Scientific Crescendo - Book 1: The Seahorse Experiment 🪼✔

6 - No More Hamburgers

It seemed as if our sex life was really great after the accident. Though I don't know how Julie kept up with me. It seemed as if I couldn't stop making love to her whenever I saw her. I was on leave so that they could fix the lab up and everything and so I could recover so I was usually home by myself while Julie went to work. Her job wasn't touring an aquarium like before but she didn't mind doing tours of the local zoo that was only about twenty minutes from the house. Whenever she got home, I practically jumped her with all the pent up sex drive that I had.
Luckily, my eyes cleared up from whatever those fumes were so when a month rolled around, I didn't have to get glasses. Julie was happy about that, even though she would have loved being able to take my glasses off to kiss me but the fact that we didn't have to worry about that was something good. I was starting to get back on my feet a little but there was this incessant peeing! I hadn't been doing anything abnormal as of late except maybe sleep more but I was always peeing.
I didn't really think anything of it because the hospital said that I could still be suffering side effects from the explosion. It wasn't really until Julie started browning some ground beef that I realized that something might be going on that wasn't related to the explosion. The smell hit me and I ran to the bathroom as fast as I could to throw up.
"Dex? You alright?"
"Yeah... Um... What are you going to be cooking?" I asked, looking in the toilet.
"Just some stroganoff... Honey, are you sure you're alright?"
"Yeah!"
I shook my head and flushed the toilet and brushed my teeth to get the taste out of my mouth. I entered the kitchen again and just decided to take quick little breaths so as to not throw up until she was done. When she was finally finished and it was time to eat, I had to not eat it because the smell of the beef made me want to hurl again.
"You're not going to eat?" Julie asked, a little miffed.
"I'm really sorry, honey, but I just can't. I don't know what's going on but the thought of having to eat that makes me want to vomit. And you know it's not you because I've eaten your stroganoff for almost five years now. I'll just make something else... Tarot likes your cooking, mind if I call him so you don't have to waste the food?"
"I guess not... Are you sure you're alright?"
"Yeah. It was just probably something not settling with me tonight. I'll call up Tarot then."
She nodded and I got on the phone with him.
About fifteen minutes later, Tarot knocked on the door and I opened it up.
"Hey, you said something about stroganoff?"
I laughed. "Yeah, come on in."
"Why aren't you eating it? I thought you liked Julie's cooking?" he said with a flash of a grin to my wife.
"Hey, Tarot, dig in."
"I do love her cooking it's just I don't think something settled at lunch today and the smell of the browning beef kind of made me sick."
"Ah... Well, I'm going to have myself an awesome bowl of stroganoff, thankful that I don't have to eat another frozen dinner." He said with a happy look on his face as he dipped the mushroom sauce onto his noodles.
I decided to have something like yogurt since my stomach wasn't up to eating a full meal. I ate the whole tub of vanilla yogurt and Julie invited Tarot to watch a movie with us.

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"Has anyone said anything about me coming back to work?"
"They're still repairing the lab since the whole wall was pretty much taken out. They decided that now was the time for them to put all their redesigning efforts in. They've been trying to remodel our section for about five years now and the hole in the wall gave them an opportunity to do so. We'll have to share with other people instead." He said with a frown.
"They can't give us a barrack or something?"
"Apparently not."
"So much for continuing research..." I scoffed. "And what the hell are we supposed to do for our jobs?"
"They're supposed to be giving us something to work on in the mean time but you know how those higher ups are in their timing."
"This is a disaster."
"Don't worry, Dexter, the project will be complete. I'm backed up as well so we're both out of work until they remodel the room."
"You boys are getting into a tiff over science projects?" Julie said with a smile.
"They're not just science projects, Julie. Jeez, have a bit of compassion for the animal kingdom." Tarot said with a roll of his eyes.
I laughed at him but felt a pain in my stomach. I put my hand over my shirt and grunted.
"Dex? You alright?"
"Yeah... um... just kind of a pain..."
"You sure?"
"Yes. Just fine."
We talked a little more about the lab and different things before we retired.
As the days went on, things began to get a little weird. I still couldn't eat anything that had browned beef in it; even hamburgers! I was so angry! And if that wasn't enough, I kept peeing and puking my guts out all the time.
After I puked for about the third time, I finally decided it was best that I go to the doctor. I made myself an appointment and got checked out. They took a blood test after they did all the other tests and told me it would a while and they would call. When they did, they said I needed to come down for the results, which I thought was odd and frightening.

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"Mr. Leoda?" the nurse called for me to come into the examination room.
I got up and went to the back, afraid of what I might hear. It was usually something bad when they couldn't tell you the results on the phone and had to speak to you in person. I wearily stepped into the room and sat down.
A couple minutes later, the doctor came in and I looked up. He looked confused and didn't look like I was having good news.
"Mr. Leoda, your test results have come back and we're a little... baffled."
"Baffled? What do you mean by that?"
"Well everything is in order except that your HCG levels have increased tremendously and we were afraid that maybe you had a cancerous growth in your stomach. But closer study to the results lead me to believe that... something strange is happening."
"Strange?"
"Yes... not only has your HCG levels gone up, but the amount of estrogen has increased as well. Has anything gotten worse since we checked you out?"
"Um... I've been peeing constantly and I'm tired a lot as well as sensitive to the smell of hamburger. Doctor, what are you trying to tell me anyway? Are you hiding something from me?"
The doctor made a face and rubbed is beard a little in procrastinating with the answer.
"Doctor! Tell me!"
"Mr. Leoda, after all possible explanations, I have come to the conclusion that you are pregnant."