Chapter Text
Lotus' mind pounded with every beat of her heart. Her body ached from the blood that had slowly been drained from it. But as she started to gain consciousness, she realized something about her wrists: Nothing was on them. She rotated her hands to check for the familiar, painful chafing of the metal wrapped around it. Nothing. No annoying jangles of chains. No constricting pressure digging into her skin. And then she noticed she had been sleeping in a fetal-position.
She wasn't on the examination table.
Her hands shakily stroked across the thick fabric beneath her. She was on a bed. A REAL BED. Not the hard floor, but a soft, indulgent MATTRESS. As she turned onto her back, her eyes and body jolted feeling something wrapped around her. Memories flashed through her mind as she flinched, waiting for whatever it was that was restraining her to constrict, once again cutting off all circulation. But... nothing happened. She timidly opened her eyes to see.. a blanket? But it wasn't paper-like or smelled weird.. It was soft and heavy.. WARM. ...
Where am I??
In complete honesty, she didn't really care where she was. She would be fully content to sleep till she was dead.
...
"DUDES THERE'S ANOTHER TURTLE IN LEO'S BED!! WHO THE HECK IS THAT?"
Michelangelo ran into the kitchen interrupting the meeting between his older brothers and Sensei.
"Mikey, chill." Raphael snapped, "We found her in one of the cells. We don't know who she is yet."
"-And judging by how sick she looked when we found her she will need LOTS OF REST, SO SHHHH!"
Mikey knew Donatello could be trusted to know what to do in such a sitch as this. And Raph- Raph was just being himself.
"As soon as she wakes up I need to check her vitals and address any of her injuries. From how she looked when we found her, I'll have my work cut out for me for the next 48 hours.."
Mikey watched his oldest brother, Leonardo, as he paced back and forth in worry. His face had a seriousness molded on that Mikey wasn't comforted by. When Leo was this graven, it always meant he was mentally preparing for the worst. Like when Mikey broke his ankle attempting to try the 'Triple Corkscrew Turntable' on his skateboard. He had no idea his ankle could bend that way.. And Leo was not happy.. He had that same face when he realized he needed to snap Mikey's ankle back into place.
Needless to say, it wasn't a fun time for either of them.
"My sons, we must welcome this sickly stranger into our home. She's tired, injured, and probably very frightened. I sense a great weight of pain in her spirit."
Master Splinter's calm voice helped soothe Mikey's racing mind. Sensei always knew best. However hard he was on the brothers during training, he was still very kind and caring when they needed him to be. One time when he was about 4 years old, the brothers were all playing hide n' seek in the Lair. But this time Raph had the idea to hide everyone in the one room that was off limits: Sensei's Study. It didn't take long before Splinter caught the little tots sneaking around in his private room. When he began demanding an explanation of why they were in there, Don slyly stated,
"We were playing hide n' seek. And you taught us to always be unpredictable in training class, so we hid in the most unpredictable spot!"
Instead of annoyance or anger, Splinter's face lit with a smile.
"I suppose I did teach you that, my studious son... But there's a difference between doing something unpredictable, and doing something downright foolish.. NO TV FOR A WEEK."
"Senseiiiiii..."
"IT WAS RAPH'S IDEA! HE'S THE FOOLISS ONE!!"
"- HEY!"
"PAPA, PWEASE DON'T TAKE AWAY DA TEVEEEEEE!!"
