5. Riley
5
Riley
I’m about to stand up to go look for someone who can tell me if we’ll have to wait much longer, while my amazing Omegas get even more uncomfortable, when Mathew grabs my sleeve, stopping me.
“I’m fine, just uncomfortable. I should probably not have had that last glass of water...” He flashes me a sheepish smile. “The doctor will get here soon enough.”
“I don’t want you to feel bad.” I entwine our fingers as I sit back down. “I don’t understand why they put you through all of this. Why they want you to drink so much water and then make you sit around, waiting.”
Why can’t they do this in some way that doesn’t make Omegas feel uncomfortable? Wouldn’t that be better for everyone? It feels unfair that Omegas have to do all of this on top of whatever symptoms they’re already dealing with because of the pregnancy.
“It’s only for a short while.” Vera turns to me, putting her hand over where I’m holding Mathew’s, smiling. “We’ll be fine. Really.”
I know that they’re probably right, but being here is putting me on edge. I don’t like sitting around and waiting. I don’t like hospitals, I’ve seen way too much of them. And I don’t like it when I have to depend on others to take care of my Omegas...
“Riley...” Caleb’s command stops the rumble in my chest. “We’ll be out of here soon enough. You can wait in the car if you like that better.”
“No.” I sit up straight, crossing my arms, taking deep breaths to calm myself down. “I’m right where I’m supposed to be. I’m not going anywhere.”
Luckily, that’s the moment the doctor steps inside. It’s a female Omega, somewhere in age between Caleb and me, in her mid to late thirties. She smiles at Vera and Mathew. “Good morning.” She scans her ID and the computer comes to life. “You’re here for your first ultrasounds, right?”
“Yes.” Mathew sits up straight, his voice like he sounds when he’s being professional.
I glance at the doctor, but don’t notice anything about her that could make him go into that mode. Though, maybe he just does it because he’s uncomfortable and nervous.
“I’m Sophia. We’ll do proper introductions and everything once we’ve done the ultrasounds. I’m sure you’re dying to get to them.” She walks around the desk, stopping in front of the chairs. “Vera and Mathew, correct?” She motions to each.
“Correct.” Mathew nods, taking charge.
“And how far along are you?” She glances to the monitor.
Mathew answers smoothly, “six weeks since conception.” He’s been keeping close track of everything related to their pregnancies.
“Okay. That’s what the computer says too. So I think we can start.” She walks around the chairs, to the machines at the back.
I take a deep breath. I’ve been to a few appointments with people before, another reason I’ve seen the inside of hospitals way too much, when someone that I helped get away from the Suits requested that I accompany them. And the first scans always seems to make people the most nervous. But it’s worse now they’re my Omegas.
Sophia pulls a rolling stool forward as she starts setting up one of the machines. “If one of you could take a seat, please? And pull your shirt up, so we can get a good look.”
Mathew and Vera exchange glances until Vera pushes at Mathew, laughing. “I’m pretty sure you need to use the loo more than me. So you should go first.”
Grumbling, Mathew shrugs out of his suit jacket, handing it to Jorge, before he slides onto the chair, unbuttoning his dress shirt, which falls open and reveals his toned and tattooed body. The intricate lines and colours always draw my attention. I like to trace them with my fingers or tongue, feel how his skin heats up when I do it.
“If you’re very uncomfortable, you can go to the bathroom to release some of the pressure.” Sophia turns to him, but Mathew shakes his head resolutely.
“I’ll be fine.” He eyes the machine and then Sophia. “Just get on with it.” His voice is tense.
I quickly go over to his other side and take his hand. He gives me a soft smile and squeezes my hand. Not being able to smell his pheromones is tricky right now. I understand that he’s nervous, everyone else is too, but I keep trying to scent his pheromones to estimate how nervous he is, but they’re too weak to be of use.
Vera stands next to me, holding my hand as she puts her other hand on Mathew’s leg. I wrap my arm around her and pull her against my side. At least Vera’s pheromones are easy to read, which makes it easier to comfort her with mine.
I want them to be happy. I want to protect them. I want to make them feel better.
“I’ll put some of this gel on your stomach, it might be a bit cold, and then I’ll use this probe to look inside. We should be able to see something on the screen. It is still early, so I don’t know how much we’ll see.” She rolls the stool she’s sitting on closer, before she squirts gel on Mathew’s stomach.
He flinches, squeezing my hand for a moment, making me nearly growl protectively, but I suppress it. I don’t want Caleb to kick me out of here for being disruptive.
Sophia puts the probe against his stomach and the machine starts making sounds, coming to life. There’s a rushing sound and a fast drum, his blood as it moves through his veins and his heartbeat.
“Still comfortable?” The doctor eyes Mathew, who can’t keep his eyes off the screen, and he hastily nods. “Okay, let’s see what we’ve got here.” She moves the probe around and the view keeps changing, until there’s a large black area on the screen, surrounded by grey-white and there’s a small grey something visible in the black area.
Sophia seems to take her time to study the image, moving the probe around a few times, like she’s running through a mental list she has to check off, before she looks up. “This black area is the inside of uterus, and within that you can see the foetus. If you look carefully here,” she points at the screen, “you can see a small white blinking dot. That’s the heartbeat. The foetus looks good. It has a strong heartbeat and the size seems to be right where we expect it to be at this age.”
She smiles, looking around before her eyes land on Mathew. “Congratulations. You’ve got one healthy baby growing inside you.”
The mood changes, relaxes and I can’t help my smile. Everything is good. Everything is going well.
All the stress from the morning seems to leave me, a bright feeling blooming in my chest and I wrap my arms around Vera, not able to stop my excitement. Vera’s arms around me tighten and she lets out a happy laugh.
Everyone seems happy and stunned at the same time, not sure what to say as we all keep staring at the screen.
Sophia lifts the probe off, and hands Mathew a few paper towels. “You can now go to the bathroom. And we’ll take a look at the second baby next.”
Mathew roughly cleans his stomach before quickly sliding off the chair. “Don’t start before I’m back.” He calls over his shoulder with a big grin as he crosses the room.
“We won’t.” Vera laughs as she sits in the chair. “I promise. Take your time.”
He rushes through the door, his open dress shirt blowing out behind him like a cape.
The mood is now a lot more relaxed, though the nervousness isn’t entirely gone yet. We’ve still got Vera’s scan to go... Everything is going well with Mathew, but that’s only half the battle.
“I’ve got a question...” Caleb steps closer as he puts his hand on Vera’s shoulder and their pheromones mix together, happy, soft. “Are there things we need to watch out for when working out or when they’re doing other things?”
“Don’t overdo it. Exercise is fine during pregnancy, just as long as you keep it sensible. With the warm weather, keep things light, it’s easy to overheat, which isn’t good for the parent or the baby. But, other than that, it should be fine.”
“Okay. Thank you.” He gives Vera a wink and she mock-glares back at him. He’s been trying to get Mathew and Vera to join them in the morning workout, but they’ve been avoiding it because of their pregnancies. Now they can’t get around it anymore. I’m sure this won’t be the last of it, I’m sure they won’t give up so easily.
“What about sex?” Jorge speaks up as he keeps his eyes on the door, uncomfortable to be away from Mathew right now, but the question has clearly been on his mind.
“Sex is totally safe too. Again, don’t overdo it to the point of discomfort. There might be some changes in how slick an Omega gets and some body parts may be more sensitive. But, within reason, it’s perfectly safe.” The doctor looks to each of us. “A baby is well-protected inside the body. Babies are made, and born, in very extreme circumstances all over the world every day. As long as the parent takes good care of their health and there are no medical issues, there’s no reason to make big changes to how they keep active.”
That sounds promising, and it’s comforting to hear that sex is still totally fine, because it’s sometimes hard to keep our hands off our amazing Omegas. And our Omegas are pretty into that type of ‘physical activity’ too, even if none of us Alphas are available.
Mathew comes back into the room, his shirt properly buttoned up again and he looks a lot more relaxed now. “Okay, we can continue.” His voice is upbeat and it almost looks like he’s glowing, that’s how big his smile is.
Sophia turns to Vera. “Are you ready?”
She nods, pulling her shirt up.
“Can you pull your jeans down slightly? They’re just a tad too high. And you can put this around the top, to make sure they stay clean.” She hands Vera some paper towels and I help her put them around the top of her opened jeans.
“This might be a bit cold.” The doctor squirts gel on Vera’s stomach and Vera lets out a small surprised sound.
“Colder than I thought it would be.” She takes my hand, Caleb still at her shoulder and Jorge wraps his arm around Mathew, while they stand at Vera’s feet.
“Sorry about that.” Sophia puts the probe into the gel and moves it around. Vera’s heartbeat is a lot slower than Mathew’s was before. But that makes sense, we’re all a lot more relaxed now.
This time, I immediately look for the flickering white spot. And, after a few moments, we all let out a long breath. There it is. The small white spot inside a slightly bigger grey area, surrounded by black.
“We’ve got another healthy heartbeat.” The doctor moves the probe around a bit, and then returns to the earlier spot. “As with the other one, this one seems to be right on schedule in size and development. Congratulations.”
I stare at the screen, finally taking it in fully. Vera and Mathew aren’t just pregnant, something I’ve known for weeks, but they’re really pregnant pregnant, they’ve got a new person growing inside them. To finally see it on the screen, to see the babies for the first time, it feels real in a different way.
In another seven months, we’ll be parents...
And that thought suddenly scares me. Though, I push it away. Today is a happy day. We’ve got good news, we should focus on that.
Yes, focus on that and not the fear of the long list of things we still have to do before the babies arrive, or the worry of how we’re going to do all of them in time, or if we’ll be good parents, and all of that…