Chapter 10 - The Big Reveal.

Brian had finally quieted and drifted off into a light doze, which meant that Justin could now relax too. The tired teen gently removed Brian's fingers from where they'd been cinched around his forearm in a death grip and moved over to the armchair in the corner of the hospital room. He collapsed into the well-cushioned chair, so exhausted he couldn't even think straight.

After fainting in the bathroom earlier in the afternoon, Brian had readily agreed to having Justin drive him to the hospital. The fact that Brian hadn't tried to argue even a token amount had scared Justin almost more than the fainting. Justin made Brian stay seated on the floor until they were both redressed, then draped Brian's longer arm over his shoulder and practically carried the older man down to the Jeep.

Once at the hospital, Brian had been ushered off into an ER cubicle, dragging Justin along with him over all protests. Brian, apparently, really did NOT like hospitals. Justin was happy to stay with him, though, because he didn't think he'd be able to handle sitting in the waiting room alone not knowing what was happening.

Brian had refused to let Justin call anyone. He said he didn't want to worry the whole family since it would probably turn out to be nothing. Again, Justin was happy with Brian's decision, because he really didn't want to deal with an interfering Debbie and a distraught Michael on top of his ill, drama queen, lover. So Justin simply contented himself by following around Brian's gurney wherever the doctor ordered him to be rolled to. Whenever possible, Brian clutched at Justin's hand or held onto his arm, needing that touch to keep his own fears under control.

The reason for Brian's fainting spell was quickly determined to be a dangerously low blood pressure level. The ER nurse immediately got him hooked up to a saline drip IV and, within minutes, Brian announced he was feeling better. The doctor authoritatively ruled out these particular symptoms being caused by the flu or any other common virus. However, since he couldn't figure out exactly what HAD caused Brian's blood pressure to drop so drastically, he refused to discharge him.

Brian would have protested, simply for form's sake, but Justin could see how truly scared the sick man was. So Justin took on the macho stud role, and weakly argued on Brian's behalf with the doctor, letting Brian save face. In the end, all parties were glad that the patient would remain in the hospital's care until everyone was sure he would be okay.

Next, various tests were ordered and Brian was wheeled all over the hospital, either lying down on a gurney or, later, seated in a wheelchair. The poor man was poked and prodded, had blood withdrawn, had various pieces of cold metal stuck into almost all his bodily orifices, was subjected to an MRI and hmm'd over by a myriad of lab coat-clad individuals. After more than two hours of this treatment, still no one had anything definitive to tell them, and it was decided that Brian should be admitted for further tests.

Because the doctor wasn't sure about his diagnosis, he wouldn't prescribe any medication for Brian other than a mild pain reliever. Brian complained he was still nauseous, although not nearly as bad as before. Justin thought he looked at least a little better after the IV - at least he wasn't green around the edges any more - but the older man was still obviously exhausted and uncomfortable. It was impossible for him to get any rest while all these procedures were happening, though. None of this helped improve Brian's mood at all.

When a nervous physicians assistant came into the patient's room just as Brian was finally getting settled and announced that there had been some problem with contamination of the prior blood sample and she'd have to take more blood, Justin thought his friend might just oblige her by popping a major blood vessel for her right then. The PA only escaped in one piece, with the new blood draw in hand, after Justin intervened on her behalf. Then he had to spend another half hour calming Brian down again.

Amazingly, both boys managed a little nap after that, since neither the doctor nor anyone else came back into Brian's room for some time. When Justin shifted in the uncomfortable chair and noticed for the first time that it was starting to get dark outside already, he started to wonder what had happened to the doctor. He glanced over at the hospital bed to assure himself Brian was still asleep and then tip-toed out of the room in search of information. Justin dispatched the first nurse he came across to find Brian's doctor and then went back to his quiet vigil.

It was still almost an hour more before there was a knock on the door and the doctor strode with authority into the room. Justin helped Brian adjust his bed so he could sit up and they both looked up at the doctor with wary but curious attention. The doctor, a grey haired, dignified, older man, cleared his throat, looked down at the clipboard in his hands and then looked back to the patient.

"Mr. Kinney, I have some initial findings here for you that we need to discuss, but I think you might want to do this in private," the doctor announced, looking pointedly in Justin's direction.

"Justin's fine," Brian replied curtly.

"Are you sure, Mr. Kinney? I wouldn't want such . . . confidential . . . health information to be disclosed without you being very sure about who was privy to . . ."

"Fuck it, Doctor . . . Whatever-the-fuck-your-name-is . . . Just TELL me already what the hell's wrong with me!" Brian demanded very vocally, more than tired of the run around he'd been experiencing all afternoon.

"Very well . . ." the doctor agreed but then seemed at a loss as to where he should start. "Yes . . . well . . . We've got your blood test results back. I want you to know that we actually ran the tests four separate times - twice on each sample we took - just to make sure there was no error. You see, this is a very unusual diagnosis and we didn't want there to be any chance of a mistake. . . I actually thought that the first blood sample somehow got contaminated because the results were so . . . out of the ordinary . . . Which is why I had another sample drawn. However, there can't really be any doubt . . . I had several colleagues double check the results for me . . ."

"Ahem! You're babbling doc," Brian interrupted before it got too embarrassing. "Fucking get to the point, already."

"Quite . . . Mr. Kinney, your blood tested positive for a hormone called human chorionic gonadotropin, or 'hCG' for short. The level of hCG in your blood was significant - well above what doctors consider to be the threshold level necessary for a definitive diagnosis . . . Uh . . . Mr. Kinney . . . hCG is a hormone produced exclusively as a result of implantation by a fertilized egg in human pregnancy . . ." the doctor's explanation faltered a bit at this point and then he fell silent.

Brian was clearly confused by what the doctor was trying to tell him, although anyone looking at Justin's face would have detected the instant shock of understanding that washed over the youth.

"So, this hCG shit . . . How did it get in me?" Brian asked with complete innocence. "Is that what's making me sick?"

"Well, yes, hCG is certainly one of the hormones, among others, responsible for causing the symptoms you're experiencing. As to how it came to be in your blood, well, that's relatively simple. . . You're pregnant, Mr. Kinney."

Nobody said anything for a long, long interval of time.

"Excuse me . . . What did you say," Brian finally spoke up since no one else was saying anything.

"I said, you are pregnant," the doctor repeated and then paused again, letting the information sink in fully.

Justin toppled backward, barely landing on the edge of the chair behind him. He was staring blankly into space. The young blond was breathing heavily and looked like he was about to faint. The doctor's attention was momentarily distracted as he rushed over to make sure the youth was going to be alright.

"NO!" The shout from the patient's bed easily recaptured the doctor's attention and he moved back to the bedside. "No! No . . . No . . . No, no . . . No!" Brian was shaking his head and looking up at the doctor like he must be crazy, although somewhere deep inside you could see the truth taking hold of the distraught brunet. "No. No . . . I can't . . . No . . . No! It's . . . I . . . I . . . I . . . No. No, no, nononono. No! Absolutely . . . No . . . . That's not . . . I . . . No, no, no! No . . . . . . . . . . No, I can't . . . . . . . No. . . . . . . . . . . no . . . . . . . . . . . . no . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . no . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . noooooooooooooooooooooooo . . . . . oooooooooo . . . . . . ooooooooo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . no."

Brian's adamant denials eventually tapered off into nothing. Then he too, sat staring mutely off into space. The doctor looked back and forth between the two catatonic men and internally debated which one he should administer to first.

A half hour later, after calling in two nurses and having a slew of additional medical equipment brought into the room, the doctor was finally confident that both his patient and the visitor were once again fully cognizant of their surroundings and ready to hear the rest of what he had to tell them.

The doctor brought in pictures and charts. He showed them scientific publications and textbooks. He even brought in a computer and played a video for the two men, attempting to explain this incredibly rare phenomena. Both Brian and Justin listened but the doctor wasn't sure either had absorbed much.

Finally, Brian pulled off the oxygen mask that the doctor had ordered him to wear to prevent him from hyperventilating. "But . . . I . . . I c-c-can't be p-p-p-pregnant. I'm . . . a man?" Brian asserted, the end of his statement, however, sounding much more like a question.

"Well, yes, of course, but you see . . ." And the doctor once again pulled out his medical charts and pointed at the diagram, explaining in great deal about the very rare occurrences of male pregnancy and exactly how it was possible, at least as far as medical science understood the condition.

"But . . ." Brian interrupted again. "Men can't get p-p-p-pregnant . . ."

"Not generally, no. But you see, in cases like this, where we see certain genetic anomalies, it is possible, in very limited and specific situations . . ." and he went on with his explanations as illustrated by the various medical journals he presented to the still confused man.

"This is REAL?" Brian stopped the doctor again, pointing to a picture of a nude man, who was very obviously pregnant, splashed across the cover of one particular scientific paper. "I-I-I thought that shit was all fake . . . Like, made up by the tabloids and shit with . . . With doctored photos and . . . and . . ."

"Oh, no, Mr. Kinney. I can assure you that, although your condition is extremely rare, there have been a handful of well documented and verified male pregnancies spanning the past twenty-odd years . . ." Several textbooks were reopened and the pertinent sections were pointed out again to the confused man.

"But . . ." Brian tried again to explain why this just couldn't be true.

"Brian, stop," Justin finally spoke up from his seat a few feet away. They were the first words he'd spoken in over an hour. "It's real. Daphne and I researched it . . . We did a report in biology class . . ." Then Justin swallowed and fell silent again.

"Fine, Justin," Brian said, looking at the youth with obvious irritation. "But still, I can't be pregnant. I don't know how. I can't . . . I can't do this."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Kinney, but the fact is that you ARE pregnant. It's really not a question of not knowing how. You already ARE," the doctor insisted.

"Justin?" Brian turned to his partner in crime and begged him with expressive hazel eyes to do something - anything - to just make this stop.

Justin looked up at the pleading expression on Brian's face. Then, in an instant, it finally all became clear to him. He stood up from the chair where he'd been sitting a bit removed from the central discussion, moved over to the side of the big hospital bed and leaned down, dropping a light kiss on his favorite Stud's beautiful, crushed-cranberry lips.

"We're having a baby!" Justin asserted with a mega-watt Sunshine smile lighting up his entire being.