Lee and Max get some good news, and some not so good news. They settle things with the bad guys. Fate takes a hand, while someone out of Rosa’s past appears and causes a crisis. Includes a double occurrence of forced non-consensual homosexual sex. If you find that objectionable, sorry. Otherwise, enjoy. Jb7
A Dish Best Served Cold Ch. 7
Max lay back on the exam table, her feet in the stirrups. Squirming around, looking for a comfortable position, she wondered, not for the first time, “Is this how a turkey feels at Thanksgiving?” A few minutes later, Sue Schnietter, MD, OB/GYN, walked in after knocking, and greeted her.
After a few minutes of catch up and discussing Max’s overall health, the doctor donned her stethoscope and slid the bell across Max’s now significant baby bump. The doctor stopped just about midline and listened carefully. She consulted Max’s file. “You’re about eighteen weeks, is that right? Appetite?”
“Oh, god, Sue, I’m hungry as a horse lately, all the time.”
“Twins run in the family?”
Max laughed. “You might say. I’m a twin, and so is the father, and so were our great-grand-parents.” Sue’s eyebrows raised slightly at her answer. Max saw the mini-reaction and inwardly blushed at her unintentional revelation.
“That would help explain it.” She turned to Max and smiled. “I’ll have Bobbi come in and get the equipment set up to do an ultrasound to confirm it, but I’m pretty sure I heard two heart beats. Would you like to sit up until it’s ready?”
“Yes, thank you, Sue.” She paused, then, “May I ask a question?”
“Of course. Something bothering you?”
“Not really.” she hesitated, not sure now she wanted to ask the question. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “The babies’ father is my brother. How much will that complicate things?”
The thirty-something doctor looked at Max, her expression slightly on the shocked side of neutral. She knew such things happened, but this was the first instance she personally had encountered, since she started her internship, thirteen years ago.
She hoped the shock wasn’t apparent in her voice as she answered. “There isn’t any easy answer to that, simply because we don’t have enough solid data to make a prediction. We toss around statistics anywhere from a seven percent chance of birth defects to twenty-five or thirty five percent. The truth is, the lower end is extrapolated from societies where cousins and uncles and nieces are permitted to marry and have children, and from the results of animal inbreeding.
“The upper end is based on what we see when developmentally disabled young women come in after they’ve been impregnated by their relatives. Often the resulting children have some defect, but is that from the incest, from the disabled girl not being properly cared for, herself, during the pregnancy, or from whatever caused the mother’s disability in the first place? Sometimes, it appears to be the result of multi-generational incest. We just don’t know.
“All I can tell you is that the fact you and the father are twins significantly increases the risk of complications; how much is impossible to say. In your parents’ generation, are there any problems you know of?”
Max smiled. “No. Going back three generations, there has been a general problem with fertility, and with reduced resistance to infections, but no identifiable physical or mental defects. On the contrary, we are all healthy, generally; the men, handsome and well built, and quite intelligent.
“However, the family has pretty well bred itself out of existence. With these two, the entire extended family numbers ten. In fact, my brother and I are the only members of our generation.”
“Well, we’ll keep a close eye on the three of you, to be sure. Bobbi will be right in. When she’s set up, she’ll help you back into the stirrups.”
A half hour later, the two women were seated at the desk in the exam room. “You all look healthy enough. It appears that you have a matched pair, one of each. They are both in the high nineties, percentile wise, for size. That’s why I placed a pessary cup over the opening of your cervix.
“I’m sorry to have to do this so early in the pregnancy, but you should restrict your sexual activity, no penetration of any kind below the waist.” The doctor saw the stunned look on Max’s face. “I know that’s a surprise, but with some of the endometrial problems you’ve had in the past, I think it’s best.”
“I know, Sue, it’s just...it’s complicated. I just moved in with my brother a few weeks ago, and made him promise he wouldn’t have sex with anyone but me.” She gave a small laugh. “That was the same week I introduced him to three women I said would be glad to take care of his sexual needs.”
“Max! Didn’t anyone ever warn you about STI’s?”
“I know, Sue, but two of them were virgins, and the third said it had been so long since she was with a man, and it hurt so much to insert a tampon, she was sure her hymen had grown back.”
Sue looked at her, aghast, then laughed. “Still...anyway, there’s always oral.”
Max made a ‘sour’ face. “Mmhmm, I guess. It just isn’t the same. What about me, and my orgasms?”
“You’re probably fine for the next couple of months; but, nothing too strenuous, and no penetration, not even fingers, okay?”
“Okay,” Max pouted, sticking out her lower lip, and then laughed, joined by the doctor, who was shaking her head as she left the room.
Max put on her coat, grabbed her purse and left, thinking, “Well, I know some women who might be happy.”
Max had gone straight home after her visit with the doctor. She hadn’t wanted to give Lee the mixed news at the office. She knew, or thought, he‘d be pleased with the news about the twins. She also suspected he’d be upset about the limits on her sexual activity.
As she moved around the kitchen, she thought she could feel the pessary clamping her cervix shut, but couldn’t be sure. She remembered hearing that ninety-five percent of the tactile nerve sensors in the vagina were located in the first two and a half inches from the opening. She was sure her cervix was beyond that, but she was aware something new was in there.
As she put the casserole in the oven she heard the door to the garage open. A few minutes later, Lee’s arms were sliding around her waist, pulling her to him. His hands slowly drifted up to gently cradle her swollen breasts. “Hi, beautiful; I missed you this afternoon. Everything okay at the doctor’s?”
She turned in his arms to face him, to get a hello kiss before she answered, “Mostly. Some good news, some not so good. Pour us some wine while I finish putting the salad together.”
“That bad, huh, that I’m going to need a drink?” He leaned back, still holding her, to look into her eyes.
“Or that good, so that you’ll want a drink to celebrate. Or, maybe,” she smiled at him, “a little of both. I’d like some sherry on ice, please.”
