The hum of the specialized incubator was strong and steady as Jill Shucks and served a very special purpose for the three eggs that lay inside it. They were a white color but didn't match the eggs that most people would know of. Of course, most people were really only familiar with the eggs they bought at a grocery store, and those were laid by chickens. Some stories had it that the Chicken Animalians in Lyre/Animalia would sell their unfertilized eggs for the same sort of reason, though, they didn't produce eggs as quickly as mundane chickens did and the larger size for an Animalian's egg limited who would have the appetite for them.
Jill Shucks, however, was no Chicken Animalian. She was an American Alligator Animalian and was happily married to Beauregard Shucks. He was still a fairly successful real estate developer and still tried to use his business as a means to also try and protect and preserve Louisiana's woodlands and marshlands and that played in with the good-sized bayou that was present behind Beauregard home, and where he also tried to show the beauty of it for kids in the area well to the south of Baton Rouge. It also made for good swimming in the summer as well, though as September arrived, things were starting to cool enough that some of that might not be a good idea. She and Beauregard as Alligators could withstand the cold better than the Crocodile Animalians they'd heard about, but that didn't mean that colder temperatures wouldn't make them cold.
"Still checking on them, dear?" came Beauregard's deep voice from behind her.
That made her stand up and turn to him. The room was largely dark other than one small lamp that was on. Both of them were dressed and ready for work, Beauregard with his business and her working with a local bookstore. They often had her maintaining the nature, biology, and ecology sections, but then given Beauregard's reputation and the fact that Jill was an Animalian, she sort of expected that. She made a small smile and shrugged.
"I can't help it," Jill answered, "every part of me wants to be near... to check on them. Make sure they stay at the temperatures we agreed on. One at 91 degrees for a male and two at 88 degrees for females. I want to hear them chirp and be the first thing they see when they hatch."
Beauregard approached and softly nuzzled her muzzle with his own.
"I know," Beauregard said to her, "that's all the instinct to be a good mom that all Crocodilians have... and fits in with kind personality I've come to love and married you for."
The two nuzzled for a moment before Beauregard continued.
"But the house as security, and the incubators are fitted with an automatic rotator so that the heat will be uniform," Beauregard continued, "and from all the reports they give... your pregnancy wasn't long, but our kids won't hatch until after nine months from conception. You carried them for three months and then they'll incubate for six months. We have another four months before they hatch."
"I know... but I can't wait," Jill admitted and thought back to a warm afternoon in July...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"You're not worried, Miss Jill?" Beauregard's sister, Clara, asked her as they walked along a grocery store in the town that was closest to her and Beauregard's home.
"I'm fine, Clara, just pregnant," Jill answered as she pushed the cart along toward the meat aisle and with one scaled hand resting on the large swell of her womb.
It was presently covered by a soft pink maternity dress that didn't look completely ugly and had a good enough opening in the back for her tail. It couldn't hide that she looked like she was close to nine months pregnant, though, in reality, it was more like three months. From what the doctors had been able to gather from calls to Horizon and the very basics which Jill had explained, she shouldn't be too far away from when she would lay the three eggs that were within her. She remembered conceiving them and the deep bellowing from both her and Beauregard on the matter, but she really didn't want to be bragging to her sister-in-law about how good Beauregard was in bed.
"I'm sure, Miss Jill," Clara answered, "but I've been where you are before... multiple times in fact. Granted my kids are all Human and I didn't lay eggs... but I'd imagine you must feel their weight and the anxiety to lay them now that your eggs are as big as they are now. It'd be tiring just to move around on swollen feet."
Jill managed a small nod as Clara was referring to her own four children, Bart, Claire, Mary-Todd, and Ulysses. That was something that Jill really couldn't relate to. She'd been single when she'd been in Animalia and had only worked up the courage to be in one of the first bachelorette auctions that were had get people to engage with Animalians that didn't have bond mates as a result of their uplifting or conversion during the initial outbreak. She would always thank Sylvia for helping her build up the courage to do so, as it did lead her to Beauregard, but it still presented a different present stance from where Clara had been with her four children. While she and Beauregard knew her three eggs were fertilized, the embryos really hadn't developed all that much and the past three months had mostly been the development of the yolk and other nutrients that would feed her babies once she laid her eggs. In the most recent weeks, Jill figured the eggs shells were forming, and as an Alligator's egg, they wouldn't be as hard and rigid as a bird's egg.
"I'm afraid I can't relate entirely," Jill commented, "as an Animalian... I'm more than strong enough to handle some simple tasks, which getting food for me and your brother is. And at the same time, while the size of the eggs may be comparable to your children when you were in your third trimester with your little ones... who are just the cutest ever..."
"Thank you, Miss Jill," Clara answered.
"But my hatchlings really won't have comparable weight to your children before they were born until they're actually closer to hatching," Jill added, "in this, despite their size... their weight isn't that much."
"Maybe... but I'm still here to help," Clara replied, "Beau is busy... and he wants you to be healthy, and I have the time to help."
"And I think you," Jill replied as she felt a mild cramp start in her gut, "but I'm sure things will be fine."
They went about their grocery shopping with some relative ease, and Clara got a few small snack type foods to fit along with what she needed while she'd been staying with them. Most of it was to be there and help Jill. Jill knew that Clara didn't have experience with laying eggs as a Human, but Beauregard was working and the bookstore she was working at essentially had her on "maternity leave" as her expected laying date approached, and since this was her first clutch, she couldn't claim to be an experienced "gator mother" either. The one thing that continued was that she had some minor cramps in her midsection. At first, she thought it was nothing, but then the cramps began to move down and felt more like a constriction and as they made their way to the car, Jill began to get a feeling of what was happening.
"We need to get home, quick," Jill spoke.
"Home... your errands..." Clara asked.
"I think we're getting past that," Jill answered as one hand moved to rest on her womb.
"Your water broke?" Clara asked as she watched this, "shouldn't we go to the hospital?"
"I'd... unnng," Jill spoke as she wanted to say "nest" which was for the moment a small couch in what would be the nursery that had a soft set of old bedsheets that she and Beauregard would be okay with using for the purpose of catching her eggs. From there, they could move the eggs to the incubators that they had bought online. However, a new contraction hit her and Clara sort of panicked at that.
"We're going to the hospital," Clara declared and then pulled forward.
Jill tried to protest but Clara had made her decision and was confident that the hospital would be able to safely deliver the eggs and keep them clean.
"But the temperature," Jill protested, "we want two girls and a boy."
"I'm sure they have incubators," Clara answered, "and I'll call Beau once you're admitted. You'll be fine."
They did make it to the hospital, and Clara was quick to go in. The hospital technicians were surprised that the woman getting ready to give birth was an Alligator Animalian, particularly as Jill was holding back giving very guttural growls as she knew what was coming. Them helping her out of the car and into a wheelchair, which they had to remove the backing to make room for her tail, only made her give those calls as everything in Jill's mind was starting to scream "protect my babies." She could only just barely remind her instincts that these people had no intention of harming them.
"How fast are your contractions, ma'am?" one nurse asked her while Clara had now pulled out her phone and was talking to Beauregard.
"Very," Jill answered, "I'm going to lay my eggs very soon. You will need incubators. Two to keep two eggs heated to around 88 degrees and one egg heated to around 91 degrees... and do it quickly, the first egg is getting ready to move."
The nurses rushed and there were a series of frantic calls for an OBGYN to rush to the delivery room. One nurse asked on the difference in temperatures, which was something that generated a pained and irritated grunt from Jill. After being married to Beauregard and living in the area, one would have thought that the local doctors, at least, would have picked up some things on Alligators, given that two Alligator Animalians lived in the area.
"It relates to the determining of the gender," Jill grunted, "the eggs at 88 degrees or lower are more likely to be female the eggs between 90 and 92 degrees are more likely to be male. You could also then get something where eggs heated over 94 degrees would also be female... so it is all a temperature range, and there could be cases where things could get too hot or too cold, but if you keep the incubators close to the temperatures I told you, you shouldn't have a problem."
The arrival in the delivery area was quick, and the nurses did relay the instructions that Jill had given. The doctor and the staff then further helped lift Jill up and get her into the birthing chair. It let her lean back so that she wasn't sitting on her tail, but as she was in position, the first of her eggs began to move and Jill couldn't hold back.
"Just be gentle with your hands and my eggs," Jill gave a grunting instruction to the doctor as she began pushing and feeling the first egg move down the birth canal. The leathery shell constricted a bit as it moved through her hips.
The doctor wanted to protest something, but then only noted as Jill's cloaca opening began to slowly open and revealing the white eggshell following it. The doctor barely noted the nurse returning to tell him they had an incubator ready as the first egg emerged and he was forced be careful with it, particularly as he noted Jill's low growls and the up and down motion of her jaws.
"You're not in any pain, are you?" the doctor asked.
"Not really," Jill answered, "just put that egg in one of the incubators for a female and then get back, the next egg is already moving."
"Incubators?" the nurse blurted.
"Yes, I'm laying three eggs!" Jill bellowed as she began to push again and push the second egg down the birth canal, "each requires its own incubator."
Jill squeezed her eyes shut as she heard the nurse head out again in a hurry. While the staff here may have been surprised by her showing up and how fast it would take her to lay her eggs, Jill was still frustrated by the seeming lack of preparation. After all, she'd been coming to the same hospital for her general health checkups and to update her vaccine status as needed. She'd also come in as her pregnancy started and that so the development of her eggs could be monitored. It was enough that she expected them to have some awareness on how many eggs she was to lay and what would be needed. Yet, this group seemed more nervous and panicked by things and the only thing she could guess at was that they weren't part of the usual staff members she'd seen before. Thankfully they were fast enough to return with two more incubators and set to the right temperature before Jilly laid the last two eggs. From there, she was escorted to a different room with the eggs in their incubators not too far from her. It was only then that she saw Clara again.
"Are you okay?" Clara asked.
"I'm alright," Jill answered, "though... Beauregard and I had things set up so I could lay my eggs at home. I had a nest ready and everything."
"Please don't tell me you made a nest of leaves and twigs," Clara said slowly, "you're an Animalian, not a mundane Alligator."
"It was a sort of bean-bag cushion with an old sheet laid over it," Jill told her, "I could lay the eggs and then put them in the incubators that Beauregard and I had bought and not have to deal with a hospital staff that clearly didn't expect to be delivering Alligator eggs today."
"That doesn't sound entirely sanitary," Clara shook her head, "and wouldn't the eggs need to be weighed? Make sure there are no deformities in the shell? Health type stuff? And what about you? What if one egg was too wide for you and you were hurt by it? Beauregard would be mighty upset if I let something bad happen to you."
"Beauregard," Jill managed, her voice falling off at the end of her husband's first name.
"He's on his way," Clara informed her.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"I can't wait to meet them," Jill said to Beauregard as she nuzzled him again, "and your nieces and nephews have also sent messages of excitement."
"Yes, since you laid the eggs," Beauregard laughed, "but we still have to wait. We can't change the incubation and worrying won't speed things up. And since you've laid the eggs... you are expected to be back at work, at least until they hatch. It's all part of the real world... and where despite everything else, we can look forward to some happiness of our own."
"Agreed," Jill nodded.