Falling in Love for the Night

What happened that night in my dream was unexpected. My dream from my times spent
with Alex came back -my little piece of Baltimore must have triggered it...- But instead of
holding the baby I was cradling a ballooning belly in my hands, my right hand underneath,
my left resting on top. I looked up and Alex was standing next to a crib, with pink blankets
inside, and he looked up smiling at me. I sat straight up, panting, and ended up tumbling into
the ground, landing on my butt with a loud thud.

"What the?"

"Wha- whose there?!"

Two of my three friends the Asians woke up with the sound of my fall. "Sorry." I
whispered. When I noticed the sun peeking through behind the curtains, I stood up and a
swell of nausea washed over me. I ran to the kitchen, knowing I wouldn't make it to the
bathroom, and purged into the garbage. I ripped a paper towel off the roll and wiped my
mouth. "Ew. Ugh." I clutched my stomach and realized it was further away from my body than
I remembered... "I can't believe it."

Jessica and Lesley came into the kitchen to see what had happened.

"You alright?"

"No."

"What's wrong?"

"I think I'm pregnant." I stated.

"Again?"

Jess, Lesley and I all looked at Sarah who had just walked up. "What? Didn't we go over
this over a month ago?"

Thanks to Sarah's brilliance (she suggested we go to a doctor) I walked down the street to
the walk-in clinic. I was sat in a cold room on a plastic bed with the sanitary paper on it.
Luckily the receptionist allowed my friends to come with me. A woman who appeared to be
in her mid to late fifties with graying, dark brown hair, crows feet by her eyes and laugh lines
around her mouth indicating that she's had a lot of good times. I felt comfortable with her as my doctor. Not to mention she had a familiar face that made me feel at ease, entered the room in a white doctors spock. "Good morning Ms...?"

"Micaella, Fields."

"Ms. Fields, and friends, I'm Doctor Elizabeth Gaskarth." She said with a British accent.

I felt three pairs of eyes on me. "Um, I'm sorry. Did you say 'Gaskarth' "?

"Yes. I did. Is there a problem?"

"Uh, no. No there's not. I just know someone with that last name and its not a very common
name. So I was wondering, do you know Alex? Gaskarth?"

"Yes. I do know Alexander. He's my nephew. You know him?" That's why she's so familiar...

"More than you think..." Sarah said under her breath. Jessica and Lesley hit her on either
shoulder.

Dr. Gaskarth looked at us like we were crazy.

"Don't mind her, she has a problem where she doesn't know when to stop talking. But we
were all good friends with him."

"Oh, that's nice. Alright, what brings you here today?"

"I think I might be pregnant. Like four months pregnant. But I took an EPT about a month
ago and it came out negative..."

"Okay, we can do an ultrasound or a urine test."

"Which is quicker?"

"Well we can do the ultrasound right now but,"

"Ultrasound." I said cutting her off. Until I knew the results I was going to be impatient.

"Just give me one moment to get it set up and we'll see what's going on." She said with a
smile then left the room.

When she had left Sarah said "Whoa, small world."

We all nodded, rendered speechless.

Dr. Gaskarth came back into the room pushing a white cart with some cords, a monitor and
a weird little piece that reminded me of a metal detector (more like a baby detector), on it.

She had me lift up my shirt so that my obtruding torso was exposed, applied some
cold blue gel on the "baby detector" (as I decided to call it) and put it to my abdomen.
She moved it around, until we all heard a continuous thump, thump thump. "There's
your baby's heartbeat, and there, is your baby. There's it's little fingers, and toes."

"Oh,"

"My,"

"God."

While my friends could mutter one single word I couldn't expel the air from my lungs to my
throat, to just make a sound but, nothing.

"Would you like to know the sex?"

I shook my head.

"Okay well let me get this picture for you, a prescription for prenatal vitamins and we'll see
you again in a month."

I nodded.

I believe the doctor had seen this kind of reaction before so she understood I wanted some
time to absorb it.

"Micaella,"

"Huh?" I finally managed to squeak.

"What are you going to do?"

"Keep." was all I could get out.

"You have to move back. Let us take care of you."

"And your baby."

"Talk at home." Let's talk about it there." I wiped the gel off with the towel I was given, pulled
my shirt back down and sat up.

Dr. G came back with a piece of paper and a glossy rectangle I assumed was the
sonogram. My friends took the items and thanked her. I walked out and down the street, half
way back down to my loft I had to stop and throw up in the street. "Great. I'm gonna be the
woman with all those damn stereo-typical symptoms of pregnancy." All my friends started
laughing. I was so happy to see them for the first time in a month, so I couldn't be mad at them, I ended up laughing too.