I spent the next week and a half in hospital. Being pregnant, they were taking me for tests every single day. I had to do some physio to help my knees, apparently they hit the dashboard pretty badly in the crash and judging by the pain and the bruising, it was easy to believe. I'd been making great progress so far, my ribs were healing quickly, my x-rays and MRI's were all clear and the physio was really happy with me. I was just so tired all the time but I didn't know if that was down to me still recovering, the medication or the pregnancy.
Everybody came to the hospital during visiting hours each day and it was so amazing to see them and have them all here with me. Sharise and Athena were like excitable puppies when they first arrived, they almost knocked me out again when they dived on me and gave me huge hugs... they put Tommy to shame!
Mick was as sweet as ever, he'd always bring me a coffee and a magazine and it was so amazing seeing my aunt Shelly, even if she did cry nonstop about me being pregnant. She'd become really great friends with Tommy's mom and everyday they'd want updates on the baby... not me anymore, oh heck no! Baby Bass had officially taken over.
Nikki was... well... Nikki. We bantered and gossiped about his date with Katerina. Apparently he ended up going back to the hotel with another chick which really didn't surprise me - it was Nikki after all. He told me Tommy had been really fucked up about the whole crash situation and told me about the fight they got into. I was pretty pissed off at Tommy when I found out why all that shit went down but I couldn't stay too mad at him. I guess people deal with things differently and his is to sniff blow and fight his best friend, I just hope he finds a different way to deal with things now.
I was really apprehensive to see David and Voula again. I mean... They found out through Sharise that I was carrying their grandchild, me and Tommy were both so young still, we didn't live together yet and we weren't married... it just went against everything that was traditional. Thankfully, they were so full of love and support for us, and they really wanted to be as involved as they possibly could. Everyday Voula would come by with Shelly and David, and they'd bring so much food that Voula forced the chefs at the hotel to make for me which I found hysterical, I could just imagine this beautiful, tiny lady bossing around these big ol' dudes.
Today was my last day of waking up in this god awful hospital bed, and the nurses thought it was a great idea for me to have my very first ultrasound before I finally got discharged.
I woke up yesterday and my little bump had appeared out of no where. The girls were obsessed with it, Tommy was too, he constantly had his hand attached to my tummy but honestly I had no idea why, I literally just looked like I'd eaten one to many cheeseburgers from The Rainbow and bloated myself.
"Miss Teresi?" The ultrasound tech said as he peaked his head around the door.
I raised my head slightly from the tiny bed I was lying on. It was so uncomfortable... "That's me!" I smiled.
"I'm Adrian, I'll be conducting your ultrasound today" he said as he shut the door and walked over to us.
"So... you must be Vanessa" he said in a witty tone as he laughed and shook Tommy's hand.
I smiled as I watched Tommy awkwardly laugh. "I'm Tommy, this is Vanessa" he smiled.
"Ahhh! That makes sense" he said as he shook my hand.
I frowned a little bit as I watched him walk over to ultrasound machine, talking to himself. I looked over at Tommy, trying to hold in my laughter. This dude was fucking crazy but he seemed sweet.
"What the fuck!?" He mouthed as he held my hand.
I shrugged slightly, trying not to make it obvious who we were talking about.
"So!" Adrian said as he sat down, but he was interrupted by the door opening.
We all looked over and frowned but then saw everyone pile into the room.
"What are you guys doing here!? And dad... where the fuck did you get a camcorder from!?" Tommy asked as he frowned at his dad.
"Don't ask" Voula said as she shook her head, throwing her arms into the air.
"I'm sorry. You can't all be in here" Adrian said.
I noticed Nikki and Vince walk over to him while Tommy was talking to everyone else in the room.
"You stick this in your pocket and forget we were here" Nikki said as he passed him some bills and they both patted his shoulders.
My jaw dropped and my eyes widened. This was my first scan and it was really gonna go down like this!? Nikki bribing this dude while David records it!?
"Are you guys fucking serious!?" I snapped.
"What!? You got our niece or nephew in there, we aren't missing it" Nikki shrugged as he looked at Vince.
I rolled my eyes and shook my head as I looked away. I could hear Tommy squabbling with pretty much everyone.
I was about to tell them to calm down but I glanced over at Shelly and Mick and noticed they were weirdly close. He was whispering something to her which was causing her to smile, and it wasn't just a smile, it was a flirty kinda smile...
I got caught up watching them when I heard Athena yell at the top of her lungs.
"Will you guys just shut the fuck up!" I could see everyone's faces drop one by one like a domino effect. "Seriously! Just shut up" she snapped.
"Thank you, Athena" I sighed as I turned and looked at Adrian. "Can we get on with it please?"
He glanced back at Nikki and Vince, gulped and then nodded at me.
"I'm sorry" I mouthed as he grabbed a bottle from the counter next to him and he smiled. "I just earned my weeks wage in a day, don't worry about it" he said quietly, just low enough for me to hear.
I lifted up my t shirt and undid the button on my shorts, covering my clothes with some paper towels.
"This may feel a little cold" he said.
I flinched a little as he put a thin line of this thick, sticky gel that had this blue kinda tint to it, across the lower part of my stomach.
Tommy held my hand and smiled at me as we both took a deep breath. I was nervous as shit! I'd been having all these crazy, irrational thoughts going through my mind for days now and I'd convinced myself something was probably going to be wrong with the baby.
Adrian asked Athena to get the lights and everyone huddled in together so they could look at this tiny monitor.
Adrian picked up the probe and placed it on my stomach, circling it around in the gel. He pressed a couple of buttons and finally stopped...
"There we go..." he said as he turned the screen round a little more so I could see. I could hear everyone gasp and I could see why...
"Oh my god..." I whispered to myself.
"Dude! Did you see the way it kicked just then!?" Athena said excitedly.
"She's got legs just like her daddy" I smiled as I gazed at the screen.
I could hear sniffling and looked over to see Tommy's eyes tearing up.
"Tommy!" I squeezed his hand and stroked it with my thumb.
"It just makes it real now... I mean, it was real before but now it's like really real... I'm actually gonna be a dad" he said as his voice cracked.
Athena and V, who were both starting to get emotional, reached over and hugged him. I glanced over and saw Shelly wiping my her eyes as Sharise stood next to her.
"Why are you all crying, you bunch of sissies!?" I said, trying to lighten the atmosphere.
"I just... I did all of this with your mom and now I'm doing it with you... it's just really special" Shelly said as she came closer to the bed, bent down and gave me a hug.
"Would you like to hear the heartbeat?" Adrian asked.
"Yes!" Everyone blurted out before me and Tommy even had chance to answer.
Tommy came and stood next to me again. He held my hand and kissed it, running his fingers through my hair as he smiled at me and then looked back at the screen.
Adrian pressed a couple buttons and I could hear my baby's heart beating away. In that moment, everything changed. I'd remembered everything from while I was in the coma and I already accepted some responsibility as a parent, but seeing and hearing my baby's tiny heart beating away on that screen changed me in an instant.
Tommy was a complete wreck, in fact everyone was. The baby was fine and looked healthy. Adrian needed to work out how far along I was and with Sharise being so organised, she managed to tell him what week I ovulate, when my last period was, my blood type... she basically told him everything. After they put some calculations together, they worked out that I was around 10 weeks and 2 days.
The hospital I was staying at was odd, it had it's own private ultrasound clinic that was attached and they sold little bundles at the reception desk. We picked one that had like 12 photos, a few key rings and a little teddy bear that played the sound of our babies heartbeat.
Once we grabbed our things and left the hospital, Vince and Sharise drove back with us and Tommy didn't let go of the teddy or my hand the entire time.
***
"What a day" he groaned as he climbed into bed next to me.
"It feels so good to sleep in a normal bed... and to be next to you, obviously" I smirked as I rolled onto my side and cuddled up to him.
He put his arms around me and pulled me closer to him. "I just can't wait to get home tomorrow and have this whole nightmare can be over with" he sighed.
"What!? What do you mean we're going home tomorrow!?" I whined.
"Well I thought..."
"Tommy, when people ask me about how Greece was, I don't want to be saying to them 'oh the only thing I got to experience was the hospital' I want to tell them that I went and saw the acropolis, and we went to one of those donkey sanctuaries, and I sat around the pool, drank mocktails and got a nice tan. You can go home, but I'm staying" I said sassily.
He raised his eyebrow at me. "You know how I said I love this whole feisty Vanessa? I lied. She's mean" he said like a stroppy teenager.
I rolled me eyes and giggled at him.
"I'm serious! I miss that sweet Vanessa who was too scared to talk to me" he whined.
"I mean you've just had me out cold for a week, did that not satisfy you enough?" I said sarcastically.
He pulled his head back and gave me a death glare. "Don't talk like that" he mumbled as he leaned over me.
"Tommy, we gotta make light of the situation, okay? I'm fine, the baby's fine..." I said as I lifted his chin up so he'd look at me properly.
He let out a little smile which eventually turned into a big, cheesy, grin.
"I still can't believe I'm gonna be a dad" he smiled.
I started running my fingers through his hair and smiled at him.
"You know, after seeing that little jelly bean on the screen, kicking and then hearing their little heart beating away... I feel so different... I'm petrified but I'm so excited" he said as he placed his hand over my tummy.
"I'm scared too but, we're a team... we're gonna make mistakes but at least we always have each other, right?" I said.
"Of course we do! I fucking love and adore you... and this little one" he said as he kissed my tummy.
"I love you too" I smiled.
"Don't you think it's fucking insane how they already have a heart beat?" He asked in his usual excitable tone.
I squinted my eyes at him. "Is that you're way of saying you wanna go listen to it again?" I giggled as I looked over at the teddy bear sitting on a little coffee table in the middle of our suite.
"Yep!" Without a second thought, Tommy had jumped out of bed, sprinted across the room, grabbed the teddy and dived back into our bed.
He lay on his tummy and pressed the button. He had this gorgeous, proud dad smile on his face as he kept replaying it over and over again. He snuggled into me, resting his big head on my boob and placed the teddy on my tummy, I think he was thinking it might get the baby to do some crazy tricks or something.
He lay there for a little while, polishing my bump like a bowling ball with his hand and only let go to keep squeezing the little device inside the arm.
I lay there, looking out the window opposite us at the stars and the acropolis, listening to my baby's heartbeat and Tommy's from how quiet everything was... but then I heard faint snoring.
I looked down and saw Tommy, eyes shut, mouth wide open, snoring away. I smiled as I carried on running my fingers through his hair. I moved the teddy bear onto the bedside table, turned off the lamp and closed my eyes as I appreciated how amazing it felt to be back to normality.