to improve your bond with Daddy.” She waved at me. “And…no, you won’t hurt the baby if you have sex with Rory. You will hurt the baby if you punch through Momma like you did my mannequins.”
“Sorry.” I bent down to collect the various…organs.
The model was empty, and I held something in my hand. A lung? A stomach? The ankle bone was connected to the uterus somehow.
“That’s the gallbladder,” Rory said. “It goes under the liver.”
I held up a hose.
“That’s the intestine. The liver is next to your left foot.”
I reached for another flat type blob. Rory shook her head.
“Your other left. You’ve got a pancreas.”
I offered her an oval.
“Jude, that’s the uterus.”
Damn it. “Well, I don’t have one of those to use as a reference.”
Doctor Fawna waved me away. “Leave it, Doctor Frankenstien. I’ll put her back together. Come see, you won’t want to miss this.”
The sonogram flicked on, and a bunch of blurry, black and white blobs appeared on the screen. I squinted as Rory grabbed my hand, whimpered, then sighed in contentment.
“And there’s your baby,” Doctor Fawna said.
And damn if it wasn’t a baby. Head and all. I could even make out the little feet and fingers.
Rory breathed a wavering sigh, but she blocked part of the image with her hand. “I don’t want to know the gender.”
“Are you sure?” I tilted my head. I had a general idea what I was looking for, but it wasn’t like the baby rolled around in the womb with a Barbie or a football. Rory nodded. “Okay. No gender.”
“Well, everything looks good here, Momma,” Doctor Fawna said. “You’re doing a great job. Baby is healthy, happy, and…” She pointed. “Waving at you.”
Rory teared up. She looked from the sonogram to her belly. “Hi, Genie.”
Christ, even my chest tightened a bit.
Doctor Fawna found an angle which didn’t reveal too much of the baby’s mystery parts and printed Rory a picture. She scribbled a word on a card and sealed it in an envelope for me.
“The gender,” she said. “In case you change your mind.”
I pocketed the paper. “Thanks.”
“Now go tell your mom that her grandbaby is healthy,” Doctor Fawna wiped off the jelly from Rory’s tummy. “Call me with any questions or concerns, and try not to think of all the crazy, bad, or scary case studies from med school, okay, Doctor Merriweather?”
Rory thanked her. I helped her from the table as she stared at the picture.
“It’s so real,” she said.
Yeah. It was.
Real. And complicated.
And still one of the most amazing things I’d ever seen.
Rory wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and stood. “I should probably find Regan.”
“Are you sure?”
“Fill a bucket with water and remember to grab her broomstick when we’re done.”
“She’s not that bad.”
Rory used her purse as a shield and led me out of the office. “Yeah. We only need a sword to slay this dragon.”
She didn’t ask me, but I took her hand anyway. It shouldn’t have felt so right.
Regan ruled the hospital’s third floor as the Chief of Pediatrics. Her reputation preceded her. Rory stepped off the elevator into a world of quiet healing and rigorous standards.
Scrubs were clean. The nurses quick on their feet. And the doctors scattered from the central desk the instant the woman in blue scrubs with a white coat thundered down the hall.
Rory stood her ground, but Regan had a habit of turning the floor to quicksand when facing confrontation.
“Hi, Mom.”
Regan glanced at her step-daughter swelling tummy once, raised an eyebrow, and merely nodded.
Rory handed her the sonogram. “This is…your grandbaby.”
Regan placed a pair of glasses over her nose before searching the image. “Healthy?”
“Doctor Fawna said yes.”
“How are you feeling?”
“Good.”
“Eating well? Sleeping well?”
“Yes and yes.”
“Good.”
The sonogram thrust into Rory’s hand. A tense moment passed, and Rory offered Regan a shrug.
“You could keep this…if you wanted.”
Regan wouldn’t cause a scene in public, especially not in her hospital, but her words bit, fierce and unforgiving.
“Why don’t you hang it next to your degree, Aurora. I’ll have enough reminders of my grandbaby soon enough.”
Regan said nothing to me—a far cry from the second mother I once considered her. But I expected nothing less.
Rory did.
She held it together until Regan rounded a corner. Tears filled her eyes.
I wasn’t letting her get upset.
I pulled her into a hug. To my surprise, Rory rested her head on my shoulder. I gave her that moment, a quiet minute where she could lean on me for as much support as she needed.
It lasted only a few