Hi everyone. Ok, so as promised, I have a new TMNT fic for you. This chapter was actually written alot sooner that I thought it would be. I didn't think I'd be getting this up before spring. Anyway, this is my second attempt at a gender-bend story, my first being and Atremis Fowl fic which has since been scrapped (see my profile). If any of you have a problem with gender-bend, I suggest you hit the back button and find a different fic.
Also, and I really do mean this, ABSOLUTELY NO TURTLECEST! For some reason I do not seem to mind as much if the fic is an au where they turtles are NOT related, but when they are, I just find the idea a little creepy. They are supposed to be brothers, so you will not find turtlecest in this story.
Finally, if this fic goes well, I have an idea planned for a second story, and perhaps even a third. Right now that's just an idea, and any sequels will depend on me actually finishing this one first. So for now, I'll leave you with this.
Warnings: gender-bending, possible spoilers for season one of the 2003 series
Oh! I forgot to mention. this fic takes place between the episodes "the unconvincing turtle titan" and "the king", and is acting as a replacement of the "notes from the underground" episodes (just pretend they happened later in the series). there's no particular reason for this, other than the fact that I wanted this to be set relatively early on, and this sounded like a good place to put it. Anyway, enjoy!
Disclaimer: TMNT belong to Eastman & Laird.
Leo's Reflection
Chapter one
"A med centre?" asked Michelangelo.
"Yeah, I figured we might need some medical supplies in case we get hurt again in the future." replied Donatello, showing his brothers and master around the new addition to their home. "But then I thought, why not a whole medical lab? If our injuries are serious, a simple first-aid kit might not be enough." The purple masked turtle paused briefly to see the others' reactions. "So what do you think?"
It wasn't the most sophisticated of labs just yet. There was a medical bed in one corner, a smallish examination table in the centre, a few cabinets with medical supplies in them, and a desk with a microscope and a small computer at the opposite side to the bed.
"It's uh…nice and cosy, isn't it?" said Leonardo cautiously.
"Cosy?" asked Mikey. "I thought cramped would be a better word for it."
"Yeah, and there's only one bed." commented a grumpy Raphael. "What happens when two of us need to use it?"
"Well, I have only set it up a few days ago," said Donnie sheepishly. "And it's not like we can just go a but all this stuff from a supplier. I'm collecting supplies when ever I can find them during our patrols. Although I asked April to buy the smaller equipment for us. I didn't think it would be safe to use needles found in a landfill."
Despite the origin of the furniture, everything seemed to be in good condition. The bed rails looked nice and sturdy, and the tables and cabinets were at least clean, if a bit dull in colour.
"You have done a good job Donatello," complimented Master Splinter, placing a hand on his smartest son's shoulder. "It is good to see your consideration for your brothers' health."
"Thank you, master." said Donnie, bowing slightly. As he and the others went to leave, a sudden thought came to mind. "Um, do you guys think I could take some blood samples while we're all here?"
"What for?" asked Raph, who was now half way out the door.
"Well, we don't know if any of us have matching blood types, mutated genes or otherwise. It would be good to have a blood bank available to use just in case we needed it."
After thinking about it for a few moments, most of the family agreed that it made sense and lined up to get their samples taken. Of course, Mikey had to be held down when it was his turn, due to his slight phobia of needles.
Finally, all the samples had been collected, including Donnie's, who had to get his taken by Leo. "Ok, that should do it for now." the purple ninja assured his brothers. "I'll run some tests on these, and later when I've found some blood bags we can start stocking up."
"What?" cried Mikey. "You mean we have to do this again?"
"Don't worry Mikey, Don probably wont be taking your blood again for a while." Leo reassured his 'baby' brother. (1)
"So can we go now?" growled Raph impatiently. "Some of us have things to do."
"Yeah, sure. I'll just start examining the samples, ok guys?"
With that, the 3 turtles and rat left the lab, leaving Donnie to continue his work.
That evening, Leo, Raph and Splinter were in the living area watching the news, while Mikey was in the kitchen making the dinner. The orange ninja had wanted to make pizza, as he had done for the past three days, but thanks to his brothers and sensei outvoting him, he was now making spaghetti carbonara. As for Donnie, he was still in the lab looking over their blood samples. They thought the task would take him an hour at most, but it was mid-morning when he took the samples and they had barely seen him since.
After a while, Leo offered to make everyone some tea, before heading to the kitchen.
"Hey, Mike." he said casually as he entered the kitchen. "I'm making some tea, do you want some?"
"No thanks, bro." the shorter turtle replied. He'd just finished making the pasta, which just needed to cook, and he was now adding the last ingredients to the sauce he was preparing. "So any sign of Donnie?"
"Not yet." said Leo. As he waited for the kettle to boil, he started to think about what could be keeping his smartest brother so busy. Surely he must be done with those tests by now, he thought to himself. Maybe he's reorganising things? Donnie can spend days sorting things out when he wants to…
While he continued to think about the family's genius, he didn't notice Mikey trying to grab his attention.
"Leo….Leo… HEY, LEO!"
"Huh, what?" Shaking his head slightly, he turned to see Mikey looking at him impatiently.
"Can I use the kettle now? You've been here for 10 minutes already."
"Oh, right. Sorry." he sheepishly replied, pouring the hot water into a teapot with some leaves, before handing the kettle over to Mikey.
"Oh, yeah, you might wanna get another cup out while your still here," Mikey said as he refilled the kettle for his pasta. "Raph said April's here now."
Nodding to his brother, the blue ninja placed a fifth cup on a tray with the teapot, then took it to the living area.
In the med lab…
Donnie was baffled, to say the least. He'd gone over the blood samples time and again, but so far it hadn't done much to help him understand what he was seeing. It had to be a mix up with the samples, or something similar to that. He just couldn't get his head round it…
-knock knock- "Hey, Donnie. Can I come in?" looking up from his microscope, the turtle was surprised to see April in the doorway, holding two hot cups of tea.
"Oh, hey April." he smiled to her. "When did you get here?"
"About ten minutes ago." she replied, making her way into the lab. After giving her younger friend his drink, she sat down on the bed, looking around the room. "This place is really coming along, isn't it?"
"Yeah, I guess." he replied, his mind still on the blood tests.
"Something wrong?"
"I just don't get what I'm seeing April." the purple turtle admitted. "I've lost count of how many times I've redone these tests, but the results are still so, so…I can't find the word for it."
"What's the problem?" she asked, walking over to him.
"Take a look at this theses samples." he said, nudging the microscope in her direction. Looking through the eyepiece, April found herself looking at a selection of chromosomes. "So this is my sample, right?"
"Ok," said April as she handed the microscope back. "I don't understand what the problem is though. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it."
"Try comparing it with this one." said Donnie, changing his sample for one of his brothers. At first April didn't see much difference, but after a few seconds, she saw exactly what Donnie was talking about.
"Oh my god!" she exclaimed, her eyes going wide. "Donnie, do you know what this means?"
"I think I might do," he answered slowly. "That is of course if I've got the right chromosomes."
"Well, I don't know as much about turtles as I do humans, but I think I know enough to understand what this means. And you're sure this is one of brothers' and not mine?"
"Definitely. I even checked your sample again to compare."
"Oh my god." April said again. Still taking in what they had found, another thought came to her mind. "Who's sample is this Donnie?"
"Leo's. I don't know what I'm gonna tell the others though. I'm not even sure how's best to approach it."
"I think we should tell them tonight. Leo said earlier that Mikey had almost finished cooking, so if we wait until afterwards, then we can get it done and over."
"You sure that's a good idea?"
"Yes. The sooner we tell them, the better."
Dinner that night was a somewhat awkward affair. While Raph tried to hit Mikey for pranking him and Splinter ate his own food in silence, as usual. Leo could tell something was up with Dannie and April. April was repeatedly looking at him funny all the way through the meal, turning her head away whenever she noticed that he was looking back. Donnie on the other hand wasn't looking at him at all. Instead he was looking down at his food, which he'd hardly touched. This really concerned Leo, as his brother would normally engage him in conversation about almost anything, while he enjoyed his food, though perhaps not with quite as much gusto as their other two brothers.
Master Splinter had also taken note of the friends' abnormal behaviour this evening. But what Leo hadn't noticed was the knowing looks the two kept sending each other across the table. The rat could tell that they were hiding something, but he decided not to pry; he trusted that his son would tell him what was wrong when he was ready to do so.
After dinner, the group gathered in the living area once more, and began to play a game of Cluedo. Raph and Mikey originally suggested one of their video games, but sadly they didn't have enough controllers. After Splinter had managed to win the game twice, April and Donnie decided that now was the right time to talk to the others.
"Hey, guys?" said Donnie, cautiously. "Can we talk to you for a minute?"
"If it's about Rev. Green, forget it Don." said Mikey. "I called him, so I'm playing him!"
"No, it's not that. April and I have found something in one of the blood samples." Donnie confessed. "We really think you need to know about this."
"Is something wrong?" asked a concerned Leo. At the mention of the blood samples, everyone was now looking at the two brainiacs with interest.
"Yeah, none of are sick or anything are we?" asked Raph.
"No, don't worry. It's nothing like that." April assured them. "We just found something important we you should know. But it's not dangerous."
"Ok…" replied Mikey. "So what is it?"
"Um…" Donnie wasn't really sure where to start. He decided first to see how much his family could already understand. "Well, what do you guys know about chromosomes?"
Raph and Mikey only answered him with a blank stare, neither of them understanding what he meant. (2)
"Aren't they the things in cells that contain genes?" Asked Leo. Donnie smiled in response. It was a good start at least. "That's right, Leo. Do you know anything else?"
"Well, I know that each one's paired with another, so there's always an even number of chromosomes." the blue ninja replied. "And I think I heard somewhere that every species has a different number of chromosome pairs. Is that right?"
"Yeah, that's right." answered April, taking over from the very nervous Donnie. "See, there are two types of chromosomes that determine a person's gender; type X and type Y. a girl has the chromosome pairing XX, while a boy has the pairing XY." (3)
"What's that gotta do with our blood samples?" asked Raph, who was now getting rather frustrated.
"Yeah, and who's the one with the problem?" asked Mikey. "Is it me? Or Raph? Leo? What about Master Splinter?"
"Well…" replied Donnie. "Err, you see, um…"
"Donatello," said Master Splinter calmly. "If you do not wish to tell us, then you should feel that you must do so regardless."
"No, it's fine Master. It's just a bit hard to say.
"Do you want me to say it Donnie?" asked April.
"No thanks, I can do it."
Closing his eyes for a moment, Donnie took a deep, cleansing breath to calm himself down, before looking up to his family once more.
"It's Leo." he said at last. "When I looked at his sample, I…I found that his sex chromosomes didn't have an XY pairing."
The statement left his family in silence. He couldn't be saying what they thought he was saying, could he? Before they had a chance to think about it, the purple brother spoke again, confirming what they were all thinking.
"Leo has an XX pairing."
Donnie finished talking and looked up at the others again, having bent his head down whilst talking. Everyone was quite obviously shocked at what they had heard. Raph's mouth was hanging wide open, while Splinter's hold on his cane became much tighter, his fur standing up slightly. Mikey's eyes so as big as saucers. It looked as though his head was about to burst, he was so shocked. The three of them slowly turned to stare at Leo, who was now silent and unmoving, eyes slightly enlarged.
After what felt like an eternity, Mikey broke the stunned silence they were in. "Ss-so, so th-that means…" he stuttered.
"Leo's…a girl?"
Du-dun-duuuuuunn! Sorry, always wanted to do that :P
So, there you have it, my Leonardo gender-bend! I hope you liked this first chapter. Here are a few small points:
1) I always considered the turtles to be quadruplets, as turtles in the same nest tend to hatch around the same time (I think). So for me, their whole age concept is based on general maturity. The turtles consider Mikey to be the youngest as he is so innocent and child-like at times, but for all they know he could be the oldest.
2) I'm not suggesting that Raph and Mikey are dumb. It's just that they've been living in the sewers their whole lives, so there's no guarantee they would all know the same amount of biology.
3) This info is based on human genetics, as I do not know as much about turtle genetics. If this is different for turtles, could someone let me know? I like to keep my fic details somewhat accurate.
Please be constructive in your reviews; flames will be used to roast marsmallows.
Thank you for reading, I'll try and get the second chapter up as soon as i can.
AJ Tomb Raider