Page 41 of Embattled Ever After

“I don’t know,” she told him honestly. “I’ve already had to buy one new bra a size larger.”

He turned back to the magazine and began reading in earnest. By the time her name was called to go back, John had flipped through a couple of magazines.

The nurse that greeted them had a smile a mile wide. “Oh, yes,” she assured Shannon. “Daddies are always allowed back.”

Shannon got weighed, peed in a cup, then had her blood drawn before she was finally shown to a nicely feminine examination room. She settled onto the table as John maneuvered the wheelchair against the wall, shoving the other chair into the corner. Taking a deep breath, she tried to be patient. John glanced around and fiddled with his chair, rocking back and forth, in general doing his own version of pacing. When the knock finally came at the door, they both startled.

Dr. Wehrum was a nice looking older man with a warm handshake. Shannon loved that he shook John’s hand too, and exchanged a few words with him. The wheelchair seemed to be an everyday occurrence for him.

“So, young lady, you want to hear this baby’s heartbeat. Well, let’s just see what we can find. How about that?”

He used a strange thick wand over her tummy, turning it this way and that. Then, just when she thought she wouldn’t hear it, a heartbeat echoed through the room.

Then a second heartbeat kicked up a rhythm almost as fast as the first.

Shannon gasped and almost bolted upright. “Is that my heartbeat too?”

Dr. Wehrum blinked, then a slow grin cracked his face. “No, I believe that’s a second baby.”

Shannon’s mouth dropped open in shock and she looked at John. Her big, strong, tough as nails former Marine looked like he’d just been mule-kicked.

“Did you say two babies?”

His voice was too quiet. John didn’t speak that quietly unless he was really out of his depth.

“You have two babies. This kind of steps up your care. Let’s see if we can get our ultrasound tech in here to get some pictures. I know it’s a little early but let’s see what we can see.”

Shannon felt like she’d been shifted into an alternate universe, looking down on the busy-ness from a position above… Things started moving around her way too fast for her liking. John sat against the wall looking dazed and a little afraid. Two women came in smiling and moving a big piece of equipment around. One of the nurses brought her a paper drape. “Can you tug your pants down and your shirt up?”

Wriggling on the paper covered table Shannon did as she was told. Then the lights were turned off and a giant monitor flickered to life. The nurse operating the machine squirted gel onto her tummy and started running a broad wand over her tiny bump. Shannon worried that the baby would be hurt by the pressure, but surely the woman knew what she was doing.

Then, even though she had no training whatsoever, she saw the picture of a baby curled up in her tummy. The tech moved the wand and she saw a second, slightly smaller baby.

“Oh, oh my gosh,” she gasped, reaching out a hand. John caught her, as if he needed the connection as well.

Then the tears started. They slipped silently down her cheeks and into her hair, tickling all the way. But she couldn’t stop. Even as the tech started to talk, she couldn’t quit crying long enough to hear her. John’s deep voice rumbled something and the woman started moving the wand again, looking for the clearest pictures she could find of the babies. Then she stilled the shot and took a picture.

Shannon had five million questions she couldn’t articulate right that minute, and they were all super important, but she just could not grasp speech. She looked at John to help her, but his gaze was glued to the screen. He’d rolled forward at some point and was as close to the tech as he could get.

Then the woman handed him a piece of paper with a black and white silhouette on it. Even though it was early in the pregnancy, Shannon could clearly see the baby. Then she passed over a second piece of paper. This baby was laying opposite, but almost perfectly the same.

Gasping in oxygen, Shannon tried to calm her wild emotions. “But they look okay?”

The tech looked at her and smiled in a confident way. “I’ll give my report to the doctor but I don’t think you have anything to worry about. Baby B looks to be a tiny bit smaller, but they’re both in great position.”

The tech left the room with a printed report, leaving she and John alone in the room.

Their eyes connected and she shook her head. “I don’t understand what just happened. This was supposed to be a heartbeat check for one baby, not two.”

John had lost a little of his dazed look, and he kept glancing down at the papers in his hand. Rolling forward he held them out to her. “Here’s the proof. And they look very different. It’s not the same baby reversed. Look. This one has his little hand up.”

Shannon felt the tears start again, then John’s arms were around her. Shannon met him half way, stunned at how quickly the path of her life had changed.

Chapter Twelve

Chad adjusted the fitof the little tiara on his big head. Maybe if he held really, really still it would stay put.

“I can’t move, darlin’. You’re going to have to pour the tea.”

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