by L. A. Casey
He meant good luck with my pregnancy.
I think.
“Oh, thank you. I’m only twenty weeks away. It’s not long now.”
The man stared at me for a moment. “Yeah, not long at all.”
What?
I was about to say what I was thinking to him, but he turned and walked away without waiting for my reply or saying goodbye. He didn’t look back, just walked out of the cafe and towards the exit of the hospital.
That was weird.
I thought about it for a minute, but then my stomach grumbled and I forgot about everything except about how hungry I was.
When Kane came back, I wanted to burst into song. He put food items on the table and pushed them towards me. I blinked down at the items and looked up to Kane, who was staring at me like he was willing me to open up a sandwich and eat it.
I chuckled, “This can’t all be for just me?”
Kane shrugged. “I don’t want you to be hungry, we might be here for a while.”
“Kane,” I laughed and pushed a sandwich towards him, “eat this. I can’t eat with you just sat there starin’ at me like I’m a doll on display in a museum.”
Kane grinned. “You are a doll though. You’re my babydoll.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Stop being cute and eat the bloody sandwich.”
He did as I asked with a ghost of a smile on his face. I finished a double chicken and stuffing sandwich within five minutes. Kane was only halfway through his BLT sandwich by the time I was done.
I groaned, “I feel so much better after that.”
“The girls were right; you do eat like Bear Grylls.”
Oh, for the love of God.
“Get over it. It’s your child that is the cause of it.”
Kane snorted, “I know, he’s gonna be an awesome kid.”
I growled.
“Do you want to sit here for a bit or go back to the waiting area?” Kane asked, grinning at me.
“The waitin’ area,” I replied. “I don’t wanna miss me name being called.”
We got up and went back to the waiting area and found all the seats were taken. This irritated Kane.
“I’m telling one of the husbands of those women over there to get up.”
I grabbed his arm. “You’ll do no such thing.”
“You aren’t standing around for God knows how long—”
“Aideen Collins?”
I looked from Kane to a nurse I recognised. It was the nurse I met in the emergency room eight weeks ago. She had a pink folder in her hand that I assumed was mine.
“I’m here.” I smiled and walked over to her with Kane in tow.
“That was just lucky,” he mumbled.
I ignored him and smiled to the nurse. “Hello again.”
The nurse smiled then flicked her eyes past me and tensed up a little. It caused me to frown so I looked back to Kane then to the nurse.
What was her problem?
“Is everythin’ okay?” I asked.
She nodded her head and kept her eyes on me. “Everything is fine. I’d like you to follow me up to the second floor so I can carry out your appointment.”
“Lead the way.”
The nurse smiled, turned and began to walk. Kane and myself followed her, but I was no longer smiling. I was scowling.
“Hey,” Kane murmured, “what’s that face for?”
“I don’t like how she looked at you,” I replied lowly to him.
“What way did she look at me?” he asked.
I set my jaw. “Like she was frightened.”
Kane sighed, “I get that a lot, darling. I don’t blame her though—I do look scary.”
Hearing him say that made me really mad.
“No. You. Don’t,” I hissed. “You look perfectly fuckin’ fine, and fuck anyone who thinks differently.”
Kane grabbed hold of my arm and brought us to a stop. He rounded on me and looked down at my face. “Babydoll.”
I shook my head. “I’m fine. I... I just don’t like people thinkin’ you’re somethin’ to fear. You aren’t. They don’t know you like I do.”
Kane smiled at me. “Have I ever told you how amazing you are?”
I flushed. “No, but it’d be nice to hear it often.”
Kane laughed and wrapped his arms around me. “I love that you want to defend me, but you really don’t have to. I’m a big boy, I can handle myself.”
“You shouldn’t have to,” I mumbled.
Kane put his arm around my shoulder and smiled with glee. “Come on, gorgeous. Let’s go see our baby.”
If our nurse hadn’t annoyed me enough, the teenage girl that was openly drooling over Kane as we waited in the new waiting room on the second floor, brought me to boiling point. I was fuming mad and this kid wasn’t helping simmer my rage.
“What is your name?” the girl asked Kane after minutes of uninterrupted staring in his direction.
He glanced at her and said, “Kane.”
“Kane,” she repeated. “I love that. It sounds dangerous.”
Oh, please.
“Are you waitin’ on someone, Kane? Your sister perhaps?”
Was she blind?
Kane had a ghost of a smile on his face when he glanced at me and saw me openly glare at the girl.
“No, I’m here with—”
“His girlfriend. That’d be me,” I finished for him.
I saw Kane look at me, and I was just as surprised as him that I said it, but I couldn’t go back and unsay it, so I just went with the flow.
“Oh, I didn’t realise,” the girl murmured.
Didn’t realise my arse.
“It’s okay, harmless mistake,” I said and leaned into Kane who was smiling a little too wide for my liking.
He put his arm around me and dropped it down to my hip and began rubbing my side.
“Are you expectin’?” I asked the girl and glanced at her stomach, which was tanned, toned, and on display for everyone in the waiting room to see.
She definitely wasn’t pregnant—I was just being a bitch.
Colour flushed her perfectly positioned cheekbones. “No, me sister is. I’m just here for moral support.”
I faked a smile. “Oh, sorry. I thought you were waitin’ for an ultrasound.”
She caught onto my cattiness and looked me up and down. “It’s fine, a harmless mistake. Are you expectin’ triplets?”
That. Little. Bitch.
“Nope, just one big baby,” I said and pointed at Kane. “He is the daddy, you can only imagine how big our child will be.”
I had no idea why I was being so defensive. Usually, I wouldn’t care about Kane and any possible lay he could have, but we were about to see our baby together for the first time, and I just wanted him to myself right now. If the chick wanted him after the appointment, she could damn well have him.
No, she couldn’t. I take it back. If I couldn’t sleep with any men whilst being pregnant, then Kane couldn’t sleep with any women. That was fair.
“What is going on with you?” Kane murmured.
I didn’t know the answer to that question so I made something up.
“I just can’t wait to get home.”
“Why?”
“So I can take me bra off.”
Kane snorted at me, “It’s uncomfortable?”
I nodded my head. “The straps are startin’ to dig into my skin and I’m about to pop out of this one. I need to go and get some maternity bras, me old ones aren’t cuttin’ it anymore.”
Kane glanced down to my chest and licked his lips. “They look fine to me.”
I looked down also and grunted. My bra was tight, which made my newly enlarged breasts push up and almost spill out of my bra. Pre-pregnancy I was already big chested at a thirty-two double D. God only knew what I was now.
“They look too big. It makes them look fake and nasty.”
Kane gasped, “Don’t you ever say something so disgusting again. There is no such thin
g as boobs that are too big. Do you understand me?”
I laughed, “If you like them so much, you have them.”
Kane lifted his hands to my boobs and tried to touch them only for me to smack his hands away.
“I mean you have them on your chest. I didn’t mean touch them!”
Kane shook away the sting on his hands. “You have to be more specific.”
Clearly.
“You’re such a pervert.”
Kane smirked. “You love it.”
I hated that I smiled.
“Whatever,” I mumbled, trying to appear annoyed.
“Aideen Collins?”
Finally.
“Yes?” I replied to the voice calling my name.
The nurse from before popped her head around the corner and smiled. “I’m ready for you.”
I felt hands on my hips.
“Come on, Daddy, you can come too,” the nurse chirped to Kane then turned and disappeared around the corner.
I laughed at Kane’s facial expression as he looked down at me. “She called me Daddy,” he murmured.
I shook my head, smiling. “I’m sure she calls all the fathers-to-be, Daddy.”
Kane waggled his eyebrows. “Or maybe she wants—”
“Finish that sentence and I’ll hurt you,” I warned, my hand raised and my index finger pointing at him dangerously. “I’m not havin’ me midwife seduced by you today or any other day. She is here for me so keep it in your boxers or else.”
Kane laughed at me and placed both his hands on my shoulders when I turned and began to walk in the direction the nurse went. I spotted her outside a room and she gestured us in with her hand when we neared her.
We entered the large room filled with medical equipment. I recognised two things: The bed and the monitor used to see a baby inside its mother’s tummy.
“Pop up onto the bed, Aideen, and we’ll get started.”
I eyed the nurse, but did as she said. She seemed a lot happier than earlier and not at all wary of Kane like she was before. Maybe Kane was right and people can’t help but instinctively fear him when they first lay eyes on him.
I just didn’t get it—I didn’t have that problem when I first met him two years ago. I thought he was gorgeous; scars included.
“How have you been feeling over the past few weeks?” the nurse asked me.
“Good,” I replied and got up onto the bed with the help of Kane, who then sat next to me on a vacant chair. “I’ve been goin’ to my medical centre every week for little check-ups. It’s all there in my file, or it should be.”
The nurse flipped open my pink folder. “Yep, I see all your logged visits. Everything is looking great. Has your tummy settled down? I see a note here that you are still quite ill.”
I grunted, “It’s calmed down, but I still throw up mostly in the mornin’s.”
The nurse nodded her head and wrote something down on my file.
“Are you excited for your visit today?” the nurse asked with a smile. “You’re halfway there, only twenty weeks to go.”
I felt a huge smile stretch across my face. “I’m so excited, I can’t wait to see the baby again. They don’t have a machine in the clinic that lets you see the baby, only the one to hear it.”
“Well, you’ll be in for a treat. Baby will be a lot bigger than when you were here last time. You get to see 4D images today also.”
“I can’t wait.”
The nurse looked at Kane. “This is your first time seeing your baby, are you excited?”
“Very excited,” Kane replied.
The nurse smiled and looked to me. “You can lift your top and lower your leggings down just like before.”
I nodded my head and reached down and pulled up my t-shirt until it was tucked under my breasts. I tried to wiggle my leggings down, but it just wasn’t happening so I looked at Kane. “Pull my leggin’s and knickers down a little, will you?”
Kane stood up and gripped the hem of my leggings and underwear. “How far down?” he asked with a smirk on his face and a wiggle of his eyebrows.
I laughed, “Only a little bit.”
He pouted and tugged them down ever so slightly before sitting back down to look like a sad puppy. Smiling, I shook my head at him.
“The gel is cold, Aideen. I’m sure you remember.”
I lightly giggled then yelped a little when the nurse squirted the gel over my belly. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that sensation.”
The nurse smiled and used her microphone looking probe to swirl the gel about on my stomach. She moved the probe around a couple of times and smiled. “Found baby fast this time.”
I looked at the screen.
“Here is baby’s torso,” she moved the probe, “and here are baby’s legs. They’re crossed right now.”
“Oh, she’s gotten so much bigger!” I squealed and clapped my hands together.
“He,” Kane said absentmindedly as he stared at the screen on the wall in front of us.
I wasn’t getting into the same repetitive debate again so I ignored Kane and stared at my baby. At our baby.
“She has gotten so much bigger since the last time I was here.”
The nurse chuckled, “Yep, it’s amazing the differences you see in a foetus within such a short period of time. Even in yourself—you’re very different from when you walked into the emergency room eight weeks ago.”
I looked down at my rounded stomach and smiled. “Yeah, it’s crazy how quickly me body has changed.”
The nurse looked at Kane. “Have you noticed the changes in Aideen’s body as she grows the baby?”
Kane snapped his attention from the monitor that displayed our bun to the nurse’s pretty face.
“What?” he asked.
I laughed as she repeated her question.
“Oh, yeah.” Kane smiled. “I’ve noticed all the changes in her body.”
He has?
“Like what?” I asked, quizzically.
Kane smirked. “Your stomach, ass and bust has... enlarged.”
I rolled my eyes while the nurse snorted. “He has good observation skills.”
“He failed to mention my thighs, hips, and waist have expanded too.”
Kane waved me off. “I haven’t noticed.”
Of course, he hadn’t, he was too busy constantly looking at my ‘enlarged’ arse and chest.
“He’s smart,” the nurse chuckled. “He knows what to notice and what to stay mute on.”
Kane winked at the nurse and it made her blush.
I narrowed my eyes at Kane. “Really? First the girl in the waitin’ room and now me midwife. Are you shittin’ me?”
Kane held up his hands. “I didn’t do anything.”
“Make sure you don’t. I’ll cut your balls off if you do.”
The nurse stared back and forth between Kane and myself with wide eyes so I smiled and used Kane’s words against him. “This is our foreplay.”
“Cool,” she said and nervously smiled, making sure to avoid looking at Kane.
She spent a lot of time then taking new measurements of the baby, and pressing on certain areas of my stomach before measuring it with a measuring tape.
“So, let’s re-cap. I’ve recorded ten minutes of four-dimensional movement plus the foetal heartbeat for sound. You’re measured at twenty weeks and one day exactly. Your weight is pegged at a three to four-pound weight gain per week, and your bloods and blood pressure is perfect. What about your movements? Have you being getting your ten kicks a day?”
I nodded my head. “Yeah, but it’s literally just a little move or kick, they don’t last very long. I barely notice them if I’m being honest. I haven’t experienced a real big one yet. Is that somethin’ I should worry about?”
“Nope,” the nurse chirped. “Give it another few weeks and you will feel stronger kicks as well as be able to see your stomach moving. Dad, that means you can get a good feel of them so you can experience your baby moving too.”
“Can’t wait,” Kane commented lowly.
Uh huh.
“Would you like to know the gender of your baby?”
I shook my head firmly. “Nope.”
“Dad, are you okay on that matter?” the nurse asked Kane.
“You can tell what the gender of the baby is from just looking at the screen right there?” Kane asked the nurse and pointed at the monitor.
She nodded her head.
“So you know right now?”
Again, she nodded her head.
“You know if it’s a boy or a girl?”
She laughed and nodded her head once more.
“Are you going to put it in Aideen’s file?” he asked with his eyebrow arched.
The nurse snickered, “No because you both don’t want to know... right?”
“Right,” I answered instantly.
Both the nurse and myself looked at Kane when he remained silent.
“It’s killing me, babydoll. How can you not want to know?” he asked me with a pained groan.
I couldn’t help but smile at his tortured face. “Because seein’ you tormented like this brings me so much joy.”
“Evil!” he snapped. “You’re pure evil.”
I laughed, “I want it to be a surprise. As long as the baby is healthy, it doesn’t matter to me what the sex is.”
Kane sighed, “I guess... but it’s still going to kill me.”
I snorted, “You’ll get over it.”
“Okay, Satan,” Kane grumbled.
I smirked. “If I’m Satan, what does that make the baby?”
“The spawn of Satan,” Kane grunted and shook his head. “I’ve fathered the spawn of Satan. No amount of private talks with the man upstairs is going to get me off the ‘doomed for an entirety in hell’ list now. I’m fucked.”
Tears formed in my eyes when laughter racked through my body. I placed a hand on the top of my stomach and the other on my chest. Both sections of my body were hurting so bad.
“Stop,” I wheezed and flagged Kane with my hands.
He tried to glare at me, he really did. I saw him fight the smile that tugged at the corner of his mouth. He couldn’t help but succumb to the laughter floating around the room though. He couldn’t not smile when he looked at me for some weird reason.
“You’ll start premature labour if you don’t calm down,” the nurse joked.
It took me a minute, but I calmed down enough not to laugh out loud. A big smile stayed put on my face though. We finished up the rest of the appointment smiling and laughing, and Kane and myself continued it when we left the hospital.