Author's Note: Woohoo, still not dead. Got really sick, moved again, have been busy...and I am sorry for the delay. Several chapters have been written ahead, so the pace should pick up to around once a week for a bit. :)

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Chapter Fifty-One: Sorry Doesn't Cut It


"Hey, Leo!" April glanced to the TV, then took a longer look. The blue masked ninja was watching a…nature documentary. Huh.

Leonardo glanced around, smiling as she came over, and lowered the volume. "Hey!"

April quirked an eyebrow, smiling back. "Where is everybody? It's a ghost town around here!" Even Master Splinter, who had been conspicuously present in the Pit recently, wasn't around.

Leo shrugged his shoulders. "I'm pretty sure Donnie and Karai are still in the lab, Sensei is meditating, and Mikey's in his room reading comics...but I'm kind of wondering about Raph, since you ask. I've already checked his room, and he's definitely out someplace." Leo hesitated, chuckled in a way that was probably meant to be light hearted, and shook his head ruefully. "Without his phone, of course."

April suppressed a frown, as a pang of worry shot through her. She was still healing up from their rooftop escape, and it was way too easy to picture Raphael losing the next fight. Still, he knew the situation as well as any of them, and assuming his temper hadn't been set off, he wouldn't do anything stupid.

April shoved the worry away and forced a grin instead, determined to take Leo's lead. He wasn't calling for a full scale search, after all. So! Okay. Cheerful, happy, upbeat…that was her!

Leo raised a brow at her expression with a knowing look in his eyes, but his own smile stayed carefully in place. He patted the sofa in a friendly way. "Want to hang out until somebody else shows up?"

She couldn't help it; her eyes leaped to the lab door across the Pit, but it was still closed. It had been the first place she'd looked to when arriving a minute back, but the urge to double check was impossible to ignore. On any other day, she wouldn't have lingered in the Pit even this long, greeting Leo as she passed him on her way the lab. She'd already be over there knocking at the door…

April glanced back to Leo hurriedly, not quite meeting his eyes. "Um, sure, Leo!" She flopped down on the sofa, and focused on the TV, painfully aware that her voice sounded way too high pitched.

Leo didn't turn up the volume for a few moments. April could feel his eyes on her, but refused to look over.

"Um…" His curious voice had an edge of humor to it. "Want to tell me why you just turned beet red, or should I not ask?"

April loudly cleared her throat, then leaned over to snag the remote, still avoiding Leo's eyes in the process. She turned up the volume, not bothering to change the channel.

After a few moments, as the heat in her face slowly went away, April found herself actually taking in the documentary. The camera was zoomed in on a plain brown little bird pictured in the middle of nowhere. It was taking little wheezy breaths, carefully puffing its feathers up. As its feathers fluffed out more and more with each tiny inhale, it started to look like nature had invented puffballs after all. After several moments, even its beak and eyes were mostly hidden.

A narrator's voice spoke in hushed tones, describing the bird's plumage as subtly understated and majestic.

"Understated" seemed to mean mud-colored, and without any patterning April could spot, whatsoever. There was a pause in narration, and the bird let out a dull honk. A moment later, the narrator somberly clarified that the obnoxious noise was its mating call.

April and Leo shared a glance at just the same time, then burst into laughter.

April tried to speak first. "I don't...know...if we should be laughing..," she paused to get control again, "at something so...majestic..."

Leo grabbed his stomach, guffawing, as he kept one eye on the TV. The little bird was taking careful, waddling steps up a large hill as the narrator explained with deference that it was actually flightless. The majority of its exercise consisted of walking up the hill, then back down again once every day. The narrator slowed dramatically, drawing out one phrase in particular: "In fact, it might be possible to set one's clock by the progress of the determined bird's ritual trek…"

Leo groaned, rolling his eyes. "Okay, Flight of the Penguins made me feel bad, but this is just..."

April was still laughing, her voice quivering as she cut in with faux outrage. "Leo, that's its whole life, it walks up the hill, it w-walks down the hill...it walks up the hill..."

Leo broke into laughter again. "Don't forget, it attracts a m-mate, by t-turning into a round little ball of f-feathers..."

Just then, Mikey pranced in from the hallway. "Hey guys!" He paused, face brightening, and was by the edge of the Pit in no time. "What's so funny?" He was quick to catch on, staring over at the television screen, grinning. "Man, that is one fat little bird..."

Leo lost it all over again. "It's m-majestic..."

Just then April's phone rang, and she pulled it out. "Hey dad!" She held back more laughter, as Mikey started imitating the mating call, making it sound more like he had a problem with constipation.

"April! Where are you?"

Her heart skipped a beat, as her other hand came up to press the phone further into her cheek.

Her father was terrified.

"I went to visit our...friends. Why?" She felt, more than consciously acknowledged, as the others fell silent.

A sigh came over the phone, and April could hear an underlying tremble in it. "G-good. Stay...s-stay there. I h-have..." April felt the blood leave her face, as she listened to her father hold back a sob. When he continued, his voice was hardly more than a whisper. "I'll be there soon." The line went dead.

When April stared over at the other two, even Mikey looked somber.

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"April..." Kirby O'Neil's hoarse voice sounded thin in the large space, as he pushed through the turnstiles leading into the Lair. He choked up as April ran to him.

"Dad!" He opened his arms, breaking down into tears as she knocked him back a little with the force of her hug.

"Y-your…aunt..." Kirby broke off, unable to speak, and April was left for a few moments with Kirby's hands gripping her shoulders as he bent his head and openly wept. Dread curled in April's stomach, tears springing to her eyes.

"Dad…?" The word was only a whisper, as her own throat closed up. She could feel Leo and Mikey nearby, energy pouring off of them as they shifted into full fledged ninja mode. She didn't even have to look to know that Leo was to her right, Mikey to her left…

"She's dead." Kirby seemed to calm for a moment, after the words were out, pulling back slightly from April. His eyes were closed, his entire face twisted in anguish.

"She was so…health…" April couldn't continue the ludicrous comment. Her hands were slowly tightening on her father's arms, probably gripping hard enough to hurt.

He didn't reply for a few moments, each breath a shudder. "W-we have to leave, April." Suddenly his hands found a grip on her too, circling her upper arms, his eyes open again, staring at the floor. "W-we're leaving New Yor…"

"What happened to Aunt Aggie, dad?" April didn't recognize her own voice. It was hard and low; a guttural threat covering her growing panic.

His voice jumped an octave, his own panic already clear as day. "We're leaving…"

Something snapped. "What happened to Aunt Aggie! What happened to her!" April was shaking her dad, at least she was trying to, her hands gripping like claws. She was so focused on him that she hardly felt it when Leo's hand pulled her back, gentle but with the strength of a vice grip. They were both being steered toward the Pit, while she still yelled to her father, still demanded an answer over and over. Her words felt like they came from someone else; involuntary, shrill, uncontrolled…

Then April caught sight of Donnie. He stood in the door of the lab with wide eyes, mouth slightly open. Their eyes caught for an instant, and in that sliver of time, she saw the old him there, her Donnie, worried for her…

April finally stopped screaming. Her hand came up to cover her mouth as if it had a mind of its own, and she closed her eyes, as her shoulders started to shake. She stopped resisting, aware for the first time that she had been, as Leo coaxed her to sit next to her father on the couch.

A few moments passed by, as the room seemed to revolve in place around her as a spell of dizziness hit her, and April found herself reaching for the training she'd received from Master Splinter. Her breathing slowed, and, although far from stable, she finally found the strength to gently reach over to take her father's hands.

He was still sobbing, and in that moment, even with tears making trails down her face, April knew she had to be the adult.

"Was she killed?" Her voice was weak, hardly there, but it was steady, even as the tears continued.

He bobbed his head deeper, the movement filled with anguish.

"Was it…" April rubbed her lips together as her voice failed, but a gentle voice continued for her.

"Was it the Foot?" Donnie had come to stand only a few feet away.

April stared back at her father, as he nodded again. "The p-police…" He sobbed for a few moments.

There was an undercurrent of something hard in Donnie's voice, as he continued. "They…contacted you?"

Kirby nodded again. "C-called me. They said there was a note, a warning…they w-want me to come in…"

"No." Donnie paused, and the ice that was there for an instant melted, leaving his voice soft again. "Mr. O'Neil, you would only put yourself and April in danger. The Foot will be watching for you…"

Kirby cut in, a wild note of panic in his voice, overriding the anguish. "I know! I…" he looked up with wide eyes, catching April in a frantic stare, "We have to leave, April, sweetheart…"

"May I please see your phone, Mr. O'Neil? The one they called you on?" Donnie raised his voice slightly and stepped forward to lay a hand on his shoulder, when Kirby kept talking as if he hadn't heard. "Kirby. It's important."

That jolted Kirby for a moment, his eyes jumping up to Donatello's. April looked too, and did a double take as she realized that Donnie's eyes were almost completely bloodshot...

Then her father was pulling a cell phone from his pocket, and April's jaw dropped.

"Dad…?" It was his old cell, with the old number! It was a simple flip phone, nothing fancy. But it was supposed to be turned off and packed away while they were in hiding…!

Donnie reached down, took it, then tossed it to the floor. Before April's mind could catch up, he brought one of his crutches down in a controlled motion, and the phone's casing cracked, the sound leaping like a gunshot through the room. He crouched gingerly, favoring his hurt leg as he set his crutches aside, then sat completely, quickly pulling the phone apart.

Kirby spoke in a quiet voice, as if the phone being smashed had finally helped to calm him, even though his emotional shock lingered in every word. "What are you doing?"

Donatello didn't look up, squinting at something tiny he'd just pulled out of the phone's compact interior. "Damage control."

The room remained silent for several moments as he worked, using a multitool that had found a home on his belt at some point in the last week or so. It looked like the world's most complicated Swiss army knife, featuring the traditional screwdrivers and other metal tools, along with a few slim gadgets obviously electronic in nature - and likely custom crafted by Donnie himself.

Kirby flinched when a tiny buzzing mechanical flyer zoomed out of the lab, coming to hover by Donatello's side, obviously summoned.

With a few deft movements, Donatello attached a few components from Kirby's phone to the flyer, then spent a few moments fidgeting with the undercarriage of the tiny machine. He let it go again, and a moment later the tiny mini-copter was heading for the turnstiles.

"There. It'll go out to the bay…eventually. But it'll take the long route around the sewers, first." His eyes zeroed in on Kirby again, and in that moment, it didn't seem to matter that Kirby was the elder by quite a few years. Donatello held all the authority in a focused gaze that Kirby couldn't look away from.

"When is the last time you used that phone?"

Kirby shook his head for a moment, cheeks tinged red, and April cringed. Her dad had known better! Donnie had said to get rid of it!

"Weeks back…but…I had to tell Aggie something…" tears were gathering in his eyes again. "It didn't make sense for her to see a strange number! I…I went out to the city limits first! I didn't call from home…"

"And today? The police called this number?" Donatello's forefinger tapped the shattered remains of the phone's casing twice.

Kirby closed his eyes, chin wobbling as he nodded. "Please tell me I d-didn't…" He couldn't continue as a huge, gasping sob cut off his words. He put a hand to his mouth, trying to muffle the sounds of agony, as the room watched.

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AN: Kirby's just not built for this. :/.

For those inclined to give constructive critisicm (which I appreciate): I maybe *shouldn't* do this (it won't become a habit), but if you're wondering, Splinter is aware of Donnie's screaming fit from earlier (from the prior chapter), which happened while he was still in the dojo. He retreated to his own room, desperately seeking a path forward through meditation, not trusting himself to remain calm in the Pit. Leo was out on a jog during Donnie's screaming fit (needing to burn a little something off after stealing kisses with Karai) and didn't hear the ruckus, which is why he mistakenly thought Donnie and Karai were both in the lab. Mikey, meanwhile, did come out from his room at the noise, looked around, thought about knocking on Donnie's door, fretted about it, then lost his nerve and went back to his room to try to tune out the world for a few hours. And I'm sharing this, I guess, because I'm trying to cut down on details that I think don't need to be included in this thing, but if something feels like a plot hole to you, I'd be grateful if you let me know. For reals. o_o