~one month later~
Jim made another adjustment on the grain-harvester he was working on and then reached back to get a different tool out of the metal box lying between himself and Henri Brown. The big black man was in the middle of one of his favorite ranks. It was also one that only Jim and Simon Banks were privy too. It all boiled down to his concern and growing love for his one time partner and now dearest friend, Brian Rafe.
Once the initial shock of the unannounced gender reassignment surgery that had transformed half of the planet's Terran population into hermaphrodites had worn off, it had quickly become general knowledge that the Prantellian overlords had definite ideas about how the population should grow. Each of the surgically altered members of the project were expected to become pregnant within a year. If they didn't conceive, then they and their chosen mate were tested for infertility. They were then to be given another six months. After that, it they still weren't carrying a child, they would be randomly mated with a proven fertile male.
Rafe had come back from the surgery in a near panic that he would be physically assaulted, a legacy of working too many rape cases on the Cascade Police Force. To help soothe his partners nerves and to intimidate the many interested men on the farming planet, Henri had gone out of his way to make it perfectly clear that Brian Rafe was his lover and that anyone who tried to change that would face the combined wrath of the former members of Major Crimes.
While this worked for getting the other slaves to kept a respectful distance from Rafe, it was slowly wearing on Henri. His jealous boyfriend act was slowly changing into the real thing. Jim figured it was a combination of a strong libido that had been forcefully suppressed for almost four years mingled with a deep abiding friendship and true concern. Little by little, Henri was falling in love with Brian.
And Rafe was still uncertain and slightly freaked out about the surgery. He had, undoubtedly, the largest breasts of anyone in their particular sector of the planet and he was very self-conscious about it. Once an outgoing and flirtatious man, he had become shy and quiet, almost withdrawn. He also knew, both from overhearing it through the thin Barracks walls and from conversations with Henri, that Brian often curled up in his best friends arms at night and cried himself to sleep.
Henri was worried that if Rafe didn't adjust, that eventually, the Prantellians would take him away and force a mating on him. That would undoubtedly break what was left of Brian's spirit. The thing was, Henri had already accepted Brian as his mate, both publicly as well as deep in his heart. He wanted this to work out.
"Look H, I think you're doing the right things so far. You gotta give him the time he needs to get everything straight in his head. So far, of all the guys that went through the surgery, only half of them have come to terms with it yet. You know that."
Jim slid out from under the greasy machinery and briefly squeezed his friends shoulder.
"Brian has been talking with Blair a lot lately. Hell, ever since they came back from deep space. I'm telling you, he will come around. He's doing much better now then he did even two weeks ago."
"Yeah,... I guess you're right about that. I thought he was going to die from embarrassment when he got his period. I tried to tell him that was a good thing, that it meant that everything went well with the surgery and that he was in perfect health, but he was so upset I don't think he heard me."
Jim nodded his head. He remembered Brian's erratic mood swings very clearly. However, the bruise had healed quickly and Rafe was apologetic afterwards. Jim had never realized just how hard Brian could punch until then. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Jim turned back to his long time friend.
"I think part of Brian's problem is that he really is starting to feel for you and he thinks that you're just pretending, to keep the others off his back. I think he's afraid that you'll get rid of him if you find out how he really feels."
A spark of hope flared within Henri's dark eyes and a quick grin crossed his face.
"Really?"
"Yeah. Send out a few signals,... in private, that way he knows it's not just for show. Then see how he reacts. If he's ready, he'll let you know."
Henri nodded his head, lost in thought. Patting his friend on his shoulder once more, Jim slid back under the huge machine again. All personal problems aside, they still had to get this thing operational by the end of the week.
~~~
Jim turned off the water, stepped out of the shower stall and grabbed his towel. Drying himself off, he turned up the dials on his hearing slightly to see if Blair was home yet. Instead, his ears got distracted by the sound of Simon and Daryl talking in the dinning hall.
Apparently, Daryl was interested in a young man about his age that was living in Terran Barrack 5297-G. Both he and his father were well aware that he only had a year to find a mate and get pregnant or suffer a forced mating. Conversations like these were pretty common around the settlement lately.
The young man in question was also unmated, of Asian decent and shared a room with his elderly uncle. He, like Daryl, was assigned to the Frunto Tree Orchard. It seems that Daryl wanted Simon to meet his friend and his friends uncle.
Jim winced inwardly at the tough position that Simon was in. How do you advise your nineteen year old son on choosing a father for the child he has to give birth to?
Deliberately turning down his hearing, Jim finished drying himself and wrapped his robe around his body. Slinging the towel over one shoulder, he opened the door to the tiny hallway beyond. Turning away from the dinning hall, he went up the stairs to his and Blair's room.
With his hearing dialed down, Jim was unaware that Blair had come home already and was waiting for him. Upon opening the door, he was assaulted by one hundred and fifty plus pounds of grinning and hugging anthropologist. Jim smiled at his energetic double armful of excited Blair and picked him up and carried him across the small room to the bed.
"Whoa Chief. What's got you so wound up? Someone slip you a happy pill or something? Just this morning you were complaining of having a stomach ache and demanding that everyone stop eating, and I quote, `stinky food'. What changed all that?"
"Jim... I... Sit down lover."
Jim watched as Blair practically bounced with happiness and slid over to make room on the soft comforter covered bed. Tucking a leg up under himself, Jim sank down next to his grinning-like-an-idiot, mate.
"Well?"
"Jim... I'm pregnant."
For a brief moment, shock and confusion swirled through his mind as he hurriedly tried to process this bit of information. The wheels in his head spinning madly, he tried to express his thoughts eloquently.
"What?"
Blair grinned even harder.
"I said, I'm pregnant. That's why I've been feeling a bit under the weather lately. I'm not sick,... well, morning sickness, but... I'm with child, in the family way. You know. You're going to be a Daddy."
Jim felt his jaw drop. Intellectually, he had known all along that Blair was going to get pregnant and that he himself was going to be the one to do it. There was no way that Jim was going to let the Prantellians take his mate away for some stranger to impregnate. But,... it was still a bit of a shock. They had only been trying for a month.
Suddenly, the information hit home. He was going to be a Daddy. Him. Jim Ellison. A Daddy. He couldn't help the big goofy smile that threatened to split his head wide open. Grinning like a fool, Jim reached out and grabbed Blair. Pulling him to his chest tightly, he wrapped his arms around his Guide and buried his face in the soft auburn curls he loved so much.
"Blair, oh God Blair. A baby. We're going to have a baby."
"I love you so much Jim. So very, very much."
"Me too Chief. Me too."
They hadn't said anything to their friends and Barrack-mates over dinner. Blair wanted to keep the news of his pregnancy just between them for a little while. Jim didn't think it was because he was embarrassed, but more because Blair enjoyed the intimacy of such a personal and emotional secret. So, even though Jim wanted to shout it out at the top of his lungs, he kept it to himself.
He was fairly certain that everyone noticed their strange behavior. All through dinner, Blair had this soft, dreamy look on his face and he kept making 'moon-eyes' across the table at him. Jim was also pretty sure that he was just as obvious. He knew that he was fluctuating from looking like a stunned ox and grinning like a love struck fool.
After the meal was finished and the mess cleared away, the men of Terran Barrack 3247-R all gathered in the recreation facility to watch the nightly Terran broad-cast. The Prantellian overlords showed a recording of Terran culture at the same time every night. Sometimes it was a movie, sometimes a musical concert, sometimes it was a series of short sit-coms and sometimes it was a documentary.
Tonight, they were showing a movie filmed after the invasion, as were *all* approved entertainment. It was starring B. A. Young, one of Jim's favorite actors. Claiming his usual spot on the cushioned viewing area, Jim pulled Blair down to sit between his thighs with his back resting against Jim's chest. Wrapping his arms around his Guide, he gently stroked the flat tummy that held the spark of life quickly forming into an embryo.
The film, like all the Prantellian approved movies, music, and literature, was propaganda, pure and simple. It was about a man who fell in love with a surgically altered hermaphrodite, then courted and won his love, got promoted to foreman of his work crew and had a beautiful child. Normally, Blair's anthropologist mind would pick apart the films as he pointed out the subtle and not-so-subtle attempts to influence the Terrans. Tonight, Jim wasn't the only one to notice that Blair's usually humorous commentary had been replaced by an emotional connection to the characters. Especially the pregnant hermaphrodite.
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