A/N: Title comes from P!nk's "Trouble".

Now we start getting into the canon divergence stuff. Mainly I get to play with Casey developing relationships with everybody! It mainly comes from the place of understanding why the Turtles developed such a strong friendship with April. With Casey it always seemed a little bit too quick that they accepted him to the fold. I would have liked to see another episode of them building up their friendship first in some form.

Maybe Wormquake/The Manhattan Project counted? Either way it's my fic series! So what I say goes.

Also, as always, this is unbeta'd. I have to go through these fics with a fine tooth comb.

Part 5: No Attorneys To Plead My Case

Tonight, Casey thought (not for the first time), was just really not her night.

First, she had to fight those robot ninjas, then there was chase through the subway tunnels, then she almost died, and now, apparently, everyone (except April) thought she was a boy this whole time.

It's not the first time that it's happened.

Still vaguely insulting though. It's like just because she refuses to conform to society's standards of what a woman is, then she's automatically placed in the category of a guy.

Her annoyance must have shown on her face. April had recovered from her fits of laughter and placed a hand on Casey's arm.

"They haven't been around humans much."

Well obviously, Casey wanted to say out loud. She didn't though because she had some modicum of tact.

She even decided to exercise that tact, "I'm not mad. Just annoyed."

"Society's standards of beauty again?" asked April, correctly guessing Casey's thought track.

"Awww you have been listening to me and your aunt talk, Red."

April's aunt was a Women Studies professor at Empire State University. She was a cool older woman who believed that feminism came in different forms and taught a class about the philosophy of feminism along with one about gender in regards to a field of communications.

Casey thought the Margot Pratchett was possibly the coolest woman she had ever met. She was a spirited woman who didn't give two shits about what anyone thought. She had also taken an instant liking to Casey, who was also a proud feminist and didn't give two shits about what anyone thought of her.

"I always listen to when you and my aunt speak, Casey."

"Well I think you're pretty!" said the turtle in the orange mask, which was shocked by her femaleness moments ago. "Both of you are."

Casey smiled a bit at the endearing and awkwardly childish attempt to cover his blunder.

"Thanks," she said with a wink in his direction. "You're not so bad yourself."

He beamed at her with those big bright childlike blue eyes. Casey caught Raph's gaze, who rolled his eyes at his brother. Which made Casey grin at him wickedly.

Of course, she moved and her body protested a bit. She winced ever so slightly.

"So what does a girl gotta do to get her injuries looked at around here?"

That seemed to snap them all out of their various states of shock. The one on the couch with a toolbox waved, "Uh yeah that's going to be. I'll be checking you out."

He paused and blushed bright red, which Casey didn't know that turtles could go but hey mutants, and corrected himself, "I-I mean I'm going to be checking you over. Uh…hi? I'm Donatello."

"Smooth genius," said Raph from behind her. "Very smooth."

The newly introduced Donatello shot a glare in his brother's direction, but turned to Casey with a kinder gaze.

Casey swallowed thickly. Her instincts were all haywire because hello attractive people, flirt dammit flirt! All of them were attractive in an odd way and hey she didn't discriminate, she has had crushes all over the spectrum and slept with people she found attractive.

But these were also April's friends, so she will not flirt (now) anyway.

"Thanks, Donatello," she said to him kindly. He nodded and started going to work, large three fingered hands surprisingly gentle. She looked at the rest of the room, "So a boy huh?"

The one in the blue mask spoke up, "We thought you were April's boyfriend."

Now it was Casey's turn to laugh at April's face but that only lasted a few minutes.

"I could be her girlfriend," she said with a wink in April's direction. Casey heard a strangled noise next to her, Donatello gripping some sort of compression bandage a bit tighter.

Oh! Oh. That's so cute. He has a crush on April.

"She's not my girlfriend," said April with an annoyed look in Casey's direction. "I like boys."

"I just like everyone," Casey said with a big grin on her face. "But enough about my pansexuality, April's heterosexuality, and my being a lady surprising all of you. Let's start this chat."

"That's probably the best idea. We should introduce ourselves first," admitted the blue masked one.

"Well most of the group I know," said Casey with a nod. She took her free arm and pointed at April, "That's Red."

She then moved to the rat man, "That's Splinter?" A nod confirmed her guess.

"My bash bro Raph is over there."

"Bash bro?" asked Raph, looking over at her curiously.

"Dude we just fought a robot ninja on top of a subway car after which you threw me at it so I could tase the," Casey glanced at Master Splinter and change her word choice, "heck out of it. We also saved each other's lives. There's a bond now, a deep bond. Like when Red and I had to deal with Goo Guy a while back."

"Troll Moment of Friendship," said April wisely coming over with a bag of ice for Raph.

Casey nodded, "She gets it."

"You're kind of nutty aren't you, Jones?"

"Now you're getting it, Raph. Knew I liked you. Even though I tried to break your arm. Sorry about that."

"Yeah well both of our tempers weren't being held in check. Anyway the guy in blue is my brother Leonardo and the one in orange is my other brother Michelangelo."

Casey blinked now. The names suddenly became familiar to her, "The Renaissance guys?"

"Quite right," said Master Splinter as he took a seat on the couch. "I named my sons after my favorite artists of the Italian Renaissance."

Sure why not. Casey's mother named her after mythological figures and named Madeline after that book series. Naming your kids after your favorite painters? She can go with that.

So she nodded.

"Okay so…uh…how? I mean not trying to sound like rude. But I don't know how to delicately ask uh how you all are the way you are."

"I will tell you the story, and then you will answer some of our questions?" offered Master Splinter.

"That's more than fair."

He almost seemed to smile, "A little over fifteen years ago, I was a man named Hamato Yoshi and had just moved from Japan…"

Donatello wasn't listening.

Well he was listening but he wasn't. The story that Sensei was telling was as familiar as his face at this point. He was focusing on Casey's injuries.

It was rare that Donatello was caught truly off guard. Most times, even when he was slight thrown off course, he could still catch his balance thanks to his brilliant mind. Sure he got frustrated when things went wrong, but more times then not he could usually MacGyver his way out of a situation.

Still the whole Casey being a girl thing was definitely something new. Or rather, it just a bit of a shock he supposed. Casey's layered clothing and demeanor had disguised her biological sex fairly well. Also adding in the fact that Donnie saw her from the back more often then not. His brothers had rather quickly disguised their own surprise. Despite this Donnie had a feeling that Sensei may do more lessons regarding body language training in the future.

He carefully, very carefully as he was aware the kind of damage his hands could do to humans, wrapped a compression bandage her wrist. She had a very mild sprain and didn't seem to notice it too much, but he read her slight wince fairly well.

He considered the myriad of bruises on her body. There were a couple of yellowing ones on her face and the fresher ones had started emerging.

Donnie winced in sympathy. She would be hurting tomorrow.

It kind of shocked him. He was all ready to hate her when he thought Casey was a guy. It was a reminder, sudden and harsh, that there would be no way on Earth that April would ever like him the way he liked her.

He knew that it was stupid, hanging onto the crush. Yet it made he feel…normal.

Liking a pretty girl, it was what most teenage boys did. He liked that feeling, this human feeling. He never expected to feel that before.

So seeing April with who he assumed was a boy, it was…maddening. It was hurtful. It was a reminder that he was just a mutant freak and will always be a freak.

The fact that Casey wasn't a boy and that she and April appeared to be just friends should have put Donatello at ease.

So why then did he feel so far off kilter?

Maybe it was because next time, next time a boy April was with probably would actually be a boy. A real human boy.

And where would that leave Donnie?

Grabbing the salve of witch hazel and arnica for Casey's bruises, Donnie decided that maybe, for once in his life, he really shouldn't think about that right now.

Alien robots, mutagen, ninja grudges, a man turned into a rat man living in the sewers with his sons that he originally bought as pets…this was something that she would read in her comic books.

Casey hung onto Splinter's every word. She had to give him props because Splinter knew how to play to a captive audience.

She also had to give the guy props. He raised four sons by himself in the sewers with presumably little access to money and necessities. Yet he seemed to have created a comfortable environment for both himself and his boys, who were all well cared for. She seriously respected the hell out of him for that. Seriously major snaps.

People with a lot more did a lot less with their own children.

She leaned forward to give Donnie better access to her back. He was rubbing some strange goop on her bruises that smelled like herbs. She wasn't sure what was in it, but she kind of liked the smell. It smelled like earthy things.

"I'll also give you some naproxen after I'm done here."

Casey's eyebrows furrowed together and she glanced at him.

"Aleve," he elaborated after seeing her look. "I'm going to give you some Aleve."

"Whatever you say, Doc."

She grinned when she saw him roll his eyes. Turning she made sure to look into Splinter's eyes in direct eye contact.

"I swear to you, sir, that I won't tell anyone about your family or your location."

"What would you swear on?" challenge the blue one, Leonardo. "We only have your word and you led the Foot to our home."

Casey winced. He did have a point. She didn't have much to swear on, nothing of worth.

She closed her eyes.

"I would swear on my mother's everlasting soul to protect you and yours."

It was all she had; the one person who meant so much to her and (for the longest time) represented all the warmth and goodness in the world.

She felt Donatello's hand still on her back. Michelangelo and April had sucked in a simultaneous deep breath.

"Leo this is ridiculous," she heard Raph say. "Don't make her do this. She saved my life."

Casey hadn't heard Master Splinter contradict Leonardo. Apparently her help in saving their home from chaos that she had brought gave her a minimal amount of trust, the older man (and he was a man despite appearances) was not inclined to trust her that yet.

"No, Raph, it's okay," she said suddenly.

Casey, a little stiffly, stood up and walked over to Leonardo. She ignored Donatello's noise of protest at her moving.

Leonardo had to be the oldest of the turtles, the biggest of the big brothers. She knew the older sibling look in his eye. The one that said he would do anything to protect those he loved. She knew it well, saw it every single time she looked in the mirror, and she only had one younger sibling.

He had four, his brothers and April, to worry about.

As she moved toward him, she spoke frankly.

"I'm not that good of a person. I've drank, smoked, slept around, and stolen. I've started bar room brawls just because I was hurting and I wanted everyone else to hurt. I've done anything possible to win a fight. I'm not smart. I'm not good at a lot of stuff that hasn't to do with sports or fighting. I'm violent and broken and I'm probably going to die young. I don't have much to swear on that would mean anything to me. But I respect family and the bonds of it. You don't have any obligation to trust me. S'fine. I probably wouldn't trust me as far as I could throw me either. I'm trying to be a better person then what I once was."

Casey paused and reached into her pocket. She pulled out a long and thin black cord with a slim gold ring on it, her mother's wedding ring. She quietly held the ring in her hand and looked at Leonardo.

"I swear on Grace Maria Williams-Jones, may she forever rest in peace, that I will do my upmost to help and protect you and yours. If you feel like I have broken that, then I'll take whatever punishment you'll give."

His sharp, dark blue eyes looked deep into hers.

After several tension filled moments, he nodded.

"Alright."

"Alrigh' then."

Satisfied, Casey hobbled back to the couch.

"Casey…"

"It's okay, Red. Mom would understand what I had to do."

"Why were you after the Purple Dragons then?" asked Raph, seemingly eager to change the direction of the conversation after that tension filled exchanged. He was surprised that Sensei let Leo go that far, almost impassive in his judgment of Casey.

Even though he hated to admit he agreed with his brother, he knew what Leo was doing. Casey was a total unknown to them.

Still, Raphael was of the opinion that you can learn a lot about someone from how they fought.

Casey is raw, dangerous, and crazy. She out and out brawls and will do anything to make a point. She's bloodthirsty and brutal in a way that Raph knows very well. It's terrifying to witness someone who gives into that kind of rage.

He is still feeling their fight from a few days back.

But she still saved his life, pushing him out of the way in the last second from the train. She knew what he planned to do to stop the Foot Bot. She never called him a freak or any of them freaks. She teased him like he…he was normal.

She never once considered running once their job was done. She would have plenty to run for. She did lead the Foot to their home; the Bot had almost gotten away. She had to know that there was going to be some kind of consequence. They pushed the body of the Foot Bot in front of an oncoming train and walked back together.

Raph liked Casey, not like a crush or anything. But there was something about her, how she fought that spoke to him.

Casey looked over at him, "Yeah. You're probably wondering why I was all banana balls over them huh?"

Banana balls? That was a new one for Raph. Donnie was wrapping up Casey's stomach with some kind of gauze, more than likely to let the bruise slave absorb quicker.

"It's a valid point. Why did you want to break their arms?"

"Because one of them hit my little sister," said Casey simply. "I wasn't sure which one hit Madeline so I was gonna break all of their right arms to save me the trouble."

"Why their right arms?" asked Donnie, looking up from his work. A furrow had appeared between his eye ridges.

"Because there was a statistically higher probability that they were right handed instead of left," said Casey simply.

And she was leaving them their left arm so that they could still do stuff, if they all were right handed well then…she wasn't going to make it easy on them.

"What do the Purple Dragons have to do with your sister?" asked April. Then it seemed to hit her. "They mugged her didn't they? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Cause I probably would have mentioned my plans and you would have talked me out of it. And well we both had our own secrets from each other."

April bit her lip, "Is she okay?"

"Her bruise is almost gone. She's got…Madeline's always been more delicate then me. So it took awhile for it to heal. And they hurt her and took her wallet with out mom's picture in it. We don't have that many pictures of mom so I wanted to go and get it back for her. And then beat the hell out of the Purple Dragons."

"Well why didn't you say so?"

"Dude we were in the middle of a brawl," said Casey with a smirk. "I wasn't in the mood to chat about my feelings."

Okay yeah. Raph could admit that was a dumb question.

"So it was the Purple Dragons huh?"

His sais were feeling itchy and ready to be reintroduced to the Dragons. Ignoring the urge, Raph made his way over and sat down next to Casey.

"How old is your sister?"

"Turned thirteen a couple weeks back," said Casey as she took out her own wallet. Pulling out her phone, she brought up a picture of a sweet-faced blonde girl wearing a private school uniform. Her face was captured in the middle of a laugh making her freckled nose scrunch up.

"Cute kid," said Raph with some sincerity to his voice. He then smirked. "How is she related to you?"

He could feel his sensei give him a reprimanding look for that comment.

Casey, however, laughed long and hard. "Not a clue. She got all the good genes."

"You're done, Casey."

"Thanks, Doc," said the dark haired girl with a grin. "Red I think I gotta spare tank top in my bag of tricks. Can you grab it for me? I wanna walk around in my bra this whole time."

April looked relieved at having something to do. "Sure."

Casey leaned back carefully. "So now what?"

"Now we rest," said Leonardo seriously. He then suddenly looked a bit awkward. Not the self assured leader, but instead, he looked like a teenage boy. "You should um probably stay the night. I don't think anyone is in the shape to walk you home."

"S'cool. I'm not in the shape to go home. Let me just text Madeline and my dad. I'll say I'm crashing with April."

It was technically true. April, almost sensing her name, returned with Casey's top. Casey accepted the tank top from April, tugging on the familiar fabric somewhat awkwardly.

"And what do we do after tonight?" she asked, waiting for Leonardo to answer.

They could turn down her offer to help. Tell her to keep their secret and buzz off.

"I think that we should pay the Purple Dragons a visit in the near future," said Leonardo after a moment. He looked over at Casey and gave an almost smile, "You in Jones?"

Casey's red lips twitched upwards into a smirk, "Always."

Hearing Raph's noise of triumph next to her, she had a feeling like she may be on her way to acceptance in this strange group.

As Madeline Jones slept in her own room, she heard the door quietly open. As a light sleeper, it tended to happen far too often for her tastes. The young teen tensed at the sound of intrusion. Carefully she cracked open her eyes, a wave of relief flooded through her.

It was Casey, moving stiffly but there.

"Casey?" she murmured, already drifting back to sleep. She was safe and Casey was there. She felt her sister's long fingers card through her hair.

"Hey Mads," said Casey; using a nickname Madeline had declared to be too babyish a few years back. Normally she was respectful of her decision to be called Madeline, but sometimes she slipped up when they were alone.

Tonight though, Madeline didn't correct her older sister.

"I brought something for you."

A familiar worn photograph was slipped into her hand. Madeline glanced at it and a warmth flooded through her.

A beautiful, slim, blonde woman sat underneath a tree in Central Park. Her long hair fell down her back in a braid and her face was turned toward the sun. She was wearing a white sundress that was spread over her legs. In her arms, she held a two-year-old toddler with her blonde hair in ringlet pigtails dressed in a romper. Sitting next to her was a six-year-old girl wearing a pee wee soccer uniform, also blond and with a braid down her back. The six-year-old was dirty and had clearly been in a fight recently, but she looked almost peaceful next to the woman.

"Mom…"

Casey smiled and kissed Madeline's temple.

"You go back to sleep, Mads. Mom'll make sure you have good dreams."

Already destined to the Land of Dreams, Madeline quietly whispered, "Knew you would do it, Casey."

Casey paused at the door, her lean form a shadow in the entrance.

There was a curve of a smile on her lips, "Always, Mads, always."

Madeline fell back to sleep, secure in the knowledge that Casey would always watch out for her.

Casey spared one last glance at her sister's form. Madeline was already back to sleep, her fingers ghosting over the picture.

A feeling of triumph had passed through Casey at the sight. Madeline still had a ways to go, being mugged was still a traumatic experience for a young girl, but Casey hoped that getting the picture back brought her some kind of peace moving on.

Closing the door, Casey leaned back against the wall and breathed in the familiar scent of home.

She thought about the ninja turtles that she had left on her building's roof. They were probably flying through the city, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, to deliver the bag of retrieved wallets and belongings to a nearby police station.

Then, they were probably going to get pizza to celebrate in their home down in the systems and sewers of New York.

Casey laughed softly to herself, heading to the bathroom to shower.

Her life had certainly taken a turn for the weird, but maybe it was for the best.

Who wanted an ordinary life anyways?

A/N: I hope the whole swearing on her mom's soul part wasn't too overly dramatic. But they honestly have no real reason to truly trust her, even what little trust she gained by helping them out. Because Leonardo will protect his brothers no matter what.

I promise I'm going somewhere with Casey's bad girl past. I got plans for ex-boyfriend/best friend Nick. Down the line, Turtle friendships first.

I kind of like the idea that Ciro put forth in the 2014 Comic Con panel. He said that all of the Turtles were in love with April in their own special way. The plan is to hopefully do the same with Casey Jones. Leonardo is going to be the hardest sell in my book. It's an older sibling thing.

Updates will probably be slowing down. I have to start packing up to head to grad school this week.

Anyway as always I hope everyone was in character in some form. I'm working on it. Mikey hasn't been given much yet, but that should change. I'm always terrified to write the happy-go-lucky characters. But he will be done. So will Leo. Sorry for the long notes!

Also to Luna who reviewed: You'll have to see who Casey ends up with. Although I will say that so far hers and Raph relationship will be strictly platonic. I just really like the idea of them are just BFF's in their own special way.