Chapter 21 - Conversations

April looked over as Donatello walked silently into the kitchen. She felt her face go red, wondering how much of her fight with Casey he'd heard.

Don walked over to the table. He looked at April. "We're not really the reason that you and Casey broke up, were we." He asked, but it really wasn't a question.

She shook her head. "No."

He smiled faintly and sat down. "Good." He looked over at her. "I didn't know I was such a threat."

"Don't be silly." She said automatically, then stopped as his smile froze and she realized what she'd said. "Oh, God, Donnie, that's not what I meant. I mean, I…" She stuttered, feeling her face go red. She sighed. "I can't say anything right today…" She looked back at him. "Casey always liked to blame others for his own… for our problems."

He waved his hands dismissively.

She shrugged. "He can be jealous of our friendship. Let him. I won't give you guys up for him."

Don smiled again, then walked over and grabbed two mugs, filling them with hot chocolate. He sat down, handing her one.

They sat together in silence for awhile. April's hands around the steaming mug she held. It was getting colder out, now, and she had her hands wrapped around it in an attempt to warm herself up.

Donatello sat, looking out the window, lost in a thoughtful haze.

April looked back down at her cup. "Don?"

He looked back up at her, smiling. "Yeah?"

"I uh…" She began, swallowing hard. "I'm sorry… about earlier." She looked down. "He shouldn't have…"

"Don't apologize for him." Don interrupted softly. He sighed, then continued. "I'm sorry, I just… Look, he has the right to question, April."

She looked down again, nodding. "I know, but… I shouldn't have acted the way that I did." She said. "I can't believe I did that…" She shook her head. "It's just that… having him here, it bothers me." She smiled weakly. "More than I ever thought that it would."

Don nodded. "I hadn't realized it was that bad between the two of you." Don said softly.

She looked down. "Casey and I… we had a lot of problems…"

He nodded. "Was… the break-up that… bad?"

She laughed, a short, sarcastic laugh. "Bad…" She said. "Well, you can say that." She said, her voice cracking against her will, and she stood, moving to rinse out her glass.

She sat back down, and they sat there in silence for a moment.

"Donnie?" She began, sounding hesitant. She hadn't wanted to bring it up, to talk about it; she really hadn't. But if she didn't talk about it, she just might bust.

"I don't want to pry." he said, then leaned forward, grabbing her hand. "April, if you don't wanna talk about it…" He began softly, but she cut him off, shaking her heed.

He nodded. "If you want to." He said, and she nodded mutely, still trying to compose herself.

After a minute, she took a deep breath, and looked at Don.

"Casey and I… we were engaged before." April said, looking at Don. He didn't look entirely surprised at this fact, she noted, but a small frown began to form on his face.

"We didn't tell anyone." She said, looking down. "We weren't engaged long enough to tell anybody anyway…" She looked up. "I really wanted to tell you guys."

He nodded, and she looked down at her hand in his.

"There was… something else… I never told you." She looked up at him.

He looked at her, raising a brow questioningly.

"Um…" She began, covering her mouth with her other hand. "For awhile there… we thought we were gonna have a baby."

Now this surprised him. His eyes widened a bit, and his grip on her hand tightened slightly.

"What happened with that?" He asked carefully.

"I found out we weren't" She said, looking down. "And then Casey decided he didn't want to get married anymore."

"Because of that?" Don's eyes were narrowed a bit in thought.

April shook her head. "It was… a lot of different things. A lot of ups and downs… And then there was that whole thing, and… and when Splinter died… then it was only downs. He did things, and I said things…" She stopped, tears beginning to form in her eyes. When she began talking again, her voice wavered. "We had such bad fights." She whispered. "That it just wasn't worth fighting for anymore."

She got up from the table, and walked to the counter. Don sat in silence for a moment, letting this all sink in.

"April…" He began softly, standing.

"What's wrong with me?" She choked out, turning to look at him again. He was surprised at her outburst, but his face softened. He held out his hands to her.

"What is it?" She asked again, more softly this time, walking up to him. He took her hands into his own. "Why is it that I still," She began, looking away from him. "I still, sometimes think: how much I wanted it all." She turned towards him, shaking her head. "The husband, the house, the baby…"

"Because it's what you deserve." Don said softly. He pulled her into a hug. "Just not with him."

She hugged him tightly, not noticing when the door to the kitchen opened and Leo took a step into the room before stopping, wide-eyed, at the scene before him.

Don looked over to see Leo looking at them, surprise, followed by concern on his face. Leo opened his mouth to speak, but Don shook his head softly, and pointed down at her, mouthing 'Casey'.

Leo nodded, then quietly left the room.

Don waited a moment, unsure of whether to speak or not.

"Hey," He began softly. "You wanna go for a walk?"

She nodded silently, into his shoulder.

He led her outside, where the fresh air seemed to have an effect. April stopped the tears running down her cheeks, and was only slightly sniffling when she began talking again.

"I lied." She said, and he stopped, looking at her.

"What?" He asked, looking over at her.

"I lied." She said again, then sniffed. "When I said that I never told anyone." She kept walking. He began walking again, catching up to her easily.

"After… everything," She began. "I came here. And I… I told him."

"Him?" Don asked, confused.

She looked over at him, smiling slightly. "Splinter… I came and told him everything." She looked down. "And, you know, it really made me feel a bit better. It was comforting, you know?"

Don nodded. "Yeah." He said. "Even though he's not… here. It's like he is, if that makes any sense."

April nodded. "Yeah…"

**********************

Raphael looked out the window, and saw Casey come stomping towards the house. Uh oh… He thought to himself.

"Hey, Case…"

"She here?" Casey interrupted.

"Uh, no." Raph began, and was about to speak again when Casey started talking again.

"Good." Casey sat down in a huff. He crossed his arms, looking angry.

"I… haven't seen her in awhile." Raph began slowly. He hadn't seen Casey look this angry in a long time.

Casey simply grunted in response.

"Right…" Raph mumbled, then picked the remote up again.

"She drives me nuts, you know that?" Casey suddenly burst out.

Raph sighed and turned the volume down. He turned towards Casey. "I was wondering how long it would take before you blew…"

"Just where does she get the right, anyway? Not like she was totally innocent." Casey rambled on, not acknowledging Raphael's words.

"Then why stay here?" Raph finally burst out. "If you two had such a tough time of it, and you can't stand each other, then why volunteer to be in each other's presence?"

Casey scowled over at him, and for a moment, Raph thought he was about to jump at him.

"The inn has no vacancies. And the motel next town over doesn't, either. Somethin' about off-season travelers…" Casey muttered.

Raph sighed. "Well then, can't you two just… avoid each other for the next few days?"

Casey snorted softly. "You'd think so, huh?" He scowled again. "But it's like there's some kinda… I dunno, magnet here. Everywhere I turn, there she is."

Raph frowned. He didn't know what had happened between the two, but April was his friend, too.

"Then, I dunno," Raph shrugged, tossing the remote over to Casey. "Just try and keep it civil." He said, then left the room.

"Civil." Casey muttered. "Right…"

***********************

It was almost an hour later when Donatello tried to quietly enter the kitchen. He shut the door softly, then turned… And jumped at the sight of Mike sitting at the kitchen table.

"Jeez, Mike." Don breathed. "You startled me. What are you doing in here?"

Mike jerked his thumb towards the door. "Believe me, I'd rather be in here then out there. Casey's in there and he hasn't shut up yet." He put his head in his hands. "Raph abandoned me with him a while ago. I walked in as he was leaving. Now I know why." Mike looked up at his brother. "So where've you been? And where's April?" Mike cocked a brow at his brother, who had a small frown on his face.

"I've been… walking." Don answered. "And April went for a ride, down into town, I think."

"Awww, I wish she would've told me! I ate the rest of the ice cream earlier."

Don smiled slightly at that. "I'm sure we'll get some more stuff here in a day or two…" He said, then went over to the fridge, rummaging through it. "We need some more food in here, anyway."

"Yeah, especially with another mouth to feed." Mike said. "Maybe that'll shut him up." He grumbled quietly.

Don visibly stiffened at that, and Mike frowned slightly.

"Donnie? There something up…?"

"Not a thing. Why?" Don said, then grabbed something from the fridge and shut it. "I'm gonna go check on Lindy. I haven't seen her all day."

"Leo's been hogging her all day." Mike said. "I think it's to stay away from the hot-head angst factory in our living room." He joked weakly.

Don didn't say anything else, just left the room, walking up the stairs.

**********************

April shut the door quietly, knowing full well that any noise would have them all down here in less than a second. She turned, thinking she was successful in getting into the house undetected, when she saw a figure sitting on the couch.

"Where were you all night?" The figure said.

She put a hand onto her hip. "You don't own me, Casey. You never did."

"You're right." He said, standing up. "I never did."

She looked down. "That's not fair, Casey." She said softly.

"Fair?!" Casey said, looking shocked. "Fair?! Oh, the princess wants to talk about fair."

"Don't call me that." She quietly seethed, but her words went unheard.

"Let's talk about what's not fair, shall we?" He said, taking a step towards her. She backed up a step at his movement.

"What's not fair, is spending big bucks on an engagement ring, only to have it thrown back in your face less than two months later. Not fair, is never having a chance to compete for your fiancée's attentions. Not fair is when…"

"Enough." She said hotly.

"Oh, I'm not even started, sweetheart."

"No, but you're finished."

They both looked over at the speaker. Leonardo stood, arms crossed, leaning in the doorway of the kitchen.

"Do you two have any idea what time it is?" Leo asked, walking a few steps into the room.

April looked over quickly at the clock. She was surprised at the hour. She looked back at Leo, remembering now Mikey saying that sometimes Leo couldn't sleep at night.

Casey scowled, but before he could speak, Leo began again. "It's late, and you two are being loud."

"Sorry, Leo." April said softly.

Leo simply nodded, then turned to leave. He turned back, and looked at them. "Tomorrow's a… big day, and I hope that you two can remain civil to each other throughout." He looked down, then back up at them again. "If you can't…" He began, then, shaking his head, turned to go out the door. "Good night." He said pointedly at them as he walked up the stairs.

April nodded, then looked to Casey. "Good night, Casey." She said, then walked up the stairs after Leo. He wanted civil? They could be civil to each other. At least, she could be.

To be continued…

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

A/N - I have to apologize for the huge delay in updates! I had a bit of trouble with this chapter. I just couldn't get it to my exact liking. I literally have re-written this chapter at least nine times. The characters just wanted to keep talking and say more than I wanted them to… Doncha hate when your characters try to take control of your story away from you? Anyway, yeah, here it is. I hope everyone enjoys a little more of a look into April and Casey's situation. (Of course, not everything is here, what would be the fun in that?) There's a lot more to what happened between them than meets the eye. ..

Next chapter: A sad anniversary…