“Hi, there,” Leslie greeted them. “How are you feeling?”
She and Fiona went over her weight, her feelings, and how she was doing as Allyssa stood back and observed, a big smile on her face as her wife told the doctor about her weird cravings.
“So, you have two interns coming in to help you this week?”
“The first of many. Allyssa got us signed up with the schools, so we can help the students learn on the job and they can help us.”
Leslie nodded to Allyssa in approval, smiling at her and thinking what a smart a move that was. She knew from her own practice that it wouldn’t be easy for the veterinarian, especially with a large animal practice.
“Well, Fiona, you’re healthy as a horse,” she teased as she finished up her examination and wrote on her chart, an e-reader where she checked off things and made notes. “Just keep doing what you’re doing and take care of yourself.” She turned her back as she finished writing on her tablet and Fiona got dressed. When she was finished, Leslie looked up and smiled at Allyssa, saying, “Now, Miss. What’s up with you?” She smiled at Allyssa, who was ready and went to exchange seats on the examination table with her wife.
“Apparently, she’s experiencing a sympathetic pregnancy with me,” Fey put in since Allyssa wasn’t talking.
“I swear. You’re terrible!” Allyssa said, exasperated with her wife. “I’m gaining weight right along with Fey, and I am even getting mood swings.”
“Oh, really?” Leslie asked, amused. She had heard of husbands doing this but never wives. “Anything else?”
“I’m getting hot flashes, and last week, I passed out,” she glanced at Fey, giving her an I’m sorry look before turning back to the doctor.
“You passed out? For how long?”
“A couple hours,” she shrugged. “I think the citrus cleaner and the heat conspired against me.”
“Do you pass out often?” she asked as she began to examine her patient, poking and prodding.
“No, I don’t recall ever passing out.”
“She did last year when she lost blood,” Fey put in, sounding angry. She was pissed that Allyssa hadn’t told her about fainting the previous week.
“Yes, but that was because I lost blood and had a fever,” she argued, hearing the tone in her wife’s voice.
“So, the answer to my question is yes, you have passed out before.”
“Yeah, but that shouldn’t count because–”
“Uh uh. It counts,” she said as she continued her examination, looking in Allyssa’s eyes and asking her to follow her finger. “When was your last menstrual period?”
“Four months ago, when Fey got pregnant. See, it is a sympathetic pregnancy.” She laughed, hoping to appease her wife’s poor mood.
“Hmm,” Leslie said as she continued her examination. “I want you to go pee in this cup in the bathroom through there. Don’t put the first drops in. Pee a little in the toilet first, then in the cup. Okay?”
Startled, Allyssa got off the table holding the cup. She reached around to close the paper shirt she was wearing as it exposed her bra and panties. Fey laughed at that. They were all women, and Allyssa was married to one of them. Besides, they were both doctors.
“What do you think it is?” Fey asked Leslie as she reached down to put her socks on.
“I can’t say until I finish my examination. Hang on, I’ve got to tell my nurse something.” She left the exam room and Fiona sat there, wondering what this was all about. She was starting to worry.
Allyssa came back into the examination room before Leslie returned and sat up on the table.
“Why didn’t you tell me about passing out last week?”
“I didn’t want to worry you, and we both have so much on our plates,” she pleaded for her wife’s understanding.
“I would think you’d want me to know in case anything happened. What if I didn’t tell you?”
“You don’t tell me about every little thing that happens on the job, do you?”
“As a matter of fact, I do. It’s called being married, and I think I should have known that you passed out for several hours last week.”
“I know. I’m sorry,” she said contritely, and she was sorry. She just hadn’t wanted to worry her wife.
Leslie took a long time to return to the examination room. They were both fidgeting by then, despite the journals they had to read. Finally, she returned. “I’m sorry that took so long. I ran the tests twice to be certain of the results.” She looked at her patients and then addressed Allyssa. “Tell me, when you gave Fiona her pregnancy test, did you take one too?” They’d told Leslie about trying to get pregnant at the same time and using half the vial of sperm each.
“Yeah, it came up negative,” she said, shrugging. It hadn’t been that big of a deal.
“You are also four months pregnant,” she told her.
“But I can’t be. I didn’t have the nausea I had last time and…” she tapered off as she realized what Leslie was saying. “But I can’t be…” she said, almost horrified at the thought, and then she looked at Fiona, who was looking on incredulously.
“Each pregnancy is different. I’d say you have some catching up to do with the prenatal vitamins and taking care of yourself. You are both pregnant, and I’d say you are probably due on the same day.”
Allyssa stared at Fiona in shocked silence. She had accepted that she was not pregnant and had forced herself to be glad for her wife’s sake. She didn’t know how to react. As Fiona’s expression changed from shock to delight, her own expression and demeanor changed. She was pregnant!
TO BE CONTINUED....
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If you have enjoyed VETTED FURTHER, I hope you will enjoy this excerpt from
CAVALCADE
Molly didn’t know what kind of life to expect when she fell in love with Erin Herriot—her schoolmate, her best friend, and a woman. She had been grateful for Erin’s friendship when the bank swindled her after selling her parents’ farm and she was invited to live on Erin’s parents’ farm.
After making the difficult decision to live life as ‘man and wife,’ Molly gladly accepted the challenges before them. Together, they made the decision to sell Erin’s farm and embark on the journey of a lifetime…on the Oregon Trail.
Erin couldn’t give Molly children; however, she could love her forever. But leaving the area where they had both grown up and where everyone knew the women was the only way they could be together without questions about the true nature of their relationship.
Come along on their adventure as two women cross the country, adopt a family, and begin a life that neither had imagined possible growing up in the mid-1800s.
CHAPTER ONE
Erin watched as Molly labored over the dog, petting her to calm her frantic breathing. Both Erin and the male dog watched for hours as one by one, the woman helped the first-time mother bring forth her litter of puppies. Two of the barn cats looked on curiously from the hayloft above the stall. The time sped by, but no one left their post. Erin shifted from foot to foot occasionally, looking d
own at the male Tervuren, who looked up in excited wonderment, panting happily. The intelligence of the Belgian dog showed through in that look they exchanged.
“Well, I think she’s done. That’s it, eight pups,” Molly finally said as she palpated the abdomen. She smiled down at the bitch, who nuzzled at the tiny, mewling creatures. She seemed confused about what they were and the fact they had emerged from her body. Her flightiness was now gone, soothed by Molly’s comforting presence. Already, she had licked each of her offspring thoroughly and allowed this human to examine them. She lay contentedly now as they finished their first feeding, nuzzling close to the warmth of the fur around her teats.
“That’s a good litter for her first,” Erin commented with a smile, leaning down to pet King, who looked up at her again as though he understood. “Think we can let him near her?” she indicated the proud papa, who had watched the birth of each of his pups, cocking his head now and then at the noises emanating from them.
“She’ll let him know if she doesn’t want him near,” Molly said as she rose from her kneeling position, stretching her back after being scrunched over for so long. The front of her apron was covered with slime from the puppies she had helped whelp.
“Do you really think she needed your help?”
“Ya, I think she was frantic until I settled her here.” She indicated the stall they had prepared for the whelping box.
Erin had to concede that Molly was probably right. For a first-time mother, Queenie had been rather ditzy, so unlike the normal brilliance they experienced in Tervurens. Erin knew this relatively unknown breed was invaluable here on the farm and was worth the effort. She gazed at the exhausted bitch. This part of her job was mostly over, and she was laying back in the deep straw, her smooth and even breathing indicating she was asleep.
Molly backed up farther, slowly, so she could look down at the display. King chose that moment to take hesitant steps into the stall, sniffing avidly. Queenie never woke, didn’t give any indication she even knew her mate was there. Both humans tensed, ready to pull the male away if he gave any indication that he would savage the pups. Instead, he sniffed each one individually and nudged it slightly with his nose, familiarizing himself with each of the eight pups before he turned his back and lay down, protecting his mate and family and looking at his humans. His expression clearly indicated they could go. He had this. He wouldn’t let anything happen to his family.
Molly smiled as she took one lantern hanging on the stall. Erin took the other lantern as they left the animals, closing the barn door behind them.
“I am tired,” Molly admitted as she stretched again, the fabric of her dress pulling tightly against her form, showing her firm, young breasts and drawing Erin’s eyes.
“You should be. She was at it a long time.”
“I just worried that she would step on one. I’ve never seen a dog go from sensible to scatterbrained so quickly.”
“I’m sure I’d have been just the same,” Erin admitted with a laugh. They shared a laugh as both knew Erin would likely never have children. At the same time, it saddened them, but neither spoke that aloud as they headed for the farmhouse.
“We better get some sleep before I have to get up for chores,” Erin mentioned as she put her lantern on the counter.
“And I better set this in cold water to soak,” Molly mentioned, removing her apron.
Erin worked the handle of the pump in the sink, and Molly put a pan beneath it to catch the splashing water. They worked harmoniously and silently together. They were a well-organized team, each confident the other would do their part and be there for the other.
“This gunk soaked right through. I’m going to have to bathe,” Molly lamented, surveying the mess on her apron.
Erin pumped the handle, filling pans of water and setting them on the stove to warm for a bath for Molly. She didn’t mind helping, and they soon had the bathtub ready. As Molly stripped, seeing her in the lantern light, arching into the towel, set Erin’s teeth on edge. She was so beautiful, and her dark good looks enticed the woman. Erin was breathless watching Molly, who was unaware how alluring she looked with the towel wrapped around her, her dark reddish-brown hair, and her sultry, dark eyes that perpetually looked as though they were made up with cosmetics but were all natural. She quickly turned to clean up the kitchen as Molly let out the bathwater.
Only when everything was set up in the kitchen, did Erin blow out the two lanterns and take a candle she had lit. They headed to their bedroom, passing the stairs that led upstairs to the other four bedrooms in the old farmhouse.
“Do you think we’ll ever fill those?” Molly asked, glancing at the door and then realizing she had spoken aloud. “I’m sorry,” she quickly added as she hurried to get ready for bed. It was late, and she was sorely tired.
“Anytime you want to go to the orphanage down in Melville, you let me know,” Erin told her.
“But the deception of it all,” she exclaimed worriedly. She went to pull on her nightgown.
“What deception? They will think, like others do, that I’m a man. I just need to spell my name A-a-r-o-n instead of E-r-i-n is all. Although, maybe that isn’t necessary. There are men named Erin.”
“I don’t think God would like that kind of lying,” she said primly. She quickly pulled the curtains on the bedroom windows, even though they were far out in the country and no one could see them.
“I don’t think God puts people on Earth to lose their parents either. We can give a child a good home, maybe even two children. If we are gonna live according to the Bible, we must help our fellow man.”
“Well, I’m sure God didn’t put you in my path none either,” Molly answered pertly.
Erin was removing her boots, her overalls, and her shirt as they had their familiar conversation. They’d had this conversation a few times since they started living together and sleeping together as though they were man and wife. As far as their neighbors knew, they were two women helping each other out. No one needed to know they were intimately acquainted. The house was big and there were beds made upstairs to indicate that one of them lived up there, if anyone cared to look. “You want me to sleep upstairs?” she teased.
“Not unless I’m mad at ya,” Molly teased in return, her face softening. She wouldn’t have thought she’d fall in love with a woman but she had. After the death of her folks, the bank’s subsequent sale of their farm, and the pitiful amount she was compensated, she had nowhere to go. Her best friend from school, Erin, had offered her a place.
“You mad at me?” Erin asked, checking to be sure. Down to her drawers, she couldn’t hide the small bumps on her chest that she kept wrapped up. They weren’t much, but the wrapping made them seem more like a muscular man than a woman with breasts. Only people who knew them, people who had grown up around Stouten and knew her family, knew she was a woman. Strangers were always fooled.
“Whatever for?” Molly asked, putting her arms around Erin and hugging her close.
“I don’t know. You gals are always thinkin’ up somethin’,” she answered, leaning into the hug and relishing it. She could smell how fresh Molly was from her bath, and she remembered how good she had looked in the lantern light. She never thought she’d have anyone in her life. She hadn’t thought a woman would take her on, and she knew she didn’t want a man, although some men wanted her for the fine farm her father and brothers had left her to tend. Had her parents or brothers still been alive, she was certain she’d have been married off to some man who didn’t mind the fact that she looked every bit as masculine as him. Her hair being pinned back in a bun was the only clue that she was a woman.
“Nope. I’m pleased with ya right now, real pleased. We got us a fine litter of Tervurens that should fetch as much as two bits each if we are careful who we sell ‘em to.”
“That sounds like too much,” she lamented, but she too was hoping to get as much as that for the Tervurens. According to Erin, not many people knew of the breed. She’d foun
d Queenie last year at a farmers’ market. She was a skittish thing without many prospects, so she’d gotten her in trade for two chickens. King had been happy with her choice; he finally had a playmate. He didn’t realize until she came into season that she was to be his mate. Erin hadn’t let him mate her that first time; Queenie was just too young. Her second season, he’d gotten his chance and done a fine job of getting her with pups…a fine job.
“Well, it all counts…every extra cent,” she reminded her of their plans.
“Yep, it shore does,” she agreed as they got into bed together.
They were saving every dime they could squeeze from the farm. They had taken the pitiful sum that Molly had gotten after the bank took their share from the sale of her parents’ farm and added it to Erin’s savings. They’d told no one of their plans. People wouldn’t have permitted such plans. Two women alone on a farm was bad enough, and there were already a few bachelors determined to change that. Most were interested in Molly, but every now and then, a man was determined to win Erin over. Their desire wasn’t for the woman but for the family farm. It was an established farm, one that didn’t require constant expansion and was worth a lot of money. Her brothers, father, and uncles had all worked themselves to death clearing the land for her grandfather, who had settled here. If they had survived, they would have been proud of the work Erin put in to keep it going. Well, maybe not. She wasn’t in her ‘proper’ place as a woman. She didn’t mind, but many men would, including those in her family. Right now, she couldn’t worry about that; she was the only one who had survived.
They cuddled close, pleased with themselves and the results of their breeding of the two dogs. “When do you think we can go?” Molly asked, knowing a lot hinged on their money situation.
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