Well, I would tell you that this was the chapter I had mentioned almost completing on Chapter 14... but In reality that chapter was scraped... and the bits of it left, have been pushed to Chapter 17... It seams my estimate back on Chapter 6, was way off... Probably because I've left so much time since then and the story has progressed from the original outline.

Chapter 16: Lab Rat

A white hospital room showed on the tablet in Don's hand. Leo was sitting in the corner, on the floor. With a odd device placed on the right side of his head.

'Alright... I need you to write your name... Can you do that?' Said a female doctor as she placed a peice of paper and a pen in front of Leo.

Leo picked up the pen, it shook in his hands. In fact, Leo's entire body shook. Don paused the video as he read a note that had shown on the side of the screen. Mentioning that the doctor thought Leo was shaking because his mind was sending wrong signals to his body... 'In equivalent' Don thought frowning 'Leo was in a constant state of seizure'. It also noted that it was being treated with the device on the side of his head; in a attempt to 'retrain' his mind in order to send the correct signals to his body. Don frowned at the thought, but started the video up again.

"Write your name" Came the simple command, spoken gently but firmly and the woman pointed to the paper, as if she was speaking to a child one that needed shown what to do. Don shook his head, it looked pretty obvious to him that Leo had no idea what was going on. But to Don's surprise Leo began writing on the paper.

He placed five mostly straight, if shaky, lines on the paper. Then he looked up to the doctor again.

"Good!" She praised. " Can you do it again? Write your name."

This time he spent more time placing more lines. When he was finished, he set his head against the wall, looking as if he couldn't stay awake any longer.

"Thank you," The woman spoke, "Were done for now." The video cut off. The next screen was a picture of the paper Leo had written on. Don Ignored it for a moment reading the note on the side of the screen. The note mentioned running the words against every language in the ships database, with zero matches. Leaving the conclusion that the lines on the paper were just scribbles.

レオ

レオナルド

Don's mouth dropped open as he looked at the paper. Yeah the set of symbols was shaky, childlike, but he could clearly make out the Japanese forum of Leo's name. 'Their database must be incomplete... well for that matter why would they have the languages of any society not space faring.' Don thought logically reasoning how he could read it the words on the page but they couldn't find a match for it.

"Donnie... ... Donnie? Don?" April's voice came from the other side of the door with a knocking. Eventually she just opened the bedroom door and entered the room. "Breakfast is ready"

Don mumbled something in response not bothering to look up from the page he stared at. 'he wrote his name... it was right in front of him this entire time, but no one could translate it?' Don thought not believing what he saw.

"Don?" She sighed... " Maybe it would be nice if you joined for breakfast? I heard Leo fighting with Raph already and I just thought spending some time with him would be good, for Leo?"

"I'll spend time with Leo once I fix him..." Donnie said more to himself than April. Determined more than ever that Leo's memories were somewhere in his head, he just couldn't actively remember them.

Don continued reading for a while longer noticing that after several months of attempts, the doctor determined that Leo was unable to tell them his name. A few days after a note was made that she was moving the file under the name; Mur'rius.

Don put down the computer... Deciding he had read enough for now, actually looking at Leo would probably help more than further studying anyway... on top of that, Don was ready to jump right in and try some of his own ideas to help jog Leo's memory.

"Hey Leo..." Don called from the hallway. Noticing that everyone appeared to of finished eating, Casey was putting away leftovers and April was washing the dishes. Raph was no where to be seen.

Leo turned his head instantly looking at Don as if questioning what he needed.

" I was hoping if you'd let me look at you... There's only so much I can get out of the computer without doing so." Don said as gently and politely as possible... Hoping Leo still didn't have the same aversion to doctors as he use to.

Leo seamed to hesitate, as if he wasn't quite sure if Don was trustworthy anymore. The turtle took a Deep breath, before responding. "Sure." Leo stood and followed Don, back into the downstairs bedroom.

"I'd like to start with just a simple physical if that's OK. " Don said, deciding it would be best to simply tell Leo what he wanted to do before doing it.

Leo nodded to tell him that was fine, and so Don began.

"I was curious, the woman you brought with you..." Don started having noticed that she was the same woman in the video. "Was she one of the doctors that treated you? Or just a nurse?" Don asked trying to make small talk, as he checked Leo's reflex actions.

"She was the only doctor that treated me." Don looked up at the response... yeah he had to admit he hadn't seen any other doctor on the reports or in the video's it was just...

"She looked way too young to be a doctor NOW... Let alone one three years ago. " Don commented, changing tests.

Leo shrugged. "Mintilians get that a lot... They start careers earlier than most species."

"Why's that?"

Leo looked at Don for a minute as if trying to decide if Don was really interested, or just trying to be polite and get Leo to talk. Leo shrugged then as if deciding it didn't matter either way.

"Their species use to live very short lives. With a average lifespan of 35 years, they had to go though training faster... Eventually, they.. uh... I think she said they as a society decided to genetically re-engineered themselves to live three times that. But then didn't change their teaching methods to match the new age range." Leo spoke calmly, although it was obvious this wasn't his area of specialty.

Don was surprised at the answer, it sorta made sense... if the species had the capability to do so, but that was impossible on earth. Don shook his head unsure as to weather he should be happy with the answer or not; the question had been asked in the hopes Leo would give him more than a one word answer. That worked, however, trying to determine Leo's thinking capabilities, by his response, apparently didn't work when Don himself didn't know the answer. Don chided himself he should of logically seen that coming before asking the question. 'Oh well' Don said simply making a note of the mistake for future reference.

Don worked in silence for a while longer, stopping the full physical to focus on Leo's head. Making Leo open his mouth so he could see if there had been damage to his teeth.

"So.. the blade didn't go deep enough though your cheek to hurt your teeth?" Don questioned, knowing from the report that the blade had damaged several teeth, yet... Here Leo was with all his teeth.

"No... I opted to get damaged teeth surgically replaced." Leo said almost daring Don to determine witch ones were real or fake.

"Ah " Don said realizing that Leo implied he had chosen that surgery. Meaning Don hadn't read the report far enough along to see optional 'cosmetic' surgeries that were done after he'd recovered."What about your eye?" Don asked shining a light into it.

"Was reconstructed, and fully functional."

Don was silent a while longer, examining the scars that ran over Leo's head. "I read that they had to use pieces of metal to hold the bones in your face together as they healed... were those ever removed?"

"No... I was told they wouldn't HAVE to be removed unless they start bothering me... I didn't really want my face cut open again, so they were never removed."

"OK" Don's simple answer came, it was obvious Leo didn't like talking about that part of his injury. "You know, I'm interested as to why you still have scars on your face at all? I mean you were asking me yesterday for a 'dermal regenerator' so why weren't they able to just repair the scaring?" Don asked changing the topic slightly.

"Mintilian technology is not perfect... The dermal regenrator, works best on shallow cuts." Leo paused looking at Don who stayed silent, wanting a more through answer. Leo sighed before continuing; "Kiyalynn was more concerned about repairing the deeper damage than keeping the surface from scaring; knowing that their technology could remove the scars at any point later... That was a cosmetic surgery left to my choice... I decided to keep them."

"Why would you want to keep scars on your face?" Don asked shocked that Leo would of even considered such a thing.

Leo stayed silent, for so long Don was sure he wasn't going to answer and thus started in on one of his idea's to bring Leo's memory back.

"I've never seen myself without them. " Came Leo's answer eventually, barely audible. " They are a reminder that I have a past. That, I survived something I never should of been able to."

Don understood then, the scars had become part of who Leo was now... and he and his brothers would just have to get use to seeing them.

Don focused back on his work then, using a mild amount of electric shock on Leo's head, as well as a few other techniques he'd researched.

"Stop..." Leo said firmly after a hour of failed tests and attempts. " Don... Enough."

Don made no attempt to stop. Leo stood up then, forcing his way past Don.

"Don... I know your trying to help... but I've had enough for today." Leo said holding his hand to his head, Don looked like he was ready to argue. "Don... I'm not a Lab Rat, I'm not going to sit here for days on end letting you fry my head... Its time for a break... and I really think you should take one too. You seam to be... unhealthy obsessed." Leo said sounding much like the Leo who use to drag Don away from his projects in order to make sure he ate, and slept. "Don... Go get something to eat, and get some sleep... There's nothing... NOTHING, time sensitive about my condition at this point."

Leo left the room, he wasn't in a mood to argue about this.

Don sighed... Looking at the time. 'well... I guess I should be thankful he was patient enough to sit here this long' Don told himself disappointed that nothing had worked... and wondering when Leo would let him try again. Don sat back down into a chair, grabbing the computer and continuing his research.

Note; I wanted to place the Japanese in this page... but I do not read/write it... So in reality, its a copy and paste from Google Translations (with a font change trying to make it less readable, and bulky) ... I really have no idea if it is correct or not, so bear with me if you can read it, and it says something completely other than what it should.

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