The Donnie Christmas Caper

Prologue

None of the turtles knew what had gotten into Donatello. His strange behavior confused them, the genius turtle always choosing December to suddenly duck into his lab and lock them out. He'd work in there for days at a time, often forgetting to eat or sleep, refusing to let his brothers enter the lab for any reason.

Donnie would spend all his time locked away in his lab until Christmas morning when he'd reappear and act as though nothing ever happened. When questioned, he'd simply shrug off their concerns or puzzlement and change the conversation.

The first year, they'd simply written it off as a normal Donnie distraction. Their brother often got deep into his work and forgot about everyone and everything else.

The second year, they tried to get Donnie out of his lab and to hang out with them, but they were firmly denied.

In the third year, the brothers had begun to see the forming pattern.

Now it was the fourth year and they were all frustrated with their brother's avoidance.

When they'd gone to Splinter in the hopes that their father would talk some sense into their brother and insist that he spend less time hiding inside his lab, their father had simply replied that it was Donnie's decision as to what he chose to do during the holiday season.

When they insisted that it was unhealthy, he replied that some things can seem more important than worrying about one's health.

When they continued to press him for information, he simply replied that he could not, in good conscience, force Donnie to stop what he was doing simply because they wished him around more.

When they asked him to elaborate, Splinter simply replied that what their brother wanted them to know, he would tell them. If Donnie wasn't giving them an explanation, then it was not his place to tell what Donnie clearly did not wish to be known.

It was clear that Splinter knew what exactly Donnie was up too, but would not be of any help.

At their father's request to leave Donnie to his work, Leo reluctantly agreed and the eldest soon stopped bringing the topic up altogether.

Raph gave up a while after, stating that there was no point in trying because they'd have no luck getting anywhere with their stubborn brother.

Mikey, however, refused to let the topic go.

He was both far too curious as to what was going on and worried that this cycle of avoidance wasn't going to end anytime soon. The youngest didn't like the sudden separation from the brother he'd always felt closest to and decided it was about time he solved this mystery.

If Donnie wasn't going to tell them what he was doing, then Mikey figured it was about time he put on his detective hat and found out the answer himself.

Dr. Detectivestein was on the case.