by Dex Bass
Adam wrapped his arms around Oscar from behind. With his hands he cupped Oscar’s sensitive pecs and pressed down on Oscar’s nipples. That felt amazing. Oscar wasn’t lactating yet, but he knew he soon would be. Even if a pregnant man didn’t give enough milk to feed the baby, Oscar was looking forward to the feeling of lactating, giving his whole body to his baby and his family.
“I love you,” Adam whispered from behind Oscar’s head while holding him tightly and pressing his chest and abs against Oscar’s back. “I love you,” he said it again into Oscar’s ear. “I really, really love you,” Adam said while kissing Oscar’s shoulder blades. “ Adam embraced Oscar’s pregnant belly. “And I love our baby.”
Oscar lay his head on the sofa back. He was exhausted after that fucking and cumming. Adam’s slowly deflating dick was still inside him. “I love you, Adam. I love you too. I love our baby too. And I think your dick is ready to take out.”
Adam moaned while pulling his shaft out of Oscar’s asshole. Oscar was overwhelmed by feelings of gratitude, possibility, of everything being alright, for always. Adam would be putting that dick in him for the rest of their lives. Adam would be loving him, always. And in six months, they’d be raising a child together.
Nine
“Rise and shine, Doctor Albright!” Oscar blew gently into Adam’s ear. Adam turned his head right and left and slowly began to wake up.
“Excuse me!” Oscar whispered urgently, then ran to the bathroom and closed the door behind him. Vomit sounds. Vomit sounds again. Running water. Listerine gargling. Tooth brushing. Running water again. Then Oscar walked back out of the bathroom, beaming as always, the usual cheery Oscar. “Morning sickness! Isn’t it lovely?”
“I’d rather treat it than live it,” Adam muttered. That was his usual response when his pregnant patients asced him how he’d feel going through pregnancy himself.
Adam’s 8 A.M. phone alarm clock hadn’t sounded yet. It was Adam and Oscar’s first morning as newlyweds, and it would also be Adam’s first morning back at work at MPreg Hospital.
“Can I call in sick?” Adam teased.
“Sure, and I’ll call in pregnant, deal?” Oscar rolled his eyes like the sassy little omega that he was.
“I can give you blowjobs all day long.” Adam gently patted Oscar’s half-erect dick, under his pregnant belly. “And we’ll be happy forever.”
“We can be happy forever no matter what.” Oscar kissed Adam’s nose.
“Good point. And we donated our honeymoon money to MPreg Hospital. So I guess I should shower, get dressed and go help some patients.” Adam half-winced, half-smiled.
“I think that’s a good plan. I’ll also be at MPreg Hospital sometime today.” Oscar glanced at his phone on the nightstand
“You need a second opinion on the pregnancy?” Adam embraced Oscar and playfully blew in his ear. Oscar giggled.
“I’ll go there for a report. News Nine wants to do a segment on you going back to work. Maybe I’ll even ask to interview you on camera.”
“I don’t have to say yes, do I?”
“I’m Oscar Oliphant, not Kim Jong Un. You don’t have to do anything. But it would be nice to have you appearing on TV to officially announce your return to work.”
“Good. I’ll come out and do a dog-and-pony for the cameras if I’m not in the middle of delivering a baby or something.”
Adam’s phone alarm started beeping. It was 8 A.M. Now it was really time to go. It was a flashback to how his entire life had been before those three months of just resting during the day and enjoying Oscar in the evenings. Every second counted, from his shower to his dry-off, to his brisk walk to his car. Adam gave Oscar a long, wet, sloppy kiss goodbye, and another soft, tender kiss goodbye to Oscar’s pregnant belly. And he was off to MPreg Hospital.
When he walked into the hospital lobby after three months away, he wasn’t anonymous to anybody. About two-thirds of passer-by gave him smiles, thumbs-up, and words of encouragement. Dylan Dunsford himself was on his way in to the office and gave Adam a quick “Congratulations on your wedding! And welcome back!”
Meanwhile, the front desk clerks were less pleased to see him. Adam only got head shakes and averted eyes from the admitting clerks. He came up to them and tried to greet them. “It was us having to tell people you weren’t here for three months. Us having to receive all their anger. You think you’re our best friend now?”
“Well, I came back.” It was the best Adam could offer in response.
“Yeah, after we had to deal with being basically tarred and feathered here every day for three months because we had to tell people that Doctor Albright wasn’t in and we didn’t know when he’d be back.”
“I’m sorry. I came back for you and for the patients.”
“Yeah, whatever.” One of the clerks shook her head and went back to printing out and sorting patient consent forms.
Adam got up and started walking to his office. “Doctor Albright! Congratulations on the wedding!” It was a familiar voice: Ollie.
“Thanks for coming to our wedding yesterday. I’m sorry if it was awkward,” Adam said. It may have been slightly awkward indeed for Ollie, especially since he went to the wedding without a date. He still wasn’t mated. And he looked lonely as ever.
“Hey, I’m an adult. I can deal with it. Maybe.” Ollie bit his lip as he looked at Adam dejectedly. “Anyway, I’m working for Doctor Zuck now. I’m sure they’ll assign you a capable new assistant though.” Ollie glanced down at the floor as he said it and fidgeted his feet awkwardly.
“You don’t want to work with me anymore?” Adam didn’t like how brusquely that came out, but it was his unfiltered thought. Adam had always admired Ollie as a friend and as a colleague.
“It’s too — you know — too — well, I’m sure you’ll do well with another assistant.” Ollie smiled meekly, the corners of his mouth barely lifting. “I’m sure you’ll have another assistant. And it will be a lot less, a lot less painful for me, not having to see you every day, and think, you know. You know?” Assisting Adam Albright was the single most prestigious medical-assisting assignment not just at MPreg Hospital, but in all of Springville. And yet Ollie was giving it up.
“I know.” Of course Adam knew. Ollie was a good guy. Ollie couldn’t control his attraction to Adam any more than Adam could control his own lack of attraction to Ollie. “Well, we’re still coworkers in the same hospital, right?” Adam gently patted Ollie’s shoulder. He smelled Ollie’s strong omega scents. He only wished that with the hospital’s more tolerant policy toward hiring alphas, Ollie could soon find an alpha to love him.
“Take care, Ollie. I’m always here when you need me.”
“I know, Doctor Albright, Adam. I know. Thank you.”
They waved each other goodbye. Adam went up to his old office. A phalanx of questions and demands already awaited him, in the form of waiting doctors, nurses, admitting clerks, and pregnant patients. An iPad with a chart went in his face. A finger tapped on his shoulder. A schedule went into his hand. A raised hand. A “quick question, Doctor Albright.” And so on. His work life had again begun.
He didn’t need the money. He already had more than what he could ever spend, even if he was soon going to be a father.
Did he love the work? He’d loved the work before he’d met Oscar. Before meeting Oscar, his job, his career, his science was everything to him. He really had nothing else in his life. Now, Adam still loved the work, but Oscar and his family were much more important to him than his work.
Mostly, Adam came back to work at MPreg Hospital because Oscar convinced him that the patients needed him. Every pregnant omega in Springville needed Doctor Albright’s care. Even if Doctor Albright wasn’t directly the physician caring for that omega, Doctor Albright needed to have the final look-over on any diagnosis or procedure in male pregnancy medicine. If Adam stayed at home instead of taking care of those patients, he was really pretty much abandoning them. They had nobody else. Oscar had ma
de Adam so very aware of that in all his impassioned explanations to Adam of how badly he was needed at MPreg Hospital.
By lunchtime, Adam had already delivered two babies. He could only think about his and Oscar’s baby he’d be delivering in a few months. Could Adam be a good father? When he was growing up, Zoe had taken care of him. Adam never had younger relatives to take care of. He’d never been anything like a father. But he took care of his patients every day. And he liked to think that he took care of Oscar, his precious omega husband, every day. At least Oscar thought Adam was a capable caretaker. Maybe their future child would agree.
The desk nurse tapped on Adam’s office door and peeked in. “Doctor Albright? There’s somebody here to see you.”
“Next patient isn’t until 1 P.M.,” Adam said. He was hoping to take a half-hour nap in his desk chair before his afternoon procession of patients.
“Not a patient. Reporter from News Nine. Oscar Oliphant.” From the way the nurse said Oscar’s name, fully enunciating it, she probably didn’t know that Oscar was Adam’s husband. That was actually good. It meant Adam’s coworkers didn’t gossip about him nearly as much as he assumed they did.
“Oh, him.” Adam did his best to sound annoyed. He was testing her knowledge.
“Should I send him away?” She definitely didn’t know.
“No, I’ll go out there and meet him. Is he out there in the waiting area?”
“Yeah.
“Oscar Oliphant is my husband, by the way.” Adam beamed at her.
“Seriously? Doctor Albright. We always thought you’re single. We always thought you’re — well, you know, interested in the ladies.”
“Long story. Anyway, I got married yesterday, so maybe news hasn’t reached you yet.” Well, with the way gossip spread, it would soon reach the entire hospital. But Adam didn’t mind. They could know that he was human too. They went home to their spouses and lives, and so did he. Maybe it would temper their view of him as a robotic overlord. Or maybe that view of him was also something purely in his own imagination.
Adam walked out to the shiny tile floors of the waiting area. His gorgeous husband was there, with his not-really-gorgeous camera crew behind him. Oscar looked just like he’d looked at the wedding, minus the dress jacket and the cummerbund. That and he was wearing purple plastic Crocs instead of dress shoes.
When Oscar saw Adam coming out to meet him, he turned to the camera and started talking. “Oscar Oliphant here at MPreg Hospital. We have some good news for Springville: Doctor Adam Albright is back at work at MPreg Hospital. He is seeing patients again. He has a long, long backlog of patients, so please be patient. Ha ha. Anyway, Doctor Albright is back, and he’s right here with me to discuss his return. Doctor Albright, how does it feel being back?”
“This is where I’m supposed to say that it feels great, right?” Adam looked at Oscar with a smile. “It does feel great, but for now, I’m just overwhelmed with catching up on the last three months of work. So right now, I’d say it feels overwhelming.”
“Doctor Albright, did anything in particular cause you to come back to work at MPreg Hospital?”
“Viewers at home, this isn’t a setup.” Adam smiled at the camera. “Oscar Oliphant didn’t pre-plan these questions with me. But the truth is, Oscar’s persuasion caused me to come back here. For a while, I just wanted to relax at home. Oscar was the person who kept emphasizing to me my duty to Springville’s pregnant men, my duty to MPreg Hospital. If it hadn’t been for Oscar, I might have just retired early, stayed home eating bon-bons or something.”
“Doctor Albright, our viewers might not be familiar with how you might have been in touch with me over the three months since you previously quit working at MPreg Hospital.” Oscar nodded and smiled at Adam. Oscar apparently wanted Adam to let the news out to the world.
“Well — for three months now, from shortly after the time I quit working at MPreg Hospital, Oscar Oliphant has been my boyfriend, my life partner, my omega mate. And yesterday, we became a married couple. Our wedding was yesterday. And all through that time, Oscar has been reminding me to fulfill my duty to pregnant men and their partners and their babies, to come back to work here at MPreg Hospital.”
Adam planted a kiss on Oscar’s cheek. The camera crew smiled but didn’t stop recording. Adam went further, with a kiss on Oscar’s lips. He pumped his tongue into Oscar’s mouth while Oscar kissed him back. The cameras kept reporting. Oscar pulled away after a few seconds and caught his breath. “Alright, the viewers at home get the message, I think. Doctor Adam Albright, thank you for speaking with me here at MPreg Hospital today.”
“Thank you, Oscar. And before the cameras stop: I love you!” Adam wanted to shouted it from the rooftops. That was how strongly he felt it. The camera guys grinned, rolled their eyes, and shut down their equipment.
“Guess you won’t need to us to help you walk to your Uber?” the camera crew asked Oscar, grinning at the purple Crocs on his feet.
“Not when my husband is here.” Oscar beamed with joy at being pregnant, being married, and being loved and supported.
“Nice shoes.” Adam grinned at Oscar’s Crocs.
“My swollen ankles are getting worse. I just got the Crocs today from Amazon and started wearing them. A lot easier to wear than regular shoes.” Oscar tapped his full shoulder bag to show where he kept his regular shoes.
“I know about swollen ankles. I’m a male pregnancy doctor.” Adam smiled and kissed Oscar’s cheek.
“Oh yeah. I almost forgot.” Oscar laughed.
“Would you mind if I copied you?” Adam asked.
“Copied me, how?”
“I mean, if I wore Crocs to work too while you were pregnant?”
“You like wearing Crocs?” Oscar asked.
“I fucking hate wearing Crocs.” Adam laughed. “But it would be to show solidarity with you while you’re pregnant. You know, show that I’m with you, I’m thinking of you, I’ve got swollen ankles with you.”
“I love you, Adam. I really love you.”
“I love you too, Oscar. And you know what you can get me as a belated wedding gift.” Adam pointed down to the Crocs on Oscar’s feet.
“Purple?” Oscar grinned.
“Purple.” Adam grinned back, then kissed Oscar on the lips again. The News Nine camera crew had stuck around in the lobby to watch Oscar and Adam in all their cuteness. They applauded the kiss. Oscar laughed and shooed them away.
Ten
A gurgling baby woke Oscar: the 8 A.M. wake-up alarm on Adam’s phone. Adam always set that alarm to be the recorded sound of a baby, one of his recent patients. He changed it to a new baby every few days when he delivered a new child. Hearing that in the morning reminded Adam of why he was getting up to go to work.
Oscar was no longer awake every morning when Adam’s phone alarm sounded. In the final trimester of his pregnancy, he’d normally he’d manage to fall asleep only a little bit before 8, and be still sleeping when Adam woke up. Adam would rush up when he heard that 8 A.M. alarm and be out the door in less than half hour, off to see his patients.
Adam emerged from the shower. The hot air from the bathroom smelled of fresh soap and steam. Adam stood next to the bed and leaned down over Oscar. The soap and steam and shampoo and aftershave suddenly smelled terrible.
“Get out of my way!” Oscar yelled at Adam. Oscar ran to the toilet and vomited into it once, then again. It was the foulest stench of vomit he’d ever felt. He hadn’t even been able to eat anything the previous evening, so he didn’t know what he could’ve even been throwing it up. But whatever it was, it was putrid. Seeing his vomit in the bowl made him vomit a little bit more. He then flushed the toilet and closed his eyes, shook his head, and walked over to the sink. He rinsed his mouth with tap water, then with Listerine.
“Didn’t you see I’m trying to rest?” Oscar asked Adam with annoyance. Adam had woken him from his rest, and Adam’s shower smell had sent Oscar to vomit in the bathroom. Oscar always
knew to expect hell from his pregnancy, and he always knew that pregnancy was rougher on men than on women — men hadn’t had eons of evolution to harden their bodies for pregnancy — but the reality of it was even worse than his expectations.
“I’m sorry, Oscar.” Adam was obviously doing his best to stay calm, even if his voice was a bit indignant whenever Oscar raised his voice at him. “I know pregnancy is really tough on you. I know, and I’m here with you every step of the way.”
“Because you’re wearing the stupid Crocs?” Oscar sighed. Five months ago Adam’s wearing Crocs to work seemed like a sweet, sympathetic gesture on his part, showing his solidarity with Oscar’s suffering. But now it looked more like a ridiculous, meaningless, almost childish gesture. Who cared if Adam was wearing some dumb purple rubber sandals to work? He was not enduring anything like what Oscar was enduring. Wearing purple sandals was not anything like the living hell of pregnancy, especially male pregnancy.
“Oscar, I always want to do anything, everything I can to support you.”
“Then start carrying this baby for me, will you do that?” Oscar broke down in tears. The baby was everything he’d always wanted. A husband like Adam was everything he’d always wanted. But he definitely wasn’t happy day to day. He was miserable. He was in constant pain.
And what did he have waiting for him after delivery? Postpartum depression. Supposed to be even worse in men than in women. As if what he was feeling now actually wasn’t bad enough. It was supposed to get even worse after the delivery.
Oscar couldn’t say he regretted being pregnant. He still loved Adam and he still loved their future baby. But he also couldn’t say that being pregnant made him happy.
“Oscar. I’d love to carry the baby for you if I could. You know I would.”
