Reviews:

Stegosaurus1412- Don't underestimate a father who just learned that his daughter just got knocked up by the boyfriends! Even nerds can hulk out in that instance.

Techno Dawn- What I don't think people realize is just how young the turtles actually are. Leo had to take an incredible amount of responsibility on his shoulders when he was basically still a child, and he is well aware of how little he actually knows. The thing is, he has really good instincts for the job, but he's not completely confident in himself yet, and keeps second guessing himself. And I hope that I handle the relationship decently. If there's one thing I'm uncertain of, its my ability to write a decent romance. I like to show my characters' relationships through subtle interactions and reactions, and romance is anything but subtle.

Author Notes:

Bah! I thought that I would get this chapter posted right away, I had it halfway written when I posted the last one. But I ran across the same problem I did in my 'Jumping to Conclusions' story. The characters in my brain were all 'Shenanigans! Grumpy Leo! Panicking Donnie! Funny!' and then when I went to write them, they all became 'Personal Crisis! Self Worth Examination! Abandonment Issues! Angst!' and I was like 'Stoppit! Be lighthearted, dammit!', and had to keep rewriting it. The chapter is still a little more serious in tone then I intended, but, eh, it deals with their emotional responses adequately enough that I'm satisfied. This will probably be the most serious chapter of this entire episode (that I'm currently aware of), just because it is dealing with the rawest emotions.

After this, we get to have fun wedding planning and celebrations.

Chapter 4: Clearly Communicating

After Master Splinter's death, Leo had read up on the five stages of grief, hoping to be able to better help his brothers and soothe his own grieving soul. As he tried to peel a livid, frothing maligned father off of his face without injuring him, he wondered if it might be a helpful guideline for this situation as well.

He decided to take it as a compliment to his own reputation of trustworthiness that Kirby O'Neil seemed to completely skip the denial stage. Apparently he had taken Leo at his word that the turtle's brother had knocked up his daughter. No, he definitely went straight into the 'Anger' stage. As mild mannered and timid as Mr. O'Neil normally was, this involved his baby girl's honor, and thus this stage was the most understandable and volatile. Items were thrown, curses spat, and things really got interesting once he stumbled upon his golf club bag. Leo made a mental note to himself that later he really needed to show Mr. O'Neil how to properly throw a punch. He was glad that he was there and not Donnie to take the brunt of this explosion of fatherly outrage. Donnie would have taken this very personally, whereas Leo knew enough to let the angry and hurtful words roll off of his shell. Mostly.

He briefly wondered if 'If your brother ever touches my daughter again, I'll deshell him with a blunt spoon!' could be considered part of the bargaining stage. Later, he decided that the bargaining stage actually was when Kirby grew too exhausted to continue his tirade, and instead began convincing himself that he could just get her away from all this and save her. Travel pamphlets and maps were then haphazardly strewn all around the apartment, and there were elaborate plans made to somehow get April out of New York City and away from any immoral, perverted, daughter-seducing boyfriend turtles by moving to Alaska. Or possibly Sweden. Apparently Sweden was high on the table of possibilities for some reason. Leo didn't bother to remind him of the fact that, if April didn't want to go, there was no way in hell that Kirby was going to be able to force her. Heck, Leo didn't think that even he and all of his brothers combined could make her do anything she didn't want to, and they had taken on entire armies before.

Now, a few hours later, Kirby seemed to be firmly in the depression stage. He sat at the table, an open bottle of scotch at hand, weeping over photo albums filled with childhood pictures of April. He was quite intoxicated by this point, and apparently Leo had shown himself enough of a calm and sturdy rock that Kirby now considered him to be a shoulder to cry upon.

"And here she was at her sixth birthday party..." he tearfully reminisced. "She was so adorable dressed up like a cowgirl. All she wanted was a pony. Why didn't I just get her a damned pony?! Is that where I went wrong?"

"You live in New York City, Mr. O'Neil. A pony wasn't really a possibility." Leo said soothingly, feeling stupidly awkward as he put a comforting hand on the drunkenly sobbing man's hunched shoulder. He noticed that Kirby was reaching for the bottle again, and slide the package of Fig Newtons he had managed to scrounge up in the kitchen closer. "Mr. O'Neil, why don't you have a bite of something solid first before you drink some more?" he suggested. The man hadn't eaten much, and Leo wasn't sure how high his alcohol tolerance was to begin with.

"Leonardo, you understand, don't you?" Kirby wiped his face with his sleeve, before talking one of the soft cookies and taking a miserable bite out of it. "It's like one minute, she's this adorable little baby girl who's begging you to tie her pigtails up in pretty ribbons, and then BOOM! There's boyfriends and much more interesting friends and suddenly she doesn't need her daddy anymore." He sniffled and turned a page in the photo album. "She... she hasn't needed me for a long time, I guess."

Okay, April REALLY needed to have a talk with her dad, about more then just the baby, apparently. "April will always be your daughter, Mr. O'Neil. She loves you and she will always need you." Leo handed him a kleenex from the nearby box sitting on the table. "I suspect that she'll need you now more then ever.

Kirby gave a little wail and tipped over to sob on Leo's shoulder. "My baby is going to have a baby, Leo!"

Leo sighed and held him awkwardly, patting his back comfortingly.

It was going to be a long night...

Eventually, Leo managed to get the extremely drunk Kirby over to the couch, where he finally passed out. Leo made sure he was on his side and propped a pillow behind him, covered him with a thick blanket, and left a bucket nearby just in case.

All of the lights were turned off, and Leo silently walked around the dark and otherwise empty apartment, trying to quietly clean up and put things back in order as best as he could while he kept vigil. Kirby's wrath had been pretty impressive. Perhaps April had inherited her battle spirit from her father's side after all.

Speaking of April, he should probably call her and let her know that the dinner they planned might have to wait a few days.

He retrieved his tPhone, which he had left silenced on the kitchen counter, and as he flipped it on, his eyeridge raised at the number of missed calls and unread text messages. He must have missed them in his attempts to keep Kirby from injuring himself while dodging golf club swings. It looked like they were all from April. He frowned and opened the messenger app, glancing over the long list of texts.

'Thanks for helping us Leo. I really appreciate it. Good luck! *smiley face* *heart*'

'Lab's rearranged for dinner with dad later. How's it going?'

'Oh, Leo! I almost forgot to tell you! I haven't told Dad about the baby yet! I wanted to wait until after the wedding.'

'So yeah. Just letting you know. not to bring up the pregnancy.

'Leo, are you there?'

'Leo, let me know if you got my message or not.'

'Leeeeeoooooo'

'Hello?'

'I swear to god, Leo, you have GOT to stop leaving your phone on silent mode!'

'This is really important Leo! Answer!'

'Leo, please tell me you got my message!'

'Is everything going okay over there?! Is Dad okay?!'

'I'm getting a little anxious here, Leo.'

'OMG, Leo, answer already! I will call you!'

'Okay, I tried calling, and you didn't answer. Either your phone is on silent, or you told my dad and he killed you.'

'Oh, please tell me you didn't tell my dad!'

'WHY AREN'T YOU ANSWERING YOUR PHONE?!'

'LEO, I'M FREAKING OUT AND NOW DONNIE'S FREAKING OUT!'

'LEO! UPDATE REQUIRED! NOW!'

'LEO, I SWEAR TO GOD, IF YOU DON'T ANSWER YOUR PHONE, I'M TELLING MIKEY WHERE YOUR SECRET M&M STASH IS!'

Leo sighed, and typed a reply.

*hey.*

He hated texting.

Immediately his phone buzzed with a response.

'OMG LEO!'

'WHAT HAPPENED?! PLEASE TELL ME YOU GOT MY MESSAGE IN TIME!'

He narrowed his eyes and just sent ellipsis in reply.

There was a good moment of silence, during which he assumed there was a full blown freak out back at the lair, and then a buzz as a text message popped up.

'OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!'

He squinted at the text, trying to figure out what she was trying to say. Obviously she was panicking, but why was she chanting 'gom' over and over? Or was it 'mgo'? What did that even mean?

'How did he take it?!'

Leo only sent another set of ellipsis in reply.

'Shit! Shitshitshit!'

'We can come over! Should we come over?!'

Well, that probably wouldn't be the best idea right now. Leo wasn't sure if Kirby wanted his daughter to see him passed out drunk. Time to stop the silent sulking and actually reply.

*hes calmed down and is sleeping right now. wait until tomorrow*

'Leo, I'm so sorry!'

Leo scowled at his phone.

*april your dad is the one you should be apologizing to*

*you should have told him*

'I know, I know! I messed this up!'

Leo looked over at the mop, which he had used earlier to clean up after Kirby apparently drank more then he could handle and had gotten sick. Fig Newtons had gotten everywhere. He frowned and looked at his phone, reconsidering.

*though I guess maybe i do deserve a little bit of that apology*

'I really am sorry, Leo.'

Leo sighed.

*i know*

*don't worry. ill watch over him tonight*

'... Thank you Leo...'

It was only about twenty minutes since the last text had been sent, and Leo was washing the dishes from the aborted supper, when he paused for a moment, squinting as he concentrated. Then his eyes narrowed, and he pulled a towel off the rack to dry his hands, before moving to silently stalk up the stairs.

"I don't know, April." Donatello was whispering to his fiancé behind him as he silently cracked up the window to her old bedroom. "It's pretty quiet though. Perhaps they're both OH JEEZ LOUISE!"

He had turned to poke his head through the open window, only to find Leo's upside face only millimeters from his own snout, the nictitating membrane covering his big brother's narrowed eyes to give them that deadly white pupil-less look.

Donnie jumped back in shock, then, realizing who it was, heaved a sigh of relief, still breathing heavily with hand on his chest. "Leo! You almost sent me into cardiac arrest!"

Leo dropped from the ceiling where he had been hanging, and crossed his arms. The nictitating membrane slid back with a blink, revealing his sapphire blue eyes once again, but it was clear from his posture and glare that he was not in the best of moods. "I thought I told you guys that tomorrow would be better."

"Uh, well, it's 12:15am. Technically, it is 'tomorrow'." Donnie rubbed the back of his head, looking sheepish.

April shoved past him, worry on her features. "How's Dad?! "

"Sleeping." Leo informed her, then he winced slightly and admitted. " He... might be a little sore and have a bit of hangover in the morning. He had both more exercise and alcohol then his body is probably used to."

"Neither of you are hurt, right?" Donnie asked worriedly.

Leo shook his head. "We're both fine. And you'll be glad to learn that Mr. O'Neil owns neither a taser, nor a shotgun. The worst he came after me with was a golf club."

"Golf clubs!" Donnie eyes widened, and then he touched his knuckle to his chin in thought and began to pace. "I didn't even think of that!" His flow chart would need revising.

"Oh god... This is all my fault! What... what can we do?" April dug her hands into her hair, her face a mask of worry and guilt.

"Well, you need to do what you should have done already, and talk to him once he wakes up." Leo frowned at her disapprovingly. "And until you two get things settled between you, I don't think Donnie should meet with him." Heaven knew that it took long enough to settle Mr. O'Neil down tonight. He didn't need to try and peel a triggered father off of a distressed brother's shell as well. "For now, though, while he's sleeping, we can't do much. You guys might as well go home."

"He's my dad. I'm staying." April said firmly. "I can help you watch over him."

Leo sighed, then nodded. He didn't really have the right to deny her.

Donnie crossed his arms stubbornly. "If April's staying, then I'm staying."

"I don't think that's a good idea, Donnie." Leo frowned. "April and I can handle it for now."

"Leo, I'm not leaving!" Donnie was insistent. "I know I can help!"

"Donnie..." Leo narrowed his eyes at his brother for a second, but then he took notice of his purple brother's tensed posture, and his annoyance quickly deflated as he realized just how affected by this his brother was.

Since they had been children, Donnie had always had a desire, almost an obsession, to fix things. Not only fix them, but make them even better then before. He was never happier then when he was showing his brothers some device he had rescued from the garbage and modified. Now he feared something extremely important to him was broken, possibly beyond repair, and every fiber of Donnie's being must have been stressing out over how to fix it.

Leo sighed, then gently put a hand on his brother's shoulder. "Donnie, everything is going to be fine. Mr. O'Neil will accept your union, he was fairly understanding, and showed a great fondness for our family while I was talking with him. But right now, he's feeling pushed aside and afraid that he's losing his daughter. Let April talk to him alone for a bit and reassure him first that that's not the case." He gave Donnie's shell a sympathetic pat. "Afterwards, you can both talk to him, but first he desperately needs some father daughter time."

Donnie chewed his lip.

Leo sighed, then gave his brother a firm, reassuring squeeze around his shoulders. "Don't worry, you have an important role in this plan, Donnie. But you need to let us do our parts first."

Donnie exhaled and finally nodded. "Fine. But if you need me, call me. Immediately. Do you understand?"

Leo nodded, and helped April in through the window. "I'll update you first thing in the morning. I promise."

After he had shut the window and left a very reluctant Donnie outside, he followed April down the steps.

"How bad was it?" April was grasping her arm, looking miserable.

"I was able to deal with it." Leo shrugged.

They came up to Kirby, who was still sleeping soundly on the couch.

"Oh... I'm so sorry, daddy." April whispered, pulling up the covers and kissing him on the forehead.

"So why didn't you tell him?" Leo asked her.

April sighed and stood up, noticing one of the photo albums still sitting on the table. She walked over to it and traced the open page softly with a finger. "I just... he gets so worried about me sometimes, you know?" She hugged herself and looked off to the side. "And there are so many unknowns about this baby to worry about, especially this early on. I just... I wanted to wait until we had some concrete answers to give him first. Figure out what exactly we were dealing with. Then I could just show him the paperwork. 'Yeah, this and this and this might be an issue, but we've got it covered with these plans here. You don't have to worry.'"

Leo sighed, and nodded. "That made sense in a way, I suppose." Looking around, he noticed a clear decorative glass vase with colored glass pebbles in the bottom. He walked over to it and inverted it, taking out one of the pebbles and putting the rest back in, before setting the vase back in place. "Why didn't you tell me, then?"

"That was just me completely forgetting until too late that you didn't know what I had planned." April said apologetically. "I'm so sorry, Leo."

Leo gave the pebble a few experimental tosses in his hand, then walked over dining room window. "Half a second." He opened the window, and sharply lobbed the pebble out into the night. There was a yelp of surprised pain from outside, and Leo leaned out the window to yell, "I said go home, Donnie!"

He waited a moment, glaring out into the dark night air, then he nodded in satisfaction and closed the window, dusting off his hands. "Alright. Let's go talk in the kitchen for a bit. There's a lot we need to discuss together about your dad and his future with this clan."

April couldn't help but give a small chuckle. Then she gave Leo a mock-severe look as she followed him into the kitchen, and tugged the tail of his bandana reproachfully. "Not only that, but there's another important topic we must also discuss. Namely, that habit of yours where you leave your phone on silent mode, leaving us without any methods of contacting you with important information."

"Oh." Leo suddenly looked contrite and rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah. I suppose we can talk about that as well."

So Leo finished washing the dishes while April dried and put away. He wasn't really sure on where his leader jurisdiction extended regarding such personal issues like telling your dad about one's unexpected pregnancy, but he decided that there was plenty he could say as her friend and brother. They talked about making Kirby feel more involved, his future role as the baby's only grandfather, and his apparent need for assistance in the cooking department. Leo himself had to make his own concessions about his phone habits.

Afterwards, April sat in an armchair in the living room, watching over her father, until eventually she too fell asleep.

Leo found some blankets in a closet and covered her up. After making a final round to make sure the house was as put back together as best as he could get it, Leo settled down to spend the rest of the night keeping quiet vigil over the now dark and silent O'Neil house and its sleeping inhabitants.

It was mid morning and Leo was meditating upstairs, when he heard April wake up. He just sat there for a while, until he could hear her moving around down in the kitchen. Taking that as his cue, he opened his eyes and stifled a yawn as he stood up, wearily stretching out the aches that came from sitting for so long in one place.

"Good morning, Leo." April nodded her greeting as he strode into the kitchen. She looked tired, her clothes were rumpled from sleeping in them, and her hair was a piled-up mess clipped haphazardly up on top of her head, but there was a purpose in her movements. It looked to him like she had a plan, and was resolute in working things out with her dad.

"Good morning, April." he gave her a nod, then, noticing that she had started the coffee pot, headed over to the cupboard and pulled himself out a mug.

"I'm making french toast if you want some." April offered, gesturing towards a plate with a couple of finished pieces. She shrugged as she turned back to the skillet. "I used to always make it for Dad. It was one of his favorites."

"Thank you. They smell delicious." Leo nodded, and grabbed a plate, piling on a few pieces of the offered french toast, to which, after a moment's thought, he added a pat of butter, dashed on some powered sugar, and then doused it in maple syrup.

"Ow... my head..." A very haggard Mr. O'Neil stumbled into the kitchen, dark circles under his eyes and one hand holding his head. He froze when he saw his daughter. "April?"

April lowered the spatula and rubbed her arm awkwardly. "Hi Dad..."

Leo took this as his cue to leave. He fished out a fork, then took the plate of food and cup of coffee. "Well, I'll leave you two to talk. I'm going to take these to go, if you don't mind. I'll bring back the plate and mug later."

Kirby absently nodded at Leo as he sat at the table, swallowing hard as he looked at his daughter.

Almost as a second thought, Leo grabbed an apple as well from a nearby basket of and started heading for the door.

"Leonardo?"

Mr. O'Neil's voice stopped him, and he turned around curiously.

Kirby swallowed hard, and nodded, almost apologetically. "Thanks."

Leo gave him a warm smile, and bowed slightly while balancing the breakfast in his hands. "Anything for family, Kirby. And, never doubt it for a second, you are family." He turned to April. "If you're okay now, I'm going to head back to the lair. Call us if you need anything."

"We should be fine." April looked at him gratefully. "Thank you Leo. For everything."

Leo nodded, and stepped out. Noticing that the neighborhood was quiet and void of any pedestrians or other prying human eyes, he paused for a moment outside, before heading across the street towards a tall oak tree on the corner of a neighbor's lawn. Grasping the apple between his teeth and taking a moment to shift the mug of coffee and plate of french toast around so that he was balancing it all in one hand, he leapt up and skillfully scaled the tree without spilling a drop.

There, in a crook of the branches near the top and well out of sight, snored Donatello, sound asleep. Leo noticed a small spider was making its way across his brother's snout, and he carefully picked it up and moved it off to a nearby branch, before turning to gently wake up the purple brother.

"Who? What? April?" Donnie sputtered, waking up with a start.

"She's fine." Leo sat down on the branch carefully next to him. "She and her dad are talking things out right now." He offered Donnie the plate of french toast and the mug of coffee.

"Oh. Thanks Leo." Donnie rubbed his eyes as he sat up, then took the plate and coffee gratefully.

Leo nodded, then leaned back against the trunk of the tree and began eating the apple.

Donnie eyed the mug of coffee, then glanced up at Leo.

"April made it." Leo reassured him.

"Oh, thank god." Donnie exhaled in relief, then took a long gulp, before giving a content sigh at the caffeine intake.

Leo chuckled and took another bite of his apple.

Donnie studied his plate of food forlornly, then looked up at Leo almost apprehensively. "Does... does he hate me?"

Leo shook his head, chewing. "No."

"You're sure?"

"I'm certain of it." Leo nodded, turning to look at Donnie seriously. "He just needed to work through some... rather intense emotions for a bit. Once he gets some time to get used to the idea, he'll be more open to talking with you. My guess is that after April is done talking with him this morning, she'll call you in."

"Oh. Good." Donnie sounded extremely relieved. Then, obviously hungry, he dug into the french toast eagerly.

Leo examined his half eaten apple thoughtfully. "After what happened last night, though, I am going to assign you a task."

Donnie looked at him curiously.

Leo pointed at him with the hand holding the apple. "Eventually, somebody is going to have to teach that man how to properly throw a punch."

Donnie gave an awkward chuckle, and nodded. "Yeah, I can do that. Sorry you had to deal with that."

Leo gave him a playful grin. "Consider it a test of my ability to keep calm and not 'freak', as Casey so elegantly phrased it." Convinced that Donnie was doing okay, and realizing that he needed to step back and let them resolve the rest of this situation on their own, he nodded at his brother. "Well, I think I'd better head back to the lair. You going to be fine?"

Donnie looked over to the house across the street and swallowed his bite of toast a little nervously, but nodded. "Yeah. April and I can handle this, together."

Leo finished off his apple, wiped off his hands, and nodded to his brother. "Then good luck, Donnie."

"Thanks big brother." Donnie nodded gratefully. "Now go home and sleep for a bit. You look like you need it."

Leo nodded, and, seeing as there was nothing left for him to do here, took off, leaping from a branch to a street light, then up to the railing of a fire escape, where he scrambled up and disappeared onto the rooftops.

As he ran, he pulled out his tPhone and dialed Raph. The phone only rang a few times before the red brother answered.

"Leo! How's the situation with Kirby going?"

Ah. Proper verbal communication. In Leo's opinion, what phones were supposed to be for.

"We're over the worst of it, I think." Leo answered, stopping to crouch on the edge of the building, looking out over the city. "It's all going to work out fine in the end."

"Good." Raph sounded relieved.

"So..." Leo said conversationally. "I'm going to be heading home."

"Oh. Oh! Um. How interesting." Raph's voice suddenly sounded a little panicked, and Leo couldn't help but grin. This is why he had called, after all. "Just curious, how long will it take you?" Raph was obviously trying to sound casual. A night with Casey, Raphael, and Mikey with no supervision probably meant that the lair was in less the stellar condition right now.

Leo couldn't help but chuckle. "Tell you what, Raph. I have some things to get done first. I'll give you three hours."

"I'll take it!" Raph said quickly, eagerly jumping on the opportunity.

"See you when I get home then." Leo chuckled, then, after they had ended the call, stood up and stretched. Well, he knew of a nice, hidden and secluded niche located behind a sculpture on the side of an old brick building nearby. Time for a well deserved cat nap.

Author Notes:

I should mention, as I have in previous stories, that I am an old fodgey, and cannot fluently speak the texting lingo of the youths today. I wasn't even planning on using texting as a medium of conversation, but it just sort of happened, and I went with it. I hope it's not too confusing. If so, let me know, and I'll edit it and try to clarify things better.