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Chapter Fourteen
Ruby woke the next morning in her usual bed at the firehouse and hit the showers before dressing for shift. Carolyn, the paramedic she liked to hang out with from time to time stopped by her locker. “Hey, Ruby, you feeling better now? Holy shit, what happened to your face? Are you okay?”
“Yeah, weird thing, I lost my balance. No biggie! I’ll use makeup to cover the bruises.”
Knowing Ruby’s tone of voice and her way of putting up walls, Caro backed down. “What did the doc say about your stomach problems?”
Since Ruby had shared her worries with Caro, she wasn’t surprised that the other girl would enquire about her health results. After all, they’d gone through a lot of work-related incidents, and that alone tended to bring people closer.
“Yeah… about that, you’ll never believe what his diagnosis ended up being.”
Carolyn moved closer to sit on the bench next to Ruby. “You’re pregnant?”
Ruby sighed; vexation obvious. “You knew?”
“I suspected. But you were so bristly about the subject, I backed off. Seriously, sweetie, it’s the best result you could have gotten from the symptoms you explained.”
“I thought it was stomach cancer.”
“I know you did. That’s why I wanted you to go to the doctors for the tests.”
“How come you were so sure?” Ruby looked at Caro, her eyes questioning.
“Honey, you’ve gained weight around your tummy and your breasts were hurting. I saw you wince when you were dressing one day. And there were other slight indications.”
“You mean like me not being able to look food in the face and throwing up every time I tried to eat normally.”
Laughing, Caro nodded. “Yeah, like that. It’s just when I tried to broach the subject, you bit my head off and said as how you hadn’t been with a man for so long, you figured your lady’s parts had dried up, and you were worried you creaked when you walked.”
Ruby had to grin at the memory of her joshing with her friend. Only now it didn’t seem to be so funny. “Caro, do you remember anything weird happening at the spa weekend we had back in March?”
“Hmm.” While thinking back, she made a face, her eyes closed. “Uh-huh. It was nice and quiet, something we both deserved after that hectic fire we’d been called out on the Thursday before. Losing that family broke everyone up.”
“I know. It was exactly what we needed. But other than those three days, I can’t think of any other time I might have been impregnated.”
“Ruby, there were no men around us. Even the night we had dinner at the restaurant, there were a few couples but no single men that I remember.”
“Yeah… kind of what I remember too. Yet, according to the indications, you know the baby’s size on the ultra-sound, that would pretty much be the dates when I got pregnant.”
“Well, for heaven’s sake, are you still asserting you weren’t with a man?”
Before Ruby could retort, the call came loud and clear for both girls to get to their vehicles and gather their gear.
