Abducted (rottmnt fanfic)

Caregiver

Donnie's pov:

Time had started to blend together, I had no idea if it was day or night or how long I'd been there. I'd attempted to keep count, but they had an inconsistent schedule and there was a strange shift system. They didn't seem to know some of the more complicated signs, but they recognized my finger spelling, so I communicated with them through that. I barely had any time to just sit and think at that point, so I was starting to lose touch with my own thoughts. Who could reminisce about the past or ponder their plans for the future when they were solving complex math problems to prove their sentience? Book reports and social experiments left little room for self exploration and individual expression, so I gave up after a few sessions. It wasn't all bad though, I had a steady supply of food and water whenever I requested it from my caregiver and I was able to teach them how to properly care for me. They understood better than the other scientists what I needed and I trusted them at that point. They were a safe person, the only safe person there. I was currently being held by my caregiver after a relatively easy test, they must've thought it was difficult for me from some sort of body language misunderstanding. "You did so well, buddy, I'm proud of you." they patted my head gently.

"D-O-N-N-I-E." I signed to remind them, I didn't want to continue being referred to by anything other than my name. 

"Right, Donnie, sorry." They laughed softly as they brought me back to my room. "The others might not believe in you, but I think you know exactly what's going on, what all of this means. Once we prove you're a person, they'll let you go back wherever you came from, I'm sure of it." I nodded, listening to my caregiver. We passed by a reflective surface and I could see that the eyebrows on my mask had started fading. Instead of the strong black they'd been, they'd started to blend into the normal purple of my mask and disappear slowly. They didn't seem like they'd last a month in the lab, but I didn't even know how long it'd been, how long I'd be there, or how long it would take for it to be a month. I had been drawing eyebrows on for a long time but now, I didn't have anything to draw them on with. I wasn't given many belongings and my requests for anything to draw with were denied unless they were testing my abilities to do certain things, the writing utensils were taken immediately after. How did I even end up there again? No, I knew how I got there, it was ridiculous to think I didn't know. I'd gotten there by... being taken somehow? My memory wasn't working the way it normally did, I should've been alarmed but I didn't have time for that. I had to find a way out to get back to my family. I sat down in my room as soon as we got there, my caregiver left and locked the door behind themself. Family, it felt like a distant concept at that point but I knew I had one. Splinter, Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo. Dad, Leo, Raph, and Mikey. I couldn't let myself forget, I had to remember no matter how long I spent there. 

I wondered where they were, if they missed me, if they were looking for me. Would dad even have noticed? Would any of them even notice? And even if they did, would they care? All I was good for was creating inventions, being the smart one of the group. If they needed something fixed, they'd probably care that I was gone, but would they care if they just realized I'd created robots that could do that for them in case I was busy when they needed something fixed? All of this was so complicated, none of it was making any sense. My caregiver was the one source of stability, they were helping me maintain my views of myself as a person. It was a miracle that I wasn't tired from the tests that time, it gave me time to think for once. I needed that time, I was finally processing what'd been happening. Test after test, intimidation from that one scientist that bothered me before, and constant observation of my behavior; that was what had been going on, that was what my life was now. I somewhat wanted to give up on trying to find a way out since it was just exhausting me and making it harder to maintain my ability to remember who I was and where I came from, but I knew it wasn't going to do me any good. The longer I stayed in the lab, the more likely it was that I'd never get home. I wasn't going to let myself just be an experiment, just a lab rat for them to test however they pleased, I was going to get out of there.