You're Needed Here Now, Donnie

Chapter 7 - Down and Out

*Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise.

*Author's Note: Here is chapter 7 of 'You're Needed Here Now, Donnie' and it's an emotional one. Thank you to all of you who have been reading my story. Please let me know if you like it. I would really appreciate it. Thanks, again!  ;) CJ

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Chapter 7 - Down and Out

Raph could see the fear that had lodged itself in Leo's eyes and he could tell that his older brother's ability to think straight had been severely compromised. Leo was just staring down at Donnie, wide-eyed and statue-like, as if someone had put the oldest turtle on pause.

Oh man! Fearless is wigging out. That can't be good . . .

"Donnie! This isn't funny! Open your eyes! Now!" Raph demanded, leaning over Donnie's disturbingly motionless form, still trying to convince himself that his younger brother was faking being hurt just to get back at them, but with each passing moment that the genius didn't show any signs of waking, Raph felt his grip on his own composure slipping through his fingertips. Raph reached down and cupped a hand on the side of Donnie's face that was rested against the concrete floor and pulled his brother's head towards him. He instantly found himself wishing he hadn't done so, because he could not help but to notice the heat radiating from Donnie's skin. The high temperature ironically sent a chill up and down Raph's spine.

"Aw, sewer bunnies! He's burning up, Leo!" Raph howled, showing the first outward signs of losing his self-control.

Leo completely understood how Raph was feeling inside, for he was also feeling that very same sense of coming unraveled at the seams. Especially upon hearing that Donnie was still suffering from a fever. Why Leo had let Donnie leave the lair when he knew that his little brother was sick was beyond him.

After a few prolonged moments of mentally cursing himself for about the hundredth time that night, Leo finally recovered from his initial shock of seeing Donnie unconscious and repossessed his ability to move once again. He bent over the opposite side of Donnie that Raph was stooped over and he pressed his shaky hand against the center of his brainy little brother's plastron. The aspirin that Donnie had claimed to have taken for his fever had not reduced his temperature the slightest bit. In fact, as near as Leo could tell without the aid of a thermometer, Donnie's fever was much higher than it had been earlier in the evening.

"Oh man. This is bad. We need to call Sensei," Leo muttered, reaching for his belt where he knew his T-phone was. He was desperately trying to remain calm, but seeing Donnie lying there hurt wasn't helping his cause any. His stomach was doing flip-flops and his heart was galloping like a race horse just out of the gait.

This is all my fault. All my fault . . .

As Leo fumbled with his T-phone, Raphael began repeating Donnie's name while he lightly tapped the unbruised side of his little brother's face with his free hand, trying to rouse the brainy turtle out of his wall-induced slumber. At first, Raph was gentle with his efforts to revive his injured brother, but when Donnie didn't respond to the repeated contact, Raph grew more aggressive and his tapping soon turned into something more. When softly hitting Donnie didn't do the trick, Raph's strikes suddenly grew harder and more frantic, leaving red welts behind that Raph couldn't see through his watery eyes.

The appalling sound of Raph slapping Donnie captured Leo's attention and he tossed his phone aside, forgetting all about calling Master Splinter. Not about to idly sit by and watch Raph beat the heck out of their already wounded brother, Leo lunged forward and attempted to stop Raph's manic assault on Donnie. Raph was quick to shove Leo's hands away so that he could seize hold of Donnie's shoulders and try shaking his little brother back into consciousness.