“You put a spell on me! You put a spell on me!” Cole screamed and jumped from the ledge, or he tried to. His belly was so swollen he couldn’t wrap his arm around it. He hobbled around the fire pit, which had been reduced to embers. It was pre-dawn, when the sky faded from violet, to navy blue, to pink, before the sun broke through. Mason sat up, alarmed and looked around.

“What? What’s the matter?”

“You put a spell on me!” Cole shrieked again.

That’s when Mason noticed his stomach. “Oh, my Gods!”  

“How? How did you do this?”  

“I didn’t. I mean, I don’t think I did, how is it…is this even possible? How…” His voice trailed off as he looked around the clearing. Mason’s eyes widened as he looked at the spilt bowl of oil and then down at their nakedness. He looked at the fireplace, and at Zemi who was sitting on the edge of the circle of stones, his yellow eyes burning.

“What’s happening to me?” Cole whimpered, clutching his stomach. He felt huge and he ached all over. His nipples ached and he felt like he was about to drop whatever was in his stomach. He couldn’t bring himself to say it, but he knew what had grown overnight in his belly.

“Oh, my Gods!” Mason whispered again staring at Cole for a long time before springing into action. “Come on, we’re going to get you back to my house and then figure out what to do from there,” Mason grabbed the robe from the ground and shook it, draping it over Cole. He felt cold and numb and he just stared at Mason as he worked to toss the items from his ritual into a bag. When he was done, he stuffed himself into Cole’s clothes, because they were about the same height, and took him by the elbow.

Cole felt numb with shock. He felt like he was peering through a looking glass at a reality that wasn’t real. He couldn’t possibly be pregnant. There was just no way. Yet despite the rational part of his brain telling him so, he found it difficult to move as he hobbled along next to Mason. The child was pressing on his bladder and it hurt when he walked. Eventually he had to stop and walk a few steps off the path towards Mason’s house to relieve himself. He started to laugh nervously when he thought about how he hoped he wasn’t standing in a batch of poison ivy.  

“Are you OK?” Mason called.

He didn’t answer. Was that the question of the day? Cole finished and his mind got lost staring into the trees for a moment until finally he felt Mason’s hand on his shoulder.  

“Cole, come on. Let’s get inside. We’re almost there and then we can figure out what to do.”

“Have you ever had to figure this out?” he asked.

Mason looked shocked then shook his head. “No, never. I didn’t know that was going to happen.” He gestured to Cole’s large, swollen belly.

“But you knew you were doing a fertility spell?”

“Well, yes. But being a gay man doesn’t necessarily equate to getting another man pregnant. Eclectic witches are more open to the LGBT community now, but in the past, the idea of fertility was for a woman to become pregnant, so most of the spells are written in the traditional sense.”

“Uh huh.” Cole only understood about half of what Mason was saying, but the gist was, normally the spell worked between a man and a woman. They were in completely uncharted territory in terms of the paranormal parameters of this pregnancy.

Pregnancy. Cole felt ill just thinking the word and suddenly he bent over and was violently sick. Morning sickness seemed to want to make up for all the lost months when he should have had it. This clearly wasn’t a normal pregnancy if it happened overnight. Duh, “he” should never have experienced morning sickness anyway.

Cole felt sweat break out over his body, followed by chills. He felt feverish and still sick and he wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed, hide, and hope this was all some sort of a dream.  

When they got to the house, Mason led him upstairs to his own bed. He couldn’t believe he and Olivia had spent the night here, they’d been happy, and he had been in love. In love? Had been? Cole wondered if this was the hormones talking, but he didn’t think so because he still felt strongly for Mason. What bothered him about that statement was that he had thought it in the past tense. He was still very much in love with Mason. He couldn’t deny that, but he couldn’t get his head around the thought of the beach ball growing in his belly. He could barely think about it without it making him nauseous.

Mason helped him get into bed and cover up. He lay under the covers, shivering, and felt the beach ball tighten.

“Ouch!”  

“What? What is it?” Mason was at his side in an instant.  

“I think I just had…I think I just had a contraction.” Cole winced as another one gripped him.

Mason’s face was pale and ashen. He squeezed Cole’s hand and then said, “I’ll be right back, I’m going to get help.”  

“Don’t leave me! Please don’t leave!” Cole couldn’t let go of his hand.  

“I’m not leaving, I’m just going to get my phone, OK? We need help.” Cole nodded but Mason still had to pry his fingers open so he could run downstairs. It wasn’t that Cole meant to hang on, but he couldn’t make his hand let go.

Mason was back in an instant, he’d just flipped the cellphone closed and kneeled back down beside Cole when his body contorted with pain again. He stroked Cole’s hair, and Cole found the gesture soothing and comforting.

“I’m so sorry.” Mason mumbled as he continued to comfort him. “I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be.” Cole gritted through his teeth. As strange as it was, he was sure there would be time to be upset with Mason later. Right now, he needed him to be his rock as he had been all week. Cole realized he’d come to rely on Mason and he needed him to be strong now.

After a few moments, he heard a thudding on the stairs and Cole wondered who could possibly have come to help when Dr. Teddy burst through the door. He didn’t have time to explain anything. He figured Mason could fill the doctor in, because his back and stomach seized up and he felt the greatest urge to push, except, he had nowhere to push the baby to.  

“Oh, my Gods!” Dr. Teddy hollered.

“That’s. What. He. Said!” Cole bellowed through gritted teeth.  

“Dr. Teddy, can you help us? I can’t explain, well yes I can, but can we go over the details of how this happened later and just deal with what’s going on now!?” Mason was frantic, waving a hand in front of the doctor’s face. He finally grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him, hard. “Doctor! You said yourself you’ve seen some unique medical emergencies. Please! Help us!”

This seemed to jar Dr. Teddy from his shock, because he rushed over and began feeling Cole’s forehead and stomach. He timed the contractions and then bellowed at Mason to help get Cole to the car. Cole thought his spine was going to snap from the pressure of the contractions and the walk to the car. He was vaguely aware that the Doctor was explaining they needed to get to his private practice in the city, which was about a half hour away. There was no way he could perform a cesarean in Mason’s house, let alone on a man. Cole’s vision was winking in and out through the pain. He had been there for Penny when she had Olivia, but she’d made it look so easy. There was nothing easy about this. The term hard labor existed for a reason.

When they finally got to the private practice, the doctor and Mason helped Cole out of the back seat of the car and into the building. Dr. Teddy had parked around the back so they would go unnoticed and they helped him waddle inside.

Cole was led down a long hallway that was decorated with reprinted artwork. It pissed him off to see it, because he felt like it made the doctor’s office seem cheesy. His head swam from the pain and he felt like he was in some bad, B-rated film, where this only happened because the alien impregnated him, and at any moment the little monster was going to burst out of his stomach in a shower of gore and grossness. He felt disgusting and bloated, but at the same time, strangely excited and happy to meet his newborn. It felt odd to think he was on the cusp of having a baby. How had this happened? Then he was in pain again and the details didn’t matter.

Cole was helped into a clinician’s room and lay down on the bed. He wasn’t sure what kind of doctor Dr. Teddy was, but it looked sterile enough, which made him grateful for the man despite how much he hated his artwork. Every time a contraction came over him and the baby still had nowhere to go, black spots danced in front of his eyes and he thought he was going to pass out.  

He saw the flash of white as the Dr. began to suit up for the emergency delivery. Mason was standing by Cole’s side and he wasn’t sure who was clutching whose hand tighter. Dr. Teddy began barking orders and Mason had to pry his hand away from Cole’s to go and help the doctor.

“I’m right here!” Mason called, and Cole discovered the one thing he was listening for was the sound of his voice.  

“Mason!” He couldn’t see past his heaving belly.

“I’m right here, OK. I’m not going anywhere; I’m helping the Doc get you ready.”  

Cole felt hands on his sides rolling him and then he felt a pinch on his spine.  His legs began to tingle and the lower half of his body went numb.

“Mason what happened?  I can’t feel my legs!”

Mason appeared at his side, but he was suited up now in hospital scrubs.  “It’s the anesthesia. It worked quickly which is a good thing. Sometimes it can take up to half an hour.  But this is good. It’s going to be OK.”

Cole nodded and Dr. Teddy walked up. “You are going to feel a tugging sensation in your abdomen. It won’t hurt, but you will feel the pulling and then, once the baby is extracted, I’ll stitch you up.”  

Cole didn’t know what to say. There was no time to prepare. The baby was coming whether he was ready or not.  

“Mason, I love you.” He looked at Mason through tear filled eyes. “If anything happens, take care of the baby. Please? Tell Olivia…”

“Nothing is going to happen. It’s going to be OK.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I love you, too, and I’m going to make sure nothing happens to you.”

Cole nodded and let the tears fall down his cheeks. The whole ordeal took forty-five minutes, from the time the doctor cut into him until the time the baby was born. He wasn’t having contractions anymore. The epidural took care of that. It was messier than he would have liked, but these was far from normal circumstances, and in a temporary operating room instead of a hospital operating theatre. When he heard the cries of the baby, he couldn’t believe his ears. Had he really just delivered a baby? And then Mason was there, beside him, holding the tiny bundle wrapped in linens from the supply room.

“We have a daughter.”  

Mason knelt down beside the bed as Cole felt his abdomen being tugged and stitched back together. It didn’t hurt, like the doctor said, but it did feel strange. Cole stared at the little head and face he could just see peeking out. Her eyes were shut and her fingers were curled around the blanket.

Mason had tears running down his face and Cole leant to kiss her tiny head. They had plenty to work through now that the storm was over, but in that moment, he felt like everything was right with the world. The only thing that would have made it perfect, was if Olivia was there, waiting to meet her new sister.

When Cole was finally able to sit up and hold his daughter, he couldn’t keep the tears at bay any longer. He rocked her back and forth while the doctor and Mason cleaned everything up. The doctor ran down to the supply room, apparently he was a general practitioner so was equipped for many different emergency scenarios as well as seeing patients, and he found a few bottles and formula, as well as a couple of onesies and other supplies they could use until they decided what to do.  

Mason sat in a chair next to the bed and continued to reach out and touch the small bundle in his arms.  

“What are we going to do now?” Cole mumbled. He was dog tired, like his body had just been dumped in a cement truck, set on spin cycle, then blasted all over the pavement like poured concrete.  

“Take care of our family.” Mason looked at Cole.

Cole was still in shock as he held and nursed his newest daughter. “How are we going to explain this to Olivia, Loretta, Bill, your school?”

“We could say we adopted, or we had a surrogate.”

“Did you know this would happen? Are you some all-powerful witch that can do anything?” Cole tried to hide the hint of fear in his voice, but there was a small quiver to it nonetheless.  

“No.” Mason winced at the fear. “I had no idea this would happen. I thought the spell was going to help me find a surrogate or adopt. More in the metaphorical sense. I never in a million years dreamed something like this could or would happen. You aren’t - you aren’t afraid of me are you?”

“Of you, no. I don’t think so. I am afraid of how powerful that spell was. I think in the future you need to consider what spells you practice.”

“Agreed. I would never hurt you, Cole. Not intentionally. You know that right? I meant what I said. I love you too.”

Cole looked up from his, their, daughter, and his heart burst seeing how earnest Mason was. He had been so wrapped up in his own self-involvement over Penny and Olivia, he’d never once considered the man he fell so hard and fast for was vulnerable himself. “I love you, too, Mason. We are going to figure this out.”

At that moment, Dr. Teddy came back into the room and slumped into a nearby chair. His face was sweaty and he looked exhausted. “Well I’ll be damned.”

The doctor looked between the pair of them, and then all three men started laughing. Some things in life are inexplicable and don’t require a basis in science. Cole knew all he needed to about the how and why. His mind needed to seriously process what had happened, but he was sure it had moved on from what the hell is going on, to how the hell am I not going to break such a tiny human being?

The doctor took another few minutes to rest, then Cole handed the baby over so he could perform some cursory exams.  

“She looks healthy enough. She’s just now opening her eyes. Her Apgar scores are good. I can sign the paperwork that it was an emergency delivery of a surrogate mother if you like. I don’t think Gaia will mind if we put on the papers that she relinquished custody and rights to the baby’s paternal father. Of course, once it’s filed with the court, they may want a DNA sample from you to prove she is yours, but I suggest you don’t give them both your DNA’. That would be a tough one to explain. I still can’t wrap my head around this.” He was shaking his head and staring down at their little girl. He handed her back to Mason, whose arms were outstretched, while the doctor took a look at Cole’s bandages.

“It will be hard to move you but we need to get you back home to rest before my employees come in tomorrow to open up the practice.”  

Mason agreed and they set to work prepping things to make the move. When they finally got ready to move the baby and Cole to the car, Dr. Teddy bent over and picked something up.

“Did either of you lose this?” He held out a penny and Mason and Cole looked at one another then down at the baby. The small tuft of hair jutting up from the blanket was a coppery color, and when she opened her eyes, they too were a coppery bronze. It was an unusual color, a distinctive color and in an instant Cole knew what he wanted to name her.

“How about Penny Grace?” Mason asked.

Cole thought it was appropriate since she was a grace from God, or the Gods, as was the case with Mason’s beliefs. “I think that’s perfect,” Cole agreed.

Dr. Teddy updated the paperwork and they made the half hour trip home. Dr. Teddy decided to go home and “process” everything that had just happened. Even as a practitioner and doctor, there were still some things he had to cope with.  

Mason helped Cole up the stairs to his bedroom, which was one door down the hall from the old nursery. Mason and Cole were finally alone and Cole couldn’t help but stare at the little bundle in his arms. Mason sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the two of them.

“Can I keep you?”  

His words echoed Olivia’s and Cole found himself smiling at them. “Yes. I think so. If there was ever something to pull us together, it’s family.”  

He leaned over and kissed Mason gently. His whole body still ached but he wanted the closeness to Mason, so he scooched over as best as he could so Mason could climb onto the bed with him. He saw Zemi sitting in the doorway, his bright yellow eyes shining in the dark, and he thought he heard Mason say thank you. Cole fell asleep leaning against Mason’s chest, and only awoke to discover it hadn’t all been a dream when Penny began to cry because she was hungry. Cole couldn’t wait for Olivia to come home in a week so she could meet her.

The week passed by in a blur and faster than he could have imagined. Penny was alert and looking at him and Mason as they took turns caring for her. He kept the shop closed for the week, and Dr. Teddy came around to check on him and encourage him to get up and walk around so when it was time to go get Olivia, he could act as normal as possible.

* * *

Loretta and Bill were a hard sell. Loretta began to shriek and clutch her hand to her heart.

“Mom, it’s OK. Everything is OK. We weren’t sure how to tell you we had a surrogate last time, and well, she’s here now so we can’t really keep her from you.”  

Bill kept shaking his head and peering into the tiny car seat to look at Penny’s face. “She’s so little.” He kept shaking his head. “Lottie, do you remember when Penny was that little? Our Penny?”

“Oh, my God! Oh, my gosh! How? When? Oh, Cole Armstrong you should have told us! We’ve got some of Penny’s old baby things, probably some of Olivia’s too! Let me go have a look in the attic. Oh isn’t she sweet!” Loretta’s eyes filled with tears, and whatever questions she may have had were forgotten for the time being.  

Olivia had remained quiet since they’d arrived and made the announcement. Cole bent down when it was just the two of them on the porch, Mason and Bill had gone inside after Loretta.  

“Olivia, honey, are you OK?”  

Olivia looked at him, her face was impassive. “Do we get to keep her, Daddy?”

“Yes, sweetie. She’s ours.”

“And we don’t have to return her, like Mommy?”

Cole pulled her into his arms. “No honey, she isn’t going anywhere. She’s ours. I think she was a gift from Mommy.”

“That’s right, Daddy. Always remember what Mommy said, find a penny, pick it up.”

“She did. Let’s go inside, and you can pick up and hold your new Penny, how about that?”  

Olivia slid from Cole’s arms grinning and humming the find a penny tune. She skipped into the house beside him and ran to hug Mason’s knees. He bent down and held the baby out so she could see. After she’d settled on the couch, Mason and Cole sat down beside her.

“What’s wrong?” Cole asked, because Mason looked puzzled.

“Nothing, I was just realizing something.”

“What’s that?”

“I had a dream a while back. It was strange, and I’d put it out of my mind, but now it makes sense I guess,” He started to smile as he leaned over Olivia’s head and kissed Cole. Cole didn’t mind, He had his family together, as eclectic as it was, and he was content. “I guess dreams really do come true.”

“That they do.” Cole looked at his family, which had been broken for so long, but now he was content with the fact that by the luck of a penny, it was whole again.