Author's Note: Hello everybody! If you're reading this, that means you've followed me over from Stranded onto the sequel, so thank you very much! As I said before, this sequel is going to be quite different from Stranded - it isn't going to be nearly as angsty, though there still will be some angst and difficulties ahead for Naomi and Emily.

This story is rated M for language, sexual content (eventually) and mature themes.

And as usual, I don't own or have anything to do with Skins.

As It Was Made To Be

Chapter 1: A Beginning

April 29 2013

It had been just over a month since Emily and I got married, also marking the day that Katie and Effy asked Emily to be their egg donor. We expected that it would take them some time to arrange doctor's appointments and to sort through finding a male donor and sorting through any legal issues they could encounter. However, it didn't seem to take as much time as Emily and I thought it would, since exactly a month after our wedding, Katie and Effy approached us with a date for a doctor's appointment and asked Emily if she still wanted to be their donor.

Luckily, Katie wouldn't have to adopt the baby to assume equal parenting rights, as Katie and Effy could both be identified as parents on the baby's birth certificate. Katie and Effy refused to talk about whether they chose a sperm donor that we knew or whether they went to a sperm bank. Emily and I pressed for more information, but after a while it became unimportant. We knew just as much as Katie and Effy did that the baby's biological father really had very little to do with their baby, and we started to realize that Effy looked upset whenever we would mention the biological father.

Effy and Katie had both decided that they wanted to try to play equal parts in the pregnancy. Since Em and Katie were identical twins and shared the exact same DNA, the egg was considered Katie's, and Effy decided that she wanted to carry the baby. It was the closest they could come to having a biological baby. But it still seemed to bother Effy that the baby wouldn't have any of her DNA. I made a mental note to have a talk with Effy about that.

"Ems! We're going to be late!" I called out, nearly tripping over Libby as I headed to the table, arms full of toast and jam. I sighed as Libby scurried out of my way and went to lay under the table.

Emily came into the kitchen wrapped in a towel. I frowned at her. We were supposed to leave for the doctor's office in half an hour and she wasn't even dressed yet. I had woken up extra early this morning to squeeze in Libby's walk at the park and was already showered and dressed.

"Em, it is somewhat important that we show up on time for the appointment," I said as I handed her a piece of toast and her cup of tea. "Eff and Katie said the doctor runs perfectly on time, so we really can't show up late."

Emily nodded and took a huge gulp of her tea and two large bites of toast before scurrying back into our bedroom to get dressed.

"What are we going to do with her, huh Libby?" I said as I sat down to enjoy my breakfast.

Fifteen minutes later, Emily came out of the bedroom dressed and presentable. She finished her breakfast quickly before grabbing her purse, jacket and keys and rushing me out the door.

"If Libby makes a mess because we left the jam and dishes on the table, you have to clean it up when we get home," I said as we walked the short distance to the doctor's office. That was the nice thing about living in central Bristol – everything was a walk away.

Emily nodded at me and bit her lip, a clear sign that she was feeling nervous. I grabbed her hand and held on tight. Today was our first appointment with the doctor to get all the information we needed and hopefully to get Emily started on a course of hormone therapy. I was probably just as nervous as Emily was. I'd never been a big fan of doctors.

"You'll be fine, Em," I said as we walked into the medical office. "There's nothing to worry about."

Emily bit her lip and nodded, but still seemed nervous. Katie and Effy assured us that the doctor was great and very thorough, which reassured me a bit. I don't think Em was nervous about the medical aspect of it all though. She went through a horrible time the last time she underwent hormone therapy for the egg extraction, and she was probably afraid that she wasn't in the proper mindset to do it again. Plus, I knew she really didn't want to disappoint Katie and Effy. They had put so much time and effort and thought into their ideal pregnancy, and I knew Emily didn't want the doctor to say something was wrong and that she couldn't donate her eggs. So I held her hand the whole time we were in the waiting room and through most of the appointment. The doctor showed me how to give Em her injections each day and also explained the extraction procedure that would take place.

"You'll have to come in frequently for tests and ultrasounds while you're taking the stimulant hormone. That's just so we can monitor the growth and progression of the ovarian follicles. Once your follicles are large enough, you'll inject yourself with HCG, and then about 36 hours later, we will do the extraction procedure. You'll have to come in to hospital and you'll be put under general anesthesia. It will take place in the operating theatre and should be fairly quick and easy," Dr. Greene said with a smile. She cleared her throat and looked at Emily's file in front of her. "Now normally, we would have to sync up the donor and recipient's periods, but since the recipient suffers from premature ovarian failure, we won't have to do that. I must warn you that this procedure is not without risks – the stimulant hormones can cause fluid retention and ovarian swelling, known as ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome. OHSS varies, and can cause anything from mild abdominal pain to life-threatening blood clots. However, we will be monitoring you quite closely, so life threatening OHSS has less than a 1% chance of affecting you."

Emily nodded and bit her nails. I'd turned white as a ghost. I had no idea that donating eggs was so dangerous.

"Okay then, inject yourself with the stimulant hormone tonight before you go to bed. Do that every day until I tell you otherwise. I'd like to see you back in three days' time," Dr. Greene said before smiling at us warmly and shaking our hands.

Our walk back to the apartment was completely silent. When we walked in, Libby greeted us happily, an indication that she hadn't made a mess of the kitchen and that she was proud of herself for not doing so. But as soon as she took in how scared I looked and how worried Emily looked, Libby quickly shifted emotions and cuddled up with us on the couch. I couldn't stop thinking about the risks and the procedure Emily was willing to put herself through. Even though there was less than a 1% chance that something life-threatening would affect Em, it was still worrying.

"I really want to do this for Katie and Effy," Emily said quietly, placing the bag of needles and vials of hormones on the coffee table in front of us. "But I'm really nervous."

I nodded at her. "I'm nervous too. I don't want anything bad to happen to you."

Emily nodded. "Yeah, I suppose I'm nervous about that too. I just don't want these hormones to fuck me up and make me...hate myself like I used to. I don't want it to bring all the bad memories back. I really want to be able to do this for Katie and Effy and I don't want anything to go wrong."

I nodded at her and pulled her into my side. "You're a lot stronger now, Em. I'm sure nothing bad will happen."

She looked up at me, her forehead creased and her lips pursed. "Do you think I can do it?"

I smiled at her and kissed her. "I think you can do anything."

Emily smiled back with a determined look on her face.

Later that night, after we had taken Libby out for her walk, Emily turned to me with a quizzical look on her face.

"Do you want kids?" She asked. I shrugged and nodded at her. Ever since Katie and Effy had asked Emily to be their donor, I'd been imagining what life would be like if Emily and I had children. I never really mentioned any of those thoughts to Emily, since I was worried that she would think it was too soon for us to have children. But really, if we decided to bring children into our lives, we would be prepared. We had money saved and the apartment was definitely big enough. We had an empty bedroom that was still waiting to be filled. We were comfortable enough emotionally and financially to support a baby.

"Kids aren't so bad," I said with a smile as I snuggled into Emily's side and kissed her neck.

She frowned. "I don't think...I mean...I do want kids. I just don't want to be pregnant."

I was completely shocked. I'd always thought that, at least for us, Emily would be the obvious choice to be the birth mother. I hadn't given any thought to being pregnant or giving birth because I always assumed Emily would want to do that, possibly as a sort of healing process.

Emily could tell I was shocked, and shrugged. "I just don't want to put my body and my mind through that kind of thing. I know some people say that giving birth is a healing process and that it's magical and all that. But I'm just...not interested. And I'm not sure that I'd be ready to put my body through all those changes after going through this donation process." She grabbed my hand and looked up at me hopefully. "Would you be interested in being the birth mother of our children?"

I immediately knew the answer was yes. Of course the answer was yes. If Emily didn't want to carry our children, I was perfectly fine with the idea. Now that I'd given it some thought, however little thought that may be, I knew I definitely wanted to carry our children.

"Yes. Of course. I'd do that for us," I said. Emily beamed at me. "I'd do anything for us, really."

She squealed and kissed me. "How many kids do you want?" She asked, grabbing my hand tightly with hers.

"I don't know, shouldn't we just start off with one and see where we end up?" I asked as Emily laughed and nodded. I never really thought about how many kids I wanted or whether I wanted this many girls and that many boys. I just wanted happy, healthy children with the woman I loved. "Do you know how many kids you want?"

Emily shrugged as well. "I never really thought about it before now."

I nodded at her and returned my attention to the television, though I could still sense that Emily felt tense with unanswered questions beneath me. I looked up at her and found her biting her lip. She looked down at me and blushed and smiled.

"So...are we trying? Do we want to try?" She asked shyly, taking my hand in hers and looking at me hopefully.

"Maybe," I said. "I think it would be better if we waited until after you're done with the whole donation process. It'd be easier that way, don't you think?"

Emily nodded and smiled at me. She leaned down and pressed her lips against mine, her tongue peeking out and finding mine, exploring and massaging gently. "Love you, Naoms," she whispered against my lips.

"Love you too, Em."

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