Becca's Baby

“No,” Sari said, shaking her head. “Not yet, anyway. Right now, I just want this so badly it’s all I can think about.”

“Even after losing Tanya?” Becca asked. Losing her niece had terrified her, had affected her feelings for the child growing inside her.

Slipping to the floor at her sister’s feet, Sari took both of Becca’s hands in hers. “I had Tanya, Bec,” she said, her eyes filled with an odd peace and glowing with love. “Those were the best sixteen years of my life. I’d do them over in a heartbeat.”

Afraid to finally know, to have her hopes crushed, Sari refused to check the test when the time was up. Becca rationalized until she was out of breath, and yet Sari did nothing but stare at the bathroom door with worried eyes.

“You want me to do it?” Becca finally asked.

“I just don’t want the answer to be no.”

“There are no guarantees in life, sis,” Becca repeated Sari’s words back to her as she stood up.

Sari grabbed her hand, holding her back. “Just don’t tell me the second you walk in the door,” Sari said. “That way, if the answer’s no, I still get a few seconds to hope…”

Becca nodded and went into the bathroom. One glance, and she started to cry. Sari needn’t have worried; Becca couldn’t speak if she’d wanted to. She couldn’t get a single word out.

“Becca?” Sari called, her voice filled with trepidation.

Composing herself as best she could, Bec

ca turned toward the door, walked straight to Sari and threw her arms around her.

“Congratulations, Mommy,” she whispered, and broke down completely.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

BECCA’S NEXT APPOINTMENT with Dr. Anderson, on Thursday, the second-last week in June, was another positive one. At five and a half months, she was still progressing normally. Her blood pressure had even fallen into the normal range.

“How long can sexual activity continue?” Will asked the doctor as she measured Becca’s protruding stomach.

Feeling herself blush, Becca wished he’d picked a better time to ask such a question. But she held her breath, anyway, waiting for the answer. She was starting to live for those moments of closeness with Will. As long as they were connecting—even in these silent sexual interludes—she had hope. Besides, Will’s tenderness during those nocturnal forays was sustaining her.

“As long as everything proceeds normally, you should be able to continue intercourse into the last month,” the doctor answered after writing measurements down on Becca’s chart.

Before they left, Becca told Dr. Anderson about Sari’s good news, asking if she had room for one more patient. Up to this point, her sister had been seeing a general practitioner in Shelter Valley, but with an “over forty” pregnancy, she’d agreed to Becca’s pleas to switch to a specialist in Phoenix. Will jumped in, too, telling the doctor about the child Sari had lost, how important this new pregnancy was to Sari and Bob—to all of them. The doctor smilingly agreed to fit Sari in.

Then Dr. Anderson spoke with them about several tests she wanted to run on Becca—some of them optional—and told Becca to make appointments for those they chose to pursue.

She and Will discussed those tests during the drive back to Shelter Valley. They’d both done a lot of reading on the subject.

“I don’t think you need the amniocentesis, Bec,” Will said as soon as they were out of city traffic. “It’s painful, and even if it tells us there’s some kind of defect, we’re going to have the baby, anyway.”

He was silent for a moment, then said, “Aren’t we?”

He wasn’t sure of her anymore. But how could she blame him when she was having so many doubts herself? This was an answer she knew for certain, however.

“Of course we are.” She’d determined that when she’d opted not to terminate her pregnancy.

“We need the ultrasound, though, and all the bloodwork, plus the diabetes test,” Will said.

“I agree.”

“Do we want to know the sex of the baby?”

“I don’t.” Becca had already given that some thought. She wanted to do this the old-fashioned way. To be surprised. “Unless you do?”

She wasn’t sure of him, either.