Things had calmed down a smidgen at St Mungo’s, or as much as it could for a large wizarding hospital. There were still repercussions from the damages to the potion stock. But now that most of the inventory has been checked, tested, reordered, tested again, tested again, and again retested, healers could finally do what they were meant to: heal. A hospital was meant to be filled with sick patients -- the goal was not to get sicker once you were there.

Jules had caught up on sleep; the activities she’d been up to had certainly helped lull her to sleep most nights. Her last ‘donor’ had been such a bore (especially during copulation) that Jules was sure that no conception had occurred. She also became confident that it was finally time to take a pregnancy test. It had been a lively, invigorating month of one-night stands and flings, but Jules was growing weary of the constant action. Mating was a demanding game, and Jules had grown tired of the challenge. She had to have done enough to earn herself a baby.

It was Flynn who Jules decided was most appropriate for the job. In her mind he was one of the most valuable healers in the hospital, and Jules had nearly impossible standards. It could have been his congeniality and their good friendship making her feel this way. Or, hormones.

Ignoring the flutter in her stomach she knocked on Flynn’s office door.

Flynn had found homes for most of the kittens, though they were not ready to leave their mother yet for another week or so. Still, finding families for them took some of the stress of being a cat-grandpa off his shoulders. He couldn't deny that Margo, his weird cat-in-law and former bully helped find them homes.

He was working on some paperwork that he really didn't want to do, when he heard a knock on the door. "Come in!" Flynn said cheerfully. When Jules entered the room, he could immediately tell something was... Off.

"Are you okay?" He asked, standing up from his desk and crossing the room to meet her. "Is everything alright?" His brow wrinkled in concern.

In general Jules stayed in good health. Hospitals were paradoxically both filled with germs and meticulously sanitized. It was common for the newer healers to get sick after being exposed to something contagious. In the many years that Jules had been working at St. Mungo’s for over a decade and had developed a tolerance to most common ailments. It had been quite a while since she had gone to see one of her colleagues for personal advice.

So when Flynn, looking alarmed, began to ask her if everything was okay -- suddenly Jules felt shy. She looked at her shoes. Taking the test - the possibilities were rather black and white. Either she was or she wasn’t. And Flynn would know the answer to that question too.

“I need a favor,” Jules began, evading his questions. She crossed the room and sat in a chair posed near Flynn’s desk. How to begin? Jules hesitated for a moment, trying to gather her thoughts. “A pregnancy test.” Jules was nothing if not straightforward. She pursed her lips and waited for her associate’s response.

Flynn raised his eyebrows and stood up and took a couple steps to give Jules a congratulatory hug. He knew that she had been wanting to be a mother, and he was happy that she could, perhaps, be pregnant. She had been acting a little off over the last couple of days, though he didn't want to say anything.

There were so many different methods, but the quickest and simplest was with a pendulum. He stood up, walked across the room and pulled out an intricately carved wooden box. He opened it and took out a pendulum on a silver chain-- weighted with a perfectly balanced moonstone. It had been charged outside during the last full moon, and was certain to be accurate.

"Okay Jules, sit up straight, stay still." She knew the drill. "Close your eyes if you don't want to know the gender." 

He pulled out his wand and tapped the stone. For a moment, it glowed before going back to it's natural level of luminescence. Flynn held the pendulum in front of her belly, careful not to affect the movement. It only took a few seconds for the magic to take hold, and it began to swing. He pulled the stone away and tapped it once more with the wand.

"Congratulations, you're officially pregnant." He was practically beaming. "Okay, okay-- now--" Flynn detached the stone from it's chain and offered it to her. "You can attach this to a necklace, or keep it with you. It's good luck for a healthy pregnancy if you keep the stone that diagnosed it."

Jules was familiar with pregnancy tests, having done the procedure many times on her own patients. Jules had witnessed well over a dozen of these tests performed -- but never, in all of those times, did Jules ever contemplate her own feelings on the subject. Children had never been part of her Big Plan, but then again her main objective had been to rule the medicinal world.

“Close your eyes if you don’t want to know the gender.”

“Just as long as you don’t tell me who the father is,” Jules quipped dispassionately. This was not the conventional way to bring a child into the world. Evolutionary psychology told her that she should want a man to protect her, should want him all to herself so their kin might survive. But Jules didn’t need no man, that she had proven many times.

Even recently she hadn’t given the idea much thought. It wasn’t until the test began that Jules began to address her emotions. As she watched the pendulum swing, she honestly didn’t know which result she was hoping for more. Was she ready for children? Almost certainly not, but how did you know if you were ready? She observed as the pendulum silently announced that she had a baby boy on the way.

Congratulations, you're officially pregnant."

Jules’ heart hit the top of her throat. Pregnant. For the next nine months, her body would be a nest, a cozy shelter for the baby to get ready in. Before she realized what she was doing, her hands flew to her belly, like she was expecting to feel something. Someone.

"You can attach this to a necklace, or keep it with you. It's good luck for a healthy pregnancy if you keep the stone that diagnosed it."

She was trying very hard to keep her cool, but her emotions were running rampant. Her heart felt like it might soar to the sky. Jules let out the breath she was holding and let a happy laugh escape. She looked at the pendulum with amazement and covered her mouth. She looked at Flynn, eyes bright, strangely happy that she had someone to share this moment with.

Feeling so overwhelmed with giddiness Jules pulled her colleague and friend into a hug. This was most unusual -- Jules was not a hugger. In fact she was not someone who ever revealed what she was thinking or emoting. Jules would blame the hormones. She took the stone from Flynn and held it in her hands, staring at it for a few seconds with twinkling eyes before looking back at Flynn. She tried hard to remove any trace of emotion from her face ,as she was known to do, but it was a challenge.

“A boy,” Jules said finally. She closed her fingers around the stone and smirked. “I don’t know anything about little boys.”

For a moment, Flynn couldn't tell if the pregnancy was good news or bad news. Then, Jules actually laughed and hugged him. That was so completely unlike Jules that he nearly doubted it was her! Pregnancy had that effect on some women, and the two of them were friends-- of course she would want to express her joy.

"You'll figure it out." Flynn assured her. "If my sister can be a good mom, anybody can." Audrey was not exactly a warm person, but her son brought out that side in her. He had half a mind to introduce Jules to her, maybe get some advice on childrearing and... Whatever else it would be that Jules would need support and help in. Raising a child was a difficult job, a challenging one. However, Flynn was sure that she would be able to manage.

Jules recoiled from the hug bashfully, embarrassed by her display of emotion. It had been a long time since Jules felt genuine elation, but she felt it now. For her it was almost competitive, getting what she wanted. Figuring out how to obtain the goal and doing the work to get there, with only hope for motivation. Like her rise as a healer. She didn’t think anything could mean more to her than that. Apparently that was something she had been wrong about, but actually, she was okay with that.

She did her best to quickly recollect herself, but kept a tight hold on the stone. “I’ll have to find a flat with another room,” she said, “Just to keep my tits in.” She smirked at her own joke. Based on the size of her breasts, the baby would be very well-fed.

"You'll figure it out." Flynn assured her. "If my sister can be a good mom, anybody can."

Only having met Flynn’s sister a few times, Jules didn’t know how to take the comment. So she thought of her own mother, a woman she hadn’t spoken to in at least a decade. “Well, maybe not everyone should,” Jules said. She felt the cut of her own words like a papercut slice. It stung a little, but in a few moments the feeling ebbed. “Maybe she could teach me a few things.” Jules opened her hand and cradled the stone in her palm. She would have to find some way to avoid repeating her mother’s parenting mistakes.

“I’m sure you could teach me more,” Jules continued, nerves starting to fray again. “I - We - Maybe I could spend some time in the pediatric ward with you,” Jules suggested, asking without asking. As a fellow healer Jules hoped Flynn would understand her need to understand things inside and out.

Flynn had no idea what to say to the tit comment, so he pretended like it didn't even happen-- smile frozen on his face.

"You'll be a good mom, Jules." Flynn assured her. "I can tell her to owl you. You could owl her, too. She owns the photography business in Hogsmeade. That's where she'd want letters sent." Her personal address, of course, was limited to family members and close friends. Jules did not fit into either category as far as Audrey was concerned. "I can help you with what I know but.. I'm not a dad." He had a good bedside manner, though. And kids liked him.

Still, Flynn's experience with kids was as an uncle or a healer-- spoiling or healing them and then handing them back to their parents.

"You'll be a good mom, Jules.”

There was a ringing in the room that felt almost post-nuclear. Hearing this was somehow more impactful than the test had been, that she would be a mom. She blinked and her jaw set. So this was really happening. And there was a significant difference between having a baby and being a mother.

“What makes you think…” she started to say, but

“I  can help you with what I know but.. I'm not a dad.”[/i]

Jules listened to the suggestion Flynn made about his sister, but the sound of contacting this woman for the sole purpose of parenting advice seemed completely pathetic. The last thing Jules wanted was to admit she couldn’t do this all on her very own. 

“Maybe,” she offered.Was that the baby, or a knot in her stomach? She’d never felt this particular form of anxiety. Generally she wasn’t a nervous person - she had enough confidence to sort out most of her worries. Or put them totally to the side and force her way past, like she had with the poisonings. Sort of.