Chapter 4 - Pregnancy: from 3B
The power damper harness made it difficult for Shego to analyze how she was feeling physically. She had grown so accustomed to the comet powers she couldn't remember what it was like to be without them. Psychologically she wasn't sure if excited or scared was the better description. The two weeks until the pregnancy test dragged interminably.
Kim and the girls waited with her in a room at the university hospital.
“I'm scared,” Shego admitted. Kim gave her partner's hand a reassuring squeeze. The twins fidgeted madly and their parents fought the urge to yell at them.
Amy, grinning broadly, came in with a Danish physician. “Congratulations, Shego,” the geneticist told her. “You're going to be a mommy.”
Kim smiled as the twins went into a wild, 'we're-going-to-be-sisters' dance of joy. Then she noticed that Shego appeared to be in a state of shock. “Are you okay?” the redhead asked.
“Forgive me, I'm just having an, 'Oh, my God! What have I done?' moment.”
The four remained in Denmark for two more weeks, long enough to determine that a single embryo had implanted. The twins were as disappointed as their parents were elated that they wouldn't have a second set of twins.
As far as the university's medical department was concerned the procedure itself had been proven. Shego and family went home for nature to take its course. Only those who really knew the history of the twins got the straight story, others were told simply that Shego had left the country for in vitro fertilization.
“Will you be writing a book about this?” Shego joked with Dr. Schultz during one of her frequent exams.
“Probably not. From my perspective there has really been nothing different about these pregnancies from a thousand others I've handled. Does it bother you that to me you're simply business as normal?”
Shego laughed, “Sounds great to me. I think you're the first person to say that about me since the comet hit. Do you notice any difference between the two pregnancies? Kim was young and stupid and I'm old and foolish.”
“Kim was nineteen. I get fourteen year olds in here--”
“If either of the twins did that I think I'd kill her.”
“Not a joke, Sharon. I've seen that too. And you're just thirty-four. The oldest pregnancy I've handled was a forty-nine year old woman--”
“How did that go?”
“It went fine. And most likely yours will too. If it makes you feel any better you seem to have a higher level of anxiety about this than most of the women I see.”
“Is that bad for the baby?”
“No, just bad for you. It probably means you are extra careful to avoid anything that would harm her.”
“So everything is going to be fine?”
“I can't promise that. What I can say is that at the start of the second trimester everything appears to be within normal levels. At this point everything goes perfectly ninety-five percent of the time.”
“But the other five percent?”
“Play the odds, Sharon.”
“I've never like odds,” Shego muttered. “What are the odds of a chunk of comet landing in your back yard?”
A. Miscarriage: Go to Chapter 8
B. Birth: Go to Chapter 9