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“Hm, okay,” the OB says.

Gee’s in the doctor’s office again. Before they started the ultrasound, the doctor said they might find out the twins’ sex if they get close enough. Gee’s excited, and beside her Frank’s just staring at the two women. She knows he’s trying to show security, but he must be pretty nervous. Gee hopes so, at least.

However, that second line from the doctor spread pure anxiety. At first, the OB said that the two fetuses are growing normally and their hearts keep beating steadily. They found out about the second baby in the previous ultrasound, when a shadow became a head and then a full body. There wasn’t much of a surprise there, since both Gee and Frank have twin relatives.

“This is interesting,” the doctor intervenes again.

“Is there something wrong with the babies?” Frank asks immediately, from beside Gee.

She slaps his arm vehemently. “Shut the fuck up, you’ll jinx it!” Frank smiles fondly at her. She pouts at him. Gee’s aware that her mood swings have been constant and brutal, from needy to angry in two minutes, but Frank always smiles at her in that sweet way. It calms her down, as usual.

Yet she knows she worries too and lifts her head from the table. She looks at the ultrasound screen, trying to see something, but it’s like looking at a wall.

“No, nothing’s wrong,” the doctor continues. “But I do see something I haven’t seen before in your ultrasounds.”

She finds Gee’s eyes immediately, then looks at Frank and makes Gee lean back again and look at him as well. He’s not smiling anymore, making Gee nervous. Is he seeing something she isn’t? Could he see something in that screen and not tell her?

“It might explain why your tummy seems bigger than your friend’s,” the OB insists.

Gee’s still looking at Frank. His head’s tilted to one side and his eyes, narrowed. He is seeing something she isn’t, and it pisses her off. So much that she pinches his arm, twice. He doesn’t seem to care, though, as he says, “Is that-”

“Triplets, I suppose.” Gee’s head snaps in the doctor’s direction. Triplets, as in three babies? Two is fine, it runs in the family, but Gee has never even heard of multiple pregnancies in their town, let alone in their bloodline. She couldn’t be having three babies, that’s impossible.

“Yep, there’s three of them,” the voice confirms Gee’s questions.

Gee lifts her head again and looks once more at the monitor. There are shadows in there, that’s for sure, something she’s used to see. Something she knows shows what’s inside her, the babies growing in her womb. She knows that by now, and she does the counting again, as the doctor moves the transducer across her clammy tummy. Baby number one’s lying on the left side of her belly and baby number two is just across from the first one, and then the OB changes the angle again. Upwards. Oh.

Gee’s eyes widen of their own accord.

She turns her head back at Frank. He’s grinning, the fucker, how can he? Gee groans and punches him hard. “Why’d you DO THIS to me?”