In The Rough

Chapter 10: Legs

Having no legs was surprisingly not as bad as John expected.

Of course, it wasn't easy by any means. The days and weeks right after his surgery were probably the worst of everything. He started having nightmares about what happened and could barely sleep. He was in pain and felt like a burden to everyone. He wasn't able to do anything for himself. He couldn't even stay in the bunker with Branch! He had to stay with Peppy until he was fully healed and able to move with his new chair.

Apparently, Branch had taken a wheelchair the hospital let them keep and tricked it out, made it motorized so John could move around on his own easier and she even decorated it. Poppy obviously helped with the paint job, he just cannot see Branch choosing bright pink glitter paint, unless it was to spite him. Which... honestly, makes a lot of sense now that John thinks about it.

He finally went back to the bunker after about three months of using the chair. It was nice to finally be back in his own home and not worry about his daughter being on her own.

His little girl is growing up so much. She's grown into herself more since coming out to him, wearing the clothes she likes and having 'girl days' with Poppy, Suki, and more recently, Smidge. She's got that solidarity with the short girl and John couldn't be happier for her.

He can also tell she's been stressed and that makes him feel wildly guilty. He knows it's at least partly because of his recovery but he also knows its from something else. They'd had their talk about what happened and her upbringing and the lies, which had been a whole sob fest. But they'd talked things out and reached an understanding, or at least John thought they did.

Maybe she's still upset about me lying? John thinks, rolling down the hallway to their bedrooms. He stops outside of Branch's door, the 'Keep Out' signs and stickers making him chuckle as he knocks. "Can I come in, Bits?"

After a minute without a response, John Dory pushes the door open softly and snorts. Branch has her headphones on her head and is clearly jamming out while she works. She's hunched over her desk as her hips sway to the beat, her tail waving around behind her.

She can't hear me. John grins and reaches towards to wall where the light switch is and flips it.

"Ahh!" Branch screams as the room goes dark suddenly. The lights turn back on as she puts her headphones off and wips around. "Heyyy, Dad, what's uh, what's up?" Branch says, leaning on her desk and trying to be nonchalant. There's paint and grease on her face and pants, her leaf vest thrown on her bed and thankfully stain free.

John huffs a laugh and raises an eyebrow. "Nothing much, what's up with you, kid?"

"Me? Nothing! Absolutely nothing is up, why would you think something's up?" She's rambling now, something she does when she's hiding something. She's still leaning on her desk, trying to hide whatever is behind her.

"Uh huh, sure." John crosses his arms. "Don't lie to me, I will come over there, kid. What's up with you?" He squints, trying to see the thing better. While JD lost his legs from the thigh down, his left eye was mostly spared, thank the Muses. He'd be an actual pirate if he had an eyepatch to go with the legs.

He's half blind on that side now, though, the once blue iris now a milky color and there's a cool scar running down over it from his hairline to his jaw. At least Branch says it looks cool but John thinks she's just saying that because it kind of matches the scar on her own cheek. He hates it because he needs glasses now because of it.

"It's really nothing, it's-" She sighs and deflates. "I wanted to wait to show you later, I just finished them."

John tilts his head curiously as she turns around and picks the object up. When she turns back to show him, he gasps. It's a metal leg, a black plastic socket to go over his stump and beautiful black steel rods making up the knee joint and lower leg parts. It looks like it's super sturdy, and while it's a little plain, John already loves it. There's even a foot on the end of it, painted to match his tealish fur.