Disclaimer: None of the JAG characters belong to me, etc, etc, etc.....
A/N: Again, thanks to everyone for the reviews, the kind thoughts, well-wishes and enthusiasm with which you're reading my fic. It's been theraputic for me to write, which may sound silly, but I really feel like I know what Mac is going through. I know what it's like to be handed that diagnosis and told your chances aren't good, and I'm trying to bring that pain to life in this piece. I've got some overall ideas for upcoming chapters, but he more I write the more I find things changing as I go, so I can't begin to tell you where things might end up, much like in real-life.
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Chapter 4:
They sat in Dr. Kendall's office for what seemed like forever. He was running behind, but fortunately they'd both been able to clear their entire afternoon schedules, so no one was missing them at JAG. Nearly 2 hours past their appointment time, the doctor came in and apologized for the long wait.
"Let's see here…" he said as he flipped through Mac's chart. "Your first consultation was 3 months ago, and at that time I suggested that we hold off on any fertility testing and give you some time to try and conceive on your own, is that right?"
Mac answered him "yes, that's right".
The doctor continued, "obviously none of those attempts resulted in pregnancy or you wouldn't be back here, so now we need to talk about what comes next". Harm and Mac nodded their heads, their hearts aching at hearing things put so bluntly. They'd tried their best for 3 long months, and each month brought the same disappointment.
Dr. Kendall handed Mac a folder containing information about the different tests he wanted to run on each of them. "Understandably, we'll be doing a lot more to you, Sarah, than we will to Harm in the beginning. He only has 1 test to start with, and if it goes well that's probably all we'll need him to do". It didn't seem fair, but then nothing about infertility is fair, and it really did make sense that she needed more tests than he did. "We'll start out by getting a special x-ray of your tubes and uterus", said the doctor, "we'll run some more blood tests to check for hormonal imbalances, and we'll do an ultrasound just to see how things look at the outset. Does that sound OK?"
"Sure, whatever you need to do is fine" said Mac.
Turning to Harm, "your test is fairly simple", said the doctor, "I doubt we need to go into any real detail of what it involves, do we?"
Harm blushed just a bit and said "Um, no, I think I understand".
"Most guys would rather do a hundred other things than submit to this test" said Dr. Kendall, "but it's such a vital part of what we're working towards, and considering everything we make the woman endure, it's really nothing to complain about".
Harm agreed with all of that - he didn't want to do that test, but he didn't even think twice about it knowing the kinds of things Mac was facing.
"When can we get started on these tests?" Mac asked the doctor.
He said "we can draw your blood and do the ultrasound today, and we'll set a lab appointment for a couple days from now for the Commander's part of things, does that sound OK?"
"Sounds fine" said Mac.
"Great", Dr. Kendall replied, "if I can ask you to undress from the waist down and cover up with the sheet on the table, I'll be back in a couple minutes and we'll do the ultrasound". The doctor left the room, giving Harm and Mac a few minutes to talk while she got undressed. Sensing that Mac was nervous about all the testing and most immediately about the ultrasound, he went up behind her and gave her a big hug.
"This shouldn't be too bad, right" he said, referring to the ultrasound.
"I hope not, but we'll see what it shows before we decide how good or bad it is" said Mac.
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"Everything looks fine, Sarah, I don't see anything that concerns me" said Dr. Kendall as he took one last glance at everything with the ultrasound.
"Well, that's a plus" she said, "always nice to hear something good".
"You can get dressed, and I'll have a nurse come in and draw some blood. I want you to call my office when your next cycle starts so we can schedule the x-ray, and by the time we get that done we'll know the results of the blood tests and of the Commander's test and hopefully we can map out a plan from there".
Harm and Mac both thanked the doctor as he left the room, and Harm handed Mac her clothes.
"That wasn't too bad, was it?" he asked her as she got dressed.
"No, not really, I'm sure there will be far worse things than that" she said.
"I wish you didn't have to go through this, Mac, I really do" he said.
"I wish we didn't have to go through it" answered Mac, knowing that he wasn't going to let her do any of this alone.
"We'll make it through though", said Harm, "regardless of what happens, we'll make it through".
Chapter 5 will be up very soon.......