Page 48 of Just Say (Hell) No
They waited in silence for a few more minutes, and when the technician came back and told them to follow her, it was a relief. But when she opened a door and Ella turned her head from where she lay on a table, the white paper crackling under her, he saw something in her dark eyes that made him forget about everything else. He took her hand, sat down in the chair beside her, and said, “Eh,laztana.It’s all good.”
Her throat moved as she swallowed, and she gripped his hand hard. “’Sorry,’ she said. “This was meant to be the easy part.”
“No worries.” He kicked the other chair to one side for Nyree and told the technician, who was busy at her keyboard now, “I’m Ella’s cousin, by the way. Marko.”
The technician looked at him too hard and said, “Oh.” Flatly. As if she’d be stepping out into the passage and ringing up the Ministry for Vulnerable Children at any minute.
“What?” Ella asked, roused into something approaching her normal self. “You think he’s the father? As if. He told you. He’s my cousin.” She didn’t add “Ew,” but Marko sensed it coming, and despite himself, he laughed.
“Life returns,” he said. “Good to see.” He told the technician, “We’re ready when you are.”
She looked affronted, but that was better than calling the police. Some more fiddling, and then she pulled up Ella’s gown and shoved the sheet down, exposing her belly.
“Whoa,” Marko said. He hadn’t realized.
“Yeh,” Ella said. “Big, eh.”
“How far gone is she?” Marko asked the tech.
She squirted some clear jelly onto Ella’s belly, spread it around with a paddle, and said, “That’s what I’m here to find out.” Snippily, like she still wasn’t convinced of Marko’s innocence, but he couldn’t be fussed about that.
After that, she was silent, moving her paddle, then typing and clicking, until Marko said, “Fill us in here.”
She didn’t look up, just said, “Hang on until I’ve done my job, please. This isn’t a video game. It’s a medical procedure.”
“How long until you share?” Marko asked. “You’ve got an anxious mum on the table.”
He heard Ella’s indrawn breath and squeezed her hand again. The word was a surprise, he guessed. But that was what she was, and the truth didn’t get any easier to handle because you didn’t look it in the face.
The technician said, “I’ll share when I’m done. I’m not here for her amusement. Once you fall pregnant, it stops being fun and games.”
Nyree was burning. She had her mouth open, and then she looked more closely at Marko and shut it again.
Something was happening inside there. Like a tropical cyclone forming, when the air pressure dropped, the dark clouds coalesced, the wind began to whirl, and the forces concentrated and intensified. It was awesome, and it was a little scary, too. His face got harder, and so did his body. It was as if she could see every muscle standing out in stark relief, right through his clothes.
When he spoke, though, his voice was absolutely controlled. Which made it even scarier. “We’ll take it as read that you’re not in favor of teen pregnancy,” he told the technician. “Yet it’s happened, and here we are. Why don’t you pretend that Ella’s as good as any other expectant mum that you’ve had lying on this table, and start treating her like it? I’m sure you can do that. You’re a professional.”
The technician’s face reddened, her shoulders stiffened, and her mouth, already pinched, tightened more. “You’ve got a cheek,” she said, “telling me how to do my job.”
“Yeh,” Marko said. “I do. I can step out that door and ask for the supervising radiologist, or you can change your attitude. I’m prepared for either one.”
A long moment when everybody seemed to hold their breath, and then the technician said, each word as stiff as if she’d formed it out of clay, “I’m finishing up the measurements. When I’m done, I’ll go find Dr. Allingham, our radiologist, and share the results with him, and he’ll be along to tell you about them.”
“Thank you,” Marko said. If it had been Nyree, she’d have added, “See how easy that was?” And possibly included a few extra words she had in mind. Marko didn’t. Probably just as well.
A couple more minutes, and the technician stood up, said, “Dr. Allingham will be in shortly to talk to you,” and walked out.
Ella expelled her breath in awhoosh.“Wow,” she said. It sounded shaky.
“Bitch,” Nyree said. “Sorry. You could say that’s been stored up.”
“Yeh,” Ella said. “She was. That was awesome, Marko.” She still had hold of his hand, or he still had hold of hers. And Marko’s hand around yours would feel like a safe place to be.
“I don’t like bullies,” he said.
“I wanted to ask her whenshefirst had sex,” Nyree said. “Except that she’d probably tell you it was on her wedding night, and that her eleventy-seven perfect daughters are pure as well. Bet they’re not.”
“Bet her husband’s not a happy man, either,” Marko said. Both Ella and Nyree laughed at that one, and it was better.
