Part 7 – Two-way Interview
Mary Sills was tired of people not understanding what she did. She'd gotten every reaction from horror to disgust to disbelief to envy to sympathy. 'How could you possibly carry someone else's child in your womb?' 'I wouldn't be able to give it up.' 'Maybe God made those people childless for a reason'. 'You get to sit around and grow fat for nine months then get paid? Easy money!'
It really came down to two things - she was good at being pregnant and she liked helping people have a family. Yes, the money was good, but anyone who did it just for the money would seriously regret it. And certainly not be ready to meet the prospective parents of her third surrogacy.
Smoothing down her dress, Mary wondered who would come through that door. She'd made it clear to the clinic that she wasn't restrictive on race, religion, or shape of family. Her first intended parents had been an Indian couple, the husband's reproductive capabilities wiped out by cancer. She'd carried a child made from the wife's egg and donor sperm and had given them a spectacular baby boy. She got reports from that family every six months and couldn't be prouder of making their happiness possible.
Her second surrogacy had been for a single woman, who for some medical reason couldn't carry her own child. The little girl that she'd given that mother was the cutest, luckiest little girl ever and would grow up to steal hearts and Nobel prizes.
Now she was recovered from that pregnancy, plus taken a year off to just be with her own two children, and had now signed up for Surrogacy number three. Sitting in the posh meeting room, she tried to ready herself for whatever was to come.
Still, she was unprepared for who did come through that door – two men. One was big, blond, and muscular. A policeman, perhaps? The other was slim with a tangle of dark, curly hair and a very Jewish nose. He looked like a high school teacher. They were both wearing suits, which made Mary glad that she'd dressed up herself. This was an important meeting and she was glad that the men seemed to appreciate that. With an eye conditioned by fashion magazines, Mary decided that the blond wore a suit for his job – his suit was well-fitting but not flashy. Maybe a lawyer. The brunet looked less comfortable in his suit, though the sports jacket seemed well-worn. High school teacher was looking very likely.
Both men smiled at her nervously and held out their hands at the same time. The brunet pulled back his hand awkwardly and motioned for the blond to go ahead. The quick, wry, but understanding smile that the blond shot his partner immediately endeared him to Mary.
"Hi," the blond said, his large hand easily eclipsing Mary's, "I'm Colby Granger. This is my husband, Charles Eppes."
"Not technically 'husband,'" the brunet stammered. "Since the federal government struck down California's Equal Marriage Law." He held out his hand. "But yes, I'm Dr. Charles Eppes, uh, Charles Eppes, uh, Charlie." His grip on Mary's hand was firm but sweaty.
"I'm Mary Sills," Mary said with a smile. "Glad to meet you."
All three of them sat down in the cushioned chairs and looked at each other. This was a two-way interview and a great deal hinged on it.
"So," Mary said, her tone lightly teasing. "What brings you here?"
The blond – Colby – said, "We want to add a child to our family."
"A baby," the brunet – Charlie – clarified. "You know, small, starting from the beginning."
Mary smiled at Charlie. "That's how they usually start."
"Yeah, well, um, not Nena," Charlie said then corrected himself, "Well, I'm sure she did start small but not to me, not that observationally that would have made a difference but—"
"Charlie," Colby interrupted with practiced ease. "Take a deep breath. If she was going to say 'no' because we're guys, she would have already done it."
"Are you?" Charlie asked Mary, his big brown eyes unnervingly direct.
"No," Mary said firmly. "Now, tell me about yourselves."
"Actually," Mary said before they could speak, deciding to use a technique she'd found very telling in these interviews. "Tell me about each other."
"Uh," Colby said, meeting Charlie's eyes. "Okay. Charlie is a professor of Applied Mathematics at CalSci. He went to Princeton at 13, his IQ is out of the stratosphere and there are about 10 people in the world who can understand the math he can do. He's not just smart, though, he's a really good teacher, can teach math to even thick-heads like me. He's also very sweet." Colby flushed a little, obviously not used to talking about things like this. "He's got huge depths of emotion and energy and love. He makes the world a brighter place by just being in it."
Charlie beamed at him.
"He's also a slob, terribly absent-minded and easily distracted," Colby continued wryly. "But we've been able to work around those with Nena. As long as we use a schedule and alarm clocks, he's good at the daddy thing, too."
"Daddy thing?" Mary asked, startled.
Colby smiled. "Oh, Nena's our little girl, she's seven now. She's mine from a previous relationship. I wasn't allowed to be involved in her life much in the early years but, since she was about 5, she's lived half-time with us, though lately it's been more of …" He looked at Charlie.
"73.62 of the time, at an estimate," Charlie responded promptly.
"So almost three-quarters of the time now. She'll make a great big sister, she's very excited about it."
"Do you have a picture?" Mary asked.
"Yeah, sure," Colby said, pulling out his wallet. He handed her a picture of a smiling girl with her father's hair and eyes.
"She's lovely," Mary said, handing the picture back.
"Yeah, she's great," Colby said, smiling. "She's smart and creative and reads way above her age group. She loves to paint and play sports and scare the he—the heck out of her Grandpa by running around with her toy gun, playing 'Fed.'"
Mary blinked. "Doing what?"
"Oh, I'm a—"
"My turn," Charlie interrupted. He put on what immediately struck Mary as a 'teacher's face.' "Colby Granger grew up in Winchester, Idaho, middle child in a large family of eight children. His father died when he was fifteen."
"She doesn't care about that," Colby grumbled.
Charlie held up his hand, in full lecture mode. "He went to Penn State University on a wrestling scholarship, but while there, joined the Army, making him the fifth generation in his family to enter the armed forces. He graduated with a degree in Criminal Science and joined the Army CID – that's Criminal Investigation Command, and served in Afghanistan. He received an Honorable Discharge from the Army and came to work at the Los Angeles office of the FBI, which is where I met him. He is an excellent field agent, been commended multiple times."
Mary smiled. "Dr. Eppes, how about something more personal?"
"Uh, oh, yeah. Call me Charlie." He reached over and took Colby's hand. "Cole is strong – and I'm not just talking about physically, though he is that too, obviously. He's loyal and tenacious – Do you know he worked for two years as a counter-counter-counter intelligence agent in the FBI without anyone knowing before taking down a huge Chinese spy?"
"Oh," Mary said faintly.
"Personal," Colby reminded Charlie quietly.
"Oh, right. He's very patient, which you can tell, too. He's a great Dad to Nena and will be great with a baby. He's just a rock, both physically and metaphorically again, my anchor and comfort. He's smarter than people expect when they see us. He makes me feel safe and secure."
She hid a smile, amused how most things that Charlie said about Colby were actually about Charlie. Colby gave her a knowing wink and Mary decided that she liked these two very much.
"I'm a little concerned about your job, Mr. Granger," Mary said. "What would a child do if you were hurt or even killed?"
Charlie grimaced but Colby squeezed his hand. "Please, call me Colby. I hope that nothing like that happens to me, but I know that a child would be taken care of. It's not just me and Charlie, we have lots of family support. Charlie and I live with Charlie's father, Alan, who helps us with Nena already. Charlie's brother Don and his husband – yeah, them too – they live nearby and are very involved in Nena's life. Don's my boss at the FBI – which is how I met Charlie, and Will's DEA, but just a teacher, now."
"What does your family think of your plan to have another child?" Mary asked.
"They're all for it," Colby said. "Once they got over the surprise, of course. Everyone's very excited."
"What about extended family?" Mary asked. "Cousins and such?" They were a big part of her growing up and couldn't imagine her life without them.
"Um," Charlie said, obviously unhappy to give her a negative answer. "It's really just my brother and father and I left in my side. My mother died a few years ago."
"I'm sorry to hear that," she said, then looked at Colby.
Colby grimaced and Charlie answered for him, "Cole's family isn't, well, mostly not, well … Most of them kinda cut him off when he came 'out.'"
"Oh," Mary said faintly, unable to imagine what that must have felt like.
"What else would you like to know?" Charlie asked.
"I think it's your turn to ask me," she said with a smile. "I'm sure you have many questions."
"One thing before that," Colby said. "I want to— we want to say that we don't think of a surrogate mother as just a—what was the phrase, Charlie?"
"'Incubator on legs,'" Charlie said. "That that's not how we would think of you."
"Right, because no one will have a greater effect on our baby than you—or the surrogate, whoever that is – since you're basically building our baby based on the genetic blueprints, but we count on you to provide good quality raw materials and a good working environment." Colby flushed self-consciously. "That analogy was from Alan, Charlie's dad, who's an engineer."
Mary smiled, pleased. She knew that the others she'd been surrogate for hadn't thought about her as an 'incubator with legs' either, but it had taken them longer to express it. "I'm glad to hear you say that. Now, questions for me?"
Colby and Charlie looked at each other, then Colby said, "Please don't take this wrong, but why be a surrogate?"
She waited for a moment before she replied, overcoming the now automatic irritation she felt when she heard that question. Of all people, the intended parents had the most right to ask that question.
"I think the answer is, 'Because I can,'" she said. "And there are so many people who can't."
Colby and Charlie nodded slowly.
"My health is a gift," she continued. "And my own children are gifts. I want to share that gift with others."
"You have children of your own?" Colby asked.
"Yes, two lovely girls – thirteen and eleven."
"They don't mind – your family doesn't mind that you are going to do this?"
"My family is very supportive," Mary said proudly. "My husband has supported me from the beginning – we both believe that raising children is one of the most important things we can do with the time that God has given us. My girls understand what I do, as well as they can, especially since I only do Gestational Surrogacy, so I am really only providing the womb for the child of two other people. Even my extended family is very supportive." She ignored her brother, Jim, who wouldn't be supportive of her whatever she did.
Colby tilted his head. "From the way you say it, you've done this before?"
"Yes, this will be my third time as a surrogate," she replied. "Probably my last, but I've said that before."
"So you've been pregnant four times?"
"Five," Mary said. She was always very clear on this part. "The first transfer from my first intended parents didn't work." She had been devastated by the miscarriage, cried for a week, but then had become more determined to make it work. "Otherwise, all of my pregnancies have been uneventful, healthy and full-term, resulting in vaginal births of healthy babies."
"How, um," Charlie said. "What does an 'uneventful' pregnancy mean?"
Mary laughed, surprising herself. "It means normal aches and pains, morning sickness and swollen ankles, exhaustion, stretch marks, headaches, acne, and so forth."
"Yuck," Charlie said faintly.
"What you really need to know about me is this," Mary said briskly. "I don't drink, smoke or use drugs, including not being on any prescription drugs. I exercise regularly but intelligently. I stay up to date on all medical advances regarding pregnancy but I don't follow fads. I will be under constant medical supervision of the clinic, but also that of my personal obstetrician and my naturopath.
"I don't have any family history of pregnancy complications, no one around me smokes, and I haven't had any significant illnesses in my life.
"I would like any intended parents to be quite involved in the pregnancy process, in terms of being aware of the stages and growth, so that a baby at the end doesn't seem like it comes from nowhere. After the birth, I would like to receive occasional updates on the child, but I don't want to be significantly involved in the child's life. I won't be any way related to the child, so that makes it easier for me."
Colby and Charlie were nodding with each statement, looking very hopeful.
"I'm good at being pregnant and I enjoy it," she wrapped up.
There was a pause and she said, "No other questions for me?"
The two men looked at each other, communicating without words, just like every other married couple she'd known.
"Will you do it? For us?" Charlie asked.
"Charlie," Colby said under his breath. "Don't pressure her. She probably wants time to think about it."
Charlie looked chastened but still determined. "We'd like you to carry a baby for us, my sperm and a donor egg. Let us know what you decide, okay?"
She looked at these two earnest men, odd but loving, from as different of worlds as possible from hers but as sincere and full of dreams as any couple she'd met.
She smiled. "No need to wait. I'll do it."