Chapter Text
When he woke, it was to the steady sound of a machine softly beep-beep-beeping into his ear and a stiff feeling that enveloped his whole body.
He groaned, his eyes squeezing together, his brows furrowing as his head jerked to the side and his body tensed. His mind felt like it was swimming through cobwebs. All his thoughts thick and heavy, fogging up his brain and making him feel slow to respond as he tried to open his eyes and lift his hands. It felt like he was made of molasses, or maybe more like he was filled with it.
When he went to peel his eyes opened, he cursed at the piercing light that stabbed into him, twisting his head away as if that would help him escape its brutal attack on his sight.
“Casey?”
“Ugh,” He muttered, growling as he managed to drop his arm across his face. “Bro, did you get the license plate of the thing that hit me?”
He could hear the heavy fall of Raph’s feet making their way across the floor to his side.
Joined by many others.
“Casey!”
The ring of his name coming from so many other voices had him lifting his arm, braving the burn of the light to arch a brow at the group swarming towards him.
“Are you okay?” Although Mikey was the first to get to his side, clinging to the handles of the cot he was apparently laying on, he was shoved away before Casey could answer, Don grabbing his face and forcibly turning it to look his way all while shoving another, bright light straight into his eyes.
“On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?”
“Donnie he just woke up.” April sighed, grabbing his hand and removing the pen light he’s been using. “Give him a second.”
“And he’s on pain killers.” Came Leo’s voice, Casey not wanting to risk glancing over at him to see the expression that matched with the tone.
“Good. He’s gonna need ‘em.” At Raph’s low growl, Casey found himself whipping his head around to his best bro, his hands held up and out before him as he watched him invade his personal space.
“Whoa, whoa-,”
“What the hell were you thinking!?”
Confused, Casey didn’t know what Raph thought he was supposed to say. Thinking about what? The fight they’d been in? The hit he took? The move he’d managed to pull off just before-
His eyes widened, the memories of what had happened before he must of blackout smacking him in the face.
“Oh my god.” He gasped, his mouth falling open as everyone else fell silent. “I got stabbed.”
“Not just stabbed.” Leo muttered, Casey unable to ignore him as he stepped forward and the rest, excluding Raph, fell back. “You got completely ran through.”
Casey winced at the blunt delivery, trying to play off the solemn atmosphere when a chuckle that sounded made a little to close to the edge of forced.
“Wow, I uh, haha, talk about a metal way to end the night.”
“This isn’t a joke, Jones.” Was Leo’s only response, Casey’s head ducking away from the burn of a glare that he could feel burning into him. “We almost lost you.”
“I’m with Fearless for once on this.” Raph growled, his body stiff as he stood there, lording over Casey from where he was stationed at the side of his bed. “This isn’t a joke Case.”
Letting out a sharp tsk Casey went to run a hand through his hair, only to freeze when the action felt like it… pulled at something across his gut. Not even bothering to try playing it off he instead scowled at the two mother hens guarding the edge of his territory that at this moment was the worlds most stiff cot.
“Come on guys, this isn’t anything new. Our lives are dangerous. Sometimes we end up in the med wing.”
“Not like this.” Don mumbled, moving in once more, Casey almost shocked at how Leo stepped to the side so the genius could fill his space. “The internal damage you took was immense Jones.”
Jones.
Not cavemouth or bonehead or any of the other countless names they’d taken to calling each other over the years. Just Jones.
Jaw clenching tight Casey chose to stay silent for once, his lips pursed as he clutched hard at the paper thin sheets under his fingers.
“April had to hold your injuries together as well as she could while Leo used his Healing hands to mend the worst of the damage, and still it wasn’t enough. You’re going to have to take it easy for at least the next two months to make sure you’ll reach a full recovery.”
“Two months!?” Casey shouted, pulling himself to sit up straight as he glared at the rest of the group. “Are you kidding me? I feel fine! The little magical surgery you guys gave me worked fine! I barely feel anything!”
“Yeah, that’s because Karai had the doc numb the hell outta ya before you work up.”
Casey paused, shifting his body this way and that, feeling the pull for himself again, but no pain.
Ah. That made sense.
Still, he just scoffed at the information, shaking his head as he went to push himself up. “Whatever man.” He mumbled, trying to sit up but not getting far before a hand was on his shoulder.
Snapping his head towards the owner of the limb the only thing that kept him from snapping was seeing Red’s big blue eyes staring back at him. Her gaze was stern, but concern won out over every other emotion flittering across her face. “Casey…” She said his name slow, like she was talking to some sort of child and not a badass warrior who’d fought battles all over the galaxy. “You really shouldn’t move around to much. We did what we could, but the wounds are still pretty fresh, and you can tear them open again if you’re not careful.”
With a sigh, Casey carefully batted her hand away. He hated being treated like glass. He didn’t need them to baby him.
“I’ll be fine Red.” He grumbled. “Casey Jones is always fine.”
“No,” again, Leo spoke up, and Casey snapped his head around to scowl at the leader once again. “You’re not.”
“Leo-,”
“And you’re not just benched for the next two months.” Leo pressed, rudely interrupting him. “Until we can figure out how to deal with this new threat, you’re off the team.”
Casey’s stomach dropped.
Briefly he wondered if his injuries had somehow been ripped open again, leaving his entrails slopping to the floor and almost subconsciously his fingers trailed over the thick feeling of the numb skin to make sure it was still closed.
This couldn’t be real.
For the last seven years he’d been on the team, fighting alongside them through everything. They’d fought monsters, demons, ghosts, aliens, other mutants. Yet this? This was Leo’s breaking point? This was all he believed he needed to kick him off the team?
Like a flame doused with gasoline he felt his shock being suffocated by his anger.
“Fuck you Leo.”
Mikey gasped, Don and April stepping back while even Raph’s eyes bulged at his audacity.
Leo on the other hand remained unreadable. Other then the slightest narrowing of his eyes, it was like nothing had changed.
“You can’t just kick me off the team!” He was snarling now, gripping the arm rest of the cot and hauling himself to his feet.
No one stopped him this time.
He almost wished they had.
For as much as they had numbed him, he felt a deep throb shutter through his body, his knees buckling and his insides rolling with the movement. He had to take a second, blinking the stars out of his vision and he clutched at his stomach, struggling to keep the urge to vomit whatever was in his stomach down.
Not that he allowed the impact it had on him to move that much to show so blatantly outwards, keeping the snarl on his face as he took a wobbly step towards the mutant he was intending to chew out.
“I’ve been in the hospital before. It happens. I’ll heal up and then-,”
“No.”
If he wasn’t well aware of the fact that Leo could kick his ass when he was at full health, he would have been tempted to take a swing at the stoic asshole.
Seeing as how he wasn’t going to break though, he turned to his best bro, growling at the way he tensed but didn’t back down. “Dude, back me up here.”
Raph froze, his eyes darting over to his brother, his hands tensing around his biceps with the briefest of squeezes before he was looking back at his friend. Casey already knew he wasn’t going to like what he had to say the second he caught the hesitation in his response.
“Look, Case-,”
“Oh fuck you too.”
He didn’t even wait for Raph to finish whatever lame excuse he had for agree with his brother, snarling in his face before whipping around to the rest of them.
“I’m guessing it was a unanimous vote?”
Mikey didn’t look at him, hiding himself mostly behind Don while April shifted her gaze towards Leo. Don was the only one who met his eyes, and though there was no guilt there, his shoulders were slumped and his posture was heavy.
“It won’t be forever Casey.” He tried, Casey’s nose scrunching at the blatant lie. “It’s just… We’ve never dealt with something like this before. We don’t even know what it is but-,”
“But what?” Casey hissed. “We’re always fighting things that no ones ever seen before, what’s the difference now?”
“The difference-,” They all wiped their heads around to one of the darkest corners of the room, watching as Shini and Karai walked in because apparently using a door wasn’t dramatic enough. “Is that these creatures, whatever they are, don’t die.”
Glaring at the woman and her right hand, Casey could feel his mind spinning.
Was she the reason that Leo had decided to kick him from the team? Had she mentioned something to them all when he was out?
Instead, however he scoffed and rolled his eyes, settling back against the cot as if he was striking a power pose and not because he could feel his legs shaking from the weight of himself alone.
“It’s not that they don’t die shadow princess.” Casey corrected, blatantly ignoring the way she glared at him. “It’s just that we don’t know how to kill them yet.”
“Regardless,” And Leo was back, earning a look from Casey as he jumped in to defend his sister. “Until we can figure out just what’s going on with them, how they’re here and what they want it wouldn’t be right to have you out there with us.”
“Why?” Casey snapped, his lips pulled back to show off his teeth in a sneer. “Because you don’t think I’m capable of handling myself.”
“Your human.” Leo said, blunt and cold, Casey feeling the fact like a slap to the face. “I’m not taking the risk of you dying because we ignored that liability.”
“Jesus Leo.”
Although Raph grumbled at his brother’s choice of words, he did nothing to dispel them and Casey felt the way the room seemed to shift under his feet as the words rang clear through his mind, circling over and over again around the one that seemed to be burned into his soul.
Liability.
That’s all he was. That’s what his humanness turned him into.
He wasn’t a mutant like they were and therefore, was nothing more than a mascot for their team until they deemed that things were ‘to serious and tossed him to the side.
Gritting his teeth, Casey shoved a hand in April’s direction.
“Whatda ‘bout Red?” His accent slipped through, as it always did when he was a little more emotional about something, but he ignored it, snarling at the eye roll Leo gave.
“April’s part Krang Casey.” He said, speaking as if he thought the other was stupid. “And she has a faster recovery time and abilities that you don’t.”
Seeing as how he had a point and knowing better then to turn on Karai for obvious reasons he moved on. “And Shini?”
“I’m a witch.” She didn’t even wait a beat for anyone to fill in the answer for her, waving her hand and conjuring up a misty cloud of smoke as if to emphasis the point, her brow arched as she turned to him. “My bloodline is filled with mystics, and I have combat abilities outside of basic melee weapons.”
“Good for you.” Though he knew he would regret lipping her off later, he bulldozed over it now, turning back to the group as he tightened his hold across his stomach. “Haven’t I proven myself enough to you guys over the years? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I was right there with you through everything, and I’m still standing.”
When he turned to Raph, he could feel his breath coming in high and tight when he turned away again. Done with his friend ignoring him though he stepped out, grabbing his shoulder and forcing him to look at him. “We went through this!” He snapped, staring into those wide and eerily bright green eyes of the mutant in his hold. “Years ago! Remember!? You thought that I couldn’t handle myself and I proved that I could do just fine!”
The look that Raph gave him said it all.
“Case… That was back when we were kids. It’s- it’s different now.”
Scoffing, Casey shoved him away. “Yeah, because now I have an extended resume of dealing with this shit and somehow it’s still not good enough.”
“Stop being so dramatic.”
There was very far and few in between moments where Casey wanted to punch Leo in the face- mostly because he knew he wouldn’t get far with it- but also because, normally when Leo was lecturing people or ordering them around, he wasn’t doing it to Casey. Most of the time he kept that shit between him and his brothers and only ever gave Casey orders when it came to patrols or fights they were about to get in.
“This is more serious, and you know it. We’re not dealing with mutants here, at least none that we’ve ever seen before, and whatever they are, they’re more deadly than what we normally go up against. It’s for your own safety that you sit this one out.”
“I don’t-,”
“Besides,” Leo cut him off sharply, his stare just as sharp as his blades as his eyes narrowed. “You still have months of recovering to do. You can’t help anyways.”
Casey opened his mouth to argue, but nothing Leo said could be fought against. It was true. Already he could feel his body wanting to sit back down and just go to sleep. He felt heavy and already whatever numbing agent they had given him was starting to wear off and everything hurt.
Nothing felt worse however then the way his stomach clenched, and his throat felt tight at the unflinching gaze of the Hamato leader.
But, he had to try for one more angle.
“You can’t stop me from showing up and jumping in.”
He could feel Leo’s temper shimmering beneath the surface, but unlike Raph or the others, he rarely ever showcased it in a burst of physical violence or verbal shouting.
Leo always went for the throat in whatever way he knew it would do the most damage.
“If you do that, then one of us will have to take our attention off the fight to protect you, and that distraction could be fatal. Are you seriously telling me that you would risk the life of one of your friends just to satisfy your own ego?”
The room fell silent, and Casey felt the weight of those words crushing him under their weight.
There was nothing he could say to that. As much as he wanted to say that he could fight at their side just like he always did, this injury would put him on the back foot. If he did drop in on them and the fight dragged on longer than he could handle currently or he couldn’t protect his injury in time, he would go down and wouldn’t be able to do much to help at all. Someone would have to come and watch his back and that…
He slumped back, his lips pressed into a thin line as he finally dropped his gaze to the floor, defeated and bitter. “No.”
That seemed to be all Leo wanted to hear.
“It won’t be forever.” His voice was softer now, switching from leader to friend in a heartbeat. “Just take the time to rest and get better. “We can handle this without you.”
While he was sure that Leo meant it to be comforting, it felt more like a slap to the face. A slap that stung even more when no one spoke up to say anything otherwise.
When he remained silent, refusing to give his own to thoughts on Leo’s statement, he listened as instead the mutant sighed, seeming to accept his silence as he turned to his sister.
“Karai, would you mind keeping an eye on Casey while-,”
“Forget it.”
Although his body screamed out in protest, he ignored it, shoving his shoulder into Leo’s as he passed, nearly stumbling as the action caused a ripping like feeling to tear clean through him. He didn’t let it show though, gritting his teeth as he stormed on past the group, flipping Leo off when he turned to face him, hissing at the rest of them as he stormed towards the door.
“I’m injured, not an invalid. I don’t need a fucking babysitter.”
“Casey-,”
“Call me if you need me. Oh wait.” Casey snapped back, interrupting Raph before he could hash out whatever excuse he was going to use.
Without a word further, he stomped through the sliding door of the med bay. Only when he was sure he was out of sight and when the door had slid shut behind him, did he allow himself to dig his nails into the wall, falling against it briefly as the pain whited out his vision and a loud buzz went off through his head.
Seemed like the pain killers had worn off. Great.
Scowling as his night just kept getting better and better, Casey shoved himself off the wall and forced himself to continue his long way home.