“Gorgons have a low fertility rate, but it’s even lower when it’s not with another Gorgon… At the time, I figured it was either just that, or possibly there was something else wrong with me. But it doesn’t matter now, because I have what I want. So the only thing you should be doing is sending them flowers, or even a damn thank you card, because they gave me this miracle.” Ender swallowed hard as his eyes flooded with tears. “Damn fucking hormones,” he whimpered.
“Ender…” Soren rasped softly, wiping the tear away when one broke free. “Why didn’t you tell me you wanted to have a baby?”
He shrugged. “It didn’t work, so I didn’t see much point.”
The Harpy was quiet for a moment, before asking, “Are you going to tell them?”
Ender frowned. “Why would I?”
Soren blinked. “Seriously, Ender?! You don’t think the two men may want to know they could possibly be fathers?”
“They slept with me to comfort me. It was warmth I was after, and that is what they gave me. It didn’t mean anything beyond that. They are also in a committed relationship with each other. I am a complication that neither of them wants or needs.”
“I get that, but one of them is the father. And I may not know them well, but I do know they are not the type to just walk away.”
Ender smiled. “Soren, I don’t live in a world that fits in theirs. It’s better that they never find out.”
“Ender,” Soren growled. “Fuck, that aside, even if you want to keep it a secret for now, you need to let Docter Corradetti check you out. And before you argue, as I see you gearing up to do, think back to your many years of trying, and the problems you faced back then with Coop. You know personally how dangerous Gorgon pregnancies can be.”
He flinched away, clutching at his stomach as old fears rose up. And then he felt it, this slicing, horrifying phantom pain of the eggshell of his first child cutting through his abdomen all those years ago. Just the first of the children he buried, long before he’d successfully given birth to Kovo and Nyla.
Soren pulled him into a hug. “I don’t mean to worry you, or bring back bad memories.”
He shook his head. “No…you’re right. Keeping it secret is one thing, but being safe comes first. Let’s go, I need to see the doctor…”
“So, I just sit and the machine will…take a picture?” Ender asked slowly, eyeing the basketball-sized floating white ball in front of him with a frown. Tech he may love, but anything medical related was of no interest to him, when it came to understanding how it worked that was.
The room was all white, with cabinets and a floating examination chair. Aside from the ball and chair, there was also a floating screen, a desk with a holographic tactile keyboard, and a control panel that he assumed was for the machine.
“Yep,” Doctor Ruby Corradetti said with a smile. “With fast and detailed results to boot. Just try not to move too much.”
Technology really had advanced a hell of a lot since the last time he’d been pregnant. He looked to Ruby, the doctor incharge of pediatrics, and all things pregnancy related, for the underground compound, and sighed. “Okay, do whatever you need to do then, I guess.”
The Dryad—or Forest Nymph, as some in her species preferred to go by—was short but curvy. In a red blouse and black pencil skirt paired with matching heels, the white doctor's coat she had on contrasted nicely with her dark-brown skin. Her long dark-green hair was currently pulled up into a bun, a few strands tucked behind her pointed ears, and there were red-framed glasses perched on her nose.
Ruby moved to the table and started messing with the control panel. Seconds later, the ball beeped and lines lit up in a circuit board-type pattern over it. Ender sat as still as can be, staring at Soren, who was leaning against the wall, when a visible beam of light came out of the ball and did a few sweeps over him from different angles.
Only a few moments after the thing went back to the start position, Dr. Corradetti chimed, “All ready,” as she tugged the hovering screen over, so it could be seen by everyone in the room.
Ender’s eyes grew wide as he eyed the scan of his belly.
“E-Ender…there are two eggs,” Soren rasped.
“Not only two eggs, but—” Ruby typed on her keyboard, and the picture moved to the right side of the screen, as a list of numbers and words appeared on the left, that he was not even remotely going to attempt to make sense of. “—two different fathers.”
“Y-you can tell that just with a scan now?!” Ender squeaked.
Soren let out a pain-filled groan. “Ender, you have to tell them.”
“I don’t have to do jack shit!” But…maybe… No…no, they… What if they tried to take them? “They can’t know. They can’t ever know.”
“Ender, this is a bit different than just one of them impregnating you, don’t?—”
“I said NO!” Ender swallowed shakily, clutching his bump. “They are mine… They can’t… They can’t have them.”
Soren’s face, for some reason, became oddly pinched. “Ender… I see your paranoia pivoting right now, and I’m not liking where it’s going.”
“Leave my paranoia alone, it’s not bothering anyone!” he huffed.
