synopsychic | Help, I need somebody

She looks surprised at the question, glancing up from where she's been rolling her sleeve back down and ready to buckle her bracer on.

"Yes, I was infiltrated as a Titan descendant, wh-"

Breaking off, her eyes dart over to the blood samples that had been drawn, knowing immediately what he must have seen to inspire such a question.

"... Oh Creators take me, I've still got the blood, haven't I?" she breathes, paling impossibly further.

Tachibana nodded. "That's what it looks like, yeah," he confirmed, hesitating a moment before continuing. "I can run the tests to check it against the ichor in my own blood, just to be sure, however..." He trailed off a moment. "It seems a very common occurrence, that those of us who had overlays afflicted with it, carried it back with us here."

"...I'm sorry."

She's silent for a long time, processing the implications of having immortal ichor still in her, and of course she should have tested it herself, even if it meant locking herself alone in the force to draw some blood...

Shaking her head, she looks up again, face stoic. "That would at least explain the pregnancy. Should we proceed with checking that?" she suggests, voice as calm as possible.

Tachibana nodded. "Of course. I'll be testing for hCG with the rest of the work up, with the samples," he assured. "Just checking for that should only take about 15 minutes, and it'll likely be about an hour for the full work up. You're welcome to stay and watch the process, if you'd like, but you aren't required to."

It would be utterly understandable to want some time to think, after finding out about the ichor...

"You might not need all of that," she answers, voice just a bit dry as she lifts the front of her tunic enough to expose her lower belly. While it might be held in partially by her breeches, there's no denying the visible bump there, definitely belonging to a woman at least 4 months along. "Though I was hoping this was just a bad case of bloating."

...oh.

Oh.

"That's... far along, isn't it." There was a faint note of something between alarm and surprise in his tone.

"I didn't start showing until this return to Liminal," she answers tiredly, smiling slightly at his reaction. "First time and all. I was a bit nauseous the previous return from a Jaunt, but I assumed that was from being transformed to and from childhood."

Tachibana nodded. "Liminal and infiltrations do complicate quite a lot of things," he reflected, a thoughtful frown tugging at his expression. "I can take an ultrasound to check on how the development is progressing. That and the analysis of the blood samples should give us a good idea as to the health of it so far."

"I'd appreciate that." She lowers the tunic, resisting the urge to stroke a hand over the now concealed bump and instead leaving her hands at her sides. "Immortal ichor or no, the Blight is definitely still in my blood, I can feel it. If the child should be at all at risk from it..."

The thought of potentially having to terminate the pregnancy makes her want to vomit, violently, but she roughly shakes her head, Mi'durgenn coming to her side and nosing at her hand to distract her.

"...I may be able to do something about that, if you'd want," Tachibana offered. "Galen inherited Apollo's mantle, and with it, a healing ability rooted in purification; something that stayed with me here."

She hesitates before shaking her head. "Only for the child. If it's safe and healthy, that's all that matters. I can't risk having the Blight being removed from my blood for any other reason."

"I can work on something to help temporality repress it for the duration of the pregnancy and aftercare, rather than remove it, in that case. With how much is shared between mother and child while the child is developing, there would be a high risk of reinfection."

"... That's honestly far more than I could have hoped for," she admits, managing a small smile again. "That would be wonderful if you could do it."

Tachibana nodded, a small smile of his own emerging. "I'll get started on the research for it tonight, and will keep you informed of the progress," he promised. "In the meantime, let's get that ultrasound done, and then I'll run the labs to see where everything is for going forward."

Nodding, her hand settles over her wolfs head, fingers idly curling through his fur and over the crystals as she asks, "If you don't mind my asking... what is an 'ultrasound'? My human overlays in Jaunts never really had to deal with pregnancy, so..."

"It's a way of taking a picture of something using sound inaudible to the human ear," Tachibana explained, opening up a tall cabinet and pulling out a cart with the equipment on it. "Similar to sonar, if you're familiar with that at all, but on a detail scale, rather than a wide one. It has a fairly wide range of applications for monitoring the state of something inside the body, not just in pregnancy."

Which was why he was well practiced with it, despite not having first had experience directly with pregnancy.

"... Sometimes I wonder if technology is just magic in a more accessible form," she muses, eyeing the cart warily. "What do you need me to do?"

"Sometimes the only difference between the two is if you can hand it to someone else to use or not," Tachibana agreed with a faint smile.

"It's a fairly simple process. The bed is set up in the other room, which will be a bit more comfortable. There'll be a gel that goes on the skin that allows the reader to move more easily," he explained, holding up the reader itself, a small plastic piece that was attached by a wire to the res of the machine. "A few passes over the area should be enough to give a good image."

The idea of it is certainly bizarre but she nods slowly, following Tachibana and watching him set up in silence.

A little bizarre, and a little uncomfortable, in so much that the gel, no matter how warmed, was always a slimy experience, but true to expectations, it didn't take long for the equipment to do it's work and a clear image to be built. Tachibana's expression relaxed from serious concentration to one far more at ease as he returned the scanning head to the cart and handed her a towel to clean off the gel. A few flips through the appropriate medical textbook for reference and his expression relaxed even further.

"Looks like roughly four months along, no signs of any abnormalities," he announced, turning the machine so she could get a better look.

She frowns at the screen, tilting her head to one side as if that might make the image clearer as she pauses in wiping off her stomach.

"That's... what babies look like? At this stage?" she asks, uncertain. "And you're sure that's not abnormal?"

"Yeah," Tachibana nodded, pulling out a chart that showed the stages of fetal development. "In a way, a fetus goes through an analog of most of the stages of evolution, starting at the stage where it's just a small cluster of cells, all the way to looking like a normal human just before birth. The ultrasound isn't perfect at capturing the image, but you can see the head here," he pointed to the screen, circling the relevant area. "The rest of the body this way. This is one of the arms here, and the legs over this way," he pointed.

She reaches out herself to trace around the head on the screen, eyes slightly wider than normal, breath caught in her throat.

"... It's so small," she murmurs, her other hand rising to cover the small bump of her stomach protectively. "I know it has to be, since I only recently started to show, but... it's very different to see it displayed right before me."

Snapping out of her daze, she glances at Tachibana almost shyly and asks, "Is there anyway to have a copy of this image? I'd... like to show the father." Even if he's not the most sentimental sort, he might appreciate seeing the little alien creature they've created.

There was something indescribable at that murmur and amazed expression, a warm, deep feeling that softened Tachibana's expression and posture, something so much like the feeling that had come, telling the merfolk that there was not only a cure for the sickness that had been terrorizing them so, but also a preventative, or like watching Mutsuki at his university graduation. A feeling he had almost forgotten...

At her question, he nodded. "Of course." A few mouse clicks later, a soft "wrrrr" was heard from inside of it before the printout emerged.

She offers him a small smile at that, no less genuine for the size. "Thank you. Not just for this but for everything, Tachibana. You've set a lot of my worries to rest for the moment."

Help, I need somebody

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Glossing over the details a bit

o/

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