Author's Note:Sexual warning is more for the remnants of sexual acts, not the actual sex...
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Brent meanwhile saw the apology on a small TV screen in Janace's hospital. The initial visit with Charlie and Sally had gone peacefully enough and they did manage to extract some blood from hir. Now, shi was waiting to see what the results of the tests were. The apology was okay, and to a certain extent Brent would accept it, but to some extent, it sounded too much like Daniel Streigt had copied what Maurice and Snowy had done in Fee City, just with a different type of animal than what his predecessors had used. That in and of itself wasn't too bad, but Brent had also seen the news reports that followed the Kats from Janace, mostly from the knowledge that his brother and mother were among them. In this he had known that the New Chakat Industries had been selling the serum to people who wanted it, and had been specifically engineered so that those new Kats couldn't spread the virus. If Doctor Streigt really wished to be helpful, he could have joined the new Chakat Industries rather than go with an underground that had been following a criminal guilty of everything under the sun.
Brent, however, didn't get that much more time to think as Mina came in and pulling what looked like the machine used to do ultrasounds with hir. That gave Brent the confirmation of what shi had feared.
"Well, I don't think I can really beat around the bush on this, Brent," Mina said slowly, "We did get the results back. I had to check with my sither to see if they had any information on specific hormones that a scorpion might produce when pregnant, shi didn't know... BUT shi did say that all Kats seem to produce the same hormone when pregnant... or at least all the Kats they knew and have had experience with with regard to pregnancies..."
"But that's been with themselves, Jess, Ryles, Casey, Luna, and Lia," Brent said slowly.
"Well, yes, but in nature, no fox would ever be able to breed with a rattlesnake," Mina commented, "Ryles and Casey were able to breed together. So that should be more than enough proof that while the initial DNA bases are different... we Kats are a single species."
Brent sat nervously for a moment, "So... am I...?"
"Pregnant, yes, your blood does have that hormone that would indicate pregnancy," Mina said slowly, "I'd like to see if I could do an ultrasound on you and see if we can count the number of eggs you're carrying."
Brent slowly nodded.
"I'll need you to roll onto your back, please," Mina spoke slowly.
Brent slowly complied but did hir best to watch what Mina was doing. While there, Mina found where Brent's sexual openings were underneath hir and began to apply the preparatory gel onto Brent's exoskeleton so that they could look in. Mina didn't touch those openings, but finding them was still key in then placing the gel in the right spot. Once the gel was on, Mina turned and switched on the ultrasound equipment and prepared to activate the sensor. Brent didn't really feel anything as the scanner ran over hir armored plate, but shi could soon see on the screen of the ultrasound equipment what it was scanning. To hir surprise, hir exoskeleton didn't block the ability of the scanner to look inside hir body. Hir exoskeleton didn't block it.
"I kinda wish that Charlie and Sally could be here," Brent said weakly.
"They were asked to be present for the doctor's apology," Mina answered and then finally found where Brent's eggs were forming within the Scorpkat, "and here they are... and... oh-my..."
Brent only looked and hir eyes widened at the number.
"That... that looks like..."
"Twenty," Mina said slowly, "and not too far from being ready to hatch."
"I... I'm not ready to be a mother," Brent said nervously, "I'm not..."
"You'll be fine," Mina said encouragingly, "Charlie and Sally and Nikole and Jess will be more than willing to help."
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"This is quite possibly the oddest anniversary gift imaginable," Charlie commented as shi and Sally began cleaning up the mess they'd made after returning home and mating almost as soon as they were in the door.
"Odd that I love you?" Sally asked hir.
"No, that is wonderful," Charlie answered, "but we've never had sex for our anniversary before and... I thought you wanted something more and better than that..."
Sally paused in hir rubbing of a spot on the floor where hir semen and Charlies had intermixed during their love making and stood up to hug Charlie.
"Buying me jewelry and other fine things... while nice and greatly appreciated... is not you," Sally spoke, "You are more important to me than anything else. And I would have become a Scorpkat eventually if you couldn't be changed back. It would have taken time... but I would have adjusted and gone out of my way to adjust to keep you with me..."
Sally then leaned forward and purred into Charlie's neck and feeling hir sabers scratch against the back of hir own neck and shoulders. Charlie only purred back.
"I love you," Sally spoke the line shi'd never grow out of.
"And I you," Charlie agreed, "Though... we will have to explain why, after vowing to wait until after all the big-wigs were caught, that we are now pregnant again."
"That'll be easy," Sally sighed, remembering the ecstasy of Charlie then mounting hir after shi had finished fulfilling the male role in mounting Charlie, "Love conquers all."
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Meanwhile in Janace's large public school building, which had one large section for elementary school level grades, one for middle school level grades, and one for high school level grades. In one of the classrooms in the elementary area sat Midnight. Shi liked having a real school building in Janace. Shi remembered hir years growing up with Luna and looking after Pinkie and Janice as well as Fluffy and Mary when they were infants. Shi and all the other children born in Janace had gone to school in the closest city to Janace, but during the six years following the Moscow outbreak the Janace School Building was built. It allowed the Janace Kats to send their kids to a local school, and it was there that the kids now went to school. Janice, Pinkie, Silky, Foxy, and Snowflake were middle school and the rest were largely getting ready to move into the elementary school grades. Midnight actually hoped shi'd get to be Fluffy, Mary, and Rena's teacher, but assigning students went in much the same way that all schools assigned schools, and Midnight didn't get to chose who hir students would be. Midnight hoped shi would get lucky.
"How goes things?" came a voice from the doorway.
Midnight looked up to see Talia standing there, and that made hir smile. Shi had met the Sphinx based Chakat during the Cairo outbreak and formed a fast friendship. The friendship grew quickly and rapidly became love on Talia's part. At the time, Midnight had been too young to take a mate, but Talia agreed to stay close and to teach hir and now Midnight had grown up and was an adult and had grown to love Talia just as much as Talia loved hir. They were now only waiting for a quiet moment where they could get married and have hir family there, hir parents Charlie and Sally, hir sither by blood, Luna and hir mate, Lia, hir sithers born to Charlie and Sally, and of course hir nieces born to Luna and Lia. Lia's family and Charlie and Sally's family and friends were also welcome, but coordinating things was commonly difficult and the trouble caused by the Vatican outbreak had also delayed their plans.
"Oh they go well," Midnight answered as shi set down the notes shi had been looking at, "I'm looking forward to having my first students."
"I'm sure you'll do well," Talia purred to hir, "I taught you well..."
"Yeah," Midnight smiled and remembered hir own private studies with Talia. Many of which surprised hir. When shi'd met Talia, shi had been alone, yet Talia seemed to be up to date with everything related to education in the modern world. It gradually became a sort of apprenticeship that the US Department of Education recognized, and after passing the various tests, Midnight and Talia were officially certified. Midnight with the elementary grades, and Talia at the High School level dealing with history and various languages, mostly Arabic and Ancient Egyptian, but shi was also good with Greek, Latin (and thus had a relatively basic knowledge of French, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Romanian), and English... basically the languages of the peoples that had ruled Egypt.
"But we are in summer and the students won't be arriving until the fall," Talia commented, "And we have other things to prepare for..."
"Our wedding," Midnight smiled, wagging hir tail.
"Among other things," Talia gave a loving smile and wrapped one wing around Midnight's taur body.
"Other things?" Midnight asked, lowering an ear in confusion.
"Check my scent, my love," Talia instructed.
Midnight curiously sniffed and then picked up a scent shi'd begun to recognize since shi hit puberty and then reached maturity.
"You're pregnant!" Midnight gasped in surprise, and jumping up in the air.
"Check your scent," Talia instructed again.
Midnight then turned and sniffed at hir own taur body and soon hir own eyes widened.
"I'm pregnant!" Midnight announced in shock and surprise.
"We got lucky in more ways than one last week, didn't we?" Talia asked as shi hugged Midnight to hir.
"What do we tell my family?" Midnight asked, "Moms still recovering from what happened in the Vatican... they're poking and prodding dad to perfect a vaccine..."
"We tell the truth," Talia answered, "and it would be no crime. We are pledged to wed... Luna became pregnant around this time with Lia... I would think this would be good news."
"It'll mean we need to move up the wedding," Midnight told hir.
"Good, we've waited far too long," Talia replied, "My love."