[A/N: Originally posted to AO3 on May 11th, 2018]

Chapter Summary: Leo wakes up facing some unfortunate realities. The farmhouse has a meeting regarding the future.

TW: None

April 1st, 2014 | 7:25 am

Twisted as fate always was, Leo woke up on April Fool's Day. That was the last thought on Donnie or Mikey's mind as they flew up the stairs. Quickly things became chaotic. The rhythm they all sank into was gone. Today was simultaneously the most dreaded and anticipated event.

April, Casey, and Karai were at least all level headed enough to realize that all four brothers cramming themselves into a bathroom was going to be tight enough. They all wanted to see Leo badly, or at least see what was going on. Karai felt it was appropriate used her superior hearing to tell April and Casey what was going on. She narrated what was happening upstairs.

From what she could hear Leo was definitely awake and conscious. Even talking to his brothers and replying to questions. He didn't know where he was. He got the date wrong. He said his fingers felt pruney. Mikey won't stop hugging him. Raph is hyperventilating. Donnie told him to shut up so he can listen to Leo's heart. Leo wants to know why everyone is freaking out. Donnie is telling Raph to come down and get April.

Raph came down the stairs. "Hey April is it possible you have either some old toothbrushes or a bristle brush?" he asked, death grip on the railing.

"Uh what kind?" April asked urgently.

"One that can get wet?"

"It would help if I knew what you needed it to do," April didn't like vague responses it seemed.

Raph twisted his face a little. "Uh...one that would be best used to scrub algae off a shell?"

"Ah," April walked away to go fetch that.

"Can we see him?" Casey blurted out. It only just now occurred to Karai that she wasn't exactly sure how close or not close Leo and Casey were. But Casey's tone seemed urgent and excited.

"No, not yet," Raph looked back up the stairs. "Donnie wants to clean him up...a lot...and then wants to move him to a bed."

Karai stopped listening something upstairs grabbed her attention. Leo's heart beat had gone up severely. The water was splashing a little. Donnie and Mikey were asking him what was wrong. Donnie told him, no, yelled at him, to stop hitting his legs. It sounded like they grabbed his arms. Leo said quietly, barely loud enough for her to hear, that he can't feel them.

Karai squeezed her eyes shut. April came back with a few bristle brushes and Karai slithered away from the staircase. She slithered out onto the porch for some air or something. April and Casey sat on the foot of the stairs. She decided not to share the last thing she had heard.

Maybe she had misheard him. Or his legs had fallen asleep from the three month long soak.

April 1st, 2014 | 11:15 am

Leo may have came out of his coma, but after the tiring ordeal of moving him from the tub to the bedroom across the hall he was asleep. The only one aside from a turtle who had seen him was April, because everyone agreed she was the "superior bed setter upper," a phrase Mikey claimed to have invented. She had expertly put together a nice bed with clean sheets and still firm, barely used pillows for Leo. Who was asleep before he was even in the bed.

Donnie, Raph, and Mikey did not share what Leo had said about his legs. Though Mikey looked visibly worried. Karai figured it was another personal thing, another family thing. She suppressed an eye roll. While April and Casey practically clawed at the three turtles for information, she had decided to go to sleep.

I'm starting to say I'm sleeping more than I am sleeping. Once in her room she could still hear Donnie and Raph avoiding questions. She could also hear two different heart beats upstairs. Mikey was glued to Leo's side.

She definitely wasn't hiding in here away from them. She wasn't.

Casey and April interacted with the turtles differently. Karai wondered of it was because of the circumstance of their first meeting. April was rescued by the turtles and they quickly became like family members to her. Casey had started a fight with Raph, followed Raph home, almost got destroyed by a family of mutants. Yet Leo referred to Casey like he was an adopted little brother. Karai's first experience with mutants had been with Leo, and she had immediately been fascinated by him. Both in the fact that he was a mutant, and also that he was a very skilled ninja.

Karai feared she was always one far to personal question away from being pushed out by them. She was constantly on thin ice. She had some safety nets. Mikey really liked her.

Mikey likes everyone.

April was on good terms with her. Raph tolerated her, Donnie hated her, and Casey flirted with her. Though Casey's flirting was mostly jokes where the punchline involves something related to snakes.

Raph and Casey were best friends and it seemed Raph still was keeping things to his chest about his family. She could hear him out there, avoiding Casey like he was a pesky wife demanding to know where Raph had been all night. Outside of the circumstances it would have been funny.

She went over to the tank Mr. Tubbs still resided in and lifted the screen. She took the Chinese Cobra out with ease and as she usually did, Mr. Tubbs settled around her shoulders. To imagine the same cobra had her barricading herself in a bathroom three months ago was odd. Three months ago was a lifetime away it seemed.

Casey and April accidentally set off a fight between Raph and Donnie. Karai knew from Leo that Raph was second oldest, but Donnie was smarter than them all combined. To listen to them argue about what they will be doing next was stressful. Donnie was the leader in Karai's opinion. He was always checking in on everyone. He was the one to talk finances with April. In a way April was also a leader. Either way one thing was certain, if both Donnie and April wanted "it" done, whatever "it" was, got done.

Karai left the farmhouse and headed into the woods. She let the yelling fade into the background. Mr. Tubbs was quickly flopping his tongue as they walked, taking in all the lovely scents.

April 1st, 2014 | 8:03 pm

When Karai did return it was getting late and the sun was setting. She slithered into the farmhouse with Mr. Tubbs and was immediately approached by Donnie, who was mad.

"Where have you been?" he demanded, hand on his hips like a waiting mother.

"In the woods, going for a walk." Karai looked past Donnie into the room, everyone but Raph was down in the first floor of the farmhouse. "Why?"

"Why?" Donnie asked rhetorically. "Because when we told Leo you were here, only to find you were gone we-"

"-we thought you bailed!" Casey finished Donnie's sentence.

"I-" she tried to start. She now noticed how upset Mikey looked.

They hadn't seriously thought she'd just leave right?

"You gave April five fucking g's and then tell us you are going to sleep only to actually be gone!" Casey continued over her. Not letting her sneak an explanation in.

Something in her ignited. "Don't give me that shit. You sneak off with Raph more times than I go for undocumented walks," she spat.

Casey visibly paled.

Donnie took the silence as an opening. "That's not comparable, them sneaking off to get drunk during a lull is one thing, you leaving in the middle of this-"

"This what? This shit show? You and Raph unzipping your pants and comparing who's is bigger?" Karai wasn't pulling punches now. She felt Mr. Tubbs shift on her, uneasy from her yelling.

Donnie didn't have a retort but April did. "Leave him alone!" she snapped. "If it weren't for Donnie Leo would be dead."

"I'm sorry O'Neil did I hurt your boyfriend's ego by pointing out the obvious?" Karai asked, a condescending tone dripping off her lips.

"Don't talk to her like that!" Donnie snapped. "And Raph and I aren't competing."

"Yeah you are!" Mikey said with a scowl on his face. "You two talk about being the leader now like Leo doesn't even matter!"

"There are reasons we are having those conversations Mi-"

"Oh, care to share?" Karai interrupted him. Eyes like daggers. "Or is that between you three?"

"It doesn't concern you!" Donnie yelled at her before turning to Mikey and yelling, "We'll talk in private about th-"

"What about how Leo can't feel his legs?" Karai sneered. April and Casey both gasped. "Yeah, I heard that this morning."

"And then you ran off!" Donnie shot back. Having recovered quickly.

"I went for a fucking walk!" Karai and Donnie were inches apart. She almost wanted an excuse for a fight.

It was at that moment Raph had appeared in front of her forcibly pushing the two of them away. She hadn't even registered him coming down the stairs.

She could tell he was seething. That silent angry that was more intimidating than yelling and slamming things. Raph was angry for someone else.

"Shut the fuck up. All of ya." He said at a normal volume.

Donnie began to speak and Raph just held up a hand. "No." Raph looked at Karai, angry but his face was stone. "How dare you."

"How dare I what?" she tried to sound tough, brave, but Raph was big and this wasn't blind rage in his eyes. Her voice shook under it.

"How dare you use what you ova heard this morning as a weapon."

Karai stared back at him confused.

"You have no respect for privacy."

What?

"Did it even occur to you that maybe that's why we don't trust you?" Raph added.

Karai felt a pit in her stomach.

"You use what you know, to hurt people." Raph looked sad and he pointed up the stairs. "And the person you just hurt, can't even come down here to tell ya."

Karai didn't respond. Her mind raced.

Raph laughed a little. "Why do you think the worst you have on us is stupid little stories from when we were kids?"

The gears turned in her head.

"Unlike you, Leo has respect for his family and his friends," Raph smiled meanly. "Leo knows you better than you know yourself. You're a kunoichi first, and a decent person last. So he keeps you occupied with little tales from our childhood."

Fuck you.

"Yeah, well I wouldn't take character advice from a guy who slits his own wrists."

Why did I say that?

The silence was heavy as she slithered past Raph and Donnie into her bedroom.

There goes the ice.

2004

When she was eight, Karai was attending a high end private school with other Japanese children. In her little school uniform and tidy book bag she waved to the intern that had dropped her off as she climbed the steps.

Same as everyday she sat behind another little girl who had little red scratches all the way from her wrist to her elbow. Karai would see her at her desk giving herself paper cuts until the teacher would come and stop her. She would cry and sob and say she's sorry and then was taken away by a soft spoken counselor. The first time it happened Karai was curious, but it was now a weekly spectacle and rumored by the other children that the girl did it to go home early.

Later that day Karai would be walking to the library and pass the counselor's office to see the girl sitting happily in a chair swinging her legs. Fresh bandages on her arms and a lollipop in her hand. The little girls bag at her feet all packed. Her mom would come and pick her up.

Karai would sneer and continue walking.

The little girl would be called a cry baby, momma's girl, a plethora of mean names. A boy drew a picture of all his classmates and made the little girls arms red and put deep blue tears on her face.

Of course some would gather around her in the years to come as the girl got older. She had quite the herd of sympathetic followers handing her tissues and giving her part of their lunch in attempts to make her feel better.

Karai would sneer and eat by herself. The daughter of Oroku Saki, had no time for friends. She went to school, she trained, she would be everything her father wanted her to be.

When she was thirteen a letter was sent out, her classmate had committed suicide. Finally Karai had said exasperated much to the horror of her nanny. The woman scolded her saying she had known the girl, the one who had been cutting her arms all these years. Her mother had been battling brain cancer.

To which Karai shrugged and responded that was all? Her mother died? Karai returned to her breakfast. That girl had been weak she told her nanny, it was fitting the weak would die.

Karai's mother had died when she was an infant.

Her first kill was at age seven.

Her father smacked her for incorrect katas.

Her father starved her for rebelling.

Her father fondled her when he was sad about her mom being dead.

Her father expected her to do whatever it took to be a deadly weapon.

Why would she ever feel sorry for the little girl with the cuts down her arms over something as small and insignificant as her mother dying? Karai had persevered against far worse with no help.

April 2nd, 2014 | 8:00 am

Mikey was the first to approach her after the blow out the next morning.

Of course if was Mikey, who else would it be?

Karai glanced over at him, and he looked at her and smiled.

"Hey Karai," he sat down on his bed across from hers. It reminded Karai of how mothers in after school specials would be seen sitting down in their daughters rooms to talk about boys. She stared at him. His smile didn't even budge.

Uhg.

"Hello Mikey," Karai tried to hide the shake in her voice.

"Leo wants to see you," he said. "But no one else wanted to come and get you, so…"

Karai nodded and slithered out of the bedroom. Mikey followed her. That really should have been her first clue that something was amiss.

She slithered up the stairs and the door to the bedroom Leo was in was already ajar. Inside the room was much larger than the bathroom. It was large enough that everyone could actually comfortably sit around the room. Mikey came in after her and closed the door. Karai took in the scene before her. Leo was in bed, of course. He was propped up on some pillows, a thick layer of blankets over him, his eyes were closed but his heartbeat and breathing suggested he was awake. To his right April sat on a kitchen chair. To his left Donnie sat on another kitchen chair. Next to Donnie sat Casey and next to April sat Raph. There were two empty chairs. Mikey walked in past her and sat down next to Donnie. He then patted the chair between him and Raph for her to come sit.

This was it. Here it comes. They're kicking me out.

She slithered to the chair, moved it to the side of the room and spun into a coil where the chair was. Everyone except Leo had at first looked at her confused but then seemed to realize all at once Karai really couldn't "sit" anymore.

"Okay," Raph said nodding and looking around the circle "Everyone's here," he said, leaning forward to tap Leo's hand.

Leo opened his eyes and glanced around the room. Karai felt bad, he looked drained.

"Okay," his voice was rough and quiet but everyone could hear him in the silence of the room. "I guess this is our first family meeting, anyone want to start?"

There was something awkwardly formal about this.

"If I may?" April asked the circle and when no one said anything different she began. "You guys didn't exactly explain what this is," she looked across Leo's bed at Donnie.

"When things were stressful as kids. As in all of us were mad at each other, Sensei would hold family meetings so we could work out our...issues. And right now...we're having issues."

Leo nodded in agreement. "Alright, who has some issues they'd like to discuss?"

Everyone was silent.

"Okay, I'll go first," Leo said, taking a deep breath. Everyone including Karai was a bit surprised. "For one, I have been in a bathtub for three months and not one of you has filled me in on what has happened."

"Oh!" Mikey piped up. "Dibs! I'll tell you all about it!"

"Alright," Donnie said. "I'm writing it down, Mikey will bring Leo up to date."

Karai now saw the pad of paper and pencil in Donnie's possession.

Leo continued. "I have another issue," this time Leo swallowed and started to play with his fingers twiddling them. "I can't feel my legs, and I can't, I can't move them."

"I feel I, as the self appointed family doctor, should explain" Donnie butted in. "Leo can't move his toes and his feeling from mid thigh down is non-existent"

"Permanently?" Casey asked.

"We don't know, we are mutants, he could heal."

"But if I don't-"

"Don't say that Leo," Raph stopped him.

"No, I have to. I can't lead you from a bed," Leo said mournfully.

"I can continue being the temporary leader," Donnie reassured Leo, touching his arm.

Leo grimaced. "I don't think that's a good plan, you should be focusing on what we need to do in order to get back into New York City."

"But I've been doing fine while you were in a coma," Donnie argued.

"You were spread far too thin," Leo replied calmly "Focus on how we are going to save New York, Raph is the leader now."

Raph nodded at Leo in acceptance. Donnie wrote it down, biting his tongue.

The meeting went on for who knows how long. Karai didn't say anything, she just listened. At the end Casey was mumbling something about lunch. Karai found herself alone with Mikey and Leo.

"You aren't cooking?" Leo joked at Mikey. "Are you feeling okay?" Leo closed his eyes again, he sounded exhausted.

"Dude, I can cook any day of the week but we have like three months worth of stories to get through!" Mikey exclaimed. He dragged the stool closer to Leo's bed. The kitchen chairs had been carried away when everyone else left the room. "Karai, I'm going to need you to stay and help tell stories."

She looked at him surprised "Oh?"

"Yeah! Come on over," Mikey smiled and turned to Leo. "Okay you want this in chronological order or the wild ones first?"

Leo tapped his chin. "How about how Karai ended up here?" He asked. Then he looked right at her and she felt like she was going to hurl.

But instead she sighed. "I don't exactly think I'll be staying here."

"Wait why?" Leo asked, sounding alarmed as he pushed forward from his pillows.

"Because I already fucked it up," she moaned. "It had been going so well two and a half months and then...I just fucked it all up."

"You mean last night?" Mikey asked.

"Yeah, you were there Mikey," she said, annoyed he was playing dumb. "I should have bolted last night."

"Oh the fight?" Mikey asked.

"What fight?" Leo looked at Mikey questioningly.

"It's a long story," Mikey dismissed Leo with a bat of his hand. "Karai don't worry about it."

"They aren't mad at me?"

"What? Oh, no, yeah they are super pissed," Mikey corrected.

"Someone explain to me what is going on-"

"I thought this weird fucking chair circle was going to be you guys kicking me out!" Karai said.

"What? Dude, I mean dudette, no. Yeah they're mad, but what family isn't like pissed at each other sometimes?"

Karai blinked. "Family?"

"Yeah, families fight," Mikey added slowly.

Leo interrupted. "I know nothing but Karai, you're family now."

"And families fight. And last night we fought. And today we'll be angry. But eventually it will be okay," Mikey smiled.

Leo nodded. "Yeah." He leaned back on his pillows and pulled the blankets up to his chest. "Now someone tell me what happened."