“Is it a bad time to say I need to go to the bathroom?” I asked, not joking at all. I hadn’t realized it until she’d pressed a particular area, and now it was a pressing matter.
“That’s what we need at this stage to get the best image of baby,” she murmured, her eyes on the screen. All I could see was something out of a sci-fi movie on it until she stopped and squealed, “Gotcha!”
That one word had even Parker leaning around to look at the screen, but it was Elijah’s big shoulders that blocked my view.
“Okay, so here we have—” the girl said, stopping suddenly. “Uh, sir, Mommy can’t see the screen.”
Mommy.
I was an ugly crier. I’d always looked like a constipated bulldog with conjunctivitis when I did it. But silent crying was a whole new issue for me, and I had zero doubts that it made me look like a constipated and conjunctivitis-ridden bulldog trying to hold back a sneeze. And it was all because of that one word—my first mommy.
Swearing quietly, Elijah moved out of the way by getting on the bed and leaning back next to me, giving me his strength and support the only way he could at that moment. I was still hurt by what he’d done, but I could’ve kissed him for it.
“So, as I was saying, this is baby’s head right here, then you’ve got a nose…” she continued pointing out parts to us. “Baby’s got long legs,” she giggled. “Obviously takes after Daddy.”
Well, given that I made my grandmother look like a giant, it was hardly taking after me.
She did some clicking and weird stuff with the screen, with lines and numbers coming up on different parts of the baby, then hummed and looked at Parker. “Looks like fourteen weeks and three days gestation.”
I almost hit Elijah in the chin with my hand. “That’s not possible. We only did it—” I looked at my brother, who was glaring at me now. “Um, roughly twelve weeks ago for the first time.”
“That adds up, Sadie,” Parker explained for her. “We go by the date of the last period, which would’ve been two weeks before the twelve weeks, so we add those weeks onto the pregnancy, and it works out at fourteen plus three days.”
Chewing my lip, I nodded and accepted the response. What did I know about medical stuff?
“Is the baby okay after how sick she’s been?” Elijah asked.
“Everything looks perfect. I’ll print you off some pictures and put some with the measurements on it in your new pretty pregnancy file.” She held up a pretty yellow folder to show me what she meant. “We like to have a backup at this hospital, so you get a copy to carry with you in case you’re somewhere else when you go into labor, and we save the information on a file in the hospital, too. Depending on where your OB/GYN is, they’ll do the same thing.”
“Holy shit, this is legit,” I whispered, staring at the baby on the screen as black and white images started printing out. Then, I swear my life changed in the next second as the baby began to move around, kicking its legs and waving its arms around.
“You’ve got a party animal in there, Dee,” Craig chuckled. “Cute little bugger, though.”
“She’s perfection,” I croaked, tears running down my cheeks now. “The most perfect little human I’ve ever seen in my life.”
As soon as the alien probe was lifted off my stomach, Elijah was there with some paper towels to gently wipe the gunk off it. Once he’d achieved the task, he looked up at me, and something changed between us.
We needed to have a long talk, and I had a shit ton that I wanted to say to him, but he looked more at peace than I’d ever seen before. His eyes were clear, he didn’t have the tension in him that he’d had previously, and he just looked happy.
A knock at the door ruined the moment, and then Jackson was poking his head around it with a massive grin on his face. “Did someone call uncle?”
“Yeah, and I got here first,” Craig said smugly. “Number one right here. You can be a number two.”
Ignoring him, Jackson came and looked down at the photos that I was now holding. “May I?”
I hadn’t met all of the family, but I knew right then that my baby was going to be lucky. He or she was an against the odds baby, so immediately they were special. But if the rest of Elijah’s family were as amazing as the ones I’d met, added onto my own, this baby would be born blessed.
Something that was proven only seconds later, when a tear slowly made its way down Jackson’s cheek.
His one word then sealed it. “Perfection.”