April once again finds herself seated at Casey's bedside, holding his hand and anxiously checking her watch with every shaky breath he manages to take in. What's taking Zilla so long? April trusts her but the waiting game is not one that she likes to play if she can help it.
Outside, she can hear the nurse talking to Leonardo. With the patches nearly running their time, the turtles, Destiny, and Sarina needed to leave, but they wanted to see Casey one more time and didn't care for the long process of waiting for one person to go at a time.
"I'm sorry, but we can't allow all of you into the room," the nurse says. "It's a safety hazard and it goes against our regulations. I shouldn't even be letting you stay in the hallway this long. You're blocking traffic!"
"I'm sorry, nurse. I promise I am, we just...we just want to say a quick goodbye," Leonardo pleads. "It won't take long. We won't even go in all at once. We'll get out of your hair then."
There's a huff. "Sir...I understand that you're worried about your friend, but—"
"Look, nurse. Justine...can I call you Justine?" Donatello's surprisingly nervous voice cuts in. "I'm sorry. We really appreciate everything you and the doctors are doing to help Casey, but you said his condition is critical, right? What if we leave and we don't get the chance to say goodbye?"
There's a pause. April glances out at the hallway, just able to see Justine's blue scrubs and her pinned up blonde hair, when she feels a sudden, sharp feeling of wrong deep in her guts.
She whips her head around to look at Casey just as his heart monitor flatlines. The nurses shut off the beeping noise earlier to avoid alarm fatigue, but now there's a sharp, warning sound that nearly makes April jump out of her skin.
"Casey?" she demands. She grips his wrist, fumbling to feel a pulse, but he's limp and colder than ever. "Casey! No, you can't!"
She's faintly aware of commotion in the hallway, shouts of "code blue" and running footsteps, but all April can see is Casey's pallid face, feel the death beneath her fingertips as her vision blurs into smudges.
"Ma'am, you need to leave."
The moment someone touches her, she snaps out of the shock and a wail rips from her chest. She yanks against the well-meaning hands dragging her from the room, screaming Casey's name, reaching for him, reaching and reaching but only getting further away.
She can't leave him. Not again. She can't.
"Casey, please!" she screams, like begging him will make his heart beat again.
Her knees give out as she sobs into her hands, faintly aware of the pressure on her shoulders. She cries so hard that she can't breathe, repeating his name over and over, begging the universe to bring him back.
Where is Zilla? Wasn't she supposed to fix him? Wasn't she supposed to fix this?
The endless single droning tone of the heart monitor hits her dead in the heart. From the room, she hears a solemn, "Time of death, 15:04."
"April, breathe. Come on, breathe with me."
Donatello grips her shoulders, giving her a shake that kicks her brain into survival mode. She takes a deep, gasping breath, her entire body trembling, and try as she might, she can't get words out. His face is grim, no sign of tears, but the agony is clear. She can hear others crying behind her. Destiny's voice sounds hollow. She keeps repeating, "No. No, it can't be. No—"
But it can, and it is.
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Casey's body lays on the hospital bed, alone and cold. The nurses disconnected his I.V and took the oxygen mask off—he doesn't need it anymore.
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...
