Wild & Out
Chapter One  I used to think that my life was as close to normal as it could get. I was madly in love, recently married, and I had an exciting job that I enjoyed going to each day. Even though it may have seemed somewhat boring to others, I was happy. I'm not saying I would go back and change anything if I could, but in the last few months, the world as I knew it had been turned upside down.
Six months ago I found out I was pregnant. Big news in and of itself, but little did I know that when I sprang that news on my husband, Ben, he had his own surprise to share with me. Although we’d been together for three years, he had failed to mention that there was this little genetic anomaly in his family that was hereditary. It wasn't simply a cleft chin or his beautiful eye color. It was the ability to become an animal, or what my husband calls being a "shapeshifter". 
I was initially skeptical of my husband's admission, until he turned into a penguin, and then later a large dog, right before my eyes. And what do you know; it's passed on to males, from one father to the next, with fertility decreasing over time. So we were pretty lucky to find out we were actually going to be able to have a baby. Then there were a few weeks of anxiously waiting to find out if we would be having a "normal" little girl, or a "shifter" little boy.
Last week we had our ultrasound appointment, and then a gender party, to find out which future we were headed for. Ben and I had already decided that we were ready and fully capable to take on the challenges of having a boy, but seeing those blue balloons float out of the box was when the reality of what was coming finally hit me.
Worries and concerns had been at the forefront of most of my thoughts since the big reveal. I'm sure every new parent has their own set of worries, mainly that the baby will be healthy and born full term. But I had my own unique prayers - that the baby couldn’t or wouldn’t shift in utero, that after he was born he wouldn’t shift and injure himself, and that he wouldn’t shift in front of anyone, giving away the carefully preserved family secret. I tried to remain optimistic without dwelling on the difficulties ahead of us, but they always seemed to creep right back into my mind.
So tonight, Ben and I were headed to his parents' house to have a talk with them. We wanted them to tell us everything they knew about the history of Ben's father's family. Ben had a small family since fertility was so low. I knew that he was an only child, as was his father. His grandfather apparently had a sister, but his great-grandfather had also been an only child.
Ben had been quieter than usual since we found out we were having a boy. I knew he was happy, but he also shared my worries - him knowing way better than myself the difficulties of being a shifter. He was also dwelling on a question I had recently posed - was it possible for the baby to shift during the pregnancy? We had both endured a few sleepless nights, worrying about the baby making it full term without shifting and hurting himself. Ben was especially concerned about what it would mean for me if the baby was to shift during pregnancy.
"Are you okay?" I asked him, as he put the car in park in front of his parents' house.
"I’m doing the best I can with all these unknowns," he said with a sigh.
"Come on, I'm sure your parents will know more and can help ease our minds. We’ve just never thought to ask them about it," I said as I pulled on his arm, urging him out of the car.
Susan and David Hunter's house was out in the middle of nowhere. They had a decent little drive to get to the closest neighbor's house, and it took them at least twenty minutes to get to a grocery store. Given our situation, I now wished we had bought a home more isolated and suited for our up and coming adventure.
Ben’s dad was waiting for us at the door, probably wondering why we were taking so long.
"Come on in kids," he yelled out to us, waving his hand for us to get a move on.
"Hi, David and Sue," I greeted them as we walked into the foyer.
"How is our little boy doing?" Sue asked, and I knew she was no longer talking about Ben. He didn't seem to mind one bit.
"He's doing great!" I told them with a smile. "And Ben has felt him kick twice now, so you may get a chance to feel him soon."
"Oh, that would just be wonderful!" she exclaimed.
We all sat down in the living room, with Ben and I beside each other on the couch and his parents in their two recliners.
"So, Ben said you have some questions for us," David said, "We'll try and tell you all we know."
Ben jumped right in and asked what had been weighing heavy on his mind.
"So, can the baby shift during the pregnancy? I can't believe I didn't consider that as a possibility before now," he said as he shook his head. 
His parents thought it over for a minute.
"You know, I worried about that too when Sue was pregnant with you," David said as he reminisced. "Your mom had been with me for almost 17 years by the time she got pregnant, and I never hid what I was from her. She and I both knew the range of animals that I could shift into and how dangerous that would have been for her." He gave Ben a look that said he disapproved of his lie by omission to me until I became pregnant with his shifter son.  
"But our worries were unfounded, and she went right on through her pregnancy without a single problem. You were born pink and screaming just like all the other babies in the nursery." He let us digest that for a moment before he went on. "I can't think of any of us that didn't make it to term, not that there's been many to go by. But I've never heard of miscarriages or anything that you two need to worry about."
Whew! That was a load off.
"Oh thank God!" Ben said as he hugged me to him.  
"That's really, really good to know," I told his parents around him as he all but smothered me.
"Sweetie, I know you have enough to worry about without all of this we've thrown at you, but with Ben I didn't have anything out of the ordinary with the pregnancy or his delivery," his mom told me.
"And I can't say for certain, but Ben, back me up on this. When you have had spontaneous changes, wasn’t it usually into an animal in front of you, or one that you've recently seen?" asked David.
Ben thought it over. I could see him going back to all the times in his youth when he had shifted without the control to stop it.
"Yeah, always," he finally answered. "So, you think the baby doesn't change during pregnancy because he’s never seen or been around an animal before?"
"Exactly," his dad answered. "Shoot, even when I let myself shift it's usually an animal that I've recently seen unless I really focus on a different one."   
Ben nodded in agreement. Well, that was good to know too. But I had a somewhat silly question. "Does it have to be a real animal or can it be just a picture or video of one?" I asked hesitantly.
Ben and his dad looked at each other as if the other had the answer.
"Oh, it can be a picture or one on TV," his mom spoke up and answered. We all turned to look at her as she explained.
"David, don't you remember when Ben was around three or four-years-old and he was watching Bugs Bunny?" she asked with a smile.
With a slap on his leg, Ben's dad started chuckling. "You're right! And even though he didn't look anything like Bugs he was sure enough a grey rabbit," he said as he rocked in laughter.
"Oh yeah, I remember that!" Ben suddenly said. Then he looked pointedly back and forth at his parents. "Is that why you wouldn't let me watch cartoons until I was a teenager?" he asked indignantly.
"Well sure, we had to stay away from nature shows too," his mom answered without the least bit of remorse. "And don't you think you won't do the same thing when your little one gets here!"
Ben and I looked at each other and he signed in defeat. "I know,” he conceded. “I guess we better get him a lot of animal free toys too," he said to me.
"And get rid of the zoo theme in the nursery. This is going to be tricky isn't it?" I asked them and they all nodded.
"So, I guess I should go ahead and turn in my notice at work, huh?" I asked. Ben frowned. He knew I loved my job, but it was likely that I wouldn't be able to work until our son went to middle school.
"Yeah, I'm sorry sweetie," he said as he hugged me to him again.
"It'll be fine," I told him with a smile. It wasn't like I worked because we needed the money. Ben’s income had always more than paid the rent, as well as all of our other bills. I worked because I liked my job, my boss and my coworkers. It was exciting being a criminal law paralegal, and I was going to miss it.
"Besides, you probably couldn't make me go back to work after the baby gets here anyway," I said, to reassure him I was fine with coming out of work. 
We asked Ben's parents to come over the following weekend to meet with my parents and tell them their "secret".  There was no way we could keep it from them once their grandson arrived, and his parents happily agreed. David and Susan felt bad that Ben hadn't told me his secret sooner, and had no problem trusting my parents to keep this information to themselves.
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