Chapter Six:

Yugi felt his heart plummet and rise to his throat at the same time. The words, much like the test, seemed surreal, impossible, and yet, despite that, instinctively he knew it was true. The sinking feeling told him so. Anna had seen ti and confirmed it. He was pregnant.

The world seemed to narrow down and focus only on the formless gray blob on the screen of the ultrasound machine. A mass that moved faintly, but without definable purpose. Yugi wasn't sure if the movement was Anna's hand moving the wand, or the faint susurrations of his abdomen as his diaphragm pulled air into his lungs.

The mass suddenly disappeared as Anna removed the wand. Almost automatically she turned the machine off though her eyes never left Yugi's face. She had a hard, calculating expression hers as she searched his. Yugi couldn't speak. His mouth was dry and his tongue unresponsive.

"How did you do it?" Anna asked suddenly.

Yugi managed to get his tongue unglued. "Wh-What?"

"The joke."

"What?" Yugi repeated.

Anna fixed him with a penetrating stare. "Is Kentaro in on it? I don't know why he'd do this… or how… but it's not funny!"

"No, it's not," Yugi whispered. He looked at the dark monitor again and pressed his hand over his stomach, ignoring the slimy lubricant.

"You're serious, aren't you?" Anna said in a different tone. "Oh, my gods, you're really serious!"

She shocked Yugi by leaning forward and grabbing his crotch. Yugi yelped and nearly fell off the table. Anna jerked her hand back and whitened. Yugi, clutching the edges of the exam table, pressed back against the backrest, stared at her.

"What the hell was that?"

"I-I thought-I-Oh, gods, you're really-" Anna looked sick. She stood up so fast that she knocked over her stool. "What the hell is going on here?"

She headed for the door. Desperate, Yugi grabbed her wrist.

"No, please, don't tell anyone!"

Anna, pulled up short, looked down at him. Yugi held her wrist with both hands now, looking up in her eyes. "Please," he whispered. "Please, don't tell anyone, do you know what will happen to me if you do?"

"What?"

Not expecting that answer, Yugi stumbled over his own. "I… Well, the movies… Won't the government come and take me somewhere?"

Anna started laughing, a little hysterically, but Yugi held on to her wrist, his desperation growing. She stopped laughing abruptly. "I don't know," she said.

"Please," Yugi repeated. He felt very near tears again, sick to death with fear and disbelief. "Please don't.'

Anna continued to stare at him. "How did this happen?"

"I don't know!" Yugi cried. "I didn't know- I mean, I wasn't sure- And then on the monitor…"

Yugi's stomach, whether responding to his inner turmoil or just being mean to him, suddenly heaved. Yugi released Anna's arm, rolled off the exam table, and threw up in the trash can in the corner of the room. Clutching the sides of the metal wastebasket, coughing, he heaved again. Then, throat and abdominals aching, he slumped back against the wall.

"Here."

Startled, Yugi saw that Anna was holding a small, paper Dixie cup of water. He took it and rinsed his mouth, having no choice but to spit into the wastebasket. Still slumped on his butt against the wall, oblivious to the fact that he wore only boxers and a paper gown hardly better than a large bib, Yugi tried to wrap his head around the situation completely. What was he going to do? If Anna walked out of here and told Kuribayashi or anyone else, the news would surely spread. And Yugi wasn't sure how much stock to put behind the idea of being hauled off for examining by the government.

Anna squatted on her haunches in front of him, wrapping her arms around her bent knees, and stared at him.

"Morning sickness?" she asked, her voice sounding like she was trying to be off-handed.

"I guess," Yugi said, aware of how hoarse and hollow his voice sounded.

"Kentaro said you were coming to him with nausea, but weight gain despite throwing up a lot, fatigue… Have you been having any mood swings?"

Yugi nodded weakly.

"How did this happen?" she asked again.

"I don't know," Yugi repeated. He shivered and drew his legs up and wrapped his arms around them, hugging himself despite his complaining stomach. "I… When all this started happening, I went to one of those online diagnosing sites, you know, those ones that…?" Anna nodded and Yugi continued. "I put in what I was experiencing, and it… it said I was pregnant. I laughed, of course, I thought it was crazy, but when everything kept happening and I started gaining weight, I… I went and bought a pregnancy test."

"You did?"

Yugi blushed, despite the situation. "I know it was stupid. But-"

"Apparently not so stupid," Anna muttered. "Go on."

"It said positive."

"But you told Kentaro you wanted an X-ray."

"I didn't believe it at first," Yugi admitted. "I thought I was crazy for even getting it in the first place. He's the one who suggested gallstones and an ultrasound, and I just jumped on that as being really what was happening to me."

"So, you don't know how this happened?"

"No! I mean, how could I? It's-It's crazy."

Anna was silent for a long moment. Too long, for Yugi started to get nervous again.

"You aren't going to tell anyone, are you?"

"I don't know what to do," Anna admitted. "A positive pregnancy test in a man usually means-"

"Prostate cancer, I know. I looked it up."

"Except it obviously isn't." Anna raised her head, then suddenly straightened to her feet. "Get back on the table. This is impossible. I need to look again."

Yugi hesitated, then slowly climbed to his feet. He climbed back up on to the exam table. Anna set her stool upright, flicking on the ultrasound machine as she did so, and sat down, reaching over and flipping Yugi's gown up with doctorial detachment, though it peeled off his gel-slimed stomach with an unpleasant sensation. Anna picked up the wand and applied more gel to Yugi's abdomen. As she did so, she poked him lightly with the end of the wand.

"You have a bump," she said, again sounding like she was struggling to keep herself from losing it.

"I know," Yugi responded in the exact same tone.

Anna's eyes raised to his briefly before she set the bottle of gel down and put the wand back into place. The gray nothingness returned to the monitor and she turned her attention to it, running the wand along Yugi's lower belly. She stopped again as the shapeless gray mass returned.

"It's there," she said after a long pause.

Yugi groaned and let his head thunk back against the headrest. He closed his eyes tightly and gritted his teeth, struggling to not cry. What was he going to do?

"Kentaro might be able-"

"No!" Yugi cried, raising his eyes and opening his eyes. "Please, don't tell anyone."

"But, Yugi, I don't know what to do."

"Me either," Yugi said desperately. "But-" He broke off, unsure how to finish the sentence. Tears stung his eyes.

Anna studied his face. At last she said, "If I don't tell him, what do you think you're going to do?"

"I don't know!"

"If this really is a baby… Yugi, it's going to keep growing."

"I know."

"And you're not equipped to have one."

"I know!" Then, remembering the terrible fear he'd had in the hallway at the mansion, he asked shakily, "Where is it?"

"Where is what?"

"The baby! Where is it… inside?"

Anna stared at him again, then looked at the monitor. She reached out with her other hand and pressed her first two fingers against Yugi's abdomen, just below his bellybutton. "Here. About where it should be in a woman."

Heart pounding, Yugi licked his lips and tried again. "I meant… Where is it… How is it in there? If… If I don't have a uterus."

She looked at him again. Apparently seeing the nearly frantic expression on his face, she looked at the monitor again and said, "I… I think it's ectopic."

"What does that mean?"

"An ectopic pregnancy is where the egg doesn't make it all the way down into the uterus after fertilization to attach to the uterine lining. The egg instead attaches to the wall of the fallopian tube and begins to grow there."

"How can it do that?"

"It just happens sometimes."

"And in me…?"

Anna hesitated. "I think… it's in your abdominal cavity. That can happen sometimes, too, even in women. No one knows how for sure, just that it does sometimes. It attaches to another organ, and if it can get sufficient blood supply, it can continue developing. Yours appears to have… to have done that. It's here, in your abdominal cavity, attached to your liver."

"How?"

"How do I know?" Anna raised the wand and waved it erratically. "How do I know how any of this is happening? I'm just telling you what it looks like."

A knock on the door of the room made Yugi's heart stop completely. Anna looked up as Kuribayashi opened the door and stuck his head inside.

"Is everything okay?" he asked. "You've been in here a long time."

Yugi looked at Anna, his skin cold with fear. She glanced at him for a second before speaking to Kuribayashi.

"Just making extra sure of myself. I don't see any gallstones, Doctor. Or kidney stones. I don't think it's going to be that simple."

Yugi stared at her, hardly daring to believe it. Was she not going to tell?

Kuribayashi sighed, and nodded. "I didn't think so. Don't worry, Yugi, we'll find out what's going."

Yugi only nodded, mouth dry, hardly daring to believe. Kuribayashi made a note on his ever-present clipboard. "I have your appointment for a full X-ray at Domino General on Friday the Fifteenth, one week from now. 4:15. Is that okay?"

Yugi nodded again.

"Okay. I'll go make some notes in your patient file. The nurse at the desk will have your appointment card ready for you, when you're ready to go. I have another appointment in a few minutes, so I won't be able to see you out."

"That's fine," Yugi managed.

Dr. Kuribayashi shut the door. Yugi turned to Anna.

"You didn't tell him."

"You told me not to."

"I know. I just thought… that you would."

Anna sighed and turned off the ultrasound machine again. She wiped the wand and set it back where it belonged, then handed the wipe to Yugi. He cleaned the gel lubricant off his stomach as Anna wheeled back a bit and sat with her back hunched, elbows on her thighs, watching him intently.

"I honestly don't know what would happen to you if I told someone. Certainly this would cause a media sensation."

Yugi paled, clutching the rag tightly.

"The medical community, the scientific community in general, would love to study you, find out how this happened. How a male became impregnated."

Yugi could have told her it was magick, but he was afraid that would completely destroy any tentative possibility she was on his side. She would think he was indeed playing some sort of trick on her, or think the stress of finding out he was pregnant had made him crack, or something. So, and because he wasn't entirely sure exactly how it had worked out, he said, "I don't know how."

"You're gay, aren't you?"

Surprised, Yugi looked up. "Well… yeah. But what-"

"I meant, this didn't happen just with you. Whoever your boyfriend is… are you going to tell him?"

Yugi choked at the thought of telling Seto he had gotten him pregnant. "No!"

Anna frowned. "But then-"

"No. I can't. This is… I mean, it's…!"

Yugi was unable to find a suitable word, but Anna nodded.

"Yeah."

"So, I can't."

Anna studied him intently. "It isn't Kaiba, is it?"

Yugi dropped the rag. "How- I mean, what makes you think that?"

Anna rolled her eyes. "I may not have paid that much attention to Duel Monsters, but I know you two weren't known for being exactly the best of friends. But now you're here, seeing his doctor, on his dime. So, that whole thing was a farce, right, a front?"

"Um, not exactly." As she continued to stare at him, he fidgeted. "You aren't going to tell him, are you?"

"No. That's your job."

"But I can't!"

Anna sighed and blew out a breath that stirred her bangs. "Okay, okay. Hey, if a girl can come in here and beg me not to tell her boyfriend she's pregnant, why can't a guy ask me not to tell his boyfriend?" She scrubbed her hand across her eyes like she was weary. "This is going to make me need some serious therapy."

Yugi didn't know what to say to that. He could appreciate the sentiment.

"First thing's first," Anna said, dropping her hand and fixing him with a pointed look. "You can't have the X-ray. It'll show up as an unidentified mass, even as small as it is. And you didn't want anyone to know."

"How do I cancel the appointment, without Dr. Kuribayashi asking me why?"

Anna thought for a minute, then said, "Just get sick. You're sick all the time anyway, Kentaro won't be surprised if you tell him you feel too ill to go. He'll just reschedule it, of course, but you can put it off as much as you need to, until we get it over with."

"What over with?"

"The abortion, of course."

Yugi's mouth worked, but no sound came out. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Abortion?" he squeaked.

"It won't be quite as simple as a regular abortion, of course, but abdominal ectopic pregnancies are not impossible. A doctor will be able to remove it without t0o much trouble. You're not too terribly far along."

"An abortion?" Yugi repeated.

"I know, you're worried someone will notice. I don't know what to tell you. You're not too far along, but the doctor who removes it will have to see it. In fact, I don't know how you're going to pull this off without that media and science circus. A surgeon will have to complete the operation, and-"

"What about that confidentiality thing? Doctor-patient privilege, or whatever it is."

Anna smiled, but sadly. "Yugi, doctors are humans. How do you think anything ever gets out, even with restrictions in place?"

Yugi slumped, disappointed, but not surprised. It was probably a feeble hope anyway. The doctor-patient privilege probably was generally viewed as sacred, but with something like this…

"How much time do I have to make a decision?"

Anna frowned. "What do you mean? You should get this done with as soon as possible."

"I need to think."

Anna looked uncertain, but she shrugged. "I don't know. You're about eleven, twelve weeks along, right? You told Kentaro you've been sick for about five weeks, right? Morning sickness generally happens between the sixth and twelfth weeks. So, you have to be about three months along. Um, assuming we can expect anything like normal reactions here."

That fit. The statue mishap had happened about three months ago.

"So, how long?"

Anna shrugged helplessly. "The fetus appears to be alive to me. If it stays that way, you don't want it growing much more. The longer you wait, the harder the surgery is going to be. And if it dies, well, you'll still need to get it removed immediately."

"Dies?"

"Don't be too naïve, Yugi. Abdominal ectopic pregnancies happen, but they're really dangerous. It's not meant to happen, after all. The baby has no support, none of the proper systems in place for it to grow. While the amniotic sac can be supported by the peritoneum, and the blood supply can come from an attachment to other organs, that's short term, and ectopic pregnancies are 40-95% more likely to fail. Once the fetus in you dies, you won't go into labor- a woman wouldn't either-and that can lead to even more problems for you. It's possible you'll wind up with a lithopedion, but that has its own problems. What do you need to think about? You need to get this done as soon as possible."

Yugi almost asked what a lithopedion was, but decided he probably didn't want to know. "I just need to think. Get my head around this. Maybe… Maybe there's some way to get the surgery done without everyone knowing about it."

Anna stared at him intently some more, then said, "You'd better go ahead and get dressed, so Kentaro doesn't come looking for you again. If you need time to think, you'd better get it done in the next couple of weeks. I wouldn't dare take longer than that. Why don't you come back for another ultrasound then? I'll be able to see if the fetus is alive or dead, and then we can make a further decision then."

Yugi tried not to think about it dying. "You really are going to help me?"

Anna sighed and stood up. "What else would I do? Go and tell everyone and ruin your life? I think it's pretty much messed up already. I can't do that to you. My conscience won't let me."

Yugi felt almost faint with relief. "Thank you," he gasped with feeling.

Anna smiled and patted his arm. "I can't imagine what you must be going through. Unplanned pregnancies are bad enough for women, but at least we are supposed to get pregnant! No one flips out and sticks a camera in our faces. Although, I am curious how this happened."

"No idea," Yugi said, though he knew that wasn't true. It was a spell on that Tawret statue, he was sure of it. Although he wasn't sue how it had gotten him pregnant without changing him, and he was unlikely to ever know for sure. So, maybe it wasn't entirely a lie after all.

"I wonder what gametes were used?" Anna mused. "As a male, you don't produce egg cells. Although what really matters are the x and y chromosomes. You do carry those, and Kaiba, too, from your parents. Could you somehow have bypassed the egg and sperm carriers and went just to the chromosomes? But that's just sex-determining DNA. What cell began splitting, and how did it change its nature?"

Yugi's anxiety began to return as she started sounding like a scientist trying to solve a interesting conundrum. It must have shown on his face, because she patted his arm again.

"I'm not going to tell! But you have to admit, it's a fascinating situation."

"I guess," Yugi said, without enthusiasm.

"Sorry. Get dressed, then take your appointment card like normal. But you'd better think fast if you're going to put this off."

Yugi slid off the table and stood. "Isn't there any way to not see a surgeon? Or at least, see someone who won't tell?"

"I don't see how. Where would you go, a back alley abortionist? That's even more dangerous."

Yugi had nothing to say to that, expect, "Could you try to find out? Please?"

Anna nodded. "I promise, I will. Come back for another ultrasound as soon as you've gotten through what you need to think about."

Yugi thanked her and she left. He dressed himself and left the exam room, going to the desk and receiving his appointment card. As he left and got into his car, he wondered if there really could possibly be a way to see a doctor who wouldn't tell the whole world what was going on. He didn't think so. But as he thought about it, he wondered; if this had happened by magick, could magick undo it?

That would require talking to Yami. He might not know, but he might have an idea how to find out. But that would mean Yugi would have to tell him what was happening.

Suddenly, he wanted to. He wanted someone to know, someone he knew and could trust and could talk about it. Yami was his other half, and Yugi could talk to him about anything. He couldn't handle this on his own.

Yugi changed directions before his nerve ran out. He drove to the apartment Yami shared with Joey and pulled into the lot, turning off the engine and climbing out. He walked up to the front door and knocked and in a few seconds, Yami answered the door.

"Aibou. Hello. What are you doing here?"

Seeing Yami, suddenly everything crashed in and Yugi couldn't hold out anymore. Everything had happened suddenly broke through the fog of surrealism and it was all too real. Yugi burst into tears.

"Aibou! What's wrong?"

Yami shut the door and put his arms around Yugi, and Yugi gratefully hugged him ferociously, burying his face into Yami's shoulder and sobbing uncontrollably. Yami held him and rubbed his back, making soothing noises and trying to get him to tell him what was wrong. Shaking, Yugi lifted his head and sniffled heavily, wiping his cheeks.

"What's going on?"

It was Joey. Yugi hadn't realized he was home. For a moment his nerve failed him, but at the twin looks of worry on their faces, he knew he had to tell them.

Taking a deep breath, he blurted out, "I'm pregnant."

tbc…