I am not in possession of the rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Chapter Nine; Small Help Still Helps
Almost an hour after Casey had left a knocking sound pulled Donnie out of his focus on the computer. He looked up and saw Kit standing meekly just outside his lab.
"Kit! Come in, I'm sorry I didn't see you."
Kit took a deep breath as she stepped in, "Actually Don, I'm the one who should be sorry."
Donnie felt his eye ridges rise, "What for?"
"For blowing up at you…in the kitchen." Kit's ears lowered but she didn't drop eye contact. "I shouldn't have done that, you were just offering to help and I yelled at you. I'm sorry."
He pushed back in his chair and stood up, smiling gently, "Hey, it's not a problem. You were obviously angry about something when I came in. Really, if you need to you can blow up at me anytime." Kit almost chuckled at that, but then she cringed. The look of guilt that flashed across her face might have had something to do with the bruises that had shown up on Raph's side and shoulder the other day, but Donnie couldn't be sure.
There was an uncomfortable pause. Donnie cleared his throat, "So, um, to tell the truth Kit, I really am a little worried about that bandage. It's what, four days old now?"
"More or less." Kit agreed
"So, do you think I could change it for you?"
Kit frowned and tried to look at her behind, the bandage was in sort of an awkward place for her to reach. As for having somebody else change it for her…well… there was just something personal about a tail. "Is it really that bad?" She asked.
There was the faintest of whines to her tone. She knew it needed to be changed but didn't want to go through with having somebody do it for her. "Yeah, I think it is." Kit sighed as Donnie moved to get the first-aid kit.
She stood in front of his desk with her back turned to him so that he could start working on the bandage. As he slowly cut away at all the tape Raph had used it occurred to him that he literally had Kit by the tail; if he was careful about what he said he just might be able to help.
"So, Casey was here today…" Kit stiffened. She was still angry with Casey. "Did he say anything?"
"Not much." The reply was short; clearly she didn't want to talk about it.
"Right, that's normal…" That line of questioning was a dud. Maybe if he was careful enough…
"GAAAH! DONNIE!" Kit spun around, clutching her rear end protectively. Donnie sheepishly held up the bandage. There was a lot of fur attached to the tape.
"It's better to get it all off in one shot, right?"
"A little warning might have been nice!" Kit glanced down at her rear as though to make sure the tail was still intact. Of course it was still there, she could feel it throbbing. Little needles of pain ran up her spine and made the fur along the spine stand on edge. She also noticed something else, "Oh that is definitely not good."
"What?" Donnie gently turned her around to get a look at it himself. The cut on her tail had gotten mildly infected and needed to be cleaned out. "You're right, that's not good." He looked up at Kit, "Look on the bright side, what antiseptic could possibly hurt as much as getting the bandage off?" He leaned back to avoid Kit's hand when she swiped at him.
"Funny Donnie, real funny." Donatello grinned as he reached for something to clean the cut out with.
He worked silently for several minutes. The cut wasn't very deep, but the infection had completely inhibited its ability to heal to such a degree that there was actually more damage now than when it had been bandaged up in the first place. At first Donatello wondered why Kit hadn't been bothered by the degree of pain the infection would cause, then he remembered that Kit had something more painful to deal with.
He frowned, thinking hard. Finally he got up the courage to speak, "Kit?"
"Huh?"
"If I ask you about something serious, will you promise to answer?" Kit looked over her shoulder, her ears perked.
"I guess, shoot."
"No, not 'I guess'. I'm asking you to promise." Kit's ears lifted another notch. She thought about it for a minute. Asking for a promise was a pretty serious thing around here, but Donnie wasn't the type to try and entrap a person.
"All right. I promise to answer your question as best as I can." She said. Her tone was serious.
Donnie nodded. "Kit, could you...do you think you could tell me about your mother?"
Kit stiffened again. Donnie was sure she would try to back out of her promise. But Kit had given her word. "She, I mean," Kit tried to form a reply or an answer. After a minute she hung her head. "To be honest Donnie; no, I don't think I'm ready to talk about her. Not yet."
Donnie nodded. "I understand." He taped off the bandage and stood. Kit thanked him for his help before leaving and returning to her room.
Donatello sighed as he cleaned up his materials and put the first-aid kit back where it belonged.
"My son." Master Splinter had made no sound as he stood just outside Donnie's lab. Despite years of experience Donnie still felt himself jump when his father spoke.
He turned and smiled, though not as warmly as he usually might have. "Master Splinter, can I help you with something?"
Master Splinter smiled gently. "No my son. I simply could not help but over hear your conversation with Kitrian."
Donnie frowned and glanced at his feet. "That didn't turn out to well, did it?" Instead of replying right away Master Splinter walked over to his son and placed a hand on Donatello's shoulder.
"My son, I believe that went very well."
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