Chapter 17

April P.O.V

"So how long should he be like this for again?" April asked as she entered the bedroom for the fifth day in a row, bringing up meals to the three youngest turtles who had barely left their eldest brother's side.

"-Week-" Donnie managed to get out through a yawn, his eyes unfocused and dropping from lack of sleep. He rubbed them, yawned again, then took one of the bowls of soup from April, "Thanks." He took a spoonful as he looked over the still unconscious Leo and the sleeping Mikey and Raph, both of whom were curled up to both fit onto the second bed. If it wasn't such a depressingly tragic situation, April would have found the way Raph had an arm tight around Mikey an adorable sight. However, due to the situation being the result of five days on a constantly shifting rota of watching Leo patrol, April knew the guys had been pushed to their limits and needed their older brother with them once again. Donnie sighed as he set down the half empty bowl,

"I just don't know…" he muttered, "His vitals are perfectly normal, but medical standards he should be up and moving, but it's like he's refusing to wake up. Even when we speak to him…" He bit his lip, "But Leo's not one to hide from anything, not even any so called 'failure.' There must be something deeper psychologically…" He turned sharply to April, a small flash of hope in his gaze, "April, you dad's a psychologist- do you know anything that may cause this?"

April shook her head sadly, hating the way her friend's eyes sank back into depression.

"I didn't really get what he was on about, but…" she held a hand up to Leo's direction and placed the other on her head, "I hadn't been able to get much of a reading from him these past days, but now… now I can feel… something…" April gathered her energy and moved closer to the dark swirling void in front of her, "It's dark and powerful… Shattered images… Is that-" then she cried out and sank to her knees and in an instant Donnie was next to her, guiding her to a chair.

"What was it, April?" he asked, both hopefully and fearfully. Through her blurry vision April was aware of Raph and Mikey jolting awake at the commotion and she vaguely heard Donnie give a quick explanation.

"I saw…" she gulped to keep her voice steady, "It was Leo's unconscious mind- he doesn't know about it himself but it's affecting him. There was Fishface, Razzar and Tigerclaw… It was horrible…" she turned to the turtles around her, "That was them torturing him, wasn't it- that video clip on the T-phone?" They nodded in confirmation. She shut her eyes and saw herself as Leo and the pain he had experienced, "They're monsters…" she muttered coldly, hating what they had done to their leader more than she did already, but the brothers remained silent. "They're going to pay- every one of them-"

"April, calm down." Raph moved forward and put a hand on her shoulder. The redhead looked up at the turtle in confusion, her mind swimming with the fractured images that Leo did not consciously know he possessed. "Getting angry won't help him now. We need to stay calm. For Leo." Behind Raph, the others nodded apparently used to this new, calm Raph, however April wasn't sharing the sentiment. She stood up suddenly.

"How can you say that?! How can you not want revenge on them for hurting Leo, how can you? Are you fine with Leo being broken?" The moment the words left April's lips, she regretted them. Tears sprung up from Mikey's eyes and Donnie suddenly became pale while Raph's eyes became hard. "Oh, guys- I'm… I'm sorry…" April gasped, realising her mistake, "I didn't mean-"

"Leave." Raph whispered coolly, "Please, April. Just go see Casey. We'll look after our brother." The human teen looked to the two other turtles, yet neither met her eyes. With a quick sob, she turned heel and ran downstairs, only pausing once she was outside the living room when she burst into tears. It was alright for the guys, they didn't have the power to see into other's minds and see their suffering and feel their pain. They didn't have to be whisked into the mind of someone who was mentally, physically and emotionally at the end of their rope. They could kid themselves that Leo would be fine, but April couldn't. Not after being in his mind.

It took a few minutes to compose herself before she dared to enter the living room to the sight of Casey spread over the sofa, snoring loudly. The nice, gentle part of April's mind told her to leave the hockey player be as he hadn't had much sleep, but the part which had just watched Leo's torture decided that as no one else in the house had slept much, she should kick him awake. So she did.

"What! Huh, Red?" Casey half yelled, half yawned, but whether it was her bloodshot eyes or her fierce expression which did it, whichever it was made the black haired teen sit up and ask a kind, "what's the matter? Any change?"

April shook her head and plonked down next to her friend. How could she say that she just messed up big time, that she had seen what had happened to their leader or how they had told her to leave? In short she felt useless.

"What can we do, Casey?" she muttered eventually.

Casey shrugged hopelessly.

"No clue, Red. The guys are taking this hard. I mean, they're not speaking much or training…"

"Wonder why." April snarled sarcastically, "I mean, it's not like Splinter's gone, Leo fell into a three month coma which is taking forever for him to recover from and how he was, I don't know, tortured or something. Raph was turned into a plant and now Leo's back in a coma. No, no idea why Mikey's withdrawn, Donnie's stressed and Raph's suddenly become the model of leadership?" Casey blinked at her outburst.

"What's eating you, April?"

April sighed and put her head in her hands, her emotions raging out of control,

"I just don't know how to act around them anymore, I mean, we forget their just the same age as us, don't we… They always seem, I don't know," her voice softened, "untouchable, but now…"

"They're vulnerable." Casey finished, "But I wouldn't put them down yet."

"But how are they going to come back from this, Casey?" she raised her face, "Leo's always been strong but now…" She sighed again, "I saw into his mind, Casey. He's suffering, really bad. I said he was broken." She finished in a whisper, "and they told me to go." The boy let out a long, low whistle.

"That was low." He muttered. That did it for April.

"How can you say that? I saw his mind, Casey, I saw what Shredder's crazy band of mutants did to him, they beat him and tried to boil him alive!" Casey went a bit green around the edges, "Leo's always about the mission and honour so why won't he try to fight his way back again and recover so we can save New York? Our families are now mutants and-" Casey's passive gaze caught her eyes and she stopped suddenly, "What, Jones? You think I'm being selfish?" Yet to her surprise, Casey just shrugged.

"I thought the same a week ago, Red, but I was talking to Raph, and from what he said, Shredder has really messed up Leo…" He clicked his tongue against his gap in thought, "The thing is, the guys all look up to Leo and without him, they're lost. Beneath the 'Leo this' and 'Leo that' Raph really respects the guy- I mean turtle- whatever- so when he's down, it's reminding them all of what they've lost back in the city. I think they're just scared of losing him too." April felt her mind growing calmer, Casey's speech seemingly refreshing her concerns and anger, "So yeah, of course I'm mad, but they just need time 'fore we go off and save the city. When we take down those alien scum, it'll be all of us behind our leader having all the fun of smashing those brain things into a pulp!" Casey slammed one fist into the other to emphasize his point before suddenly looking up. April's gaze followed suit when she heard it as well. It was faint and quick, but it was there.

A voice, a cry and a rush of feet.

Something was happening…

DUN DUN DUN! Not the whole, something happening part, but the April with an anger problem! ;P

Sorry for the long wait, blame me forgetting my laptop when I went away!

So:

What's happening?

Will the guys forgive April?

What will Casey do about everything?

Thanks for all the support, next chap coming soon!

LL99 OUT!