For the baby

Chapter 1 - prologue

She looked down at him. Her little baby, 6 months old and in the ICU, tubes in his mouth and arms. He had done so well up until her milk ran dry and she could no longer feed him. Immediately, his weight and health declined. She looked down at her breasts, the life force of her little man. She felt her husband's arm wrap tenderly around her shoulder and pulled her in. She loved him so much.
"Miss?" The doctor asked, glancing up from his clipboard.
"Uh...yes. Could you repeat it again?" She asked, trembling with fear.
"Of course. Your son has Chaustian Syndrome. A rare condition in which he can only gain nutrients from his mother's milk. Your milk."
"But...my milk supply is...is gone." She looked down longingly at her deflated breasts, "They stopped producing. I've tried everything to get them going again." She had tried everything. Supplements, hormone injections, naturopathic, she even went to see a shaman.
"That's why I'm here. There's one more thing you haven't tried." Said the doctor. "An experimental drug that can jumpstart a woman's hormones and trick the body into thinking it's pregnant and ultimately causing her milk supply to restart."
"That's...that's wonderful." she exclaimed, her mood quickly changing.
"But, there's a side effect. And it won't be easy." Said the doctor. "The drug will cause pregnancy weight gain. To an amount that...well..we just don't have firm data. It could be a traditional 20 pounds,"
She chuckled to herself. She'd gained far more than 20 pounds. Closer to 50. And besides it's for her son.
"or...it could be a lot more. We can't be certain."
"Whatever it takes..." She said putting her hand on her son's little head. She wanted so desperately to pull him into her and feed, nourish and love him.
Her husband put his hand on top of hers and looked lovingly into her eyes. "...for the baby."
The doctor handed her a small pill bottle and said, "This won't be easy and you'll need to be dedicated completely to the program. We'll start the first phase immediately.