Author's note: Ooo!Ooo!Ooo! Look! look! I posted more!

YAY!

Thanks so much you all for reviewing! You should have seen the huge line of reviews I got! Wowee!Maybe I should discontinue stories more often if I'm going to get that kind of a response! I loved getting all your reviews

Specifically to Jhessill thanks for you compliment! I always get all jittery and fuzzy when people tell me they like my writing! You totally made my day! I just wished you would have logged in so I could have sent you a pm.

Thankyou thankyou thankyou all!

Now enjoy!

Disclaimer: Me is to owning the TMNT as Charlie Brown is to ever flying that kite.

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April slammed the front door to Casey's car shut and walked around to the trunk.

"Stupid car," she muttered, her fingers fumbling with the keys.

"Stupid keys," she cursed, fitting one into the lock.

She wrapped her coat closer around her body, shivering in the chilly night air.

"Stupid suitcase," she growled, trying to yank her the extremely heavy item from the trunk.

"Stupid show!" she yelled out of the blue. A couple on the street, passing by, stared at her strangely.

Casey was going to be sooo excited to see her; home a day early and extremely ticked off.

The seven hour away antique show she'd been going to had, for one reason or another, been cancelled without any notification. April was fuming. She'd been expecting to find some nice pieces at this function. Some fun out of the ordinary trinkets and some nice china sets. Instead she'd arrived in some small, forsaken, little town last night and was informed of the "unfortunate turn of events".

It had been to late to drive all the way back home. So April had been forced to stay in a grungy motel room in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do. Being furious didn't even begin to cover it.

She shut the trunk stalked up to alley door and fit her house key into the lock. At least she was home now. Casey could have his car back and drive home while she slept happily, in her warm, snug, CLEAN and not smelling of old socks bed .

She debated just leaving her suitcase at the bottom of the stairs but figured one last hauling of the product of her habit of over-packing wasn't going to kill her.

There was a light on upstairs, but no other signs of life. She dragged the suitcase up with one arm, stopping halfway to switch hands. The suitcase slipped and almost fell back down to the bottom, luckily April whipped around and grabbed the handle on the top of it.

"Hey, Casey!" she shouted over her shoulder, "Give me a hand with this would you?"

No answer. She grumbled under her breath. If he'd fallen asleep on the sofa again with an open bottle of soda, she was going to kill him, especially if that soda was any color but clear and had gotten on the fabric.

She heard a crash from the upstairs.

"Casey!" she yelled, "You are so dead!"

Still no answer.

April got a little worried, maybe it wasn't Casey at all. Even being the big oaf that he was he would have popped his head down to say, "hi" and "What the heck are you doing back!"

"Casey?" April said.

No answer, but she could hear shufflings and noises. This was freaking her out. In her mind she imagined a million and one things that were going on up in her apartment; some of them plausible, none of them pretty.

"Casey?" She called again, pulling the suitcase the last three steps up the stair case. She cried out in shock and indignation.

Around the room ran, scurried and fluttered an assortment of New York wild life. Two pigeons, a squirrel and a few moths. April gaped at the bird poo on her floor and furniture, the upholstery that had been snacked on and various other messes around the room including her telephone that had been knocked off the kitchen counter and onto the floor only a minute earlier.

She screamed furiously, "CASEY JONES!"

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"You guys hear something?" Casey asked looking up from the nearly gone bowl of popcorn he'd been hogging.

The other three turtles glanced around.

"huh? no."

"Uh-uh."

"Nope."

Casey shrugged, "Ok-ay."

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Suddenly everything clicked. It all made sense now. Aaron's jumpiness, the smell...

He knew he was somewhat jumping to conclusions; but by the look on Aaron's face he was sure he'd guessed right, and he couldn't help hoping, with all his heart, it wasn't true.

"What is this?" Leo repeated.

A second wave of panic flew across Aaron's face. She groped for words.

"What is it?" Leo asked for the third time, a little angrier than he'd meant to sound.

"What were you doing with it?" he questioned, referring more to the entire bottle than just the piece in his hand. The questions were stupid and self explanatory, but he needed to know for sure, to hear it with his own ears, but Aaron wasn't answering.

"It's a bottle cap," Aaron answered softly, casting her eyes downward, not daring to look up at him.

"A bottle cap to what?"

Aaron didn't answer. She stared down at her hands in her lap.

"What did you think you were doing?" he demanded harshly.

"I don't know..." She mumbled.

What had she been thinking? All the thoughts that had seemed so logical and made alcohol ok had fled, cowering back to their hidey holes, leaving Aaron to deal with the consequences of listening to them.

Leo shook his head. looking back down at the cap.

"You of all people..." he trailed off.

Something in that fragment of a statement caused Aaron to snap for the second time that day.

She was tired of people's expectations, she was tired of being labeled as the perfect child by outsiders of her family and then being expected to live like one by those in it. Even though everyday she failed in numerous ways, the expectations never detached themselves from her. they were like big fat leeches feeding off her sanity instead of her blood. She was tired of having to put up with her family. Tired of listening to arguments. Tired of realizing that she really wasn't in as bad a predicament as some and should learn to just suck it up! She was sick of it all!

"I'm sorry!" She shouted, the force of her voice knocking Leo back a step or two, "I'm sorry, alright!"

He stared at her a little strangely after her sudden outburst.

"You don't know what I live through everyday! You don't know what it's like to be me! I want out, Leo!"

Leo stopped any further questions and watched helplessly as Aaron words worked up and came flooding out, one after another.

"You don't know what it's bloody like!" She yelled, "To be in the middle of two people you love most yelling at each other, sounding as though they hate each other. You don't have to hear their voices, sarcastic stabs in the back and slamming of doors! you don't have to be there in the middle of it all. The yelling and the arguing. Being forced to choose sides even though you're told you'd never have to." her voice began to choke up so she shouted louder and stronger, "You don't know how much that hurts, Leo!" She was nearly screaming now, "So don't go telling me that I have no excuses, that I need to suck it up and get over it! You live through what I do or worse and then I'll take your advice, but don't you dare lecture me right now about things you know nothing about!"

She glared at him with an anger built up inside from suffering so many months. An anger so deep Master Splinter had merely glimpsed at earlier that evening.

"Cuz it hurts!" She screamed at him, a tear running down her cheek, "It BLOODY HURTS!"

Normally Leo would have teased Aaron about her recent incorporation of English swearing into her Californian speech, but he stood motionless by the trashcan.

"Aaron..." He started to say, then stopped, unsure of what to do or say next.

Aaron sat at the table fighting back a second overflow of emotions, and losing. She was fighting down another flood of tears she didn't know was there. She'd thought she'd gotten it all out in Master Splinter's room where, even in her vulnerability, everything seemed safe and comforting. Out in her own kitchen she felt dangerously exposed and accused and scorned like a criminal, which she figured, was probably just what she deserved. Finally she couldn't take Leo's gaze anymore, she buried her face in her hands and her head in her lap and let go.

Aaron's stiffled sobs only made Leonardo more uncomfortable and unsure of himself. He needed time to detangle his muddled thoughts. A nice, safe, quiet place to meditate and figure out what would be best to do next.

"I, I need to go." Leo muttered dropping the piece of the bottle on the counter and turning to leave.

"What? Wait? Where're you going?" Aaron asked snapping her red, puffy tearstained face up. Her eyes flashed like a little lost puppy.

"I'm going home," Leo said expressionlessly, "I need to think."

"Think?" Aaron asked angrily, snapping back to her furious state, "I pour my guts out and you need to THINK?"

Leo kind of shrugged helplessly, "Yeah..."

"Fine! Go!" Aaron shouted again, "Go think!" She spat out the last word venomously.

Leo sighed he tried to say something, anything, but nothing came out so he turned his shell and left the room.

What had she expected? He didn't know what to do in a situation like that. He didn't know how to handle Aaron in that way. Saying everything would be ok just didn't seem to cut it.

At the same time he was mad. He was disappointed. He was alot of different things. Too many different things jumbled together into a sticky mass. That's what he needed to sort out before he went back to her.

When he had himself figured out he could help her.

Like on an airplane, if the cabin depressurizes you put your oxygen mask on before you assist others with theirs. That's the way it worked, right? He needed to put on his oxygen mask and get himself together before he could help her breathe.

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Author's note: Don't make me be lame again! Just review!