Yep. Wow. There was a lot you could see, it seemed. Nowadays some scan machines could even see the sex at twelve weeks.
Woah.
He needed a glass of water.
Wow.
He should really send another message to Cassie.
The baby looks beautiful in the scan. Speak later.
He still didn’t know what he was going to say to her. He’d have to leave it until tomorrow to speak to her. Maybe the day after. He needed some time. He needed to speak to her soon, but when he did speak to her, he was going to have to get it right.
Thirty
Cassie
It was eleven o’clock in the morning. Cassie took her book and sat down on her cushion on the bathroom floor to begin her daily four hours of nausea. She knew from friends and the internet that a lot of people had randomly timed morning sickness, but hers was like clockwork, almost to the minute from ten past eleven to ten past three. Sometimes she vomited, sometimes she didn’t, but she always felt like she had gastric flu for the entire four hours. It had happened every single day for the past couple of months since she was about six or seven weeks pregnant. This was a time when she was hugely grateful that, as a writer, she could choose what hours she worked; she’d been doing a lot of evening writing recently, when she was nausea-free.
The best thing to do was to hang out on the bathroom floor with some cushions and books and then if shedidvomit the loo was right there, which was necessary, because the vomit was often quite projectile. It was just one of the many spectacularly unglamorous things about pregnancy. She’d happily take every one of those things, though, if it resulted in a baby to love at the end of it.
This was a great book. She was really enjoying it. It was very engrossing.
Three chapters in, she suddenly realised that she was… three chapters in. And she did not feel sick. What time was it? The chapters were quite long. It had to be after ten past.
It was actually nearly twenty to twelve. As in, nearly half an hour after the nausea usually started. Had she got the time wrong?
By half twelve she was still reading and she was really hungry. She hadn’t managed lunch at actual lunchtime for two months. She had a late – and large – lunch every day at about half three, when she’d recovered from the nausea.
Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit. She wasn’t feeling sick at all. Had her pregnancy symptoms all just gone? Had the same thing happened again? Was it her? Did her body kill her babies?
She needed to do something.
Dina answered immediately, thankfully. ‘Honey, don’t panic. We’re going to get the next ferry and we’re going to get you to the clinic for a check-up.’
Cassie messaged James, through tears, while they were on the ferry. The bastard had said he’d ‘speak later’ and then she’d heard nothing, forthree weeks, the arse, but she couldn’t bear the thought that he’d be thinking that she was still successfully pregnant if it was all going to go wrong.
Sudden diminution in pregnancy symptoms. Having scan this afternoon.
There were double blue ticks immediately and then her phone rang.
‘Cassie. Oh my God. I’m so sorry. I hope so much that it’s okay. I’m so sorry also that I haven’t phoned. I picked up the phone so many times and then I just didn’t know what to say other than I love you and I know that wasn’t the right thing to say. But of course I should have phoned. I’m so sorry. And more importantly right now I hope so much that the baby’s alright. And I want to be involved. If it is alright. I should have told you that three weeks ago.’ James sounded hoarse.
Cassie was crying too much to be able to speak. ‘Thank you. I’ll let you know,’ she said between gulping tears, and pressed red.
* * *
‘Everything’s fine. You’re a couple weeks into your second trimester. It’s very common for early symptoms to reduce or disappear after the end of the first trimester. Your baby’s looking very well. I’m printing photos for you.’ The sonographer was a very jolly, smiling woman called Ore, and Cassie could have kissed her, except she was busy crying again, big, snotty tears.
‘Are you alright?’ Ore asked.
‘Yes.’ Cassie nodded through the snot tears. ‘I was just really scared. I had a bad experience before.’
‘I’m so sorry. Everything’s looking exactly as it should be now, though. So focus on that and try to be happy.’
‘Thank you.’
Dina squeezed Cassie’s hand and Cassie smiled at her.
