I give him a small smile. “He is no longer alive, so we are safe.”
He nods his head. “Good, good. Now, we are going to do another internal ultrasound since you’re still pretty early right at nine weeks, and we have your due date as June fourth; however, like I mentioned before, twins rarely make it to term due to it being higher risk. I do take mostly high risk pregnancies, but I will have you set up appointments with maternal fetal medicine as well, as a precaution.” He helps me lay back, then gets the ultrasound machine ready.
Odin and Orin walk over to stand by my head; Orin starts to rub my head and Odin grabs ahold of my hand. We want to record the ultrasound. I wince and let out a hiss when the doctor inserts the probe with the cold jelly into my lady bits.God, this shit is uncomfortable.
“Sorry, I should have told you it would be cold,” he apologizes.
“It’s fine, I knew it was coming,” I assure him. “It’s always a shock.”
He looks around for a minute, taking different measurements and looking closely at my, well, everything. He walks us through each and every detail and points out all the body parts for the guys benefit.
“Alright, so Twin A is measuring nine weeks three days, Twin B is measuring eight weeks five days. That’s perfectly normal. Blood flow to both is great. They have their own sac and placenta which is what we want to see. Less risk. Here is the first heartbeat.” He pushes a couple buttons, and the room is filled with a sweetthump-thump, thump-thump. I’m fighting back tears, and Orin isn’t far behind me.
“And here’s the second one.” A couple seconds later and again, we hear the second heartbeat.
“Twin A’s heartbeat is one seventy-seven, Twin B is one sixty-eight. Both are perfect. Do you have any questions?” he asks while printing out some of the pictures.
“Can we do the blood work to find out the gender of the twins?” I ask him while the guys help me sit up.
“Yes and no. We can do the bloodwork, but I don’t believe they are identical. If the test comes back showing Y chromosomes, we won’t know if both or only one baby will be a boy. However, if no Y chromosome is present, they will both be girls. I wanted to do the genetic screening anyway,” he explains.
I look over at both guys to see what they think, and they nod at me. “That sounds good to me. How long does it take for the results to come in?”
“It’ll only take about a week. I’ll send it to the lab today, but I’ll have them rush it since the office is closed tomorrow and Friday, so hopefully we’ll have the answer by next Wednesday. I want to see you every two weeks for routine check-ups. You are considered high risk since you are having twins and due to your recent trauma. My office has a twenty-four hour nurse line, so you can call with any questions and with any emergency, and they will send you straight to me. Do you want the results sent to your email?” he asks, grabbing a notepad and pen off the counter and handing it to me.
“Actually, no, I’m going to give you my grandmother's. I want to surprise the guys and our kids, but if I see them, I won’t be able to keep it a secret.” I write down Maw-Maw’s email and hand it to him. He walks out and sends the nurse to gather everything needed to take blood for the testing.
The whole way to the car he holds my hand and talks about how excited he is for the babies.
Right as we get into the car and get it started, the bluetooth starts ringing. It's a number I don’t know, so Odin clicks the button to answer for me while I buckle up.
“Hello?” I ask hesitantly.
“You fucking slut! How dare you try to keep those boys from me? You have no fucking right. They are all I have left of my son since you had him killed!” It seems like the Wicked Witch of the West had somehow gotten my number.
Odin turns an ugly shade of red and goes to reply before I put my hand on his arm and shake my head.
“First off, Cruella, I didn’t take anything from you. They were never yours in the first place. Second, you stood by and watched your son beat the hell out of me and treat his daughter that you refuse to even acknowledge like shit. Third, your son and husband had planned to fucking kill me and Vivi! The police had fucking proof of their plans. Besides,threejudges refused you visitation rights. You will never get to lay eyes on my kids ever again. Go fuck yourself, Stephanie!” I’m screaming the last bit as I hang up on her and immediately block her number.
I slump back in the car seat and take a deep breath and rub at my scar all the yelling aggravating it. “That felt great, and it was long overdue. Can we run through Sonic and get pickle fries?” I chirp happily. Telling that bitch off really put me in a good mood.
“Yeah, babygirl, we can stop and get pickle fries. Do you want a large Dr. Pepper also?” Odin chuckles.
“Yup, sure do. I also want y’all to not snitch and tell Bodie I’m eating junk.” I make sure to use my hand to air quote junk because Bodie is a warden when it comes to healthy food, and I love my junk food.
“When do we ever snitch?” Orin asks like he’s offended, putting his hand over his heart dramatically.
I turn to look at him pointedly. “You? Yesterday in fact, with my Ben and Jerry’s,” I deadpan.
“I didn’t know he would throw it away!” he whines back.
“You know he refuses to have processed food in the house. I’m pregnant, so I want real junk food!!” I screech at him.
“I’m sorry, Darlin’. How about I buy whatever junk foods you want to keep at the house, and I’ll hide them in my room? I have a mini fridge in the closet with my energy drinks.” Orin winces as he admits the last part.
“Yeah, that fridge better be stocked with my snacks if you get to hide red bulls,” I growl at him. Bodie hates energy drinks more than junk food. Honestly, I love him, but he is such a food snob. It drives me mad sometimes because I have always loved my junk food and candy.
We pull up to Sonic, and Odin orders my two orders of pickle fries with ranch, then a route forty-four Dr. Pepper. He also orders a soft pretzel and cherry Coke for Orin and cheddar peppers and a vanilla Dr. Pepper for himself. For the kids, he picked up some grilled cheese wacky packs, and he even made sure to order Maw-Maw her root beer float. We will have to burn all the evidence when we’re done eating.
