In less than six hours, April's life had changed completely. She had discovered that she was pregnant, and now two of the Turtles were helping her pack whatever belongings she would need for the foreseeable future. They went through her apartment like a pair of whirlwinds, but she had to admit that they were efficient.

"Why do humans need so many clothes?" Raph said, stuffing another pair of pants into a duffel bag.

"What do you mean?" April said.

"I get that humans wear clothes, even though they get in the way of movin' around. But why do you need twenty shirts? Why don't you have a couple and just wash 'em every few days? And shoes — why do you need more'n one pair of shoes?"

April couldn't exactly debate Raphael on that, especially since he only rarely wore clothes, and only for the purposes of disguise. So she kept rolling her clothes into little bundles and carefully sticking them in a suitcase. She couldn't help but wonder how Raph managed to fit so many items in that bag when he didn't fold or roll any of them, instead simply cramming them in haphazardly.

Leo was in the bathroom, piling things into a cardboard box — shampoo, conditioner, toothbrush and toothpaste, medications, facial creams and masks, and just about every other thing that April kept in there. The thought made April touch her stomach. She would need to buy some prenatal vitamins soon, and start watching what she ate…

Pregnant. It still sounded surreal to her ears.

She had always assumed she would have children, someday, after dating and marrying a man and settling down together. When she had imagined her future, that was what it involved. So the current situation left her feeling dazed and a little only was she unexpectedly pregnant, it was the result of what had effectively been a rape. The father was a traumatized seventeen-year-old boy who was in love with her, and whom she had to admit she found wildly attractive. April ran her fingers through her hair as she tried to reconcile herself to the turns her life had taken.

The sound of a zipper brought her back to Earth, as Raphael closed up the duffel bag. "All we need now are socks 'n' underwear," he announced.

"I'll handle those," April said quickly, unwilling to have Raphael grabbing handfuls of her underwear.

Leo chose that moment to come out, with the box of toiletries rattling faintly despite his best efforts to keep it steady. He smiled encouragingly at April, and set the box down on the bed for her inspection. April quickly glanced over the contents, noting that he had nearly everything she needed for the foreseeable future. When she turned back at the bureau, she found Raph holding up a bra from his fingertips, a critical look on his face.

"How do you even put these things on?" he asked dubiously.

When the suitcase was finally full of the last of her clothing, April breathed a sigh of relief. She grasped the handle with both hands and heaved it off her bed, moving towards the living room and her stairs. Her arms burned with the effort, but she knew it was only a short distance to the Battle Shell, and most of it was downhill.

Then a large green hand seized the handle. "Hey there, you shouldn't be liftin' heavy things," Raph interjected.

"I think that's for later in the pregnancy," April said.

"I'm not takin' any risks. You ain't lifting heavy stuff," Raph announced, hefting the suitcase as if it didn't weigh much at all, and heading for the staircase. That was the benefit of lifting so many weights, April thought. He barely seemed to notice the heavy stuff.

Leo came up behind her, slinging the duffel bag of pants and shirts over his shoulder. "Is there anything else you need from here, April?" he asked.

April hesitated for a moment, then began collecting small items from her room. She had lost many personal items in the fiery explosion that had consumed her first shop and apartment, but there were still some personal items that she cherished — the picture of her family most of all. As she looked at the framed picture, she felt a sudden swell of sadness. It felt wrong for her not to be telling Robyn that she was pregnant, but she couldn't explain to her sister whom she was pregnant by. A seventeen-year-old giant talking turtle, who also happened to be a ninja? Robyn would think she had lost her mind.

She rubbed her stomach absently as she wondered how far the secrecy would need to go. She couldn't really have an obstetrician without them potentially figuring out that there was something odd about her pregnancy. Ultrasounds were probably completely out of the question. And when her baby was born, who could help her with it to make sure nothing went wrong? She couldn't risk delivering in a hospital if the doctors might see that her child was… different.

She bit her lip, imagining spending her pregnancy down in a sewer, with the only medical care what Don was able to give her. As for giving birth… well, being attended to only by four teenagers who had no experience with babies, pregnancy or birth was not something she was comfortable with. Even Splinter, as knowledgeable as he was, probably knew nothing about it.

"Are you okay, April?" Leo asked.

April glanced down at the picture again, and ran her thumb over the faces of her parents. "I'm fine," she said softly, before tucking it into the box.

"It really is going to be all right, April," Leo said.

April sighed. "I — I hope so. Everything is just so — crazy right now."

Leo looked down at the picture. "I'm sorry, April — sorry that this happened to you," he said quietly. "Something like a pregnancy shouldn't happen as a result of — of what happened to you and Don. I wish it were something happier for you."

"Maybe it will be, when I've gotten used to it," April said quietly, putting a jewelry box next to the picture. "I just wish I knew what Don was thinking about it."

"Don's still…." Leo searched for the word. "He's still shaky. He's been through a lot in just a matter of hours. Once he's recovered a little…" His voice trailed off uncertainly, and his eyes turned away,.

On the trip home, April. let her mind sink into thoughts of her parents and Robyn, and how they would respond if they knew of her pregnancy. It sent a wrench through her heart as she realized that nobody except Casey, the Turtles and what few people knew of them would know of her baby's existence. It would live a life like that of the Turtles — unknown to most, in the shadows. Her hand moved down to her stomach, and she began to wonder what kind of life she was giving this baby.

And… Casey. Her stomach flip-flopped as she realized that he didn't know — didn't know what had happened to her in the Purple Dragons' hands, didn't know about her complicated relationship with Donatello, and didn't know she was pregnant. She hadn't communicated much with him — or anyone aside from the Turtles and Splinter, really — in the last month, but she had seen him sometimes when she came to the lair. He would have to know what had happened. Maybe she could ask Raph to explain it to him…

The Battle Shell rolled back into the abandoned warehouse that the Turtles used as its garage, and the two Turtles carried the suitcase, bag and box into the ancient elevator that would let them back into their lair. April watched with growing discomfort as Raph lifted the giant suitcase, and Leo tucked the box and duffel bag under his arms.

"I wish you'd let me carry my own things," she said as they entered the elevator.

"They ain't that heavy," Raph responded airily.

"Better safe than sorry," Leo added as the doors opened once again.