My Forbidden Doctor (Forbidden Medicine 7)

In slow motion, the world moved around me as I dropped into a chair to hold my head between my knees. A dense lump formed in my throat, and my scrambled brains threatened to seep out of my ears. My chest tightened, and my knees bounced furiously before realization slammed into my gut.

"Wait...!" Mel jumped three feet in the air when I straightened sharply, her gasp overly loud in the silent waiting room. "You mean failed failed— failed?"

"...Yeah."

So, that means she's pregnant. Somehow, the connection sparked in my head, and I opened and closed my mouth mutely. But I'm a pulmonologist. I can't change my specialty.

"But how? I'm a pulmonologist—" A horribly loud, abrasive cackling broke me out of my daze, and my head whipped up as Mandy slammed the receptionist window shut. I couldn't feel my face, and my hands shook as I rubbed my palms together hard. She laughed and laughed, and even though the walls I could hear it clearly. No amount of drywall could muffle the sound, and I scrunched up my nose to shake my head viciously.

"Carl...?" Inhaling sharply through my nose, I glanced up warily as Melissa sat next to me, concern shimmering in her eyes. "Do you need a minute?"

"Are you seriously pregnant? For sure? Did you take a test?" Rasping a little, I cleared my throat, but it seized up when Melissa ducked her head in a nod. A cold sweat broke out under my clothes, and my lungs screamed from the air that staled in them. "Holy shit— really?"

"Yeah, really, really. I'm one hundred percent pregnant, no doubt about it."

Oh, God— what do I do? I wasn't gonna ask Mel to marry me, for sure. Even my frazzled mind knew that was exactly the wrong thing to do.

She wouldn't move in with me, either, and she never let me sleep over even after so long because she was so embarrassed about having to use her CPAP machine.

"I— I... I don't even... I—" Sputtering wildly, I rubbed my mouth and down my jaw and neck as the carpet blurred into a solid grey. "What do we do? What do you do?"

"I thought you could come over tonight and we could talk about it. I wanted to tell you first instead of just dumping it on you and expecting a full-fledged plan over pasta."

I gulped harshly, and Melissa placed a hand on my back soothingly.

"You said you didn't have any appointments today, but... I've had this feeling for a while, and I wanted to wait until after your sister's party. I didn't think it'd throw you so hard."

"I suck at handling personal crisis, okay— just... give me a minute..." Leaning back against the wall, I closed my eyes and took huge, heaving breaths in through my nose and out through my mouth. "Okay... okay. We'll definitely talk about it. Talk about what? Keeping it? We're gonna keep it, right?"

"Um— yeah?"

My shoulders jerked from the relief that gripped my spine in a vice, and I exhaled hotly.

"I mean... I think— you know, it's more... it's more of a logistical problem..."

"Good... good. Me too. That's my thinking, too... yeah..." This would not be the end of our relationship. I didn't know jack shit in this moment, even my own fucking name, but I knew that this wasn't the beginning of the end. This— this was simply the beginning of something better and great. "So... I'm... I'm gonna go back to my office, and— and I'll see you tonight?"

"Yeah. Um— make a l-list... that's what I'm gonna do, I think..." Melissa nodded firmly.

I clenched and released my jaw as I watched her stand up hastily.

"So— okay. Six o'clock?"

"Six o'clock, yes."

And she was gone. Staring, unblinking, at the place she'd just been standing, I struggled to come to terms with what just happened.

Mel was pregnant— One hundred percent, without a doubt, definitely, positively pregnant.

I'm gonna be a dad.