"Okay, all done. You were a trooper," Lee says, absentmindedly putting her stuff away. "You ready for the bad news?"

"The bad news?" Ed asks, finally sitting up and grunting a bit. He hands Kristen over to her mother.

"Mmm!"

"Well, 'mmm!' to you too, baby." Lee kisses her daughter's forehead and smiles when she giggles.

"There's a hole in my leg," Ed says. "How can it get worse?"

"Try standing up for me."

Not as easy as it sounds.

"Take a step."

Definitely not as easy as it sounds.

"Ed, just walk a little more for me."

"This will heal, right?"

She doesn't answer, just watches him move, her face in an odd deep-thought type grimace. Then she sighs. "That's what I thought."

"What?"

"Go ahead and sit back down," she says and he does. "Your quad was severely damaged from the infection, Ed. You lost a lot of muscle tissue . . ."

"What are you saying?"

"Listen Ed, you had so much necrotic tissue in there from the infection that had to be removed - and you're not exactly a starfish - we can't just remove a limb and hope it grows back. So, you've gotta just live with what's left. "

"What?!" All three of them shout. Ed, The Riddler, and Eddie.

Kristen, startled, whips her head over to look at him.

"Ed, permanent damage has been done."

"Not again," Eddie whines. "I don't want to be debilitated again."

What the hell?

"Shut it, Eddie," The Riddler says. "Not now."

"I made something for you that I think you'll need," Lee says and hands Kristen over to him, standing up. She leaves the pool house and heads out to the nearby shed where the pool equipment is kept.

"What you do think she's getting for me, Kristen?"

"Da!" is her answer, complete with a little clap of her upper hands. For once, she doesn't slap his face.