A/N As per usual I still own nothing and I am still eternally grateful for the existence of TMNT.

Love or Blood

Chapter 7: Hard Heads and Hot Heads

Casey Jones: bashing heads on the rink by day, slamming lowlife criminals on the streets by night. A hero on both steel and ice. New York City's designated saviour in and out of the classroom. A definite self-proclaimed badass.

Yes, Casey Jones would not hesitate to boast his numerous – if fantastical – accomplishments to a certain red-headed babe. When he first met her he had merely wished to convince her that he was more than a brainless jock. April O'Neil was not the first girl to snub him at first glance – losing one's incisors tended to have that effect – but often enough a little Jones' Charm was all it took. In the past, when Casey wanted a date, he got one. She was different. Despite all his impressive swagger, Casey found himself striving for ways to impress this new girl. At first, he was attracted to her supposed "lack of interest," but soon enough Casey realized he had actually fallen for the girl.

And Casey Jones never fell.

Sure, he had dated plenty of nice girls, but he never really felt much for them. For Casey his one and only love was hockey. His mother passed away shortly after the birth of his little sister, and for a long time it was really just his dad and him. His sister had been born premature and spent months in the hospital as a result. The strongest of men would have crumbled at the combined loss of their wife and a newborn daughter on the brink of death for weeks on end. Casey's father did not. Instead, he saw to his troubled young son, and therein began a lifelong love of the winter sport. Hockey then was how the two boys coped in a lonely world full of pain and loss. Later, it would become both Casey's passion and the foundation of his relationship with his Father.

Then the day came that Casey and his Father could take his tiny sister home, and of course they welcomed her with open arms into their icy solace. Casey had been quite young at the time, but he still could vividly remember his father bundling his sister up and hauling her to the rink with them nearly every winter day. The death of Casey's mother had been excruciating, but it was that loss that bound her three surviving family members together. Yet, being a single parent is far from easy. Casey's father wanted to provide his kids with the best life he could, which meant many long hours working away from home. Where the three members had been close, the two siblings became inseparable.

Casey took his big brother role very seriously. He was there when she took her first steps. He was there when she said her first words. He was there when she put on her first skates. Yet, for all the times he was there for her, Casey's sister was there for him. She knew when he needed a hug. She knew when he needed a laugh. She knew when he needed a friend.

But life did not stop for them.

The Jones children grew and started to see each other less. As Casey moved up the hockey ranks, he began to get scouted. Once he entered high school, Casey Jones' name was known throughout the league and his coaches began to subtly groom him. By the time he graduated, more people than just Casey were hoping for him to get drafted to one of the big names. Big names meant more practice, which meant more time from home, which meant more time away from his sister. Between his schedule, and his sister's own commitments, sometimes the siblings would go days without seeing the other. It was inevitable that they would start to lose some of their childhood closeness. Then Casey met April and was introduced to the true nature of New York City.

A vigilante was born and a brother was lost.

Casey and his sister continued to drift apart: the closer he grew to April and the turtles the less familiar he was with his sister. Naturally Casey still thought of his sister often, for she was a large component to his motivation to fight the Kraang and Foot. He sought to protect his sister along with the other inhabitants of New York. His oath to keep the turtles a secret meant his sibling had no idea what he was regularly up to, but for once Casey was content with not showing off to her. As long as she was safe he was happy. It was a different strategy than he was accustomed. Still, Casey Jones played to win and his victory meant a safe sister and a hot girlfriend. When the Kraang invaded, everything fell apart.

And Casey lost.

One morning Casey was waving goodbye to his sister and father, and the next morning he was a refugee in the boondocks of North Hampton. His family? Probably mutated in Kraang Prime's ghastly image.

One does not play hockey for as many years as Casey without losing at some point. Losing meant learning and learning meant improving. One loss did not mean the loss of the war, but the vigilante still chalked up a few dire causalities that deeply affected him.

The first had come with the loss of his best friend Nick. One wrong move had changed everything. At first the teenager had been just as furious as his former friend. He cursed the world and its unfairness and the downright stupidity of the entire circumstance. However, eventually Casey managed to approach this loss as if it were any other and sought the silver lining. He forced himself to learn from it, and although the sting was still there, Casey realized that sometimes no matter how hard you try, things are just out of your control. A hard lesson to learn, even harder to accept especially when the unthinkable encompasses one's family.

His loved ones were lost, and Casey coped with it the only way he knew how: by deeming the situation out of his control and just putting it behind him. Except the only problem was that unlike with Nick, where Casey had not meant to hurt his friend, the Kraang had fully intended to hurt his family and everyone else in New York City. The hockey player just hadn't realized that yet. This was mostly because in his determination to just accept the situation for what it was, Casey ironically cast it into a place where he denied its very existence thereby botching the lesson entirely.

Consequently, he turned to any potential distraction that would prevent the pain from resurfacing while simultaneously avoiding anything that would enable true reality to resurface. Obsessing over projects with Donatello, fighting for rights to April, and avoiding any reminder of Leonardo's plight were just a few of his favoured pastimes. Sadly that meant while Leonardo was unconscious Casey rarely visited the wounded reptile, and this in turn allowed him to avoid Raphael. For Raphael not only reminded Casey of their injured leader, but also of the things Casey had lost.

Maybe that was how Casey managed to miss Raphael's growing affections for April.

At first when April told Casey of this new romantic development, he wasn't sure what made him angrier: the fact that he had lost the object of his affections or the fact that he had become so distant from his supposed best friend that he had failed to notice how Raphael was feeling. Casey felt both pissed and ashamed, and naturally that shame manifested as more anger due to Casey Jones' charming way with emotions.

It was not surprisingly then, that he snapped at April, and said some fairly nasty things. It wasn't that he had a problem with April dating one of the guys – turtle or otherwise – it was more Casey had a problem with one of the guys dating her instead of him. Also, although Casey strove to learn from his mistakes and losses, one of the reasons he did so was because he knew he was a pretty sore loser. Making him gain something from a loss was the only way he really knew how to deal with it. Unfortunately, April's romantic confession had caught him off guard. Casey had reacted on impulse, and his mind didn't even glance over what potential good could come from this new development.

Casey realized too late what was happening, and so he had needed the better part of the day to regain his sanity. When he thought he could finally be civilized once more, he returned to the house but seeing Raphael right beside April had made something begin to snap, "Wow Red, not wasting any time are you?"

Of course the red-banded turtle instantly registered Casey's aggression, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Casey leaned one shoulder against the doorframe. He probably should have been a little more careful with his words considering Raphael was now far stronger than him since the turtle had actually been training regularly. It wasn't that Casey wasn't exercising, but often he and Donatello would skip practice when immersed in a project. Plus, Raphael tended to rely on training to burn off his pent up energy and so of all the farmhouse inhabitants, he had actually built the most muscle tone since their arrival. However, Casey was beyond caring for his wellbeing, "Exactly what you think it does."

Raphael took a step towards Casey, "Listen Jones, if you've got a problem-"

Most would have backed down by the look on the red-banded turtle's face, but Casey decided if he was going down he was taking whatever he could with him, "It's your girlfriend who has a problem Raph."

April spoke up, "No, I'm pretty sure you're the one with the problem Casey."

The human was unsurprised by April's interjection. She definitely had a backbone and was not afraid to use it. That was one of the things Casey loved most about April. Then April grabbed Raphael's hand, "It is Raphael's and my choice to be together, not yours."

And any lingering positive thought was burned from Casey's mind. Her words and their physical contact gorged at his heart. All his buried emotions from the past few months seemed to suddenly bloom to the surface.

His city was lost. His Father was lost. His sister… His little baby sister was lost. And now he had lost both April and Raphael.

It wasn't fair. It wasn't right. It wasn't how things were supposed to be.

Casey Jones felt something snap, "LIKE HELL ITS NOT! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH I'VE GIVEN UP? FOR YOU GUYS? FOR YOU APRIL?"

Before April could retort, Raphael pulled from her grasp and deftly slipped himself in between her and Casey. The turtle snarled, "No one asked you to give up anything Jones!"

The human sneered, "Like you needed to! I thought it was obvious how useless you guys are!"

Within a breath, Casey Jones found himself shoved against a wall. Raphael slammed his right forearm across the human's neck moderately crippling Casey's trachea. The vigilante could feel the turtle's hot breath on his face and saw the reptilian left arm threatening to lay into him when his opponent hissed, "Want to say that again Jones?"

April materialized at Raphael's side to restrain the turtle's punching arm. Casey vaguely registered the scrapping of a chair heralding Leonardo's movement, but the hockey player was only concerned with the being before him.

If he had never met Raphael, he would have never gotten involved in this whole turtle catastrophe. If he had never met Raphael, April could have been Casey's. If he had never met Raphael, Casey would not have lost his family! He spit in the turtle's face, "FUCK OFF!"

Anxious silence filled the room as April and Leonardo awaited the imminent explosion from the turtle before them. Raphael obviously struggled to keep his cool as he responded with a few deep inhales and exhales. Eventually he responded with a deadly whisper, "Wrong answer Jones. You've got one more try."

But Casey only laughed coldly, "Ha! I wouldn't be pinned against a wall right now if I was wrong! You know I'm right! I leave you guys alone for five minutes and guess what happens?"

April whined, "Casey…"

The vigilante's eyes flicked to April and back to the ferocious green orbs before him, "Don't feel sorry for me Red, I'm not the one who let my Dad get flushed."

If April hadn't been hindering Raphael's arm, Casey Jones would have had his face punched in. Instead, the irate reptile dragged April along with his punch and managed to still procure enough force to thrust the source of his wrath through the kitchen's screen door. The door carried its now bloodied cargo across the porch with a tremendous crash before cracking to a halt when it careened onto the lawn.

April held on to dear life while Raphael, oblivious to the sudden addition of weight on his elbow, bolted across the porch to land above the quivering pile of human flesh. The humans' eyes connected fueling April to cry at the turtle she valiantly continued to maintain her grasp, "RAPHAEL STOP!"

Finally the mutant became aware of the girl glued to his arm. He looked at her evidently confused by her presence, "April…?"

Raphael's eyes flitted between the boy at his feet and the girl as his arm as April continued, "Raphael please… Please calm down."

Casey – especially his now aching head – was immensely grateful for the look of dawning comprehension in the mass of rage above him. The tension continued to ebb when Raphael stepped off of Casey and murmured, "Fuck…"

April appeared reluctant to withdraw her hold from Raphael, but the turtle managed to shrug her off now that she caught more of his attention. Casey managed to raise himself up to see a perplexed Leonardo on the porch but his attention was drawn to a voice behind him, "What the shell is going on?"

Donatello had decided to grace them with his presence at the most optimal of times. Casey turned to face the newly arrived turtle and groaned while gesturing to the couple, "Don, what do you think of this?"

The purple-clad turtle tilted his head thoughtfully, "Of what?"

Casey snapped, "Of April and Raphael hooking up! What else?"

Donatello's eyes glazed briefly over the indicated problem before returning his gaze to Casey, "And…?"

The sitting human huffed in exasperation, "You cannot tell me you are ok with this?!"

The turtle shrugged and then moved past the crowd towards the house, "You just need to accept it Casey. I'm going to bed."

Casey felt his jaw drop when the bo-wielding reptile turned and addressed everyone with a voice sounding perfectly cheery, "Goodnight everyone!"

Raphael evidently was surprised as well, "Uh… Goodnight Don?"

Donatello grinned at this particular brother while Casey cried in desperation, "Are you serious? I thought you were head over heels for her?"

Donatello paused, "It wasn't in my control," and without further ado, he disappeared into the house.

Awkward silence started to set in when Leonardo at last spoke up, "Well if you guys are good, I'm going to bed too."

Leonardo did not even wait for the others to respond before following after his younger brother. April and Raphael exchanged looks, whose meaning was lost on Casey. Instead he focused on Donatello's departing words: "It wasn't in my control."

A memory of his friend Nick the last time Casey saw him washed to the surface followed by a conversation the vigilante had once had with April:

April, "It's not like you meant it."

Casey, "Right. Some stuff is just beyond our control."

It was as if a fog had been lifted in Casey's mind. New York, his Father, his sister, April, Raphael… All of it. All of it had been beyond his control. It was still hard to accept, but it didn't change the reality. He slowly rose to his feet and turned to April, "It was beyond my control. Wasn't it?"

April's eyes glimmered in understanding and she nodded. Casey continued, "And it's not like you meant it to happen either. Right?"

She nodded again, "Right."

Casey knew. She was not sorry, but she was not immune to his pain either. He turned to address Raphael while rubbing the back of his head in humility, "Hey man, I'm sorry for being such a twat earlier. I didn't mean what I said about your Dad. I just forgot about something I guess."

Raphael crossed his arms, his mouth in a firm line, "Yeah well it happens. Uh… Sorry for chucking you out with the door."

The human boy half-heartedly laughed, "Don't worry. I got a hard head."

The turtle snorted, "That's one way of putting it."

Casey shrugged, "How about you help me fix the door and we call it even?"

Raphael rolled his eyes, "Wasn't my skull that broke it."

Casey retorted, "Because I always go through doorways head first!"

"I'm not judging."

The hockey player reached down and began to drag the door off the ground, "Just help me you knob."

Casey saw a slight grin quirk at the corner of the turtle's mouth as he helped lift the door from the ground. As they tilted their cargo into the doorway, a thought occurred to the vigilante, "Hey where's Mikey?"

A/N Haha yes I did it! In your face procrastination! So for all you Casey fans out there at least here is a chapter focusing on our favourite vigilante! And yes Casey still has stuff to come to terms with. We just caught a glimpse of the surface here because obviously there is NO WAY he's just all cool and dandy about his family getting Kraangified. Ahhhh so much to talk about and so little time!

To my wonderful and lovely reviewers:

Once again thank-you so much for all your reviews! It was mind-blowing for me to get so many reviews in such a short period of time. None of my other stuff has been nearly this popular so it is very exciting to me!

Komnenid: More like Casey was referring to Raph and April already being close together (when really they have been for months just Casey was oblivious). Nonetheless I agree pissing Raphael off is never a good idea as you shall see soon enough…

Musicalocelot: I know! I feel sooo bad for the guy. I have to admit writing him in such a state was a little hard on me because I love Leo so much! It makes me long for the happy-go-lucky Leo of season one.

Terri: I know darn PG rules! lol I guess that's what the comics are for. While writing the last few chapters I went back to original comics to help give me a bit of inspiration. Even there the turtles' feelings are totally hashed out, but it's at least seriously hinted at. I am also so glad that you are enjoying it! When I first started planning this tale out I was originally going to just focus on Raph and April, but then the more I dug into their characters the more I realized I couldn't go into all the detail I wanted without diving into the others' psyches as well. They are just so close and so interconnected that if something happens to one of them it really does happen to all of them. Consequently in case you're wondering, Donatello's POV is coming. I have nothing against the guy, I just have a bit more to write first and the timing worked out better for it to be after the other POV's.

GuestZ: Yep. It was short, but there was a lot in it (or that's what I was aiming for). I agree it is really not a good place to be… So don't worry I'm not going to leave him in the darkness forever.

mommason: Thank-you! I'm also super excited to hear from new people that they are enjoying it! =D