A Rose by Any Other Name

Chapter 33 (Rose)

I'm so sleepy. Where am I?

I try to make sense of where I am by feeling with my hands.

Wait. I can move my hands again! I feel like I'm under a soft blanket. With my head sitting on a single pillow.

I hear heavy breathing next to me.

I open my eyes and look for the sound. I find Donnie sleeping, sitting in his swivel chair, with his head resting on his arms, laying on the bed.

I look at my arm. There is an IV sitting in the crook of my elbow. 

I decided to sit up. I prop my back against the wall with the pillow I was laying on. I'm careful not to wake up Donnie. 

He was sleeping like this last time. It doesn't look very comfortable. He's still wearing his battle shell. Should I take it off? Would that help him sleep better?

No i'm not going to touch him, that could wake him up. I pull back the blanket and look at my leg. 

The first thing I notice is the two bite marks. My leg looks like a dried up prune with two holes in the side. Can I even walk like this? 

I look at Donnie's arm. His looks bad but his probably had time to heal. It looks a little pruney but not as bad as mine.

I lean back against the wall and cover myself back up in the blanket. I don't really want to see my messed up leg anymore.

Donnie moves. 

I freeze up. He scared me.

Donnie rubs his eyes and stretches. He notices me staring and jumps back. 

"Morning." He says as startled as I am.

"Mhm." Is all I manage to get out.

Donnie bites his lip as he sits back in the swivel chair. 

"How's your leg?" He asks.

In answer to his question I simply pull back the blanket. My pruney leg greets him.

"Does it hurt? Can I look at it?" He asks, holding his hands out. 

I nod and lift my leg closer to him. Donnie looks at the bite marks and gently lifts my leg to inspect every possible angle.

"Do you think I can walk?" I ask. I really don't want to become crippled because of what Ryan did.

Donnie looks at my leg with a look of sheer guilt. "I don't know. My arm is really weak and my brothers cleaned it immediately. Because yours was infected I think your bite might've been affected worse." He says frowning.

I lower my head.

"Hey! Don't worry though! I came up with this." He grabs his gloves on the table and puts them on. "I think you'll like it." 

He does the same movement as before when he first showed me blueprints for my bow and arrows. It comes up with a blueprint he seems to have been working on with notes scribbled all over it in the worst handwriting I've probably ever seen.

It seems to be a robotic leg?

"Hey. There is no way I'm going to let you cut my leg off." I say pointing at the blueprints.

"No no! This is like my battle shell. It goes over your leg and is secured by cuff links that stick to your body." He points at some markings in the blueprints. "I started trying out different blueprints similar to this to try and fit onto my arm. If you like this then after I finish making it you can add different modifications to it and-" 

The rest of his words get muffled as I reach over the bed and hug him.

He doesn't know what to do so he lightly pats my back with one hand as the other is stuck out in the air like a scarecrow.

I pull back and both of our faces are beet red. 

"Sorry. I didn't know if you were a hugger or not but, no one has ever been this nice to me other than my foster parents and... I wanted to thank you. For the bow, and saving me (Twice)" I mumble *Twice* a little guiltily. "And now this? Thank you Donnie." 

Donnie fidgets with the gloves on his hands and nods vigorously. His face is very red and he turns away covering his face.

"Me and my brothers were wondering...Maybe if you were ok with it...Possibly if you wanted to.." He says, unsure of how to word it.

"Just tell me already!" I say giggling. 

"If you would like to stay with us? I mean, your leg is gonna need some treatment and we don't know how you would be able to get here and back to your apartment if you wanted to visit and-"

"Of course I want to stay." I say, leaning back against the wall again. "You guys are amazing and I'm so glad I met you guys."

Donnie moves his hand and smiles.

"Then do you want to get started on your robot leg then?" Donnie asks me.

I smile. "Always."