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The honeymoon trip for Natalie and Mark right after the wedding, was well spent all day in bed. Mostly because they took a trip to the mountain and it was a little too cold for them to do anything. And then they just were all over each other, getting too lazy to move from bed. Their last morning there, Mark had woken up earlier than Natalie. He wanted to prepare theirs things, so they could spend the rest of the day carefree. So the little time he had he also ordered breakfast. He thought that Natalie would have woken up with all that sound, but she was still sleeping peacefully.
Mark sat at the side she was lying down. He gently caressed the hair out of her face. The thoughts in his mind ran wild. Everything he ever wanted was right in front of him, and for a moment he felt the need to pause this. He wanted to stay in the moment when he watched her sleep, when he was holding her in his arms. Just so he knew that nothing bad would ever happen to her again, and now there was a whole person in her, it was still a little seed, but he could already picture holding his baby. He didn't care how it looked like, the only thing he wanted was for it to be healthy and he just secretly hoped that it would have Natalie's eyes.
Mark's lips left soft kisses on her face. "Wake up, sleepy head." He whispered inside her ear. Natalie only hummed in reply and she slowly opened her eyes, seeing her smiling husband looking down at her. "Breakfast is served by our hot tub and it has a very snowy view. I know you're gonna love it."
"It snowed?" Natalie's voice was raspy from having just woken up. She tried to look outside from the window but the curtains were blocking the view. Mark had made sure to keep the curtains closed so the light wouldn't disturb Natalie's sleep. Natalie sat up and wrapped her arms around Mark's shoulder. "Hi." She whispered and hid her face in the crook of her neck.
Mark hugged her back, with his arms on her waist. "Hi." He chuckled and kissed the back of her head. "Wanna grab your swimsuit and join me in the hot tub?"
"Do I really need the swimsuit?" Natalie questioned when she pulled back. She gave Mark a suggestive look.
"I mean, it's gonna be just the two of us. So it won't be necessary." Mark shrugged like he didn't care.
Natalie's face broke into a big smile. "I thought so."
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The next morning Mark and Natalie were back in Seattle. Back at work, back at reality. And Natalie's reality was a little bit harsh that morning, because she was found some blood in her panties, which resulted to her visiting the OB. She was waiting for the eighth week to do that, knowing that she was not going to hear a heartbeat just yet. So she was having her first ultrasound next week and Mark was so excited about it.
So when he got paged into the OB floor, he got worried that something was wrong. "What happened?" He asked when he saw his wife with a gown on and a blonde doctor next to her checking out.
"I might be miscarrying." Natalie said with a shakily breath and Mark ran to her side.
"You're not miscarrying." The doctor reassured both of the parents.
"Well, then it's an ectopic." Natalie remarked.
"Could it be a blighted ovum?" Mark questioned. "It's not a molar pregnancy, is it?" With all the planning for the wedding, they just thought that everything was okay. And it was too early anyway to figure if anything was wrong.
"Wow. We got a lot of doctors in the room." The doctor commented.
"Who the hell are you, and what are your credentials?" Mark crossed his arms on his chest and gave the doctor his best terrifying look.
"Lucy Fields, Harvard M. D." But Lucy seemed unfazed. "Duke ob-gyn resident, and now maternal-fetal medicine fellow at Seattle Grace Mercy West. Damn good at my job."
"Okay, enough with the introductions, I wanna see my baby." Natalie interrupted the little staring contest, as Mark was trying to figure out if she was good enough to be his wife's and their baby's doctor.
"Okay. So..." Lucy showed them the baby in the monitor. "There's your baby. There is the yolk sac. Looks good. You're good." She reassured them.
Mark looked at the monitor enchanted. Like his whole world was in there. But Natalie couldn't feel the same joy he was feeling. Because she was still scared and she had this feeling that something was wrong. "I-I'm bleeding..." She stuttered and looked at Lucy for an answer.
"It's not uncommon. Happens in around 30% of all pregnancies. It's probably fine." Lucy replied and there was a quiet voice inside Natalie's mind that kept whispering there's should be a heartbeat, even if she knew well enough that it was early.
"But I-I don't see a heartbeat. Where's ... where is the heartbeat?"
"Oh, well, it's probably too early for that." Lucy pointed out. "I'll do blood work, but I'm pretty sure everything's okay. Just take it easy for the next few days, drink a lot of water, no tampons, no intercourse. And call me if the bleeding gets worse or if there's pain. Otherwise, go live your life, both of you, while you still can." Lucy left the room to give them some privacy.
"Yeah, like I haven't been pregnant before and I know nothing." Natalie scoffed.
"Baby, just go home and rest, okay? And next week, we're going to hear the heartbeat. You'll see everything is just fine." Mark promised her, but Natalie was anything but convinced.
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"Hey, you're back." Derek exclaimed when he saw his friend entering the room he was in, doing some work for this research. "You seem worried. Want to know what's really fun and not at all depressing? Alzheimer's research."
"Natalie's having my baby." Mark said already knowing that his wife wouldn't hold back and tell Derek. Even if she hadn't admitted. "And you know that because I know she has told you, because even when she made me not tell anyone, she kept telling people. And really, it's the best new of my life, along with the moment she asked me to marry her." He rambled.
"Is this getting somewhere?" Derek narrowed his eyes.
"I just... she's worried because six months ago she had a miscarriage and I don't know how to help her. I don't want her to feel like that. But I also understand why she's feeling like that." Mark voiced his worries. He really needed to talk to someone, because there were many moments he also felt scared, but he stayed strong for Natalie.
"How could Meredith and I try for months and not have any luck, and you look at somebody, and a baby appears?" Derek shook his head and stood up from the chair.
"Sloans are unusually fertile." Mark shrugged.
"Hmm" Derek huffed. "Well, Natalie's going to be worried for the next nine months Mark, and you're gotta learn how to deal with it." Derek said and left the room.
And then Mark's pager went off with 9-1-1 for Natalie and he ran.
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"9-1-1 means you're dying!" He yelled when he found Natalie still in an OB exam room. And there was nothing wrong with her. So his worry turned into anger in seconds, because she had managed to give him a heartache with that page. "Somebody has to be dying!"
"Well, what if the baby was dying?" Natalie argued.
"There's nothing wrong with the baby or you! You can't page me in a panic every time you have a feeling!" Mark exclaimed making gestures with his hands just to show how mad he was at her.
"Oh you married me, deal with it." Natalie snapped at him. "And stop yelling at me." One second she was yelling and then she was crying. "I am a hormone casserole. My body is not my own. And something feels wrong. Everything in my life is always a disaster! I really don't want this to be a disaster." The tears were really and she was feeling like it was going to be ruined for her again. "I-I don't even want to move or breathe. I don't wanna do nothing. I don't... What if I do something and it messes this baby up?" She questioned and looked Mark in the eye. And Mark's heart broke into that second, so he hugged her. A hug being the least he could do to take some of the pain away.
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"Now this is the hard-core machine. The highest resolution there is." Lucy returned to the room bringing in a machine with her with which they could hopefully hear the heartbeat.
"Thank you." Natalie whispered, finally feeling embarrassed by everything that went down with her new OB and well colleague.
"Now it's almost impossible to find a heartbeat until the eighth week, even with this thing. In fact, I don't even have moms come in until the eighth week because they come in, they don't see a heartbeat, and they freak out, and they camp out on my exam table all day. But since you already camped out here all day, it can't hurt to have another look, right?" Lucy smiled at Natalie, in attempt to calm her nerves.
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"This was a bad idea." Natalie finally realised as Lucy had turned on the machine and she had the monitor against her belly.
"Natalia..." Mark was standing on her side with one hand intertwined with hers and the other resting on her shoulder to show her extra support.
"No, it was stupid." Natalie argued. "She said it's too early. She can't find it yet. It doesn't mean a dead baby. It just means this was really stupid. I am really stupid and emotional and let's go home." She rambled not seeing that right on that monitor she couldn't just see her small baby, but also hear its heartbeat for the very first time.
But Mark noticed. "Honey, I love you, but shut up."
"Oh, my God." Natalie whispered the moment she heard the heartbeat and then she heard it again. Mark squeezed her hand and she turned her head to look at him. Her eyes glimpsing. "That's our baby."
"That's our baby." Mark repeated and let out a chuckle. "That's our baby." He whispered and pressed a kiss to her forehead.
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"So today made me really hungry. I'm feeling up for some chicken" Natalie confessed as Mark unlocked the door and they walked into the living room. "I could make some really quick. Some chicken with pasta."
"No, you won't." Mark argued as he hanged his coat. "You're gonna sit down on that couch and don't move." He pointed and gave Natalie a second before he was just going to lift her up and place her on the couch himself.
"I'll move if I want to." Natalie scoffed finding him ridiculous.
"No, you won't." Mark exclaimed. "You gave me a heart attack today, so you're going to sit down there and do not move."
"Can I breathe?" Natalie yelled.
"What are you guys yelling about? Marriage really kills the love, huh?" Amber walked down the stairs when she heard her mother and Mark yelling at each other. She tried to light up the mood with a joke, too worried that she had to go through her mother getting divorced again.
"She is pregnant and she needs to rest, by doctor's orders." Mark explained to her. "You know, what she wants to do instead? Cook."
"Cook?" Amber gasped.
"Yeah, what's so bad about it?" Natalie raised a single eyebrow at them, worried that they were going to be against her in everything from now on.
"You are gonna sit your ass down there, because that's my baby sister in there" Amber pointed at her mother's belly "and I don't want anything happening to my baby sister!" She yelled and Natalie looked at her with wide eyes. "And if it's not a baby sister, I am warning you, I am moving out." She warned them.
"You heard her!" Mark backed her up.
"Fine. Okay. Fine." Natalie gave in. "But if I have to sit down here doing nothing, Amber is going to cook and you are going to give me a foot massage."
"Fine, but I am making you broccoli." Amber smirked. "I told you I'd get my revenge for making me eat all that broccoli when I was little." She left the room to start cooking.
"I love her." Mark chuckled and looked back at Natalie who was glaring at him. "Honey," he leaded her to the couch and wrapped his arms around her shoulder. "I am sorry for yelling, I just also get worried for our baby and you... and..." he paused giving Natalie a sweet look, "we heard the heartbeat today, we are going to be parents. Thank you for making me a dad."
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ɪ ᴀᴍ ᴀᴡᴀʀᴇ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴛʜɪꜱ ɪꜱ ꜱʜᴏʀᴛ, ʙᴜᴛ ɪ ɴᴇᴇᴅᴇᴅ ᴀ ᴄᴜᴛᴇ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴀʙʏ. ɪ ʜᴏᴘᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ʟɪᴋᴇᴅ ɪᴛ.
ꜱᴏ ʙᴀʙʏ ꜱɪꜱᴛᴇʀ ᴏʀ ʙᴀʙʏ ʙʀᴏᴛʜᴇʀ ꜰᴏʀ ᴀᴍʙᴇʀ?
ᴀʟꜱᴏ ɪ ᴀᴍ ɢᴏɪɴɢ ᴛᴏ ɴᴇᴇᴅ ꜱᴏᴍᴇ ɴᴀᴍᴇ ꜱᴜɢɢᴇꜱᴛɪᴏɴꜱ, ꜱᴏ ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴇɴᴛ ʙᴇʟᴏᴡ!
ꜰɪɴᴀʟʟʏ, ɪ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇᴅ ᴍʏ ᴊᴀᴄᴋꜱᴏɴ ᴀᴠᴇʀʏ/ᴀʟᴇx ᴋᴀʀᴇᴠ ꜰɪᴄ ᴛᴡᴏ ɢʜᴏꜱᴛꜱ ᴀɴᴅ ɪ'ᴅ ʟᴏᴠᴇ ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ɢᴜʏꜱ ᴄʜᴇᴄᴋᴇᴅ ɪᴛ ᴏᴜᴛ!
ᴛʜᴀᴛ'ꜱ ᴀʟʟ, ʟᴏᴠᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴀʟʟ <3