The Impossible Children

Several doctors visits over the course of the past 2 months had finally led to this. (Well, specifically a visit today that had ended abruptly with him fainting and his doctor being both very concerned and at a loss had landed him here.) Kurt sat alone on a hospital bed, looking around the room and trying to maintain some form of calm. It was hard to do when confronted with the fact that something was clearly wrong with him, but no one seemed to have any idea of what was going on.

A tall, broad-shouldered man that Kurt had never seen before entered the room with a clipboard in hand and a jovial, friendly expression on his face. "Kurt Hummel?" He asked.

"Yes," Kurt replied.

"Hi, I'm Dr. John Samuels." The man extended his free hand, and Kurt shook it. "I've been going over your chart here, and I see that today you were admitted with shortness of breath, light-headedness, and fainting spells, is that correct?"

"Yeah, I guess so," Kurt said.

"And in the past month, you've had similar complaints as well as frequent urination, bouts of nausea, and a fairly persistent case of everything tasting like metal?"

"Yeah," Kurt agreed warily. When put like that, somehow it all sounded even more ridiculous.

"Well, Kurt, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were pregnant," The doctor replied.

Kurt stared at him with a dry expression. Somehow, right now he just did not have a sense of humor about this. Mildly annoyed, he waited for the other man to get to the point.

"That was a joke," Dr. Samuels said, "I used to be an OB." He paused. "And clearly, never a comedian."

He had just been trying to lighten the mood; the guy had at least attempted bedside manner, and Kurt had shot him down for it. Kurt sighed. "Sorry, it's just this whole thing has just been so crazy, and I'd really like to know what's going on, but no one seems to have any answers."

"Kurt—it is okay if I call you by your first name, right?" The other man began.

"Of course," Kurt said.

"Kurt, I will do everything in my power to get us some answers, okay? Right now, we're waiting on some blood work. Now, has anyone been around to get any information from you, like emergency contact or insurance information or anything like that?"

Kurt shook his head and thought of who his "emergency contact" should be. Rachel was the most logical choice, but he did not want to use her information if that meant someone would call her now. He did not want to deal with Rachel at the moment. There was also Santana, his other roommate and close friend, but he was pretty sure he also did not feel like dealing with her at the moment either, if for totally different reasons than Rachel. He realized then that he really wanted his dad; he felt smaller with that realization, like some sort of frightened child.

"Okay, well, someone should be around shortly for that stuff. Now I'm going to go do some doctor-y things, okay?" Dr. Samuels said. His tone was so caring and genuine, and he actually was helping to make things less scary and weird. Despite his initial resistance, Kurt found himself having to admit he liked the guy already.

When Kurt was alone once again, he called his dad. He was not sure of how to explain the situation, so he avoided excessive detail. He stressed that he was probably okay, but admitted that he was scared. He tried to talk his dad out of coming but was secretly relieved when Burt said he would be there as soon as possible.

Over the course of the next few hours, Kurt was subjected to more physical examination and testing. He saw several practitioners of various descriptions, and he answered a lot of questions. He saw very little of the man who had promised him answers and had really seemed to care, and he was not sure what to make of that.

--

Nothing seemed to be adding up. They had no conclusive diagnostic findings to go on, just symptoms. Symptoms so random and seemingly unrelated and so...odd. There was something so odd about the whole thing, and that was what really struck Dr. Samuels.

He swore under his breath. He had promised that boy answers, and he intended to keep that promise. He knew now, though, why the other doctors and nurses were at a loss. Quite a few of them theorized that the symptoms were unrelated; there was no underlying condition uniting everything, or, according to some, there was nothing real wrong at all. These theories were at best dissatisfying and at worst infuriating to Dr. Samuels, and they left a foul taste in his mouth.

The symptoms Kurt had described and the inconclusive but not entirely normal results of nearly every test done from blood to urine to something as simple as blood pressure had to mean something. There had to be a connection to make sense of it all.

There was still more they could do. He brainstormed until an idea he deemed best struck him. "We need to see inside him..." Dr. Samuels muttered to himself; he had a hunch, one he was certain would pay off somehow but not without its share of resulting scoffs and eye-rolls. He would ignore these as usual. This was no normal condition, and therefore the time for normal avenues of diagnosis was passing quickly.

It had been awhile since he had spoken with Kurt, so he figured it would be a good time to debrief and also let the boy know his plans. He found Kurt much like he had left him, except Kurt was more tired and—despite his best efforts to hide it—more anxious.

Dr. Samuels placed a cursory knock on the already open door as he stepped in the room. "Hello, Kurt?"

Kurt looked at him. Dr. Samuels could then see the hope in the boy's eyes, as well as the desperation that Kurt was also trying to hide. Kurt did not want him to see just how much, but he was clearly counting on Dr. Samuels. "Hey," he said finally.

Dr. Samuels explained their findings so far as best as he could and as simply as he could. He made it a point to preface everything with some form of reassurance to make things less coldly medical and less terrifying.

"So, what does all that really mean?" Kurt asked after Dr. Samuels had finished his explanation.

"We're still trying to figure that out unfortunately," Dr. Samuels replied earnestly.

"Great," Kurt said sarcastically. His tone was dry, but there was a clear bitterness beginning to seep into it.

"So, there are some more things we're gonna do, if it's okay with you," Dr. Samuels began.

"Sure. Why not?" Kurt replied.

"Namely, I'd like to do an ultrasound and see if that tells us anything about what's going on inside you. Then, well, we'll go from there," Dr. Samuels explained.

"Um, okay, then." Kurt still seemed wary, but genuinely willing to comply.

"Okay, now that I've been scoffed at sufficiently by my colleagues. We can get started," Dr. Samuels said, re-entering the room and getting everything set up and in order for the procedure.

"Why would they scoff at you?" Kurt asked.

Even though he was only partially sure the question was genuine and not rhetorical, Dr. Samuels replied, "Oh, they think I'm working on another wild theory, which I'm not, not yet. Right now, this is merely—well, I call it a hunch."

"So, what exactly are you looking for then?" Kurt asked, both skeptical and curious.

"I'm not certain, but I feel like this may be a good avenue of investigation, and I like to go with my intuition," Dr. Samuels replied, "Sorry I can't give you an exact answer yet."

Kurt shrugged. "Well, at least you're trying."

"It's all we can ever do, to try, I mean," Dr. Samuels said. Referring to a tube of gel he now had in his hand, he said, "Now, I'm gonna put some of this stuff on you, and it's gonna be kinda cold. Sorry, there's not much I can do about that but give you a heads up."

--

They went silent as Dr. Samuels began to work. He was clearly focused, and Kurt found himself staring uncomfortably at the ceiling, trying not to think. Until finally, nervous curiosity got the better of Kurt, and he watched Dr. Samuels and the ultra sound display. "S-so, what kind of 'wild theory' would you be working on?" he asked.

"I'm sort of—well, I don't want to say infamous, but, um, known for trusting my intuition about things which can be kind of frowned upon in hard sciences and medicine. Oh, and there's my belief in the paranormal and the extraterrestrial," Dr. Samuels explained. Then, he went very quiet and very still, unnervingly so. He seemed to mutter something under his breath. Kurt could make out words like "what" and "impossible".

"What?" Kurt asked, "What is it?" He looked at the screen himself, but admittedly had trouble determining what he was looking at.

"It-it makes an odd sort of sense of some of our other findings, but I-I don't understand how it is possible." Kurt was not sure if Dr. Samuels was answering him or still puzzling aloud to himself.

"What?" Kurt asked again, more anxious than ever.

"I- well, I can only tell you what it looks like," Dr. Samuels began.

"Okay, well, then, tell me," Kurt urged him.

"Well, there appears to be a structure here that should not be, or, well, normally would not be, that seems to be almost uterine in nature," Dr. Samuels explained, indicating what he was describing on the screen, "and within, well, it looks like there's a life form, an embryo, or what at least appears to be." Dr. Samuels seemed utterly bewildered.

Kurt was having difficulty registering the impossible words he had just been told. He stared blankly. This could not seriously be happening. Maybe Dr. Samuels was just making another bad joke, even if his entire demeanor told Kurt otherwise. "You're- you're not serious—"

"I'm very serious," Dr. Samuels said, "I know; it doesn't make sense to me either. It's utterly baffling; there's no medical, no scientific explanation I can think of. I only know what I'm seeing here and what we've seen in your other test results."

"How? How can this be? This can't be happening. It's not possible; it doesn't even make sense." An odd sense of panic was setting in. This was really happening even though it could not be happening; this impossible thing was somehow frighteningly real. Kurt stared at the impossibility on the display in horror and confusion.

"I just don't know, Kurt. It's baffling; no, worse than 'baffling', we need a stronger word than 'baffling', but listen," Dr. Samuels paused, trying to make sure Kurt was listening. Once the scared boy made eye contact, he continued, "We will figure this out, okay? I-I promise you, Kurt." He knew he should not make promises, but he did not care; he felt compelled to help this boy in any way that he could.

Kurt nodded, but he did not feel very reassured. How could he? None of this made any sense. How could Dr. Samuels fix that? What could he do? Kurt recognized that he had to trust Dr. Samuels and count on him, and reluctantly he was doing so, but he couldn't help but remain skeptical and anxious.

"This is probably going to sound crazy," said Dr. Samuels after a significant pause, "And I'm sure my colleagues will agree with that, but since it looks so much like what it looks like, I think we can try to appropriate something called amniocentesis. In English, that means I'm going to have to stick you with a really long, but really thin needle, which I promise doesn't actually hurt as bad as it sounds, at least not according to most of the patients I've talked to or performed this on. The purpose is to pierce the, well, I don't wanna call it a uterus, but, you know, and draw out fluid to be analyzed. I—again, and I'm sorry, really— don't know exactly what we'll find, but I'm hoping for answers from this. It seems like a great place to look."

This was a nightmare. Feeling utterly lost, Kurt stared at the man before him, as the doctor spouted medical terms and attempted reassurances and explanations. The words registered, but on a slight delay. Kurt simply could not focus.

"Kurt?" Dr. Samuels asked, "You okay?"

"Would you be?" Kurt retorted.

"No, no, I don't suppose I would," Dr. Samuels said with clear sympathy, "but otherwise?"

"Yeah, yeah, I guess so," Kurt said.

"And you got all of that? You understand what I'd like to do next? How I'd like for us to proceed?" Dr. Samuels checked.

"Yeah," Kurt said, "Yeah, you're gonna adapt a procedure that normally tests something to do with pregnancy to possibly figure out what the hell is inside me."

"Right," Dr. Samuels responded, "Nice summary." He paused as he headed for the exit. "Um, do you need us to contact anyone? Family or—?"

"I called my dad, but I don't know exactly when he'll be here," Kurt replied, trying his best not to sound as pitifully alone and frightened as he suddenly felt. "I don't have my family here, and if it's all the same I don't want to involve my friends right now. As terrible as that sounds."

"Okay," Dr. Samuels said, "Well, I'll be back in a bit, alright?"

"Okay," Kurt said.