Disclaimer: I do not own the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, nor do I make any profit from these stories. Also, I have little to no hospital/medical knowledge, so if any details are incorrect then please chalk it up to artistic license.

Casey was a moron.

April had been aware of that since the day he hit her with a hockey puck in the school corridor, but this one was stupid even for him. Even the one and only Casey Jones had enough common sense not to attempt a one-footed flip on a skate ramp - or so she thought, anyway. She had also assumed that after literally saving the Earth, the hockey nut would mellow a little, but no such luck. So now April was sat on an uncomfortable plastic chair in the hospital waiting room while a doctor decided whether or not Casey's leg was broken. Wonderful.

She was replying to a text from Casey's dad - April had called the ambulance, but Mr Jones was bringing Casey's sister up to meet him - when a groan of frustration caught her attention.

"For Pete's sake, Christine, the girl is dying!" A man at the reception desk snapped at a blonde lady behind it.

'Christine' sighed regretfully. "Hank, I can't admit her without any identification-"

"Why not?"

"Because we have no medical records to treat her, not to mention the fact that we don't know where she came from-"

"The sewers, okay? She came from the sewers," the man explained. April stifled a gasp. "A couple of workers found her lying in one of the tunnels. When they realised she was alive, they brought her to us, but whatever she has we can't treat."

"I can't..."

"We'll cover all of the costs," he promised.

The receptionist hesitated. "All of it? The treatment will be expensive if she's as sick as you say."

"All of it. That's the point of the charity; healing homeless youths."

"... I'll see what I can do," the woman finally relented.

The man thanked her, then hurried outside. April grabbed a random magazine from the coffee table to hide behind as he and another man carried a young woman through the doors. The patient was clearly delirious, writhing in their arms and murmuring incoherently. She was wrapped in a patchwork blanket, but April could see she wore a simple cotton dress underneath. The change of attire and lack of make-up did not completely throw the redhead, however, and she recognised the girl immediately. She would recognise that face anywhere.

"Karai..." she breathed in disbelief.

Despite the fact that her clothes were clean and her hair had been washed recently, Karai looked terrible. Her skin was flushed pink and beaded with sweat, the shape of her bones very apparent underneath. With a pang of pity, April wondered how long Karai had gone without proper sustenance.

When she began to shriek, April was about to go over to her, before the other man held her close and stroked her hair soothingly. "Shh..." He crooned softly, in a deep tone that held resemblance to a certain turtle's new voice. "Shh, it's okay. You're gonna be okay. Just quiet down for now, all right? There's a good girl."

Karai relaxed quickly as the man spoke, seemingly comforted by his tone of voice. It was surreal from April's point of view. Never had she seen Karai so calm, bar the occasional whimpers and whines.

"Where are we taking her?" The man-who-sounded-like-Leo asked.

The first man turned to the receptionist, who called over a young nurse with a stretcher and rattled off some directions to her. The nurse nodded, and pulled Karai from the blanket to lie her on the stretcher. The kunoichi put up a fight, but it was a mere fraction of her usual fire. Both men thanked her, then began talking to the receptionist again. The-man-who-sounded-like-Leo bid Karai goodbye with a gentle wave and a pat on the head, before the nurse wheeled her away. April waited less than a minute before slipping after the nurse, ninja training in full-use.

The redhead kept at a safe distance behind, quietly following down the winding hallways, taking note of her surroundings for the mad rush she would likely have to make to get back to Casey's family. April was eventually stopped when the nurse entered a ward.

"Dang it..." she muttered, before raising herself on her tiptoes to peek through the window. She watched the nurse wheel the stretcher into a little room segregated from the rest of the ward. Hurriedly, April jotted the ward number down on the back of her hand, then dashed back to the reception area to meet Mr Jones.

Since Casey had in fact managed to fracture a bone, he arrived on crutches with a heavy cast weighing down his leg. The Jones' offered April a ride home, but she declined on the grounds that her dad was picking her up. Casey gave her a suspicious glance - clearly he was listening that time she told him about her dad losing his license on account of his mental health - but knew better than to question her aloud. She would explain to him later. After all, she doubted Casey would be Karai's first choice of guest.

Then again, I'm probably not either, April mused, but that was just tough; she wasn't about to try and sneak Leo through the hospital.

After Casey and his family left, April went for a slow walk around the block, waiting for visiting hours. She hadn't really composed much of a plan, but thankfully, there was a small family entering the ward at the same time as her. Nobody gave her a second glance, not even when she slipped into Karai's little room.

The kunoichi was sleeping, luckily. The hospital staff had most likely given her a sedative. Feeling awkward, April sat down quietly on a small plastic chair and took a proper look at the girl in the bed.

Up close, the girl looked nothing like Karai. She had the same facial features, but they were drawn and bony. She had the same hair, but it was unkempt and the dye had outgrown. Shredder's brainwashing had kept her in good shape, but the toned muscles looked out of place under her sickly pale skin. Even in unconsciousnes, her brow was creased, as though something strongly troubled her.

April sighed. "You poor thing..." She lay a hand on Karai's forehead, and cringed at the fever burning through her skin.

There was an IV line in Karai's arm, infusing nutrients to her. April couldn't help wondering how long it would be before Karai could stomach actual food again; possibly a while, depending on whatever illness she had.

The redhead frowned at the thought. "Of course you're sick," she murmured. "If you were slumming in the sewers, you could have who knows what. Damn it..."

Karai whined softly in her sleep, shifting beneath April's hand.

"Hmm..." April watched her closely. "You couldn't have been in the sewers all this time. The guys would have found you; they looked everywhere. They said you must have left the city. But if you left the city, then how would those guys have found you in...?"

The girl keened louder, turning on her side. Her hand stretched out, as though searching for something. "...Msorreh... msorreh..."

"Sorry...?" Suddenly, she understood. She gasped. "You came back for them, didn't you? That's why you were in the sewers! You got lost looking for them! Man, I've gotta tell the guys about this, they'll be so-"

Karai shrieked, arching her back off the bed. April hurried to quell her, hoping none of the staff heard the girl's cries. "Shh, shh, don't freak out, it's okay..."

The redhead's heart dropped to her stomach like a rock when Karai's eyes began to flicker open. She squinted against the light, moaning almost inaudibly as she slumped on April's shoulder.

Swallowing nervously, April chanced a, "Karai...?"

The girl froze, then began to shake. Cautiously, April wrapped an arm around her, thinking she was cold. She was thoroughly unprepared when Karai jerked away from her. April almost fell from her chair, and Karai smacked her head against the wall behind her, prompting another pained whine. Despite her annoyance, the redhead still moved to help, gently grasping Karai's head.

The girl mumbled something indiscernible that went ignored. April inspected her head carefully, and although she found no recent injury, she did discover an alarming scar just hidden beneath her hairline. She had to suppress the urge to vomit as she realised just how Shredder had likely given her that scar. No wonder Leo had had such a hard time getting that brain-worm out of her.

A soft sob drew April from her thoughts. Karai seemed to have given up fighting her, instead straining not to cry. It shocked April. The last thing she had expected to happen was for Karai to cry - if anything, she would have expected herself as the most likely candidate.

"Don't cry," she said impulsively. Karai glanced up, seeming surprised by the friendly tone. "There's nothing wrong. I mean come on, there's no way you actually think I can hurt you. If I threw a punch at you, I'd break my knuckles."

The girl sniffed, scrubbing furiously at the one tear that ran down her cheek. April smiled at her. "Okay, look, how about a truce? I know we've not always, uh... got on great, but we've gotta look at facts here. I mean, technically you're a Hamato, right? And since the Hamatos have kinda become my second family, I guess it makes sense for us to at least tolerate each-other...?" She chuckled awkwardly, trying to break the tension.

It didn't work. Karai just continued to stare at her in bemusement.

"Where am I?" she rasped, her voice strained.

April swallowed. "You're in a hospital."

Karai's brow furrowed in further confusion. "How?"

"Some workers found you lost in the sewers and took you to a homeless kids' charity," the redhead explained. "You were sick and delirious, so they brought you here."

The older kunoichi eyed her suspiciously. "Then how are you here?"

"I was here anyway with Casey- Did you ever meet Casey? He's the loudmouth with the hockey stick."

For a moment, Karai frowned, as though struggling to remember something. Then, her eyes widened and she gasped. Before she could be questioned however, she quickly replied, "Yes, I met him."

Deciding not to push the matter further, April continued, "Well, I was here with him and his broken leg when those guys brought you in."

"Oh." Karai shifted in the bed.

An awkward silence settled over them, but an unspoken question still lingered in the air.

Finally, April relented, guessing correctly that Karai would never find the words to inquire. "Look, when they brought you in, you were... I don't know, you looked really sick. Honestly, you still kinda do." She paused before finishing, "I came in to see if you were okay."

"Why?" She snapped, suddenly vicious.

April's face paled in irrational fear, but she recovered quickly. "I was worried," she admitted.

The two regarded each-other quietly for a moment. There was still a lot of unresolved tension between them, but a small amount had been relieved and for now, a tentative compromise had been reached. Taking a chance, April smirked at her dark-haired companion. To her utter surprise, Karai hesitated for only a few seconds before offering a small smile in return. Warmth spread in April's chest at the realisation; Karai was the closest to rejoining her family than she had been in years. The redhead could only hope the girl's acceptance hadn't been born of delirium. Speaking of which, Karai was being strangely calm for someone who-

A high-pitched giggling cut through her thoughts.

She turned to Karai in confusion. "What?"

The older kunoichi just continued to laugh hysterically.

April sighed. Apparently Karai's moment of clarity had passed.

This idea got stuck in my head and wouldn't leave me alone. I know it's implausible, but I like it for some reason. I'm not sure yet if I'm leaving it here or maybe adding another chapter with the Turtles visiting... I don't know, let me know in a review if you want any more of this.

Regardless, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it :)

~ MusicRocks807