On her way to the lair later that day, April met Casey in the tunnel. She frowned when she caught sight of him. He looked miserable. And why was he on his way back home already? He spent so much time at the lair, and seeing him leave it on Sunday around midday felt a little odd. And he didn't seem like he was in a hurry, but instead trotted leisurely. Did he have some family meeting? But why was he looking so sad then? Well, okay, family meetings could make one sad, she knew that. But still, this all seemed a little strange.

"Hey there, Casey!" she greeted him with a smile.

Casey, who had kept his eyes lowered while he was walking, stopped and looked at her.

"Oh, hey, Red," he said tonelessly.

Okay, something sure was wrong.

"What's wrong?"

"N-nothing."

April just twisted her mouth and looked at him sternly.

"Okay, okay!" he said. "Something's wrong, okay?"

"And this something is…?"

Casey let out a sigh. "Raph."

April gave a little nod. She had been afraid, he would say that. She leaned against the wall, crossing her arms over her chest. This would take a little while.

"And what exactly happened?"

And then Casey recounted what had happened earlier, and April really had to bite her tongue to prevent herself from bursting into laughter when he told her about the roses and the box of chocolates, but she somehow managed to stay all calm and serious, although she knew she would break out into hysterical laughter later today at the image of Casey handing Raph red roses and a box of chocolate. This was just hilarious!

But she kept listening to Casey's story, nodding reassuringly every now and then.

"…And I don't get it! It was a gift!" Casey said. "I didn't mean no harm! I wanted him to feel better. It's my fault he's hurt!"

"No, it is not," April said, shaking her head slightly.

"It is!" Casey insisted. "If I hadn't been standing there, where that stupid wall was coming down and could have flattened me, Raph would be okay."

April heaved a sigh. Oh, she knew that feeling so well! If her father and she hadn't been going for a walk that night more than a year ago, the Kraang would never have kidnapped them. But she had learned to see it that way: They could have kidnapped them somewhere else, and maybe wherever that would have been, the turtles wouldn't have been able to see them. So it had been good, in a screwed kind of way.

And she needed to make Casey see his situation in the same light.

"If you had been standing somewhere else, maybe Raph wouldn't have been able to bail you out and you would have been flattened. Or maybe you both would have been buried by that wall. So I'd say it was good. Well, not 'good' in the sense of 'man, I'm glad that happened', but 'man, I'm glad it hadn't gotten any worse'." She shrugged.

"But Raph…"

"It is just a broken ankle, Casey. I know, Raph hates it and who could blame him? But it's not like it would kill him. He's gonna be fine in a few weeks."

"He was so angry, April."

"Wow, now that's a surprise! An angry Raph! I think I have never seen him angry before!"

She couldn't help, but grin broadly, and maybe the little teasing would cheer Casey up. And it seemed to work, because Casey curled his lips into a small smile.

Gotcha!, April thought.

"You know Raph," she continued, her voice now serious again. "He hates being needy and he hates not being able to hit someone. So, yeah, sure he's angry and all. And Donnie told me that he hates being treated differently when he's hurt. It makes him feel like people are pitying him which, of course, he hates. And that you brought him flowers and chocolates sort of was the final straw, I guess."

"I just wanted to make him feel better," Casey mumbled.

"I know that, and Donnie knows that, and Mikey and Leo, too. Maybe even Raph, deep down his angry self," April replied. "It's just that he hates to be reminded that he is sort of constricted at the moment. And under no circumstances make him feel like he is not the usual tough guy you know. He hates that!"

"But sometimes he needs help, I think. What am I supposed to do then?"

"Make it look like it's no big deal," April explained. "That's how his brothers handle it."

Casey thought about that for a moment. "Okay, I think I can handle that."

"Sure you can!"

Casey looked at April and gave her a warm smile. "Thanks, Red!"

"You're welcome," April replied and pushed herself off the wall into a standing position again. "And if you'll excuse me now, I have to beard the lion…uhm…turtle in his den."

Casey gave a little laugh. "Well, good luck with that, Red!"

"I'm a pro, I don't need luck!" April said, sticking her nose up in the air in a playful way.

Casey laughed a little more. "Well, good luck anyway. I'm sure you'll need it nonetheless," he said and then waved at her. "I'll go home now and explain my sis that not every patient loves to get flowers and chocolates. See you around, April!"

"Bye, Casey!"

Raph had just eaten the last of the chocolates in the box and tossed the box to the roses on the floor with a grunt.

Way to go, Raph! Eating chocolates like some stupid diva when you're feeling down. But hey, you can work it all off at the dojo later. Oh, wait, no, you can't!

He growled and folded his arms over his plastron. This day had just gotten worse.

When there was a knock on the door, he thought for a moment of pretending he had fallen asleep again, but on the other, who said he would be feeling any better later?

"Come in!" he said in his grumpiest voice, and when a second later, April opened the door, he added in slightly friendlier tone, "April."

The teenage girl just smiled at him. "Hey, Raph!"

She frowned a little when she found the grave of flowers with an empty box of chocolates on top of it on the floor, but then she remembered what Donnie had told her, so she simply stepped over it as if it wasn't there and sat down on the edge of Raph's bed.

She was about to ask him how he was feeling, but the grumpy look on his face made her decide otherwise, so she decided to get to the point straightforwardly.

"Well, I have something for you," she announced, and when she saw the alarmed look on his face, she had nearly added that it wasn't roses or chocolates, but she bit her tongue just in time.

No need to bring the Casey-incident up too much.

So she just retrieved a bulky book out of her messenger bag. "I was rearranging my bookshelf yesterday and found this," she explained, handing Raph the book.

He frowned at it for a moment before he took it reluctantly. He examined the cover. Realms – The Return of the Lost King, said the title, and it was written in this ornamental font typical for fantasy books. And the cover image showed some old castle.

Raph looked back at April, his frown even deeper.

April shrugged. "I thought you might like it. Lots of fights and blood and killing."

Again, she had to bite her tongue or else she would have said something about him having enough time to read at hand at the moment, but she knew that he wouldn't want to hear that. So it was better left unspoken.

"Okay," was all he answered as he put it on the shelf at the head of his bed.

April just smiled at him.

"So, I brought pizza gyoza from Mr. Murakami. Wanna join us for lunch?" she asked as she got up again.

"Sure." Raph said with a shrug. Okay, he had just eaten a box of chocolates and had had a sumptuous breakfast, but he would gain weight anyway in this six weeks of no training, so who cared?

And with that he heaved himself into his office chair and followed April outside.

April made sure to not step on the roses as she had done when she had entered the room, and from the corner of her eye she could see that Raph steered clear of the flowers on the floor, too, and this somehow made her smile.