by Dex Bass
Doctor Adam Albright was already waiting at the front of the hospital when Alan and Os walked in. Alan and Adam together helped Os get in a wheelchair, and Adam took him to a delivery room, while Alan stayed behind to fill out forms. Os’s relationship status: married. Alan’s relationship to Os: husband. That felt great to write.
“Good enough?” Alan asked the clerk who was examining his filled-out forms. The clerk nodded and waved for Alan to follow his husband and Doctor Albright up to the delivery room.
When Alan walked into the delivery room, Os was already sitting up on the delivery bed and Doctor Albright was placing an epidural in his back.
“Fuck, pain, pain, fuck!” Os yelled. Alan had actually never heard him talking like that. But then, Alan knew very well that labor was by far the most intense pain most people ever experienced in their lives.
“Pain from the needle or the contractions?” Doctor Albright asked.
“The fucking contractions. Can’t even feel the needle,” Os said.
“Ok, good. Give it a couple of minutes,” Doctor Albright said. “I know it’s hard but pain should be much less by your next contraction.” Os nodded, biting his lower lip, hard.
Alan squatted down next to the bed and started singing to Os: “Walking On Sunshine.” At first, Os shot Alan the most vicious annoyed look possible. Alan didn’t stop singing. Os’s anger turned into a laugh. He nodded his head along to the music while breathing in spurts, waiting for the epidural drugs to kick in.
“Alright, alright,” Os said. His tone was so much calmer. It was like he was high. He in fact was high. “Feeling copacetic now. Much less pain. Oh fuck fuck fuck, another one. Ohh. But much less bad than before.”
Doctor Albright smiled and nodded, then helped Os settle back into the delivery bed. The doctor and all his assistants and nurses had access to Os’s delivery flap. All Alan could do was look at that flap and dream about the beautiful baby that would soon come out.
“Puuuuuush,” the chorus of doctors and assistants told Os. Os already must have known that much, but push he did, groaning and sighing with every heave. Sweat poured off his face.
“I’m pushing.” Os spoke quietly between quick, labored breaths. “I’m trying.”
“It’s ok. Take your time.” Alan was whispering into Os’s ear. What he was saying wasn’t exactly blasphemous: there was no reason to push too hard, especially under epidural. Still, Os gave Alan a warm and loving look that made Alan feel as if he’d just made a big sacrifice by telling Os that — when in fact he was just giving him quite standard advice for a man in labor under an epidural.
“He’s right, you know,” Doctor Albright said to Os, mock-gravely. For some reason Alan found that hilarious and laughed. Os laughed along with him, until his laugh turned into the growl of yet another push.
Alan sang “Walking On Sunshine” again. He did his best to accentuate the comedy of the situation and danced along to the song. The room was entertained -- even more so because Adam Albright had never seen his academic advisor act so silly. Likewise, the physicians’ assistants who were helping Adam had only heard of Alan Archer as a famous male pregnancy scientist; their first direct encounter with him was now, when he was singing Katrina and the Waves for his husband.
“He’s a trooper,” Doctor Albright said to Alan. “It’s his first pregnancy, right?”
“Yup, first one,” Alan said.
“Yeah, I thought maybe there was a mistake in the records, because usually first-time omega fathers are screaming a hell of a lot more than this, excuse my language.” Doctor Albright reassuringly patted Os’s back.
“Os is definitely a trooper. That’s one of the many reasons I love him.” Alan kissed Os’s ear again.
“Urgh,” Os groaned loudly. Doctor Albright wheeled over a cart with an endoscope.
“Alright, Os, we’re just gonna try to get a bit of video from inside your pregnancy flap, alright?” Doctor Albright showed Os the tiny endoscopic camera tip. “Might hurt a little bit.”
“Pretty used to pain by now,” Os mumbled.
Doctor Albright took the endoscopic camera with two hands and pushed it inside the pregnancy flap. The giant LED monitor above them automatically illuminated, and on it was a view from inside Os’s pregnancy flap. There was unmistakably the pinkish-gray top of a baby’s head.
“See her?” Doctor Albright asked, smiling. Alan put his arm around Os and pointed up at the screen. Os nodded, grimacng in pain.
“Push, if you can!” Doctor Albright said. The doctor sounded like a cheerleader, and his assistants like his squad. Their cheerleading was effective, as the baby’s head became visible inside the pregnancy flap. Os groaned and pushed and Doctor Albright grabbed a mirror, a forceps, and a speculum, and kneeled down at the pregnancy flap.
“Keep pushing and you can go home soon,” Doctor Albright said with a laugh.
“Where I’ve got a fresh pair of bunny slippers for him,” Alan said. “And where I won’t stop hugging and kissing him.”
“Sounds like encouragement enough,” Os said, and scrunched his face with the effort of pushing hard.
“Almost!” Doctor Albright said, peeking into the pregnancy flap and holding his speculum in one hand and mirror in the other hand.
The baby cried. Then cried again, louder. Os groaned loudly, like Alan had never heard anybody groan before.
Doctor Albright held a beautiful dripping wet baby in his hands, smiling. His cheering squad was cheering again. Os smiled with all his remaining energy, then half-closed his eyes.
“We did it!” Alan announced excitedly.
“Uh, Os did it, not you, Doctor Archer,” Doctor Albright said, smiling and shaking his head at Alan.
“Oh yeah. Os did it. Not me. Sorry, Os. Yeah. I’m just too excited.”
Two assistants came to Doctor Albright and the baby in his hands. One wiped off the baby, while the other cut the umbilical cord.
“Whoa, there’s the placenta,” Doctor Albright announced. Os looked as his placenta slipped out of his pregnancy flap and out onto the floor, then nodded in resigned exhaustion. He looked more exhausted than Alan had ever seen anybody be.
Doctor Albright asked playfully, “So have we chosen a name for this beautiful baby girl?”
Os opened his eyes. He was suddenly fully lucid. “Thelma,” Os announced.
“Great name,” Doctor Albright said, nodding at Os and Alan. “Thelma Archer-Offenbach. Great.”
“Thelma?” Alan asked. “Have we discussed this?”
“No we haven’t. I made an executive decision. I carried my baby for nine months, so I can name her.”
“Can’t argue with that,” Alan said.
“That and I’m trying to prove to the world that I’m not a dumb submissive omega,” Os said. “And I think I’ve managed to prove it.”
Alan leaned down and kissed Os’s forehead and put his arms around him, under his shoulders. Thelma cried in Doctor Albright’s arms. Os woke up slightly and Doctor Albright put Thelma, wrapped in blankets, in Os’s arms. Alan had asked the nurses to take photos of the scene, and they remembered to come through.
“Thelma,” Alan said. “Where’s Louise?”
“He’s a bit too young to get that,” Doctor Albright said.
“You may be an outlaw, Alan, but you’re stealing my heart. Close enough?” Os smiled wearily, beatifically, drifting in and out of sleep.
“Os is nothing if not precocious,” Alan said to Doctor Albright. “I knew that even when he was my student.”
“And I’m no bimbo omega, Alan,” Os said, drifting back to sleep.
“I would love you even if you were.”
Epilogue
“Ohhhhhh my goodness!” Os exclaimed. He’d just come home from the last day of sophomore classes, to the first birthday party Alan and his parents were throwing for Thelma. And they’d just shown him the gift they’d bought for Thelma. “This is so cute that I’m almost going to faint!”
Alan’s parents had bought Thelma a pair of bunny slippers. They were a miniature version of the slippers Os had kicked off his feet at the wedding: off-white, with pink ears, bright pink nose, and bright blue eyes.
“I’m supposed to be the cool-headed scientist here,” Alan said, “but I have to admit, Dad, that is amazingly, incredibly cute.”
David Archer took the slippers and pulled them onto Thelma’s feet as she lay on the sofa. Thelma only looked at her own feet with surprise, cried for half a second, then went back to staring at David and Trudy Archer and smiling. David picked her up and held her closely to his chest. “Knowing you, Alan, I thought you’d complain that rabbits don’t have blue eyes.”
“I’m not as humorless as you might think.” Alan shook his head.
“I can confirm that,” Os said. “He’s got a sense of humor. Sometimes.”
Alan took the ice cream cake out of the freezer and cut slices for all in attendance. He fed Thelma a few spoonfuls of ice cream.
“It’s like she’s doing me a favor eating the ice cream,” Alan said.
“Yeah. She doesn’t like cold much,” Os said.
Alan took Thelma in his arms and sang “Happy Birthday.” Os responded with a rendering of “Walking On Sunshine.” Alan laughed and put Thelma in his father’s outstretched arms.
David lifted Thelma up and set her down on the floor. She made three uncertain steps in Os’s direction to be back in his arms, then fell down. She lifted herself up and kept walking toward Os’s arms. Os smiled and nodded, encouraging her.
Once Thelma reached Os, he lifted her up and kissed her two cheeks. “You’re persistent, just like both your dads,” Os told her. Alan gave a thumbs-up.
“You don’t mind, do you?” Os asked Alan’s parents, while unbuttoning his shirt.
“It’s only natural,” Alan’s mother Trudy said. “You wouldn’t believe how much Alan sucked my tits.” Alan shook his head and laughed.
Os held Thelma up to his nipple. She sucked and slurped at milk. “Alan knows this at a higher level than I do, but omega men do lactate,” Os said to his parents-in-law. “We had to do some backup with formula, but I was able to give her quite a bit of milk.”
“It’s really beautiful to see you breastfeeding my granddaughter,” David said to Os.
“She’s my granddaughter too,” Trudy chimed in. Thelma looked at her grandparents and suddenly coughed up milk all over Os’s shirt and chest.
“She’s still getting used to both of you you,” Os said to David and Trudy. He and David felt so complete and protective of their little family that they hadn’t even invited their respective parents over that often.
“Well if Mister Famous Scientist and Mister Star College Student weren’t too busy and maybe invited us over to their house once in a while, hmm?” Alan’s mother Trudy said.
“Sorry, Trudy,” Os said. “We’ll do better on the next baby.”
“What? There’s a…?” David and Trudy asked in unison.
“We’ve got Thelma; we need Louise, don’t we?” Alan said with a mischievous smile.
“Shhh.” Os softly put his finger on Alan’s lips to shush him, and kissed his cheek. Thelma went back to slurping at Os’s nipple. Os held her tighter, and Alan came closer and hugged Os and Thelma close, close to his chest. Alan felt filled by his husband’s and daughter’s warmth and love.
Alan leaned over to his father and stage-whispered, “No spoilers, but we might need two more pairs of bunny slippers soon.”
Author’s Afterword
Dex Bass writes feel-good contemporary male pregnancy romance.
Subscribe to Dex’s Baby Bump Bulletin: http://eepurl.com/c2UORX
Dex Bass’s series MPreg College
Book 1: College Omega’s Secret Baby
Dex Bass’s series MPreg Hospital
Book 1: Baby For My Omega
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075V21Y8N/
