freaking you out…”
“No.” I answered quickly. “No, no. Your insides are amazing.”
“Really?”
“They should be making the models out of you.”
“That’s so sweet.”
Was it?
Crisis averted, but I was still on high alert. Doctors’ offices made me nervous enough. At least my specialists never came at me with stirrups, a moving table, and sterilized artifacts waiting for a procedure that looked a hell of a lot more invasive than memorization puzzles and balance checks.
Everything was so sterile. I felt like a big blundering ball of dirt and grass barging into such a quiet place.
Rory watched with a raised eyebrow as I reached for the hand sanitizer. “Jude, what are you—”
“Just trying to clean up.”
“But that’s—”
The gel squirted like hand sanitizer, but it slipped like a girl after three drinks and a peek at my jersey. She snorted.
“That would be lube,” Rory said.
“Thanks, Doc.” I rubbed my hands. “This stuff doesn’t come off.”
“Kinda the point…”
I didn’t make it to the sink. The door opened, and a sprite of a doctor waltzed in, arms a-flutter with a smile that practically spat sunshine. She was greying, but that didn’t slow her down.
“Rory Merriweather.” She gasped and danced to me. “And this must be Daddy! Finally, I get a good look at you.”
“I—”
We hadn’t discussed if we were pretending to be a couple with the doctors too. Rory’s eyes went wide, but she spoke quick.
“Jude, this is Doctor Fawna. She’s friends with my step-mother…”
I reflexively extended my hand but pulled it back as it shimmered with lubricant. I nodded instead. “Jude Owens. I’m the daddy-to-be.”
“Always fun to put a face on Daddy. You two make a darling couple.” She pointed at Rory. “I just saw your mother in the cafeteria.”
This wasn’t good news.
“Did you…tell her I was coming in today?”
“Of course. I told her we were getting our first look at her newest grandbaby.”
Rory’s face fell. “Great.”
“Now, before we start…Do you and Daddy want to know the gender?”
Doctor Fawna looked at me, and, in a moment of stupidity, I answered for Rory. “Yeah! That’d be fun.”
“No!” Rory practically leapt from the bed-chair-table-thing. She accidentally kicked a stirrup, and the foot petal spun quick in a creaky circle. “Jude, honey, I thought we agreed? We didn’t want to know the gender.”
Well that seemed like a waste of modern technology. “Okay. Fine by me.”
“Oh, a surprise is always fun,” Doctor Fawna said. “Momma and Daddy are thrilled either way, but it’s just another little adrenaline rush on the big day.”
“Looking forward to it,” I said.
Rory glanced at me, but I shrugged. Just another aspect of this relationship we hadn’t discussed.
I didn’t know what would happen or what she wanted when she went into labor.
And we hadn’t talked about what would happen when she came home with the baby either. The baby’s gender wouldn’t be the only surprise.
Doctor Fawna wheeled the sonogram machine to the bed and let Rory relax. She tucked her shirt up and pulled the waistband of her pants down, but that was as much of a show as I was likely to get.
Rory gave a cute little squeal as the doctor squirted what I’d discovered to be some sort of lube onto her belly. I waited in the corner, but Rory extended her hand.
“Jude?” She swallowed. “I’m nervous.”
I took her hand and squeezed. “Nothing to be nervous about. Everything’s fine.”
Rory grimaced. Her fingers slipped out of mine, and she rubbed the lube away. She held my wrist instead.
Doctor Fawna prepared the machine. “You’re drinking your water, right?”
Rory nodded. “Extra since I’m outside on the field with the players.”
“Good. And taking your vitamins?”
“Like clockwork.”
“Any more nausea?”
“No. I’m loving the second trimester.”
So was I.
Doctor Fawna pushed the wand into Rory’s belly. “And are you having sex?”
Rory froze.
Jesus? Could she tell from the ultrasound?
“Oh, shit. Did I hurt the baby?” I clutched at the nearest table for support, missed, and punched straight through a cut-away woman. Her breast clattered to the floor, her uterus frisbee’d into the sink, and I leapt for the Barbie sized baby before it dropped on its head. The woman exploded into various organs, but the kid was safe.
Rory covered her face. She couldn’t look at me. “Yes. There’s sex. But it was only once and—”
Doctor Fawna stopped us. “That’s a good thing. Don’t be afraid of some intimacy. This is a difficult time, and the months ahead are going to be stressful, especially once the baby comes and you’re up all night changing diapers and feeding the little bugger. Do everything you can