"Thank you, doctor," Molly said to Doctor Wainwright as he began to put the sensor away.
"This is all part of my job," Doctor Wainwright replied, "a good many new parents want to see their kids... even this early."
"I'm sure," I told him, "but these are our first cubs, and probably our only cubs, but still... you do not have to show us what they look like, do you?"
"No, I do not HAVE to show you," Doctor Wainwright began.
"And so we thank you for showing us," Molly told them, her voice at a low rumble, as if she were trying to purr to him, "showing us made me very happy."
Doctor Wainwright placed a hand near Molly's knee and rubbed that area in a reassuring sort of way. Like he was trying to comfort her or to be friendly.
"Then I'm glad to have been of help," Doctor Wainwright smiled, "a lot of this is normally expected in these sorts of things. And again, I'm sorry if anything we discussed earlier sounded repetitive to things you already know or suspect, or if anything I said made you nervous. I merely want to make sure your cubs are born healthy and wanted to cover everything."
"We understand," I told him, patting him on the back, though finding that I patted him a little too hard as his shoulders bounced forward slightly, though not enough to do any real harm, "there haven't been enough Animal Person pregnancies out there for you to have a plethora of data on everything and every animal species..."
"That'll take a few years, I'd suppose," Doctor Wainwright shrugged.
"By which point, George and I will have a couple of young cubs running around and tugging on our tails," Molly laughed.
Doctor Wainwright laughed at that and put the sensor away and then handed Molly one of the moist towelettes he had brought. Molly slowly accepted it.
"There you go," Doctor Wainwright said as he handed it to Molly, "That way you'll be able to clean the gel off... I hope..."
"If not I can hop into the shower when George and I get home," Molly assured him, "tigers like the water."
"We have a pool at home and everything..." I added, "...though at the moment we don't have any water in it to make sure we don't have any frozen pipes or any dirty water that would need to be cleaned."
Doctor Wainwright nodded at that.
"Okay then," he said with a smile, "and things are looking well. I'll see you in a month, when I expect your cubs to be a little bit bigger."
"When will we know the gender?" Molly wondered, "so we can start figuring out what to name them?"
"Normally with human babies that won't occur until the second trimester," Doctor Wainwright answered, "which by human standards would give you two two months to wait... though your pregnancy could be different. Since the present Animal Person data would point to you coming of "term" at month six, some of that could mean that your cubs' genders could become apparent earlier or not, since so far their rate of development is about the same as a human's would be."
"Can we check, next month?" I asked.
"I can check with the ultrasound equipment, yes, but remember they will both be tiny," Doctor Wainwright spoke, "our equipment will magnify things to see the cubs themselves, but remember... the reproductive organs are proportionately small... even on human babies... in comparison to arms and legs, and in your case, tails. I can check, but it may still be too soon to know for sure. There have been the occasions where mothers-to-be think they have a son or a daughter and then give birth and find out they have the opposite gender of what they had originally thought. Nothing is always certain."
"We'd still guess," I replied, "hopefully we'll get a good one."
"Hopefully," Doctor Wainwright nodded.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Molly and I were in a very good mood as we left the "examination room" that we had seen Doctor Wainwright in. We knew just how many cubs Molly had inside her. True, two was on the low end of the range that a Bengal Tiger's litter would be, it was still a decent number. Molly and I did only have two hands and only having two cubs would make managing them a bit easier once they were old enough to move about without us carrying them. And two was actually the number of cubs I had been hoping for. It fit the daydreams I had had of the family that Molly and I would have. Of course we would still have to wait a while to figure out if what I had pictured in my daydreams would be accurate.
I had pictured Molly and I raising fraternal twins, one being a boy and one being a girl. That was possible and even likely... at least in the sense that they'd be fraternal twins. Molly and I would have to wait at least a month before we would know the genders for sure. Until then we wouldn't know if we had two boys, two girls, or one boy and one girl. Until Doctor Wainwright could confirm the genders of our cubs, that would be a mystery. And until then, we couldn't begin really thinking of names for them. We had the list Megan had given us, obviously, but those names were ideas and included names Megan had thought to be cute including: "Queenie" and "Beautie".
The other thing Molly and I would have to wait on would be seeing what they'd look like. I wasn't entirely sure, but it looked as though our cubs' fur hadn't begun to grow yet. I had seen some things that a tiger's stripe patterns were actually related to markings on its skin underneath the fur, but the ultrasound couldn't determine that or even if our cubs had fur yet. And that was the other portion of the daydreams that I had had in reference to what Molly's and my cubs would look like. I had envisioned that one of our cubs would be a white tiger. The condition was the result of recessive genes in the Bengal Tiger, and in some zoos and captivity in occurred in tigers with Siberian/Amur Tiger ancestry after cross-breading Bengal (particularly white tigers) and Siberian Tigers. That we would have to wait until Molly gave birth for.
Blood tests could be done for those recessive genes, but Molly and I figured to keep our medical costs down. Between the regular visits related to Molly's pregnancy and soon to be regular payments to pay for the transit that Molly and I had bought, having blood work done to test for recessive genes was a bit much. Besides, the minimum genetic pairing would come when Molly gave birth. If both were of the normal coat color for a Bengal Tiger, reddish orange with black stripes, Molly or I... or both of us would carry at least one dominant gene. If one was a white tiger, both Molly and I would carry one recessive gene. And that would create a pleasant surprise for the both of us, regardless of our respective genetics.
"Twins," Molly and I said to each other with soft smiles as we made our way back down to the main floor of the Kalispell Medical Center to deal with billing and scheduling the next appointment.
"How cute do you think they will be, George?" Molly asked me after a moment.
"Very," I answered, "If we have a girl, hopefully it's as beautiful as you."
"And if we have a male, hopefully he is as handsome as you and grows to be as strong as you," Molly nodded, "and may they always be healthy."
I nodded to that as we made our way into the billing center for the Medical Center. Actually paying for the treatment wasn't done there. We received a billing slip in the mail that covered how the hospital wanted us to pay directly for the treatment Molly was receiving, but there were the obvious things that had to be dealt with. That had to do with things related the insurance coverage that we had. And that was always a mess. Thankfully, I was protected thanks to my employment with the police, and Molly had some protection as a teacher and as my main "dependent", but there were more then enough that weren't in as fortunate a boat.
Once we'd finished with billing and scheduling the next month's appointment, Molly and I returned to the lobby where Meredeth was waiting for us. She was still reading as the program they had on television was not to her interest.
"We're ready," I said to her.
"Ready?" Meredeth nodded.
"And with twins!" Molly smiled.
"Twins?"
Molly nodded.
"If this weren't a public place, I'd squeal!" Meredeth smiled, "congratulations."
"In the meantime," I spoke, "Molly and I need to pick up the Transit that we bought last month."
"Ah yes... the vehicle big enough for you both to drive," Meredeth smiled, "that must have you both excited."
"Yes..." Molly nodded, "almost as excited as I am to be having twins!"
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The drive from the Medical Center to the Ford dealership didn't last long. Meredeth pulled into a customer's parking space and moved to let Molly and I climb out.
"And now the big thing for today," Molly commented as she climbed out.
"How will it feel to drive again?" Meredeth wondered.
"Very good," Molly and I said together. It wasn't in perfect sync, but with two words in the sentence, that wasn't a problem.
We then made our way into the dealership. The man who we had "bought" the Transit from, Mr. Johnston, did not appear be on the main floor. I didn't know if he was working with someone else at the moment or if he was merely working on some paperwork. As such, Molly and I slowly made our way into the main showroom area, slowly looking around. After a few moments a young woman in a skirt business suit came up to Molly and I, albeit somewhat nervously.
"Can I help you two?" she asked.
"Yes," I nodded, "I am George Wayne, and this is my wife Molly. We are here to see Mr. Johnston."
"I see," the woman spoke, "He's in his office at the moment. If you'll follow me."
She then lead us to Mr. Johnston's office. Once there, she knocked on the door.
"Excuse me, Mr. Johnston, you have a couple of customers," the woman announced, "I think they're the ones that bought that new Transit!"
"Show them in."
She opened the door all the way and let Molly and I in. Meredeth followed quietly behind.
"Ah, Mr. and Mrs. Wayne, welcome back, how are things?" Mr. Johnston asked in a friendly manner as we entered.
"We're doing well," I said, "perfectly ready to complete the transaction we started four weeks ago."
Mr. Johnston nodded, "Very well then. We have a few more signatures we need from you, and I will need to check your truck's odometer and to check it for any damage."
"In which order do you wish us to do that?" Molly wondered.
"I know this may mean a little extra walking, but it would be best to look at your truck first, and obviously collect all the insurance information and other things that are yours personally," Mr. Johnston answered, "Then we can finish the paperwork... and then I'll take you all around back to where we have your Transit waiting for you."
"It is no problem," I answered.
"Well then... let's get a move on," Mr. Johnston smiled and got up.
We then followed him out and then led him to where Meredeth had parked the Ranger. I told him it was unlocked and let him begin to look it over. He seemed pleased with it and then checked the inside of it. After a few moments he came back out and looked to Molly and I in a very puzzled manner.
"Other then driving to and from here, have you driven this at all?" he wondered.
"No," Molly answered, "Neither of us can sit in the seats normally without putting ourselves in a very uncomfortable position... we walk most everywhere normally."
"I see," Mr. Johnston commented, "that explains that why the odometer reading has barely changed... It is still in very good condition and our earlier deal for the trade in will not change."
"Thank you."
"I'll give you a moment to collect all your personal effects from it," Mr. Johnston said calmly.
Molly and I nodded. As we went forward to make sure nothing that was ours that wasn't part of the deal was in the Ranger. As we did so, Meredeth handed Mr. Johnston the keys to the Ranger.
"I believe these go to you," Meredeth commented.
"Thank you, Ms...."
"Rhoer," Meredeth answered, "Molly is my cousin."
"Ah."
Collecting our personal things and going inside didn't take too long. Once that was done, we returned to Mr. Johnston's office where there were some last bits of paperwork to be finished. As they were presented to us.
"These papers confirm the payment plan that we agreed to previously and at the arranged price," Mr. Johnston explained, "You can substitute this with a bank loan at any time... though they will charge interest."
Molly and I nodded. That was all very standard procedure. Mr. Johnston pointed out each line where we were to sign. It took a little while as we read through the paperwork fairly carefully, though Mr. Johnston didn't seem to mind. Once we'd finished signing the last page, he handed a lone set of keys to me.
"Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Wayne, you are now the proud owners of a Ford Transit," Mr. Johnston said politely.
"Thank you," I replied.
"So, how have things been with you?" Mr. Johnston asked politely as he got up to lead us to where the vehicle was parked, "I believe you had said something about thinking you were pregnant?"
"Twins," Molly said with a smile, "I'm having twins."
"Congratulations," Mr. Johnston gave a smile, "I'm sure you're both very happy. How far along are you, Mrs. Wayne?"
"This is only the end of my second month of pregnancy," Molly answered.
"Well... again, congratulations," Mr. Johnston smiled as he lead us into what looked like a back garage area behind the main showroom.
In that area, there were a couple of other vehicles being worked on, basic maintenance and so forth. It was like the dealership also operated as a body-shop. That was understandable. Especially with newer models, the dealer's technicians would probably be more appropriate to see then some other mechanic... although I was privately certain that a different mechanic could probably figure things out. The differences would be in the time allowed to fix whatever problem might occur and in the cost of any and all repairs and maintenance. Mr. Johnston, though, ignored them and lead us to a lone vehicle near a maintenance area that wasn't being used. Sitting there was one of Ford's new Transits, modified to be big enough for Animal People of mine and Molly's size.
"And there she is," Mr. Johnston replied, "the best vehicle to transport you and your pride."
"Pride?"
"What do you call a group of tigers?" Mr. Johnston wondered.
"I don't really know," I shrugged, "much of what we've read doesn't go along with that sort of "naming" thing."
"Pride works I suppose," Molly shrugged.
"For the moment all the tires are studded and equipped for winter conditions," Mr. Johnston spoke, "your summer tires are in the back compartment and you should have about forty miles worth of fuel in the tank. I'm afraid that that is all it comes with."
"It's no problem," I told him.
It'd mean we'd need to fill up fairly soon, but it was no problem. It was a means for Molly and I travel over longer distances without having get a ride from friends or family.