Teeny Tiny Shots|✓

Sounds like a Fairy ✓

Tags: Surrogacy/Established Relationship/Marriage/Angst/Hurt-comfort/Character Development

Warning: Sensitive content

Word Count: 6k words

Prompt idea: sereneserica

Malvika eyes her tummy in the mirror, the slightly protruding belly giving her a sense of joy she can't even express. Her eyes instantly fill with happy tears as she pictures the three of them laying on the same bed, the two adults cuddling with each other and the baby snuggled in between them.

Soon enough the man from her reverie walks towards her, encircling her waist from behind, his hands slightly bigger than hers, covering hers on the top of her belly, looking at her through the mirror and pressing a small kiss on her clothed shoulder.

"We're going to be parents!"

"Malvika!"

"We're going to be parents."

"Malvika!!"

And just like that her eyes flutter open to take in the worried face of her husband, a series of "Malvika, are you ok?" dribbling out of his mouth, his brows frowned into concern and voice soft but urgent.

She shakes her head, her face crumpling in grief. "No, Harsh," she croaks out, letting the tears pool her eyes completely, blurring her vision. "I'm not ok. I - I had that dream again. We were going to be parents. My belly was all round and we were so happy -"

Her choked up voice doesn't let her say more, while her husband coos at her, shushing her and taking her into his arms.

"We're happy even now, sweetheart, aren't we? Do you think I need a third person to be happy with you? No, baby, I only need you."

He always does this, always say such sweet things that have Malvika shushing up for a moment, thinking about how true her husband's words sound, how they really can be happy even if - even if they don't have a baby but then, only a second later, the reality comes rushing back to her, her incompetence as a woman and as a wife. Her inability of giving her husband happiness, of giving herself happiness. How can she when she cannot be a mother? Ever.

*

"You guys can go for surrogacy." The doctor suggests, as soon as the couple takes a seat, not wanting to know their whole story.

"Formerly, in traditional surrogacy, the surrogate mother would have to be artificially inseminated by the father's sperm but with the advancement of science, the traditional surrogacy has been converted into gestational surrogacy. It uses a technique called in vitro fertilization(IVF), which I'm sure you've heard of. In this process, the eggs of the biological mother and the sperm of the father are fertilized outside the uterus and the embryo is then implanted into the uterus of the surrogate mother."

The doctor explains by making a few diagrams on a sheet of paper, but they don't need to know that. Partly, because they've all heard it before, the process, the suggestions, and partly because Malvika personally knows all of this, teaches this to her students with the same colourful diagrams, presentations and whatnot.

However, even in her dreams, she hadn't imagined that they'll have to resort to this option, that her uterus wouldn't be strong enough to carry her baby in it and that they'll have to hire another woman's uterus for the task.

She knows it's not very rare and that the surrogate mothers are wonderful women who help couples in conceiving their child and providing them with the greatest happiness of their life - but, she hadn't imagined it happening to them.