Chapter Three
Thalia
Cream cheese. I woke up really wanting a bagel with cream cheese. Nothing fancy, no strawberry, or veggie-flavor cheese. Just the original. My mouth was practically salivating. I rolled out of bed, noticing it was still dark out as I walked into the kitchen. I prayed Tristan had bagels and cream cheese. So I popped open the fridge and took a peek. My heart sank. No cream cheese. My body felt ill. Not like I had to throw up, but like it was mad that I didn’t stock the fridge with cream cheese. I quickly walked back into the bedroom, crawled into the bed and woke up Tristan.
“Babe, wake up. I need you.” I was exaggerating a bit, but man my body was seriously dying for it. He woke up startled, I was a little confused. He was never really one to sleep deeply. I pushed that thought away; there were more important things to talk about.
“Thalia, are you ok? What’s wrong?”
“I need you to go get me bagels and cream cheese. There aren’t any in the kitchen and I am starving for them. Like, I may commit murder if I don’t get a bagel with original cream cheese soon. Maybe you could flash there and make it happen.” I beamed a sweet smile and batted my lashes. I would go get it myself, but he could just disappear, get it, and would be back in a flash. I would have to get dressed, drive, and then come back.
“Bagels and cream cheese.” He pondered those words as if they were foreign. I nodded.
“Please. This baby is demanding it.” It was totally the baby’s doing so I figured it would persuade him quickly if I told him that. Honestly, he would do anything for me, and I would for him.
“Of course love.” He flashed out, and seconds later was back with my bagel. I’m ashamed to admit I launched myself at the bag and devoured the bagel in seconds. Thankfully, he had anticipated this situation and gotten three, so I grabbed another. It was gone in mere moments as well. Feeling much better now that my stomach wasn’t clawing at me, I kissed my amazing husband and passed out, cream cheese still on my lips.
I woke up with a strange feeling in my tummy. This time there was light shining through the windows. I slowly sat up and tried to figure out what I was feeling. It was almost like a tickle in my lower stomach. Weird. I looked around and noticed I was alone in the bed. I wanted to thank him, and apologize for last night. He was so sweet and I was a dairy mess. With slow steps I walked into the bathroom, cleaned up and did my business. Once I was all set, I went in search of my sexy beast.
He was sitting on the couch with his laptop, probably working on his philanthropic business of helping military families that suffer from loss.
“Morning.” I sat down next to him. He looked at me and smiled. Then his smile faded. What was that about?
“Tristan?” His eyes were changing between light and dark gray. What was happening?
“You’ve grown,” he commented. I must have looked as confused as I felt because he moved closer to me.
“He’sgrowing.” He bent down to my stomach and pulled up my shirt, exposing my belly.
“HOLY SHIT,” I whispered. My stomach had a little bump—it wasn’t the flat tummy I went to bed with.
“Oh my God, was it the bagels? Did I eat too much? I don’t think I should be that big yet.” I was panicking. I needed a doctor, I needed answers.
“Tristan…” I was scared. It came through my voice as clear as day. His face didn’t give me any hope either; he was up and on the phone in seconds, pacing the living room.
“Leander, we need that doctor. Now. It’s an emergency.”
“Yeah.”
“Got it. On our way.” He ended the call and moved to me.
“We are going to the doctor’s office now ok? I’m going to carry you.” He scooped me up. I knew he was about to flash us, but I told him to stop. I was freaking out, and had no clue what was going on.
“What if flashing me is bad for the baby?” He paused and thought about it. Opting to go the safer route, he carried me down to his SUV and helped me get situated. He sped like hell, and managed to hit every green light possible on the way to the doctor’s office. Whether he was working some God mojo or not, I was thankful. We pulled up to a nice-looking building in the downtown area of Boston. I’m not sure what I was expecting, since this doctor was a demigod and worked on other demigods, but it sure looked like he was doing really well. Tristan got out of the SUV and came around to help me out, sweeping me off my feet again. Was it over ill? Maybe. But at this moment, neither one of us cared.
We were met at the door by a man who looked to be in his 40s, with sandy blond hair, and soft brown eyes. He looked a little familiar to me, but maybe that was because he was the doctor from the gym. He looked fit.
“Doctor Geoffrey?” Tristan asked. The man nodded.
“I am, come in. I’ve got the examination room all set for you.” He walked us with haste to the simple room.
“First I need to take your blood pressure, get your weight, and get some preliminary medical history. It will only take a few minutes. After that, I’m going to have you lay back on the exam table and we will do an ultrasound, either with the probe or externally, depending on how far along you are.” He gestured for me to step up on the scale, which I did. I weighed an extra five pounds. That made me feel great. Not.
He got my blood pressure, which was elevated, but nothing bad, probably just from the stress. There wasn’t much to my medical history. I was pretty healthy. Never been pregnant before, and we told him about our weird conception of the baby in the Amazon. I explained that I had thought I had gotten my period before the wedding but he said some women still bleed in the beginning months. It wasn’t super common, but also wasn’t superuncommoneither.
“OK, go ahead and lie back on the table, lifting your shirt to the top of your tummy, please.” He pulled a machine with a small screen over to me. The ultrasound machine, I assumed, but it looked a little different.
“This machine is a little different than your mortal machine. As demigods, we tend to run with a little more power in our veins. It happens to blow the electricity in the regular machines. This bad boy can handle any power thrown its way. Now you said last night had a flat abdomen?” He placed his hands on me and started pushing lightly, feeling around.
