The Family Surrogacy

When you reach a certain age, there just comes a point where moving back in with your parents becomes embarrassing. Most people Henry knew had done it once or twice, typically in their early twenties. Jobs were hard done find fresh out of college, and without money, you couldn't pay rent. Many of his friends have been forced to take unpaid internships and the like, and had all moved back home so they could continue their studies and experience until they could get a livable wage.

For Henry though, the thought of moving back in made him ashamed. He'd left their house full of optimism, of to college. He was going to be the first one to go, the first one in his family to get a higher education. He'd done everything right, studied hard in school, gotten good grades. He was an only child, and so there was some extra pressure on him to succeed, but academically he thrived on it. He had enough friends in school, though he was certainly a nerd more than a jock, and life had looked so bright when he'd headed of to college.

Big things were expected of him.

He loved mathematics. Out of all the subjects he was good at, math came easily. In his brain he could see the equations, solve them quickly. He aced his courses with flying colors. Within a few years he was a tutor, helping younger students in the classes, earning extra credit and the eye of the professor who would be looking to take some more of the academically gifted students on after they graduated.

But it never eventuated. The economy crashed, and with it all facets of society. Budgets were cut, people laid off. For the college, that suddenly meant they were on a tighter string, and extra hirings were something that was laughed at.

Henry had been relying on getting that job, allowing him to continue his studies and earn a wage. But in the space of a week it all evaporated. He was out, no money, and nowhere else to go, with a degree that only worked on a college or university campus.

And here he was, on his parents doorsteps once again. They had a small two-story apartment on the east side, a middle class neighborhood full of hardworking folks. Brick buildings sandwiched together, a small garden out front and a backyard wide enough to hang a washing line up and that was it. The air had that smell of the city, wet concrete from the rain, the steam from the gutters, and the occasional sea breeze being so close to the docks. He'd grown up here. And now he was back.

"Henry!" His mother opened the door, a huge smile on her face as she rushed down the concrete steps to greet him. She had done her hair up into a messy bun, brunette curls falling down her neck, as she wore a knee length floral dress that kicked up as she sped towards him. She gave him a big hug as he stood there, blushing, arms pinned to his sides by his mother's embrace.

"Hi." He squeaked. His bags dropped out of his hands as his mother tightened her grip before pulling away.

She grabbed him by the face, still smiling. She was a beautiful woman, Henry knew. His friends had made a few boyish comments when they had been growing up about his mother. She was young too, a decade younger than his Dad. They'd met while working together at the docks. His Dad had been a Junior Harbormaster, while his mother had been hired as an accountant in the office. They said it had been love at first sight.

"I'm so happy your home!" She pinched his cheek. Henry shrugged her off, blushing redder. "Come! We've got your old room all ready. We haven't touched it, despite your father wanting to turn it into a study. I told him absolutely not -- and it's a good thing I did!"

Henry picked his bags up and followed his mother inside. His old room was on the second level, opposite his parents. It had made privacy a real issue as a teenager. It looked like nothing changed.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After spending the afternoon unpacking and talking to his mother, his father arrived home for dinner. He gave him a big hug, saying how good it was to see him again. It had been some time since they'd all been together under the same roof, and his parents seemed to be glowing to have him here. They weren't upset at all that Henry hadn't been able to find a job. They were good people, hard working. They had always been close, all three of them. They didn't bring it up, or ask him what he was going to do. They just carried on as normal.

As bad as Henry felt, suddenly out of prospects and between jobs, it was comforting to sit at the dinner table with his parents. His mother cooked his favorite, spaghetti, and his father even handed him a beer as they sat down. He'd never done that before. His mother chose water.

They talked all the way through the meal, his father and mother telling him what had been happening at work, with their friends and with their family. His father had just landed a promotion, a new sizable paycheck as well, something he had been working towards for years. Henry felt happy for his father.

"Why don't you use your new income to go on holiday and travel?" Henry asked. "I can't remember the last time you two went on holiday."

His father shot his mother a look. A quick one, Henry just catching it. His mother continued to eat, though she seemed more interested on what was on her plate than before.

"We've... we've decided to save the money. Put it to use for something else." His father said.

"Oh? Like what?" Henry asked.

"Rainy day."

His mother looked over at him, smiling. "Now, I want you to know, you can stay here as long as you want. I mean it. You're father is earning more money here, so there's no rush for you to go right back out there and find any job. You focus on what's best for you."

"Thanks mom." Henry went back to eating his food, but he couldn't help but feel something was out of place. His mother had quickly changed the subject. What were they up too?

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After a week of living in the house, Henry knew something was up with his parents. Whenever he collected the mail out of the post box out front, there would always be a handful addressed to his mother. All from medical clinics. A few were Gynecologists, and strangely enough, fertility centers. His Mother wasn't that old, she was only forty-two, but her getting pregnant again seemed unlikely.

But, with nothing much for Henry to do, he'd been spending a lot of time in his room, studying and on his computer, and his mother seemed to be having a lot of things going on. Every day she was popping out of the house, to run errands, and would be gone for hours. Something was definitely up.

And then one night, late in the evening, he heard his parents talking. His door was shut, but there's must have been open, and across the small hallway he could hear everything they were saying. Maybe they assumed he was asleep, or they'd simply forgotten how loud they could be with no one else living here for a few years?

Regardless, Henry had been on his phone, scrolling through his newsfeed on his old single bed in the dark, when he heard his mother talking to his father.

"... they say I can't do it. They say if I go full term, the risk of death is ninety percent."

"Then we get a second opinion."

"This is the fourth opinion we've gotten Jack! They all say the same."

"There has to be another option. We've tried, for so many years..."

"You can't do it. Not with your heart. If you do, you'll be worse off than me."

There was the sound of someone sitting on the bed, sighing, the springs squeaking. Possibly his father. "I can't believe it. All this time..."

"They did say one thing..."

"What?"

"A blood relative. It would make it highly successful. All the way to term. Guaranteed."

"But you don't have a blood relative who... wait... you don't mean?"

"Yes. I do."

By this point Henry's eyes were straining as he tried to listen even more closely. But he cursed as the door to his parent's bedroom closed, and the conversation was now lost to him. What were his parents up too?

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

He found out two days later. It was a Saturday, Henry in the kitchen pouring himself a bowl of cereal. His parents came down later, both of them also having the day off, yawning from not having to wake up from an alarm, feeling refreshed. The sun was out, and it was a nice day. They'd planned to go to the beach.

"Henry, I was wondering, could your father and I talk to you for a moment?" His mother was wearing a silk white robe, probably still in her pajamas underneath as she stood in the doorway, a soft smile on her face.

"Sure. What's up?" Henry asked, shoveling a spoon of cereal in his mouth.

"Best come sit down at the table dear. It's important."

Concerned, Henry followed her. His father was already at the table, sitting in his usual seat at the front, looking a little anxious. He pointed to the chair next to him. "Come here son, have a seat."

Henry sat down, eyes watching both his parents, as his mother walked and stood next his father. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong." His father said, smiling. "Nothing at all. We just have... some news. Something to ask you?"

"Yeah? You look like you're going to ask me for a kidney." The joke seemed to upset his parents, who looked at each other, worried smiles on their faces. "Alright, out with it. You two have been acting weird ever since I got home. What gives?"

His mother looked at him. "Well... something wonderful has happened. I want you to know we love you, we always have. And you've been the best son we could ever hope for. We love you so much." Henry gave them a look, expecting the word but. It came from his father.

"... but, we always wished that you could have had a sibling. We wanted a bigger family. Unfortunately, it never happened."

His mother gave him a bigger smile. "Until three months ago." His mother grabbed her robe and opened it. Underneath she was just wearing a bra and pajama bottoms, more of his mother than frankly Henry wanted to see. But sure enough, he saw it. The bulge around his mother's middle.

She was pregnant.

"Holy shit." Was all he could say.

His mother and father smiled. "After decades of trying, you're going to have a baby brother or sister."

As shocked as Henry was, he couldn't help but smile. His parents seemed so happy, even at their age, his father in his fifties and his mother in their forties. They looked so happy and over the moon.

"Well... congratulations!" He beamed. "I'm happy for you guys."

They hugged, all standing out of their chairs, Henry giving both of them a bug bear hug, making sure though to stay away from his mother's stomach and not squash her. He didn't know how to behave around a pregnant woman.

After that was all done with, his father asked him to take a seat again. "I'm really happy you're as excited for this as we are. Thanks son."

"No worries. I can tell now why moving home as thrown a spanner in the works." Henry shrugged. "You need a baby's room."

"There is one other issue... something we haven't brought up yet." His father's face got somber. His mother looked away. She looked tearful.

"What is it?" Henry felt that something awful was coming.

"We've been to every doctor we can find, every clinic. We've seen every specialist we can... but... all of them think that if you're mother was to go full term, herself and the baby wouldn't make it."

Henry's stomach dropped. So that was what all those letters were about. The conversation the other night. His Mother started crying.

"Surely... surely they can't all say that." Henry stammered.

"It's true." His father sighed. "If you're mother tries to carry the child full term... it will mean she and the baby will die. We only have one option."

"What is it?"

His mother and father took a moment. "A womb transplant."

"... a what?"

The next few minutes were a blur. His mother and father took turns explaining it all to him. They handed him pamphlets, books, journals on all of it. Henry was a man of math, equations and numbers. Human biology was lost on him. He'd heard the tales of course, seen the news articles and stories on womb transplants. It had been massive news a decade ago.

It was no different than any other body part being taken out of one person and into another. What made womb transplants even more of a miracle was that they didn't have to go into the body of another woman. They could go into a man. It had ended up revolutionizing society.

Henry sat there as he took it all in. When they were done, he took a breath. "You want me to carry the baby?"

"We know what we are asking. But it's a guaranteed success if it's a blood relative, rather than if we went with somebody else." His mother said. "I know it's a lot to ask of you. And I wouldn't want too..."

"I'll do it." Henry said. His parents looked like they didn't hear him. They both just stared. "I'll do it. It makes sense for me to do it. Hell, I don't have a job. I'm living here with you guys already. And after everything you've been through... I'll do it."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Two weeks later Henry and his mother were coming out of the hospital. The transfer had been a complete success. Thanks to his Father's promotion, he'd been able to afford the best womb transplant doctor in the city, and it was money well spent. Henry and his mother only had to spend a night in the ward, thankfully their beds together, before they were released.

His mother was still rubbing her stomach, suddenly empty now, her child no longer within her, getting accustomed to being back to normal as she got dressed in the ward. Henry however suddenly had a bloated belly, and a what felt like a huge lump resting in the pit below his stomach. As he put his shirt on, suddenly it felt quite tight around his waist. He was going to need new clothes, something he hadn't planned on when returning back to his parents.

Thankfully with modern medicine what would have been such an extreme procedure decades ago was now something trivial. He was prescribed a series of pills to take everyday, to keep his hormone levels where they should be to ensure a safe pregnancy. And he would have to check in with a Obstetrician Gynecologist once every month to help monitor him. After all, he was a pregnant man now, it was a little unorthodox.

Thankfully all the medication he was on prevented him from going through morning sickness. His mother had to laugh at the irony of that. She'd gone through the worst of it, throwing up twice a day, and here he came along at the end of it all to be perfectly fine with it.

His mother doted on him, more than she had been before, and Henry had to brush her off on occasion because it was simply becoming too much. He understand that not only was he her son, but that he was pregnant too, and also carrying his own sibling. There was a lot going on, and he didn't need his mother stressing about him all the time.

Still, there were some perks initially. Strangely he felt more energized than before. He didn't know if it was the hormones now racing through his body, or the fact that perhaps there was now some more purpose to his life. He had direction, a goal.

He felt fitter, stronger, despite his thickening waist. At the moment he looked like he'd eaten far too much, a paunch hanging over the top of his pants. No one really would have suspected he was pregnant. Still, he found his appetite far more ravenous, and his mother happily cooked for him, showing her love in her own way, always making sure he had a full breakfast, lunch and dinner every day.

The first few weeks Henry just settled in to his new life. He kept his eyes open for jobs, always looking for a job at universities, even contacting his old professor for any tips or leads, but it was always a dead end. There simply wasn't anything out there.

He caught himself occasionally feeling his stomach, his hand rubbing his growing belly. It seemed to be almost subconscious, this feeling within him to soothe and caress the child within, his own sibling. He'd just be sitting there, watching TV with his parents, his hand over his shirt, cradling his stomach. Sitting in front of the computer he would do the same thing, or even laying in bed he would wake up to his hand draped across his fattening stomach.

His mother gave him all of her pregnancy books, books she had kept from her pregnancy with him, and new ones she'd bought only recently. With not much else to study, Henry poured himself into the books. He learnt everything he could, studying up. He was going into his second trimester and he wanted to know everything that was coming, the way his body would change.

The biggest surprise was the day he felt movement. He was sitting at dinner one night, talking and eating with his parents, when he'd felt something move within his gut. It had felt strange at first, Henry thinking it was perhaps gas or something he'd eaten. But then the movement happened again, deeper inside him, until he realized what was happening.

"It kicked!" He yelled, surprised.

Straight away he lifted his shirt, exposing his plump belly, as his parents rushed over to feel. All of them laughed and got excited, hands all over his stomach, as the baby kicked back a few more times. It was the best moment of it all by that point, and made everything worthwhile.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

With his pregnancy now technically in it's fourth month, Henry went to visit his gynecologist. It took him an hour to get into the city, having to take the train in, and by the time he got to the office he found himself feeling a little tired. His body was still catching up and evolving, and the new well of energy he had could disappear quite easily.

He entered the reception area, strangely not knowing what to expect. There were a few people there, mostly couples, all of the women looking visibly pregnant. Not surprising, given how new this procedure was. Women were still naturally equipped to do this job, for a man there needed to be a few extra steps.

The receptionist told him to wait, that Dr Walker would be along soon. He sat in the corner by himself, just waiting, watching and observing all the women. It was at that point he realized, it began to truly sink in, what was happening to him. One woman was huge, looking like she'd swallowed a beachball. Her shirt didn't fit her properly and it barely hung over the top of her dome, which stuck out and down. She had to be close to giving birth at any minute, and by the looks of her she had a full litter inside her.

But she was happy. Her husband was next to her, and both of them were rubbing her full belly, quiet and content. Henry smiled.

"Alright, we'll see you in a few weeks Michael."

A wooden door opened into the reception area, a Doctor in her thirties dressed in a lab coat leading the way. She was blonde, pulled into a ponytail, with black rimmed and stylish glasses, and wearing high heels. They clicked on the floor as she walked and then stopped in the reception area, holding the door open for her patient.

He looked about thirty himself, dark hair, beard, wide shoulders and thick hairy arms. And he had a massive belly poking out of him, just as big as the other woman's who was still sitting down! The man was wearing a singlet and it was being stretched tight from his huge pregnant bump. He had to be close to going into labor himself.

"Thanks Doc!" He said with a big grin. Both hands cradled his bump as he waddled away, cheerful, swaying under the huge weight of his stomach as he left the doctor's surgery.

"Henry?"

He looked up. The blonde doctor had called his name.

"Here." He raised his hand, feeling like a school child. The doctor smiled.

"Come with me!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"I think what you're doing is fantastic."

Henry was laying down on a hospital bed, shirt off, as Doctor Walk squirted some gel onto his abdomen. Thankfully it wasn't could but warmed up, and she put a generous dollop onto his stomach which poked up ever so slightly.