Chapter Twenty-Four

~James~

In the end it took nearly half an hour for the doctor to knock on the door, which was twenty-five minutes too long, in my opinion.

She was a tall, heavy woman who had the particular body type that spoke of her having quite a bit of muscle but also liking pizza. Not exactly what I’d expect a doctor to look like, but she was clean and spoke professionally, and that was what mattered.

“Hello Miss Arden, nice to meet you. I’m Doctor Matterbjorn. I hear that you’re a bit behind on your prenatal visits?”

“That would be fairly accurate.” Nicole responded sheepishly, her expression one of slight regret.

“Any particular reason? Fear of doctors? Too busy?”

‘Financial, mostly. I just recently got insurance.”

“Ah, I see. Well we’ve got a full docket then today. I’ll take some of your vitals, we’ll record your wait, and when did you eat last?”

“Yesterday around ten pm. I figured you might need some stuff and having food would throw that off.”

“Then you were correct. We’ll do a little bit of an ultrasound to make sure that the little one is growing right, maybe hear a heartbeat. After that, I’m gonna have you pee in a cup for me, then when we’re finally all done here, I’ll send you next door to the lab for some blood tests.”

“Yeah, that pretty much what I thought would happen. Why don’t we get started?”

“My thoughts exactly. Now, if you could roll up your sleeve, I’ll take your blood pressure and listen to Mama’s heart first.”

I got out of the chair and moved to stand against the far wall so the doctor could have some room. She was both efficient and professional as she took all the readings she needed, and in less than five minutes she was walking Nicole out to check her weight.

I decided to stay in the room for that. Although Nicole was showing that she appreciated my presence, I wasn’t exactly sure she wanted me to be privy of her weight. People could be weird about that sometimes. And the last thing I needed was for things to be weirder between us. While we got along most of the time, there were always those moments where we realized what a bizarre situation we were in and things got awkward. I wanted to avoid those as much as possible.

Fortunately, it didn’t take them long to come back, and soon she was back on the table while the doctor pulled over the large machine next to me. Nicole lifted her shirt, revealing her belly for the first time since we had slept together. Her gold tinted skin was smooth, despite how far it was being stretched.

I was half expecting the deep lightning bolts of damage that usually happened whenever skin was stretched too far, but she seemed not to have any so far. Granted, she had a whole lot more growing to do considering there were still six months ago.

The doctor put on some gloves and grabbed a tube that was in one of the shelves. With a sort of matter of factness that could only come from dealing with people’s vaginas all day, she squirted a large dollop of jelly like liquid into her hand before smearing it all around Nicole’s middle.

“Ultrasound fluid,” she said, seeing my curious look. “It helps the wand glide better and gets us a better picture.”

“Ah, I see.”

“You should come sit back in that chair again,” she said with a smile. “You’re not going to want to miss this.”

“Oh, alright.”

I squeezed past her and the machine, settling down in the chair. There was a whole lot of beeping and booping and whirring, until finally the machine was up and running and the doctor was pressing the ‘wand’ against Nicole’s stomach.

I was concerned a bit at how hard she was pushing, causing Nicole’s stomach to bend inwards a little, but neither of the woman seemed to notice, chatting away about symptoms and what to expect in the future and what kind of shoes were the most comfortable if she was going to keep working.

Nothing happened for what seemed like an eternity to me, just a staticky sort of noise emitting from what I guessed was the ultrasound machine. But then, just when I was wondering if this was all an overhyped thing that I would never understand, a strange sort of noise came from the speaker.

“There we are,” the doctor said. “I almost have it.”

She moved the wand around a bit more and then it was coming in loud and clear. The sound was hard to describe. It was fast, so fast, and loud. There was a strangely mechanical sort of quality to it, but I was guessing that was from the machine. But the longer it went on, the more I recognized it as something human.

“Is that…?” I asked, hardly daring to form the words.

“Yes indeed, that is your baby’s heartrate there. Strong and perfect for its current developmental level.”

I listened, and with every single thump, a strange emotion overcame me that I had zero words for. It was like the entire world fell away and there was only the life in front of me. All of the potential for this new and beautiful life stretched out before me, and I could see pretty much everything. The day they first learned to walk, their first big fall, their first holiday, their first day of school, their first love and their first heartbreak.

I saw love and happiness, tears and hurt, and most of all I saw everything that I had ever wanted in my life all coalesced into one being. It took my breath away while also making my heart swell to near painful levels.

“If both of you look at the screen, you can see it too. Here’s its little head, and that movement you see is your heart.”

I whipped my head towards the screen, watching as the white and black made a sketchy sort of image. Right then and there, I saw the first glimpse of my little baby.

“Oh… oh my goodness,” Nicole murmured, and I could hear the tears in her eyes. “That’s... that’s our baby.”

“That’s our baby,” I agreed. I wasn’t really much of a crier, but if I was, I would have right then and there. Although I obviously had known that a child was growing inside of her, it had been an abstract idea, one that was hung in limbo half a year in the future.

But now… now it was wholly rooted in reality. We were bringing a child into this world. Something vulnerable, perfect and wonderful.

“Can you tell what sex it is?”

“Unfortunately no, the position it’s in is not giving a clear view of its genitals, and it’s still a bit early. But we can check again at your next appointment.”

“That’s alright. I don’t mind. As long as its happy and healthy, then so am I. Right James?”

I nodded, unable to speak. I was still dealing with my entire world changing irreparably and I wasn’t quite prepared for human speech yet.

The doctor finished up and started shutting down the machine. She wiped a good amount of the goop off Nicole’s stomach before handing her a damp hand towel and an empty little container.

“Here you are if you want to clean yourself up a little more. And once you’re ready, bathroom is down the hall and to the right. I’ll need you to fill that up, put it in the little cabinet in there and you’ll be good to go next door for your blood test.”

“Thanks,” was all Nicole could say and I didn’t blame her one bit. Naturally this was just a run of the mill moment for the good doctor, but it was so much more to us. “See you in a month.”

“I better!”

And then the doctor was gone, leaving Nicole and us completely alone.

We just looked at each other for a long moment, eyes full of words that we couldn’t articulate. Something profound had just happened to us, and between us, and I was pretty sure we were both realizing there was no going back.

“Did that really just happen?” Nicole asked, laughing nervously.

“I think it did, but I’m still not entirely sure.”

We both laughed at that, and I stood, walking over to her. “Do you need any help cleaning up?”

“Nah, I got it,” she said, moving her hands as if she had completely forgotten than she had been given a towel and quickly wiping her belly. “I gotta keep some semblance of independency, don’t I?”

“I suppose.”

She finished up, but still her hand out for me to help her up. I did, and she slid to the ground. Grabbing the cup, she gave me a shaky sort of smile. “Well, I’m going to conclude this magical moment by going to pee in this little container. Sound good?”

“Sounds good.”

With that, she waddled off, leaving me alone with my thoughts. And what thoughts they were. My entire mind was scrubbed from all of the doubts I had been harboring. I knew, without a doubt, I needed this child in my life.

And that was all that mattered.

***

It didn’t take that long for her to finish up, but then we were heading next door and that did indeed take a considerable amount of time. When we finally did finish, it was well past lunch and I was fairly starving.

“So, where do you wanna go?” I asked as we both got into the car.

“For what?” She asked, looking to me with confusion. I could tell after all the being poked, prodded and siphoned from that she was quite tired.

“For food. I’m guessing you’re hungry?”

She seemed to think for a moment before sinking into the passenger’s seat. “Actually, as nice as that sounds, I’m actually really nauseous right now, so I’d like to go home and lay down for a short bit.”

I couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed, but I understood. After what I had seen today, she could tell me that she wanted to never have her feet touch the Earth again and I would hire someone to carry her around twenty-four seven.

“No problem. Let’s get you home, shall we?”

“Thank you,” she said, heaving a sigh of relief. “Maybe after I lay down, we can get something for dinner?”

“Sure, I’ll look around for where I want to eat and answer some emails.”

“Great,” she said, her eyes fluttering closed. I could tell from her breathing that she wasn’t entirely asleep, but that she was quickly getting there. Putting on some quiet music, I plugged her address into the GPS and drove along, my mind trying to catch up to everything that had happened.

And a lot had certainly happened, hadn’t it? Somehow, it seemed like I was in an entirely different reality than I had been this morning, and not in a bad way. It wasn’t until we were driving down the highway and I passed a billboard for a lawyer that I even remembered we were also supposed to handle divorce stuff today.

Oh well, that could wait. I certainly didn’t want to drag a nauseous Nicole into Trevor’s office just for her to vomit everywhere. No, we would go to her place and she could rest while I picked out where I wanted us to eat.

The drive was surprisingly pleasant considering that Nicole’s head kept bobbing up and down as she kept almost falling asleep. She finally perked up when we almost reached her place, sniffing slightly.

“That’s the gyro shop, right?”

I laughed. “Did you really wake up just because you smelled that?”

“Yeah. Pregnancy nose is a hell of a thing.”

“I guess it is. Does that make you hungry?”

“Kinda,” she said, wincing as she looked out the window. “But also, kinda makes me want to turn my stomach inside out and shake it a bit.”

“That sounds uncomfortable.”

“My whole life is un comfortable at this point.”

“Fair enough.”

She laughed as we turned into her complex. “I guess you-” she stopped mid-sentence and I saw her entire posture change. Suddenly she was sitting bolt upright, and I could practically feel the tension radiating off of her like electricity.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, alarm bells going off in my mind.

“Nothing. Don’t park, pull over.”

“What?”

“Let me out now!”

I’d never heard her speak that way, so I did, pulling to the side of the entrance and throwing on my flashers. Without another word, she got out of the car and stormed towards the entrance of her building.

I had no idea what was going on with her until I saw there was a strange man waiting there. He was dressed casually, but I could tell even from where he was that he was fairly built and powerful.

Who the hell was this? Some boyfriend? A drug dealer? Was I really being an idiot and the con was falling apart right in front of my face because her partner had showed up uninvited?

Suddenly all the warm and fuzzy feelings faded as I watched Nicole start to speak to him, her voice tense and angry. Whoever the hell he was, I wasn’t going to make her face it alone.