Leonardo, You Gave Me Wisdom (Book 4)

The Accident

As soon as I woke up, I had a pounding sensation in my head that hurt when I tried to sit up. So much so that I sat back down again and held my wrist against my aching forehead. I couldn't think of anything except to count in time on when the next pounding drum beat inside my head went off.

It took a few minutes to remember what happened and where I was. I froze at the thought that I was still in the Fortune Cookie Factory with that traitor of a Dragon. But then I recognized the lair's sounds and the steady stream of water nearby along with the stench of the sewers. I was safe.

I sat up slowly and took in the lair's now comforting familiarity. My head pounded with resentment and tried to make me lay back down, but I tried to forget about the pain. I wonder who helped me out of that mess with Hun and them? Naomi? Julie even?

"It was Leo," a soft voice spoke. Almost as if they knew I had a headache. I turned my head around and saw Naomi sitting on the top of the couch with Leo beside her. She got up and left, leaving me and him alone awkwardly.

After about three minutes of pressing silence, I had the courage to speak up, "Thanks..."

"I couldn't let them hurt you," he only answered. Not a you're welcome but that. I stared at him in blank surprise. "I knew you were heading that way whether I wanted to admit it or not... I had to get you back even if you wanted to rejoin them."

"Well I don't," I snapped a little. "They almost had their way with me."

"But I stopped them," Leo said. If it wasn't my imagination, I would say he had a strong tone of wistfulness in that last comment. "And it was good to save you rather than hurt you."

"You never meant to," I pointed out, remembering the few times that Naomi and Julie and even Splinter had come up to me saying he didn't mean to knock me out twice. He just wasn't thinking straight. Is this the Leo that could think straight? He seemed to know what he was talking about and had a firm voice behind it to prove that he was right.

He looked at me and shuffled a little as if uncomfortable, his straps for his Katanas clanking a little. His blue eyes looked at me before blinking and looking away. I smiled and got up with some aching in my joints and my head screaming at me with a rock band behind it and walked past Leo.

"Could I get some Tylenol?" I asked as I walked past him toward the kitchen to get a glass of water.

Leo only nodded before turning and heading in his own direction. To the lab by the looks of it. I went in the kitchen and saw Julie with Opal who was in a rusted down and baby-food-painted high chair. Opal turned her gaze to me and squealed, raising her arms in the arm and tossing some strange baby goop into the air only for it to land on the stove.

"Opal!" Julie grumbled. She was holding a once-white rag and was trying to clean up her daughter. "You need to stop throwing food!"

"No!" Opal challenged. "No food!"

I watched with a curious eye before sneaking to the cabinet where the glasses were held. I snatched one up after opening it and went to the sink and filled it with water. As soon as I turned the faucet off, Leo walked in with a bottle of pain relievers. When Opal saw Leo, she squealed again and tossed her hands in the air once more, but this time without food flying in the air.

"Weo!" Opal cheered. "Weo! Weo!"

"Yes," Leo smiled halfheartedly at the child. "Hello, Opal."

Opal grinned with a toothy white smile and curled her still-growing tail up a little. I smiled and came up to Leo while taking the bottle of pain relievers and popping two of them out in my palm. I took a gulp of water and held it in my mouth before tossing the two pills in my mouth.

I swallowed one at a time then drank more water. I was vaguely aware of Leo and Opal, maybe Julie, watching me. I finished and set the glass down. I stretched and left the kitchen. When I left the kitchen, I stopped just in time for Melanie and Adrian to run in the room with exhausted expressions.

"They are lively," Splinter's deep voice sounded from the side entrance of the dojo. I looked at him and he was watching where the kids disappeared to. "They remind me of when the boys were young..."

"Nostalgia, huh?" I smiled softly.

Splinter chuckled before nodding. He looked at me and his ear pricked up in interest. Oh jeez, did I have something on my face? He came up and touched a cold claw right on my cheek, "You were in a fight recently?"

"Oh..!" I said, touching my cheek. That's where Hun or whoever hit me! "Yeah... Naomi and Leo let me go up by myself. I went to the Dragons...."

"They did this?"

"Yes," I added crossly, frowning at the thought of Hun. Traitor.

"Then I assume you learned your lesson?" Splinter asked, taking a couple steps back while putting his hands behind his back. He watched me carefully.

I only nodded. It was a true nod because I wasn't planning on going back again, "Yes, I have."

"Good," Splinter smiled softly. He turned around back toward the dojo. But not without calling over his shoulder, "I expect to see you in the dojo tomorrow morning ready then."

My eyes widened before I hunched over and sighed heavily, "Hai, Sensei...."

Splinter went inside the dojo. I looked at the bottle of pills I still had in my hand. I need to give these back to Donnie. I went into the lab and saw Donnie leaned over a microscope. I looked around for a sign of where to put the bottle of pain relievers. I saw a few heat pads and other items for sore muscles, but none for pills, really.

"Hey Donnie?" I asked, coming up to him as cautiously as I could.

He jumped a little and looked over at me before relaxing. "Sophie... Don't do that."

"Sorry," I said quickly. "But I was wondering where I should put these?" I held up the bottle.

"Oh, those." Donnie blinked. He had a pair of goggles on the top of his head which made me want to giggle considering how dorky he looked. "The cabinets over there," he said while pointing to a corner. "But be careful of any substances."

"I'll try," I smiled, going over to the cabinet and opening it. There were a lot of pill bottles in the cabinet, so I just had to find room for the pain relievers and set it down. I closed the cabinet door rather harshly and started to turn away.

Something crashed into my head, making my world go dark. Yet again!

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*Doesn't like to knock Sophie out* :3