A LIFE WITH THE FUTURE

LIFE 23

TO BE truth, every time Rounan visited the clinic and saw most of pregnant women were with their husbands or partners, she did feel little envious. However, the situation did not make Rounan less excited to see her baby. Seeing her baby was growing healthily was a great blessing to her. Her unborn son had become one of her strengths to face the uncertainty of the future. Rounan snapped out when she felt gentle touch on her hand.

"Let's go inside. It's our turn now," Wei Ting said excitedly, gently pulling Rounan's up from the seat. The smile never left his face since they left home this afternoon. The tight grip around her hand made she realized that finally she visited this place with the father of her baby. There was no need to be envious with other couples. Rounan just followed Wei Ting into the consultation room.

"Good afternoon, Miss Zhang," Rounan smiled at the familiar face that greeted her after she had entered the room. Dr Charlotte smiled as she invited the couple to have a seat.

"Good afternoon, I'm Dr Charlotte, the attending doctor for today. I believe this is my first time meeting you," Dr Charlotte looked at Wei Ting with smile on her face.

"Good afternoon, Dr Charlotte. I'm William Chan Wei Ting, Rounan's husband. Just call me, William," Rounan almost choked at his shameless introduction to Dr Charlotte. How could he tell the doctor that he is her husband? As far as she remembered, they never put any label to their current relationship.

"Oh, congratulation on your marriage," Dr Charlotte was genuinely happy for the couple. After comfortably sitting down on the chair, Dr Charlotte started the consultation by asking Rounan's general well being and the baby's movement.

"Do you still have any lower abdominal pain? From the records, you were hospitalized few weeks ago for preterm contraction,"

"I don't experience any pain since I discharged from hospital," Rounan glanced at Wei Ting after she felt gentle squeeze on her hand. He just found out about it because Ming Zhu blurted it out inside the car just now. Wei Ting felt bad because he was not by her side when she was hospitalized last time. After asking few more question, Dr Charlotte asked Rounan to lie down on the examination table beside the ultrasound machine.

The female assistant helped her with her blouse and skirt. Truthfully, she was uncomfortable with Wei Ting around, especially when he saw her ugly pregnant belly. There was midline hyperpigmentation on her round belly with stretch marks around lower abdomen. Suddenly she felt embarrassed with her own body. Wei Ting who was standing on her left side, holding her hand tightly and never let it go.

"Okay, let's begin," Dr Charlotte out some gel on the transducer probe and moving it on her tummy while asking them to look at the screen monitor. They were requesting 3D ultrasound just now. So, when the baby's face appeared on the screen monitor, that image had brought tears to Wei Ting. That was his son, their son. Rounan shifted her gaze to Wei Ting, checking his reaction and stunned to see the tears on his face. His reaction had touched the deepest part of her heart. She was overwhelmed with happiness until the tears escaped from the corner of her eyes.

"The baby looks healthy," said Dr Charlotte, still moving the probe on Rounan's tummy. Sometimes, she paused to measure the baby's parameters and resumed back after few seconds.

"Rounan, that is our baby," Wei Ting said in Mandarin, briefly forgetting that they were in foreign land. He then bent forward and placed a long kiss on her forehead. This was one of the moments that Rounan never dare to dream previously, before Wei Ting discovered her pregnancy.

"Don't be afraid. We will walk this journey together," he whispered in her ear. After done with fetal assessment, the couple returned to the chairs for further explanation.