Jenny sat quietly as the news segment began to move into their series of short updates on children of those who had taken the Animatrix Serum. A lot of it was new, given that the serum had only gone public more than two years ago and had been allowed to be sold to the public for over one year. As such, the number of romantic couples that had both taken the Animatrix Serum was fairly limited and even among them, the number that had become compatible species was even fewer. Clemens actually remembered one odd story of a couple in Ohio who took the serum, with the male becoming a Bobcat while the female became an all black domesticated Rabbit. The two got along well enough, but had to admit that it was likely that outside of adoption they'd never be able to have children, as rabbits and cats were not known to crossbreed anywhere. As such, many of the reports on Animal Person couples that had children together were all knew and both Clemens and Jenny felt it best to follow such reports fairly closely, if only to make a good decision for their own future.
Not that children were the only questions that Jenny knew that she and Clemens would have to decide on. Having children was a question, yes, but there was also the issue of whether or not she'd become an Animal Person as well. The couples they had met got along well and looked quite good together. George and Molly Wayne especially so with their little cubs. The fear the cubs had shown at Clemens was sad, but then Jenny also remembered some things that Clemens had told her. Large python species had been known to take cubs when they could. Some of that made Jenny think over whether or not she would be able to take the potential instinctual recognition of a potential predator. But at the same time, she could feel Clemens' scales, and while she could feel each individual scale, they were smooth and dry. It certainly contrasted with the notion many had that snakes were cold and slimy. Even when Clemens came out of a pool or the shower, his scales weren't slimy.
The phone call was ignored as the report began.
"We're again returning to our next segment following the development regarding the children of those who have taken the Animatrix Serum," the desk reporter announced, "Though this next segment will be in a couple of segments as we actually got approving responses for these interviews, covering these developments. These segments cover two different groups from within the family of animals that have not been covered in these updates... reptiles. We'll now go Gainesville, Florida to meet a couple that are REALLY into the local college."
Clemens and Jenny looked to each other as the screen shifted a local hospital scene with the field reporter for this assignment and naming the hospital he was in. As the reporter finished introducing herself, she moved around a corner into what was a waiting area in the maternity area of the hospital. And there seated in a open backed chair was a woman who had definitely become a reptilian based Animal Person. Her scales were a blackish gray in color and were very heavy, like they would be a set of natural armor. Her muzzle was longer than Clemens' was and was rounded with slightly recurved teeth visible in a clear overbite. Behind her was her husband who looked much the same, though he looked like he was much bigger than his partner, and this wasn't just taking into account the differences in sizes between any species' genders. The woman looked like she was around five feet tall, though that could be hard to tell since she was sitting down, while her husband was closer to eight or nine feet tall.
"They're alligatorsss," Clemens said slowly.
Jenny blinked, "The guy looks likes much bigger..."
"He isss probably an American Alligator and the female iss a Chinessse Alligator," Clemens answered.
It was then that the reporter began an introduction.
"These are Marie and Carl Yu," the reporter spoke, "Now..."
"My family came from China to the United States in the eighteen hundreds," Carl spoke in a low voice, and one that he was trying keep from actually giving a great bellow, "And we've had great pride in being Americans through the generations..."
"A triumph of immigration then," the reporter answered, "and the two of you are married?"
"Yes," Marie answered, "we grew up together here... went to school here... GO GATORS! And we got our jobs here. I actually work here in the maternity ward."
"I'm a handyman for the University," Carl answered, "if it's broke, I can fix it."
"We got married this past spring and well the Animatrix Serum was something we got each other as a gift," Marie picked up, "and after learning that China had alligators... we used both species. I became a Chinese Alligator and Carl became an American Alligator..."
"We actually got an endorsement deal from the University to show up at home games," Carl chuckled.
"They became Alligators to be Gator fans?" Jenny wondered, referring to the University of Florida's mascot.
Clemens only shrugged.
"Did you have any trouble?" the reporter asked.
"Define trouble," Carl answered, "what we got was a bit of a surprise. We got married in the spring and Marie actually went into season shortly after we transformed..."
"And?" the reporter asked, sounding nervous.
"Don't worry... we could still go through the motions... for now at least," Marie answered, "I'm only about five feet five inches and when when swimming my legs are actually longer than my tail. The Chinese Alligator only reaches about five feet long with some large males reaching seven feet long."
"I didn't grow too much," Carl said with a weak shrug, "I gained a bit of height, but a lot of me is in my tail. If I were to lay down, I'd only be about twelve feet long right now... though I'm young and generally speaking reptiles keep growing throughout their lives... with plenty of meat... I hope to reach the record sizes that the American Alligator has reached... but that's in the future. At present... I'm just small enough that we could have our pleasant surprise."
Jenny's eyes widened. Did he mean that these two had had children?
"Our pleasant surprise?" the reporter asked.
"Yes," Marie gave a sort of smile as Carl began to rub her shoulders, "we took the serum this past spring... during the time-frame that the Chinese Alligator has its mating season in China... and well... I became pregnant..."
"Pregnant? But you are different species?!" the reporter gave a gasp.
"Different exact species, but the American and Chinese Alligator both live under the same genus... much like Domestic Dogs and Wolves live under the same genus, Canis, or the Lion and the Tiger live under the same genus, Panthera," Marie answered, "it came as a shock and a surprise, as to our knowledge, and the knowledge of everyone we went to see when we found out, no one has tried to crossbreed the American and Chinese Alligator. So... we're a first in that regard."
"And so you have children now?" the reporter asked.
"Right now, all we have are four eggs," Marie answered, "I laid them here and we have them in a big mechanical incubator to keep them warm... though we don't know yet if our eggs will have the gender be determined by the temperature of the eggs, as is common with crocodilians or if the gender is fully determined by genes and chromosomes in the... the... you-know-what."
Clemens could have sworn he saw the Alligator woman blush.
"So they haven't hatched yet?" the reporter asked.
"Correct," Carl nodded, "the doctors here have monitored them with all the safe tricks they know to look inside an egg without harming the hatchling and some experts from zoos have come up to look at them."
"And what have they said?" the reporter asked.
"So far that they don't think they're ready to hatch yet... that the eggs might not hatch until closer to the end of the year," Marie answered, "essentially equaling a human's nine month's pregnancy. One month inside me and then what they expect to be an eight month incubation..."
"That's a bit longer than the Robin family had for their incubation in the last update we had, there the eggs only had a six month incubation," the reporter told them.
"There are difference between birds and reptiles," Marie answered, "Robins hatch at time that would be considered premature by human standards. Reptiles hatch fully developed physically. So we expect the longer incubation time for my eggs... and since I do work here, I get to check on them every day."
"You must be proud," the reporter commented.
"We both are," Carl told her.
The segment finished with the desk reporter saying that they couldn't take the cameras into the area where the incubator was to try and keep things clean. With that Clemens turned the television off.
"So... the two Alligator species could crossbreed," Jenny finished, "Interesting... though didn't you say that many of the Python species don't always have the same genus?"
"No, all pythonssss are under the ssame genusss," Clemens clarified, "what I had sssaid wass that the Anaconda isssssss NOT a python. The Anaconda is actually a Boa, a different group of large consssstrictorss."
"Ah," Jenny answered, "I'm afraid we didn't learn too much from this one..."
"We learned on when they think the eggs will hatch," Clemens answered, "that ssshould be good. I ssupposse we'll have to wait to sssee how many inssstinctssss carry over from the mundane reptile to the Animal perssson."
"And maybe figure out what some church would want with you," Jenny commented, "I've never heard of them calling to advertise themselves..."
"It'sss odd, but ssso long asss it'sss innocccent, I don't think we'll have a problem," Clemens told her and pulled her to him with his tail.
Mundane snakes weren't known for showing real "love," but then Clemens knew that the Animatrix Serum didn't turn anyone into a mundane animal... and Animal People seemed to keep their human understanding of things such as love, empathy, and so forth. And Clemens would do what he could to comfort Jenny. After all, the call had just been an odd request, hadn't it?