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The doctor gives her full attention to Julia, her expression blank but her calculations roaring behind her eyes, then she looks between Justin and me.
“Gentlemen,” she says, meeting first my eyes and then Justin’s. “I’m going to ask you to give me a few minutes alone with Mrs. Williams. There’s a snack machine along with a dispenser of truly horrible coffee at the end of the hallway. Just take a left out of the room, and follow the signs.”
She tries to make it light and easy with the quip about the coffee, but panic immediately bursts inside my stomach. Justin scoots until he’s sitting on the edge of his seat.
“Why?” Justin asks at the same time I blurt out, “What’s wrong? What can’t you tell us?”
Julia grips both our hands so hard her knuckles turn white.
“There’s absolutely nothing wrong,” the doctor attempts to assure us in a calming voice. She meets both our eyes again. “It’s standard, I assure you. But due to doctor/patient confidentiality, there are some things we need to discuss without others present.”
I’m frozen in my seat, feeling like I need to follow the doctor's instructions but unwilling to let go of Julia’s hands. I don’t see how she can kick Justin out, but in the eyes of the law, I’m nothing. I shouldn’t even be here.
I feel like I need to be sick.
Justin opens his mouth, but Julia beats him to it.
“I want them both to stay,” Jules says with a firm voice. “Anything you have to say to me, you can say in front of them.”
The doctor takes a steadying breath, again flicking her eyes to Justin and me. I meet Justin’s gaze over the bed and see my terror reflected back at me. I squeeze Julia’s hand even firmer if only to keep my hands from shaking.
“It’s standard in these cases to run a pregnancy test. It was positive. We confirmed it with the ultrasound. You’ll need a more in-depth ultrasound with your OBGYN, but from our quick glances, everything looks healthy. You’re approximately eight weeks pregnant, Mrs. Williams.”
All the air rushes out of me, and my heart is pounding so hard it makes me dizzy. I can see the doctor's mouth moving, but all I can hear is the blood rushing in my ears.
It isn’t until I hear Julia’s voice that my senses come rushing back at a speed that knocks me sideways.
“What?” Jules shakes her head. “How?” Her voice is weak and breathy, her chest panting in tight little bursts. “I’m on birth control. I haven’t missed a day in…” she looks at Justin, and he shakes his head.
“Ever,” he supplies.
His voice is shaking, but his eyes are sparkling, and I can see the fight on his face to keep it neutral. The sides of his lips keep twitching, desperate, no doubt, to break into a smile.
“Jules has horrible cramps, and her cycles are incredibly heavy. We make sure she takes her pills religiously. It’s the only thing that helps.”
“So this wasn’t planned?” Dr Spellman asks, and as one, we shake our heads.
Planned? What a laugh. We had tons of plans, but adding an innocent child to the madness we’ve created in our lives certainly wasn’t one of them.
“Pregnant,” Jules sighs under her breath.
The room is spinning around me.
“Well,” the doc continues. “Birth control, while incredibly effective, isn’t foolproof. Plus, there are things that can severely weaken its efficiency.”
“Antibiotics,” Justin says without prompting. His voice is trembling. “Antibiotics can nullify birth control.” He turns his full attention to Julia. “Like the antibiotics taken for a sinus affection from hell.”
Julia giggles, pulling her hands from ours to cover her mouth. Then she giggles again, full-bodied and filled with joy.
“Itwashorrible,” she says, turning to the doctor. “It took me weeks to shake it.”
At last, the doc drops her prim and proper facade and graces Julia with a smile.
I wasn’t there for that. I didn’t even know she’d been sick.
“Now that I think about it, I don’t remember having a period this month, it’s usually at the end and into the beginning of the next,” she tells the doctor. A quick look at me. “But it’s been an emotional time lately, and it didn’t even enter my mind.”
I shouldn’t be here. I can already feel myself breaking out in a cold sweat. My hands are clammy, and I’m about half a second from puking all over the floor. Julia was sick, and now Julia is pregnant, and I shouldn’t be here intruding on their life. Panic is clawing at my insides, and I bite the flesh of my cheek to keep from rising out of my seat and sprinting from the room.
