Chapter 108

A few weeks passed and everyone had gotten comfortable in the new house.

Brie was finally healed completely physically, and emotionally, she was learning to cope. She'd been talking to the Psychiatrist, Dr. Hamme, and he was a wonderful doctor. He was helping her get in touch with what the REAL root of the problem, her resentment of the war and being cooped up all the time. She was working on the issues, but she still didn't feel right. She decided to talk to David about it. "I wanted to ask you something", she said to him one night after they put the kids to bed. Maddie was now a little over a year old.

"What did you want to ask, baby?" he said as he got ready for bed.

"Do you still feel ok with looking at surrogates?"

"Of course I do. Why?"

"I want to talk to Dr. Chase again and ask her about having some of my eggs harvested and to start looking into some of the gophers that have said they'd be open for carrying another child for us."

He smiled. "Ok, we'll call Dr. Chase in the morning. We'll have your eggs harvested and we'll talk to the girls about one them being a surrogate."

"You don't think it's too soon after..." she paused, "the miscarriage." She still had trouble saying it. It still hurt to talk about it.

"If you're ready, then I'm ok with it", he said with a smile.

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The next morning, Brie was at breakfast after her morning workout, whistling and smiling. "What are you so happy about, Brie?" Tina asked.

"We're gonna start looking at surrogates and I just got off the phone with Dr. Chase. I'm still young enough to have my eggs harvested. She's arranging transport for us to go to the clinic where she can do it."

"Is it a really invasive procedure?" Kristen asked.

"Not from what she described. She said it was totally out patient and I'll be home this afternoon."

"Are you taking the kids?" Nicole asked. She sounded a little worried about how something like that would affect the kids.

"Not unless one of you won't watch them. All four of the kids is a little much for David to handle on his own in a clinic while I'm having what amounts to outpatient surgery."

Nicole breathed a sigh of relief. "You know I'll watch those kids for you, though I won't have to do too much of the work. Malachai does a lot of it for me."

"He's picked up that tendency, I've noticed. The only thing that David and I have to do is deal with discipline."

"Malachai was born to be a big brother, apparently", Tina said. "He seems to live to help take care of his younger siblings."

"He'd been on my ass for YEARS before I met David to give him a brother or sister", Brie said with a smile. "I guess that's why."

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David and Brie were at the clinic, sans children. Brie laid on the examination table, her feet in stirrups, having eggs harvested for a surrogate. Dr. Chase had even had David "give a sample" of his sperm for fertilization.  Not one of David's favorite parts of the procedure. He hated it as a matter of fact. He hadn't had a date with Rosie Palm and her five sisters since he'd met his wife.

"Ok", Dr. Chase said. "We've got them. Good thing we did this when we did. Any longer and you may have been hitting that dreaded 'M' word."

Brie laughed. "I suspected as much."

"I see you've been taking it way easy on your wife, Mr. Draiman", the Doctor joked.

"Only until we get home from this. Tonight all bets are off", he laughed.

"Don't break her, now. You need her to take care of the four you have, and then the unknown number that the surrogate will have." Dr. Chase pulled off her gloves with a laugh. "Ok, Mrs. Draiman, I'm gonna go on out and let you get dressed. I'm sure as a massage therapist you've said this before, and you've had it said to you about as many times, but get up slowly."

Brie laughed. "Countless times, Doctor. I'll be slow. Promise."

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When David and Brie returned home, they started talking to the female gophers over eighteen that were interested in possibly being surrogates for them. There were three girls, all devoted fans who had been huge helps over the past few weeks as Brie recovered from the miscarriage. They'd been keeping them updated in the war, bringing all kinds of good news about strikes and raids that the Resistance had been doing. The tide was turning and the Resistance was getting the upper hand.

They settled on a young native girl names Natalie Lightfoot, who was full blooded Cherokee. "She's the eldest and has had a lot more life experience than the other two", David said as they discussed it that night.

"I agree, baby. She's 23, she's been through hell and back, and she's still standing. Kind of reminds me of me at her age. I like her", Brie, snuggling closer to him.

"Good, we'll tell her in the morning and set up the appointment." He kissed her head.

"Sounds good."