The Point of No Return

            Two weeks after breaking up with Changmin, Victoria was a mess.  She was having trouble concentrating on work.  There were days she barely made it to the courthouse or to a client meeting on time, because she’d mixed up the dates on her calendar.  She lost a key case and blamed herself for not being prepared enough.  It felt like everything was falling apart.

            At the end of the second week, she closed the door to her office at the end of the day, waited until everyone went home to their loved ones for the weekend, and cried her eyes out.  The hope was, she would feel better after a good cry.  She didn’t.  Finally, she fixed her makeup as best she could, slipped on her coat, and grabbed her briefcase.  It was time to go home to her cold, lonely apartment.  Again.

            When she opened the door to her office, she suddenly found herself face to face with one of the other junior partners at the office.  Nichkhun had been working in the office for a little under a year and she didn’t know him very well—she hadn’t worked with him on any cases—but he seemed polite enough when they ran into each other in the halls or break room.

            “Um, I…you’re working late,” she simply said, closing her office up behind her.

            Nichkhun nodded.  “I was finishing something up,” he admitted, his brows furrowed as he looked at her.  “You’ll have to pardon me, but I couldn’t help but overhearing you while I was working.  The office is so quiet this late at night.  Is there something wrong, Victoria?  You’ve seemed a little upset lately.”

            Victoria leaned back against her door and sighed heavily.  Normally, she would never tell a virtual stranger about her problems, but she’d been bottling them up so much, she was about to burst.  She had to tell someone.  “My boyfriend of two years broke up with me recently.  I wasn’t expecting it and, obviously, I’m a little upset about it still.  I thought things were going well in our relationship.  Apparently, he felt neglected by me working so much.  I had no idea.  I guess I should have been paying more attention to him.”

            “Really?” Nichkhun questioned.  “The first he mentions being upset about how much your working, he breaks off a two year relationship with you?  Don’t you think that’s a little nasty?  If he had a problem with how much you worked and he had strong feelings for you, you’d think he’d make mention of it before it got that bad.”

            Victoria thought this over.  Why hadn’t Changmin mentioned being upset about how much she worked before breaking up with her?  She would have made adjustments if he’d known how unhappy he was.  “That is true.  He never mentioned it until then, but if he had, I would have made changes and solved the problem.  I wonder why?”

            “Are you sure some of the problem wasn’t really with him?” Nichkhun questioned.

            Victoria shook her head, confused.  “I don’t know.  I never thought about it.”

            Nichkhun reached over and squeezed her arm.  “Do you want to have dinner and talk about it?  It sounds like you’re really upset and need to vent a little,” he suggested.

            “You don’t have anything important to do?” she asked.

            Nichkhun shook his head.  “I just finished my work and I have the rest of the weekend off.  I was just going to go home and order take out.  Having dinner with you sounds more interesting than sitting around my apartment alone, watching television.”

            Victoria nodded.  She did need to get out and talk to someone about her problems.  If she didn’t find a way to relieve her stress, it was going to start affecting her work more.  The last thing she needed was to add to her problems.

            Everything had been going well for Changmin since his breakup with Victoria.  No one nagged him about watching television too late at night or commented about how often he played video games.  No one lectured him about how fattening the takeout food was that he ordered.  Of course, he had gained a little weight and had to go to the gym more to compensate, which was a bummer.  But the best part was he could flirt with all the cute girls at the gym again.

            And, of course, he was also free to flirt with his new coworker.  Changmin smiled as he watched Gayoung walk out of her office and head down the hall to fill up her water bottle, wearing her short dress and showing off her long, toned legs.  He jumped up from his desk and headed to the coffee machine, pouring himself another cup of coffee.

            “Good morning,” he warmly greeted her.

            She looked over at him and smiled.  “Ah, good morning!  How are you today?”

            “Wonderful!  What did you think of the conference?”

            She had been to a gaming conference in Tokyo over the weekend with some of the other animators from the studio.  Since she was new to the company, it was probably her first time at one.  He’d been to dozens of conferences at that point, but could still remember how blown away he’d been, going to his first one. 

            “Oh, it was amazing!  They had to drag me away just to eat and sleep,” she confessed, tilting her head to the side as she spoke and twirling her long hair in her fingers.  “I didn’t want to leave.”

            “I had a wedding to go to, which is why I couldn’t make it.  But perhaps you could have dinner with me tonight and tell me about it,” he suggested. 

            “I’d love to!” she happily agreed. 

            “Great,” he said, smiling wide.  “I can’t wait to hear all about your trip.  Does six work?”

            She nodded and was promptly called away by one of her coworkers, who had questions for her about a design.  Changmin could barely keep from skipping all the way back to his office and the rest of the workday ran smooth, if not a little slow, knowing he had a dinner date to look forward to later.

            The tension in Heechul’s office could be cut with a knife.  As it turned out, Leeteuk ended up being called in to deliver a baby and Heechul had to run the checkup alone.  That was fine, he had plenty of experience with prenatal checkups.  He’d done nearly all of Donghae’s checkups.  He was probably more qualified to do the exam than Leeteuk was, since he had more experience with male pregnancies.  It just helped if your client was on speaking terms with you.

            “Alright, let’s take your temp,” Heechul said, grabbing the thermometer and holding it up to Ryeowook’s mouth.  “If you could open up.”

            Ryeowook rolled his eyes and opened his mouth.  Heechul stuck the thermometer in and then tapped the bottom of Ryeowook’s chin, since his patient was barely cooperating.

            Kyuhyun looked nervously from his boyfriend to the doctor, unsure if he should say anything to distract them both from the awkwardness or the abnormal quietness.  Up to that point, Kyuhyun had been answering all of the questions, unless he absolutely didn’t know the answer, but he’d rather Ryeowook talk to Heechul, at least on a professional level.

            After a half minute, Heechul took the thermometer back out of Ryeowook’s mouth.  “36.8° C…which is normal.  Good,” Heechul mumbled, typing in the numbers.  “Heartrate and blood pressure were also normal.  And you’ve gained nealy three kilograms since your last visit, two weeks ago, which is impressive.”

            “Three?” Ryeowook chocked out, looking panicked. 

            “You lost weight the first couple months, I imagine, because of the morning sickness, so it’s normal to gain weight once it starts going away.  You’re eating for two now, Wook, and you’re going to start showing soon.”

            “I think he’s starting to show a little now,” Kyuhyun said excitedly, reaching over to pat Ryeowook’s stomach.  In was, in fact, just a little rounder, but Ryeowook was in denial about it.

            “I’m just bloated,” Ryeowook complained.

            Heechul smiled, leaning back in his chair.  Although he’d hoped Ryeowook would begin speaking to him normally, he was happy just to hear him voicing his complaints.  He was worried Ryeowook would stay silent the whole appointment.  “Anything abnormal happening?”

            Ryeowook shook his head, looking back down at the floor.

            Kyuhyun cleared his throat.  “He’s been really tired.”

            “It’s not abnormal for expecting mothers to feel tired,” Heechul pointed out.

            “I’m not an expecting mother,” Ryeowook grumbled.  “I’m the birthing parent!”

            Heechul took a deep breath.  “Pregnancy causes a lot of fatigue, Kyuhyun.  Ryeowook’s body is constantly changing and the hormones are in flux.  He’s going to need a lot of rest.”

            “He comes home from work, naps, gets up for an hour or two to eat dinner, and then goes to bed for the night,” Kyuhyun pointed out.  “Is that supposed to be normal?”

            “We’ll check his bloodwork and make sure his iron is high enough,” Heechul assured him.  “Otherwise, I hate to tell you, but it’s probably normal.  How much longer until work is done for the semester, Wook?”

            “The semester just began.  I have four months left,” Ryeowook explained.  If Heechul taught classes at the university like the rest of them did, he would know when the semesters started and ended, but he only involved himself in his research.

            Heechul just stared at him a moment, trying not to say what he wanted to.  He highly doubted that Ryeowook would make it though the end of the semester.  This would probably not be a problem for a woman having a normal pregnancy, but Ryeowook was a man.  Since it wasn’t natural for them to have children, their bodies weren’t equipped to handle pregnancy.  Once Ryeowook started his third trimester, he doubted that he’d have any energy left to work. 

            “The university insisted that I get an assistant professor to help, so I’m not working alone.  They were afraid I’d be put on bedrest and didn’t want me to overwork myself,” Ryeowook explained.  “I think Leeteuk might have spoken to them ahead of time.”

            “At least someone is thinking rationally,” Heechul grumbled, getting up and walking over to the exam table.  “Let’s have a look at the baby, quick.  I want to have a peak,” he said, patting the table.

            “Can we find out if it’s a boy or girl yet?” Kyuhyun asked, jumping up excitedly.

            Heechul shook his head, pressing buttons on the ultrasound machine while Kyuhyun helped his boyfriend onto the table.  “Usually not for another month or so,” Heechul explained, pulling Ryeowook’s shirt up once he was settled onto it.  Ryeowook undid his jeans and pulled them down a little, to keep the gel from getting on his clothes, and then Heechul began to squirt it on him.  Then he pressed the wand against his stomach and began to move it around. 

            The swooshing sound could be heard right away and seemed much faster than the last time they’d listened to it.  “Wow!  Listen to that heartbeat!” Kyuhyun excitedly said, smiling.

            “That’s probably not just the baby’s heartbeat,” Ryeowook informed him.  “I read about this!  Sometimes, ultrasound machines pick