I'm shocked how well received this has been. Thank you for the support, guys. I'm trying to make this somewhat realistic (at least as much as one of these stories can be). Please keep leaving your feedback!

"…No, I'm not."

Cloud did not move, did not even bat an eye, at Aerith's words. To him, the statement was completely impossible and not worth a reaction beyond outright dismissal of it. What an absolutely ridiculous notion. If they didn't have anything better than that…

"I'm completely serious, Cloud."

"So am I."

Riku listened to the exchange silently. As soon as the word 'pregnant' was spoken, his brain began listing all the problems with what was being proposed. Men did not, could physically not, get pregnant. It was biologically impossible; the male anatomy did not allow for it not to mention the fact that a very vital part to conception was missing. There was no egg to fertilize and sperm, even two men's mixed together, simply would not cut it. No matter how you looked at it, male pregnancy couldn't happen.

His initial reaction was to tell Aerith the joke was not funny. There had been teasing about the subject for several years now but this was completely inappropriate. This was followed by the thought that Aerith wouldn't joke about something like this. He then began wondering about the credentials of the two doctors standing silently near the far wall.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Cloud asked in irritation. "Men can't get pregnant."

"Normally, no," agreed Aerith. She glanced back at Cameron and Chase. "However…"

Cameron took a shallow breath as this was obviously her cue. "Men and women have the same hormones, just in different amounts. Instead of the normal male levels of LH, FSH, and estrogen, you have what would be normal for a female. Your testosterone is extremely low; in the range that a woman would have.

"And we found hCG, which you shouldn't have at all." Cameron concluded.

Riku had done some research into human biology when he had found out about his creation. He had a solid, basic understanding of human anatomy and physiology and was familiar with the hormones Cameron was talking about. Her last statement struck him hard. "HCG is only present in pregnancy."

"Exactly."

"Personally," Chase spoke for the first time since coming in. He sounded more cautious and less certain that the two women; probably because he was a man and understood just how insane this had to be for the couple. "I don't think you're actually pregnant but for some reason your body thinks it is. Something happened to completely reverse those hormones."

He came over to the bedside and gestured at Cloud's abdomen. When Cloud lifted his shirt, the doctor placed his hand on it, right were the odd, solid swell was. "Aerith notified us of the mass here, which is why they jumped on the pregnancy theory. However, masses can be a lot of things. For us to determine what exactly this is, we'll have to do an ultrasound."

"Do it." Cloud did not hesitate. "I want this ridiculous baby idea gone."

"Cloud…" Riku didn't know why but this wasn't sounding quite so ridiculous to him anymore. Aerith had said that Cloud's life wasn't in danger, that his aura was as strong as it's ever been. The only thing he could think of that would alter hormones that drastically would be a tumor of the glands or some kind of endocrine disease. Neither of those sounded like they fit the symptoms, but a pregnancy… even a false one would explain everything.

Cloud looked at his husband in annoyed disbelief. "What? Don't tell me you're buying into this."

"No, but…" The silver-haired young man worried his lower lip. "There's enough evidence to back the theory."

Cloud sighed. "Whatever. Just do the ultrasound."

Nodding, Chase stopped his physical exam of the abnormality. He left the bedside and he, followed by Cameron, left the room. It was silent in their wake and Aerith studied Cloud for a long moment.

Cloud fixed his attention on the by now stale toast on the bed tray, his expression unreadable. Riku had no idea what he was thinking and was hesitant to ask. The blond probably did not know himself what he was thinking and pushing him would only make him shut down. It would not be until they had their answers that Cloud would be able to process and react.

Riku squeezed Cloud's hand and got off the bed. "Can I talk to you a minute, Aerith?"

"Sure."

He leaned in and kissed Cloud lightly. "I'll be right back, love."

Cloud made a noise in response and watched the younger one walk away. He joined with Aerith and they stepped into the hall. Now alone in the small room, Cloud looked down at his stomach. He ran his fingers over the slight change in the landscape of his abdomen.

Huffing out a breath, he took his hand away and dropped it on the mattress beside him. Turning his gaze to the generic painting on the wall, he shook his head to himself. He could not believe that two highly trained medical professionals were even considering him being pregnant as a possibility. Aerith was clearly convinced it was true and Riku was at least considering the possibility…

What the hell was wrong with everyone?

--0—0—

Riku shut the door behind him and turned toward Aerith. The woman had taken a handful of steps down the hall and was now facing him. "This is an insane idea, Aerith."

"I know." She agreed, wrapping an arm around her waist. "But…I know it's true. When I put my hand on him… I felt it, Riku. There's new life growing inside Cloud."

"It doesn't make sense." The silver-haired man's voice rose slightly with a mix of emotions. "First and foremost, he's a man. Men don't get pregnant. I won't bother listing all of the other problems with this scenario."

"I'm well aware of all of that, so are Cameron and Chase," Aerith spoke calmly. Riku did not find it soothing at all. "They both believe that, at the least, Cloud's body thinks it's pregnant."

"That… I can believe." Riku closed his eyes and rubbed his temple. "There can be a lot of reasons for that."

Aerith angled her head at him. "You think I'm wrong?"

Riku blew out a breath and paced a few steps. "I know you're rarely wrong about these things. I just… I cannot reconcile what I know as biological law with… And even if it were something that was possible, how is it that he got pregnant?" He chuckled dryly. "It's kinda ironic that we talked about this just the other day. If either of us was going to get knocked up, it would be me."

Aerith placed a hand on his arm. "Let's get the absolute confirmation before we start trying to figure out how."

Riku ran his fingers through his hair. Everything about this was wrong. Logically, he knew that this situation as an impossible one but in his heart… He didn't know if he wanted it to be true but something about all of this felt… not exactly right but… he didn't know. There were just so many questions. "If this is real… I don't know what we're going to do."

She squeezed his arm gently. "One step at a time, Riku."

"Yeah." The young man closed his eyes and centered himself. The best thing for everyone would be for this to end up some weird disorder that had suddenly developed. Cloud may have to take meds and hormone treatments for the rest of his life but that was easily handled.

However, if there really was a baby…

"I need to get back to Cloud." Riku straightened up and flicked his bangs. Wiping his expression clean, he re-entered Cloud's room. He knew that his calmness would immediately be seen as an act but he had to at least pretend everything was normal.

Cloud was gazing at the painting on the wall but Riku doubted he was actually seeing it. "You know this whole thing is insane, Riku."

"Yeah," agreed Riku, crossing the room. "But we've both seen and been through so many things that would be considered insane we can't just rule the possibility out."

The blond man sighed. "That's the only reason I'm allowing the ultrasound."

Riku stopped at his husband's bedside. Worrying his lower lip, he cast his aqua eyes toward Cloud's belly. "Cloud… what if-"

"Stop." Cloud cut him off quickly. "I can't even… not until there's proof."

The couple fell silent, each lost in their own thoughts. When Chase, Cameron and Aerith came in a few minutes later, Chase pushing a large cart with a machine on it, the pair barely reacted. The only physical sign of acknowledgement was that Riku took a step close to Cloud and Cloud reached over to take his hand.

A Chase wordlessly began setting up the ultrasound machine, Cameron explained what was about to happen. "I don't know if you've seen this done before but all that's going to happen is we're going to place some gel on your abdomen and use the scanning wand to get a look at what's inside."

"I went to an ultrasound with Tifa," Cloud muttered. "I know the process."

Aerith was frowning deeply at Cloud but remained quiet. Riku had a fairly good idea what was troubling her; it was likely the same thing that was bothering him. Cloud had completely withdrawn since the word 'pregnant' had been spoken.

"I need you to lift your shirt and lay back." Chase ordered, picking up the tube of gel on the cart. Cloud did so, his right hand still holding Riku's. Once he was re-settled, Chase held the tube above Cloud's abdomen near the lowest of his scars. "This is going to be cold."

Cloud winced a touch as a fair amount of clear gel was squeezed onto his stomach. The stuff was cold but that wasn't the main reason for his reaction. He had a vague memory of having a substance similar to this layered on his skin before…. One of the ways mako was introduced to the body was by a gel absorbed through the skin. He probably would have reacted much more strongly if the gel had been anything but clear.

Chase brought the ultrasound wand to Cloud's taut belly, placing it above his navel. From there he slowly brought it toward the twin scars on his right, establishing a normal image for the area. HE then went back around to the left and down to the mass they were investigating. The machine's screen was away from Cloud and Riku's sight and Chase's eyes were fixed upon it as he dragged the wand carefully against skin.

Cameron stood beside him and was also studying the screen intently. Toward the bottom of the abnormality, she pointed at something she saw. Her male counterpart reran the wand over the spot and leaned closer to the screen. Both doctors scrutinized the image, their expressions becoming increasingly shocked.

Breaking professionalism, Chase muttered, "Bloody hell… this is…"

Riku felt his heart clench. "What?"

The doctors' exchanged a quick look before Chase turned the screen toward his patient. He pointed at a tiny circular section of the distorted, brownish-orange image created by the sound-waves reflecting off of the tissues of Cloud's body. "See this? This is an embryonic sac."

Riku was certain he was going to faint. His breath stopped and it was like everything had frozen in time. It wasn't possible. If there was an embryonic sac, that meant…

Chase's finger moved to a tight concentration within the circle. "And this is the embryo."

The room went completely silent.

Cloud stared at where the male doctor pointed. It was a baby; he refused to believe it. It was something else, anything else. A tumor, an abnormal growth, some random internal scar from all the times he had been stabbed though, he'd even take some leftover thing from when he had been an experiment… anything but what Chase said.

"You can't be serious." Riku breathed out, his voice shaky.

"I don't have a clue how but Cloud really is pregnant." Chase managed out, clearly as stunned as everyone else present.

"So what do we have to do?" Aerith asked, recovering from the shock quickly having already accepted the idea from the beginning.

Cameron shook off her own surprise and began listing things. "First we're going to have to determine how far along he is and if the pregnancy is even viable. Then we'll need to figure how to best keep Cloud's body in a condition to sustain the pregnancy and if we're going to have to take any steps to-"

"Who said I was having the thing?" Cloud's voice suddenly broke in. There was no emotion to it and his expression conveyed that same state. His eyes were still set upon the saved image on the screen. "Whatever it is, I don't want it."

"Cloud," Aerith began.

Riku studied his husband for a second before quietly asking, "Could you all give us a minute?"

The pair of doctors nodded. Chase coiled up the scanning wand as Cameron handed over a stack of paper towels so that Cloud could clean up. As they departed with the machine, Cameron told them to let them know when they made a decision.

Aerith lingered a beat longer, clearly unhappy about Cloud's statement. Riku shot her a look and silently asked her to let him handle this. He was in shock, too, but if anyone was going to get Cloud through this, he had the best chance. They were going to need some time to process this without outside influences.

The brunette woman bit her lip but turned and left. When she did, Riku released Cloud's hand and walked around the bed. Cloud was still gazing almost blankly where the ultrasound screen had been.

Riku reached over and brushed the side of his lover's face with his knuckles. "Where are you, love?"

"Some weird parallel dimension." The blond responded flatly. "I've been sucked into an alternate universe where everything is backwards."

"That would explain some things."

"It's that or this is a very large, elaborate practical joke and I'm not laughing."

"That seems more likely."

"Yeah." Cloud remained motionless for a minute further. He then slowly traced his fingers over the sticky area of his abdomen. "It's not, is it?"

Riku shook his head. "No. If Aerith wasn't certain, I'd doubt all of this. My head… I can't even begin to process this but my heart knows it's real."

"How the hell is this possible?" Cloud muttered. Though his tone was calm and his expression still neutral, Riku knew how overwhelmed Cloud truly was. When Cloud was deeply upset, his country accent would creep into his voice. "I can't think of a single way this could happen. Did I get randomly cursed? Is the thing growing inside me even a baby? Maybe it's some kind of parasite that's going to kill everyone."

Riku attempted a weak smile. "You've seen Alien too many times."

"Seen what?"

"Never mind." The silver-haired man sat on the edge of the bed. He picked up one of the paper towels and began wiping up the gel. "Look, there's a ton of questions that are going to have to be answered. Don't make any major decisions until we answer some of them."

Cloud was quiet for a long moment before softly stating, "I don't want this, Riku."

Riku worried his lower lip and continued cleaning his husband up. It bothered him greatly that Cloud was not even considering keeping the baby. They had toyed with adopting kids for a few years and now they had the chance to have a child that was their own… or at least Cloud's-

His hand paused over the place where the embryo inside Cloud was growing. Cloud did have a point; how did they know this was a normal, human baby? This was not a traditional pregnancy in any sense of the term. Depending on how this happened, anything could be true about the life form developing. It didn't even have to be a human at all.

Setting his hand down on the spot, Riku tried to feel the life force of the mysterious collection of cells that would become a living being. While he did not have the talents Aerith did, he and Cloud were bonded in their own unique was due to the Jenova cells they both had. He did not expect to really feel anything but maybe he'd be able to tell something about the nature of…

Aqua eyes widened and he stared at where his hand was.

"Riku?" Cloud asked his name in concern, the first real showing of emotion since the others had left.

The younger half of the couple was unable to answer right away. He continued to stare as the essence, the soul, of the tiny one Cloud carried within him sand out to Riku. It connected to Riku, happy to be acknowledged and somehow communicating with clear language just what Riku was to it.

It wasn't possible.

"Riku." Cloud tried again. He knew his husband was more in tune with things such as auras and light and dark influences. Riku's abrupt reaction to his probe of the thing inside him could have meant almost anything.

Riku worked some moisture back into his mouth. "Cloud… this, this is our baby."

The blond narrowed his eyes. "Riku, look-

"No," The silvered one cut him off gently. "This baby is ours. I don't know how but there are equal parts of you and me in her."

Cloud studied Riku's certain eyes. He had absolutely no doubt about this. "That makes even less sense than me being pregnant. If I have to, I could deal with some kind of foreign or alien entity. Hell, I'd even believe some messed up cell replication theory and that this is literally some clone of me I'm carrying but… sperm doesn't combine with sperm to make a baby."

"I know that, but…" Riku shook his head and his voice grew soft. "I can feel it, Cloud."

There was a tap on the door before it slowly opened and Aerith leaned in. She immediately noted the couple's expression and frowned as she stepped in and shut the door behind her. "I know this is a huge thing for the two of you to accept."

"Aerith." Riku spoke softly. "You've felt the baby, right?"

The woman paused. "I felt its life force, yes. There's nothing dark or impure. The child has the presence of any normal child."

"Did you feel me?"

Aerith blinked at the question. She had not gone into any depth determining the origin or composition of Cloud's baby. She had only gone so far as to determine if there was any malevolency, which there was none. She spied Riku's hand on Cloud's belly and a smile spread across her face. "It's your baby?"

"It's our baby." Riku corrected, his eyes meeting with Cloud's. "Together."

Blue eyes swam with confusion. He was still completely overwhelmed. "We need answers, Aerith, and we need them now."

"Cameron and Chase have put together a list of tests and procedures that should help figure out how this is possible and if we're going to have to do anything for the pregnancy itself. The how is still a complete mystery."

Riku took his gaze away from Cloud's. "There's only two even remotely feasible options; one is that some dormant experiment Hojo did became active, which is really unlikely. The second is some kind of magic."

"I really don't want Sephiroth involved in this, at least not yet." Cloud glanced over. "I don't want anyone else involved until you and I have a chance to figure things out."

Riku had to agree. "I think we should focus on the magical phenomenon idea and Merlin's the only guy we'd have to deal with for that."

"Merlin would be able to figure it out and he'd keep quiet about it, too." Aerith concluded, folding her arms. "Cameron and Chase are ready to start the medical research whenever you like."

Sighing, Cloud fell back on the pillow. "I'm going to be stuck here for a few days, aren't I?"

"That's going to be up to the doctors." Aerith walked over to join the couple at the bed. Riku's hand was still in place and she took Cloud's hand to lay it atop of it. "We don't know how this happened but the two of you have been blessed with something two men can never under normal circumstances have. I don't foresee anything bad coming from this."

Cloud studied their hands and skin beneath it. He knew that Riku had almost completely accepted this, had started coming to terms that they had somehow created a child but Cloud just could not… "It's too much right now. Until I know more… I just can't even begin to think of this as a…"

Riku leaned forward and kissed him, showing without words that he understood. "Yeah… we need more answers."

Nodding her understanding, Aerith brushed at Riku's bangs before leaning to the side and hugging Cloud. "I'll send Cameron in to stat the medical testing and then find Merlin."

"Thanks, Aer." Cloud murmured. As he spoke, he tightened his fingers around Riku's. He was still in shock about everything these past few hours had brought on but he knew they'd get things figured out. Aerith would make things as easy as she could for him and Riku.

She moved away and smiled. "No matter what the outcome, the two of you have more support than anyone can hope for. Everything will be okay."

As she left, the Strife couple exchanged looks. Cloud wordlessly scooted over and Riku lay down beside him. They removed their hands from the site on Cloud's abdomen but kept their fingers laced together.

They could only hope that Aerith was right.