Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2006 10:48:48 -0800 (PST) From: HR Lind Subject: Meeting Love: Continuing Love Chapter 1 Disclaimer: The following story is fiction and is not intended to imply anything about the true sexuality of the celebrities mentioned or any personal knowledge about their private lives. I am just a fan with what I hope is a good imagination. If you are interested in knowing when new chapters will be available, I have created a yahoo group. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/meetinglove/ Please join. Continuing Love Chapter 1 Today is our third anniversary. I know this is totally cliché, but I can't believe time has flown by so fast. So much has happened in the past three years, and thankfully all was good. Lance had very few problems when he came out to the world. I think that it was accepted so well because it was obvious that he was in a loving committed relationship with me. And it helped that there was always rumors about him being the gay one, but if he ever knew I thought that he would kill me. For my safety we'll stick with the first reason. Lance and I had an amazing time on our honeymoon. The two weeks together was just what we needed to get into a good routine with each other. We really got to know each other. Life was so normal for us. I almost expected something horrible to happen when the complete opposite did. Shortly after our second anniversary, Tribora had been researching artificial insemination and in-vitro fertilization for herself, and came across an article to help same sex couples have children of their own together. When she brought it to me I was thinking that it was a piece of science fiction. It was all too complicated for me, but basically it said they could combine either sperm from two men or eggs from two women. Then with a donor of the opposite sex, they would use in-vitro to help get a woman pregnant. Like I said complicated, and science fiction was what I was thinking. Bora was insistent that it was real. Knowing that Lance and I had been discussing having a family, she thought it was the perfect solution. True, one of the things holding us back was who would donate the sperm, never mind who we would ask to be the surrogate. I brought the article home to Lance that night, and we were up until two in the morning talking about it. I have to say I was more apprehensive about the whole procedure than Lance ever was, and it had nothing to do with the astronomical cost. I was and am afraid of becoming a parent. The idea that this small creature is completely dependant on you for the first few years of life freaks me out. It's almost needless to say that he convinced me to go for it; otherwise I wouldn't be telling you about it. We chose Tribora to be the donor and the surrogate, not only because she is one of my best friends ever, but because of her giant loving heart. I know that our children (yes children, I will explain in a few) will be loved unconditionally. Even though the children are all of ours, Lance and I will be the parents, and Tribora will be Auntie Bora. When they are older and can understand, we will tell them how they came into this world. It will then be their choice if they also want to have a mother, or just two fathers. I really hope we have made the right decision here. It could go either way, they could either hate us all for keeping it from them, or be happy that they were raised they are going to be. But getting back to `children,' yeah, I used to make fun of Craig and his super-sperm. The doctor told us he was going to fertilize five eggs with the combined sperm. He said to expect to have to go through two or three attempts before Tribora would become pregnant, and of the five, one maybe two would stick. Nope, Lindsay luck strikes again. We got it on the first try, and of course all five eggs took. Tribora is currently in the operating room, awaiting the delivery of our quintuplets. When we found out that Bora was pregnant we were all so excited, when we realized that all the eggs took I freaked out. 7 months ago "HR, are you coming to the appointment with me?" Tribora asked nervously. "Of course, and Jamie is meeting us here, so we can all go over together." "Somebody mention my name?" I jumped up and kissed my husband, "Jamie, you're early." "I thought we could have a little meeting before we head over to the hospital. Can we use the office?" He said. "Sure," I replied. We walked into the office and I shut the door. "What's wrong?" "Nothing, I just want to make sure that we are all on the same page. We know the chances of it working this time are slim, and I just want to make sure that everyone is willing to try again. That we won't get discouraged." "Lance if you are worried about me, don't be. I'm the one that started you on this to begin with." "Actually, I'm more worried about Ry backing out." "Jamie, how could you say that?" I was shocked. Ok so I wasn't totally gung-ho on the whole messing with DNA part, but the ability to have a child that is mine and Lance's, who wouldn't want that. "I am in for the long run. No matter how many times we have to try." "Good. I love you Ry." "I love you too Jamie." "And I love you both, but if we don't get out of here soon, we're going to be late." We walked over to the hospital and were seen by the doctor immediately. He was the same age as Tribora, but had finished high school at 12 and had finished medical school by 17. He was considered the top research doctor in his field, and I was glad that he was our doctor. Dr. Curtis S. Drapier took Tribora into the examination room and ran a few tests. Then the two of them came back into the office. I was unable to read Tribora's face. The doctor sat down across from us. "I'd like to congratulate you, you are going to be daddies." Lance and I hugged and he kissed my cheek. "This is so exciting!" I turned to Bora and kissed her, "Thank you for letting this happen." 6 months ago "First ultrasound today, I have to admit I'm nervous." "Ry, stop. Things we'll be fine, and in seven months we will have a beautiful little boy or girl. Now go to work and I will meet you and Bora at Dr. Drapier's at 4:45," Lance said pushing me out the door. "What? No goodbye kiss?" "Sorry," he kissed me hard and pushed me out the door again. Later as we sat in the examining room, the sweat was pouring off my brow. The doctor had just warmed the gel and was slathering it on Bora's belly. He placed the cold ultrasound tool on her stomach and she flinched. "Sorry, it's a little cold," he said. He then turned to look at the display and said, "No fucking way. Shit, I can't believe this." I was scared, as was Lance and Tribora. "Dr. Drapier?" Tribora asked timidly. "What's wrong?" "Oh, god, I'm sorry. Nothing is wrong, everything is right. Too right." "What do you mean too right?" I asked. "They all took." "All? How is that possible?" Lance asked. "The chances of two are so minute, but all five? Ry this is your fault." "My fault? How is it my fault?" "Hey my sister only has two children, and they were not of the same birth. Whereas your brother has five from two births." "Your brother has two sets of multiples?" The doctor asked. "Uh, yeah, I put that in the paperwork." "Fascinating," he replied. "Not that it should really effect us here considering we started with five eggs, so I'm guessing that these children will be fraternal." "But it is possible that not all of the eggs took, and one or two could have split." Tribora said. "Yes, Tribora that is correct, but we won't know that until later. This is just so amazing." "Amazing? I am scared out of my mind! Jamie, how are we going to take care of five children?" "The same way your brother did it. With lots of love and the help of family and friends." 5 months ago "Jamie, I want to move." "Oh, I'm sorry, I'll get off of you." "No, stay right where you are, in my arms." "So what about you wanting to move?" "I meant to our own house. We are going to need more space." "Ry, we have plenty of room for when the babies come." "Not if Bora moves in with us." "Huh?" "It's not fair that we are making her go through this all alone. What if she has a craving in the middle of the night? Is she supposed to go to the grocery store to get pickles and vanilla ice cream?" "You're serious about this aren't you?" "Jamie I just feel so guilty. She is having our babies and she lives all the way across town right now, even with the way you drive it takes thirty minutes. What if there was an emergency?" "Okay, I understand. But I don't think we need to move yet. We have two spare bedrooms, never mind all that space in the backyard. We could always build an addition, rather than move. I like living here with your parents and Craig and Aimee upstairs. It makes me feel secure." "Really? Bora can really move in?" Ok, so I was acting like a five year old with my first play date, but who could blame me. "Yes, if she is willing." Back to today So Tribora moved in, and we started major renovations to the house. We built Tribora her own apartment attached to the house, with two entrances, one from the house and one from outside. She absolutely loves it. It has a large great room downstairs, with an office and a bathroom. Upstairs is her bedroom and bathroom, and a guest room. We had decided to find out what the babies would be, because we were worried about space, and figured if we were building an addition, we could always build more. We were having three boys and two girls. So we ended up building another two bedrooms with their own bathrooms, which is why we decided to do Tribora's apartment on two floors. The new bedrooms would be for our children, and the guest rooms would stay that way. We ended up knocking out the half bath at the end of the hallway and extended the hallway for the kid's bedrooms to come off of. We made the guest rooms slightly smaller and put the half bath back in, in front of the bath connecting the two guest rooms. (A little confusing, I know. If I could, I'd draw this out for you.) In the addition we also built a huge home office for Lance. He had decided that he was going to take a year to be at home with the babies, but would still need to do some work. For the first few months the babies would be in Lance's and my room, so this all seems a little premature, but we decided that we would rather the work be done before they came home. And since the babies are one month premature, they will be in the hospital a few weeks before we can bring them home. "Lance, HeathRiley, you can come in now. We have Bora all set up," Dr. Drapier came out of the operating room to tell us. Now that is an interesting story. My little Bora fell in love with her doctor, and the best part is that Curtis fell just as hard. They will be getting married in just five months from now. They wanted to wait a little, so the babies could be at the wedding. Personally I think they are crazy, waiting for the babies, but they say that they couldn't do it without them there. I held Lance's hand as we walked into the operating room. We were already scrubbed in, and just had to have our masks put on. "Jamie, they are almost here." "Yup, now are we sure about their names?" "Yes." "Ok, but it's going to be stupid if they are out of order." "It'll work out, I asked the doctor to make sure." "You are such a dork." "But you still love me." "I do. Within half an hour, we had our babies. Boy, boy, girl, boy, girl. Abraham Joseph, Bailey Christopher, Caitlyn Jacie, Daniel Justin and Elyse Shanay. We wanted each of our children to have a name of the most important people in our lives. Lance wanted to use his band mates, but was afraid of choosing one over the other, so I told him that I got to pick the first names, and their names could be second. And of course once we knew we were having girls, we knew one of them would share part of Tribora's name. It just happens to work out that my grandfather's name was Abraham Joseph, so we decided our first boy would have that name, after my grandfather and Lance's best friend Joey. But I am smart enough to not saddle a child with the name Abraham, so we already decided he would be AJ. After him, we'll see if nicknames come up or not. I'm not going to worry about it just yet. The babies were all perfect. Small, but perfect. After looking at the babies carefully, we realized that the girls were identical. Looks like I really do have the same sperm power as my brother. Variations of latté colored skin, hair that was either black like mine and Tribora's or light brown like Lance's natural color. Dr. Drapier didn't expect that they would have to stay in the hospital long. That afternoon Diane, Jim and my parents came to visit the babies. We purposefully hadn't told them what time Tribora was scheduled to have the c-section, because we did not want the hospital flooded with family members all day long. We did not plan for the quints to born on our anniversary on purpose; it happened to be the week that Curtis had chosen. But this is how it worked out, so instead of Lance and me spending the night out having dinner together, we are all having dinner in the hospital room. Diane and my mother put together a meal filled with all of our favorites. Shrimp scampi with linguini for Tribora, French toast for Lance and I had a broccoli calzone. When visiting hours were over, the Bass' went across the street to the hotel, and my parents went home. Between the two sets of grandparents they must have taken over a hundred pictures of the babies, alone and together, and some even with Lance and I holding them. Our five bundles of pink and blue joy. At 9:00 Tribora was exhausted. She kicked Lance and I out, and we headed home. We were in Lance's Volvo. "I guess it's a good thing that we have the SUV, because we are never going to be able to fit the five of them in here until they are older," I said. "Yeah, that's the one thing we forgot to do before they got here. We're going to need two cars that can fit five car seats each. I guess I'm going to have to get a minivan." "Jamie, you do not need to buy another car. We'll manage." "But. . ." "Jamie, stop. We'll figure it out. I'll use your car to get back and forth to work, and you can use mine if you need to transport the babies. And before you say anything, I will get used to driving around at this level. Even though I still don't understand how you can see anything at this angle." I said laughing. Lance turned to look at me. "Do you promise not to laugh at me?" "Lance what is it?" I asked putting my hand on his shoulder. "I'm scared of doing this alone." Ok, he was afraid I was going to laugh, what about getting pissed off instead. "James Lance Bass-Lindsay. What the hell do you mean alone?" "Not alone all the time, but you are going to go to work." "We talked about this. You wanted to stay at home, and not hire a nanny. And I worked it out with Brian that I only have to work four days a week. I would have taken more paternity leave. But you're the one who told me not to." "No, sweetie. Of course I want you to go to work, but what am I going to do if more than one cries at a time? I am only one person, I don't want to hurt them." "Jamie. Your mother is going to be staying with us for the first month, after that my mother will always be there for you. There are five of them; there will most likely always be more than one needing attention at the same time. It won't hurt them to cry for a bit. We will get into a routine. It will work out." "I'm sorry Ry, I'm just so scared. They are so little, I don't want to break them." "Ah, so that's the real problem. Jamie, you will not break your own children. You've done great so far. It's hard when you don't have any experience with little ones. I was ten when the triplets were born, so I remember helping out, and when I was a little older I got to baby-sit too. You didn't have the chance to baby-sit when you were a teenager. Jamie, I love you, and everything will be fine." "You promise?" "Yes." We had made it back to the house and we were both dead tired. It had been a long day. "Ry? I'm going to take a shower will you join me? Just a shower." "Of course. I'll even wash your back." Lance threw his arms around me, and pulled me close. "I'm sorry for being afraid." "Never be sorry, just talk to me. We can always figure it out, but only if you talk to me. I need to know what is going on, so that I can help you." We showered and once we were dry, we fell asleep on our bed.