Vetted Again

by K'Anne Meinel

  Leslie left the two moms alone with their baby, murmuring directions to her staff on the way out. She hadn’t missed the signs that one or two of them might be a bit homophobic, and she took them to task over it.

  “I can do this again,” Fey assured Allyssa, surprising them both.

  “Really?”

  “Someday. Just not for a couple years, okay? And not at the same time!”

  Allyssa chuckled quietly, not wishing to wake the baby. “We need to decide on a name for our son.”

  “I like that...our son.”

  “He is ours, isn’t he?” she asked, suddenly sounding worried.

  “I’m sure he’ll be my son when he’s naughty,” Fey teased sleepily. “Can we worry about the name after a nap?”

  “Absolutely,” she assured her, holding her hand until Fey drifted off to sleep. When she was asleep, Allyssa got up, so she could lean over and kiss her wife on the cheek and not scrunch her own baby. She made sure Fey was covered and tucked her in before leaving her room.

  “Everything okay?” Leslie asked as she put a pen back in her breast pocket.

  “Fey just drifted off.”

  “How about you? Any labor pains?” she asked, looking her over for signs of distress.

  “Nope, just mental ones. That was damn close,” she said, sounding annoyed.

  “Your wife is a stubborn woman, not unlike the woman she married,” Leslie teased.

  “Damn right,” she agreed with a grin. “I better go tell the troops,” she said, thumb pointing through the double doors to where they were waiting. She hadn’t seen them when she came through with the baby, and she wondered if they knew Fey was in the clinic and not in the RV.

  “I’ve told them to let you in when you return,” Leslie told Allyssa as she watched her walk away. She wondered what it would be like at their house with two infants. Much like having twins, she imagined. Her eyes squinted slightly, remembering the sonograms they had taken during Allyssa and Fey’s ultrasounds, then she shrugged and carried on.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  “It’s a boy!” Allyssa announced at the doorway of the waiting room, and Renee, Sean, and Traci looked up immediately. Buddy and Althea were in front of the vending machines and saw Allyssa crossing the room.

  “A boy!” Renee said, happy for her employers, who had also become friends.

  “I have a nephew,” Sean boasted.

  “Me too,” Traci reminded him, a bit irked.

  “You both do,” Allyssa said, heading off a potential argument between the quarrelsome twosome.

  “Congratulations,” Buddy said, coming up with a coffee in his hand.

  “Yes, congratulations,” Althea echoed him.

  “What were you two thinking, allowing Fey to go out today?” she turned on the two interns.

  “She insisted. No other vets could go today as they were all booked up,” Buddy defended himself, alarmed at the attack.

  “I am sorry, Allyssa. There was no way to know she would go into labor today.”

  “Um,” she started, sarcastically. “She was nine months pregnant and might go into labor at any time?”

  “Yeah, I guess it wasn’t too wise,” she said agreeably, not wanting to get a rise out of the pregnant woman.

  Allyssa shook her head, exasperated. “I’m going to have to sit down.”

  They parted to let her through to the couch. “Is Fey okay?” Traci asked.

  “She’s fine. She and the baby needed to rest, so I left them after they fell asleep.”

  “Who does the baby look like?” Sean asked as he sat across from her.

  “You know, babies just look all scrunched up when they are born. I don’t know who he looks like.”

  “What are you going to name him?” Traci asked. She was sitting at the end of the couch, as close to Allyssa as she could get without crowding her.

  “We haven’t decided yet.”

  “Fey gets to name him, doesn’t she?” Sean asked.

  “Why would she? It’s their baby?” Traci asked, and all of them could hear the challenge in the little girl’s voice.

  “Okay, Bickersons, please,” Allyssa headed them off again. Sometimes she felt like a referee. “Fey and I haven’t decided what to name either of our babies yet.”

  “But you’ve discussed it, right?” Sean asked, giving Traci a look that promised he’d get her back at some point.

  “Of course, we have, but we didn’t know the sex, so we couldn’t decide on just one name.”

  “Do you have a name for your baby?” Sean asked her next.

  “Our baby,” she corrected him as she rubbed her stomach unconsciously, “hasn’t got a name either since we don’t know the sex.”

  The questions went on for a while and before Allyssa knew it, they were calling her back to visit with Fey, who had woken.

  “Can we come?” Traci asked.

  Allyssa looked up at the nurse, who shook her head slightly. “Maybe later,” she told the young girl and turned to follow the nurse.

  “Hey, there,” Fey said tiredly when she saw her wife. She was trying to nurse the baby and not doing a very good job. Leslie was giving her advice, but the baby was getting frustrated. “Can’t you just show me?” she asked the doctor.

  “You’ve got to figure it out for yourself. What works for one woman doesn’t always work for all.” She was used to fractious patients and grinned despite herself.

  “This isn’t like my patients. They just know instinctively,” she complained good-naturedly. She finally got her nipple into the fussy baby’s mouth, and he latched on instantly. She jerked her shoulder forward and quietly said, “Ouch!”

  Allyssa laughed and Fey looked up again.

  “Go ahead and laugh. Your turn is coming soon!” she warned. She grinned at her wife, pleased to see her.

  “We’ve decided not to have a natural after seeing what Fey went through. Is it too late to schedule a C-section?” Allyssa asked Leslie.

  “Are you serious?”

  “No,” she said and waited, grinning.

  The three women laughed. Fey was careful she didn’t shake the baby loose from her breast. “Hey, we need to think of a name for this little fella,” she said affectionately, looking down at the amazing being she held in her arms as he suckled at her breast lustfully.

  “Well, we discussed naming him Erin. If you don’t like that name, how about Keith, after your dad?”

  “I know who my dad is, but I don’t think I want to do that. I think Sean wants to name a child after our dad,” she put in, adding, “someday.”

  “That’s one name off the list then. How about Erin or maybe Benjamin?”

  Leslie walked out as they discussed names. She had other patients to see.

  “Erin still sounds like a woman’s name to me,” Fey mused.

  “Not if you spell it with an A instead of an E.”

  They debated a while before deciding on Erin Benjamin Herriot after both her great-great-grand‘father’ and the grandfather who raised her. “That should do it,” Fey commented as the baby let go of her nipple. “I think Erin here is going to be a big whopper of a boy,” she teased, seeing her milk, which wasn’t even milk yet, dribble from his open mouth. Gently, she lifted him against her shoulder and gently rubbed his back, trying to get the bubbles up.

  “If you pat him, he’ll throw up,” Allyssa teased, strangely aroused by the sight of her wife’s engorged nipple. It wasn’t like she hadn’t seen it many times, but now, as a mother, it really took on a whole different meaning. The baby covered up the rest of her nakedness.

  “That’s why I’m rubbing instead of patting,” Fey said quietly, hearing a bubble come out and hoping he hadn’t thrown up on her shoulder. She heard two more small bubbles and then, his body seemed to relax further. She cuddled him into her arms and watched him drift easily to sleep. “Wish I could fall asleep like that,” she said softly as she covered up her naked breast.

  “I’m sure there will be tim
es we will hope for him to fall asleep that easily,” Allyssa said as a nurse came in the room.

  “Are you done, Doctor Herriot? I’ll take him to the nursery.”

  “Can’t we keep him here with us?” she asked, reluctant to let Erin go. He felt so right in her arms.

  “You can, but then, if you want your brother and sister to visit, we will have to do that behind glass. Germs, ya know?”

  She nodded and reluctantly handed the baby to the nurse. “We’ve decided on a name for him,” she told her.

  “I’ll bring the paperwork for you and your wife to fill out then,” she said, smiling at the woman as she gently put him down in the plastic bassinette. “What name did you decide on?” she asked before wheeling him out.

  “Erin Benjamin after two of my grandfathers,” she said proudly.

  “That sounds like a fine name,” she said, giving her one more smile, turning it on Allyssa as well, and wheeling the baby away.

  “Are you sure you like the name?” Allyssa asked.

  “I am. Aren’t you?” she asked, reaching to take her wife’s hand in hers.

  “I think it’s perfect. I have news for you too. I just published the books.”

  “So, they are ready to order?”

  “Yes. I’m going to get several copies for us. The paperbacks were done before the e-books.”

  “Wow, that’s so amazing. Dad is going to love that.”

  “How do we keep the kids from finding out?”

  Fey shrugged. She was getting sleepy again. “I guess they just learn sooner than I did,” she answered.

  “Don’t worry about it. I’m going to go now and get the kids. I’ll take them to the nursery and introduce them to their nephew.” She left Fey, who was snoozing already, and walked out to the waiting room. She took the kids, Renee, and the interns to the nursery, and they stood outside looking at the few babies born in this satellite clinic. The hospital up in Pendleton was much bigger. “This is Erin Benjamin Herriot.”

  “Erin Benjamin,” Sean repeated, getting the feel of it on his lips. “Isn’t Erin a girl’s name?”

  “No, it’s actually the name of your great-great-grandfather,” she explained and then wondered if technically, she was lying. The baby kicked inside her at that moment and she wondered if that was a sign too.

  “Oh,” the boy said looking at the squashed bundle again. So, this was how it felt to be an uncle? It didn’t feel much different.

  “When can I hold him?” Traci asked.

  “You’ll get lots of opportunities to hold him when we get home. Maybe you’ll even get a chance before Fey comes home,” she promised.

  “Can I see Fey?”

  “She’s sleeping again. Having the baby took a lot out of her,” she reminded her.

  They all saw Fey once before deciding to head back to the ranch.

  In the RV, the interns began arguing. Althea felt that Buddy should clean since she had helped Fey with her contractions and the start of her delivery. She’d already done a cursory cleaning and he hadn’t helped at all. She grabbed the keys and got into the driver’s seat before he could argue further, so Buddy spent the entire trip home scrubbing the floor where Fey had given birth.

  “Shouldn’t we do something?” Traci asked on their way home.

  “Like what?” Allyssa asked, feeling the need for a nap herself. She had taken one last picture of Fey looking down at baby Erin, so no one could see how wan Fey looked. She intended to use this picture on the blog she was composing in her head.

  “Get a bed made up or something?”

  “We have the two bassinets made up in our bedroom, and after Althea returns to school, we are going to make that room up for your dad, so he can come home.”

  “When is that?” Sean asked eagerly.

  “We don’t know yet. I hope it’s before the roundup.”

  “When is the roundup?” both children asked together.

  “About eight weeks out. Everyone who has volunteered to help first has to get in their fall crops. The roundup is going to be a lot of work,” she reminded them.

  “Are you going to go out?” Sean asked, curious.

  “I hope I will be well enough to do that.”

  “You won’t still be pregnant?” he asked, aghast as he glanced at her big belly.

  “Oh, God. I hope not!” she said in a voice that caused both her and Renee to burst out laughing. When she got her breath back, she looked behind her at her brother-in-law and said kindly, “Only horses are pregnant for eleven months. Humans usually have theirs around the ninth month.”

  “How far along are you?”

  She looked at him, trying to see his expression through the darkness. “Your sister and I got pregnant at the same time. It was deliberate,” she reminded him, “so I’m due any day.”

  “Oh yeah, I forgot,” he said, sounding embarrassed.

  She chuckled.

  “Are we going to miss school?” Traci asked, sounding worried.

  “No. You can only help after school and on weekends. It is going to take a couple weeks to do the roundup.”

  “Why can’t I miss school and help?” Sean asked, sounding alarmed now.

  “Because school is much more important. This roundup is dangerous but necessary. There are too many wild cattle and horses on our land, and we need to do a clean sweep. This isn’t a game.” She knew many of their clients had expressed an interest since she put it up on her blog and Fey had spread the word.

  The rest of the ride home was a little quieter as the two children contemplated everything they had just discussed.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Fey came home two days later. She was sore and tired but happy to be home with Erin. He was a happy little baby and no trouble. Renee had installed two baby seats in the back, so Fey wedged herself between them and Allyssa sat in the front.

  “We better plan on a bigger vehicle this fall,” she said to her wife.

  “I sold the truck,” she reminded her.

  “Yeah, but this Jeep is too small for our growing family.” She looked down on the sleeping baby. “Can we afford to get another vehicle?”

  “Can we worry about it after I give birth?” she said, patting her own bulging stomach. Already, Fey looked like she had never been pregnant. She only had a little flab around the edges, and her face had already narrowed back to her pre-pregnancy days.

  “Absolutely, but I wanted us to start thinking about it.”

  Allyssa didn’t want to think about finances. Fortunately for them, the insurance had covered Fey’s birth and hospital stay completely and it would cover Allyssa as well. But buying another vehicle might stretch their funds.

  They got used to having a baby in the house, and the blog announcing Erin Benjamin Herriot’s arrival generated a lot of good wishes and several visits. Some people remembered Benjamin Herriot, the grandfather who had raised Fiona, but no one knew of Erin or Molly, who had settled there. People speculated about when Allyssa would give birth. Some gossiped again, like they had at the shower, about how two lesbians had become pregnant at the same time.

  Allyssa was so ready to give birth, but her body showed no signs of being ready to expel the active baby inside of her. She bore everyone’s intrusive questions stoically. She tried to help Fey with Erin as much as possible. They both answered his cries for changing, attention, and in Fey’s case, food.

  “I don’t think I’m cut out for this,” she complained as she tried to breastfeed. It always hurt her sensitive nipples. Leslie had explained that it took time to toughen them up, but she wasn’t sure she wanted tough nipples.

  “Maybe you should try that breast pump we got as a present?” Allyssa suggested, wincing in sympathy as the baby sucked hard on her wife’s nipple.

  “That’s an idea. Do you think he’ll take a bottle?”

  “All we can do is try.”

  The breast pump turned out to be a lifesaver for Fiona. It expressed the milk from her breasts, and they stored the
small bottles for Erin, so anyone could feed him when he felt the need. The pump was gentle, and she no longer had to endure the pain of his sucking.

  “He’s so cute,” Traci cooed as she held the newborn and fed him from a bottle.

  “He stinks,” Sean commented and then grinned. He too was enjoying having a baby in the house. They found him talking to the baby in baby talk once, but he denied ever doing that.

  Not feeling confident about bathing Erin alone in the kitchen sink, Fey took him with her in the bathtub and bathed him at the same time. He was so small, and she worried that she would unintentionally hurt him.

  Allyssa watched Fey with growing alarm. She had never been around babies, and she worried she would be inadequate when it was her turn to give birth and take care of the baby. She was so huge she was sure she was going to give birth to an elephant.

  “How am I ever going to cope?” she asked the 4-H moms who came to bring hand-knitted outfits from the troop and coo over the infant.

  “You will be surprised how easily everything comes to you,” one mom stated as she expertly handled Erin.

  “Why the name Erin instead of Aaron?” another asked.

  “It’s a family name,” was what she told them and then, she mentioned the journals they had released. She had forgotten to announce the books on the blogs, so she set about fixing that. The 4-H moms that were there cooing over the baby were impressed by the book samples Allyssa showed them.

  “I’m going home to order mine. Will you sign it?” Gretchen asked.

  “Well, keep in mind it’s Fey’s family, not mine. We just transcribed her great-great-grandparents’ journals.”

  “Sounds fascinating.”

  “We actually got the name Erin from her great-great-grandfather, who settled this valley,” she explained. She decided not to tell any of them that Erin had been a woman. They would find out soon enough now that they knew about the journals being published.

  “I never realized how exhausting the 4-H people could be when they came around,” Fey commented after they had left. She saw that her brother and sister really enjoyed the other kids. They were starting school the next day, and they were looking forward to the support they got from the friends they had made.