Tea Parties in Boston

55 - Gliding and Stumbling

March 2nd, 2020, Chelsea, London

"I don't know...," Logan sighed, running his hand through his hair as he paced back and forth in the waiting room they'd excused themselves in to talk.

"This could be my only chance," Odette replied without much emotion. The appointment had been a last minute one, arranged by her oncologist minutes after finalizing her initial treatment plan. Money made a lot of things happen quickly if needed.

"It's just not the way I envisioned this happening," Logan replied, having not quite wrapped his mind around the fact what Odette's diagnosis could entail. At this point this was just about treatment - like curing the flu or having knee surgery. It hadn't hit him that this could be fatal - not really.

"Yeah, no kidding. Neither had I," Odette snorted, pouting a little.

"But this doesn't mean it needs to happen now, right? I mean actually having the baby? I just think it'd be better when you'd be all better...," Logan said. Maybe this was just about having cold feet or not liking the prospect of possibly doing this largely alone. This whole idea had been sprung on him - not intentionally, but he just hadn't been around, having pretty much come straight from the airport to Odette's doctor's appointment where suddenly a suspicison had become an agressive treatment plan. But Odette had been aware of her situation, or the potential of it - and taken already some precautions both taking suppliments for months and recently arranged to get shots to increase her egg procution, having a gut feeling. She'd planned this, but just hadn't gotten around to telling Logan since he'd been abroad.

"Of course not. Right now... because I'm ovulating as it is, they can just take my eggs, fertilize them with your sperm and freeze the embryos. They can stay like that for years if need be. I could just freeze my eggs, if you're not up for it, but then we'd actually have a ticking clock of about a year, if I remember correctly, to use them. We're buying time, we're taking precautions... It's for the sake of the baby, their health," Odette explained.

It was known that possible cancer treatment could damage her ability to conceive - that of course if by the end of this she'd have any ovaries left at all. Right now it was just talk of possibly removing the one. Logan, however, felt blindsided by all of this, having missed the actual moment Odette and everything her mind had already gone through in anticipation of her final diagnosis.

"Okay, I'll jerk into a cup," Logan shrugged bluntly, unable to not show his reluctance towards the act. He was not upset because of the idea itself, but it was that Odette was taking a rather negative view of this in his mind - which he'd hoped to avoid. This seemed such a dooms-day thing to do.

But for her sake - he was willing to humor the plan. So they'd have some embryos in a freezer. Maybe they'd never need to use them, maybe she'd be fine and the future he'd begun to envision months ago could continue without major disruptions. She was getting the best health care money could buy, surely - this was something money could take care of.

"I can just use a donor if you hate the idea..," Odette offered.

"No, I'll do it. I said I'll do it," Logan said, frustratedly, and took the cup the nurse had placed on the counter for him along with a room number, and walked away.

December 10th, 2022, Boston

Gigi was in town for the weekend, hence it wasn't just Rory and Logan taking their daughter out that day, hoping to enjoy the city in Christmas decor, Em having made her request to hang out with her favorite, and only, youthful aunt as well.

They'd walked through a holiday market and drank some mulled non-alcoholic wine, Gigi interrogating Logan just a little along with it, and just let the Christmas spirit infuse them. Neither Rory or Logan had felt this much like Christmas in years - it was a damn good feeling. There was just something about sharing the season in this kind of bliss - even with the guilt Logan carried around.