Something I Can Never Forget

Bryant had finally managed to get his heart rate back under control, apparently abstinence really did make for some of the best sex of your life. A rather content little smile managing to cross over his features, not able to hold back the soft snicker that was made when he noticed that he had been using his own shirt to clean up their mess, wondering just how he was going to explain that white stain on it to Ms. Withers tomorrow. He had just been able to find a comfortable position and almost nod off when a sudden uncomfortable sensation could be felt in his stomach, almost as if something wasn't really agreeing with him, and to tell the truth it did scare him a little; food had never given him this kind of discomfort before. One of his hands resting over his stomach, only to see it visibly move a little. Okay, something was officially wrong with him, something he couldn't really explain. He knew that a trip to the hospital might not be such a bad idea, but he didn't really want to have to worry Elijah if it was simply a case of really bad gas...but his mind just couldn't seem to let it go, no matter how much he tried to just nod off and try to forget about it.

It'd been only six days since the last time Elijah had seen Bryant, but as he snuggled in, he couldn't help but notice the still oddly rounding of his belly. It had just been an observation a few days ago, an accusation of constipation, but now, as he tried to get close and found himself slightly blocked away by the growing bulge of his midsection, Elijah couldn't help but wonder if something might be a little wrong. Sure, Bryant had been on vacation, which usually warranted a few extra 'vacation' pounds for anyone, but it wasn't anywhere but his belly. It wasn't just hanging stomach fat, it was stretched, tight build. Almost as though he were bloated, but he was pretty sure Bryant would have just let the gas out after six days. Wondering now, he looked down between them and watched the little bulge as though by staring he might figure it out, trying to be discreet so Bryant wouldn't take offense.


Only. While he was staring. It moved. He'd missed the first time, and Bryant's reaction to that, but apparently, there was to be an encore. And he caught that one. And went flying. He lept a good four feet out of the small couch, tumbling down onto the floor, rolling a few times, before promptly sitting upright. "It moved! Swear to god, it did, I saw it!!" He accused Bryant's stomach, quickly scrambling his way back over and putting his hands against the little bump. "Are you alright? Holy crap. Okay. We should probably get you to a hospital, because I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to do that." And yes, Elijah was freaking out, very badly in fact, but, well, this wasn't exactly an everyday thing. And, had it been happening to him, it wouldn't have been so bad, he could have dealt with it, but it wasn't, it was happening to Bryant, and that set off all sorts of mental alarms.


"I knew I shouldn't have let you go to just any doctor, I should have gotten my doctors and they would have been able to tell me if something was wrong and..." He fairly well went into soft muttering after that, scrambling to pull on his clothes, handing Bryant his, trying not to freak out. "I'll call ahead and they'll be waiting for us there, okay?" He started searching his pockets for his cell phone, clothes and hair and face an absolute mess as his mind quickly went to the worst possible answer to what this was, something fatal or painful.

Somehow a part of him had known that Elijah was watching his stomach, and the rather loud thud accompanied by panicked ramblings only confirmed his suspicions, that Eli was going to force him into yet another doctor's office. It had been exactly what he had wanted to do ever since he had first noticed the movements a couple of seconds ago, but the last thing he wanted was to have Elijah all worried, he didn't need anymore stress in his life. His fingers fumbled a little with the button on his pants before he looked over only to see Elijah making an invisible indent on the flooring with his constant pacing back and forth, pretty sure that if he kept that up that they would have to replace the floor in here as well. "Eli...calm down, please..." It hurt him to see the other in such a fuss, fingers lightly running themselves against the others face in an effort to calm him down a little, lips lightly pressing to his temple as he spoke. "Everything is going to be fine"


A part of him hoped for it, actually prayed that this was nothing serious. It had taken him only a few more moments before he had managed to fasten the buttons on his shirt, fixing his hair a little before turning around to face the other. His emotions completely mixed up, but little did he know just what kind of a life altering thing awaited them at the trip to said doctor's office.

He'd calmed himself down enough to make the phone call, returned to his usual self by the sudden jolt into the business world as he called what must have been at least seven different doctors and ordered, not requested, ordered, them to meet him at the nearest hospital to his work in the next fifteen minutes. Of course, they'd be well compinsated for their time and efforts, but at the moment, he didn't give a flying flip over how much it cost. Only, when he actually slowed down enough to think, well, he realized how stupid he was being. He was getting all worked up, freaking out, and making Bryant worry. The guy was going through bob knows what and he was more concerned that it might stress out Eli. He sighed and forced himself at the very least to appear calm. "Sorry. I'm just...not good. At taking care of other people." He leaned over and kissed him on the forehead.

He took a few seconds to make himself look presentable, with a rather large cum stain down the back of his shirt, his hair slicked by sweat, smelling like soon to be stale sex, and walking ever so slightly funny from the absolutely mindblowing orgasm he'd shared less than half an hour before, before heading for the door, an arm wrapped around Bryant to be certain he was following and close. He'd called a taxi somewhere in the lot of this, one of the few that were more for the 'upscale' sort, a sleek black car already waiting outside when they got there, well prepared to get them to the closest hospital as quickly and as safely as possible.

His mind was still racing over the million things it could have been, none anywhere near what it really was, but worried nonetheless, not a bit of him showing it as he held the other close to him in the car, whispering soft words of comfort as they drove, never letting him out of his arms until they got there, an assistant waiting outside to walk them into an examination room.

Of course, the ride to the hospital had been pure torture on the both of them, Bryant's due to odd slightly pained 'cramps' of his stomach, and Elijah's due to his worry over whether or not this was something fatal. Even though a part of his mind seemed to be worrying about just what was happening to him, another part seemed to be unconciously telling him that things would be okay, an odd sense of peace among all of the nervousness. His eyes visibly widened when he noticed that someone was already waiting outside for them, he had never really thought that Eli would get this crazy over something that could just be a minor problem. A soft smile was managed as he followed the other through the doors to the examination room, his mind practically wheeling a mile a minute as he was asked to sit himself on the table in the middle of the room and wait for the doctors. Waiting was one of the things that had always put Bryant on edge, the anticipation of the news only making things worse than they had to be.

Elijah was already planning to sue the other doctor, to pay these as much as they wanted, and to have the best of whatever money could buy to be there at a moment's notice the second that they got the news of what was wrong. Eli didn't do well in doctor's offices, even less so in hospitals. They always brought back so many memories, none of them good. The fact that the last time he'd been in a hospital room with Bryant was the night that his brother had died made him all the more nervous, almost shaking, but he wasn't the one who needed support right now. So he moved over and took Bryant's hand, standing next to the table. The doctors had better get here quick, if they knew what was good for their careers. Just because he was willing to pay to get them there didn't mean he was willing to wait for them to get there. Just as his foot began to tap, the first two came in almost simultaneously.

Elijah was shoved out of the room by nurses, rambling on about needing to to see the patient alone and not being able to do it quite as quickly while Eli was standing there getting in the way. "We'll need to do blood work, urine tests, run ACE, AFB culture, Antibody tests, antiglobulin direct, BRCA, C-peptide, hCG..." From there on, the doctors started up, asking Bryant to strip and put on what looked like a fairly flimsy piece of paper, nurses asking every person question humanly possible to think of from where Bryant spent his time to who he'd been sleeping with, or what. Told to relax, the doctors were quickly busied with trying to figure out what was wrong, another two joining the first group that had come in, and the final fifth showing up in quite the whirl.

Brilliantly bright red hair fell in extravagantly tight curls to mid-back, kept back by an elastic strap of cloth than spanned from his hairline to half way down his head, suddenly all of it shoved into a hair cap and a white coat shrugged on. "I! Have arrived!" He declared as he entered, grabbing the charts that had already been printed out and handed gloves as he forced his way through the group to get a look at the patient. "Unusually high levels of estrogen and iron...pain in the lower regions of the belly...blah, blah, useless tests, blah...." He flipped through the pages and kept moving. "Time For...." He spun back around. "My own test." He kept demanding different samples of different things and seemed to go off to his own little corner to keep up the tests.

If it was even possible, having all of the different doctors and nurses poking and prodding him with multiple instruments as well as incredibly personal questions was enough to make even the strongest willed person turn a bright red; the same situation happening to poor Bryant. He felt oddly put on display, like he was nothing more than some sort of mysterious task that the doctors had to figure out. Fingers took to lightly gripping against the table beneath him, desperately wishing that they hadn't kicked Elijah out so soon after their arrival. The rest of the doctors seemed pretty normal to him, but the last one to make his presence known seemed to have a few screws loose, eyes widening considerably as he noticed him push himself even closer to the table, more than half tempted to tell him just to go away.

Elijah was outside the room with a few nurses, talking to them about his and Bryant's personal life, stuttering and sputtering through converstions about sex and toys and any sort of odd practices, and oddly enough breezing through all the places he'd been in the last couple of years, eventually escorted to a seperate room to take blood and...other 'samples', which of course left the poor man the color of everyone's favorite skittle, shoved into a room and told to fill the cup. Doctor after doctor set to poking and prodding and Bryant was made to do...rather odd things, asked to fill several cups and given all sorts of water and drinks to help him keep hydrated. Finally though, the doctors seemed to set to their tests, sticking to their specialties, the heart, the brain, the organs, the muscles, and last but not least, the man who had so many specialties he covered every field of practice.

Four of the five abandoned the room and went off to where there were machines and samples and everything else waiting for them, the fifth and probably weirdest doctor staying behind, sitting down on a rolly stool beside Bryant's bed with his legs crossed and his hands in his lap. "I think...I got a pretty good idea..." He smirked and winked over at Bryant. "Just need one test." One finger pushed up the glasses on the bridge of his nose. "You know, they call it the longest four minutes in a person's life." He just left out that it was usually women who took it.

His body was pretty much tired and drained beyond belief, having had to pee and give other various body fluids for numerous tests wanted by the doctors. If he hadn't have had a nice long nap earlier that day, he would have certainly been in quite a lot of trouble. Sapphire eyes seemed to widen considerably when he noticed the rather odd and outspoken doctor currently moving all the more closer to him, an uneasy smile managing to cross over his facial features at the closeness of the doctor. "Umm, than just what is wrong?" His vocals seemed strained, eyes specifically trying to keep from meeting the others face, this situation was already incredibly awkward and he wasn't really up for making it anymore difficult than it absolutely had to. "Longest four minutes...what the hell are you talking about?" His questions seemed to be going completely unanswered, an eyebrow raised in confusion when he was showed what seemed to be a long piece of plastic...just what was he expecting Bryant to do with this?

One end of the plastic 'stick' was dropped into a cup of 'sample', and the doctor walked away, going and sitting back down at his rather comfortable little place. "Let's see now, high means boy and low means girl...or was it the other way around?" He murmured as he entertained himself for the following four minutes by taking in a profile of the other man's belly, making nonsense conversation and asking pointless questions like Bryant's favorite color or if he had any family. In other rooms, the other four doctors were working meticulously and finding absolutely nothing. Except for a few minor changes here and there, differences in hormone levels in some places and such things that usually just meant the changing of the year or eating too much or little of certain things, there wasn't anything wrong with him, at least nothing that should have been causing all of his symptoms...

When the few minutes had finally passed, the little stick was taken out of the sample and left to dry on the table doctor coming back to sit next to Bryant, Elijah finally allowed back in now that the other doctors weren't swarming about the room like busy little bees. Immediately, he took to the other man's side, asking if he was alright and what they'd done and if he needed anything, obviously still worried but at least making an attempt not to show it. The doctor of course perked up now that Elijah was in the room, smiling and crossing his arms. "Now then, since you're back, I think we should talk this over before the other doctors get back or you're going to have quite the little scandal on your hands." He nudged at the two men.

There was really nothing about this whole situation that didn't strike Bryant as being some kind of odd, the fact that the doctor seemed to be talking about and asking the most random questions that could ever be imagined. His eyes had not once been able to tear themselves away from the rather quirky doctor, all the more ready to do something drastic if he acted any more senile; if that was even humanly possible. His hands were rested against the table beneath them as he tried desperately to focus on his breathing, picturing any kind of peaceful scenery that would take away whatever stress was currently building up in his system.

He couldn't have been more happier than he was when they had finally allowed Elijah to come back into the room, wanting to have someone else there in case the rather insane man in front of him finally decided to crack. His own eyes widening considerably when he had heard the doctor mention something about a scandal, which rightfully brought his attention back onto the current situation. "Just...what scandal are you talking about?" He just couldn't help but even wonder, the way that this man could have even possibly come into possession of a doctorate of any sort. Mind reeling as he desperately tried to piece together all of the little bits of information that had been absorbed in the last few minutes, talk of his favorite color and favorite foods, and he had certainly heard the man mention something about a boy and a girl...just what in the hell was really going on here?

The doctor rolled around the little room and looked out the window in the door, making sure there was no one out there, then stood, walking to the back of the room to the foot of the bed. "I'm going to be quick and frank about this, it's not supposed to be possible and quite easily anyone else would turn this into a huge media feeding frenzy, so listen close. You're pregnant." He held up the little plastic test. "These are the tests we use here, they're almost one hundred percent accurate, and after looking at the rest of your samples, I'm entirely certain that this is right." From this point on, he went into the medical explanation of how it was even remotely possible, for the first time since he'd gotten there sounding like a true and real doctor, but of course, by then, Elijah had completely left the conversation.

At some point during the lot of this his mind has started reeling, running and absolutely screaming. The average guy, when he found out his bang buddy was knocked up (because it was usually a girl) would have on some level been freaked out, but Elijah, well, he wasn't quite the average guy, was he? An advantage of the lot of this was supposed to be that neither of them could get knocked up! And he still couldn't bring himself to call their relationship that of lovers, nor to even tell the other man that he loved him, hell, he hadn't even admitted that to himself! There was no way he could have a baby with him! All the while, he looked, quite obviously, completely lost. And the doctor kept rambling.

His eyes had taken on a sort of misty quality to them, not able to stop the soft laugh that passed through his lips, half expecting this to all be some kind of messed up dream and that he would soon wake up and everything would be back to normal, but no matter how many times he tried to wake himself up, the doctor just wouldn't go away. He could slowly feel himself losing whatever little grip that he had ever had on reality, mind reeling too fast for him to ever hope of keeping up. It kept on swirling and swirling until eventually it all just became too much for his brain to handle and he had literally blacked out, eyes rolling back into their sockets as his body fell back onto the examining table with a loud thud. The last thought that had managed to clearly come out of the otherwise jumbled mess was, that Elijah was surely going to leave him and he would have to go through this awkward ordeal all on his own...which just might be the case after all.

Elijah was so far gone, he barely noticed the hand in his had gone slack, turning slowly and looking at the unconcious man in the hospital bed next to him. Before letting his hand slip out of his own. Shaking his head, he fell into the simple role of businessman taking care of a problem. "No one knows about this. Have all the tests and samples thrown out, no records." He muttered quickly, taking a few steps away from the bed. After a few long moments staring blankly at Bryant lying there in nothing but a paper gown, belly popped up like a little balloon, he leaned out the door and stopped a nearby nurse. "Bring me a wheelchair." It was only a few minutes before he'd gotten Bryant to the car, gathering bills from the doctors, the fifth having shrugged it off and gone on his own. Eli was already sending Ms. Withers a message to keep an eye on him.

Oh god, he really couldn't just...deny his way out of this one. Bryant was pregnant! It wasn't even supposed to be possible, but here they were. All three of them. Cripes, there was another human life inside this guy! They were going to be fathers! NO! This was supposed to be a few timed thing, just something that...happened. They fucked, they joked, then they fucked some more, that was all! It wasn't as though they had made any sort of...commitment, right? What if Bryant had slept with other people? He had been really active the past couple weeks...and he was pretty popular at the office, right? Eli shook his head. Even he knew all that was wrong. Bryant was as committed to him as humanly possible without there being a physical bond, like a leash.

He just wasn't as committed to Bryant. He would have killed for him, died for him, bent over backwards for him, done just about anything he asked him to. He just wouldn't say he loved him. Elijah didn't love him. Because everyone Elijah loved, died. His parents, his brother, his friends, all of them. So he didn't love Bryant. Not at all. And he damn well couldn't love this baby. Elijah drove Bryant all the way to his home, carefully carrying him inside and setting him in his bed. He'd never been here before, but somehow, it wasn't a far cry from where he lived. Looking at him now, he sort of smiled and fixed him up, pulling the covers up and tucking him in, eyes drawn to the growing bump of his belly. Ever so lightly, he leaned forward and placed his ear and cheek against it, smirking at the sounds of human life.

"Grow up big and strong," He whispered. "and be a better person than I'll ever be." He kissed his belly and left.

His mind had been whirling around and around even in his unconcious state, limbs blindly thrashing out to try and grab ahold of the body that he was hoping would be there, only to have his eyes pull open and see that no one was there with him. Feeling tears pricking at the back of his eyes, desperately trying to close the lids in an effort to hold back the tears that were all too sure to come pouring out within seconds. Regardless of his efforts, heavy sobs were eventually heard, fingers practically tearing out the hair they were holding onto with their fierce grip. He just couldn't seem to believe it, Elijah had actually left him alone at his most vulnerable time, and it was if a large part of his heart had gone missing along with his lover. Cheeks had long become stained with the wet trails left behind from the seemingly endless tears, almost as if he would actually die without having the other man there with him.

His mind was jolted out of it's otherwise sad state by the feeling of kicking against his stomach, one of his hands lightly running over the expanse of smooth skin in an unconcious effort to calm the life within. There really was no way that he would be able to go back to work, there was no way that he could face Elijah again and have him literally give him the cold shoulder, it would have simply killed him right than and there. His grip on the telephone seemed shaky at best as he quickly dialed the number for Ms Withers, allowing a saddened 'hi' to be given before telling her of the real reason that he had called, telling her that he wished to leave notice of his resignation...if Eli didn't want to be a part of the babies life than he would deal with that, but he was going to do everything in his power to make sure nothing happened to their baby.

So here he was, a little over two months pregnant and left alone with no one to turn to for any kind of comfort, but somehow he just seemed to know that he would manage.

Ms. Withers woke up the following morning, put on her absolutely favorite Sunday dress, and set out, not to the office, but somewhere else. She live next door to Elijah and today, managed to avoid him on her way out, so used to his schedule that if she had wanted to, she probably could have pinpointed him any second of any day, even those he'd spent with Bryant. A plate of homemade cookies in one hand, she got into her own car and drove on. Since the day that this company had went from being a completely capital earning, internet based deal, to being a physical, originally small business, Ms. Withers had had a job, but in reality, it had started a long while before that. When Eli was still young, still fresh from those horrifying ordeals of his youth, he had refused foster care and adoption, had decided he would do this all on his own. And had been doing fairly well, if his personal wellbeing was ignored.

He was determined, sick, hurt, half dead, he would work and try and try and earn and scrape and scramble to make use of himself. It was only a coincidence that he had moved in next to Ms. Withers, but she liked to call it fate. She was still young, making it on her own in a city she'd only ever dreamt of reaching, studying and working and trying just like Eli was, the same determination, though not to his degree. One day, when she'd seen the boy of still his teenage years working, she decided that she'd help out, just a little, baking up her own little batch of delicious cookies to take over. Only to find the boy half dead on the floor, still trying to reach his work. From that moment on, she'd become a strange mixture of mother, protector, and follower of the boy. Now, she was just keeping up her role.

It wasn't more than a few minutes before she was standing on Bryant's doorstep, knocking gently at the door, cookies in one hand and a catalogue in the other. Like hell she was going to be a grandmother and not give the baby everything. From cribs to carriers to baby clothes, she already had things marked off. And yes, she knew. After all, it was her job, and she had been the person to keep all the doctors quiet.

Elijah on the other hand, sat quietly in his own home, curtains drawn shut, no lights, no air, no movement, sitting in his usual running clothes and staring at absolutely nothing. He just couldn't force himself to move. The usual motivation, the drive, the need, it just wasn't...there. At all. Most days, he could at the very least force himself to move. Even while Bryant had been mad at him, he had done everything he usually did without a hitch. Now. Why was it so different now? He wanted to be angry, he wanted to be sad, to be hurt, happy, grumpy, worried, anything! But he couldn't, he just...couldn't. He didn't feel anything. And for the second time his entire career, Elijah decided to take some time off from work. Maybe...maybe a little more than a day.

A part of him simply wished that the person at the door would simply go away and leave him be, he wasn't exactly in the mood to have company of any kind. His eyes seemed to widen considerably when he looked out the peephole, only to see a rather elegantly dressed Ms Withers there along with what seemed to be a book underneath her arm. Just what was she doing here of all places? His confusion seemed to be written against his features as plain as day, an eyebrow arching slightly as he spoke. "Ms Withers...something I can help you with?" Bryant had absolutely no idea that Elijah had told her about the baby, thinking him obviously too ashamed of the whole thing to even admit that it was real.

Saying that his apartment was spotless would be an understatement, when he was sad he had put his energy into cleaning the house, now he was sad and had a ridiculously clean house as well. He had moved himself off to the side long enough to allow the woman to get through the front door before closing it behind her, just because he was in a bad mood didn't mean he had forgotten about his manners "Is something...wrong?"

Ms. Withers looked around for a moment, surprised as hell at the cleanliness. "I don't think my house is even this clean..." She stated rather plainly before shaking her head, getting back on the subject. "I know a lot about Elijah that no one else knows, like that he wet his bed most nights until he was seventeen, or that he woke up every morning screaming for two years after what happened, or that he and you have been boffing like rabid monkies for more than a couple of months now," She looked over at him. "I'm not the smartest human being alive, but I'm not so blind as the rest of the people apparently." And more often than not, she'd had to fix their excuses so that they made sense. "And I know that you're not hiding a bowling ball under your shirt." She reached over and pat him lightly with the baby catalogue.

She sighed softly. "I'd like to say I know him well enough to say he'll come back, or that he'll be able to admit anything to himself at all, but I can't. So, I suppose that's what's wrong." Ms. Withers set down the book and the cookies on the table and unwrapped them from the plastic wrap. "So. Here's this book, go through it, find what you like, put a tab by it. I'll pick it up after work, and bring you some clothes that won't squish your middle." She walked back out the door, with a little nod, used to her usual way of order.

Elijah was working on just getting himself working, but he'd been standing in the shower for about an hour now and he could barely force himself to move.

A lot of things were going through his mind, but one of them didn't seem to be just how Ms Withers had found out about the pregnancy, because the woman was no one's fool when it came to anything. A quick glance was given down to the rather large little stomach that had started to protrude from his waist, the normally skinny and toned man had definately had an appearance change; but was still just as cute as ever even with a belly on him. "No, it's not some bowling ball..." He wasn't quite comfortable with saying the words 'pregnant' and 'I'm' in the same sentence with each other just yet, still half expecting to wake up and find out that it was all just some kind of twisted little dream. Fingers took to lightly fussing around with a few light blonde locks that had fallen over his face, nodding a little at her instructions with a small smile that had rarely been seen against his features in the past day or so. "Thanks...it's not like I have much else to do, kind of stuck inside for now" He had barely managed to get the words out before he turned around and noticed that he was now talking to himself, kind of feeling alone all over again, it was times like this that he really wished that he wouldn't be going through this whole life changing ordeal on his own.