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“I come here for my yearly,” she said. “So. You didn’t need to know that.” She was scribbling on paperwork and sitting deeply in one of the vinyl chairs.
“Why don’t I need to know that?”
“It’s not the kind of thing that we really need to share.”
“I’m about to go into a doctor appointment with you. I can certainly handle mentions of your yearly.”
And yet, it was notable in difference, because he had certainly never been in a relationship with a woman that was this intimate. And they’d only slept together one time. It was weird as hell.
But it also didn’t feel... Bad. Not at all.
They got called into the room, and she sent him out while she got dressed in a hospital gown. He thought it was a little bit silly, all things considered. But when he came back in, she was lying on the table, covered by a blanket.
“So what exactly are they going to do?”
“I think they... Check for a heartbeat? And maybe do an ultrasound. To check how far along and all that.”
“Well. We already know that,” he said.
“True. I guess a lot of people can’t be sure. But we’re sure.”
“Yeah. Pretty damn sure.”
The door opened and an older, short man came in, and began to speak in a soothing voice, explaining exactly what he was going to do. Which was essentially what Shelby had said she thought would happen.
There was a small portable ultrasound machine and the doctor brought it up to the side of the bed. Kit suddenly felt frozen. He hadn’t been prepared for this. He didn’t know what the hell he’d been prepared for. But not this. Not the knowledge that they were going to see the child now. She looked similarly distressed, and reached out and took hold of his hand. He squeezed it tightly.
The doctor lifted up her gown and pushed the sheet low, before squirting a gel over Shelby’s stomach, and putting the wand there. The sound was instantaneous. A strange pumping, whooshing sound that filled up the room. And then they saw movement. “Holy shit,” he said, leaning into the screen. “Is that it?”
The doctor looked at him in a vaguely scolding manner, but Kit didn’t care. “Yes. That’s the baby.” He wiggled the wand, and then moved it down lower. “And feet.”
“And the heartbeat?” Kit asked.
The doctor moved the wand again, and he could see a fluttering gray thing, surrounded by black. “There it is. I’m just going to take some measurements.”
Shelby squeezed his hand, and when he looked at her, he saw that her lips were pale. “Are you okay?”
She nodded, but didn’t say anything.
“Based on what I’m seeing here, and on the dates you gave me... I’m going to put the date at March 1.”
It seemed like both an eternity and a blink away. And he couldn’t quite process the entire situation.
“Everything looks normal?” Shelby asked.
“Everything looks on track,” the doctor said. “Exactly what I would expect to see.”
“So I just... What do I do?”
“You come back in a month,” the doctor said. “We should be able to do an ultrasound to establish the gender then if you’d like.”
“Yeah,” Shelby said, her eyes suddenly bright. “Okay.”
The doctor left them, and Kit prepared to go too.
“It’s okay,” she said. “You can stay.”
Without being asked, he turned to face the wall as she got up. He listened to the sound of her putting her clothes on. Fabric against skin.
