Page 67 of The Broken Beginning: Part One

“According to my wife, the answer is that it doesn’t.” Dr. Marks took a moment to go over my chart and then he looked up at me, the nurse wrote down that you know the exact date of conception?”

“Yup,” I told him. “I gave it to her. And yes, I am absolutely sure.” Dr. Marks gave me a funny look. “I promise you, that there is no other day it could have been. I’ve only had sex three times, and only two of those without protection, in my entire life. The result of my first time is right over there.” I pointed to Declan who was in Merc’s arms, dribbling sticky sucker spit all over his shoulder.

Dr. Marks’ eyes widened, but wisely he refused to look at my husband. We both knew what was in the chart, that I was married, and while he might have been curious about our relationship dynamics considering what I’d just told him, he was wise enough not to question me further.

“Doc, I need you to do an STD test on me too. The whole works, just in case.” That time, Dr. Marks did look over his shoulder and no one in the room missed the accusing glare he threw my husband before slipping his poker face back in place.

“I can do that.” Dr. Marks called out to Merc then, “You can go behind the screen over there for a minute, because I’ll have to lift the sheet, and Mrs. Donovan will be exposed.”

“Nothing I haven’t seen before,” Merc bit back.

“Maybe so, but the little guy there will probably have a whole bunch of questions if he sees what I’m about to do to his mommy.”

Merc moved so that Declan’s view was blocked, but his own was not, and I just rolled my eyes at his bullshit. There was no doubting that he was pissed off. Whether it was about me admitting to only having sex three times in my life despite being married, or because I had to ask for a sexually transmitted disease screening, I didn’t know. I also didn’t care. It had to be done since he had been with plenty of women, and many of them questionable.

Dr. Marks did his thing, took the swabs, and handed them off to the nurse who stood quietly at the door the whole time. She was an older lady who looked at me with pity in her eyes. I hated it. I hated her for that. Mostly, I hated it because I would have done the same if I was standing in her shoes. Once the doctor got everything he needed, he left me there lying at the edge of the chair with my feet up in the stirrups, and then adjusted the paper blanket over my thighs.

“I’m going to do a transvaginal ultrasound for you. It will confirm your conception date and allow me to see what’s going on. I don’t want you to be concerned if we don’t hear a heartbeat just yet. From what you said, I think you’re right on the borderline where we might see evidence of it, but maybe not.”

“I understand,” I told him. Six weeks was the magic number, and I was hovering right around there so it could go either way.

“She’s covered, you can bring him back out so you can see now.” Again, Dr. Marks called out to Merc without looking at him. Instead, his focus was on the little screen to my side as he wiggled what basically looked like a sex toy around inside me. Briefly, I wondered if this technically counted as my fourth sexual experience.

My awkward laugh had everyone turning their attention up to me. “Sorry, weird thought. Carry on.”

Dr. Marks grinned, and I swear that man must have been a mind reader, or maybe other women had similar thoughts but spoke them out loud. Either way, the nurse had a smirk on her face too and Merc just looked puzzled.

“Okay, let’s see this little one, shall we?” Dr. Marks asked as he moved the wand around and finally stopped when a tiny blob appeared. Sure enough, I could see the little beating heart. The doctor smiled as he flicked a switch, and the sound filled the room. “Looks like we got lucky today. Perfect little heartbeat.”

“That’s the baby? The whooshing sound?” Merc asked.

Dr. Marks looked at the man, and the child he was holding, then turned back to what he was doing. “Yes, that’s the baby. As Mrs. Donovan progresses and we use the Doppler, you’ll usually hear her slower heart rate and then the baby’s will sound more like galloping horses in comparison.”

“That’s wild.”

Dr. Marks didn’t respond as he measured everything. “Everything looks good.” He gave me the due date and then smiled at me. “Every pregnancy is different, but I think we should make a plan for you possibly going early, especially considering the way you gave birth last time. I still haven’t heard the end of it from Dr. Hastings about that time he had to catch your baby in the hallway of the ER.”

We both chuckled over the memory, but Merc cut in with a loud, “What the fuck?” We both snapped our heads around to him. “What did you just say?” He asked again.

“Can we do this later? I’m sure Dr. Marks has other patients and going over something that happened years ago is just going to hold him up.” The doctor removed the wand from me and patted the outside of my thigh.

“All right, everything looks good. We’ll have your prescription for prenatal vitamins at the front desk. Have you been having any morning sickness this time?”

“Just a bit. Not as bad as last time, but I feel like I should knock on wood now, so I don’t jinx myself.”

He chuckled. “If you have any issues, call and let us know. I’d rather get you something to help settle your stomach than have you losing too much weight and becoming dehydrated, okay?”

I nodded. “Okay, we’ll see you in about four weeks.”

“Why so soon?” Merc asked as the nurse and doctor both ignored him and walked out.

“It’s always every four weeks through the first and second trimester, unless something goes wrong. Then it’s every two weeks and maybe down to one week apart at the end, depending on how things go.”

“I think you need a new doctor,” he finally said after absorbing that information.

“I really don’t.”

“I don’t like him.”

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