So...Just something I made up for my fanfiction is when Mutant Turtles become parents, during the time of incubation, they start developing love handles on their sides (This would apply to both male and females if any females existed) the purpose of these fat reserves would be to be able to guard the eggs for long periods of time without eating like how Crocodillians guard their eggs, this is my explanation for why the 2003 Turtles have patches of bare skin between their plastron and carapace when it seems that would be a massive vulnerable spot, also the idea was inspired by reading a book about the courtship habits of animals and how for Moorhens females prefer males who are fat so they can live off their fat reserves while incubating and small so they'll stay fat longer as the book humorously puts in 'For female moorhens short and dumpy is in'

Earlier that morning in Earthport, in Belladonna's apartment, Don after a night a burying his face in Belladonna's dark blue mane to have a few sniffles and the Water Dragoness slowly and softly stroked his carapace to calm him down, the two finally collapsed into sleep...They could have dream shared but both were too tired to think of it.

Then as the morning sunbeams caressed Don's forehead causing his reptilian instincts to begin to awaken, the last thing he remembered about the strange and ethereal dream he was having was he was standing in a pitch black place before something that was shining like the sun...And then he realized he was feeling the actual sun beginning to warm him calling him into the new day.

He felt refreshed, he feared he might wake up tired from the crying he did late last night, but the dream even though he couldn't remember any of it except the last part for the life of him, and he was getting better at remembering his dreams since Belladonna and the other Humanimals had taught him the importance of dreams...Though if he was being honest with himself he really should have known that before he met the Humanimals.

Poor diligent Don, knew logically the importance of sleep and why creatures with brains need to do it, but so often he felt sleeping was a waste of time when he could be doing incredible things...He told Belladonna about the time he went without sleep for days trying to find a cure for the friends trapped in the underground but the answer only came to him when he finally fell asleep and the answer came to him in a dream...From Belladonna he had been learning to treasure his sleep that even when they don't have the pleasure of sharing a dream which tends to be more lucid than regular dreams he learned the value of even the most ordinary most chaotic of dreams, 'Sometimes you have to let your mind wander the chaos...' Belladonna had told him '...You never know what you might find.'

Don sat up and looked and the sweet sleeping face of the Asiatic Dragoness he was married to, really he should be more open to the whimsical he was married to a mythical creature! He remembered first coming the First Earth and it really was like coming into Wonderland to him, where the his other three brothers just sort of went with the bizarreness his hyper logical nature was finding itself offended, music doesn't come down from the sky like weather! How can a kiss on the cheek cause a man to be able to defy gravity and float in the air long enough for him to say 'Yahoo!' It was like that time they went to the world of their...Counterparts but this world was more 'normal seeming' than that Saturday morning cartoon nightmare so really the confusion was when the cartoon law of physics did and didn't apply to the natives it was very logical and intuitive to figure it out but to him it wasn't and then Belladonna asked in in all ernistness 'When was the last time you read a book of fiction?' and that question stung because he realized the reason his brothers were able to intuit things he couldn't particurally Mikey who was almost always thinking in movie and comic book tropes, and Don didn't want to think like Mikey because he saw his little brother's tendancy to think in movie tropes stupid, but he was learning that this place didn't run on cheesy B-horror movie tropes more fairy tale and fantasy tropes as they would be applied in a society that now had space travel.

But that was all then, Don stroked the dark blue fur on Belladonna's forehead and then he softly kissed her cheek, causing a deep rumbling draconic purr and giggle

"Good morning..." Don said quietly

"You seem so much better..." Belladonna said with a yawn

"I had a dream..." Don said "...I know it was a good dream but for the life of me, I can only remember the very last bit before I woke up...Where I was standing before something...Something that was shining like the sun, but it wasn't the sun but I can't remember what else it could have been!"

That got Belladonna's attention "You normally remember so much more about your dreams, this sounds like no ordinary dream! This sounds like a sign, or someone was communicating with you in your dreams..."

"Well..." Don said as he yawned and stretched "...Wouldn't be the first time..."

Still because he felt so good particurally compared to how he felt last night, he hoped the sender of the dream was benevolent, I mean if it was someone like the Foot Mystics wouldn't they have sent a nightmare to make him feel worse?

"What would you like for breakfast?" Belladonna asked

"Not hungry just yet." Don said "Think I want to do some stretches first...As you can see I'm clearly in no danger of wasting away."

He went over to the mirror to do his stretches, and check out his body, although initally alarmed when he first discovered the love handles, after learning that, it his body's natural response to become a parent, increase his appitite to develop fat reserves for gaurding the eggs 'broody weight' Don took almost jealous pride in the love handles as he explained to his brothers as physical evidence he was now a father "And I intend to wear my Dad bod with pride"

That was with Don and Belladonna, Jonathan and Gus had decided to take a walk in a nearby grove of tree so they could speak out of earshot of Ichabod and Marzipan,

Jonathan told Gus the story of how he began the process of reforming his criminal ways, while he was in Arkham a new therapist one who was a girl he knew in high school, the only person in that school who ever showed him any kindness, her name was Evie, and intially Jonathan resented her greatly he thought it was her taking pity on him again, he actually broke out of Arkham and into her apartment with the intent to hurt her, but Evie was brave because she knew him, she showed him no fear and reasoned with him...And that was how little by little they became friends, with her not sending him back to Arkham but instead letting him stay at her apartment and slowly they began to fall in love but...Scarecrow's need to further attempt to terrorize Gotham proved too great a temptation, despite knowing Evie would not approve of it, he donned the Scarecrow costume once more only before he could spread any mayhem someone was waiting for him...Lyle Bolton once sadistic guard of Arkham who terorized the inmates so much Scarecrow escaped just to get away from him and that escape being the tip off that led to Boldton being investigated and then fired and after pulling his own criminal stunt trying to punish Gotham city officals he got commited to the asylum as an inmate, well seemed from that day foreward Bolton had a personal beef with Crane as the one who led to his downfall seems Bolton had secretly escaped Arkham and was waiting for Crane with a gun...

Evie had secret followed Crane and ended up taking a bullet that was meant for him...She never stood a chance.

Crane escaped before the police arrived, but this time the agonizing guilt that he was responsible for his one friend's death that was what finally got to him, he sank into deep despair nearly dying from despair if it weren't for Batman of all people saving him, but he was out cold during Joker's stunt of trying to drop an atomic bomb on Gotham that would finally cause the Wrangler Goverment who First Earth was under at the time to be no longer ignore Gotham as simply an equivilent to the Amish choosing to live without Humanimal Slaves and live in the quaint antiquated ways of the 20th century, if there was one thing that can be said for the Wranglers, they may be evil but not suicidal their evil is one of ruthless pragmatism not doing evil for evil's sake like the Joker. So after Jonathan had a dream where Evie seemed to be floating above him, begging him to continue to 'live and be happy' if he ever wanted to see her again. Jonathan realized what he had to do was to reform himself and live a worthy life if he wanted to see Evie again in the hereafter...And he woke up strapped to a bed, with his fellow rogues apparently on a spaceship headed to a Penal Colony planet...OK...He was amazed how OK he was with that.

Having noticed he had woken up, Poison Ivy came over to him with a proposel, she wanted to have a child, her previous experiments in creating plant/human clones would live only three days but this time she had found a better way to trick her hyperactive immune system, the blood would be put in a plant and would attach itself like an umbilical cord the child would be perfectly human probobly with a similar resistance to toxins but since the child would be a boy it wouldn't have the same problems as Ivy since as a boy he wouldn't be the one to get pregnant...Expressing sympathy having heard what he had just gone through she asked him if he would be the father of this child...

"And that's when I realized a child was exactly what I needed..." Jonathan said "...Someone to give this overwhelming feelings of love I now had but not the same romantic love I felt with Evie...What eventually turned me around to the idea of Marzipan is...A point Ichabod brought up when he was screaming at me for my old fashoned bigotry that I could have had true love but I squandered it and instead I had to settle for what I have with Pamela a relationship that's...Comfortable enough but not that deep passionate love I had...And...I fear because Pamela's plant powers seem to have given her...Eternal youth we're not sure if she can die naturally...We have admittatly been growing more and more distant...I can't imagine the torment she's feeling right now...Watching everyone you know grow old while you remain young."

Gus had to admit all this was quite the doozy of a tale, the kind of story you think only happens on the stage.

"Yes..." Gus said "...That does mean your wife at this moment is a bit of an unknown variable..."

Gus began sharpening his claws in anearby tree, Jonathan remembered Marzipan telling him that in feline ettiqutte the sharpening of claws is a subtle way of saying you mean bussiness, 'I have claws and I know how to use them so don't cross me' Gus also knew Jonathan was not telling the whole truth, there were some things he was leaving out and Gus didn't like it...

"I'm warning you..." Gus said "...If any harm should come to Marzipan..."

"Please!" Jonathan said "I have come to love her as if she were my own daughter...Should Pamela turn hostile...I would be willing to do battle and even kill my own wife should she make such an attempt..."

Yeah some foreshadowing to Flower of Life