AN: Writers bug!
Last chance, people. Emily or no Emily?
Also…new dilemma…when do you guys want this story to end? I could keep this thing going forever.
Well, hope you enjoy.
"You're…you're…what?" Raph was startled beyond belief. All he knew was that Emily was crying and she had said the word pregnant.
"Pregnant." She whispered.
Raph took a deep breath and took her in his arms tightly. "Wow. This is…huge." He gently kissed the top of her head. "But, how?"
Emily pulled back to look him in the face. "The problem is, we don't know. I don't even know who." Her tears picked up into full blown sobs. Raph gently held her in his arms and let her calm herself down. "I know they have DNA from you four. I also know they tried to fuse human and turtle DNA. I also know that I was unconscious for pretty much two weeks."
He nodded, understanding her conversation over the phone. The baby might be theirs, if it was it was either the product of their love or of the twisted science of the Foot. It might from genes from one of his brothers. It might be fused genes implanted into Emily. It might be the child of a rape she didn't even know happened.
"But I'm too you young to be a mother, I'm not ready for this." Her voice was weak, strained. "And what if it's one of…theirs?" She hissed the last word like it was a curse.
Raph gently kissed her lips, tentatively resting his hand on her abdomen. "Is there a way we can find out if it's ours?"
"A paternity test." She nodded. "But we'd have to wait until I'm nine weeks. Doctor Perry says I'm between two and four weeks."
Raph took his turn to nod. "I take it you have no intentions of…keeping it if it's from them?"
"I don't." she whispered, feeling selfish. "But what if it's from one of the others?"
He was stuck. It may be the product of science, but it could be the child of one of his brothers. Who was he to take away their chance at parenthood? But she was his. Was it fair to him to watch her bear the child of another man? "If it's one of the others, I'll leave it up to you."
"No, I need to know your opinion. I'm not going to keep a child you won't love." Emily was frantic, but trying to calm down. Her eyes searched his desperately.
Taking her back into his arms, he held her close. "I'll love anything ya bring into this world. I don't care if it's a turtle or a human or somethin' like us." They sat there for several minutes, Emily curling up in his side while he wrapped his arms around her protectively.
"We need to tell the others." She whispered, breaking the silence.
Slowly, tentatively, they walked back down the stairs, hand in hand. The others watched them nervously. The fact Emily had gotten a phone call from Doctor Perry left them unsettled. "Everything okay?" Leo asked, reading the nervous expressions off their faces.
Emily shook her head. "We have news. And I need all of you to tell me your honest opinions." She and Raph sat down on the couch, holding onto each other's arms tightly. "Guys," she took a deep breath. "I'm pregnant." She no more than whispered.
"Congratulations!" Casey shouted without hesitation.
Mikey almost joined him, but Leo raised a hand to silence them. "Is it yours?" he pointed between the two of them. "Or is it from the scientists?"
Emily tried to respond but her voice failed her, coming out as a single pitch. Raph held her closer and spoke instead. "We don't know. Perry pegged her between two and four weeks along. That makes it possibly ours. It also makes it possibly theirs. We won't know until she's at least nine weeks in."
Leo and Don nodded simultaneously. "What are you going to do about it?" Leo asked.
Raph continued to speak for them both. "The problem is we realized the kid could be one of yours."
This caught them all off guard. "Wait, what?" Mikey squeaked. "I didn't sleep with your girl, Raph, I…"
"They have our DNA." Don snipped, rubbing his forehead. "They have DNA from all of us. It's possible they implanted her with haploid DNA from any one of us. If Raph's was too degraded, they could have used Leo's, so and so forth for you and me, Mikey."
Emily found her voice again. "If it's one of their experiments, I was going to give it up, but each of you has a claim to it if it turns out to be yours."
Don shook his head. "If it's my child, I'm passing it to you two. I love you, Em, and if you want to keep it or not, it's your baby and I won't love you any less."
Leo nodded. "If it's mine, I'll pass it to you. It's your body, your choice."
"I don't ever want to be more than an uncle. If it's mine, it's Raph's." Mikey added on cheerily.
Emily smiled calmly. "Thank you." She whispered. "I know I'm young, we're all young. But if it's one of ours, I think we can handle it as a family. As an eight person family. If it's one of ours, I will most likely keep it. I can't make any promises. But I love you all. And whether it's actually Raph's, or even if it's Mikey's, I think I can speak for the both of us that it's going to be a happy baby."
Splinter came down the hallway from his room. "And no matter the outcome," He murmured. "You will be a member of this family. You will be my daughter, their sister."
"Except for me." Raph added, nuzzling into her neck. "She's definitely not my sister."
Splinter laughed softly. "Even more than that, Raphael. She is the woman carrying your child. You love her like I saw my master love his fiancé. Protect her." His stoicism left the others in silence as he returned to his room, most likely to meditate.
Everything changed for Emily. She didn't feel pregnant, but at the same time, she felt different. Her hand usually came to rest on her abdomen without thinking about it. She was worried about the captivity having hurt the baby if it had been conceived from her and Raph's relationship. She was careful when exercising, and the boys refused to spar with her. She wouldn't have wanted to even if they were willing. She felt like she could be carrying the brothers' chance for normal lives, to be a father and uncles.
Doctor Perry did send Don the rest of the blood panel, and other than symptoms of the pregnancy, she was normal. After more tests on her blood, he was still unable to determine which week she was falling under. This hormonal ambiguity pointed more and more to one of the brothers being the father, making them all extremely excited. Being conservative, Doctor Perry told her they would wait until she was nine weeks pregnancy by the latest guess.
That means she had seven weeks to contemplate her fate as a woman. To be a mother, or a woman who had given up her unborn baby? Seven weeks to try and live a normal life. She found a website with a pregnancy tracker by week and she loved to look at the illustrations showing her what the embryo looked like. She also loved to read about what was developing in her child inside her. This of course assumed the child was human like, but it was still comforting to know what was going on. The brothers were just as enthused, having her read it aloud to them. Raph's hand also tended to rest on her abdomen; his thumb gently stroking circles overtop her jeans.
She waited a week and started leading training classes at Mr. Potter's gym. He was overjoyed when he heard the news and understood her dilemma. The only member of her family left out of the loop was her father, who she had not seen or talked to in months. If it wasn't for the scars all over her body, she would never think about him.
As she got farther along, the continuous routines of vitamins and balanced diet and careful exercise were wearing on her. She was slowly gaining her weight back, but had yet to break ninety-five. As she approached closer and closer to the paternity test, her body began to change with the pregnancy. Much to Raph's delight, she surpassed an A cup for the first time in her life. His delight was in a look but don't touch prison. With her continued physical training, she was sore and tender all over. Raph could barely touch her without her wincing.
The day before her paternity test, she was anxious. She had no idea how something the size of an olive could rule her so completely. She could barely sit still and was constantly fidgeting with something. Her hair, Raph's hands, her clothes, the couch cushions. Raph was heading out to get pizza around seven, so Emily took the chance to take a shower. She let the hot water relax her tired and sore muscles, his hand cradling her abdomen as she took a few deep breaths. Tomorrow she would go with the brothers for DNA testing of the baby, herself, and all four brothers. If it didn't match her and one of the brothers, she was meeting up with Doctor Perry as soon as she found out for an abortion. She was not going to raise and love something that stemmed from outside her family.
She rubbed in her shampoo and let the smell of floral and citrus fill her nostrils. Relaxing, she started to wash the soap out when a sharp stab hit her lower abdomen, worse than she felt on her cycle or a hit during a fight. It hurt even worse than the two together. It lasted only a second, but it took the breath from her lungs. Gripping her hands into fists, she shut off the water and grabbed a towel. As she stepped out of the bath tub, she heard a light plop onto the concrete floor. Looking down, there was small drop of blood. Panic her like a freight train, stealing her breath and her calm. Emily grabbed her towel and ran into the hallway, her pain growing sharper, radiating in reverse to her back. "Raph!" She called out, barely having the voice to speak.
Don, the only brother still at the lair, ran out of the lab. "Emily, what's wrong?"
Emily's mind was clouding with panic and her knees began to shake. "Where's Raph?" She could barely whisper.
Don, ran to her, barely catching her before she fell to the floor, her eyes dancing wildly around the lair. He carried her down to the lab, setting her on the cot. Stepping back and raising his hand to turn on his ear piece and call Raph, he saw the crimson running down the inside of her leg. "Raph," his voice was grave. "Get back here, now. Something's wrong with Emily. I'm calling Perry."
Emily was disorientated when Raph into the lab. Gripping his hand tightly, she told the two of them what she was feeling, which Don relayed to Doctor Perry over the phone. He was on his way and was bringing some equipment to attempt to diagnose the problem. While bleeding and cramps were frequent in normal pregnancies, they all knew there was probably nothing normal about this pregnancy.
Doctor Perry kept Don on the phone the entire commute, keeping him up to date on her status. A few minutes into the episode, Emily calmed. "The pain is going away." She whispered.
Don nodded, relaying the information but stopping midsentence. Down Emily's leg, accompanied by the blood, was a thin strip of what resembled an attempted blood clot. In preparation for something like this, Don had read up on the signs and symptoms of a miscarriage. Emily was displaying almost every single one.
By time Doctor Perry arrived, escorted in by Leo, who had been nervously pacing outside the lab, Emily was in excruciating pain again, gripping Raph's hand until her knuckles were white. Her eyes refused to focus on anything and she was almost unable to speak. Not known for his bedside manner, Doctor Perry jumped straight into diagnosis. With Don's description of blood with tissue and oscillations of pain and peace, he too feared a miscarriage. Attempting to rule that out, he began to ultrasound, staring at the screen. After a few seconds, he froze, his shoulders slumping in.
"Doc?" Raph asked, nervously.
Doctor Perry shook his head slowly. "Emily is in the middle of a complete spontaneous abortion. The embryo has already emptied out of the uterus. It's gone. I'm sorry, Raphael."
He nodded, his caramel eyes pained. "Is there anythin' you can do to help with the pain?"
Doctor Perry took out a syringe, carefully injecting it into Emily's arm. "This is a sedative. It will help with the pain and the anxiety. If the pain doesn't pass in a few hours, call me again." Looking up, he gently patted Raph on the arm. "I am sorry. I know what this meant for you all."
Raph pulled up the side of his mouth into a small smile. "Thanks, Doc. I guess the bright side is she doesn't have to know if it was from one of them."
Emily was returning to normal, her breathing slowing and her eye motions becoming more controlled. "You're sure it's gone?" she whispered.
He sighed, nodding. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the pregnancy has been terminated."
Emily took a deep breath, closing her eyes. "Raph, I wanna go upstairs, back in the shower."
He nodded, kissing her forehead and helping her wrap back up in the towel. She had no problems exposing herself in front of her lover and the medical minds of Don and Doctor Perry, but the fatherly Splinter and the immature Mikey were a different matter. She knew Mikey would make a joke to try and cheer her up, but she did not want jokes right now. He carefully led her up the stairs, minutely shaking his head to his older brother. The motion was enough for Leo's face to fall. He knew what it meant.
Going back into the shower, she sat down under the water while Raph sat on the ground beside her, holding her hand and gently rubbing her back. "Hey, hon, it's okay. It wasn't anythin' you could help."
Emily nodded, scrubbing her skin to get rid of the red track marks on her legs. "I know. But that child could have been our chance to be normal." She had to close her eyes and stop talking to prevent a flood of tears.
Raph reached up to gently stroke her cheek with his thumb. "We don't need a child to be normal. I got you, so do the others. You and I can still have a normal life. We all can. We just have a few little changes."
Opening her red rimmed eyes, she nodded, leaning against his hand. She was amazed Raph was this calm, this caring. She hadn't believed Leo and Casey's words of praise for changing him, but now she saw it. He still had his temper, but his fuse had been lengthened dramatically.
"Alright, Raph." She whispered, turning off the water and stepping out into Raph's arms as he held up the towel. "I like the sound of that."
Curling into his side, she dressed in her night clothes and fell asleep beside him, the affect of the sedatives.
"Love you." Raph whispered, kissing her cheek and brushing her bangs out of her face. He quickly walked back downstairs where he heard Don still talking to Doctor Perry.
He was going to find out whose child that was—whose child that had been.