THE BABY

Kindness is never done to be repaid, babe.

***

CHAPTER LXVII

*****

IT WAS FORMED.

It was very formed. With a head and arms and shoulders and legs. It was large in the screen, but I knew it was much smaller inside me. It was curled up like I sometimes did in bed with it's hands to it's face.

Stop referring to it as it.

"Looking at the image, I can roughly say that's a thirteen-fourteen week old fetus," she said, smiling at the image.

I was still in shock. It felt like all my foundations were shaking. Before now, I felt like there was nothing else to live for; like I had lost everything, but I hadn't. I still had my baby.

They lied to me and told me he was dead, but he wasn't. He stuck with me.

I wasn't a bad mother.

Not yet anyway.

"We'll be able to figure out your due date after a proper consultation. Have you had an antenatal appointment yet?"

"No."

I wasn't really listening to what she was saying. The only thing I could focus on was the little baby on the screen; the little baby that had decided to stick with me.

Tears pricked at my eyes, but I held them in because I didn't want to cry in front of her. I wasn't sad; I was immensely happy. No way did I think I was mature enough or in anyway able to take care of a child, but I was ready to learn.

I thought that I had lost something that I once had, but I didn't. Someone had faith in.

I had the immense urge to rub my stomach gently, but the gel was still on it and I didn't want to get my hands icky.

"We can set up an appointment for you later. We might need to send you to a different location though because we just squeezed this appointment in." The doctor continued talking, but I couldn't hear a word she said as I was lost in my own world. I think she briefly mentioned something about the fetus being the size of a lemon.

Now I was craving lemonade.

Soon the appointment ended and she put my name down for another proper one in a few days before calling for a nurse to help bring me up.

I wanted to walk up on my own without the wheelchair, but then I remembered the crowd that we had to get through and I decided against it.

A male nurse came this time. He smiled even though he looked tired and helped me get into the wheelchair. He didn't talk much, but the silence was comfortable. For some reason, I had taken a liking to him and I didn't know why.

It was only after I took a second look at him, noticing his curly, brown hair and dark brown eyes did the dread and realisation seep into me.

He looked just like Daniel. That's why I liked him.

I didn't have the mental energy to scold myself for my uncontrollable feelings towards the male nurse, so I only closed my eyes and drifted away.

I braced myself for the crowded area, but felt confusion fall onto me when we had safely made it into the lift without meeting a crowd in sight.

"Janet said not to go through the common area. This way was longer but with less people," the nurse said, making me whip around to look at him as he smiled at me. "You looked confused."

I turned back around and mumbled lowly to myself, "he doesn't sound like Daniel."

"Who?"

I turned back and smiled at the nurse just as the doors pinged open.

"Just someone I used to know," I answered, going slack in my seat as he wheeled me towards my room. "You look a lot like him."

"Please tell me he was handsome."

I laughed, unable to help myself as my mind thought back to Daniel. "Yeah, he was."

"Thank God."

I wanted to hate him. I wanted to hate him so bad, but I just couldn't find it in me to. And I wasn't going to try and hate him either because that meant I still cared.

I wanted to stop caring. I wanted to leave everything about my past life alone and move on. I wanted to take care of my baby and get a job and live my dreams in new York.

I didn't want to hate Daniel. I wanted to move on from him.

***

"So, you're pregnant."

Morgan's declaration took me by surprise as the nurse wheeled me into my room. He chuckled, but said nothing while I felt my stomach lurch with fear.

This was it, wasn't it? She hated Daniel and I was practically carrying his spawn in me? She would want nothing to do with me now!

Her eyes softened at he obvious worry on my face, but she said nothing until the nurse had helped me to my bed and then left with the wheelchair.

"Do you know the sex? " she asked, but I shook my head.

It didn't even occur to me to try and find out. I was so transfixed with the thought that I wasn't actually alone that I forgot to ask the doctor. It may have been too early to anyway, so I wasn't too worried about it.

"If it's a girl, you're naming her after me."

I looked up at her, a smile appearing on my face as I took in her joking expression.

"Imagine being named Morgan. Ew."

"You're one to talk," she scoffed, folding her hand and looking away as if we were actually fighting. "What does Araceli even mean?"

"Alter of the sky, bitch."

"What even is that?"

"An alter of the sky! What else is it supposed to be?" I exclaimed, glaring at her as she started to giggle. "I'm flying!"

"Flying where?" a third voice joined the conversation.

We both looked up to see the nurse that made the call to Morgan walk in. She had a clipboard in her hand and she smiled at us as soon as she saw us talking and laughing.

"Are none of you going to answer my question?"

"I would answer if I had one."

She smiled and shook her head, but said nothing else on the matter. Instead, she wheeled a metallic tray by the door over to me. I didn't even notice it was there when I had come in.

She set up the tube mostly used for a blood draw with the longest needle I had ever seen in my life. Things like these didn't really freak my out, but I couldn't help the cold sweat that appeared on my forehead.

"I'm just going to draw some blood so we can run some tests," she explained as she walked nearer to me.

I shrugged, not really minding much. She used a blue band to wrap around my arm before searching for a vein. It didn't take long for her to find one even though my skin was dark which really showed her professionalism with her job.

She stuck the needle in slowly and while I watched the container fill up with my blood, Morgan turned away and hissed as if it physically pained her. Her face seemed to be growing paler, but before she could faint and make a show of herself, the nurse had quickly taken the container full of blood from me before removing the needle, disposing it and placing a plaster onto the entry site.

The nurse then picked up the clipboard and wrote some things on it before looking at me with a small smile.

"Morgan said that she'll be okay to take you home and look after you." I felt grateful at that and I turned to give her a huge smile, but the redhead was sitting in the armchair, covering her mouth with her hands as her face turned green. "You'll be due for release in a couple days, but we just want to keep you to monitor your and the baby's conditions. Your blood levels are extremely low so we want to check that and see if we might need to give you another transfusion. We also want to run a psychological assessment on you?"

She looked at me, as if asking if it was okay with me, but I didn't see why it wouldn't be.

"Okay."

She smiled at my compliance. "Great! We might have the doctor down either later today or tomorrow. We understand that a lot has happened today and we wouldn't want to overwhelm you."

I didn't feel overwhelmed. I was happier than I felt a couple days ago and way more optimistic, but not overwhelmed.

None of this is going to last long.

My stomach dropped at my depressing thoughts, but I pushed it to the back of my mind and instead listened to the nurse as she droned on and on about the list of deficiencies and minor medical conditions that I had.

It sucked a bit, but none of it was really new to me. I had never been the most healthy person and it was extremely easy for me to get sick so I usually avoided going outside as much as I could during flu season.

"Anyway, I'll be back later to check on you. Is that okay?"

I nodded and she smiled again before she turned around and wheeled the tray out of my room.

"Derek might come to see you tomorrow," Morgan said, making me snap my attention to her. She seemed to have composed herself, but her face was still a bit green. "Because I have work tomorrow. Is that okay with you?"

It wasn't really in the place to tell her no. The truth of the matter was that Derek scared the living shit out of me for literally no good reason and I would prefer never to go anywhere near him, but Morgan was helping me out of the goodness of her heart. It would take less of her to just leave me there on my own to fend for myself.

I didn't want to inconvenience her anymore than I was already doing.

Managing a smile, I shook my head. "No, I don't mind."

"Good," she returned my smile and sat up before looking at her watch. "I've got to go now. I'll be back later tonight to see how you're doing," she said as she picked up her hand bag and made her way to the door.

"You don't have to come back, Morgan. I'll be fine on my own."

I didn't know how true my words were, but I honestly just didn't want to put her under any unnecessary stress.

She rolled her eyes, letting me know that she most definitely was coming back again before closing the door behind her.

***

The next day, a knock on my door had pulled me out of my thoughts. There was nothing else to do by myself inside the four walls so I usually got lost in my thoughts often.

Thinking it was another nurse, I yelled, "come in."

Imagine my surprise when a man with dark wavy hair and striking blue eyes popped in. Derek was a whole complex combination of hotness rolled into one.

It wasn't just his looks that made people flock to him, it was his attitude. The way he held himself, the way he spoke the way he treated other human beings.

He was honestly just a really kind and respectful person. My fear of him was completely irrational and I knew that, but I wasn't ever going to stop justifying it.

"Hi," he said, smiling sweetly at me as I tried not to shit my pants from fear. "How are doing?"

In one hand was a small bouquet of flowers - not lavender unfortunately - and in his other hand was a luminous silver bag. He placed the bag beside me on the bed and handed me the flowers which I took from him with shaking hands.

"Thank you," I spluttered out like a fool. "I'm doing okay."

"That's great!"

And then the awkwardness ensued after that.

*****

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Anyways, I'm angry at men rn so if any girls wanna start talking... I'm right here, babe 💋