The boys are now going to start experiencing fatherhood sooner than they thought possible. More reviews would be greatly appreiciated.
It didn't take them long to get there in the Battle Shell. April was rocking Machala when she heard a knock at the door. She hoped it was the trio of turtles. She laid the baby back in the basket. "Who is it?" She asked.
"Its us April." Leo said.
April opened the door and there stood Don, Leo, and Raph. "So what did you want to see us about?" Don asked.
"Come on." She gestured them in.
Once they were inside, they noticed a basket on her couch. She sat down on it. "Here is something you need to see." She said as she took something green out of the basket. The trio's eyes all widened. Was that a baby…turtle?
"What is this April?" Leo asked.
"A young girl dropped her off not too long ago. Here Don, take her." April said.
Don was reluctant, but he did as he was told. He took the baby turtle from April. He tucked her into the crook of his left arm like the way April had her. Raph and Leo leaned over and took a good look. "Does she look familiar guys?" April asked, with a smile on her face.
They all looked at her suspiciously and looked down again at the baby. They noticed the skin coloring. It did look familiar alright. "She looks like Mikey." Don said.
April nodded. "This girl came by today and said she is Mikey's daughter. She was a friend of Mike's before she moved away. They were such good friends that it happened one night. She didn't know she was pregnant until she had already moved. Her name is Machala and she is only a week old."
They couldn't believe this. Mikey had died over two months ago, and now out of the blue, this had shown up. Mike had never told them that he had been with a girl. But now they had their answer as to why Mike had been so secretive all those months ago. He had had a girlfriend.
"But then where did this girl go?" Raph asked.
"I don't know. She explained some things to me about her and then just left. She never even told me her name, but at least she did tell me what she named Mikey's daughter."
The boys didn't know what to make of this. They were still in mourning over their dead brother, but now, even though they were still in shock, they found out they had a part of him with them again. They reluctantly took her home.
Don took some blood from her, to her own dismay and cried. He had to do some tests to see if she was truly Mike's offspring.
Splinter now held the little turtle in his arms. She did look a lot like Michelangelo. He also smelled her. Smelled like that of humans, but did smell some like his son.
The baby turtle had been overwhelmed by all the new faces, and had cried a bit, but soon calmed down when she was fed again.
Leo and Don had immediately taken over parenting roles. Raph was much more reluctant to get near her.
In the end, Don's test results were confirmed. Machala was Mikey's biological daughter alright!
Machala cried most of the night away. Leo and Don took turns feeding, changing, and rocking her back to sleep. Splinter also helped. He gave what advice that he could. Raph wasn't helping one bit. He just ignored the new baby.
Leo and Don had never thought they were going to be experiencing fatherhood so young. Of course they were really the uncles, but would have to be fathers now, since the real dad had died.
Though Don helped a lot, Leo had been the one of the 3 remaining of Mike's bros to take an instant liking to the baby girl. He was starting to play the father role very seriously. He almost always had her in his arms.
Machala got to know them all that they were her new family over the next several weeks. All but Raph. Raph wouldn't go near her. He wanted nothing to do with her. "Raph, you need to take care of her too." Leo said.
"I don't have to do anything, Leo. I want nothing to do with her." Raph said. "She reminds me too much of Mikey."
"She reminds me of him too by looks, and she isn't him. But she is a part of him." Leo said. "It's like he gave a special part of himself back to us."
Leo was right. Mike had not known until he reached heaven that he was going to be a father, but he had given a part of himself back to his brothers and father and friends.
Machala might have been the spitting image of Mikey, but in truth, as her uncles and adoptive grandfather found out, she was almost nothing like him in personality, at least not yet.
Mikey was disappointed in Raph for not helping take care of his daughter. He couldn't do it, so someone besides Leo and Don needed to help too. He came to Raph one night in a dream.
"Raph, why haven't you been helping with my daughter?"
"Mikey? Is that you?" Raph asked.
"Yes Bro. Machala needs you as much as she needs Leo and Donny. She needs all of you."
"It's just that she does remind me of lot of you. I'm just afraid I might hurt her or something. I don't know how to handle babies all that well." Raph said.
"Raph, you know I can't take care of her. As a favor to me and to make me proud, it would help if you tried to help take care of her." Mike said.
Raph understood. "I'll try Mikey, but I don't know how good I'll be."
"Just do it for me Raph. I know my time came sooner than I thought possible, but this is the best you can do for me right now by taking care of my daughter. That would help to honor my memory. A part of me still exists through her." Mike said.
And the dream ended. Raph awoke and he heard the baby crying. He got out of his hammock and went downstairs to Mikey's room. That was where she was kept. She needed to learn to accept being alone at times. He peered into the cradle. "What do you want Scout?" Raph asked.
Machala hushed as she saw the uncle she didn't see much. She knew that he lived there, but didn't know him that well like she did 'Daddy Leo and Uncle Donny.' Leo had appointed himself her father. Someone had to be.
Raph had seen how the others held her. He picked her up for the first time since she had come to live with them. He held her with a gentleness he didn't know he had. He had remembered his dream of Mikey telling him to step in and help take care of her. She only had so little family to take care of her.
He knew that she had been fed earlier before bed. There didn't seem to be a diaper change needed. So Raph just sat down in the rocking chair and held her. Machala just looked up at him with wide eyes, to see what he would do with her.
Leo had come downstairs when he had heard her crying through the baby monitor, but when he came into the doorway, someone else had beat him to it. He was seeing Raph holding her and sitting in the rocking chair. He had never done this before, but he was actually 'humming' to her.
Machala was about 3 months old now, and it had taken this long for Mikey to send him that dream to make him step in as a caretaker too.
Leo was impressed. He went to Don's room and got him up, saying that he needed to see something in the baby's room. Don was impressed and shocked as well. They both smiled. Raph was stepping into the parenting role finally.
Raph looked up at his bros' giggles. "What? She was crying." He said.
"Yeah, we heard her." Leo said.
"Seems you are ready to start learning how to take care of her now." Don said.
"I know I wasn't doing my part before guys. I'm sorry. Mikey came to me in a dream. He also told me to. I told him I was just afraid of her. Afraid because I missed him and she reminded me too much of him. He also said that since he can't take care of her, someone else had to step in. So I finally felt ready to give it a shot to help to honor Mikey's memory."
"Don't forget Raph that we will eventually have tell Machala who her real father was." Don said.
"I know."
"We might be her uncles, but none of us will ever be her real father." Leo said.
"I thought that you had taken over that role though Leo?"
"I have mainly. But yeah, we will tell her when she is old enough to understand about who her real dad was. Our baby brother." Leo said.
The boys were still mystified about Machala's mother though. They had been told about a human girl dropping her off at April's shop. So she was also part human too. They wouldn't know how to explain about her mother to her. That her mother had just abandoned her at April's shop when she was just a week old was all they knew.
Ophelia missed Machala dearly and would give anything to see her again. One day, she would return and see her again. She sure hoped that Mike's bros were taking good care of her. She was sure they were.