raph wouldn't admit it but he had waved goodbye to desperation and panic after the first day of his brother's absence. They knew he must have been in trouble, but now he was here and very much alive, they wanted answers, and they better be bloody good ones. Raph took a menacing step into his brother's personal space before continuing. "What the shell happened to ya bro!?"

Donnie wanted to explain, he really did, but he couldn't say much as all his memories were just one big mass of images from the museum of horror collection... And another, his body was quickly catching up with his mind that seemed to be drifting off somewhere into outer-space... the sound of ticking lingered somewhere in the background as his brothers were growing further and further away from him.

"Well isn't it obvious he swam back here through a mud slide?" Mikey, not able to just stand on the side lines, tried to defuse the situation with his humour... But he too was displaying tears of relief without any shame. He wouldn't let Raph take a swing at his brother despite how much worry he had caused. If Donnie hadn't checked in it was only because he couldn't have.

Five days? What did he mean five days? Five as in the number that came after four? Five as in almost a week? No that couldn't be right. He had just been topside with them a few hours ago! Donnie didn't seem to understand anything that was going on, or be able to link coherent thoughts together, or formulate any words into a reasonable explanation. He tried. Donnie opened his mouth, just like you were supposed to do when you talked. Nothing. He tried again. He had to use this opportunity. The purple turtle may not get to explain himself properly later, because pain instantly shot up his dry throat cutting him off... He had to try again... Judging from the look his brothers were giving him, he could tell that they weren't satisfied with just his blank expression. No this time they wanted a detailed explanation... Well that was a first! Donnie almost wanted to smile... or was that just the space growing between his brain and everything else around him. The genius knew he had to say something... anything before he was too far gone to care about anything else other than the burning pain growing in his head and in his leg.

"I... I don't... have enough...time." There. He had said something... He wasn't sure why he had said that, but somehow he knew it to be true and why was it getting dark in here? He thought.

"Time for what? Donnie what happened to you?" Leo asked slightly surprised at this vague declaration. Donnie was a lot of things, vague was not one of them.

The shock of his brother's return was over; it was only now that they seemed to notice under all the dirt that Donnie did in fact have injuries. Leo gasped as he looked more closely at him. How bad he was they didn't know yet, but it would explain his current zombie like behaviour. Something had happened to Don, something awful. They could also tell from the smell... Yes there was a nasty stench of garbage, but with Donatello that was something they were used too. No it was the rusty metallic smell of blood coming off of him that burned their nostrils. This wasn't only bad, it could end up being the closest thing to true horror. Raph also seemed to pick up on this, his expression wilted away from anger to concern. The round of questions would have to wait until after he was whisked off to the infirmary and checked over. "Donnie?" Leo was just about to reach out for his brother when he noticed his already unfocused eyes glaze over before he started to sway.

Donnie wasn't sure what was going on, only that his dizziness had not gone... No in fact ignoring it had just made it worse. The images of his brothers gathered around him suddenly faded and he started to feel his body slump towards them. The pain in his head spiked, stabbing a hole into every intelligent thought he might have had and fogged his mind up with fuzz and nothing else. It seemed that now he was in the safety of his clan his body didn't seem to care about anything else.

"Donnie!" They all jumped. Raph worked his way out of his state of shock quick enough to duck under his brother's arms and catch him before he hit the floor.

"Donnie... buddy wake up!" The hot head yelled, holding him securely off the Lair's floor. He willed his brother to open his eyes but instead Donnie's head fell limp onto Raph's shoulder. The darkness spread throughout his brain forcing him back into the world of nightmares.

Leo quickly rushed up next to them, supporting Donnie's head up while checking the pulse in his neck. He could feel it under his fingertips, beating rapidly out of control.

Mikey choked, finally rocketing out of his shocked condition and launching forward close enough to see the last of the olive green drain away from Donnie's complexion. "What's happened to him?! Leo what's happening?" Donnie heard Mikey's scared voice cry out.

"Go get Splinter!" He heard Leo yell, and then there was no more.