[RL with Maraich]

[screwloose]

Stein's laboratory was...impressive, and rather creepy. It was an oddly-shaped building, like several huge stone boxes all jumbled together with small windows. The largest part was shaped like an arrow, thrusting upwards towards the sky. Lines of what looked like stitching crawled across the face of the building, each 'stitch' at least a foot long.

The building was surrounded by a wrought-iron fence, the top a forest of points, and there were several scraggly trees planted around the grounds. The trees were devoid of leaves, and each branch ended in an arrowpoint.

It didn't look much like a medical clinic, but after all it was a laboratory. A whirring sound might have been heard by Maraich's foot and he might have looked down to see a mouse scuttling by, but the mouse looked and sounded mechanical, its skin formed of random patches of fabric all stitched together roughly.

Welcome to Dr. Franken Stein's Laboratory.

Comments

[screwloose]

Stein raised an eyebrow. "I'll use the standard sort of anaesthesia for caesarean sections, of course. You'll have to be unconscious for the procedure and a simple epidural will not be sufficient."

He pushed his glasses up. "As for how long you'll have to wait, before I can begin to answer that I would need to examine you, but honestly I have no idea. It will depend on how much anaesthetic you need, your weight, and your personal reaction to it. You'll be able to hold the baby while lying down immediately, but you won't be able to carry him for six weeks after birth."

The contents of the beaker tasted like water.

[maraich]

"I won't be able to carry him?" he repeated, surprised, "But if he's like Matthias, he won't be able to even sit up on his own for months. How am I supposed to take care of him?"

He leaned forward a bit, "Couldn't you just use superglue or something? Or maybe a potion. I'm taking care of them on my own the majority of the time. It doesn't matter if it's painful."
While he wasn't afraid of things like pain, trying to take care of two small children without being able to carry them for over a month seemed like a rather big task. Especially with one that wouldn't be able to move on their own.

[screwloose]

Stein sighed. "It's not just a matter of pain." He was a little stunned that no doctor had explained this before now.

He pushed his glasses up a little further on his nose. "The surgery we're discussing involves cutting into your abdomen to take the baby out. There are muscles that I will have to cut through, and it'll take time for them to heal. Those same muscles help support your body when you're carrying something heavy - like a baby. Even if you were a woman getting a cesarean section, you wouldn't be able to carry the baby around for six weeks, so I'm sure you'll be in the same position."

He shrugged and spread his hands helplessly. "Most people get a friend to help them out, if they don't have a partner."

[maraich]

Slumping back on the couch, he brushed back his hair. He was hoping there would be a nice magic spell or potion that would fix that. He didn't know who he was going to ask to help him out.

He averted his eyes a bit. So far things didn't sound very good. He had his list of things he wanted to ask, but he was hoping for positive answers. Or perhaps options that weren't available where he was from.

"What about the mortality rate? What's the ratio of people who die from getting a c-section on your world?" he asked.

[screwloose]

Unfortunately the only way to get magic potions on Stein's world was to ask a witch, and the mortality rate from that was generally 100% unless you were useful as a tool. The doctor watched the other man through the lenses of his glasses, considering.

"It's a low rate," he said. "The procedure is quite routine. There are occasionally complications, and I haven't had an opportunity to examine your physiology, but I'd say the chances of anything happening are very low. Especially since we won't be in any rush with yours, so we can take our time and do things right."

He smiled. "I've never lost anyone on my surgical table, so have no fear."

[maraich]

"If you did an exam do you think you could find a better way to take the baby out?" he asked, slightly reserved, "And would you be able to figure out what a good date to schedule the delivery on is?"

He had been hoping to get a set schedule so that he could get everything else ready; let people know, get a babysitter and have some sort of plan for care afterwords. It was all quite a bit. Even to him.

[screwloose]

He considered this question. "I suppose there's no way to know what I'll find. You could have a completely unfamiliar body structure to me. Certainly an exam would help for me to pin things down. Scheduling a date won't be a problem at all - I would want to do that, anyway. I need to prepare myself, and there's no point in waiting too long if the baby's fully developed. I don't know if you'll go into some kind of labour, and we don't want to wait until that starts."

[maraich]

"Then I'd like to find out a date to deliver the baby on. No matter who I go to I want to know when I should do it," he responded, glancing around the room. It didn't exactly feel like a hospital, but he could always duck out if he didn't like it.

"I know the day I conceived since I didn't have any sex for months before or after that," he added. He didn't want to go into much more detail than that and didn't see why it would be necessary.

[screwloose]

Stein nodded. "It can be any time that's convenient for both of us, and close enough to the end of your pregnancy that the baby will be fully developed and ready to be born," he explained.

"Let's go up to my examination room, so I can check you out and do an ultra sound. I'll have a better idea of where you are and what week would be best," he added, getting to his feet.

He couldn't care less about the details of the child's conception except from a purely physiological perspective. And he merely nodded to this. "And the date was?"

[maraich]

"July 17nth. Of last year, obviously," he stood up, holding onto the shawl that was wrapped around him as he followed Stein, "I should be pretty close to the end by now."

He hadn't seen an ultrasound of the baby since it was very little so he was hoping he could get a clear picture. At this point he was wondering if the baby had any distinctive features yet, and whether he could tell if this one would look more like him or Bancoran.
The heels of his shoes made a clear tapping sound on the ground making it easy to hear where he was going.

[screwloose]

Stein made a quick mental calculation and nodded. "Yes, quite close now," he agreed. He led Maraich down a hallway and up a flight of stairs onto the next floor, then opened a heavy metal door to reveal a spare and impersonal room.

The room was dominated by a large metal examination and dissection table with thick, padded leather straps at the sides, which could be used to restrain someone. They lay open and limp at the moment. The table had channels down the sides, and a drain at one corner. It was scrupulously clean and the steel shone under the overhead lamp.

There was a variety of equipment ranged around, including a small ultrasound machine.

Stein patted the table, then pressed a button to lower it slightly with a whirr of motors and gears. "Get up on here, please."

[maraich]

The environment looked cold enough as it was without there being straps on the table. He did like the look of the straps. Even if he was raised to endure torture it didn't mean he liked pain, and he had plenty of bad memories involving being tied down.

"I don't want to be strapped down," he paused at the entrance way, "Not during the surgery, either."

That was one thing he didn't want to deal with.

[screwloose]

Stein laughed as if it were unthinkable, though there was a bit too much dark amusement in the tone. "It won't be necessary," he said. "The straps aren't for you. They're for less willing test subjects."

[maraich]

Maraich was seriously questioning Dr. Stein's ethics. Now he was rather glad he had come armed, as he tended to do when he went anywhere. Pregnant or not he still knew how to throw a knife.

He took a seat on the bed and kept a very close eye on everything Stein did.

[screwloose]

Stein turned away and fiddled with the ultrasound machine. "Lie down, please," he said idly. He was well-aware of Maraich's nervousness, but rather than being concerned and trying to reassure him, it only triggered and satisfied that sadistic part of him.

He was a good and trustworthy doctor, but he also enjoyed making people nervous, for whatever reason. It just added a bit of spice, to him - satisfied that part of himself without tempting him to do more.

[maraich]

He lied back, still keeping a very close eye on the doctor. He had always been extremely perceptive and felt confident that he could catch it if Stein did anything suspicious. The ultrasound machine looked fairly normal at least.

None of it was giving Maraich any urge to come back. It was one thing when he could be awake to react himself, but it'd be entirely different when he was unconscious.
"The ultrasound will give you enough information, right?" he wanted to reaffirm that point.

[screwloose]

"As far as I know," Stein said with a shrug. He couldn't say definitively what he'd find out until he'd tried it, so he wasn't going to commit to anything more.

Maraich could be an alien with a cast-iron uterus, for all he knew. He hadn't even had a chance to touch him yet!

He pulled the machine closer and reached for Maraich, to pull his shirt up and bare his stomach. "The gel will be cold, sorry."

[maraich]

"That's fine."

He braced himself for the cold. He'd been to hospitals many times before so the usual stuff didn't bother him much.

He wished the answers wouldn't be so vague. He wanted to get some positive answers; which hopefully he'd get with the ultrasound.

[screwloose]

Stein wasn't going to lie and sound certain when he hadn't even had a chance to examine Maraich. Making assumptions at this stage - especially since he knew Maraich was an alien - seemed incredibly stupid to him.

He pulled Maraich's shirt up and spread the gel over his stomach, then began moving the probe. The fully-developed fetus was clearly visible in the screen, little hands and feet shifting, and the head dominating most of the grainy picture.

"Ectopic, of course," Stein muttered to himself. "No uterus." He scribbled notes on a clipboard as he moved the probe about, looking at the child at all angles.

[maraich]

He shuddered slightly at the cold but didn't make a move.

As much as Maraich tried to keep his eyes on Stein, he found them wandering over to the screen. It was a bit fuzzy but there was clearly something there. He looked for every body part the doctor mentioned.

"Does he look healthy?" he asked forcefully. It was really his most important question.

[screwloose]

Stein turned away from his notes and beamed at Maraich at the question. "He looks very well, yes," he said. "Nothing at all wrong with him that I can see from here."

He switched off the machine and offered Maraich a towel to wipe the remaining gel off. "Well, it looks like everything is even better than I hoped," he said. "It should be a very routine procedure, though what I said about lifting him for the first six weeks will stand. I believe you can even stay awake for the surgery, after all."

[maraich]

That was a relief. He now had two doctors saying the baby was healthy. As long as he took care for another few weeks everything should be fine.

"I could be awake?" he was surprised by that. Although it would be strange he wasn't the queasy type, "What about the date?"

[screwloose]

Stein nodded. He had gone with the more pessimistic response first, not having seen how the baby was doing, but now it seemed that the usual spinal block would be enough. There would be a curtain stopping Maraich from seeing what he was doing, but he would be conscious and wouldn't feel a thing.

"Yes, which means I can put him into your arms right away," he said brightly.

"And what day is convenient for you? Anytime within a week of your due date would be fine."

[maraich]

Maraich didn't know how the typical procedure went, but he was sure he'd probably been cut up worse anyway.

"It would help if I knew my due date," he blinked at him. He wasn't really sure what date to pick other than wanting to get this done with as soon as he could, "It shouldn't be too far away."
He was looking forward to holding the baby. With Matthias it had been so clunky and awkward.
He wiped off the gel, not worrying too much about remnants - he would wash off later - and sat up.

[screwloose]

"Now you said the baby was conceived on July 17th," Stein said, counting quickly in his head to confirm. "So as a round estimate, that makes April 17th your due date."

He shrugged. "Anytime after the tenth of April would be fine, unless you go into labour sooner or something happens, in which case we should do it right away."

[maraich]

It seemed so soon, but that made it more exciting. It'd be here before he knew it. He smiled slightly at the thought.

"Maybe the 11nth, I think that's a Saturday. Or the 12th. I'll have to talk to everyone and find out what the best time would be," he answered brightly, gently sliding off the bed onto his feet, "So I guess that's about it for now."

[screwloose]

"Sure," Stein said agreeably. "Either of those days would be fine with me. Let me know when you'd like to come in, and keep me posted. Assuming you're planning on using me, that is."

He led Maraich out into the hallway, back towards the front lobby as he spoke.

[maraich]

Maraich was reminded how creepy the place was back on the way out. The doctor was strange and had some questionable quirks. He kept it to himself, though.

"I'll let you know," he agreed. He was planning on getting a worldhop back from where he first came.

[screwloose]

Stein definitely enjoyed being a little strange, and didn't apologize for it. He opened the heavy metal door leading out of his building and held it open for Maraich to go through.

"I'll be waiting," he said.

[maraich]

"See you, then," he headed back out. He did plan on at least getting him a message, but he wasn't sure he planned on coming back. A few thing he had said and his odd personality made Maraich feel uncomfortable about trusting his child's life with him.

He went out and waited patiently for his ride back.