Within an hour, Leo started to wake up.
Raph noticed the moan and Leo's eyes starting to open. He stood up, wanting to be the first thing Leo saw.
"Hey, Leo. How are you feeling?" Raph asked, his voice just above a whisper.
It took a few moments for Leo's vision to focus. "Tired. Not sure of much else."
"Ya did good during the surgery."
When Leo heard that, he had an instant reaction and looked down at his belly. It was flatter now. "The babies? Where are my babies?"
"They're right over there." Raph pointed at the incubators.
Leo tried to sit up so that he could see. "What are they?"
"There is one of each gender." Raph answered with a smile, gently pushing on Leo's shoulders to keep him from hurting himself.
"Does their skin color indicate who their fathers are?"
"Yes," Raph nodded. "The girl is Don's, and the boy is Mikey's."
Though he tried not to feel disappointed, Leo looked on sadly at Raph's words.
"We're all sorry, Leo," Raph soothed.
After all the work he had done to get the babies through the pregnancy, he figured one would have been his. Those government cronies were going to pay for that one day.
"You'll still be involved in their lives, Leo." A new voice said.
"Huh? Oh, hi, April." Leo said.
"I know it was bad news that one wasn't yours, but you are like the mother of the twins. You'll still get to take care of them and be there for them." The redhead said.
"I know, but I thought that while the twins made it all through the tough times, I thought mine would have been a fighter, like me." Leo said sadly.
Raph didn't like to see his brother cry. "What if those scum told you the baby was dead, but really wasn't?"
Leo looked at Raph. "No. I know it was dead, Raph. They had moved the ultrasound wand all over my stomach and I heard heartbeats in four different places. When it was first starting out, there were four that I had heard. When both babies died, I didn't hear their hearts those times. I know they were both dead." Leo explained.
"It's so hard to lose a child or children that you were wanting so badly." April said. "I'm glad mine has been doing ok all this time. It hasn't given me much trouble at all."
"Are you going to find out the gender?" Leo asked.
"I've waited all this time." April shrugged. "I figured I would wait."
"But you have the option to find out what you are having." Leo argued
"I know, but the sex is a prize worth waiting for." She said. "Casey's been fine with waiting too. Though at times, he still is in the mode of trying to get used to fatherhood."
"It hasn't really begun for him yet." Raph said.
"No, but the idea of fatherhood takes getting used to." April said. "Just as the idea of motherhood."
"Yeah, it does. I know the feeling," Leo said, "and I feel like I've gone through both. Can I see the twins now that I'm more awake?"
"Of course you can." April said. She went over and moved the incubators closer to Leo's bed.
Leo tried again to sit up in bed. He grunted in pain when he felt pain shoot through his lower belly.
"Take it easy. Don gave you some pain meds through your IV, but you can still feel some pain when you move, Leo. And we will need to get you up and walking soon." April said as she assisted Leo.
"I don't know if I want to move after what I felt." Leo said through gritted teeth.
"You're gonna have to move." Raph said. "Don said that the longer you lay there, the greater the chance of a blood clot."
"I know, and I want to be up and moving." Leo grunted, "It just hurts and I don't trust my feet right now."
"Just take it easy though." April warned.
The incubators were now at the side of Leo's bed and he looked into them. He saw a little turtle wrapped in pink, and could see that she looked like she had Don's skin tone, and the other was a boy wrapped in blue with Mikey's skin tone.
"Have they cried?" Leo asked.
"Yes. When they were born. They were fussed over at first, but soon fell asleep." April said. "They'll both be ready for feeding soon."
"What are we going to feed them? I can't feed them milk." Leo said with a slight chuckle.
"That's where formula comes in. Casey went out and got both baby food and formula, to see which they take first." April said.
"Can I… hold them?"
"Sure." April smiled. She took the boy out first.
Leo watched how she handled him. He reached out his arms to take the little guy. Mikey's son or not, this felt more like his son after he had carried him for so long.
Leo looked down at the little face. It was so tiny, but bigger than the first baby he had held months ago, Raph's dead daughter. This one was alive and healthy.
The little eyes opened up and look into Leo's face. "Hi, little guy. I'm sure you know me." Leo said.
A little hand came out of the blanket.
"Put one of your fingers in his hand." April said.
Holding the little turtle with his left hand, he placed one of his right fingers in the baby's hand. The hand grasped onto Leo's finger tight.
The feeling of that managed to make Leo's eyes water. He was finally feeling a live baby in his arms. It would take some getting used to this, but he knew he could do it. But just the feeling alone still made him think of the little girl he had held so long ago that wasn't ready to be born.
April took back the boy shortly after and then let him see the girl.
She cooed at him and also did the little hand grasp. This time, Leo broke down. He held her close.
"Leo, why don't you let me have her back." April said, reaching out her arms.
"I want to hold my two other babies!" Leo sobbed.
April and Raph looked at each other with worried looks. They knew that there was no chance of that happening.
Leo had no intention of letting the little girl go. This was how Raph's daughter should have been. And his son or daughter.
"We'll let you hold her a while longer." April said. "Come on, Raph."
She had handed Leo back the little boy to try to make Leo feel happier. Leo needed time to bond with the two little ones he had carried for so long.
Leo felt a little better when the others left. He looked down at the two tiny miracle baby turtles.
Though he had chosen names for the twins already, he had also gone through the baby name book. He wanted to choose names that represented strong and miracle, since these two were strong to make it through his pregnancy and miracles they even existed now.
"I like the name Brian for you, Mikey's son. You are a strong little guy." Leo said. "And as for you, little sweetheart girl, I think I'll call you Hannah. Being Don's little girl, you are sure to be happiness for us all."
"They sound like excellent names, Leo." Leo heard Don's voice.
"Wait, don't I get to name my son?" Mikey asked.
The family came in to the room. They had wanted to know what the names were going to be.
"Well, you could give him his middle name, Mikey. I carried these two all this time and I would like them to have strong and miracle names." Leo said.
"What would you have named your son or daughter?" Splinter asked.
Leo thought carefully. "Maybe Elaina for a daughter. It meant light. For a son, I would have easily picked Master Yoshi's name."
"And you had picked Rachel for Raph's daughter." Don added.
"Yeah. Even in death, they deserve to have names." Leo said.
"Yes, they do." Splinter said.
Raph wasn't entirely enthused with the idea of being a father, but he felt for Leo now. He knew he loved those babies no matter who they belonged to or who had created them.
Then Leo spoke up again. "Even with them dead, they could still be used in Bishop's scientific research. They could even be dissected." He said sadly. "I don't even want to think about that, and what Agent Bishop was going to do to these two."
None of them wanted to picture what that crazy maniac would have done if Leo had stayed in his custody. Even Leo himself could have become a more serious science project other than what they had started and made him do.
"Ok. His name can be Brian." Mikey said. "But yeah, I want to pick his middle name. Well, his middle name could be Yoshi too, right?"
"Brian Yoshi. Sounds like a good match. And Master Yoshi can still be honored." Leo said. "Don, do you have any ideas for a middle name for your daughter?"
"I did think of Tang Shin's name. Maybe she could be Hannah Shin?"
"That also has a good sound to it. That is a way for honoring both Master Yoshi and his love." Splinter said.
Everyone felt that the names were really nice. Brian and Hannah were now part of the family. They had been born on January 21st.
….
Sometime later on, Leo was helped to get out of the bed. The incubators were taken to the special room, where Leo was now being taken to.
Leo had his teeth clenched in pain as he held his stomach. It hurt to move. Don and Leatherhead were helping him move slowly.
Though Leo was in pain, at least he didn't feel the heavy weight in his stomach anymore. He had now seen the cover over his lower plastron, and now that he was up, Don and Leatherhead had also wrapped him up in bandages.
As much as he didn't want to walk, it was beneficial so he wouldn't get blood clots. He would need to walk a few times a day to start his recovery to getting back in shape, and with it being winter still, there was plenty of time for Leo to recuperate. When warmer weather returned, they all knew that Leo would want to be outside trying to get fit with training again. Right now, he needed to give himself a few months to let his plastron heal.
Don also wanted to examine the babies to make sure they were truly fine from all the things they had experienced while inside of Leo. He hated to experiment on his own child, but this needed to be done at some point. He would wait a couple of weeks first.
…
Leo later gave the twins their first feedings. He had tried formula that had been made for him to feed the babies. Hannah and Brian seemed to like the taste of the formula and began to suckle it. It made Leo smile.
But would they eat baby food too? On the next feeding they would find out.
The next time the babies got hungry, Don and Mikey wanted to try to feed them. Leo let them. The twins were their kids too after all.
The baby turtles refused the baby food they were offered, so formula it was until they were older.
Beta read by Applepye.