From the Ground Up: Kacchako

Chapter 44: Troubled waters

3 months later

Ochako_
Katsuki squeezed ochakos thigh reassuringly, and she glanced over at him. He was dressed nicely in a causal black suit with the first few buttons on his shirt undone, but his hair was still its usual unruly mess of spikes.

Ochako had dressed in a respectable light grey dress and small heels. The doctors office that they sat in was high in the city and had a spectacular view, but the sight of the city did nothing to change ochako's mood.
Katsuki let go of her thigh and took her hand, making her look at him.
"Hey there."
He said, and she smiled weakly.
"Hi."
She said back.
He landed forward and pressed their foreheads together. She closed her eyes and focused on his warm breath as it came out in steady puffs.
Though they quickly separated when the doctor walked into the office and sat down across from them, setting down a small stack of papers and test results.

He swept back his black hair with one hand and offered them both a polite smile.
"Mr. And Mrs. Bakugou, lovely to see you again. And, congratulations,"
He said, and gestured to Ochako's stomach. She placed a hand on her still flat belly protectively on instinct.
"I-It worked?"
She said, her voice shaking. Bakugou gripped her hand a little harder. Instead of answering the doctor only shifted through his paperwork for a few seconds before looking back up at them.
"Its my understanding that you've have two previous miscarriages? Within the last three months?"

Ochako and katsuki stiffened.
They'd been trying desperately to get pregnant for the past three months, but had endured two miscarriages. They'd come to this doctor to try IVF, and this appointment was to hear the procedure's results.
"...yes, we have."
Katsuki answered, leaning forward slightly.
"And, Mr. And Mrs. Bakugou, about how many weeks into the pregnancy did you see the miscarriage?"
Katsuki tilted his head,
"I don't see why that's important. Did the procedure work or not?"
Ochako squeezed his hand and shuffled forward in her seat. Katsuki snapped his head to her but quieted down.
She cleared her throat.
"About- About three to five weeks. That's um...that's when the miscarriages happened."

The doctor nodded and slid the papers aside. He paused for a while before taking a deep breath and making eye-contact with her.
"The procedure went through."
She blinked.
"I don't- what does that mean?"
He smiled broadly.
"Its means you're pregnant, Mrs. Bakugou."
Her lips parted, and katsuki let out a breathy laugh.
"But,"
He said, and her gut tightened.
"I ran other tests, please forgive me."
Katsuki chimed in,
"Other tests? What tests? What did you do?"
To his credit, the doctor didn't shy away from katsuki's rising temper and held his ground.
"It was sheer curiosity, I promise you. But the results I concluded bring me great worry. I cannot, in good conscience, keep you both in the dark. Especially you, Mrs. Bakugou."

She furrowed her brows at him but motioned for him to continue. He nodded.
"Your organs appear to be healing from a great amount of bruising and damage. Did something...happen? I understand you were once a hero, were you recently in some kind of accident?"
She didn't answer, and the doctor cleared his throat.
"Allow me to clarify, did something happen during your line of duty that resulted in you being hospitalised? I understand if this makes you uncomfortable, but I need to know."
She bit her lip, but brought up her courage and answered,
"Something like that, yes. You could say it was...similar."
He nodded and continued,
"Were you aware that your ovaries and uterus have been tampered with?"
Her stomach dropped. Glancing over at katsuki, she saw a cold rage begin to seep through him. Blinking back her fear and shock, she turned back to the doctor.
"E-Excuse me?"
He gave her a sympathetic look.
"The damage has been done, I cannot reverse it. Many of your eggs have been removed, and some of the permanent lining along your uterus has been...shaved off, in a sense. This would be why you're having trouble carrying out your pregnancies."

Tears pricked her eyes. He carried on anyway,
"From my understanding, had the damage not been done to you, you'd have been perfectly able to conceive as many children as you desired. A large family could have been-"
"Why the fuck would you say that? Thanks for rubbing it in, asshole."
Katsuki said, his anger slipping its leash. Ochako barely felt the tears slip down her cheeks as the doctor put his hands up in surrender.
"My apologies, that was out of line. I merely meant that, yes the IVF was successful, though I advise extreme caution."
"W-What? Why?"
She said, wiping her tears away.
He smiled with tight lips.
"Two things. The first, is that I highly doubt your body will survive a full term pregnancy. Your uterus is about half the strength of the average woman, and will struggle greatly with a growing foetus. That being said, there is a chance you could go through with it."

Katsuki leant forward and said,
"But there is a chance? She could survive? She could- we could have a baby?"
The doctor shifted his eyes to katsuki.
"The probability is...slight."
Katsuki ran his hands down his face as ochako asked,
"And the second thing?"
"Well...there's been rumours, in the medical field. Rash, unbelievable rumours."
"Which are? And why do they apply to me?"
"I'm sure you're aware that there were once marriages aligned between two people based off their quirks, for the benefit of the next generation?"
She nodded.
"Well, some...radical doctors, sometimes saw that perhaps people of the same sex had two amazing quirks, which had the potential to create a magnificent child. But...there was the issue of them being the same sex."

She narrowed her eyes but nodded. He went on,
"There was a theory that if two women's ovaries could be harvested, and other components of their reproductive systems as well, a dangerous procedure could be performed to create a embryo with both quirks, or a mix of the two, and place that embryo inside a woman with no quirks to carry the child. It was cast out if the medical field and shamed on, but there had been rumours that people still wished it to go forward."

She immediately looked to Katsuki, and their eyes locked. Without another word she got up and left the office, she couldn't bare to stay a moment longer. She distantly heard katsuki bid the doctor goodbye and thank him for his help, then run after her.
She was halfway down the fancy hallway when she suddenly broke down in tears and fell against the wall, sliding down it to the floor.
She heard katsuki's heavy running footsteps before he stopped and dropped to the ground to her to pull her into his arms.
She clung to him like her life depended on it, wrapping her arms around him and shaking with the tears.
"They took my baby katsuki- they took her! And then- and then they took part of me!"
He squeezed her in his arms as she screamed into his chest. She shook terribly, and so did he. Though they trembled for different reasons.
The anger coursing through him would give hellfire a run for its money.
He was going to find those assholes. And he was going to make them pay.