“Yanna, just breathe. We’ll figure this out, okay?”
“I can’t … we can’t… there’s no time to figure it out she” Yanna was trying to speak, but the words wouldn’t materialize. She looked at the faces of her family members, all looking at her with expressions of regret because they also knew her mother was going to die. Feeling as if she were going to implode, she became flushed and dazed. Her body temperature rose steeply, and she was suddenly burning up. She took a step back to sit down, but the unsteadiness overcame her. Before anyone was able to react, Yanna was hitting the ground.
The sound of chattering around her stirred Yanna from her unconscious state. Her eyes squinted, adjusting to the bright lights. A quick assessment of the pulse oximeter on her finger, and the white blanket covering her body, and she deduced she was in a hospital room of her own.
“What the hell happened?”
“You passed out,” Troi replied.
“I know, but why?”
“You had a panic attack, caused your body to overheat, resulting in a spike of your blood pressure which led to a syncope episode,” A doctor responded, entering the room. “Hi, I’m Dr. Hollingsworth.”
“Hi. I’m fine, right? You can let me go?”
“Not so fast. Now that you’re awake, I’d like to do an examination just to make sure there is nothing else for us to be alarmed about. Can we do that?”
“Yes, but can we hurry up so I can check on my mother, please?”
“Ms. Kamilla is upstairs with her,” Onyx stated.
“It’ll be quick. We’ll all step out to give you a moment to change into a gown.” The doctor ushered Onyx and Troi out of the room so Yanna could change. They reentered shortly after, and the first order of business was a transvaginal ultrasound.
“It looks like the fetus is measuring at about eight weeks along,” the doctor explained while they all looked at the small blob on the screen.
Onyx and Troi looked to Yanna to see if her gestation would pinpoint who the father was, but she shook her head. If she was eight weeks pregnant, then she conceived around five to six weeks prior, which meant Trell was still a possible father. Onyx gave her shoulder a subtle squeeze to let her know everything would be okay. As far as he was concerned, the paternity didn’t matter. The miracle he was viewing on the small screen was enough to make his heart skip a beat all on its own. He wished his brother was witnessing it.
“While we’re here, I want to ask if it’s safe for me to have an amniocentesis. There’s a question of paternity, and I want to establish it as soon as possible.”
“It’s usually safer to do an amnio after 15 weeks, but you’d be fine to do one now as well.”
“What are the risks?” Onyx asked.
“Well, with an amnio there are risks associated as with any other procedure.”
“Like what?” Yanna questioned.
“There is a 1 percent chance of miscarriage as well as---”
“We’ll wait,” Onyx and Troi interrupted. They’d heard all they needed to hear. One percent was one too many, and no one wanted to take that risk, no matter how minuscule.
“Only about 1 in 200 women suffer miscarriages, and if we wait until after 15 weeks ---”
“Hell nah, she ain’t gone be the 1. Ain’t shit gone change if we wait until the baby is born.”
“Ms. Munroe?” The doctor looked to Yanna for confirmation.
“It’s fine. We can wait.”
“Very well then. Would you guys like to hear the heartbeat?”
“Please.” Yanna beamed anxiously as the doctor turned on the monitor’s sound. A gasp fled Yanna’s mouth as she heard the tiny flutter. “Oh, my God.”
“That’s fucking amazing.” Onyx hadn’t heard anything so magical since first hearing Kian’s heartbeat.
“My goodness, Yanna.”
“My baby.”
