Paxton's Peace

by Bailey West

  “Okay.”

  I lifted up my dress, pulled down my panties and sat on the toilet. I made sure to get the stick good and wet with urine. I was so nervous about what the test was about to say that I didn’t think twice about both women watching me use the bathroom. This would explain the headaches I’d been having and the dizziness that I had just brushed off as being tired.

  “Give it to me,” Zora said while holding a paper towel in her hand.

  I handed the stick to Zora. She grabbed it with the paper towel and sat it on the vanity.

  “Now we wait,” Zora said.

  I wiped myself, flushed the toilet and then washed my hands all without taking my eyes off the test.

  “Which one is this one?” Zora asked. “Is it the plus and minus sign or the one or two lines?”

  “This one says pregnant, not pregnant.”

  “Oh, you splurged for the fancy ones!”

  We all laughed, well they laughed, and I nervously chuckled.

  “It should only take about two minutes for it to register,” Zanetta confirmed.

  I kept trying to look somewhere else, but my eyes kept going back to the little stick on the vanity. It felt like it took forever for the words to appear in the little window, ‘pregnant.'

  “Oh, no!” I held my stomach and backed into the wall. “This can’t be happening.”

  “It’s okay, Ollie, please calm down. We are going to take you to the hospital. It’s going to be okay. We need to get you there now,” Zora said.

  I looked at Zora and saw she was fighting back the tears. Zanetta wiped hers away quickly.

  “Yes, we are going to be optimistic. Let’s just hurry up and get you there. I will call ahead and let Doctor Ingram know we are coming,” Zanetta said.

  We all piled into Zora’s car. I couldn’t control the fear and dread that had washed over me after seeing that word on the test…pregnant. I didn’t know if my stomach was hurting because I was nervous or if something was wrong. It wasn’t hurting before I found out but now it is.

  Paxton and I have discussed having my surgery reversed. I am not opposed to it at all. It’s what I want but we hadn’t made any appointments with the doctor to discuss our options. I would love to produce someone just like him. A little person with his red hair and freckles, his temperament and his smile. I would love to go through the process of a growing belly that contained him…a part of him and a part of me. It feels like life is playing a cruel trick on me. You can get pregnant, Olivia, but you won’t be able to keep it because your tubes are tied, and there is no way for the egg to get from your tubes to your uterus. I rested my head on the head rest in the back seat and held my stomach until we arrived at the hospital.

  “Doctor Ingram sent a text and said to check in, Olivia. He is going to be here soon.”

  I nodded, got out of the car and went into the emergency room. I checked in with the nurse at the emergency room desk. Zora sat next to me while the nurse took my vitals and I explained my situation to her. Zora and I exited the nurse’s station following the nurse back to a room.

  “Go ahead back, Olivia. I’m going to call Paxton,” Zanetta said.

  I nodded my head. Zora and I followed the nurse back to one of the rooms.

  Paxton

  “What’s up Nette?” I asked as soon as the call was connected. “You need something else for dinner?”

  My brothers and I were headed to Roman’s house for dinner. We had been out all day looking at our next potential property to flip. We’d seen a couple today that we are planning on making an offer on.

  “Hey, Pax. No, I don’t need anything else for dinner. Everything is okay, but we need you to come to the hospital.”

  “The hospital! Are you in labor?”

  “Is who in labor?” Roman asked from the driver’s seat. “Is that Nette?”

  Roman suddenly pulled out of traffic onto the side of the road.

  “No! No! Please tell Roman to calm down. I am not in labor. We had to bring Olivia, Pax. She threw up while she was at my house. We suggested that she take a pregnancy test and it was positive.”

  I looked over at Roman not realizing that I hadn’t told him that Nette was okay.

  “It’s not Nette. It’s Olivia they had to take her to the hospital.”

  “Which hospital?” Roman asked.

  “The same one Zahria was born in,” Zanetta returned.

  Roman carefully proceeded back into traffic and then began driving like we were being chased by someone.

  “That’s impossible, Nette. Olivia had her tubes tied. She can’t get pregnant.”

  “Pregnant?” Ezekiel said from the back seat.

  “Pregnant?” Roman asked while maneuvering through traffic.

  “Put me on speaker,” Zanetta said.

  I connected my phone to the car.

  “Okay, Nette. You’re on speaker.”

  My voice was a lot calmer than I felt.

  Nette’s voice filled the car.

  “Like I said, she took a pregnancy test, and it was positive. Getting pregnant while your tubes are tied is not impossible, it’s just rare. However, it’s dangerous too. That’s why we brought her in. Doctor Ingram is on call. He is going to take care of her.”

  “Is she in any pain?”

  “No, she’s fine. Just scared and worried. Zora is back with her now. I will wait out here for you to get here. Who’s driving?”

  “I am, Baby,” Roman said.

  “Babe, please don’t be out there acting like you are a race car driver. Get here safe, okay? I need you. We need you, in one piece.”

  At that very moment, Roman slowed down to comply with the speed limit.

  “Okay,” Roman said.

  “See you when you get here,” Zanetta said.

  “We will be there soon, Love,” Roman said.

  “Okay, I Love you,” Zanetta said.

  “Love you, too,” Roman finished.

  “Pax, has Ollie been acting sick or anything?” Ezekiel questioned.

  “She has been having dull headaches for the past couple of days but she takes something for them and they go away. I was planning on making her rest so more. I know she is stressed with the ABA opening.”

  I ran through my memories to see if there was something that I had missed that would have indicated she was pregnant. I couldn’t think of anything. Her periods are irregular, so I don’t know when they are coming but come to think of it, it has been a minute since she’s had one.

  “Rome, I’m about to lose my stuff over here. I need for you to pray, man. I’m like seconds from jumping out of this car and running to the hospital.”

  “I’ve got you,” Zeke said and touched my shoulder. “Father God in the Name of Jesus. We come to you on behalf of our brother and best friend. We need for you to dispatch your angels to the hospital, right now, and watch over our sister. We pray that your will be done in this situation but we humbly submit our request. Our request is that everything is well with Olivia and the baby. We humbly request that this situation is different than what the textbooks say or even what the Doctors can predict. We pray health over our family. We pray peace over our family. In the omnipotent name of Jesus.”

  “And it is so,” Roman finished.

  None of us said anything else as Roman maneuvered his vehicle, a little more carefully, through the traffic to get to the hospital.

  We arrived to the hospital about twenty minutes after the phone call with Nette.

  I rushed into the emergency room with my brothers right behind me. I spotted Nette as soon as I walked through the doors.

  “Hey, Nette. Where is she?”

  “She is in room 115,” she pointed around a corner. “Zora is back with her.”

  “Okay, thanks.”

  I walked through the doors looking for the room number. I stopped in front of the door and took a deep breath before I pushed it open. I walked in and saw Zora sitting in a chair next to the bed. Olivia was sitting up in the bed
with a hospital gown on. As soon as we made eye contact, she started crying.

  I rushed over and scooped her up into my arms and sat down in the chair next to Zora.

  “Shhh, it’s going to be okay.”

  “I’m going to wait with the rest of the family,” Zora said as she walked out of the room.

  “Thanks, Sis,” I called behind her.

  “It’s what we do,” she smiled and winked then closed the door behind her.

  I gently sat down in the chair while still holding Olivia on my lap.

  “I’m scared, Baby. I didn’t think this could happen. I wanted it to happen but what if I can’t keep it because of my tubal?”

  “Shhh, let’s wait for the doctor. Are you in any pain?”

  “No, I’m not in pain.”

  “Why do you keep holding your stomach?”

  “I don’t know. I started doing this as soon as I saw the positive test. I feel better when I’m holding it. I don’t know why.”

  I rubbed her back and held her until Doctor Ingram entered the room.

  “Mrs. Bluette,” Doctor Ingram said.

  Olivia stood from my lap and extended her hand to shake hands with him.

  “Mr. Bluette.”

  “Please call me Paxton.”

  We shook hands.

  “Great. Mrs. Bluette, can you come over to the bed?”

  I helped Olivia back into the bed.

  “I’ve spoken with your Doctor in Savannah. I asked him to send over your records, and he did. A tubal ligation was performed on you in Savannah, and your pregnancy test is positive. We did blood and urine tests just to be sure. Most women that have the tubal procedure don’t want children. How do you feel about being pregnant?”

  “My first marriage was very abusive. I didn’t think it would be fair to bring a child into that relationship, so I had the procedure done after my ex-husband beat me so bad that I lost a baby.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “Thank you, but it’s fine, now. My doctor performed the procedure for me after he saw the terrible things I had gone through. Then I met and fell in love with Paxton. It would bring me so much joy to successfully carry a child for him even though we’ve already discussed adoption if I couldn’t get the tubal reversed. I didn’t think that this could happen in my current condition and now that it has, I’m praying that it will be okay. I’m a realist though, I understand the risks.”

  “The problem that can occur with pregnancy after a tubal is an ectopic pregnancy. An ectopic pregnancy is where the embryo attaches outside the uterus usually to the fallopian tube. This can cause a lot of problems to include the need to perform a hysterectomy. Before we make any decisions on how to proceed, I would like to do an ultrasound. Let’s see what’s going on in there. Lie back on the bed for me. I will need access to your stomach. I will be right back.”

  Doctor Ingram stepped out of the room and came back a few minutes later pushing a machine. A female doctor came in behind him.

  “This is my colleague, Doctor Saville. I want her to consult with me on this ultrasound.”

  Doctor Ingram and Doctor Saville were busy getting the machine working. I leaned down and placed Olivia’s face between my hands.

  “All I need is you. Do you understand me? No matter what happens next, you are my number one priority. I love you, Olivia. We are going to be fine.”

  I wiped the tears that fell from her eyes before I stood up and held her hand.

  “I’m going to put this jelly on your stomach. It may be a little cold,” Doctor Ingram said. He squirted the jelly on Olivia’s stomach then used a wand device to spread it around. I watched the small monitor trying to see something that I could recognize, but all I saw was a lot of blobs that would appear and disappear as the wand moved. I watched the Doctor’s facial expressions, both their faces were unreadable.

  “Can you go back over that area again?” Doctor Saville pointed to the screen.

  “I saw that also,” Doctor Ingram responded.

  I was trying to be patient and wait for them to tell us what is going on but they were about to make me explode on them.

  “Well, Mrs. Bluette, your babies are resting comfortably in your uterus,” Doctor Saville said.

  I exhaled so long and hard I was almost dizzy.

  “Our concern was that the embryo had attached itself somewhere other than your uterus, but that’s not the case. If you look right here, this little blob is your baby.”

  I followed the movement of her finger on the screen. I couldn’t see anything, but I took her word for it.

  “Right here,” Doctor Ingram added. “Is another one.”

  I watched his finger circle around another area on the screen.

  “Wait, did you say another one?”

  “Yes, we see two embryos,” Doctor Ingram said looking at Olivia then to me.

  “Like twins?”

  “Exactly like twins because that’s what they are,” Doctor Ingram laughed.

  “Oh my God!” Olivia covered her mouth.

  I was too shocked to say anything.

  “So not only did you get pregnant after having had a tubal ligation, you are pregnant with twins. They measure around ten weeks. Since we can’t go off your last menstrual cycle to determine a due date, we will use these measurements.”

  He hit a button, and a muffled thumping sound filled the room.

  “Their heartbeats are synced. I can hear a slight variation, but they are beating together,” Doctor Saville said.

  “Now like I said, the embryos are in your uterus, but that doesn’t mean we are out of the woods. One of the babies could not make it. You could still have complications. To err on the side of caution, I want to put you on restriction at least until we can get you through this first trimester. Do you think you can handle that?”

  We both nodded our heads.

  “Great, I am going to be with you every step of the way. These babies will be my third and fourth Bluette delivery! Zanetta should be coming in very soon.”

  He smiled and reached for Olivia’s hand.

  “I don’t give patients hope when there really isn’t any hope to give, but in your case, I believe we are going to be okay. Can you believe that with me?”

  “Yes, Doctor Ingram. I believe that with you,” Olivia replied.

  “Good! Then you can get dressed, and I will be back with a couple of prescriptions and more instructions. Congratulations.”

  “Thank you, Doctor Ingram.”

  Both Doctors walked out of the room. Olivia was still laying down on the bed.

  “Pax, did he say we are having two babies?”

  “Yeah, Baby. Two of them.”

  I helped Olivia off the table. She got dressed, and we waited in silence until Doctor Ingram came back into the room.

  “I have both of your prescriptions called into your pharmacy so you can pick them up. I prescribed some prenatal vitamins and iron. Call my office tomorrow and make an appointment for some time next week so we can do some blood tests. Do you have any questions?”

  Olivia and I looked at each other. We both nodded our heads.

  Doctor Ingram laughed.

  “I know this is a shock, but it’s a good thing. I meet a lot of couples who would die to be in your shoes especially after having a tubal. So, rub your belly and anoint those babies. They are destined for greatness. They fought to be here so let’s give them every chance to make a healthy entrance into the world.”

  “We will. Thank you, Doctor Ingram.”

  “Thank you, Doctor,” Olivia smiled.

  Olivia

  Paxton and I walked out of the hospital room to find our family sitting in the waiting area. Roman stood to his feet first. The rest of the family followed suit and stopped in front of us.

  “So?” Ezekiel asked.

  “So,” Paxton started. “Olivia is fine. The babies are not in her tubes they are right where they are supposed to be…”

  “Did you say babies
as in plural?” Zanetta asked.

  “Yes, the doctors showed us two little blobs on the ultrasound. We heard their hearts beating, too.”

  “WHAT!” Zanetta yelled.

  “OH MY GOD!” Zora said.

  “Congrats bro,” Roman pulled Paxton in for a hug. Ezekiel followed behind Roman and hugged Paxton also. Then everyone hugged me.

  It finally hit me for real. I was carrying two babies inside of me. It was like reality fell on my head like one of those anvils from the cartoons.

  “Oh, my God…I’m pregnant?” I looked at everyone, and they all laughed.

  “Yes, sweetie. You are.”

  We went home and called all of the grandparents to tell them the great news. My mother was beside herself with joy and worry. She decided to change her move in date so that she could be close to me and make sure I wasn’t doing anything too strenuous. Of course, Lady Grace booked a flight out the next day to come and check on me. Giselle planned to come in the next week or so, also.

  I didn’t have any problems getting through my first trimester. My stomach was growing, and the babies were healthy. Doctor Ingram made sure to remind me that my pregnancy was still high risk, but the babies were doing well. Paxton rubbed oil on my stomach every night, even before I started really showing and prayed over our babies. He prayed for their health and for their future. With every prayer that he prayed over my belly, I fell more in love with him.

  “Doctor Bluette, you have visitors here to see you.”

  June’s voice came over my phone’s speaker.

  I looked at my calendar. I didn’t see any appointments, but we’d had some parents come in without appointments to see the school. I told my staff to accommodate walk-ins as long as there was time on the schedule.

  “Thank you, June. You can bring them in.”

  I stood from my desk and smoothed my dress over my growing belly. My babies and I were getting along well. I loved being pregnant.

  My door opened and June walked in first. She was followed by a woman and a man that made me freeze in place. I felt a fluttering in my stomach that made me involuntarily rub it.