"The Meaning of
Life"
Written By: SkyLark
Pairings: 1x2x1
Warnings: AU, Neko, male pregnancy, sap, angst
Betaed by ShenLong Deb *hugs*
Archives: http://www.gundam-wing-diaries.150m.com/gw/SkyLark/gwSkyLark.htm
and http://www.mizunoamy.bravepages.com/skylark/skylarkfics.html
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Gundam Wing, or its characters.
I just love playing with them.
Third fic in the Neko series
"The Meaning of Life"
"Pregnant?!" Howard shouted with a loud laugh. "What
on earth would ever give you both that silly idea? It's not possible,
in case you haven't already noticed we're dealing with a young man
here!" Standing before the scientist, Treize and Cassie shared
a long-suffering look.
An emergency meeting had been called where Sally and Howard had been
urged to speak with the pair. Considering the urgency in his friends'
voices, the old man had offered his home as their meeting place. Now
hearing the reason behind the conference, he was seriously worrying
about their mental state.
Taking a deep breath, Cassie fixed the braided doctor and scientist
with her gaze and stated, "We're not dealing with an ordinary
young man here. We're dealing with a neko. There is a pretty big difference."
Both Sally and Howard's eyes widened at the calm certainty in the
girl's demeanor to oppose their beliefs.
For his part, Treize was hardly able to contain his smile over the
neko's boldness. Clearing his throat against the laugh that threatened
to pop from him, he forced a frown while sighing, "Believe me
when I say that we were questioning ourselves when we came to realizing
this possibility." He looked down to the file in his hands with
the results of his final test.
Slowly stretching his arm out to offer the file, the tall doctor declared,
"But if you look over this, I believe that you will be as shocked
as we were."
Almost hesitant, Sally accepted the report and opened it. Looking
over her shoulder, Howard read over the paperwork inside. Only a few
words in, the braided young woman gasped sharply with her eyes wide
as saucers. Skin pale, the old man's jaw dropped as far as it could
without coming unhinged.
"My God," Sally breathed as she covered her mouth with her
free hand. Shaking her head, she questioned aloud, "How in the
world did we miss this?" Tears in her eyes, she pleaded to Treize
and Cassie, "How could we have let him down like this?"
Howard looked just as sickened by his own mis-diagnosis for his old
friend.
Treize smiled sadly and rested a hand on her shoulder in support.
"The tests that we were all looking at came back perfectly normal-
because Duo's body is functioning perfectly normally for a person
carrying a child.
“Only a pregnancy test would have given up this
information. And why in the world would either of you think such a
thing was needed? Cassie and I simply got lucky." Just behind
him, the calico-furred neko smiled and nodded her agreement.
Relieved by that, Sally and Howard eased a bit. "We of course
need to tell Duo about this right away," the scientist announced
as he began pacing his living room. "And we need to have Heero
hear it as well. This cannot wait."
No argument rose from the others over that.
Lightly rubbing the back of her tensed neck, the braided doctor continued
to skim through the reports in her hand and thought aloud, "We'll
need to run several new tests right away. A non-evasive ultrasound
for the start so that we can actually see what we are dealing with
here. They're going to have a lot of questions and we'll need to find
all the answers that we can."
Nervously gripping her long tail, Cassie bit her lip and turned to
the old man. "How do you think they'll take the news?" she
inquired softly in worry for her friends. "This is not exactly
anything either of them will see coming."
Pausing in his footsteps, Howard met her emerald gaze and smiled sadly,
"That, my dear, is one answer that I cannot give you. Whatever
the reaction, we will simply need to be here for them as we always
have been." A small grin tugging her own lips, the neko nodded.
After a long pause, Treize spoke up, "Okay. We'll need to think
up an explanation for everything we do know before calling Duo and
Heero. As soon as we have an understanding as to how we got here,
we'll have a better way of dealing with the next steps we need to
take."
Set in that plan, the lot moved to the living room table to sit and
discuss what they did know. Once there was a clear knowledge of the
situation, a telephone call was made.
* * * *
It came as a pleasant surprise to the couple to find everyone that
had been looking into Duo's condition waiting for them at Howard's
when they arrived. When their old friend had called on them, they
really did not think much of it all as more than a friendly gathering.
Warm greetings were exchanged as well as a friendly round of catching
up. Following those pleasantries, everyone sat down in the living
room with the young lovers seated together on their own
couch.
"So, Duo," the scientist began with a bright smile. "How
are you feeling today, my boy?"
The braided neko shrugged, "Not too bad. Still a little tired,
but all right overall." As soon as the words left him, both he
and Heero stiffened. Violet eyes wide, Duo realized aloud, "You
all found something, didn't you? That's why we're all here."
Having come to the same conclusion, Heero reached over to hold his
hand tightly.
His head lowering a bit, Treize took a deep breath before meeting
their worried looks. "Yes, we have come to a conclusion
as to why you have been experiencing some of these strange symptoms
over the last couple of weeks."
Picking up from that, Sally informed quietly, "Since it concerns
the both of you, we felt the need to give the diagnosis to you both
at the same time."
Confused, Heero frowned as he repeated, "It concerns the both
of us? I don't understand. And how serious is this? There's a
way to fix the problem, right?"
"It's more of a challenge than a problem, I would think,"
Cassie muttered, which only perplexed the couple even more.
Squeezing the hand in his own, Duo looked from one nervous face to
the next asking, "Then what is it? What did you find out?"
Their friends' mouth opened and closed, but no one was forthcoming
with the answer. After several attempts, Howard finally announced,
"You're pregnant."
For just a heartbeat, there was nothing but silence. Then Heero laughed.
"P-pregnant?!" he sputtered between breaths. "But that's
impossible!" When no one else was laughing, he caught his breath
and frowned. In the tense silence, he looked from one person to the
other? "Isn't it?" he managed in a quiet plea.
Beside him, still stunned silent, Duo remained frozen stiff with
wide eyes. Slowly, his arms moved to wrap around his torso as
a sudden dawning filled his wide violet eyes. "Pregnant,"
he breathed. "I... It's strange... As shocking as it is, I'm
not completely surprised, either... Like somehow I knew."
Small tears filled the neko's eyes as he focused on Sally as the closest
friend to him. "Is that crazy?" he whispered. Heero's own
eyes widened as he turned to face his partner in disbelief over what
he was hearing.
Lightly running a hand over her patient's braided head, Sally fought
her own tears as she replied softly, "No, it's not. In fact it's
pretty common for a parental instinct hit when a woman's body
changes at the early signs of pregnancy."
Hearing his partner's words and seeing the look on his face were all
the proof that Heero needed to know the truth behind the diagnosis.
Pale-faced, he wrapped his arms around the cat-eared
teenager and focused back on the others. Shaking his head
he asked, "But... but how did this happen?"
Finally onto a question he felt comfortable answering, Treize said,
"When the decomposition of the DNA structure threatened to kill
Duo, back when we allowed him and the other nekos to revert back to
their cat states..."
He waited for a nod from the couple that they were really taking everything
in before going on. "When we used a procedure to reconstruct
through the use of Leslie's cells when she was still in Dorothy's
womb, there were side effects that we had not counted on... or even
thought to look for. It would appear as though the DNA structure mutated,
taking on every aspect of that fully developed female fetus."
"Including what I am imagining is now a fully functioning uterus,
if you were able to conceive," Sally continued. Sitting at Duo's
other side, she took his other hand and met his eyes. "I would
need to run an ultrasound to be completely certain of that. We never
ran one on you before, because we never realized there was a need
to see that everything was not perfectly normal as it appeared to
be after your return to this state."
Now with it all coming together, putting everything he was hearing
together with what he knew of when the symptoms began, Heero's cobalt
eyes widened once more. "Then... that blood," he whispered.
Cassie bit her lip before supplying for him, "We think that in
Duo's case as a neko, that was a menstrual cycle working in the completely
opposite way it would for a woman. That day of bleeding was a sign
that something had changed in him. That he had conceived. Then it
stopped again."
Waving his hand, Howard focused on his braided friend and sighed,
"Why all of this is happening now, we may not be able to figure
out because we do not know exactly when your makeup mutated. For all
we know, from the time you were restored to your form, you could have
been able to conceive and not even known it. But now, it finally...
took."
Gently rubbing the neko's back, Sally frowned, "We still have
a lot that we need to find out regarding this pregnancy. If you're
up to it, I would like to perform that ultrasound now so that we can
actually see what is going on. I have all of the needed equipment
here."
Without hesitating, Duo raised his head from Heero's shoulder and
nodded, "All right."
* * * *
Moment later, the scans from the ultrasound were being printed off
as the braided neko was replacing his red t-shirt.
Taking up the images for a close examination, Sally muttered, "These
non-evasive scans do not show a great deal for detail when it
comes to the embryo." In spotting something on the print offs
she was paging through, she smiled, "But it does have what we're
really looking for."
Howard and Treize looked over her shoulder at the images and blinked
in surprise. Glaringly obvious before them was the shot of a perfect
uterus. And by all signs, it was acting normally and had all
of the needed tools to carry a baby.
Quietly discussing what they'd seen between one another, the trio
finally moved to the couple seated on the examination table. Both
looking anxious and worried, Heero and Duo sat close with their hands
still joined.
"Well," Treize started when the others nodded to him. "Looking
at the shape of the uterus and how it is functioning, we have decided
that there is no reason you could not carry this baby full term."
Sally raised a hand to stop him before he went on to say, "That
is, of course, if you wish to try and carry full term. This whole
case of a male carrying a child has never been done before and so
it will pose its challenges."
Nodding, Howard ran down the possibilities, "Constant monitoring,
bodily stretching, a good likelihood of bed rest through the pregnancy,
any number of health-related risks. While we will do whatever it takes
to see that things so[go] as smoothly and safely as possible, we still
have to be honest in looking at the negative affects of this."
His braided head snapping up, Duo inquired, "But you are all
saying that it is possible that the baby and I would be fine?"
Only briefly pausing, the scientist nodded, "Yes, my boy,
there is a chance. But whatever happens has to be your choice." Instantly,
the neko seemed to brighten.
Pausing to swallow roughly past the lump in his throat, Howard warned, "Our
suggestion would be that before you become too attached to this parental
role, you make that decision as soon as possible so that the pregnancy
can be terminated."
Violet eyes widening, Duo's arms subconsciously wrapped around his
abdomen protectively as his ears and tails drooped heavily. Heero
wrapped a supportive arm around his shoulder and kissed his temple.
Turning to their friends, the artist requested in little more than
a breath, "Can we please have some time alone to talk this over?"
First to reply, Treize nodded firmly, "Of course." With
Sally and Howard close behind, he led the way out of the examination
room and closed the door behind them.
Once they were alone, Duo sagged heavily in his lover's
arms with a small whimper. Shaking, he clung on as tightly as he could.
Biting his lip, Heero secured his own arms around the neko tightly.
"This is your call," he whispered brokenly, cobalt eyes
shimmering. There had been time for him to come to terms with the
fact that there was a baby. And now he wanted that child so badly
it hurt, but he was not about to risk losing the one person he loved
more than life if he was not up to that.
Duo was the one taking the risks by carrying. And so Duo would, rightfully,
have to be the one to make the decision.
Quietly thinking things over, the neko turned met his
partner's gaze before telling him, "They said that there's a
chance everything will turn out fine. I know that there are going
to be risks and challenges but..." Looking down to his midsection,
he placed a hand over it and whispered, "But I have to try."
Both relieved and scared over that sentiment, Heero rested their foreheads
together. "Are you sure?" he questioned. "You know
whatever you decide I'll be behind you every step of the way."
"I know," Duo grinned, his eyes filling over. "And
I'm sure that I want this." He turned his hand to press Heero's
against his abdomen. Taken aback as everything sank in, the reality
of their situation, the artist's own eyes shimmered. Chuckling, the
braided teenager whispered, "We're going to be parents, Heero!"
Finally releasing his own tension with a laugh, Heero clung onto the
neko as tightly as he could without hurting him while raining kisses
on his face. Content to just sit there like that for a time,
the couple quietly thought over what all of this would mean for them.
Pulling back at last, the art major asked, "Shall we tell the
others, then?" His braided head nodding excitedly, the neko beamed.
When the door was opened, they found their friends waiting not too
far off. All but running to the pair, they waited expectedly for what
was decided. Heero turned to face his lover with a smile and a small
nod. Squeezing the hand gripping his own, Duo informed, "We're
going to keep the baby."
Gasps and small cries of jubilation filled the air as the others reacted.
Instantly, a round of congratulatory embraces and words were offered.
Once the excitement calmed back down, Sally handed over the images
from the ultrasound. Pointing to the small, semi round shadow within
the uterus, she said, "There is your little one."
Actually being able to see their baby took Heero and Duo's breath
away as they stared at the little shadow. Unable to find anything
to say at the moment, their gazes clouded over anew.
Were there any doubt before then over the decision to keep the little
one, that picture instantly cleared it away. Made from the both of
them, there was a little life only just beginning to grow. And in
that instant, they had fallen head over heels for that baby.
The months ahead were not going to be easy. But whatever came would
be well worth the trouble. Unlike any dilemma they had faced
before, they were looking forward to this challenge.
Stepping forward, Sally vowed to her cat-eared friend when
their eyes met, "I promise that I will do everything in my power
to see that you and the baby get through this pregnancy safely."
Before the neko could reply, Treize steep beside the braided young
woman and declared, "As will I. Anything either of you may
need, you only have to ask."
"That goes for me as well, of course," Howard smirked while
joining the doctors. "Between the three of us, you won't have
anything to worry about." Moved by the promised bestowed on them, the
pair grinned widely in appreciation.
Clearing her throat, Cassie shrugged, "I'll provide whatever
moral support you need." With a wince, she frowned, "I'm
afraid I can't be much more help than that right now."
Duo chuckled quietly and pulled the other neko in a tight embrace.
Purring, he reassured her, "That's more than enough. Thank you,
Cassie." A smile spreading on her own face in relief, she returned
the hug. Her emerald eyes closing, her calico-spotted tail
wrapping with his as she purred back.
Rubbing his hands together, Howard turned to his medical assistants
and suggested, "We should try to meet again tomorrow and seriously
go over the matter at hand to develop a plan in how to see this through.
This is new for all of us, so we cannot be too careful in seeing that
we are not missing out on details." Both Sally and Treize nodded.
As she pulled back from Duo, Cassie asked the expecting parents, "So
how do you plan on telling your parents about this?"
Wrapping an arm around his lover's shoulder, Heero smirked, "Preferably
with my mother sitting down."
TBC
chapter 8
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