Vetted Again

by K'Anne Meinel

  “Is that for me?” she asked.

  “Aren’t you coming in to the clinic?” he asked, glancing around.

  “No, my wife is the pregnant one,” she answered. The orderly looked askance at her obviously pregnant belly and then looked at the children and the other woman, who obviously was not pregnant. “We’re waiting for her to arrive,” Allyssa tried explaining, realizing how ridiculous this all sounded and starting to laugh. Renee caught on and started to laugh too. The orderly looked at them both as though they were insane. The kids frowned, trying to figure out the joke. Allyssa tried again. “My wife and I are both pregnant. She is the one in labor, and we are waiting for her to arrive.”

  “So, you don’t need this?” he asked, indicating the wheelchair.

  She shook her head as she answered him, “No, but my wife will.”

  “This isn’t your wife?” he asked suspiciously, certain he was being tricked somehow.

  “No, this is my friend. Renee, will you please try and explain,” she ordered as she pulled out her cell phone. Cell phones weren’t allowed in the clinic and she wanted to make another attempt to reach Althea.

  “Hello?” a distracted Althea answered the phone. She hadn’t looked to see who was calling but was relieved to have someone other than Fey to talk to.

  “Where are you guys?” Allyssa asked

  “We aren’t too far out now, but I don’t know if we are going to make it!” There was a pause and then, Allyssa heard, “Don’t push. Fey, don’t push!” The phone went dead, and Allyssa stared at it for a moment.

  “Where are you going?” Traci asked as the blonde waddled for the clinic doors as fast as she could.

  “Come on, you guys,” she called and gestured towards the clinic where she saw someone standing beyond the windowed doors.

  The kids and Renee caught up in no time. The orderly followed more slowly, feeling foolish pushing an empty wheelchair for a pregnant woman, who obviously didn’t need it.

  “What’s going on?” Leslie asked when she saw Allyssa walk in.

  “Fey’s in labor. She went out on a call today.”

  “I told you two–” she began.

  “I know, I know,” she cut the doctor off. “We can give her hell later. Apparently, she’s giving birth in the RV. One of our interns is there with her and the other is driving.”

  “Oh, shit,” Leslie got out before she began issuing commands about what supplies she was going to need.

  “What should we do?” Sean asked, feeling uncomfortable.

  “You two can sit in the waiting room with Renee,” Allyssa told him when she saw him shifting from foot to foot.

  “I want to wait for Fey,” Traci started in stubbornly.

  “Believe me, you don’t want to see this,” Renee insisted as she led the youngster away with Sean following almost eagerly.

  “You aren’t going to need this?” the orderly asked the doctor.

  “Of course, we are,” Leslie said and then, after considering, she said, “Better have a gurney nearby.”

  He left to find a gurney and some help, looking over his shoulder repeatedly as he walked away.

  “How far out is she?”

  “I have no idea,” Allyssa admitted as she watched anxiously through the windows.

  “How are you feeling?” Leslie asked, turning her full attention on her other patient.

  Allyssa chuckled, recognizing the ‘doctor’ coming out in her OBGYN. “I’m fine, I’m fat, and I’m anxious to get this out,” she said, rolling her hand over her large stomach.

  “They all say that,” she admitted with a grin.

  “Have you had any children?” she asked curiously. She’d wondered a few times if Leslie was straight or gay. Fey had commented once that her gaydar went off around the attractive woman.

  “Nope, just practical knowledge, no personal experience; however, this will be my two hundred and fifth delivery,” she pointed out.

  “Oh, wow,” Allyssa said, impressed, as she squinted out the window. “There’s the RV!” she said excitedly as she pointed.

  “Now, don’t do anything that sets you off,” Leslie warned her. She was gesturing to the orderly and nurses, who were coming through the swinging doors. “Come on, she’s here,” she called.

  The RV was too high to pull up under the overhang, so Buddy pulled it alongside the building. It looked odd with the cartoon animals along the sides. The doctor and her team walked outside; the orderly with the gurney joining them. Allyssa hurried to get in front of this group.

  “She’s crowning,” Buddy announced as he opened the door to let them in. He didn’t like the language coming from the back and had no desire to join them.

  “Push!” they heard Althea order.

  Leslie had no time to admire the inside of the famous RV as she climbed inside and found Fey on the floor, her legs spread wide and towels draped over her lower half. She gently pushed aside the intern, who was relieved and moved aside willingly.

  “Hey, Fey. What do you say we get this baby out of you?” Leslie asked, assessing her patient and seeing the head was already halfway out of her.

  “Where did you come from?” Fey asked, realizing as she asked that they must be at the clinic.

  “Why don’t we get this baby out first and ask questions later?” she asked, putting on a pair of gloves.

  “Where’s Allyssa?” she started to cry. The pain was too much for her to bear, and she had thought she was tough.

  “I’m here!” Allyssa called from behind everyone, and a few people turned in surprise to see an enormously pregnant woman standing there.

  “Allyssa?” Fey called and then the pain tore through her.

  “Push now,” Leslie ordered her, reaching down to catch the baby that looked beyond ready to be born.

  Allyssa elbowed her way through the small crowd and pulled herself up the stairs, something that didn’t really appeal to her, but she wanted to be with her wife when she gave birth to their child. She was greeted by a full-on view of their baby being pushed from Fey’s body. Althea was washing her hands in the sink, studiously avoiding looking at her boss or the boss’s wife. Allyssa side-stepped the action between Leslie and Fey and took her wife’s hand. “I’m here, baby. I’m here. Now, push!” she encouraged the distraught woman.

  “Oh, God. This hurts so much!” she said, then immediately regretted her comment since Allyssa could go into labor at any time. “Maybe you shouldn’t see this?” she asked but didn’t wait for her wife’s answer as she strained to expel the baby from her body.

  “I’m not going anywhere,” Allyssa assured her, sad to see how much it hurt her wife.

  “That’s it, Fey. One more like that,” Leslie told her. “Keep pushing, don’t stop.”

  “I don’t know if I can. I’m really worn out,” she admitted as she squeezed her wife’s hand painfully.

  “You can do this, Fey. You are the strongest woman I know,” Allyssa reassured her. “Come on. I want to meet our son or daughter!”

  “We didn’t decide on a name,” she countered, suddenly worrying about it.

  “You can choose after the baby is born. We don’t know what sex it is yet.”

  “Is it a boy or a girl?” Fey asked Leslie.

  “Unfortunately, your doctorate apparently didn’t include identifying the sex of human babies. The genitalia aren’t on the head,” Leslie said dryly, grinning at her own joke. “Come on now, PUSH!” she ordered.

  Fey took a deep breath and did as she was told, pushing with all her might. She felt herself beginning to black out at the strain. She faintly heard a baby crying. She experienced a feeling unlike anything she had felt before and the sound of that faint cry pierced her heart before she began to fade.

  “It’s a...” Leslie began but Fey passed out before she heard.

  “Fey? Fey?” Allyssa pleaded with her wife, interrupting the doctor. She had seen her pass out, something she had never witnessed before.

  “Someone t
ake the baby and wrap it up?” Leslie called to the onlookers. A man climbed in the RV, admiring its luxurious interior before someone else handed him a pile of towels. “Do you want to cut the cord?” Leslie asked Allyssa.

  “What about Fey? She passed out,” she said, as though she felt she had to bring it to the doctor’s attention.

  “She’ll be fine. It happens more often than people realize. I wouldn’t be surprised if she woke up in a couple seconds. Do you want to cut the cord?” she repeated.

  “Yes,” she said, reaching for the scissors the doctor offered. Leslie had tied a knot in the cord on either side and she indicated where Allyssa should snip. That snip separated Fey and the baby that had been such a part of her for so long. Allyssa looked down at the crying baby as they quickly wrapped its cooling body in the towels. “The sink is fully functional, and you can wash the baby–” she began as they made a move to take the baby out of the RV. “Wait right there. You are not leaving with our baby until it has identification attached to its wrist!”

  The nurse looked from the doctor to the pregnant woman and back, worried at the menace she clearly heard in the young woman’s voice.

  “Do you have an I.D. bracelet for the baby?” Leslie asked the nurse. She was cleaning Fey, making sure there were no tears as she packed off the bleeding. She pushed down on Fey’s stomach to expel the afterbirth, wondering if the unconscious woman would be aware of the additional pain. She didn’t appear to be.

  “No, that’s in the clinic,” she began.

  “Then, I’m going with you and not letting that baby out of my sight,” Allyssa insisted. “I’m not taking the chance that things could get mixed up!”

  The nurse, still surprised, looked at Leslie for confirmation. Leslie nodded and continued to work on Fey. The baby was still fussing as Allyssa got onto all fours and slowly pulled her ungainly body from the floor, regaining her balance. It took a while but finally, she was on her feet and followed the nurse, who waited at the bottom of the steps as Allyssa climbed carefully out. Buddy stepped forward to take her hand and help her down.

  “Thank you,” she told the intern and hurried after the nurse.

  “Let’s get her cleaned up and onto the gurney,” Leslie called to her team, who hadn’t known what to do. It wasn’t often they went outside the clinic.

  “I’ll clean this up,” Althea said as they came in to get Fey. “Don’t worry, we have patients in here all the time, and I know how to sterilize the site.”

  They looked at her in surprise and glanced around at the mobile vet clinic. An intern took Fey’s shoulders, another lifted her middle, and the nurse lifted her legs. They covered her with a sheet to protect her from curious eyes as they handed her gently but awkwardly out of the RV and laid her on the waiting gurney.

  “Whaaa?” she asked as she began to come to.

  “Hey there, Fey,” Leslie said, greeting her as they began to roll her into the clinic. “You should really look into doing home deliveries,” she teased. “That RV would provide a great service.”

  “I already do home deliveries,” she answered back, catching on to the inference. Then, realizing why Leslie would be there, her hand went to her stomach. “My baby?” she asked, sounding alarmed.

  “Allyssa is with the baby. She insisted,” she told her patient, smiling at her as they went through the automatic doors.

  “Did I have a boy or a girl?” she asked.

  “You didn’t hear me?” Leslie asked, surprised.

  Shaking her head, Fey looked at her expectantly but she wasn’t going to have her curiosity appeased just yet.

  “I’ll let Allyssa tell you. She was rather concerned when you passed out, but she wouldn’t let them take the baby out of her sight.”

  “Is the baby all right?”

  “The baby,” she stressed, deliberately not giving away the gender, “is fine. They are cleaning it up now in the clinic and putting on its I.D. bracelet.”

  Fey nodded at this, so very tired from her ordeal. Then suddenly, she got to worrying again. “Is Allyssa okay?”

  “She looks fine. Ready to pop,” Leslie assured Fey as they wheeled her through the other set of doors.

  They put Fey in a small room and Leslie said she’d tell them to bring Allyssa and the baby in as soon as they finished weighing it and cleaning it.

  “Your wife is looking for her baby,” Leslie said as she came up behind Allyssa. She was watching the clinic staff wash, weigh, and measure the baby. She was amazed at all the things they did to a newborn.

  “She’s awake?” Allyssa asked, surprised and torn—she didn’t want to leave their baby and yet, she wanted to see Fey and assure herself she was okay.

  “Yes, she just passed out from the strain. She will need to sleep soon, so we have to get this little one in to meet its mommy,” she said as she watched the nurses fussing over the infant. “I didn’t tell her the baby’s sex. I thought you’d like to do that.”

  “Really?” Allyssa smiled, liking the idea that she had known the sex of their baby before her wife!

  Leslie nodded and smiled in return, thinking how lucky these two women were to have so much love for one another. She’d never seen the likes of it before. She’d seen many straight couples in love throughout her career but never a same sex couple. It was beautiful to see. “Really,” she confirmed. “I’ll have them bring the baby in–” she began but Allyssa interrupted.

  “I’ll wait and go with them,” she said, wishing they would let her hold it, but they had refused. She wasn’t sure if it was because she was pregnant or because they were a same-sex couple, she just knew she wanted to hold Fey’s baby. She decided to ask Leslie. “Can I hold the baby?”

  “You haven’t held the baby yet?” she asked, surprised and glancing at the nurses, who suddenly seemed extra busy.

  She shook her head. “Is it because I’m pregnant? It’s not like these two babies haven’t felt each other through their mothers. They both kick like soccer players,” she complained with a grin as she rubbed her stomach.

  “Are you done?” Leslie asked the nurses, taking charge.

  They nodded, and the OBGYN picked up the crying baby easily. It was swaddled, the wrappings holding it snug as she handed it to Allyssa. Allyssa immediately felt awkward holding the baby. Briefly, she wondered if she would feel like this with her own baby and worried about that.

  “Just support the neck,” Leslie murmured, seeing how uncomfortable she looked holding the baby. “Now, let’s take it to see its other mom,” she suggested. She was surprised to see the baby stop crying as Allyssa spoke to it.

  “Hello, I’m one of your mommies,” Allyssa told the infant, who had been crying since its birth just a little while ago. It had a good set of lungs, but at the sound of Allyssa’s voice, the baby calmed. Wrapped warmly in blankets, it looked up at her through newborn eyes. The baby knew this voice; it had been hearing it for months. The baby completely relaxed and stopped its crying. “Hey there, little one. Let’s go introduce you to your other mommy.”

  “Come on,” Leslie said, smiling at the image. A hugely pregnant mom holding one of her babies in her arms. She felt this was a sight she would never see again, but who knew with these two unusual women.

  Slowly and carefully, they walked to the room where Fey waited.

  “Here we are,” Leslie said as she ushered Allyssa in.

  Fey looked up sleepily at the sight of her wife holding their baby. “Oh, Allyssa,” she said in a dreamy voice. “Is it a boy or a girl?” she asked. “Is it okay?”

  “Your son is just fine,” Fey told her with a smile. She leaned forward to deposit the bundle in her wife’s waiting arms, her stomach hitting the mattress as she leaned over. Her own baby kicked uncomfortably, and she immediately appeased it by rubbing and soothing the baby through her belly. Looking down at Fey, she fell in love with her all over again.

  “A son. We have a son,” she said wonderingly as she looked down at him for the first time. He look
ed up at her, again recognizing the voice. There was no confusion. He recognized both voices from hearing them over the last few months. He looked at Fey with the same rapt expression he had given Allyssa. It was as though he were trying to study her but unable to properly focus. It proved to be too much work for the little guy and he began to drift off to sleep. It had been a full day for the newborn.

  “Yes, we have a son,” Allyssa agreed softly, sitting on the edge of the bed.

  “He’s fine and healthy,” Leslie reported after one of the nurses handed her the clipboard with his vitals.

  “That’s so good to hear,” Fey said, not looking up. She couldn’t take her eyes off the miracle that was her baby. She was amazed that this human being had come out of her body. She finally looked up at her wife, who was teary-eyed. She had been looking down on her wife and son with all the love she could project from her heart. “I’m sorry I went out in the RV. I was bored, and I just thought I’d supervise.”

  “Next time, I’m chaining you to the couch!” Allyssa threatened.

  “Next time?” she asked, alarmed.

  “You don’t want more children?” she teased.

  Fey smiled and reached out for Allyssa’s belly.

  “We have more children.”

  “We will soon,” she promised, reaching for her wife’s hand, intending to kiss the back of it. She’d have leaned over to kiss her on the lips, but the baby was giving her severe indigestion.

  “Are you okay?” Fey asked, concerned.

  “I’m fine,” she assured her, smiling broadly as the baby’s mouth opened in a huge yawn, and he promptly fell asleep.

  “He’s got the right idea,” Fey said, also sounding sleepy.

  “Let’s put him in the bassinet and let you get some sleep.” Leslie came over, pushing a clear plastic hospital bassinet. “You need your sleep to regain your strength,” she assured her patient as Fey reluctantly handed her the bundle containing her son. Her son. She couldn’t believe he was finally here. She hadn’t really thought she’d physically be able to do this, and here she was...holding a baby that came from her own body. She glanced at the woman who had talked her into this idea and then looked down at her wife’s round stomach. Very soon, they would have two babies. She wondered if Allyssa’s baby would be a boy or a girl?