Raph was up on the roof of the warehouse. He pulled the little box from his belt and stared down at the Marlboro label. He had picked up the habit as a teenager, it only got worse when Splinter died, a bad way to deal with stress but he somehow managed to kick the habit a few years ago. Maybe it was why he was always so on edge, the nicotine wasn't there to help calm him down. Whatever the case, he really needed it now. Pulling the lighter out of the box along with the thin white tube he stuck it between his lips and lit it up. After a long drag he sighed and leaned on the edge of the roof.

He had slept on it, and spent the whole day thinking about it. The thought of Jack being pregnant terrified him. Yeah having a kid would be great and all but he wasn't exactly ready for this. Now that that initial excitement was over, he was petrified. His life wasn't conducive to raising a child, he spent his time fighting and tracking down the scum of the earth. A kid shouldn't be exposed to this.

Then there was the problem of her fighting. They needed her out there. She could do things they couldn't. And in this particular fight, she knew things they didn't, information that was potentially vital to the success of the entire task. But if she got hurt, the baby got hurt. Wouldn't it be worse for both of them?

He flicked the butt away and lit another cigarette.

"Raph? What are you doing smoking again?" Mikey came up behind him, box of pizza in hand.

The turtle just looked at him and sighed.

"Wanna talk about it?"

Raph slid to a seat against the wall, Mikey sat beside him and offered him the box of pizza but Raph shook his head. As Mikey started to dig out a slice of pizza Raph spoke. "Jack's pregnant."

His younger brother nearly choked on his mouthful. "She's what?!"

Raph simply nodded.

Tossing the slice of pizza aside Mikey got on his knees and faced his brother. "Dude that's amazing!"

Raph looked from him to the pizza on the roof top and then back. "I've never seen you throw away pizza before."

"Screw pizza! You are going to be a dad!" He grabbed Raph by the shoulders and shook him. "Why are you up here smoking?!"

"I'm scared as hell! I don't know how to be a father! And if ya haven't noticed, our lives aren't exactly made for havin' kids around."

"Are you kidding me? We thought it was never going to be possible for any of us to have kids. Now you are going to be a dad! That means our way of life isn't going to die out. We are going to have another generation of…" His excitement died away as another thought dawned on him. "Are they going to be turtles or… what exactly?"

Raph shrugged. "I have no idea. That's somethin' else that terrifies me. We are already freaks, what is my kid going to be?"

Mikey yanked the cigarette out of his mouth and threw it over the edge of the roof. "Stop it! Jack loves you. She is one of us… and no matter what your kid looks like it will be one of us too. And you aren't going to be alone raising it. Besides Jack, you'll have all of us too. You think we are going to give up the chance to teach the first little ninja in the house?"

"I don't want her to fight." Raph started to pull out the pack of smokes but his brother snatched it out of his hands.

Mikey frowned. "I didn't really think of that…"

"Yeah…" Raphael got to his feet. "Don't tell her I told you about the pregnant thing. She'll tell everyone when she's ready." He found the hatch and made his way back inside. By the time he reached the first floor, Leo and Ant were finishing up their pizza on the sofa while they watched the news, Donnie was still in his room, but Jack was nowhere to be seen. Raph plopped down into a seat on the other sofa and held his hand out for a slice of pizza.

"Four people have gone missing." Leo looked over at Raph as Mikey too joined them.

Raph swallowed a mouthful of pizza. "Does that have something to do with us?" He looked at his brother.

"Reports say they all reported problems with the Dragons in the past … I have a feeling the Foot are involved and probably Xanus." Leo sighed. "If they managed to get anything from Ant or I when we were in those cells… who knows what kind of experiments they are planning on doing next. Human tests would have to come eventually."

Jack came out of the training room and shoved the shell cell in her pocket before she came over and sat down on the arm of the couch beside Raph. Mikey couldn't hide the grin spreading across his face. Raph kicked him as he put his arm around Jack's waist. His brother needed to keep it together or else she would know he told.

Donatello called for Jack from his room. The woman jumped down off the side of the couch and froze. Her hand went to her stomach and Raph could have sworn her face turned green for a second.

"Jack?" He sat up straight.

She waved it off. "I'm fine, just, felt a little strange for a second." She headed to the other turtles room.

Mikey elbowed Raph. "Do you think that's because of…"

"Probably." He frowned.

"Someone care to tell us what's going on?" Leo stared at the pair on the other couch. "Or are we to be left in the dark."

"Jack's pregnant!" Mikey said excitedly.

"Idiot!" Raphael reached over and punched him.

"Did you just say pregnant?" Leo leaned forward in his seat.

Raph got to his feet. "We are not discussing this. You aren't supposed to know."

"Well we do Raph! Is it true?" Leo got to his feet and grabbed hold of his brother's arm. "This changes a hell of a lot Raph. Is. It. True."

"What if it is Leo? What the hell does it change?"

"We never thought it possible Raph. Offspring. Even Mona and I didn't think it'd be possible. If You guys have children this can be the start of something completely unknown."

"So what? We have faced other mutants, aliens, robots, been to other dimensions for fucks sake. What's the issue with children?"

Leo sighed. "Have you thought about Jack's safety?"

"What do you mean?" Raph's face paled.

"You haven't forgotten that you are a turtle right?" Leo looked at him. "And she is human, mostly. No matter what mix your child will be, it will most likely have problems during this whole pregnancy thing. And I'm sure you have realized our lives aren't exactly easy. Having a child around during all this isn't going to be easy. She can't exactly go give birth in a hospital."

Raph hadn't thought about the health part for Jack, but he'd talk to her about it later. For now he grit his teeth. "Whoever asked for easy?" He grunted.

Inside Donatello's room, Jack was leaning against her friends desk as he adjusted his prosthetic leg. Donatello tapped his artificial heel against the floor and stood up, testing his weight before he looked at her.

"Alright, so I just got an interesting call from Arionna." He looked at her before putting his hands on his hips. "It seems like you are in need of some… medical advice?"

Jack looked away, unsure of how much her old coworker had told him. "Yeah…"

"Is there anything I can help you with? Since you introduced us to her, she's taught me a lot. I've managed to copy pretty much all of her medical text books and I've read them all so I'm pretty up to date on human anatomy." His normally confident tone subsided as he took a limped step towards her. "You are okay, right?"

"Donnie… I'm pregnant." She looked back up at him.

The turtle staggered backwards. "What?" he couldn't keep the word from slipping out. "Does Raph know?"

"Of course he knows. I told him last night after I took about four home tests." Jack ran a hand through her hair. "I asked Arionna to do an ultra sound to… make sure I guess."

Donnie reached over at took Jack's hand gently. He pulled her over to his chair and urged her to sit down. Hunching down in front of her, the turtle took a deep breath. "Don't worry. We are going to sort this all out. I'll learn everything I can to make sure you and the baby are okay throughout all of this okay?"

The woman nodded, her body starting to tremble.

"Listen Jack… There is some stuff you need to think about." Donnie waited for her to look at him. He frowned when he saw the fearful tears on her face. "I know you are scared, but don't worry, you got Raph and all of us… but listen. Raph probably hasn't thought of this. We are mutants. You having his child isn't going to be normal. It's going to be some kind of mix between the two of you." He reached up and touched the reptilian skin on her face and neck. "This is probably the reason the pregnancy was even possible in the first place. Whatever mix of genes your child turns out to be, it isn't going to be human. You know that right?"

"I don't care." She shoved his hand away. "Why do you guys always seem to think that everyone around you despises everything that's different? I'm sleeping with your brother! Now I'm having his child! I obviously never cared if you guys were human, turtle or otherwise. I love Raph, and you guys and I'll love this baby no matter what it is."

Donnie held up his hands defensively. "I just wanted to remind you… pregnancy comes with hormones… and they can do some weird things to the way women think. Or so I've read."

Jack wiped at the tears that had rolled down her cheeks. "I just… we obviously didn't plan this. I'm scared that Raph doesn't want this."

"Don't say that." Donnie put his hands on her shoulders. "This might be a surprise but it's a good thing. After Master Splinter died we all realized that our lives weren't as invincible as we thought they were. It had just been us for so long, after he died we realized we were it. We had no one to pass our father's legacy on to. We had no one to continue our way of life. Yeah we love being mutants and we love being turtles, but it… it puts a huge barrier on so many other things." He smiled softly. "You, just being able to have Raph's children, it can give the rest of us hope. It means we aren't as alone as we thought. Our father's teachings won't have to die with us. We will have someone to teach, someone to carry on our way of life."

She almost laughed. "Wow, no pressure."

Donnie laughed. "That's not what I was going for…"

"I know." She wrapped her arms around his neck. "Thanks for the talk."

Donnie rubbed her back a bit before he let her pull away. "I'll ask Arionna what else she needs and see what I can do to order it or anything."

"Thanks." Jack wiped at her face and got to feet. "Damn… I don't know what's with the emotions."

Don just looked at her. "You are allowed to be freaking out about this. Anyone would understand it. But you can always just blame the hormones." He gave her a wink.

She chuckled.

"Do the guys know?" Donnie asked as he watched her walk toward his door.

Jack paused. "I asked Raph not to tell but with the way you guys are I'm sure they do now."

He nodded and watched her leave. The turtle trailed out of his room a few seconds behind her. He watched as his brothers instantly went silent when she walked by. The woman headed to the bathroom and the boys all turned to look at Donnie.

"Did she tell you?" Mikey scrambled to his feet.

"Yes she told me." He rolled his eyes.

"So what does this mean?" Ant asked, rubbing his temples, his eyes were closed. He clearly still had that headache.

Donatello grabbed the bottle of painkillers of the dining room table and walked them over to the teenager. "It means that you all need to do whatever you can to make sure she isn't stressed out. Pregnancy is stressful enough. This one is going to be even worse, she doesn't need our family issues stressing her and the baby out. Arionna is coming over soon to do an ultrasound so we will have a better idea of how far along she is then." Donatello scratched his chin. "Gestation is something else we have yet to consider…" He mumbled to himself. "Human vs turtle gestation is completely different…"

Raphael looked over at the bathroom, he could hear the shower running. "She's okay right?" He looked up at his brother.

"She will be. But you have to be there. None of your moods, got it? You aren't the one that is going to pop out a baby. She's scared, even if she won't admit it. You have to be strong for her… well, stronger than normal." Donnie patted his brother on the shoulder. "I'm going to go make a few phone calls. I'll be in my room if you need me."

Leo wasn't convinced that Donnie and Ant were ready for their attack on Xanus so he insisted on more training over the next few days. Which was fine with the others, honestly since learning about Jack's new revelation they were a bit more eager to hear about that then the impending fight with her brother.

Jack was wiping sweat off her forehead as she got a drink when a turtle approached from behind. "How are you feeling?"

She turned around and looked up at Leo. "I'm fine. Why does everyone keep asking me that? I'm pregnant, I don't have cancer."

"We don't know how this works." Leo admitted. "And I don't know how fighting and training is going to effect all this." He gestured to all of her, not really knowing what else to reference.

The woman rolled her eyes. She was about to walk away but stopped. "Leo… What exactly is the plan? For confronting my brother I mean?"

"Well the news says that a few people have been kidnapped. I suspect that it has something to do with Xanus. If they got anything from when they had Ant and I in those chambers… they may be moving on to human testing and I have no idea what they could be doing to them. Whatever it is though, we need to stop it."

"So it's a rescue mission?" Jack cocked an eyebrow.

"Partially. If Adam is the scientist working with…" He looked away. "with Mona, doing the testing then we need to make sure they aren't able to do it anymore. Destroy their equipment, take their research, something."

"You don't want them experimenting on people or animals without consent?"

He nodded. "It's what happened to Mona, I think, so… I'm not sure why she would want to be a part of all of this…"

Jack put her hand on his arm. "We will stop Xanus and get all this sorted out. Maybe then you can talk to mona…"

He frowned. "I'm still on the fence about talking to her again." He forced a smile and shook his head. "Anyway. You should get a shower. Isn't Arionna coming over in a bit?"

Jack nodded and watched him walk away before she left to clean herself up. By the time she stepped out of the shower, her friend was already at the warehouse, setting up her things in Donnie's room.

Before Jack took two steps into the room, pale arms wrapped around her. "Oh my god!" Arionna squealed. "I can't believe you waited so long to call me!"

Jack's face turned red. "S-sorry." She scratched her head. "And I didn't really wait that long…"

"Well, once we check on the baby you have to tell me all about what's going on!" The girl grabbed her hand and brought her over to what she was using as the examine table in Donnie's room. "I mean seriously, how much of your life is going to be like my books?" She looked at Jack pointedly. "First you fall in love with some tall dark mystery man who rescues you and now you are having his love child? What next? Raph isn't going to suddenly confess he is a prince or something is he?"

"Will you stop it?" Jack chuckled.

The red head giggled and gestured to the table. "Lay down." She went to the counter and opened up her bag. As she pulled on some latex gloves and a bottle out there was a little knock on the door. Both women looked up.

"Sorry to interrupt." Donnie cautiously poked his head in. "I just wanted to see if you guys needed any help in here."

Arionna looked over at Jack. "Help would be nice but.. Only if she says it's okay."

Jack looked back to Don. After their conversation the other night she felt just as comfortable with him doing this ultrasound so she shrugged and nodded.

The turtle came over and pulled up a seat next to Arionna. "What can I do?"

"Turn on the machine and clean off the wand." Arionna told him. "I'm just going to try and warm up the gel a bit so it doesn't freeze Jack." She rolled the little bottle between her gloved hands.

Donatello obeyed and Jack laid back on the table and put an arm behind her head. Turning to her friend, Arionna paused.

"This is probably still going to be a little chilly." She warned before she lifted up the edge of jack's shirt and squeezed a glob of the translucent gel onto her skin.

Jack reached down and pulled her shirt up a little further to keep it out of the way. Arionna looked up at her and then sheepishly tugged down the hem of her pants just slightly before she held her hand out to Donatello for the wand of the ultrasound. She rubbed the end of it against the gell on Jacks so far, flat stomach.

Instantly the machine started to make strange noises but nothing really comprehendible. Arionna looked over at the small portable screen as she moved the wand around and pressed against Jack's belly.

"Ah! There it is!" She smiled.

Jack and Donnie both looked at the small screen. All they saw was a small blob but it was definitely different from the rest.

The woman on the table let out an airy laugh. "Wow…"

Suddenly Arionna's brow furrowed. "Donnie can you turn the volume up."

He did as instructed and they all listened to the odd sound of…

"Is that a heart beat?" He questioned.

Arionna nodded. "Yes. It's the baby's heartbeat but I thought it'd be too early to hear it." The frown deepened. "There seems to be an echo and I can't figure out why."

Donatello looked at Jack and rubbed his head. "I uh… I wasn't going to bring this up until later but, Turtle gestation isn't nearly as long as human… I'm not sure if that's going to drastically affect her pregnancy or the development of the fetus's milestones and whatnot."

She paused and both women simply stared at him. "Good to know." Arionna went back to the ultra sound. "I just wish I could find what's making this echo… maybe it's the machine. It is kind of old…"

After another few minutes of staring at the machine, Donatello reached over and took the wand from Arionna, without a word, and ignoring Jack's puzzled look, he moved to a different part of her stomach. "It's not an echo." He almost grinned. "Listen to it. It's too rhythmic on it's own, off beat of the first one. It's beating all it's own."

"Donnie?" Jack leaned up, propping herself up on her elbows. "What are you saying?"

He adjusted the screed so she could see it better. "There are two."

Jack looked at the screen. Instead of the one little blob, she saw two of them, squeezed together in the hallow of her abdomen. "T-twins?" She breathed.

But before the reality could really sink in, the door was thrown open. Mikey was standing there, panting, a gash over his eye dripping blood down his face. Donatello was on his feet in a second as Jack scraped the goo off her stomach and sat up.

"Ant… He … he took off. The thing on his neck, it fell off and he lost it. He went crazy!"

Both Jack and Donnie bolted out of the room leaving Arionna sitting there. "Jacquelyn! Donnie!" She called after them, confused and wondering what she should do.