Knight wore elastic shorts that he could easily pull down over his belly for Dr. Sacks to examine. “Starting to get a little crowded in there,” she said with a smile.
“Yeah. They’re movin’ around alot. Is that okay?”
“Considering you’re on an accelerated growth schedule, I’m not surprised.” She pulled out a paper. “Your ultrasound looks good.”
Knight said, “Y’r tryin’ t’ keep this quiet. I appreciate that.”
Sacks unwrapped her stethoscope from around her neck. “It’s not often that a man gets pregnant, and besides, your insurance isn’t covering most of these visits.”
“I saw the bill.” Knight winced. He had seen the bill for the ultrasounds and monitoring, and it was crazy. But someone was taking care of them – either Mal somehow, or maybe even Scott.
She tilted her head slightly, as if acknowledging his unsaid statement. “With the technology comes a price.” She put her stethoscope against his belly and listened. “Seems they’re asleep. I can hear heartbeats, no movements.” She wrapped the scope around her neck again. “When do they move around a lot?”
“Mornin’, an’ when Mal gets home. I don’ feel ’em much when I’m working.”
“Good, good. Are you having any trouble getting the time off?”
“I tol’ ’em we were adopting.”
She nodded, turned to wash her hands. “What about names?”
“Caroline an’ Persephone Lynn if there’s two girls, an’ Roland James for the boy. Dunno if the unknown one’s gonna be a boy or not, but,” he looked up, “I think it’s a girl.”
“Pretty names for girls,” she said. “Roland James. I like that. Sounds like some sort of medieval knight.”
Knight grinned, and Dr. Sacks slapped him on the shoulder. “Into the monitoring room with you. I’d like to get a baseline while they’re sleeping.”
Knight went into the other room with the monitoring equipment. The assistant gave him the most recent issue of Parenting magazine, and he read while they strapped him up to the machine. He shook his head at what the parents were doing to their kids, to make them better, stronger, faster, and smarter. “Baby Mozart, my ass,” he said to no one in particular.
Dr. Sacks came in and nodded at the results. “Everything looks great, Knight. I do want to talk to you about something, though.”
“Hm?” He sat up on the gurney.
“As I said, they are growing at an accelerated rate. I’m going to send you for an ultrasound once a week after next week. I don’t want you to be surprised if we decide to go in with a C-section a week or a few days early.”
“C-section?”
“Cesearian section. Basically we cut you open and take them out. You’ll be sedated with a spinal epidural.” She looked at his shorts. “To be honest, Knight, I don’t think you’ll have a natural childbirth. Your hips aren’t wide enough. I don’t know if you have the cartilage in the right places to widen your hips during childbirth. When your water breaks, the labor starts, and that’s the point of no return.”
He nodded. He had read about this stuff in the book he had. He had heard good and bad things about C-sections, but he knew his natural healing ability would kick in and leave a minimal scar.
“Are you all right with that plan?”
“I don’t have a problem wi’ it. I gotta tell the fathers.”
She blinked. “Your husband and..?”
“Our boyfriend.”
She chuckled. “Nothing surprises me anymore. Nothing.”
Knight got up, jumped off the gurney. “See you in a couple of weeks?”
“Certainly.” They shook hands, and Knight went downstairs to Kitty. He climbed on the bike and rumbled it to life.
He decided to go to the seashore, to a park he had found outside of Millennium City. He drove at a leisurely pace, enjoying the ride, happy that things were going well. He glanced at his rear view to see a car coming up really fast. He kept one eye on the road, the other on the mirror.
As he expected, the car filled his mirror quickly. Knight slowed down and moved over to let him pass.
The man did, aiming a gun at him while he passed.
Knight swerved off the road, heading down an embankment to a guard rail. He turned the bike sideways, and slammed sideways into the railing. His leg snapped, caught against the railing as his body went sideways over the guard rail. With cat-like instinct he twisted his body so that he landed on his side, avoiding landing on his front, avoiding hurting the babies.
The car sped on.
Knight had been hurt worse. He felt his stomach first, and felt the babies moving. “It’s okay,” he said, “We’re okay.” He crawled on is good leg to the edge of the railing. The bike, because it was made of Impervium, was just scratched up but nothing worse. However, he couldn’t put any weight on his leg, since it was hanging at a strange angle. He knew that if he shifted, he could heal, but he hadn’t shifted since he was pregnant, and he didn’t want to try it now.
“Fuck,” he snarled, and fished out his phone, calling 911.