Bear My Babies

“A little, mostly to tell me she was hungry, but her voice is gone and she’s incredibly weak. It’s few and far between.”

“I’ll be back to stay tonight,” Melissa promised and hurried out the door to wait for Thomas. She’d told him to pick her up at her mother’s house. It would be easier. By the time he’d arrived to get her, she was feeling pretty nervous.

“You look lovely.” He climbed out of the back of a car. That wasn’t something she’d really thought of. This was a very rich guy, and of course he didn’t have to drive himself around.

“Thank you, I’m excited to try this place. I’ve never been.”

He held the door open for her and she climbed in. Smoothing her dress before he got in, she nodded at the driver. The whole thing was completely bizarre to her. She knew he had money, but she’d never really stopped to consider how much money he might actually have.

The restaurant had a long line outside of it, and her stomach growled in response. She wished she’d had the foresight to at least grab a small snack. To her surprise, when they exited the car he led her right to the front of the line and stepped in front of the first person waiting.

“McMillian, Thomas,” he said and took her hand.

The host led them right inside to a table that was already sat with waters and a small ring of candles. It was a gorgeous restaurant and for a minute she forgot to sit down. He stood behind her having pulled the chair out and she just stared at the paintings on the wall. He cleared his throat and she shook out of it.

“Sorry.” She took her seat and he pushed it gently beneath her.

He ordered for both of them and she just let him, being too overwhelmed by the menu to decide what she wanted.

“So how was your day?” He smiled at her.

It was such a handsome smile and it made his eyes crinkle in the corners. She hadn’t noticed that before. It was nice.

“It was busy as usual. Mom wasn’t talking too much. She was having one of her internal days.”

“Internal days?”

“That’s what I call it when she goes into herself. It’s not that she can’t talk, she just doesn’t want to. Her illness makes her weak and the words are too hard to get out, so she keeps to herself.” She hadn’t even meant to start talking about her mother, the words just sort of spilled from her.

“That must be hard.”

“It can be, but she has good days, too. I look forward to those.”

“I can imagine.” The waiter came and brought a bottle of wine, pouring both of them a tall glass. “You know what I like about our arrangement? There’s no pressure. I’m not trying to impress you and you’re not trying to impress me. We’re just two people planning to have a baby without all the crap that comes along with it. We won’t grow to resent each other. We’ll just be parents.”

She tried not to think of how hard it had been to choose an outfit. He wasn’t trying to impress her so she could simply relax now and just talk about the deal.

“I guess we should get down to talking about the baby now.” She took a sip of her water and cleared her throat. It was true she was stalling, but she had to tell him and it was now or never.

“Okay, I’m all ears.” He smiled and unnerved her even more as she searched for the right words to tell him about the risks.

“There are some risks to the baby involved in being carried by a human mother. I can’t know all of them because it’s never been done before, but there are some things you need to know.”

“What type of risks? Death?” He leaned forward, alarm showing on his face.

“No, with miscarriages it’s the same risk as if I were carrying a human baby. This is more to do with its supernatural abilities. For example, the baby might not be able to develop as fast or exactly the same as a pure-bred shifter would. There could be some delays or possible problems with their gifts.”

“Okay, so they might not be able to shift right away, is that what you’re saying?”

Melissa knew it was a lot more complicated than that. The baby could have issues where it only shifted half its body or some other strange scenario. The chances of that happening were very low, so she debated whether she should tell him the whole truth, or just wait and see what happened. It was a hard thing to predict, and it was hard to know if the defect in the shifting would hurt the baby somehow. A baby who ended up somehow deformed in some way would have special needs and then they would be signing up for a completely different job raising it.

“Yes, or at all. There’s a risk this baby would have your genes but remain mostly human so it wouldn’t be able to shift at all. This isn’t something I can gauge. Once I am further along in the pregnancy, there are tests I can run, observations I can make, so we’ll know more, but until then, I don’t have an answer.”

He was quiet for a minute. There was a possibility if he thought the baby wouldn’t be like him that he would change his mind and not want to have one. She had gone over the way the dinner would go in her head several times and that was her least favorite outcome. She had started to get used to the idea that a baby was happening, and felt she would be disappointed if he backed out.

“Okay, so there’s a chance, but there’s also a very good chance he or she would be completely normal, as well,” he said.

“That’s true.” She smiled, liking that outcome much better. It was good to be optimistic, but she had to be realistic. They were messing with something they’d not messed with before. There were all kind of unknowns.

“Then it’s settled, we are destined to bang.”

She choked on her wine and coughed, grabbing a napkin to put over her mouth. Her cheeks flushed and she tried to catch her breath.

“I was just kidding. I’m sorry I choked you to death.” He had reached across the table and put his hand on hers while she flailed about.

“It’s okay,” she managed to say.

“I was trying to lighten the mood of a very serious moment and I probably should have just left it alone.”