"Aw, what hit me?" Casey groans.
His vision focuses on the bright flourescent lighting high above him. He sits up, pressing the heel of his hand to his eye as he blinks. A soft blanket slides off his chest onto his lap and he looks around, immediately recognizing Donatello and Sarina's lab.
Then, his gaze falls on the last person he expected. April stands by his cot, eyes wide, her body frozen mid-step. He feels a rush of anxiety catch him in a tight grip.
"Red?" he asks. The nickname comes so naturally to him that he doesn't have the chance to question whether it's appropriate to call her that.
Her cheeks flush. "Hi, Casey," she says. "I'm sorry, I was gonna leave before you woke up."
"Why...?" He blinks, his head pounding so much that words feel hard. He squints against the headache. "Why are you here?"
"The turtles called. They said you were hurt. I..." She looks away, then shrugs. "I had to see you."
He thinks that his heart might be fighting itself. The tension between them is thick and yet, for a single, selfish moment, he wants to cross the gap between them and pull her into his arms and apologize for being such a massive asshole to her.
He resists any such urge. "Has anyone seen Zilla?" She raises an eyebrow and he winces. "I mean, Shadow. She's...uh..." Another fumble. How does he begin to explain everything that's happened since the breakup? It feels like it's been ages.
April shakes her head. "Don't strain yourself. The turtles caught me up on what they know, including her."
"Oh." He clears his throat. "Um, good. Yeah."
Silence. Water droplets echo somewhere in the pipes. Outside the lab, Casey can faintly hear the others going about their daily life. How long was he out? His head hurts so bad. It was far more comfortable being horizontal and he's pretty sure he doesn't have it in him to move yet, so he lays back down.
"I'm guessing Donnie sent someone to get me?" Casey asks. The call went through, he just couldn't explain much of what was happening.
"Yeah, Raph and Des," April says. She sits down in the swivel chair beside the cot and purses her lips. "What exactly happened?"
He sighs heavily. "Shadow beasts. They weren't going for me, but I...I provoked them. It was stupid," he mumbles. He flexes his hand, feeling the cloth of a bandage wrapped around his knuckles. "Then I fell off a roof."
"Sounds like you had an...exciting night?"
Exciting is one mildly incorrect way of describing it. He's still barely wrapped his head around everything with Eustace and Harry, figuring out who Zilla was, and then there was the talk with Andy. The cherry on top is that he fell off a roof and when he woke up, the first person he saw was his ex-girlfriend who he knows he still has feelings for. He's been repeatedly punched in the face with every mistake he's ever made in less than twenty-four hours.
"I thought you'd scold me," he mutters.
"That's the last thing you need," she says. "So...the turtles said there's a supervillain making those things you mentioned. Should I be worried?"
In truth, Zilla might be the only person in any kind of danger. Casey recalls the way the Necromancer talked about her, how he said he needed her to do...whatever he wants to do. He lets out a frustrated groan as he claps his hands over his face. What happened to villains that monologued about their evil plans? It was so much easier that way.
He sits up, propping his elbows on his knees as he massages the bridge of his nose. "You're not in danger, April," he says. "Forget about me. How are you?"
YOU ARE READING
Shadow Mutation (Book Seven)
Fanfiction"Try not to be stupid next time, okay?" When he's told shortly after graduation that he didn't actually pass and, in order to truly earn his diploma, he must redo his senior year math credit, Casey Jones isn't sure how things could get worse. He kno...
