Natalie's eyes slowly opened as she wondered what had happened. She had been reading a book on the couch when Donnie offered her some soup and…the soup. The empty bowl sat on the corner of the coffee table mocking her. She dragged herself into a standing position and stalked over to the lab. The guilty turtle was sitting at his computer idly scrolling through a word document while she stood in the doorway glaring. "You drugged me." She accused before he even had a chance to turn around.
He swiveled around, meeting her fiery gaze. "You were obviously in pain and anytime I even mention the medication you throw a tantrum. What choice did I have?"
"Well for starters you could have just not drugged me. This isn't the first time I've broken a bone. I know how much pain I can take and trust me I'm not even close to my threshold yet." Even as she said it the throbbing pain radiating from her shoulder threatened to bring her to her knees. Rather than give into the pain she raised her head higher. She would not be weak.
Donnie sighed and pinched his nose. "Look why don't you just tell me what your deal is and we can go from there."
Determination blazed in his eyes and Natalie knew that he wouldn't take no for answer. She leaned against the desk, ""I…I've got depression." The words came out as little more than a whisper. "Most of the time it's manageable but sometime I feel myself sinking and the more I fight the worse it gets. It leaves me feeling empty inside. There's no joy, no anger. I just feel numb. When I get like that I need to feel something, anything. Pain is a good reminder that I'm alive, not a lifeless husk going through the motions. It's gotten to the point where a part of me sees pain as cathartic. It's sick, twisted, and not at all healthy but it's better than the alternative. And then there's the whole my mom is addicted to painkillers thing."
Silence filled the lab as Donnie struggled to come up with a response. "Wow, Natalie, I'm sorry I didn't know. You don't, you know?"
"Self-harm?" She let out a humorless chuckle. "Not anymore. Well not in the traditional sense anyway. I've found healthier outlets for that. Listen if we're done here I promised Raph I'd go get parts to fix the Shell Cycle. Besides, some fresh air will do me some good." Don just nodded as she walked out the door.
Upstairs in the garage Raph was standing next to his bike making a list of the parts that he needed. Behind him the steel door slid open, "How bad is it?" Natalie asked.
A light breeze brushed across his skin as she walked up next to him. "Well, she's in better shape than you are."
She lightly swatted him on the arm, "Very funny. Is that what you need?" Her pale hand took the list from him and examined it, "You're forgetting something."
Raph snatched it back and looked over it again, "Like Hell I am. That's everything I need to get the Shell Cycle back on the road."
Once again she slipped the list out of his hands, "Nope. You definitely forgot something. Don't worry though, I got it covered."
"Whatever you say Nat. Billy's is across the park and two blocks that way." He pointed west with his green calloused hand.
The right side of her mouth lifted into a confident smirk, "Got it. I'll be back before you can even miss me."
As she stepped out of the garage she found herself blasted with heat and sunshine. "So I've been cooped up inside too long," She muttered to herself as her shoes hit the pavement in the direction that Raph had pointed to. People rushed past ignoring her existence while the brick, glass, and steel towered over her. With the skill of a lifelong city dweller she wove in and out of the crowd, squeezed through the smallest gaps and overtook the most stubborn pedestrians until she reached her destination. "Billy's Automotive" was displayed across the glass door, the faded gold letters trying to outshine the jewelry store next door. A small bell jingled, alerting the plump, frog-faced man to her presence. "Billy I presume?" She asked while she approached the counter.
"That's my name." He replied, his jovial voice echoed through the cramped and dusty shop. "What can I help you with young lady?"
She handed him the list of parts, "These, if you don't mind."
He grinned at her and she couldn't help but smile back, "Mind! Of course I don't mind. You just stay right there and old Bill will get you taken care of." Billy hustled up and down the aisles with a speed that belied his advanced age and came back a few minutes later with an armful of parts which he dumped onto the counter. "That should be everything," fat fingers punched the register's worn keys, "Which makes your total today $134.12."
Natalie reached into her back pocket and pulled two one hundred dollar bills out of the faded leather wallet, "There you go."
He took the cash and held it up to the light. "You sure these are real. They look at little funny to me."
"I promise they're legit." Natalie assured him, "If you want I can write down my name and phone number so if there's any problem with them later we can sort it out."
Billy waved his hand dismissively, "There's no need for that. You seem like a nice trustworthy gal so I'm going to take you at your word." He stacked all of the parts in a bag and handed it to her with her change, "You go on and have a nice day now."
She beamed back at him, "Thank you, you too." Holding the bag in one arm she left the dark store and stepped back out into the light. Before heading back to the lair Natalie ducked into a convenience store to grab the final item on the list.
"I can't accept this bill it's obviously a fake." The bubble gum smacking cashier insisted.
Natalie stared at her in disbelief, "Look," she sighed, "I just went through this with the guy down the street. It's real. Besides it's only ten lousy bucks. Is it really worth fighting me on this when you can just ring me up and then take care of the rest of these guys?" To emphasize her point she pointed behind her at the line of disgruntled customers that had formed.
The cashier huffed and snatched the bill of the counter. "Fine, here's your change," Coins bounced and rolled off the counter while the cashier looked at Natalie with a smug look waiting for her to pick them up.
"Keep it. Consider it a tip." Natalie replied with a smirk before waltzing out the door. Bogged down with an arm full of goods her walk back to the lair was slower giving her time to think. "It's weird that both stores thought that the cash was fake," She muttered to herself, "Maybe money looks different in this world? If that's the case then I might want to look into getting a job. I may be staying with the guys but I'll be damned if I accept charity from them." As if the gods themselves had her heard rambling words a help wanted sign appeared in the window of a bar that she was walking passed. Without hesitation she strolled in and approached the man who had hung up the sign. "Help wanted for what?"
The man jumped a little bit and spun around to face her, "Jeez, what are you some kind of ninja?"
Natalie just shrugged her shoulders, "Sometimes. So you need an extra body in this place?" She asked sizing him up. He towered over her. With broad shoulders and a chiseled face he cut a striking figure.
Rough hands ruffled his ebony hair "Yeah, my bartender walked out last night in the middle of the rush. You have experience?" He took the bags from her arm and set them on a nearby table then led her to the oak bar.
"Not officially," she admitted as she stepped behind the bar, "But I know my liquor and how to manage drunk idiots. And," She added, "I'm not the type to walk out on a job."
He stared at her expectantly, "All right. You've got my attention. Let's see what you got. Make me a mojito."
She couldn't help but snort at the command, "You get a lot of those in an Irish pub?"
"You'd be surprised," He said, "Besides I don't pull punches. I want to make sure you can pour real drinks, not just serve beer and be eye candy."
With a flourish she pulled a glass out from under the bar, "One mojito coming right up." He watched with wide eyes as she muddled, mixed, poured, and stirred like a one handed, skilled, professional. In record time she placed the glass in front of him and nodded. Cautiously he took a sip and set it down, "Well?" She asked.
"Not bad, but as you pointed out this is an Irish pub. Pour a perfect Guinness."
Natalie chuckled, "Don't pull punches huh? I could pour Guinness in my sleep." He just raised his eyebrows and gestured for her to continue.
As she held the glass at the perfect angle, hooked her other arm around the tap, straightened it out at just the right time and set it on bar he wondered if he had ever seen such a thing of beauty. "All right you've convinced me. I'll give you a test run tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll get you step up and see how you do." He stuck out his hand, "Nice to meet you uh…I don't know your name."
"That's alright," She chuckled as she gave him a firm handshake, "I'm Natalie."
"Nice to meet you Natalie, I'm Grant." He let go of her hand and gestured to the sling, "Of course I am going to need a doctor's note outlining your limitations before you come in tomorrow."
"Of course," She repeated, "Thank you Grant. I'll see you tomorrow."
He watched her grab her bags and walk out, "Yeah see you tomorrow."
Back in the garage Raph was leaning against the wall absentmindedly tossing a wrench into the air and catching it, his amber eyes boring holes into the door. Going to Billy's and back shouldn't have taken her this long. New York was a dangerous city and he had let her walk into it alone, anything could have happened to her. No, he reassured himself, she was a tough chick, more than capable of handling herself.
He never should have sent her it out. She's dead in a dumpster somewhere. No, she probably just got lost or something. She's fine. The conflicting, confusing thoughts raced through his brain until he heard the garage door swing open. "Sorry I took so long. Made an unplanned stop. But," She handed him the bag of motorcycle parts, "I got everything on your list, plus that thing you forgot."
Raph took the bag from her feigning nonchalance, "Yeah? And what exactly was that?"
She set the other bag on a bench and brandished a six pack of beer, "You can't do automotive repairs without beer."
He just smiled and shook his head. Forest green collided with alabaster as he took the bottle out of her hand, "Can't argue with that, but what was your unplanned stop?"
They got to work on repairing the Shell Cycle and she filled him in on everything that had happened after leaving the lair. "So he hired me and I start tomorrow,"
The sip of beer that Raph had just taken sprayed the floor, "You what? Nat, you've only been here a week, your shoulder isn't even close to being healed. What makes you think that Donnie is going to okay this? What about this seems like a good idea?"
There was a dull clink as Natalie set her bottle on the floor and took a seat on an overturned bucket. "I just can't stand not doing something. Sitting around watching cartoons with Mikey and answering Don's questions about my dimension is fun but I have to be active. Inactivity, rest, leisure, it's not relaxing it's just maddening. It's almost as though I can literally feel life passing me by if I'm not out living it."
Raph thought back to all the times he had gone half mad spending weeks down in the lair with no one but his brother and Master Splinter for company. The silence stretched between them as he imagined her cruising down paved roads, a speeding blur of machine and independence. Then he saw her sitting on the couch in the lair reading comic books with Mikey and the way her foot was always tapping or the way her fingers were always fiddling with the nearest object at hand. How hard it must be, to go from having the whole world as your home to having to stay in one spot. "You know what you're right," He said after eons of speechlessness, "Answer me this though. Do you regret it?"
Visions of the friends that she had made and lost among her travels. Gandalf, the bearded pot head that taught her how to survive in the woods. Icarus, who taught her the secrets of the desert. Ian, she hadn't talked to him years. She would never see any of them again. At last the significance of her decision begin to hit her. Long buried feelings of loss and regret began to bubble back to the surface but she shoved them back down giving no quarter. "No," The words dropped out of her mouth with the weight of a sledgehammer, "I have no regrets. No regrets." Deep in her heart she knew she would never see any of them again no matter what dimension she was in. She would just have to come to terms with that.