April and Casey made their way to the Lair, carrying shopping bags full of supplies that the turtles had requested. Some of it was the usual fare, but there were odd items mixed in as well: crackers, soups, fruits, vegetables, peppermint tea, and ginger jam, which had been especially hard to find.
"Yo, we're here," Casey hollered.
Leonardo opened the door, but it was Donatello that April immediately sought. He had texted them to say that he was home from Area 51 last week, but they hadn't spoken yet. It was unexpected, as the two chatted almost daily. More unusual still, Donatello didn't get up to greet her. He waved from where he was hunched over on the sofa before immediately crossing his arms in front of himself again. He looked sad and exhausted, but at least he was home.
April crossed the room to give her best friend a proper hug. He returned it, but obviously tried to keep some distance between them. April wondered what on earth had happened to him at Area 51. He seemed so traumatized.
"It's good to see you," April greeted.
Donatello smiled, which was nice to see. "You too. I missed you guys."
"We brought the stuff you asked for. Pizza too," Casey announced. "Everybody dig in before it gets cold."
Don was glad that it was pizza and not something that he couldn't eat, like sushi. He planned to tell April and Casey about the babies after dinner so that it wasn't hanging over his head. His nerves were making him feel sick. He took a single slice of veggie pizza and picked at it while catching up and making small talk. He did tell his friends about his time with Bishop, and the Triceraton project.
Everyone finished eating, but they were still sitting around the table. April watched Don nibble the edge of the same slice he had been playing with all night. He'd been quiet for a few minutes now, and everyone had noticed.
Finally, Leo cleared his throat and gave Don a meaningful glance. "If it easier for you, I can just tell them," he offered.
Don raised his eye ridges. April couldn't tell if he looked upset or relieved. "Tell us what?" she asked.
"There was something else that happened to me at Area 51," Don said, slowly. "Something that will be kind of hard to believe."
Casey laughed. "We're used to things being hard to believe. We're sitting in a sewer having dinner with a group of mutant ninja turtles, after all. I doubt you could say anything to surprise us."
Raphael chuckled. "Oh, this will surprise you, alright."
"Try me. Five bucks says I won't be surprised," Casey boasted.
"I'll take that bet," Raphael quickly followed.
"Me too," Mikey agreed. "I want in on this action, for sure."
Donatello closed his eyes for a moment. He wanted to take the bet too, but he also didn't want to delay the conversation now that Leonardo had gotten it started. Fortunately, Leo was above betting. He simply gestured for Donatello to go on.
"When I was at Area 51, my first night, actually, Bishop did something to me. It turns out that he'd been trying to clone us. Not true clones, mind you, more like bioengineered versions of us that share some degree of genetic material with each of us four."
"Why would he do that?" April wondered.
"He was trying to create a super soldier for himself. We're stronger and more durable than most humans. He wanted to use me in particular, due to my intelligence."
"So far I'm not really surprised," Casey bragged.
"Just hang on," Raphael urged, his lips curling a little.
Donatello was actually rather grateful for the lighthearted banter. At least this was going better than when he had told his brothers. "Anyway, it turns out that he couldn't successfully create the clones. They were unstable without the presence of mutagen during their development."
"Thank goodness," April exclaimed. She couldn't imagine the consequences if Bishop had managed to clone an army of mutated turtles.
Donatello gulped. April seemed so happy to hear that Bishop had failed, he dreaded telling her otherwise. Don looked to Leo, who urged him onwards again.
"So, Bishop came up with a different plan, and on my first night at Area 51, he made some minor surgical modifications to some of my vestigial turtle organs. Then, he… he." Don stopped to clear his throat. "He implanted the remaining three embryos into me."
April's mouth dropped open. "Don, are you saying that you're..."
"Pregnant," Leo finished for her. He then shot an apologetic glance in Donatello's direction. He knew Don hated that word, but it had seemed to be the best way to explain things.
Don gave Leo a forgiving nod, then he turned to April and Casey. April hated what she saw in his eyes. He looked so defeated, so beaten down. Beside her, Casey opened his wallet and slid out a ten dollar bill. "You'll have to split it between ya, I don't have anything smaller," he mumbled.
Raph snapped up the money before Michelangelo could grab it. Don winced at the sudden motion. "Guess no one saw it coming after all," he said sadly.
April wanted to believe that this was just some sort of joke, but she knew that Don wouldn't kid around about something like this. His brothers clearly weren't laughing either. Raphael was looking at the money in his hand as though it had offended him. Poor Don seemed so upset, and everyone else just looked mad and embarrassed, so April did the one thing that she knew Don needed most.
She got up from her spot at the table, put her arm around his shoulder and pulled him into a side-hug. "That's wonderful, Donatello!" She didn't really mean it, not yet anyway. But, he clearly needed someone to simply be happy for him.
Don looked like he could cry. "Really?"
"Of course. You'll make a great dad!" That part was true anyway. Don had all the trappings of a wonderful father. He was so patient and kind, gentle and loving.
Donatello stood up and gave April the hardest hug that she had ever received in her life. "Thank you," he whispered. His relief was palpable, even making her tear up a little.
April wiped her eyes. "So have you thought…" She cleared her throat. "Have you thought about names?"
"No. I've got a while to go," he answered.
"Of course you do. When are you due?" April asked.
Don shook his head. "Maybe around Thanksgiving. Hard to say for sure."
April put a hand over her heart. "Babies for the holiday season, that would be amazing."
"I… I guess it would, yeah," Don admitted.
April and Casey's walks home after visiting the boys were always interesting, but this one took the cake.
"Can you believe-" Casey started.
April cut Casey off. "No, I can't believe it."
"But you sure seemed like you were able to wrap your mind around it pretty quickly," Casey observed.
"Not really," April countered. "It was just that Don obviously needed somebody in his corner and nobody else seemed to be stepping up. Didn't you notice how distraught he looked?"
"Yeah, I guess. He seemed to be taking it all right, though," Casey considered.
"I'm not so sure," April disagreed. "It's not like he ever expected to go through anything like this. I mean, could you imagine if it was you in his place?"
Casey stopped in his tracks and yelled. "April! That's disgusting!"
"Quiet down," April ordered. "And make sure that you don't say anything like that around the guys."
"I get that it's not like Don can help it. It's just so weird, though." Casey shivered.
April started walking again. "I know. Everyone else obviously feels weird about it too. Don especially, I'm sure."
"And did you get a load of his stomach?" Casey asked as he ran up behind his wife.
"I certainly felt it that second time we hugged, but I tried not to look. It was clearly making him uncomfortable," April noted.
Casey nudged her. "Oh, you looked. Just admit it."
"Fine. I looked," April conceded. "But, only a little. I didn't gawk like everyone else, Casey."
"I wasn't gawking, just trying to see," Casey defended.
"Just don't do it again. Don obviously doesn't like it," April scolded.
"Fine," Casey surrendered. "By the looks of things, it won't be long before there's no hiding it anyway."
"Probably not," April agreed. "Don's going to need a lot of help from us. He's already asked me to pick up some prenatal vitamins. He also wants to get started on building an ultrasound machine right away, so I'll be spending some time helping him with that. We should also offer to help with baby stuff. I doubt that he'll know what to get, and he has a lot of bigger things to worry about, with the whole Triceraton thing."
"What do we know about baby stuff? It's not like we've ever talked about it ourselves," Casey considered.
April was a little offended, and turned to glare at her husband. "That doesn't mean that I'm totally clueless. I certainly know more than any of the turtles do about these things."
When April next visited Donatello two days later, he seemed to be a little more relaxed, after the lab door closed behind them, that is.
Don had been spending his nights thinking about the babies and attempting to sleep between bouts of nausea. He spent his days training and working in the lab, also in between bouts of nausea. He spent his afternoons crunching data from Valeria, and his evenings patrolling for the sake of getting back into shape while he still could. His brothers had been fighting him tooth and nail, but he insisted on going. All of this had left Don exhausted, but he needed to prioritize the ultrasound machine.
Don let out a deep sigh as he closed the lab door behind him. He gave April a goofy but winning grin as he approached his work desk. For once he didn't feel the need to hide his girth, and April gave him a quick once over. If anything, he looked small, given how far along he was with triplets, but she understood how self-conscious he felt about his condition showing at all.
"Before we get started, I have something for you," April said. She handed Don a paper bag containing the prenatal vitamins.
"Thanks. I think that Bishop included all the vitamins that I need within the hormone vials, but better safe than sorry. From what I've read, there's no real harm in taking extras, given my metabolism and characteristics." Don took a swig of water and swallowed one of the pills. April had also purchased an extra calcium supplement. Don thought that it would help as his babies formed their shells.
"You're certainly taking this seriously," April complimented.
"Yeah," Don agreed. "I know that I have to be careful if I want them to be healthy. The odds are stacked against us. That's why this ultrasound machine is so important. I need to catch any problems early so that I can make a plan about what to do."
Don showed April his blueprints for the machine and the parts that he had already gathered from dump runs and his personal stash. When he was done, he leaned back in his chair to stretch, then began picking at a granola bar in the hopes that eating something dry and solid would help him keep the vitamins down for longer.
"How are your brothers handling things?" April asked. "They seem to be keeping their distance. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"
"A bit of both," Don answered as he chewed. "They're not happy that I'm still training and patrolling, but I think that they understand why it's so important to me. Leo has been trying to take my side, I think. He's been pretty quiet overall. Raph has been going off on his own a lot, but that's sort of normal for him since Dad died. Mikey has just been watching TV and playing video games. He doesn't usually get away with so much screen time. I think, deep down, they're worried about things going wrong with my health. I really want to finish this ultrasound machine as fast as I can. Once they see with their own eyes that everything is okay, my bros should feel a lot better about this."
"It'll be nice to see those babies of yours, too," April smiled.
Don's gaze grew dreamy. "Seeing them is really something. I last saw them a week or so ago, but they're changing so fast now that I bet they look totally different already," Don noted. "Hopefully once they see them, my brothers will fall in love with them too."
"I'm glad to see you seeming so happy. I know this can't be easy for you, and you've seemed so distant since you came home."
"It is hard, but I don't mean to be distant. I'm just trying to give everyone the space and time that they need to get adjusted. This isn't new to me, but it is to everyone else." Don sighed. "I just wish that I'd gotten free before I started showing. It's only making things weirder."
"Oh please, it's hardly noticeable," April dismissed.
"Not for too much longer, I'm afraid," Don mourned. "The last few days, I've woken up each morning feeling bigger than the day before. It's like my plastron has softened enough that I've reached some sort of tipping point."
April wanted to ask if she could feel his belly, but it seemed so intrusive. Instead, she put her hand on his shoulder. "If it's bound to happen anyway, there's no use in worrying about it. It's only temporary anyway."
"I know. It's just weird feeling everyone trying to catch a glimpse all the time."
"That's just the way it is," April soothed. "It happens to human women too."
"My brothers and I have always been the same. Other than skin color, we're virtually identical. I was always the different one because of my brain. This is just really making things even more awkward. After being gone for three months, and now going through these obvious changes, it's making me feel like an outsider," Don complained.
April rubbed her hand up and down the tensed shoulder that she was already grasping. "Oh, Don. I doubt that your brothers feel that way."
"Maybe not. I do think that the hormones are getting to me," Don admitted. "That's part of the reason that I'm making myself a little scarce. I've been so moody since I got home."
"Really? Your behavior seems normal enough to me."
"My behavior may be normal, but I'm working hard to control it." Don pinched between his eyes in frustration. "My emotions are all over the place."
April chuckled. "Sounds about right."