Chapter 223

Justin’s POV

I had always wondered about something when I watched things about pregnant ladies who were surrounded by a nervous partner in movies or television. The expecting lady would be at the doctor or the hospital, and fluttering around behind her or beside her, wringing his hands and looking helpless, was some poor sap who I thought must be a complete wimp.

After all, what sort of man couldn’t handle someone else being pregnant? It wasn’t like anything was wrong with him.

Yet here I sat in the doctor’s office with Helen, doing just that. She wore her little gown tied behind her back with a sheet across her lap, waiting for Dr. Peterson to join us. We’d been shown in by the nurse. Helen had been weighed and had her vitals taken, and now we just sat.

And like those dudes in the movies, I wanted to wander around the office wringing my hands, trying to find something to do with myself and my nerves. The weird thing was I couldn’t really think of anything to be nervous about.

Helen was going to have a baby. It was natural. Women did this daily worldwide. And compared to the number who had everything go right, the number of ones who had something go wrong was much smaller in comparison. So really, what did I have to be worried about?

Still, I couldn’t help the buzzing in my stomach, and my body trembled along, waiting for this doctor to arrive and tell me that nature was being nature.

A small tap on the door and it opened, allowing Dr. Peterson to come in. She smiled at Helen and me.

“Welcome to my office. I brought someone with me for a consult. Do you mind if she comes in with me?”

“No, I don’t mind,” Helen said, scooting back to get herself more comfortable and looking shy.

The door opened wider, and behind Dr. Peterson was a woman I hadn’t met before. She looked about halfway between my age and my father’s age, not young, but not old yet.

Dr. Peterson pushed the strange woman forward and introduced her. “This is the witch practitioner that I said I would like to consult with. I did some research and decided on her. May I introduce Elena Myles?”

Dr. Myles gave Helen and then me a smile. So, she was the witch practitioner. Made sense. I thought when the two of them walked in that maybe it was just cleaning supplies, but a very distinct and sharp herby smell followed them in. That must be Elena and whatever she used to practice her witchcraft.

“I’ve already given Dr. Myles your background information,” Dr. Peterson said. “So, at the end of my exam, if she has any further questions for you, she can ask while she’s doing her portion of the exam.”

“Her portion of the exam?” I asked. “Wouldn’t it be the same?”

Dr. Peterson shook her head. “I’m looking for the usual biological werewolf stuff. Dr. Myles will be examining any residual magic and monitoring both of your werewolf and lycan powers as they translate into this pregnancy.”

I eyed Dr. Myles. “Are you familiar with werewolf and lycan power? Especially lycan, seeing as how I’m the last?”

She nodded her head. “You weren’t always the last lycan, and I had the privilege of working with several before you were born, shortly after I completed my training as a witch practitioner.”

I looked at her with narrowed eyes. “So, before I was born, you knew multiple lycans? And as their doctor, you did nothing to save them?”

She met my stare for stare. “It wasn’t like the Huntsman sought medical treatment for any of those that he was exterminating. I’m very sorry about what happened to your kind, but it’s not my fault.”

I continued scowling at her.

She heaved a sigh. “Similarly, even though I will do my very best to care for you and your unborn pup if you should get into a car accident and I’m not able to make it to you, it’s not my fault. If you lose your life in daily activity, there’s little I can do unless you make it to my care before you expire.”

I bit my lip on more comments. She was right. What had happened with the Huntsman was only the Huntsman’s fault. But to hear that someone standing in the room with me had known more of my kind, and yet they were still all gone, stung me in a way that I wasn’t prepared to deal with.

Helen reached out and gripped my hand. “Look at this way,” she said quietly. “Dr. Myles saw some of the last of your kind, and now she’ll see some of the first. I think that makes her extra special, don’t you?”

“I guess it is if you look at it like that.”

Dr. Peterson cleared her throat. “Well then, perhaps we should get on with this examination.”

She opened the door and went back into the hallway, then wheeled in a cart that had a monitor and a bunch of different instruments on it.

“What’s all that?” I asked.

“It’s an ultrasound machine. We want to get a good look and make sure that everything is going exactly the way that it’s supposed to be going.”

“Why wouldn’t it be?” I demanded.

“Well, there are things that wouldn’t show up just looking for a heartbeat, like an ectopic pregnancy. We want to make sure that the baby is implanted properly and that everything about the amniotic sack and her fluid levels, and the location of the pregnancy is all as it should be. Then we can relax and enjoy until it’s time to do another ultrasound, about halfway through the pregnancy.”

She grinned at each of us in turn. “That’s the one where we’ll be able to tell you whether you’re having a boy or a girl.”

Helen squeezed my hand. “I’m ready for this.”

“Okay, then why don’t you lie back and get comfortable?” Dr. Peterson prompted. “I’m going to be doing an internal ultrasound first.”

“How does that work?” I asked though I got no answer.

Helen just closed her eyes and laid back.

To my shock, Dr. Peterson grabbed what looked like a giant magic wand with a condom rolled down it and squeezed the goop on the tip.

“Wait, wait, wait,” I yelped. “Where do you think you’re sticking that?”

Dr. Peterson pressed her lips together like she was biting back laughter. “I have to put this inside your wife,” she soothed. “It’s not going to violate her or anything, but I need to be able to see better. And this early in the pregnancy, this device will give me a much closer view than trying to go through all the muscle and other tissue of the abdomen.”

I bit my lip, mostly because Helen squeezed my hand tighter, urging me to shut up. I didn’t like the idea of anybody sticking anything up there if it wasn’t me. But, then again, this was a female doctor with a medical instrument.

I needed to get a handle on myself for Helen’s sake because she looked rather nervous about this whole thing herself. Dr. Peterson lifted the sheet, and Helen flinched when she inserted the wand.

The next thing I knew, we were trying to follow along as the screen showed a blurry image of all sorts of unidentifiable structures.

“What exactly am I looking at?” I asked.

“Well, this right here, this black circle, that’s her uterus. And . . .” She made some adjustments with her hand, and the picture on the screen wiggled before coming into better focus. “That, right there, is your pup.” She pointed to something which looked a little bit like a jellybean. “Congratulations.”