«Vlad's syndrome is an automatic abortion — what about Mowgli syndrome?» I asked.
He hesitated, then said, slowly, «Not automatic, no, but the birth defects can be pretty, um, severe.»
«It's never good when your doctor sounds nervous, Dr. North. What am I missing that's put that tone in your voice?»
«If you have even a mild form of Mowgli syndrome, then by Monday the fetus could come up on an ultrasound as over the age limit for abortion in this state. You really do not want to be out of options on this particular birth defect, Anita.»
O-kay, I thought. «Two o'clock, right?»
«Meet me at St. John's, just come straight up to the maternity ward.»
My heart pounded up into my throat. «Maternity ward? Aren't you getting a little ahead of yourself there, doc?»
«At my office, we'll have to send out the blood for testing. At the hospital, we'll get all the results back much faster. Depending on the test results, if we want a closer look, the hospital is set up with the ultrasound equipment we'll want for this.»
«You've got ultrasound at your office,» I said.
«We do, but they've got more sensitive equipment at the hospital. We'll get more information much quicker, and speed really is of the essence here, Anita.»
«Okay, I'll be there at two.»
«Great.»
«Your bedside manner sucks today, by the way.»
He laughed. «I know you, Anita. If I didn't scare you, you'd find excuses to delay coming in.»
«Did you exaggerate to scare me?» I asked.
«No, sorry, but no. I just told you more bluntly than I would normally have told a patient. But then most of my patients don't need rough treatment just to get them into the office.»
«You're not wanting me in the office, doc, you're wanting to see me at the hospital. I only go to hospitals when I've gotten hurt in the line of duty.»
«Are you backing out on me?» he asked.
I sighed. «No, no, I'll be there.» I thought of something, and figured I should ask. «I can bring company with me to the maternity ward, right? I mean it's not like when I was a kid, and all restricted, is it?»
«You can bring a friend to hold your hand, if you want, but since we may have to do a pelvic exam, it should be a close friend.»
Pelvic exam, shit. «At least one of them will be close enough to stay in the room. The rest can wait outside.»
«The rest?» He made it a question.
«At least one boyfriend, maybe more, and bodyguards.»
«Bodyguards? Are you in danger?»
«Almost always, but this isn't… it's not like bad guys trying to hurt me, or anything. Let's just say that I think this will be a pretty stressful visit for me, and for the foreseeable future I shouldn't be going anywhere stressful without muscle.»
«Is that supposed to be a riddle?» he asked.
«Not on purpose,» I said.
«You're usually pretty straightforward, Anita.»
«Sorry, but this isn't something I can really explain on the phone.»
«Okay, does it affect your health, and this situation?»
I thought about it, then said, «Maybe, yes. I guess it does.» I realized if I shapeshifted for real that I'd lose the baby, and this entire medical emergency would be over before we'd even decided what to do about it. But I just couldn't think of a quick way to explain what had been happening to me. «Can I bring the extra people?»
«If I say no?»
«Then we have a problem.»
«How many extra?»
«Hopefully no more than four.» I did quick math in my head. Two bodyguards, and at least one of each beast I held inside me. «Five.»
«Five,» he said.
«At least two of them will be boyfriends.»
«Potential fathers?»
«Yeah.»
«If they're not disruptive, then I guess so.»
«If anybody gets disruptive, it's gonna be me,» I said, and I hung up on him. It was rude, but my nerves just couldn't take any more talk about it. I was scared, so scared that my skin felt cold with it. Cold? I touched my forehead and tried to decide if I really was cold. If I was, then I was endangering Damian, my poor vampire servant, who was the first of my metaphysical men I started draining energy from, if I went too long between feedings. Was I draining him to death, so he'd never wake from his coffin? I'd tamed the ardeur so that it wasn't as demanding; I could push it off for a few hours, but the price was high. And sometimes the price had almost been Damian's life. Theoretically, after Damian was dead then I'd start draining Nathaniel. I never wanted to find out if the theory was right.