A/N: This is a short story, only four chapters. I started this back in August, and now, seven months later, it's finally done. Enjoy!
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Over the previous six months, Allen Walker had become a fixture around the infirmary. The young exorcist had contracted a mysterious illness that the doctors and scientists had yet to identify. For the most part the symptoms were mild: heartburn, nausea, aches and pains, lethargy, insomnia, shortness of breath; nothing too serious, unless the sufferer had an incredibly physical job, like say, an exorcist.
But the truly worrying symptom was the amount of weight Allen had gained. It settled all over his lower body, but mostly in his stomach. No amount of diet or exercise could stop his midsection from growing outward; in fact, cutting down on his food intake had quickly been determined to have a detrimental effect on his overall health.
After two months of tests and exams, with absolutely nothing to show for it, Allen was pulled from active duty. Until they could figure out what was wrong with him, he was a liability out in the field. Central tried to complain, but given that the young man had killed the Millennium Earl six months earlier, they didn't have a leg to stand on.
The temper tantrum Allen threw after the announcement that he was benched lasted for days. He was beyond pissed that he could no longer go out and save the souls of the akuma that still roamed the earth. It had taken a guilt trip, as well as several slaps, from Lenalee to get him to realize that he shouldn't be fighting when he was sick.
That was four months ago. The infirmary had known about the mystery illness for six months, and Allen had known about it for two before he'd said anything, making him sick for a grand total of eight months now.
And today he was back in the infirmary, complaining of excruciating pains in his back and stomach. It had taken time, and another guilt trip from Lenalee, but they had finally gotten Allen to realize that he wasn't helping anyone by hiding his symptoms. And as such, he wasn't holding back his cries. Some of the shouts echoed so loudly through the stone building that they could be heard outside.
It wasn't the first time he'd experienced a pain like this, but those incidents had always passed after an hour or two. They weren't even long enough for anyone to pinpoint the specific source of the pain.
This time however, Allen had been screaming for so long that he was starting to lose his voice. Six hours had passed since he had come to the infirmary, and all the attending doctors had figured out was that the pains were getting stronger and more frequent as time went on, a revelation that only served to piss Allen off.
That's when the scientists came in. Lou Fa, Rikei, and Shifu, accompanied by their supervisor, Bak Chan, had built a device that would let them see what was happening on the inside of Allen's bloated belly. They had started the project in their spare time, back when word of Allen's sickness had first reached the Asian Branch. And now it was finished. Just in time too.
It took no convincing to get Allen to let them do their test on him. He was in so much pain that so long as it yielded helpful results, he didn't care what it involved. So they hooked up their machine and started it up.
The joke that Allen looked pregnant had been passed around for months. But it had always remained a joke; no one had ever put serious thought into the possibility that a male could be pregnant: it was just too ridiculous.
Until that moment.
Everyone stared dumbly at the screen. The image flickering on it was clearly that of a fully grown fetus. The stunned silence immediately turned into a heated debate, with the four scientists swearing by the accuracy of their device. It finally came to an end when Allen, who hadn't seen the screen, had had enough of their bickering. "Would someone please tell me what the hell is going on?!"
"Alright, everyone out!" The Head Nurse sprang into action. It had been a long time since she'd helped with the delivery of a baby, but it was a safe bet that she was the only one present who had even done that much. "Allen needs quiet, and this is not it! So all of you need to clear the room. You, scientists, take your contraption with you!"
She glared at every one of them as they hurried to do what she demanded. When the room was finally vacant, she closed the door and turned her attention towards Allen. He was staring at her, eyes wide with fear, from the chair he was uncomfortably perched on. She helped him move onto the bed, and then held his hand as a contraction wracked through his body. When it passed, she sighed and placed a wet cloth on his forehead to help him cool down; then she began to feel around his extended belly, her fingers quickly confirming what the device had shown. "Allen, I know that this is going to be hard to believe, but you're pregnant. Your baby is full term, and you're in labor."
He opened his mouth to speak but no words came out, only a very undignified squeak. It was too mind blowing, he couldn't even begin to process what he was being told. The Head Nurse smiled gently at him. "Yes, I know that it's impossible. But you know as well as I do that it's the only explanation for what's been happening to you that makes any sense at all."
Another contraction started before Allen could respond, the excruciating pain washing over his entire body. As preposterous as the whole idea of being pregnant was, the pain only supported the nurse's theory that he was in labor. Now that it had been mentioned, Allen could clearly identify the agonizing feeling as his body preparing to get something out of it.
The Head Nurse waited for the contraction to pass and Allen's breathing to calm a little before she continued her explanation. "Now, I'm going to take your pants off so that I can get a look at what's happening down there. I need to find out if your body already has a way to get the baby out. Understand?"
She waited for Allen to nod before she moved from his side. She unfastened his pants and he helped her take them off, lifting his hips off the mattress so that she could slide them away. The wetness of the fabric did not escape her notice: Allen's baby had to be coming out on its own if his water had already broken. It wasn't surprising to her that he hadn't said anything about it; he probably thought that he had wet himself, and even in his current condition that would have understandably been too embarrassing to admit to.
Allen spread his legs as she instructed, but then she just stood there, examining his groin. It was making him uncomfortable. Contrary to his worries, the Head Nurse hadn't even noticed his exposed dick. She was more concerned with the fully dilated birth canal that he wasn't supposed to have, yet did.
After the pain of his next contraction passed, leaving an intense burning behind, Allen realized that the Head Nurse was holding his hand again. She guided it down to the area between his spread legs, and gently placed his fingers against something slimy and hairy. "That's your baby's head. It's starting to crown. From now on, you're going to have to push with the contractions to get it the rest of the way out."
Allen stared blankly at her. He didn't know what half of the things she'd just said meant. And his mind was still reeling; trying to process that he was pregnant and in labor was giving him a migraine, and he was already in enough pain. She released his hand, and quickly arranged a sheet over his still-spread knees. "I'm going to go bring the doctors back so that they can help with the birth."
She paused at the door as an idea struck. "Or would you rather it be a smaller group? That scientist girl is your friend, right? I'm sure she'll help, and then it would only be the three of us instead of the big crowd. Would you be more comfortable with that arrangement?"
Taking his hesitant nod as a 'yes' because she didn't want the noisy doctors back, the Head Nurse stepped quickly out into the hall. "There's no time, so questions will have to wait until later. Allen is pregnant. The baby started to crown with his last contraction. Now, I'm going to go back in there and help him deliver the baby. You, science girl with the braids, you come with me. The rest of you, stay out here. I'll call for you if I need you, but until then, Allen has requested that he be given as much privacy as possible."
Not waiting on a response, she turned and went back into the room, Lou Fa hurrying to catch up with her. The doctors and scientists all clamored after her, but the door slamming shut them up.
Allen was in the middle of a contraction when they entered, and the Head Nurse stepped swiftly to his side and began coaching him through it. Not knowing what to do, Lou Fa stood there watching awkwardly until it passed. Her dreams lay shattered around her as she watched her crush labor with another's child.
Then the contraction passed and the Head Nurse was ordering her around, giving her no time to focus on that. She fetched various tools, and when that was done, she sat at Allen's side. She held his hand and spoke words of support and encouragement as he struggled to give birth.
The seconds ticked by with agonizing slowness, and Allen was only vaguely aware of Lou Fa's coaching. The young man felt like his body was going to rip apart under the strain of childbirth. His strength was fading and fatigue was setting in; he didn't know how much longer he could continue to push. He certainly didn't have enough energy left to think about what was actually happening, he just wanted the pain to stop. Yet with each contraction and accompanying push, the pain only got worse.
And then it was suddenly over. The waves of pain were gone, leaving only a sense of overall exhaustion and extreme soreness. The realization that he'd just given birth didn't hit him until the newborn baby started to cry. He started to panic internally, but before he got too lost, Lou Fa was placing the infant in his arms.
Allen was surprised by how familiar his daughter was. He hadn't even known she was inside him, yet he somehow knew exactly who she was. It was as if there was some subconscious part of him that had actually been aware of her every move over the previous nine months.
It only took him a split second to decide that he was keeping her. Even though he would be told he should give her up. Even though her father wasn't in the picture. Even though he didn't know the first thing about babies. It was going to be hard, but he would do it. For her.
No one had thought Allen would actually want the baby. They all expected him to vehemently reject it and rage over having given birth in the first place. So when the doctors and scientists were finally allowed back into his room, it was a shock to all of them to find him serenely embracing the newborn like it was the most normal thing in the world. Sure, he was confused over what had happened, and he was upset that no one had figured it out sooner, but he didn't take any of that out on the newborn. In fact, Allen broke out in tears when the doctors had to take her from him to get her cleaned up and examined. The reaction was so far from what they expected that it freaked them all out.