Denis was in rough shape at breakfast the next day. Ray didn’t look so bad but he didn’t look so good either. Paul had sent them out ‘on him’ after dinner to keep them out of the adjoining room for a while. Unfortunately by the time Ray dragged Denis in we had the door between the rooms open and the noise woke us up. Ray was telling Denis that maybe if he hadn’t had so much to drink at the pool table then maybe all his money wouldn’t have wound up in Ray’s pocket.
Paul and Ray had no trouble getting breakfast down while Denis stuck to drinking black coffee with his eyes closed and Ray said I had to skip breakfast.
“Empty stomach for an ultrasound?” I asked him.
“Well, no … I was able to arrange a few more things after lunch yesterday,” Ray said.
I frowned at my untouched cutlery. “I’d rather have breakfast.”
“Could be worse,” Paul said. “You could feel like Denis.”
Denis stomach made a nasty sound. “‘scuse me,” he said and hurried off to the bathroom.
“I’m not riding with him,” I said.
Paul shook his head. “We’ll leave him here with a truck.”
“We need to get going anyway,” Ray said. “I have to redo all the paperwork now you’re on Paul’s medical with a different last name.”
I didn’t feel bad for Ray at all. He wasn’t the one who was going to be run through tests all morning. The only one I was interested in was the ultrasound anyway. I knew that he and Paul were humouring me that the baby was a girl and I wanted to put them in their place about it.
At the hospital I waited almost an hour for them to even get started while Ray cleaned up the paperwork and another two after that spent in one waiting room after another before I saw him again. He had two glasses of water for me.
“Down the hatch,” he said. “And you can’t use the bathroom until after the ultrasound.”
“I don’t think the vampires are done with me yet,” I whispered to him. They had given me a bottle of disgusting orange pop to drink and had been sticking me every half hour since. “When is it?”
“About an hour and the vampires are almost done.”
“How’s Paul doing?” I asked.
“Bored. He’s asleep downstairs.”
“Lucky,” I said. “Thanks for coming to find me. I haven’t been in a place like this since my mother got sick.”
“You’re doing fine, Kiddo,” he put his hand on my arm. “We’ll go get lunch soon, okay? I have to wake Paul up and get him back to sleep in another waiting room,” he winked and disappeared out the door.
The nurse came to poke me one more time and then I still had to wait almost half an hour for Ray. By then my eyes were floating and I was too uncomfortable to sit.
“Ready?” he asked.
“I think we need to hurry,” I muttered. I was already starting to feel cold sweat coming through my pores.
Ray laughed. “All ready for you, come on. Paul’s waiting.”
After three long hallways and two elevator trips we found Paul. He looked as relieved to see me as I felt uncomfortable. As he hugged me I wiggled my toes in my shoes to distract myself. He noticed my fidgeting.
“You okay?” he asked.
I rubbed my arm where the nurses had kept taking blood. “The getting pregnant part was a lot more fun,” I whispered to him. He smiled and kissed the top of my head.
“Dr. Jackson, Mrs. Richards … come on in now,” someone called us. I took Paul’s hand and we all piled into the little room.
“I’m going to get all my pictures then show you around,” she explained. Ray stood beside her and watched but she kept the display pointed away from us. I reached for Paul’s hand and kissed it then he kissed mine. The pictures seemed to take forever. I thought the full bladder was unbearable enough before she started pressing on it so I tried to relax and concentrated on just getting through the next few minutes.
“Alright, ready for the tour,” she said as she turned the screen to us. Now I had to crane my neck around to see it. I held on tighter to Paul’s hand. Moving had broken my concentration and I had to focus on my breathing again to push away the discomfort.
She showed us her profile first. “Looks like mom’s nose,” she said. Then she showed us her hands and feet and her heart. Those were obvious. She also pointed out her kidneys and other things that I couldn’t really make out.
Then she asked “do you want to know what it is?”
“A girl,” I answered right away.
I heard Paul chuckle quietly. “We haven’t had a girl born in my family as long as anyone can remember.”
Then I noticed the little smirk on Ray’s face.
“Better go buy some pink paint, Dad,” she said. “I’ll print you a picture to take home.”
Paul’s amazed laughter filled the little room.