“Knock, knock.” Dr. Birch’s head reappeared. Then he propped the door open before he pushed in some sort of equipment that I had to assume was an ultrasound machine. He closed the door before he moved everything over to beside the bed I was on.
“Dr. Birch, how long will I be in here?”
“At least until tomorrow. We’re going to observe you and the baby. Your body was very close to shutting down, and you can’t simply recover from something that severe in just a few hours.”
I sighed and looked up at Clay.“Sorry.”
“Don’t be. But I’ll not be letting you override me again. I understand you know you better than I do, but this is just as much my fault as it is yours.”
I’d been able to keep some things down. I’d thought this was just how pregnancy sickness was. I hadn’t realized it was actually a very severe case of it.
“All right,” Dr. Birch said. “You’re in early days yet. With when your mate said your heat was, I’d say you’re around six weeks in gestation. But we’ll get a better look here in just a few.”Dr. Birch pushed several keys on the keyboard, then picked up this mouse-looking thing. He quickly set it back down and then reached for my hospital gown. He pulled it up, made sure the blanket was on my lower body, and then shook a squeeze bottle. “Can’t do an ultrasound without gel.” He squirted quite a bit all over my lower stomach and then finally picked up the mouse thing again.
Dr. Birch moved it around my stomach several times before he smiled. “There you are.” He quickly held the mouse in place on my stomach and then pressed several keys on the keyboard. “You have a very healthy-looking little one in there.” He pressed another key, and the room was suddenly filled with a quiet swishing sound.
My eyes widened when I realized what that was. “That’s our baby?”
Dr. Birch nodded and continued to stare at the screen while moving the mouse slightly left and then right, then down a bit more. He froze there, pressed more keys, and then turned the monitor toward us so we could see. I felt Clay’s hand on my shoulder and absently reached up and placed mine on his.
“That’s our baby,” I said again.
“Yes,” Dr. Birch said. He pointed to the screen with his finger. “There’s the heart, obviously.”
I took several deep breaths, but it was no use. My sight became blurry, and then I was crying. There was a tissue handed to me, and I used it to cover my face.
“It’s quite normal to cry when seeing and hearing your baby for the first time,” Dr. Birch said. “The heartbeat is strong, and the development looks to be where a six-week gestation would be.”
I wiped my eyes again, then looked over at the screen once more. Clay’s hand rubbed on my shoulder, and I glanced up at my mate. “That’s our baby.”
He smiled down at me before he moved closer and gave me a soft kiss. “It is.” He rubbed his nose along mine before he kissed me again. “I love you,” he said quietly.
I was about to say those words back, but I didn’t want the first time I voiced them to him to be in front of the doctor while I was in the hospital.
“All right,” Dr. Birch said, pulling us from our moment. “Baby looks good. It’s too soon to determine the gender without a blood test. Same goes for species.”
“How can you tell that?” I asked.
“There are markers that each of us carry that are identical to the species that we share our other half with. You’re a red panda. You carry some of the same markers that actual red pandas carry. Same with Clay. He’ll have silverback markers. I carry wolf markers. Those will be present in your blood. If you are carrying a panda, you will only have panda markers. If you are carrying a silverback, there will be silverback markers.”
My eyes widened. “How?” I looked up at Clay. “Did you know any of this?”
“I’ve read a little while you were sick and I was watching over you, but this is new.”
“Dr. Birch, when can we do that?” I asked. “I want to know what we’re having.”
“I’ll put in the orders for the blood test, and a nurse will come and draw blood in a bit. For now, I want you to rest, and when your tray comes in just a few, eat a little. You shouldn’t have too much nausea left as you’ve had three bags of fluids and two of meds.”
I glanced up at the pole that held those bags on the hook. So that was what the second, smaller bag was.
“Do either of you have questions?”
I blinked before finally focusing on the doctor. “No. Umm, yeah. Do you know when I’m due?”
“I have an estimate, as all due dates aren’t set in stone. Given your date of claiming, your heat, and the size of the baby, your due date is December twentieth.”
I looked up at Clay again with wide eyes. “We’re going to have a baby by the end of the year?”
He smiled at me. “Sure sounds like it.” Clay reached up and cupped my cheek before he dropped his hand and reached for something. I turned in time to see the doctor hand off a strip of black-and-white images. I knew immediately what those were. Even though I worked in the restaurant at the zoo, you didn’t work anywhere in a zoo without knowing what an ultrasound image was.
