Michaelangelo, You Made Me Smile (Book 3)

Crippled

When I opened my eyes, I saw grey with a hanging light. Monitors buzzed and dinged. My eyeslight flickered and everything became smudged for a second. My head still hurt, but I had enough sense to figure out that I was in Donnie's lab again. I don't remember passing out.

I sat up and saw that there were some clear tubes with red liquid in them connected to my arm. Following the tubes, I saw they were connected to a plastic bag that hung from a coat rack. Yes, a coat rack. The Turtles don't have equipment like hospitals. It took me a second to notice that is was blood in the bag.

Confused on why Donnie would do a blood transfer, I started to get up but pain shot up my leg as I started to. Then I remembered the glass and the cut. I wasn't sure how I could forget something that big. I laid back down and groaned, holding my forehead. The blood loss probably knocked me out. That's why I didn't remember anything.

Looking down to my leg, it was heavily bandaged in white. There was some blood that seeped through, but I could tell the bleeding long since stopped.

The metal was cold as I laid back again. My mind was in turmoil knowing that Mikey was still with Shredder and that our original plan didn't work. I hoped we figured out another one soon...

I looked around, wondering if anyone was going to visit me, to see if I'm okay. Nobody came for the first five to ten minutes, and I didn't want to get up to aggravate my leg. Then, I heard footsteps and Donnie came in. He had a bandage across his arm that also had dabs of blood seeping through, but it was smaller than my cut. His eyes looked glazed over in exhaustion.

"Donnie?" I asked.

He looked at me shocked, as if he didn't expect me to wake so soon. "Miki-- Cindy?"

"Yeah..." I sighed. "And you may as well call me the other name. You guys are more used to that than Cindy."

"Oh... Okay..." He sighed and came up to me, "Is your leg feeling any better?"

"Not really... What happened? And what was Julie? Or was that Julie?"

"It was me," a soft voice said from the entrance of the lab. I looked over at a regular Julie staring at me. "That was my full demon form... I'm still learning to control it. That's why Donnie's all scratched up."

"So you saved me when you were out of control? How did you know where the lair was?"

"I followed Donnie. I thought...." she paused. "I don't know what I thought. But that form is really hard to explain..."

"It is," Donnie answered. "When we found her the first time, we thought she was a Kraang creature from Dimension X. From Glitch, we found out that she was a human that touched a demon then mutated. Apparently, the Kraang were kidnapping humans and the demons, yes the demons, thought it was wrong."

Julie continued for a few sentances, "Kidnapping humans were their job, basically. For slaves and food."

Donnie looked at Julie and continued, "But the Kraang had Julie before they mutated her. Demons came in and tried to stop it. It was too late and when the Demons saw what they did, they left. After that, the Kraang locked her up where I found her a month later."

"And you've stayed with them since?" I asked Julie.

"Of course," she smiles. "Donnie saved me and they were a funny group. Once you get to know them, they reminded me of us when we were humans."

I didn't press more but looked away. Donnie came up and helped me up. "Do you need crutches?"

"They would help," I answered, nodding.

Donnie continued helping me up, letting my legs hang over the edge. Julie went over to get the crutches. When she gave them to me, I took them gently and thanked her. Looking at them warily, I set them on the floor.

With the help of Donnie, I hopped on my one good foot and leaned against the crutches with my bandaged leg up off the floor.

"Okay," Dobie observed. "Good. Now try walking."

Instead of taking a step, I lifted the left crutch, while leaning on the right, and shifted it forward. I hobbled closer to the left crutch then repeated the pattern with the right one.

"You know that's not how you do it, right?" Donnie asked.

"Yeah, but I broke my shoulder doing it the other way. So I had a broken shin and collarbone. It didn't work out."

"I remember that," Julie giggled, looking off in the distance. "You slipped on an ice puddle."

"And it wasn't fun!"

Donnie shook his head. "For now, walk normally. I don't remember there being any ice puddles down here."

I frowned, "We're underground right?" Donnie nodded. "And it's winter, right?"

Again, he nodded. "And since you're supposed to be smart, put two and two together! Cold air sinks, we're surrounded by sewer pipes, and wet are in the sewer!"

"Ice also doesn't form on moving water. The sewer water is always moving," Donnie pointed out.

"What about on the walk ways? Water gets on them and freezes."

The purple masked turtle frowned then sighed and turned away as if he didn't want to bother with the conversation anymore. Then he turned back to me and said quietly, "We heat the lair by floor. And I highly doubt you're leaving to go topside anytime soon with your leg the way it is. Besides, you need bed rest and not anything more."

"Oh." I blinked, embarrassed. "But.... I don't like bed rest..."

"Then you can babysit the kids!" Julie offered with a smile. "Naomi's been feeling a little under the weather with being stuck down here. Offer to watch the kids! They'll keep you busy."

Shocked at the proposal, I only stared at the two mutants in front of me as they nodded in agreement.

"Alright," I grinned. "I'll go ask."

With the last comment, I hobbled out of the lab to Naomi and Raph's room. I didn't think babysitting the twins would be that hard.