His tone was that of a man acting like he was being scammed and she found it offensive, but somehow understandable, at the same time. She tried not to sound annoyed with him as she spoke. It would serve no purpose for either of them to make the situation any worse than it already was.
“The last night we were away, you didn’t. I have been sick since the moment we returned home and I took a pregnancy test from the pharmacy near my house.”
“Has to be a false positive. Perhaps it isn’t effective on shifters. Those things are designed for humans. There is just no way. Come on. We’re going to see the clan’s doctor.”
“Now? Don’t we need an appointment or something?”
“No. Let’s go.”
She couldn’t be certain if he was just bewildered, angry or some combination of the two. Rather than argue the point, she picked up her bag and followed him out. He barked in the general direction of Ruby, who was the only one on staff tonight.
“Ruby, we don’t require dinner tonight. You can go home.”
“Yes sir,” she replied, looking at me inquisitively.
I shrugged and continued to follow Yakov out the door. We drove in complete silence toward the small clinic run by the clan’s private doctor. It was late, so I was guessing he wouldn’t be there, but it sat on the property beside his home. There was no doubt that someone like Yakov would be able to get him to open it up to see her. She felt embarrassed by it all. First of all, she was too old to be getting accidentally pregnant and being dragged out for an immediate pregnancy examination was just further humiliation.
They arrived to find the doctor on the large wraparound porch of his home, enjoying a drink, from the looks of it. A normal doctor would say no to examining anyone if they had been drinking, so the trip was probably a bust anyway. Still, he stood and greeted them pleasantly.
“What brings you out this late in the evening?” he asked Yakov.
“She needs a pregnancy exam,” he grunted.
“Oh? Wasting no time are we? Too excited to make an appointment?”
“Close enough,” Yakov growled.
The doctor raised his eyebrows in Yakov’s direction before turning to Aileen.
“We can make an appointment if we need to,” she said, nodding toward his drink.
“Oh, that? No, not alcohol. It’s tea my wife makes me drink for my health. You’ll be saving me from it. It tastes like someone boiled boots from the first World War. Boots with dirty feet still in them.”
He laughed and Aileen smiled halfheartedly. Yakov remained stone faced.
“Tough crowd,” the doctor replied, motioning for both of them to follow him.CHAPTER TWENTY“Alright, let’s get you undressed and into a gown. I’ll be in the other room, getting cleaned up,” the doctor told her.
“Doctor, I didn’t get your name,” she said, not sure why it mattered. Still, there was just some part of her that felt she should know the name of a man that was about to touch her in all her personal spaces.
“I’m sorry. I assumed Yakov told you. Dr. Curtis. James Lee Curtis.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Nope, but I’m older so her parents stole it from mine,” he laughed before disappearing out of a side door.
Aileen smiled sincerely for the first time as she got undressed and put on the gown, slipping onto the nearby exam table to await his return. She half expected him to come back in a hockey mask, but he didn’t. It was a missed opportunity with new patients, in her book.
“Let’s see what we’ve got here then.”
He had already had her give a urine sample and put it in to test, but this was the additional physical exam. She looked up at the ceiling as she thought about the uncomfortable business of a doctor feeling about her lady parts. A laugh escaped her as she did so. There it was. Looking down from her on the ceiling above the exam table was Michael Myers in his trademark hockey mask. So, the doctor did have a sense of humor about his name, after all.
“Are you ready for me in there?” Dr. Curtis called out from the other side of the door he had exited earlier.
“Yes,” Aileen replied nervously.
The door opened and he stepped in. This time, he was in a white coat and latex gloves. She tried to focus on something else while he went about the business of examining her, asking questions as he went along.
“Your symptoms are actually typical for an Omega. Once pregnant, your system reacts quickly. Because of the increased number of children your kind bear, your system has no time to waste. It’s got multiple eggs to process, multiple bodies to nourish. Not everyone gets morning sickness, but those that do seem to get it almost immediately.”
“Good to know. I take it that you are confirming I am pregnant then?”