Errata: Last chapter I said "un-mutate" Donnie instead of "re-mutate" Donnie. Oy. I was not paying attention, apparently. Also, I have been spelling "Murakami" incorrectly. Darn my English hearing! Somehow the 'a' in Murakami got turned into a schwa in my head, and then I turned that into an English short 'i,' hence I was spelling it Murikami. Of course, this is also what happens when American voice actors say Japanese words. We English-speakers love our schwas, you know.
Brought to you by the schwa: the absolute laziest vowel on the map.
[raises hands defensively] No, I am not a nerd!
[hangs head] Okay, yes I am.
I guess I really need to re-mutate Donnie so I won't be alone on that.
Now onto the story!
Drawing a deep breath, April prepared to walk into Murakami's. She saw that Casey's rusty old bicycle sat outside, so she knew that he was inside waiting for her. She didn't know whether she'd been relieved or annoyed that the Kraang handoff wasn't happening until three in the morning. On the one hand, it she could keep her commitment to Casey. On the other hand…she could keep her commitment to Casey.
Chimes rang as she walked in. "Hi, Murakami-san."
Murakami turned his head and his whole face brightened. "April-chan! Welcome, welcome. Do you wish to have the pizza gyoza?"
Casey, who was sitting at the corner of the bar, looked over at her with a feeble smile and a wave.
"Actually, I think I'll have something else," April said, thinking of the many pizza gyoza she had eaten at lunch. She ordered another of her favorite dishes and went to sit by Casey. "Hey, Casey."
"Hey." Casey shoved his textbook and notebook out of the way so that they wouldn't be right in front of her.
"So. Um. How have you been?"
"Good, good. You know, hockey team's doing great. Jen and Sean are good."
"Good." April pushed her bangs out of her face.
Casey drummed his fingers on the counter top. "Yeah."
Murakami set a platter of pizza gyoza in front of Casey. "Yours will be ready soon as well, April-chan."
"Thanks, Murakami-san."
"So, how are the turtles?" Casey asked in hushed tones. He glanced back and forth as if concerned somebody would hear them, when the only person even remotely within earshot was Murakami.
"Okay, I guess," April said. She hesitated. How much did she want to tell Casey? "We might be getting Donnie back soon."
"That's great! I bet you miss him."
"So, you're excited that your competition is going to be coming back?"
"Competition? Dude, he's already your boyfriend, so he's not really competition anymore. If neither of us was…well, then he'd be competition. And we both know that anything that ever could have happened with us…is gone. April, I just want you to be happy."
He really means it. A feeling of warmth spread through April's chest. She hadn't expected to ever feel even the slightest bit of affection for Casey ever again, but here she was, seriously considering forgiving the jerk.
She thought back to the few times she and the turtles had hung out with him. They all had so much fun. The turtles had been happy to have a new friend. And Casey had been accepting of them, despite their strangeness.
She was willing to give Karai a second chance, and Karai had been the one who manipulated Casey in the first place. Why not forgive him, too?
April frowned. Karai wasn't as much of a liability, considering that she couldn't be bought with alcohol. Casey was still a loose cannon in that regard – even if he had straightened himself out, there was still the chance that he would lapse again.
Still, Casey's concern for her softened the callus of her grudge.
Maybe someday, Casey, I'll forgive you. Maybe we can all be friends again.
Don't count on it.
"Thanks, Casey."
Murakami set down a bowl of soup in front of April.
"Thanks, Murakami-san!" She drew the bowl closer to herself and picked up the spoon. "Itadakimasu."
"Ita-what?" Casey said.
"It's Japanese. It's something you say before meals, I guess. Granted, I've never heard Mikey say it without three slices of pizza already stuffed into his mouth, and only then if Master Splinter's around. Let's check out your homework as soon as we're done eating, okay?"
All in all, the evening wasn't as horrific as April had feared. The small talk over dinner was strained, at best, but once they started in on trigonometry, April got the idea that this was the first time Casey actually paid attention to the math instead trying to charm her. They went over "Oscar Had A Hold On Arthur" multiple times, revisited the Pythagorean theorem a few times, since Casey still hadn't managed to memorize it, and talked about polar notation. It was actually really productive.
"So, when can we do this again?" Casey asked.
"Um." April scratched her head. When would they be able to do this again? "I guess…I'll call you?"
Leo would kill her for this, she was sure of it.
"Okay. I'll wait for your call then. Oh, here." He pulled an envelope out of his bag. "Jen said to give this to you. It was a big deal for her to trust me with this, so…yeah."
April opened the envelope. There was a hundred dollar bill inside. "You're kidding, right?"
"Per session," Casey said. "She wanted you to know how much this means to her – you know, the tutoring. Her number's on a slip in there – if you wouldn't mind calling her and telling her that you received it, I'd appreciate it."
April hesitated. She had a funny feeling that maybe Jen was trying to buy some kind of forgiveness for Casey – after all, Jen had come to see her at school that one time. She wasn't sure whether she should take it. On the other hand, her Dad's savings were starting to dry up and his job wasn't nearly as high-paying as his job at the university.
"Thanks. Yeah, I'll call her."
"Well…see ya, Red. Can I still call you Red?"
In spite of herself, April smiled. "Yeah. You can call me Red."
Casey grinned. His whole face lit up. "Thanks." With that, he stuffed all of his books into his bag. "Hey…do you want me to walk you home?"
April considered this for a moment. Surely Leo wouldn't approve – but then, if things were left up to Leo, they wouldn't be doing the tradeoff for the retro-retro-mutagen. "Sure. Why not?"
On the way, April called Jen's number and thanked her for the payment. Jen sounded a little surprised and asked why the number was blocked, but April just said that it was a security precaution.
After she hung up, Casey paused. "Thanks for that. It means a lot."
"Well, thanks for walking your bicycle so I don't have to jog to keep up with you."
"There is room for you to sit on here, you know."
April frowned. "Yeah…I don't think…"
"Yeah, I get it. I totally do. Anyway, we're almost there. I'll walk you all the way to the steps."
It suddenly occurred to April that Casey had known where April lived this whole time. Yet when Karai had forced him to give up her location, he hadn't given away her residence. That would have been the simplest answer to Karai's interrogation, and it would have been devastating to April's safety.
Yet he hadn't. Somehow, in the midst of his betrayal, he still had protected the biggest part of her safety.
"I've got it from here, Jones. Thanks."
"Okay," Casey said, mounting his bicycle. "I guess…I'll see ya around."
April watched him ride away, once again considering forgiving him. She shook her head and went up to Mei's apartment to see if Mei needed anything, told Mei about the plan, and then headed up the one floor to her own apartment so that she could get some shut-eye before the big sting went down.
Unfortunately, April did not sleep well at all. Her sleep was riddled with nightmares – some of the worst that she'd had in a while now. She strongly suspected that her meeting with Casey was to blame. Maybe she wasn't ready to forgive him after all.
As always, her first impulse when she woke from the horrific dreams was to find Donnie. That was usually followed by a crushing sense of sadness, knowing that Donnie was unable to help her now, that he was just a little turtle. But tonight, she felt a spark of hope. If this went well, she'd be talking to Donnie again in no time at all.
Maybe Donnie would be able to help her figure out the whole forgiving Casey thing, too. He was always good at stuff like that.
Oh, Donnie. I miss you so badly.
April prepared herself for the caper – she took a shower, which sort of amused her. She might have been getting ready to be handed over to the Kraang, but she sure as heck wasn't going to go into it smelling bad. Unlike Mikey, personal hygiene was a point of pride for her.
She got dressed in her favorite outfit and started to tuck her tessen in the waistband when she remembered that the plan was that she leave it behind. Leo had said that the chances of losing it were good, and since it wasn't an easily replaceable weapon, she would use the plain, undecorated tessen which Mei had recently ordered for her.
April liked her tessen better, but since it was so special…and considering how many close calls she'd had when it came to losing it…it made sense.
She retrieved the new, boring tessen and tucked it into her waistband. She had barely finished getting ready when there was a tap on her windowsill. She opened the blinds to find Karai waiting for her.
She opened the window.
"Ready to do this, April?" Karai said.
"Yeah, I guess so. Now or never, right?"
"Hey, I wanted to thank you...for sticking up for me. I know that things haven't been the same since, well…"
"It's all right, Karai. I know that everything you've done is for Donnie. Even if your methods are…questionable."
"Yeah. Well, I promise you that there won't be any surprises this time. Everything that is going to happen has been mapped out down to the minute."
"Of course, plans don't always hold up the best for us," April said.
"True. But I promise that I don't have any hidden tricks. The turtles will be able to get you out, as long as they can get past the Kraang defenses. Which are probably going to be pretty thick."
"I know, we went over the plan already. We do the drop, the Kraang take me to their lab, and the turtles infiltrate to bust me out. I still wish that they could bust me out before I get to the lab, though."
"But it can't look like I set the turtles on them or anything."
"Yeah, yeah. We went over that too." April hugged herself a little. "I'm not gonna lie, Karai. I'm kind of nervous about this. Last time the Kraang had me…I got hooked up to a giant machine and we almost lost Leo. I don't want that to happen this time, too."
"Then you'd better put up a heck of a fight once you're in there. Ready to go?"
"Yeah."
"Well, we've got to make this convincing. So…"
April cringed. She hadn't been looking forward to this. "Okay."
"Sorry."
April stood as still as she could while Karai delivered punch after punch. She held up her arms so that she could get some bruises that would pass as defensive injuries. The worst was when Karai landed a hit on April's face – even though April knew Karai was holding back some, it still hurt like heck.
"Okay, that should do it," Karai said.
April put her hands behind her back. "Tie 'em up."
Karai lashed April's wrists together tightly. "And I have to put the tape on your face…"
"I know. Just do it."
Karai's expression was steely as she put the finishing touches on the illusion that she had captured April by force. It was an expression that suggested that ninja-like suppression of emotion that she'd seen so often from Master Splinter and the turtles.
However, April could still tell that Karai wasn't enjoying it.
"Well, you look like a perfect kidnapping victim. Let's get you delivered to the Kraang."
April would have made a sarcastic remark, but the tape prevented her from doing so. Instead, she just furrowed her brow.
As Karai hauled April roughly out of her room, April found herself really glad that she had elected not to tell her dad about the incredibly dangerous mission they were embarking on. He never would have gone along with it.
But one thing she was sure of was that if the Kraang didn't kill her, her dad was going to when he found out about this.
Author's note: I really hope that April's change of heart toward Casey makes sense...it seems to fit with her character arc. After all, she did forgive Karai. I just worry that it's out of character...hopefully it works.