~ Miracles ~

~ By Vicky ~

~ Chapter 1 ~

Ok so here's what you need to know for this story.  Jason and Courtney have reunited.  I don't know how, I don't care how, hell if you want you can pretend they never went through that contrived crap of a separation.  The important thing to know is that they are happily married and in love. :-)

PH4

Courtney came down the stairs to find her husband standing over the desk drinking a cup of coffee.  At the sound of her footsteps, he turned and greeted her, "Hey sleepyhead."

"Ha ha," she said, as she made her way over to him.  She snaked her arms around his waist and tilted her head up waiting for her morning kiss. 

As if on cue, he bent his head down and captured her lips for a sweet but very sensual kiss.  "You usually don't sleep this late."

"Yeah, well someone kept me up all night," she said smiling and pinching his sides.  He groaned and a proud smile formed on his face as he remembered last night.  His lips went to her neck in an attempt to reenact the night before. It still amazed him how sexy she could be in just a tank and pajama bottoms.  "Babe, you have to go to work and I need coffee," she said, pulling out of his arms. 

He pulled her back and held his coffee cup in front of her. "This is the last cup, I'll pick up some more on the way home." She eyed him suspiciously.  "Here take it, I made it for you anyway."

She took the cup, still watching him. She cautiously sipped the fluid and let out a "BLAH! ACK! YUCK!" making all sorts of contorted faces.  Jason nearly doubled over laughing.  She shoved him and yelled, "Ugh! You suck!" before heading into the kitchen where she found a full pot of coffee waiting for her.  Jason was still laughing.  God, he loved making her do that. 

"You know Jason, it wouldn't kill you to try putting sugar in your coffee once," she called from the kitchen.

He was still laughing.  "No thanks, I like my coffee just fine." 

"It's disgusting!" she came back into the living room with a big mug and plopped down on the couch.  "Ahhh now that's good stuff," she moaned sipping her coffee.

Jason shook his head.  "So what are you up to today?"

"I'm going to give Carly a break and take the boys to the park.  Probably bring Rosie along."

"Sounds like fun.  Wish I could go."

"Me too," she smiled at him.

"Hey maybe next weekend, we can take them to the zoo?"

"They'd love it.  Morgan gets a kick out of the monkeys," she laughed remembering how he jumped up and down the last time he saw them.

"Great, I gotta go, I'll see you later," he said, kissing the top of her head. 

Courtney found a nice spot to let the boys run around with Rosie.  Morgan had begun to walk and it was so funny watching him run after Rosie and his brother.  The three of them were playing Frisbee, well the two of them really.  Morgan was just running after Rosie and laughing. That kid laughed at everything.  At one point, Michael jumped up to catch the Frisbee and landed on his bottom. Well, Morgan just thought that was the funniest thing.  He laughed so hard he collapsed into the grass, flailing his arms and legs around as he laughed.  That sent Michael into a fit of laughter, and soon he too was rolling in the grass.  Courtney laughed too.  These boys never failed to crack her up. 

Courtney was sitting in the grass, resting and watching the boys chase down Rosie.  Morgan was hot on her tail and Michael was running away from her so that she would chase him.  Michael pulled one of his soccer moves and made a quick turn in the opposite direction.  Rosie followed suit and ran right into Morgan!  He fell hard and Courtney's heart stopped.  She jumped up and watched for Morgan's reaction.  At first he looked shocked and looked right at Courtney, but then he just burst out laughing.  Courtney sighed now that she could breathe again and smiled. That kid was too much. She loved him though, just as if he were her own.  Her own. She shook her head and decided it was time to pack up.  One scare for the day was enough. 

"Michael distract your brother while I wipe his face," Courtney told him.  For such a happy go lucky kid, he really hated getting his face wiped. 

"Hey Morgan look!" Michael had Morgan's favorite teddy bear and was pretending the bear was eating his face.  "Ahhhh, help me! Mr. Bear is attacking me!"  Morgan went hysterical with laughter, but his laughs turned into screams as soon as the wet napkin hit his face.  He tossed and turned in his stroller, trying to avoid the napkin at all costs. 

"Aww, come on Morgan, almost done…why did I convince you to let me get him chocolate?" she asked Michael.

"Because it's Morgan's favorite!" he told her as if she should know the answer already.

"Yeah but it leaves evidence! You're Dad is gonna kill me…See all done!" she smiled at Morgan who was giving her an evil stare.

"Why? It's just ice cream!"

"You're Dad specifically said no ice cream, because you already had it yesterday and would be having it tomorrow at Lulu's birthday party, but I let you guys sucker me into it anyway."  Michael shrugged, he didn't care, he got his ice cream.

"I want to push the button!" Michael yelled, running into the elevator.

"Ok, hold the door for us," she told him, pushing Morgan's stroller.  They rode the elevator up to the penthouse floor.  "Remember, no mentioning the ice cream to your father!"

"We know Aunt Courtney!"  Michael said, rolling his eyes. That was the third time she told him that. 

"Just reminding you!" she said ruffling his hair. 

The doors opened and they made their way to PH4. 

"Hey Johnny!"  Michael yelled and slapped him five as Johnny opened the door for them.

"Sugar Rush?" Johnny asked as Courtney walked past him.

"Shut up Johnny!"

Johnny laughed.  Courtney only talked to him like that when she had done something Sonny or Jason asked her not to. 

"Hey guys!" Sonny said coming down the stairs.  "Did you have fun?"

"A blast!" Michael said running past him and up to his room.

"What got into him?" Sonny asked.

"I have no idea! Fresh air I guess." Courtney shrugged.

"And how are you buddy?" Sonny kneeled down to the stroller and unbuckled him.

Morgan smiled and yelled, "I Creem! I Creem!" Courtney groaned. 

"Oh? Did you have ice cream buddy?" Sonny asked his son. Morgan nodded and rubbed his tummy.

Courtney looked down at him, "That was for the napkin wasn't it?" Morgan just laughed.

"Courtney…"

"Look Sonny, they suckered me into it.  You should have seen their faces! You wouldn't even have been able to resist, never mind me who can never resist them.  Besides is ice cream three days in a row really gonna hurt anybody?"

Sonny sighed, "I suppose not.  Thank you for taking them today."

"Anytime," she kissed Morgan on the cheek.  "Bye you little tattle tale!"  Morgan waved bye as she left. 

Courtney paced around the living room, waiting for Jason to come home.  She had been thinking about this all afternoon and early evening and really wanted to talk to him about it.  Just then the door opened and he walked in.  "Hi!"

"Hey, how was your day with the boys?" he asked, dropping his keys on the desk and kissing her cheek.

"Great, lots of fun, I want to talk to you," she told him, pulling him over to the couch.

"Whoa, whoa, ok hold on."  He sat next to her.  "What's up?"

"Well, I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and spending the day with the boys only made me think about it more."

"What is it?"

"I want to have a baby!" she smiled.

~ Miracles ~

~ By Vicky ~

~ Chapter 2 ~

~ PH 2~

"I want to have a baby!" she smiled!

Jason's eyes went wide in surprise.  He wasn't expecting that.  She'd hadn't brought up the baby issue in awhile. "Courtney…"

"Jason, I've given this a lot of thought and I really want to try.  Ever since I was little, I dreamed of being a mom. I only had my dolls to keep me company anyway," she laughed. "I vowed that I was going to be a better mother than my own, and I want a chance to make that happen."

He smiled at her and caressed the side of her face. "Are you sure about this?" 

"Yes, I love being Michael and Morgan's aunt, but I want to be a mother more than anything.  I need to.  I have this need inside me to love and care for a baby, our baby.  I realize this isn't going to be easy, but I am committed to it…that is if you are?"

"Courtney, there is nothing more in the world I want than to have a baby with you, but you're the one that has to go through this, you have the hard part.  If this is what you want though, you know I am with you all the way," he smiled. 

She returned his smile and moved into his lap, where she pulled him in for a kiss.  "I love you so much."

"I love you too." He wrapped his arms around her and held her close.  He was thrilled with the idea of being a father, but there was this doubt in the back of his mind that this would be harder than either of them expected.

The next morning, Jason awoke to an empty bed. The smell of fresh coffee and bacon had made its way up to the bedroom though.  He went down to the kitchen and found his wife preparing breakfast.  Pancakes, eggs, bacon, home fries.

"Mmmm, what's all this?"

"Hey, good morning!" She went over to him for a kiss.  "Well I wanted to make breakfast for my husband who was so understanding last night.  Thank you so much Jason, you have no idea how much this means to me," she said as she handed him a cup of coffee. 

"It means a lot to me too," he said before taking a sip of the coffee.  "BLAH! ACK! YUCK! What the…"

"Ha! Ha!" She yelled as she ran past him.

"Oh no you don't!"  He chased after her, finally catching her by the couch.  He tackled her onto the couch and held her arms above her head.

Courtney laughed out loud.  "Get off, you're squishing me!"

"First tell me how many sugars were in that crap!" he demanded.

Courtney giggled, "Four."

"It's disgusting!"

"Nuh uh!"

"Uh huh!" he whispered as leaned down to kiss her.  Courtney moaned into the kiss, and then yelped when he nibbled on her lip. "You know there is no worse crime than using a man's own practical joke against him."

"Oh yeah?  What's my punishment?" 

"You'll see!" he said as he lifted her up and threw her over his shoulder. 

He took the stairs two at a time as she yelled, "What about breakfast?"

"Later!"

"That's probably for the best. No more pancakes for you.  You're heavy!" she laughed.

"Oh you are in so much trouble," he said, running up the rest of the stairs. 

An hour later, Courtney laid blissfully in her husband's arms.  She could feel Jason's breathing getting shallow and knew he was about to fall back to sleep. "Jason, you can't go back to sleep."

Jason groaned, "Yes I can," as he snuggled closer to her.

"No baby you really can't!" she told him, pushing on his chest.

He opened one eye and looked at her, "Why not?"

"Because before you got up, I called Dr. Meadows and she said she could squeeze us in today.  You know go over our options, and stuff."

"When?"

"An hour and a half," she smiled.

He could see how excited she was about this. "Ok, you shower first, and I sleep for 10 more minutes."

"Ok!" she said as she kissed his lips and jumped out of bed. 

Two hours later, they sat in Dr. Meadows office, after Courtney had been examined.  She said it didn't hurt, but Jason thought it sure looked like it hurt.  He definitely wouldn't want to go through it.

Dr. Meadows came in with Courtney's chart and sat behind her desk.  Jason took Courtney's hand and gave it a squeeze.  She looked up at him and smiled. 

"Ok, there is good news and bad news.  What do you want first?" Dr. Meadows asked.

Jason did not like the sound of this already.  "Give us the bad news first, so the good news will cheer us up," Courtney told her.

"Well the bad news is I was wrong when I originally told you that surgery would help your chances of conceiving.  After going over your records and further examination, we've concluded that the damage caused by the D&C was just too extensive to be repaired with surgery."

"Excuse me, we've?" Jason asked.

"I consulted with my colleagues on your wife's case.  I wanted a second and third opinion before I talked to you."

Courtney felt as if her world was crashing down around her.  "Are you saying that there is no chance of me conceiving a child?"

"No, getting to the good news.  It isn't impossible for you conceive, but it's not going to be easy.  The odds are not in your favor."

'I thought this was supposed to be good news' Jason thought. "What are our odds?"

"You have a 25% chance of conceiving…and a 10% chance of carrying to term."

Courtney's heart sunk.  This wasn't the type of good news she was hoping for.  Jason saw the disheartened look on her face and gave her hand another squeeze.  "Hey, let's just hear what else she has to say ok?" he told her.  She gave him a small smile and nodded.

"The D&C caused damage to one of your ovaries and excessive scar tissue that has blocked your left fallopian tube. Now, if you do conceive there are risks to both you and the baby."

Jason shifted in his chair.  He did not like where this conversation was going. 

"Our biggest concern is ectopic pregnancy, which is a high risk with your blocked fallopian tube. This is when an embryo attaches itself somewhere other than the uterus, the most likely place being a fallopian tube.  If this occurs the embryo must be removed before it ruptures and causes life-threatening hemorrhaging."  Dr. Meadows stopped and took a breath, letting this information sink in for the couple.  "Our second concern is placental abruption.  This is also caused by the scar tissue and is when the placenta prematurely separates from the uterine wall. This will also cause hemorrhaging. Now if the abruption is apparent then the mother will bleed externally and we can deal with it."

Courtney scoffed. 'Deal with it.' This was a baby, not some problem to be dealt with. 

 "If it is concealed there is a chance the mother could be bleeding internally, behind the placenta.  In that case there is a chance we don't catch it and the bleeding could be fatal."

Jason pinched the bridge of his nose.  This was like the third time she mentioned Courtney dying from this and it was making him very uncomfortable.  "So what are you saying here?" Courtney placed her hand on Jason's knee in an effort to calm him down. 

"Mr. Morgan, I just want you both to be aware of all the risks and options before you make a decision."  Dr. Meadows told him.

"We know and we appreciate it," Courtney said with a somewhat forced smile.  "So what are our options?"

"Well the way I see it you have three options if you want to move ahead with having a baby.  The first is fertility drugs.  I'd administer a drug that will increase your production of fertile eggs to help make up for the one ovary that isn't working.  The second option is in-vitro fertilization.  The process I would recommend is ZIFT, which is a fertilized egg transfer.  Unfortunately, the fallopian tubes are needed for this procedure so it does not rule out the chances of ectopic pregnancy.  The last option and safest one for you and your baby would be surrogacy, where we would take one of your fertilized eggs and implant it another woman's body who would carry the baby to term for you.  Now I know I just gave you a lot of information for one day.  I suggest you go home, think about it, discuss it, weigh all your options including adoption. Then if you decide you want to move ahead with any of the procedures we discussed, call for an appointment, where I will give you more details and plan your course of action.  Ok?"

"Ok, thanks Dr. Meadows," Courtney said. 

"Thank you," Jason added out of politeness, truth was he wasn't thankful for anything she had just told them.