Xena formed her jaw as she tapped her fingers down on her arms as she paced her room. The fire inside her chest almost felt like it was starting to make her room beyond boiling. She couldn't believe that Casey was going to lie to her! She couldn't believe that April didn't want Xena to know the truth! She wondered if the turtles even knew about what was going on. She turned to get her phone when she noticed Casey had slowly opened her door.

He said, "Dinner's ready"

Xena shifted away from him, "I'm not hungry"

"Oh, come on, Xena" Casey leaned on the doorframe.

"So were you two ever going to tell me about seeing Leo?" Xena challenged, "Or were you planning on just letting me never know"

Before Casey could answer, a cry was heard from in the living room. Aidan must've noticed that he was alone as Xena walked past the other man and quickly into the room where her baby was sobbing on his blanket. She picked him up and gently rocked the baby up and down as she wiped away his tears. Xena brought her lips to his temple and gave him small kisses which calmed down her son. Without looking at Casey, she turned and walked over to the dinner table to eat.

"We didn't want to give you too much hope" Casey finally answered.

"So better for me to not know at all" Xena retorted, "Makes sense considering how I was his girlfriend"

"Was?"

"He hasn't been here in over a year"

Casey slowly sat down, "So that's it? You don't love him anymore?"

Xena looked down to the table as she felt her heart weigh down into her stomach. She sighed as she knew in her gut that she still loved him, probably always will. Her eyes gazed over to her son drinking his bottle of milk as she could easily see a part of Leo in him as well. If it wasn't for giving birth to Aidan, the departure of Leo would've been more than she could bear.

"I don't know what to think of him" Xena confessed.

"This is why April wanted to stay a couple of more days" Casey told her, "To try and bring him back. He needs to know what he really left behind"

Xena looked up to him, "April's going to tell him about Aidan? But we don't even know how he'll react to that"

Casey let out, "We tried writing letters, you tried reaching out to him telepathically, and now it's time for April to pay him a visit. He needs to know about Aidan, Xena. He is the little man's father after all. He deserves to know that much"

Xena shifted, "But what if he doesn't come back after that?"

Casey narrowed his eyes, "Is that what you're afraid of?"

A tear rolled down her cheek as she quickly brushed it away. She looked away from her cousin's boyfriend as she didn't want him to see her like this. Xena quickly perked up as she gave a happy face over to her son, trying to avoid the conversation at hand.

"You're afraid that he's going to reject Aidan just like he rejected the rest of his family" Casey pieced together.

Xena mumbled, "Isn't everyone?"

"Aren't you kind of selling Leo short on that comment?" Casey countered.

Xena looked over to him, "Who knows anymore. We all thought that he would come back but he never did"

"I don't know, I think Leo would be happy to know that he's a dad" Casey stretched out in his chair.

"How do you know?" Xena asked, "None of the turtles thought it was possible, wouldn't you think it would come as a surprise to him?"

"Oh, come on! You forgot who's down there trying to bring him back home" Casey smiled.

"April?"

"Exactly!"

Xena stopped, "Yes, April can be persuasive but Leo is just as stubborn. Besides, he could stay hidden right in front of her without April ever noticing. He's done it to me before"

"But April loves Aidan more than anything in the world right now" Casey explained, "More than me and that's saying a lot for that little guy. She keeps her phone filled with baby pictures of him and gives off any excuse to talk about him. I believe April will shed some good light on you and little Aidan here to the point that Leo will be proud of you for carrying on as much as you did. Trust me"

Xena looked back over to Aidan as he started to eat up his dinner. When he saw his mother looking at him, he gave off a giggle and made a fart sound with his mouth.

Xena sighed, "I hope that's enough. I honestly don't think what I would do if I ever saw him again. It's just been this routine that I feel like no matter how much I hope that Leo will return, he won't. I don't even know what to do if he ever does come back"

"Start up where you left off?" Casey suggested.

"Accept there's a big problem now, Casey. It's not just him and me anymore; it's him, me, and our son" Xena told him.

"You guys will get through it"

"What if this situation was between you and April?"

"Well, that's easy because I would've come back the day I said I would" Casey let out.

When he did, he noticed what he said and looked back over to Xena who stiffened up.

"I'm so sorry, I'm a stupid idiot for saying something like that" Casey apologized.

"It's okay. I know how you don't think before you speak sometimes" Xena smiled, "Let's just talk about something else, okay? Talking about Leo's potential return is making it exhausting for me. If it wasn't for peeking into your mind then I probably wouldn't know about it anyways"

Xena got up and decided that this was her chance to get some food that Casey had made for the three of them. She wasn't surprised to see that it was Sloppy Joe's considering how he loves to eat anything that's mainly meat. It was completely fine with Xena, as long as it isn't pizza. She never thought she would ever come to terms of being sick of pizza, ever. Xena brought over the dish and took a big bite into it to keep from talking to Casey. She didn't want to talk too much about Leo, feeling that saying his name too many times just makes her notice his absence a lot more.

Casey started again, "Do you think Aidan inherited some of your abilities?"

"What?"

"You know, your psychic abilities" Casey went on, "Precognition, astral projection, telepathy… oh! He probably got animal control, no doubt about that!"

"I highly doubt it" Xena told him, "I wasn't born with my powers. I was really sick when I was nine years old and was in the hospital for what felt like weeks. At one point, I flat-lined and was considered dead for over five minutes. When I was reborn, that's when I found out I had special abilities"

"Wow. I never really knew that story. April didn't really know when you started displaying powers until you met the turtles. She said you made them go back into their shells?"

"I panicked! She didn't tell me about them. What was I supposed to do? I thought my cousin needed help"

"Trust me. It was a big surprise for us all"

"April did tell me how she first met you"

"Did she tell you how much of a princess she was back then?"

"She kind of was a princess to everyone" Xena confessed, "But then she slowly started to turn around. It made hanging out with her a lot better"

Casey asked, "So you both weren't that close back then?"

"Oh, no, we were always close! We were the only two girls in our parents next generation"

"How come you don't talk much about your parents?"

Xena opened her mouth to say something but then suddenly stopped. Just thinking about her parents gives her an ill feeling. She hasn't spoken to them in almost a year already. The second she turned 18 was the second she decided to pack up her bags and leave. She was more than lucky to have a close relationship with her cousin otherwise she would have had nowhere else to go.

"They weren't that great" Xena finally said, "Very verbally abusive and expecting more from me. I just thought it was because of being stressed out at their jobs but that was before I learned to read minds. I never really figured out which was worse though; the things they said or the things they thought. It became too draining for me"

Xena glanced over to Aidan as he squirmed and motioned that he wanted to be pulled out of the highchair. When she found out she was pregnant, she became terrified of being like her parents. Xena brought her son over to his playmat as Casey took their plates and decided to wash them. Usually the house rules was whoever cooked, doesn't have to clean up but Casey figured she has a lot of things on her mind already.

"I'm just finding wonderful topics tonight, aren't I"

"Good thing April's not here"

Casey groaned, "You're telling me! By now I would've been knocked out by the hits she'd deliver to me. She always knew when to stop me though"

Xena watched as Casey had a small smile on his lips as he laid out on the couch. She glanced up at the clock and noticed that they took up most of the evening talking away. She was going to have to hurry if she was going to give Aidan a bath and tuck him into bed before it reached 7:00.

Xena turned to Casey, "Are you going out tonight? I saw that crime rates are peaking again"

Casey glanced to his watch and sighed. She didn't have to read his mind to know that he was already planning on going.

"It's days like these I wish I had help" Casey confessed, "I can't be everywhere at the same time and not get pinned as the criminal. I'll go when it gets closer to 10:30. That's when the punkers all come out. You'll be okay on your own, right? You don't need me to help you with Aidan?"

Xena smiled, "I'm okay. I think I can handle my own son, you know"

Casey smiled to her in return, "Forget about your parents, Xena, you're an extraordinary mother to your son and that's all that matters"