A/N: Oh hey look at new story coming out so quickly! I knew I could do it.

So title comes from "True Love" by P!nk featuring Lily Allen. It's also un-beta'd.

I have a timeline that I have to follow plus a deadline for the TMNT 2014 Mini Bang. So I hope that this all doesn't seem too sudden. I tried to downplay Donnie's crush in writing it. So I hope that it comes organically as it possibly could. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Teenage Mutant Nina Turtles.

Part Sixteen: There's No One Quite Like You

Three days after the incident involving the Rat King, Casey Jones took careful and measured steps down the familiar path of the tunnels to the Lair. She stumbled slightly and cursed, wishing she had changed before making her break to freedom.

Reorienting herself, Casey used the wall for support as she walked down the tunnel with as much confidence as she could muster.

She fought goddamn aliens and robots on the side. She was the best slap shot in New York City, possibly the state. She punched out a giant mutant rat in the face only a few days ago.

She could finish her journey to the Lair in heels dammit.

With that in mind, Casey pushed off the wall and continued her trek.

It was a quiet Friday night for the Turtles, something that becoming increasingly rare. They were in various states of perfected veg out.

Raph was slumped against his favorite section of the sofa with a pile of comics next to him, reading the latest issue of It Came From The Sewers that April had procured for him. Mikey was playing a handheld video game with tongue out and eyes narrowed in intense concentration. Donnie was messing around on his laptop either hacking into somewhere he shouldn't be or catching up on his favorite science blogs. Leo was sprawled out in front of the television intently watching Space Heroes III: The Search for Doctor Mindstrong.

April was expected to come within the hour laden with pizza and ingredients for brownie sundaes for a sleepover. Casey was at some sort of thing for her dad's girlfriend but promised to try to make it.

Click-click. The noise suddenly echoed through the tunnels closest to their Lair.

Everyone immediately looked up.

"What was that?" Raph asked narrowing his eyes at the entrance.

"I have no idea," responded Leo.

Click-click, click-click, click-click.

The noise was becoming insistent and the turtles instantly put aside their various evening amusements to reach for their weapons.

Everyone tensed, ready to pounce.

A figure appeared at the entrance of the Lair. It was a woman: tall and slim with dark hair held back with a pair of dark red hair chopsticks. She wore a wicked looking pair of black heels and a dark overcoat over a black lace knee-length dress. A ring was wore on a delicate chain around her neck and a pair of red teardrop earrings hung from her ears.

A single thought: unbidden, unheeded, and unwanted popped into Donnie's head.

She's the most beautiful girl I've ever seen.

Wait…what?!

It took a second for them to recognize who the woman was.

"CASEY?!"

Casey Jones arched an eyebrow at Raph's response.

"That's my name don't wear it out," answered the girl, forsaking her usual entrance of vaulting over the turnstile to going through it. Her shoes clicked in time with her steps.

"Uh wow, Casey. You look," began Leo trying to find the right words.

"You look like a girl!" exclaimed Mikey, staring at her with wide blue eyes.

Casey lightly slapped the back of Mikey's head as she walked past him, "I am a girl, doofus. The event for Linda was a step below black tie. I had to wear a dress for it."

It was a long battle though, but her father would not be swayed. So Casey had to pull out a dress and pray that it fit. There were few things she hated more then dress shopping.

She shrugged out of her overcoat. The delicate lace detail covered the arms of her dress; faintly Raph could see the outline of Casey's rose tattoo.

It was strange how different Casey looked out of her regular garb, even stranger to see her in a dress. But it was a good kind of strange? She still looked like Casey just different.

"I still have some clothes here right? I need to get out of my monkey suit."

"Yeah," Raph said. "In my room."

"Awesome," Casey said pulling the chopstick out of her hair, which she ruffled with her hands to get it into its usual mess. "Is Red here? No?"

Casey sighed in a deep annoyance when they all, except Donnie who look a little struck by something, shook their head in the negative. Casey rubbed her stomach thoughtfully.

"Red is bringing pizza, right? I could go for pizza. They had this stuff there that I didn't even freaking know what it was. Like pate and fois grass or some shit like that. I had no clue what the hell I was even eating. Like what the hell do rich people who throw these events even eat?"

As she talked Casey carefully took out her earrings and put them in the pocket of her overcoat. She leaned against the side of the couch to pull off her shoes continuing her story.

"And these smarmy assholes kept on hitting on me. S'like I am so not interested okay? I don't care how much your dad makes or what hell ever. They don't own the world."

Casey pried off one of shoes, letting out a small moan of relief.

"The first moment it looked like my dad was going to let me cut out early. I cut out of there so fast. Like you wouldn't even believe it. Of course climbing down the ladder into the sewer in these shoes? Not my best idea. It's amazing I didn't fall. God my feet hurt. Hey Doc?"

Donnie, who had been in a stupor since Casey entered, snapped out of it and looked over to her. Color was rising to his cheeks. He looked utterly perplexed by something.

He tried to shove it down to focus on the issue at hand.

"Y-Yeah?"

Casey looked up with a teasing smile on her face, "Maybe when you're not inventing life saving gadgets and gizmos aplenty you could invent comfortable high heel shoes that aren't murder of the feet?"

"I'll put that on my list," Donnie said dryly. He was suddenly scrambling for purchase. Where the hell did that thought come from?

Why did he think that Casey was beautiful? Not that she wasn't ugly or anything, she was pretty. But April was the always the one he thought was beautiful, from the moment he first saw her.

The first girl he had ever seen…

"Isn't she the only girl you have ever seen?" asked Raph's voice from an old memory in his head.

"I-I need to go to my lab," Donnie said suddenly. "I had an experiment running that I forgot about."

Everyone watched him go with a confused expression.

"Hey can someone unzip me?" asked Casey awkwardly, after a couple of moments. "I thought Red would have been here by now. And I can't reach it."

Raph rolled his eyes, stood up, and walked over.

"Turn around, Jones."

There was no experiment waiting for Donnie in his lab.

Instead he returned to the project he had been working on for the past few days: Casey's bicycle.

While her bike wasn't totally wrecked after the incident with the Rat King, it wasn't riding ready yet. Donnie, always ready and willing to improve things for his friends, offered to get in back into shape with Casey.

The older girl, with streaks of face paint still on her face and freshly applied coat of red lipstick, grinned at him. She cracked her and threw an arm around his shoulder.

"Thanks, Doc. Maybe you could help me with my gadgets for her? I need something more then marbles across the road."

And oh Donnie did like a challenge like that.

It was one of those things that he liked about Casey Jones. The girl loved inventing new purposes for everyday things. She loved piecing together her own inventions and creations for her purposes.

It's what Donnie liked about being her friend. April he could talk about science with, but Casey was just pure inventing and engineering. Both of them had a natural knack for those types of studies that diverged and complimented Donnie's own interests. April's enjoyment of pure science, however, was what made them such good friends.

Donnie waited for a familiar rush that would swell through him, that hope for something more.

It didn't come. And if Donnie had to be honest with himself, it hadn't come for a while.

He sighed and stopped hammering out a dent in Casey's bike. Running a hand over his head, Donnie had to wonder when that had happen.

A few minutes after Casey disappeared to wash her face and change her clothes, April arrived with pizza and grocery bags.

"The world makes sense again!" Mikey said as he grabbed the boxes and bags for April and went to the kitchen.

April raised an eyebrow and looked at Raph and Leo for an explanation. Leo's attention, however, was drawn back to the movie.

Raph rolled his eyes, "Mikey's world was rocked by seeing Casey in a dress."

"It is an earth rocking experience," April agreed with a bemused smile. Casey had texted her earlier in the day looking for commiseration with the current fate that had befallen her. Casey's sister, Madeline ended up snapping a picture of Casey and texting it to April.

It was one of those instances where April was glad she was an only child.

"Where's Donnie?"

"He started acting weird and then disappeared into his lab," Raph said with a shrug. "You can head in if you wanna see him."

"I think I'll do that," April agreed as she took of her jacket and placed it next to Casey's. She made her way to the familiar doors of Donnie's lab.

The turtle in question was hammering out dents in Casey's somewhat wrecked bicycle. His hammer strikes were swift and sure. It was clear he was absorbed in his task. She pulled the door behind her as softly as she could.

April watched him for a few seconds, feeling a bit worried for her best friend.

"Hey Donnie," she called out.

"April!" Donnie said in surprise turning around. "Hi."

"Everything alright?"

Donnie's body tensed and twitched almost simultaneously. He rubbed the back of his neck, then fidgeted with his hands. Finally he spoke with a false calm voice.

"Um…yeah. I think so. Maybe."

"Just maybe?" questioned April gently. Her eyebrows were furrowed in concern.

"I just," Donnie said awkwardly shifting. He seemed to gather himself and gave April a comforting smile. "I just had a weird thought. That's all. It's confusing and I don't really know what exactly to do with it."

April sat down and raised an eyebrow: disbelief was written clearly over her body.

"Donnie…" she pressed firm yet kind. "You can tell me anything."

Donnie turned to her with almost stricken red-brown eyes.

"April," he began suddenly before faltering. He shook his head and swallowed thickly. "You know that I-I like you right?"

April blinked a bit and nodded, "Of course I do, Donnie. You're my friend."

"No! I mean not as a friend. I mean like…"

April sat there and felt her eyes go wide. It was like suddenly everything in the past however many months she knew the boys suddenly made complete and total sense. Oh God Donnie had a crush on.

And April didn't know. Had she been stringing him along accidentally? Donnie had a crush on her. Donnie had a crush on.

Donnie had a crush on April.

And April didn't feel the same way back. She loved him, but in the same way she loved his brothers. Donnie was family, a best friend and big brother rolled into one. Someone that she could rely on and geek out with about her favorite science blogs and listened to her talk about how she maybe wanted to become a reporter one day. He was encouraging and kind with the biggest heart.

It wasn't even that he was a mutant. April could admit from an aesthetic standpoint that the turtles were handsome. If they were human they probably would have a trail of people after them.

They became her family though. In those months when she needed one when her dad was kidnapped. She needed them again now that her Dad was a bat mutant. God Donnie was making a retro-mutagen so she could have her human family back.

It didn't erase the fact that Leo, Raph, Donnie, and Mikey were her brothers. It couldn't change that she loved Master Splinter like she did her own father. She was their family. They were hers.

God Donnie had a crush on her this whole time and she didn't even notice?!

April felt like such a heel. Had she been stringing Donnie along this whole time without realizing it? She didn't mean to! April was never the object of anyone's affections before. No one ever had a crush on "Weird O'Neil" growing up.

"Oh Donnie," she said releasing a gust of air.

Reaching out, April took his hand and squeezed it. She didn't want to break his heart, but part of her knew that she had to.

"I know that it's never going to happen between us," Donnie said quietly. "I think…I think I'm actually getting over it. I just didn't realize it until very recently."

"I never realized," April began nervously. "I'm so sorry, Donnie. I wasn't stringing you along. I just-No one has ever had a crush on me before. I do love you, Donatello, but it's the same kind of love I feel for your brothers. You guys are my family and so special to me. You're my best friend, Donnie, and you are just so special."

Donnie blew out a bit of a breath and flashed April a sad little half-smile. This wasn't as a bad as he always imagined it. She wasn't running out screaming or calling him a pervert. It still hurt a bit though. Part of him was still clinging onto a wild kind of hope that maybe she would love him back.

It sucked this growing up business. April's leaving though after they accidentally mutated her dad did put things in perspective. It made Donnie face facts that April was going to fall in love with some human boy one day. It allowed him to start letting go, even though it sucked. First love did not have to your only love. But still his crush on April as embarrassing as it was, remained special to him.

He patted April's hand.

"You're pretty special too, April. I think part of me knew that this was how it was going to go. Like I said I'm getting over it. I think tonight the reality actually hit me more then I thought. You're my best friend also. I don't want to lose that friendship again."

April felt her heart constrict painfully in her chest. She felt a bit of shame for just leaving the guys so easily.

Master Splinter was right: Anger was a dangerous ally.

"I missed you guys. When I thought I needed time away, when I was angry at you, but it was like I needed you all and I hated that I need you. All I wanted to do was come back. I think I was angrier at the fact that over my Dad being mutated I was so ready to forgive you guys. And all I wanted you to feel was my hurt. It was a weird situation."

"It's understandable," Donnie said. "Emotions are weird like that. In those terms, I pretty much understand nothing."

April laughed a bit wetly.

"So friends?" she asked, holding out her arms for a hug.

"Friends," agreed Donnie.

He bent down to give her a proper hug. April reveled a bit in the solid warmth of Donnie's arms. When he hugged you, it felt like that was all that big brain of his was thinking of.

It was a good feeling.

The pair separated after a moment. April bit her lip and looked up at him.

"So…pizza?"

"Pizza sounds good."

The pair of them walked out, feeling strangely clean by their talk. It was like there were no secrets hanging between them now. It was a feeling that they needed in order for their friendship to grow even more.

All in all, Donnie decided, it was better that he was keeping April as his best friend then losing her altogether.

They walked back to a rather comforting scene.

Pizza boxes were opened. Glasses were full of freshly made lemonade (courtesy of Mikey). Leo and Raph were bickering in their own weirdly good-natured way about the movie as they bit into whatever random concoction his brothers asked April to pick up.

Mikey was on the couch with Casey, demonstrating his new Ice Cream Kitty song. Casey with a freshly washed face, complete with raccoon like markings around her eyes from her make-up and fresh coat of red lipstick, was snorting into her slice of pepperoni pizza. She was wearing an old ratty tank-top and a pair of yoga pants.

Eventually she gave up actually in and laughed out loud: hard and loud complete with snorts. Mikey crowed in triumph and started another rendition of the song as he danced into the kitchen to slice up the brownies for sundaes.

April rolled her eyes fondly and turned to Donnie, "Make sure Casey doesn't eat all the pepperoni pizza. I don't want olive, shrimp, and chocolate chip pizza."

Donnie perked up at the last bit because that combination made his stomach growl with hunger.

He nodded though, "I promise that Casey won't eat all of the 'normal' pizza."

April shook her head at his usage of air-quotes before going into the kitchen to help Mikey.

Donnie grabbed a slice of the olive, shrimp, and chocolate chip pizza before sitting on the couch next to Casey.

"So what are those two arguing about?"

"Something about telepathic sex? I have no clue. They were debating it when I came back from getting changed," the older girl answered. "Is Red having you keep watch on me?"

"Sure doesn't want our pizza."

"Some people just have no taste," Casey replied drolly. "And by no taste I mean you guys. I think the algae and worms messed with your taste buds."

"It probably did. So what movie are we watching tonight?"

"Seminal classic. You guys will love it. It took Red and me forever to find a copy on VHS. It's The Karate Kid."

"A martial arts movie?"

"The best one of the eighties. Mister Miaygi's techniques would make Master Splinter get all twitchy in annoyance."

Oh. Now Donnie had to see this movie.

"Sounds like fun."

Casey turned and grinned widely. Her make-up smeared carelessly from face washing and her piece of pepperoni pizza half out of her mouth. She swallowed it quickly, "Oh you're in for a treat, Doc."

Beautiful.

Donnie froze, watching Casey turn back to the Raph and Leo's debate egging them on. The world tilted a bit wildly and Donnie shook his head.

No.

He was not crushing on Casey Jones.

A/N: Next one up is the Glitter Verse's take on "The Manhattan Project" or "Wormquake" whatever you want to call it.

This may or may not be a two-part story. I'm not entirely certain. I'll know when I write it.