"Muah... Muah... Muah... Muah!" Marcelo sounded out as he placed kisses all over Remi's face. Remi giggled and squirmed around.
It was the day of Remi's very first appointment. He'd been terribly sick earlier so he'd been in bed for most of the day. But now, Marcelo was attempting to motivate Remi to get up so that they wouldn't be late.
"Celo..."
"Come on, we gotta go."
"I don't f-feel like it."
"I know you don't, but we have to check on the baby, remember?"
Remi groaned and wrapped his arms around Marcelo, pulling him down so that the two were chest to chest. "Can't it w-wait."
"No, Teo. The quicker that we go, the quicker than we can come back here and sleep," Marcelo reasoned, leaning back to look at Remi. Remi frowned but nodded. Marcelo grabbed his hands and helped him up where he then kissed him, making the beautiful smile reappear on his face.
Remi walked over to his closet and put on a pair of slip-on tennis shoes that were comfortable. He turned around and saw Marcelo grabbing his keys off of the nightstand. Marcelo turned around and smiled before looking over Remi's outfit that consisted of Marcelo's hoodie and a pair of sweats. "You sure you want to wear that hoodie? It's pretty hot outside. I don't want you passing out."
Remi looked down, embarrassed, moving his right foot back and forth. "I haven't been able to w-wash my c-clothes. Too s-sick."
"Nonsense." Marcelo said as he took his shirt off and handed it to Remi. It would swallow Remi whole, but that was a better alternative than Remi passing out. "Here, put this on and give me the hoodie. I'd rather me pass out than you."
Remi hesitated for a few seconds before he realized that Marcelo wouldn't take no for an answer. He slid the hoodie off and traded Marcelo for his shirt. They slid each other's articles of clothing on before Marcelo looked at Remi and smiled at how one side of his shirt slid off of Remi's shoulder.
"I'll wash your clothes for you when we get back."
Remi nodded again and adjusted the shirt on his shoulder, only for it to fall once more. Marcelo chuckled and walked up to him. He bent over slightly and grabbed the ends of the shirt, twisting it into a knot. His hands brushed against Remi's tiny bump as he did so. Once he was finished adjusting the shirt, he stood up. "There, it should stay in place now."
"Th-Thanks."
Marcelo nodded. The couple then went on their way, leaving the comfort of Remi's apartment complex. They traveled to Marcelo's car where they then traveled through the streets of the city to the downtown area where the hospitals were located. They parked in the woman's and children's area before they hopped out of the car and headed in.
Thankfully, the hospital wasn't crowded. Remi and Marcelo went right up to the front desk. There was a friendly-looking woman smiling at them. She looked to be middle-aged.
"Good morning. How may I help you two?"
"Good morning. He scheduled a fetal appointment a few weeks ago under the name of Declan."
"Alright," the woman said as she turned to her computer and began browsing. "Declan... Declan... Declan.... Remi Declan?"
"Yes."
"Alright. Remi, I see that today is your first checkup so don't be nervous. Go ahead and sign in here on this clipboard. I will get all of your paperwork collected while you do so."
Remi nodded and grabbed the pen that was next to the clipboard that the woman pointed to. He saw other people's names on there, so he signed his name in the next available spot as well as the date. Then, he put the pen down and looked back up at the woman.
"Thank you. Here is the paperwork," she said as she handed Remi another clipboard with a huge load of paperwork on it. Remi's eyes widened but he quickly fixed his face. Marcelo chuckled quietly, catching the expression. "Go ahead and get this signed as you wait. When your name is called, bring all of it back."
"O-Okay."
Remi grabbed the clipboard and pen. He looked up at Marcelo for a second before he turned around and walked into the waiting area. He sat in the far corner, away from the crowd, while Marcelo took a seat next to him. Remi disregarded any distractions and immediately began working on the paperwork in his lap.
The paperwork wasn't as bad as it seemed. It was just random personal and health questions that were thrown in between paragraphs of information. Remi answered everything to the best of his ability. It was kind of hard to do so seeing that he didn't have his parents there with him to tell him what everything meant. But he had Marcelo. Marcelo was the best help that he could get at the moment.
Minutes later, Remi finished the last paper and handed it to Marcelo for him to sign on the last page. Once he did so, he sat the clipboard on the table next to Remi and sat back, sighing.
Remi, on the other hand, looked around. He glanced at all of the women in the waiting room. As he looked around, he saw women alone, women with other women, women with men, women with other children. He saw women with flat stomachs, women with small bellies like he had, and women with bellies that toppled over onto their thighs. He wondered if his belly would be that big in the future. That idea overwhelmed him a bit, so he shook his head lightly—as if to shake the idea out of his head—and looked down at his hands.
Marcelo noticed Remi's anxiety. He placed his hand on Remi's thigh and squeezed it tenderly. "Are you alright?" Remi flinched out of his thoughts and looked up at Marcelo. He nodded.
"Y-Yeah."
"Are you sure? You aren't getting cold feet, are you?"
A grin tugged at one side of Remi's face.
"N-No. That wouldn't change a-anything even i-if I was."
"I know. I just don't want you to be nervous, okay? I'm here."
Remi looked down at Marcelo hand on his thigh. He placed his own hand on top of Marcelo's and rubbed the top of it with his thumb. He went to reply when—
"Remi Declan, room 13. Remi Declan, room 13."
Remi let out a sharp exhale and looked up at the intercom above him and Marcelo, his heart beating fast. "Th-That scared me so bad." he chuckled breathily. Marcelo began chuckling as well.
Once Remi calmed his heart down, he grabbed the clipboard and pen from beside him and stood up, feeling Marcelo's arm around his waist as they walked down to the front desk. Remi laid the clipboard and pen on the counter before the women behind the desk told the two to head down the hall towards room 13.
They neared another door when another woman stopped them. "Remi Declan?"
Remi nodded.
"Alright. Before I lead you to your room, I'm gonna need to collect a few measurements. If you don't mind, slip out of your shoes and step onto this weighing scale for me."
Happy that he wore slip-ons that day, Remi easily slid out of his shoes before stepping with his socked feet onto the scale in front of him. After a few seconds, the numbers on the scale stopped. The nurse wrote the digits down quickly.
"Thank you. Now step right against the wall with your feet flat on the ground," the nurse said, pointing to the numbers that were lined up on the wall. Remi stood next to them. The nurse stepped up and pulled a bar down until it touched the top of Remi's head, lining up with one of the measurements on the wall. The woman wrote them down next. "Gotcha. Slip your shoes back on and follow me."
Following the nurse, Remi and Marcelo were lead to one of the hospital rooms around the corner and to the left. The second door was theirs. Remi did what he knew to do from childhood check-ups: he hopped up onto the check-up bed. Marcelo sat on the chair that was next to the bed.
"The doctor should be in any minute now. You can relax and wait until then. If you have any major questions before the doctor arrives, you know where I'll be," the nurse said politely. When nothing else was said, she smiled and walked out.
Exhaling softly, Remi leaned back against the bed and tried to keep his nausea from coming back. Marcelo looked at his bump that poked through his shirt. He was amazed at how much Remi had grown. He was still little, but every single change was noticeable. Marcelo grinned and reached up, placing his hand on the bump. Remi looked down, wearing a grin that matched Marcelo's.
"Your bump is cute, Teo."
"N-No, it's not. I f-feel fat."
"Oh, please. You're no where near fat. The bump's adorable."
"I'd rather b-be sexy than adorable."
"You are very sexy, but I don't think that's an appropriate adjective to use when we're about to check up on our baby."
Remi smiled in a way that said touché. He looked down and watched as Marcelo rubbed his belly for a few more seconds. He was about to say something else when the door opened.
"Hello, hello, hello," the doctor, a tall man who looked middle-aged announced as he came in. His hair was salt and peppered, but that didn't take away from his handsomeness. It seemed to add onto it and favor his Mexican features that were similar to Remi's. He looked up at Marcelo and Remi as he grinned. "Ah, these are some new faces. Who are you guys?" he asked jokingly before looking back down at the chart in his hands. He then looked back up at Remi. "You must be Remi Declan. Declan... familiar. Hello, Remi."
"Hi."
"And who are you?" he asked as he turned to Marcelo.
"I'm Remi's boyfriend. Marcelo Reid," he greeted, holding his hand out. Remi snickered at his formality. The doctor shook Marcelo's hand briefly.
"Marcelo Reid. Software developer. I've heard of you. It's nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you as well."
"Alright, now that the awkwardness of greeting new parents is over," Remi giggled at this, knowing that it was true. "I am Dr. Crusoe. I will be your OBGYN for the term of your pregnancy as well as for the rest of your life since I see that you are new to the system."
"Y-Yeah, I've been needing t-to find a doctor for the longest."
Even the longest was an understatement. Remi'd been wanting to set himself up with a doctor ever since he'd settled into his apartment. The thought of doing that scared him though. Doctors... scary. But, after finding out that he was pregnant, Remi forced himself to contact the nearest doctor's office. He wouldn't take a risk with his baby just because of a petty fear that he had.
"Alright, alright. I got you. I'll get you set up under me if that's okay."
Remi nodded. Dr. Crusoe wrote a few things down before putting his clipboard down and taking his stethoscope from around his neck. He walked closer to the bed and made Remi move so that his legs were dangling off of the bed.
"I'm just gonna check your breathing and heartbeat if you don't mind," he said as he put the stethoscope up to Remi's chest. "Deep breath in," Remi breathed in carefully. "Good, deep breath out," Remi breathed out just as carefully. They'd repeated that process once more before Dr. Crusoe put the stethoscope to Remi's back to check his breathing again.
Remi was happy to hear that everything was fine with him after having not been to the doctor in years.
Putting his stethoscope away, Dr. Crusoe took Remi's blood pressure as well as all of the other necessary subjects that he had to tend to. He then let Remi lay back down.
"Now, the big premiere. I see that your charts say that you are 10 weeks pregnant, yes?"
"Yes, sir." Remi nodded. Doc hummed. He told Remi to pull his shirt up before he went over to the other side of the room and grabbed this tube looking thing. It was the ultrasound gel.
"Beware of this gel. It's known to be very cold."
Remi watched as Dr. Crusoe squeezed the end of the tube and let some of the gel fall out of it. It was pretty cold as it hit the surface of his belly, but it wasn't that cold. Then, Dr. Crusoe closed the tube and put it back up. Afterward, he went back over to the bed where a transportable computer rested. He grabbed the wand that was on the side of it and used it to smear the gel as he prepared the computer, getting it to the right screens.
Once he'd gotten everything prepared, Doc focused back on the wand and began moving it around to find the right spot on Remi's belly. "Let's see..."
As Doc did his thing, Marcelo looked back towards Remi to see him fidgeting. Well, Remi himself wasn't fidgeting, but his eyes were. It was like his eyes couldn't find one spot of the room to look at, so they were dashing all over the place. He must be anxious.
Marcelo grabbed Remi's hand and held it, reminding him that he was there. Remi looked down at Marcelo's hand before looking up at Marcelo, finally finding a place to rest his eyes.
"Nervous?" Marcelo asked.
"Y-Yeah, a little bit. I don't k-know what t-to expect." At this, Marcelo squeezed Remi's hand tighter.
"Neither do I. But, from experience with my siblings, maybe a small dot on the screen."
Remi chuckled a little bit, careful not to mess Doc up.
"A small dot, huh? You really underestimate you guys's baby like that?" Doc joked before he turned the computer around to expose the screen. "Baby is quite offended."
Remi grinned before he looked at the screen. He focused in close, not sure what exactly it was that he was looking at. The screen was gray with a black circle type shape in the middle. Then, on the inside of the black circle, Remi could see a little bitty body resting on the bottom of it. His breath suddenly got caught in his throat as his eyes widened.
The baby was definitely more than just a small dot on the screen. It was an actual developed fetus with a tiny head and a tiny body. The image brought tears to Remi's eyes. He chuckled in amazement. He couldn't take his eyes off of the screen and neither could Marcelo.
Marcelo couldn't fathom the idea that their baby was resting inside of Remi's stomach. It was a big concept for him to come to terms with even though he has many, many siblings. It was amazing.
"Whoa," Marcelo breathed out. He was speechless.
"Remi, you're a bit further advanced in your pregnancy, so you're way past the little dot stage. All of the baby's organs are developed. Therefore, nothing new will be generating. Everything will just be growing bigger. You can see the little legs here," Doc said and pointed to the screen as he moved the wand to get a more clear picture of the baby's legs. Doc then clicked a few buttons on the keyboard and turned the volume up.
As the volume increased, fast and strong thumps were heard.
"There's the heartbeat. Don't get too emotional on me now," Doc joked. Remi tried to laugh with him but a sob choked him up. A happy sob for once. He tried not to let it pierce through his throat, but it was stronger than his efforts. It fought against them and pushed through, floating out of his lips. Marcelo could tell that he was gonna burst, so he stood up and put his arm around Remi's shoulder.
Leaning into Marcelo's chest, Remi sobbed softly. Actually seeing the baby for the first time and hearing its heartbeat was a lot to process. It was a lot for Marcelo as well. He had to wipe a few tears off of his face every now and then, but he tried to keep himself together to take care of Remi.
"I got you," he whispered in Remi's ears.
"C-Celo..."
"I got you," he repeated as he rubbed Remi's back.
"We have a b-baby."
"I know. It's gonna take a while to get used to, won't it?"
"Y-Yeah," Remi chuckled wetly. Marcelo wiped his tears and wrapped his arms around Remi in a hug.
"You're gonna make me cry even more, Teo, I swear." Marcelo sniffed.
"Aw, man. You guys getting emotional?"
Marcelo smiled and stood back. "It's just so surreal for us, I guess."
"Yeah, I'm just messing with you guys. I totally understand. You guys want pictures?"
"Yes, definitely."
"Alright," Doc said and began clicking more keys.
Marcelo turned back to Remi and grabbed his face in between his hands. The two just smiled at each other. Doc peaked at them and smiled at the pure love that the two shared. It was obvious that their love was genuine and strong. It was beautiful watching the two interact.
Marcelo pecked Remi and leaned back again to look at Remi's beautiful brown eyes that were still a bit glossy from crying. "Don't mess up your beautiful face, Teo."
"I know. I t-told myself that I w-wouldn't cry when I saw the baby b-but...it's really o-our baby." Remi said, tearing up again. Marcelo smiled and leaned forward, placing his lips on Remi's. Then, the two wrapped their arms around each other and exhaled in relief, happiness, love.
Printing the collection of the ultrasound pictures, Dr. Crusoe pulled the pictures from the printer and handed them to Remi. He handed a wipe to Marcelo and let Marcelo clean the gel from Remi's belly. As he did so, Remi beamed and looked over all of the ultrasounds. He could tell that they would be his new addiction.
"Now, let's get to the important points before our time is up. I'm sure that you know that there are many limitations of what you can and can do during pregnancy. Some are just common sense, really. No drinking, smoking, or taking drugs. No raw seafood, no high heels that you may have a high risk of falling in. Sexual intercourse is perfectly safe. Just don't dog him up," Doc said, looking at Marcelo as he said the last part. Remi giggled.
"Remi, I see that your charts say that you are intersex, correct?"
"Yes."
"Alright, good to know. Since you are intersex, you have to take more precautions of course because your reproductive organs are more fragile than those of a... non-intersex patient's. Be very light on your feet if you can. Try not to be a busybody. I trust that you will scold him if he ever becomes a busybody, Marcelo?"
"Yes, I definitely will."
"Thank you. And since you are intersex, I will make sure to set up your check-ups often, more often than I'd schedule a regular patient's. I just want to do this to ensure that everything is constantly flowing as smoothly as it should be. Baby is healthy so far, so I have no doubts that he or she will be perfectly fine but just in case."
Remi nodded.
"Any questions for me?"
Marcelo looked at Remi. After a few seconds of thinking, Remi shook his head no, so Marcelo answered. "No, not that we can think of."
"Alright. Well, if you guys come up with any questions, feel free to call me up. You guys are done here; everything looks great," Dr. Crusoe smiled and nodded before leaving.
Remi pulled his shirt back down and sat up slowly. He had a bright smile of excitement on his face. Marcelo's smile got bigger just looking at his. Remi held the pictures up as Marcelo came up to him and stood in between his legs. He put his hands on Remi's bump and kissed him. "I really knocked you up, huh?"
"Y-Yeah," Remi giggled. "Thanks," he said with a sassy tone.
"Ah, look at you getting sarcastic and snarky."
Remi smiled and hid it by biting his bottom lip. Something else was chewing at his mind that he wanted to say but didn't know how to say it. He looked down at Marcelo's hands that were on his belly before he looked back up.
Marcelo noticed the look on his face. He raised a brow.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Mmm...."
"What, Teo?"
"I... W-Would you be u-upset if I told y-you that I didn't want to t-tell anyone about the b-baby yet?
Marcelo frowned a tad.
"Why not?"
"It's just th-that... they already h-have enough to worry about w-with me being all unstable." Remi began, hinting to when he'd found out about Marcelo telling his family about his situation. "I don't w-want them to have to worry about us i-if anything bad happens t-to the baby."
"Nothing bad will happen to the baby, Teo."
"I know b-but just... p-please."
"Hey, hey, okay. We can do that. I don't mind waiting to tell them if that's really what you want."
Remi nodded.
"We can wait," Marcelo smiled. Remi smiled back. "However, I think me and you should celebrate our not a little dot on the screen baby."
Remi's smile got bigger. Then, he picked up on a different connotation of celebration. He bit his lip again. This time, seductively.
"Oh, god, Teo. I've made a monster," Marcelo chuckled and facepalmed. "I meant ice cream. We should go get ice cream."
"O-Oh," Remi flushed hot red, embarrassed. "I-I thought that you... that y-you wanted to...."
"No. But now that you mention it," Marcelo smirked. "After our ice cream, I wouldn't mind."