"I gotchu, I gotchu," I whispered, rubbing Khalil's back soothingly as he continued to throw up the entirety of his body weight in the toilet.
He's been like this for a week, nonstop—shit was starting to worry me honestly, to the point where I was contemplating taking him to a hospital, even if I didn't exactly trust the ones down here.
He told me it was a stomach bug, which I trusted him on since he was the nurse.
That had also made sense because his stomach has been so sensitive for the last month—but I'm just not understanding why this shit is lasting so long.
All the medication he asked me to get him was fucking useless because clearly, that shit wasn't working.
"T-this sucks." He groaned, falling back against the wall.
"yeah—we might gotta go to a hospital angel.." I mumbled.
"but you said they're bad!" He panicked, immediately holding onto his head after the outburst.
"yeah.." I sighed, shaking my head in thought
"Imma figure something out, just c'mon—you need to get back in bed," I spoke, standing to my feet.
He nodded at that, clearly exhausted—which meant that as usual, I had to carry him back to the bed.
I guess it was a good thing I fixed this after breaking it last week—who knew that a week later he'd basically be bedridden.
"what's happening to me." He whined lowly after I laid him down, eyes swelling with tears.
"Relax baby—it'll pass, shit like this probably happens to other people all the time." I tried to comfort.
"But I don't understand—if it was something I ate, then why aren't you sick—we've eaten the exact same things every day." He frowned.
I stayed silent as I climbed on the bed and cuddled in behind him, holding him in my arms.
I still didn't like beds, particularly sleeping in them —but I found that if I focused all my attention and thoughts on Khalil I'd usually be okay, he'd calm all the noise.
"Does your stomach hurt?" I asked.
"No—that's the thing I don't understand, it doesn't hurt, I just keep throwing up, and I feel so bloated—which fucking sucks." He ranted.
"All the throwing up has also given me a headache, which doesn't help my situation at all." He frowned.
I stayed silent and kissed his cheek, using my left hand to rub gentle circles over his stomach while I did so.
"Imma give it an hour—if still ain't feelin' good after that, I'm taking you somewhere," I stated.
"Where?" He mumbled.
"Imma figure it out." I replied, "Just try and get sum' rest." I replied, resting my head in the crook of his neck.
After that, he grew quiet—taking my advice, and for about thirty minutes things were looking fine.
Then all of a sudden he winced—causing me to shift my head up.
"What's wrong?" I asked, looking down at his body.
"I just got a sharp pa—OW." Just as he was talking he again winced, and this time I shifted from behind him and off of the bed entirely.
"yeah nah—c'mon, I ain't finna let you lay here like this no more," I spoke, opening up the dresser to pull out a pair of my sweatpants and T-shirt for him to wear comfortably.
I still didn't trust the hospitals down here, but while I was lying there behind Khalil I began to remember the one other option I had.
Ms.Eve, her and Khalil had talked a while back about both being in the medical field, and it's become something they bond over whenever we go see her.
If I trusted anybody to tell me what was wrong with him, it was her.
After carefully helping Khalil get dressed we made our way to my truck—where I again helped, gently, just making sure he didn't hurt himself more.
I've basically been taking care of him since he got sick, which is fine—I ain't complaining about it, if anything I like it.
But by the time we arrived at Ms. Eves' house, I could tell that me just taking care of him wasn't gon' work anymore—he needed a professional, or somebody close to it.
"How you feel?" I questioned, placing my hand on his back after knocking on the door.
"I'm fine.." he mumbled, and I could tell he was lying and trying not to worry me too much, which was ironic.
When Ms.Eve approached the door, she wore a smile—but once she saw the state of Khalil her smile faded, and she grew concerned.
"Oh lord—what's goin' on?" She asked, opening the door for us to walk in.
"We were hopin' you could tell us," I spoke, helping Khalil inside.
"C'mon in here—let me get a look." She instructed as she closed the door behind us.
She then walked us to her living room where she instructed me to lay Khalil down, of course, I did it cautiously.
"lemme know if I'm movin' too fast," I mumbled as I lay him on the couch.
"it's okay, thank you." He replied, forcing a fragile smile.
" course baby." I replied, removing his shoes.
I looked up to see Ms.Eve looking between us with a knowing smile before walking over to Khalil's side.
"Alright sugar, first I'm gonna take your temperature.." she began, holding a thermometer to Khalil's lips.
Once I'd gotten both of his shoes off, I placed them on the ground near the couch and then stepped back to watch as Ms.Eve tended to him.
Characteristically I crossed my arms, but that was just a habit I seemed to have whenever I was thinking.
"what it say?" I questioned, looking over at Ms.Eve as she read the temperature.
"I mean it's a little high, but nothing really alarming." She replied, in deep thought it seemed like.
"Hun, do you mind if I feel over your stomach really quickly?" She asked.
I looked over at Khalil, because ultimately all of this was his decision—and whatever he decided, I was by his side one hundred percent.
Ultimately he nodded, which then caused Ms.Eve to speak.
"Alright Sugar—come lift his shirt, I'll be right back—I've gotta grab a few more tools." She spoke, standing up and looking over at me.
I nodded and watched as she walked away before I then walked over to Khalil.
After placing my fingers on the end of the shirt I slowly began to lift, staring at him as I did so.
"If you ain't comfortable wit' any of this shit lemme know—cause you ain't gotta do it," I spoke, stopping the lifting of his shirt just as I got above his belly button.
"It's okay, whatever it takes to make me feel better, I'll do it." He frowned, gently grabbing over my wrist to caress it a bit.
I nodded at his words and continued lifting his shirt, placing a kiss on his forehead afterward.
Ms.Eve arrived not too much longer after that, which prompted me to step back from them—and give her the space she needed to work.
I watched as she ran her gloved-covered hands all across Khalil's stomach, something I was only okay with due to the current circumstances.
"Does this hurt?" She asked as she placed her hand under his belly button.
"No, but it feels tight.." he frowned.
"Hmm." Ms.Eve then hummed.
And I'm not sure if that was a good thing or a bad one.
"And when did this start?" She then asked.
"Last week." Khalil spoke, "I think it's something I ate." He pouted.
"Well that might be the case—but lasting this long without much pain makes me think it's something different." She spoke.
"I've had sharp pains—every now and then, but usually it's like dull aches," Khalil told her.
"I see." She nodded.
"Nausea?" She asked.
"Lots of it!" Khalil replied dramatically.
"Diarrhea?" She asked.
"god no." He spoke, grimacing.
"Drowsiness?" She continued.
"Yeah—I'm tired constantly." He told her.
"See I don't think it's a stomach bug, your symptoms don't line up." She shook her head.
"How's your appetite?" She asked, again pressing and feeling over his stomach gently.
"It's there, but I can't hold anything down." He frowned.
She chose to stay silent after that, but again, it was clear she was in deep thought.
Eve then removed her hands from Khalil's Stomach and sat back in her chair.
"Huh..." she mumbled to herself.
"If you guys don't mind, there is a room upstairs with a bit better equipment, I'd like to take a look at you over there." She spoke, standing to her feet.
Again I looked at Khalil, and he looked at me, for a second we just stared, before eventually—he nodded.
I knew what that meant, so after walking over to him and picking him up, we all carefully made our way upstairs.
This was the first time I've been up here, it was pretty nice—however, the room she had me take Khalil in was genuinely shocking.
The shit was like a built-in hospital room, like literally, built in.
It had all the proper equipment and shit, I don't even understand how she got all this shit in here, or how much it cost.
"Wow," Khalil spoke after I lay him down, looking all around the room.
"Yeah, Adam and I had this built a while back—before we learned I couldn't conceive and carry, this was the room where I would give myself ultrasounds..." she explained.
"Then it just became the room we used when he first got sick, it's where I would take care of him." She spoke.
I looked on at her silently, while it was Khalil who spoke up and sympathized.
"I-I'm so sorry." He told her, frowning.
"It's okay—we're here to focus on you hun!" She spoke, shifting her subject entirely.
"You think it's that serious, that you need me in this room?" Khalil asked nervously.
"well...." She started,
"I'm not sure if it's serious...but I wanna check something." She explained.
"Something like?" Khalil questioned, watching her every move.
I was watching her too, I was watching everything honestly, and she seemed to be pulling out some type of gel from a crate.
"it's gonna sound crazy.." she spoke.
"But—But I wanna try an ultrasound." She spoke.
This caused both my face and Khalil's face to contort in absolute confusion.
"An ultr—, wait excuse me!?" Khalil questioned in genuine surprise.
"I know—I know it sounds crazy, but your symptoms are lining up, and I just wanna check."
"Ms.Eve, with all due respect, I-I'm a man, that's not—"
"Sweetheart I know, more than likely I'll see nothing, but I still wanna check. An ultrasound is just good in general to see any anomalies that may be causing these stomach issues." She explained.
Khalil then looked over at me, and I genuinely didn't know what to say so I just shrugged.
"Okay...um...well just so you don't waste your time, last week was the first time I was sexually active in a long time, even if I was a woman and something was developing inside of me, it would be way too early to see it," Khalil explained.
"I see..." Ms.Eve nodded, "Well then we can do an old-fashioned test." She suggested.
"I-I..." Khalil struggled as if he was genuinely surprised we were even entertaining this idea.
I had completely taken a backseat in all of this, I didn't understand anything going on anymore—and as long as it didn't put Khalil's life in danger, I wasn't gonna step in.
"Listen, again, I know how this sounds—I know it looks crazy, but seriously all of your symptoms lead to something like this," Eve spoke.
"And while we're waiting for the test, I can take your blood work to rule out any stomach viruses or bugs." She nodded.
"fine." Khalil sighed, "Let's do it, why not." He stated, sitting up which caused me to walk over to him.
I could tell he was irritated, just with the fact we were wasting time with this rather than doing something that would actually help.
He was just way too polite to say anything, or allow me to say anything.
I helped him all the way to the bathroom before leaning against the wall outside of it while he handled his business.
Once he finished he called me inside to wait, which again, I did silently.
"This is crazy right?" He questioned, drying his freshly washed hands in a towel.
"yeah." I nodded, "just let her get it out her system, then we can go to the actual hospital." I mumbled.
"—how much longer on it?" I asked, nodding over to the test.
"Five minutes.." he sighed.
"—I mean can you imagine, literally, a pregnant guy walking around here—that's fucking insane," he complained.
Again, I nodded in agreement.
Entertaining this was a pretty crazy idea, regardless of symptoms and whatnot.
I don't care how many times I came in him, that's just not how the male body works.
"Everything okay in there?" Ms.Eve questioned, knocking on the door.
"yeah," I spoke up, "give us a second."
I know she'd take me more seriously than Khalil when I said to relax a little, that's why I spoke up, because Khalil was clearly getting aggravated—and I didn't want him to say anything that could ruin their relationship.
"Whatever it is, I'm ready for it to be over." He frowned,
"I could eat a whole jar of kimchi right now." He added with a sigh.
"check the test." I instructed.
He rolled his eyes at that, "Oh how could I forget—let me go ahead and check to see if I'm pregnant or not, God this is so crazy." He mumbled to himself, standing up to grab the test.
"Let's see, it says here that I'm—"
His words paused and his eyes grew wide, something which made me look up in concern, "What?"
He then dropped the test on the counter and picked up the second one he took, only for his eyes to get wider.
"What, what's wrong?" I asked, walking over to him before looking down at one of the tests.
"One line means you're not," I spoke.
"wait but—," I spoke, creasing my eyebrows in confusion.
"This one has two..." I stated as I grabbed it, "And two means—"
"I'm pregnant." He said in shock, hands shaking with the other test as he looked over at me.
Things got deadly silent after that, and the silence only broke when he reached for the doorknob and opened the door.
Instantly I walked up beside him to help as he made his way back to the room.
When we walked in, Ms.Eve sat on her stool, typing away on a laptop.
"These tests can't be real," Khalil spoke, shaking his head.
"T-this is impossible." He shook his head.
"So it's true—what I suspected, you're pregnant?" She asked with wide eyes.
"That's what it says, but I'm not believing that," Khalil spoke, shaking his head.
"Why was that something you thought?" I spoke up, looking over at Ms.Eve.
"His symptoms," she repeated, "I just had a hunch—call it an old woman's intuition."
"Have you had any hormonal changes?" She then asked, looking back over at Khalil.
"No I h—," he then paused and thought, "Well yeah but—but I don't think that's why, I mean I wouldn't blame that on some fake pregnancy." He rambled.
"What do you mean?" Eve asked.
"My um..well...my sex drive had been a bit higher, but I'm pretty sure that's only because it had been a while since I'd done anything like that before last week." He waved off, clearly embarrassed to be talking about this out loud.
"I see," Eve nodded, "and did you notice this?" She questioned, looking over at me.
I was cut off guard by that—so I wasn't prepared to answer which means it took me a couple of seconds to think.
"I guess, but it was normal, ain't that what grown people do when they together?" I shrugged.
"Khalil, what would you describe those hormonal changes like?" She asked.
"Well....um....it was just a really warm feeling." He stated.
"God this is embarrassing I can't do this." He frowned.
"Sweetie we're all adults, and it's crucial we know this based on what those tests are saying," Eve said comfortingly.
Khalil took a couple of moments to himself before speaking again.
"It was just a really warm feeling all over my body—especially when I was near Saint...I don't know." He mumbled.
"My body just reacted physically without me getting to think about it much at all." He added, cheeks red as he blushed harshly.
Eve nodded as she continued to write everything down on a notepad.
"Could you describe the pain again?" She proceeded to ask.
"Yeah...I guess." Khalil mumbled.
"For how long, and what would you say was the degree of it?" Eve continued.
"My stomach was sensitive for a couple of weeks before this, it wasn't excruciating pain—more like an occasional, dull ache." He told her, "Today the sharp pains started."
I guess now that he was saying all this out loud—it made sense...but still...this shouldn't be possible.
"I see..." she mumbled.
"What does that mean?" Khalil asked cautiously.
"Was there any bleeding?" Eve asked.
"No," Khalil replied, "why do you ask that?"
"Well the symptoms you described could be applied to a menstrual cycle—but obviously, seeing as though you are a man, that's not what I'd describe it as," Evelyn replied.
"What would you describe it as?" Khalil spoke.
"Hmm," Eve hummed, "—well, clearly it was a period where your body was either susceptible or preparing for pregnancy—
"—this is crazy." Khalil sighed, dropping his head.
"—Listen I know how it sounds," Eve spoke, shaking her head while writing on her notepad again.
Once she was done writing she placed it to the side and then spoke, "Now sweethearts—I'd still like to do the ultrasound, even if it may be early."
"You can't treat this like a regular pregnancy—because it's not—y'all should be extra cautious." She explained to us both.
"I-I can't believe we're even discussing a pregnancy at all," Khalil replied, shaking his head and eying the ground.
"we'll know more once I get the ultrasound down, lay back while I get it set up." She spoke, standing up.
Khalil nodded and repositioned before I walked over to begin lifting his shirt again.
Minutes passed by while Eve seemed to get everything ready, and then she applied the gel to Khalil's stomach, a process I watched closely.
I guess the gel was cold because he seemed uncomfortable due to the feeling. It was only when she had finished applying it that he relaxed.
Slowly, she pulled up a machine, following it up with placing the ball-penned device on his stomach.
We all looked at the screen closely while Eve moved it around.
It was only when she moved slightly to the left that both Eve and Khalil gasped.
"Is that—" Khalil started.
"It's a sac..." Eve mumbled, almost in disbelief.
I couldn't see what they saw, the screen just looked like black and white splashes to me.
Khalil specifically looked pale in shock, "h-how is that possible—is—is it a uterus?" He struggled.
This caused me to walk over to him again, standing at his side as we both looked up at the screen.
"Maybe not a uterus—but...it's something similar, maybe the male equivalent?" Eve answered unsurely.
"What do you mean 'male equivalent', this shouldn't be possible at all!" Khalil spoke, still in disbelief.
"Khalil, you may just have to accept the fact, that you could be an anomaly." She spoke, still working the ultrasound machine.
"Oh my god—" Eve then spoke.
"Look—Look you two!" She directed.
This time I think I could see what she meant, it was like a small oval on the screen.
"Khalil this is it, this is what's been going on with you, something is developing in there." Eve spoke, pointing at the screen.
"You're not sick honey..... you're pregnant."
☯︎ 𝖍𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐡 ☯︎
sorry for any errors.