A Tale of Two Omegas

Chapter 2: The Choices We Make

"Did you know?" The voice of his older sister was swallowed by the disarray of various sounds as he watched a crowd of nurses all converge around Mew, who was lying entirely unconscious on the bed in front of him.

"Gulf!"

He was yanked back into reality in an instant, finding Grace staring at him expectantly.

Blinking away his mental fog, he furrowed his brow and asked, "what?"

"Did you know Mew wasn't an Alpha?"

He shook his head jerkily. "No. The last time I saw him, he was telling me we couldn't be friends anymore because 'Alphas can't be seen with Omega friends in entertainment.' As far as I know, he's had everyone fooled for years."

Grace was then urgently handed a clipboard, and as she began flipping through the pages, her face contorted with more and more concern the longer she spent reading over the chart. "Damn it, everything's completely off; body temp, hormone levels, electrolytes, hemoglobin..." She set the chart aside and reached across the bed to turn the vitals monitor toward her, revealing a rapid heart rate and dangerously low blood pressure. "You said he's been taking suppressants consistently for six years?"

Gulf nodded. "That's what he told me."

"Well, I've seen plenty of Omegas who've gone three--maybe four--years on suppressants before their bodies eventually forced them into heat, but I've never seen an Omega go this long on suppressants, or with a haywire reaction this bad, before," Grace stated, barking a few orders to the flocking nurses before continuing. "No physician in their right mind would continue prescribing suppressants for that long, and since I'm assuming Mew's main concern was upholding his 'Alpha lie,' I'm willing to bet that whatever suppressants he's been using are bootleg--he wouldn't want the media catching him walking into a clinic for a refill every month. And if he's really gone six years, the pills have to be at least double, probably triple, the safe dose."

"So, what does all that mean?" Gulf wasn't dumb. Certainly, there was a little corner of his mind that knew what it meant, but he couldn't bring himself to believe the likely outcome of the situation.

Grace frowned and looked back at him with apologetic eyes. "It means we're going to do everything we can."

Gulf sensed there was a 'but' to her statement, however it was left unsaid. He understood either way. He knew what it meant when a doctor could only say they'd do the best they could, or some other variation of the same meaning.

The likelihood of Mew living through this was slim to none.

~

Haywire Reaction: occurs when an Omega relies on medical suppressants to temporarily halt the body's natural heat cycle for too long. If an Omega continues to take suppressant medication past the recommended two years, their body will ultimately begin resisting the drug's effects, causing them to spontaneously go into heat and resulting in damaging or life-threatening symptoms, including, but not limited to: hypotension, arrhythmia, body temperature above 40 C, severe abdominal and muscle cramping, physiologic shock, uterine bleeding, etc. Haywire reaction remains one of the primary causes of mortality in Omegas ages 25-40. Mortality rate is as high as 72% without professional medical attention, and is still relatively high at 49% with medical attention.

A textbook definition.

Gulf remembered his high school health class lesson on secondary gender-specific drugs and their downsides like it was yesterday. He remembered the mortality rates. He remembered the side effects. He remembered all the detrimental effects of denying nature for longer than nature was willing to be denied.