Page 63 of Prognosis Incompatible

Madeline maintained her professional veneer as she ushered the man that she loved and the woman he had impregnated into the examination room a short time later. Tabitha, her eyes red-rimmed, got up on the couch and pulled her skirt down a little to reveal her still flat stomach.

She switched on the machine. It may not have been a high tech unit like those at a radiology clinic, but even a basic device these days was hugely sophisticated – it would do the job.

Tabitha reached for Marcus’s hand and he took it, automatically. ‘You’ve been spotting?’ Madeline asked, needing to say something to stop the roar of blood in her head. Watching their easy familiarity was torture.

‘It started an hour ago.’

‘And what were you doing at the time?’ she asked, pretending that this was just another client as she palpated Tabitha’s abdomen. She could easily feel the bulge of the burgeoning uterine fundus and frowned slightly. At ten weeks she shouldn’t be able to palpate the fundus yet. It didn’t grow up from behind the pelvic rim until about twelve weeks.

‘Marcus and I had had an argument,’ she said, her voice tight. ‘I was crying.’

Madeline glanced at Marcus, the guilt on his face heartbreaking. Damn it. And damn him. Here she was, caught up in a bizarre triangle with the absolute right to feel pretty damn aggrieved, and all she wanted was to take him in her arms and comfort him.

‘And have you been taking care of yourself?’ she asked. ‘Eating well, sleeping well?’

‘I had my best night’s sleep in a long time,’ Tabitha sniffled. ‘I’ve always slept best in Marcus’s bed.’

Marcus gaped at Tabitha as Maddy flinched. She covered it swiftly but he could see his ex-wife’s barb had hit hard. What the hell? It was unlike Tabitha to be so cruel.

There was something screwy going on with her.

He clenched his fists. ‘I slept on the couch,’ he clarified tersely, relieved to see Maddy’s shoulders relax.

Madeline squeezed some gel onto Tabitha’s abdomen and didn’t feel the least bit sorry at the other woman’s swift intake of breath as the cold goo hit her skin. Normally she would warn the patient first but Tabitha’s last dig had hit its mark and it had stung.

Madeline ran the transducer through the gel as the image of a very healthy-looking foetus flickered on the screen. The heart beat strongly and nothing appeared obviously irregular or out of place. If Tabitha had been in the early stages of miscarrying, Madeline would have expected to find an abnormality with either the foetus – like no heartbeat - or an irregularity in the sac or the lining of the uterus.

But nothing was obvious.

Madeline’s suspicions were confirmed, however. No way was this a ten-week pregnancy. She’d guess it to be closer to fourteen weeks, definitely second trimester. She knew that the machine would give her an actual gestation at the end but wondered if Marcus had picked it up.

‘The baby looks fine. It has a very strong heartbeat,’ Madeline said to Tabitha.

She sneaked a peek at Marcus and wished she hadn’t. The look of wonder on his face made her feel physically ill and she knew it was all over between them. Irrational tears sprang to her eyes. How would it feel to have Marcus’s baby inside her? To have him look at their baby like that?

Like it was the most precious thing he had ever seen.

The yearning was intense and she almost wished she was also pregnant. At least she would be able to take a little of Marcus away from this mess and she’d never be alone again.

Marcus was totally caught up in the image on the screen. He remembered seeing the twelve-week ultrasound pictures of the baby Tabitha had miscarried years ago and clearly remembered not feeling anything other than a sinking sense of dread.

He hadn’t seen the fuzzy images as the wonder and awe of new life but a representation of the end of his life as he’d known it. But right now he felt a weird connection with the strong yet fragile new life. His baby’s heartbeat blinked rapidly at him and he felt a primal urge to protect it from any harm.

He looked up and saw Maddy staring at him with glassy eyes and he realised there was only one thing wrong with this picture — it was the wrong woman lying on the couch.

If only he had that magic wand Maddy had accused him of having at their first acquaintance. Looking at the baby and feeling his love for it rising in his chest, he realised everything would have been perfect had it only been inside Maddy — the woman he loved.

He knew in that instant if this mess was ever sorted out and he could convince Maddy to take him back, that he wanted to do this with her. If that’s what she wanted, too. He wanted to see their baby on a screen. And growing inside her and coming into the world and being cuddled into her breast.

He wanted it so badly it hurt.

And then he realised that there was something else wrong with the picture. He’d been so caught up in the image and the unexpected rush of love that he hadn’t seen the most obvious thing. He looked at Maddy and knew that she had spotted it, too.

‘What’s the gestation?’ he asked, a sinking feeling in his gut.

Madeline’s hand shook as she pressed the button, fully aware that Marcus had seen the discrepancy. ‘Fifteen weeks one day,’ she read off the screen.

A storm of emotion swamped him as the implications became clear. He couldn’t be the father. ‘The baby’s not mine.’

‘What?’ Tabitha rose up onto her elbows. ‘No, that’s impossible.’

‘I’m afraid it is,’ said Madeline.

Then Tabitha lay back and burst into tears.

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