Izzy's Choice

"Nick, you don't understand..."

I cut her off again. "What I DO understand, Sue, is that you have no respect for me or my marriage. As much as I love Gabby, and I do, she is definitely the best of the lot here, I will not sacrifice my marriage so her husband can have a son that has her blood by proxy. When Izzy gets here, and she'll be here soon, just remember that you're asking her to destroy her marriage for the sake of her brother-in-law's vanity. A real man would not put the kinds of demands that Ian is putting on his wife. I think that if that asshole really loved his wife as much as he says he does, he would never even consider destroying her sister's marriage."

"Hey," said the asshole, "this wasn't my idea. I just need a son. It was her idea," he was nodding at Susan, "to do it this way."

"Look at your wife, Shit-for-brains! Does she LOOK like she's OK with this!? You're allowed to fucking say no to this!"

Just then the front door opened and Izzy walked in. Silence overtook the room. Gabby was sobbing quietly, and Diego was staring down at the table, Susan looked a little angry that this was not going as planned, and the asshole was leering at my wife. My wife immediately went to Gabby and started hugging her. "Gabby, what is it? You ok?" She looked around the room then settled on me. "Nick, what's going on? Is everyone OK? What's wrong with my sister? Gabby, it's gonna be ok."

"Isabel," I said, "please tell me you didn't have a hand in what's going on here."

"I don't know what you're talking about. Mom told us to come over for some important meeting. What's going on? Why is Gabby crying?"

"OK," I said "I guess you're up Sue. I guess I'm about to find out just where I stand."

Izzy looked at me in total confusion. "Nick, what are you talking about? What do you mean 'where you stand'?"

"Have a seat Izzy. This is about to get interesting. Ian has a problem and your mom has decided that it's your responsibility to solve it."

Izzy turned to her mother, who was looking at me with anger and defiance in her eyes. I hoped I knew Izzy as well as I thought I did. "Mom, what the hell is going on?"

"Isabel, dear, Cabby heard back from the fertility specialist a few days ago. They told her that she and Ian wouldn't be able to have a baby. They said that the chances of her being able to have a baby are infinitesimal. It's not going to happen."

Izzy looked across at Gabby. "Gabby, I'm so sorry. There has to be other options, though. You could always adopt..."

"Great minds, Izzy," I said, "that's the same thing I said.

"Isabel , that's not the solution we came up with..."

"Woah! Hold on there, Susie!" I said. Izzy had never heard me call her mother 'Susie', and was looking at me like I had two heads. "Don't say 'we', Susie, I had no part in this shit-show!"

"Isabel, you know about the dilemma that Ian has about being the last male member of his Scottish clan. We have a solution that will give Ian the son that he needs, and Cabby will get to raise a child that has her blood."

"Is Lizzie going to carry a baby for them? That's kind of drastic, there are other options. Lizzie could donate an egg that could be fertilized then carried by a surr..."

"Isabel, that's already been discussed, it won't work. The best option is you."

"Mom, I guess Nick and I could talk about it. If Nick is OK with it, I could donate some eggs..."

"Isabel, honey, Nick has no say in this, this is about our family..."

"Are you suggesting that Nick isn't part of our family?"

"No, no, that's not what I meant. What I mean is that Cabby, your sister, needs your help. She needs you to carry a baby for Ian."

"Mom, I'd be willing to...wait...WHAT?! Did you just say you wanted me to carry Ian's baby?" She turned to me and let out a very nervous laugh. I had a 'how about that?' look on my face with my eyebrows raised. "Nick, is this a joke?"

"No sweetheart, no joke. Your mother not only expects you to carry Ian's baby, but thinks you should conceive the baby the old fashioned way." Izzy burst out laughing. She covered her face with her hands as she laughed for about ten seconds. When she calmed down she looked at Ian, who was beet red and pissed that she was laughing about the idea of having sex with him.

Izzy turned and looked across the table at Gabby. "Gabby, I love you so much. There is almost nothing I wouldn't do for you. One of the things I wouldn't do, though, is sleep with Ian. I wouldn't even do that if Nick said it was OK. I love you so much, but I won't jeopardize my marriage so Ian can have a son. What if the baby was a girl?" Everyone had a dumbstruck look on their face as if this had never been thought of. "Just because Nick and I have sons, doesn't mean Ian will. The man's sperm dictates the sex, remember?"

Susan tried again. "Isabel, please think about this. Don't make a hasty decision..."

"Mom, listen to me. At this point, I can promise you that your relationship with Nick has been forever changed. I'm pretty sure you will never hear him call you 'Mom' ever again. It's no secret that Nick and Ian don't get along very well, now it will be even worse. I know this wasn't Gabby's idea, and I'm sure Nick knows that as well, so I'm sure this won't affect their relationship. If anything, he will feel sorry for her. Dad, I can't believe you're sitting there and going along with all this.

I'm pretty sure you're going to see a lot less of Nick from now on, which means that the only time you'll see the kids is when I bring them here. Ya know what? I don't blame him. I'm not gonna argue with him about it, and I'm not gonna try to force him to come here. Not gonna happen. You better hope he doesn't forbid you from coming to our house, because if he does, you will not be welcome there. Please understand this, Nick is my husband. I love him. I will do anything I can to make him happy. There is no competition between you guys and Nick, Nick wins every time. I will never do anything to break his heart. I will never cheat on him. Nick, I'd like to leave, can we go?"

"Absolutely, sweetness. Gabby, I am so sorry about your situation. Please call Izzy later on, or just stop over any time you want to. The rest of you should probably not come over for a while. I say we let this settle for a while then have another discussion." I stood up and Izzy gave me a huge hug. When she stepped back, Gabby stepped up and also gave me a bone-crushing hug and a kiss on the cheek.

"Nick, I'm so sorry for all this."

"It's OK, Gabbs. I love you, and your sister loves you, and we will both be here for you."

~~~~~~^~~~~~~

Six Months Later:

I heard the front door open then slam shut. "NICHOLAS!! You home?"

"I'm in the den. What's up?" It scared me when she used my full name. It was either really juicy, or really bad.

"Come into the kitchen. I need to talk to you while I start dinner."

I walked into the kitchen and leaned back against the counter. "OK beautiful, what's up?"

"You are not going to believe what happened! I was talking to Gabby today and it turns out she isn't sterile."

"Wait... what? What about the doctors?"

"Well, apparently Gabby misunderstood what she was told, you know how airy she is. When they said she wasn't going to be able to have a baby, they meant with Ian. He's sterile. His sperm is not viable. Gabby is fine."

"Oh, that's awesome! Has your mom decided who will be allowed to get her preggers?"

"Very funny. She and Ian are about done, she's really getting tired of his shit. She said that even his Scottish accent is starting to get on her nerves."

"Well, good for her, she could do so much better."

"Yeah, well, are you ready to start trying for number three?"

"Whenever you are baby, I love you, honey."

END

I don't know anything about infertility. I purposely stayed vague so no one would feel obligated to research the subject and correct all of the mistakes I would have made.

Don't know much about Scotland. I do descend from Scotland and my wife and I have visited a few times. One of our favorite places was a small island called Millport that is like stepping back into the fifties. It is a quiet and beautiful place, only accessible by ferry.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it.

Kilty