Don looked up from the computer screen as a tall, blonde lady walked cheerfully by, smiled to him in passing and said good morning, the same way she'd done every day now for the last three weeks.

"Good morning," Don nodded and reached for his coffee cup.

"Do you need anything, Mr. Donatello?" she asked him politely as she opened her desk drawer and got out the paper work she'd be busying herself with this morning.

"No, I'll be fine, Miss Henshaw," he smiled and returned his attention to the words on the screen.

This was just oh, so weird. Not only was he just nineteen, he was also a turtle. Why would they hire him?
This is something that would only happen in bad TV-series...he had thought for himself the first day he entered the office.
Everybody was all smiles, all politeness, all friendliness. All weirdness. So unusual for him.
Welcome to The Twilight Zone, he had thought when he walked past the coffee machines, the desks and the computers, wearing a suit like he was a man.

It had been damn hard to find a suit that would fit over his shell, but it was, after all, company policy that every guy wore a suit to the office. He was itching everywhere the first week, but after the second week he had gotten used to the suit, even bought more of them, since he couldn't use the same one every day.

He had been a busy, focused and clever worker, in fact he was so good that after the first week they decided to give him a secretary, Miss Henshaw, to help him with the little things so he could stop wasting his time and move on to bigger projects.
She started three weeks ago, and he had only been employed here for a month.

It felt pretty weird to work side by side with people who were supposed to be afraid of him. They didn't even stare...!

Of course, the others had laughed at the idea of Don becoming a nine-to-five guy with a suit and a briefcase.
After he got his first paycheck, they stopped laughing. None of them had ever had a steady income, and they were jealous when Splinter got proud of him.
Mikey wasn't as jealous as Raph and Leo, because he was too busy being happy about the fact that they actually had money.
He had great fun in the kitchen, finally being able to cook many of the things he had wanted to, but that they could never afford.

He's going to be even more happy now, Don thought, and smiled to himself, I have a raise coming up soon-- I can just feel it! I've been working my ass off in the last few days, and the boss has been bragging about me all week...

It was lunch. Don was standing by the coffee machine, chatting with his co-workers. They were going to go out to this new restaurant in a few moments.

"Mr. Donatello," someone said.

He turned around. "Yes?"

His boss looked at him and gave a friendly smile. "Hey, you know, you're pretty efficient! We're gonna make a lot of money off of you, sonny," he began.

Sonny. He called me sonny...weird.

His boss went on. "We're wondering if you want to join us on the annual hunt, so we can get to know you even better, " he punched Don playfully on his shoulder. "Waddaya say, sport? Just all of us guys out in the woods? A real man's weekend, doing some hunting?"

Hunt? Man's weekend? I'm not even a man.

He gave a confused smile. "Sure, that'd be... great, sir,"

"Alright," his boss nodded and punched him again. When the boss had gone back to his office, Brian, one of Don's collegues, leaned over to him.
"You're lucky, Don," he said, "not even Steven's been to the annual hunt,"

Not even Steven? But he works even harder than I do...well, almost. He's been here a lot longer than I have...

"Congrats, Donny," Brian said, and the others joined in. Don blushed and said thanks. This was obviously a great honour or something.
"Now we have something to celebrate," Brian pointed out, "so let's get to that restaurant."

Don came home from work in a good mood. He left in a bad mood. Why did they always have to ruin everything? Saying it wasn't safe, saying it was strange...
Of course, he had to admit, he'd been having some thoughts like that himself, but after what all the people at work had been telling about the annual hunt, he was actually looking forward to it.
Sure, he didn't like killing solely for fun, but he had to get that new raise...besides, his co-workers had told him that the cabin was by a large, blue lake, which was so clear, so clear that-- well, that's what they'd heard, anyway, from the few people who had been there.
Don wanted to see nature. All his life he'd been living here in New York, in the big city. It was bad enough above, but he had been forced to live in the sewers.
If he got that raise, they would be able to buy an apartment.
That would really be something. The others will be grateful for it later. They're just jealous now, he told himself.

It was the day of the annual hunt.
Don were in a car pool with his boss and two other high-positioned men from work. They were all in a cheerful mood, laughing and singing and telling each other old stories, mostly about the previous hunts. Sounds kinda fun, Don thought, as he tried to laugh in all the right places, tried to be witty too. He was a little nervous.

Finally, they got to the cabin, and it was everything like they had described, and more. The scenery was breathtaking.
It was simply beautiful.
Don stretched his arms over his head and took a deep breath. "It's pretty, eh?" his boss grinned contendedly. Don just nodded.

His boss rubbed his hands together. "Come on, Johnson, let's get out those guns and that beer, huh?" he said cheerfully.

"Right away," Johnson said and opened the trunk and handed a gun to Don's boss.

He wrinkled his nose. "We'll do the unpacking later," he said carelessly, "Waddaya say we start the hunt right away, Donny boy?"

"Hmm?" Don asked, turning around from the lake, "Oh, yeah, sure, OK." he answered.

"Well?" his boss said expectantly.

"Well, what?" Don said confused.

His boss pointed the shotgun at him. "Well, come on-- go ahead and run!"

Don walked into the sewer den. The others turned and got a surprised, and not to mention shocked look on their faces.
Don was all covered in blood. Leo silently noticed that his leg had a slight limp.

Mike stopped eating popcorn, and a few corns trinkled down on his plastron as his mouth fell open.
Raph stopped in his tracks as he came in from the dojo, all sweaty. He frowned at Don, but when he got no response, he looked questioningly at Leo, who just shrugged.

Don's face was expressionless as he quickly and absently glanced at his brothers.

"Don?" Mike finally asked, breaking the silence.

"Don't ask," he muttered and walked towards the bathroom.