TMNT does not belong to me. Just Annie & Co. Big thanks to The Silent Hunter and syzygy101 for reviewing!

Please make sure to vote on my poll! Do you think the baby should be a boy or a girl?


I know my wife wants to leave right now, but I'm not letting her crawl through a manhole. So that means going back through the Lair. And Annaleigh is not happy about that at all. I rub her back gently. I'm about to call Fearless and tell him to gag Aaron. That way my Wildcat and I won't have to worry about his mouth.

That's when Zeb comes bounding through the sewer towards us, Mike right behind him. I grab the mutt by his collar before he can knock my wife down. Mikey pulls her into a hug.

"You okay, sis? He didn't upset you too bad, did he?"

"I'm fine, Mike. I knew he was going to say that." My wife slowly pulls away from him, but holds his hand to her belly. Trying to use the baby to distract him. She really doesn't want to talk about what happened.

But Mike's not going to be deterred. "But it still hurt you, Annie. He shouldn't have done that."

"I know that, Michelangelo! And I don't want to talk about it. I just want to get the shell away from him!" Mike's eyes widen in surprise. Annaleigh's never snapped at him like this. He pulls his hand away from her.

I sigh. "Wildcat, calm down," I say firmly. Never thought I'd lived to see the day that I would be the one telling my wife to calm down.

Instantly, her expression becomes horrified, "I'm so sorry, Mikey!" She hugs him. "I didn't mean to snap."

"It's okay, sis. You're under a lot of pressure." He kisses her temple, "Anything I can do?"

"Yeah," I say. "You can take Zeb back into the Lair. Find some way to distract Aaron while I get Annaleigh to the garage. Get Amie to stay with her, so I can pack her things."

"Where are you guys going?" Mikey asks, taking Zeb from me.

"Casey and April's," Annaleigh says. "Until Aaron cools his head. I'm not going to put up with him if he's going to talk about you guys and the baby like that," my wife finishes, clenching her teeth. From one extreme to the other. Shell. Casey wasn't kidding about those mood swings.

As Mike starts heading back, I squeeze her shoulder, "Take it easy, babe."

"I'm trying to Raph. I really am. But when he acted like our baby was trash-"

"I know, I wanted to punch his lights out too. But like I said last night. Our baby needs the both of us to stay calm. Breathe."

She giggles. "Never thought I'd hear you say that, Raphael." She kisses my cheek.

"Why the shell do you keep missing my mouth, woman?"


As soon as Annie stalks off, so does Amie, holding my hand firmly. I have no choice but to follow her to my room, out of Aaron's sight. "A-are you okay, Amie?" I ask. I don't know why I stutter around her. And for some reason, she told me that she likes it. Go figure.

"You know I'm not, Donnie," she says, sitting on my bed. I sit next to her and tentatively wrap an arm around her shoulders. This is still new to me. I have no clue what I'm doing.

But I guess I'm doing something right, 'cause Amie wraps her arms around my waist, laying her head on my shoulder. I find myself kissing the top of her head before I even know what I'm doing.

She sighs, "I just wish Aaron could see how wonderful you guys are. He's been so set on true mutants our whole lives."

"True mutants, Ames?"

"Human mutants. People who are just born different. And you know what the weird thing is, Don?"

"What?"

"We're not even true mutants! Our dad was just one of Shredder's experiments who managed to escape." She's about to continue, but what she just said doesn't make sense to me.

"But I thought you were! True mutants, I mean. Annie told us that the Utroms even ran tests on her, but-"

"But they didn't find anything. That's because my siblings and I are second generation mutants. The Utroms wouldn't have found anything different about her because nothing was done to us. Just to our father."

"That does m-make sense in the scheme of things," I say, almost to myself.

Amie continues, her expression downcast, "And Aaron's completely ashamed of what we are. He's made up a completely different back story for us. And I'm starting to worry that he actually believes it," she finishes softly.

I rub her arm gently, "It'll be okay, Ames. We'll figure this out. I promise." I cradle her face with my hand, wiping a tear away with my thumb as I lean in awkwardly to kiss her. I have no idea how she'll react.

Before my lips meet hers, someone knocks on my door. Mikey shoots inside before I can even answer, closing the door quickly behind him. And Amie and I immediately pull away from each.

My youngest brother rolls his eyes at us, making it clear that we're not fooling him.

"Mike, what the shell are you doing?" I ask, just a little irritated with him.

"Don, I need you to help me distract Aaron. Amie, can you wait in the garage?"

"Sure," Amie answers slowly, her expression confused. "Why?"

"'Cause Raph is going to sneak Annie up there, get some of her stuff packed, and they're going to April and Casey's." Mike blurts out in one breath. I don't even have to ask. I'd seen the infuriated look on my brother's face and the hurt one on my pregnant sister-in-law's when Aaron had talked down to Annie like that. Even I, the peace-keeping turtle, had clenched my fists.

"I'll do one better," Amie says. "Go help Mikey, Don. I'll go pack my sister's stuff." Once Mikey's back is turned, Amie gives me a quick kiss. She pulls away, her expression very gentle. I've never seen her look at me like that before. Therefore, I just stand there, completely dumbfounded as she walks out of my room.

Mikey sticks his head back through my door, "You coming, Genius?"

I blush, "Uh, y-yeah, L-Leo."

"Shell," my orange-masked brother chuckles. "You've got it bad, bro."


Please R&R.