Hierarchy (20 page)

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Despite Luke’s reassurance, Bronwyn was in no great hurry to visit the doctor. Part of it was the morning sickness. She didn’t feel like going anywhere. She certainly didn’t feel like going somewhere where she’d have to sit for an hour or more waiting, and then would have to face being poked and prodded.

Her prior experience with a gynecologist/obstetrician was the main reason she
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wasn’t anxious to go, however. She knew it was unreasonable. It wasn’t the doctor’s fault she’d blabbed about it and become the local pariah, but she still associated the misery that had followed with that visit.

She didn’t see any sense of rushing to a doctor anyway. She was either pregnant or she wasn’t. Aside from the morning sickness, she was fine.

Luke finally managed to browbeat her into going when, by her calculations, she was a couple of months along—at least six weeks. The doctor took one look at her already blossoming belly and told her she was either off on her calculations or baby had company. After a thankfully brief physical examination he confirmed that she was definitely pregnant and told her he wanted her back in a couple of weeks so that he could run some more tests, check the heart beat, and do her first ultrasound to have a look at the baby.

She didn’t know what other tests he wanted to run, she thought crossly when she left. They’d already taken nearly a pint of blood and made her piss in a cup. She shuddered to think what was next on his agenda, but the ultrasound and the heartbeat—

those sounded like they might be worth being poked and prodded.

She managed to get along with Luke almost all the way back to her place. She’d even begun plotting some way she could get into his pants since, for once, he’d managed to arrive when she didn’t feel like she was going to puke.

All she had to do, though, was mention that she should call Constantine and Caleb and let them know about the next appointment—in case they were interested—and it was downhill from there.

She was sorry she’d mentioned it then, particularly regretful that she’d mentioned it before she had time to reacquaint herself with that lovely piece of flesh of his that she was so fond of. He left without even
offering
her any tail, damn it!

And if there was one thing she was having a problem with besides having to piss every five seconds and barfing up at least half of everything she ate, it was horniness. It was either feast or famine! First, she’d gotten all she handle—almost more than she could handle—and
now
she had to plot to get any at all!

And she already had a pooch and almost no waist! She was going to blossom right out of any possibility of getting any before she could turn around!

As annoyed and disappointed as she was, though, she knew there hadn’t really been any way to avoid the complication. Luke knew she’d been with Constantine when he’d grabbed her and hauled her off! And she didn’t believe he was naïve enough to believe she’d been playing tiddlywinks with Caleb!

They had just much at stake as he did, maybe more! It wouldn’t be any more right to exclude them than to exclude him.

Besides, she’d told them she wouldn’t exclude them—any of them. She couldn’t go back on her word just because Luke didn’t like it and would punish her by not coming around. It wasn’t right and she wouldn’t do it!

She called the club and left a message on the answering machine and then called Caleb’s house and left a message with the butler.

That was almost as depressing as Luke stalking off furiously.

He surprised her by showing up to take her to her appointment. The other didn’t surprise her by not showing at all. She hadn’t really expected Constantine to when he couldn’t go out in the daylight. And, truthfully, she really hadn’t expected Caleb to be
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interested enough to come.

Luke relaxed when the other two didn’t show, even unbent enough to speak several words to her on the trip to the doctor’s office. By the time they arrived, he was almost cheerful, which lasted right up until he spied Constantine’s limo in the parking lot.

Bronwyn’s heart leapt, but even as she was trying to convince herself it couldn’t possibly be him, he—or someone—emerged from the car in something that looked like a cross between a hazmat suit and the Black Avenger and followed them inside. She tried
not
to stare, but she was pretty sure she hadn’t been very successful in hiding her shock over the suit.

“As you see, I’m here,” he said, his voice altered strangely by the respirator on the suit.

She felt so badly for him she couldn’t think of anything to say for several moments. Unfortunately, Luke didn’t have any problem thinking of plenty of wisecracks to break the ice.

“I’m so glad you were able to come,” she said finally. She just hoped he wouldn’t be disappointed when he’d gone to so much trouble. She couldn’t believe he wasn’t miserably uncomfortable in the stiff, unwieldy thing and beyond that it had to be a terrible blow to his dignity to have to appear in a public place in such a thing. He was always so particular about his appearance!

She couldn’t shut Luke up, however, although she tried several times to head him off. All she could do was glare at him and wish to hell she’d come alone.

It wasn’t quite as bad, she supposed, as it would’ve been if not for the fact that the doctor and his staff catered to folk of the paranormal persuasion—actually lycan—but it was still a miserable wait for her and she was surprised Constantine didn’t tire of Luke’s glib tongue and punch him in the face or walk out.

Caleb stunned her by strolling in just as the nurse called her back.

She went reluctantly, more than a little fearful that she’d hear a fight break out in the waiting room. The really embarrassing moment came when the nurse said the father could join her once the doctor had finished his preliminary checkup. That way he could listen to the baby’s heartbeat, too, and then stay and watch the sonogram.

“Actually, I wasn’t sure which one was the father, so I invited all three,” she said as nonchalantly as she could.

The nurse nodded, scribbling on her board. “So, you’re the alpha female?”

“Uh … I’m not sure. The guys don’t belong to the same … uh … pack. In fact, I’m pretty sure the Raja don’t really have packs and I know the vampires don’t.”

The woman lifted her head and stared blankly for a pregnant moment. “Well, we certainly aren’t going to be able to determine fathers at this point!”

“Oh, but—I don’t want the father to miss out! What if I pick the wrong one and he gets the first look at the baby and the actual father doesn’t?”

The nurse studied her sourly. “I see your point. Well! It’s up to the doctor. I don’t think there will room for everybody.”

“Maybe one at the time?” Bronwyn asked hopefully. “I’d feel really badly to invite them if they weren’t even allowed in, especially poor Constantine! He took such a terrible risk to come out in the daylight.”

The nurse seemed to unbend a little. “It’s the doctor’s call. Get undressed and get on the table. I’ll talk to him.”

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The doctor was
annoyed
to say the least, but he finally agreed to allow all of them to come in as long as they stayed out of the way. He didn’t wait for them to file in. He proceeded to unveil her belly and move the stethoscope from one spot to another, listening for a moment and then moving it again.

She couldn’t decide from his expression and the way he kept moving the thing whether he couldn’t find the heartbeat or the baby was swimming all over the place trying to evade it. He nodded when Luke, Constantine, and Caleb came in, but he was clearly more focused on what he was doing.

Apparently satisfied finally, he took the instrument out of his ears and left it hanging around his neck. “Did you find it?” Bronwyn asked anxiously.

“Oh yeah!”

He glanced at the men, did a double take when he saw Constantine, and then tried to pretend he wasn’t horrified. “Let’s get this on the loud speaker so everyone can hear.”

Squeezing some sort of lubricant onto the devise, he settled it on her belly.

Immediately, Bronwyn heard something that sounded like ocean noises.

Whale cry, she thought disgustedly.

“Is that the heartbeat?” she asked doubtfully.

He shook his head. “That’s yours.” After the doctor had moved the devise around for a few moments, she heard a much fainter whooshing noise. “That’s the baby.”

He held it there for spell and then moved it again.

Bronwyn didn’t know about the guys, but she was damned disappointed. The noises inside her belly were so loud, she could barely discern the baby’s heartbeat even though the doctor chased the poor little thing around and around for nearly ten minutes.

Finally, he turned it off and moved to another piece of equipment. “Let’s just have a look in there, shall we?”

Why not, Bronwyn thought sarcastically? They’d all ‘shared’ her stomach noises! They might as well have a look at her beautiful innards while they were at it!

Tilting the screen to an angle that allowed the spectators a view, he put more of the lubricant on the new instrument and began the same process. This time, however, she could see a blurry, grainy image on a screen about the size of a postage stamp.

“Here we go! Head, torso, leg, arm.”

Bronwyn stared hard at the screen but she was damned if she could tell the difference.

“He’s kicking.”

“I can’t feel anything.”

“It’ll be a while before you can. He’s about the size of a peanut right now.” He moved the thing around her stomach and stopped again. “Head. That’s an arm there.

Torso. You can see his heart right there.”

“It’s a he?” Luke asked sharply.

“Can’t tell yet. We’ll have to wait a couple of months.”

He moved the thing around her stomach again. “And here we have baby number three. There’s his heart ….”

“Whoa! Back up!” Bronwyn exclaimed. “Baby three? There are three?”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out here. Nope. No sign of another one. Just three.”

“Just three?”

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“I’m pretty sure,” the doctor said cheerfully. “They’re really small right now.

It’s possible there’s a fourth hiding in there, but I only caught three heart beats, so we’re going to go with three right now.”

“Somebody hit the jackpot!” Luke commented, his voice shaky.

The doctor frowned. “Ordinarily, I’d agree,” he said finally and then grinned abruptly at Bronwyn. “This little lady is one special little lady, though! Two wombs and ovaries to match.”

She felt so special!

“She’s human. Ordinarily, I’d say the chances were astronomical that we were talking about more than one father, that being the case, but … well, depending upon when she conceived and whether or not she was ovulating from one or more ovary ….

Then, too, she’s a chimera. Each one is—womb—in essence, a different person due to her rather unusual physiology. At this point, it’s really too early to tell, but from my preliminary examination the babies don’t all look to be at the same stage of development.

Of course there are three and usually, when that’s the case, one gets the lion’s share of nutrients and the others get leftovers. It’s just too early to say anything for sure beyond the fact that she’s definitely pregnant and I can definitely see three—which is another point of interest and one of the things that lead me to suspect more than one father. Cells divide evenly. There are two babies in one womb and the third in the other. The two could be fraternal twins—meaning she produced two ovum, which both got nailed—or it could have been one that divided after fertilization. The little fellow who’s off to himself might have begun to be a twin and might not.

“Ms. Williams is a twin herself, which would make her more likely to have twins.”

Luke frowned, flicking an assessing gaze at Bronwyn. It popped into her head that he suspected she’d been hiding her twin sister.

Well, she was, just not the way he thought.

“How can you tell she’s a twin? She never said anything about being a twin.”

“She didn’t just
happen
to have an extra set of reproductive organs,” the doctor said dryly. “It’s unusual, but on very rare occasions it happens that a cell begins to divide and then, for some reason, doesn’t complete the process. When that happens, the result is usually Siamese twins—or conjoined twins. In her case, the twin only partially developed and her twin is inside of her—an even more rare occurrence than conjoined twins, but she isn’t completely unique. Other cases like hers have been reported—not just like hers, but they will usually have extra organs and quite often they will be functioning organs, although not always.”

“You’re saying that it’s possible that each of us fathered one of the babies?”

Constantine asked in disbelief.

The doctor shrugged, looked uncomfortable, but finally took the plunge. “She would’ve had to be … exposed … within a relatively short period of time for that to happen. I don’t know how likely it is, but it’s certainly possible. If it’s extremely important to identify the father … or fathers … and that appears to be the case here since I’ve been informed that she is suspected to be carrying the promised one of the prophesy—then we might consider doing amniocentesis at some later date. That can be risky, though, and I don’t recommend it when the paternity can be determined after birth and we’re already at high risk, all things considered.”