Chapter 2 #2
“Passed out at work. I didn’t eat anything, and I haven’t had much of an appetite for a few days.
I started feeling funny, went to get a drink, and didn’t make it.
” He looks really good in that suit, and he smells even better.
“I hit my head on the floor when I went down, so now I’m here with a concussion. ”
“You need to take care of yourself; you can’t go around not eating,” he says with real concern in his voice. “If you do, this is what’s going to happen. Did you eat yet? Do you want me to get you something?”
He’s so concerned. I have to tell him. I wonder what he’s going to say?
I have no idea, it could go either way. He didn’t believe Kate’s child was his.
Would he believe me? I don’t want to go through this again.
I thought it would be awkward seeing him after how everything went down, but it’s not. I missed him.
“I’m fine.” I hold my hand up for him to see. “They gave me an IV drip. I was dehydrated.”
He turns his head my way, and his eyes hold me like they always do. He places his hand on my thigh and moves it down my bare leg. His touch is electric, snapping my senses to life. I stifle the groan on the tip of my tongue from his touch and the words tumble out of my mouth before I can stop them.
“I’m pregnant.”
Cue the longest, most literal pregnant pause ever. I can see the wheels spinning in his head. For the first time since I found out I was pregnant I’m nervous and anxious, mixed in with scared, waiting for him to say something—anything.
“You just let that out, no warning? I have to tell you something—prepare yourself.”
“No other way to do it.”
“You Reed women sure are fertile.”
This shouldn’t be amusing, but it is. I’m smiling because I’m relieved he doesn’t sound or look angry. “It’s your super sperm. You gotta wrap that up or you might end up impregnating half the hospital.”
He laughs, looking down as he shakes his head. “Cat, only you can deliver news like this, make me laugh and cringe at the same time.”
“You’re taking it better than I thought...better than I did.”
“I’m calm on the outside. That’s why you passed out, because you’re pregnant?”
“Yes, that, not eating, and being dehydrated.”
“You told me you weren’t pregnant.”
“I wasn’t then.” His hand is still on my leg, and it’s distracting me. “For the past two months I thought I was getting my period. Turns out I wasn’t.”
“How didn’t you know? It’s something that happens every month.”
“The nurse said it happens sometimes where you think what you’re seeing is your period but it’s not.
It’s the embryo implanting itself. I thought my periods were off because I was under a lot of stress.
I wasn’t eating or sleeping well. It was a really hard time.
I thought all of those things together were affecting my period and made it change. ”
“How far along are you?”
“About two months.”
“That would mean—”
“I got pregnant on my birthday. Christmas night.”
He bites his lower lip and nods his head. “That’s what happens when you take a chance. You get swept up in the magic of the moment, gold dust and all.”
He puts his hands in his pockets with a sad smile. I give him a weak smile of my own, slightly averting my eyes toward my lap. I wonder what he’s thinking. Probably how utterly ironic and sad it is that on the night he lost one child with my sister, he created one with me.
“We have a lot to talk about. I can’t believe you’re having a baby,” he states flatly.
“I’m having a baby?”
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
I know what he must be thinking, and it’s my fault it’s in his head, as both things happened at almost the same time. “Let me be clear,” I say, my eyes not leaving his, “I didn’t sleep with Matt.”
“I didn’t ask.”
“But you were thinking about it. I’m letting you know. I didn’t have sex of any kind with Matt on New Year’s Eve or any other time; you were the only one.”
“If you had doubts about who the father is, I know you would tell me. I’m glad you told me, but I didn’t ask.”
“I know you didn’t.” I also know how his mind works.
Like most men, I’m sure there was a degree of doubt.
I haven’t had sex with Matt, but I am leaving out the part where I’m still seeing him and we’ve gone on a few dates, which I don’t think he needs to know about yet.
Things have been pleasant between us so far, and I can’t handle any more stress—I have enough.
“Did they do a sonogram?”
“No, the doctor said everything looks and sounds fine.”
“He knows this without doing a sonogram?”
“Yes,” I say at the same time he turns and walks toward the door. “Where are you going?”
“You’re not stepping one foot out of this hospital until you have a sonogram.
What kind of slip-shod operation are they running here?
You have a concussion, find out you’re pregnant, you can’t leave without someone escorting you home, you have to be monitored for the next forty-eight hours, and they’re letting you leave without a sonogram? ”
“Nick, please don’t make a scene. I’m sure the baby is fine. I hit my head, not my stomach. It is early in my pregnancy.”
“Like I said, you’re going to have a sonogram.”
They better give me a sonogram, or heads will be rolling if they don’t.
Fifteen minutes later a nurse comes into my room.
“Ms. Reed, I’m here to take you for your sonogram.”
“That was fast.”
“There was a very persistent gentleman who insisted you have a sonogram immediately, and if you didn’t, things were going to happen.”
“What kind of things?” I ask her, groaning inwardly.
“Legal things the chief of staff doesn’t want any part of.”
She helps me into the wheelchair, and I put my hand over my face. I can’t believe he did that. “How embarrassing.”
She rolls me into another room and I lie on the exam table and wait for the sonogram tech.
“Cat?”
“I’m in here,” I say, hearing Nick call my name.
“Are you okay?”
“Did you threaten the hospital with a lawsuit?”
“I told them I was your legal representative and it would be in their best interest before you walked out of here to give you a sonogram.”
“Uh, that’s all you said?”
He holds his hands up with a lopsided grin. “Yes.”
I turn my head straight ahead. I’m going to see my baby on that little monitor. I wonder if this brings back any memories of him and Kate; it must be like déjà vu for him. He’s standing next to me at the exam table by my head when he asks, “You nervous?”
“No, just thinking.”
“About what?”
I’m saved from answering the question tugging at my heart when the tech comes in. “Good evening, Ms. Reed, my name is Victor. I’ll be doing your sonogram.”
“Okay,” I tell him, smiling back at him, but Nick doesn’t look too happy. I hope he doesn’t say anything.
“How far along are you, Ms. Reed?”
“I think about two months.” He looks at my chart and puts it down on the table beside the sonogram machine. He does a few things with the machine then holds up a long white large ice-pop-looking thing.
“Can you please put your feet in the stirrups and slide down to the end of the table,” Victor asks.
What the hell is this—a gyn exam? I thought a sonogram was a little rolling machine they used over your stomach.
Nick turns his head to me with raised eyebrows, and I shrug my shoulder. I don’t know what Victor’s going to do; I’ve never done this before. Wasn’t he in the room when Kate was doing this?
He turns back to Victor with a nod of his head at the ice-pop-looking thing in his hand and asks him, “What is that for?”
“It’s a transvaginal ultrasound wand. The baby’s too small to see with a regular handheld probe.”
“Transvaginal.” Nick says slowly, sounding out every syllable as he looks at me.
Oh man, here we go.
He turns back to Victor and puts his hands in his pockets, a sure sign things are going to go bad real fast. “You’re going to do it? Isn’t a nurse supposed to be in here?” His eyes close a bit and he bites the middle of his bottom lip as he openly glares at Victor.
Geez, he’s making the poor guy uncomfortable.
The tech clears his throat and puts the wand down. “I could have the nurse come in, if it would make you feel more comfortable?”
I give Nick a hard loo , but he’s not even looking at me, he’s staring at Victor. “Victor, it’s fine, that won’t be necessary,” I say.
His head goes back and forth between Nick and me. I give him a reassuring smile and he turns back around hesitantly.
I yank on Nick’s jacket to get his attention. “Nick, you’re being rude,” I whisper up at him.
“No, I’m not. I’m asking questions. I need to be informed.”
“It’s embarrassing.”
“He’s going to put that thing in your most intimate body part, and me asking a question is embarrassing you?” He squints his eyes at me. “A total stranger, and he’s not even a doctor.”
Tight-lipped, I shake my head and hiss, “Keep your voice down. You put something in my most intimate body part and I wasn’t this embarrassed.”
“And look at you now. Let me ask my questions.”
My mouth pops open. Did he really say that to me? “Really, Nick, really?”
“Really.”
Oh my God, he turns back around at the exact same time Victor’s rolling a condom on the wand. All I can do is cover my face when I see the look on Nick’s face.
“Ms. Reed, scoot your butt down to the end of the table and lift up your gown.”
“HELL NO!” I hear Nick explode. “I’m sorry, but you go out there and tell them you need a female technician in here.” He looks at me eyes blazing. “Put your legs down.”
I can’t believe he did that. I’m so furious and upset with him that I can’t look at him.
I don’t say a word, just lie back and fume.
We wait in silence until the female technician comes in.
A middle-aged African American lady named Debra comes in with a smile and introduces herself as our new sonogram technician.
She smiles at Nick when she sits down. He barely smiles back, but she doesn’t seem intimidated.
“I heard about you. You’re a piece of work.”
Before he can say anything to her, I grab him by the hand and stick my finger in his face. “Be quiet or I’m hopping off this table and marching out of here.”
“I didn’t say anything,” he says, his lips slightly pressing together.
“Great!” I whisper, lying back and trying to snatch my hand back from him, but he’s holding on tight so letting go is not an option.
Debra holds back a smile and turns around with a wink to me before she fully turns around to the machine.
I can see it already. This man is going to drive me crazy for the next seven months.
Finally the tech is ready. With Nick still holding my hand, she pushes the wand inside me slowly.
It’s a little uncomfortable; I’ve never used a vibrator before, but I guess this is what it feels like without the good vibrations.
A quick-pulsing swooshing sound fills the room.
“What’s that?” I ask Debra.
She turns back to face me. “That’s the sound of your baby’s heartbeat.”
“It’s so fast.”
“That’s normal.” She switches a few buttons below the monitor and looks around. She smiles at me and points to the screen. “That’s your baby right there.”
“Where? I don’t see anything.” She zooms in on the picture some more and I see it. “That’s the baby?” I ask in amazement.
“Yep, this is the head and this is the body.”
Enthralled by the sonogram, I don’t remember Nick is there until he gives my hand a little squeeze. He’s smiling down at me when I look up.
“That’s our baby,” he says.
“Yeah. We’re having a baby,” I say, still amazed at what I’m seeing.
Here comes trouble. A lot of trouble.