Disclaimer: Tyger owns the story. I own the series. Neither of us owns TMNT, or anybody other than ourselves. Thank-you.

It is about 5 and half years in the past. Splinter was out with the guys, who were about 6 and a half years old. They were having a lesson on how to survive in the sewers if there happened to be humans or dangerous creatures about and where one can hide, or go when lost. They were also on the lookout for any food or useful items that was in decent condition. After their lesson, they went into three groups, in pairs and Splinter alone, for items. Raph went with Donny into the north tunnel from the sewer junction, Leo and Mike went into the East tunnel, and Master Splinter went into the West tunnel. They were to go to the Sewer Junction if there was trouble.

All that the three groups found was some canned food, blankets, basic

tools, and a couple other basic items. On the way back to the junction,

Mikey thought he heard a hiccup.

"Don Don, was that you hiccuping?" He asked.

"Wasn't me. Why?" Donny replied, stopping to look at Mike.

"I thought I heard something over there." Mike spoke, pointing to a dark

spot in the tunnel they were in.

"Will you quit joking around? There's nothing in the shadow." Donny spoke.

As Don spoke, he went over to where Mike was pointing to just to make Mike more comfortable and to keep Mike from disputing with him until the end of time. As he got within a foot of the shadow, something made a cry and startled Don and Mike. Not to procede any further, they yelled for Master Splinter. Master Splinter, followed by Raph and Leo, came running and asked what was wrong.

"There's something in the shadow. I think it's a baby. But we're not sure." Mike responded.

Just then, something came crawling out of the shadow.

"My word." Leo gasped.

What the five of them was a small baby was slowly crawling. Not a regular baby, but a baby mutant turtle. A mutant toddler came out of the shadow, looked at Master Splinter, grabbed the baby, and went back into shadow.

"It seems, sensei, that there are more of us than we thought." Donny pointed out.

"It appears so, my son. I sense that there are more there than the two that we saw." Master Splinter replied.

"What are we going to do, sensei? We can't leave them here, nor can we take

them with us. There is barely enough for the five of us already." Leo spoke with concern in his voice.

"And we can't bring them uptop, for who knows what would happen to them." Mikey added, with even more concern.

"We are in a predicament, aren't we?" Don asked.

"I say we leave 'em."

"Raph, that is no way to talk about a helpless being. When we get back, 10 flips and extra chores. We have to take care of them, even if it means we all have to starve when it gets tough for food." Sensei spoke.

Trying to round up all the baby turtles was no easy task. When they tried to grab the younger looking ones, the toddlers snatched the younger ones before they were picked up by Master Splinter or the guys, and ran to a near by shadow. This seemed to go on for hours. Eventually, the toddlers got tired enough to stop running, and were now crying out for food, whcih caused the younger ones to start crying. Luckily there was food for all of them to eat that was in the guys' bags to tide them over until they got to the lair. Each of the guys and one toddler took a baby, Master Splinter took two, and used a rope for the toddlers to hold on to so they wouldn't get lost.

When they arrived at the lair, Master Splinter found the box of baby food that he had found a few days ago, and started giving the toddlers and babies a proper meal while the guys helped. The toddlers were more of a fuss while they were being fed than the babies, therefore they had made a bigger mess of their food. After eating, each of the toddlers and were put into the living room so that they could play a bit before bedtime. Leo and his brothers had the chance to watch their new siblings while Master Splinter was making enough bedrooms for the twelve newcomers. Since there was no room for each of them to have their own room, they were to be bunked into 6 different rooms. The 6 babies were in three rooms, while the 6 toddlers were in the other 3 rooms. Each room had two temporary cribs for everyone to sleep in.

After the rooms were made the younger ones were put to sleep, who were

closely watched by the toddlers until they too nodded off to sleep and were put into their cribs. After everyone was asleep, Raph went off to his bedroom to try and to get away from his punishment. Determining the

children's sex would have to put off until tomorrow, when there would be more of a chance to determine that.

"Raph? Where do you think you are going?" Master Splinter said in a silent but stern voice.

"Bed, sensei." Raph said, trying to act as sincere as possible.

"And what about your punishment?" Splinter asked.

"Can't I do it in the morning?" Raph asked.

"Your chores can wait until morning, while you do your flips tonight."

Master Splinter commanded.

"Yes, sensei." Raph replied as he went off into the dojo.

The other three were free to watch a bit of television before bedtime. After making his first rounds of the night, Master Splinter sent his sons off to bed before making plans for tomorrow and going off to sleep himself.

Present day

"There I was, an unready father for twelve unwanted children. I could not let all of you starve and die. In the end, I did the right thing because I have twelve happy, healthy, and beautiful girls to call my daughters."