April looked in the rear view mirror at the quiet turtle trying to lay low in the back of her car and sighed. Their eyes met and she smiled at him, he returned it but it didn't reach his eyes. He looked away and moved around trying to get more comfortable. Things had not gone as they expected, or rather, they had gone a LOT worse than they expected.
Donatello and April had been seeing each other in secret for the past few months. At first, she didn't understand why he was so adamant about keeping it from his family but now she knew. Splinter had always been kind and polite to her but she had missed the frowns when she kept visiting the lair after their battle with the Shredder or the lectures he'd repeatedly given to all the turtles, especially Donnie as they grew closer, about not getting involved in human affairs.
After months of sneaking around, of secret nights spent sighing and laughing breathlessly under her covers when he was supposed to be in the junkyard looking for spare parts, they had started to get careless. It was how Splinter had caught them, clothes in disarray and wrapped around each other in a passionate kiss in his lab thinking everyone was asleep.
"You are putting the whole family at risk and her own safety as well just for your own pleasure!" Splinter's voice boomed around the lair as he yelled at Donnie who knelt before him, head lowered in respect but hands fisted on his thighs in fury. He talked as if April wasn't right there behind him. "Every time she makes her way to our home she could be followed. Every time you go see her you could be seen. What would keep our enemies from taking her during the day when she is unprotected? How would you feel if she were tortured for keeping our secret? What would become of us when they storm the lair once again? This. Ends. Now."
"No." He answered softly at first and when Splinter paused and looked at him strangely he straightened his back and tried to sound more firm. "I will not stop my relationship with her."
He heard a gasp coming from Mikey who was sitting off to the side in line with his other brothers before his father recovered from his reply to continue. "You would put your family in danger over sex? I do not recognize you, son." He put emphasis on the word to remind him of his place but it only made Donnie's jaw clench tighter.
"We are careful and you can't expect us to hide down here forever away from everything and everyone!"
"I will do what I must to keep this family safe and you would see things my way if you weren't so obsessed with what you can get between her legs."
Donatello stood up at that. "Don't." He warned in an angry tone and he towered over his father. "This is not about sex." He stated firmly and then more softly and searching out her gaze, "I love her."
Their eyes met and she gave him a weak smile. "I love you too." She answered quietly but loud enough to carry to him, to bring a flush to his cheeks and a soft smile to his lips. The others looked between them but remained silent. Leonardo's head bowed low, Raphael looked away embarrassed by the scene and Michelangelo looked hopefully at their father.
"What do you know about loving a human? Can you meet her friends, her family? Can you give her a good life or children? She would be sneaking you into her bed until she grows tired of the secrets and lies or we are killed because of your selfishness."
"You don't know that! We can make it work. It doesn't have to be that way!" April pleaded with him. Maybe if she were more calmed down and they were talking amiably she could try to explain to Splinter how much his son meant to her.
"Enough! Get out." He was talking directly to April for the first time that night. He noticed her flinch and tried to soften his tone somewhat. "Go home, April. You do not belong here."
She started to turn towards the exit when Donatello caught her by the hand. "No." He faced his father slowly. "If she leaves I'm going with her.
"If you leave, don't come back. At least I will be able to keep your other brothers safe." And after a long pause where they held each others gaze for what seemed an eternity, he walked through the door.
That was how they now found themselves on a darkened road leading north out of the city. "They'll come around, Donnie, you'll see. Everything is going to be fine. They just need a few days to calm down and think about things."
Donatello nodded but wasn't so sure about that himself. Maybe if his brothers had spoken up in his defense… No, he couldn't put this on them. He had left them in the dark about his relationship with April and it had caught them completely off guard. He remembered Leonardo's pleading gaze while he stood in silence before turning towards the exit. Maybe he should have stayed and tried to fix things first before leaving.
Guilt filled him as he recalled the way Raphael had stormed off and how Michelangelo called out to him down the tunnels. "Please don't go!" He'd begged but he had kept walking. Now that they were on the road, alone, he realised how foolish he was. What could he even do out here on his own? It would be as his father said, hiding in Aprils house out of sight of the world waiting between moments they could be together in secret.
He was startled out of his depressing thoughts when April's warm hand fumbled blindly over his knee until it found his and squeezed his fingers. "I think you're going to like the farmhouse. After a few days there everything will seem better, I promise."
She released him and he found her gaze in the mirror again, full of love for him. He took a breath of fresh air and tried to purge his mind of dark thoughts. "Okay." He said after a while and his resolute eyes were on the road filled with possibilities in front of him. "Let's do this."