Well, the egg.
Joy and relief fill me, to finally hold them in my arms, with Olarte’s arms around me and our egg.
The technicians need to check them out, but moments later, we’re out of the tub and dried off and dressed, and our egg is securely wrapped in a special sling with embedded monitors so Dr. H’looder’s team can keep close watch on them with minimal intrusion.
I help Olarte don the sling, and I blink back tears at the look of wonder on their face as they wrap their arms around the bundle they now carry.
“Welcome to our family, little one,” they say, sounding choked up.
It’ll still be a while before our child is born, but now we can both take turns carrying them.
I suspect I will have trouble getting Olarte to give them up for a turn.
The greenish brown mottled egg has mixes of mottled pink swirls around it, meaning our child is part ishblane.
I don’t care. They’re ours, and I’m going to love them. They’ll grow up surrounded by loving family. Mostly chosen, adopted family, but that’s still family, in my book.
The techs say I’m okay and I’ll start healing. One of the augmentations I received was bionanotech to help with rapid healing, mostly because of when Olarte bites me during sex.
It’s going to be helpful now, too.
Dr. H’looder’s beside himself with joy over our double success, and anticipates our children should make it through to full term without issues.
But his team will be closely monitoring them, up until the day they’re born, and even a few weeks after.
This is a true first, twice over. Two human mates carrying Pfahrn eggs to full term. Yes, our children are biologically siblings, and will be raised together.
Now that we know how the process works, and we’ve been through it once already…maybe it won’t be so bad having a couple more kids. I know Simon wants more children.
We start to head to our bedroom when Simon and Mohrn’s bedroom door opens. Mohrn is also wearing the sling holding their egg. “Well?” Simon asks.
I don’t know who’s smiling more, me or Olarte, when we let them see our precious cargo.
“Dude, that’s fantastic!” Simon hugs me tightly. “Congratulations!”
I did have a slight advantage over Simon—he’s straight. He didn’t read the fine print on a Maxim Colonies contract, but he’s not upset he ended up with Mohrn. The two of them are as crazy in love with each other as me and Olarte.
Finally, Olarte gets me moving, gently herding me to our bedroom, where we snuggle in bed with our egg carefully tucked between us, each of us resting a hand on it so we can feel them moving.
Olarte’s golden gaze settles on mine. “I do not know if I have the proper words to express my joy right now, my love.”
I kiss them. “It’s okay.” I nuzzle my nose against theirs. “I think I know what you’re feeling.” I press my forehead to theirs and look down at our egg. “Let’s get through this, and then we can talk about our next baby.”
Olarte softly gasps. “Truly?”
“Yeah.” I nestle my head against them. “That wasn’t so bad. Didn’t kill me.” I sigh. “Although when they’re old enough to start dating,thatmight kill me.”
A soft, chuffing noise I know is Olarte’s version of a chuckle drifts to me. “We have a ways before that happens, love.”
“I know. I might need to call on Uncle Simon to help us out. Put an unholy terror into their partners so they know not to fuck with our baby.”
Another chuff. “See? You are already an amazing father. I just will not let you cook. You can change diapers.”
I laugh. “Gee, thanks. I think.” I gently stroke our egg. They know the babies can hear and feel some things. We’ll keep our egg warm and protected, always with us, so that when they’re finally born, they’ll already know they’re loved and wanted.
Poor Mohrn didn’t really get that from what turned out to be their adopted parent. When they were an egg and it was discovered they were ishblane, it’s likely their adopted parent simply tucked them into a blanket nest somewhere warm and checked on them periodically.
As a result, Mohrn didn’t really know true love and tenderness until they met Simon.
