TMNT 2007: NightWatching Love (Raph X Jamie)

Chapter 5: April's Boss

April finally came back to New York with the statue she was instructed to get. It was lowered off the ship and the worker let it land roughly.

"Hey, careful! Those aren't souvenirs," April yelled.

"Sorry about that, ma'am," the worker apologized.

When she got off the ship, she looked around, but there was no sign of her boyfriend.

"Where are you, Casey?" April replied, dialing the number and put it to her ear, then said, "Come on. Come on, pick up. Don't do this to me again. Not now."

'Casey can't come to the phone right now because we're hardly working,' Casey's answering machine played out until Casey groggily answered.

"This better be good," Casey remarked.

"Casey, I am standing on the dock with a priceless statue and no delivery truck. So my question is, where are you?" April asked, making Casey look at his watch in realization.

"April. Hey, babe. I am so sorry. I set the alarm clock, but...It's broken. The clock," Casey excused, making his alarm clock beep then actually breaking it by accident.

"It's bad enough that you're out every night playing vigilante, but we've got a deadline to meet," April grumbled.

"I'm sorry. Oh, wait, babe, real quick. You left a message saying you found Leo. I mean, is he there with you?" Casey apologized then asked.

"No. I found him. He's not coming back," April answered sadly.

"But didn't you tell him how weird things have gotten with the turtles?" Casey wondered.

"Look, Casey, we're gonna lose the biggest client we have if you don't get down here," April sighed, changing the subject.

"All right. I'm on my way," Casey responded then hung up.

A few minutes later, Casey arrived, they loaded it up, and made it to Winters Corp. They unloaded it and Casey followed April while pulling the huge crate behind him.

"Please tell me we're getting paid by the pound here. Is this place a museum or what?" he asked.

"You're telling me you've never heard of Winters Corp?" April asked.

"Yeah. That's what I'm telling you," Casey answered.

"They're into everything: real estate, technology, pharmaceuticals, hair gel," April explained.

"I don't wear hair gel," he remarked.

"Really?" she responded sarcastically.

"I'm the caveman type, au naturel," Casey added.

"Just make sure you don't touch anything in here," she warned.

"Hey, I was born careful," he remarked confidently.

Not a second later did he bump into a stand, knocking over and breaking a vase.

"Hope that wasn't expensive," he said, then alarms went off and steel doors came down, going on full lock down, then replied, "Oh, wait- Just- I'm- Oh, boy."

"Please tell me that wasn't you," April begged, touching her temple with her finger tips.

After the situation was handled, they finally made it to Mr. Winters' office, where a man was facing the window, overlooking the whole city.

"Mr. Winters," April said.

"Miss O'Neil. All the pieces are coming together," Winters greeted, kissing her cheek, making Casey a little mad.

"Oh, my," April replied nervously, then recovered, saying "This is my associate, Casey."

"Nice to meet you, Kenny," Winters said, quickly and roughly shook his hand.

"Boyfriend. It's Casey," Casey corrected, trying to relieve his hand from the pressure.

"So you were successful?" Winters asked April, not listening to Casey.

"Yes. The fourth general. I want to ask you before I go, if I could...take one last look?" April wondered.

Winters smiled and Casey removed one side of the crate to reveal the huge statue. Winters walked up to it to touch it.

"I believe this is the one they call General Akeela?" April asked.

"It's actually 'Aguila,' but that was a good try," Winters corrected then explained, "These statues may appear to be only stone, but they're like family to me. I didn't choose them. Friends you choose, but never your family."

"Okay, then," April replied awkwardly, then added, "Take care, Mr. Winters."

Once April and Casey left, Winters continued to look at the statue as a masked, female figure stood on the second level of his office: Karai.

"If you've come to kill me, could you make it fast? I've got a shareholders' meeting at 10. I'd rather miss it," Winters said without removing his eyes from the statue.

Karai jumped down to the first level and other Foot soldiers appeared beside her.

She removed her mask and pointed out, "If we had come here to hurt you, you'd be hurting already. The Foot Clan and I have come to hear your offer."

"Well, it appears that today is my lucky day," Winters said.

"I must warn you, we do not come cheap," she warned.

"Does it look like money is of any concern to me? Only time is of the essence, my dear," he explained.

"Since you're so rich and powerful, what is it we could possibly have to offer you?" Karai wondered.

"I need you to be my eyes and ears. I have some friends coming to town that I'd like to roll out the red carpet for. Greet them warmly and bring them to me," Winters requested.

"And how will we know these friends?" she asked.

"Don't worry, they're impossible to miss," he answered.

What Karai didn't know is that she and the Foot were going to have their hands full.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N So what is Winters up to? And what's going to happen with Jamie and Raphael?