Lost in the Fight

Chapter 25 - Donnie's Decision

Less than a minute had actually passed since his big brother had stopped breathing, but to Mikey, it had seemed like hours. It was as if everything was moving in super slow motion and he was helplessly watching from afar. Even if there was something he could do to help, his legs would've prevented him from doing so. They suddenly refused to move, paralyzed with fear. It was a wonder they were even able to hold him upright.

The whole thing was just too much for Mikey to take.

It was too much for Raph to take, as well. He finally broke his silence and went right into irrational mode.

"No! You can't do this to us, Donnie! You can't just quit like this! I won't let you die on us!" Raph shouted, readying to beat down on Donatello's chest, the same way that his youngest sibling had done to bring their genius brother back to life on that rooftop.

The hotheaded turtle wasn't about to lose his little brother. Not so long as there was breath in his own body. He'd beat the shell out of the Grim Reaper himself if he had to.

No one was taking his brother away.

No one!

As Raphael raised his balled up hands into the air, Leonardo stepped in front of him and grabbed him by the arms just in time to stop his red-clad brother from needlessly smashing his fists down into Donatello's broken plastron.

When Raph violently tried to tear himself away from his older brother, Master Splinter's voice bellowed out.

"Yamete!"

Still, the temperamental turtle attempted to break free. It wasn't that Raphael hadn't understood his father's command or recognized the intensity behind it. He had just chosen to ignore it. If his father wanted to punish him for his disrespectful actions, then so be it, but he wasn't going to just stand there and let his younger brother die.

As Raph continued to struggle in Leonardo's grasp, he felt a pair of paws latch onto his shoulders. The grip was strong, but surprisingly gentle, as was the voice that subsequently followed.

"Raphael, listen. The heart monitor. It is still beeping."

With that said, both Raphael and Michelangelo stared at the green line jumping across the heart monitor screen. The two of them were trying to process what Leonardo and Master Splinter had already figured out.

"He's holding his breath," Leo informed his brothers.

It took a few moments for the two shocked turtles to realize what their oldest brother had said, and longer still to figure out what it had actually meant. When it finally dawned on them that Donnie wasn't about to die, Raph and Mikey eagerly looked back down at their injured brother.

As though he had heard Leo's words and felt all their gazes now upon him, Donnie's chest ever-so slowly began to rise and fall and the familiar sound of his wheezing filled the room once more.

Again, Leonardo was struck with a sense of déjà vu, only this time, it was far, far sweeter.

They all watched as Donatello opened his eyes.

--------------------------

When he finally found the courage he had been searching for, he allowed himself to inhale and exhale again, gulping down air as deeply as he could. There was no mistaking that there was something seriously wrong with his lungs, but he didn't have a clue what could be causing him such discomfort.

All the more reason to open your eyes . . .

Drawing in one more shallow breath, he forced his eyelids apart, but he instantly had to narrow them into a squint to limit the light now filtering in. As to be expected, the overhead lighting was glaringly bright, but it wasn't rendering him completely blind like the last time he remembered waking up. He blinked several times to adjust his vision and the objects surrounding him soon became less and less blurry.