“So you’re sure, Dr. Roberts. I am pregnant?” Serena sat next to Cyprus, looking up at the doctor expectantly. Part of her wanted him to deny it, so they could avoid all the trouble it would cause. Another part of her was sure she would die if the doctor did.
   “As sure as I can be. In a little under seven months, you should give birth to a healthy little boy or girl.” He looked at his charts, and closed them satisfied.
   “So, there’s not complications? Nothing…abnormal?” Cyprus pressed anxiously. He couldn’t believe that they would be able to have a normal child, not when they had been created in a lab.
   “Nothing that I can see. The blood tests are perfectly normal - for you, I mean.” Von Richter had, of course, produced false medical histories for both of them, in the unlikely event that they should be taken to a hospital before he could intervene. “We should be able to do a sonogram in a couple of months, but I foresee no problems.” He looked at the couple, and saw the fear in their faces along with the genuine joy. “Is something wrong?”
   “Well…” Serena began, and looked at Cyprus, unsure what to say. They had been afraid to talk about everything until they had seen a doctor, and now were at a loss.
   “Our…families don’t want us to have children,” he improved. “There have been…medical problems in both our families, as I’m sure you’ve read, and neither side want it continued.”
   “That’s rather unusual, but I think I understand,” Dr. Roberts mused. “So, do you want to…terminate the pregnancy?”
   “No!” they cried out together. “We just…don’t want anyone to know…” Serena continued. She could almost see their hopes fading out.
   “Well, Mr. and Mrs. Trodden, I have to admit this is very exceptional…” He watched the pair looking up expectantly at him. They had a history of community evolvement in Meridiana, and in fact had contributed greatly to the building of the new hospital wing last year. He knew there was something they weren’t telling him, but he trusted that they knew what they were doing. He had been an obstetrician for over a dozen years, and he could tell right away that they would make good parents. “May I suggest…adoption?”
   “If you think that’s the only way, we will give up our baby…” Serena said sadly. She appeared close to tears. It wasn’t until then that she realized just how much she had wanted the child.
   “That’s not exactly what I meant…I mean, would your family be opposed to you…adopting a child?” He tried to inflict his meaning into it.
   “You mean, doctor, adopt our own child?” Cyprus said in disbelief. He turned to Serena, and Dr. Roberts saw hope in their faces for the first time since they had come into his office.
   “It is not completely unknown; there have been instances where women adopted their own illegitimate children to avoid dishonor. If you were to hide the pregnancy, make it known that you were in the process of adopting a baby, I could arrange that you would be given your own child.” He leaned back. This was the closest he’d ever come to scandal in all his years as a doctor. But for the couple in front of him, he thought, he would be willing to try it. He had known them for less than an hour, but he couldn’t help but feel that he’d been caring for them for years. He suddenly understood their remarkable popularity, both in Upper Society and among the middle class. Five minutes with them, and you’d be happily willing to believe anything they said, and they had never seemed to abuse that power.
   “We could try…” Serena looked up at him, the tears in her eyes ones of joy. “Thank you, Dr. Roberts. You have no idea how much this means to us…”
   Dr. Robert took off his glasses, and cleaned them on his lab coat as he thought about his mother. How she had been told that she was too old to have a child, that she should abort the baby for her own health. He remembered how proud she had looked when he had graduated from medical school, planning to become an obstetrician to make sure that babies like him would have a chance. “No, Mrs. Trodden, I imagine have a very good idea just how much it does mean to you.”