Unexpected Changes

After a thorough shower and an inspection, there still seemed to be nothing wrong with Lily. She seemed normal and healthy, and that was quite concerning. She was at a stage in her life where she was supposed to be going through heat, and she wasn't. What should have been agony was little more than inconvenience.

He had one last idea. Having her play in her room for a bit, he ran to the pharmacy and bought the three most reliable variation of the product he wanted, in different brands. If they were each above 95% accurate, then all three of them couldn't possibly provide a false positive; the odds were one in eight thousand.

"Are you sure you need all of these, sir?" asked the attendant. "Usually, one is enough."

"If one says yes, and the second says no, the third one breaks the tie," Cloverleaf answered. "I'm not leaving it up to chance."

He rushed home and opened up all three boxes, reading the instructions to Lily before sending her into the bathroom to perform. It wasn't long before she came back out.

"So now we wait," said Lily with a shaky voice. Her dad was scared, and he'd openly admitted that to her, so she was a little bit frightened, as well.

"Come here," he called, opening his hooves and beckoning to her. She walked over to him and climbed into his lap, nestling herself into a warm hug. "It's going to be okay. This is just a test. No matter what happens, I'm still your dad, and I'm still going to keep you safe no matter what, okay?"

"So, what's going to happen if these tests come back negative?"

"If they come back negative, that means that you're still waiting for your heat. It's slow, but it'll come. If it lasts another week, we'll take you to the doctor and find out why it's not happening."

"And if it's not?"

Cloverleaf pulled her in just a bit tighter. "Then it won't come for a long time."

"But... that's good, right?"

He shook his head. "It seems good on paper right now, but it won't stay that way forever."

"So, I'm going to go back to experiencing heat again?"

"Oh, yes. It's going to come back over and over again throughout your whole life. It's just going to be on hold for a bit."

For the next three minutes, they sat in silence, Lily tucking herself into her father's chest and her dad trying to keep her in relative comfort. They just had to wait for the tests to be done, and then they'd go into the bathroom and check them out.

"Okay," breathed Cloverleaf. "I think they're ready. We just have to go check them. Ready?"

Lily clung tighter to him and nodded. She wasn't ready, and neither was he. But they had to know, and that meant that they had to find out sooner or later. Better to do so now, and know what future they needed to plan for. Lily had placed them under washcloths so that they only had to deal with one at a time, and their boxes were placed next to them so that the instructions could be double-checked.

Cloverleaf lifted the first washcloth. The indicator showed two lines. "Okay. Two lines means that the result is positive. But that could just be a false positive. The test could be wrong. It says it's ninety-seven percent accurate, so there's a three percent chance that it's wrong."

Lily nodded and picked up the second one. "That's a plus sign. That's two positive results."

"One more test," breathed Cloverleaf. It wasn't going to make him feel any better; he knew that. If it was positive, then it would mean the same as the other tests, and if it was negative, it'd only serve to stir up doubts in his mind.

He lifted the rag. The strip had turned blue. That was a positive result.

"So... So, that's it, then..." shuddered Lily. "They're all positive."

"So, it has to be true, then," sighed Cloverleaf.

"So, what now?"

Cloverleaf thought for a moment, then scooped up the tests and tossed them into the trash can. "Now? Now we live our lives as we were. There's just a few things we need to watch out for, and a few things we need to do."

"Like what?"

He took a breath. "When I say we, I mean I need to do. You're going to be fine, I just..." His forehead was sweating, and he was having trouble breathing. "This is... This is going to advance things considerably. I thought that... I mean, I didn't know that it'd happen this early, or even at all. I thought that, at worst, I'd not be around to see it, but..."

"Dad, calm down," urged Lily. "What does all of this mean?"

Cloverleaf took a deep breath, then pulled his daughter closer in. "Let's go sit."

They walked into his bedroom and hopped up on the bed. He leaned back to stare at the ceiling for a bit and think about what had happened, and more importantly, what was going to happen. Lily lay down next to him and looked at his face. She'd never seen him so scared before, and he was still trying to make her feel better. She grabbed his shoulder and rested her head next to his. He'd tell her when he was ready.

There was a very long silence, disturbed only when she started to snore. She'd fallen asleep on top of him while he was trying to put together an answer. Not wanting her to wake up cold, he slipped the blanket up over them both and turned off the lamp. There was no reason to wake her yet. Not until he could give her a solution.

He could feel her smiling as she nuzzled herself closer into his chest. The last thing he wanted was to hurt her. He wanted her to be happy, and he wanted her to be healthy. It came down to what it was she wanted to do, and if she preferred one option over the other, he would support her. Still, he was pretty sure he knew what her decision was going to be, so he took one last look at the ceiling and a deep breath before drifting off to sleep.

"...I'm going to be a grandfather..."