Disclaimer: Don't own supernatural.
Warning: Contains M/M slash and male pregnancy.
Chapter Seven
Sam shook himself from the small stupor that settled in when Gabriel had left abruptly. Blinking, he imagined in head what his reaction would be several times and it always came down to either anger or surprise. He never thought he'd see Gabriel being surprisingly calm, even for him. He said to get rid of the baby though and Sam mentally shook his head. That was something he just couldn't do. It wasn't the baby's fault that his or her parents couldn't think ahead to the consequences either.
"Sam?"
He was brought out of his thoughts and looked over to Dean wondering what it was he was trying to say. Dean didn't say anything for a couple of minutes but then he closed the gap and quickly wiped at his eyes with the pads of his thumbs. Sam was amazed and Dean just sighed, holding him at arm's length so that he could talk to him and know that he would listen at the same time.
"Sam maybe Gabriel was just shocked and we all know that even angels cope differently. If he really loves you, he'll explain why he told you that. He will and you will be happy that you didn't let those words get to you okay?"
Sam nodded and then gaped.
"You mean you're okay with me not getting an abortion?" Sam wanted to be sure. Dean was his big brother and he still looked up to him like crazy, even though he tended to drive him crazy more.
"Yeah, I mean it's your body right? Anyways you do realize that it's gonna be harder when we hunt," Dean added slipping a knowing look and Sam bit his lip to keep from retorting. Dean wasn't being mean; he was just laying all the cards on the table. "We'll have to create a system so that you can't hurt you're unborn child. Now are you sure, really sure that you don't want to think of all the options first? He could have meant give the baby up when the baby is born but I don't really see you doing that…."
"Really Dean? If it was the best thing for my baby-"
"You wouldn't," Dean interrupted with a small smile. "You wouldn't be able to give up the baby once you saw them for the first time. So yup, once you see the little baby face you will raise that kid for life. Maybe Ben wouldn't mind learning to share when we bring the kid over there to be baby sat in the future-"
"Dean not to be rude or anything but that would also mean that my unborn has quite a few uncles and aunts on the daddy's side of the family."
Dean groaned.
"Please don't remind me." It gave Sam a headache even thinking about it let alone that by technicality, that also made Lucifer an uncle as well. "Lucifer is going to be more amused when he realizes the truth so we need to work on keeping you away from as much hunts as possible. You are stuck on research duty."
Sam didn't see anything wrong with that. He had done that before and couldn't see anything difficult about having to do all of it now. He did the majority of it before anyhow unless they needed help from Bobby. He could handle it and nodded as much when Dean gave him a pointed look that promised a world of pain if he ever tried to break that.
"Oh and you are also on pie duty." At Sam's look of disbelief Dean continued with a smirk. "I am being the awesome brother that I am by supporting your decision so I think you could handle getting me pies-Oh it might be a little hard seeing as how you really do crave pies so damn much. Glad to see the baby got my taste for food. I wonder if we should see if you have a craving for bacon cheeseburgers."
Sam closed his eyes and groaned.
Sometimes it just didn't pay to have older brothers.
"STUPID!"
"Like I could change anything," Sam snapped with crossed arms.
Dean exhaled slowly and Sam knew he was getting mad. He honestly didn't think some kid would swap bodies with him in the first place but unbeknownst to the kid, Sam was pregnant and he didn't find out the whole time he was in his body and even as they dropped the kid off, Sam was glad he hadn't known although he wondered what excuses he made for the small curve in his lower abdomen. Of course to others it may look like he was getting chubby at the moment.
"Okay another bump in the road. That's okay. We'll work on this until we get it perfect." Dean added and Sam only shook his head.
"You do realize you are a slave driver?"
Dean quirked his eyebrows.
"I'm looking after you both Sammy. Besides I want you checked out after that kid had your body and all. Don't want you getting any nasty viruses or infections or whatever. What if you-SAM!"
Sam was slowly trying to find ways to get better access to his breathing and felt it had been cut off some. His eyes widened and Dean practically ran to the med kit, thankful that they brought it in thinking about the things that could happen in advance. He sat next to Sam, having pushed him back onto the bed of their most recent motel room and tried to think if it was hyperventilation or something else. He put the paper bag over Sam's mouth and nose to try and rule it out and when Sam weakly pushed it away, Dean scowled and tried to hold it there.
"Dean," Sam rasped. "Kid…asthma."
Dean's eyes popped in surprised silence realizing what Sam was apparently trying to say.
"SON OF A BITCH!" He dug out an old inhaler that Sam used to take and was glad that he restocked it since he was always thinking of Sam regressing from the childhood asthma that he seemed to grow out of. Of course nobody told them that a body swap would have a few challenges like Sam getting the little kids asthma for one. "Sam I have an inhaler for you. Come on buddy, a few puffs and you'll be fine."
Sam's chest was heaving with the need to breathe and holding his nose, Dean pressed down on the inhaler, making sure Sam got a couple of puffs and then removed the fingers holding his nose. Sam brought in a struggling breath, the burning sensation easing as he found it easier. Still breathing deeply, he suddenly realized that he was leaning back against Dean's chest and that the hand that wasn't combing through his hair was rubbing small circles in his chest as though it would make it easier on Sam.
"I'm okay," Sam breathed making Dean glare at him.
"Definitely a reason to go to a medical clinic now," Dean finally said. "You really okay Sam? Damn you haven't had an asthma attack since you were four and that was no picnic either."
Sam calmly nodded and allowed Dean to continue with what he was doing. It seemed to relax him after the scare he gave his older brother.
"Come on, I think that we should go before you have another attack."
Dean aired on the side of caution even though Sam found himself saying, "That kid had asthma, I think it'll right itself out again after-"
"Don't talk then and just to make sure okay?" Sam found himself nodding.
Dean was just trying to keep him safe and who was he to say no?
At the emergency room, Sam was sure it wasn't really that emergent but since he had had an attack with a preëxisting condition in the past fifteen minutes, he got right in and his vital signs were taken right away. His pulse was a little high but it was just because of the albuterol inhaler that he had to take to ease away the attack so he could breathe again. His oxygen saturation or how the nurse broke it down as the amount of oxygen in the blood, was sitting at 98 percent which was good. He was doing okay as far as he could see but she preferred to lead him to an exam room away from Dean and have him hop onto the table. Announcing that she was going to get the doctor, she left the room, closing the door on the way out and leaving Sam alone.
He thought about what he was going to do now and then it came to him. He really wanted to find out more about the baby and he knew that the doctor would agree that he should see how the baby was doing since he had had difficulty breathing before coming to the emergency room. He hoped Dean would understand but he really needed to know and it was too tempting to ignore anymore. He almost fell off of the table when the doctor arrived and reviewed everything the nurse had done before checking him over as well. The small checkup included listening to both his heart and lungs and having him cough which now that he was feeling loads better since the body swap, he was fine. He let out a raspy cough though when the doctor checked the back of his throat as well.
"Have you been sick recently?" he asked and Sam shook his head. Being pregnant wasn't an illness after all.
"Well I could prescribe you some antibiotics but then I don't really find it necessary. You're vital signs are as normal as they would be having inhaling the albuterol of course. The nurse will come back and make sure there are repeat vitals taken but other than that, I would recommend bed rest so that your body gets the chance to get over what it probably did. You have any allergies?"
Sam shook his head and the doctor nodded. Dropping the stethoscope back around his neck the doctor seemed quite pleased with Sam's health. Sam gulped but couldn't hold back anymore.
"I was also wondering if you could see if my baby is alright." When the doctor looked up a little in surprise, Sam quickly concealed his shaking hands trying not to appear agitated.
"That changes things," he finally said. "Asthma doesn't necessarily complicate a pregnancy but if it's out of control it could. How far along are you?"
Sam didn't know and when the realization hit, he felt all the more horrible. He didn't even know how big his baby was or if the baby was healthy with all ten fingers and toes. He was going to be a horrible parent and he knew it. Before he could panic about how he didn't even know how many months he was, the doctor cleared his throat to get his attention.
"I take it that you didn't see a healthcare provider yet."
Sam nodded hesitantly.
The doctor had Sam lay back and lower his jeans a bit and felt the doctor touching his lower abdomen. He kept his mouth shut until he felt something really cold and almost jumped. The doctor just nodded as though he was speculating.
"I'm pretty sure that if everything goes smoothly, we can hear it," he told him not specifying anything.
Sam nodded biting his lip.
He waited a bit until a small whooshing sound filtered the room and Sam's eyes widened in shock. He turned to the doctor who seemed to be concentrating for a moment before looking up and nodding reassuringly.
"That's your baby's heartbeat and it's at about one forty five right now. Unborn babies have faster heart beats but it's all normal. Now I'm going to see if we could visualize the baby okay?"
Sam nodded and frowned when he realized this entire time that the doctor hadn't given his name as of yet. He glanced at the name tag that read Dr. Smith Hadley. So it was Dr. Hadley. He nodded just as the doctor brought the machine over and Sam bit down to keep from voicing out what he knew he was going to get explained to him.
"I'm going to be putting hell of a lot more gel on your abdomen so that we can see the baby," Dr. Hadley told him and true to his word, Sam kept himself from groaning at how cold it was. The doctor didn't say anything and instead pressed the wand against his abdomen, moving it around for a bit before turning the screen towards Sam.
Sam almost lost his breath.
If he had any thoughts about being wrong about everything even after hearing the heartbeat, it was seeing his baby on the screen for the first time that made him realize just how real it really was. He could see the baby's head, the legs and feet, the baby's torso, and the arms. The baby's hands were near its head and Sam let out a great big sigh of relief just knowing that his baby was healthy.
"Judging from the ultrasound and by the measurements of the baby, I'd have to say that the baby looks to be about sixteen weeks. Sixteen weeks exactly according to the machine." Dr. Hadley added.
Sam nodded trying to overcome the tears. How could he have thought about even listening to his brother and the angel even if it was for a second? Seeing the baby he knew he loved it even though he didn't know the gender and it was nameless as well. He smiled slowly, taking in the features.
"I'm going to get a couple of pictures alright? Then I'm going to talk to you about your options," Sam frowned realizing that even the doctor probably wondered what he was doing with a baby. Before he could ask the doctor continued. "I'm pretty sure I could find the gender for you if you would like that."
Sam nodded and watched as he maneuvered the wand until he got it to where he wanted and then looked to see if Sam understood what he was seeing. Sam couldn't be sure and he didn't want to be wrong but if he was right it looked and he meant by that he could say he was fifty seven percent sure that it was-
"It looks like you're having a boy." Sam looked down at the baby bump finding himself glad that he wasn't taking anybody's advice but his own. Dean was supporting him but only because he knew Sam didn't want to get rid of the baby even though he definitely would try to advise that Sam get an abortion. Gabriel seemed to not want the baby at all either though.
"Okay," the doctor handed him some paper towels to clean the stomach before continuing in a very serious voice although Sam could tell that there was something else in there too. "You need to see a regular doctor if you want to have a healthy baby. I don't see why you wouldn't have gone before now and why you would feel ashamed about coming and seeing that your baby was healthy-"
"I didn't know until two weeks ago," Sam blurted out. He forced himself to calm down as he continued. "My boyfriend doesn't want the kid and, and I didn't know how he would feel if I just went and saw the baby and everything. I wasn't trying to neglect my kid."
"So your boyfriend wants you to get an abortion?" At Sam's nod Dr. Hadley sighed. "Listen, I know it may seem very hard but I know a lot of people who say if they had to go back and do it all over again, they would still have the baby. A lot of people who have had abortions wish they could go back and go about it differently. They realize afterwards that there are always other ways. I'm not saying everybody wishes that they didn't have one because there's still those who get one because there's something that prevents them from carrying the pregnancy to term. Financially, medically, or even emotionally are benefactors in the decision to carry out a termination. Do you really want to?"
"NO!" Sam quickly shook his head. "I want this baby. I, um, I don't know what I would do when the baby comes but I have the feeling that out of all the mistakes I have made and everything that I couldn't fix, this is the one thing I could do right. I could give my baby the chance to live," Sam said finally, eyes still on his belly.
"It's your decision okay," Dr. Hadley told him. "Nobody else could make it for you and in the end it will only impact you and your unborn child. If you're serious, take better care of yourself alright?"
Sam nodded fervently knowing that that was what he would do. The doctor handed him the pictures much to his delight and let the nurse reënter to get the second set of vitals he wanted. All he could think about though was the baby. The baby was real and small and just perfect. He always wondered how a baby looked in utero not having gotten the chance before but now, he was ecstatic. Not only that he was having a son. His son. His healthy son.
Gabriel's baby.