Page 53 of Andy

Mel started laughing. “Oh goodness. That’s too funny. The very first time.” Mel stopped laughing and looked at the doctor. “Is everything okay?”

"From what I'm seeing, yes. I want to make sure you're gaining weight. You don't need to gain too much, but if you start losing weight, that will be bad. But you're almost done with your first trimester, and you're one pound over what you were when you came in last time. That's really good for someone your size. Let me look…" The doctor clicked on something on the screen. "So you were in just a few weeks before you got pregnant. So I'd say the IUD was absolutely defective, and you're gaining enough weight. This isn't how I thought your pregnancy would go because a lot of women your size have issues. I'm glad you don't. Just keep putting weight on. If you're having trouble keeping food down, call and ask for a prescription. Though you are almost out of the first trimester, so hopefully you won’t have too many problems with morning sickness. And we'll get you on a schedule for prenatal visits. You'll be seeing the nurse practitioner and the nurse midwife, along with me. We want you to feel comfortable with all of us. You'll also meet the other doctor who fills in for me if I'm out of town. I fill in for him when he is gone. He's a great guy who I've known since seventh grade. Do you have any questions?"

“How much should she gain in the next month?” Andy asked.

“Starting in the next few weeks, I’d say a little more than a half-pound, maybe one pound a week. We’ll keep a close eye on your weight.”

"Thank you, Dr. Newel," Mel said as she sat up.

“You’re welcome. And congratulations.”

“Thank you,” Andy said as he put his arm around Mel’s shoulder. She looked up at him and nearly took his breath away. He was doing this. They were having a baby, and he was going to marry this woman. None of the guys had given him a hard time about her, but this might just do it.

The doctor left the room, and Mel got off the bed. He pulled her close and held on. Going into BUDs had been scary. His first big mission had seemed almost overwhelming, but this was real and so big he was really afraid he would fail.

He needed to talk to Wild, and make sure he had his head on straight. No way would he fail Mel or their child. He would be the man they needed him to be.

Chapter 31

Mel couldn’t believe she was that far along. She pulled out her phone and counted the weeks. “Ten weeks have passed since we first had sex.”

“Wow. And you didn’t know?”

She shook her head. “I felt weird a while back, but I chalked it up to being worried about you. And when you were gone, I dropped weight, but I worked hard to put it back on. I guess I’ve gained it all back now.”

“That’s good. You keep up the good work.”

Laughter bubbled up, and he glanced over before he took the turn. His lips thinned, and that made her laugh even more.

“What?” Andy asked.

“I’m not doing anything.”

“I can assure you, you are doing something. You’re growing a whole human. I mean, that image on the screen, it looked human like.”

Mel sighed. “A baby. What are we going to do with a baby?”

“Girl or boy, I’m teaching them to shoot and run obstacle courses.”

“As long as you teach gun safety, I’m fine with that. Because they’ll have friends over, we’ll have to keep the guns put up.”

“Yeah. I guess having random kids running around makes safety a priority.” Andy parked the car and reached over, taking her hand. “We can do this, right?”

Mel shrugged. “I don’t know. We’re going to try. I’m scared, but that makes sense. It’s a huge change.”

“Yeah, it is.”

“I need to talk to someone. Can we tell Wild and Ava?” Andy asked.

Mel pressed her lips together. "We're almost at twelve weeks. I know there's something about development that happens around now." She pulled out the photo the doctor had printed from the ultrasound. "It looks like a little alien baby."

Andy leaned over and kissed her cheek. “It does look like a little alien. Humans are weird.”

His words caused a laughing fit that left her almost unable to get out of the car. Andy threatened to pick her up, and she pushed on his chest and stood on her own. Right then, Ava, Wild, and the two girls were passing and stopped. Emma marched over and put her hands on her hips.

“What are you laughing about?”

That made Mel laugh even more. She wasn’t much taller than the girls, so she didn’t have to drop too low to get on Emma’s level.

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