“Is everything all right?” she asked as the woman marked the dimensions of the baby’s head, length, and then zoomed in on a rapidly beating little heart.
Savannah’s own heart beat like crazy at what she was seeing. That was her precious baby’s heart. Love filled her. She’d thought her heart already overflowed with love for this baby, but seeing the image of her child made it all so much more real. She couldn’t imagine how her heart was going to hold so much love when she actually got to hold her baby.
A knock sounded on the door and both Savannah and the ultrasound tech turned as the receptionist poked her head in, clearly guarding the door.
“Dr. Keele is here and insists he’s supposed to be present for this. Is it okay if I let him in?”
Relief that he’d shown flooding her, for their baby’s sake, Savannah nodded and the woman said something to someone behind her.
In seconds Charlie was in the room, his gaze fixed first on her, then the monitor screen.
“Sorry I’m late. I did an ablation on Mrs. Barton this morning and got held up later than intended.” He spoke to her but his eyes were on the screen, studying every detail of the image the woman had zoomed into.
“Is she okay?” Savannah asked, searching his face for some sign of what he thought of their baby.
“Considering her level of heart failure, she’s doing great. I hope to get her scheduled for the LVAD next week.”
“That’s fabulous.”
“What’s fabulous is that healthy little heart,” he said, studying the screen.
“Everything looks good?” she asked him rather than the tech.
“I can’t say much as to anything other than the heart, but that’s a beauty of a heart. Must take after his mother.”
“His?” the tech asked. “Do you want to know the sex of the baby today?”
“Yes,” Savannah said at the same time as Charlie said, “No.”
He corrected himself. “Whatever Savannah wants is fine.”
“Well, normally I wouldn’t be able to tell you at twelve weeks, but you’re actually closer to fourteen so I can confirm it with more certainty. I can write it down and she can look later if you don’t want to know?”
“I...” He hesitated. “That would be fine.”
Savannah frowned. He didn’t want to know if their baby was a boy or a girl? How could he stand not knowing? How could he not be looking overjoyed at the precious image on the screen?
The ultrasound tech went through pointing out different features on the ultrasound, then printed pictures for both Savannah and a separate one for Charlie.
He held the photo loosely in his hand as if he wasn’t quite sure what to do with it.
“Here—” the tech handed her a piece of paper “—I wrote the sex of your baby on this. You can look at it whenever you decide you’re ready to know.”
“Thank you.”
“No, thank you,” the tech countered. “I love my job and watching new parents see their baby for the first time.”
“Thank you,” Savannah told the tech again as the woman popped out the disk and handed it to her.
“This has a video clip and all the photos on it. Enjoy your baby’s first pictures.”
Her baby’s first pictures.
Savannah glanced at the image in her hand and knew she’d never seen anything more precious.
* * *
Charlie thought he might pass out.