screwloose | [RL with Mikaela]

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[RL with Mikaela]

Dr. Stein waited just outside the compound for Mikaela to arrive, his stitched and patched labcoat blowing a bit in the hot Africa wind. He smiled as the young woman rolled up in her very fine motorcycle, his glasses glinting in the sun as he looked her over. No immediate signs of injury.

Though she was only a few years older than his students, and definitely too young for him, he couldn't help but enjoy the ride back to his own world.

They arrived just outside his own laboratory, which was a tall concrete building, which also looked to have been stitched together, much like his own body and clothing. Scraggly trees with no leaves adorned the grounds, which were surrounded by a high wrought iron fence.

The sun stared down upon them, far cooler than the place where they had just left. The sun had a face, and it was laughing good-naturedly at them, its voice deep and echoing.

"You can leave the bike inside the grounds, it'll be safe there," Stein said cheerfully as he got down and opened the front gate. "Welcome to my home, Mikaela."

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Stein smiled, thinking that Mikaela and Blair might possibly get along well. Mikaela did seem to have more between her ears, as far as brains, than the cat did, but they were of a similar body type and age.

He stepped closer and frowned faintly, pulling a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and lighting up. "When did this start?"

Mikaela pursed her lips thoughtfully, trying to remember. "I'm...not sure," she said eventually. "I started noticing it a couple weeks ago, I guess? Like, it happened enough for me to realize it wasn't just random, or whatever. But I think it happened before that and I just didn't worry about it much."

"Did anything happen before it started?" Stein asked. "Did you get hurt or anything like that? Even if it were something minor. You mentioned something about weird medicine, and I'm not seeing the connection..." he said in a wry, but kindly manner.

"Oh! Well. Uh. Yeah." She laughed, a little self-consciously. "They had to be, um, amputated. From here, and here." She indicated the same places on her thighs as a moment before. "And then Apollo grew them back for me when he got his powers back..."

Stein's eyes widened at her explanation. Okay, that made a lot more sense.

Something hungry and eager flickered in his eyes now. It definitely seemed that Mikaela had caught his attention. "So you're experiencing phantom pain from an amputation, are you...? And you've had the limbs regrown through magic."

He turned and picked up a hospital gown from a hook, then held it out to her. "I'd like you to take off your clothes and put this on. I'll need to examine your legs.

"That could be it, I guess..." she said, if anything relieved by his interest in the problem. That meant he'd care enough to actually figure it out, which would be nice. "I just worry that... I dunno, like, they're gonna come off again, or something. That something's happening inside to make 'em hurt, you know?"

She slid off the table and took the gown from him. "Okay," she said, nonplussed by the request, and very clearly waiting for him to leave--or at least run his back--before she started stripping.

He chuckled. "I'll do my best to make sure that doesn't happen," he assured her, then handed her the gown and slipped out of the room.

When she had dressed in the gown, he opened the door and entered the room again, then finished off his cigarette and placed an unlit one between his lips. "All right," he said, patting the table. "Up you get and lie down. I'm just going to examine the area and see what I can see before we get more creative."

"Is it a dull pain or sharp?" he added as he waited for her to comply. "Do you have any difficulty using your legs?"

Mikaela changed into the gown quickly, folding up her clothes neatly as she stripped out of them. She was smoothing down the front of the gown, making sure it covered her properly, when he walked back in.

With a nod, she hopped back up onto the examination table. "Ooh, it's cold!" she exclaimed with a real shiver and an exaggerated pout. She lay back regardless, stretching her legs out, another shiver raising momentary goosebumps on her bare arms and legs.

"Sharp, I guess?" she said as she smoothed the gown out again. "Like someone put a string or something around and is pulling really tight."

"Sorry," Stein said apologetically as she complained about the cold. "My patients aren't usually in a state to be complaining about the chill."

His words, though a little ominous, were delivered with a smile. He stepped closer and ran a hand up her leg clinically, moving the gown aside so he could see and bending to examine her. His free hand rose to turn the bolt in his skull, which turned with a quiet clicking.

"How did you get injured?" he asked, noting that she didn't even have a scar.

If it hadn't been for that smile, she probably would have been worried. As it was, she just giggled and said, "I'm almost afraid to ask what you mean."

She lay still while he started examining her, though as his hand moved higher it started to tickle, and it was an effort not to kick or squirm away. She tried to ignore the tickling, looking around the room again and turning her eyes to his head, and that weird bolt there, when he started turning it. She couldn't quite help staring.

"Uh. I got, um. Stepped on, actually. By a Decepticon..."

He only laughed along with her giggling and didn't elaborate. Noting her discomfort, he deepened the touch, pressing his fingers firmly into the skin to feel for any abnormalities in the muscle.

"Tell me if anything I do hurts," he said. The bolt clicked into place and he lowered his hand from it.

"A Decepticon - ah yes... I believe I've spoken with one. They're quite large, I imagine?"

"Okay," she said with a nod. So far it wasn't painful, just making her feel kinda ticklish, though it wasn't as bad now with the increased pressure. "'S not painful at all, now..."

She nodded again, more enthusiastically this time. "Most of 'em are, anyway. It seems like they're either all giganto, or little buggers. ...Except for Barricade, I guess, he's kind of in the middle.

"But it was a big one, yeah. Bonecrusher..."

"Nicely appropriate name," Stein commented wryly.

He felt around a little bit longer. "Show me exactly where you feel the pain," he instructed, withdrawing his hand for the moment. "I think what you're experiencing is psychological, honestly, but I do want to be sure your magical healer didn't miss something."

"I know, right?" she returned, just as wryly. "God, it almost seems funny, now. I mean, he didn't even do it on purpose..." She gave her head a shake, as if denying that she'd just admitted that. "Whatever."

She pushed herself up on the table, looking down at her legs for a minute before using a fingertip to indicate where it occasionally hurt. "Here--" A line about halfway down thigh. "--and here." Another, this one higher, nearly at the place where her leg joined her hip. There was a flash of bright pink underwear peeking out from where she'd pushed her gown up to show him.

"Psychological?" she repeated. "Am I going nuts...?"

"Funny, hmm?" Stein murmured, smiling. "I suppose big robots need to be careful around the squishier of us, lest they do something they regret."

Stein watched what she was doing, trying not to think too much about that flash of underwear. He was a professional, and had examined girls many times before - perhaps not young girls that were quite as developed and beautiful as Mikaela, granted.

He curled his hand over her thigh at the lower place she indicated, pressing his fingers deep into the place. If there were some kind of residual physical damage one would think pressure would cause pain.

"Going nuts..." he murmured, then chuckled darkly. "Anything's possible, but I doubt it. I think what you're experiencing is a lot like phantom limb syndrome. Your body is so sure you should be feeling pain that it's manufacturing pain even though there's no damage left."

"To be fair, I don't think the 'Cons care all that much about little squishies like us," she said with a rueful laugh. "If anything, us squishies should try to not do stupid shit like running through the middle of a giant robot fight."

It had taken her a long time to come to terms with the fact that what had happened had been as much her fault as Boncecrusher's, if not more. After all, she could expect an Autobot to keep an eye on his feet and try to avoid casual destruction of bystanders, but a Decepticon? That was just foolish.

She'd probably never be able to assume responsibility entirely for the accident, though.

The pressure was a little uncomfortable, only because he was probing so hard with his fingers, but there was definitely no pain.

"...Huh," she said. "That...that makes sense, I guess!"

Stein laughed softly. "I suppose we can't expect others to protect us," he said. "We have to take responsibility for ourselves. Especially when it comes to running through pitched battle between giant human-hating robots."

Even as he spoke, he moved his hand to the other leg, sliding it up gently to the spot he'd indicated and repeating the test there.

"I think it does make sense," he said. "Your body isn't used to magical healing, right? So it's just a bit confused. It'll probably work itself out over time, but if it gets worse you might want to talk to the one who healed you and see if he can figure out what he did wrong."

"Yeah," she said with a sigh and a twist of her lips. "I guess so."

But that didn't mean she had to like the idea, and definitely didn't mean it had been easy for her to do so far as she already had. It was hard to admit that the giant evil robot who'd maimed her probably hadn't done it on purpose.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've had my body healed magically," she said with a chuckle. Then she sighed again, squirming a little before she realized he was trying to examine her still and making herself sit still.

"I dunno where he is. He hasn't been online in a while..."

"If that's the case, I can see why you decided to talk to a doctor, rather than the source," Stein said, finishing the examination and tugging the hem of her robe down again lightly as he took his hand off of her.

"The fact is," he said with a sigh, rotating the bolt again and glancing away suddenly to follow the path of something wriggling in the corner, which only he could see. "I have some experience with magic, but mostly it's with killing people who can do it - not actually performing magic myself. If the healing was done badly, all I can really do is cut you open again and try to fix the problem. I don't think that's really necessary."

Then he gave her a wicked grin. "But I'd love to do it, if you have time...?"

Mikaela sat up on the table, pulling the robe down a little more. She nodded as she listened; she'd been afraid the verdict would be something like this, which was why she'd waited until she was sure it was definitely happening and not just some coincidence to try and talk to somebody about it.

She probably would have been horrified by the offer if she hadn't seen the grin he gave her as he made it. "Well, tempting as that is," she said with a grin of her own, "I'm pretty sure Apollo fixed me up right, what with being the god of healing and all.

"So I guess I'll just wait and hope my legs don't pop off randomly~"

A flicker of disappointment was visible in his eyes before he gave her a warmer and far less creepy smile. "I don't think your legs are going to pop off, but if it gets worse then definitely come back and I'll do some more tests. In the meantime, eat some protein and do lots of exercise. You need to show your muscles that they're fine."

He patted her on the shoulder and then took a step back, turning away towards the door. "I'll just let you get dressed. Do you want a cup of coffee or anything before we head back?"

That little flash of disappointment was far creepier to her than his grin had been, but she put it from her mind. "Okay," she said brightly, "I think I can manage that. Go for a walk or a bike ride instead of taking my motorcycle, or something..." The exercise was definitely going to be harder than getting some protein in her diet, that was for sure.

She swung her legs over the edge of the table, feet swinging again. "Yeah, I think I'd like some coffee, thanks!"

"Good, you should stay fit, anyway," Stein said. "It'd be a shame if you lost that figure of yours. I'll be in the living room, making the coffee, back the way we came. Take your time."

And he slipped out of the room, closing it behind him.

"That's as important as making my legs stop hurting~" she said with a laugh, though some color came into her cheeks as she said it. "I'll be out in a minute!"

She waited until the door had closed and pulled off the gown. Unsure of where it she should put it, she just folded it and left it on the examination table. She pulled on her clothes and took a minute to settle them, redid her ponytail, and then picked up her helmet and went looking for the living room.

The living room wasn't hard to find, and when Mikaela emerged Stein was in the midst of making coffee in a large beaker with the use of medical filters, a distillation apparatus, and a bunsen burner.

"Please, make yourself at home," he said cheerfully, tending the bubbling mixture. "Do you like cream and sugar?"

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