Chapter 39

“I’ll just stand up here out of the way,” Kate offered and moved to stand beside my head. She held out her hand. “Here for you to hold if you need it.”

I smiled at her and took hold of her hand, glad of the support.

“Let’s see this baby then, shall we?” The doctor removed a strip of what looked like extra-large kitchen paper and placed it over me. “If you could remove the clothing from your lower half, that would be great.”

Luckily for me it was a warm day and I’d chosen to wear a long dress rather than my usual jeans and T-shirt.

I pulled the skirt of the dress up and removed my panties before playing the paper over me to cover what was left of my decency.

The doctor slipped a condom like sleeve over the probe, squeezed some lube onto the end and got herself into position. “Are you ready? I apologise if it’s a little cold.”

I pulled my legs into a froglike position, no stranger to having doctors look at my nether regions, and nodded.

Dr. Mendoza was right. The lube was cold, and I cringed at the sudden temperature change.

“Is that okay? Not too uncomfortable?” she asked.

“No, just cold,” I responded.

“Okay, well, I will keep the screen positioned away from you until I have seen everything I need to see and then I’ll let you all have a good look if that’s alright with mummy?” the doctor’s words caused my heart to skip a beat. I was a mummy. It felt so strange to think of myself in that way.

We all nodded. The doctor turned her attention to the screen and began to twist and move the probe inside me. It was a strange but not unpleasant sensation as she moved it inside me.

“I just need to press a little deeper,” she explained. “It may be a little uncomfortable but shouldn’t hurt, so please let me know if it does.”

I nodded and prepared myself. She was right. It was unpleasant but not painful, and I braved it with my breath held.

There was an uncomfortable silence in which all kinds of thoughts skipped through my head. What would I do if something was wrong? What if Simon had caused me to lose the one thing I’d been trying to achieve for so many years?

Tears pricked at the corner of my eyes at the thoughts and now I was holding my breath to stop from crying.

“Right, well, everything appears to be in order,” the doctor announced after a while. “Your baby appears to be very healthy with a good heartbeat. I am just going to take a few measurements and then you can all have a look.”

There were a few clicks on the keyboard and then the doctor was finished. When she finally turned the screen towards us, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Although there was no obvious shape of a baby, I could certainly see the tiny heart beating inside me. The small white circular shape on the screen was beating in a fast rhythm.

“Isn’t the heart beating too fast?” I asked, suddenly worried.

“Oh no, your baby’s heartbeat is perfect and healthy,” Mendoza announced. “You have a perfectly healthy pregnancy and I see no signs for concern.”

Relief overwhelmed me and the tears finally began to fall. “I’m going to be a mum!”Epilogue

Three Weeks Later

“How is Mummy doing?” Dale asked as he wandered up the white sand beach from the ocean where Lee was still swimming. That was how they referred to me now, Mummy, and I loved it every time that they did.

I had been reclining beneath the shade of a tree for a while with Kate at my side. Everything was right with the world and all the stress had melted away.

A week on holiday had been just what I needed to come to terms with everything that had happened.

“She’s been practically snoring for the past half an hour.” Kate chuckled

“I have not!” I protested throwing my discarded sunhat at her. It knocked the book she’d been reading out of her hand.

“Damn! Now I’ve lost my page!” she exclaimed.

Lee appeared behind Dale then, and grabbed the towel off his sunbed to wipe himself down. I watched him wipe away the beads of salt water that were slowly making their way down his torso and couldn’t help but bite my lip. It was safe to say that the pregnancy had only amplified my desire for the two of them.

Lee settled down on the sunbed next to mine and Dale quickly joined him on the end.