Hello, readers! I had some time to write for this, so here you go! I don't know when I'll update again; it could be next week or it could be next month! Stay tuned...

Casey stared at the woman who stood in front of him. "Wait—Atsuko? You're April's friend, right?"

"I just told you not to say a word," Atsuko hissed. She glanced nervously at the door to Casey's room.

"What do you want? Is it about April? Where has she been?"

Atsuko shot him a look that was part angry, part sympathetic. "Casey, I need you to come with me up to the roof. Can you do that?"

Hesitantly, Casey nodded. Using the branches of an old oak tree that stood next to the house, they clambered their way up to the roof. He frowned when he saw that Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo all sat on the roof, glaring at him. He noticed that Donatello was not with them, and he could almost hear April's voice: I'm with Donnie now.

"So, uh...how's it going, guys?" he finally managed to say.

"You gotta lot of nerve asking us that," Raphael said.

"Yeah, especially after you just decide to stop being our friend," Michelangelo said. His voice brimmed with genuine hurt.

"Wait, I didn't 'just decide' to stop being you friend," Casey snapped. "That's totally unfair."

"So, Casey, why don't you explain it to them," Leo said, his voice tense.

Casey flinched. He remembered the last time he had spoken to Leo. Atsuko had been there on that occasion too. It made Casey feel a little better that she was here now, because she was probably the only thing that had kept Leo from punching him in the throat. "Why do I need to? The way I understand it, you're not very good at keeping secrets."

"I didn't tell them, Casey," Leo said.

"Tell us what?" snarled Raph.

"No, you just told Donnie and April. Thanks for that."

Raph whipped his head toward Leo. "Told them what?"

"I didn't tell April," Leo said. "And you knew I'd have to tell Donnie."

"What are you guys talking about?" Mikey asked.

"Wait," Atsuko said. "Casey, how do you know that April knows?"

"She told me. I talked to her about it at school like weeks ago."

"You talked to April?" Leo shouted. He jumped up. "That wasn't part of the deal, Jones."

"What deal?" shouted Raph. "What the heck is going on here?"

Leo drew a deep breath and sat back down. "You are going to tell my brothers the truth about what happened. Right here, right now. And if you don't, I swear that I'm going to lodge a shuriken in your face."

Casey shot a nervous look at Atsuko.

"I'm not going to stop him," she said sternly.

Casey hung his head. "Michelangelo, Raphael—I'm not the person you think I am. There's a lot about me you don't know. None of you knew. Until, well—that night I got attacked by the Foot. That wasn't exactly what happened."

Casey let the whole story flow out of him as though there was the screen of a confessional separating him from the turtles. He stared at the roof tiles as he spoke. He told them everything; every painstaking detail he had been tormenting himself over for months now. When he finally looked up, his stomach turned a vicious somersault.

Raph stared at him, his face contorted in silent fury and disbelief. Mikey's face was twisted up in hurt and something like sympathy. Leo's face was cold and impassive.

"Look, Leo, I did keep my distance from April after that. I just—I couldn't stand myself anymore, and I went to apologize to her and explain things myself. But she already knew. And that was the last time I saw her. She hasn't even come to school since then."

"Wait a minute," Atsuko said. "You talked to April that Thursday?"

"I guess it was a Thursday," Casey said. "Is this a surprise to you? I figured you guys were keeping April away from school because of it or something."

"No, Casey," Leo said. His voice was like ice. "April's been staying with us since then because she's been in a coma the whole time."

"A coma?" Casey's heart stopped. "What happened to her?"

"She tried to kill herself," Raphael said. It was the first thing he'd said in over half an hour. "Because of her PTSD. You know what gave her PTSD, Jones?" He stood up and drew his sai.

For a moment, Casey just wished that Raph would go ahead and kill him. It would be easier than realizing the full consequences of his actions. "Sh-Shredder."

Suddenly, Raph exploded. "I thought you were our friend, Casey. My friend!" He threw both sai right at Casey, but they missed. Whether or not it was on purpose, Casey was unsure.

"Raphael, keep your voice down," Atsuko said. "We don't want to attract any unwanted attention."

"Who cares about attention?" Mikey said. "Didn't you hear a word that Casey just said?"

"Yeah, if anyone should be angry, it should be Mikey," snarled Raph. "Did you know that he almost died saving April? Did you?"

Casey knew. He hung his head. "Yeah," he muttered.

"And you still didn't have the guts to own up to it? What is wrong with you?"

It was a question he had been asked many times, that he had asked himself many times. Casey willed himself not to start crying. "I'm sorry."

"You're sorry? Is that supposed to mean something to us?"

There was a period of silence. Casey stared at the roof tiles, wishing that Raph had killed him after all. Leo's shuriken to the face was starting to sound pretty good right about now.

Finally, Michelangelo spoke. "I forgive you, Casey."

Casey jerked his head up and stared in disbelief. "How—"

Mikey shrugged. "Shredder's an evil dude. And me—I just got stabbed, man. I'm pretty sure he got you way worse than he did me."

Casey wasn't sure what floored him more, the fact that Mikey had just forgiven him, or that something so mature and profound had actually come out of Mikey's mouth.

Raphael shook his head. "I wish you'd told us." He walked over and retrieved his sai. "We could have helped you." He whirled his sai in a flourish before tucking them back into his belt.

It was probably the closest thing to forgiveness that Casey could expect from Raphael, but Raph's expression suggested that it was still a long way from it. Leonardo's gaze was still ice cold. And Donnie—well, considering that Casey had indirectly put April into a coma, it was highly unlikely that Donnie would ever forgive him.

Fleetingly, Casey wondered if he even cared about whether Donnie forgave him.

"It's behind us now," Leo said. "We can't do anything to change the past. But if you want to make it right, Casey, you can help us with something."

Make it right. Casey's heart leapt at the thought. "Anything."

"So, Leo," Raph said. "What exactly is the plan here, get Casey to call Shredder for us or something?"

"Wait—what?" Casey jumped up. "What are—"

"We need to get in touch with Karai," Leo said. "We can track her, but we can't approach her. I'm guessing that you can, since she'll probably just think you're looking for another fix."

Another fix. The words stung, but Casey tried as hard as he could to push past it. "Why do you want to get in touch with that evil witch?"

Atsuko frowned deeply. "You might not be in the best position to call someone evil, Casey. Character judgments are too complicated to make based on a few mistakes."

Casey felt like he'd just been punched. Karai's actions hadn't been mistakes; how could Atsuko compare his coercion to Karai's free choices? It wasn't like anyone was forcing Karai to be evil.

Nevertheless, he also realized that Atsuko was implying that she was willing to give him a chance to redeem himself. His thoughts flitted down to the torn piece of paper that was stashed behind a poster in his room.

"You want me to approach Karai after you've tracked her down?" Casey asked. "I can do you one better than that."