Don was already staring at his monitors when April entered the lab. He flipped back and forth through a series of images, each comparison only making him more distraught. He shook his head, mouth agape in an expression of distaste, but he kept scanning.
She came up behind him, laying a hand on his shoulder. "What's wrong?"
He cast her a look of annoyance for his project before turning back to it. "Since our encounter with the other-dimensional turtles, I got curious about other versions of ourselves and our allies. So I designed a sort of portal-screen that allows me to view the other dimensions." He paused to glance up at her. "I thought if these other versions of us were similarly aligned with our objectives, we could form a network of inter-dimensional alliances."
"But..?" April urged as Don seemed to delve further into his funk.
He gave her a contrite little blush. "I got sidetracked."
She side-eyed him. "You were spying on the other Aprils, weren't you?"
"No!" he yelped, holding palms up at her defensively as she put her hands on her hips. "I mean… Maybe. Okay, yes, but not in the way you think." He enlarged the pictures on his monitor for her to get a clear view of them as he pointed. "I started seeing a definite pattern here. Look… April, with Casey. The public displays of affection indicate they're in a relationship."
"THAT'S Casey?" April interrupted. "Wow. Beefcake!"
"Not helping…" Don singsonged through gritted teeth.
"Sorry. And my hair's such a crazy color there… Go on…"
Don clicked to the next pane. "April. Casey Jones." Then the next. "April. Casey Jones. April. Casey Jones." He scrolled through the entire lineup of pictures. "In every dimension, April and Casey are a couple. E-except this one, R153," he said, pointing to an odd, angular dimension. "There, Casey is actually a girl and the April there is more into a slime girl named Sunita."
"That's weird, but okay… Ooh! I like your eyebrows in that one!"
Donnie grinned. "Dashing, aren't they?" he agreed, waggling his own brows at her. But April got straight to the heart of the matter.
"Feeling a little jealous?"
The turtle swallowed and sighed. "No," he said. "More like… worried."
Don's concern hit April straight in the heart. "Worried?"
"The similarities… Like…" He paused, searching for words, then started pacing as he spoke again. "… is this how it's going to be in our reality? Is it predestined, somehow? Do all roads lead to Casey Jones for you, and… not me?"
"Donnie…" April breathed as he turned to look in her eyes. She picked up spikes of panic from him in her mind.
"Does something happen in our future that makes you go to him? Do we have a fight? Does something… happen to me? If we continue our relationship, is some preeminent event going to force us apart? Is it a fluke that we're even together?"
"Donnie!" she shouted to break him out of his endless cycle of doom and took one of his hands in hers. "We don't have to follow a pattern."
"Do we even have that choice?"
"For now, we do. None of those other versions matter… I'm staying with you." She took the mouse from him, scrolling through the animated portraits of other worlds. "Are any of the other 'me's' mutants?"
The turtle's head drew back in realization at his companion's insight. "No, as far as I can tell. You're the only one."
"Then none of the others have had the opportunity to know what it's like, and empathize," she said as she stroked his hand. "So they don't have it in common with you like I do."
He chuckled. "Because I'm your mutant."
She grinned back wryly. "And I'm yours."
He stared back at the screen for a moment. "Similarity…" he stated, forming a thought, "…doesn't indicate causality." The thought brought a relieved smile to his face, so he said it again. "Similarity doesn't indicate causality!"
April grinned. "Feeling better now?"
Don gave a good-natured snort, knitting his wide fingers with hers. "You already know!"
She shrugged one shoulder. "Doesn't hurt to hear it out loud."
"Then, yes. For now, my worries about the matter have been allayed. Though I still have questions about—"
"Nope! No more questions for now! Come on! Let's go get some pizza gyoza!"
His gap-toothed grin still wide, he scooped her up in his arms and spun her around. "You are amazing!" he said as he exited the lab with her.
On his monitor, another dimension's Donatello stared through one of the portal windows into Don's lab, looking awed, but breaking into a grin. He made no sound, the window muted, but turned and called something over his shoulder, gesticulating wildly at the image. A curly-haired girl rushed to his side, looking over his shoulder at the couple's joy while that dimension's Donnie excitedly assessed what they were seeing. The other April's jaw dropped, the corners of her mouth turning upward. She turned to the other Donnie, looking just as elated, and their lips came together just as the monitor blacked out in sleep mode.