Healing the Healer

Georg's wife Anna called Morgan to attend him. Morgan shadowjumped to their subterranean home. Georg had never represented himself as human and, in truth, was not. He was a short, olive-skinned, dark haired man who could have passed for Middle Eastern, but he was a gemen. And not just any gemen, but an apexa and one of their 'blessed ones.' Those born at a specific point in a solar year or, perhaps, conceived at a specific point but that wasn't proven, are born neither male or female but a transient fusion of both. The child is always named Georg (a transliteration of gærg in the native gemeni tongue) to denote its special status.

Two to four times a year, a gærg is capable of conceiving as a female. Outside of these two week windows, they are functionally male. No one is sure why this happens, but it is quite unusual among humanoids. In fact, Georg was formally Georg Andiers Eduoard Gheunzielmein. And he was one of four siblings, three of which were born on that date. One other was a gærg, Georg Adalbrecht Heinrich and the other solely female, Katarina Esana. “Adalbert” had already produced two children by his own womb and was considered actualized by gemeni standards. Georg Andiers had tried multiple times to carry. After five miscarriages and stillbirths, Morgan flatly told him he was inhospitable for childbearing. Not that Georg shouldn't have realized that himself. He was an expert in biology. Adalbert was a specialist in physiology. Morgan was an expert in medical practices.

When his attempts continued to fail, Georg simply stopped informing his brother and his friend about his pregnancies. They kept pressuring him to stop trying. He kept losing them. So, Morgan found himself at Georg's bedside. Georg's fever was bad. So were the eclampsia-style fits he was having. Georg might have been at six months but he was puffy and distended. Morgan slowly wrung his hands, weighing the benefits of yet another lecture against the probability that he would be ignored. His hands glistened with an antibacterial gel that he was slowly coating on them. He heard someone else come into the room. By the acrid scent of after shave, he identified him as Adalbert. “So, how is Andiers this time?”

Morgan let out a slow sigh. “Stubborn to near incoherence. He refuses to let me abort. His blood pressure is far too high. His temperature is five degrees above normal. He seizes practically every twenty minutes. He will not tell me what he used to prolong his gravid state and the fetal heartbeat is dropping below seventy when he seizes.”

Adalbert spoke to his brother in gemeni. Morgan didn't know the language well enough to comprehend exactly what was said, but by intonation, he could tell it was a matter of “let us operate or you will die.”

The truth finally came out. A special fungus that is used to stabilize certain fluid levels was utilized, but Georg overused it and it rebounded badly. Morgan drained around his heart and kidneys and hoped that a neutralizer would help. Adalbert mixed the solution, but didn't hold out nearly as much hope. Gradually, his blood pressure and fluid retention eased. Katarina and Friedrich, the fourth sibling, arrived later and were quickly told that Andiers just might live through this.

Morgan returned two days later to find Georg up and about. “You should not be up,” Morgan stated coldly. “You have not recovered yet.”

“I'll be fine.”

“Self-delusion aside, where's Adalbert?”

“I'm not entirely sure. I'm not self-deluded.”

“It looks that way to me. I do not think you have the healthiest outlook about this.”

“I don't think you have the high ground to talk to me about healthy outlooks.”

“No, but I have the experience. Fetal heartrate?”

Georg's normally calm, soft-spoken demeanor was anguished and sour. He gave no reply, but Morgan could clearly hear his thoughts. They amounted to “Bite me.” Morgan frowned, but left the room.

When Adalbert returned, he started discussing certain floral solutions that might help with Andier's 'break with reality.' Morgan suggested psychotherapy. Adalbert thought this the solutions might help get him to the point where he would accept that suggestion. As the five of them discussed the situation, Morgan's ears picked up on a scurrying in the apothecary cabinets. “Does anyone here keep a familiar?” he asked.

A group of no's answered his question. He calmly stood and walked to through the tunnels to Georg's medicinal area. Andiers was busy searching for something in a near panicked state. Morgan's nose perked up. “He's not pregnant anymore,” Morgan said quietly. He grabbed Georg's shoulder and physically restrained him. He went with the gaggle back to a surgical bed and held Georg down by placing a hand on his chest.

Adalbert quickly washed his hands while Anna worked off Georg's pants. Katarina commented that he was almost completely down, which meant that he would start pushing soon. A gemen confinement lasts twelve months and Georg's infant was born almost six months early. It only took ten minutes, even with him fighting each contraction for the eight inch body to be born. The child cried weakly. Adalbert carefully placed it down on Georg's chest, placed a blanket over it, and then taped it in place to create a false womb. Morgan finally moved his hand. “Best we can do with the situation,” Adalbert commented, tapping Morgan with the side of a syringe.

Morgan took the syringe and carefully injected the cord near the navel and then through Georg's abdomen. “I might go as high as a twenty percent chance,” Morgan responded. “I am reading brain activity from the neonate. And it is responding to sensations.”

Georg could only cry. He'd denied in silence the first steps of partuition; then yelled in utter defiance the last minutes. Now, he was told there was a slight chance, despite his recklessness, that it would be all right. As long as the placenta was encouraged to stay attached, there was a fighting chance. It wasn't something that could be done for any other humanoid race, but crazily, gemen don't necessarily break the link with their neonates until the mother's body is convinced its ready. The body's definition of ready wasn't predictible, but it gave some preemies a chance at surviving.