“Am I pregnant or not?” I blurted out after a few long minutes, frustrated as hell at the long wait and the doctor’s lack of urgency.
“Yes. I’ve already called OB to get you in for a sonogram. I’m sorry, I know it’s been a long night for you. Transport will be here in a few minutes. After we see how the fetus is doing, I may want to keep you here for a bit and get some meds and fluids in you. There is a virus going around, but I don’t think that’s ever what you had. You have an acute case of nausea.”
I inhaled a long breath as my brows knit together. “But I’m on the pill; this isn’t supposed to happen. I never missed a single day.”
“It can still happen. Nothing is one hundred percent. And the brand of pills you take had a recall recently. Did you hear about that?”
“Um, no,” I snapped at the doctor. “I mostdefinitelydid not hear about that.” I raked my hand down my face and shook my head. “Could the baby be in any kind of distress? I was still on birth control, and I’ve been so sick.”
The doctor frowned and rested his hand on my arm. “We’ll know more when you have the sonogram.”
My eyes filled with tears as my head swiveled to find Nick. “What if . . . What if there’s something wrong—”
“Stop.” Nick pulled me flush to his chest. “You are a spitfire, and I’m a relentless pain in the ass. With tough genes like that, our baby will be just fine.” He kissed my forehead and tightened his embrace around me.
“Our baby,” I breathed out in a shocked whisper. My first pregnancy wasn’t sprung on me like this. It was planned down to the very second. Jack and I placed all our hope on timing everything just right. Now, I didn’t have the slightest clue how far along I was. Processing everything that happened in the past two hours made my head ache.
“Mrs. Taylor?” A young man wheeled a gurney up to my bed. “I’m here to take you to Ultrasound.”
Mrs. Taylor. I was Mrs. Taylor, but carrying Mr. Garcia’s child. In another ironic twist, that fact now felt as if I was betraying Nick, not Jack.
I scooted off the bed and onto the gurney, staring blankly up at the ceiling as we rolled down the long, darkened hospital hallway. It had to be after midnight. I craned my head to look for Nick, and he met my gaze with a sly grin. I never thought he would leave, but my growing nerves needed him as close to me as possible.
“I’m right here, Ella-Jane,” Nick whispered as he kissed my cheek.
The orderly parked me inside a very small room with an enormous TV screen. He, along with Nick, helped me onto the table.
Nick’s brow furrowed at the stirrups and the long wand. It all brought back mixed emotions and memories from when I had my son.
“What’s that for?” Nick mouthed to me as the technician typed in all my information.
“The baby is too little to see from an outside sonogram. So, she has to take the same path you did to see.” I smirked at Nick despite my breathless anxiety.
The technician chuckled at my explanation. She swung her chair over and motioned for me to move down the table. I pulled off my underwear and winced when she slid the lube covered wand inside.
“Here we go,” she said while pounding at keys on her computer. The large TV came on, and my uterus flashed across the screen. As many of these as I had in the past, I couldn’t identify anything of significance—except for the flickering of light in the middle of the screen. It was a beautiful glimpse of white noise that meant we had a heartbeat.
Nick recognized it too and picked up my hand to lace our fingers together. His glassy eyes never left the screen. A relieved tear streamed down my cheek as I squeezed his hand back.
“That’s . . .” I bit my lip to halt the onslaught of tears. “That’s a—”
“Heartbeat, yes. I think you’re about eight weeks along. Everything looks good, but I would make an appointment with your Ob/Gyn right after you get discharged.” She removed the wand and turned the lights back on. “Here’s a picture.” She handed Nick a printout of the sonogram, and the reverence on his face made more tears fall from my eyes.
“Transport should be coming by shortly to take you to a room for the night. Congratulations to you both!”
Nick’s eyes were still fixed on the picture after she left.
“Hey, can I see?” I wiped my wet cheeks and pulled Nick over by the arm.
“Sorry, I just can’t get over it. Life changes quick, doesn’t it?” Nick kissed my lips before handing me the photo. “You aren’t freaked out about this?”
“It’s a shock; that’s for sure. But the entire way down here, I was terrified something was wrong.” My finger drifted down the black and white glossy picture. “I see this as the miracle it is, and even though I can never tell what is what, it’s the most beautiful picture I’ve ever seen.” I laughed as I leaned into Nick’s shoulder.
“Our daughterisbeautiful.” Nick beamed as he pressed a kiss to my temple.
I laughed at Nick. “There is no way you can tell it’s a girl by that picture.”
“I don’t need to look at the picture. I just know.” Nick’s lips twitched into a smile as he shrugged.
