Chapter Four: Conception
Doctor says to a man "You're pregnant!"
The man says "How does a man get pregnant?"
The doctor says "The usual way, a little wine, a little dinner....
Henry Youngman
The procedure began with a routine physical check up for each of them. Conducted separately.
Ianto swallowed back his nervousness; they were being examined simultaneously in two different rooms, by two different nurses for expediency's sake, not because anyone was going to be comparing their stories looking for inconsistencies… in fact, the only questions the nurse asked him were about his own personal health. She seemed unbothered by the fact he was using a translator… she seemed hardly interested in him at all.
Afterwards they were taken together to another room where the met with the technician who would harvest the genetic material.
"I'm Basha Gullier," she introduced herself in a personable tone. "I'll be with you two… or three as the case will be after tomorrow," she amended with a smile, "Nearly every step of the way. Nervous?" she seemed to pick up on Ianto's anxiety almost immediately.
He stared at his feet. "Just a little..."
"It's perfectly natural," her tone was calm. Kind. "This part is absolutely painless, I promise. I just need to see your arm."
He took a shallow little breath and let it out quickly – according to Tim shallow breaths were better than deep breaths for calming the nerves – and presented his arm, trying very hard not to look at the horror-movie worthy little tool she was brandishing.
It was little more than a skin scraping.
"Is that it?" the younger man was startled by how quickly she had taken the sample. He'd barely felt a thing.
"That's it," she told him.
He blushed, feeling his ignorance was showing. Jack was already rolling up his sleeve.
The technician just continued to smile. "It's really a very simple procedure. At least for you," she nodded her head at his partner. "He's going to be doing most of the work for the next nine months."
Ianto reached over and took Jack's hand. "I've the feeling he's going to make me suffer for it, too," he managed to tease.
She chuckled along with them and then took a scraping of Jack's skin, storing both samples away carefully. "It looks that's about it… except…" she said consulting her data pad, "you still haven't indicated gender…?" she gave them an appraising look. Usually that was the first thing a couple told her. Quite often at least one party had a strong opinion regarding gender… it wasn't uncommon for all parties involved to hold strong, and not always complimentary, opinions in the matter. Regardless, they couldn't continue on to the next step without knowing whether they would be doing an XY or XX.
Ianto looked to his partner. Jack merely shrugged. He had Jason. He'd had two girls. He had absolutely no preference whatsoever about whether this child would be a boy or a girl.
"A girl," Ianto said at last. "We'd like a daughter," he gave Jack's hand a squeeze, sounding more confident than he felt.
Jack squeezed back and returned his smile. He was happy. A little girl would be wonderful… and probably give him more grey hairs than a boy… but he could get through that.
Jason, of course would be at least a little disapointed. He'd hoped for a little brother to play with, never mind that by the time his sibling was old enough to be much fun to be around, Jason would likely have turned his attention to other things.
"No other specifics…?" the tech inquired politely, glancing at her data pad again.
Jack flashed a smile in the technician's direction. "We'll take whatever nature…and the test tube… gives us," he told her.
"Purists, eh?" she said, but it wasn't at all an unkind tone. "Good for you, then. There's little enough nature involved in childbirth these days as it is."
Ianto heaved a sigh of relief. Apparently while a little unorthodox, their decision to let nature take its course wasn't entirely unheard of.
"All we have to do now just need to get you ready for tomorrow," Basha to Jack.
He groaned. He knew what was coming next...
Ianto blinked when she walked up to the wall and tapped on it, causing a hidden drawer to slide out. It hadn't struck Ianto until that moment that the furniture in their apartment was all pretty much stuff he would have expected in an apartment anywhere, i.e., not very Flash Gordon at all.
"His first round of hormones," she explained to the younger man as she administered the injection into Jack's neck. He was right about it looking an awful lot like what they did on Star Trek. "He may become a bit moody over the next twenty four hours," she cautioned. "Try to be supportive. Despite what science and technology tells us, a man's body isn't inherently designed to do this. He's going to need all the understanding and love you can give him."
"No worries there," he assured her, favouring Jack with an affectionate smile. He understood better than she did how much Jack was giving up for him just by being here.
"When you check out, you'll have a proscription for oral hormones. Remember…"
"I know. Follow the instructions to the letter," Jack groaned at her. He hated hormone supplements.
"Likewise with your pre-natal vitamins," she gave him a stern look as she injected the second 'shot' into his neck. It went in with a whoosh. "They're important to you and the baby."
"I'm married to the ultimate mother hen over here," he teased. "He'll make sure I take care of myself."
"Good then. You see that he does what he's supposed to do and we'll see you back here tomorrow morning for surgery and implantation."
"Yes, Ma'am. I will."
………………………………………………………………
"So now what?" Jack asked as they left the facility. They nearly twenty four hours before they were due back... "You ok?" he asked. Ianto's expression was difficult to read.
"I just can't get over… " he glanced back at the tall white building behind them. "Somewhere in there they've already started… I mean… " somewhere in the building behind them, in some Petri dish, some technician was… Ianto swallowed, but the lump in his throat refused to go away. Their child had technically already been conceived and it… she… would be implanted into Jack tomorrow…
Ianto looked over at the man standing next to him. Holding his hand. Smiling that warm, wonderful smile. It was the smile that told him just how much Jack loved him; it started those gorgeous blue eyes of his and worked its way down all the way to his lips.
Tomorrow morning, Jack was going to become pregnant. He was going to become pregnant because somewhere in the building behind him, someone was combining the genetic material they'd harvested from the two of them into a baby…
"Pretty amazing, huh?" the older man asked softly, guessing at some of what was going through his partner's mind.
"No. Frightening. I don't know how you can be so calm.... " but of course he was calm. He'd done this before…
He leaned in and brushed his lips lightly over the younger man's mouth. "I'm not calm because I've done this before, Sweetheart. I'm calm because of you."
"But I'm a nervous wreck!"
Jack's chuckle wasn't unkind. "Come on," he gave the other man's hand a gentle tug. "We should do some shopping."
"Shopping…?"
"Groceries," Jack reminded him. He had list as long as his arm of what he was – and wasn't – supposed to be eating for the next nine months (thank GOD they had yet to perfect a way for men to breast feed!) How exactly he was going to survive without Ianto's coffee magic, he wasn't sure… but he had the distinct memory of coffee playing havoc with him when he was pregnant with Jason. Something about around the clock heartburn…
Ianto gave him a nervous look. "This is the fiftieth century, Jack. Don't they have a delivery service or something?"
He frowned. "You don't want to go to the store?" It wasn't that Ianto was some sort of shop-o-holic, but he tended to be a pit pickier than his partner when it came to what went in the pantry.
The younger man shrugged. "What would I know about the local produce anyway?"
"This is a largely human settlement, Yan. Come on," he tugged at his hand again. "People still eat pretty much the same things…"
"So why don't we just order groceries them? Don't tell me they don't deliver."
Jack understood. "We're going to be living here for a year, Sweetheart."
"I know."
"If you're having second thoughts…"
He gave the older man a wide eyed look… he couldn't honestly mean…? "I want this. I do."
"Shhhh… hey, I wasn't talking about the baby," he wrapped his arms around his partner's waist. "I just meant that after the implantation we could go home. I can walk Bobby through the next nine months. He would probably love the chance to see future medicine first hand," Jack added, knowing for a fact that his medic was sorely disappointed he hadn't been invited along. "All I have to do is call the Doctor…"
"Is that really safe? Having the baby at home, I mean."
"I trust Bobby." He wasn't sure how he felt about the way the rest of the team would fuss over him… Abby… Sara… Gwen… the women would be the worst… and Mickey. Mickey would have a field day…
"You can't go into the field pregnant, Jack. Even if you're not at risk…"
"The baby would be," he agreed. "And I won't be anywhere near one hundred percent while I'm pregnant." Smells would hit him just as hard as they hit Gwen that day. His emotions were going to be all over the board. "I've done this before. I know my limitations. I won't take chances," he promised.
"But it would kill you to have to limit yourself like that. To watch the rest of us go out there when you know it should be you. When you should be with us. And we'd have to move back into the Hub in a couple of months… we can't very well have you strutting around pregnant in our neighbourhood," he explained to Jack's questioning look. Apparently he hadn't thought of that.
Jack yielded to the younger man's reasoning. "We'll have to come up with a good story for your family, too, about why we came home by ourselves. Why I'm not around for six or seven months." He mulled it over a minute. "I suppose we could say that something happened, we're going back in a few months. Your mother will tell you she told us so, but other than that…" he shrugged. It was a plausible story.
Ianto shook his head. "I'll be fine, Cariad. I just… I'm having a harder time adjusting than I thought I would." He was lying. He hadn't thought about it at all. He'd been so caught up in what Jack was willing to do for him… what it meant… he hadn't thought to consider what it was going to be like living three thousand years from home.
He had considered the time away from his family and friends. A whole year without being able to talk to his sister, even though she was the one person he'd begged Jack to be able to tell the truth to. He needed one person to know… one person he didn't have to lie to. But even so, he couldn't call using Martha's phone, the one the Doctor had rigged somehow, because in Nerys's time they were only going to be gone a week. Even if he only called once a month, that would be twelve calls over the course of only seven days… and how the Hell does one calculate the time difference from three thousand years in the future and however many billions of light years away?
"Why don't you go on to the store without me," he said at last. "I should be all right to get back to the apartment by myself."
"Are you sure…?"
"I can manage a walk across the park, Jack. Honest."
"I meant… all right," he relented. The look on Ianto's face told him that arguing would be a mistake. He could already feel his hormone levels changing… he had to remember to think carefully before he acted, especially since it wasn't just him going through a transition here. His was physiological, but that didn't make what Ianto was going through any less real. Any less difficult.
He also realized that for all he'd been looking forward to year when he wouldn't have to worry, he was still worried about the younger man. He was still vulnerable…
"I'll be all right," Ianto assured him in a tone that suggested he understood what Jack had really been trying to say. "I just need a little time on my own. A little time to think."
Jack nodded; he leant in and Ianto met his kiss half way. "I won't be too long at the store," he promised.
……………………………………………………………………….
Ianto took his time walking back to the apartment. He wandered aimlessly over the green grassy knolls and little wooded areas of the park, his hands tucked into his pockets, keeping a careful eye on landmarks so he wouldn't get lost.
He had a mobile… although the tiny ear piece hardly qualified as a phone. It could do everything that the 'latest' technology from the twenty-first century could do and then some. Jack had shown him how it worked before they left the apartment. Absently, he tuned into the local news report… it was a quiet day in the city. On the planet. In the galaxy.
What a world, Ianto thought, when the 'local news' included a galaxy wide report. But I suppose when humans inhabit four galaxies…Ianto sighed. He turned off the news…
The sound of children laughing drew him towards a play area where a dozen or so kids were playing on playground equipment that looked so familiar… swings… monkey bars… a merry-go-round… if it weren't for the large ringed planet that dominated the western half of the sky, he could be standing in Bute park, the scene just looked so normal.
A couple jogged past him. A man walking a dog… it seemed so normal.
Except that somewhere in some Petri dish, they were already combining his and Jack's genetic samplings with whatever else they needed to make a baby… the baby that the man he loved was going to carry inside him for nine months and there was nothing normal about that…
But that didn't make it any less wonderful.