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It was a miserable drive to the small hospital in Silver Ridge. Nicole didn’t think she’d black out again, her vision thankfully remaining clear. But she was so nauseous for the entire drive that she had her head resting on the cool glass of the window for the entire way there, focusing on keeping her lunch firmly in her stomach. There was no conversation, no radio on, just the quiet calm of the car, with Scott occasionally looking at her with concern and giving her knee or her hand a squeeze.
Being such a tiny hospital, there was hardly anyone there, and Nicole was ushered through to a bed in a private examination room almost immediately, hooked up to blood-pressure monitors and getting her blood drawn for tests.
At some point she fell asleep, wrapped up in the cocoon of blankets that had been laid over her, the steady beeping of monitors acting like some weirdly effective meditation guide.
“Miss Brooke.”
Nicole opened her eyes and came to a lot easier than when she’d fainted at the farm. A doctor was standing by her bed, a woman not that much older than her with dark eyes and a warm smile.
“My name’s Doctor Hilton. How are you feeling?”
Nicole sat up a bit in the bed and rubbed some feeling back into her face. She could feel the marks in her cheek from where the blanket had been pressing into it.
“Better, actually.” Which was true. Not amazing, but she was definitely feeling more like herself.
“Your blood sugar was extremely low so we’ve given you something for that, and I’m glad it seems to be working,” Dr. Hilton said with another kind smile. “Well,” she said, that kind smile of hers faltering just a little bit as a more serious expression flitted across her face “as you know, we took some blood to do some tests, which is how we found the low blood sugar, but Miss Brooke… were you aware that you’re pregnant?”
Nicole felt like she was back underwater again. Not like she was in danger of passing out, but more like she was drowning.
“Miss Brooke?”
“Um,” Nicole stammered, slamming back to reality so fast it was almost physically painful. “No. No, I was not.”
The doctor’s smile had definitely dimmed now into something a lot more sympathetic and gentle.
“It appears to be quite the shock, huh?” she asked tactfully.
“Yeah. Definitely not planned, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Dr. Hilton grinned, a little more devilish after Nicole’s bluntness. “Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?”
“Well, I suppose you’re going to have to, huh?”
“I think that would be for the best,” she said with a nod and wheeled over a small table with a hospital-issue laptop sitting on it. She started tapping away with blinding speed and a focused expression.
“Would you be able to give a ballpark for the date of conception?” Dr. Hilton asked, not sounding very hopeful.
“Six weeks,” said Nicole, having no doubt of that.
“Oh! Well, technically you’d be due for an ultrasound at six weeks. Did you want to do that while you’re here, save yourself driving in again?”
If it had been anyone less friendly, Nicole would have just said no so that she could run away home and cry in bed for the rest of the day. She could have so easily gone into a panic spiral with just one or two words, but now… well, the doctor was so happy that it was making her feelgoodabout it all. Especially when it was always what she’d thought her life would end up being, how she had always envisioned living her entire life on that farm with kids of her own to pass it on to. So she’d gotten that vision in the end — just in a really messed-up sort of way.
“Um, yeah, may as well,” Nicole said, trying to sound a little more enthusiastic. Quicker than she’d thought possible, she was watching Dr. Hilton get an ultrasound machine and monitor screen set up. Once Nicole’s belly was exposed and covered in some weird sort of jelly stuff, the doctor started moving the sensor over her skin. Black-and-white images started showing up on the screen, all of it indecipherable to Nicole until Dr. Hilton began pointing things out.
“So that’s your stomach,” she said, focused on the screen like it was some sort of bizarre video game. “And a little lower down is your uterus… and right there, that little circle, that’s the baby.”
Despite the shock and the stress of it all, Nicole felt a little burst of warmth inside her as she looked at the blob on the screen. But as she looked, the doctor had gone quiet and seemed to be concentrating more fiercely, moving her scanner this way and that too fast for Nicole to keep track.
“Is everything okay?” she asked, trying to ignore the panic that was threatening to take over.
“Everything’s fine! It’s just, well, you’ve already had a couple of shocks today so…”
“What — are you going to tell me it’s twins or something?” Nicole said with a dry laugh that died on her lips when Dr. Hilton gave her a deadpan look.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she said.
