Chapter 13: Early Days
Henry courteously closed the door so Mouse could wet the stick in privacy. She placed it on the counter, washed her hands and opened the door right after.
He came in, smiling, looking so much like Leo that almost hurt.
"You know that, even if it's negative, it doesn't mean I'm not?" Mouse asked. "It might just be too early?"
Henry nodded. "I honestly don't care," he told her. "I mean, obviously I care, but we found out, in the worst possible way, that we are capable of doing this, so I know there are no issues there, you know?" He lifted Mouse onto the counter, so they were eye to eye. He put a hand on her knee. "It's just a matter of time, and we're not on a schedule or deadline or anything, so?" He shrugged, hoping she'd mimic him, and she did, lifting her shoulders in that way she did, making his knees a little weak.
"Trying to make babies with you is so much fun, Mouse Cameron," he declared softly, moving to stand between her knees so he could kiss the tip of her nose.
"It is, it is," Mouse agreed with a grin, putting her arms around Henry.
She glanced down at the stick. "I think it's done," she told him. "You want to do the honors?"
"Sure." Henry cleared his throat and picked up the stick, looking at it over his wife's shoulder. She put her face into his neck, eyes closed.
Silence.
She finally gave Henry a little shake. "Well? Henry? Say something!"
He cleared his throat again. "I'm thinking how to put it," he finally said. "You're not supposed to startle expectant mothers, you know? Freak them out in any way?" He released her so he could look into her eyes as his words sank in.
"Really?" she gasped, giving him a huge smile.
"Yes ma'am," Henry responded, showing her the stick. A blue plus sign showed in the box, plain as day. His smile rivaled her own.
"Oh my god, Henry," Mouse sang out, leaping off the counter and into his arms like a monkey. She wrapped her legs around his hips, making him stagger and hit his back against the wall. "Haha! I can't believe it! How lucky are we?"
"Pretty damned lucky," Henry agreed, laughing as he hugged her back. Merry the cat stuck her head in the bathroom, checking what the commotion was about, then pulled it back out, presumably to go tell her sister about the crazy people.
Henry and Mouse went to bed, where they celebrated by making love twice before falling asleep.
*****************
"How do you want to handle Leo?" Henry asked Mouse the next morning.
"What do you mean?" Mouse snuggled into his side. They were enjoying a few minutes of morning quiet before their son and his dog came to join them in bed.
"Well, when do you want to tell him, for starters? And what should we tell him?"
Mouse considered. "I guess we don't have to tell him, or anyone, for a while," she mused out loud. "I mean, something bad could happen, like last time, I suppose, and if we give everyone the good news now, we'd have to give them the bad news..."
Henry kissed her hair. "Right," he agreed softly. "There's no harm in waiting a little while, then. And when we do tell him, what should we say? I mean, when I went through this with Josie, he was a baby, he didn't understand anything, so it really wasn't an issue, you know?"
Mouse nodded, her hair moving against his chest. "He asked me, last year, who the baby's daddy was," she told Henry.
"He did? You never told me that. What did you say?" Henry sounded surprised.
"It was right after it happened, while we were in the Hamptons," Mouse said. "And I told him that it wasn't a secret or anything, but I was just so sad right then that I didn't want to talk about it. Which was the total truth. And he was so sweet and said he understood, and he didn't bug me about it anymore." She lifted her leg over Henry's, rubbing comfortably. "He's such a great kid, you know? But I'm sure he'll have questions."
Henry sighed. "I'm sure he will. He's got a question for every situation."
"What does he know?" Mouse asked. "About conception and all that?"
"From me? Nothing, I guess," Henry admitted. "It's never come up, so to speak. I don't think my parents ever even said anything to me."
"You're kidding!" Mouse sat up to look at her husband.
"I guess things were different at your house?" Henry prodded.
Mouse snorted. "Just a little," she replied. "I mean, there were nine kids, so the subject came up, like, a lot, you know?" She shook her head, smiling. "I honestly don't remember a time when I didn't know about the birds and the bees and all that. It was just part of life.
"I mean, don't get me wrong," she continued, settling back into Henry's side. "It was private, between two consenting adults or whatever, but I always knew the mechanics of it. It was no big deal. And I'm honestly glad, you know? My parents, my family, I guess, because at least some of the knowledge came from my older siblings, planted the truth in me very early, so no bullshit ever had the chance to grow in its place, if that makes any sense. Some of my classmates believed some weird shit, honestly.
"I remember one girl said that when a woman got married, and only then, god gave the man a seed to plant in the woman's belly button that would grow into a baby, and that if the woman wasn't married to the man, then the seed came from Satan and the child and the woman were going to go to hell.
"And one boy said that the woman swallowed a tiny baby when she kissed a man, and the baby grew in her stomach or something," Mouse continued.
"Oh no," Henry said. "I'm getting a headache just thinking about all this, to tell you the truth. How about if we tell him together, in a few weeks, and then just answer whatever questions he has as briefly and truthfully as we can, and leave it at that?" He turned his head to look obliquely down at Mouse's face. "And I'll leave the lion's share of the talking to you, since you have so much experience dealing with this stuff? How's that sound?"
"It sounds like you're passing the buck, Henry Gardener," Mouse replied, giving his chest a little slap.
Henry laughed, and just then Leo came bouncing into their room, followed by Happy, and the conversation was over.
***************
Henry began the busy fall season back at the agency, and Leo started Kindergarten. Mouse began feeling sick, not just in the mornings, but pretty much all the time, and her breasts got very sore and started to grow at an alarming rate.
"Wow, that's so unfair," Henry said one night when he saw his wife sitting on the sofa watching a movie, a bowl of popcorn in her lap.
"What?" she asked.
"As stunning as you were before, your breasts have turned into the most exquisitely beautiful things these last few weeks," he said, sitting down next to her. "And I know that right now they're so tender that you make awful faces and noises if I even look at them too hard, let alone attempt to touch them," he complained. "And you're wearing that shirt that's so old it's practically see-through, looking all adorable and tempting, but I can't do anything about it," he concluded sadly.
"And everything makes you want to puke," he continued, "so here I am, living with the sexiest, most alluring creature, and nothing I can do about it but look at you longingly and hope for a good wet dream." He turned his head to blink at her.
"Eww, Henry, you don't have those anymore!" Mouse declared, throwing a piece of popcorn in his face. Happy hovered nearby, ready to vacuum up any stray pieces. "Do you?"
Henry raised his eyebrows at his wife. "Don't you wish you knew," he teased. "You sleep so deeply now, don't you, that you have no idea what I do while you're sleeping." He waved a hand in her face. "I might be taking matters into my own hands while you slumber sweetly next to me."
"Please, you snore louder than I do," she retorted, tossing another piece of popcorn, which Happy quickly hoovered up. "And that's a two-way street, anyway, I'll have you know."
"What?" Henry sat up quickly.
Mouse nodded, grinning, the movie forgotten. "I have plenty of fun when you're sleeping," she informed him.
Henry shook his head. "Aww, say it ain't so," he begged, giving Mouse another tortured look. "Please, please, tell me you aren't satisfying yourself while I'm sleeping next to you, not even letting me watch!"
Mouse looked away, giving a little shrug and smile, knowing it made Henry crazy. "Be nice to me, maybe I'll wake you up next time I do," she offered. "Now be quiet, this is the good part."
Henry laughed, shaking his head, and put an arm around Mouse, pulling the popcorn bowl closer to himself. Happy lay down near their feet, hoping for more to fall her way.
"Did you make the appointment?" he asked, nuzzling her neck.
Mouse nodded. "You still free tomorrow afternoon?" she asked.
He nodded back. "I'll meet you there, though," he told her.
"Okay," she nodded, leaning on his shoulder.
They had waited until she had officially missed two periods to see a doctor, and her first appointment was tomorrow. If Dr. Bernstein told them everything was okay, they would start telling the world, including their son.
And, the following afternoon, she did.
"Everything looks wonderful," she told Henry and Mouse, smiling at them. "Your blood work looks normal, and we'll put you at about nine weeks based on your information, though we'll confirm that with an ultrasound in a minute, okay?"
Henry and Mouse nodded.
"And you said you're feeling pretty nauseated?" the doctor asked. At Mouse's nod, she continued. "Well, if it's any consolation, that's a good sign, a sign that you have a well-functioning placenta and lots of pregnancy hormones in your body."
Mouse nodded. "I've been doing a lot of reading, and I know that, so I'm happy, especially after what happened before," she said.
"Yes. I'm sorry for what happened, but you must put that out of your head now," Dr. Bernstein said firmly. "It has no pertinence to this pregnancy, you know that, right? What you said before is absolutely correct. We'll never know for sure, but probably something was wrong with that pregnancy, and what happened was nature's way of correcting that.
"You mustn't think that you did something to make a good pregnancy go wrong," she said, looking into Mouse's eyes. "There was nothing you could've done or not done to save that pregnancy. Just like there's not really anything you can do, within reason, to hurt this one," she went on. "If this pregnancy is healthy, which it seems to be, and we'll confirm with the ultrasound in a minute, there won't be much you can do to hurt it, do you understand? Life is tenacious, it's strong," she assured the couple.
"So, let's look at this baby, see what it's up to," she said. She had Mouse lie back and lift her shirt. Henry held her hand as the doctor put the transducer on Mouse's flat stomach and began moving it around. She stopped almost immediately.
"There it is," she announced with a smile. Henry and Mouse could hear the heartbeat, which sounded like water shooting through a hose in rhythm. They could see corresponding movements on the screen, a pulsing. Dr. Bernstein pointed. "You see the heart, right there?"
Henry leaned forward and kissed Mouse very softly on the mouth as they both nodded. They couldn't stop looking at the screen.
"That's the head, those tiny things are the arm buds, and the legs are kind of curled off in that direction," Dr. Bernstein explained, moving the transducer around. "And as I thought, everything looks fine." She smiled again at Mouse and Henry, who were still looking at the monitor.
"You guys want a picture?" she asked, laughing. "I assume yes?"
Henry and Mouse nodded, finally able to look at her, and each other.
"And I know you've been taking vitamins, but I'm going to add prenatals to that, and extra iron, okay?" the doctor continued. "Do all the usual stuff, try to eat right, get a little exercise?" She looked back and forth between them. "Any questions?"
They shook their heads, and were walking down Broome Street five minutes later.
"So, I guess the next step is to tell Leo," Mouse said to Henry, eyes shining.
"I guess so," he replied. "But first I have to kiss you."
"What, here?" she asked. "In the middle of the sidewalk?"
"Yes," he responded, nodding. "Here, in the middle of the sidewalk."
And he did, in the warm autumn sunshine, both of them so happy they felt like they could fly away.
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