"Guys! Guys!" Casey warned. "Keep it down!" The turtles froze. "My cousin's in the next room asleep."
"Right. Sorry," Donnie whispered.
"Woo! Oh!" Mikey instantly dropped his arms, a grimace on his face. "Oops… Sorry."
Leo gave his orange-banded brother the side-eye. "Casey is right. We need to keep it down. It's already enough of a risk that we're here, we don't need to make it worse by waking up his cousin."
The three of them returned their attention to the game on the flatscreen while Casey leaned over to whisper to Leo. "You know, it would be a lot easier if you'd just meet her."
The blue-banded leader was already shaking his head before Casey had even finished his sentence. "Not gonna happen, Case."
Casey sighed and leaned forward to snag his beer from the coffee table. "I don't see why not."
"You know why," Leo told him. "The fewer people that know about us the better."
"My cousin can be trusted," Casey stated matter of factly.
The eldest turtle remained quiet for a moment before he said, "You may believe that Casey, but you can't guarantee it." He didn't have to look at his friend to know his expression was one of offense.
"I don't believe Leo, I know. My cousin," he paused to take a swift drink. "She can keep a secret."
Leo glanced at the human out of the corner of his eye. "You make it sound like she's had to keep a lot of secrets." If that were the case, it was just another reason to keep their existence unknown to her.
He'd had Donnie do extensive research into Casey's cousin but it was all for naught. Sammy - or Samantha - Jones had only existed up until she was eighteen years old; after that, it was as if she had disappeared off the face of the Earth. Donnie could find nothing on her, not a thing. No job history. No tax records. No previous addresses. Not even a single social media account. Whoever she was now and whatever she'd been up to for the last seven or eight years was not meant to be public knowledge. Or easily found by an expert hacker such as Donnie.
It didn't sit right with Leo. Not one bit.
"Everyone has secrets," Casey told him with a shrug.
That didn't ease his fears in the slightest but before Leo could voice that, Raph turned to them and told them to shut up. "We're tryna pay attention here!" So, Leo let it go. Again.
Besides, they were here to enjoy the game with their friend, not for him to, as Raph would say, lecture Casey to death.
Mikey sat on his knees with his fists lifted halfway in the air hissing, "Go, go, go!"
"Come on," Raph growled, sitting on the edge of the recliner.
Donnie was halfway out of his seat, eyes trained on the flatscreen. "They're gonna do it. They're gonna do it!"
Both Casey and Leo sat forward, muttering similar phrases under their breath. This was it. They were gonna do it. The Knicks made the basket and all five men were up on their feet, shouting their victory to the ceiling.
And then a blood-curdling scream cut through their fanfare.
"What the hell was that?!" Raph asked after a beat of silence.
Everyone looked from the hallway to Casey who was already on his feet and rounding the arm of the couch. "Sammy," he answered and then it really seemed to hit him. "Sammy!"
A bedroom door from the back of the apartment slammed open, cracking loudly against the wall. They heard someone stumble through the doorway and fall onto the floor with a dull thud. After a short struggle, the person seemed to get themselves back onto their feet and came scrambling down the hallway towards them. A short grey blur barrelled into the living room, stopping just short of Mikey who'd come around the opposite side of the couch as Casey.
"Sammy?!" Casey called but he went unheard.
Casey's cousin stood there between the couch and the kitchen, panting like a wounded animal as her eyes darted about the room unseeing. Her hair was a wild mess and the oversized, wrinkled sweater she wore hung off one shoulder. She looked...unhinged.
"Sammy?" Casey tried again, his voice softer this time.
Still, his cousin didn't react. Not even a twitch.
"Yo girl," Mikey said, his voice low and careful. "You good?" He stepped forward with his hand outstretched.
"Mikey, don't!" Both Leo and Casey warned but for entirely different reasons.
No one but Casey had seen it coming. One moment Mikey was on his feet and the next he was on his shell, Sammy sitting atop his chest with her knee in his throat. Her face was set into a fierce scowl, her lips pulled back over her teeth in a nasty snarl. She reached for Mikey's waist, removing a set of his nunchucks and raising them above her head. The other three turtles made to jump in and protect Mikey but Casey reacted faster.
Casey got as close as he dared, hands lifted so that his open palms faced his cousin. "Sammy! SAMMY!" Her head whipped around to face him, her hair smacking Mikey in the face. "It's me. It's Casey!" He told her but she didn't seem to recognize him. "You're at home. In New York. With me. Your cousin." Sammy blinked and her face slowly relaxed into a confused grimace. "It's me, cuz. It's Casey."
His cousin's arm dropped an inch or two, her grip loosening on the nunchucks as her eyes truly focused on him. "C-Casey?" She whispered, her voice wobbly.
Casey laughed, relieved. "Yeah! Yeah. It's Casey." He shuffled forward a few inches, hands still in the air. "Could you, uh, let my friend up there?" He pointed to the turtle currently being pinned underneath his cousin.
That confused expression deepened as she looked down. "O-Oh! Oh god…" She stumbled to her feet. "I'm so sorry! Did I - I didn't hurt you, did I?" Sammy seemed horrified by the notion and it was then she noticed the weapon in her hand which she dropped as if it had burned her.
Mikey caught his nunchucks before they clattered to the floor and sheathed them as he sprung to his feet. "Nah girl. I'm good." And he was. Their little brother looked no worse for wear. In fact, he looked a mite too pleased Leo thought. "Smooth moves though," he complimented her, his mouth stretching into a wide smile.
Sammy looked down at the floor, tucking what she could of her hair behind one ear. "I, uh, t-thanks, I guess," she mumbled.
While Sammy continued to stare at her feet, fiddling with the sleeves of her sweater, everyone else was staring at her. In the silence, all their thoughts seemed too loud.
And then Raph cracked. "What the hell was that?!"
"I'd like to know as well," Leo agreed, his tone much more even than his brothers.
Casey ignored them though in favor of addressing his cousin. "Sammy?" She peered up at him from under her lashes. "Did you, uh, did you take your meds?" Sammy flinched and dropped her gaze. "Sammy," Casey sighed. "You gotta remember to take 'em."
"You weren't supposed to be home," she told him sharply, shoving at his chest. "I didn't take them because you weren't supposed to be home!"
The turtles all looked at one another confused. "I - What does that even mean?" Casey asked in a low voice, obviously a little less confused than everyone else but still confused.
His cousin scowled. "It doesn't matter." She turned to Mikey, keeping her gaze low so as not to meet his eyes. "Sorry about...a couple of minutes ago." She waved at them all, the gesture stiff and awkward before shuffling her way back down the hallway.
No one dared speak until her bedroom door clicked shut.
The five of them waited for a moment, making sure Sammy would not come out again, and when she didn't everyone seemed to want to speak all at once.
"Bro! Did you see that?!" Mikey exclaimed, gesturing wildly at his brothers. "I had a chick on my chest." He smacked his plastron and held his hands there. "Right here. I had a chick, right here, on my chest!"
"That's what yer focused on?!" Raph growled, going toe to toe with his baby brother. "Not ta fact that she literally knocked ya on yer ass?!"
Mikey scoffed. "You're just jealous, brah!"
"Jealous?!" Raph shoved Mikey in the chest. "I'll show you jealous."
"Um." Donnie shoved his way between his two quarreling brothers to get to Leo and Casey. "Is anyone not the least bit worried that she had nothing to say about our…looks?" He swept a hand through the air in front of his chest.
"I'M-!" Leo's tone and volume drew everyone's attention. "More concerned with the fact she even could take out Mikey." Four pairs of eyes turned on Casey.
Their human friend shrugged jerkily, the movement nervous. "She must have caught him by surprise."
Leo crossed his arms, unconvinced. "That might be but she still should not have been capable of sweeping him off his feet and stealing his weapon." His brow ridge rose in question. "Care to explain how that's possible?"
"I told you," Casey said, his expression hardening. "She took him by surprise."
The human detective and the blue-banded turtle stared one another down. Leo would not be letting this go and Casey refused to betray his cousin's trust, so that left them here; stuck in a battle of wills with only a single thought on their mind - they would protect their family no matter the cost.