Jethro smiled at his lover as he pottered about in the kitchen making coffee. Tim was dressed in nothing but low slung sweatpants that rested on his hips, highlighting the tiny swelling that was starting to form. Tim was exactly 3 months pregnant to the day and Jethro had only just started to accept the doctor’s explanation for his very male lover actually being pregnant in the first place, he even found himself getting excited at the prospect of becoming a parent again.
He walked over and wrapped his arms round Tim and found his favourite spot on his lover’s shoulder and kissed lovingly at the base of Tim’s neck. He felt Tim’s head move to the right to allow better access and continued his ministration before resting his chin on the muscular shoulder, watching as the coffee brewed, thinking back to the time the doctor told them they were expecting.
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1 month ago.........
‘Ok. Tim your blood results have confirmed you are pregnant, we’re not too sure how..................’
That was the last thing Jethro remembered, the rest of the sentence being drowned out by the sound of the blood rushing to his ears making it difficult to hear. He felt his knees buckle and then..........nothing until he was bought back round by someone shoving smelling salts under his nose.
‘J, you ok?’
He glanced up and realised he was lying on the floor next to Tim’s bed, two green eyes were peering down at him with such love and concern it made Jethro reach up to his lover. Tim pushed his hand through the rails and brushed his fingertips together with his lovers and watched with relief as his partner used the bed to help him stand.
‘Yeah Tim, I’m fine. Just.........never mind. Anyway, where were we?’
The doctor glanced over at the chair and pointed at it.
‘Sit and that’s not a request marine, it’s an order’
Jethro grunted and pushed the bedrail down, sitting on the bed with Tim, his arm draped over his lovers shoulders. He felt his lover nestle into his shoulder before urging the doctor to continue.
‘Huh, you really are a stubborn son of a ..............’
‘Hey doc, how bout you finish telling me what’s wrong with my partner’
Jethro was getting antsy, it wasn’t bad enough he fainted he was also trying to figure out why the hell he fainted.
‘Ok, anyway as I was saying, Tim you are pregnant. It becoming more and more common in men nowadays though you don’t usually know you can conceive unless you are in a same sex partnership, it’s not something that is tested for early on I’m afraid’.
Tim pondered the news and the doctor watched with fascination as the boyish features creased into a frown before the penny dropped and the large blue eyes widened, the prominent larger lower lip moving to form a perfect ‘o’.
The doctor looked over at Jethro and saw the blue eyes glaze over momentarily. She was moving towards the other side of the bed in case the older man took another nose dive off it. She was watching closely and saw him recover himself, his eyes scrunched closed to slits.
‘You can’t be serious doc, is this some kind of joke because if it is it’s a bad one’
‘I can assure you Jethro it’s not, you know what, I’m not going to wait until morning to do the ultrasound, we’ll do it right now’
The doctor left, leaving the two stunned lovers holding each other on the bed, returning a short while later dragging the ultrasound into the room. She lifted Tim’s gown and squirted the clear, cold gel onto his stomach before passing the wand over it. She found the correct spot and turned monitor to clearly show a tiny shape complete with small arms and legs that had started to develop.
Tim gasped as he clearly made out the shape of the head, body, arms and legs and saw a tiny fluttering on the screen.
‘Wha.......What’s that?’
He pointed a shaking finger at the pulsing pin point and felt his lover’s breath blowing on his neck as he tried to look closely at what his lover was pointing out.
The doctor grinned at the awed looks on the mens faces and pushed a button on the control panel. A moment later the room was filled by a rapid ‘whoosh whoosh whoosh’ that made Tim jump.
‘That gentlemen, is the sound of your baby’s heart beat. I’ll tell you now, it’s strong and very healthy’
Tim welled up, he had no idea where it came from but all of a sudden he was filled with an overwhelming feeling of love for the new life growing inside of him, of course he’d do his research but for the moment he actually felt complete.
Jethro looked down at his lover; he still wasn’t sure what to make of it all but the look of complete awe and love in Tim’s eyes melted his heart, he decided there and then that no matter how weird he found this, he would make the effort to support Tim no matter what he decided.
‘Do you want to know far along you are Tim’
Tim nodded and looked expectantly at the doctor.
‘Well, the foetus is approximately 1 inch long and is developing nicely. I’d say you are about 2 months into the pregnancy’
Jethro’s eyes dropped to his lover’s face and saw the tears that welled in the clear green eyes. He wasn’t sure whether they were tears of happiness or of pure shock and disgust, he hoped for Tim’s sake it was the former.
Tim moved his head and gazed into the crystal blue eyes he had come to love and cherish and smiled.
‘J, it was conceived on our anniversary’
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Present day........................
Tim was released from the hospital the day after discovering he was pregnant. It wasn’t without some ‘conditions’ as the doctor had put it. Tim was in shock as he left the hospital and found himself firmly on the receiving end of a complete caffeine ban which he wasn’t too bothered about until he tasted the caffeine free coffee Jethro had bought for him.
‘J, there is no way I can drink that, it’s tastes like Camel shit’
Jethro remembered laughing until his sides hurt at the comment, it wasn’t often his lover swore but when he did he still managed to make it sound somewhat childlike.
Rather than drink the god awful decaf, Tim decided to experiment with fruit teas and soon took a shine to the raspberry leaf tea he discovered a week ago, they now had a good stock of in the cupboard and Tim soon found himself craving it at random times.
Tim melted into his lover’s embrace and waited patiently for the kettle to boil. It was mornings like this that made life worth living; It was mornings like this that made Tim feel like the luckiest man alive.
Despite being totally happy now, the past month had been hard on them both, Jethro spent the first couple of weeks hiding in his basement building his boat which did nothing but piss Tim off. Well, he didn’t mind so much for the first week, it gave him time to sit and think, to absorb the information that the hospital had given him. The second week however was a completely different story.
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Two weeks ago.........
Tim sat in the lounge sipping a large mug of mango tea. It wasn’t one of his favourites but it was the best of the bunch so far and seemed to help a little bit with the nausea. The morning sickness had been a real bitch and he found himself spending more time talking to the big white telephone than anything else.
He had spent the past two weeks reading up on male pregnancies and had just about got to grips with the whole thing. What he wasn’t expecting at that moment was a wave of nausea so strong he couldn’t make it to the bathroom in time, instead throwing up all over the wooden floor. He dropped to his knees and sobbed, his emotions overwhelming him and turning him into the gibbering wreck he was now.
Tim tried to pull himself together and made his way into the kitchen to grab the dustpan and the bin, he needed to clean up the mess before Jethro the dog decided to have a good sniff. As luck would have it, his beloved Alsatian was currently in the back yard trying to dig his way to god knows where, it wouldn’t be long though before he was barking at the back door to be let in.
Once the mess was cleaned up he noticed for the first time how lonely he felt, how lonely he had felt for the past two weeks if truth be told. He sat there thinking about the times he actually saw his lover an came to the conclusion that he only really saw his lover 1) at work which had to be kept completely professional and 2) in bed and the time Jethro finally showed his face was obscene and all Tim wanted to do was sleep.
The ‘bean’ as Tim lovingly nicknamed the life growing inside of him was leeching every last bit of energy he had and most nights all he wanted to do was curl up with his lover and cuddle, he wanted to hear everything was going to ok. Instead his lover got in from work and made his way straight down to the basement, coming to bed smelling of sawdust and bourbon.
‘Right, enough’s enough’
Tim disposed of the mess and let Jethro in before making his way down into the basement. He was surprised to see his lover sitting on the hard stool staring at the boat as opposed to working on it, his eyes fixed on a point without actually seeing anything. Jethro was miles away and looked haunted but at that particular moment in time, Tim didn’t care, his sorrow had turned to anger and he needed an outlet.........Damn these hormones!
‘So this is what you’ve been doing for the past two weeks J. Sitting here staring at your boat instead of being with me’
‘Timmy I....................’
Tim’s anger took fully hold and he found he didn’t want to hear what his lover had to say, it really didn’t matter anymore because Tim had convinced himself Jethro didn’t want him anymore.
‘No J, seriously. You have got to be fucking kidding me. I’m going through this as well. No scrap that, I’m the only one going through this at the moment. You know I’ve been puking for the better part of two weeks.....ALONE. You’re not even there to comfort me anymore. You’re doing a damn good job of making it obvious I’m not what you want so tomorrow I’ll get out of your hair’.
Jethro sat there stunned, not knowing what to say to his lover. He knew everything bar the not wanting him anymore part had been right and he hadn’t been there for his lover. The problem was that he didn’t know how to handle being a dad again, it had nothing to do with his pregnant partner being a man, it had everything to do with the fear that started building as soon as Tim got home from the hospital. He sat down here most nights now thinking about Shannon and found his heart breaking slowly from the grief that was resurfacing.
‘So you’re not even going to say anything, Jesus J I didn’t do this on purpose. God I’m sorry you find me so disgusting you can’t bear to be around me anymore and I’m sorry I’m one of the freaks who can actually get pregnant. You know the day we found out I felt so ill and you were there for me. I kinda miss that J, I miss eating together, I miss watching movies together. Shit J I miss you but I guess that’s not enough is it..............’
Tim’s voice boomed through the basement of their house and Jethro saw for the first time in two weeks, the raw pain that now lived in his partners eyes. He felt his heart break, the chasm getting wider and wider with every word Tim spoke.
Tim had gone quiet for a moment and when he started to speak again, his voice broke with intermittent sobs.
‘I can’t.....do this anymore J...........I’m going to go to bed...............and I’ll................be out of your hair............tomorrow. I can’t believe...............it has actually................come to this’
With that, Tim turned and ran up the steps two at a time, Jethro felt the tears prickle in his eyes and followed his lover up, finding Tim on his knees halfway to the staircase.
‘Tim please, I do............’
‘No ...........Jethro........please not..........not now. Just do........what you have been..........doing for the past two fucking weeks.........Go back to your god damn basement and wallow........in whatever it is you have been............wallowing in’
Tim stood and with his final burst of energy ran up the stairs, slamming the bedroom door before locking it.
Jethro spent a couple of hours sitting outside their bedroom, talking to Tim through the locked door before hearing the sound of Tim retching violently in the bathroom.
‘Gibb’s you idiot, the bathroom’
Jethro berated himself as he made his way to the master bathroom’s second door. They had installed a second one when the main bathroom was out of commission, that way if they had overnight visitors, then they had facilities to use.
He was relieved to find it unlocked and let himself in, his knees threatening to buckle as he took on the sight of his lover curled miserably in the foetal position on the hard tile floor. Tim still wore the sweats and t shirt he had on earlier, though the front of his t shirt was now wet where the tears had continually fallen onto it.
‘Oh Tim..........’
He moved towards his lover and pulled him up into a sitting position, he reached up and grabbed the towel, wiping it gently across his lovers face to dry the tears that were still flowing freely.
‘I’m sorry Timmy, I’m so sorry’
That became his mantra for a good twenty minutes as Tim’s tears continued to flow. He knew part of it was down to hormones but felt the guilt stab him in his twisted heart as he realised he had done this, he had broken his lover so much he didn’t feel loved anymore, god he really did earn that second B now.
‘J, why are you here. I’m......we’re not what you want anymore’
Tim’s voice was frail and hoarse at the sobbing he had done and Jethro just sat there and rocked him gently, providing the comfort Tim had so desperately needed for the past couple of weeks.
‘Tim, we need to talk but I need you to know now, at this precise moment in time. You are what I want; I love you and want you. I’ve been a bastard recently and I’m sorry, please don’t go, I couldn’t live without you’
He felt Tim burrow deeper into his arms before attempting to stand, moving away from behind his lover, he stood and put his hand out to help him up.
‘I’m cold J’
Jethro saw his lover was shivering, the shakes so violent his teeth chattered loudly, the noise reverberating off the tile walls. The sight was strange and worried Jethro, the bathroom had been fitted with under floor heating and the house was comfortably warm.
‘Tim, look at me’
He pulled Tim’s head up and looked into his eyes, grimacing at what he saw. Tim’s face was pale and clammy and Jethro noticed Tim’s breaths were coming in short bursts.
‘oh crap. Come on we need to get you into bed. I think you’re going into shock’
Jethro led him back to their large bed and wrapped him up in the blanket before pulling out his phone to call Ducky.
‘Hello.......’
Ducky’s voice was heavy with sleep, what else did he expect at 2.30 am. He sighed heavily before answering.
‘Duck, I need a house call, I think Tim’s in shock and I don’t know what to do’
‘Jethro, what........why is Tim in shock, whatever happened?’
‘Long story Duck, please I need you to come over, I’ll explain everything then’
Jethro waited for what seemed like forever before hearing the front door open and the sound of footsteps on the wooden floor. He heard Jethro growl before realising who the late night visitor actually was and padding back to his bed.
Ducky knocked on the door and entered quietly, throwing a puzzled look at his friend.
‘Duck, listen. You remember a couple of weeks ago when Tim was in hospital for a Migraine, well basically we found the cause of the nausea and........shit’
Jethro ran his hand through his hair trying to find the right words, he barely heard Tim speak as Ducky neared the bed.
‘I’m pregnant Duck, two and a half months’
Ducky paused and looked at Jethro who just nodded once started to pace the floor. If there was one thing Ducky was good at, it was concealing his own shock at the news. he was happy for the pair but knew how difficult male pregnancies could be.
‘Ok, well um, congratulations. That doesn’t explain why you are in shock tonight though Timothy, what on earth happened’.
‘Duck, we argued and I’ve lived up to the ‘b for bastard’ stigma. It’s my fault, please just help him’
Ducky frowned and turned towards Tim, doing a basic exam before turning to Jethro.
‘He’s shocky Jethro but I think he is mostly just emotionally exhausted. He needs rest so we should let him sleep’
Ducky grasped his friends arm and the two of them made their way down to the kitchen to talk over coffee.
Tim woke the next morning feeling stiff and achy, the exhaustion was still there but his head felt a lot clearer than it had the night before. He turned on his back and reached over to his lover’s side of the bed, his hand snaking over to find the sheets cold and smooth, Jethro had not come to bed last night.
Sighing he stood and made his way downstairs, he wanted nothing more than a hot cup of coffee this morning, he felt as though he needed the caffeine to clear the cobwebs. He walked into the kitchen sighing as he mentally prepared himself for a cup of fruit tea. What he wasn’t prepared for was the sight of his Lover and Ducky talking quietly over coffee, Jethro looked up and smiled, holding out his hand for Tim to join them.
‘Hey Tim, how’re you feeling today?’
‘Erm, Ok I think, just really tired and fuzzy headed’
Tim rubbed his eyes and was surprised by the feel of a BP cuff being slipped over his arm.
‘I just want to check my dear boy, you were quite ill last night’.
Tim nodded and accepted the mango tea that Jethro handed to him. He sipped at the tea and felt the cuff inflate painfully before deflating fully.
‘Oh that’s much better, back to normal Timothy. You still need rest though so I’m going to sign you off for the day’
Tim nodded and looked over at his lover, the weariness was evident in the handsome face and the blue eyes looked dull with none of the usual sparkle they usually held.
‘I’ve already rang in Tim and booked it off, we need to talk and rest Ok’.
Tim nodded and rubbed tiredly at his face, deciding that today was not going to be a good day.
___________________________________________________________________________
Present day.........
Tim finished making the coffee and added the boiling water to the teabag, letting it steep to a crimson red colour. He pulled out the bag and handed his lover his morning coffee.
‘God I miss that J, you think they’ll let me have one a day’
Jethro laughed and decided to humour Tim.
'Won’t hurt to ask Timmy, but for now, how bout you stick to those’
He pointed at the tea and his smile widened as Tim took his first sip, the look on Tim’s face relaxed with pure pleasure. Tim opened his eyes and saw his partner sitting on one of the kitchen chairs, watching him with wonder. He walked over and straddled Jethro pulling him in for a deep kiss.
‘We’re ok now aren’t we J, I mean we’ve been talking for two weeks but I just need to know’
Tim’s voice was unsure; he had moments like this where he didn’t believe everything was going to be ok now an needed to be reassured. Jethro wrapped his arms around Tim’s waist and pulled him in for a hug.
‘Yeah Tim, we’re gonna be fine, all three of us’
Hey guys, thank you so much for all your kind reviews, I’m overwhelmed by the feedback and love you all for it, you really are good for a gal’s ego he he he.
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I know this chapter has got a lot of background work in it, but I really feel it’s important to the story. Hope you all enjoyed reading and I promise to get Chapter 4 up soon.
Shelbylou x
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.