Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Karai understands why Leo is frustrated, and why every other word out of his mouth right now is a plea for someone to keep their voice down or - better yet – to shut up altogether. Really, she understands, and that is why she is obeying. Even if she is the only one.

She supposes there’s a first time for everything.

“Dude,” Mikey starts again, his words only marginally quieter than before. “How are you, like, not freaking out about this right now?”

Leo glances at him, clearly unimpressed.

“By another Kraang laser?” He asks, “I’ll start freaking out when it doesn’t blow up on its own. Or when they hear you talking about it and point it our way.”

Karai smirks. As previously stated, she does understand Leo’s frustration. Silence is the basic principle of Ninjitsu for a reason; and reconnaissance is a main point in which that principle should be exercised. The turtles, as she learned long before she joined them, aren’t always the best at remembering that.

But, for some reason, squatting up here in the rafters of a Kraang warehouse and listening to the four of them quietly bicker over getting the last word in, and the potential pros vs. the cons of this new laser the Kraang are charging up down below, she finds that there is something endearing about it.

She’s been with them for almost two months now, and it’s finally starting to feel like they’re all getting used to each other. She’s just started coming out on patrols with them, so this part is still a new adjustment, but so far it’s… nice.

There’s something about the way they can be up here and still be brothers. They’re petty arguments are still ongoing and will remain so until it’s time to act. Even then, she’s fought with them still discussing the plans for what to do for dinner in-between tossing purple dragons back and forth.

It’s distracting, and definitely frustrating if you’re in Leo’s position, but Karai hasn’t found it in her to be annoyed yet.

“What if we did get hit with it?” Mikey asks, apparently not yet ready to let it go. “Do you think we would turn into turtles? Or humans?”

Next to her, Raph rolls his eyes, and then he gives Mikey a swift thwack on the back of the head.

“Ow.” Mikey quietly grunts, and Leo narrows his eyes at him and Raph in a warning.

“Turtles, you idiot.” Raph insists. “It’s basically a retro-mutagen laser.”

“Actually,” Donnie finally interjects from her other side. “Based on the files we found and the way they’ve been talking about it, this laser sounds like it’s a lot more controlled than retro mutagen. You see that control panel over there?”

He points down to the floor below them, to where a Kraangdroid is standing on a raised platform and fussing over a tabletop panel full of buttons and blinking lights.

Mikey comes and leans half over Raph, shuffling them all over a step or two.

“Uh-hu.”

“I think it allows the Kraang to actually select which DNA profile they want to extrapolate, and which one they want to leave behind.”

There’s a beat in which they’re all, finally, silent. Karai can’t be sure what is going through the minds of her brothers but, for her, her heart stutters in her chest.

Finally, of all people, Leo breaks the silence.

“Why would the Kraang create something like that?” He asks, “They’re the ones who keep mutating people.”
“People who keep getting away.” Karai reminds him. “This could let them keep one test subject and mutate and de-mutate them over, and over, and over again. Until they get the results they want.”

This time, the silence feels heavier. All four of them look a shade of lighter green than usual, and Karai swallows down the threat of bile. She’s never been mutated, and the four of them were infant turtles when it happened to them, but they’ve all seen enough to imagine the torture of it never ending.
Most nights, she still sees that pit in her nightmares. That frothy, turquois goop bubbling beneath her. She still feels the cold steel of that cage. Even now, she cradles one wrist and rolls her hand, and then repeats the process with the other. She reminds herself that she is awake. Leo got her out in the nick of time. She is safe, she is here with her brothers, and she is human.

Right as she is coming out of her mini reverie, there is a hum of electricity from below, and the Kraang by the control panel is looking to two of its five cohorts.

“The device which is known as the device has reached the status which is known as completion. Bring in the one known as the prisoner.”

The two droids nod, and then they head over to the far wall and raise up the garage door.

One leans itself out and gives a wave down the street. Already crowded in up here in the rafters, the five of them squish in even more as Leo come crawling more into their little huddle. The five of them lean forward ever-so-slightly, all waiting with baited breath to see who or what is brought in through that door.

Their first clue is a blood-curdling scream.

They all pull back, hands going to ears. Donnie nearly loses his balance but he makes a quick recovery. He’s just steadied himself when a small moving-van backs in through the door. The scream is obviously coming from inside of it, and before any of them can attempt to make a guess as to what it is, the van’s hanger door is opened.

Of course.

“It’s Justin!” Mikey exclaims, and Karai knits her brows together, looking at him.

“That’s what you named that thing?” She asks, and he glares back at her.

“You try naming a ten-foot-tall octo-kitty-jellyfish-other things monster. It’s hard!”

Karai rolls her eyes, but considering she was the one who mixed all the DNA samples just so she could get out with half a Kraangdroid, she decides against pushing the issue.

Besides, what’s done is done. Now, they have this to deal with.

Down on the floor of the warehouse, the three other Kraangdroids have brought out a large cage, while the first two Kraang along with two others from the truck are dragging the still screaming Justin along by two chains securing three tentacles each.

It’s not what one would call a humane sight - and it certainly isn’t a humane sound - but the idea going down there now only seems to promise more chaos.

Karai is guessing Donnie is at least in agreement with her, because he cranes his head to look over her, as well as over Raph and Mikey.
“What do we do, Leo?”

For a moment, Leo stays silent; his eyes fixed on the scene below them.

“Lets… Just see how this plays out. For now.”

It’s obvious he doesn’t like suggesting that; that they stand by as the Kraang lock Justin in this cage and subject him to their experiments. But, in the scheme of things, there doesn’t seem to be much of a choice.

So, they watch. They nearly go deaf, and Karai certainly can’t hear a word any of the Kraang are saying as they finally secure Justin in the cage and step away. She keeps close watch of the one by the control panel, though she can’t make out any of the buttons or dials it selects. At some point, though, the laser begins to swivel until it is pointed directly at the cage. The sound of a mechanical whine joins Justin’s screams, until it gives way to a cackle of electricity and a pink colored ray of light shooting out.

The light is a blindingly bright, making Karai shield her eyes and only listen to the deep screams as they become higher and shriller in sound. When the light fades and she is able to blink open her eyes she finds that true to plan, the giant tentacle octo-kitty-jelly-whatever monster is gone.

Instead, lying in its place on the floor of the now too big cage, is a squirming and screaming baby.

“What. The heck. Is that?” Raph is the one to ask, and Karai rolls her eyes at him.

“It’s a baby, Dumbbell.”

“I know it’s a baby, Princess.” Raph mocks her, and she rolls her eyes even harder, but if he notices, he pretends he doesn’t. “I mean why is it a baby?”

“Well,” Donnie butts in, “Justin was only created a little over a year ago. This is what a human his age looks like.”

“Looks like the Kraang didn’t think of that.” Leo interjects, nodding for them all to direct their attentions downwards.

“Kraang does not understand why the device which is known as the device has turned the one known as the prisoner into what is known as an infant.”

“Should Kraang bring the substance known as the mutagen to commence the process which is known as re-mutation onto the one which is known as the prisoner?”

“Affirmative.” The first Kraang practically shouts at the second, moving to block its droid ears as Justin lets out an especially loud cry.

“That’s our cue.” Leo says, leading the way down from the rafters, and they all follow suit.

As always, a fight against a handful of Kraangdroids is over in record time, though with a lot of incidental damages. Their main focus apart from getting rid of the Kraang is to keep Justin from becoming one of those damages.

The laser, unfortunately, isn’t so lucky.

“Aww man!” Mikey whines after the last Kraang has abandoned its droid body and scampered away. “It’s toast!”

Karai winces as Mikey’s words are punctuated by what is left of the laser giving out and collapsing into a pile of smoldering metal on the floor.

“We could’ve been human.” He whimpers, just as a small spark of the wires gives way to a tiny flame, which Raph is quick to stomp out.

“Sorry Mikey,” Leo says, re-sheathing his katana. “But I think we have bigger problems right now.”

He eyes the cage, where Justin is still screaming.

The five of them approach it wearily.

Up close, he looks more like a toddler than an infant. He has a head full of short, dark hair, and the overhead light of the warehouse keeps glimmering off the tops of his little teeth as he cries. His complexion is beat red at the moment and getting worse, and he’s lying on his back thrashing his arms and legs, but the angle makes it clear as day that he is, in fact, a boy.

“He’s gonna need some clothes.” Raph remarks, while Donnie steps up to work on the lock.

“Oh!” Mikey suddenly, urgently, exclaims. “I think there’s a blanket in the Shellraiser!”

He hurries away with that, and for a moment Karai is tempted to go with him, if only to get away from the crying.

The crying which is bound to catch somebody’s attention eventually.

She looks to Leo, who is staring at the baby with certainly the same thought in his head.

“What do you think?” She asks, and he sighs.

“We can’t just leave him here.” He says, “What if the Kraang come back for him?”

Karai frowns, her eyes back on Justin as Donnie cracks the lock and swings the cage door open.

Raph is watching too, and it’s him who comes up with the next suggestion.

“Why don’t we leave him at a fire station?”

It’s not a bad idea. In fact, it’s probably the best they’ll come up with. Still, there is no guarantee the Kraang won’t find him there and return for him. Karai isn’t exactly a fan of just hoping they’ll decide to cut their losses with a baby and leave him alone, but nothing short of the five of them keeping him is going to ensure he never ends up in this cage again, and that certainly isn’t an option.

Whatever they do end up doing, they have to get him out of here first.

Donnie steps into the cage. He moves slowly, but Justin screams louder and he flinches back, nearly bumping into Raph.

“Just grab him!” Raph shouts, but Donnie steps out of the cage.

“That will only make things worse.” He argues, “Look at him, he’s terrified. If I just grab him he’ll never stop crying, which means the second that we step outside with him, somebody is bound to hear him and we risk being seen.”

Karai stays put while Leo steps closer to the cage, ducking his head in much like Donnie had and – subsequently – ducking back out just as fast when the baby screams louder.

“He’s been held prisoner by the Kraang for who knows how long.” Donnie reminds Leo, “Not to mention the world just got a whole lot bigger from his perspective. He isn’t going to respond well to big, hulking, turtles grabbing at him.”

“Well we have to get out of here somehow.” Leo argues, and Donnie nods, and after a second or two Karai notices that his weary look is no longer directed at Justin.

It’s at her.

“What?” She asks, one hand on her waist, and Donnie at least has the decency to look between her and the baby before spitting out what it is he’s thinking.

“I’m not sure if Justin realizes he’s been turned into a human, specifically.” He says, “Probably not. But some kind of an instinct might kick in for him if you try getting close. He might realize the two of you are the same and calm down enough to let us get him out of here.”

Karai can hear Mikey running back in behind her, but all she can manage to stare at is Donnie, then at Justin, and back at Donnie.

For so many reasons, she doubts she has much better of a shot at calming Justin than any one of them does. However, much would be the operative word in that sentence. For any of them it is going to take a few minutes, but if Justin has any awareness at all then she does have the best odds.

“Here.” Leo says, handing her the worn blanket Mikey’s returned with.

She should shove it back at him, and she knows he would let her. But, they do need to get out of here. So she sighs, and she take it, and she steps into the cage.

At first, Justin doesn’t seem to notice her. So, she takes another step, and then another, and then he definitely notices because he wails even louder and starts kicking his legs harder like he is trying to keep her away.

She looks over her shoulder, “I don’t think he has any of those instincts you mentioned.”

“Try kneeling down.” Donnie encourages her, “Get closer to his level and talk to him.”

“And say what?” She demands, and Donnie shrugs.

“Tell him he’s safe?” He suggests, “It’ll be more about the tone of your voice and the way you approach him.”

She rolls her eyes, but turns back so that she is facing Justin again.

It occurs to her that if there were ever a time for her to tap into some kind of instincts, that time would be now. But the closer she gets the more convinced she is that she doesn’t have any of those either, at least not any she can reach into with her four brothers staring at her from behind.

She kneels down next to Justin, and fights the urge to back away again when his red face scrunches tighter with more tears and he swats his arms at her.

“Hey, it’s ok.” She whispers softly, trying to block out the four pairs of eyes on her. “It’s ok.”

She reaches forward with the blanket, and in response Justin screams and kicks and swats at her hands with presumably all the willpower contained in his new little body.

“Ok, ok.” She backtracks, pulling the blanket back and showing the baby her empty hands as she drops the blanket at her side. “It’s ok. No blanket yet.”

Honestly, it’s hard to tell if he’s even noticed or not that she’s abandoned the blanket. He is still screaming louder than before, and still kicking violently as though he wants to be upright and running away from her but doesn’t know how to get there.

Karai sighs, and folds her legs so that she is sitting crisscross.

“Hey.” She whispers, a little less kindly than she had been going for before. “Hey,” She tries again, this time holding her hand out; palm turned down.

She doesn’t grab for him, but keeps her hand close enough that maybe he’ll hit her at some point and take notice when she doesn’t move away.

“Hey, the Kraang are gone. I know you’ve been through a lot tonight, but it’s safe now. My brother’s and I are going to get you out of here, and we’re going to take you some place safe, alright?”

As expected, he doesn’t calm down, at all. But, Karai manages to keep her patience. She keeps talking to the baby, introduces herself and the guys, and mostly keeps repeating that everything is safe and ok for him now. She also moves her hand closer to him, inch by inch, until she is able to drag one finger back and forth along his side.

From that point, he actually calms pretty quickly. He is giving her maybe the most uncertain side-eye she has ever seen in her life, but he’s shutting up so she’ll take it. Eventually, she manages to get the blanket wrapped loosely around him and her hands under his arms.

“Ok.” She grunts, half to herself and half to him when he whines as she starts to lift him. “It’s ok. Come on, we’re getting out of here.”

He whines, but nothing more than that. He lets her bring him to her chest and stand with him. When she turns and faces the guys he whimpers and turns his face away, with the fingers of one little hand curling loosely over the metal rim of her chest place. All four of the guys are staring at her awkwardly, and so she rolls her eyes and walks out of the cage without a word.

Chapter Text

The ride back to the lair is quieter than normal; as none of them want to risk triggering another fit out of their newest friend.

Like Leo, Donnie had his doubts about the Kraang’s newest invention. Afterall, they almost never create anything that works according to plan in the first go but, from where he’s sitting, Justin looks perfectly human.

Also from where he’s sitting, this is one of their stranger ends to a mission.

Ok, that might be a bit of an overstatement. Afterall, it’s always good news when they return home with a victim of the Kraang’s having been de-mutated as opposed to the other way around. It’s just, well, usually those de-mutated allies are, well, allies.

Allies or even enemies. Either way, they’ve never dealt with a baby before.

Thankfully, the baby in question starts to nod off in Karai’s lap before they’re even back in the sewers. He doesn’t seem concerned anymore with the fact that he is suddenly in a whole new body, nor that he is a quarter of the size that he used to be. He doesn’t even seem bothered when Mikey leans in close with big gushing eyes trying to get a look at him. He just sits with his head against Karai’s chest, that old blanket wrapped loosely around his body, and his brown eye drooping as they slowly lose their focus on Mikey.

“What exactly is the plan here?” Karai asks, not seemingly to any one of them in particular.

Leo tosses a glance his way, over his shoulder, and Donnie looks again to Justin.

“I’d like to check him out in my lab before we do anything.” He says, “Make sure there aren’t any traces of his old mutation that we aren’t seeing.”

“Petition to find some diapers before we do that.” Karai says, “Before he pees all over me.”

“I have some.” Donnie says, and she blinks at him, the others all staring as well. “What?” He asks aloud, “They make great temporary patches for pipes.”

That seems to settle it. From there the rest of the drive is quiet, and once they make it back to the lair Karai follows him into his lab along with Justin, while Leo goes to debrief with Master Splinter what happened tonight.

Justin is still asleep, though as soon as Karai starts looking around for a good place to try getting a diaper on him, Donnie is sure that won’t last. He spends the next few minutes rummaging through his box of First-Aid supplies looking for an empty syringe and some microscope slides. By the time he finds everything he is looking for Karai has managed to get the diaper onto Justin and, as expected, he’s woken up.

“Ok.” Donnie says, prepping the needle. “Try and hold him still.”

“Try and hold him still.”

Karai huffs and rolls her eyes. She’s tempted to tell Donnie that is far easier said than done. But, he clearly knows that much, because no sooner has she turned towards him that he’s stuck Justin in the thigh with his little syringe, and the baby screams.

He tries to kick away, but Karai manages to grab his ankle with her thumb and hold it down firm enough that Donnie can draw the blood he needs and then get a Band-Aid on the kid.

“Sorry little guy.” He apologizes, “All done now.”

Sure, for him.

Karai is still stuck with the now crying again baby, which is a terrible idea, because of them all she is certainly not high up in the ranking of having the most patience. Well, not when it comes to things like crying.

But, she’s the one whose here, and Donnie is busy, and who knows what the other three are doing besides avoiding having a baby passed off to them. So, she’s going to have to do her best.

The only thing she can think to do is rock the poor kid. That, and promise him that the “big, mean turtle” won’t touch him again.

“Ha-ha Karai. Very funny.” Donnie dryly mocks while he is inserting the blood slide into some modified port of his computer.

She chuckles, “See?” She whispers to the baby, “Mean turtle.”

Justin doesn’t seem to care about – or notice – her insults whatsoever. He keeps wailing on like a little siren, and as her frustration grows Karai is more and more tempted to leave the lab and dump him in someone else’s lap.

She also finds herself wondering why she doesn’t do just that.

“You don’t care that I’m human.” She whispers to the baby, now pacing back and forth with him more than actually rocking him. “You don’t know that you’re human. You don’t even know what human is.”

“It isn’t about knowing.” Donnie idly informs her. “It’s about him feeling safe. He’s doesn’t have any biological parents to defer to; he’s basically feral. But because he’s still so young he could, in theory, catch up on developmental milestones quickly. Most human babies his age are able to recognize themselves in a mirror, as well as differentiate between species.”

“So you’re saying Mikey won’t be able to convince him he’s a turtle?” She jokes, Justin starting to calm by the smallest bit.

Donnie doesn’t answer her. He’s too distracted by the bloodwork. Karai frowns, but keeps pacing with Justin, until finally he is actually quiet and all that remains of his tears are moist stains on his cheeks.

 “Don’t worry Kid,” She mutters in a soft voice to him. “You’ll be at a nice fire station by morning, and you’ll never have to think about tonight or mean turtles ever again.”

She glances Donnie’s way on purpose, to see if he’s caught her teasing, and when she sees the way he is staring at her and holding his breath, she wipes the smirk off her face.

“What’s wrong?”

Donnie swallows, looks back to his computer, then to her, to the computer again, and so on and so forth until she is looming over his shoulder and staring at his screen.

Not that she has any idea what she is looking at.

It’s three pages of DNA information, that much she understands. Three pages of black and white dashes, each with a side column of abbreviations and PI numbers which may as well be another language to her. Still, Karai has seen enough mutagen between her time with The Foot and their partnership with The Kraang, and being here with the turtles. She knows enough about DNA sequencing that she’s confident she is looking at three different profiles.

The why however, is lost on her.

“Um… Nothing’s wrong, exactly.” Donnie stammers. “The good news is Justin’s DNA is completely human. That laser actually worked!”

Karai looks at him from the side of her eyes. “What’s the bad news?”

There’s no way it’s as simple as the laser being destroyed. He wouldn’t be looking at her in this weird, almost scared, way if it were.

“It… It’s not exactly bad news.” She raises an eyebrow, and he gulps, and turns back to his screen. “Some of the patterns I was finding in Justin’s DNA seemed… familiar.”

“Ok…” She drawls, “So what does that mean?”

“It… I… They looked familiar like, really familiar. These aren’t patterns I saw while teaching myself about genetics, or doing researching for retro mutagen. These are patterns that I have personally studied.”

“I’m still not following.”

Donnie is practically squirming in his seat by now. For that matter, Justin is doing much the same on her hip, and so she shifts him over. Donnie takes notice of this too, and suddenly he is looking at the kid like he might be a bomb about to detonate.

Maybe he is. Maybe that is what Donnie is struggling to say. That at some point he recovered plans from the Kraang to create this living bomb they could take control of psychically at any moment, and this whole de-mutation thing was just a ploy to get their team to take it home.

She almost believes it by the time Donnie starts drumming his fingers on his thigh.

“When you were waiting for us in that warehouse that night, you weren’t directly over the mutagen tank, were you?”

She blinks. “Not like… Dangerously. A few feet maybe?”

Based on the look on Donnie’s face, she’s guessing that is dangerous enough. She also vaulted off the edge of the thing, now that she thinks about it, but it shouldn’t matter. She didn’t fall in.

“Do you see these patterns?” Donnie hesitantly asks her, pointing to a section of dashes from one profile and then onto the next; the two sets with more matching dashes than not. “This is Justin’s DNA.” He explains, his fingers linger on the second set before going back to the first. “This set is the sample I took from you when you started living here.”

She blinks, her heart plummeting into her stomach, and sweat starting on the back of her neck. Numbly, she is aware of Justin tracing his fingers curiously over the metal ridges of her armor. In fact, it feels like it’s all she is aware of.

“Karai, I think while you were up over the top of the tank that night, a piece of your hair or a droplet of sweat must have fallen in. Whatever it was it contained your DNA, and when the Kraang removed all non-human DNA strands from Justin it was left behind. It’s still entangled with the original sample of human DNA which was poured in from the genome project.”

She hears the words he is saying, every last one. It just… She’s having a hard time processing. She wants to scream at him to shut up. He has to re-check this DNA, because no way in hell does he have it right. No way. This can’t… She can’t… Why is he still talking?

“He does, it turns out, have biological parents. Genetically speaking, anyway. And, genetically speaking, you would be his mother.”

She knew those words were coming. Still, she counts it as a miracle that she doesn’t drop the damn kid and vomit.

Her heart is still hammering in her chest, which Justin is starting to fall asleep on again. For the first time, she really tries to look at him; at what he looks like. His light skin and dark hair are all of a sudden too familiar, though his eyes are a deep set and brown irises are slowly being hidden away by drooping lids. He doesn’t look all that much like her, not really, and yet there is something about him that keeps her from telling Donnie he’s wrong.

“There’s more.”

Of course there is.

She doesn’t look at him. She’s still staring blankly at his screen, and she’s guessing that’s why he waits so long to explain what “more” means.

“Remember, the human samples of DNA at the worldwide genome project came from April’s science class; the Kraang were looking for hers. The sample mixed into Justin was one from that batch.”

She sucks in a deep breath, afraid that if she doesn’t she might stop breathing altogether.

“Ok.” She exhales, “So, genetically speaking, I have a kid with some rando in April’s science class?”

“Eh… Yes and no.”

She raises her eyebrow, “What does that mean?”

Donnie opens his mouth, but he hesitates, and then from outside the lab’s door she hears the faint clicks of the turnstiles and someone calling out into the liar.

“Hey, anybody home?” It’s Casey’s voice, “Anyone want to tell me why I had to bring baby clothes down here?”

There is something about the way in which Donnie doesn’t answer. In the look he gets on his face. The flushing of his skin, but what seals it is how his eyes flit to the closed door and then to Justin.

Oh he has got to be kidding.

Chapter Text

If somebody were to ask her right now whether she is awake or stuck in some kind of nightmare, Karai honestly isn’t sure she could give the correct answer.

She feels like she is standing in a haze. She watches Casey walk in through the lab with a canvas grocery bag in one hand, explaining how Mikey texted him and asked if his parents had any of his clothes from when he was a kid, or if he had any other clothes that might fit a baby. He didn’t, of course, but when Mikey responded to that by asking if April might have some boy baby clothes he’d asked for more details.

“I grabbed a couple old t-shirts.” He says, pulling one dark lump of fabric out of the bag as if to show them what he’s talking about. “Um…”

Karai blinks, the realization suddenly crashing over her that Casey isn’t – in fact – talking to her and Donnie both. He’s talking to her. He’s holding this wadded-up t-shirt out to her, looking at her expectantly, like if she isn’t the one to take the thing he was told to bring for this kid, he won’t have any idea what to do with it.

The slight movement of said kid on her hip makes her realize that is entirely true; because she is the one holding it.

She shakes herself out of her reverie, as much as she can that is.

“Thanks.” She says, taking the shirt with her free hand.

Casey keeps looking at her, like he’s waiting for her to do something else. Right, he is, because he gave her the shirt to use it for Justin, and so far she is just standing here staring at him.

She looks around for a place to go. She’d gotten the diaper onto Justin by laying him on the seat of a chair over by Donnie’s workbench. But Casey hasn’t made any move to leave, and she feels like if she spends one more second in the same room as him she is going to explode. Worse than that, she is going to have to explain what it is they’ve found.

“I’m gonna go, uh, change him. I guess.”

She walks past Casey, but she’s barely gotten that far when Donnie speaks up from behind her.

“Hey, um, am I… Do you want me to…?”

She turns, and he is gesturing vaguely and awkwardly at Casey while he keeps not finishing his question, which of course she knows exactly what that is.

Does she want him to tell him?

Between her and Donnie, Casey is clearly realizing that something bigger than a random baby in the lair is going on here.

He deserves to know, so really, what choice does she have? Her tell him or Donnie? She would rather Donnie.

“Sure.” Her answer comes out in a breath, and then she turns tail and leaves.

She closes the lab door behind her; it’s clunking latch echoing in her ears. The living room is occupied, because of course it is. Not just by one or two of the others either; but all three of the remaining turtles. The TV is on but with a commercial airing right now. Leo is sitting on the floor across from it, his back against the couch. Raph and Mikey are sitting actually on the couch, further over, and each with a hand of playing card. All three of them turn and stare at her as she enters, but Karai steels herself and tries to come off with an air of normalcy as she joins them in the pit.

She lays Justin onto an empty space on the couch. He grunts and wriggles, his little fingers clinging at her neck as she tries to set him down.

“Come on Justin.” She mutters, gently prying him off herself.

His noises are more of a threat than they are actual crying. But it’s a threat he starts to deliver on as she finally detaches him and holds him in place on the cushion with one hand on his stomach while the other shakes out the t-shirt.

It’s probably ten sizes too big for him. It’s a dark blue color, with a sports logo chipping off the chest in white. It’s wrinkled and there is still dust clinging to it from whatever storage hole Casey pulled it out of; completely unaware that it was for his child.

“Karai?” It’s Leo’s voice, but he sounds like he is a hundred miles away. All she can hear clearly is Justin’s rising cries. All she can see is his little face scrunching up red, little tears pooling in the corners of his brown eyes, and his chest rising and falling under the light touch of her hand.

“Dude?” Mikey’s voice now, “You alright?”

She opens her mouth to tell him she’s fine. Really, she does. She’s fine, she’s just not sure how the hell to go about dressing a squirming baby in a t-shirt meant for a child so much bigger.

“I think I’m gonna be sick.” Is what she says instead.

Within an instant, she feels two three-fingered hands on her shoulders. She tries to shrug them off, but given what she just said her efforts are ignored. Instead, two more hands come into her vision and carefully lift Justin from the couch. She turns around, or rather, Leo guides her into turning around. Mikey has Justin and is so far ignoring the increasing volume of his crying. Her eyes linger on them as Leo guides her down to sit, and just as she’s drawn her knees to her chest Raph reappears with a bucket in hand. At that, she manages half a smirk and a shake of her head.

“Sorry.” She apologizes, “I think…” She sucks in a breath. “I’m good.”

Raph merely shrugs and hands her the bucket anyway.

“I’m not taking any chances.”

She chuckles, and sets the bucket aside. Her eyes still linger on Mikey now quietly trying to shush Justin, his wide eyes still scared and holding her gaze.

“Karai.” Leo says, prompting her to look at him for a moment. “What’s going on? What happened?”

She blinks at him, and back to Justin in Mikey’s arms, and then to Raph leaning in over Leo’s shoulder with a frown on his face that is losing more and more of its bravado by the second.

“Donnie… He sequenced his DNA.” She starts to explain, nodding to Justin. “It isn’t just the sample the Kraang had on hand that night. A piece of my hair or something with my DNA on it had to have fallen in that tank before the fight, probably when I was jumping down.”

She can see the realization starting to dawn over Leo and Raph’s faces, and maybe Mikey is getting it too, but he’s too distracted by babysitting for her to really be able to tell.

“Wait,” Leo says, “But there was a human sample mixed into that tank, and if the laser left both samples behind…”

Karai more interrupts him than he actually stops talking. She swallows, the sound audible, and she hums as she tries to slot together the appropriate words.

But, all she can bring herself to do is nod.

The three of them have gotten the seriousness of this, at least. She doesn’t need to explain it point blank to them.

“So…” Mikey trails off, looking awkwardly down at the baby in his arms, “What about the other sample?”

Karai opens her mouth, intending to somehow find the words to answer, but her voice seems to be only willing to come in small doses at the moment. It’s quiet long enough that all three of them are watching her expectantly, and even Justin is calming down a little and seeming more interested in the discussion.

Then she hears the door to the lab again.

The four of them all whirl their attention that way, and they’re eyes land on Casey stepping out and looking like he’s seen a ghost.

Karai can’t imagine she looks much better.

His terrified eyes lock onto hers, and behind him Donnie pulls the lab door closed and locks himself in.

“Shit.” She hears Raph’s whispered curse behind her.

Karai can’t bring herself to take her eyes off of Casey, but she is aware of Raph and Leo slowly backing out of her personal space; the two of them and Mikey now clearly caught up on the full story.

“Uh…” Mikey’s stammered panic comes, and Karai glances over her shoulder just long enough to confirm he is still holding Justin, who is still whimpering.

“Take him with you.” She instructs, diverting her eyes back to Casey.

She hears Mikey hesitate, and Raph ushering him along. The t-shirt is snatched from her side by someone and the sounds of Justin’s intensifying cries pull at her heart, and Casey even pulls his eyes from her long enough to watch the three guys disappearing with Justin into the dojo.

For a moment, once the guys are gone and Justin’s cries are something she has to strain to hear, Casey still doesn’t move nor look away from the closed door of the dojo. He stares at it, a frown on his face and his eyes wide. He seems like he’s lost in a trance, and Karai can’t say she blames him.

Maybe she will need that bucket after all.

Slowly, she stands up on trembling legs and climbs out of the pit. Her movement seems to spur Casey back to the world, and he starts walking to meet her halfway.

She keeps her arms folded tight over herself, with her fingers digging into her ribs as she stands before him and waits for one of them to come up with something to say.

It’s a lot easier said than done.

For a solid fifteen seconds, all they do is stare at each other. It doesn’t help that they don’t really know each other at all. Since she’s been here the last two months he hasn’t been around all that much. April has mentioned something once or twice about hockey practice, and she would think that would be a regular thing. The times he has been here they haven’t really interacted. In fact, she isn’t sure they’ve said more than three words to each other.

So, needless to say, she can’t get a read on what he’s thinking. Not beyond this blank, terrified look on his face.

“Um..” She finally stammers, avoiding his eyes. “I can deal with this alone, if you want. It’s my mess.”

“What?” He asks, his voice barely more than a shellshocked whisper, and yet it’s filled with a kind of hurt Karai wasn’t expecting. “I’m not going to do that to you.”

“We’re talking about a kid, Jones.” She huffs, one hand sliding to her hip as she finds some confidence in what she is saying. “A baby. And it wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t pushed that button-”

“I know.” He interrupts her, “Believe me, I get that it.”

“Do you?”

She doesn’t mean to snap. The truth is, there is a part of her which is wondering if she is really understanding what they’re talking about here.

A living, breathing, already here and needing someone, baby.

She knows she should be grateful he didn’t march right out of the lair after hearing about this. He certainly has the right to. She should be happy he’s talking to her at all; that he isn’t standing here yelling at her about it or blaming her. More so, she should be grateful if he is in any way willing to be part of… whatever this is.

She knows she can’t do this alone. She isn’t equipped to take on a baby without help. The problem is, she doesn’t think she knows how to do anything any other way.

She’s trying to learn, but there is a hell of a difference between being a sister and teammate, and being a parent.

Honestly, her and Casey aren’t even equipped to do it together.

“Look,” Casey finally sighs, pinching at the bridge of his nose in frustration. “This is weird even for us. I… I appreciate you giving me an out, but I can’t just ignore the fact that I have a kid.”

She sighs, her shoulders deflating as she tries to think of what might come next.

“I can’t either.” She concedes, “Where does that leave us?”

She isn’t surprised when he doesn’t have an answer.

He opens his mouth, but no sound come out, and she frowns because he might not have any ideas; but she does.

“We could leave him at a fire station.” She has to say it. It’s the obvious – and not to mention the smartest – option. “We could drive him out of New York, leave him somewhere the Kraang won’t look for him?”

Casey blinks at her with this uncertain look in his eyes. Karai waits him out, and if she’s being honest, she isn’t sure what she would prefer he say to that. Would it be better for him to tell her that is as good a plan as any? Or would she rather he flat out ask her how she could be so heartless as to make such a suggestion?

“Is that what you want?”

His question sounds lost, and it sets a weight in her chest so heavy she is starting to feel the threat of tears burning at the backs of her eyes.

How is she supposed to know what she wants?

Does it even matter what she wants?

Casey must be able to see that she has no idea how to answer his question. He flits his eyes away, first to the dojo, and then to the turnstiles.

“It’s getting late.” He says, “Can… Do you mind just keeping him here for the night? I’ll come back first thing in the morning, I swear, but I can’t exactly sneak a baby into my house without having to explain it to my dad.”

Karai nods, and she doesn’t want to think about the added complication of his dad in this whole mess. He has a sister too, doesn’t he? She’s sure she’s heard that at some point. Does he have a mom? Or some other relative in the picture whom he has to answer to? She has no idea. What she is sure of is that his family doesn’t know anything about the turtles, mutagen, or the Kraang or The Foot. She doubts they know anything about his vigilantism at all, and it’s better for everyone that way.

Another checkmark in the fire station column.

“Yeah.” She says, “I can do that.”

He seems to relax, though not by much.

It’s more than she thinks she is capable of right now.

“Thanks.” He says, and he looks to the dojo again, long enough this time that she follows his gaze. “Well, um, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She thinks she hums in reply. She is still looking at the closed doors of the dojo, only listening to him leave through the turnstiles. Once she hears there clicking she shudders and braces herself.

His father might not know anything about this world, but hers knows everything. Which means, no matter what they decide to do, she has to have this conversation.

Chapter Text

Walking through the late-night streets of the city is something Casey has done more times than he can count. He’s spent more nights out here than he hasn’t. It started a couple years ago; sneaking out to wander around with his hockey friends. Sometimes they wound up doing things that might be a little stupid to do, like most teenagers since the beginning of time. Then, recently, he’s been either on his own or with April or the guys out here; and they do things that are definitely a little stupid to do.

Somehow, it’s those stupid things that have led him to having a god-damn kid.

It wasn’t even his doing. Not really. It was a school project for crying out loud. Out of everything, that’s really the part he is having trouble swallowing. How many of his homework assignments has he just flat out not done? Enough that coach threatened to kick him off the hockey team if he didn’t bring up his grades. That was last semester, after he failed biology the semester before, and that was the class where they sent away the DNA samples. So, really, him doing that assignment was about one out of a hundred.

He had to pick that one.

His breath comes out shaking, just like the rest of him, as he rounds the corner two blocks away from his apartment on autopilot. He had to pick that one, he did pick that one, and there isn’t any normal chain of events which should have branched off of that choice and led him here.

But, here he is.

He as a kid.

He has a kid, he has a son, and he has that son with Karai. He… He isn’t sure if that’s the best part about all this, or the worst. He doesn’t know her at all, yet, but that’s been bound to change sooner rather than later ever since she’s been living in the liar. He doesn’t spend as much time there as April but he does hang out with the guys, and he does go there sometimes, especially once hockey’s over.

Hockey.

He nearly turns his head smack into the nearest concrete wall and slams hard. No way is he going to be able to keep playing hockey. He’s going to need to find some kind of a job and fast, because babies need things like diapers, clothes, food…

Of course, that’s all assuming they’re keeping him.

His gut twists as he thinks about the fact that he doesn’t know that for sure. He knows he isn’t in love with the idea of walking away from this. He can’t picture himself making that trip to a fire station or a hospital somewhere and just leaving his kid at the door. He doesn’t think he has that in him.

But, he doesn’t think he has it in him to take on Justin on his own either.

Maybe under different circumstances. Maybe if some other girl he barely knows were to show up at his door with a kid and proof that it’s his, and tell him “here you go” he could figure it out. But this is Karai he’s talking about. She isn’t exactly someone he’s going to stop running into once he’s done with high school. If anything, he’s probably going to be seeing her more.

He doesn’t think he’s capable of keeping Justin if she doesn’t want him. He can’t see her every day and just pretend it doesn’t hurt, going home to their son who she didn’t want. He’d have to walk away from April and the guys, and he really doesn’t think he has that in him.

It's a small comfort, but he doesn’t think that scenario is actually on the table.

“I can deal with this alone, if you want. It’s my mess.”

Granted, she could’ve meant getting rid of Justin. She could have meant she’s willing to take him out of the city on her own; that he doesn’t owe her or the kid a ride to the farthest fire station they can find. But he could swear there was something in her eyes. There was something in the way she asked if he was sure he understands how serious the situation is. Plus, she didn’t answer him when he asked if giving Justin up is what she really wants.

He won’t get his hopes up. This whole thing is way, way too much to decide in one night. They’ll talk tomorrow, and in the meantime, he will try and figure out what hopes it is that he’s trying not to get up.

It’s been awhile since stepping into the dojo has sent a jolt of panic and guilt through Karai. At first, she worried it would always be like that. For the first few weeks, every time she so much as looked at the dojo, call she could see were the photographs on the far shelf. All she could feel was blood draining from her face, her balance wavering, as it washed over her that the turtles and Splinter were telling the truth about her, and she had betrayed them.

Slowly - thanks in no small part to her family’s forgiveness and understanding - that feeling has been faded to a quick stuttering of her heart whenever she enters. Now, however, she may as well be frozen in fear; and her past betrayal is the furthest thing from her mind.

Mikey, Leo, Raph, and Justin are sitting on the floor with Splinter. Justin is propped upright in Leo’s lap now, and she would guess that’s because it was Leo who managed to dress him. Whoever did it, they got the t-shirt over Justin’s head and his arms through the sleeves, which are rolled over themselves again and again to make them shorter. It looks like somebody also came up with the idea to gather the shirt’s excess fabric at the bottom and tie it between Justin’s legs.

Her breath is caught in her lungs as she looks at the baby.

The thing is, she wants to go in. She wants to race into the room, and to take Justin from Leo, and she even dares to believe that the little boy would welcome her hold this time; he was very much against being separated from her in the living room.

But, that’s nothing more than a fantasy. In reality, she has no idea what to do when she finally drags one foot onto the matted floor of the dojo. Her three brothers are watching her with unrelenting gazes, and that isn’t even to mention the way Justin hums as if curious as she draws another pace closer.

Then her father sighs, and if there were ever a time for a Kraang portal to come and swallow her up, Karai wouldn’t mind if it were now.

“Leave us.”

Her brothers obey father’s order without question. They stand, Leo still holding Justin as he trails a few steps behind Mikey and Raph. The two of them each give her a sidelong glance as they pass her by, but when it’s Leo’s turn Justin reaches for her.

For a moment, Leo stops. Her and him lock eyes, Justin still reaching and his little mouth pouting. It takes more self-control than Karai thinks it should to not take him into her arms. Instead, she pushes his little hand away, and as Leo leaves with him she hears his whimpering cries starting again.

She can feel her own tears starting to burn at the backs of her eyes; but she won’t dare let them fall.

She kneels before father, her eyes fixed on the floor. She waits, though she has no idea what it is she’s waiting for, exactly. Splinter is far more forgiving, understanding, and frankly, human, than Shredder. But this isn’t exactly a stray dog or some run of the mill troubled mutant they’re dealing with.

“Your brothers told me what happened.”

His voice doesn’t give her much insight into his thoughts, so she takes solace in the knowledge that she doesn’t have to explain it to him. That is more of a relief than one would think; making it easier to get ahold of her emotions and to keep herself from spiraling out.

“Miwa.” She looks up at his insistence, and he hesitates a moment before asking his first question. “Is Casey still here?”

She shakes her head, and when his brows narrow minutely in response she knows she needs to clarify that point.

“He’ll be back in the morning.” She promises, and she does her best to quash down the surge of defiance in her chest when Splinter’s expression seems to doubt her. “He and I agreed that this is a lot to digest, and it’s late. Deciding what to do tonight seemed rash.”

Splinter hums, if not approving, than at least understanding.

“And what is it you would like to do?”

She blinks, still unsure as to how to answer such a question point blank. What would she like to do? What she would like to do and what she should do – what she is capable of doing – are two very different things.

Unlike Casey, Splinter doesn’t have a problem waiting for her to speak. He lets her kneel here in silence until, finally, she has some form of an answer strung together.

“The Kraang might look for him.” She finally says, deciding it will be best to start with the facts. “He’ll be safer if we leave him somewhere outside the city.”

“Leave him?”

There is no judgment in his question. There is no sadness or anger in his voice nor in his eyes. But, there is also no sign of any relief as to a crisis adverted.

“Somewhere safe.” She promises, “A fire station, or a hospital.”

“I see…” Splinter trails, “And, this is the course of action you would choose?”

She hesitates. She shouldn’t, but did she not just answer this question?

This time Splinter doesn’t wait her out.

“You are still so young, Miwa.” He sighs, “To have a child now is not a path which I would have hoped for you to find yourself on.”

She opens her mouth to remind him that she hasn’t said anything yet. That she knows it isn’t a good idea, and she may not have a foolproof track record of making the smart decisions, but she knows how to do it when it really counts.

However, he continues on before she can get a word out.

“But, neither is the path which I put you on.”

She closes her mouth, and sighs. Now it’s her waiting him out. They’ve been through this before; that she doesn’t blame him for what happened to her or to her mother. It was Shredder who made those choices. He acknowledges that, most of the time, but he still blames himself to an extent, and trying to change that is a wasted effort.

“Right now our family is at war; with The Kraang as well as The Foot.” He continues, “But, one day, it is my hope that that war will end. You are not like your brothers, Miwa. You are still human. You have lived a life on the surface already and, what I do hope for you, is that when peacetime finds us, you can make your way up there again.”

Karai furrows her brows. She hasn’t thought much about living on the surface again since she’s been down here. Granted, she hasn’t thought about not doing that, either. She’s just been taking things one day at a time is all. It’s seemed to be the only way to get through.

Now, however, she has to plan for the long term; one way or another.

“Then I can have a baby then.” She argues, though frankly it’s a hollow idea.

She’s thought distantly before about having a child some day; if for no reason other than to continue the lineage of The Foot Clan. But now, obviously, that isn’t her motivation. The idea itself still isn’t so terrible sounding. But the idea of someday having a child when she already has one out in the world somewhere - growing up without her for better or for worse – isn’t one which she likes.

No. She doesn’t like the idea of that at all. One thing she is sure of, her being a mother either starts with Justin, or it doesn’t happen at all.

“Yes, you could.” Splinter finally sounds somber. “And this family will be behind you then, just as we will be now; no matter what happens after tonight.”

Relief settles in her. It’s brought on by his vagueness, Karai realizes. She doesn’t want to think about a life after this as if it never happened. It’s one of the most terrifying things she has ever felt in her life, right up there with learning her entire life under Shredder had been a lie.

But, much like that, underneath all the fear, there is a glimmer of peace.

“Whatever you decide,” Splinter continues, “Do not lose sight of the future you are fighting for. Rather, ask yourself what future that is.”

Chapter Text

After leaving the dojo Karai takes Justin from Leo. By the time she gets there he’s half-asleep, and Donnie has joined the guys. They ask her, of course, if there is a plan for moving forward. She tells them the same thing she told Splinter; that she and Casey will figure it out tomorrow.

Of course, they also want to know where Splinter stands on all this, but she’s confident they’ll get as much out of him on the matter as they do out of her.

He said it’s her decision to make, pros and cons either way.

Upon taking Justin into her room, Karai can’t help but to only see the cons.

When she first came here she spent the first few nights on the couch. Her first week was spent mostly with Donnie and Leo, the three of them clearing out this little alcove of a space that Splinter and the turtles have always used as a closet.

Just the other day they finally installed the door.

Her mattress takes up most of the small space. There is a walkway between it and the wall but it isn’t wide enough that she could fit in a place for Justin to sleep comfortably.

She doesn’t even have a place for him to sleep uncomfortably.

She doesn’t have a dresser to pull a drawer out of. She has a laundry basket, but it’s tall and round; not exactly suited to functioning as a makeshift crib.

For now, she lays Justin down on her mattress. She drags one of her two pillows to one side of him and wads up her blanket on the other. He tracks her movements above him with half-lidded eyes, and as Karai finishes creating buffers for him she falls back on her knees, frowning as she looks down at him.

In an experiment, she pulls off one of her gloves and strokes a finger along the sides of his face. The tips of his black hair ghost over her knuckle, so soft that she hardly notices. His skin is soft too, and as she moves her hand down from his face and to his little shoulder he grunts this little noise that sounds more content than anything she’s heard out of him all night.

“I don’t suppose you want to stay here.” She mutters, and Justin blinks at her with bleary eyes.

Now that she knows where he got his DNA, it’s easier to see bits of Casey and of herself in him. He looks more like Casey in his features, at least in her opinion, but his eyes aren’t quite as dark. They’re more of a golden brown, set in the almond shaped sockets she would expect from a baby that is half her and half… whatever Casey is.

She reclaims her hand and drags it down her face in frustration as she realizes she has no idea the answer to that question, and thus no idea as to what her own child is.

It’s something she could ask – either Casey or Donnie – but then that little voice pops up in her head telling her that she shouldn’t.

She doesn’t need to know what Justin is. It doesn’t matter; she can’t keep him.

She keeps telling herself that as the night drags on. She changes from her armor and the clothes underneath into the pajamas she got at a thrift store a few weeks ago. It’s nothing more than a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt boasting the logo of a band she has heard of but never listened to. Her only other change of clothes is much the same; ripped jeans and a sweatshirt that someone else decided they no longer need in their life.

Four garments, handed down from strangers somewhere, and it took all the money she’d had on her when she ran away.

She cannot keep a baby.

She’s more and more convinced of this fact as she spends the night on her T-Phone searching information about babies. Specifically, babies Justin’s age. It turns out a baby who is over a year old is a very different undertaking than a newborn, or one over the age of two for that matter.

How old did Donnie say Justin is?

More than a year, that much she’s sure, but apparently she needs an idea more exact. According to everything she’s finding, there are things a thirteen-month-old can’t do that a fifteen-month-old should excel in. Donnie said Justin would be behind on things, but she has no idea by how much.

She tries to think back to the night of the Genome Project. She hadn’t been in New York long, and it was cold outside. So, probably February or March, and they’re in August now, over a year later. That would make Justin eighteen or nineteen months. Old enough that he is going to have a lot of catching up to do. According to the internet, he should be able to walk, kind of talk, and eat most solid foods…

She closes her eyes and sighs, glancing at the sleeping baby next to her.

She hasn’t even tried to feed him anything.

Some mother she is.

She looks at Justin again. He’s fast asleep, rolled on his side and all but hugging the rolled-up blanket she’d placed at his side. He doesn’t seem upset that he hasn’t been given any sort of food. She supposes he must have eaten something at some point before he was de-mutated.

Eventually, between worrying, staring at the kid, and way too many Google searches, Karai drifts off to sleep. She stays at the very edge of the bed, and when she wakes up to the sounds of Justin’s soft grunting she decides those buffers were just as much for her as they were for him; not that she so much as rolled to her side in her sleep.

She gets up and dressed for the day, Justin starting to cry more and more, to the point that his face is scrunched red by the time she’s secured her last piece of armor.

“Ok, ok.” She whispers, picking him up, which doesn’t have much of an effect. “Ok, I really hope this means you’re hungry.”

Raph hears the crying coming from down the hall. It’s early, enough so that he’s the first one in the kitchen. He debates taking his cereal and going, but what would be the point? In all likelihood, he’s going to have to get used to this kid sooner or later.

Of course, he’s still working on getting used to Karai.

The two of them don’t spend a lot of one-on-one time together, and that is very much by an unspoken design. After that little stunt she pulled – leading Tiger Claw down here and then turning around and getting herself captured – he wasn’t exactly the first to forgive her. In fact, he was the last, and he let her know it. But, it’s been weeks now, and even if he can hold a grudge that long he knows that she’s sorry. She obeyed Splinter benching her from patrols without any protest. She’s trying, and so he’s trying, and right now a cold truce is the best he’s able to do.

Just another reason he should get out of the kitchen.

He’d like to at least have his coffee when he does that, and so he decides some limited time in here with the kid to be a buffer between himself and Karai is as good a step in the right direction as any. So, he makes his coffee, and when Karai reaches the door with their cranky new family member on her hip the two of them lock eyes. He inclines his head to her, and she comes into the kitchen, and opens up the freezer and starts pulling things out with her free hand and not a word to him.

Behind the door, he hears Ice Cream Kitty’s raspy morning “meow”, and the kid starts to laugh instead of cry.

Raph tries not to watch Karai too close, but he’ll admit it, he is curious as to where her head is at right now. She didn’t give them much to go on last night. Apparently Casey is supposed to come by later to talk this whole mess out, so he’s guessing they’ll get more concrete answers after that. In the meantime, she’s still got the kid, but that isn’t a promise it’ll stay that way.

Though, personally, Raph thinks it will.

Not to say that Karai has melted all over this kid – or that he would have expected her to dump it on Casey – but, the fact that she took him to her room last night says something. She could have walked right past them after her talk with Sensei. At the very least, she could have pawned babysitting duty off to one of them at some point overnight. Donnie or Mikey would’ve been all to happy to take him, and Leo would’ve done it out of responsibility if nothing else.

But, she kept him all night, and she’s smiling softly to the kid now as he keeps his curious eyes firm on the freezer door after she’s closed it.

“You sleep?” He ventures to ask, Karai pausing to glance his way just as she was about to drop a frozen waffle into the toaster.

He shrugs, and takes another bite of his cereal.

“Some.” She answers, pushing the toaster down. “I spent most of the night reading. I don’t know a lot about babies, like what they can eat.”

Raph frowns as he swallows, realizing that he doesn’t know all that much either.

“Were waffles on the list?”

He isn’t too surprised when she nods, and while the waffle cooks she puts away the box, and the kid laughs at Ice Cream Kitty again, and Raph lets himself smile a little this time.

“Among other things.” Karai says, closing the freezer again and now opening up the cabinets and drawers. “It has to be cut up, most things do, but he’s old enough to eat just about anything.”

She pulls out a plate and a dull knife, and then while Raph pours his coffee she leans against the counter; the fingers of one hand playing with the ends of the kid’s hair while she looks around the kitchen.

Specifically, while she looks over the table.

Raph frowns, realizing the issue. They’ve only got the five barstools, or chairs, and none of them are all that practical for a baby to sit in. She can hold him, but once the waffle pops up and she tosses it onto the plate he realizes the problem with that; trying to hold a fussing kid and cut up food at the same time is not all that easy.

He watches her struggle for a minute. The kid tries to grab the knife from her, and then backhands her in the face when she pulls it from his reach. She grumbles at him and the waffle just slides along the plate when she isn’t able to hold it still due to the fact that she is holding the kid still.

Raph sighs and sets down his mug.

“Here.” He says more than offers, “Before one of you loses an eye.”

She looks surprised when he holds out his hands, but she gives him the kid all the same. Of course, the kid only starts to cry louder, and it kicks at him and punches him just like it was doing to her.

“Jeeze, you’re fun.” He grumbles at the kid, craning his head away from the tiny fists flying his way; unsuccessfully. “And you’re stronger than you look.”

He’s heavier than he looks too. Of course he isn’t anything Raph can’t handle holding onto, though it would be easier if he would stop thrashing around. But, he doesn’t stop thrashing, because he is a living, moving, breathing, kid, and soon enough Raph hands him back to Karai and tries not to think too hard about what the future might be like with this new… thing, around.

It's gonna be interesting, that’s for sure.

“Thanks.” Karai says as Justin plops in her lap, still fussing but considerably calmer almost immediately.

It doesn’t take long for her to get him to notice the food, and he might have some kind of instincts after all, because he puts the first piece she hands him right into his mouth and grabs for a second all on his own.

They both sigh in relief as it’s finally quiet while the kid eats his breakfast. It’s a companionable silence, at least Raph thinks so, which is a step in the right direction for the two of them. He drinks his coffee, and Karai watches the kid eat and redirects him back to the plate whenever he starts to get more interested in his own fingers than in the food.

Raph lets himself smile behind his mug, kind of thinking about this whole dynamic and where they go from here again. He can picture this becoming normal, and he tells himself his smile is a smirk; that it’s because the sight before him is entertaining, not sweet.

Ok, maybe it’s a little sweet.

Dropping down into the sewer in the morning, Casey doesn’t have all that much more clarity about what’s going on than he did last night. He didn’t sleep much. He spent the night lying awake and thinking of all the disastrous ways his life could pan out from here. The logic of taking Justin somewhere safe and leaving him there to be found by authorities set in a little more, even if the idea still leaves a bitter taste in his mouth. He’s still hoping it won’t come to that but – if it does – he thinks he can at least get himself to accept it.

He can’t do this without Karai; he’s decided that’s a non-starter. Alone would be one thing, but if he were alonethen he would still have April and the guys around him. He can’t walk away from them, which means he can’t do this unless Karai is onboard with it too.

He still isn’t sure what he can say to try and get her on board, so hopefully he read her right last night and she’s leaning that way on her own.

There’s a thud behind him that pulls him from his thoughts, April dropping from the rungs of the ladder.

“I still don’t think I’m going to believe this until I see it.” She comments. He told her everything once he met her at her place to come down here. He figured Karai and the guys have probably had to explain it enough times already. Besides, he needed to say it out loud to someone.

“Tell me about it.” He says, the two of them starting on their way towards the lair. “Not exactly what I had in mind when Mikey asked me if I had any old baby clothes.”

He tries to laugh, trying to remember last night when he’d gotten one of the weirder texts he’s gotten from Mikey, and still had no idea how weird it was going to get.

But he can’t really get the humor out, and so he can’t blame April when she doesn’t laugh either.

“So, what are you going to do about Karai?”

He tries to keep from sighing, or rolling his eyes for that matter. Karai and April aren’t exactly the best of friends, but ever since Karai’s been in the liar April has made an effort to not call her “an evil witch” so, that’s progress.

Personally, he’s never had an issue with Karai. If anything, she seems fun. Seems, of course, is the operative word. He doesn’t know her, and he does know that her and April have a rough history. That isn’t his main concern right now – not even in the top five, really – but he understands April trying to gauge how much more time she is going to start spending with Karai; if any.

“For now, I’m gonna talk to her.” He answers, very maturely in his opinion. “After that, I’ll let you know.”

Chapter Text

“Try encouraging him to walk by pulling him to his feet.” Donnie instructs her, slipping his hands under Justin’s arms and demonstrating his point.

It’s still early, earlier than Karai would normally start to think about Casey or even April showing up. Now, though, she’s practically counting the minutes. She just wants this conversation over with at this point, even if she still isn’t totally sure what it is she wants from that end.

She shakes herself back to the moment, watching as Donnie lets go of Justin and thus the poor kid falls right back onto his ass. He blinks up at the two of them, frowning down at him with mild concern and pity.

At least he doesn’t cry.

No, after a few seconds, he leans himself forward and clumsily catches himself on his hands.

“Shouldn’t he get the hang of crawling first?” Karai asks Donnie, who she is starting to think spent his night down the same internet rabbit hole she did; because he woke up this morning with a list of all the developmental milestones Justin needs to catch up on as soon as possible.

And, if they’re just waiting around for Casey, they may as well get started.

“That might help.” Donnie sort-of admits, watching alongside her as Justin leans forward, but he has one leg bent under himself, and instead of making any progress forward he plops back into a sitting position. “But he’s an average height for his age. Not to mention he should be cognitively developed enough to walk. It might be easier for him to go straight to that.”

That makes some sense, but watching Justin try again to just scoot himself forward and again get stuck by his own leg, Karai isn’t sure this whole “milestone catch-up” thing is going to be as easy as Donnie is hoping.

Still, she’ll give it a shot.

She bends down and tries setting Justin on his feet, exactly like Donnie did, and exactly as when Donnie tried it, Justin crumples to the ground the second she lets him go.

In fact, it’s worse this time. This time he smacks his head against the couch on the way down and immediately starts crying.

Karai sends Donnie a withering look as she reaches down again and gathers Justin into her arms, and at least he has the decency to take half a step back with a guilty look on his face.

She rolls her eyes, but even if she wanted to make it clear that this is proof he’s being a little too optimistic, she doesn’t get the chance. Somehow, over the sound of Justin crying right in her ear, she hears the click of the turnstiles behind her. She turns, not surprised to find Casey standing at the lair entrance, with April a step behind him and looking very much like a deer caught in headlights.

He has to have told her. At the very least so that she wouldn’t start asking questions the second she walked into the lair and saw this scene before her. Karai is assuming he did, but if he didn’t she’s counting herself lucky April starts to sidestep towards Donnie’s lab without a word.

Good, let Donnie be the one to answer all these questions again.

Speaking of Donnie, he hurries off after April, and the closing of the lab door seems to finally spur Casey. He comes down and joins her and Justin in the pit, his eyes holding about a million questions that despite wanting the answers, Karai would very much prefer to avoid.

At least he starts with the easiest one.

The crying.

“What happened to him?”

She rolls her eyes, giving Justin a light bounce and then keeping that up when it seems to bring the volume of his tears down.

“Donnie thinks he should be walking.” She answers, “We tried to stand him up, he fell.”

Casey nods in reply, this really jerky movement and a near-silent “oh” escaping his mouth. His eyes are all but glued to Justin, who is still crying, and as that is increasingly the only sound in the room and Casey still looks worried, Karai can’t help but to feel the panic start to creep in.

“He’s ok.” She tells him, and Casey hums, like he believes her, but nothing about his expression relaxes.

So, she does the only other thing she can think to do; she shifts Justin so that he is a little bit further out from her, gesturing with him to Casey.

“Do you want to take him?”

The words seem to hit Casey over the head.

He blinks, his whole-body jolting as he looks at her with wide eyes and vaguely outreached arms, like he isn’t sure whether or not that was a question or a warning.

“You don’t have to.” She awkwardly tries to tell him, still bouncing Justin lightly and bringing him closer to her chest once again, because he is still crying. “I’m not, like, trying to pawn him off on you just because he’s crying.”

 “No, I know.” Casey stammers, “I mean, I wasn’t, like, not offering to take him just because he’s crying.”

Let the record show that at no point did she think that was what he was doing, or not doing, maybe, whatever. The important thing is that – especially after last night – while she might not know Casey well, she knows enough to trust he wasn’t planning on just standing here and letting her handle this meltdown simply because it’s easiest. However, she gets the feeling that if she tries to tell Casey that it is just going to be more of this painful back and forth and nothing is ever going to get settled, including Justin.

So, slow and awkward like everything else, she holds Justin forward for him again and this time she basically dumps him into his arms.

Justin doesn’t cling to her like he did last night, though she thinks that’s more because he’s been here for a few hours and handed off to almost everyone else at least once. It isn’t like he has any concept of Casey being his father, or what a father is for that matter.

But, Karai does.

Granted, her concept of fathers is a little messed up compared to that of most peoples. But all the same, there is something about the way Casey stumbles through taking hold of Justin and how he pleads with him to stop crying that just seems… like maybe he isn’t the worst person to have as the second half of this equation.

It takes a while before Justin calms down. Long enough that Karai takes a seat on the couch, and when he does finally stop crying Casey looks so ridiculously proud of himself that she smirks.

Well, he looks ridiculously proud, and terrified.

“Ok.” He huffs, carefully setting Justin down, his hands hovering outward over the baby as though he is worried he might fall over. “Ok. I think we’re good.”

Karai chuckles, smiling as she watches Justin look up at her with curious eyes.

Gently, she nudges him with her foot. She supposes she’s sort of trying to knock him over, albite slowly. She knows he can catch himself on his hands and – now that Donnie isn’t here to insist he skip crawling – maybe getting him into that position will encourage him.

At first, Justin tries to grab at her foot, and she chuckles at him before nudging him a little harder; enough so that he has to let go and he ends up on his hands and knees.

When she looks back up and sees Casey watching her, all of a sudden she is very aware that it’s time to talk about this.

How is she supposed to talk about this?

Standing up seems to be a good start, at least that way she can look him in the eye.

Of course, as soon as she’s looking him in the eye, she feels like she has to speak and that just makes her want to throw up.

She opens her mouth, but nothing comes out. She is normally so much better with words than this, to the point that she is almost ashamed of herself. But how is she supposed to say – supposed to know – anything?

“I want to keep him.” Casey says, in no uncertain terms, taking pity on her and being the one to bite the bullet. “I know it’s not gonna be easy, and if you really want to give him up I’ll try to get on board with that.”

“I…” She stammers, crossing her arms over herself and not letting herself look at Justin. “I don’t know what I want.”

He blinks at her confession, and she makes herself breathe, and gather her words.

“My life has changed a lot lately.” She reminds him, and a little bit herself. “I’m still getting used to being here.”

“That’s what you’re worried about?” Casey sounds surprised and maybe even relieved, “Living here? Your dad raised four kids down here.”

“Four mutant turtle kids.”

“Doesn’t sound any easier than one human kid.”

Well, he has her there.

“Besides,” Casey continues on. “He’ll be with me some of the time on the surface. He can, you know, play with other kids and stuff then.”

Again, he has a point, and a valid enough one that Karai starts to let herself actually consider the possibility.

Splinter did say he’ll stand behind her no matter what she chooses, and if there is one thing in this world that she trusts, it’s that the turtles will too. Maybe not all at first, and not all for the same reasons; nobility, scientific research, happiness, and for Raph, the fact that he’ll be out-voted. But, they will stand behind her.

“Plus, I’m assuming you’re not planning on living down here your whole life?”

She shakes her head, not that she’s thought much about what she’ll do – where she’ll be – in five or ten years’ time. But, clearly, other people have.

A little hand hitting against her leg pulls her from her thoughts. She looks down and see’s Justin sitting at her ankle, and starting to experimentally pull at the fabric of her legging. At least he’s entertaining himself, so for now she ignores him and turns her attention back to Casey.

Who has a thoughtful frown on his face.

“You want to go somewhere?”

She blinks at him, not at all sure what he means, and when she doesn’t answer he shrugs.

“You gave me the night to think.” He reasons, “You were stuck down here, with him, not exactly easy for you to think clearly that way.”

She shrugs, “Not many places I have to go.”

“I know a good breakfast place.” He suggests, “Might still be a good idea to take a break from here. I can show you, if you want. We can try and take him with us or maybe see if April and Donnie will watch him.”

Karai bristles at the idea, both with and without taking Justin along. She gets his point, as far as getting out of the liar is concerned. It’s probably a good idea to go up top and be part of the real world for ten minutes before they officially make any decision on what to do about having a kid.

Together.

Karai scrunches her nose, Casey’s offer to show her this breakfast place and the notion of raising Justin with him for the rest of her life all hitting her like a slap in the face. She can… if they keep Justin, they’re stuck with each other, and it’s not that she was unaware of that fact before right this second but… well… she assumed they were already on the same page about it.

“I’m good here, for now.” She says through partially gritted teeth. “Even when I’m not, you and me can just trade him back and forth. We don’t have to pretend we’re friends all of a sudden.”

“What?” He asks, “That’s not… Aren’t we friends? Like a little bit?”

He seems genuinely confused, and his question is so far from what she was expecting that for a minute Karai the annoyance starting inside her blood stream simmers down, overruled by confusion of her own.

And he takes her silence as an opening to keep talking.

“I mean, I know we haven’t talked much, but we could, right? You’re living here now and you’re working with the guys-”

“To take down Shredder.” She reminds him, “And this is… Whatever this is, with Justin. We’re stuck with each other for this, but none of that means you have to pretend you want to hang out with me.”

“Pretend I want to hang out with you?” He asks, “Who says wanting to hang out with you is pretending?”

“Who says it’s pretending?” He half mocks, anger and annoyance now radiating throughout her. “I think in the entire time I’ve known you; we’ve said maybe two words to each other. Can you honestly tell me that if it weren’t for Justin, you would’ve come down here today and asked me to hang out?”

He sputters and stammers at her question, which is exactly what she was expected, and she doesn’t like how heavy and sad the expected sits in her chest.

So, she scoops Justin up, and steps towards Casey.

“You know what?” She asks, dumping the somewhat confused little boy into his arms. “You’re right; you had time to think, now it’s my turn. Let me know how he does on the surface.”

With that she stalks away, all the way to the kitchen where she starts a pot of coffee because she didn’t have the time earlier, and she certainly wasn’t going to ask Raph to share.

“Pretending to be friends.” Casey grumbles to himself as he kicks the manhole cover back into place, and fixes his grip on Justin in his arms.

After Karai stormed out of the living room he stood there for about a minute, but what was there for him to other than leave? He’d yelled down towards the kitchen and the bedrooms - to wherever she went – that he was going and taking Justin with him, but she heard him she didn’t answer.

The only pitstop he made was to Donnie’s lab, and after asking him a handful of questions he didn’t have answers for, April told him she was going to stay. Apparently her and Donnie started working on these blueprints for a new machine of his. Normally he would try to get in on that planning stage, try and see what kind of fire power Donnie is packing this time. But honestly, he couldn’t have cared less if he tried. He has so many bigger problems right now.

“Who does she think she’s kidding?” He wonders aloud, “She’s with the guys for more than taking down Shredder. What’s her plan? They take out Shredder and she takes off and never looks back?”

It occurs to him that he probably shouldn’t be talking like this about Karai in front of Justin. He’s already counting himself lucky the kid isn’t crying without her in sight. He doesn’t know much about babies – especially not babies who were mutant octopus monsters up until last night – but Justin seems to at least like Karai. Maybe it’s because she’s the first person to take care of him, or because she’s been in charge of him the longest. It’s only been a day but, what does he know? A couple hours versus a couple minutes might make a big difference.

“She’s not going to do that.” He promises the kid anyway, and as he does he finds his anger at the whole conversation starts to ebb away.

Not by much, but enough that he can think.

She told him upfront she doesn’t know what she wants. She told him she’s been through a lot lately, that she’s still getting used to things, and now a kid has just been thrown into the mix.

“Ok.” He sighs, “Maybe the timing wasn’t the best, with the whole ‘hanging out’ thing.”

He glances at Justin, who is staring at him like he has no idea what he thinks about this ranting lunatic of a hockey player who he’s found himself in the custody of.

“Don’t worry about it kid, alright?” He chuckles, “I know it’s been a rough start but we’ll figure everything out.”

Behind him, he hears the soft thud of large, trained feet on the sidewalk a split second before he hears the voice.

“You won’t need to.”

He swallows; Tiger Claw.

He stills, and slowly, he starts to turn, but all he needs to see is the edge of the barrel of the gun in his peripheral before he decides that there is only one course of action to take.

Run like hell.

Chapter Text

“So, if you keep him, are you gonna change Justin’s name?”

Karai raises her eyebrows, her wet stone flying further off the tip of her Tanto than she’d intended before Mikey’s question had hit her ears.

When Casey had called down the hallway that he was leaving with Justin she had felt equal parts guilty and validated. On one hand, she does want to figure this out, and sending him away with Justin seems counterproductive. On the other hand, however, it might have been exactly what needed to happen. Casey might have made his point about the benefits of thinking without Justin glued to her hip, but now that the two of them are gone Karai finds she isn’t wavering in her… wavering. But one thing she is sure of is she thinks it’s important Casey takes his turn as the designated parent before he tries telling her again he wants to keep Justin.

Anyway, she’d taken her mug of coffee and come into her room to try and think. It didn’t take long before she picked up her Tanto and started to sharpen it, her mind drifting while her hand worked in practiced strokes along the blade.

She’d left her door cracked open, which Mikey has apparently noticed. He’s standing there with his thumbs twiddling awkwardly, his eyes a little downcast.

“I don’t know.” She answers honestly, and when Mikey’s lips immediately turn downwards in a frown Karai finds that she does, in fact, know the answer to that question. The answer is no; if she and Casey keep Justin, she will not be campaigning for a change in his name.

But, she doesn’t have to let Mikey know that yet.

“I thought you half-assed his name?” She teases, however when Mikey avoids her eyes and starts to shrink in on himself she knows immediately that she’s made a mistake.

She sets her stone and her Tanto aside for the moment, her thumb skimming a careful path over the top of the blade to gauge its sharpness.

“I don’t know what I would name him.” She admits, “I’ve never thought that much about naming kids.”

“Really?” Mikey asks, “I always thought that was something girls thought about. Um, no offence.”

For the record, there is some offence taken. But, he has the good sense to look embarrassed about it, so Karai doesn’t dwell on it and instead simply shakes her head.

“Not all girls.” She says, and she frowns, realizing that while she glossed over this issue when talking with Splinter, that is a much bigger part of her hesitation in all this than she’s been letting herself admit.

She swings her legs over the edge of her mattress and cocks her head, motioning for Mikey to come join her. He looks a little confused, but he comes. He sinks down on the edge of the mattress and for a moment the two of them sit there in silence together.

“Try not to get too excited about this.” She warns him, and when she looks at him she sees he is literally holding his breath in his best effort to follow her instruction.

He really is the last person she should be talking to about this.

“I want to keep him.” She confesses in a huff, and by this point Mikey is practically vibrating next to her, so she figures she needs to get out the but of her statement sooner as opposed to later. “I just... I can’t see how that’s fair to him.”

“Huh?” Mikey asks, his silent excitement seeming to leave his body as he turns sideways to face her completely. “What do you mean?”

She growls, her frustration close to boiling. She is the last person to enjoy being told what to do – or what not to do, for that matter – but why is that she seems to be the only one around here who can see what a bad idea this is?

“I mean I’m eighteen.” She all but snaps. “I had one conversation with Casey – who was trying to help – and I gave him the kid and I told him to leave. I mean that even if we weren’t sitting around here waiting for either The Foot or The Kraang to come and kill us, I’m still new to this whole ‘family’ thing.” She leans back against the concrete wall, her arms crossing over her middle as the boiling frustration simmers down and out.

Leaving her with one very simple bottom line.

“I’m not exactly a ringing endorsement for a mother.”

“Wow.”

It isn’t Mikey’s voice which drawls that word, but Raph’s. She and Mikey look to the open doorway and see him standing there; clearly having overheard more than enough of their conversation.

Karai scrunches her nose and narrows her eyes, and thinks to herself that he had better heed the warning. She isn’t in the mood for… Well, for him. They had non-violent ten minutes in the kitchen this morning; that’s about their quota for the day.

“Is this pity party open invitation?” He asks, so no, he has not headed the warning.

“Raph…” Mikey whines, which is a warning of his own. “Come on man, this is, like, a big deal.”

Raph rolls his eyes, and so Karai does the same. Then she finds herself meeting his gaze… oh whatever, she’s the one who left her door open. She tips her head back against the wall once again, and Raph takes that as the indifference that it is and steps over the threshold into her room.

“Look, I wasn’t gonna get involved in this, but you’re overthinking it.”

She scoffs, “How do you overthink having a baby?”

Raph shrugs, as if he as some kind of actual knowledge on the matter.

“You keep the kid and a lot of bad stuff can happen to him, sure. But giving him up isn’t exactly a guarantee his life is going to be any better.”

“No.” She concedes, “But it seems like a safe bet, unless the Kraang hunt him down.”

“Which they could.”

She glares at him, but to her surprise his usually hard face is less so than she would have expected. Maybe he pities her.

She’s trying to come up with another argument, but really, it’s starting to feel like she is rehashing the same one over and over again. She probably isn’t ready for a kid, but is there really any situation which would be perfect?

Her phone buzzing interrupts her thoughts, and when she sees Casey’s face on the I.D. she’ll admit she’s a little disappointed; she thought he would at least last an hour.

“Hello?” She answers the call, and before Casey says anything there is a sharp hitch of his breath over the line, and it sends her heart plummeting into her stomach.

Something is wrong.

“I… Karai… I… I’m sorry.” He’s panting, hard. “Tiger Claw. He came up behind me. I tried to fight him off but he… he took Justin!”

Karai grits her teeth, her grip on the phone turning loose for a fraction of a second before she squeezes it tight again.

“I… I don’t know if he’s taking him to Shredder, or The Kraang… Or.” Casey continues to stammer, his breathing now seeming to come in a different type of gasps.

“The Kraang.” She wagers, “Shredder doesn’t have any use for him. Where are you right now?”

“Um… I’m on the corner of Eastman and Laird.”

“Ok, that’s not far from where we fought The Kraang last night. With any luck he’ll bring him back there. Stay where you are, I’m on my way.”

She hangs up, and of course Mikey and Raph are both watching her with curious and worried faces; Raph with his hands already on his Sais.

 “Tiger Claw attacked Casey.” She explains as she grabs her Tanto. “He’s ok, but Tiger Claw took Justin.”

“What?!” Mikey exclaims, and Raph’s face hardens.

“Where are we going?”

“Not ‘we’.” Karai explains, “Me. It’s the middle of the day.”

“And?” Raph growls, and while she rolls her eyes at him and marches her way past him for the door, Karai’s heart flips in her chest all the same.

Who knew Raph was so pro having a baby around?

“Raph’s right!” Mikey argues as the two of them follow her down the hall. “Justin’s family! Plus, he’s so little-”

“Exactly, he’s little.” She interrupts as the three of them come out into the living room, and she is well aware of Leo on the couch turning his attention to them. “Casey and I can handle a couple of Kraang and a baby.”

“And Tiger Claw?” Raph doubtfully asks, and she hates that he has a right to that tone, and before she can answer Leo is – of course – joining their little group.

“What’s happening?”

“Tiger Claw got Justin!” Mikey exclaims, “Karai thinks he brought him to the Kraang, and now she’s trying to go after him by herself.”

“What?!” Leo demands, “Karai, are you nuts?”

She narrows her eyes; first at Mikey for tattling on her, and then at Leo. Her patience with not only this argument itself - but also how long it is keeping her here - is wearing thin and she would very much like to get going.

“Casey is coming with me.” She clarifies, though that hardly reassures anybody; including her. “And yes, Tiger Claw took him, but he might be gone with his money by the time we get there.”

“He also might have hung around.” Raph argues.

“Maybe.” She agrees, “Look, we’ll be careful. But it’s broad daylight out. The last thing we need is to risk exposing you guys over a rescue mission for a toddler.”

Finally, Leo’s tense shoulders drop in the slightest bit, and his angry scowl softens. She’s right, and he knows it.

But it’s Raph who concedes.

Well, sort of.

“At least take April.” He says, and while Karai isn’t thrilled with the idea it’s Leo who shoots it down.

“No.” He says, “I don’t think it’s worth it for the Kraang to care about Justin as a test subject anymore. They had Tiger Claw patrolling in the daylight for a reason; they’ll be thinking Casey will call April for backup. They want her and they’re using Justin as bait.”

He looks to her, a soft concession on his face.

“Just please be careful.” He says, and she nods.

Casey stays put where he is. He paces the length of two buildings enough times to make him dizzy and attract more than a few stares from onlookers, but he stays put until Karai comes marching around the corner up ahead.

“For the record,” She sneers as she approaches him. “This is why I wanted to give him up.”

“I know.” He huffs, because he has already had this conversation with himself. “But even if we tried to we wouldn’t have gotten him far. I didn’t even get halfway to my house! Tiger Claw was ready.”

Karai frowns, her eyes traveling up and down his body. He looks down at himself too. Of course he put up the best fight he could, and for it all he has to show is a ripped-up vest, pant leg, an aching jaw which will eventually give way to a bruise, and enough nightmare fuel to last him the rest of the year.

“Where’s your gear?” She asks him, and he scowls at the reminder.

“At my house.” He admits, “I had a couple smoke bombs on me, but I didn’t think this morning was going to be something I needed my whole bag for.”

He should have. He should know by now that when his day takes him within ten feet of a sewer, it’s better to play it safe than sorry.

“Ok,” Karai says, “Let’s go get it and then we’ll head to the warehouse from last night.”

He nods, that sounds like as good a plan as any.

He leads the way to his house, and aside from the occasional direction, the two of them don’t talk much. In fact, they hardly look at each other.

On one hand Casey is grateful for it. Karai has every right to be blaming him for this, but if she is she is doing it silently. That’s a good thing, because he doesn’t think he could stand hearing it from her right now. He’s already screwed up with her and broaching the subject of hanging out, and not that he needs her to want to hang out with him but… well… At the very least, it will make having a kid together easier. He’s been beating himself up enough about letting Tiger Claw take Justin; if she starts rubbing it in he’s worried he might snap at either her or, worse, himself.

When they make it to his building he tells Karai to wait outside, and she nods at him. He runs in and up the stairs to the apartment, and when he opens the door he groans internally; his dad is sat on the couch and watching the news.

His dad looks up at him, then back to the news, and Casey does his best to keep his pace not frantic as he heads to his room.

“Hey,” Dad calls to him, “You’re out early today.”

“Yeah.” He calls back, already down the hall and opening his bedroom door. “I met April for breakfast at that place on Mercer.”

“Getting an early start for school?” His dad asks, in that teasing way that he has been all summer any time he mentions hanging out with April.

“Yep.” Casey answers, ignoring the teasing as always. He opens up the fire escape and pulls his heavier duty bag in from where he keeps it away from his dad’s snooping eyes – and his sister’s, for that matter. “Gotta make sure I pass senior year.”

“Aha.”

Dad doesn’t sound like he believes him, but frankly, that’s just fine. Casey closes the window and loads his bag across his body, telling his dad he’s going to a pre-season hockey practice and he’ll be back later.

The fact that he looks back at the building as he and Karai are leaving and sees his dad in the window watching him? Well that is the reason he stashes his weapons on the fire escape and prefers to travel by rooftops.

Chapter Text

After getting his gear and walking clear of his street Casey follows Karai’s lead towards the neighborhood where she and the guys patrolled last night. At first, it doesn’t feel as tense as the walk to his place did, but Casey quickly realizes that is because he spends the first couple minutes of the walk adjusting his bag and taking a mental inventory of everything in it. He has a few more smoke bombs, three hockey sticks, his slingshot, a container of greasepaint he is getting to the end of, his taser… does he have good batteries in the taser? He should, it hasn’t been flickering on him lately.

Once he gets through the list his mind doesn’t waste another second in diving headfirst back into the memories of this morning. Karai isn’t even looking at him; and he has no idea if it’s because she’s pissed he lost Justin, pissed he assumed she and him are – or would be, in time – friends, or if she’s just worried about their kid in hands of Tiger Claw and the Kraang.

He really doesn’t want his mind going down the road of that last reality.

“I’m sorry I lost him.” He finally breaks the silence, and he sees her eyes flicker wide, and he swears that while she keeps moving, she damn near stops breathing.

“You tried.” She tells him, “Tiger Claw is too strong.”

He frowns, and he wants to argue that he should’ve fought harder.

“I ran first.” He confesses. “He came down behind me, and he pointed that laser gun at me. I’ve fought him before but not without my gear, and I was holding Justin. Anyway, he caught up to me pretty quick and he grabbed me. It all happened so fast I-”

“Casey.”

“I kicked him. I got him in the face but he grabbed my leg and he took Justin, and he threw me down, and then when I tried to get up he kicked me in the chin-”

“Casey you-”

“And Justin was screaming! Like, you would think somebody would have heard but-”

“But what Casey?” She snaps, loud and violent enough that he finally realizes she’s been butting in for a minute now. “You think some docks worker would see a giant tiger with a jetpack at eight in the morning and step in?”

Well, maybe not directly.

She rolls her eyes, “This is what I’m talking about. If we’re supposed to be his parents we need to be able to keep him safe, and so far, Tiger Claw’s out for him and - against him - we’re 0 for 2.”

Let it be knowns that Casey has never been very good at math, but even he can do the simple figuring that her rescuing Justin from the Kraang and him losing him does not add up to “0 for 2”, and specifically not against Tiger Claw.

But, as stated, he has never been very good at math. That fact is the sole reason he doesn’t immediately ask her what she is talking about. Instead, he checks his math, and when it checks out he wonders what is she’s talking about and where did she pull “0 for 2” out of? And specifically against Tiger Claw?

Then, he remembers.

He wasn’t there, but he’s heard. He’s heard how she first got to the lair. How she went to Leo and told him she believed him when she didn’t. He’s heard how she led Tiger Claw to the doorstep, and then when she turned on him it didn’t take him long to get the upper hand in the fight. He knocked her out.

Worse than that, he brought her back to Shredder, and he locked her up.

“We’ll get him back.” He promises solemnly, and he wishes he could come up with more.

“We’ll get him back.”

It’s a hollow promise, though Karai doesn’t see the point in telling Casey that. He has to know it, and it’s not like she isn’t leading him directly to a Kraang warehouse to attempt to do exactly that. So, she ignores the odds of their mission succeeding and the reality that they will have to face some sort of aftermath.

On the bright side, it isn’t just Tiger Claw they’re facing. While that might not sound like much of a silver lining, there is one benefit to dealing with the Kraang.

They are predictably stupid.

One would think that after having their latest experiment interrupted and then abducted by a group of teenagers – for the hundredth time – an alien gang bent on carrying out secret world destruction plans would at least move their hideout. But, so far, the location seems as active as ever. Karai and Casey find the Kraang’s van parked outside the same warehouse she and the guys snuck into last night, with two Kraang in their skinsuits posted by both the main and side doors.

“They’re definitely in there.” Karai whispers as she and Casey peer out at the warehouse from behind another across the street.

She pulls back, Casey following her example.

“Come on.” She says, cocking her head towards the alley they came down. “We’ll loop around and sneak in through the back.”

“You don’t think they’ll have guards posted back there?”

“None we can’t handle.” Karai answers, already setting off the way they came.

Truthfully, she has no idea what they’ll have back there. There were no guards last night, but if Leo is right and this really is a trap it means the Kraang want them to walk into it.

In the end, it would seem either they’re trying to make the break in easy, or they really learned nothing from last night. There are no guards around back and she and Casey are able to get on the roof the same way she and the guys did last night, the busted skylight they used to get in and onto the rafters isn’t even tarped.

“Be careful.” Karai says once she notes that feature. “We might be walking into a trap.”

Casey nods at her, his face a hard frown, and she takes a step towards the skylight with every intention of slipping inside.

“Hey, Karai?”

She turns back, only to find Casey looking like he might be regretting having spoken.

“When we get him back.” He says, after a moment. “I… I’m sorry if I came off a little… I don’t know, earlier. But once we get him back, I don’t want to be just ‘stuck with each other.’ Do you think we could at least start over?”

He holds out his hand to her, and she looks at it, and ok, maybe she was a little harsh on him earlier because while they haven’t talked much… ever, that doesn’t mean that could never have changed without Justin.

Besides, that doesn’t matter anymore, they do have Justin now.

“We’ll talk later.” She says, taking her mask and clipping it into place. “Right now, let’s focus on saving Justin.”

Casey, taking his hand back, nods and his own mask falls into place with the motion.

All things considered, that apology went about as well as Casey thinks it probably could have. For one thing, she agreed to talk to him later, and that’s all he’s asking. Besides, she’s right, they need their heads in the game right now.

He follows her through the skylight and along the rafters. Once they’re inside it takes everything he has in him not to go diving down headfirst to the main floor. Really, the only thing which stops him is the fact that Karai doesn’t jump right down. Justin is every bit her kid as he is his, and considering she just got off probation for trying to take on Shredder on her own, he’s willing to bet her skills of detachment aren’t really all that better than his.

He steals a sidelong glance at her, and it confirms his theory. He can see it in her dangerously narrowed eyes that she wants to be down there. They’ve got Justin sat in this huge cage and guarded by two Kraang, who are complaining to each other and to Tiger Claw that Justin is crying too much.

“What’s the plan?” He whispers, and much as he hates the sound of Justin – of any innocent kid, really, but especially his – inconsolable in a cage, he’s grateful that it makes it too loud down below for anyone to hear him and Karai up here plotting.

“Two Kraang in here, and at least four outside, plus Tiger Claw.” She counts, “Distraction seems like the way to go. How many smoke bombs do you have?”

“Four.”

She nods, and looks out directly ahead to the other end of the warehouse.

“Can you shoot to those vents?” She asks, and he’s already pulling out a bomb and his slingshot.

“No problem.”

She crawls an inch closer to him as he draws his arm back, keeping herself out of his line of fire.

He shoots, and the bomb impacts with the opposite wall and explodes a puff of smoke underneath this big overhead vent shaft. The two of them don’t waste any time jumping down and taking out the Kraang guarding Justin’s cage. Casey can hear doors, and more footsteps, and it’s hard to miss the pink flashes of blaster fire as Karai busts the cage door in and grabs Justin, but man, the sense of relief that hits him when she comes out of the cage holding the kid… Casey doesn’t even care that he’s still crying.

Course, he doesn’t even get two full seconds to take it in before there are sharp claws and a strong paw on his shoulder, grabbing him and yanking him backwards.

He smacks face first against the concrete floor of the warehouse, and just as he is picking himself up the sound of Justin screaming hits his ears. He hears Karai shouting something, some form of a command that Tiger Claw back off. Casey scowls and tries to get up but then there is a lead weight on his back and his face is in the floor again.

“I don’t think so boy.” This smug, accented voice taunts him. Fishface.

Fantastic.

Picking up his head partway, Casey sees his bag and all its contents scattered out between him and Tiger Claw, who is holding Justin dangerously high about his head in one paw and Karai back with the other, and not to mention Rahzar looming behind her.

“Call your half-breed friend to join us.” Tiger Claw’s command is the first clear thing from that interaction which Casey hears. “And I won’t let go.”

He takes one finger off of Justin to emphasize his point, and Casey grunts and tries to get out from under Fishface’s foot, but the dense metal is only pressed harder onto his spine.

“You’re one to talk about half-breed!” He shouts, because what else is he supposed to do?

Not that, it turns out. Anything but that.

The words came from him, but Tiger Claw doesn’t look away from Karai for one second as he switches his hold on Justin from one paw, to a swivel of his wrist and suddenly he has one claw pierced through the material of the old t-shirt.

“NO!” Casey screams, because fuck, not only is Justin wailing even louder – did Tiger Claw scratch him in the pivot? – but the knot in that t-shirt isn’t going to hold. He’s slipping, and Casey is thrashing and bucking, but the harder he tries to get out from under Fishface and more he hears his own spine cracking, and the harder dug into the concrete floor he is.

For fractions of seconds, he manages to see Karai. Her eyes wide and terrified, the way her body jolts when Tiger Claw ups the stakes, but she remains frozen in her spot.

Then, despite his own thrashing and Justin’s screaming, he hears her quiet command.

“Take me.”

Everything seems to stop.

Justin’s wailing is the only sound; echoing throughout the warehouse as though it is the only thing keeping time moving. She said it so simply, like it was the obvious answer, and as she looks up at Tiger Claw she slowly brings her feet together, out of a fighting stance.

“That’s why you brought back up, isn’t it?” She asks, “You thought being the middle of the day, when Casey called April for help, she wouldn’t bring the turtles along. She would bring me.”

She looks behind her, to Rahzar, and then to Fishface, and as her eyes flit down to him Casey almost thinks he sees tears.

It’s hard to tell through his own.

“You two came to take me back to Shredder.” She looks back to Tiger Claw. “You can help the Kraang get April another day – you know you can.” She nods over in his direction. “Let him and the baby go.”

The feeling of not being able to breathe doesn’t go away for Casey once Fishface is off his back. He feels like he’s being pulled through a haze as he is yanked to his feet. He watches as Tiger Claw all but tosses Justin to Karai like a football.

“No tricks.” Tiger Claw instructs her, and she shakes her head.

“Leave him out of it.” She says, talking about Justin. “And Shredder can have me.”

Tiger Claw grunts, and the next thing Casey knows Karai is walking towards him. Justin is still screaming in her arms but he barely hears it. This can’t… They have to be able to fight their way out. They have to. He… His bag is too far, and his equipment is thrown all over the place. Can they just run? No, outrunning Tiger Claw doesn’t work, that’s how he got them into this mess in the first place.

The unshed tears in Karai’s eyes make him want to throw up as she drops Justin into his arms, her fingers lingering in a light grip on his toes for as long as she is stood before him.

“We’ll come for you.” He promises and when she shakes her head he really, really thinks he is about to do something stupid.

But, what good would that do?

“Tell him I love him?” She asks, her voice finally wavering, and swallowing down a wave of bile and tears of his own, Casey nods.

She gives him half a smile, and the next thing he knows he is being shoved aside by Fishface.

“Get out of here boy.” Fishface orders him, “Before we change our minds.”

It’s supposed to be a threat, but Casey wishes more than anything that they would do exactly that.

Chapter Text

Whether Justin has any concept or not as to what just happened, Casey has no idea.

The obvious answer is no, of course he doesn’t. He has no idea his mother just sacrificed herself for his safety. He has no idea that all she has thought about ever since they got him has been his safety. He might still not even know she is his mother, or what a mother is. Really, the question is, does Justin realize they’ve left her behind?

That part is hard to tell. He is still screaming and thrashing in Casey’s hold as Casey drags his legs out of the warehouse. It’s a miracle they don’t get hit by a truck as he trudges across the street, because by the time they get across he can’t remember if he looked both ways or not.

He leans his back against the side of the same building he and Karai had hid behind earlier. Immediately, he flinches away as pain shoots down his spine, but it’s frankly the last thing on his mind.

“Justin, Justin shut up. Shut up.” He finds himself whispering, frustrated, and adjusting his hold on the squirming baby over, and over, and over again. “Justin it’s ok. It’s ok.”

It isn’t ok. It is so very far from ok.

He sinks to the ground. First thing is first, he needs to make sure he isn’t fully lying to Justin about everything being ok. He needs to make sure Justin himself is at least ok.

He pulls the collar of the t-shirt aside to look down Justin’s back. He doesn’t see any evidence of Tiger Claw’s rough hold there, and the rest of the kid’s visible skin looks just as soft and unharmed as it was this morning. The diaper is soaked through, but at least it’s only pee. Another good point is that somewhere along the way of Casey’s poking around him Justin actually starts to calm down.

His crying turns to whimpers, and while it’s a relief Casey still tips his head against the brick wall behind him; this time completely ignoring the fiery pain in his back and his shoulders as everything crashes over him.

What the hell is he supposed to do?

The guys are going to beat him within an inch of his life, that much he’s confident in. In fact, Justin might be the only thing to keep them from killing him completely.

What is he supposed to do with Justin?

He knows… he knows April will help him out where she can, and so will the guys, if only because he’s Karai’s kid. His dad… Fuck, his dad might kick him out. Well, maybe not, he has no idea. That’s what his dad has always told him would happen if he ever got a girl pregnant, but here’s hoping he’ll change his mind when faced with a close enough reality.

An exact reality, as far as his dad is going to have to be concerned.

Fuck.

He inhales deep through his nose. Justin’s weight in is lap is getting more and more obvious by the second. He’s quiet now. He’s simply sitting here and waiting for Casey to get up and figure this out.

“Ok buddy.” He says, grunting in pain as he lifts Justin and wills himself to get to his feet.

Karai doesn’t say a word as she’s led into the Kraang’s van and cramped into the back with Bradford. Thankfully, Bradford doesn’t have much to say either. He’s never been the type to initiate conversation, especially not with her. Still, it’s obvious in the way he is staring at her that he has questions.

If he asks, she isn’t going to answer them.

It isn’t long before the van reaches Shredder’s lair. They have her wrists cuffed together, and so Tiger Claw grabs her by the arm and leads her out of the van and into the building.

The whole way up the stairs is eerily quiet, especially for these three. She would’ve expected them to be bickering over who is going to get the credit for bringing her in, or at the very least who is going to explain how they got her.

That’s going to be a fun conversation.

Bradford and Xever open the doors to the throne room. Shredder is sitting high on his pedestal; his face impassive as usual. Karai holds her breathe and keeps her expression much the same as Tiger Claw lead her to the base of the platform, and then kicks the backs of her knees harsher than what is necessary to get her to kneel.

She frowns at that.

Shredder stands, and she keeps her eyes trained downwards as he descends onto the catwalk.

“She traded herself for the child the Kraang were using as bait.” Tiger Claw informs Shredder. “She bargains that so long as the child is unharmed, she belongs to The Foot Clan.”

Every foot fall of Shredder’s sends a jolt through Karai’s heart. Her nostrils flare, and her hands curl into tighter and tighter fists. The closer that Shredder’s presence gets to her, the more the other three back off. She wonders – briefly – if he might be about to kill her. She doesn’t think so; for all his threats over the years she can’t see him taking her out here and now in cold blood; not when he could still find a use for her.

“Why?”

His demand is stone cold.

She doesn’t look up, and though she flinches, she isn’t surprised when he extends his gauntlet over her bowed head. She can feel the tip of his blade hovering over her neck, the sides of his two longer blades a breath away from her ears.

“I taught you better than to be a martyr, Karai.” He reminds her, “Or have you forgotten?”

She says nothing.

After stopping at the first corner store he could find for some diapers – and quickly discovering they don’t sell diapers, so then asking the clerk if she could point him to the nearest store that does – Casey drags himself and Justin back into the sewers. A dull jolt runs its way up his aching back as he dismounts off the ladder. He’s starting to think Fishface broke a part of his spine while he was holding him down, and wouldn’t that just be the cherry on top of everything?

At least Justin seems alright. The supermarket that clerk pointed him towards had a small clothing section, so in addition to the diapers Casey was able to find a rack of baby clothes and get something that actually fits Justin. He also grabbed a box of those applesauce pouch things, and thank God Justin was able to figure out holding and eating that on his own.

He went back for his bag, because no sense in losing all his stuff, and he stashes that and what’s left in the supermarket bag at the sewer entrance.

He still has no idea what he’s going to tell the guys.

How does he tell them he lost Karai? How is he supposed to tell them that not only did Tiger Claw come prepared to collect her for Shredder but, because of him, she had no choice but to hand herself over willingly? If he had just… If he had just done something. If he had been less of an idiot this morning, or fought harder, or fought smarter. Something. He should have done something.

He is still wracking his brain for what it is exactly that he should have done and what he is going to say, when he comes up on the lair’s entrance. Of course, all four of the guys and April are in the living area, and on alert. They’ve probably been waiting for him and Karai to either get back or call for help since the moment she left.

“Whoa, dude.” Mikey winces as he steps through the turnstiles. “What happened?”

Casey growls in return, both at the question as well as the answer he has to give. “Tiger Claw, Fishface, and The Kraang happened.”

“What?” Leo asks, standing, his eyes wide.

“Where’s Karai?” Raph all but growls, his hands very obviously resting over his Sai’s even though he is still sitting on the couch.

Casey huffs, and as April approaches him he unceremoniously passes Justin over to her.

He drops onto the couch. His hand raking over his face and everybody staring at him; he just has to say it.

“Tiger Claw had Justin.” He practically groans. “Fishface had me pinned. Karai… She gave herself up. Said The Foot could have her if they let Justin go.”

“What?!” It’s Raph’s shout that Casey hears first, and he realizes too late that he never should have handed Justin to April; he is very likely the only human shield Raph might respect.

Instead, Casey has nothing to protect him, and while the others are shouting at Raph he still gets the pointed tips of his Sais expertly – threateningly – skewered through the shreds left of his vest. There is enough fabric intact that Raph is able to lift him up, and Casey doesn’t have it in him to fight back or even to care anymore. He just cries out as Raph yanks him off the ground and shakes him.

His eyes are shut tight, his ears only registering his own head pounding along with a mix of scattered voices.

“Why would you let her do that Jones?!”

“Raph, put him down!”

“Raph! Look at him!”

“What I’m looking at is-”

“YA-ME!”

As if this couldn’t get any worse.

Casey whimpers when he bounces harshly onto the couch; Raph having dropped him like a ragdoll, but he supposes it’s better than being thrown.

He watches through blurry vision as Master Splinter strides into the room, looking over the scene he’s found with disappointment that is clear even to Casey.

“What is going on in here?” He demands, “Raphael?”

Casey gulps. He wasn’t ready to confess what happened, and now to have to hear it.

“Casey let Karai sacrifice herself to The Foot.” Raph sneers, and somehow it sounds the worst coming from him.

Splinter gasps, his expression changing from angry to stunned, and Casey knows it is only a matter of seconds before the anger comes back ten-fold. Not that he has ever known Master Splinter to really get angry to a level like that, but he won’t kid himself. After everything they’ve been through with Karai, this is the worst thing that could have happened.

Then, through some act of mercy, Splinter sighs.

“Casey did not let Miwa do anything.”

Casey blinks, or at least he thinks he does. The words his ears and – while he might not believe them – they feel like a permission to finally breathe. It’s the first time he breathes in what feels like hours, and the more he does it the more he is realizing how badly everything hurts, and things like blinking really aren’t registering.

“Tell us what happened.” Splinter more demands than asks, but Casey will gladly find the strength to comply if it keeps him from getting the snot beat out of him again.

With some effort, he pushes himself into a proper sitting position, and he starts to tell them. He starts with Tiger Claw’s first attack, and then him and Karai sneaking into the warehouse. The worst part is explaining to them the deal Karai made for Justin’s continued safety; the fact that even if they break into Shredder’s lair to rescue her, she won’t go with them.

“You could have been killed, Casey.” Splinter very seriously informs him, just as he accepts an ice-pack from Donnie with a wince.

“I’m noticing.” He remarks, Splinter frowning at him, and so he braces himself for a lecture while thinking he might actually prefer another beating.

“Sensei?” Leo asks, glancing up at Splinter. “Do you think Shredder will actually honor something like that?”

Casey didn’t think it was possible for Splinter’s frown to get deeper, but then again, he’s been wrong a lot today.

“If it keeps Miwa under his thumb, I believe he will honor it for a time.” He says darkly, his eyes setting on Justin, who is still in April’s lap but half flopped over her arm and reaching for Casey.

Casey manages a half smile at his son as he realizes he’s actually reaching for him, and despite the aching all over his body he takes him back from April and pulls him into his lap.

Splinter’s eyes track the movements, and Casey swallows because he swears he sees anger on his face… but it doesn’t seem directed at him.

“However,” Splinter continues, “We will not be waiting to find out when Saki will lose interest in keeping his word.”

Donnie, having been more preoccupied with side-eyeing Casey ever since he returned with the ice pack, finally speaks up next.

“What do you mean Sensei?”

The way Splinter’s eyes narrow, it’s enough to make Casey’s blood run cold.

“I mean it is time we took down the Shredder once and for all.”

Chapter Text

This day is very quickly giving Leo a sense of déjà vu.

This isn’t the first time they’ve lost Karai, or the second, it isn’t even really the third time or the fourth time if you’re counting every single time they almost got her to come home and then she slipped away. Frankly, Leo feels like he has lived this day enough times before that all he can bring himself to feel is a dull disappointment.

He never should have let her go.

They both knew she and Casey couldn’t take on Tiger Claw all on their own. He supposes the hope was they could take down the Kraang fast enough that they could combine their efforts on Tiger Claw, and even then, getting out unharmed wasn’t in the cards.

That’s exactly how things went for Casey, and every time Leo looks at him his stomach twists and scenarios of Karai lying in Shredder’s dungeon just as beat up play through his mind.

She’s far more trained than Casey is, and Casey did take Tiger Claw on solo before they got to the warehouse, and then he had the added bonus of Fishface holding him down. Leo hates to hope that all means he took the worst of it but, well, it makes it easier to trust Karai is alive over at Shredder’s headquarters.

Speaking of Casey - after April took charge of Justin for a while so that he could collapse – Leo is following him back to the manhole cover he came through to grab his gear and some stuff for Justin he apparently left there.

“I don’t know if you guys want his stuff.” It’s the first thing Casey’s said practically since he explained to them what happened, and they’ve been walking for at least five minutes. “It’s just some diapers and some applesauce. I don’t know if you want anything for him… you know, if you want him around at all.”

Leo has an answer on the tip of his tongue. Honest, he does. Of course they want Justin around. It… Maybe they’re not equipped to be babysitters, but they’ve handled way harder things, right? Besides, they are going to get Karai back. She’ll kick all their behinds if she comes home and finds out they haven’t started ninja training her toddler in her absence.

But none of that seems to be able to make it past his lips.

He thinks he knows what way Karai was leaning in regards of what to do with Justin; and it’s the opposite of the direction she kept pitching. He knows he didn’t imagine it – the way she looked like she was about to cry - last night when he was taking Justin with him out of the dojo and they passed each other. When she reached for Justin he had really thought she was going to take him, and when she’d nudged him away Leo could swear he could see her physically grabbing her emotional walls and dragging them up.

But this isn’t exactly something he wants to run the risk on being wrong.

“Did you two talk?” He decides to ask, “I mean… it sounds like you’re keeping him.”

Casey looks him in the eye, his bruised face stony and serious.

“I am.” He says, “We kind of talked, I guess. We said we’d start over, but I already told her I want to keep him, and when she gave herself up she… She talked like she was counting on that.”

There’s something he isn’t telling him; Leo is well aware of that. He files the suspicion away for later but, for now, he isn’t going to press the issue.

He’s still thinking a little bit about it when he spots the familiar lump of Casey’s bag sticking out from behind a concrete pillar. As they draw closer Leo also sees the grocery bag Casey had mentioned. It’s every bit as beat up as he and his gear are; with the opened box of diapers half falling out of it, and the two of them frown when they see the damp puddle of sewer runoff seeping into the cardboard.

“Guess we’ll have to ask Sensei how he ever handled baby supplies.” Leo jokes… well, attempts to joke. It’s obvious by the way Casey tips his head back that his dry humor isn’t exactly appreciated at the moment.

“About that,” Casey groans, his head still tilted back, and his eyes shut so tight Leo can’t help but to wonder how much of it is from stress and how much is from pain.

When Casey finally rolls his head to the side, he knows it’s a mix of both, with stress only slightly dominant.

“I have to tell my Dad something to explain this.”

Karai isn’t too proud to admit that she cries.

It’s only once she is left alone, in her old cell in the basement of Shredder’s headquarters, and she isn’t even too proud to admit that that was the plan. As soon as she realized there was only one way for all three of them to make it out of that warehouse alive and relatively unharmed, she accepted that the only way she could live with the consequence, would be to let herself cry over them a bit.

Even if she is crying more than she expected to when she first started.

Soon as the iron bar door was closed and Shredder’s hulking footsteps had all but echoed away up the stairs, she had sat herself with her back against the wall and her knees drawn to her chest, and she had let a few tears escape her.

She finally let the lifetime that was the past twenty-four hours playback through her mind. She took herself back to last night and let herself remember crouching in front of that poor, terrified baby. Her poor, terrified baby. Now that the decision of what to do with him is firmly out of her control, she lets the reality crash into her full force. She has a son.

She has a son whom she held and soothed while blood was drawn from him. She has a son who she watched sleep all night, and she concerned herself with his development in the morning. She has a son who – through some miracle of coincidence – has a father who actually was already part of mutants, and Kraang and ninja conspiracy. His father is someone she was actually able to talk to and, through some even bigger miracle, knows everything he knows and still manages to be a little idealistic. Casey won’t drive Justin hours out of the city and leave him on the front door to a fire station. For better or for worse, Justin won’t grow up calling some other set of people “mom” and “dad”.

 So, as it hits her that she very well might be stuck here indefinitely and that her son might grow into an actual child in that time - that he might grow up aware of where she is - Karai covers her mouth and her shoulders shake with real tears.

She isn’t naïve. She knows she might get to see him, and it won’t be on her terms. Sooner or later, Shredder will want to test exactly how much weight her word carries. Justin is off the table, but the turtles and Splinter aren’t. April and Casey aren’t. Sooner or later, he will give her a mission, and he will want someone’s head on a platter.

And she will bring it.

Casey honestly has no idea how this is going.

After talking it out with first Leo, then Splinter, and then the rest of the guys and April – none of whom were thrilled to hear him asking to tell his family about their existences, but also nobody could come up with a better idea – he’s pretty sure he would rather jump headfirst off the fire escape than keep sitting here.

Leo’s doing most of the talking now. Between the whole group of them, they figured if he needs to tell his family about the four mutant turtles he hangs out with, he might as well bring one of them along to keep from being called a liar.

So, it’s been about a half hour now that he’s been sitting here on the couch in his living room with his dad on one side of him and Leo on the other. They’ve gotten through the story of the kid he walked in holding and last night, and Karai, and where Karai is now, and why he looks like he did fall headfirst off a fire escape.

Yeah, it’s been a night.

He’s trying to distract himself from the conversation now; which is mostly Leo giving his dad a longer explanation as to the existence of mutants. He isn’t exactly needed for this part, and besides, he doesn’t have to look far for the perfect distraction.

He’s watching his little sister, Angel, sitting on the other side of the coffee table with Justin pulled into her lap and flipping the pages of an old picture book back and forth.

“So,” his dad’s voice half-registers in his ear, “You kids have been fighting this “Foot Clan” and these “aliens” for two years now?”

Casey swallow, more than aware of his dad’s eyes on him without having to look. But he does look, and his dad is sitting as impassive as he has through this whole thing, and Leo is looking between them before he finally stammers.

“Uh… More or less.” Leo answers, “It’s almost been two years for my brothers and I, but we only met Casey a few months ago.”

Casey sighs, rolling his eyes as he sinks back into the couch. He appreciates Leo trying to cushion the blow for him, but his dad is a smart guy. He isn’t going to ask Leo how it was that Casey got involved with helping them in the first place.

His dad gives him a look that confirms exactly that, and a promise that the two of them are going to talking about it later.

“And your sister?” His dad asks Leo instead, “You said this “Shredder” locked her in a basement somewhere? And he’ll send a um, a mutant assassin…”

Dad trails off, nodding over to Justin rather than saying it out loud, for the sake of Angel sitting right there and definitely getting attached.

Casey’s heart sinks through his chest like a rock, even as he appreciates Dad’s tact. But what if that’s a warning all its own? What if an ultimatum is coming? What if Dad decides Justin is too much of a liability and so he tells him he has to get rid of him or get out?

He finds himself blinking back tears, because the answer isn’t even a debate in his mind.

If it comes to that, he’ll go.

“Yeah.” He manages to answer, his voice a crack. He clears his throat to try and hide it, and Leo’s been listening to him in all his roughed-up glory all day, but he still looks surprised.

Dad does too, and so Casey straightens up where he’s sitting and then pivots so that he can look past Leo easier and meet Dad’s eyes.

“We’re gonna get her out of there.”

It’s a promise, and with his mouth pressed in a firm line Casey can practically see Dad mentally adding to the list of things they will be talking about later, before he looks back to Leo.

“You’re sure you don’t want to call the police?” He asks, “I understand why that might not be easy for you and your brothers, but if this man really does have Karai locked in a basement-”

“No,” Leo answers, much slower than Casey would have expected. “Thank you. We did think of that, but Shredder has contacts everywhere. It’s too risky. He could get a heads up and disappear with her before anyone got to his hideout.”

Dad grunts, and that’s definitely the best they’re going to get.

Leo seems to get that, because he looks between the two of them and the longer the quiet draws out, the twitchier he seems to get.

“I should get going.” He says, getting to his feet. He looks over at Angel and Justin, and then back to Casey like he wants to ask about when he’ll be back in the lair, but he doesn’t want to push.

Casey nods, he’ll text him and the others later. After he and Dad have really had it out and he knows how long he’s grounded for, and to what extent.

Leo ruffles Justin’s hair on his way out through the window, and once he’s gone and it’s just the four of them Casey feels like it’s suddenly too hard to breathe. He doesn’t think it’s just him, either. Dad is quiet, even Angel has stopped reading under her breath, and the only sound is that of Justin grunting in her lap.

He seems pretty done with the book. He’s looking around like he’s looking to see what kind of trouble he can get into now, and Casey is just about to get up and take him when his Dad beats him to the punch and gets to his feet.

“Why don’t you take him into your room for now, Angel?” He suggests, though all three of them know it’s more of an order than a suggestion. “You’ve got plenty of toys in there. If he gets fussy just come on out and get us.”

Angel looks to him first, whish frankly is the biggest vote of confidence Casey thinks he could have gotten. He nods to her, and then she quietly looks around herself before she ends up helping Justin slide from her lap and then she gets up, and bends back down to pick him up.

“You got him?” Casey asks, on his feet, because his sister clearly does not have the kid.

“Yeah.” She insists, even if she’s wrong. Well, she’s kind of got him. She does manage to balance him on her hip but she’s leaning herself pretty far to one side.

She takes him with her to her room, and Justin whirls his head to watch as the living room disappears over her shoulder but he doesn’t start fussing, and soon Casey is alone in the living room with his dad, waiting for the hammer to drop.

Dad looks at him for a long, long time. Long enough that he is squirming on his feet, and he keeps wishing he could just bolt down the hall to Angel’s room, grab Justin, and then into his room where he could lock them both inside.

Finally, Dad sighs, and Casey gives up on waiting.

“Am I grounded?” He asks straight out, and scrubbing a hand over his face, Dad reclaims his seat on the couch.

So, Casey does the same.

“You’re not grounded.” Dad says, “We’re gonna talk about you hunting monsters, but you look like you’ve taken all the trouble you can for today.”

Casey looks down at himself. His clothes are still torn, and he’s still finding new bruises every time he looks himself over.

“You sure you’re up for this, kid?” Dad asks, and Casey frowns.

“Not up for turning away.”

Dad doesn’t smile, but he doesn’t exactly frown either. He sighs, and he wraps an arm around Casey’s shoulders, and for the first time today, Casey feels as though he can breathe.

Chapter Text

As Leo has learned to be the case for their lives since the day they turned fifteen, time passes, and they learn to adjust to a new normal.

The fact that Casey asked if they’d want Justin coming around isn’t something they talk about again. Of course they want him around. He’s one of their own.

Besides, what else is Casey supposed to do with him during school?

As far as child care systems go, Justin staying at the lair while Casey is at school works the best for all involved. It’s a massive weight off Casey’s shoulders, and besides that, having him around during the daytime allows them to have their time with Justin without worrying about it interfering with patrols.

They fall into a routine pretty easily, if Leo does say so himself. Casey drops Justin off at some point before school when Raph and Splinter are the only two awake. One of them feeds him breakfast and then plays with him in the living room until Mikey hears the voices and goes running to take over. Leo usually has his breakfast before then taking over for Mikey, and playing with Justin has easily become his favorite part of the morning. He’s an active kid, even if Donnie keeps reminding them all that there is more he should be able to do. He’s gotten the hang of crawling and once they established that he would be sticking around, Splinter dug out the baby toys he’d hung onto from the four of them.

“What made you keep these, Sensei?” Leo asks one morning, as Justin hands him a worn but very-much intact stuffed dinosaur he’d pulled from the small pile of toys which has taken up residence at the side of the television.

Splinter chuckles from his seat on the couch, and when Justin begins crawling for the pile to select another toy he holds his hand out, so Leo hands him the dinosaur.

“Survival, I suppose.” He muses, his thumb stroking the unruined face of the plush. “Life down here was so new to me when you boys were young, I never knew what might become a useful tool.”

Leo glances around the living room, his eyes scanning over certain cobbled details of their home which he’s always known but hasn’t much noticed since the day they went up. Things such as shoelaces securing overhead lights, or the various uses of tires as seating, storage, and the occasional safety barrier.

Speaking of safety barriers, as he looks back to Justin now starting to scope out the edges of the TV stand, Leo makes a mental note that they’re going to need to introduce some more of those.

For now, however, it’s getting closer to eleven and they’re going to need Justin to go down for his nap soon so they can start training on time.

“Come on buddy.” Leo says getting up and approaching his nephew. “Why don’t we go get a snack?”

Justin smiles widely at him as he picks him up, a bit over-enthusiastically. Leo chuckles and tips Justin back, laughing in unison as he dangles him almost upside-down. He brings him back up pretty easy, then tips him again, and after a third round of that he adjusts his hold so that Justin is lying stomach down along one of his forearms, his other hand holding securely on his nephew’s chest. Leo hums a helicopter sound effect as he walks into the kitchen, and places Justin down on one of the two real chairs they have; specifically, the one they have stacked with old books to serve as a booster seat and Donnie has rigged up a rope harness along the back.

He ties Justin into the harness and opens up the cabinet. As luck would have it, the snack preferences of a one-year-old aren’t all that different from that of teenagers; or at the very least, Mikey. They’ve found Justin loves the little fish shaped crackers Mikey has always insisted on finding ways to get, and so when Leo pulls out the bag Justin starts gurgling happily at the sight.

“Crackers.” He chuckles, setting a handful in front of his nephew. “Crackers.”

He isn’t sure if Justin is actually picking up any words like this, but it’s part of Donnie’s plan to catch him up to his age group, and it’s easy enough. Tell him what things are as you give them to him, and work on asking for more where it’s applicable.

Leo pulls up a barstool and eats a few crackers out of the bag himself. In front of him, Justin alternates between eating his portion of the snack, and smashing it.

“No Justin.” Leo says when the baby crumples another cracker into dust.

Justin looks at him curiously, as if they don’t go through this every day.

Leo would be frustrated with it, but he has noticed that there are fewer casualties every time.

“No.” He repeats, shaking his head. “You eat the crackers.”

For emphasis, he pulls another cracker out of the bag, shows it to Justin, and then eats it.

“Eat.”

Justin keeps looking at him, his golden eyes bewildered, his little brow furrowed, and Leo chuckles. He looks so much like Karai when she’s confused, and unsure of what to do with that confusion.

Eventually, with about half of his snack having made it to his mouth, Justin starts to rub at his eyes and Leo smiles softly.

“Good timing buddy.” He says, glancing to the clock.

They still have enough time that he doesn’t have to rush getting Justin down, but better to get an early start than a late one. Leo undoes the make-shift high-chair and picks Justin up. He brings him to Karai’s room, which as much as they all felt they shouldn’t be going in there while she isn’t here, they also needed a safe and quiet space for Justin to sleep here in the lair. Besides, they have to operate with the mindset that they will get her back. It’s going to be another adjustment for them all; including Justin. They should do what they can to make that easier, and that means keeping Justin familiar with Karai’s space.

They’ve made a few small, necessary, changes to the room. It’s a little more cramped now, with the mattress edge brushing the curtain door because it’s been moved a few inches to make way for the trunk Donnie dragged in against the far wall to serve as a crib. He’s bolted the trunk in by the side and taken off the lid, and they’ve fitted it with padding and thin blankets.

Justin grunts against Leo’s chest, and then nearly tips himself over his arm trying to get to the bed.

“Ok, ok.” Leo chuckles, setting Justin onto Karai’s bed and then sitting down himself.

Justin crawls around the mattress, his hand snatching up Leo’s own Captain Ryan action figure which found its way in here at some point.

“Maybe we don’t take a nap with that one.” Leo suggests, images of Justin falling asleep with the hard plastic and somehow hurting himself in the process flashing through his mind. “I am not explaining a black eye during naptime to your dad, and it’ll be my fault so of course someone will tell your mom as soon as she gets back.”

If Justin has any idea who or what he is talking about, he doesn’t show it. He is more than content sticking Captain Ryan’s arm into his mouth.

Leo sighs, and scours around the bed for some other, softer, and preferably not his, toy which might be lying around. Of course he has no luck, so he peers into the trunk-turned-crib, and while he doesn’t find a toy he does spot a photograph.

It’s a picture of Karai. It’s one Mikey snuck of her while they were setting up the bedroom. She’s scowling at him, tools and a step ladder to reach the overhead light occupying both her hands. Leo is in the background sitting right where he is now, half-helping her move in and half soaking in the fact that she was there. She pushed Mikey immediately after he took the picture.

It’s bittersweet now, looking at it. It’s torn and creased a bit where Justin has gotten ahold of it, but that’s the whole reason they went through the trouble of getting it printed to begin with.

“Hey, Justin.” Leo whispers, pulling Justin into his lap, action figure in his mouth and all. “That’s Mama, ok?” He asks, pointing with one finger to Karai. “That’s your mama.”

Justin hums, and he finally drops the action figure in favor of grabbing the photograph. Leo sighs as he hides the action figure behind himself, and presses a kiss to Justin’s head as his nephew settles tiredly against his chest.

“Mama’s coming back soon.” He promises, both Justin, as well as himself.

Let the record show that Xever has never been a fan of Karai.

He doesn’t think that needs stating. She is full of herself, smart-mouthed, and he would partner with Bradford over her any day. That said, he also doesn’t think it needs stating that while he has never been her biggest fan, he has also never hated her in the extremes which Tiger Claw has.

Oh, Tiger Claw hates her. He hates her so much that, honestly, it’s a little ridiculous in Xever’s opinion. Shredder might talk up the reputation and glory of The Foot as a “Ninja Clan” - even a crippled one - but Xever grew up in street gangs. Karai is no different from any other kingpin’s daughter being groomed for succession. In fact, as far as successors go, she isn’t the worst he’s ever seen. Karai, at least, is competent. As infuriating as she is, she delivers on her promises. One would think that as a mercenary, Tiger Claw wouldn’t be so attached to this place and could see that for what it is.

Xever sighs to himself as he descends into the dungeon with the food he’s been tasked with delivering. Why cares enough to think about any of this is a mystery to him, and the only answer he’s been able to come up with is pity.

As stated, he has never been Karai’s biggest fan, but in light of everything that’s happened in the past year… He feels it’s justified to pity her.

“Tell him I love him?”

Xever frowns at the memory which has been haunting him.

He nods to the footbots posted outside the dungeon door, and then he lets himself in.

Karai is sat there as she has been for weeks now. He’s sure she hears them coming and shifts into position; her back to the iron bars of her cell and her head bent down between her knees. He’s noticed in the past couple days that her hair has started to grow out, slowly becoming long enough to form yet another barricade between her and them.

He says nothing as he opens the meal slot in the door and replaces her untouched breakfast tray with this new one for lunch. Shredder has stopped coming down here himself, stopped wasting his breath commanding she eat. She will eat, they’ve learned, just enough to keep herself alive. Every other day, when he comes in the morning to collect her tray from dinner the night before, some of the rice and the bowl of soup will be gone, but that is all.

He sets the old tray aside. He should go now, he normally does. He hasn’t wasted his time talking to her yet.

Instead, today he reaches back and closes the heavy door to the outside hall, cutting off any sound from reaching the footbots.

“The boy is yours, is he not?”

No answer, not that he expected one.

“I am not wearing a wire.” He scoffs to her. “I can always ask The Kraang for his records, and get Stockman to run the DNA test.”

That spurs her, finally. She picks her head up and twists her body, her tired eyes wide as they take him in.

He hums, holding her hollow gaze which holds all the answers to his questions.

“Do the others…” She starts to ask, but her voice is such a rasp that she cuts herself off coughing.

“We don’t talk about it.” He says, “If I had to guess, I would think they believe this is part of some plan to take down The Foot.”

She seems assured by that, her body settling as she finishes coughing. Xever tells himself he doesn’t care. He doesn’t. Why should he?

“The Jones boy… He was alone with the child when Tiger Claw found them. He accompanied you to the warehouse alone. Is he the father?”

Maybe he’s just bored and wants the gossip.

She blinks at him, and runs her hand through the snarly growth of her hair. Xever waits. He watches as her eyes look out to the stone wall distantly, like she is looking for a story to get him off her back.

After a moment he realizes she isn’t going to answer. It doesn’t matter much, which is a fact he would wager she knows.

She could lie to him, sure, but what good would it do? He can go and find out the truth if he wants. Therefore, any lies she tells him will only make things worse for herself.

He turns to go, and she coughs twice more before, so he pauses before he opens the door.

“Are you going to tell Shredder?”

He should, knows that.

All the same, he glances at her over his shoulder.

“I haven’t yet.”

Chapter Text

Karai has known ever since she was a little girl that she can – at times – be too stubborn for her own good.

She’s had to take a lot of stock of her life in the past year, and yet this fact has remained true. Overwhelmingly true, even. First, she was too stubborn to believe Leo and his brothers about Splinter being her father. Even after Splinter froze up fighting her, after she interjected their fight against Tiger Claw with an anonymous rock because she could admit - to herself – that she was sure Leo was lying but if it somehow turned out he wasn’t, she was going to regret not stepping in. Even after she eavesdropped and overheard April confirm the fact that Splinter is her father, she still dug her heels into the life she knew to the point that she went down to the lair wearing a bug.

Not her finest moment.

Then, after the truth came out, she held even harder onto her newfound vendetta against Shredder. She nearly got herself killed, ferally mutated, and not even to mention re-kidnapped; twice.

Three times now, but she isn’t lumping this one into the same category.

Anyway, after Xever’s little chat with her, she lays down on the floor and lets it wash over her that this has become another one of her stubborn-born messes, and she needs to pull her head out of her ass.

If not for her own sake, then for her family’s.

If Xever has figured it out that means any other member of The Foot could as well. Especially given their relationship with the Kraang. It would be incredibly easy for any one of them to go to The Kraang and ask for their files on Justin, and The Kraang would have no reason to not comply. Even if threats aren’t involved, The Kraang shouldn’t have much use for Justin now. Why would they care about The Foot’s interest in him? Then, just as Xever said, it would only take a little digging from Stockman and the truth would be out among The Foot.

But if he’s telling the truth, at the moment, he is the only one with any suspicions.

That’s still dangerous. He might not have told Shredder yet, but Karai is very familiar with the concept of leverage. Soon as Xever finds something he would need from her, he has something to dangle over her now.

One problem at a time.

For now, she needs to focus on doing everything she can to keep the rest of The Foot Clan in the dark.

So, if they think her sacrifice is step one in some elaborate ploy to take them down, she can work with that.

She sits up and pulls over the tray Xever had brought. Shredder has been sending down portions of rice, miso soup, and charred fish for her and, finally, she grabs the fish.

When Casey pulls his bike up in front of Murakami’s the blinds are already dropped, even though it’s only a few minutes past closing, which can only mean one thing.

Smirking, he walks his bike to the back with him and leaves it in the spot by the door where over the last few weeks it has slowly but surely started to leave a rut in the old gravel. He’s been running deliveries for Mr. Murakami, and while he was a little weary about the job at first – unsure if the old man actually needed a delivery kid, or if he was just pitying him when he heard about Justin – it’s turned out to be a good arrangement for everyone. He can make some money; which he needs now more than ever. Mr. Murakami is able to boost his sales a little by offering delivery and, best of all, finding someone to watch Justin is a heck of a lot less stressful when he has a boss who is caught up on the whole situation.

“I’m back.” He calls, entering the dining room from the kitchen.

All four of the turtles are sitting at the counter, along with April with Justin her lap.

Speaking of Justin, he looks up as Casey walks in and this big, drooly smile spreads across his face. Casey grins in return, April laughing as she hands him over.

“He ate all his dinner.” She reports to him, “Plus one of my spring rolls.”

“You ate Auntie April’s spring roll?” He fakes gasps, holding Justin up over his head and then bringing him down, blowing a raspberry into the side of his neck.

Justin giggles loudly, swatting at him and then continuing to grin happily while Casey adjusts to hold him better at his side, in a much more practical way for him to talk to the others.

“I also gave him a new diaper about an hour ago.” April reports, “He was just wet, no poop.”

“Course not.” Casey scoffs with a teasing grin. “He saves his worst stuff for me.”

April chuckles while he sits down, Justin now in his lap and reaching onto the counter with curious hands lightly smacking on the surface.

Casey smiles at him a moment, and then he turns to the guys.

“You guys just finish patrol?”

“Yeah,” Leo answers around a mouthful of gyoza. “Quiet night.”

Casey nods, unsurprised. He hasn’t been on patrol at all in the past few weeks, but from what they’ve been telling him, he hasn’t missed anything. They’re all aware that can’t be a good sign. The Kraang, at least, the longer they stay off the radar, the bigger the bang they make when they come back.

As for The Foot… They haven’t talked about The Foot.

They haven’t seen them. Casey figures they have to be focusing their efforts on helping The Kraang with whatever big, world ending project they have in the works. It’s either that, or he can only assume they’re torturing Karai and she hasn’t given out yet.

No reason they can’t do both.

He tries to tune back into the conversation, which has turned to Donnie excitedly rambling about a big breakthrough he made earlier today with his latest invention.

“The wiring itself is almost done.” Donnie says, “I’m just working on a way to tap into the city’s power grid without, you know, setting the whole thing on fire.”

Next to him Raph cuts him a slightly concerned glare. “Your invention or the city?”

“Both.” Donnie sheepishly answers, and next to him Leo gives him that worried side-eye of his.

“I don’t know Donnie.” He says, “I’m starting to think this one might be a little too dangerous.”

“It’ll be fine Leo.” Donnie waves him off, “Besides, I’m not designing it to be something we use all the time. It’s more of a ‘desperate times call for desperate measures’ type of weapon.”

Leo grimaces, but the argument ends there. The six of them keep making small talk and catching up, with Mr. Murakami even joining the conversation in places such as Mikey raving about other foods he could try stuffing into gyozas.

Slowly, Casey becomes more and more aware of Justin nodding off in his lap. He knows he needs to get home before the kid conks out completely; he still needs to give him a bath and change him again before getting him to bed. Justin’s pretty easy-going, but that doesn’t mean Casey wants to do his night routine after waking him from a heavy sleep if he can avoid it.

So, he waits for a lull in the conversation, and then he gets up.

“I’ll see you guys later.” He says, and he looks down to April before he goes. “Thanks again for watching him.”

“Anytime.”

She means it, and he knows she does. Still, he hates that she has to sit out patrol to babysit for him. But, in all honesty, it’s another arrangement that is best for all involved. April likes being on patrol, sure, and the guys like having her when they do, but she’s still The Kraang’s primary target. It’s safer for her if she stays behind; especially when they’re really worrying The Kraang have something big planned.

He says goodbye to everyone and they all say goodbye to him, and then he leaves with Justin out the back door to make the walk back home.

“Hey Casey, wait up.”

He turns when he hears Leo calling after him. He stops, his brow furrowed as Leo approaches.

“What’s up?” He asks, and there is something about the firm set of Leo’s mouth that he doesn’t know what to do with it… But he knows this is something important.

“Sensei wants you to come by the lair tomorrow.”

Casey blinks. Tomorrow is Saturday, and it isn’t like that means he won’t be heading down there – because he probably will – but it isn’t a day he usually has to. He doesn’t have school and he doesn’t work until night, and his dad has been around the last couple of Saturday night’s so he’s been watching Justin.

“Did he say why?” Casey manages to ask, not that it really matters, because he sure isn’t going to say no.

“Yeah, you’re not in trouble or anything like that. He just wants to talk to you.”

That doesn’t sound like he isn’t in trouble.

He can tell Leo knows more, but it isn’t his place to say. Casey hates that he has to accept that, but he has a kid falling deeper into sleep by the second, so he doesn’t really have a choice.

“Ok, I’ll be by in the morning.” He agrees, and with a placating smile Leo nods, and then heads back into the restaurant.

Casey huffs once he’s gone, and on the walk home he tries to think of what he’s done that Master Splinter could possibly want to talk to him about.

It’s runaway freight train of thought.

At first, it’s easy to tell himself Leo knows what’s happening and so if he says he isn’t in trouble, than he should believe him. It’s easy to remind himself that Master Splinter defended him when he slunk back into the lair without Karai that day. He didn’t have the full story yet, and he defended him. Besides, Splinter has been nothing but welcoming of him and of Justin in the past few weeks. He won’t take that away. He wouldn’t. He wouldn’t just decide he doesn’t want him or Justin around anyone, and call him down to tell him that in person. He wouldn’t… He wouldn’t…

Would he?

No, he wouldn’t. But, if Casey is being honest with himself, somewhere inside of him he has been waiting for that rejection.

Splinter might say he didn’t let Karai do anything. That there was nothing he could have done, and maybe that is all technically true. But it’s been weeks and Casey hasn’t been able to convince himself of it.

No matter what they say, no matter how many different scenarios Casey tries to run in his mind that all end in a worse way than how reality went down, he still feels like he was the one who lost Karai. If he had just stayed in the lair while she cooled off, or better yet, if he hadn’t opened his stupid mouth in the first place, she might still be here.

So he can’t help but fear that maybe Splinter has finally figured that out, and wants him to tell him so to his face.

Surprisingly, Karai finds herself better able to sleep in Shredder’s dungeon this time around as opposed to last.

Maybe it’s due to having lived in the sewers for two months now. The dark, slightly damp, lair took far less time than she would have thought to feel like a home. That first night she had all but collapsed on the couch from exhaustion - once she had finally been left alone, of course. Every night after, the place simply seemed to exude this feeling of safety.

Of course, Shredder’s cell is anything but safe. The looming fear that he could come down here at any moment and interrogate her, or worse, put her to work, is always present. But the cell itself is dark concrete and it’s underground. It’s colder than the lair but if she closes her eyes she can hear the sounds of dripping water far off in the distance, and then she doesn’t feel so far away from her family.

She’s just drifting off to sleep when she hears the creaking opening of a heavy metal door somewhere down the hall. Her eyes snap open, her ears tracking the sounds of footsteps clunking closer and closer. She’s sure they’re coming for her; the question is who.

She rolls her eyes when the footsteps get close enough for her to hear the faint hydraulic whir accompanying them.

Soon, her door swings open, and in walks Xever.

She doesn’t get up. She rolls onto her back, pillowing her head on her arms, and she waits a minute after he has closed the door and kept her in suspense before she speaks.

“If you want me to believe you aren’t wearing a wire, maybe stick to your schedule.”

He scoffs at her, “Where would I hide a wire?”

“Right up your water tubes?”

He growls, but he steps closer and even turns in a circle, letting her see for herself that he’s come with nothing attached to his tubes, and hiding one inside would be useless; all it would pick up would be sounds of flowing water.

Ok, she’ll bite.

She sits up. She moves to lean against the back wall, with her knees casually up and her arms wrapped loose around them.

“So what are you doing here?”

He hums, uncomfortably, like he is scrounging for an answer to that question.

She raises her eyebrow.

Her and Xever have never been friends. Honestly, she’s never known much about him. Shredder hired him on a solo trip he made before they officially moved The Foot to New York. By the time Karai even met Xever he was Bradford’s partner. She’s never known him outside of that, and she’s never cared to. The only thing which ever stood out to her about him – pre-mutation – was that he is closer in age to her than he is to either Bradford or Shredder. Such a fact never meant anything to her before. Only that, if she were to ever want to try and get to know Shredder’s hired hands, he would be where she would start.

Now, she wonders, if maybe that shoe is on the other foot.

“I’m waiting for Tiger Claw.” He finally answers her, “He should be back soon from a meeting with The Kraang and Stockman regarding a project.”

She continues to watch him, her fist clenching ever so slightly, and he scoffs when he catches it.

“Nothing regarding your baby.” He assures her, his tone dismissive enough that she believes him. “A plan of attack.”

“On the turtles?”

He doesn’t answer.

She won’t push, she knows better than that.

“So you’re bugging me to kill time?” She asks, and that seems to relax him. It puts him back on track and away from the razor’s edge towards mutiny he is walking, as well as gives him an excuse to be in here other than his own curiosity.

He shrugs, folding his arms and leaning against the wall.

“Did you name the boy?” He asks after a moment.

“What do you care?” She snaps, glowering at him.

“So I keep asking myself.” He mutters, annoyed and under his breath, before he glowers right back at her. “Let me put it this way. You aren’t exactly someone I would imagine to be a mother; yet within twenty-four hours of having this child dropped into your lap, you sacrificed your freedom for him.”

Karai frowns, torn as to whether or not that was an answer, and whether or not she should point out that it’s more of an insult than anything.

“I’m not telling you his name.” She all but growls, and for as curious as he is, he seems unbothered by that.

“You know, eventually, Shredder will pit you against the turtles.”

She nods, and he scoffs at her.

“If you don’t do as he asks-”

“I will.”

He blinks, seemingly more perturbed by her commitment to her word than her otherwise reluctance to tell him anything.

“You’d fight them?” He asks, “And the rat?”

She raises her chin, silently daring him to continue questioning her.

“They know what I have at stake.” She answers him simply. “They’ll understand.”

Chapter Text

Justin smells. Specifically, he smells like he has a pile of shit sitting in his diaper. Casey knows it’s something he’ll have to deal with as soon as they get to the lair, and for once that is a welcome distraction from the other things on his mind.

He’d wracked his brain all night, playing out scenario after scenario of what Splinter might want. The best he’s got is Splinter and Leo have come up with a plan to take out The Foot and get Karai back, and now they want to loop him in on it so that he can keep Justin far, far away when things start going down.

As much as he hopes that is it, Splinter’s been fighting this war against Shredder for eighteen years. The guy isn’t easy to incapacitate - never mind anything worse - and Casey doesn’t think anything short of Shredder’s heart on a stake is going to convince Karai to come home.

The other theories he’s got are all less serious, but still nothing he hopes to be walking into. He isn’t sure what he’s going to do if Splinter tells him that Justin staying at the lair while he’s in school during the day isn’t working out, or if he tells him his bringing Justin around at all is too painful for him with Karai still The Foot’s prisoner.

There’s always the pipe dream that Splinter could be offering to train him like he did for April, but Casey isn’t going to get his hopes up for something like that.

When he gets to the lair Mikey and Leo are in the pit watching Space Heroes, and Mikey turns up on his knees and peers at him and Justin over the back of the couch.

“Hey, there’s my little buddy!” Mikey cheers, climbing up over the back of the couch. “Can you say ‘Uncle Mikey’?” He asks, and Casey laughs while Justin happily gurgles and reaches for Mikey.

“Careful, he’s got a stink bomb in his diaper.” Casey warns, though he passes his son into Mikey’s outstretched hands anyway.

“That’s ok.” Mikey insists, “I changed his diaper yesterday, and he didn’t even pee on me.”

With that Mikey simply turns and whisks Justin off to the couch. Casey snickers as he watches, and debates hovering nearby anyway while Mikey changes Justin, if only to delay facing Splinter.

But Leo is turned around now and watching him over the back of the couch, a sullen expression on his face.

Whatever is coming for him, he doubts Leo doesn’t know what it is.

“Should I be worried?” Casey asks with a sigh, and for a second Leo furrows his brows, before he shakes his head; a confirmation of what Casey is so sure of.

“No, everything’s fine.” He says, “Just go talk to him.”

That doesn’t do much to assuage Casey’s fears, though he supposes it counts for something that Leo seems honest.

With one final sigh Casey heads into the dojo where he finds Master Splinter waiting for him. Like, literally standing under the tree and watching the door with no attempt made to hide that he’s been waiting for Casey to show up.

In general, and especially now, Casey isn’t entirely sure what to do in the presence of Master Splinter. When everyone else is around he’s pretty good at just making his occasional comment or two, talking and joking in the way he usually does with his friends’ parents. He knows he sometimes can be a little too loud, or maybe he doesn’t pick up on a serious shift of a conversation fast enough, and he can get scolded for it. But, whatever this is, he’s pretty sure this is about more than one or two of his smart mouthed comments. Besides, Splinter isn’t just another parent of one of his friends. He’s the parent whose daughter Casey lost to a murderous ninja clan. He really, more than usual, has no idea what he is supposed to do here alone with Splinter.

So, he decides to bow.

Maybe he makes an idiot of himself, because Splinter is chuckling as he stands straight again, but he’d rather that than a scowl.

“I’m sure you are wondering why I asked to speak with you.”

“Uh… Kinda.” Casey stammers, “If Justin being down here is causing some kind of problem, I can try and figure out something with my dad. But I really think it’s important that I finish high school.”

At that, Splinter holds up a hand, and Casey promptly shuts up.

“I did not ask to speak with you to discuss your arrangement for child care.” He promises, but then he seems to think. “At least, not regarding your school hours.”

Casey furrows his brow at that.

“I’m not playing hockey.” He insists, because he isn’t sure he’s gotten around to telling Splinter that yet, and that has to be it.

He has to be worried about what will happen to Justin once hockey starts, not realizing that it’s already come to pass. He has to be thinking that Casey is going to let his life become consumed by the same things which have always consumed it. He doesn’t realize hockey already started for the season, and Casey is already ignoring the calls and texts from his teammates demanding to know why he would quit a week before the start of senior year.

They’re asking him if he failed something last year, or if he’s been going to summer school and failed that. They want to know if he passed but came close enough to failing that his dad pulled his plug anyway. Some of them know about his job at Murakami’s, and so far it’s been his best excuse. He needs money, and every high school senior needs money, so they don’t question that part. They figure he’s either paying rent now that he’s eighteen, or he will be after graduation so he’s saving up. Plus there are a lot of school functions that he’s going to need money for. Not that he’s planning on going, he never went to school functions even before he had a kid as an excuse. But, if it gets his friends off his back without him having to tell them the truth, fine by him.

Splinter blinks, and Casey decides to voice his next train of thought out loud.

“I haven’t told my friends about Justin yet.” He says, “I know I’ll have to, eventually. I want to tell them. But I really don’t want to do it without Karai here. They’re going to have questions, and I know we’re going to have to lie no matter what-”

Another raise of his hand, and so once again Casey clamps his mouth shut.

“I appreciate your respect for my daughter, Casey.” He says, “In a way, it is why I asked to speak with you.”

Casey looks at him, he isn’t sure what that could mean exactly, but as Splinter sighs and approaches him he gets the feeling he is about to find out.

He doesn’t usually see Splinter this close. He’s never noticed the worry lines etched into the corners of his eyes, barely visible under his fur but definitely, definitely there.

“This war between our clan, The Foot, and now The Kraang is not likely to end peacefully.” He begins, stating the obvious in Casey’s opinion. “While my sons have garnered many allies in our fight, with The Foot and The Kraang working together, I fear we are still hopelessly outnumbered. As well as outmatched.”

“Master Splinter.” Casey ventures to ask, not liking at all the vibe of where this is going. “You’re not really talking about giving up, are you?”

“Giving up?” Splinter sounds so offended when he asks, and Casey doesn’t think that tone has ever been so welcome to his ears. “No. I am talking about strengthening our numbers with proper training. Your training.”

Casey hears himself gasp, how could he not? Turns out it wasn’t such a pipe dream to hope for that coming out of this meeting after all.

Therefore, he only has one question.

“When can we start?”

Karai knows it is only a matter of time before Shredder puts her newly sworn “loyalty” to the test.

She’s been expecting it for weeks now. Every time she hears footsteps echoing down the halls outside she prepares herself for it to be the day. Shredder has never been known for his patience, and by now she is at the point where she is almost considering asking when it is he will be coming for her.

Almost.

She isn’t known for her patience either – clearly – but right now a battle of waiting is the only one she can fight and, if that’s the case, she is determined to win.

She’s listening to approaching footsteps with her back to the iron bars. They’re near enough now she knows it isn’t Xever; she’s learned the mechanical sound of his hydraulics become audible by the time he is twenty paces from the door. The footfalls are too heavy to be Bradford; despite his monstrous height, his double mutation had the unexpected side-effect of turning his movements nearly silent.

Karai doesn’t think she is imagining the slight clinking of metal as the footstep get closer. Naturally, she wants to assume those are Shredder’s gauntlets, but it could just as easily be the sound of any number of Tiger Claw’s weapons.

She’s just reminding herself that Tiger Claw would be the more likely visitor when there is a pause, and as she hears the heavy door to her chamber open she knows without turning that it’s Shredder.

His breath is low, but it echoes off the damp walls of the room all the same. Karai keeps her knees drawn and her head dipped as she listens to his approach.

He slams the door closed, a hard grunt escaping him. The closer he draws to her actual cell, the more Karai wonders if he is going to open the door and either step into the cell to force her to face him, or to test her.

In either case, she is resolved to remain still.

He stops just outside the bars of her cell. She can feel his eyes on her, but still, she doesn’t move.

“You cannot continue these games, Karai.” He speaks, and though she grits her teeth at the sound of his voice, she doesn’t otherwise react. “I appreciate that you’ve seen the importance in maintaining your strength.”

She blinks, but she won’t dare let her shoulders tense or a single muscle outside of her face move. She needs to remember that this is exactly what she wants from him. She’s eating the rations he sends her, and whether he takes that as she needs herself to be in condition to fight for him or against him it doesn’t matter to her.

“I hope that might mean you are ready to reclaim your rightful place in The Foot.”

It takes a considerable amount of self-control for her to keep from laughing at his audacity, even to herself. She starts eating just a little more than the bare minimum to keep herself alive, and he takes it as a sign she wants to be here.

The last time she was in this cell the pain of the truth was still too fresh for her to be anything but furious any time he came down and pleaded with her. But now - after months spent in the sewers her father and her brothers, and in the wake of Justin’s existence. After she has learned what it means to be part of a real family - the notion that she would ever stand with The Foot again is just so ridiculous.

“Karai.” Shredder growls when she doesn’t move, and she doesn’t let it spur her. She remains firm in her cold shoulder. She will do whatever he asks – that much she has already agreed to – but he is going to have to give her orders in no uncertain terms.

“Very well.” Shredder growls again, a deadly edge to his voice. “But know that you brought this on yourself, Karai.”

The turn of his foot is swift, as is the opening of the door to the corridor outside. He slams it loudly behind him and the sounds of him stomping away echo throughout the basement prison long after he is gone.

Eventually, when his steps have faded away completely, Karai turns and looks at the door, and she lets out a shuddering breathe.

Eventually, he will be back.

When the sound of something crashing and Mikey yelping reaches his ears, Leo looks up from his phone to Raph on the other couch. There is a moment of him going through the mental checklist of the factors of the crash; it didn’t sound like anything exploded, and Mikey isn’t continuing to scream so there likely isn’t any blood. He probably isn’t unconscious, but he was the last person to have Justin so that means Justin might be caught up in whatever is going on.

When there is another – albeit less violent sounding – crash, he and Raph each sigh and get up from what had been their down time.

They head towards the kitchen, and soon as they’ve turned the corner they find the source of the noise and Leo doesn’t know what else he could have been expecting.

“Some ninja.” Raph snarks, though Mikey is too preoccupied by trying to pull the baby gate back into place to do more than glower at him.

Justin’s walking is still very hit or miss; mostly miss. But he’s gotten crawling down and he’s getting pretty good at standing when you help him pull himself to his feet. So, they’ve extended the babyproofing of the lair from just the sharp corners in the pit and Karai’s room, to blocking off the main section of the kitchen as well. They don’t have any actual doorway leading into the space, but putting a gate on either side of the island they use as a table to block off the low access cupboards has been sufficient so far.

However, for it to work, the gate needs to not be a foot off the ground and jutting outwards.

“Cut me a break, I was holding him!” Mikey defends as he tries to wiggle the gate back down towards the floor. “And I didn’t drop him when I tripped, thank you very much.”

Justin – behind Mikey and sitting with what Leo would call an entertained smile on his face as he looks at them all – starts babbling on in baby language like he is trying to explain what happened.

Raph chuckles, starting his way around the island and to the gate on the other side. “I’m surprised you didn’t land on him.” He teases as he hops over that gate and lets himself into the kitchen.

Justin turns to watch Raph’s approach, still babbling with clear intent and reaching his arms when Raph moves to pick him up.

“Never!” Mikey boasts, and one hard push from him send the gate slipping out of its place completely and clattering on the ground.

“Ha.” Raph laughs, “Should’ve known baby proof would double as Mikey proof.”

Leo, grabbing the displaced gate and beginning to reset it, smirks up at Raph. “Don’t think we didn’t see you hopping over it.”

Raph – wisely – doesn’t dignify that with a response. The gates are meant to be removed and placed back, or so Donnie and Casey keep insisting anyway.

While Leo sets the gate back into place Mikey picks himself up and starts explaining to Raph that he was going to heat up the leftover pizza for lunch, determined that today is the day Justin tries Hawaiian style.

“Thank God Leo and I showed up to stop you.” Raph says, opening the cabinet with one hand and fishing out the shallow Tupperware bowl they’ve designated to be Justin’s plate. “You have no right to torture an innocent like that.”

“Torture?!” Mikey gasps dramatically, “I’m exposing him to the best pizza ever! Next to pepperoni, mushroom, banana pepper of course. And triple cheese, and quadruple cheese. And-”

“And it’s a crime against pizza.” Raph flatly interrupts.

“The only crime against pizza would be no pizza!” Mikey argues, just as Leo gets the gate wedged more-or-less into its previous place and stands up.

He sees Raph pulling some frozen chicken nuggets out, assumedly to give to Justin, even as Mikey is unwrapping the last of the leftovers from the other night at Murakami’s.

“Come on Raph,” Leo speaks up, “Let him decide for himself. He’ll see the truth.”

He keeps smirking and he doesn’t voice anything more, but he sees the understanding in Raph’s eyes as he puts away the nuggets.

Karai would eat it.

Much to the surprise of them all, Karai will eat just about anything on pizza. At first they thought she was just humoring Mikey by trying some of his more adventurous concoctions. But, she explained to them that pizza shops in Tokyo like to be very creative. It isn’t something she would eat often growing up, but there were certainly enough chances that she doesn’t stick to one preferred type as though she will never eat it again.

Grinning with victory, Mikey starts the oven to heat up the pizza and Raph ties Justin into his makeshift seat at the table.

“Fine.” Raph concedes, pulling up a stool himself. “But if he grows up to be Mikey’s sous chef in chaos, I’m blaming you.”

Chapter Text

It’s plain to see in the way Master Shredder storms into The Kraang’s war room that his conversation with Karai did not go as well as he had hoped.

Xever isn’t surprised. Karai would certainly be here had Master Shredder chosen to enter the prison cell, drag her to her feet, and march her along with a knife pressed to her back or a reminder of their agreement dangling over her head. But stubbornness is a trait which Karai learned from The Shredder himself, and if he isn’t ready yet to accept Karai’s conditional allegiance to The Foot, then they won’t be seeing her in these meetings.

“Kraang has been doing what is known as the waiting for the one who is known as The Shredder.”

It is too early in the evening for Xever to be developing a migraine like this.

“There will be no more waiting.” Shredder growls, “Stockman!” He shouts, “What is the status on the next batch of modified mutagen?”

Xever finds himself standing just the slightest bit mor ridged, his interest piqued.

“I… I wasss just di.. diss.. discusssing with The Kraang the cooosssttt of more… more muuutagennn.” Stockman buzzes his reply, and Shredder then turns his deadly glare onto the Kraang expectantly.

“Well?”

The two droids they are meeting with look to one another, and the first shrugs before they turn back to Shredder.

“Kraang is willing to give what is known as a supply of the substance known as the mutagen to the one known as Shredder, in exchange for what is known as support in Kraang’s plan for the invasion which is known as the invasion.”

“Is that all?” Shredder asks, unfazed, and when the droid nods it’s head Xever holds his breath, but he knows it will be in vain. “Then you will have the full backing of The Foot Clan.”

Xever would like it noted that he believes he has been in this position before; watching a leader of a gang make a business deal out of a desire that is far too personal. It happens all the time in cartels. One gangbanger puts a bullet in the wrong opponents’ wife or child, or a leader tries to move in on the wrong territory. It’s all part of the deal, and Xever has never before had a problem seeing it play out to the disastrous end, and then sneaking off into the shadows to move onto his next score and his next crew.

But this is something else, even for him.

Even after he’s been confronted with ninjas, mutations, mutated-ninjas, and aliens… The discussion which follows Shredder’s promise to the Kraang makes his stomach churn it ways it never has before.

In three weeks time, The Kraang will aim to launch a full-scale assault on New York. Now that they have perfected the recipe for their mutagen, they will bring their troops in from Dimension X and unleash nothing short of chemical warfare on the city. New York is only step one, of course, and once they have complete control of the mutated city, then they will move forward with overtaking the rest of the world.

Next to him, Xever notes, that by the end of the pitch even Tiger Claw and Bradford can’t look the droids in the eye.

“After you have New York.” Shredder beings to firmly inform The Kraang, “And the turtles and Splinter are dead, my daughter’s mutant form will serve no purpose. I want her changed back to human.”

Again, the droids look to one another, and while they’re locked in their wordless debate, Xever finds himself clearing his throat.

“If I might ask,” He dares, “What is the point of another attempt on Karai with the altered mutagen?”

It’s impressive, really, the fear Shredder’s gaze can elicit with only one working eye and the rest of his face hidden behind his mask.

“I only ask,” Xever tries to elaborate, and make it clear in the process that he means no disrespect whatsoever. “Because the viper mutation is expected to alter her mind as well as her body; more animal than human. Ruthless, yes, but recapturing her in order to cure her could prove difficult, especially in a city full of other mutants.”

“I agree with Xever.” Tiger Claw says; surprising no one more than Xever himself. “You don’t need Karai to deliver the final blow against Splinter, or any of the turtles. That right should be reserved for you, Master.”

“Enough insolence.” Shredder warns the two of them, “This is about more than Splinter dying at the mercy of Karai.” He assures them, squaring his shoulders as he looks the two of them up and down, all but daring them to question him again.

Still, he goes on to explain.

“Karai is a master of using her enemies own wants and desires against them.” He takes one stalking step towards Tiger Claw. “Or have you forgotten your little stunt sending her into the sewers?”

Tiger Claw bows his head, his ears turning flat and shame flitting through his eyes as he avoids Shredder’s gaze.

Shredder, evidently satisfied, backs off, and looks over the both of them again.

“Karai would not surrender herself so easily without a plan for revenge already in motion.” He explains, so self-assured, and Xever feels as though a rock has sunken into his stomach. “We need to stop that plan before it’s too late.”

He’s wrong. Xever knows he is wrong, but the problem is that nothing short of confessing the full truth of Karai’s motives will convince Shredder. Even then, Xever isn’t confident it will be enough.

He notices Tiger Claw and Bradford bristle and slump respectively with Shredder’s statement. They don’t talk about Karai’s surrender – the three of them – beyond the frustration having her as a prisoner brings to The Clan. But, in truth, he suspects that his colleagues have their suspicions of her motives as well.

While they may not have been privy to all the details in that warehouse which Xever was - the tears in Karai’s eyes as she passed the child to the Jones boy, and hear her plea to him to tell the child that it is loved by her - Tiger Claw and Bradford were still in the warehouse. They still witnessed that moment in some capacity; they must know there is more to Karai’s motives than what Shredder believes.

It’s out of self-preservation that none of them say anything. The idea of Karai having a child is not an accusation which they can make lightly to Shredder. If they are wrong, the penalty for slandering her dignity with such implications would surely be a fate worse than death or mutation.

Xever knows, of course, that it is true. He also knows Karai runs far too hot headed to ever successfully convince Shredder otherwise.

The real question is, if he knows all this with such certainty, why does he still refrain from speaking up?

“So, you’re doing a book report on Frankenstein?” Casey asks his sister after he’s gotten Justin secured into the restaurant high chair at the end of the table, and he slides into the booth across from Angel.

“Not on Frankenstein.” Angel practically groans, “On Mary Shelly.”

“Whose that?”
“She wrote Frankenstein.” Angel answers him with an exasperated huff. “Aren’t you supposed to know that by high school?”

“Aren’t you supposed to not know that in fourth grade?” Casey shoots back, his hand fumbling in his pocket for a baby key chain to give to Justin before he gets too restless in his seat.

“Did you know she kept her husband’s heart after he died?” Angel asks him, Justin reaching excitedly for his plastic keys. “Some people say she kept it in her desk, but some people think she carried it around with her.”

Casey raises an eyebrow at her, still half-focused on Justin. “You are a weird kid.”

Angel beams at that like it’s praise, because of course she does. She then proceeds to rattle on and on everything she’s learned about the author of Frankenstein, before she moves onto stories of what happened during her last gym class game of volleyball, and then into how she’s planning on asking dad if she can dye the ends of her hair hot pink.

Casey stops her rambling long enough for them to order. This is his first attempt at a restaurant with Justin. He orders him chicken tenders off the kid’s menu and decides that whatever Justin doesn’t eat, they can get a to-go box and he or Angel can eat the leftovers later.

Actually, it’s been awhile since he last went to a real restaurant with Angel. He isn’t sure they’ve been since the last time her mom came around, and that was a couple years ago. Usually when Dad’s gone for a couple days they stick to take-out or pasta and butter. But, this time when Casey opened the usual envelope of food cash, there was an extra forty bucks and a note that said “do something fun with them.”

Casey still isn’t sure if it was his dad’s version of cutting him some slack, or if he’s supposed to take it as a lesson in parenting, but either way Angel hasn’t stopped smiling ever since he told her they were going to the place with the blue raspberry lemonade with the gummy sharks in it.

Speaking of that lemonade, she almost jumps out of her seat with glee when the waitress brings it over, and Casey is smirking at the sight and at Justin staring at her with this deep concern etched into his face.

“See that?” He teases, cocking his head to his son. “Even Justin thinks you’re weird.”

Angel sticks her tongue out at him, and Casey starts to laugh when suddenly all the amusement dies for him and he feels his face flush with panic.

He sees them coming too late; two of his friends leaving a table up ahead.

“Oh man,” He mutters, and Angel turns around to look over her shoulder, just as his friend Damian and his girlfriend Rachel are approaching their table.

“Hey, Casey.” Damian exclaims with a smile, holding out a hand and so Casey dutifully takes it and half pulls his buddy down to say hi without getting up.

“Hey.” Casey returns the greeting halfheartedly. Over Damian’s shoulder he takes note of Rachel smiling first at Angel and then at Justin.

“Man, where have you been?” Damian asks, “You know varsity just isn’t the same without you.”

“Yeah.” Casey chuckles, “Sorry man, I just wasn’t gonna have time this year.”

He looks awkwardly between Angel and Justin; wondering what the chances are that he can get out of this without having to give anything away.

Pretty low, if he had to guess. Rachel is waving to Justin with a big smile on her face and Angel is already giving the whole situation the side-eye by the time Damian really looks over the two kids.

Casey sighs, and accepts his fate.

“Guys, this is um… This is my son. Justin.”

Well – if nothing else – at least he gets to watch his friends’ eyes bug out of their heads.

He thought he would hate this part; his friends staring at him like this. But now that he’s in it he thinks he’s earned these few precious seconds of watching them pick their jaws up off the table. Besides, he would much prefer this as opposed to what’s coming next; having to explain some version of where Justin came from.

After about another five seconds of staring at him, Rachel is the one who forces him into that conversation.

“He’s like… old.” She says, and then winces at her own bluntness. “No offense. I just mean… He’s not, like, a newborn.”

Casey sighs, and his friends take that as cue to slide into the booth with him and Angel. He scoots over, making room for Damian, while Angel does the same for Rachel, and all the while Justin happily babbles about as though he is trying to explain for himself where it is he came from.

“He’s a year old.” Casey admits, “A little over, actually. It’s this whole complicated thing, but I swear I didn’t know about him until a month ago.”

Both Damian’s and Rachel’s eyes narrow with suspicious anger when he tells them that. In fact, Rachel manages to keep her narrowed glare trained on him even as she opens her hand for the keys Justin has decided he needs to hand her.

Casey can see the questions in her eyes. Questions of who, and when exactly, and how exactly, and he’s thinking she’s working through a polite way to ask any or all of these questions, maybe along with some more violent thoughts in anticipation of his answers.

Casey is so busy trying to formulate answers to her unasked questions, that he nearly forgets about Damian.

“So… He’s not O’Neil’s, right?”

“What?!” Casey blurts, “No, he isn’t April’s!”

“What is the matter with you?” Rachel snaps at her boyfriend, almost simultaneously.

“Ok, ok!” Damian exclaims, his hands up in surrender. “I just have to ask. People hide things and, come on, dude,” He says, turning to Casey, “You did start hanging out with her about a year ago.”

For the record, operating with a normal timeline for having a kid, he hasn’t been hanging out with April long enough that she could possibly be Justin’s mom. Of course, he hasn’t even known Karai long enough for her to be his kid’s mom in any typical way, so maybe his point doesn’t stand.

“So… Whose is he?” Damian tries again, because apparently being snapped at once isn’t enough to deter him, though Rachel is glaring at him as though she would rather he never say another word for as long as they live.

“This girl I met awhile back.” Casey answers vaguely, “I wasn’t dating her. It’s just something that happened. Like I said, I didn’t know about Justin until last month.”

By now, Angel is stirring her straw around in her lemonade, Justin has moved from handing Rachel his keys to pulling at her fingers and spinning her rings around, and Rachel looks between both kids as though just how distracted they both are is the deciding factor of how far into this conversation she is willing to go.

“Does this girl have a name?” She asks, which is probably the easiest question she could have picked, and yet Casey still finds himself glowering at her pushing the issue at all.

“Karai.” He answers, “I swear I wasn’t gonna hide this forever, alright? It’s just been a lot to get used to, and Karai’s got some fucked up family shit going on right now. I just wanted to have the worst of it over and done before I told anyone at school.”

It’s a boiled down - but truthful - explanation, in his opinion. Saying Karai is dealing with “some fucked up family shit” is the understatement of the century, but at least it’s true. Plus, his ideal was to have the worst of it over and done with before he went trying to explain Justin to his friends; the “worst” being the part of this where Karai is sitting in a dungeon right now.

Damian and Rachel look at each other across the table, some conversation happening between them without a word.

“Alright.” Rachel says, even if she looks anything but ‘alright’ with any of this. “Well, looks like we owe you a congrats.”

She smiles at Justin as she gently pulls her fingers out of his grip, and thank God she gets up from the table and Damian follows her lead, because Casey doesn’t think he can take five more seconds of this conversation.

“Don’t worry,” She assures him, “We won’t tell anyone.”

Damian – for the record – completely balks at her like he’s spent this whole conversation plotting to tell the whole damn hockey team. He probably has, but if nothing else Casey thinks he can trust Rachel to stop him and keep this under control.

He better be able to; he doesn’t have a choice.

Patrol these days is weird. Bad weird, and Raph hates it.

No matter where they go, no matter how many Purple Dragons or pop-up mutants they bust, everything feels heavy. They all know what’s coming. Eventually, they’re going to find some tiny Kraang hidey-hole, or catch sight of The Foot, and they’re gonna have to face all that. They’re just waiting to stumble into it.

Stumble, literally, because how else would they find a lead on a Kraang world annihilation plot?

“Good job Mikey.” Donnie says, even as Mikey is still picking himself up out from under the coatrack he knocked over when he decided to check out this back office in this so-far empty old building they’ve been sweeping.

“What can I say?” Mikey starts to gloat, “I got an instinct for Kraang trouble.”

“You just saw the light under the door.” Raph says, rolling his eyes, though even he isn’t sure if it’s at Mikey, or the fact that the Kraang forgot to turn out their closet light before abandoning this place.

Ordinarily, he would think it’s a trap. Except they’ve already been over every other square inch of this place, and nothing jumped them when Mikey opened the door. Nothing even came out running or gasping for air.

It isn’t that big of a room, and with four of them it takes all of thirty seconds to realize they are still very much alone here.

There’s an old wooden desk and some filing cabinets, and two wood chairs with pinned in cushions on what would be a client’s side of the desk. Raph would guess that this room was some kind of office back when this building was whatever it was before the Kraang found it.

“They might still be coming back.” Leo says, opening a drawer in the desk, and when he gasps Raph gets that sinking pit in his stomach.

“What is it?” He demands, moving to Leo’s side to look over his shoulder.

Leo holds up the vile rolling in the drawer of the desk. The two of them look at it as Donnie comes up on Leo’s other side, and Mikey leans halfway over the desk with his eyes squinted at the vile.

“That doesn’t look like mutagen.” Mikey says, stating the obvious.

Well, Raph may as well state the second most obvious.

“It looks like pee.”

Leo frowns, “It’s not pee… Probably.”

“What do you mean probably?” Raph demands, “The Kraang are obsessed with DNA, and now they’ve got this vile of dark yellow… something, hidden away in a drawer. The question isn’t whether or not it’s pee, the question is whose pee is it?”

“Actually,” Donnie says, taking the vial from Leo and squinting closer at it. “I think Leo’s right.”

“What?” Raph starts to demand, but then he notices this microscope slide of… something, in Donnie’s other hand.

“I’m pretty sure this is a snake scale.” Donnie says, “I’d have to run the vial through my centrifuge, but I’d be willing to be this is venom. Specifically, the kind Shredder mixed with mutagen in order to make the targeted mutagen he wanted to infect Karai with.”

Raph grits his teeth, and his fingers curl into fists. “So now we’ve gotta save her from getting mutated again?”

He can practically feel the fury radiating off Leo next to him, which isn’t something which happens all that often. But in the end, it’s Mikey and his big, sad eyes trying to snatch the vial from Donnie.

“But he doesn’t have to do that!” Mikey moans, “He has her already! What’s the point in turning her into a killer snake?”

“Aside from tormenting Splinter?” Raph asks, and Leo picks up the more logical part of the explanation.

“Shredder has to know this deal Karai’s made can’t hold forever.” He says, “Sooner or later, either we’ll find a way to get her out of there for good, or The Foot will slip up and Justin will get hurt. This is him getting out ahead of it.”

“So,” Donnie starts, “We’re getting her out, right?”

Leo doesn’t need to answer him, his grim nod is enough.

As if there were any other answer.

Chapter Text

“Is this kidnapping?” Mikey asks as he and Donnie duck in through Casey’s bedroom window. He’s been thinking about the question ever since the two of them left the lair; and he figures he may as well ask before they go and commit said-possible-kidnapping.

“No, it isn’t kidnapping.” Donnie says, “We’re asking permission.”

“What happens if Mr. Jones says no?”

It’s a fair question, as far as Mikey is concerned, because last he knew, there isn’t a plan B. From what they can tell, Shredder’s second shot at mutating Karai is going down tonight. They managed to find a few more Kraang reports and they’ve tracked and followed a couple Footbots coming and going from a warehouse that The Foot has used before. It seems like things are all set to go tonight, which means they are all set to go tonight. They’re getting Karai back, for good, and as Mikey closes Casey’s bedroom window he tries to tell himself they won’t die trying.

“He won’t say no.” Donnie insists, opening the door.

Mikey almost asks again, just “what if”, but, well, he’s never been in Casey’s apartment before. He’s been in his room before, once or twice, the two of them grabbing some last-minute ammo for a patrol. But he’s never seen beyond the bedroom door, and he has always wondered what is on the other side of the forbidden passage.

Turns out, the answer is a narrow hallway of chipping dark blue paint and even darker wood floor panels. It’s still cool, because even if the hallways itself isn’t all that decked out, there is a door at the end of it covered in stickers and a pink, foam heart stuck in the center that reads Angel in big black writing across it.

Mikey turns around, meaning to ask Donnie if he thinks maybe Justin is in there, because that’s definitely Casey’s sister’s room, and Casey is always saying that his sister loves playing with Justin.

Really, he just wants to know what it looks like in there.

Anyway, he doesn’t get a chance to ask, because Donnie has already rounded the corner out from the hallway and into the main area of the apartment, and there is already a string of spluttering curses coming their way, so exploring is probably going to have to wait.

“I know Casey said you kids are ninjas.” The cursing voice is saying just as Mikey catches up with Donnie. “But he could’ve warned me that meant you’d be sneaking in here.”

“Whoa…” Mikey gasps, stepping fully into the apartment, he’s trying to take it all in, including the red-in-the-face, lumbering, mustached man staring at him and Donnie and leaning heavy on the back of Justin’s highchair like he’s trying to stave off a heart attack. “Are you Casey’s dad?!”

“I am.” The man answers, his grey eyebrow quirked up, and Mikey would like it known that he never ignores his favorite little guy Justin – who is happily waving at him and Donnie from his high chair – but come on. It’s Casey’s dad!

“Dude!” Mikey exclaims, “Casey never mentioned you have a mustache!”

Casey’s Dad looks past him, to Donnie, but Mikey seriously couldn’t care less because dude, Casey’s dad has an awesome mustache. Like, just the stache, not the kind attached to the beard the April’s dad.

“Sorry for the intrusion, Mr. Jones.” Donnie says, stepping closer to the table. “I’m Donnie, and this is Mikey. We came because we need to take Justin back to the lair.”

Mr. Jones frowns, and Mikey forces himself to stop thinking about the awesome mustache. Right, the kidnapping.

“Isn’t Casey at your lair right now?”

Donnie nods, “That’s why we need Justin.”

While Donnie does the talking, Mikey lets himself fall back. He takes a seat at the kitchen table next to Justin, half-listening while Donnie explains to Mr. Jones how and why they’re so sure The Foot is planning on moving Karai out of Shred-head’s dungeon tonight and mutating her, and so that’s why tonight is the only chance they’re gonna have at rescuing her.

“Dude.” Mikey whispers to Justin, aside from the conversation. “You hear that? Mama’s coming home tonight.”

Justin doesn’t give him much of an answer. A little grunt, and then he holds out a blueberry from the tiny plate in front of him, which Mikey happily accepts with an open palm.

“Thank you.” He says, and he pops the blueberry in his mouth.

“Please Mr. Jones.” Donnie says, “I know this might seem backwards, but if Casey comes with us tonight-”

“His dumb ass is going to get himself, or your sister, killed?” Mr. Jones finishes for him, and at the reminder of how easily this could go wrong Mikey blinks and tunes back into the conversation.

“…To put it bluntly.” Donnie stammers, “Casey’s been training with our Sensei, he can take care of himself. But if one of Shredder’s henchmen gets in his head about the last time they fought… Well… He’s just a little impulsive sometimes.”

“You’re telling me.” Mr. Jones scoffs, “So you want to dump his kid in his arms and run, because nothing else short of tying him up is going to keep him from doing something stupid?”

Mikey and Donnie look at each other. That is exactly what they want to do.

“To put it bluntly.” Donnie says again, “Can we take him?”

Mr. Jones nods, and so Mikey reaches over and starts unbuckling Justin’s seat.

“I’d give you Angel too for good measure if she weren’t at a sleepover.” Mr. Jones says, “Good luck, and please, give me a call to let me know you’re all safe.”

Mikey can’t not smile as he’s lifting Justin up from the high chair, but he also can’t help but think how much they’re going to need that luck.

“We will.” Donnie promises, “Thank you.”

Karai isn’t surprised anymore when she hears the heavy footfalls of Xever’s robot legs lurking around the dungeon late at night. This has become – more or less – a weekly occurrence for him. When he is tired of the other henchmen, or restless late at night and his curiosity gets the better of him, he comes down here to kill about fifteen minutes. Most of the time he tries to make awkward small talk by telling her The Foot Clan hasn’t seen the turtles since she traded herself, and then he’ll ask is that all part of the plan? Or are they trying to keep from poking the beast?

She never answers him, though lately she’s been doing him the courtesy of at least looking at him. She’s decided he isn’t worth the time and energy of turning her back on him, not when he is making his visits such a habit. Rather than shunning him in the way she will Shredder, or she would to any of the other henchmen if they bothered to come down here, she sits with her back against the wall and her body relaxed. She looks him in the eye, and she lets whatever probing questions he has wash over her. Sometimes she answers them, but most of the time she doesn’t.

She is prepared for tonight to be no different. She sits in wait, silently counting the clunking steps of his feet, until they sounds come to a stop and the main door opens.

Immediately she sees the scowl of his slimy face. It’s running deeper than usual, and raises an eyebrow as this feeling starts to sneak up in her that tonight might hold something different from his usual boredom after all.

“You’re going to want to run.” He says, and before she can ask what he means or why, he crosses the room in two strides, and her eyes widen when he unclenches his hand and she sees a large metal key in his palm.

He puts the key in the lock of her cell and turns it, but rather than relief Karai feels a pit sink in her stomach.

He yanks the gate open, and then pulls the key from the lock and tosses it her way.

“You have maybe ten minutes before they suspect you got the upper hand on me.” He says, stepping into the cage with her.

She doesn’t move. Every fiber of her being wants to, but she stays put.

“No.” She says, and he growls at her.

“Karai-”

“No.” She repeats, “I take one step out that door and Shredder is right there waiting for me.”

“Perhaps.” He grants her, “Or perhaps he is in a warehouse downtown, waiting for me to return with you, so that he can drop you into that vat of mutagen.”

This time, Karai isn’t able to stop the twitch of her foot wanting to heed Xever’s advice and run. She forces herself to stay put, and so she doesn’t have enough leftover self-control to school her features and keep from gaping at him.

“Perhaps he wanted to send Bradford with me to collect you.” Xever goes on explaining, “But perhaps I convinced him that I could handle you myself because I have been the one bringing you your meals.”

If he’s lying to her, then it would be a good play. Getting her to be the one to violate the terms of the deal by running. If Shredder turns her into a feral creature, then anything is possible. She wouldn’t be able to pull any punches in such an altered state of mind and… she swallows thinking about what that could mean.

“Why?” She asks, still not daring to get up. “Why should I… Why would you help me?”

He seems earnest in all this. Frankly, Karai has never known Xever to be a good liar, and even if he were she thinks she would still be believing him now. You can’t fake this type of resigned, almost annoyed air of self-loathing creeping up around you as you dig yourself deeper and deeper into a hole knowing that no good deed goes unpunished.

But the two of them are far from friends, so why risk that punishment?

“Working for Shredder has cost me my humanity.” He grumbles in answer. “His thirst for vengeance cost you your mother, and your childhood as it should have been.”

She knits her brows together, “What do you care about my-?”

“I don’t.” He shuts her down, though there is no roaring emotion to it. Pure apathy, in fact. “But, I can relate. My parents would use me as a mule for cocaine, or a distraction from the police.”

Karai still isn’t following. She’s believing him, that he is really setting her free, which means she really should get up and run, but the sheer fact that she did not expect to have Xever standing in her cell and telling her his tragic backstory tonight keeps her seated where she is.

He sighs, evidently deciding to cut to the chase.

“I’ve lost enough to these kinds of wars, and I lost it too young. But, you gave yourself up to keep your boy safe. He doesn’t deserve to lose a mother like that, and I can’t be the reason he does.”

Karai blinks up at him, and as if he is trying to shake off the sentiment of what he just said, Xever shakes his head and scowls at her, and steps to the side.

“Now would you please get out of here before Shredder comes and guts us both?”

Finally, on trembling legs, Karai stands. She walks out of the cell like she is in a trance, and with Xever snapping after her to close the barred door on her way out so it at least looks like she got the upper hand and trapped him in here; he’ll take care of the rest.

“Karai.” He calls one final time, just as she is reaching for the main door. She looks over her shoulder, and sees him reaching to undo the mechanisms which keeps is legs locked around his fish body. “This isn’t for free. You owe me one.”

She nods, and makes a mental note to keep that in mind.

“This is evil.” Casey grumbles, half to himself and half to Justin, who is sitting just outside the open bathroom door and pushing a toy truck along the floor of the lair. “I left you with Grandpa for a reason, and that reason was not so I could be benched.”

In reply, Justin hums and then extends his arm out, offering his truck.

Casey chuckles, and turns off the sink, the last of his greasepaint washing down the drain.

“That’s ok buddy, I don’t want your truck.” He squats down to his son’s level, smiling softly at him and he points again to the toy. “Truck.” He repeats, “Can you say truck?”

He another hum, and another offer of the truck held out to him.

“Truck.” He tries again, “Truck.”

“Uh…” Is the whispered, question-sounding echo that he gets.

“Truck.”

Again, Justin simply offers him the toy with no “words” and so Casey chuckles and scoops him up.

He takes him to the pit to wait for everyone to get back. He sits on the ground, half-heartedly making “zooming” noises with the toy trucks, and then idly turning a block around in his hand when Justin moves his interest along to the fidget board Donnie built him. He watches with a glint of hope when Justin tries to reach higher on the board, can’t, and then looks around at himself and his surroundings. He looks to Casey, and Casey nods his head at him.

“Go on.” He tries to encourage, and then for show he purposely uses the leverage of his hand on the couch to push himself up as he gets to his feet. “Get up.”

Justin continues to look at him, like he sort of understands the instructions, but not at all the execution. He keeps looking around, up at the top of the board, and finally Casey accepts that he isn’t going to figure it out himself. So, before he loses interest in the top of the board, Casey goes and offers him his fingers. He supposes it’s a win that Justin understands what he’s supposed to do with that, as he grasps on to his fingers and Casey only has to tug lightly as he pulls him to his feet.

He's still holding him up, Justin not sure yet what will happen if he lets go, when Casey hears a sound of approaching footsteps echoing out in the sewers.

He looks up, the sound drawing nearer, quickly. It sounds like it’s only one person, with labored breathes soon reaching his ears. Fear overtaking him, Casey lifts Justin into his arms, ready to move. Horrible scenarios of April coming peeling around the corner flash through his mind. She was supposed to be the lookout tonight, and they haven’t been gone very long, something went wrong. Something-

His spiraling fear is halted in its tracks when Karai runs into view, along.

He stands there in shock. He watches in silence as she jumps the turnstiles and only once she lands does she start to slow to a stumbling jog, and then a walk. She sees him, her eyes locking onto him and Justin and as she gets closer and he can see a wetness shining in her eyes his brain finally kicks him to move. He climbs out of the pit, meets her just at the top of the couch, and she stops and looks at him and at Justin like she has no idea what to do.

So, Casey does the only thing which he thinks makes sense to do; he dumps Justin into her arms.

After getting out of Shredder’s hideout without being captured it crashes over Karai like a bucket of ice-cold water that Xever really didn’t set her up. Still, to be safe, she takes the longest route possible back to the lair. She avoids the docks and any of The Foot and Kraang’s other usual hideouts, before she finally heads underground half a mile away from Murakami’s. It’s only once she’s in the sewer that she finally allows herself to pick up her pace. She walks briskly through the miles of sludge and stink, and when she starts to see the first familiar signs of the lair – Donnie’s booby traps still intact – she moves up to a jog. The closer she gets the more it starts to sink in that this is real, that she is only a few steps away from the safety of home, and so she runs faster and faster until she is vaulting over the turnstiles and she can see Casey standing in the middle of the living room staring at her.

And she stumbles her landing.

Not much, but she is suddenly very self-consciously aware of how desperate she must look, and she forces herself to slow down. She doesn’t hear or see anyone else. Only Casey, holding Justin and slowly climbing out of the pit like he is walking in a daze. Soon, she is standing right in front of him, and her eyes flit to Justin looking at her with curiosity in his dark eyes.

The next thing she knows Justin is all but plopped into her arms. She is more than ready to take him, and she has no idea if he has any memory of her or if he is still easy-going enough to simply be content being passed over to whomever. Either way, is little arms wrap up around her neck and her breath hitches as his weight settles in her arms. She looks up, embarrassed, but what she sees is Casey standing there and gaping at her with his hand hovering awkwardly by her shoulder.

For a moment the warehouse flashes through her eyes. She sees Casey in front of her again, begging her to not give herself up. There has to be something they can do, the sorrow written all over his face.

She isn’t sure if they’re exactly friends or not, but in any case she knows he takes things to heart. She’s sure he has spent the past few weeks blaming himself for what happened. She opens her mouth to tell him it wasn’t his fault, that it doesn’t matter anyway, and she needs to explain what happened and ask where everyone is. But, with all that swimming through her mind, all that comes out is a loud gasp around her tears and then Casey is wrapping is arms around her and Justin and Karai lets her head knock against his chest. She shifts Justin into one arm, and uses the other to wrap around Casey, and finally she breathes.

“Sorry.” She says, turning to the side in his embrace. “I um… I hadn’t thought about what I would say when I got here.”

Casey chuckles, his arm still loose around her as he leads her back to the couch.

“Don’t worry about it.” He says, “But I can’t wait to see the looks on the guys’ faces when they see you beat them back here.”