Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII. I depend on my daughter, xXxValentinexXx, and on Bjanik for all my information on the subject.

A/N—For xXxValentinexXx (who didn't know what I was talking about): an obstetrician/gynecologist (or OB/GYN) is a physician specialist who provides medical and surgical care to women and has particular expertise in pregnancy, childbirth, and disorders of the reproductive system.

As it turned out, Tseng didn't get an opportunity to talk to Sephiroth that afternoon. The new head of the elevated Soldier executive department was keeping an appointment he had scheduled with the head of the executive-level research and development department. Sephiroth was taking his wife to her monthly prenatal exam, and the couple had turned off their PHSs for the afternoon in order to have some privacy.

Tessa winced as she squirmed to get out of the passenger seat of Sephiroth's small black sports car. Sephiroth had been unable to find a parking place and had instead driven back to the area in front of the doctor's office building to let her out before venturing again in search of a space. Sephiroth had opened Tessa's door then leaned in to grasp her hands to help her stand.

"You wouldn't have thought I'd need help at only five months, would you?" her play for sympathy seemed to fall on deaf ears, however. Sephiroth merely nodded, made sure Tessa was standing securely on the curb, and reached in to retrieve her bag. "Oh well." She walked toward the building's door when she suddenly felt her husband's warm hand against the small of her back.

"How's your back?"

"Better now." Tessa smiled and turned her head to look up at his profile as he helped her cross the sidewalk. Tessa loved everything about that face from the lofting bangs to the long nose and narrow mouth down to the pointed chin. Hopefully the baby would have that same look of strength about its eyes too.

Sephiroth caught the smile from the corner of his eye, and his eyes smiled back. He knew this pregnancy had not been easy for Tessa so far, and he was trying to help her through it. He had opened the office door for her and was just following her inside when a car horn blared.

"Come on, buddy! Move your car!" A man's voice came from a second vehicle standing behind his own "illegally parked" car.

"Yeah." Sephiroth's cats-eyes narrowed at the car's driver, but he left Tessa to complete her journey inside on her own, and he walked back to his car pulling his keys out from his pocket. Hm. What he wouldn't like to do to the irritating driver…

The man's eyes widened as he realized who his target had been. He'd been in Wutai and seen that silver hair before. He slammed his car into reverse and found himself hurtling across the parking lot away from the doctor's building. "May I never see that man again, please Gaia!"

Sephiroth smirked and shook his head. He hadn't done a thing, and the irritating driver was gone.

Cccccccccccccccccccc

"Good afternoon, Dr. Romera. How do you feel today?" Sarah Shields, Dr. Caperton's nurse, wound her blood pressure cuff around Tessa's upper arm. Tessa had already changed into her gown, provided her monthly urine sample, been weighed, and spread the thin exam sheet over her legs as she lay back on the doctor's table. She was beginning to be just a bit concerned—her husband had still not arrived. Where had he had to park anyway?

"About like usual. The nausea seems to be getting a bit worse every day. At least we've been having staff meetings after 2:30 in the afternoons, so I don't have to run for the bathroom any longer." She laughed softly at the memory of Rufus' face the first time she'd had to "run for it." "It's getting a bit later every day before I can stand the smell of food. At this rate I won't be eating at all by the time the baby's ready to come."

"Now, now. You know that's not a good idea. Hopefully the nausea will improve soon."

"Yes, I know. I'm just not sure I can keep going much longer." Both women laughed. They both knew that Tessa was joking. She'd do whatever she had to do to ensure the baby's health.

They looked up at a soft knock on the door, and Sephiroth entered the room.

"Hi there. Where did you have to go to get a parking place?"

"Quite a ways."

Sarah smiled. Despite the terse answer, she saw the smiles in the couples' eyes. She always liked that when she saw it. Usually smiling people made for good parents. You could see it in their faces and especially in their eyes.

"All right. I've got your vitals. Here are the forms you'll need to sign for the birthing class, so be sure to fill them out and leave them here. Dr. Caperton will be here in just a minute," and she left the room.

At her exit, Sephiroth moved across the room to snatch up the clipboard Sarah had left behind. They had been discussing whether to have the baby at home or to simply plan on heading immediately to the hospital at the first sign of labor.

"You know, there are no doctors or hospitals in Dajou, so every child is born at home. I expect my mothers will even show up a couple of weeks before I'm due. They've both helped deliver a number of babies over the years."

"I am not about to take a chance with your health. As soon as you have any sign of labor, I will be driving you to the hospital. Nor am I about to take a chance that you might give birth at the Shinra clinic either. We'll keep track of Dr. Caperton's schedule as you get closer. If you can manage it, you'll have the baby while he's on call rather than his partners."

Tessa sighed, "I have no idea how I'm going to manage that one, you know. Babies make the decisions as to when to be born, not their mothers."

"You've said it yourself, Dr. Caperton is the best obstetrician in Midgar. We may well need his expertise when the time comes."

As if on cue, a soft knock sounded at the door, and Dr. Leonard Caperton appeared. "Hello there. Did I hear my name mentioned?"

"Hello, Dr. Caperton," Tessa smiled gently. She'd chosen Dr. Caperton after a careful search of all the OB/GYNs in the city. Well known as an expert in reproductive medicine, he was also known to be highly successful in handling high risk pregnancies. She rather thought her decision had finally been made when she'd learned he was also the father of four young children himself. Dr. Caperton was a small energetic man with blond hair in his early thirties. Rather young to have such a strong reputation, but Tessa was not one to hold youth against anyone, being only twenty-five herself.

The doctor held out his hand to Sephiroth who took it and shook it firmly. Rarely did anyone offer to shake her husband's hand, and Tessa added this to the list of Dr. Caperton's good qualities.

"Doctor."

"May I?" Dr. Caperton reached for the clipboard Sephiroth still held. "Well, your blood pressure's up a bit. How do you feel?"

"I am a little tired. I had my assistant, Glenn, run my mako levels yesterday, and they're running about 190 rather than my normal 210."

"And is she eating well, General?"

Ever since she'd become pregnant, Sephiroth and Zack had turned the microscope on Tessa as to what she was eating rather than the other way round. Tessa had found the constant dietary scrutiny a bit irritating and wondered if Sephiroth had been bothered by her constant monitoring.

"She's eating the right foods, but in not nearly sufficient quantities."

"Exercise?"

"I've had to give up most of my 'Soldier' style training – I'm just becoming too unwieldy. Although, I have been considering taking up… yoga…" She glanced at her husband for his reaction to this suggestion. Zack had actually given her the idea when she'd canceled two of their training sessions in a row.

"Good idea." Dr. Caperton nodded his approval. "Stretching in general is good during pregnancy and can help speed delivery. Is there a pool at Shinra? Water exercise can help ease the discomfort and help you stay fit. No hot tubs or saunas though."

"Yes… How about 'sweaty yoga'? You know the kind where the room's temperature is 105?"

"See if they'll lower the temperature for you to around 90 while you're pregnant." He paused then looked directly at Tessa. "I know that the Shinra techs have finished putting together Dr. Crescent's electronic diary entries. Was there anything in her notes beyond what you've already told me that might be relevant to your pregnancy?"

"Correlating Dr. Crescent's diary entries and Hojo's notes on his treatment of my husband has not only been difficult to do, but also difficult emotionally both for me and my husband." Tessa paused. Dr. Caperton needed the information, but it tended to scare her. Sephiroth, seeing Tessa's distress, took her hand in his own.

"Doctor, you must realize how difficult this is for us. Knowing that Hojo treated Lucrecia Crescent and my father as if they were lab specimens to do with as he wished, that he treated me the same way for the first fourteen years of my life... Even while we're trying to have a 'normal' family, in some sense we're doing the same thing to this child that was done to me. Make no mistake, we both want this baby badly. Looking at my mother's entries, talking with my father, who can barely talk about it…" he paused to shake his head. "It all tends to bring their pain to life." Tessa shook her head at Sephiroth. She would give them that one thing Sephiroth wanted so—a life as normal as possible.

Tessa tried again. "In answer to your question, I've basically come to two conclusions. The first, that Hojo kept Dr. Crescent drugged almost continually during the pregnancy so that she really wasn't aware of what was happening to her most of the time. Second, that she was suffering from mako poisoning as the fetus uptook mako from the environment, right through her body. This was only made worse by Hojo injecting her with mako as well. Officially she suicided by jumping into the Lifestream. Quite probably she was lucky to bring the child to term. She wouldn't have survived another month with that much mako in her body. Hojo did nothing to treat the mako poisoning."

"I see. Then I should be alarmed about your falling mako levels as your mako barrier is helping keep you alive… Do you still want to publish an article with me about your pregnancy given the background information you now have?"

"Yes. I have always had difficulty believing that in the entire history of the planet, I'm the only woman who's been mako-enhanced. Probably in the future there will be one or more such women, and the odds are high that they'll also become pregnant. How to treat mako-enhanced mothers and fetuses needs to be documented and made available to the public."

Dr. Caperton smiled gently, "So you haven't changed your mind at all. Good. Now shall we see how you're doing?" and with that Dr. Caperton gestured for Tessa to place her heels in the stirrups, and he proceeded with the physical examination.

This part always makes me wince, Sephiroth thought. Allowing a near stranger to examine my wife in such an intimate fashion is almost more than I can take.

A mental chuckle came through from Vincent. It will be over soon enough… Everything going well?

I'll let you know in a few minutes. Once again in a moment of stress Sephiroth had reached out to Vincent without realizing he was doing so. Someday I'll get this communication under control.

I rather hope not… By the way, Tseng wants to talk to you. Something's come up…

What? But the only reply from Vincent was silence.

The rest of the examination proceeded normally though. Dr. Caperton advised Tessa to eat better, extracted a promise from Sephiroth to be sure she did so, and had the couple complete the birthing class forms.

Cccccccccccccccccccc

"What about your mako level? Dr. Caperton did seem concerned about it." Sephiroth had packed Tessa into his car at the front curb and had just merged into freeway traffic.

"Yes, but he's letting me handle mako-related issues. I only need to come up about twenty points, so I'll arrange for an injection for myself tomorrow morning and have Glenn check my levels every few days."

"All right…" Sephiroth gritted his teeth. Not so long ago, receiving mako injections had been times of near-terror for his Soldiers. Tessa had improved that situation, but he still didn't like the idea of his wife undergoing mako treatments.

"And were you serious about that yoga class? Isn't that the one that Reno convinced Zack to take?" Tessa was a bit surprised it had taken Sephiroth this long to ask the question. Any activity involving Zack and Reno in the same sentence usually resulted in a negative reaction from her husband.

"Yes. The classes are held over the lunch hour, but lunch has not been something I've been able to tolerate for some time now. Why do you ask?"

"Well…" he paused, and she waited. Maybe it was just that large truck trying to pass their car that was distracting her husband.

"Yes?"

"I was thinking that perhaps I'd… join you… for yoga."

"Really?! That would be wonderful! Thank you!"

Sephiroth was suddenly a bit chagrined at Tessa's response. Zack had been pestering him about his level of flexibility suggesting that it could be improved ("as if"). Now Tessa seemed excited by the idea. A sheepish smile lit his mouth. "Okay… Yoga… Great…"

A/N—If you haven't read Bjanik's Sweaty Yoga, you should. She's not yet convinced me to try her yoga class, but, like Seph, I feel that I should… someday… maybe…

FYI—I plan on posting on a weekly basis (probably on weekends), but I make no promises as to the schedule. I just hope you enjoy the story.