Disclaimer: Don't own any of the TMNT characters. So, uh...GOONGALA! XP
Summary: Having problems with a street gang after trying to stop a bank robbery, Casey Jones goes to April for help. She takes him to the turtles lair.
Note: My first shot at a TMNT fic! ::crosses fingers:: Hope ya like.
The Good Guys Aren't Invincible: I
Dreaming sweet dreams of wildflowers and sunny days, April was suddenly rudely awakened by a loud, demanding knock on her apartment door. Scrunching her face and finally opening her eyes, she crawled out of bed and pulled on a long fuzzy robe over her nightgown before trudging out of her room and to the front door in the livingroom. "Hang on, I'm coming!" she yelled sleepily over the insistent knocking.
Unlocking the deadbolts on the door, but leaving the chain lock, April opened up as far as she could to see who was at the door. There stood Casey Jones, panting for breath and looking nervously behind him. "Casey?!" she yelled through the small space in the partly opened door. "What do you think you're doing? It's nearly midnight!!"
Casey half-doubled over, putting a hand to the wall as he tried to catch his breath. He looked up, ready to speak, his shabby dark hair falling in his face. "April, lemme in, please. I pissed off a couple o' punks tryin' ta take down a bank an' I need a place ta hideout for the night. I think I'm in way over my head this time. The cops might be lookin' for me."
April sighed angrily. "Casey, don't bring your trouble over to my place. Go home!" With that said, she slammed the door in his face.
"But they know where I live!" he called helplessly from out in the hall with a slightly feigned whine to his voice.
April paused in front of her bedroom door, clutching her robe. A sympathetic look crossed her face and she bit her lower lip, trying to decide whether leaving Casey out there was really the best thing to do or not. He had a tendency to get in over his head, but usually nothing he couldn't help himself out of. Little did she know, that this time was different.
Deciding that he was probably just being overly paranoid, April crawled back into bed and returned to her previous sleeping.
- - - - -
When Casey had trudged back to his dingy little apartment, he had just unlocked the door and stepped inside when a crashing noise alerted him and he turned to his left. It was dark, the only light coming from a single bulb he'd left on, dangling from a string in the corner of the room. Before he could figure out where the crash had come from, something hard struck him in the jaw, sending him to the floor.
"Thought you could get away wit' what you done to us Jones?" A big guy built like a brick wall stood looming over Casey, a policeman's nightstick in his hand.
Casey knew he was in trouble. Maybe I never shoulda busted up that bank robbery. He thought, before quickly scrambling to his feet and reaching for the baseball bat he kept in the corner. He rushed at the thug, swinging, only to be bashed in the side and knocked to the floor again.
Another thug stepped out from the shadows, grinning. He was a spanish-looking guy, well built, but not quite as big as the first guy. And he was smugly holding a lead pipe in both meathooks he called hands. "Too bad for you we didn't get the money, amigo. But the cops don' know we was the robbers." he looked over to the first guy and grinned. "Tell 'im Andre."
The first guy slapped the nightstick in his palm.
Casey looked sideways at his baseball bat that he dropped when he was hit. It was just out of his reach. His ribs hurt from being hit with that pipe, but he tried not to show he was in pain. His side was mostly numb anyway, but he knew he'd really feel that later.
"Yeh, so as Ricki was sayin'," the guy called Andre smirked evilly. "The cops think we was jus' innocent bystanders who witnessed the whole thing. An' we was tellin' 'em we saw who tried ta rob the bank.....an' we told 'em it was you." he laughed wickedly at Casey's shocked and angered expression.
The other guy, Ricki, then snapped his fingers. Three more thugs came into view.
Casey's face twisted angrily, and he made a last ditch effort to leap for his fallen baseball bat, only to get smashed in the leg by one of the new thugs with a crowbar. "Aghh!" he yelled in pain, then struggled to fight back as two of the guys restrained his arms. Casey was strong, but no way could he take on these five big guys while being held back. And unarmed to boot! He knew this wouldn't end well.
The thugs punched, kicked, and beat Casey until they were bored, then the guys holding his arms finally let go and he dropped to his knees on the dirty, bloodied floor. Ricki then picked him up by his shirt and tossed him through the window of the two-story building, only to land on a car below with a loud crash.
Left for dead, Casey managed to roll off the crushed hood of the car and drag himself away while the thugs finished off their fun by burning down his apartment.
- - - - -
It was about two hours later, around two a.m., when April awoke from a light knocking on the door. She had been sleeping very lightly that time, and although she already had a hunch who was knocking at her door at two in the morning, she found it odd how it was much fainter sounding then the last time. Climbing out of bed and throwing on her robe again, April stomped off to the front door, even as the knocking stopped. "Casey Jones, I told you-!" she stopped as she flung the door open this time, finding a bruised and bloodied man crumbled on her door mat. "Ohmygod," she gasped, her mouth hanging open in shock.
It was Casey, though he barely looked himself.
"A-April.." he choked out, struggling to catch his breath.
"Casey!" she knelt quickly beside him, grimacing at his bruised and battered face. "I'm so sorry I didn't believe you! I didn't think you were in that much trouble! I'm so sorry, I - God, I need to get you to a hospital!!" April rattled off so quickly that Casey thought his brain would explode from the fast intake.
"..No." he gasped, slightly shaking his head and clenching his eyes shut. He reached out feebly with a shaky, bloody hand to lightly grasp April's. "Cops...after..me." Casey managed to get out as he tried dragging himself from the floor. It had taken most of his remaining strength just to get to April's apartment.
April's eyes went wide. She wanted to know why the cops were after him, but knew that now wasn't the time to ask. He was in no condition to be getting into conversation, he was barely conscious. "Come on now Casey, just stay with me alright? Don't go to sleep. You can't sleep okay? You might not wake up!" she was panicking now. April knew she needed to get Casey help, but if she couldn't take him to the hospital, then - Aha! The turtles! She could take him there! But...how would she get him there?
"Unnh." Casey groaned and started to fall on his side again.
"No!" April screeched at him, lightly tapping the uninjured side of his cheek. "Stay awake!" she said firmly, then stood and reached under his arms to try and pull him to his feet. "Come on, help me out here Casey. You're heavy!" she strained, practically dragging him into the apartment so she could shut the door.
He was trying to move his legs and help her out, but one leg was injured and hurt to move.
April suddenly remembered that there was a wheelchair in her hallway closet that her grandmother had used when she broke her hip a few years ago. Leaving Casey leaned up against the couch on the floor, April ran to get the chair.
When she came back, Casey had surprisingly gotten himself on the couch and was leaning heavily against the armrest. April wheeled the chair close to him and lightly touched his arm to gain his attention. "Here, help me get you in the chair, then I'll take you to see the turtles. I'll use the shell-cell they let me borrow to contact them and let them know we're coming. Donnie's a pretty good medic, he'll be able to help you." she told him softly, then prepared to help him to the wheelchair.
- - - - -
April wheeled Casey toward the manhole where the turtles were waiting to help get him down. She climbed down the latter, then got into the strange water-craft Donatello had put together a while ago to travel along the tunnels.
Mikey gaped at Casey as they set him carefully inside the craft and Donatello began driving them back to the lair. "Oh man, he doesn't even look like Casey," he esclaimed.
"Can it Mikey," Raphael scolded when he noticed the teary-eyed look on April's face.
"What happened to him?" Leonardo asked from up front.
"Yeh," Michelangelo went along, "He looks like he was run over by a freight train." he frowned, showing concern.
"He..." April began, faltering a little. "He came to my apartment around midnight, saying he botched an attempted robbery at the bank and now some thugs were after him or something." she paused, closing her eyes tight a brief moment so she wouldn't cry. "Then...he - he came back just a little while ago....looking like this." she gestured toward Casey, a frown of guilt and sympathy crossing her face. "Now the police are after him and I don't even know why. H-He asked for my help....and I told him to go home." Her lower lip began to quiver and she could no longer stop the hot tears as they trailed slowly down her pale cheeks.
"It'll be okay April," Donatello tried to put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "We'll take care of him."
"Yeh," Raph snarled, pounding a fisted hand into his palm. "An' I'll hunt down those punks that did this to him."
"No, Raph." Leo scolded firmly. "We can't do anything more tonight. There'll be cops all over the place. Besides...Casey is our main concern right now."
Raphael sighed. "Alright, I won't go lookin' for those thugs.....for now."
- - - - -
"How is our friend Casey doing?" Splinter asked quietly as he slowly approached the lab, Raphael standing outside the door as if on guard, and Donatello slowly exiting the room.
"It's pretty bad." Donnie frowned, glancing back into the room sadly. "He has three broken ribs on his left side, several cuts, gashes, and bruises on his face, arms, chest, and back, a concussion, and his right leg's pretty banged up. I'm not sure, but he might also have a slipped disc in his lower back."
"Damn." Raphael muttered under his breath, shaking his head.
Splinter nodded at Donatello's assessment of Casey's injuries. "The healing process will be a long and painful one, but I feel that he will fair well in the end. Some herbal medicine may do him good." he then slowly walked off to put together a concoction to help ease Casey's pain.
"Where's April?" Raph asked curiously. He would have had an eyebrow raised if he had any.
"She's sleeping on the couch." Donatello answered quietly. "Leo helped me convince her to get some rest. It's late. He and Mikey went to bed, you should too."
"Yeh, you should talk." Raphael smirked a little, then sighed. "A'right I'm goin'. I just wanted ta make sure you got some rest too."
Donatello put a hand on his brother's shoulder, knowing Raphael was trying to hide his true intentions. "He's your friend Raph, it's alright to show concern."
"Yeh," Raphael just nodded, then turned to go to his room. "I jus' never seen Case so bad off after a fight..." he said quietly as he left.
"It's going to be a long night..." Donnie mused to himself once his brother had gone. "What's left of it." he glanced at the clock inside the lab. It was nearly four in the morning now. With a tired yawn, he wandered off to rest for awhile before getting up to check on Casey again.
- - - - -