Dad Gets Knocked Up Ch 01

(Note: This first chapter does not have any explicit sex, but things will escalate in future chapters.)

Eric Smith had never been a macho "alpha" type. He was soft, quiet, and thoughtful. At 5'8" with a slim (some might say petite) figure, Eric rarely caught the attention of many girls growing up. In university, sheer coincidence led him to meet Melissa, his exact opposite: loud, tough, driven, and almost 2" taller than him. With a chorus of friends saying "opposites attract", Eric and Melissa began dating (her taking the lead). After graduation, Eric worked customer service while Melissa went to law school and started out at a big firm. They got married and had one son: Joshua. It made sense financially and given their natural demeanors for Eric to quit his job to provide daycare, since Melissa spent 80-100 hours a week working her way up the ladder. Truthfully, Melissa had not even really wanted any children but she saw how much Eric wanted them and agreed.

For a long time, their intimate needs had worked out. Eric did not have much of a sex drive and Melissa worked too hard to really recognize her needs. As the demands at work grew, she did start to enjoy taking out some frustration and exploring a more dominant side. Part of this led her to fantasize about her really taking charge and, with much cajoling, she got Eric to agree to at least try being pegged. Soon he spent more time getting fucked than Melissa did. But other than this behind-closed-doors dynamic, they gradually settled into an upper-middle-class lifestyle with a bit of gender role reversal that was commented upon favorably in their liberal neighborhood. Eric kept the house nice, attended all of Josh's piano recitals and, when he got older, swim meets. Melissa worked her ass of, made partner at the law firm, and then things started to fall apart.

With new income and different responsibilities, and perhaps a touch of maturity gained through the years, Melissa found herself wanting to release having control in the bedroom and fantasied more and more about being taken/used. Eric blushed and shied away at even the mention and she knew he would not be up for it. Gradually, but steadily, their sex frequency diminished and Melissa found herself wondering about getting her needs met elsewhere. By the time Josh was 16, Melissa had found her needs met in the form of a brash, cocky, and well hung opposing counsel who fucked her so hard she had to stop by the fitness center gym to shower off before coming home.

Eric was not surprised when she filed for divorce, but he still cried for nearly a week. Melissa relinquished custody of Josh (who truthfully had been raised nearly entirely by his father and felt little at Melissa's leaving), but she agreed to a generous alimony/child support arrangement. Eric knew it was for the best and he and Melissa were able to make the divorce amicable with minimal bitterness. Eric was still a man she loved, but that chapter was just over for her.

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For the next two years, Eric focused entirely on Josh. Josh had some of his father's soft features and but his mother's tenacity and intelligence. By the time he turned 18, there seemed like nearly nothing Josh could not do/get if he tried hard enough. Throughout it all, Josh never seemed to mind having Eric around, even when other kids were busy pushing away their parents. Josh was recruited by multiple universities for their swimming teams, but had accepted an offer from a college just an hour away, saying he could not imagine being further from home.

With Josh graduating high school soon and moving off to college, Eric wondered if it was time he should try to meet someone new. Eric had a lot of free time on his hands, a big house that was soon to be empty, and no promising job prospects since he had not been working for the past 18 years.

Since the divorce, Eric's friends had suggested going back out to meet people, but he always had the excuse of Josh and the friends he made with the other parents. Plus he was self-conscious of how he would be perceived. Landing Melissa had been a fluke. His time as a single dad/house-husband had not exactly helped improve his confidence in being a ladies man (was that what they still called it).

After a few glasses of wine one night, he started searching online for ways to boost his masculinity. Be more of the virile, strong man that women lusted for over movies. Testosterone supplementation seemed all the rage and so Eric thought he would ask his doctor about whether it would help him "man up".

Dr. Carris had been the family GP for over a decade and explained to Eric that those gels/creams/supplements would likely have more unwanted side effects than benefits, and that Eric was perfectly healthy/normal. Still, Eric insisted his delicate features and gentleness were shaking his confidence and he felt like "less than a man" and so Dr. Carris gave him the name of clinic he knew that may be able to help. If nothing else, Dr. Carris hoped they would reinforce the message that Eric's insecurity was not grounded in anything physical.

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When Eric got to the clinic for his appointment a month later, he was surprised to see a large, sleek, bustling university laboratory building and not another dingy medical office. The intake receptionist explained that more than a treatment facility, this clinic was a research laboratory with physicians, geneticists, biologists, graduate students, and nearly 20 ongoing experimental projects. Some of the more exciting projects, she explained, were improved drug regimens for transgender individuals, treatments for "extremely late bloomers", and stem cell therapy to regenerate reproductive capabilities for women who had cervical cancer surgeries. Eric was shown in to see Dr. Tate, second in charge of the clinic and head of patient care.

Dr. Tate greeted Eric with a firm handshake and a smile, and invited him to sit down and explain what brought him in. Seemingly all at once, the dam burst and Eric let out all he had felt the past few years: that he was hardly a man with his delicate mannerisms, nearly hairless body, and cock that reached only 4.5" on a good day. As the tears poured out, Eric pointed at them and said: "these are not the tears of a man who women are eager to date".

Dr. Tate waited patiently and with kind eyes and, when Eric stopped, told him his thoughts.

"Eric, I see you're in a lot of distress and I want to assure you there is nothing medically 'wrong' with you to 'fix'. It's true that culturally we have ideals about masculinity, but not meeting those ideals is not a clinical condition. However, there is one thing to consider"

"What is it doctor?"

"As you may know, one of our research aims is to enhance the options for transgender individuals. We've had remarkable success in using stem cells for growing wombs/ovaries in lab animals and are eager to try it in women who have had surgical procedures affecting their fertility. But for trans women, just growing the parts is not the final step. We want to align the external features as well. So that lab has developed feminizing/masculinizing add-on treatments that focus on the subtler aspects such as voice, bone structure, etc. Before we try it out on a transgender individual, however, it would be useful to test its effects with someone who... has all the parts already, let's say."

Eric looked uncertain, "so I would be the first human to get this treatment? Isn't that risky?"

Dr. Tate nodded, "so far it has excellent safety results in lab rats, but yes, there are lots of potential unknowns with humans so you'll want to think about, meet with Dr. Andrews who leads the study, talk with our counseling staff for informed consent, and consult with your family before deciding".

Eric left with the card for Dr. Andrews and many thoughts running through his head.

As he left, a very distracted young man in a hurry nearly walked right into him. Unbeknownst to Eric, that undergraduate research assistant had just been in the stem cell lab, rushing a new batch to subzero storage while running late to an exam, and accidentally put the new vial on the wrong shelf while distracted thinking of the RNA structure of the different viruses he was about to be tested upon.

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Eric gave the experiment some thought and went back to the clinic for a follow-up the next week. First he met with Dr. Andrews, who seemed directly descended from the Greek Adonis. At 6'2", Dr. Andrews seemed to tower over Eric, and his biceps and toned pecs were visible through his short sleeve scrubs. He had the tan of a man who just spent time on the beach and brown hair in a naturally messy style that was only seen in models. After hearing Dr. Andrews' deep voice, Eric felt like this was some sort of cosmic joke given why he was there.

Putting these thoughts aside, Eric listened as the doctor explained his research projects. Dr. Andrews droned on quite a bit about the stem cell treatment (re)growing female reproductive organs and, had Eric any scientific bent he probably would have appreciated the importance of this achievement, but he mostly just tried to stay awake. Finally, Dr. Andrews talked about the relevant project: the feminization/masculinization one Eric was there for.

"In essence, whatever level of male physicality the rats start at, it 'levels them up' to some more intense degree of physiological expression" Dr. Andrews explained.

Eric was sold, even after Dr. Andrews explained the unknowns and uncertainties. He met with a counselor next, to further ensure Eric knew what he was getting into, that it could potentially not yield any results, and that it was important his family knew. At this point, Eric had told Josh nothing so far but knew the time had come.

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That night, Eric knocked on Josh's door. Josh was in bed watching something on his iPad and Eric sat across from him on the desk chair. Josh was mildly alarmed because the last time his dad had done that at night, with a heavy expression on his face, it was when he told him that his mom was leaving. Not a sign of good news to come.

"Dad, is everything okay?"

"Yes... well, no... I mean yes everything is fine. Sort of. But things could be better... for me! You're great"

"Uh... what?"

"Sorry, I had everything prepared for this conversation and I forgot it all. But I guess I'll rip off the band-aid."

With that, Eric gave Josh a high level overview of how he was considering an experimental medical procedure that would make him feel more confident as a man, there were uncertain risks, but he felt it was important for him. Josh listened silently, trying to process all the information. When his dad had finished, Josh took a deep breath before speaking.

"Dad, I have never thought of you as anything but a man and it's really dumb to think people still care about 'manliness', but I also know you have been unhappy for a while now, and I want you to be as happy as you've made me feel. So if this pill thing is possibly going to do that, I support you 100%."

As tears rolled down Eric's face he moved over to give his son a big hug, pretending not to notice the gangbang porn that was paused on the iPad as he accidentally flipped it over.

Three weeks later Josh started his summer break and he and Eric drove to the clinic.

Dr. Andrews pulled the vial from the cold storage, drew an appropriate dosage, and into Eric's body the flush of stem cells went. After waiting a few hours at the clinic to make sure there were no serious, severe side effects, Eric and Josh went back home and celebrated with takeaway pizza and too much ice cream. As they lay on the couch watching movies late into the night, Josh slowly fell asleep. First he slept on Eric's shoulder before resting his head on his lap. Eric could have sworn he felt a weird pressure in his stomach, but looked at the empty ice cream bowl and shrugged at his poor choice to finish it off. Little did he know that his body was reacting to something much more potent and life altering.