Chapter 3: Discovery
He awoke groggily as the bedsprings creaked under the weight of the person springing off it. He sat up as Sara rushed into their bathroom and fell to her knees in front of the toilet. She retched so hard he thought she was going to throw up her stomach, not just its contents. "Sara!" he hit the floor running, grabbing her bathrobe on the way since she was shivering on the cold bathroom tile. She retched, coughed, and hacked for almost a half an hour, even after there was nothing left in her to throw up. She sat weakly on the floor beside the bathtub, gasping. "Are ya all right?" he asked as she wiped her mouth. She nodded weakly. He reached for a cup on the counter, splashed some water in it, and gave it to her to drink. She gulped it, trying to wash the taste of bile in her mouth, then dropped the cup as she started to retch again. Logan turned and ran out of their room, speeding down the hall.
Storm and Jean were walking down the stairs as he was running up them. "Jean," he gasped in relief, "where's Hank?"
"Still asleep, I think," Jean replied. "What's wrong?"
"Sara's throwin' up really bad," he said. "Did anyone else get sick from anythin' we ate last night?"
"Not that I know of," Jean said. "Come on. Let's go."
Sara was sitting on their bed when they came in. "I'm okay," she groaned. "Just now I've got a headache."
"What did you eat yesterday?"
"Just dinner," she said. "I had a small breakfast at the hotel, but I didn't eat much. I was too worried about finding Logan."
The two women exchanged glances, then Storm said, "Sara, how long have you been throwing up like this?"
Sara thought. "Come to think of it, since I woke up on Magneto's ship."
"Come on," Jean took one of her arms. "Let's get down to the medlab. I'll get Hank up."
Logan tried to follow them, but Jean closed the door firmly in his face and said, "We'll let you know."
He wandered disconsolately into the kitchen, where Gambit was making fried eggs Cajun style. "Logan, you want some o' dis?" he said. Then he saw the shorter man's worried expression. "What de matter, homme?"
Logan growled. "Women."
"Sara?" Gambit said. "She jus' got back, an' you two be fightin' again?"
"No," Logan shot Gambit a nasty look. "She was throwin' up, so I went ta fin' Hank. Jean an' Stormy went to see her, an' got all mysterious, an' took her to the infirmary. They won' lemme in ta see her."
Gambit grinned, which just annoyed Logan more. "It be woman's business, den," he smiled. "Let dem be, Logan. Rogue get like dat, sometime. Better to stay away till dey want ya ta know what be goin' on."
"Does everyone know what's goin' on 'cept me?" Logan growled to the ceiling as Gambit left holding his plate of eggs.
In the infirmary Sara was lying on a bed as Jean touched her slightly swollen abdomen. "Does this hurt?" the redhead asked.
"No," Sara said.
Storm handed Jean a needle. Sara grimaced. "Just a little blood, Sara," Jean said. "For a blood test. Come on, you're a doctor too." Sara grimaced as she felt the needle poke into her arm. She tried to calm her heaving stomach, but as soon as she saw her blood flowing into the tube Jean held, she gagged. Jean got the needle and tourniquet off her arm just in time before Sara ran into the bathroom and threw up again.
"Storm," Jean said quietly, and Storm went in to comfort Sara as Jean went to the lab table in the corner and did a few things to the blood sample.
When Sara came out, Jean was waiting for her with a peculiar expression on her face. "Sara, when did you have your last period?" she asked.
"I don't remember--" and she broke off, eyes wide. "You don't think--"
"Yes," Jean said, and held up the tube. "The blood test doesn't lie, Sara. Haven't you two been…umm…using…?"
Sara spluttered. "I've been taking my pills!" she yelped. Then she blinked, and a slow realization dawned on her face. "Except once, I forgot," she said. "Oh, my God. What do I tell Logan?"
Jean looked puzzled. "Sara, what are you worried about? Just tell him."
"I can't," she mumbled in anguish.
Jean blinked as a confused stream of mental images flowed into her mind. One glance at Storm, and she knew the other woman had gotten them too. "Sara, did that just come from you?"
"What?" Sara looked puzzled.
"You projected, Sara. Like a telepath. How did you do that?"
"I didn't," Sara looked confused.
Jean dropped her shields. "Sara, drop your shields and let me in," she commanded. Sara obeyed, and Jean slipped easily into the upper layer of her mind. And found her answer there. She broke the link, troubled. "Sara. You've acquired telepathy from the Metara while they were active in your body. They used your mind to communicate with us while they were in control, and your mind retained the knowledge of how to use telepathy. I've never seen anything like this before; I mean, I've heard of latent telepathy, but this is beyond anything I've ever seen." She said, "I'll inform Charles so we can start training you in the use of your new power."
"In the meantime, though, Sara, you haven't answered our question," Storm said. "Why are you so afraid? He's not going to kill you!"
Sara shook her head. "You don't understand," she whispered, getting up and pulling on her clothes. She pleaded with them, "Please don't tell anyone what happened. Let me break the news to him first." She was about to leave when Jean called her back. "Sara. Don't wait too long. You're already beginning to show a little right there," and she pointed to Sara's middle. Sara looked startled at her tummy, and then went out. Logan wasn't waiting for her, thankfully, and she went to their room, which was fortunately empty, grabbed her coat, and went outside.
Xavier found her there later. He sat beside there for a while, not speaking, watching the brightly-colored fall leaves dance in the breeze around them before he said, "Sara. Whatever it is you're worried about, please tell me. It can't be that bad."
She laughed bitterly, a harsh sound. "Yes it can."
He gave her his full attention. "Nothing can be that bad, Sara. What is it?"
She stared at the ground as she whispered , "I'm pregnant."
Xavier blinked. "Sara, that's wonderful!"
"No! It's not!" she got up and paced in agitation. "Look, Charles, it's not the first time I've been pregnant. I got pregnant with Richard's and my first child eight months after we were married. I was ecstatic. I wanted it, so much, but I knew he didn't. So I hid it from him. I thought if I waited to tell him about the child until later, then it would be too late for me to have an abortion. It wasn't until he started cutting back on my meals, saying I was too fat, that I told him. He was furious. Charles, he tied me down and hit me with a baseball bat, over and over, until I miscarried.
"It was the only time he ever had a doctor in to see me; he got scared when I bled for three days straight. He called a friend of his, a gynecologist, and told him to make sure I never had any more kids. So the doctor put a restraining collar around my neck for three weeks to keep me from healing myself, and waited for nature to take its course. When I did see another doctor two years later, after I left Richard, before I met Logan, he warned me not to get pregnant again. The scar tissue in my body wouldn't be able to stretch enough to carry a baby." She looked anguished. "I don't want to tell Logan. Because he loves me, and he'll love the child, and I don't want him to hate me because I have to get an abortion, Charles, it will kill me to have a child." She fell back on the bench, weeping bitterly, and Charles felt a burst of anger at the dead Senator Ryan. How could he have been so damn cruel to his wife?
"Sara," he said, gripping her shoulder gently, "Is it possible that Richard could have paid the second doctor to tell you not to have any more children?"
"I don't know, why?" she raised a tear-streaked face.
Xavier said determinedly, "I want you to go and see another doctor, get a second opinion. She'll tell you, honestly, whether you can or can't have children. Sara, please don't argue with me, I want to know for certain. And you should know too. Jean and Storm have one in town they go to. Ask them for the number, and go."
Sara bit her lip nervously as she waited in the waiting room to be called. She hated gynecologists' offices; they always brought up horrible memories. When she was finally called in, though, the woman was nothing like the horrible doctor Richard had brought to her all those years ago. Brisk and efficient, she was also kind and gentle. She kept up a steady stream of chatter about various topics, and set Sara at such ease that she barely felt the instruments sliding into her body for the exam. When she was done she left the room while Sara dressed, and came back in only when Sara was decent again.
"Yes, you're pregnant," she said, "and no, I don't see any reason why you shouldn't be able to carry a child full term. There is extensive scarring, but the surrounding tissue is still elastic enough that it shouldn't be a problem if it's monitored carefully enough. Whoever the doctor was that told you you couldn't have kids was an ass." She snorted.
"You mean…I can?"
Doctor Graham closed her file folder with a snap. "Yes," she said, smiling. "Now I want you to take this," and she scribbled something on a prescription pad, "up to the hospital and get a sonogram done. You're almost four months along; I'm surprised you didn't realize you were pregnant before now." She ripped out the paper and handed it to Sara, and began to scribble something else. "This, now, I want you to get filled. I want you to take it every evening before you go to bed. It will make you drowsy, so just go straight to sleep after you take it, and you'll wake up in the morning hungry. It'll stop you from throwing up."
Sara walked out of the office, feeling a bit stunned. In one moment her world had been turned upside down, and joy such as she'd never known handed to her. She nearly bounced out to where her car was and drove to the hospital.
"Hello, Dawn!" she greeted the nurse on duty in the EKG ward.
"Hey, Dr. Ryan!" Dawn smiled. "Come here to work?"
"Uh, no," she said. "I'm here as a patient. Dawn, I'm pregnant!"
"Wow! Congratulations!" Dawn squealed ecstatically. "Is the lucky guy the one with the bike?"
"Yeah," Sara blushed.
"Lucky, lucky girl," the nurse sighed. "Oh, I wish I could find me one like him! He doesn't happen to have a brother, does he?"
Sara had to laugh. "Unfortunately not," she said.
"Aw, darn," Dawn said in mock unhappiness. "Okay, then. Come on in."
Sara lay on the table, giggling as she felt the warm ultrasound gel being squirted onto her stomach. Then Dawn placed the sensor on her stomach and switched on the screen, and Sara stared as the gray mass began to move. "Is that the baby?" She asked, fascinated.
"Yep," Dawn said. "See that there? There's the baby's head." She put the sensor in a different spot. "There's the spine. And that's…"she paused. "Do you want to know if it's a boy or a girl?"
Sara blinked. "Uh, yes," she said.
"Then this one is a girl."
Sara's eyes filled with tears. "Oh God. Wow, I'm going to have a daughter!"
"And a son."
"What!?" Sara sat bolt upright, dislodging the sensor from her stomach. "I'm what? There's two in there?"
"Yep!" Dawn grinned from ear to ear. "You're the mama of twins."
Sara burst into tears.
She was still in a state of shock when she came home. She went up to Xavier's study and told him what had happened. Jean and Storm walked in in the middle of it and she hugged them. "Your doctor told me I can have kids!" she exulted. "And I went to the hospital to have a sonogram done. Jean, I'm having twins!"
"You're what?" Jean gasped. Storm was similarly stunned.
"Yes! Twins!" she was almost dancing in place, she was so pleased. "A boy and a girl. Oh gosh, I'm so happy!"
"So when are you going to tell Logan?"
"Right now!" She fairly ran out of the room, searching with her newfound telepathic sense for her beloved.
She found him at their favorite spot, by the lake on the bench. "Logan," she said quietly, sitting beside him. He turned to look at her, and she saw the hurt in his eyes.
"Sara, why didn'tcha tell me?" he said quietly, not looking at her. "It's my child too."
She stared at the ground, her eyes filling with tears as she felt the anguish pouring from him. She had hurt him terribly, and she hated Richard now with a passion, for making her so afraid to trust anyone she would hurt the one person she loved most in the world. "How did you know?" she said quietly.
"I heard you an' Jean talkin' in the medlab." He was quiet.
Sara stared out at the water, trying to find the courage to tell him what she had told Charles earlier. He sat there, not saying anything, waiting for her to speak first. "Logan," she whispered hesitantly, "This isn't the first time I've been pregnant. I got pregnant eight months after Richard and I got married, but he'd already told me he never wanted children. I didn't know what he would do if he found out. So I didn't tell him. I hid it from him until he told me I was getting fat and he told the house staff to make sure I only ate once a day. I told him I was pregnant." She swallowed hard. "He got mad, Logan. He tied me up in the room and he hit me with a baseball bat until I…"
She gulped back a sob and tried to keep her voice steady. "Until I miscarried. Then he called in a doctor friend of his to put a restraining collar on me until my body healed naturally, without my power. A doctor I went to see after I left him told me I shouldn't get pregnant again because if I did it would kill me. The scar tissue wouldn't stretch enough to allow a child to come to term." She swallowed again. "I didn't want to tell you because I thought my only option was to get an abortion. Charles told me to go and get a second opinion today."
Logan held her tight. He couldn't imagine how it must have felt, to have a child beaten to death inside you. "Sara, I'll be right there with you if you have to. I love you."
"But I don't have to!" She twisted in his arms to look at him. "I went to Jean and Storm's doctor today. She said as long as I—we—were careful, I shouldn't have a problem. And Logan, we're not having one, we're having two!"
