She'd been feeling tired. And crummy. Sam accepted her explanation that maybe she had the flu. For one week. At week two, he called the doctor himself and made her an appointment.

The pregnancy test had been positive. Pregnant. She was pregnant. They hadn't been trying to get pregnant, but they hadn't been doing anything to prevent a pregnancy either. And when she didn't get pregnant after so many months, she had just assumed she couldn't. It was easy to imagine that she had enough internal scar tissue to make a pregnancy impossible. And it was probably for the best, considering she didn't know anything about being a mother.

And then that doctor walked in and told her she was pregnant. Her level of shock had been at the level of Shredder is not your actual father level of shock. She didn't say anything for the rest of the day. Sam treaded lightly around her, but his big smile spoke for him.

She was still tired, but so far it had been the only sign that she was pregnant. The doctor had sent her home that day with some reading material but no ultrasound. Apparently it was too soon. There'd be nothing to see. She didn't want nausea, but would've gladly taken it if only to have some sort of sign that she was still pregnant.

She tried to relay her fears by watching Sam and his dopey grin. She liked the smile on him. She held a small amount of pride in knowing that she could please him in this way. That she could do something so female.

But she couldn't share her nightmares about the pregnancy not thriving or completely disappearing with Sam. She didn't want to kill his happiness with her worries.

So she worried in silence.

She tried to rationalize with herself that she should be fine keeping her anxiety to herself. She'd had no one to talk to for the first half of her life and she'd survived just fine. But now she was spoiled. She had a husband. And a father. A real father. A couple of sisters, one of whom had experienced a pregnancy and could possibly be helpful. Plus four turtle brothers. One of whom she worked with every day who kept shooting her strange looks as they worked through a training session with their new Hamato recruits.

She glared back at his strange looks. But the stubborn turtle was immune to her glares.

She left the training session as soon as it was over. Before he could approach her and ask why she was so distracted. It was damn irritating, but she couldn't lie to Leonardo. He could always tell when she lied.

So she was avoiding him.

Finally, at six weeks, she had another doctor's appointment for that first ultrasound. They called her back to the small, dark room and she quickly settled herself on the crinkly paper. The sonographer began by warning her that since she was still so early, they might not get the best picture and Miwa did her best not to roll her eyes. Instead, she reached her hand out for smiley Sam. Sam's larger hand encased hers while his other hand absent-mindedly tucked some of her hair behind one of her ears.

"I guess we can't tell if the baby is a redhead yet, huh?" Sam asked.

Sam's smile was so wide Miwa could see all of his teeth. She offered him a weak smile in silent thanks for trying to ease some of the tension she knew was clear on her face. The sonographer laughed and shook her head as she adjusted the controls and kept her eyes pinned on the screen.

"There," the sonographer said after a few more moments of uneasy silence.

Miwa's eyes narrowed in on the screen as she heard Sam stop breathing next to her. His fingers tightened around her hand and she wondered if he knew which part of the fuzzy black and white mess in front of them was their baby.

"Right there," the sonographer said, thankfully outlining an oval shape with her finger on the screen.

"Should we see the heart beating?" Sam asked.

Miwa's eyes flickered quickly to her husband, not because he'd clearly done some research before this appointment, which didn't surprise her, but because there was a hint of nerves in his voice. Sam, who had met her mutant rat father with ease. Who routinely trash talked Leonardo during basketball games. Who once thought it would be fun to challenge Raphael to an arm wrestling match.

Sam wasn't easily rattled.

But right now Sam wasn't meeting her eyes as his own eyes stayed pinned on the tiny screen. Miwa's eyes returned to the screen and she stared hard, trying her best to remember which fuzzy blob on the screen was the baby.

She felt herself go cold at the thought of that missing heartbeat. Maybe all her fears and anxiety had been her body's way of telling her that she wasn't pregnant.

And in that moment, she had never wanted anything more in her entire life than to see a heartbeat. She immediately began making internal deals. Her day to day life flashed through her mind. She hadn't taken any hits in practice that morning, but she could've. She didn't remember the last time she'd been injured on patrol, but it could happen at any point. She immediately vowed to stop. She'd be willing to give up anything to see a heartbeat. She'd keep herself safe. She'd eat healthy. She'd -

"Here," the sonographer said, adjusting the picture. "Here's a better angle. There's the heartbeat right there."

And there it was. A fast flutter. A steady beat beat beat. And now it was very clear that of course that little peapod was their baby. How could she not have seen the little one before?

Warmth flooded her. There were tears in her eyes. Her arms began to shake. This was real. That little person was coming.

"Here's a photo to take home," the sonographer said, tearing the picture off the machine as it was printed and handing it over to Sam.

She watched as Sam's fingers shook as he took the photo and she squeezed his other fingers tight again. He'd already done some research into what to expect with the pregnancy. He was staring at the ultrasound photo as if he could see their future child's little face on it. She fell in love with him all over again.

They'd barely made it out of the building before he was already talking about sharing the photo with the rest of the clan. But she shook her head. Suddenly the pregnancy felt like brand new information all over again. Part of her did want to share the good news with everyone else. But another part of her wanted to keep this secret for a little while longer. Somehow it felt like keeping the baby safe.

Sam pulled her in close there on sidewalk and kissed her with his hands cupping her face. He had seen her joy at the heartbeat. It had been her first real acknowledgment in his eyes that this was actually happening. And he was willing to let her take all the time she needed to settle into this new phase.

"Love you," he whispered to her before taking her hand to hurry her home.

The nauseousness had set in suddenly that morning. And she was cursing herself for ever wishing for it. She stood in front of the board where they'd tried to pinpoint all the locations the lone vigilante had been spotted and tried to listen to Leo's plan to track him down.

"I'm not taking that new group out on this until they've had some experience," Leo was saying. "I'll take a couple of the elite, although I'd really like to see if Raph -," Leo stopped and eyed Miwa. "Are you okay? You've been kind of distracted and now you look a little – green."

Miwa shut her eyes and tried to take a deep breathe in through just her nose.

"Maybe you should go home and rest if you're still sick."

Miwa slowly nodded. Going home to curl into a ball and not move for the next seven or so months sounded tempting. Either that or head into the break room to eat the entire contents of the fridge since keeping her stomach full at all times seemed to be the only thing that kept the nausea at bay. She definitely needed to do either one or the other.

She opened her eyes and found Leo's head tilted in her direction. He looked like he was concentrating on something. And with his wide blue eyes zeroed in on her abdomen, she had a good guess what he was thinking. But there was nothing to see there, so he was wasting his time.

"You're pregnant," Leo whispered.

"What?"

"Wait, you did already know, right?" Leo's eyes were wide, suddenly worried that he'd spilled the beans.

"I'm just - ," her words of denial were cut off as Leo scooped her up in a hug as his dorky grin spread across his face. "I haven't said yes to being pregnant yet," she grit out before he put her back down.

Leo smirked at her. "You don't have to."

"What does that mean?"

"I can hear it," Leo said simply.

"Hear? You can hear?" Miwa took a step back. "I knew you had good hearing but I had no idea how creepy -," she cut herself off and tilted her head at him. "Wait, you can hear the heart beating?"

Leo smiled at her hopeful look and nodded.

"Can you – can you do like a daily heartbeat check for me, then?"

It wasn't often he saw her look unsure. Or worried. He pulled her into a side hug.

"I can do hourly."

A/N: A new reader recently ran through this entire series and then surprised me with some really cool sketches (see below)! So when she asked about Leo's reaction to figuring out Miwa was pregnant, I realized that scene had been left out of the story, and thought this might be a nice one-shot to show not only his reaction, but also Miwa's initial reaction at being pregnant, along with the moment she knew it was something she desperately wanted. I think it would be incredibly reassuring to have a ninja turtle brother (or 4) around during a pregnancy. Thanks for the idea, Selene467!

Since FF won't let me post links here, you'll have to travel over to DeviantArt and either look up Selene467 to see the THREE sketches she's created, or you can find my profile (reader315) and check out the "Promise Series Fanart" folder I've created for all the amazing pictures that have been dedicated to the stories.