She'd wanted to go to bed early tonight, get a full eight hours of sleep before her alarm would wake her up for her first day back at work, but she couldn't get to sleep. There had been too much happening in the past few days that kept playing through her mind, keeping her from sleep as well as the problems she might face back at work.

She picked up her cell again, clicking in and out of several apps before she brought up her texts, hoping that Donnie was still up.

Are you awake? She sent the text and waited to see if he would reply.

Yeah, is everything okay?

Just another bout of insomnia! Got any cure suggestions?

You're speaking to the expert on insomnia, unfortunately not the expert on its cure, sorry!

Something the great Donatello doesn't know? I can barely believe it!

Alas, it is a flaw

We all must have them! She sent the text and waited several minutes, but there wasn't a response from Donnie, but just as she was about to send another text, one came through.

Are you worried about work?

Yes, I'm not going to have a job by the end of the week

They'd be mad to let you go, you're more important than you think! April smiled at the response, Donnie always knew how to make her smile. Suddenly texting wasn't enough and she wanted to hear Donnie's voice.

Can I call you?

On the other side of their conversation, Donnie was sat hunched over his desk, frowning at his phone when the last message came through. As much as things were improving between them, Donnie still felt some resentment about April almost disappearing out of their life without a word. He wasn't feeling in the mood to put on his fake happy persona over the phone but April was sad, unable to sleep and didn't want to upset April but telling her she couldn't.

You don't need to ask April

Donnie waited and less than a minute later April's picture appeared on his phone as her incoming call came through.

"Hey April."

"Hey D...sorry to call you, I know we could have kept texting but...I wanted to hear your voice," April cringed at how her words sounded but what Donnie said next made her laugh.

"Want me to sing you a lullaby to help you sleep?"

"Maybe another time."

"Are you sure? I've been told my singing voice is very good."

"It is, but I don't think it will help me get to sleep."

"You just want to talk?"

"Yes."

"Want me to talk you through my latest experiment or a complex equation? That might bore you to sleep."

"I don't find all that stuff as boring as you might think."

"You are the only one," he chuckled, "Leo tries to be interested but you can see his eyes glaze over after a while."

"Well, at least he does try, I can't imagine Raph or Mikey doing that."

"They're only interested if I make something that will cause destruction," Donnie laughed and so did she.

The two continued talking for what felt like ages but in reality was a little over twenty minutes, it was at that mark that April actually felt tired.

"I'm starting to feel tired now."

"Good," Donnie chuckled. "Get some rest for tomorrow, um, today, and let me know how things go."

"Will do, thanks D."

Her first day back at work went as badly as she could have imagined. The atmosphere in the office was very tense and everyone had been called in for a meeting not even a half hour into the day to confirm the cutbacks and that they would be letting several employees go by the end of the week and that everyone would have a one to one meeting with the office manager and a decision would be made by Friday morning.

April's one to one meeting did not go very well. April had gone into the meeting with a positive outlook and trying to come across as very upbeat and happy and give good examples of what a valued employee she was, but the office manager barely looked at her, never smiled and it ruined April's upbeat mood and she gave up trying, it seemed as though the other woman had already made up her mind.

Friday rolled around and as suspected, April was one of the ones being let go and due to her being at the company for such a short period of time she didn't receive any severance pay and didn't even have to be given any notice...that served her right for signing her contract without properly reading it, she was just so excited and relieved to have been offered a job.

"They laid me off," April sighed into the phone as soon as she got home.

"I'm so sorry April," Donnie sighed back, "they're idiots."

"Yeah…"

"You know, January and February are the best months to look for a new job, I'm sure there's plenty of places that are hiring right now."

"I've had a quick look, there are plenty of retail jobs going, not exactly what I'd like to do but I just need a steady income….even then a lot of these jobs can't guarantee so many hours each week, one week I could work 30 hours and the next I could only get 5."

"I guess in some ways I'm lucky," Donnie chuckled.

"You'd have nothing to worry about, if you were human you would have several degrees by now and used them to get an amazing job that paid the big bucks," April laughed and sobered quickly, realising that that might have sounded horrible to Donnie, rubbing in his face what he could have if he were human and not a mutant stuck in the sewers for the rest of his life, "but you're better than that, instead of working for some big company you make people's lives better, you save lives."

"Great save..."

"Donnie…"

"It's okay April, I know you didn't mean anything by it and it's not like it wasn't true...so, I'd love to hear more about human Donatello."

"Oh he's got this huge apartment, I think it's a penthouse, 'cause he's got all this money to be able to afford it and he shops at all the top retailers...he always had to look his best."

"For my job or for the ladies?"

"Both, of course," April laughed even though she was feeling far from happy when Donnie mentioned women, he shouldn't be interested in other women she thought bitterly and then shook that thought out of her head, it was only hypothetical women.

"Of course."

"So, if you're not doing anything tomorrow I could use your help with something in my apartment," April said suddenly, she had enjoyed speaking to him on the phone recently but wanted to see his face.

"Oh yeah, of course, I'll be round as soon as it's dark and maybe I could help with the job search whilst I'm around?"

"That would be great Donnie." It was great but now April had to think of another reason that she wanted Donnie's help in her apartment when really she just wanted to spend some time with him...