The main family was having dinner at the table when they heard their lair door open up. They weren't expecting any guests tonight, but when they looked up at the top of the stairs, they couldn't believe who they saw.
"Mikey!" Leo, Raph, and Don all shouted at the same time.
Mikey giggled nervously, "Hi, guys." He greeted.
His brothers ran to hug him when he got to the bottom of the stairs. He had held onto the railing coming down for support. He still had clumsy moments.
They all hugged him tight as tears filled his family's eyes. "It's good to see you guys too," Mikey said in a squeezed tone.
His brothers finally let go and then there was a great big whack upside the head. "OW!" Mikey cried out.
"That's for runnin' away in the first place!" Raph yelled.
"Mikey, why would you do a thing like that to us?" Don asked.
"Because, you all were treating me like I didn't matter to you. I just had to get away from it all." Mikey explained. "And I know I didn't miss that," he added, referring to Raph hitting him.
"I did it because you deserved it. But I'm glad you're back, Mikey." Raph said and then put a hand on his shoulder.
"It is good you are home, my son." Splinter now stepped forward.
As Mikey looked at his father, he seemed much older somehow. "I did miss you guys, but like I said, I just needed some time for myself."
Mikey then went to hug his father, who was more than happy to hug him back.
"But you weren't captured by Bishop or anything?" Leo asked.
"No. I was just in hiding," Mikey said. "I didn't want to be found. I also didn't want to come back, but I needed to, since I'm not in the best condition to be on my own."
"What do you mean?" Don asked, raising an eye ridge.
Mikey looked at Don and his family, then he looked down at his belly. He put a hand on it. His family all saw what he was talking about.
Their eyes all widened when they saw the swelling down there for the first time.
"I was sick for a long time and I didn't know why. I thought I was dying, and if I had died, I thought you guys wouldn't care if I was gone, since I was nothing more than a pin-cushion for everything. All the hitting and lectures, I felt like I wasn't wanted. You made me feel unwanted," Mikey explained, unable to look up at his family.
"Mikey, we could never hate you," Leo soothed. "You're always welcome to come home." He shrugged as a soft smile spread across his face. "Just a lot of your games and behavior can annoy us… a lot, that's all."
"It still doesn't make me feel that much better, but now that this is happening, a lot of stress needs to be taken off me." Mike said, rubbing his belly.
"How did this happen, Mikey?" Don asked.
"I don't know, Don."
"From what I can see, your stomach is nearly about the size of back when Leo came home from him being kidnapped by Bishop's cronies. You look like you are about 4 months along or so," Don said.
"And it's been about 4 months since the last incident with him and Johnson," Leo added. "Maybe that's why Mikey appeared to be unharmed other than his leg getting shot. This only could have happened through them."
Mikey didn't like the idea of Bishop starting this on him, but now that he was this far along, what choice did he have? But then, he had gotten used to this by now and he wasn't about to give up his baby.
"Even if it did happen from them, I'm not giving up my baby!" Mikey exclaimed.
Leo could easily understand what he was going through. He wouldn't make anything happen. Don and Splinter were likely to accept it, but Raph was still the one to worry about.
"Well, Hannah and Brian could use some more cousins or siblings, however we want to look at it." Don said, making it clear he was understanding of the situation.
"It took me a long time to accept Leo's twins as part of the family and we already have our hands full with them." Raph said, crossing his arms over his plastron.
"Raphael, we will welcome this new child into the family as well." Master Splinter said.
"We're just glad you are alright and safe." Leo said, stepping forward to give Mikey another hug.
Mike accepted his oldest brother's affection. And now it started. The doting part.
….
After Mikey and Klunk got settled back in, he went to see how Brian was and saw that his son had been well taken care of. He knew his family would take great care of him while he was gone. But he couldn't have stayed away for the sake of his son anyway.
And soon after, Don performed an ultrasound on Mikey to just see if the baby was alright. Everyone was in there to see it.
They were all surprised to find not one, but two babies!
Their eyes all widened when they found out that Mikey was going to be having twins. This was definitely a lot to take in.
Leo hoped that Mikey wouldn't go through the traumatic experience of losing either one. Mikey only had twins versus when he had lost two of the four that he had carried. And then, Leo had another realization: what if he had been impregnated again?!
"Don, this was something that was never done when we got back because we were all so busy recovering, but now that it's been re-issued, maybe you should check me too to make sure this if this is happening to me again," Leo said nervously, placing his hand over his stomach.
"Yeah, that needs to be addressed too, considering Johnson wanted to see how you carried Hannah and Brian." Don said, nodding his head.
Mikey was allowed up and cleaned his belly off. Then Leo took his place.
Leo hadn't been experiencing anything that would count as symptoms but he had no real basis for comparison since he hadn't experienced any of the symptoms from the first pregnancy due to the fact that he had slept through them. He wanted to be sure. He had taken his belt and gear off his torso for this to be done.
Leo simply laid on the exam table, staring up at the ceiling, as Don put some gel onto his lower plastron.
What if he was pregnant again? And with Mikey's twins on the way, if he was, they were going to have too many babies to care for after they were all born.
Don got the gel on Leo's stomach. Looking up, he saw that his oldest brother had a worried look on his face and wouldn't look at anyone. He picked up the wand and put it onto the gelled area.
Leo could feel the wand moving over him.
The rest of the family was looking too to see if there were any babies in there as well.
As Don moved the wand over Leo's plastron, he could make out internal organs, but nothing of the sort of what he had seen in Mikey, or when Leo was pregnant last.
Don moved the wand over Leo a few times just to be sure. On the fourth time, Don stopped it all.
Leo looked at Don when he saw the computer switched off and the wand taken off his belly.
"Nope. I'm not seeing any babies inside you, Leo."
It made the leader breathe a huge sigh of relief. Don handed him a towel as he sat up. Leo wiped the gel off his stomach.
"But I'm sure Johnson would have impregnated me eventually if we had been there any longer." Leo said.
"Yeah, and I might have died because of their poisoning." Don said.
"And it had to be them that did this to me." Mikey said. "But they could have done horrible stuff to me too despite the babies."
"True, but Bishop or Johnson wouldn't want you incredibly stressed because it could have cause a loss to one or both babies." Leo explained.
"I don't want to lose either one." Mikey said worriedly.
"From this moment, Michelangelo, you are to start eating healthy," Splinter stated. "You will only do things that don't stress you too much. I still do advise some light exercise, such as walking. And now that Leonardo is healed, and your abdomen is getting bigger, you are not doing anymore patrols."
"I haven't done patrols for weeks, Sensei." Mikey said. "But I did do my katas, as much as I could before I felt sick."
"You might be able to do some small katas for a while. Leo should be able to help you learn how to breathe and do the movements more fluently." Don said. "After all, he went through this."
Mikey looked at Leo. He knew his big brother wasn't going to let him get lazy just because he was expecting. And though Leo could be a pain when it came to training, with this condition, Leo knew that he needed to take it easy on him. It would be easy to get winded and dizzy at times. But learning to breathe right could help that. And Leo was well aware that Mikey would need plenty of rest as well.
Leo had just finished putting his gear back on and now he had crossed his arms and smiled rather firmly. He loved to be the teacher.
Mikey still somewhat dreaded training with him.
"And what about when Raph gets mad at me?" Mikey wanted to change the subject.
"Raphael will not be pounding on you." Splinter said.
Raph couldn't help but groan at the matter.
"If you have to pound something if Mikey makes you mad, pound your punching bag." Don said.
Raphael knew Mikey carrying babies was a bad idea. Not just because he would be worried for him like he was with Leo, but more so than Leo because he knew that Mikey would be rubbing his condition in their faces, like he had done with winning the Battle Nexus Championship.
Patrol was called off for tonight. It was advised that everyone go to bed. Starting tomorrow was a new start for Mikey with his family.
Beta read with Applepye.
Sorry. Had my mind busy on other things for a while. Including on trying to get better from a thrown out back injury.