Raph felt even more miserable now that his family had even offered that idea. He wanted a child that was sired by him, and only him.
Sara slowly walked into the room.
"Raph, how could you do that? They were only trying to help."
"I know." Raphael growled. "But I don't want Leo's help. I feel like I'm enough of a loser that I couldn't get my own girl pregnant." Raph said bitterly.
"Raph, if we want to have kids, it might be our only option. They even offered that Mel carries for Leo, and then us adopting it off of them. But I said no. I knew as the biological parents, they wouldn't want to separate from their child anyway." Sara said.
"I know. And it'd still be Leo's kid." Raph said. "If we adopt, then let's adopt a human baby."
"Raph, it isn't that easy. You often have to wait for years, and the parents each have to have a good source of income and great careers before an adoption agency would even look at us, let alone allow us to adopt. There are visits and paperwork, and we live in a sewer, and you don't even have a job." Sara said. "And that's something I don't have."
"Fine, then all we need is each other." Raph said. "I hope you can live with that."
"Yes. I can. As long as we still have nieces and nephews at least to play with." She said with a hint of sadness.
"It's good enough for me too." Raph kissed her. "We'll get over this and move on, in time."
…
Sara was still upset about what Raph had said about moving on. She knew they had no choice, but she still wanted a baby so badly of her own. She was completely willing to accept Leo's offer of helping them. He was a lot like Raph in so many ways. They both liked to train a lot, both had a tough guy attitude, though Leo was much calmer than Raph. A champion fighter. Just some things they had in common.
Right now, Sara was sitting in the living room, watching TV. She was watching Animal Planet. A show about cloning to be exact.
She was seeing how the animals were being cloned and how the clones were carried to term. A clone might have the same direct genetic link and be nearly like a twin to the original host, but the clones were more rather like offspring than a twin.
An animal could be cloned, and have identical traits to the original, but it's personality and looks were not the same exactly. And that's the way it was with having babies the natural way.
An idea popped into Sara's head. Maybe this was the way to go! Cloning! It was about the last chance Raph would have to become a father. And maybe he would be up for this option. She had to talk to Don.
Sara knocked on Don's lab door. "Come in." She heard from the other side. She came into the lab. Jenny was at the hospital right now, so she could talk to him alone.
"Donny, I'm sorry about how Raph and I have been treating everyone, but you know why we are sad." She said.
"Yes, and we offered to help." He said.
"Well, I think I just found out a way how you could help us. Cloning!" She said happily.
Don's eyes widened. "Cloning? That doesn't always turn out too well, Sara."
"I just saw on TV that some animals like sheep, cows, and horses have been successfully cloned. Why not your brother? You would be using my eggs and Raph's DNA to fertilize them. It's nearly the same as the natural way, but Raph has no sperm to use. Surely, some of his DNA could do it too." Sara explained.
"You could be right. But Raph should be told if it's going to be done that way." Don said.
"I plan on getting him on board." Sara said.
…
Later on, Sara sat down to talk to Raph.
"Hey Raph."
"Hi Sara." He said.
"Raph, I think I have found another solution to our baby problem." She said.
"Not again, Sara." Raph said with an irritated sigh.
"It doesn't involve anything from your brothers at all. Just your DNA put into my eggs to make a baby or a few." Sara said.
Raph's eyes lit up. "Really?"
"Yes. It's called cloning to be exact. It's the only other way if we won't accept help from your brothers." Sara said.
"Cloning?" Raph asked dubiously.
"Don said he could do the process, but I need to go back to the fertility clinic to have some of my eggs harvested for fertilization." Sara said.
"I don't know if I like the idea of Don touching you." Raph said.
"He's the one that knows how to do more of this stuff than April does. And of course, my doctors wouldn't do any cloning that involves humans at all. Donny HAS to do it! Though you would be the one being the DNA donor. Your DNA is fertilizing my eggs." She said. "And together, they would be our babies!" She kissed him.
Raph thought it over a moment, then smiled.
"Alright, Sara. Don can do it, but I'm going to be there watching him do it."
"That's fine." She said. "I just need to wait two weeks. My time of the month is coming up soon and we need the opportune time to be able to harvest my eggs."
The next day, Sara made an appointment to have a talk with her doctor about having her eggs harvested.
…
Sara went to her doctor to discuss her wanting some of her eggs harvested for in vitro fertilization.
The doctor knew this had very big risks.
"Sara, harvesting your eggs has risks to both your health and fertility." She said. "You could just have sperm put in you for in vitro fertilization."
"Not this kind, Doctor." Sara said. "Another doctor is wanting to use my eggs to make a baby for someone else. I said yes. What do I have to do?"
"Ok. First, for a month, you would need to take a bunch of hormones to stimulate your ovaries to make a lot of eggs, and no sex, unless you want your husband to fertilize them himself. And then those eggs would not be viable for your purposes." Doc said.
"I know. I won't get pregnant that way. I can wait. This must be done, Doctor." Sara said.
"Then after a month, the next time it is time for you to ovulate, it could be painful for you. Your ovaries should produce many more eggs than normal. Because to make sure the eggs are fertilized properly, the doctor needing the eggs will need as many eggs as possible, as not all of the eggs may be usable."
"It will be fine."
The doc explained some more risks and all, but Sara was adamant in her decision.
The doctor gave her some hormones to start. She started taking them that night, and she explained everything to Raph and Don. Raph didn't understand most of it, but Don did. He was the one who was going to do the procedure.
"Why does this all have to be so complicated?" Raph asked.
"If we want a baby this way, it has to be done this way, Raph. Another month. Just wait." Sara said.
…
Over the next month, Sara's hormones increased. She wanted to make love a lot to Raph, and he was all for it, and they could because he could not get her pregnant.
When she ovulated, Sara did happen to be in a lot of pain. But that was when it was time for collection of her eggs too. She had to stay overnight in the fertility clinic.
The doctor did an ultrasound the next morning to see how many eggs were released. Twelve. That was a lot of eggs!
The doctor collected the eggs from her. It was painful, but she figured the pain would be worth it in the end if she was able to have a baby.
Then the eggs were put in a safety holder so they wouldn't die, and so the other doctor could use them.
Sara was grateful. Raph picked her up.
Sara gave the eggs to Don.
"We have the eggs, Donny." Sara said.
"Ok, thanks. And if we're going to do this, now it's Raph's turn to make his contribution." Don said.
"What are you going to do?" Raph asked.
"I'm going to take some skin samples. How many eggs are there?" Don asked.
"Twelve." Sara said.
"That gives me quite a few to work with."
Don stored the eggs safely, then began working on Raph.
"Isn't there be an easier way of collecting my DNA than scrapin' away my skin?" Raph snarled.
"Taking blood could be another way to do this Raph." Don said. "But skin samples are more ideal. You have it easy as compared to what Sara already went through, and what she is going to go through with carrying your child for 9 months."
Don had done extensive research into the procedure.
"Fine. Get it over with then." Raph growled. He was tolerant of the pain as Don took some samples.
Soon it was over.
Don told Sara and Raph to just relax now. Raph had many spots on his arms that were sore, but he would be fine. Now it was up to Don to fertilize the egg under the microscope before the implantation was to take place.
Under the microscope, he removed the nucleus of the one of Sara's eggs. Then, carefully, he put one of Raph's skin samples into the nucleus of the egg. Then he 'activated' it with some electricity. That's how it was first started.
He did it a few more times with four other eggs. Now they had to wait a week for the eggs to reach the blastocyst stage. Don had worked with up to 5 eggs.
…
A week later, Don looked at the eggs, and found that two out of the 3 had died. But the three other eggs were still good.
Don was very hesitant about putting the eggs into Sara himself. He had never done this type of procedure before. April came down to help him as she had been told about what was going on.
The whole family knew that this was a special way to make the baby Raph and Sara wanted so desperately to have.
Sara was covered up in the lower region, with April concentrating the ultrasound probe on her abdomen as Don began the delicate process of inserting the fertilized eggs. It showed Don he was doing it right.
Raph was in the room watching silently, squeezing Sara's hand in support. He wanted to play a part in this too, and he was to be the father, so he wanted to be there for Sara.
Soon, the eggs were implanted into Sara. Now all they could do was wait and see if any of the three fertilized eggs would develop.
Sara had only wanted one to start out, but two had already died. So they needed more than one egg put in her, so at the least, if 1 could make it, it would. Some more could die too.
Don would examine her in a few weeks.
Edited by Darkunderworld.
A few more reviews would be greatly appreciated.
And the research was done about the cloning to be able to describe what would happen, what to do to get the eggs and 'fertilizing' them.