Chapter 179

Shawna POV

Doctor Constance and I discuss a few more things and then she decides I need a full check up. Lab work, head to toe examination, then a pelvic exam and an ultrasound. She sends me down the hall to pee in a cup and tells me to come right back. I do as instructed, and as I approach the exam room door, I can hear her speaking to Michael. "You have to be cautious Michael, she's been through a great trauma. Make sure she gets rest and if she needs a therapist, we can arrange that too."

Michael clears his throat, he can probably sense I'm outside the door. "Shawna is doing well, she sort of has a therapist. The veterinarian from the Lone Wolf Pack helps her a lot and for a long time, my sister was her closest confidante."

"Nat?" she asks. "I almost forgot about her, how is she anyway?"

"She's good. Wonderful actually. She found her mate. He's the lead warrior at the Lone Wolf Pack. She stayed in Montana to be with him, but her and Shawna still talk on the phone and I'm sure they will come for a visit," he says. I choose that moment to walk back in.

"All set," I say, as if I wasn't just listening in.

"Good," Doctor Constance replies. "I'm going to take some blood from you for your lab work and then I will have you get undressed and put on a gown." I nod and sit back down, this time on the table as she instructed. She pulls out a needle, and some lab tubes, along with some alcohol wipes. "I will be fast," she promises as she swabs my arm. She ties the tourniquet and slides the needle in effortlessly. She draws the blood, removes the tourniquet and puts a cotton ball over the needle stick and tapes it down. "Pull that off when you leave here," she instructs. She flits about the room, pulling out whatever she needs, then hands me a hospital gown.

"I'm going to step out to take this to the lab," she lifts the specimen bag up. "While I do that, get undressed, put the gown on, open to the back and hop up on the table. Do you want Michael to stay or step out?" she asks.

"He can stay," I quickly reply. This kind of thing makes me extremely nervous, even though she's a doctor. I'm about to be touched and prodded and poked and I feel queesy just at the thought of it.

"Okay then, I will be back in about five minutes. I will knock before I enter, to make sure you are ready," she says before turning and leaving, shutting the door behind her.

"She's very nice," I tell Michael as I start to undress. "I still don't want to be alone with her though. It might be wierd, but can you stay in here with me through the whole exam?" I ask him.

"Of course," he replies. "Whatever you need babe, I'm here."

"Thank you," I say as I slip on the hospital gown and climb up onto the table. Michael comes to stand next to me and takes my hand in his.

"We are in this together," he says, and then gently kisses my lips. He pulls back and smiles, "the hospital gown though, is not sexy at all."

"I think that's the point," I tell him laughing. Just then there is a knock on the door, and the doctor announces herself.

"So first thing I will do is your medical exam. That constitutes listening to your heart, lungs, stomache, and palpating your abdomen. I will look at your eyes, nose, throat, teeth, that sort of thing. I will examine your lymph nodes in your throat, armpits and groin if needed. The last thing I will do is a pelvic exam and then we will do the ultrasound. Is that all okay with you Shawna?" she asks.

I'm uneasy, but what can I say? She has to do her job and make sure I am healthy, along with the baby. "Yes," I finally say and Michael squeezes my hand.

Doctor Constance pulls out her stethoscope and begins her exam. Most of it is painless, clinical and in no way embarrassing or awkward. What is awkard is when she has me lay back and put my feet into the stirrups that she pulls up from the bottom of the table. I feel myself start to panic, until she instructs Michael to talk to me and hold my hand, which he does.

Constance is very clinical, telling me what she's doing with each step. "I'm putting a cold gel on the speculum and then I'm going to gently insert it." I feel the coldness on my vaginal opening and almost lose it, until Michael murmurs in my ear for me to relax. I take deep breaths and allow my body to let go of it's anxiety. "You will feel just a couple of fingers while I check things," she says. I can feel her gloved hand as she touches me. "Cervix is closed, this is a good sign." I feel the speculum removed and she covers me up and tells me to go ahead and take my feed from the stirrups and slide back on the table so she can get the ultrasound ready.

A few moments later, Constance is right in my face with hers, smiling. "Everything looks just fine dear, no need to be worried."

"Okay, thank you," I breath out with a shaky laugh.

"You did great babe," Michael encourages me.

The doctor scoots up beside the table with the sonogram machine and holds up a bottle. "Warm jelly, I will squirt it on your belly. Ready?" she says with a grin. "This is my favorite part."

We both nod in unison. "Show us," Michael says.

The warm gel is squirted on my belly and the probe is placed on top of it. A few moments later we hear a whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. "That is your babies heartbeat," the doctor says. I'm in awe. I really do have a baby inside me and we are hearing his or her heart for the very first time. She moves the probe, "there," she points to the screen. "Your baby is about three inches long, so that tells me you are around thirteen weeks. The baby is the size of a small lemon now, do you see?" she asks.

"Can you tell what it is?" I ask breathlessly.

"Not typically this early, maybe in another five or six weeks," she says. "But everything looks healthy. How have you been feeling? Morning sickness?"

"I did for a while but it's pretty much gone," I admit.

"If you want to know the sex of the baby sooner, we can do some genetic testing," she offers. "It's just a blood test. It can often tell as early as ten weeks."

I look over to Michael, "What do you think?"

Michael shrugs. "Is it going to matter if we know in a week versus in five?"

"I guess not, but what about the babies room?" I ask.

"We can get furniture and keep that neutral for now," he says. "As soon as we know, we can start shopping. We have lots of time," he says.

"I don't know about that Alpha," the doctor says. "Babies just come when they want and honestly, it will be here befre you know it."

"Let's do it," I say excitedly. Michael smiles at me and then back at the doctor.

"You heard the lady, do the test."