"I'm pregnant."

April's announcement had the effect of a massive stone thrown into the middle of a calm pool. Her voice cut through every other sound in the lair, and silence followed.

From where she was standing, she could see the reaction of every other person in the lair. Master Splinter had been peacefully watching a soap opera, but April's announcement caused him to slowly turn toward her, his usually-serene demeanor disrupted. Leo had been sitting beside his father with a book in his lap, Mikey had been playing with Klunk, and Raph had been lifting hand weights. All of them immediately paused in what they were doing, looking at her with wide, shocked eyes. Even Mikey was completely speechless.

Last of all, April turned to look at Don. He was in his lab, a soldering iron clutched in his hand and a pair of goggles on his face. Slowly he set down the tool and removed the goggles, looking at her with wide, intent eyes, surprise and some sadness on his face. If he suspected the truth about her pregnancy, he gave no sign of it.

Surprisingly, Raph was the first to regain his voice. He dropped the hand weights with a loud clatter. "So I guess I should send Casey some cigars or somethin'," he said gruffly.

"Casey's not the father," April said faintly.

She had thought Raph's eyes were already as wide as they could go, but he immediately proved her wrong. For a moment, he stared at her blankly, not making a sound. Then his hands clenched into fists, and his brow twisted with a burst of growling anger.

Belatedly April realized how this must look to him — like she had cheated on Casey during their time together, and she was pregnant as a result. She held up her hands quickly.

"It — it isn't like that, Raph. It isn't what you're thinking. It — it happened after Casey and I broke up," she said. She looked down at her stomach, which was bare under a crop-top. "Casey and I… never got that far in our relationship," she said faintly. "I haven't been with a man, intimately speaking, since before I met you guys."

"What the shell does that mean?" Raph said disbelievingly. "How's that even possible?"

Leo vaulted over the couch, and sat down beside her. Much to her relief, his face was kind, if confused. "April… I admit I don't have a lot of experience in this kind of thing. But as I understand it, a man has to be involved somehow in the… um, conception."

April slumped forward in her chair, resting her face in her hands. She didn't know how to tell him that, technically speaking, the one who had impregnated her wasn't a man. She didn't know how she was going to tell the Turtles what had happened — she barely believed it herself. By all rights, it shouldn't have happened… yet those treacherous pregnancy tests had told her otherwise.

Leo touched her gently on the back, sensing her distress, and she felt a rush of gratitude for his friendship. She slowly raised her head to look at where Don was sitting, still and silent, his eyes fixed on her. He didn't look like he had the slightest idea what she was really talking about. Suddenly she wanted nothing more than to keep silent about what had happened. He was already struggling to come back from a traumatic rape — the last thing he needed was the news of a pregnancy, the result of intercourse he hadn't even consented to.

"Are you sure you're pregnant?" Raph said. "I mean, maybe you made a mistake or somethin'…"

"I used six pregnancy tests," April said quietly. "They all came back positive. I'm pregnant." Her hand slid down to her still-flat belly, and she could feel the Turtles all watching the gesture.

Master Splinter rose from the couch and came toward her, his furry face composed in a sympathetic expression. April desperately needed his presence right now — his wisdom, his kindness, his quiet support.

"I promise you will suffer no judgment from us, April," the mutant rat said. "This child, who is its father?"

She took a deep breath, and said quietly, "It's Don."

Silence fell over the room again, like the quiet that falls after a thunderclap. Master Splinter's eyes widened; he had clearly not been expecting that answer. April raised her eyes to Leo and Mikey, who had both turned towards their purple-masked brother with expressions of disbelieving amazement. Raph seemed to have short-circuited, and was now staring blankly into space, as if the idea of April being pregnant with Don's child was more than he could absorb. April couldn't blame him — she could barely believe it herself.

Then a wrench fell from Don's shaking hand and clattered to the floor.

"That's — impossible," he said haltingly.

"Don," Leo said quickly. "You said that you were intimate with April a month and a half ago. Couldn't it have—"

"It's impossible," Don repeated, coming out of his lab. His eyes were wide and panicked, and a tremor passed through his body as he approached April. "We're not capable of procreating with a human being. We're Turtles — a different species — and we're mutants too, which changed us on the genetic level so we aren't even theoretically reproductively compatible with anyone or anything except other mutant turtles. We're effectively sterile…"

He seemed almost to be pleading with her, holding out his hands desperately. "I—I couldn't have, April. I'm Reptilia. You're Mammalia. We're not even the same class, let alone the same species. And I'm — I'm a mutant. There's — there's no way I could have possibly…"

"I know, Don," April said faintly, feeling tears pricking her eyes. "I know what you're saying. I don't know how it happened either. But I haven't been with anyone except you for the past few years, and… it happened a month and a half ago. There's no one else it can be."

Donatello stared at her for a moment, his eyes hollow and painfully desperate. For a moment, he seemed to be trying to take in what she was saying, as if he could force himself to accept something that couldn't have possibly happened. She could see the struggle in his eyes as he looked at her, between what he was being told and what he knew about himself. Then he shut his eyes and wrapped his arms around himself, as if he were holding his own body together in the face of this news. He looked as though he was going to collapse in a heap on the floor if nobody intercepted him quickly.

"Donatello," Splinter said quickly. "Come with me."

"Master, I—" Don said faintly.

"Come quickly — Raphael, help your brother," the mutant rat said, taking his son's hand and pulling him. Raph appeared behind Don and pushed at his shell, directing him towards Splinter's room. He gave April a strange look as he guided Don forward, as if he was seeing her for the first time. Then he turned away and shut the sliding door behind them.

April slumped back in her chair, pressing her hands to her face again. She wanted to cry more than anything else — the tension and upheaval of the last twelve hours was swamping her like a tidal wave. Her nerves had been unbalanced ever since she had been rescued from the Purple Dragons, but now they felt as though they were unraveling completely.

She knew how Donatello felt, to a degree — she had believed that being different species meant that she and he couldn't possibly conceive a child. No, she hadn't even thought that much about it, because it wasn't possible. It wasn't. It shouldn't be. They were so different, biologically. Even though the mutagen had made him very like a human, with bone structure, proportions, limbs and musculature more appropriate for a hominid than a reptile, he was still visibly a turtle.

Suddenly April felt arms around her, holding her gently against a firm plastron. "It's going to be okay, April," Leo said quietly.

April snuffled softly, and clung to her friend, wishing that it was Don holding her right now, but grateful that Leo was thinking of her. She could feel a three-fingered hand patting her back sympathetically, just before Mikey said, "Yeah, Donnie'll come around after Master Splinter talks to him. He's just a little confused right now."

"We're going to look after you, April," Leo said, drawing back and looking steadily into her eyes. "All of us. You and the baby both. We'll do whatever it takes to keep you safe."

April nodded numbly, then crumpled forward against Leo's shoulder again, feeling Mikey continue to pat her on the back. Somehow, Leo's assurances made her feel as if everything might turn out all right — and that was something she desperately needed at the moment.