The Surrogate

The Surrogate
By Xakara

The world tilted sharply to the left and Larry grasped the crib to steady himself. The small, fragile looking bundle inside barely stirred and Larry brought a hand to his bloated stomach, willing the nausea to pass.

“Probably poisoned me, the pansy-bastard.”

It was a soft grumble as he caressed the paunch he blamed on his brother’s cooking. What kind of man left behind a track scholarship and any hope of the Olympics to transfer to cooking school his senior year of college? He was good at it, and there all these restaurant and cooking shows on television now but that didn’t make it right. Hell, if his shoulder hadn’t blown out his junior year, Larry would have gone pro and been pitching the majors the last ten years. Instead he’d gone into the family business, spending the family and watching his baby brother throw away a real life to cook.

“He’s not a man,” he said down to the newborn bundle in the crib. “If not for me you wouldn’t even be here. Scott can’t even get a girl pregnant right, but who knows what kind of baby he would have made anyway.”

The touched the downy cheek and opened the swaddling blanket to get a good look at his son. His nephew to the rest of the world, but Larry knew little Danny was his son. He’d made sure of it. He’d had to when Scott and Laura had told him they were searching for a male surrogate for their baby.

“Even used the pansy word surrogate instead of sperm donor, like he’s so smart. Obviously not smart enough to get the job done.”

Larry couldn’t have been more offended. They were going to get some stranger, so guy off the street to knock Laura up with a kid who would inherit the Lindford money like he was really a Lindford. It wasn’t right. Their grandfather had worked from nothing and that couldn’t be passed on to some stranger’s baby, to the son of some guy so hard up he was selling his sperm to make ends meet. No, Larry had taken things in his own hand to insure the Lindford legacy.

It had been easy actually. He’d convinced them both that what they needed was a wild blowout night of drinking and partying until they were too relaxed to be uptight about it. It happened to couples all the time, the moment they stopped trying they came up knocked and the rest was history. Larry had been a bit surprised when they conceded his point. From there it has been just been a matter of the right drops in the right cocktails and bam, everything was as it needed to be. Just like back in college.

Scott had been out cold and whatever inhibitions Laura had were out the window. She’d called him Scott the entire time, but that was okay. He knew somewhere inside she knew it was really Larry, the brother she should have ended up with. If not for the brief fling with her sister that ended badly back in school, it would have been his big house full of laughter, and his soft bed and soft wife, living a soft life his pansy brother had stolen from under him.

But he’d shown Scott. He’d done it right in their bed, with Scott not three feet away. It had been thrilling in the sheer spitefulness of it. But at night when all alone and thinking back, Larry had to admit it had been a bit frightening too. It was like a possession at one point. He couldn’t stop. He’d emptied into over and over again, for so long he was nearly afraid Scott would begin to wake up before he was through. He’d wondered if anything would be left of him or if his very life would empty out with the last orgasm.

He’d been chafed and sore and barely able to put on underwear the next day. He hurt in places and ways he didn’t know he could and sex had been the last thing on his mind for weeks afterward. But it had all been worth it when he got the call that Laura was knocked and due in the spring. It was fascinating to watch her grow, something he got to do up close and personal when he moved into their guest room. He still wasn’t sure how that happened. They’d been so grateful his suggestion worked that they’d treated him almost like he was the one pregnant.

All the damn attention and food, no wonder the athletic body he’d been careful to maintain had gone to shit. Back in his condo alone he could control things, but here, it was all about Scott and the restaurant and try this here and taste that there. And maybe some of it had been guilt watching his brother being all adorning for the months leading to Danny’s birth. Eating made Larry feel better about what he’d done. It made seem more like sympathy eating for the pregnancy he’d helped insure. Only now there was nothing good or sympathetic about it. Now it was just pain and dizziness since Laura had gone into labor.

With the kid out now he’d figured whatever pheromones she was filling the house with would have stopped bothering him but the sharp pains and cramps had only gotten worse after everyone had gone to bed. They’d had a touching-feely home-birth and Larry had been left out, calling friends and relatives like a good second-string when he should have been the one coaching her through that breathing crap and—

Larry lurched away from the crib just in time and caught himself on his hands and knees beside it. He thought he was going to retch and welcomed it if it meant the pain was over but nothing happened. He rolled over on his back and panted up at the ceiling, his hand gingerly touching a belly that had become tender and tight in the few minutes of watching the baby. He tried to call out but knew Laura was too exhausted from the birth and Scott to far away to hear him.
He lay helpless, his belly rippling and stretching while he bit back screams for Little Danny’s sake. The world grayed out and then there was the feeling of a cool towel wiping along his forever. Fevered eyes opened to look up at his brother sitting beside him.

“Scott?”

“Shh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize it was already time. I would have given you the muscle relaxants I had prepared. But with Daniel come early, I was distracted. But it shouldn’t be long now.”

Larry didn’t understand and reach for his brother. “Scott,”

“It’s okay, Lar, it’s almost over. But I want to thank you for what you did. Laura said with what happened with her sister in college it was a guarantee you’d step up and be our surrogate. It was a hard decision, I mean, no matter we’re still family. But it’s the way of Laura’s people to let actions determine fate.”

A tear splashed down on Larry’s face and he bit back a scream and pain lanced through his pelvis.

“What’s happening, Scott.”

His brother wiped his face gently, paying no mind to his own tears as he watched his only brother suffer.

“Laura’s people have been away from Faerie for too long, Lar. She wasn’t strong enough to carry both twins. You fed her enough to strengthen her for the transfer. You made sure our daughter would live. But it’s killing you Larry. Your organs have been liquefying for weeks. She’s absorbed most of your fat stores and the placenta has been mimicking kidney and liver functions as those organs were eaten away. You won’t survive Larry. But you’ve seen Daniel, Deanna will be just as beautiful.”

No longer able to hold back, Larry let out a hoarse scream as his skin seemed to stretch and rip. He watched his brother work his hands into a slit above his belly button that split straight down with the gentle force Scott’s fingers. He lifted a bloody, squirming bundle from the near empty cavern of his brother’s body and Larry heard an indignant infant squall ring out through the room.

Larry’s softer death rattle went unheard.

Copyright 2007