The ABO Serum

(Part 7) You've Never Passed a Log the Size of a Baby

Dr. Rogers was relieved to become a beta. After his reassignment for the emergency response, he wanted to get back to his job figuring out male childbirth. It was the inevitable next emergency. Someone had to figure out exactly how male bodies that developed wombs were changing and whether they'd not only be able to carry babies but give birth without surgical intervention.

He watched the progress of omegas and other betas carefully, recruiting two male and two female subjects of each sub-gender, including alpha, to undergo full body scans daily. The resulting three-dimensional time-lapse recordings of their physiological transitions were priceless study material to all the teams for myriad reasons. Understanding humanity's new anatomy was essential to future medical care. Dr. Martin's team recorded vitals and blood test results from everyone's daily checkups. That was the other key component.

Dr. Rodgers was the first to warn everyone to expect menstruation. He could see the uterine lining thicken on both the omega and beta males. The betas were a little behind the omegas, but sure enough, they cycled through menstruation completely, indicating their wombs were functional. And they developed egg sacs. They did not develop ongoing egg production as both female and male omegas did, so that limited their fertility.

Female alphas and betas developed functional penises and sperm production. The alphas developed higher production volume and the same knotting mechanism as the alpha males. Crucially, no one lost anything of their prior reproductive function. That was the one small piece of good news he could give everyone. They might lose their minds, but they weren't losing body functions.

Understanding everyone's new anatomy was step one of Dr. Rodgers' research. Actually following a male pregnancy was step two. Rather than a single subject to carefully study and protect, he wound up with three. The first three alpha/omega pairings resulted in three pregnancies in their first heats.

With the matchmaking experiments moving into the meet-up phase, there'd likely be a second wave with the next heat. The pressure was on. Full body scans weren't safe for developing fetuses, so Dr. Rodgers used other means to follow their progress. Their physical exams took place separately, but he convinced the three to have weekly meetings all together with their mates, like a childbirth class, even though it was early for classes and some of what he could teach might be irrelevant.

The thing that always happened in childbirth classes, that Dr. Rodgers wanted to happen here, was a commiseration and comparing of symptoms and experiences more readily than women usually shared during their prenatal visits. Pregnant women often learned from each other and developed supportive friendships in these classes. Dr. Tom Martin, Carey Andrews, and Richard Weisman were the first three originally anatomical and genetic men in human history to carry babies. They needed to develop that kind of camaraderie. And Dr. Rodgers might learn more from listening to them talk to each other than from whatever questions he could conceive to ask them.

A week after getting this all set up, he heard from Dr. Martin's exposure follow-up team that they discovered one more pregnant male subject during his routine daily check-in. It surprised Dr. Rodgers to see the wide-eyed omega flanked by security guards in his waiting room. Omegas were in quarantine in the GenLife hotel, or on the college campus. This one had to be a college student. So young and radiant. "You already have a mate?" He asked without thinking.

"Um...not really." The omega answered, fidgeting awkwardly. Dr. Rodgers apologized for his surprised reaction and quickly called the young man back to an exam room. The security guards could wait outside. The young man breathed easier when they were out of sight.

"Let's start over. I'm Dr. Frank Rodgers, the obstetrician on staff here at GenLife tasked with studying and facilitating male childbirth. You are...?"

"I'm Pablo Guerrero, 23 years old. Engineering student working on my Masters."

Sitting by his computer, ready to take notes, Dr. Rodgers began, "Welcome to my office Mr. Guerrero. You said you didn't have a mate. Can you tell me what happened?"

Pablo's olive skin turned darker with an embarrassed blush. "I couldn't take it anymore, so I snuck out. I went to a party at my friend's house and that's when my heat hit. There weren't any alphas there, of course, since they're locked up too, but apparently betas and normies are also affected by an omega's heat. I was out of it and begging for sex, and they were attracted by my pheromones and half drunk. I don't know exactly who or how many I fucked. I just turned into a major slut. I'm not usually like that. I've had five partners in my life before that, including the ex-boyfriend that infected me. Now I'm pregnant and to be honest, a little scared. I'm not in control of my own body anymore."

The rapid clicking of the keyboard continued for a moment after Pablo finished. When it ended, Dr. Rodgers looked up and the beauty of the young man in front of him struck him afresh. The vulnerability on his face was especially appealing. But admiring patients was stupid. "As much as I'm happy to have subjects to study, you don't have to keep it," he informed the young man. "I need to complete an exam but then, it's your body. You do ultimately have control."

"No, I'm Catholic," Pablo said, with a deep sigh. "Even though most of the church rejects me for being gay, I can't kill my baby. My Mami in heaven would be heartbroken."

Nodding sympathetically, Dr. Rodgers continued, "Alright, since that's settled, we'll proceed with your care in tandem with the other three subjects. In addition to prenatal exams with me, there's a group class once a week. The others are attending with their partners. If you have someone supportive who you want to bring with you, I encourage you to do so.

"Do you understand why your prenatal care is being taken care of here at GenLife instead of a normal obstetrics office?" He asked. Pablo nodded at first and then shook his head.

"We've successfully altered male anatomy to get pregnant, and hopefully carry developing fetuses to term. We can't be 100% sure of our success until we have subjects that actually do it. It looks like omega bodies are fully equipped so we're not too worried about that part, but the last part is giving birth, and we're not sure male omega and beta anatomy gets altered enough to give birth naturally." Dr. Rodgers pulled up a diagram illustrating the new male omega reproductive anatomy on his computer and turned so Pablo could see it over his shoulder.

"Your uterus developed off your anal cavity. While the anal muscles have become much more relaxed and elastic, especially during heat, you've never passed a log the size of a baby, and I hope you've never had to pass one with bones in it. This can cause a lot of problems. We can perform a cesarean to remove the baby through your belly, but it's surgery and comes with a risk of complications. One in twelve mothers normally have at least one complication from the surgery. And if you get pregnant again and need multiple cesareans, the risk increases. We sincerely hope that a natural form of birth is possible, but we're going to be prepared for surgery."

"Wow," Pablo traced his finger along the diagram. "This is really amazing, Doc. I feel like I should be more upset, but I'm really in awe. I'm just a mess of conflicting feelings about this. I'm not hurting and craving something I can't define anymore, like the other omegas. I'm scared shitless to have a baby. But I'm also kind of into it. Like, I could rock this."

The look of fascination on the omega's face was one more captivating look in Dr. Rodgers' view. He would have to be cautious to remain objective with this patient.