I'm SOOOO sorry for the delay in the updates. My computer needed to be repaired and I didn't have it for over a week. So, I finally got it back and Zephyr is okay again... Yes, I named my laptop. Don't judge. Anyway, here is this chapter, as well as the next.

Disclaimer: I don't own TMNT or any of its characters. Chris Nova belongs to Solaris Prime. All other OCs are mine.

"How could you? All of you?" Amelia demanded. Her brothers had been placed on the phone once she'd returned home from her trip to the park after visiting Dr. Fogg. She was furious at not only her brothers, but Master Splinter, Mona Lisa and Gage. How could they have kept Chris' death from her? How dare they?

"We thought it was for the best," Leonardo answered over the phone, his voice loud and clear in the speaker. Amy scoffed angrily.

"What right do any of you have in allowing me to just forget about Chris? How could that possibly be for the best? Huh? He died to save my life, and you were just going to let me forget that!"

"It made you distressed," Donatello reasoned.

"You mean it made me crazy, right? I started seeing him because I was grieving, like any normal human being would. But, then again, I guess normal isn't something I've ever been allowed to have, is it?"

"That's not fair, Amy?"

"That's another thing we've never had in our lives. Nothing's ever been fair! Shredder took Chris' sight from him, but it brought him to us. It wasn't fair for a child to go blind because of a power-crazed lunatic! And then Shredder tried to kill us multiple times. That's hardly fair! And then Chris died, and I was beaten to the brink of death last year, and then I went crazy and started seeing my dead brother! So, no, Don. Our lives aren't fair."

"Amy," Gage began, but was stopped when his fiancé glared at him.

"And you! You seriously kept something like this from me? We're supposed to be getting married! How can that happen if I can't even trust you to tell me the truth?" she screamed. Silence permeated the room in the stillness that followed. Nobody wanted to say anything. After a moment, Gage could see tears falling from Amy's eyes as she reached out for the phone and hung up on her brothers. "How can you possibly stand me anymore?"

"What?" he asked incredulously, shocked by the turn her emotions had taken.

"How can you stand me? How can you possibly still want to marry me, after all we've been through? I've brought you so much trouble. Why not simply give in, and get on with living? Why not simply end it? We'd all comprehend it. Hell, everyone would probably say we're better off that way."

"How can you think that, Amy? I love you."

"But love only goes so far. Gage, look at all we've been through. You've had to rescue me so much from danger. And ever since Bishop captured me, I've been seeing Chris. I've been going crazy, and we all know it." She sobbed. "I'm more trouble than I'm worth." Gage crossed the room in a few quick strides and took Amelia's left hand in his. Holding it up so she could see, he pointed to the engagement ring on her finger.

"Whatever may come, we'll come through together. For year after year. That's the promise that I made the day I gave you this ring," Gage answered determinedly.

"But… if we let this go on, then you're just going to end up hating me. Or I'll hate you. And I don't want to hate you!"

"And if I were still a boy, I would've backed down. But I'm not a boy anymore. I'm a man who promised you forever. A man that said I'll never regret, or let you. A promise, I made to stay and I stay true. Amy, I swear I will never leave you."

Amelia sighed heavily once more. "I'm so messed up, though."

"I will be perfect for you. I will be by your side until the day I die. When I asked you to marry me, I swore I'd love you forever. And I'd already promised Chris I'd protect you until my dying breath. So long as you don't give up on me, I'll be with you forever."

"You can't guarantee that, Gage."

"Look into my eyes," he said sternly. Amy did so, and what she saw was determination and strength and undying love. It was the kind of thing she'd only ever seen in her brothers' and Master Splinter's eyes. Gage really did mean every word he'd said, she realized. He really wasn't going to leave her, even if she was losing her mind.

"Okay," she whispered. "I believe you." Gage wrapped his arms around Amelia tightly, as if to further prove that he wasn't going anywhere. It was comforting, though only for a moment. Amy's mind quickly began swimming at the idea that treatment couldn't help her. What if, now that she remembered Chris' death again, she started seeing him again? She didn't want to put her family through that stress again, but she certainly wouldn't be able to help it if her visions returned. "But I'm so scared, Gage."

"What are you afraid of? Talk to me."

"This treatment. It made me forget, and I don't want that to happen again. I don't want the E.C.T anymore, but what else is there for me?"

"We'll figure something else out. Whatever it takes."

"But what if nothing works? Think about it, Gage. I refuse to take medication because I don't think it really helps and it lowers my senses. I don't want that. The E.C.T scrambled my brain even more. Instead of helping, it hurt. Dr. Fogg once said that at times it does hurt to be healed, but I don't think he meant it like this. And I don't want to continue that."

"Then you don't have to. We'll find something that does help you."

"Gage, you're not listening to me. Something broke inside me, but what happens when the cut, the burn, the break—whatever it was—what happens if it was never in my brain, or in my blood, but in my soul?"

Gage swallowed dryly and rubbed Amy's arms comfortingly. "Then I'll do whatever I can to heal your soul. I'll give you a normal life, if that's what it takes."

Amy laughed wryly, wiping her teary eyes. "I don't need a life that's normal, Gage. I know that's way too much to ask for. But, something next to normal might not be so bad. I just… don't think I can really be okay after all I've been through."

"So, maybe we can't be okay? Doesn't matter, because maybe we're both tough, and stubborn, and we'll try anyway," Gage answered softly.

Amy couldn't help but laugh again. It was just like him to try to cheer her up like this. When he was like this, it was hard to stay mad at him, even if he had kept her brother's death a secret from her. Amy didn't know how she wasn't going to heal, but she knew she wasn't going to be alone in the healing process. Everything was going to work out. She finally had hope for that. For the first time in a long time, she had hope.

Please R&R.