"You can do this," April told herself.

She stared down at the ringing phone in her hand, her sister's name blazing across the tiny screen. With every ring, her heart contracted, and she wasn't sure if it was with fear or discomfort. And she was tempted to simply let it ring until it went silent, put off the inevitable talk with her sister until another time.

But she had to talk to Robyn eventually. And it wasn't as if she hadn't kept secrets from her sister before. She had been friends with the Turtles for a few years now, and she hadn't breathed a single hint of their strange existence to Robyn. Casey, she had mentioned quite a few times, but not the Turtles. On the rare times when it was necessary to mention them, she just vaguely referred to them "friends" and left it at that.

But this was different. It wasn't just about the Turtles, but about her life as well. She was pregnant. She was going to have a child — Robyn's nephew or niece. Her entire life was going to change, and yet she couldn't tell her sister anything about it.

The phone rang again, and April pressed her thumb to the answering button. She took a deep, quavering breath as she raised it to her ear, and said, "Hello — Robyn?"

"Finally!" Robyn's voice said. "I was starting to think you weren't home."

"Sorry. I was in the bathroom," April lied. "Is something wrong?"

"You tell me," Robyn replied. "You've barely called me in the last six months, April!"

April's hand trailed up over her stomach absently, as her mind flashed over the events of the past six months. She hadn't told Robyn even the abridged version of what had happened to her during that time. What could she say? Her kidnapping and everything she had suffered were so tied up in Don's plight that it was almost impossible to explain what had happened without mentioning him in some way.

"Sorry," she said quietly. "Things have been a little chaotic for me."

"I've called you like, two times in all these months, and even when I talk to you, you just sort of go 'uh-huh.' What's going on with you, April?"

"Nothing important."

"You just said things had been chaotic."

"I mean, nothing important for other people," April said quickly.

"April, I can tell something is bothering you. What is it? Is it that guy Casey?"

"No, it's not Casey," April said quickly. "Casey and I — we're not together anymore."

"You broke up?" Robyn said, sounding surprised. "When did that happen?"

"About six months ago."

"April, this is what I'm talking about when I say you're not talking to me. I mean, a breakup can be a big deal, and if you're having a hard time moving on —"

"I'm really not, Robyn."

"Then why — wait a minute!" Robyn's voice took on a sharper, triumphant tone, as if she had come to a realization. "You've got someone new, don't you?"

"I didn't say —"

"I knew it!" Robyn crowed, loud enough that April had to distance her ear from the phone. "You're dating somebody new already. Is that why you haven't been talking to me? You're busy with the new guy?"

April sighed, and passed a hand over her eyes. "All right, yes, I'm dating someone new," she said. "But don't tell anyone, all right? The last thing I need is for news about this to be spread all over the place."

"Why?" Robyn said, suddenly suspicious. "He's not — married, is he?"

"No, he's definitely not married."

"That's a relief. But if he's not married, why do you want me to keep it a secret?" Her voice reeked of suspicions that April didn't want to consider — she was probably dreaming up an elaborate drama of illicit love, maybe with someone in the mob.

April gritted her teeth, her mind darting between different lies she could tell her sister to make her stop investigating this. She hadn't counted on Robyn guessing that she was involved romantically with someone new, someone other than Casey, so she hadn't formulated an imaginary suitor to talk to her about. Or a reason to keep him vague and unknown, never to be introduced to her family members no matter how much time passed.

Her fingers tightened on the phone, and she licked her lips. Maybe the best approach was to simply tell the truth — a veiled truth, but one that would be easy to remember if Robyn ever quizzed her about it. "Well, you see…" she said quietly and slowly.

"Yeah?"

"He's… younger than me."

"Oh, that's not a big deal, April. A couple years isn't a huge difference. How old is he?"

April winced. "Eighteen." It sounded better than admitting that her lover was only seventeen — and after all, Don was only a few months from his eighteenth birthday.

"April!"

"I know, I know. You don't have to tell me."

"You're seriously going out with someone in high school?"

"More like college, Robyn." Which was true — Don was more knowledgeable and skilled than most college graduates, perhaps more than anyone else April had ever met. Even Baxter Stockman, for all his corrupt genius, wasn't as versatile and inventive as Don was, and hadn't made so much out of so little throughout his entire life. Using whatever parts and materials he could scavenge, he could whip together brilliant new technology for himself and his brothers.

And for all his youth and inexperience with women, he was certainly more mature than the average teenager. He was the sensible one, the level-headed one, the quietly clever one, the Turtle who grounded his brothers and kept their clashing personalities from boiling over. He could be mischievous and he could be snarky, but he never pushed anyone too far the way Mikey often did. Raph had been right — they weren't humans, and Don was not an ordinary teenager. He was something much, much more.

Of course, it still didn't make April feel any better about the age gap between them, and the feeling she had sometimes that Don was still too young to know what he needed or wanted. But then she saw his eyes steadily watching her, and remembered that he had silently loved her for the past few years, expecting nothing to come of his feelings. And the longer she was with her lover, the more she saw of that.

"April, this is — this is weird," Robyn said hesitantly.

"I know," April groaned. "I know, it's weird. It was weird for me too — but he's different from most guys."

"Is it — serious?"

April's hand drifted down over her stomach, cradling it gently. "Yes, it's pretty serious." She bit her lip before the words in her mind could drift down to her tongue: "He's not human. He's a giant mutant Turtle who also happens to be a ninja. We were both effectively raped by a street gang, and now I'm pregnant with his child." She drew her knees up and curled her legs against the arm of the couch, letting her head droop back against the cushion.

"Does his family know he's dating an older woman?"

"Yes, they know. And they're happy about us," April said truthfully.

"Really?"

"Really. They're — really understanding."

Robyn made a faint, questioning sound. "And you… this is a real relationship and not just, you know, sexual?"

"Robyn!"

"It's just that I can't see you having much in common with an eighteen-year-old. I mean, you've already been to college and had jobs, and you're way past teen stuff…"

"Well, normally I wouldn't," April said slowly, uncoiling veiled truths like smoke. "But he's… different. Unusual. He's so brilliant and ahead of other teenagers that we have a lot in common. We clicked even before I knew how he felt about me. I could talk to him all day about the things he's working on, and — and we sometimes spend hours just building or experimenting together." Her voice grew softer. "And he looks at me in a way no other guy ever has, Robyn. He watches me as if I were a new star and he was an astronomer who can't look away. He's so — so sweet and so loving…"

Her voice faded as she searched for words to describe Don's relationship with her. Suddenly her mind filled with a memory of his head on the pillow beside hers, his mask off, his dark eyes gazing at her with such tenderness that it made her heart ache, a soft smile crossing his face. Then it shifted to a quiet evening on the sofa, sitting beside him and resting her head against his, her fingers laced over his larger ones. Quiet moments, just resting in one another's presence.

"If you're sure," Robyn said slowly. "I mean, the most important thing is that you're happy."

"I am happy," April said, and she meant it.

But then a quiver of nervousness ran through her, as she remembered that Don and his brothers were out hunting the Purple Dragons. And then Sarkis, hunting for her baby — another thing that she couldn't confide in Robyn about. Little surges of tension and anguish, tainting the happiness she had found with Donatello.

She opened her mouth to reply, but a sudden sharp sensation in her abdomen made her gasp.

"April?" Robyn said, concerned. "What's wrong?"

A kick. April looked down at her belly with wide eyes, almost sure she could see faint rippling vibrations in her flesh. She had felt flutterings of movement for the past few weeks, but nothing that anyone could really feel — nothing this powerful. The baby had just kicked her, as if chastising her for keeping its existence a secret.

Tears sprang to her eyes as she ran her hand down her stomach and gently under the curve. She almost wished her baby would kick again, as painfully powerful as the movement had been. Well, it was a mutant turtle, she reflected — Don and his brothers were stronger and more resilient than any human, so it wasn't surprising that his child would be strong too.

"April?" Robyn said, sounding panicked. "What is it?"

"Nothing," April said, trying to keep her voice from trembling. "I just stubbed my toe — really hard."

"You didn't break it, did you?"

"Just bruised." April smiled slightly.

She settled back into the cushions, her fingers stroking the spot where the baby had kicked her. As Robyn began prattling about a new job she was interviewing for, April felt the worries she had been feeling starting to slip away. Suddenly, everything felt a little better.