She had the machine turned away from him and George was lying back and couldn’t see anything. He heard the nurse gasp. He looked up at the doctor’s face while she scanned his belly. She looked completely confused. A few minutes later, she printed some pictures off the machine and then helped him wipe the goo off, and handed him a paper towel to finish cleaning himself off.
George couldn’t stand the suspense any longer. “What’s wrong, Sam? I can see by your face that something is definitely not normal.” He pulled his shirt down over his belly. “I’m not dying, am I?”
“No, you’re not dying.” Sam patted his leg, but her eyes gleamed with awe. “I need to call a doctor friend of mine, so can you wait a few minutes and give me a chance to bring in a consult? I don’t know what this is yet, and I don’t want to worry you until I actually have a real answer.”
George nodded. He wanted to press for an answer, but he decided to trust Sam. He texted Leon what he knew so far, and didn’t get a response by the time Sam came back, followed by two more doctors, including her supervisor.
“Whoa, what exactly is going on that gets me my own party of doctors?” George asked, trying not to panic.
“Based on the ultrasound pictures,” Sam said and trailed off for a minute. She shook her head and cleared her throat. “Ahem. Sorry. I don’t know how to say this. Based on the ultrasound pictures, you’re pregnant. You have a uterus and a living baby.”
George started to laugh, then saw she was deadly serious, as were the men with her.
“You’re kidding me, right? How is that possible?” George asked. “I’ve had my appendix out, and I think they’d have noticed a uterus in my belly.”
“You’ve never had an unusual scan before, so this uterus is well...new. I don’t know how you got a uterus.” Sam scratched her head. “I need to reexamine your belly, and this is our OB here, and our boss. With your permission, I’d like Charles Mindleton to look you over too.”
George gave his permission, and proceeded to get the most thorough examination of every inch of his privates, stomach, and chest between Sam and the OB Charles. Sam nodded when they were done, and asked him to wait again while they had a conference on his situation. They’d come back and inform him of their findings in a few minutes.
George felt like he was waiting for hours, even though it was really more like forty-five minutes. Leon finally texted him back and George didn’t respond. He didn’t know what to tell him until he knew more, anyway.
When the doctors came back in, Sam was the one who did most of the talking.
“Based on all our findings, it looks like you had a uterus implanted into you,” Sam told him quietly. “We found a small, mostly healed surgical site. How you got pregnant, we have no idea. We can do an amniocentesis in a few weeks to do a DNA test, assuming you don’t want us to remove the uterus and fetus.”
“You mean baby,” George said. “This is a baby—it’s not just a fetus. If I’m pregnant, this is a freaking miracle and you’re not going to do anything to the baby.”
“You do realize what a pregnancy entails?” Charles finally spoke up. He’d been relatively quiet this whole time. “Growing breasts. You’ll leak milk. Men have milk ducts, so you’ll make milk like a woman. You’ll have mood swings, hormone changes, and if baby stays viable in there, in that uterus that somehow got inside of you, we will most likely need to remove it by surgery when the time comes, simply because there’s no way for you to give birth without an opening.”
“Then that’s what we will do. I’m assuming you’ll need to follow the pregnancy carefully,” George said, curious how this was going to work. He was still in shock, and zillions of questions were running through his mind. “How do I explain this to my partner? He wasn’t even sure he wanted kids. How did I make eggs?”
“We aren’t sure. It’s possible the eggs were implanted into the uterus, and it’s possible that somehow, you got pregnant from anal sex.”
“What?” George said.
“I know this must be so hard for you,” Sam said.
Charles continued, “We found an anomaly with a small tube connection your anal tract to the uterus, that’s what’s supplying all the blood flow to the uterus. It’s entirely possible that if there were eggs waiting, sperm traveled that way. I’ve got no good medical reason or way to explain this. I’ve never seen this before, and even if we had perfect uterine transplants, we’d be doing them on women, not men. Not to mention the uterus isn’t quite shaped like a normal, human woman’s. We need to follow you closely.”
“How closely?” George asked.
“We’re talking once or twice a week for ultrasound monitoring and blood work, kind of close on a situation like this,” Charles told him bluntly. “Are you sure you want to go through with this?”
“Yes. I’m not going to let you harm my baby,” George said. He was already feeling protective toward the baby growing inside of his womb. His womb. He laughed out loud.
All three of the doctors staring at him.
“George, are you okay?” Sam asked, then cringed as the words left her mouth. “I mean, I know this situation is so out there, nothing’s really okay, but are you safe to go home by yourself?”
“I’ll be fine, Sam. I just have to figure out a way to tell Leon. I don’t suppose you’d be willing to talk to him about this?” George asked her quietly. “I don’t think I’ll be able to answer his questions, and you know how he is.”
Sam nodded, “I can give him a call as soon as you leave, if you sign a medical disclaimer giving me permission to disclose personal information about your care to him. Charles will need one, too. I want you to get labs on your way out, and I want you back on Friday to redo them.”
“All right, I can do that,” he told her and then paused. “Dumb question, but can I keep having sex, now that I’m like this?”
Sam and Charles exchanged glances and hesitated. Sam finally answered, “Stick with oral and other methods of sex. Until we know how this is going to affect your body, if you don’t want to damage the uterus and baby, avoid anal penetration for now.”
“Okay, I will do that,” George said. He collected his paperwork to get his labs, and as Sam was leaving he caught her arm. “No medical journals, no newspapers. I want this kept quiet. I don’t know how it happened, but I do not want any attention drawn to this.”
Sam nodded. “I understand. I’ll make sure the other doctors and the nurse who was here agree, as well.”
*****
George was waiting for Leon to come home. Sam had texted George, letting him know that she’d spoken to Leon in great detail, and that was the last he’d heard from either of them. It was almost midnight when Leon came home, and he threw his keys in the key holder and hung up his coat.
He walked over to the couch and sat next to George, holding his hand and looking at him. He didn’t say anything to George, just stared.
“It’s pretty…out there, huh?” George finally said. “This is going to sound completely weird to you, but I had a dream a few weeks ago, that I was kidnapped by these alien women and they were doing weird things to me. I didn’t mention it at the time because it was so bizarre, and then I forgot about it.”
Leon cleared his throat. He rubbed his thumb gently against George’s hand. “There’ve been a few cases of men showing up with uteruses and babies, but the men end up disappearing before the baby is born, or they disappear shortly before the surgery to remove the uterus and fetus if they decide not to keep it.”
“That’s crazy,” George said. “And wait—they disappear? Like, the men just vanish?”
Leon said, “I don’t know what to believe. I’ve seen enough hints that something like this is real. I don’t know if I believe in aliens, but given that humans haven’t even perfected implanting a uterus in a woman, I don’t see how they could do this in a man. This is technology that goes way beyond what we as humans are capable of.”
“Does that mean you don’t want me to keep it?
” George hesitated, worried. “I want a baby, Leon. This isn’t at all how I thought we’d end up having one, but I want a baby. I want this baby.”
Leon’s gaze was intent on George. “I’m willing to support you. This is medically one of those things I’d want to be a part of from a scientific aspect, and while it’s hard to swallow as your husband, we’ll make it work. I love you, George, even though it’s going to take a while for me to wrap my head around this.”
“I love you, too,” George said. “And thank you—thank you—for being willing to support me.”
“Speaking of that support, I want you to quit your job at the marketing company, at least for the duration of the pregnancy. We’ll need time to figure this out. I found a house we can move into, and I’ve already had offers from people at work who’d want our apartment. Let me know what you think.”
“Leon, I know when you’ve decided something you move fast, but wow!” George said. “A house? Does that mean we can paint a nursery?”
“If that makes you happy.” Leon shrugged. “Also, I want to come to the next ultrasound. Sam said they’ll be doing one next week, after your labs on Friday. I’ve already arranged to have time off, so we can go to it together. Charles seems like a decent doctor to have as your OB.”
“Thank you, for all of this Leon. I love you so much.” George hugged him hard, inhaling Leon’s comforting scent.
Leon stroked George’s back in a way that was at first comforting, but soon took on a sexual feel. George gave Leon a knowing grin, then slipped off the couch to kneel between Leon’s legs.
He pulled Leon’s cock out of his pants, and took him deep inside his mouth before Leon could even respond. Leon threw his head back and gripped George’s hair, as if unable to stop himself.
Using his tongue, George swirled it around the tip and then sucked him down his throat, almost gagging. He pulled his head back, then swallowed him again, over and over until he could feel Leon surge up the way he did, right before an orgasm. Licking around the tip with his tongue, he cupped Leon’s balls and squeezed softly. Leon shot his seed all over George’s tongue and the back of his mouth. His hands shook in George’s hair.
It wasn’t more than a few minutes later, however, that George felt nauseous. He ran to the bathroom to hurl from the pregnancy hormones.
Leon stood next to George, rubbing his back until he was done.
“Water?” Leon asked.
George nodded, and was grateful that was all Leon asked him.
Leon helped him into bed a little while later, and George had trouble sleeping. He put his hand on his belly and wondered what it would feel like when his belly got all big, when he could feel the flutters of the baby.
If it was an alien baby, would the aliens come back for it? Would he be able to keep it? None of this made sense, and he wondered how it was going to work. It wasn’t just the medical side of things that was going to make a difference, it was the entire big picture. Leon’s tales of the disappearing men made George the most anxious of all. He’d risk anything for this baby, but he didn’t want to disappear.
That night, he went to sleep and dreamed of aliens and space probes. He felt hazy the next morning and blamed the pregnancy hormones.
*****
The next few weeks passed quickly. George and Leon packed and moved, sold their apartment, and bought the house Leon had picked out. It was a nice, three-bedroom house, with a decent sized yard. George chose the nursery, a room that overlooked the back yard. He wanted to start decorating at soon as possible.
They were due for their gender ultrasound in a couple of days, and then George had every intention of going out and wasting money on paint, bedding, and baby supplies. He and Leon had talked in detail about the C-section, and when they’d do it. They didn’t want to risk George going into natural labor, since he couldn’t deliver without being cut open, and they wanted to remove the uterus when they removed the baby.
Sam, Charles, and even Leon had concerns that George’s body would eventually reject the baby, since it wasn’t organic to his own person. So far, he’d tolerated it okay, but some of the previous documented cases had shown issues later in the pregnancy when the body had started to see it as a foreign object and tried to get rid of it. Causing issues for the carrier, the pregnancy had even led to a few deaths.
George was still having weird dreams of the aliens every couple of weeks. He’d dream of needles, probes, and weird scanners. They’d touch him all over and then he’d wake up, shaking in bed, thinking he’d just had the weirdest dream ever. He was finally getting used to them, and he was starting to remember more of them after he’d had them, yet he found himself not telling Leon.
It was almost like he knew he had to keep this to himself, or Leon would think he was losing his mind. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust his partner, but talking about aliens and these weird probing space dreams was a bit much, even for the most open minded of partners. Leon had been the one to bring up the alien theory, yet George knew he was skeptical. It was the best explanation they had, but it still sounded absolutely crazy.
Sam and Charles had done everything to find research and studies about male pregnancy. They were able to find limited case studies, and they were almost all on gay men. It made no sense to them, but for now, it was the only information they had.
When Leon and George got to the doctor’s office for the gender ultrasound, George’s pregnancy was starting to show. He had started wearing loose sweatshirts to hide his growing belly. He didn’t want to have to explain it to women or other people in the lobby, and people had begun to give him strange looks.
The reactions of other people made George want to become reclusive, because although he was more than happy to have a baby and go through this, being a freak of nature was a bit much for him. Being gay was out there enough for a lot of people—trying to explain a pregnancy would probably give someone a heart attack.
They were led back to the office, where Sam and Charles joined them. This time, they left the ultrasound screen aimed at the fathers as they showed them images of the uterus.
The cold gel had George shivering as the ultrasound probe glided over his belly. First they took a look at the fluid around the baby and the walls of the ultrasound and placenta, which all looked to be growing and functional. Then they focused on the baby. It looked like a human baby, and it was a girl. George cooed, awed as they measured all the brain and the organs. They measured her belly and the length of her arms and legs, and took a picture of her sucking her fingers.
Leon cleared his throat and took George’s hand in his. “So, we are getting far enough along in his pregnancy now, that we need to discuss safety options, both for the birth and for monitoring the rest of the pregnancy. Coming to the office and going out in public isn’t going to be safe for George much longer. We want to keep this as quiet as we can. What do you suggest?”
“To be honest,” Charles said, “I’d like to give steroids and take the baby out around thirty-six or thirty-seven weeks. Going into natural labor may be dangerous for George, and since we don’t know what’s going to happen if we let the baby get bigger than that, I say we may need to even play it by ear before then for the birth.” Sam nodded while Charles continued, “We already have to give George progesterone shots in high doses, because his levels were low due to being a man carrying a baby. The shots are normally stopped around thirty-six weeks in a woman; I would want the baby out when we stopped the shots.”
“And the rest of the prenatal visits, and the birth?” Leon pressed.
“I can do most of the exams, and bring portable equipment to the house for the next few weeks, I don’t mind doing a house visit for this because of the uniqueness of the situation and your family’s need for privacy. But he has to have the C-section in an operating room. It’s the only safe place to do it, and I could lose my license otherwise—you know that, Leon. I can make special accommodations to a point,” Charles told him, “but it has to stop when it bec
omes an actual patient and baby risk.”
“We will find a way to make it work,” Leon said. “We just need to know the when and where, make sure there’s no one around who will leak our situation to the media. We need this to stay quiet.”
George tuned out the planning talk. It made him anxious, so he thought about the nursery, and what he might want to buy for the baby. “So, it’s most definitely a girl?” he asked.
“Yes, it’s a girl,” Sam reassured him and patted his arm.
George got cleaned up and dressed, and then headed out to their car. “Are you okay?” he asked Leon, who was unusually quiet after the doctor’s visit.
Leon nodded. “Just really worried about you, that’s all. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“I’ll be okay,” George reassured him, although he knew he couldn’t promise that. This was so out of the medical norm, which was why Leon was concerned. There were no controlled scientific studies for Leon to base judgements off of. All he could do was take this as a one-time case study and pray for the best. “We’re still going to the baby store, right?”
“Yes,” Leon said, chuckling. “We’re still going shopping for the baby.”
Leon pulled into the baby store, and followed George through the store quietly. There were so many women in the store, all with large bellies, that they didn’t seem to stop and notice George and Leon. There were a couple of mildly interested looks, but each expecting family seemed more focused on their own babies.
George was attracted to the purple and golds, and Leon didn’t have a preference. When the cart was full of bedding, blankets, clothes, and anything else George could throw in there, George got a second cart. He added a car seat after spending nearly an hour comparing the choices in the store. Once he got to the baby food section, though, he paused.
“Do you think we should formula feed?” George asked quietly. He’d never considered feeding any other way, but his man-boobs had been leaking fluid and Charles had said it was entirely possible he’d be able to nurse the baby if he wanted.
Arrested by the Dragon: Gay Police Paranormal Romance Page 19