Chapter Twenty - All in Good Time

"To Daniel and Jean, thirty years." The guests raised their expensive champagne glasses in the happy couples direction, toasting them to the finished speech of Daniel's older brother, Mark. The third and final speech of the night. Jean took a quick sip of her champagne, pressing a kiss to her husband's cheek as she pushed herself to her feet. Before anyone else decided to jump up for an unscheduled speech of their own, Jean finally made her trip to the bathroom. She hurried towards the downstairs bathroom, giving the door a light knock to make sure no one was in there, before she slipped inside.

"Mom." Greg tapped his knuckles on the door, holding his stomach as he leant against the frame.

"I literally just got in here." She called back to him, finally sitting down to pee. She didn't realise she would drink so much, but with all the speeches and everyone congratulating her and husband on thirty years, her champagne glass just seemed to keep topping itself up. She straightened up the guest towels and things once she was done, pulling the door open to her son. "What's the big emergency?"

Greg pushed past her, only making it to the sink before he threw up. He thought after a week or so his stomach would start to settle, but he still felt nauseous all day, unable to keep any food down.

"Too much champagne?" His mother closed the door, fetching him a fresh wash cloth. "You know you can't hold your liquor, sweetheart. I know we're celebrating, but you don't have to go all out."

"I..." Greg shook his head. "I haven't had a drop. Ask Nick, I've only... had water." He sat himself on the closed lid of the toilet, feeling cold sweats shivering down his arms. He felt a little faint, but he didn't want to lie down in case he threw up again. He glanced up as his mother presented him with a glass of water, kneeling down in front of him. "I'm sorry I ruined your day."

"You haven't ruined anything. Are you sick?" She instinctively placed her hand on his forehead, checking his temperature. "You don't feel feverish."

"It's not a fever. I don't know what it is." He shrugged his shoulders together, taking the glass off her hands. "My doctor doesn't think it's anything serious. I went last week." He assured her. "I'm still waiting on the blood test results. He's gonna text them to me as soon as he gets them back from his lab."

"You should go to bed. You look awful. Go on, I'll bring you up some hot soup or something." Jean pulled her son to his feet, taking him towards the bottom of the stairs. "Go, I'll be back in a few minutes. I just have to find your father before he starts to worry about me. Go." She ushered him away, making sure he actually started up the stairs, before she returned to her party outside.

Greg clambered the stairs to his room, kicking his shoes off at the doorway. He pulled off his suit jacket, collapsing back against the bed. He didn't feel sleepy, but it was nice to finally lay down. He could still hear the laughter and chatter of the guests outside, recognising Nick's voice in the crowd. He told him he'd be right back, leaving him talking to one of his uncles. He managed to convince his mother not to put them on display at the front table where she was sat, but that meant making awkward small talk with his homophobic uncle. He wanted to get up to rescue Nick from any topic of conversation with that man, but he couldn't will his legs to move once he was comfortable.

A few minutes later, he felt the mattress shift beneath him. He cracked one eye open a little, smiling as he spotted his partner crawling towards him. "Your Mom said you weren't feelin' very well." Nick lay down beside him, touching his fingertips to Greg's forehead. "Is it still that stomach flu thing you had last week? We have to take you to the doctor when we get home."

"I went already." Greg adjusted himself on the bed. "My doc said I'm fine."

"Then we need a second opinion. It's been a week already. We're lookin' at houses tomorrow." He reminded him, gently placing his hand on the younger man's stomach. "I don't want you gettin' sick."

"It comes and goes. I wasn't sick at all yesterday."

"That's because you didn't eat a thing. What if I gave you somethin'?" He feared, holding his partner a little closer. "I haven't been tested since last year. You and I have only just started... I could have given you somethin'. I could be the reason you're sick now."

"You didn't. So don't drive yourself crazy with that theory. I don't even have the right symptoms for something like that. I just can't keep any food down." Crawling towards the headboard, Greg propped up a pillow behind him, holding his stomach as Nick took a seat beside him. He let Nick gently rub his stomach, listening to the party going on outside. "Do you think we'll ever make it to thirty years?"

"I'll be sixty somethin' by then." Nick realised, giving his partner a slight nod. "I think we'll make it. We could have a couple of grandchildren by then. I see you as a college professor or maybe a lab supervisor like Grissom."

"What about you?"

The Texan shrugged his shoulders together, glancing towards the door as he heard a knock. He scrambled off the bed to answer it, thanking Jean as he took the soup off her hands. He assured her that he was taking good care of her son, before he returned to Greg on the bed. "How does your mother manage to make up some soup with a hundred guests outside?"

"She freezes them. Check the freezer next time you go down there. She loves making soups. She has a freezer full of every type of soup you'd ever want. I only just threw up though." Greg shook his head, letting Nick set it down on the bedside table instead. "Where's Sadie anyway?"

"Your Nana Olaf has her. She was gonna hold her while I asked you to dance, but you disappeared before I could."

"Sorry." Greg gave him a slight smile, actually a little relieved that he didn't have to get up and dance in front of his whole family. "You'd probably be grateful if you saw me dance though."

"You're not gettin' out of it that easily." The Texan chuckled softly. "Sadie will be alright with her for a while. She was asleep last time I checked on her." Nick perched himself on the bed beside him, placing his hand over the younger man's stomach again. "You look really cute with your smart hairdo."

"Mom wanted me to shave this." He brushed his thumb across the stubble on his chin. "I compromised with a smart hairstyle instead."

"I like it." He smoothed his hand across his stomach, checking the temperature of his forehead with the back of his hand. He still didn't feel feverish, only making him worry even more. At least when Sadie was in hospital, they detected a fever right away to treat the symptoms of her meningitis. Greg's doctor still couldn't find what was wrong with him, putting him right back in that state of worry that he felt when his daughter was still in hospital. "I can't lose you, G. If somethin' is wrong, you'd tell me wouldn't you?"

"I would. But it's nothing. Since when is feeling a little sick now and then considered something serious?"

"When the man I love isn't eatin' anythin'," Nick lifted his hand from his side, weaving their fingers together. "You can't live on nothin'." He glanced round as he heard a beeping sound, letting Greg up to grab his phone off the bedside table. "Who is it?"

Greg sunk back against the pillow beside his partner, scrolling through the message, before he handed it over to his boyfriend. "Just my doc. The lab screwed up my blood results. He's gonna run them again, which means I won't get the results back until Monday." He took his phone back from his concerned boyfriend once he was done reading it, sitting himself up straight against the headboard. "C'mon, I already feel better. Let's go back downstairs. But I'm not dancing."

"No, your Mom told me to take care of you and that's exactly what I'm gonna do." Hooking his arm under Greg's legs, Nick scooped him further down the bed, readjusting the pillow beneath his head. He pressed a kiss to the top of his head, trying not to look so worried as he looked into his eyes. "I'm gonna go get Sadie from your Nana and tell your Mom you're gettin' some rest. Stay put."

"I will." Greg ditched his phone on the bed beside him, rolling over onto his side to get comfortable. He felt bubbles in his tummy as he settled on his side, feeling a little nauseous from the chicken soup scent behind him. He slid out of bed after a while, making a beeline for the bathroom once again. He couldn't throw up this time, but the nauseous feeling was enough to make him try.

He dropped to his knees in tears beside the toilet bowl, remembering his Papa Olaf first few cancer symptoms. The man hated doctors, so he never went to them for a cold or anything before, he certainly wasn't going to see one for the constant vomiting or abdominal pain he had been experiencing. It wasn't until the pain started to affect his day to day life that he actually decided to seek a doctor's help, who diagnosed him with gastrointestinal cancer.

Greg feared his own doctor had found this same conclusion in him, chalking it up to a lab error.

"C'mon baby, let's get you back to bed." Nick lifted him to his feet, practically carrying back to bed. He climbed into bed with him, holding him as he cried against his shoulder. He didn't want to ask what was wrong at first, mostly for fear of the answer, but once he settled down, he just had to know. "Is there somethin' you're not tellin' me?"

"This is how it started..." Greg closed his eyes, spilling more tears down his cheeks. "With Papa Olaf."

"It doesn't mean that." He hugged his partner tightly, touching his lips to his forehead as he smoothed his hand up and down his back. "Your Papa Olaf had lots of other symptoms and he was sick for a while. You've been healthy up until this point and your doc would have said if it was somethin' serious like that." He stroked his fingers through the younger man's hair, messing up his smart hairdo. He thought he looked cuter with the tousled look anyway.

"Nick, I have..." Greg's Nana Olaf gritted her together as she had just barged straight into the room. She gave the young man a smile as he climbed off the bed, retrieving his daughter from her arms. "Sorry," She whispered softly, looking back at her grandson on the bed. "Is he alright? Jean said he wasn't feeling very well."

"I hope so." Nick lifted his daughter against his chest, gently patting her back as she continued to sleep. "He's been sick for the past week or so . . . and he thinks it's the same thing as his Papa Olaf." He didn't think he should tell her because she was still grieving the loss of her husband, but he was hoping she could help to put her grandson's mind at ease.

The woman smiled softly, shaking her head as she looked towards her grandson. "I know it doesn't seem like it right now, but it'll all work out. You have to be there for him." She turned her attention towards Nick. "You'll know in good time. Just be there for him." She patted his arm, giving him a smile before she turned away.

Nick had heard the younger man telling his tales of his Nana's psychic powers, but he never believed in any of that supernatural stuff, even though her words sent a chill down his spine. He lay his daughter down in the crib against the wall, returning to the bed with Greg. He felt a little less worried about him now that he was sleeping, but he still really wanted to know what was wrong with him.

When they arrived back home in Las Vegas the following day, his doctor still didn't have the answers they needed though. In an attempt to take both their minds off it, Nick went ahead with their house hunting plans, giving Greg the tour of a house he had viewed while he was working. It was in a nice enough neighbourhood with a large open hallway in the entrance.

"Kitchen." Nick led him around the large island counter, directing him over to the hidden fridge, freezer behind the wooden cupboard doors. "There's a laundry room right through there too. No more cartin' your laundry down all those stairs." He led him inside, smiling as Greg ran his eyes across the machines, before he turned to look at him. "So, a little feedback here, G. What do you think?"

"I don't like it." He confessed, stepping out into the kitchen again. "It feels like too much of a... suburban house wife kinda thing."

"We can redo the wallpaper." Nick glanced towards the fruit covered wallpaper, realising they'd have to retile the wall above the sink too. "You don't like any of it?" He slipped his hand into Greg's, leading him towards the stairs. "You haven't even seen upstairs yet. The master bedroom is huge. It's got its own bathroom and a walk in closet."

"It's not really... me." Greg stopped him from pulling him up the stairs. "It's not really you either. We don't fit in a conservative neighbourhood. We'll be chased out with torches and pitch forks before we've even unpacked."

"Did anyone ever tell you that you have an over active imagination?" Nick smiled softly, giving out a sigh as he looked around the house. "I just wanted us to have somethin' like this. Normal and safe. We could have made space for an office for you or a playroom for Sadie. It's got a big garden for her to play out back."

"I want that stuff too, but this isn't it. It didn't even feel right from the driveway. C'mon, the next one will be better." Greg turned on his heels, dragging him towards the doorway. "You know I'm right."

"Unfortunately," He turned his wrist to look at the time, checking on Greg for the hundredth time. He seemed a little more alert today. He had managed to keep down his breakfast for now, but he was starting to look a little fatigued. "What time is our appointment at the hospital again?"

"Four. And it's 'my' appointment."

"I'm comin'." He unlocked his truck at the end of the driveway, giving Greg a smile. "Catherine is happy to have Sadie for the rest of the day, so you've got me all to yourself. We can probably make it to that open house I was tellin' you about, before we make our way off to the hospital."

"Fine." Greg knew there was no point in arguing with him, so he climbed into the passenger seat, letting Nick drive him off to the next house. He felt a little motion sickness in the car, but he felt fine once they got out into the fresh air again. Like the first house, it was situated in a very suburban looking neighbourhood. He avoided all the people traipsing through the front room, taking a brochure off the smiling realtor. "I've always wondered, how can you have two and half baths?" He asked her.

"Oh," The woman smiled, leading him through the hallway. "There's a master bathroom upstairs, along with a complete guest bathroom." She pulled open the door under the stairs, clicking on a little light to show him the downstairs bathroom. "This one only has the basic sink and toilet, so it's considered a half bath, because it doesn't contain a shower or bath."

"Cool." Greg examined the cupboard sized bathroom, feeling a little claustrophobic already. "So is one thousand square foot big?" He noticed another detail on the brochure in his hands.

"It's considered quite small in this particular neighbourhood." The woman nodded, leading him over to the window. "It really depends on how many rooms the house has rather than the square foot. The neighbours on the right is a three thousand square foot house. But it has a lot more rooms than this one, so it feels much more cramped. It's also up for sale. What kind of house are you looking for?"

"You got anything in the one story range, family sized with a friendly neighbourhood?"

"Actually I do." She retrieved a card from her pocket, placing it in his hand. "I'll be done here about five tonight. Give me a call anytime, I'll be able to take your details and give you a private viewing of the houses I have available in your range. I'm Dawn Spring, by the way." She introduced herself to him, excusing herself as she went to answer some questions for another couple.

"Hey." Nick stepped up beside him, after finally finding somewhere to park. "I leave you alone for less than five minutes and you're already flirting with the ladies. Did you get her number?"

"I did, actually." He presented the card to him. "She can give us a private viewing of any house we desire. How many bathrooms do you think we need?"

Nick couldn't help but smile, reaching out for the younger man's hand at his side. "So you don't like this one either? You haven't even walked past the kitchen yet."

"It doesn't have a good vibe." He shook his head, explaining, "I don't get a good vibe from this house. The second I walked through the door, I wanted to walk back out again. Our house shouldn't make me feel like that. And there's a tiny bathroom under the stairs that just has this whole... prison vibe to it. Look at this." He pulled his boyfriend by his hand, heading towards the kitchen. He pointed directly out the window, showing Nick the view of the brick wall of the alley outside the window. "I noticed it when I first walked in. Do you want that to be your kitchen view?"

"No." He confessed, realising why it was so difficult to find a house with a fellow CSI. Like him, he immediately saw every detail, searching for flaws or things out of place. "Not this place then." Nick led the way towards the door, pointing out the garage as they made their way down the garden path. "I've always wanted a garage though."

"I'll add it to the list."

"You have a list?" Nick motioned towards his truck at the other end of the street. "What's on it?"

"Open plan kitchen and dining area. Laundry room, although not completely essential. Screen doors leading out to the garden. No stairs. And a garage." Greg memorised the list off the top of his head, putting his back to Nick's truck. "Bedrooms... maybe three or four. No half baths. And maybe a study or large family room where we can all hang out in the evenings."

"You have a bigger list than me." He realised, leaning against the car beside him. "What have you got against half baths though?"

"Too small. And what if you decide that you want a shower while you're sitting on the toilet, but you're in the wrong bathroom?"

"And stairs?" Nick queried, looking round at him.

"I like having things all on one floor. Say you're hungry and you've just got out of bed. You don't want to stumble down a whole staircase just to get to the kitchen, before you can make your way back upstairs to eat something in bed. It'll be safer for Sadie too." He gave his partner a wide smile, hearing his watch beeping at his side. He watched him turning off the alarm, feeling his heart racing as he realised it was time.

Nick gulped softly himself, weaving his fingers together with Greg's. "You ready to go?"

"Is 'no' an acceptable answer?" Greg pursed his lips together, pushing himself to his feet. "Let's get it over with. Maybe I'm just over reacting and it's just a stomach bug." He closed his eyes as his boyfriend pulled him into his arms, hugging him tightly against his chest for a moment.

"C'mon, it'll be alright." Nick pulled open the passenger side door behind him, helping the younger man inside. He dreaded driving in the direction of the hospital, but Greg's doctor had assured them that these tests would be necessary to find out exactly what was wrong with him. He held Greg's hand all the way through the hospital, leaving his side for just a moment while Greg changed into a hospital gown.

"The doctor will be with you shortly." The nurse secured the patient identity bracelet around Greg's wrist, giving him a smile before she exited the cubicle.

"Are you okay?" Nick held onto his boyfriend's things in his arms, stepping up to the bed the younger man was laying on. He looked helpless already just being in a hospital bed, but it only made him love him even more. "Did he tell you how many tests they're runnin' today?" He caught a slight head shake from the younger man, noticing his lip quivering slightly from his nerves. He leant against the side of the bed, lifting Greg's hand into his own. "Your Nana Olaf told me that this would all work out. While you were sleepin', she told me and she looked certain about it."

"She did?"

"Yeah." Nick nodded, seeing a slight smile reaching his lips. "Have you ever known her to be wrong?" He glanced up as another nurse walked into the cubicle, giving them a smile as she set down a tray.

"I just need to take some bloods."

Greg let her lift his arm from the bed, looking away as he saw the needle. "Make sure you leave me some." He smiled at her. He had taken bloods from people at the lab before, but he still hated the sight of needles anywhere near him. He looked up into Nick's eyes instead, gently squeezing the man's hand as he felt the needle going in. "Talk to me." He pleaded the man beside him.

"Um..." Nick watched the blood draining from his arm, trying to think of something to say. "What else would you want? In your ideal house. You never mentioned anythin' about a garden. How big would you want it to be?"

"Not too big. But big enough to watch you mowing the lawn topless for a while."

Nick smiled back at him, not even caring about the nurse beside them. "I haven't mowed a lawn since I was fifteen. My Dad had one of those little tractor ones that you sit on. Our dog Bandit used to follow it around the fields. He'd keep a safe distance, he just liked to keep me company while I was out there."

"Would you want another dog?" Greg flinched a little as the nurse drained a second tube of blood from his arm.

"Maybe one day. We always had animals when I was a kid. I grew up in a house full of kids and animals. There was always somethin' that needed to be fed, walked or cleaned out. Gettin' into bed at night you'd have to trip over the dog beside the bed, before you tried to squeeze in beside the cats layin' across the covers. I think my sister's hamster was the worst. It used to run around in its wheel thing all night. I do kinda miss em though."

"I've only ever had a gold fish to myself. My Mom had her rescue cats after I left for college. I think she needed something to care for once I was out of the way. Papa Olaf hated dogs, so we were never allowed one when I was little. I think he got bit by one as a kid or something and he just developed this hate towards them. He used to have a go at dog walkers if they even came close to the house."

"We could get one someday." Nick gently brushed his thumb across the back of the younger man's hand, smiling softly as the nurse finally removed the needle from his arm. "I like German Sheppard's. Bandit was a dark haired German Sheppard. He had a really dark face with a light eye patch of fur on his left side. He had been mine since he was a puppy."

"So we'll need a big enough yard for a dog or maybe a park or something nearby. Sadie loves swings, so we could get one of those swing sets too." Greg tilted his head to the side, watching the nurse labelling up his bloods. "Did you leave anything in me?"

The woman smiled, giving him a nod. "I left you some. I'll be back in a minute. We'll need a urine sample, before we take you down for your CAT scan." She collected up the bloods, leaving them alone for a moment.

"A scan?" Nick queried, setting Greg's things down so he could gently brush his fingers through the younger man's hair. "What's that for?"

"My doc said it would either be a scan or one of those things where they make you drink something that they can see on a x-ray or something. As long as I don't have to have that camera thing stuck up my butt." He remembered him explaining the procedures to him, but it felt a little more terrifying now that it was actually here. He waited with Nick for what felt like hours, before the nurse finally returned. He felt more awkward than embarrassed about the urine test, terrified to leave Nick's side once he was carted to the CAT scan.

His throat felt dry as he waited. He had an IV drip placed in his arm once he was inside, making his arm feel cold. His palms started to sweat, but he felt cold shivers running down his spine. He vaguely heard the technician explaining the process to him, before he was being pulled into the machine by the tray he was laying on. He tried to lay as still as he could through his nerves, but with his arms pinned over his head and his waist tied down to the moving table beneath him, it felt very awkward and uncomfortable.

Greg squeezed his eyes tightly shut as he heard the humming sound of the machine, hearing the tech telling him to lie still. She talked to him the whole way through the ten minute scan, but it didn't make it any easier to try and relax.

"Look, there's Papa." Nick held his daughter securely against his chest, giving his partner a smile as he was wheeled past them in the hallway. He followed them to Greg's new room, waiting for them to leave them alone, before he leant over the bed to press a kiss to the younger man's forehead. "I asked Catherine to drop her off. You don't mind do you?"

"No." Greg shook his head, waving back at Sadie as she waved her little hand in his direction. "Hi, baby girl." He smiled widely, feeling more relaxed already. "Have you seen my doctor yet?"

"No, I asked the nurse when he was gettin' in, but she just said this other doc is handlin' your case now." Lowering his daughter to Greg's side, Nick let him hold her against his chest, feeling his heart sinking in his chest as he saw a smile returning to his boyfriend's lips. "Do you know when we'll get the results back from any of these tests?"

"The tech said the CAT scan can take one to two days."

"Two days?" Nick sighed, leaning against the side of his bed. He felt about ready to put his fist through a wall at this point, but like his Nana Olaf had said, he had to be there for him. He was the strong one in this relationship now. "I'll be back." He spotted the new doctor making his way through the hallway. "Excuse me," He caught up to the man. "I'm Greg Sanders' partner. Are you goin' to make him wait while you get the results to his tests?"

"Some tests we're running can take a few days to process. I've got him scheduled for an Ultrasound scan of his abdomen in an hour, then you should be able to take him home. We'll contact you as soon as we can with the results." The doctor tried to assure him. "Nick, isn't it?" He reached his hand out to him. "I'm Doctor Rhodes. We'll take good care of Greg. I'll be there for the Ultrasound scan."

Nick thanked him, returning to Greg's side. He leant over him to press a kiss to his forehead, listening to his daughter's soft breaths as she examined the hospital bracelet around the younger man's wrist. "One more test then we can go home, baby."

"We?" Greg glanced up at his partner.

"Yeah, the three of us. You, me and our daughter." He rested his arm against the barrier around his bed, keeping a close eye on him while they waited for the final test. It seemed to take a lot longer than an hour, but the time flew by with Sadie keeping him entertained. He didn't want to give her up once it was time to go, but the doctor assured him that they'd be reunited once they had everything set up.

"We'll just sit you down here." A nurse finally brought Nick and Sadie in, sitting them down on a chair not too far away from him.

"Okay Greg, this is the transducer." The doctor lifted the wand from beside the machine. "It'll send sound waves through your body that'll bounce off your organs and project the image here on this screen. We should be able to see blood vessels, tissues, organs and any abnormalities that we might be looking for. This will be cold." He squeezed some gel onto the younger man's stomach, before he moved the wand through it. He started very close to the patient's chest, pressing the device into his body quite firmly as he examined the image on the monitor.

At first he pointed out a few of the steady flowing veins that were pulsating on the monitor, before he pointed out his spleen and things. He got quiet all of a sudden as he noticed something, worrying the two of them as he took a pass at a section on Greg's stomach a few times from different angles, trying to get a clearer image of what he was looking at.

"What is it?" Nick couldn't stand the waiting any longer, startling the man out of his thoughts.

"Something I wasn't expecting to see." Doctor Rhodes scratched his chin for a moment, before he set the device down. He excused himself from the room, leaving them worrying while he went to fetch another doctor. He came back within a few minutes with the expert in toe, letting him take over the device. "Is it what I think it is?"

"It looks like it." The other man confirmed, still keeping Nick and Greg in the dark. He moved the device further to Greg's left side, moving it a little gentler than Doctor Rhodes was, but he wasn't saying anything either.

After more than four hours of tests, Greg was returned to his room, still with no idea what was wrong with him. He was starting to feel more than a little hungry after a whole day without food, but it was the first day that he hadn't thrown up in a while, so he wasn't about to upset his stomach even more.

"It's bad, I know it is." He glanced up at Nick beside him, watching the man settling his daughter for her nap against him. "That's why they won't tell us anything. They're afraid I won't be able to take it or they don't want the law suit when I die on them."

"You're not goin' to. I heard the nurse say that other guy was an expert in this field." Nick tried to put his mind at ease, even though he was worrying about it himself. The more worrying part was that he didn't know what field of medicine this man was an expert in. It could have been anything. "Here he comes." He spotted the other man making his way towards their room, with Doctor Rhodes behind him.

"Hello there. Mr Sanders, we've gone over your results together," Doctor Rhodes started, setting his patient's notes in front of him on the tray table. "And we've figured out that you have an undiagnosed condition. It's something that you've lived with your whole life and it's gone undetected all this time because you've never had a problem before."

"In a normal male," The other doctor stepped in. "We'd see twenty two pairs of chromosomes and one pair of sex chromosomes. Females have two of the same kind of sex chromosome XX, while males have two distinct chromosomes XY..."

"I know all this. I used to be a DNA tech." Greg stopped him from explaining the boring parts. "What's that got to do with me?"

"Well, in your case, you have a slight variation from the standard XY of the average male. An abnormality if you like. It's something we call Klinefelter syndrome, where the male has a second X chromosome, making you double XX Y instead of the normal male, XY. In most cases, it goes unnoticed. Likes yours. Most men find out about it during their teens when they don't develop. The male may require testosterone replacement or assisted reproductive technology to have children, but your life expectancy is still in the normal range." The other doctor stepped forwards, giving the patient a smile with his gappy toothed grin as he explained, "Your case is a very rare one that I've only ever seen once before. Along with the extra chromosome, you also have both fully functioning reproductive organs. The female reproductive system is not visible on the outside, but with your CAT scan and Ultrasound we were able to see them on the inside. It's gone unnoticed until now, because the system was... dormant if you like."

"What he's trying to say," Doctor Rhodes jumped in, finishing his own explanation. "Your second reproductive system has gone unnoticed before because there has never been a problem with it until now." He saw the worry in his patient's eyes, deciding not to make him wait any longer. "Mr Sanders, you're pregnant. About eight weeks I'd say. The nausea you've been feeling is morning sickness. Your original doctor thought your first lot of blood tests came back wrong, because they showed an increase in a hormone that we would see in pregnant women. They weren't wrong. With your extra chromosome you have become pregnant."

Greg had dropped his jaw a few sentences back, starting to feel a little nauseous once again. He was too afraid to look at Nick beside him, fearing the look he would give him or the questions he would ask. He wanted the doctor to rewind everything he just said and tell him he was dying of some horrific illness.

It would make a lot more sense than what he was just told, that was for sure.

"As far as we can tell, your pregnancy is progressing in the normal, natural way. Because of your extra chromosome, your body is almost fully equipped to deal with this pregnancy. The only part of it you wouldn't be able to experience naturally is of course the giving birth stage, because you have no cervix to give birth to the baby. The fetus looks healthy and is growing in your womb, so there's no reason to think that you couldn't go through with this pregnancy. But if you would prefer not to, we can discuss some options. We'll give you a minute." Doctor Rhodes ushered the other man out of the door with him, pulling it shut behind him. He couldn't help his excitement for this rare case, but he still had a vulnerable patient to think about.

For the longest time in their relationship, neither Nick or Greg spoke a word. They couldn't see each other from their current positions, so it made the processing of the information a little easier. It felt like a dream or a terrible prank, but they had left his notes behind that Greg had been skimming through for the last few minutes.

"Can you make sense of it?" Nick heard the pages turning after a while, turning to look at the beautiful man that he adored even more.

Greg shook his head slightly, understanding the terms and things, but it didn't quite fit in his head at the moment. "This is impossible. And unfair. Why can't I just get normal stuff like normal people?" He returned his notes to the table, rubbing the itchy spot on his arm where the IV drip had gone in. "This means I'm a... hermaphrodite. Half man, half woman. You know I always wanted to discover or create something, but I never wanted it to be actual life inside me." He gulped as he realised that was exactly what had happened. "There's a baby inside me. I'm not dying. I don't have cancer, but there's a human life in here and I created it."

"What about me?" The Texan pushed himself to his feet, adjusting Sadie to rest against his shoulder. "Eight weeks, that makes me your partner in creation. That's the first time that we..."

"Yeah, and it's all your fault." Greg accused him. "I've had sex for years before you came along. Maybe one or two times in college without any protection at all. First time with you and I end up pregnant. It's my punishment for knocking you off your path of denial and self loathing."

"How is it a punishment?"

"How isn't it? I was just an ordinary guy before this. Now I'm a pregnant hermaphrodite. Another baby out of wedlock to the Sanders clan. My great grandmother will not be pleased." He crashed back against the pillow behind him, hoping the drugs they had him on were giving him delusions, but the results were too real to ignore. He turned his attention towards Sadie as she started to cry, watching the man he loved trying to settle her. He realised that this would make them more of a family, but he didn't want to be pregnant. He also didn't want cancer like his Papa Olaf, but he knew the old man would be giving him an earful right now moaning about having one thing and not the other.

"I know it doesn't seem like it right now, but we can get through this Greg." His boyfriend directly quoted Nana Olaf, realising what she meant now. He wondered if she had known all along about his condition or the baby. "And I'm not goin' anywhere. I don't love you any less because of this. It doesn't even change the way that I feel about you. You're still my Greg and I love you more than anythin'."

"Do you mean it?" Greg spoke softly, looking up into his eyes. "You're not disappointed that I'm not sick with something else?"

"No. Not at all." Nick swept his fingers back through his partner's hair, looking down into his eyes. "I don't want you to be sick. I didn't think it would be somethin' like this, but we can get through it together." He allowed a smile to spread across his lips, finally letting go of the worry he had been holding onto all week. "You're havin' our baby, G. It's a little soon, but it's our baby."

"That's the part that scares me the most. The other thing I can live with because it's always been there, but a baby is going to change everything." He placed his hand over his stomach, fearing how much bigger it would get. He started thinking about the birth and how Nick would see him, only adding to his fears of the man leaving him with a screaming baby. "I have to call my Mom. Where's my clothes?"

"Here." Nick carefully lowered his daughter into Greg's arms, letting him hold her while he searched through the younger man's things for his phone. He turned back to Greg once he had found it, seeing tears in his eyes and a slight smile across his lips as he hugged baby Sadie against him. She had her head tilted back to look at him, giving her Papa Greg a concerned look as he continued to cry. "Greg." He held out the phone to him, feeling a little choked up himself.

"Dial." He breathed out between his tears, pressing a kiss to Sadie's little hand as she reached out for him. She was suddenly the most beautiful creation in the world to him, making him appreciate her a lot more than he used to. "Hi, Mom." He heard the click on his phone as she picked up. "You'll never guess what..." He knew she'd never guess it in a million years, so he decided to break the surprise and blurt it out. "I'm pregnant."

The End

For now...

Thanks for sticking with it and for your reviews, favourites and follows. Please let me know what you thought. Not sure when I'll upload the sequel yet. If not before Christmas then I might start to upload in the New Year. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year all.

~ Holly