Raphael

"Zoe wanted me to make sure you and Donnie got a nap." Mike held out a pillow and a blanket to me as I sank into the couch.

Andrea crawls up in my lap and snuggles up to me. I take the blanket and pillow for her. She's ready for a nap, the ear holding and thumb sucking are telltale signs. I shake my head, "We're supposed to be meetin' with Leo and Don to try and figure out what we're gonna do about space."

Leo steps out of the kitchen holding a cup of tea. "We can talk here. Then you and Don can get in your naps."

"Are you sure Leo?" I rub my eyes and fight off the lure of sleep. Andrea doesn't help, she's already out, and that just makes me drowsy.

"Yea, I'll get Don, he's in the lab."

I nod and rub my eyes again.

Zoe had me freaked out last night. Neither one of us were ready for that. Don didn't seem surprised though and he was so calm it made the whole thing go as smooth as it could. I'm not about to tell Zoe the babies won't make it if they come now. Don told us that we just don't have the equipment to keep them alive. She has to make it to thirty two weeks at least. That's six more weeks before we have viable babies. Great. Six more weeks before all hell breaks loose.

"Raph?"

I realize I'd dozed off when my blue clad brother's voice woke me up.

"Damn," I sit up, and noticing Andrea is gone, realize I've been out for awhile. "What time is it?"

"Nine, at night. Zoe's asking for you." He held out a glass of water to me and I took it gratefully.

"Shit, I slept all day?" I ask, setting the empty glass on the coffee table.

"You and Donnie both, he just went for a cup of coffee." He sits down in the armchair. "I was thinking maybe you and Zoe would like to have the basement all to yourselves. It's well lit and walk-out. You'd even have your own entrance. We could finish it before the babies get here."

"What do Mike and Donnie say? Did you ask them?" I try not to get excited because it's the perfect solution.

"We say yes," they answer from behind me with such confidence I feel that at least one of a hundred burdens has been lifted.

Standing from the couch I turn to see them leaning shoulder against shoulder, Mikey's foot is propped against his shin, arms crossed. "Let's do it," he grins.

"We can change your old room into a room for Master Splinter, he doesn't need all of the space the basement has and you and Zoe surely will." Leo's shrugs, "Space problem solved. Now we just have to build it."

"That sounds good." I stretch, trying to seem cool about it, but actually want to do something crazy… like hug them. "Can we start tomorrow?"

"First thing," Leo smirks and I suspect he may have an idea of my feelings.

"Okay," I turned for the stairs, "Guess I'll go see what she wants."

Just outside our room I can hear the sheets rustling. As I step inside, I find moonlight seeping in through the curtains casting a soft white glow over everything in the room, from Antonello's olive colored shell pressed against the rail of the top bunk, to Andrea's chubby hand clutching her stuffed turtle against her rosy cheeked face, to the red haired woman that has possessed my soul. Pushing the door closed behind me, I find her writhing around, grunting and huffing, punching a pillow and beginning again. When she notices me she sits up, yanks a pillow in front of her and crosses her arms around it.

"Hey," I amble over to her, aching to hold her, to just drink her in, devour her, lose myself deep within her like I've done more times than I can count over the past five years. Even when I fight with her that urge burns within me pacing like a caged animal waiting to be released.

She feigns a smile that isn't working for her and my heart sinks. I just want this whole part to be over. Watching her suffer, tears at a place within me that doesn't have a name, stripping away my control, unnerving me.

"Hey," she mumbles then looks away from me and I feel that pang, that cavern like wound between us, and I want badly to sew it up. It has gotten better, but that mass of belly, keeps a good wedge between us. What she's going through, I wonder if Anton will ever understand, because it's ultimately for him. I only hope it doesn't cost everything she has.

"Anything, I can do? Leo said you uh-"

She bites her lip and I know she's struggling with something, even if it's just trying to get comfortable and she's tired of it. "Sit behind me? Just let me lean against you awhile."

Her gray eyes are glossy with the endless tears each pregnancy has brought her and I nod, slipping into the bed and leaning against the headboard, pulling her between my legs and letting her mash her pillow against my plastron before grabbing my arm and wrapping it over her chest. I rub her back for a while and her breathing slows. It's hard to fight the knot in my throat, just having her close to me again, having her ask me to be there and then letting me touch her. It gives me the satisfaction of a battle won and I relish the time with her.

She makes a soft sound that I've heard before but can never find words for and I know three shelled boys are giving her a tough time. Reaching down I edge the pillowcase away and lift up her nightshirt to expose her fair skinned belly, finding it shifting and gliding then moving like rough ocean waves crashing against the sides of a boat. Gees, no wonder she can't sleep. It's like watching me and Leo fight only their trapped inside her. I place my huge hand down over the ripples and dips and they settle. I can't wait to meet you guys.