Apartment No.4

Part 62: Flash Flash - 2

"When do we tell people? When should we tell Claire?"

Flash forward

Mason and I had to leave Mel and Cams to go to our ultrasound appointment at the doctors office in town.

Lying on the reclining bed with my long sleeve shirt hiked up to my boobs and my jeans unbuttoned disconcertingly low, I tried not to shiver at how uncomfortably cold it was in the room.

The nurse who brought us in told us she'd crank the heater up... but I think she might've been joking.

Mason sat in the arm chair beside me, his elbows resting on his knees as he jigged one of his knees up and down in anxiousness.

"Mason,"

"Mm?" He looked up at me, his lips in a tight line and his eyes a little panicky.

"What's wrong? Why are you freaking out?" I asked, my arm resting behind my head to accomodate for the angle.

"I'm not, I'm just nervous," he ran his fingers through his hair, leaning back and crossing his arms as though to say 'come off it, I'm acting totally normal'. Although, his knee continued to bounce.

"What about?"

"I dont know, just am."

There was a knock at the door before our doctor entered and I swear I heard a small sigh of relief as Mason noticed our doctor was female.

Not gonna lie, if it was doctor Ross - touch wood - I would've jumped out the window.

"How are we today, Ashley?" She smiled down at me. She was a middle aged woman with greying short, blonde hair and had the charisma of my Aunty Edith. I already loved her.

"I'm great, didn't throw up this morning so that's a start!" She laughed and proceeded to cover her hands in blue latex gloves and squeeze a cool gel onto my stomach.

"You're the boyfriend, Mason, correct?" She nodded towards Mase and he nodded in return.

"Nice to meet you," He said politely, though his eyes hardly left my stomach for more than a second. It was as though he was scared it was going to pop like the balloons at Mel's apartment.

"Right, if you look at the screen you'll be able to see a small blob, about the size of a fingernail, and that, is your baby," she pointed with her pinky to the wavy grey screen to show us a little jellybean.

Mason stood from his chair, resting his arm above my head and staring at the screen in awe.

"I've recorded that onto the screen so I'll leave you to watch that for a bit while I go look at some details," she smiled down at me and then held back a laugh at Mason's face as he gawked at the screen.

She left quietly, leaving the two of us and our jellybean.

Mason hadn't taken his eyes from the screen, and I hadn't taken my eyes from Mason.

He was gobsmacked and it brought a flutter to my belly.

His open mouth slowly turned to a beaming smile. I felt a searing hot drop of water on the top of my belly and looked from the screen back to Mason to see he had two tears on his cheek.

"Mason," I coaxed gently, reaching up and just grazing my finger tips against his jaw before he jerked back, leading his throat and rubbing his eyes.

"Sorry, I uh, I'm just happy... so... so happy." His voice was a little shaky but mostly controlled. "That's us, innit," he pointed to the screen, looking down at me. His smile was bright and I pulled him down to kiss me.

Flash back

"Well, when are we meant to hear more news about her surgery?" I questioned from my spot sitting on the counter as Mason made me us a cup of tea each.

"They said it could be anywhere between next week and about 6 weeks, but that's just details, her surgery might not be for another 6 months for all we know," he replied, dunking the teabags up and down in the mugs.

"Well, I doubt I'll be showing by then anyway... I say we give it until after her surgery, that should give us about two or three months right?"

"It depends really, why don't we just tell her when you are showing, kinda hard to not tell her then," he chuckled, passing me my steaming mug.

"Okay, cool." I blew on my tea which proved useless because I knew it was still going to be too hot. "Do you think it's a He or a She?" I asked, beaming and swinging my legs like a school child.

I was so bloody excited now that Mason knew, this whole time I'd been dreading and now I was keen as a bean.

"I reckon She," he nodded after a moment of thought, pursing his lips.

I pressed my fingers to my belly and closed my eyes as though it would help me feel.

"I think He, 100%," he raised his eyebrows, "I can feel it," I murmured like aunty Carol before we both burst out laughing. "In a way, I'm glad you found out the way you did,"

"Yeah?" He walked over to me to stand between my legs, his hands resting on the bench beside my hips while I played with the hair that had fallen on his forehead.

"Yeah, cause I had no idea how I was going to tell you," I sighed, pushing the curls up and meeting his eyes with my own.

"I was waiting for you to tell me, it was damn near torture... that's where I was you know," he ran his hands up my sides and settled on my waist.

"Where you were?"

"When I was 'fixing Cam's tires', I was actually at the store buying you a ring," his mouth turned up in that soft smile that makes me so happy. It's his smile, it's the smile he wears when we're sitting on the couch together and its raining and we're just talking. It's the smile he wore when he was at my house when he met all my family, and the smile he wore when he was playing with Malcolm.

"You're gonna be a great father," his eyes widened and he shook his head vigorously at my words.

"I'm not so sure, I've got this weird excited but terrified feeling about it," he gnawed his lip and subconsciously pulled me closer to him on the bench.

"I saw you playing with Malcolm, he loved it and so did you. You're going to be great,"

The chapters keep coming!

What did you think? Let me know xxx