Disclaimer: I don't own the TMNT

A/N: Thank you for your patience through these harsh and harrowing times! Indeed, things are going truly manevolent! As I've told my other storygoers I've been suffering from a severe case of writers block recently but luckily it seems as though I may have been cured. Thanks are given at the end of the chapter to Leo Oneal and Reijiro. This chapter ended up being a lot longer than planned, hope that it's steady and not too boring for ya guys!

Chapter 5

Appreciation

I pushed off from the table and managed to follow Don to the old railcar that was his 'lab.' He was eager to show me his design for my new prosthesis.

Sitting down in his swivel chair he immediately began to type on his keyboard with a speed that any professional secretary would envy. I leaned my armpits on my crutches and watched him. These guys really are a pretty fascinating species. Obviously with all the mentalities of any human, with more physicality than most of the obese and overweight blokes in this country. I looked at his fingers, mareveling at how he could type so fast. His fingertips were so much bigger than my own, almost three times wider, that you would have thought that he'd hit two or three keys with each stroke. On closer inspection I saw that he was using an odd tecnique to avoid that, tilting his hands so that only the corners of his fingers were used. Pretty interesting.

Soon he had something on the computer screen. Admittedly I was dozing off a bit but I woke up at his excited exclamations. "See, see! I designed it all last night!" What I saw impressed me pretty well. He had an almost three dimensional diagram of the prosthesis that I would need, and it was much more than I had before.

Eagerly he pointed at the computer screen, showing me the highlights. "The one that you had was an IPOP, they're good for starters, but not for long term use. That's why you had to use the crutches so much, the IPOP design wasn't meant to be used for anything but the initial break-in. This one will be much nicer. See that on the top?" He pointed to the area of the prosthesis where my leg would be in connection to it. "It has a special padding, so you won't have to worry about pinching, cutting, or those horrible blisters that you had. Plus it uses a suction-type of connection, so you won't have to wear those straps on your legs anymore. I saw some like it on the internet, but I made some modifications so that it would be better, and have a less likely chance of losing the suction. It won't give you a leg-hickey either," he grinned, seeing the look on my face. "Let's just call it a gentle suction. One made for tender areas of the body such as the end of an amputated limb."

"Now here is the main body of it. It pivots smoothly on a point, much in the same way that a regular knee would. And because the entire leg is enclosed in this skin colored rubber 'bootie' that I'm going to design, you won't have to worry about sand and stuff getting in the kinks and joints. The 'calf' area is designed to mimick a regular leg. There's a steel rod in this area to simulate the shin bone but there is still plenty of support in the 'meat' of the calf. The 'joint' on the ankle is more of a ball and socket system, I found that easiest to accomplish. It has plenty of cushioning, unlike the one that you just busted. That's like walking around in a wooden shoe, the shock going up your leg must have been painful enough. This one, however, is kinda like wearing a therapy shoe. Plenty of shock-absorption technique in the works right there. And the foot is flexible as well. If you take into account that almost half the bones in the human body come from hands and feet, we need to make sure that you get the proper support there as well! The foot has a slight bending capacity, just like a regular one. It will be permanently encased in a tough, but also soft and flexible type of rubber-plastic mixture. We'll need to measure your own foot so that we can match the shoe size. That way you can wear sneakers with the thing, it'll look more normal but at the same time be so much more comfortable, tough and durable that you'll never need to use those crutches again."

He looked at me, a huge grin plastered on his face, awaiting my response. I just stared at the thing, jaw agape. It was much more than I could've possibly hoped for. In the civilian world something like this would have cost a fortune, maybe as much as a brand new, top of the line car. And here I was, given the opportunity to get one at no monetary cost of my own. I just couldn't believe it. A small lump formed in my throat. I coughed, tried to clear it, but it remained there. Carefully I swallowed, and managed to speak past it. "Donatello, it's more than I ever would have expected. Much more. I-I'm not so sure that I can accept anything like this. It'll take so much work..."

Waving me off, his grin widened in obvious pleasure at my appreciation. "Aw, it's nothing! Consider it...a project. Haven't had one of those for a while. And this is a new challenge for me!" He stared at the computer screen, his eyes dancing with anticipation. "I've never done something like this before! Try to mechanically construct a device that resembles the actual human body as closely as possible! It's not often that I get to mix mechanics with anatomy like that! This will truly be fascinating! I'll want to conduct some tests...no offense but I'll have to do it on my brothers. Test the muscles reaction as weight distribution from one leg to another...the stressor points...the muscles and ligaments involved..." He switched out of the program and began typing furiously. Internet sites devoted to study of anatomy and physiology popped up. His eyes caressed over the words, his grin growing ever wider. "I'm so glad that you appreciate the fantastic complexities of the human body as I do. To think of all thes interconnected chains working together in harmony just to achieve life for one individual. Think about it! Every second electricity pumps through the muscles, cells are destroyed, then created. The brain sends messages along synapses to tell the heart to pump, the diaphram to work the lungs, the stomach and intestines to break down food into usable materials and dispose of the waste, the kidneys filter all the blood in the body to produce urine. Glands secret hormones and the liver does the thousands of things that it does. Man doesn't even know all the things that the liver does for us! Countless other things as well! It's better than a finely tuned machine!"

His fenzied typing continued and I watched him, a smile quirked on my lips. He truly was excited about his oncoming project. Maybe a little too excited. He was beginning to sound a wee bit like a mad scientist. I was getting a little tired of standing, the easiest way to stand sometimes is to lean your armpits on the crutch handles, but it isn't the most comfortable. I shifted again, letting the blood flow get back to my tingling arms. Time to go sit down. I gave Donny's arm a gentle squeeze and turned myself around to look for a chair.

One important thing to know about crutches is to move both legs, even though one you shouldn't put any weight on. The reason for this is if you keep your 'hurt' leg stiff or in the same position, the muscle will break down faster and the muscles that aren't stretched will begin to lose their flexibility. It's always a good idea to move your 'hurt' leg in a walking motion without actually putting any weight on it (pretty easy for me) to keep the muscles and the flexibility closer to where it should be. That way using the leg again won't be as painful.

Sorry, mind of a medic rambling again.

I eased myself down in the chair just as Mike hopped out of his room, clutching some new looking comic books in his fingers. Grinning madly he plopped himself down besides me and showed them to me. I looked at them. They were superheroes. Silver Sentry, Superman, Batman, X-Men, Spiderman, and countless others. Obviously excited to show off his new items he gave me an in depth-description of each and every character in each book, how they were related to other characters, what type of world they lived in, and finally what had happened in that particular article of comic.

To be perfectly honest I only heard half of what he said, and will probably remember a fraction of that, but I still nodded and smiled, commented when appropriate and stayed silent until he remembered to take a breath. He was like a little kid, so full of energy and happiness. Not everyone gets to retain that, but everyone should try.In no small way, I envied him.

It took me a little bit to realize that his talk had taken on a different turn entirely. He was now partially complaining of the fact that in the comic books, the superheroes almost always got appreciation; even love and adoration from the public for their heroic works. He and his brothers on the other hand, got no appreciation at all. He vividly described all the times where the person they rescued saw them, immediately screaming and telling them to go away, calling them monsters and freaks and the like. I nodded soberly, agreeing with him. Obviously he just wanted to be recognized.

Leaning back, he sighed. "Ya know, Joe? You're lucky. Everyone's grateful for the military! I mean, you defend the country and stuff!" He looked at me, grinning. "Plus, ya know every girl loves a man in uniform!"

I gave a small smile, but couldn't get it to reach quite where I wanted it to. Michelangelo immediately noticed my lack of enthusiasm and cocked his head at me. "What's up Joe?"

I shook my head. "Nothing. You're right, mostly. There are places that offer military discounts, and there's a lot of appreciation a lot of places. Most people say something like; 'I know I couldn't do something like that so I'm glad that there's people like you,' and believe me, we appreciate it. But..."

"But?"

It was then that I noticed that Leo and Raph were sitting in adjacent chairs. They were both looking at me expectantly. I balked slightly. I knew that these guys were supposed to be ninjas and all, but I still should've heard them come in, sit down on creaky old furniture, and get comfortable shouldn't I? I shook it off. Obviously not.

I continued. "Well, let's just say that not everyone appreciates. I don't really want to sound like I'm complaining or anything, I'm not usually the type..."

"Do not worry about us thinking badly of you, Mr. Ransom. My sons are simply curious."

I jumped in surprise at the sight of the old rat sitting comfortably in the couch cushion besides me, quietly sipping tea. Geesh! How friggin quiet were these guys! No wonder those two can do that if their father can sit besides me without knowing it! Once again I shook it off. I really needed to lear how to do that.

Scratching my head, I tried to think of a way to explain it. "Well, just not everyone does. I've seen guys walk down the street in uniform and get harrassed. Sometimes people throw something on them or something, messing up the uniform. Then they have to decide whether or not to continue and risk getting into trouble for having a visibly dirty uniform or go back and change. Of course those that I heard of were Navy guys, some of their uniforms are white all over. So I guess that it would be kinda obvious." I paused again, hesitating.

I felt an old hand on my lap. Splinter looked up at me with warm brown eyes. "Something of this sort disturbs you? Sometimes it is easier to cope if you share your problems."

"Well, it's not really a problem. It's just something that I saw, well..." I looked at all the expectant faces leaning forward and sighed. I definetly wouldn't get out of this one. "It was at a base where I was getting some militarly training done, medical training. One day, as we were finishing a course, our instructor told us to avoid one of the gates and told us which one. When we asked why, he told us that there were protesters over there. Apparently they'd been there before. The last time it was discovered that they would do 'anything' to 'get a reaction' out of all military members coming out. They wanted to make us feel sorry about joining, apparently, or maybe they wanted to project us as warmongers. Perhaps they were upset about the war in the Middle East and blamed us for it. After all, we would likely go over there so it was 'obviously' our fault. People cried, uniforms were damaged, some people got enraged, and most just got plain terrified. Imagine, being surroundedby angry protestors screaming obscenities at you, you can't do anything to stop them and it must be so hard to escape..." I paused, thinking back. Funny, I had almost forgotten it. Ishook my head.My friends around me listened in silence. I appreciated it.

"Since we were at training, not only did we have to wear uniforms but the majority of us didn't have cars in that base, so a lot of us walked over to catch a taxi outside of the gates and such. Well, I was fairly young, and I had never seen these types of protestors before. The only ones that I'd seen were the ones who staked out with lawn chairs and their signs held up with cupholders and the like. Well, I had gotten close enough to the gate to see those people, and I remember my stomach going cold. I don't know why anyone would try to go out there, they scared the young person that I was. It was odd to me," I smiled sarcastically, shaking my head, "that the reason that we joined was so that they would have the right to protest and insult us. So that they would have the right. Thinking on that point, it was equally disturbing that me, fresh out of boot camp had encountered my first so called 'enemy' and they weren't even anywher overseas. They were right here in my own country. It just struck me in an odd way...can't quite explain it..."

I sat back with a sigh. The room remained equally quiet for a long, still moment, then finally Splinter spoke and broke the silence. "I think that you have explained it adequately enough, Mr. Ransom. Thank you."

It took a little longer for the others to react, but when they did it surprised me. Raph and Mike both hopped up from the chairs, obviously upset. Well, Raph was more ticked off than upset. He paced the floor for a moment, rambling something about 'ingrateful boneheads' then finally leapt over the couch to vent his complaints on the punching bag. Mikey was distressed and asked me several times if it was real.Of course I answered yes. "But it's not the majority of the population, I'm sure it's just a percentage."

Leo crossed his arms and stewed in the chair with a deep scowl etched on his face, brooding over it. With one last smile at me, Splinter got up and went to attend to his son.

It was about then that Donny came hopping over, still ecstatic over his future project. I have to say it was pretty funny comparing his moods with that of every single other member in the room. But he didn't seem to notice. "Joe! I have a list of the starter items that I'll be needing. This will be so exciting! I can't wait untilI can see you walking around on two full legs! I'm just going to head up and get with April to get the supplies."

"Why can't I go? At least I won't attract quite as much attention as you. And who is April?"

"Oh, she's a human friend that we have. And I don't want you to head up yet, you're not healed enough. I saw how much trouble you had standing for ten minutes over by my workshop. I won't have you overexerting yourself."

"Yes mother."

He blushed. "Oh I didn't mean...ah, oh well. Besides, April used to work in a lab. She'll know where to get the types of high-quality rubber and plastics that we'll be needing. Plus, we, uh, might not come by all the items in a, ah, completely legal manner."

Before I had a chance to interrupt he scampered off after his Master obviously to ask for permission. I looked at his brother Mike beside me and quirked an eyebrow. "Illegal means?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "How do you think we got the battle shell? It's not like someone just gave it to us. And the electricity? You think we get a bill for that?" He shook his head. "We scavenge as much as we can, but some things you just can't find in the dumps. Before we met April and Casey, that's how we got all our fresh fruits and veggies and other undamaged, uneaten proccessed foods."

I shook my head. Somehow, I knew that this was going to end badly.

A/N: I know! I know! Bad ending. But if I didn't stop here, I'd have another two thousand words on here before I knew what hit me! I would like to thank the joint efforts of Leo Oneal for getting me a kick in the but to get started on this and the next few chapers and Reijiro for helping me to decide how to fit in Joe's story. That particular story, just like all the others is real. The only difference is that this one is first hand. I saw it myself while obtainting my medical training in the upper states. Some of the comments, such as what the protesters were after, were garnished from my own mind and the minds of several of my friends who were equally disturbed.

I know that I took up a large portion of the story with the Don describing the prosthesis and sorry if it bored you a bit. It's just a complicated process creating a human body part and I'm obviously passionate about the human body in general. So Don's ramblings are entirely my fault! Hope that you enjoyed the story anyway.

Remember, if you read it, review it! Toodles!