“Are you excited?” Liam ran his hands down his jeans. They were sweaty, and he couldn’t seem to stop his foot from tapping. Sitting in Doc Farriday’s waiting room, Beau was calmly reading a battered woman’s magazine.

“If I didn’t have this bump,” Beau smiled across at him, “I’d swear I had wind. I can’t believe I haven’t had one ounce of morning sickness yet, or weird food cravings.”

“They could come any time.” Liam had been reading up on it. Of course, he’d already been through Seth’s and Simon’s pregnancies, but now the baby was his own, it seemed all the more important. “No two pregnancies are ever the same.”

Beau smiled and winked, but then went back to his magazine. Liam couldn’t help feeling something was going on with his mate. He’d seemed happy enough when he got back from Jackson. The two had celebrated Lucien’s impending mating with Noah in a decidedly sexy way involving handcuffs and Liam’s uniform. But they’d been woken early by Beau’s phone; a call he took privately. Liam had been hurt when Beau dismissed it as nothing, but why the need for privacy?

Now is not the time for my insecurities to be showing, Liam told himself off soundly. Beau needs my support. This is a happy day. Happy day. It was probably a business call. Beau has businesses all over the world. Fuck, what is he doing with someone like me?

“Liam. Mate, are you okay?” Liam looked up to see Beau staring at him. “The doctor’s ready for us now.”

“Awesome.” Liam jumped up, smiling at Doc. “Big day today. Getting to see our baby.”

“Come on in,” Doc held open the door to his treatment room. “There’s a few things we need to do first.”

Once inside the treatment room, Doc busied himself checking Beau’s blood pressure, taking his weight and asking him about his eating and sleeping habits. Liam barely listened to the answers; he couldn’t help looking at the trolley containing the ultrasound machine. In a matter of minutes, he’d get to see the new life he helped create. Up until now, he’d barely heard the heartbeat and only then by pressing his ear close to Beau’s stomach; something his mate wasn’t keen on now his belly had started to grow.

“Okay, now you can get up on the table, loosen your pants and raise your shirt for me please.” Doc was pulling the trolley with the machine closer to the bed. Liam spied a stool and dragged it closer while Beau got himself ready. His lion chuffed quietly in his head – yeah, his animal spirit and human side were both proud they were responsible for that bump.

“I’ll be the first to admit, you are the first phoenix shifter I’ve met,” Doc said, squeezing thick lube over Beau’s stomach. “Is there anything in particular I need to know about your pregnancy or for when you give birth.”

“I wouldn’t have a clue, Doc,” Beau said cheerily. “Male pregnancy was never discussed in my family. I only recently found out my grandfather gave birth to my father, but he seemed to do okay.”

“Hmm,” Doc was disapproving. “Perhaps you might take the time to ask your grandfather if there’s anything I need to know. The way Seth and Simon’s pregnancies culminated were difficult enough. I prefer to be prepared for the unexpected.”

“I’m sure it will be fine. I haven’t had an ounce of any of the symptoms they told me about. No sickness, fainting spells or weird cravings. You’ll find me text book pregnancy, I imagine.” Beau’s smile was fake. Liam could see right through it. He’s nervous, his helpful lion told him.

Moving closer, Liam took Beau’s hand as Doc started the machine. For a moment, Beau’s hand tensed as if he was going to pull away, but then another smile blossomed; more realistic than the one he had for Doc and Liam tried to relax.

“If you were textbook, young man, you’d be having those symptoms,” Doc said sharply. “Now look, here we go.” He pushed a bulbous wand-like object into Beau’s bump, moving it slowly across the skin. “Ah, there we are little one.”

Liam stared, and he wasn’t ashamed to admit tears stung his eyes. Although he’d seen Seth and Simon’s ultrasound pictures, nothing could prepare him for the wash of emotion that flooded him at the sight of a mix of gray’s, blacks and whites on the screen. “Our baby,” he whispered, his free hand reaching for the screen. “Our very own jelly bean. Oh, Beau, look, isn’t he or she amazing?”

“I’m not sure what I’m seeing here.” Liam turned to look at his mate. His tone had a tinge of hysteria in it.

“It’s our baby, sweetheart. Already fully formed. Show him, Doc; point to the dinky little hands and feet and look at his cute head.”

“We don’t know the sex yet,” but Doc smiled. “Here, Beau, see this line? That’s your baby’s spine. And this bundle on this end is the head. Here you can see one of the hands, and these lines here are the two legs. He’s got them bent.”

“Are you sure that’s a baby?” Beau’s face was completely white. “I think Liam had it right when he called it a jelly bean.”

“Babe, what’s wrong?” This was not supposed to be how his mate reacted. Where were the expressions of love and joy the others told stories about?

“It’s real. I’m really pregnant.” Beau gulped. “I have a living thing inside of me.”

“Here, let’s see if this helps,” Doc said flicking a switch on the machine. Solid whoosh thump noises filled the air and Liam smiled.

“Now you can hear him,” Doc beamed, “and yes, you are having a son.”

“Isn’t it wonderful?” Liam knew tears were running down his face, but bigger men than him cried when seeing their offspring for the first time. Even stoic Simon shed a tear when Darwin flashed their pictures around. “How far along do you think Beau is, Doc?”

“Well, judging by the dates you gave me and the size of your little one, I am guesstimating your baby will be born in about six to eight weeks. As you can see, he’s already fully formed, with sex organs, so he’s almost half way already. The key thing now will be keeping track of his growth. With shifters, pregnancy is never an exact science. If you come back next week for another scan, I’ll be able to plot the change in growth and will have a better idea then.”

“This can’t be happening,” Beau whispered. Then he said a little louder. “This can’t be happening. I haven’t been sick, I never feel faint. I’m exactly the same as I was last month except for this…this…this lump.”

“Beau!” Liam was shocked but worse, he could feel his lion getting riled. His mate should be celebrating with him.

“What? You thought I wanted this?” Beau’s eyes were wild and angry flames licked across his skin. “I know my phoenix told me about it, but I didn’t feel any different. I still don’t. How can this be happening to me?”

“You don’t want our baby.” Liam’s heart splintered into a thousand pieces. “That’s why you’ve been so calm. You thought you were going to come in here today and see what? A tumor?”

The flash of guilt on Beau’s face confirmed it.

“You thought the Doc would say, so sorry guys, but it’s not a pregnancy after all. Just some nasty stomach lump. Here, let me put your under and we’ll have it out in no time.” Liam shook his head. “You’re a right bastard, Beau Ferris. A right fucking bastard.”

“Liam,” Doc Farriday started to say, but Liam shook his head. He had to get out. All his hopes and dreams of a beautiful family had gone up in flames. Quite ironic given he was mated to a phoenix. Tearing off his clothes, Liam shifted and without looking at Beau or the doctor, he took off out of the office.

/~/~/~/~/

“I’ve seen a lot of different reactions since getting this ultrasound machine,” the doctor said as he swiped across Beau’s stomach with a tissue, throwing the waste in the trash can. “I’ve seen tears, yelling, screams of joy. It’s always a happy occasion. Never fails. You certainly took the cake today.”

“I…er…I,” Beau rubbed his hands over his face. “This all took me by surprise.”

“Bullshit.” Doc started shutting off his machine. “You know your animal side doesn’t lie to you. From all accounts, you’ve been happy with the idea of pregnancy. Gossip in town said you defended your mate and your unborn child from your own father. So, you’ve got no excuse acting like a brat when you see your child for the first time and upsetting your mate like that.”

“But it’s a real baby. Doc, you’ve got to believe me, I didn’t realize it. It’s like I’ve been living in a dream world where I was pregnant but didn’t have a clue what that meant.” Beau grabbed the doctor by the arm. “I didn’t know, well, I did, but I didn’t. I’m a man, over a hundred and fifty years old. Until the last few weeks, I wasn’t even sure it was possible. Surely, you’ve seen cases like this before.”

“Can’t say that I have. The fact remains, your pregnancy is very real and will run its natural course.” The doctor shrugged off Beau’s hand. “Question is, what do you want to do now?”

“I haven’t got a clue.” Beau shook his head, his mind still trying to make sense of the images he’d seen.

“Well, your options are pretty limited, I can tell you that.” The doctor pulled out a chart, and sat on the stool recently vacated by Liam. Liam. My mate. Fuck. He’ll never forgive me for this. “Animal spirits guard any unborn child jealously. There is no way I can operate to remove the fetus. Your phoenix would never allow it.”

“You can’t do that.” Beau wrapped his arms around his waist.

“I wouldn’t even try,” Doc said drily, looking down at his chart. “However, there are options after the child is born. You can give him to Liam to care for, seeing as the child is his as well. Or, if you can get Liam to sign relinquishment papers, I can arrange for the child to be adopted as soon as he’s born. If you’re not keen on him being raised by strangers, maybe a family member could take him….”

“Stop. Stop. No.” Beau shook his head. “Liam would never forgive me.”

“What makes you think he’s going to forgive you now. Look, Beau, we don’t know each other, but I’ve watched Liam and his brother since they first moved to Arrowtown. They’re good boys. After all that shit with Theo and what happened to Hal, I thought finally Liam had a chance at a happy life when he introduced you as his mate. Your tantrum today was inexcusable.”

“I can’t help it if something I’d thought of as a concept freaked me out when I found it was real.”

“So, what were you going to do? Just sit around getting bigger and bigger until the baby is ready to be born, ignoring the fact it’s a living being growing inside of you. Do you even know how phoenixes are born to male parents?”

“No.” Beau hadn’t thought that far ahead.

“Well, neither do I.” Doc slapped his file on the bed. “Unless you want me poking around your nether regions, I suggest you get in touch with your grandfather and find out. You’re running out of time, and willing or not, that baby will come when he’s good and darn ready.”

“The only thing I know is what my brother, Noah told me. Grandfather wasn’t allowed to shift in the last month when he was carrying my father. He said Grandfather had three months from when he started to show until my father was born. You said I only have six to eight weeks.”

“Pregnancies are a mixture of genetics. The timeline for the pregnancy will depend on that mix. Liam is a lion shifter. Their gestation period in the wild is a hundred and five to a hundred and ten days. In shifters the time is shorter because shifters grow faster than their natural counterparts. From your reckoning, you’re currently about a month pregnant, maybe a little less, so six to eight weeks is a conservative estimate.”

“Six weeks.” Beau ran his hand over his baby bump. In a matter of weeks, he was going to be holding a baby in his arms. A real live, kicking, screaming, pooping baby. His own son, to nurture, and cherish, and guide until the young man walked out into the world alone as an adult. So much responsibility. What if I do something wrong?

And yet even as he asked himself that question, Beau knew Liam would never allow that to happen. Liam grew up in the most shattering situation possible for a young boy, and yet he became a caring, loving and understanding adult. Liam would love the baby; he did already, and the wee man was no bigger than the palm of his hand. Beau’s mind was filled with images. Liam was often found in the children’s nursery – Ra’s or Simon’s – it didn’t matter; singing lullabies as he expertly fed the babies; shushing them so they wouldn’t wake their parents. He’s going to be an amazing dad. He already has enough toys to sink a battleship.

“Come on, move yourself,” the doctor said. “I do have other patients to see. Shall I bother making another appointment for you next week, or will you ignore that like you are all the other symptoms your body is showing.”

“I’ll be here.” Beau pushed himself up and did up his jeans. As he did, he doubled over; a spark running through his heart like a heart attack.

“Beau. Beau. What happened? Get back on the bed.” Farriday held onto his arm.

“Nothing’s wrong.” Beau panted as he slowly straightened. “I don’t know why but Liam’s just met our other mate.”

“Another mate? How many do you guys get?” Doc shrugged. “I hope he treats Liam better than you do.”