The Favor

I have the perfect life.

It wasn't always that way. As recently as a year ago I was facing a seemingly insurmountable problem. But perhaps I should start at the beginning. My name is Tyler. I'm a 32 year old professional man. I'm happily married for five glorious years to the woman of my dreams, Kayla, a potter who works out of a studio in the back of our house and sells her sculptures for an obscene amount of money in frou-frou galleries across the country. It's amazing to me what ordinarily sane people will pay for a lump of hardened clay, but, hey, whatever floats your boat.

Everything seemed to be going better than a dream for Kayla and me. Then, about two years ago, Kayla started feeling her biological clock ticking. Suddenly, she wanted a baby, and that's when things went to hell in a really big way. Kayla and I has always had a very, very healthy sex life. Practically every night would see us fucking like a pair of rabbits, and whenever she'd ask about protection, I'd tell her I had it covered. And that was true...sort of.

When I was a teenager, my identical twin brother, Daniel, and I went to a summer camp. We were maybe sixteen years old at the time. And we were miserable. Daniel met up with this girl at the camp, and asked me to cover for him after lights out one night so they could meet up. So, after bed check in my cabin, I scrambled out the window, took a shortcut across the yard and into Daniel's cabin, where I climbed into his bed just as the counselor came in an did a head count. We were safe!

As I was scrambling out of his bed to head back to mine, I felt a bug or something bite me on the ankle. The next day I was sick as a dog--nasty liquids coming out of every orifice, high fever. It was hell. I was hospitalized for two full weeks. Never did find out what bit me, thought.

I recovered, and was informed of one small complication: the high fever had left me sterile. I would probably never be able to father a child. But, hell, I was sixteen years old at the time. As long as I could still get it up, who gave a damn if I was shooting blanks?

Kayla, it seems, would have cared. All during our courtship and three years of marriage, I'd never told her that I was infertile. What was the point? Neither one of us had ever expressed any interest in having children. So there was my quandary. Do I tell her that I can't give her the child she wants? I considered it. Hell, I even started to tell her, one night when she'd brought up the baby subject again. But then she startled me by stating how much she wanted MY baby. Flattering, yes, but not a good segue into "hey, baby, did I ever tell you I can't have children?" Yep, that would have gone over really big.

So, we continued to get it on every night; two, sometimes three times a night. It rapidly went from being a joy and pleasure to a chore. I began to dread each evening. And each time Kayla's period came, she became more and more depressed. I tried to pull her out of it with all the usual lines; "These things take time, baby," and "you know, there are other options." But she didn't want other options.

And then she started with "we need to go to the doctor." I know, this would have been the perfect opening to break the news to her, but it turns out that I'm a bit of a coward. I couldn't bring myself to tell her the truth, but I couldn't let a well meaning doctor spill the beans either. What could I do?

And then one night, it came to me. Actually, the idea started brewing after an afternoon of watching talk shows. You know the type: "Give my teen daughter a paternity test to see which horny boy knocked her up!" and other stupid titles like that. I watched in frustration, wishing my condition on every one of these careless kids--why should they be popping out babies left and right, and those of us who want them, can't? As a furious seventeen year old punk with bleached hair and his jeans around his kneecaps yelled "I don't care what your *bleep* test says, that ain't my kid!", I reached for the remote to put myself out of my misery. But before I could switch channels, a well dressed lady in the audience stood up and patiently explained to the pissed off teen-aged boy that the test was something like 99.9878% accurate, and since no two people have the same genetic material, there was no way the baby couldn't be his.

The thought flashed through my mind--what about identical twins? Two halves of the same egg and sperm, identical twins have the same genetic material...

It didn't actually come to me until about 2 o'clock that morning. If I couldn't father Kayla's baby, could Daniel? Better question, would Daniel? And how do you go about bringing something like this up? Especially to someone like Daniel.

The opportunity presented itself the following weekend. Kayla was invited out with some girlfriends, so I decided to pay a visit to my brother. He was alone, too. His "roommate" (that's what he calls Tom, anyway. But I know better. Daniel had come out to me when we were in college.) was at work, so it was just the two of us lounging around the pool, sipping beers. I was preoccupied, trying to figure out how to broach the subject I'd been wanting to talk over with him. I guess I was too preoccupied, because Daniel seemed to notice. "What's up, Bro? You are totally out of it today."

I sighed and rested my half empty beer bottle on the arm of the lounge chair. "Kayla and I have been having some...problems."

Daniel looked shocked. He really liked Kayla...as a sister. "Oh, no! What's wrong?"

I looked at Daniel. Really looked at him. You couldn't tell us apart. Same dark hair, dark eyes, cut physique. Hell, we could still, at 32 years of age, pull it over on our parents if we were to try.

"She wants a baby," I said flatly, and could see the moment it hit Daniel.

"Oh, man, you never told her you can't have kids?"

"Hell, no! I mean, she never told me she wanted kids, so how was I to know she'd get this bug up her ass five years later? It didn't seem to matter at the time, and now..." I shrugged. "I don't want to lose her, man. I love her too much."

We were silent for a long time, each lost in his own thoughts. I gazed into the sparkling blue water of the pool, working up the courage to propose my idea to Daniel. Finally, I just took the plunge. "I have an idea, though…" He looked at me, eyebrow quirked. "This is going to sound really strange, but hear me out, okay?"

"Sure."

"I can't father the baby, but you could."

"What?" Daniel looked truly flabbergasted.

"We're twins. Identical twins. The baby would genetically be as much mine as yours."

He snatched my beer bottle away from me. "You're insane, man. You've pickled your brains. I'm GAY, for God's sake!"

"So? You're clean, aren't you?"

"Well…yea."

"You think Tom's gonna dump you if you do this favor for your brother?"

Daniel thought on that. "Probably not. He knows how close we are. He'd understand."

"You told me yourself you think Kayla is attractive."

He snorted. "For a woman."

"Besides, Daniel, you owe me. If it hadn't been for you and your raging hormones when we were teenagers, I never would have been bitten, gotten sick, and ended up sterile." Low blow. I knew that Daniel had always felt guilty about my getting sick while covering for him. He'd told me plenty of times that he wished it had happened to him, since the odds of him every deciding to have children were slim-to-none. I could see that I had tipped the scales in my favor.

"Is Kayla willing to go through with this?"

"I'm not planning on telling her."

"WHAT?"

"Hell, man, how do I explain this to her without explaining that I'm sterile? The point of this is to prevent her from finding out."

"Now I know you've lost your mind."

"Look, I've been thinking this over for a couple days, and I have it all worked out. All you have to do is show up. I'll take care of everything else. She'll never know that you're the baby's Daddy, not me."

* * *

I waited until I could be sure Kayla would be fertile. This would not work if we had to do it more than once. It had to be now. I had already decided that if this didn't work, I'd bite the bullet and tell Kayla the truth. With a lot of crawling and a little groveling, maybe she wouldn't leave me. Stranger things had happened.

A week had passed since the end of her last period, and I knew it was now or never. I called Daniel and told him to show up at the house at 10:00 PM, and to be quiet about it. Kayla had to be totally unaware that anyone besides she and I were at home. I made a special dinner, and when Kayla emerged from her studio, looking weary and depressed, her face showed barely a flicker of curiosity. "What's going on? Are we having company?"

I walked up behind her and rubbed her shoulders. "Nope. Just you and me. I have something very special planned for tonight." Her expression was somewhere between skepticism and total dejection. I took her hand and drew her into the living room, sitting beside her on the sofa and taking her hands. "This has become an obsession for us, Love. We don't make love anymore, the way we did the first couple years of our marriage. There's no romance, nothing special. We're going to change that tonight." I stood her up. "Now, go on upstairs. I've drawn you a nice bath. I want you to relax. When you get done, I'll have dinner all ready. After that, we'll see where the night goes."

Kayla looked skeptical, but went upstairs. I had planned this carefully. The bathroom was filled with scented candles, the tub full of warm, frothy water. A glass of Kayla's favorite champagne sat on the tub's edge, along with a plate of some of her favorite snacks. The open bottle of champagne sat in an ice bucket on the floor, in case she was in the mood for a second glass. While she soaked, I set up a small table in the bedroom with our best linen and china, a bud vase with a single white rose, and a pair of ivory candles. Soft music played on the stereo. I was just placing dinner on our plates when she emerged from the bathroom, wearing a white silk robe, her auburn hair piled on top of her head in a riot of curls. She looked relaxed and incredibly sexy. Please, I prayed silently. Please let this work.

We ate in comfortable silence. My culinary skills are limited to a few choice items, but the gods of cooking must have been smiling down upon me, because everything, from the grilled cod fillets to the caramelized pears, had come out absolutely perfect. When we finished, I slid the table into the corner of the room and, taking Kayla by the hand, led her to the bed. "Tonight is for us, my love," I whispered as I unknotted the silk bathrobe and slipped it off her shoulders. "There's no one and nothing but you and me."

It always amazed me exactly how gorgeous my wife was. Creamy skin faintly dusted with those adorable redhead freckles. Long, fiery auburn hair. And her eyes—those eyes had been my downfall the day I met Kayla. Like chips of palest turquoise, they made me think of the waters of the Caribbean Sea—so deep you could drown in them.

We sat down together on the edge of our bed. I leaned forward, cupped her lovely face in my hands and kissed her, just the barest touch of my lips to hers, the brush of butterfly wings. Our eyes drifted shut as I deepened the kiss, just a bit. We stay like that for the longest time, not moving, just letting our mouths explore each other's. Suddenly, I felt something warm and wet on my hand. I pulled back in shock. It was a tear. My beautiful, beloved Kayla was crying. "Oh, baby, what's wrong?" I asked, my heart sinking.

She opened those heart stopping eyes and gave me a watery smile. "Do you have any idea how much I love you?" she whispered, and I smiled.

"Not nearly as much as I love you," I answered.

* * *

I looked down at Kayla as she lay, gloriously naked, on our bed, only her eyes covered by a silken blindfold. Candlelight flickered over her pale body, bringing gleaming gold highlight out of her tousled hair. She was breathing as heavily as I, her breasts heaving with each breath. Love for this woman nearly brought me to my knees. This was my last chance to back out of it, and I seriously considered it. But the look on her face at this moment was one I hadn't seen in months. She looked relaxed, happy and highly aroused, and I knew that this was for me, not for the baby she so desperately wanted. "I'll be right back, my love," I whispered in her ear.

"Where are you going?" she asked, curious, but not alarmed.

"I have to get something for you." I ran a finger down her collarbone and over her breast. "You stay right there, and no peaking."

She captured my hand and pressed a kiss to my fingertips. "Of course not."

I stepped out into the hallway and breathed a deep sigh as I saw Daniel sitting on the bed in the guest room at the far end of the hall, dressed only in a pair of black silk boxers. I approached him quietly. "Are you ready?" I whispered.

He nodded. "Are you?" I nodded. "And you're absolutely sure you want to do this?"

"Absolutely."

"Do you want to be there, or are you going to stay here?"

That gave me pause. I hadn't really thought much about that. On the surface, the idea of watching my brother make love to anyone was a bit...creepy, but... "Yea. This is going to be my baby. I'd like to be there when it's conceived."

Daniel just nodded, as if he figured that would be my answer. I turned my back, and listened as he shed his shorts, and we walked silently back down the hall to the master bedroom. I walked to my wife's side. "I'm back," I whispered, and she reached out and grasped my hand.

"I missed you."

I smiled at that, and leaned over to kiss her, caressing her body as I did. "I'm going to make love to you now." She opened her mouth to speak, but I pressed my fingers against her lips. "No, shhhh. No speaking, darling. Just feel."

I stepped back and motioned Daniel forward. As he approached the bed, I stepped back into the doorway. I watched as he sat down on the side of the bed and leaned forward over my wife. I forcefully batted down the surge of jealousy the sight of another man with Kayla brought to my heart. This was important, necessary, I told myself. You can't do this for her.

Daniel lowered his mouth to Kayla's breasts, sucking gently. Kayla arched, moaning softly as he suckled first one, then the other nipple, bringing them to tight points. He drew his mouth down, from her breasts to her belly, nipping, licking and sucking gently. I wondered for a moment if he were going to continue down, giving her the most intimate kiss of all. But he stopped just under her navel, and began to kiss his way back up her torso. I realized with a touch of relief, that he couldn't bring himself to go lower. Perhaps that was just too much to ask a man who hadn't been with a woman in years, as far as I knew.

As I watched, Daniel gently drew my wife's legs apart and, stroking her thighs, carefully climbed on top of her. From my position by the door, I could clearly see as my brother caressed my wife, assuring himself that she was ready. He grasped his erection and, kissing Kayla on the shoulder, guided himself to her opening and pressed himself deep within her. I closed my eyes for a moment, feeling something unnamable as my wife was filled by another man for the first time since we'd said our vows. Heart pounding, I forced myself to watch. As I had told my brother, this was, hopefully, the conception of our first and, probably, only child.

As he began to thrust, Kayla reached blindly up and grasped Daniel by the sides of his head, drawing his face down for a passionate kiss. Once again, jealousy surged. She doesn't know it's not you! I berated myself. Calm down! After a moment, Daniel pulled his lips from Kayla's and buried his face in the crook of her neck. I could see sweat gleaming on his back as Kayla wrapped her arms around his shoulders, her legs around his hips, and began moving with him. Daniel's breathing deepened, as did Kayla's, and I knew the climax was coming. I head my breath as first Daniel, and a moment later Kayla stiffened.

"Oh, Ty," I heard Kayla breath.

"Shhhh," Daniel hushed her, pressing his fingertips against her lips. He brushed a quick, gentle kiss against her lips as he rolled away from her and stood up. As he walked past me, he gave me a small, serious smile, and clapped me on the shoulder. I mouthed "thank you" to him, and as he disappeared silently into the bedroom at the end of the hall, I walked to our bathroom and snagged the bottle of champagne out of it's bath of half melted ice. I set it on the floor beside the bed and sat beside my totally relaxed and well loved wife. As I slipped the blindfold from her eyes, she smiled up at me, and I smiled back.

God, I love this woman.

* * *

She's asleep now. I look down at her, lying so peacefully in the raised hospital bed. There are dark smudges under her eyes, and her hair is pulled back in a sloppy ponytail. I've never seen her look more beautiful.

A tiny squeak comes from the bundle in my arms. I carefully spread the edges of the blue receiving blanket and gaze down into the face of my three hour old son, and I know without a doubt that it was worth it.

The door to the hospital room opens, and my brother pokes his head inside. I motion him in. "So, bro, how does it feel to be a father?"

"Pretty damn great. How does it feel to be a Godfather?"

Daniel's mouth drops open. "Are you serious?"

"It was Kayla's idea, but I wholeheartedly approve." The baby opens his eyes and gazes hazily up at me, and I feel myself grin like a fool. "Here, you can hold him." I transfer the baby to my brother's shocked arms.

"So, what did you name him?"

I grin. "Also Kayla's idea. Brother, meet Tyler Daniel."

Once again, Daniel looks shocked. "I...don't know what to say, Ty. I'm honored. Thank you."

"No," I say seriously. "Thank you."