“Amy, there you go, open up your eyes. That’s a good girl. My name is Dr. Scott and I’m going to check you over okay. Do you know what happened this morning?” was what Amy woke up too. She had no idea how she’d gotten into her bed, but the warmth felt so good.
“I was throwing up a lot and then climbed into the shower and couldn’t get back out,” she mumbled in a cracked voice. She finally looked around and noticed Lucas standing there behind the doctor.
“I don’t know how I got here, or really what happened. I was just so cold and so tired,” she finished.
“Save your energy Amy. We’re going to make sure you and your child are okay,” said the doctor, comforting her. She closed her eyes again, since they felt like they had ten pound weights on each one.
She felt him touching her and then a slight pinch, but the worst part of the whole thing was being uncovered periodically. She faded in and out of sleep. Finally she heard the doctor quietly talking to someone. It felt more like a dream. Maybe it was.
“She’ll be fine. She needs to be on bed rest until I get these tests back, but it looks to me like severe morning sickness, leading to dehydration. There’s no bleeding but she’s undernourished.
The baby seems to be fine though. I will want her to come in to the offices in a day or two for an ultrasound, but it seems she’s about three months along and otherwise healthy. Get a lot of fluids into her today such as soups and juices. The more calories, the better.”
“That’s great, Scott. I appreciate you rushing over here so quickly. I’ll see you on Friday.” Then she heard some steps and the door shutting. She faded back out to the blissfulness of sleep.
Lucas paced in the apartment after he called in and cancelled all appointments for the day. He wanted to shake her awake and force feed her, but the doctor had told him that rest was just as important as food. He’d given her sleeping aids and anti-nauseous pills and told him to keep an eye on her to make sure she ate and drank whenever she woke.
She partially woke several times and he practically force fed her. She mumbled complaints, but took his administering.
By the time darkness hit Lucas was exhausted. He went into the room and climbed in bed next to her once more that day. He pulled her close to him and fell into a deep and exhausted sleep. He felt that he could sleep an entire week with her in his arms.
Lucas felt Amy squirming around a bit and opened his eyes. They were facing each other and she was staring into his eyes with shock, embarrassment and panic. “Morning,” he mumbled. “Did you sleep well?”
Her eyes opened even further at his casual words. He knew she was confused, he could see it.
She was most likely wondering how they’d gotten into bed together and if they’d done anything.
“Don’t look so panicked. All we did was sleep. You were freezing all day and night until I laid down to share some body heat,” he said lazily. He felt pretty good waking up with her. He hadn’t slept that well in far too long to remember. He hadn’t woken up once during the night.
“Excuse me,” she said as she tried to untangle herself from him. “I um, need to use the bathroom please,” she turned bright red. He let her go and she quickly stepped into the bathroom.
Lucas was grateful that he’d dressed her. He wouldn’t have been able to handle watching her walk naked away from the bed. Not after her body had been molded to his the entire night.
He continued to lie there, not able to get out of the bed. He was wearing nothing except a pair of boxers that would show her the restraint he’d used in letting her go. When he heard the shower start he decided he’d better get dressed.
Amy was in the bathroom long enough to make Lucas start to worry. He was about to go in after her when the door finally opened. She was wearing the robe he’d seen hanging off the back of the door. She took his breath away.
Even pale, underweight and makeup free she was spectacular. He was beginning to think waking up with her daily wasn’t such a bad thing. He thought they could actually make the marriage work and before long he would be able to hold his baby, their baby.
“Thank you for calling the doctor. I uh don’t know what happened yesterday. I think, maybe I haven’t been eating enough or something. The baby seems to zap a lot of energy,” she said with a small smile while rubbing her belly unconsciously.
She was nervous and didn’t know how to deal with it, or what to say. She’d never woken with a guy in the morning. She didn’t think they’d had sex, but wasn’t a hundred percent on it. She was already falling in love with Lucas and needed to back up some and figure things out.
One minute the guy was being an arrogant jerk and then the next he was fretting over her and making sure she was well. She couldn’t figure him out. It was confusing and she was more scared than she’d ever been before. That was saying a lot, considering the way she’d grown up.
Lucas spent the day with her at the apartment. She napped off and on and started regaining some of her color. Later in the afternoon, she was well enough for a trip to the doctor’s office.
They didn’t speak on the way there, both of them thinking of different things. She was anxious to see that the baby was unharmed and he was scared about what would happen if his child, that he hadn’t even known he wanted, was harmed in some way.
She couldn’t believe she was going to see the first images of her precious child. Once she knew she was okay and could actually see her moving inside of her, Amy would feel much better.
They walked straight back into the doctor’s office, where he gave her privacy as she changed.
Next they sat there and waited together for Dr. Scott to come in. She would’ve much rather Lucas waited in the front office, but she could tell there was no way he was going to miss the ultrasound.
The door opened, “well you look much better this afternoon Amy. Let’s see how your child is doing, shall we?” the doctor said, going straight to the ultrasound monitor. He rubbed some sort of goo on her belly and she jumped a little at the coldness.
There was nothing for a few moments and then, there on the monitor, she saw a perfect little face. “This is the new three dimensional ultrasound monitor. We get a much clearer image of the unborn babies. It’s still a little early to determine the sex, but it looks like all is healthy and well,” Dr. Scott reassured them both.