“I’ll be right here by your side, baby. And whatever the test comes back—positive or negative, we’ll figure it out together,” Elias said. She wished that she could be as sure as he seemed, but she wasn’t.
“Do you want me to come into the bathroom with you?” he asked. She looked into the bag of tests that he purchased for her and shook her head.
“It’s pretty straightforward, right?” she asked.
“Yep, just read over the directions to be sure, and yell if you need any help,” he said. She was sure that if she could just get through taking the test without puking, she’d be good.
Aliza padded back to the bathroom and gently shut the door behind herself. “I’ve got this,” she whispered to herself as she sat on the side of the tub, pulling boxes out, opening them, and reading the directions, one by one. She decided to go with the test that would give her a clear plus sign. It seemed to be the simplest.
Eliza opened the test and peed on the stick, which was easier said than done since she was most likely dehydrated from being sick for so long. She put the cap back onto the test and set it on some tissues on the bathroom sink. Now, all she had to do was wait. It should have been the easiest part of this whole thing, but it wasn’t. She decided that if she had Elias in the room with her, time might go faster, so she called for him. She cracked the door and peeked out to find no sign of Elias. He was giving her space, and she appreciated that, but right now, she needed him by her side. “Can you come in and wait with me?” she shouted down the hallway.
“I’m right here,” he said, jogging down the hallway.
“I took the test, but now I have to wait. It was harder than I thought it would be to pee on a stick. I think that I might bedehydrated a bit.” She was trying to think about anything other than the test being positive.
“Well, I picked up some drinks with electrolytes to help with that, and if you can’t keep them down, then I can give you an IV.”
“You keep that stuff just lying around here?” she teased.
“Actually, I do,” he admitted. “I’ve had to give myself one, once. I don’t recommend treating yourself, but it worked, and I didn’t have to go to the hospital and deal with the nurses giving me a hard time for not being able to do my own IV.”
“Yeah, I guess that would be a pain,” she agreed. She looked at her phone and realized that the time had passed. “The test should be ready.” The test had come back faster than she thought it would, but she was sure that was because Elias was distracting her.
“Do you want to read it, or do you want me to read it?” Elias asked. Aliza squeezed her eyes shut.
“You can read it,” she breathed, not wanting to open her eyes to look at him or the test.
“It’s positive,” he said. She opened her eyes and took the test stick from him. Aliza sat on the edge of the tub, staring at the little plastic stick as if it might change if she blinked at it hard enough.
“I’m pregnant,” she whispered to herself.
“We’re pregnant,” Elias corrected. “Are you okay?” he asked. She felt as though she should be asking him that question instead. This was all happening so quickly, and probably wasn’t what Elias thought he was signing up for. Her chest filled with too many emotions to name—fear, shock, disbelief, and something dangerously close to wonder. Elias was going to be a father, and she was going to be a mother. That truth was going to take some time to sink in.
“Hey,” he said. “You look pale. You okay?”
She swallowed hard. “I’m not sure how I feel right now.”
His smile faded just enough to make her heart ache. “Do you feel sick?” She held out the test with shaking hands and gave it back to him.
“I never stopped feeling sick,” she admitted. “I’d like to try something to drink, though. It might help with the nausea.”
“I thought I had a stomach virus,” she whispered. “As he helped her out to the couch, where she had made her little nest. She felt like she was on a loop, and kept saying the same things, but she couldn’t help herself.
“You’ve never said how you feel about having a baby,” she said. He walked back to the family room from the adjoining kitchen and handed her a glass with cold amber colored liquid in it.
“Drink this,” he ordered, sitting down next to her. “Slow, small sips.” She nodded and took a drink. Her breath came in short, nervous bursts as she waited for his reaction—terrified of seeing doubt, or regret, or fear in his face. He waited a beat before taking her hand into his own. When she searched his face, she saw none of the things that she had been worried about. Instead, she found his beautiful smile.
“I’m not going to lie, I’m happy about the baby. I mean, everything between us has happened so quickly, so why not this?” She sat back and thought about what he had just said. He was right—things between the two of them had moved at warped speed, and this baby would be no exception. She wasn’t sure if she was actually happy about the baby yet, but with time, she was sure that she’d be able to get there.
Elias
It had been a rough month, but Aliza had slowly come out of the morning sickness phase of her pregnancy. She was able to talk to her professors and come to an agreement to do her coursework online. Staying home and resting helped her to be able to keep some fluids and food down each day, so he was happy about that. But he worried about her day and night. Not just because of the morning sickness, but because of her state of mind. She seemed to be depressed—something that he didn’t expect. Elias was thrilled about the baby, but Aliza seemed to be less than happy about their news. He tried to tell himself that it was because she was dealing with a lot—between school, losing her apartment, and everything that happened with her father, but he worried that there was more to it than that. He worried that she had changed her mind about being with him, and a baby was tying her to him, and she didn’t want that.
So, instead of worrying about the worst-case scenario, he threw himself into taking care of Aliza and his work. Elias was in the middle of rounds when the page came in.
Security to Cardiovascular—front desk request.
He excused himself from the resident he was speaking with and headed downstairs to the front desk to find out what the hell was going on. The last thing he expected to find waiting for him was a tall, sharply dressed man pacing in front of the receptionist’s desk like he owned the building.
