A Friendly Hand
By Didi
Disclaimers: I don't own any of the characters. John Wells and his friends do. Let's not get into the debate as to who owns the ideas and all that; cause let's face it, you'll lose. Enjoy the story anyways.
Summary: Friends and family... they always seem to show up at the most inopportune time.
Rating: PG-13
Author's Note: I'm so upset the Presidio Med had been taken off the air... again!!! (sigh) Hope you guys don't mind if I decide to play with the canon now some more, it's a consolation to having the show taken away from me.
Second Author's Note: To make up to the short chapter last time, I'm making this one a little longer. But there's still no talk of the baby though. Sorry.
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Chapter 17
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The resounding bang as the door slammed shut attested to Matt's rapidly descending mood as he stormed back into the townhouse. It took a considerable amount of control for Dr. Slingerland not to go for his only brother's throat as he walked back into his house to see that the corporate playboy was helping himself to the fine French Brandy from the crystal decanter his mother had given him when she visited last. "A gentleman always has a glass of port after dinner. It is tradition," he quoted smoothly as he threw his jacket into the armchair nearest to the dining table.
"Ah dear Mamma," George grinned as the crystals clang together. "What a wonderful woman she is."
"A wise one too," Matt replied as he grabbed the filled glass from George's hand and tossed half of it back without a blink. "Though she should have drown you in the bathtub at birth and save the lot of us some headaches." He finally remembered why he moved across the Atlantic Ocean. "What did you do this time?"
"Why do you always assume that it was I that has committed the wrong?" George asked, pouring himself a stiff drink. "It could very well be the other way around, you know?"
"Because you are usually in the wrong, Brother. Stop dancing around the subject and get on with it, I don't have the time nor patience for you skirting about." The liquor burned its way down his throat and settled warmly in his empty stomach. He sincerely hoped that Jules was having dinner soon. Perhaps he should have made her eat first before sending her off. Glancing at his watch, he made a note to himself about calling her in half an hour. Even with the worse cabbie in the world, it would still take them that long to get across town.
George pouted as only a Slingerland man could. "Alice and I were going through rather rough patch."
Matt nodded knowingly. It was a story he's heard too many times now. "And you decided to seek comfort in the arms of you loyal, and probably blonde, secretary."
"Executive Assistant," George corrected.
"Whatever," rolling his eyes at him. Settling down comfortably, "What happened? Alice walked in on the two of you as your assistant was comforting you in a manner that only a woman can?"
George had the grace to flush. "Something like that."
"Déjà vu?" Matt asked with a wholly un-amused look.
He didn't respond. He didn't need to.
Sighing cause it never seem to change with his older brother, Matt crossed his legs on the coffee table and indicated the chair across from him. "Sit down. Tell me what you and Alice have been arguing about this time." The two years that George has been married to the voluptuous Alice Witchell had been wrought with one bad patch after another from the get go. "Long hours? Frequent week-long trips? The expense accounts?" Not everyone was as tolerable of that kind of hectic schedule as his incurably merry mum.
George's shoulder's slumped with exhaustion and defeat. "The woman wants some tots around."
Spewing wine all over his coffee table, Matt stared at his brother for an incredulous moment. "Are you serious?"
"Yes, I'm serious." George gave him a good frown. "Stay single Matt. Marriage makes for putting some awful ideas into women's heads." He sipped the wine slowly. "Swore she didn't want children when we first met. Ruins the figure and all that rut." He frowned his head and cocked his head to the side for a moment remembering a recent dinner with their father. "By the by, got an earful of your adventure here. Father said that you lent your swimmers to a colleague." His grin reflected his thoughts on the subject. "Mother thinks it an excellent method of insuring the next generation of Slingerlands. Father is throwing a fit over the legal, not to mention financial, ramifications of this little favor."
"Of course dear old dad would be worried about the money first," Matt muttered without any heat. Having gone a few rounds with him over this subject, it was hardly surprising that it would be discussed with the rest of the family.
"So who is the lonely broad in need of your help?"
"Don't call her that," Matt warned with enough intention to have George pause.
"Oh, this is serious," he tilted his head and stared at his brother for a moment. "Who is she and what kind of favor did she do for you to have you risking the wrath of father?"
"Unlike you," Matt grinned, "I don't live in fear of Father getting into a snit and firing my arse. And for you information, she didn't do me any favors for..." Then he remembered Debra. "Well, she did a favor in return anyways."
"So you volunteered your services," George chuckled softly. "I hope she made it worth your while."
"Promised to grant me three wises and fulfill all my dreams and aspirations," Matt replied dryly. "Is there a point to all this?"
"No, not really. Just thought I would bring it up," sipping wine with a little more ease. "What's happening now anyways?"
"What?"
"The old girl," he replied. "What did she do with your little men?"
Matt was tempted to throw something heavy, heard and breakable at his brother's thick skull. "She used them to fertilized some eggs. She had ovarian cancer and underwent a rather trying and frightful experience. She's single and not seeing anyone. She was afraid that she wouldn't be able to have her own biological child. Seemed a very logical and sensible way to solve her problems."
"So naturally you lent her a friendly hand out of the goodness of your heart."
The way George said it curled the hairs at the nape of his neck. "What's your point?"
"Please," he waved the innocent act away. "I know you Matt, you don't so something like this out of the goodness of your heart." Setting the crystal glass down, he rested his elbows on his knees and leaned forward. "What does she look like?"
The temptation was too great this time. Reach over the glass and oak coffee table, Matt slapped his brother upside the head. "Grow up, George." Then got up to prepare some food. The alcohol was not sitting well in his empty stomach. "I thought you were here to talk about you and Alice."
"We can talk about you and what's her name as well." Getting to his feet as well, George watched, rather impressed really, as Matt began to prepare a salad. "When did you learn to cook?"
Matt slanted him a frown. "This is hardly gourmet cuisine. Can't you do anything as simple as..." Then he remembered the cook and maids that were always about in their childhood. Knowing George, he probably carried out that particular tradition.
"I thought you have a housekeeper," snatching his hand back as Matt slapped at it when he tried to steal a slice of carrot that was currently being chopped into neat little strips.
"She cleans, not cook." Matt replied, dropping some onions and looking about for that jar of olive that he knew was still about yesterday. "Besides, I'm hardly here enough for me to need a cook."
"Right," took the bowels passed to him without a word. "I forget who I'm speaking to. The man who practically lives in a hospital."
"A physician's career is a lifetime commitment. Unlike you, the bottom line for me isn't whether or not someone gets a paid vacation to the Bahamas. It's whether a patient gets to walk out of a hospital alive and well."
"Of course," George muttered. "But good god man, couldn't you have picked something a little less consuming. All work and no play make you a very dull boy."
"Not according to the rumor gill," Matt muttered rather disgruntled by that fact.
"What was that?"
"Nothing." Carrying the large salad bowel to the table. Glancing briefly at the clock, she noted that it would another ten minutes before he even dared to attempt to call Jules. "So Alice wants kids. I take it you are oppose to the idea?"
"Not so much as oppose the idea..." George waffled for a moment.
"Not something you even remotely want to consider, is it?" Matt asked with a shake of his head. He knew his brother too well. "Did you tell Alice that?"
"Called me a selfish bastard," he replied with a sigh. "I don't see why. I don't think I've ever expressed any desire to be walking about with an infant in my arms. Told her right from the beginning that I wasn't interested in procreation. Don't see why she was so shocked at the idea that I don't want any now."
Matt sat down and frowned at him. "And your 'assistant' agreed with you, didn't she? That you were in the rights because you had told her up front that you didn't want babies tying you down. She probably even told you that she herself wasn't interested in having any children. By the way, what is your secretary's name?"
"Executive Assistant," George corrected once more. "And her name is Kelly. And yes, for your information, she has no desire to have toddlers tugging at her ankles."
"Of course," dividing the greens between them. He reframed from reminding his brother that Alice had said the exact same thing while she was consoling him over his arguments with wife #3, Tiffany. And if memory served him correctly, it was over the exact same problem. Sometimes, he felt like the elder brother rather than the other way around. "Tell me something George, did you and Kelly become better friends 'after' Alice voiced her desire to have little ones of her own?"
Flushing with embarrassment, he replied defensively. "I don't see how that would have any relevance to my ..."
"In other words, yes," Matt shook his head and speared a cherry tomato with his fork. Jules had bought them cause she liked the shape even though she hated tomatoes. "Do you want to stay married to Alice?"
George sat his fork down slowly, his eyes troubled.
"Do you even want to work at saving this marriage?" Matt asked, feeling his impatience grow. "Is it even important to you? Is Alice?"
He looked up and stared at those slant gray eyes. "I don't mean to hurt her."
"You never mean to hurt anyone of them," Matt replied without any anger. It was pointless to argue with him over this. George can't change the way he was, not when it comes to women. "I'll call James and see if he's available to take your case. I suggest that you tell Mother and Father what happened before Alice does. Lord knows what their reaction will be."
George nodded his head slowly, already dreading the conversation. While his mother was going to be easy through the phone, where he didn't have to face her looks of disappointment once more, his father would no doubt let him have it. Of course, true to form, he would probably offer to get him help on divorce settlements, as he always does. "Thanks."
"Yeah." Matt glanced at the clock again. He'd give her another five minutes to get into the apartment and relax a moment before he called.
"What about you, Matt?"
"What about me?"
"What are you going to do about Mum and Dad's view of your helping your friend?"
"What do you mean?" To hell with the five minutes.
"I know a couple of really good lawyers that can help you. If not to keep you from ever having any financial responsibility to a child, they can maybe get you legal rights to the donated sperms so that she cannot use them." When it was apparent that his brother was not only not in agreement but he was actively frowning at him. "You're not going to do anything to relieve Dad's mind any, are you?"
"Why should I?" Matt asked getting up and reached for the phone. "I did it willingly with the knowledge that she may one day have my child. Whether she choices to allow me to support her, which I would be more than willing to do, it would be completely up to her. I'm not going to avoid from my parental duties."
"Even if you had no say in whether or not there is to be child?" his eyes clearly spelling out his disbelief over his brother's naiveté.
"You make unexpected pregnancies sound like such a bad thing."
"It is." George practically shouted.
"Why?" he looked George over his shoulder, hands pausing over the dials. "Besides, that's no longer a consideration. She's already pregnant."
"WHAT???"
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Shutting the door with her heel, Jules sighed before she shrugged her coat off and hung it on the coat rack. She wasn't even sure if she had anything eatable in her refrigerator for dinner but she wasn't about to ask the cab driver to stop somewhere for food. Seeing the way Slingerland was behaving, she wouldn't put it pass him to send out an APB on her if she didn't answer the phone on the first ring if he did a spot check or something.
"Oh well, there's always can soup," though the stuff made her sick to her stomach. She literally lived on that stuff through college and med. school.
Slipping her schools off, she padded into the living room and collapsed on the couch. Staring off into space, she recapped the event of her day in her mind. She thought nothing could top the nuclear bomb Slingerland dropped on her this morning... but boy when you're wrong...
Hands slipping protectively over her flat belly, Jules wondered for a moment about the life within. Would it be a girl or a boy? Will he or she have her father's eyes and her mother's nose? Will they be tall like Matt? Or petite like herself? Would they inherit her tendency for freckles? Or will they have the perfect complexion that Slingerland managed to draw from his illustrious gene pool?
But more importantly...Will the baby be healthy?
God, how many cases does she handle a day that involves sick children that were born with their defects? She sees these parents suffer because their little ones suffer and wonder if she could hold up the way she sees these parents doing.
Taking a deep breath, "I'm getting way ahead of myself here." Nodding her head determinedly, she headed for the kitchen. "Tea instead of coffee, fruit instead of sugar." She made a face at the half rotten apples in the fruit bowl. "Okay, maybe tomorrow."
Ring, ring...
She almost grinned. She knew he couldn't resist. Picking up the phone on the wall, she poured herself juice. "You know, someone could get the wrong idea and think you care if you go on this way."
There was silence at on the other end. "Jules?"
Definitely not Slingerland. "Oh... hi Rae."
"Hello to you too," she grinned from her end of the phone. "Slingerland ushered you out of there so quickly that I didn't really have a chance to talk to you after work. How are you doing?"
"Like you don't know already," cradling the phone between her shoulder and ear, she found a can opener in the drawers. Chicken noodle looked good.
Rae shifted the phone from one ear to the other as she tossed pre-prepared stir-fry into the saucepan. "I spoke with Harriet before I left. She stayed to deliver two. Told me about the high risks you're facing." It wasn't until she had she was turning the rice that she realized that she had prepare too much. Enough for two... "Have you and Slingerland talked about it yet?"
She stirred the thick soup with one hand and shifted the telephone with the other. "Could you hold on a second while I grab another phone. This one just isn't working for me while I try to make dinner."
"Go," she ordered. "God knows we don't need you skipping anymore meals. Especially not now."
Grinning, Jules turned down the fire and went into her bedroom to get the hands-free phone her brother had given her last winter. Josh gets lazier and lazier with each passing year, even a simple phone call has to be done with the utmost ease, though at the moment she was glad for the little handy device. Hooking the headpiece over her head, "Okay, I'm back. And to answer the previous question, just so you don't think that I'm avoiding it, we were going to tonight but a bit of emergency forced us to put it off for another day."
"What kind of an emergency?"
"The kind that involved his brother flying half way across the globe to show up at his door unannounced," she grinned just remembering Matt's reaction to that little bit of eccentricity. God she loved to befuddle look on him. It only made him more endearing. "I thought it would be better to leave the two of them alone to work out whatever was the problem."
"Good idea," Rae sighed as she grabbed Tupperware out of the cupboard. Looks like she is going to have stir-fry for lunch tomorrow. "There's nothing that brings out the worse in men than siblings."
"Yeah, I kind of got the feeling. Matt was less than thrill with the idea that he was going to end up spending the night with his brother rather than me," she laughed and turned off the stove.
"Getting back to the point," searching the drawers for a fork, "Have you gotten all the statistics on high risk pregnancies?"
"I'm a pediatrician and a neonatal specialist, Rae. I wrote some of those statistics," she appeared to be lacking in soupspoons. Funny how she never realized that. Matt had a wonderful full set of utensils, from salad forks to dessertspoons. Oh well, teaspoon will have to do. "I know what I'm facing right now. I'm in the sixty-eight percentile, not great but still do able."
"Does Matt know all the numbers?"
"No," adding pepper to the soup before she thought better of it. "He wasn't too happy to hear them either. Thirty-three percent of those with high-risk pregnancies don't make it through the first trimester. Forty-five percent of those don't make it pass the second. Ten to twelve percent become premies and end up with birth defects including weak organs in their bodies. Six percent of those infants don't make it pass their first month, even with our fabulous neonatal unit. Yeah... Matt was thrilled to hear about those."
Rae paused in placing the saucepan into the sink. "He's really scared, isn't he?"
"Yeah," not noticing the soft curiosity in her friend's tone. "But you know what scares him even worse?"
Rae raised a brow. "What?"
"The thought that I might end this pregnancy," and burned her tongue on the heat infused spoon.
There was a long pause as Rae's hand stilled on its search for a fork. "Are you?"
"Am I what?" wondering why she ever thought can soup was good.
"Keeping all your options open."
"You mean am I giving abortion some serious thoughts cause of the high risk?" She paused, really thinking about it... for two seconds. "No."
"So..."
"So, my options now are how many different methods I can take to prevent anything from happening to me and my baby. First of all, I think Harriet will agree with me on this, I should cut back on my hours. Matt's always complains about it anyways, though I don't see him working any less than me. Second, I think I need a couple more tests to see how I'm doing physically and what I can do to improve my health. God knows I haven't been too great with it lately... though I have been having very good breakfasts," thanks to Matt's insistence the first meal of the day every day.
"And you'll have and Harriet here to make sure you get regular check ups."
"Every month on the hour, by the hour," she grinned and glanced at the clock. It was still early yet. "Hey, I think I'm going to pop a video in and spend the night in front of the tub and vege. Want to join me? Or do you have other plans?"
"Plans?" Rae's fork paused halfway to her mouth.
"Yeah," grinning as she turned the faucet on to rinse her bowl. "With a certain tall, dark and Greek surgeon?"
"Shut up and stop listening to hospital rumors," Rae admonish, wondering if the heat at her cheeks were from the hot soup or not.
"Why? Isn't that what they're there for?"
"JULES!" laughing.
The clicking interrupted Keating as she was about to sass her friend some more. "Hold on second, that's probably Matt calling to check in on me."
"Sure," and smiled into her dinner.
Pressing the flash button, "Hello?"
"Well it's about time. I thought I was going to have to call the state troopers out on you."
For a moment, Jules Keating's brilliant mind blanked out. "Josh?"
"I'm sorry, were you expecting someone else?" Joshua Keating replied with an almost visible grin. "How is my favorite little sister?"
"You mean your only sister." Jules grinned happily. With everything else going on in her life, she's hardly had time to get in contact with anyone in her family. Even the family gathering at Thanksgiving had been a hurried event where she flew in, had dinner then flew out again that same night, coming back in time to catch three NICU cases. "Hang on, I've got Rae on the other line. I'll just be a moment."
"How is the fine Dr. Brennan?" Josh asked slyly.
"Way out of your league, Big Brother," Jules laughed then clicked over. "Hey, Rae?"
"Still here," she answered as she rinsed the dishes before popping them into the dishwasher for a full load.
"I've gotta go. My brother Josh is on the other line."
"Okay," Rae replied amiably. "You going to tell him about the baby?"
"Tell him, the biggest blabber mouth in the family, before I tell my parents? Yeah, and I'm going to go pierce my belly and tattoo 'stupid' on my forehead."
Rae laughed. "Have fun talking to your brother. I'll see you tomorrow morning."
"Bye," then clicked over. "Josh, you still there?"
"Would I hung up on you?" he asked innocently.
"You have before."
"A mistake on my part." Settling into his favorite ratty chair, and on the phone with his favorite family member, Josh was a very satisfied young man. "So how are you kiddo? Haven't heard from you in a while and you know how mom is about us checking in on one another."
"Did she tell you to check up on me?"
"She tells everyone to check up on you," he laughed drinking beer from a long neck bottle. "You're her baby. She will forever be worried about you."
"Not true," Jules reminded him as she dropped popcorn into her popper. "She actually said that she would stop worrying about me the day I get married and have a guy around to worry about me."
"So get married and get her off your back."
"Spoken like a man," Jules put the kettle on for tea, wondering if she had any left from when Matt was showing her the proper way to brew English breakfast tea. "You know what? Why don't I make you a deal? I'll get married when you do."
"I'd make an old maid out of ya," Josh laughed and took a drag of beer again. "Serious though, Jules. You should get married. Let a man take care of you for a while so you don't have to work so hard. Have yourself a horde of kids so I can spoil them and make myself their favorite uncle."
"You know, I think you just set the women's movement back by about 50 years," she complained half-heartedly. Walking over to the thermostat, she adjusted the temperature to the room. It was getting much more chilly than expected.
"Seriously though, why not let some man take care of you, love you and protect you? I don't see anything wrong with that?"
"I don't see anything wrong with having someone to love and marry either, I just don't want to be marrying for the wrong reasons... like being taken care of," she poured out popcorn into a large bowl and added butter to the hot snack.
"All right, all right," Josh muttered. "It was just a suggestion."
"A bad one," she replied relentlessly. Hum... Romantic comedy or goof-ball? "So what are you up tonight? No fine beauty in your arms?"
"Hey, sisters are not supposed to know about things like that." Josh grumbled, more than a little embarrassed every time Jules makes any mention of his sex life. It's strange how he's never quite outgrown that little oddity.
"Why not?" Jules asked, fingering the "Love in the Afternoon" DVD Slingerland had given her last week. Since she was in need of happily-ever-after, she decided it was a good one to see. "And why aren't you dating anyone steadily? One would think that with your looks, charms and fat bank account, you'd have popped out a few grandchildren for Mom by now, legitimate or otherwise."
"Hey, hey, hey..." wondering if he was blushing. "I will have you know that I am very careful about fathering children."
"You don't have any."
"That's right. I am very careful about such things. I don't want my kids to grown up without one parent or the other, especially if that missing parent is me. I think our loving parents have taught us better." He studied the new projection screen TV he picked up last week. With no one in his life to occupy the hours between sleep and work, he wasted time by indulging in expensive and elaborate toys for his state of the art home. Definitely need at least a seven-piece speaker system to do the new TV justice. "Since Jeff and I aren't planning on taking the big plunge and Jerry has sworn off having any more kids, it's up to you to provide Mom that big brawling family she's always wanted."
"Right, leave it to the woman with one ovary to have kids," she snorted her amusement as Maurice Chevalier walked onto the screen. The man could probably read a cookbook and still make it look fascinating and deliriously funny. There was a pause on the other end of the phone. "Josh?" It wasn't like her brother not to have a quirky comeback for one of her sarcastic comments.
"How are you feeling, kid?" the gravity in his tone had Jules mentally kicking herself in the rear.
"I'm doing fine, doing great in fact. Not a trace of cancerous cell in my body now and I'm well on my way to training for the LA marathon."
"Jules..."
"Josh..."
"We scared the hell out of us." His voice raised a notch as he remembered listening to the panicked phone call from their mother at midnight when Jules finally got around to informing anyone in the family what she was going through. "Didn't help that we were the last people on earth to know about it either!"
"I didn't want to worry you guys," she replied with sigh.
"Not good enough," he snapped back. "You are my sister and I have the right to know when you're in trouble or when you need me."
"There was nothing you, Jeff, Jerry, or Mom and Dad could have done."
"We could have been there for you so you didn't have to do it alone."
"I wasn't alone!!!" the argument was pointless and endless, they've only rehash this a hundred times now. "Can we please not do this again?"
For a moment, Josh was tempted to say no, just to be contrary. But he didn't like reliving those hair-raising moments as he sat in the airport, waiting for the next flight into San Francisco and seeing his sister's headstone in his mind's eye. "Okay, let's not talk about it anymore."
"Good."
"Did you get your eggs?"
"What?" the turn of subjects made no sense to her.
"Your eggs? You said something about getting eggs for the future or something like that. I wasn't paying much attention when you were talking about it. I was watching a game at the time, I think."
"Great, a momentous decision in my life and my brother pays more attention to his football game than to me."
"It was tennis and it was a good game. Stop avoiding the subject. Did you get your eggs or not?"
"I got my eggs," she answered exasperated. "And for your information, the conversation we were having, though I was apparently the only one involved in it, was over what I should do about the insemination part of it."
"The what?"
She grinned as Gary Cooper is befuddled by the ever-lovely Audrey Hepburn. She could only wish to imitate Hepburn's elegance. "Insemination. Fertilization."
"Thank you, Dr. Ruth. I do know what it means." The impatience was beginning to come through his voice. "Care to tell me why..."
"Cause the eggs have to be fertilized before they can be frozen. The thawing process destroys unfertilized eggs. The one-sided conversation we had was about how to go about finding decent sperms for my eggs. You suggested going to a bar."
Josh stared at the screen in front of him blankly. "I did?"
"Yeah, but in your defense, I actually asked how I could go about finding myself a guy."
"And I told you to go to a bar?" he asked, incredulously. No sister of his, especially not his only sister, is going to be some bait for the horn-dogs that prowl the bar scenes. "No, no, no kid, you cannot go to a bar looking for the future father of your little eggs. We cannot have that. Mom would absolutely have a cow if she were to know that you are frequenting bars and looking for..."
"Stop, stop, stop, you idiot." She was laughing hard enough to hurt herself now. "I'm not going to go to some bar and jump the first clean guy with a semi decent degree. Besides, the eggs need to be frozen, meaning that they have been inseminated outside the body. No sex!"
Josh could feel himself turning red. There was something a little disturbing about talking to your little sister about sex. "Okay, okay, I got it. Lay off."
"Put your mind to rest, Joshua. I've got a sperm donor and everything went off without a hitch."
"Wait, you did it already?"
"It's been done for like three months now." Rolling her eyes, she munched on more popcorn. "Hey, I was thinking that for Christmas, we can..."
"Whoa there... hold on now. Let my mind catch up with your mouth. You froze your eggs?"
"Yeah."
"Three months ago."
"Yeah."
"And your health right now is..."
She pouted for a moment, not liking the fact that she was going to have to lie. "I'm in good health. Iron levels are a little low, but nothing red meat and spinach can't fix in a jiffy." She grinned at the outrageous scene on the TV. Slingerland would enjoy this. "Look, I'm doing good. I'm not getting married. And I think that we should all chip in and buy Mom and Dad an Alaskan cruise for Christmas."
"Why Alaska? It's cold and there's like big fishes out there," he replied spontaneously then shook his head. "Back up, Juliet."
"Julia," she corrected immediately. "And Mom's been talking about wanting to do that cruise for some time now. And they're not big fishes, they're call whales."
"Only cause Dad was too chicken when the time came to name you to tell Mom that he wanted to call you Juliet. And I know they're call whales, but they're still big and they live in the water."
Jules winced. "Josh..."
"Who's the donor?"
"What?"
"Who donated the sperms for your eggs?"
"No one you know."
"Really?"
"Yes, why would I lie to you?" outraged by the very thought.
"Cause you know you can since I'm a couple of thousand miles away." He ran a quick hand through his hair. "Was it through a sperm bank?"
"That route kind of went dry."
"What?"
"Don't ask, not a good experience."
"So it's someone you know?"
Jules touched her stomach for a moment, thinking of the life within, and the man that was responsible. It is going to be interesting to see what kind of reaction her family was going to have... Actually, she could probably already guess what kind of reaction her brothers are going to have. Well, at least they didn't do it with the frozen eggs. "Yeah, it's someone I know."
Josh cursed, silently and violently, and resisted the urge to put his fist through the nearest wall. "Is he going to cause trouble?"
"What?" startled by the question.
"Is the guy going to cause problems in the future? I'm sure that you and him have an agreement of some sort but you know how people can be. Did you get a lawyer for this? I mean did you guys have to sign any..."
"Josh, wait a minute. What are you saying?" not quite believing that she was having this conversation with him.
"Did he sign away his rights and all that?" he asked feeling unease grow when Jules made no reply. "Did you at least get an oral agreement that he wasn't going to try to claim any rights to the child when and should you have any by him?"
"What are you, my lawyer?"
"Jule!"
"No, no, and no, okay? There wasn't anything formal or informal about the arrangement." Not that it would be any good now that that route no longer needed to be looked at... assuming that this pregnancy went off without a hitch and there aren't any... no, no, she wasn't even going to think that way. "Look Josh, I don't want to go into this with you okay. Can we please keep in mind that this is merely a backup plan and that..."
"Jules, you cannot be too careful when it comes to [click] of thing. What if he decides that [click] to be a father to a child that he [click] rights to? What the hell is that [click] noise?"
"Watch your language Josh and it's known in the sane circles as call-waiting. Hold on," and clicked over, glad to get away from the tirade of questions from his favorite brother. If this was the reaction she was going to get about eggs in storage, she really has to rethink telling the family about the baby fathered by the same guy. "Hello?"
"Hello, luv. Did you have dinner?" Matt shielded away at and covered his other ear. The need to throw something at George was becoming overpowering.
"Yeah, I just finished and was sitting down to relax a little before... Why is your brother cursing like a drunken sailor?"
Moving away as George let loose a string of adjectives that he knew wasn't learned at Eaton or Oxford, Matt grimaced and wondered at his own idiocy. "I told him about the pregnancy. You can guess what his reaction is."
Jules raised a brow as she listened to a rather unfound estimation of her morals. "Well, he certainly has a high opinion of me."
Turning his head, "Will you kindly shut your bloody trap!?!" then turned back to the phone. "I apologize for his uncivilized behavior. The family has spent some time now trying to correct the mistake, but the bastard has the luck of the devil and managed to escape every conceivable death trap we've set."
Laughing, Jules cradled the phone and ignored the fact that her brother was on the other line. "Everything going okay with his problem?"
"Looks like he will be headed for divorce once more," he sighed and ignored George as the man instantly started in about telling strangers about personal problems. "With his track record and my father's non-existence in my childhood years, they wonder why I've avoided the parson's trap." His brows came together as the truth of the statement hit him harder than intended.
The silence that followed had Jules clearing her throat uncomfortably. "Well, I'll leave you to your brother and his many woes. I've got my own brotherly problems to deal with on the other line. Unless you called for another reason other than to check up on me and made sure I had eaten?"
"Jules, I..." then stopped himself. He didn't know what to say to make it any better without lying to her, an act he simply will not do. "No, I just wanted to know that you were all right."
"I am," she assured him softly, suddenly feeling tired and down. "I'm a big girl Matt. I can take care of myself, been doing it for many years now." And will be doing it for many more to come... with or without him.
"Right," unsure what to do now. The tone in her voice was more than evidence enough that he put his foot in it. "Jules, about what I said..."
"Matt, I really have to get back to Josh," she interrupted, not wanting to get into it right now. "He's not known for his patience and I really don't want to deal with him in a worse mood than he is right now."
"All right then," he rubbed his forehead and sighed. "Sleep tight, I'll see you tomorrow morning."
"Sure," finger already reaching for the flash button.
"Jules, would you like me to come pick up you tomorrow morning?" he asked tentatively and with hope.
She hesitated. It was on the tip of her tongue to say yes. "No, thank you though. It'd be wasting your time since it's so out of your way. I can take the trolley and get there well before you have to come in."
Disappointed, he rallied his spirit best he could. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah, Matt. I'm sure."
"All right then," nodding to himself. "I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Yeah. Good night."
"Good night, Jules."
Clicking over, Jules was suddenly hit with the enormity of what has happened. "Josh?"
"Still here, though lord knows why I put up with you always putting me on hold."
Her throat tightened on her. "Josh?"
Hand depressing the power button on his television, he leaned forward in his chair, hand on the earpiece of the head set he had managed to put on while on hold. "Jules? Hey, what happened, baby sister?"
She reached for the remote control to the DVD player. Turning off the happy train station scene, she pressed a hand to her mouth, as if to hold her fears in. "Josh, I need to tell Mom and Dad something and I'm not sure how."
"What? Who was on the other line, Jules?"
"Um... Josh, don't be mad okay?"
"Sure," holding his own fears in. "What happened?"
"It's a long story," she managed to laugh pathetically. "A really complicated story."
"Well," leaning back in his chair, "I don't have any plans for the evening other than to sit here and listen to my baby sister tell me what's going on in her life."
Jules shook her head and sighed. "Well, it kind of all began when someone offered to do me a really huge favor..."
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
To be continued... obviously. I'm not so evil that I would just leave off here.
I would love some feed back on what you think of it so far.
By Didi
Disclaimers: I don't own any of the characters. John Wells and his friends do. Let's not get into the debate as to who owns the ideas and all that; cause let's face it, you'll lose. Enjoy the story anyways.
Summary: Friends and family... they always seem to show up at the most inopportune time.
Rating: PG-13
Author's Note: I'm so upset the Presidio Med had been taken off the air... again!!! (sigh) Hope you guys don't mind if I decide to play with the canon now some more, it's a consolation to having the show taken away from me.
Second Author's Note: To make up to the short chapter last time, I'm making this one a little longer. But there's still no talk of the baby though. Sorry.
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Chapter 17
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The resounding bang as the door slammed shut attested to Matt's rapidly descending mood as he stormed back into the townhouse. It took a considerable amount of control for Dr. Slingerland not to go for his only brother's throat as he walked back into his house to see that the corporate playboy was helping himself to the fine French Brandy from the crystal decanter his mother had given him when she visited last. "A gentleman always has a glass of port after dinner. It is tradition," he quoted smoothly as he threw his jacket into the armchair nearest to the dining table.
"Ah dear Mamma," George grinned as the crystals clang together. "What a wonderful woman she is."
"A wise one too," Matt replied as he grabbed the filled glass from George's hand and tossed half of it back without a blink. "Though she should have drown you in the bathtub at birth and save the lot of us some headaches." He finally remembered why he moved across the Atlantic Ocean. "What did you do this time?"
"Why do you always assume that it was I that has committed the wrong?" George asked, pouring himself a stiff drink. "It could very well be the other way around, you know?"
"Because you are usually in the wrong, Brother. Stop dancing around the subject and get on with it, I don't have the time nor patience for you skirting about." The liquor burned its way down his throat and settled warmly in his empty stomach. He sincerely hoped that Jules was having dinner soon. Perhaps he should have made her eat first before sending her off. Glancing at his watch, he made a note to himself about calling her in half an hour. Even with the worse cabbie in the world, it would still take them that long to get across town.
George pouted as only a Slingerland man could. "Alice and I were going through rather rough patch."
Matt nodded knowingly. It was a story he's heard too many times now. "And you decided to seek comfort in the arms of you loyal, and probably blonde, secretary."
"Executive Assistant," George corrected.
"Whatever," rolling his eyes at him. Settling down comfortably, "What happened? Alice walked in on the two of you as your assistant was comforting you in a manner that only a woman can?"
George had the grace to flush. "Something like that."
"Déjà vu?" Matt asked with a wholly un-amused look.
He didn't respond. He didn't need to.
Sighing cause it never seem to change with his older brother, Matt crossed his legs on the coffee table and indicated the chair across from him. "Sit down. Tell me what you and Alice have been arguing about this time." The two years that George has been married to the voluptuous Alice Witchell had been wrought with one bad patch after another from the get go. "Long hours? Frequent week-long trips? The expense accounts?" Not everyone was as tolerable of that kind of hectic schedule as his incurably merry mum.
George's shoulder's slumped with exhaustion and defeat. "The woman wants some tots around."
Spewing wine all over his coffee table, Matt stared at his brother for an incredulous moment. "Are you serious?"
"Yes, I'm serious." George gave him a good frown. "Stay single Matt. Marriage makes for putting some awful ideas into women's heads." He sipped the wine slowly. "Swore she didn't want children when we first met. Ruins the figure and all that rut." He frowned his head and cocked his head to the side for a moment remembering a recent dinner with their father. "By the by, got an earful of your adventure here. Father said that you lent your swimmers to a colleague." His grin reflected his thoughts on the subject. "Mother thinks it an excellent method of insuring the next generation of Slingerlands. Father is throwing a fit over the legal, not to mention financial, ramifications of this little favor."
"Of course dear old dad would be worried about the money first," Matt muttered without any heat. Having gone a few rounds with him over this subject, it was hardly surprising that it would be discussed with the rest of the family.
"So who is the lonely broad in need of your help?"
"Don't call her that," Matt warned with enough intention to have George pause.
"Oh, this is serious," he tilted his head and stared at his brother for a moment. "Who is she and what kind of favor did she do for you to have you risking the wrath of father?"
"Unlike you," Matt grinned, "I don't live in fear of Father getting into a snit and firing my arse. And for you information, she didn't do me any favors for..." Then he remembered Debra. "Well, she did a favor in return anyways."
"So you volunteered your services," George chuckled softly. "I hope she made it worth your while."
"Promised to grant me three wises and fulfill all my dreams and aspirations," Matt replied dryly. "Is there a point to all this?"
"No, not really. Just thought I would bring it up," sipping wine with a little more ease. "What's happening now anyways?"
"What?"
"The old girl," he replied. "What did she do with your little men?"
Matt was tempted to throw something heavy, heard and breakable at his brother's thick skull. "She used them to fertilized some eggs. She had ovarian cancer and underwent a rather trying and frightful experience. She's single and not seeing anyone. She was afraid that she wouldn't be able to have her own biological child. Seemed a very logical and sensible way to solve her problems."
"So naturally you lent her a friendly hand out of the goodness of your heart."
The way George said it curled the hairs at the nape of his neck. "What's your point?"
"Please," he waved the innocent act away. "I know you Matt, you don't so something like this out of the goodness of your heart." Setting the crystal glass down, he rested his elbows on his knees and leaned forward. "What does she look like?"
The temptation was too great this time. Reach over the glass and oak coffee table, Matt slapped his brother upside the head. "Grow up, George." Then got up to prepare some food. The alcohol was not sitting well in his empty stomach. "I thought you were here to talk about you and Alice."
"We can talk about you and what's her name as well." Getting to his feet as well, George watched, rather impressed really, as Matt began to prepare a salad. "When did you learn to cook?"
Matt slanted him a frown. "This is hardly gourmet cuisine. Can't you do anything as simple as..." Then he remembered the cook and maids that were always about in their childhood. Knowing George, he probably carried out that particular tradition.
"I thought you have a housekeeper," snatching his hand back as Matt slapped at it when he tried to steal a slice of carrot that was currently being chopped into neat little strips.
"She cleans, not cook." Matt replied, dropping some onions and looking about for that jar of olive that he knew was still about yesterday. "Besides, I'm hardly here enough for me to need a cook."
"Right," took the bowels passed to him without a word. "I forget who I'm speaking to. The man who practically lives in a hospital."
"A physician's career is a lifetime commitment. Unlike you, the bottom line for me isn't whether or not someone gets a paid vacation to the Bahamas. It's whether a patient gets to walk out of a hospital alive and well."
"Of course," George muttered. "But good god man, couldn't you have picked something a little less consuming. All work and no play make you a very dull boy."
"Not according to the rumor gill," Matt muttered rather disgruntled by that fact.
"What was that?"
"Nothing." Carrying the large salad bowel to the table. Glancing briefly at the clock, she noted that it would another ten minutes before he even dared to attempt to call Jules. "So Alice wants kids. I take it you are oppose to the idea?"
"Not so much as oppose the idea..." George waffled for a moment.
"Not something you even remotely want to consider, is it?" Matt asked with a shake of his head. He knew his brother too well. "Did you tell Alice that?"
"Called me a selfish bastard," he replied with a sigh. "I don't see why. I don't think I've ever expressed any desire to be walking about with an infant in my arms. Told her right from the beginning that I wasn't interested in procreation. Don't see why she was so shocked at the idea that I don't want any now."
Matt sat down and frowned at him. "And your 'assistant' agreed with you, didn't she? That you were in the rights because you had told her up front that you didn't want babies tying you down. She probably even told you that she herself wasn't interested in having any children. By the way, what is your secretary's name?"
"Executive Assistant," George corrected once more. "And her name is Kelly. And yes, for your information, she has no desire to have toddlers tugging at her ankles."
"Of course," dividing the greens between them. He reframed from reminding his brother that Alice had said the exact same thing while she was consoling him over his arguments with wife #3, Tiffany. And if memory served him correctly, it was over the exact same problem. Sometimes, he felt like the elder brother rather than the other way around. "Tell me something George, did you and Kelly become better friends 'after' Alice voiced her desire to have little ones of her own?"
Flushing with embarrassment, he replied defensively. "I don't see how that would have any relevance to my ..."
"In other words, yes," Matt shook his head and speared a cherry tomato with his fork. Jules had bought them cause she liked the shape even though she hated tomatoes. "Do you want to stay married to Alice?"
George sat his fork down slowly, his eyes troubled.
"Do you even want to work at saving this marriage?" Matt asked, feeling his impatience grow. "Is it even important to you? Is Alice?"
He looked up and stared at those slant gray eyes. "I don't mean to hurt her."
"You never mean to hurt anyone of them," Matt replied without any anger. It was pointless to argue with him over this. George can't change the way he was, not when it comes to women. "I'll call James and see if he's available to take your case. I suggest that you tell Mother and Father what happened before Alice does. Lord knows what their reaction will be."
George nodded his head slowly, already dreading the conversation. While his mother was going to be easy through the phone, where he didn't have to face her looks of disappointment once more, his father would no doubt let him have it. Of course, true to form, he would probably offer to get him help on divorce settlements, as he always does. "Thanks."
"Yeah." Matt glanced at the clock again. He'd give her another five minutes to get into the apartment and relax a moment before he called.
"What about you, Matt?"
"What about me?"
"What are you going to do about Mum and Dad's view of your helping your friend?"
"What do you mean?" To hell with the five minutes.
"I know a couple of really good lawyers that can help you. If not to keep you from ever having any financial responsibility to a child, they can maybe get you legal rights to the donated sperms so that she cannot use them." When it was apparent that his brother was not only not in agreement but he was actively frowning at him. "You're not going to do anything to relieve Dad's mind any, are you?"
"Why should I?" Matt asked getting up and reached for the phone. "I did it willingly with the knowledge that she may one day have my child. Whether she choices to allow me to support her, which I would be more than willing to do, it would be completely up to her. I'm not going to avoid from my parental duties."
"Even if you had no say in whether or not there is to be child?" his eyes clearly spelling out his disbelief over his brother's naiveté.
"You make unexpected pregnancies sound like such a bad thing."
"It is." George practically shouted.
"Why?" he looked George over his shoulder, hands pausing over the dials. "Besides, that's no longer a consideration. She's already pregnant."
"WHAT???"
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
Shutting the door with her heel, Jules sighed before she shrugged her coat off and hung it on the coat rack. She wasn't even sure if she had anything eatable in her refrigerator for dinner but she wasn't about to ask the cab driver to stop somewhere for food. Seeing the way Slingerland was behaving, she wouldn't put it pass him to send out an APB on her if she didn't answer the phone on the first ring if he did a spot check or something.
"Oh well, there's always can soup," though the stuff made her sick to her stomach. She literally lived on that stuff through college and med. school.
Slipping her schools off, she padded into the living room and collapsed on the couch. Staring off into space, she recapped the event of her day in her mind. She thought nothing could top the nuclear bomb Slingerland dropped on her this morning... but boy when you're wrong...
Hands slipping protectively over her flat belly, Jules wondered for a moment about the life within. Would it be a girl or a boy? Will he or she have her father's eyes and her mother's nose? Will they be tall like Matt? Or petite like herself? Would they inherit her tendency for freckles? Or will they have the perfect complexion that Slingerland managed to draw from his illustrious gene pool?
But more importantly...Will the baby be healthy?
God, how many cases does she handle a day that involves sick children that were born with their defects? She sees these parents suffer because their little ones suffer and wonder if she could hold up the way she sees these parents doing.
Taking a deep breath, "I'm getting way ahead of myself here." Nodding her head determinedly, she headed for the kitchen. "Tea instead of coffee, fruit instead of sugar." She made a face at the half rotten apples in the fruit bowl. "Okay, maybe tomorrow."
Ring, ring...
She almost grinned. She knew he couldn't resist. Picking up the phone on the wall, she poured herself juice. "You know, someone could get the wrong idea and think you care if you go on this way."
There was silence at on the other end. "Jules?"
Definitely not Slingerland. "Oh... hi Rae."
"Hello to you too," she grinned from her end of the phone. "Slingerland ushered you out of there so quickly that I didn't really have a chance to talk to you after work. How are you doing?"
"Like you don't know already," cradling the phone between her shoulder and ear, she found a can opener in the drawers. Chicken noodle looked good.
Rae shifted the phone from one ear to the other as she tossed pre-prepared stir-fry into the saucepan. "I spoke with Harriet before I left. She stayed to deliver two. Told me about the high risks you're facing." It wasn't until she had she was turning the rice that she realized that she had prepare too much. Enough for two... "Have you and Slingerland talked about it yet?"
She stirred the thick soup with one hand and shifted the telephone with the other. "Could you hold on a second while I grab another phone. This one just isn't working for me while I try to make dinner."
"Go," she ordered. "God knows we don't need you skipping anymore meals. Especially not now."
Grinning, Jules turned down the fire and went into her bedroom to get the hands-free phone her brother had given her last winter. Josh gets lazier and lazier with each passing year, even a simple phone call has to be done with the utmost ease, though at the moment she was glad for the little handy device. Hooking the headpiece over her head, "Okay, I'm back. And to answer the previous question, just so you don't think that I'm avoiding it, we were going to tonight but a bit of emergency forced us to put it off for another day."
"What kind of an emergency?"
"The kind that involved his brother flying half way across the globe to show up at his door unannounced," she grinned just remembering Matt's reaction to that little bit of eccentricity. God she loved to befuddle look on him. It only made him more endearing. "I thought it would be better to leave the two of them alone to work out whatever was the problem."
"Good idea," Rae sighed as she grabbed Tupperware out of the cupboard. Looks like she is going to have stir-fry for lunch tomorrow. "There's nothing that brings out the worse in men than siblings."
"Yeah, I kind of got the feeling. Matt was less than thrill with the idea that he was going to end up spending the night with his brother rather than me," she laughed and turned off the stove.
"Getting back to the point," searching the drawers for a fork, "Have you gotten all the statistics on high risk pregnancies?"
"I'm a pediatrician and a neonatal specialist, Rae. I wrote some of those statistics," she appeared to be lacking in soupspoons. Funny how she never realized that. Matt had a wonderful full set of utensils, from salad forks to dessertspoons. Oh well, teaspoon will have to do. "I know what I'm facing right now. I'm in the sixty-eight percentile, not great but still do able."
"Does Matt know all the numbers?"
"No," adding pepper to the soup before she thought better of it. "He wasn't too happy to hear them either. Thirty-three percent of those with high-risk pregnancies don't make it through the first trimester. Forty-five percent of those don't make it pass the second. Ten to twelve percent become premies and end up with birth defects including weak organs in their bodies. Six percent of those infants don't make it pass their first month, even with our fabulous neonatal unit. Yeah... Matt was thrilled to hear about those."
Rae paused in placing the saucepan into the sink. "He's really scared, isn't he?"
"Yeah," not noticing the soft curiosity in her friend's tone. "But you know what scares him even worse?"
Rae raised a brow. "What?"
"The thought that I might end this pregnancy," and burned her tongue on the heat infused spoon.
There was a long pause as Rae's hand stilled on its search for a fork. "Are you?"
"Am I what?" wondering why she ever thought can soup was good.
"Keeping all your options open."
"You mean am I giving abortion some serious thoughts cause of the high risk?" She paused, really thinking about it... for two seconds. "No."
"So..."
"So, my options now are how many different methods I can take to prevent anything from happening to me and my baby. First of all, I think Harriet will agree with me on this, I should cut back on my hours. Matt's always complains about it anyways, though I don't see him working any less than me. Second, I think I need a couple more tests to see how I'm doing physically and what I can do to improve my health. God knows I haven't been too great with it lately... though I have been having very good breakfasts," thanks to Matt's insistence the first meal of the day every day.
"And you'll have and Harriet here to make sure you get regular check ups."
"Every month on the hour, by the hour," she grinned and glanced at the clock. It was still early yet. "Hey, I think I'm going to pop a video in and spend the night in front of the tub and vege. Want to join me? Or do you have other plans?"
"Plans?" Rae's fork paused halfway to her mouth.
"Yeah," grinning as she turned the faucet on to rinse her bowl. "With a certain tall, dark and Greek surgeon?"
"Shut up and stop listening to hospital rumors," Rae admonish, wondering if the heat at her cheeks were from the hot soup or not.
"Why? Isn't that what they're there for?"
"JULES!" laughing.
The clicking interrupted Keating as she was about to sass her friend some more. "Hold on second, that's probably Matt calling to check in on me."
"Sure," and smiled into her dinner.
Pressing the flash button, "Hello?"
"Well it's about time. I thought I was going to have to call the state troopers out on you."
For a moment, Jules Keating's brilliant mind blanked out. "Josh?"
"I'm sorry, were you expecting someone else?" Joshua Keating replied with an almost visible grin. "How is my favorite little sister?"
"You mean your only sister." Jules grinned happily. With everything else going on in her life, she's hardly had time to get in contact with anyone in her family. Even the family gathering at Thanksgiving had been a hurried event where she flew in, had dinner then flew out again that same night, coming back in time to catch three NICU cases. "Hang on, I've got Rae on the other line. I'll just be a moment."
"How is the fine Dr. Brennan?" Josh asked slyly.
"Way out of your league, Big Brother," Jules laughed then clicked over. "Hey, Rae?"
"Still here," she answered as she rinsed the dishes before popping them into the dishwasher for a full load.
"I've gotta go. My brother Josh is on the other line."
"Okay," Rae replied amiably. "You going to tell him about the baby?"
"Tell him, the biggest blabber mouth in the family, before I tell my parents? Yeah, and I'm going to go pierce my belly and tattoo 'stupid' on my forehead."
Rae laughed. "Have fun talking to your brother. I'll see you tomorrow morning."
"Bye," then clicked over. "Josh, you still there?"
"Would I hung up on you?" he asked innocently.
"You have before."
"A mistake on my part." Settling into his favorite ratty chair, and on the phone with his favorite family member, Josh was a very satisfied young man. "So how are you kiddo? Haven't heard from you in a while and you know how mom is about us checking in on one another."
"Did she tell you to check up on me?"
"She tells everyone to check up on you," he laughed drinking beer from a long neck bottle. "You're her baby. She will forever be worried about you."
"Not true," Jules reminded him as she dropped popcorn into her popper. "She actually said that she would stop worrying about me the day I get married and have a guy around to worry about me."
"So get married and get her off your back."
"Spoken like a man," Jules put the kettle on for tea, wondering if she had any left from when Matt was showing her the proper way to brew English breakfast tea. "You know what? Why don't I make you a deal? I'll get married when you do."
"I'd make an old maid out of ya," Josh laughed and took a drag of beer again. "Serious though, Jules. You should get married. Let a man take care of you for a while so you don't have to work so hard. Have yourself a horde of kids so I can spoil them and make myself their favorite uncle."
"You know, I think you just set the women's movement back by about 50 years," she complained half-heartedly. Walking over to the thermostat, she adjusted the temperature to the room. It was getting much more chilly than expected.
"Seriously though, why not let some man take care of you, love you and protect you? I don't see anything wrong with that?"
"I don't see anything wrong with having someone to love and marry either, I just don't want to be marrying for the wrong reasons... like being taken care of," she poured out popcorn into a large bowl and added butter to the hot snack.
"All right, all right," Josh muttered. "It was just a suggestion."
"A bad one," she replied relentlessly. Hum... Romantic comedy or goof-ball? "So what are you up tonight? No fine beauty in your arms?"
"Hey, sisters are not supposed to know about things like that." Josh grumbled, more than a little embarrassed every time Jules makes any mention of his sex life. It's strange how he's never quite outgrown that little oddity.
"Why not?" Jules asked, fingering the "Love in the Afternoon" DVD Slingerland had given her last week. Since she was in need of happily-ever-after, she decided it was a good one to see. "And why aren't you dating anyone steadily? One would think that with your looks, charms and fat bank account, you'd have popped out a few grandchildren for Mom by now, legitimate or otherwise."
"Hey, hey, hey..." wondering if he was blushing. "I will have you know that I am very careful about fathering children."
"You don't have any."
"That's right. I am very careful about such things. I don't want my kids to grown up without one parent or the other, especially if that missing parent is me. I think our loving parents have taught us better." He studied the new projection screen TV he picked up last week. With no one in his life to occupy the hours between sleep and work, he wasted time by indulging in expensive and elaborate toys for his state of the art home. Definitely need at least a seven-piece speaker system to do the new TV justice. "Since Jeff and I aren't planning on taking the big plunge and Jerry has sworn off having any more kids, it's up to you to provide Mom that big brawling family she's always wanted."
"Right, leave it to the woman with one ovary to have kids," she snorted her amusement as Maurice Chevalier walked onto the screen. The man could probably read a cookbook and still make it look fascinating and deliriously funny. There was a pause on the other end of the phone. "Josh?" It wasn't like her brother not to have a quirky comeback for one of her sarcastic comments.
"How are you feeling, kid?" the gravity in his tone had Jules mentally kicking herself in the rear.
"I'm doing fine, doing great in fact. Not a trace of cancerous cell in my body now and I'm well on my way to training for the LA marathon."
"Jules..."
"Josh..."
"We scared the hell out of us." His voice raised a notch as he remembered listening to the panicked phone call from their mother at midnight when Jules finally got around to informing anyone in the family what she was going through. "Didn't help that we were the last people on earth to know about it either!"
"I didn't want to worry you guys," she replied with sigh.
"Not good enough," he snapped back. "You are my sister and I have the right to know when you're in trouble or when you need me."
"There was nothing you, Jeff, Jerry, or Mom and Dad could have done."
"We could have been there for you so you didn't have to do it alone."
"I wasn't alone!!!" the argument was pointless and endless, they've only rehash this a hundred times now. "Can we please not do this again?"
For a moment, Josh was tempted to say no, just to be contrary. But he didn't like reliving those hair-raising moments as he sat in the airport, waiting for the next flight into San Francisco and seeing his sister's headstone in his mind's eye. "Okay, let's not talk about it anymore."
"Good."
"Did you get your eggs?"
"What?" the turn of subjects made no sense to her.
"Your eggs? You said something about getting eggs for the future or something like that. I wasn't paying much attention when you were talking about it. I was watching a game at the time, I think."
"Great, a momentous decision in my life and my brother pays more attention to his football game than to me."
"It was tennis and it was a good game. Stop avoiding the subject. Did you get your eggs or not?"
"I got my eggs," she answered exasperated. "And for your information, the conversation we were having, though I was apparently the only one involved in it, was over what I should do about the insemination part of it."
"The what?"
She grinned as Gary Cooper is befuddled by the ever-lovely Audrey Hepburn. She could only wish to imitate Hepburn's elegance. "Insemination. Fertilization."
"Thank you, Dr. Ruth. I do know what it means." The impatience was beginning to come through his voice. "Care to tell me why..."
"Cause the eggs have to be fertilized before they can be frozen. The thawing process destroys unfertilized eggs. The one-sided conversation we had was about how to go about finding decent sperms for my eggs. You suggested going to a bar."
Josh stared at the screen in front of him blankly. "I did?"
"Yeah, but in your defense, I actually asked how I could go about finding myself a guy."
"And I told you to go to a bar?" he asked, incredulously. No sister of his, especially not his only sister, is going to be some bait for the horn-dogs that prowl the bar scenes. "No, no, no kid, you cannot go to a bar looking for the future father of your little eggs. We cannot have that. Mom would absolutely have a cow if she were to know that you are frequenting bars and looking for..."
"Stop, stop, stop, you idiot." She was laughing hard enough to hurt herself now. "I'm not going to go to some bar and jump the first clean guy with a semi decent degree. Besides, the eggs need to be frozen, meaning that they have been inseminated outside the body. No sex!"
Josh could feel himself turning red. There was something a little disturbing about talking to your little sister about sex. "Okay, okay, I got it. Lay off."
"Put your mind to rest, Joshua. I've got a sperm donor and everything went off without a hitch."
"Wait, you did it already?"
"It's been done for like three months now." Rolling her eyes, she munched on more popcorn. "Hey, I was thinking that for Christmas, we can..."
"Whoa there... hold on now. Let my mind catch up with your mouth. You froze your eggs?"
"Yeah."
"Three months ago."
"Yeah."
"And your health right now is..."
She pouted for a moment, not liking the fact that she was going to have to lie. "I'm in good health. Iron levels are a little low, but nothing red meat and spinach can't fix in a jiffy." She grinned at the outrageous scene on the TV. Slingerland would enjoy this. "Look, I'm doing good. I'm not getting married. And I think that we should all chip in and buy Mom and Dad an Alaskan cruise for Christmas."
"Why Alaska? It's cold and there's like big fishes out there," he replied spontaneously then shook his head. "Back up, Juliet."
"Julia," she corrected immediately. "And Mom's been talking about wanting to do that cruise for some time now. And they're not big fishes, they're call whales."
"Only cause Dad was too chicken when the time came to name you to tell Mom that he wanted to call you Juliet. And I know they're call whales, but they're still big and they live in the water."
Jules winced. "Josh..."
"Who's the donor?"
"What?"
"Who donated the sperms for your eggs?"
"No one you know."
"Really?"
"Yes, why would I lie to you?" outraged by the very thought.
"Cause you know you can since I'm a couple of thousand miles away." He ran a quick hand through his hair. "Was it through a sperm bank?"
"That route kind of went dry."
"What?"
"Don't ask, not a good experience."
"So it's someone you know?"
Jules touched her stomach for a moment, thinking of the life within, and the man that was responsible. It is going to be interesting to see what kind of reaction her family was going to have... Actually, she could probably already guess what kind of reaction her brothers are going to have. Well, at least they didn't do it with the frozen eggs. "Yeah, it's someone I know."
Josh cursed, silently and violently, and resisted the urge to put his fist through the nearest wall. "Is he going to cause trouble?"
"What?" startled by the question.
"Is the guy going to cause problems in the future? I'm sure that you and him have an agreement of some sort but you know how people can be. Did you get a lawyer for this? I mean did you guys have to sign any..."
"Josh, wait a minute. What are you saying?" not quite believing that she was having this conversation with him.
"Did he sign away his rights and all that?" he asked feeling unease grow when Jules made no reply. "Did you at least get an oral agreement that he wasn't going to try to claim any rights to the child when and should you have any by him?"
"What are you, my lawyer?"
"Jule!"
"No, no, and no, okay? There wasn't anything formal or informal about the arrangement." Not that it would be any good now that that route no longer needed to be looked at... assuming that this pregnancy went off without a hitch and there aren't any... no, no, she wasn't even going to think that way. "Look Josh, I don't want to go into this with you okay. Can we please keep in mind that this is merely a backup plan and that..."
"Jules, you cannot be too careful when it comes to [click] of thing. What if he decides that [click] to be a father to a child that he [click] rights to? What the hell is that [click] noise?"
"Watch your language Josh and it's known in the sane circles as call-waiting. Hold on," and clicked over, glad to get away from the tirade of questions from his favorite brother. If this was the reaction she was going to get about eggs in storage, she really has to rethink telling the family about the baby fathered by the same guy. "Hello?"
"Hello, luv. Did you have dinner?" Matt shielded away at and covered his other ear. The need to throw something at George was becoming overpowering.
"Yeah, I just finished and was sitting down to relax a little before... Why is your brother cursing like a drunken sailor?"
Moving away as George let loose a string of adjectives that he knew wasn't learned at Eaton or Oxford, Matt grimaced and wondered at his own idiocy. "I told him about the pregnancy. You can guess what his reaction is."
Jules raised a brow as she listened to a rather unfound estimation of her morals. "Well, he certainly has a high opinion of me."
Turning his head, "Will you kindly shut your bloody trap!?!" then turned back to the phone. "I apologize for his uncivilized behavior. The family has spent some time now trying to correct the mistake, but the bastard has the luck of the devil and managed to escape every conceivable death trap we've set."
Laughing, Jules cradled the phone and ignored the fact that her brother was on the other line. "Everything going okay with his problem?"
"Looks like he will be headed for divorce once more," he sighed and ignored George as the man instantly started in about telling strangers about personal problems. "With his track record and my father's non-existence in my childhood years, they wonder why I've avoided the parson's trap." His brows came together as the truth of the statement hit him harder than intended.
The silence that followed had Jules clearing her throat uncomfortably. "Well, I'll leave you to your brother and his many woes. I've got my own brotherly problems to deal with on the other line. Unless you called for another reason other than to check up on me and made sure I had eaten?"
"Jules, I..." then stopped himself. He didn't know what to say to make it any better without lying to her, an act he simply will not do. "No, I just wanted to know that you were all right."
"I am," she assured him softly, suddenly feeling tired and down. "I'm a big girl Matt. I can take care of myself, been doing it for many years now." And will be doing it for many more to come... with or without him.
"Right," unsure what to do now. The tone in her voice was more than evidence enough that he put his foot in it. "Jules, about what I said..."
"Matt, I really have to get back to Josh," she interrupted, not wanting to get into it right now. "He's not known for his patience and I really don't want to deal with him in a worse mood than he is right now."
"All right then," he rubbed his forehead and sighed. "Sleep tight, I'll see you tomorrow morning."
"Sure," finger already reaching for the flash button.
"Jules, would you like me to come pick up you tomorrow morning?" he asked tentatively and with hope.
She hesitated. It was on the tip of her tongue to say yes. "No, thank you though. It'd be wasting your time since it's so out of your way. I can take the trolley and get there well before you have to come in."
Disappointed, he rallied his spirit best he could. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah, Matt. I'm sure."
"All right then," nodding to himself. "I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Yeah. Good night."
"Good night, Jules."
Clicking over, Jules was suddenly hit with the enormity of what has happened. "Josh?"
"Still here, though lord knows why I put up with you always putting me on hold."
Her throat tightened on her. "Josh?"
Hand depressing the power button on his television, he leaned forward in his chair, hand on the earpiece of the head set he had managed to put on while on hold. "Jules? Hey, what happened, baby sister?"
She reached for the remote control to the DVD player. Turning off the happy train station scene, she pressed a hand to her mouth, as if to hold her fears in. "Josh, I need to tell Mom and Dad something and I'm not sure how."
"What? Who was on the other line, Jules?"
"Um... Josh, don't be mad okay?"
"Sure," holding his own fears in. "What happened?"
"It's a long story," she managed to laugh pathetically. "A really complicated story."
"Well," leaning back in his chair, "I don't have any plans for the evening other than to sit here and listen to my baby sister tell me what's going on in her life."
Jules shook her head and sighed. "Well, it kind of all began when someone offered to do me a really huge favor..."
*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*
To be continued... obviously. I'm not so evil that I would just leave off here.
I would love some feed back on what you think of it so far.