Both my mom and my dad were by my side as I laid on a bed in my hometown hospital. After informing the doctors who discovered my condition of my pregnancy they had immediately requested that I come to see them. Jayden was leaning against the wall, nervously glancing between my parents. They hadn't spoken a word to each other when they met. My parents had just embraced me and pulled me away while Jayden sheepishly followed. I was sleepy and drowsy and nauseous and I kept dozing off where I laid on the hospital bed. My fingers carefully traced my stomach, it was still pretty flat. I couldn't spot any major change but it was starting to point out a little if I wasn't just imagining things.
I turned my head to Jayden who was nervously biting his nails. It honestly made me smile. He had been so ridiculously excited when he drove me here but now he was a trembling, nervous mess.
"What're you smiling at?" He stuttered awkwardly when he saw my grin.
I wouldn't say our relationship was anything other than friends with benefits. Sure, we got along just fine and he treated me nice but I wasn't exactly in love with him. I simply enjoyed his company and found comfort in his presence. Love wasn't an idea I was interested in, not in the slightest. To be honest the idea of love turned me off.
"You can sit down, you know..." I chuckled sleepily and gestured to the third chair next to me. He looked hesitant and I wasn't going to force him to sit down but I would definitely appreciate it if he was a bit closer.
He slowly walked over to me, keeping his gaze to the floor to not meet my dad's eyes. It was a funny sight since Jayden was young, tall and muscular while my dad was a short old man who refused to admit that he couldn't lift a grocery bag anymore. In a fight, my dad wouldn't last a minute. Jayden flopped down in the chair, face darker than usual as he blushed. Before I got the chance to make fun of him for it I was interrupted by my dad.
"So you're the idiot who knocked up my kid?" He said lowly. Jayden tensed up, raising his shoulders to his ears as he nervously fidgeted with his sleeves.
"Yes, sir... I'm sorry... I'll take responsibility..." he choked out. I'd never seen him like this. It was strangely amusing.
"Oh, you better..." My dad growled.
I would've laughed if I hadn't been feeling so shitty, in fact, I would've been laughing hysterically. My dad, who was usually calm and quiet had gotten Jayden, a cocky, loud and confident guy to grow immensely flustered and gone silent. It was far too amusing for me not to grin to myself.
"Let me have a look at you, son!" My mom suddenly squealed, grabbing Jayden's face and turning it to hers. "Ooooh, he's real cute, Micah!" She teased and smirked at me. "I hope this little bean gets his eyes and hair..." She traced her fingers over my stomach and I squirmed.
"Mom!" I exclaimed as she kept tickling me. "Mom, stop! I'll throw up!" I dry heaved and Jayden was quick to lift an empty bag to my aid, earning an 'aww' from my mom. I glared at her. It definitely wasn't 'cute' that I was feeling like a seasick potato.
"You okay?" Jayden asked as I settled back down on the hospital bed.
"No..." I groaned and glared at my mother. I had been relatively fine until she tickled me and sent me into a panic.
"Sorry..." She said with a guilty smile.
A rattle of the door handle caught my attention as a familiar man entered the room. "Micah!" The deep voice of my doctor suddenly exclaimed as he burst through the door. "Long time no see my little miracle!"
All four of us jumped at his sudden appearance. We were all quiet, staring at the doctor in horror as he held his arms out with a bright smile.
"H-hello Dr Fraser!" I nearly yelled as I tried to regain my composure and calmness. Every time I saw him he seemed so excited, as if I were a nephew he hadn't seen in some time. Or in his situation, perhaps I was more of a rare specimen that he wanted to examine.
"Cicely! Sean! Nice to see you again! It's been a while since I last saw you two here which is good I suppose since that means you've been healthy!" He chuckled loudly and I leaned back, taking deep breaths as I tried to calm down.
"Every time, John..." My dad murmured. Dr John Fraser and my dad had been classmates and they had a strange one-sided friendship. While Dr Fraser seemed to love my dad's company, my dad just seemed annoyed by him. Dr Fraser let out a booming laugh and I found myself grabbing Jayden's hand as I was still startled from his sudden entrance. The man was always loud, too energetic for his own good.
"Well, Micah! How are you feeling?" He said and tried to ruffle my hair only to have his hand shooed away by my dad.
"I'm... okay..." I mumbled
"Well, you look like shit!" He said jokingly but his joke landed more like an insult and I felt myself tearing up. Not because I was actually upset but because of the fucking hormones roaming within me. "Oh... Sorry..." he stuttered awkwardly. My dad facepalmed. Dr Fraser cleared his throat. "Let's get this going..." He mumbled. "Could you lift your shirt, Micah?"
I did as I was told and Dr Fraser sat down on a chair next to the bed by the usual ultrasound machine.
"Okay, kid, you know the drill. This is gonna be a big cold, surprise surprise!" He chuckled before squirting out the clear gel on my stomach and pressing the wand into it. I curiously glanced at the screen while Dr Fraser pulled the wand around. My heart skipped a beat when I saw the small body. I squeezed Jayden's hand. "Well, would ya look at that..." Dr Fraser mumbled. "You really are a miracle aren't you, kid?"
"Holy shit..." Jayden stuttered. His eyes were wide open and his mouth was gaping.
"So according to the info you provided and looking at this you seem to be around thirteen weeks now..."
Had time passed that quickly? That meant it was November now, right? And Kennedy hadn't spoken to me in weeks. I looked back at the dark screen and couldn't help but smile a little. At least until something on the screen made me jump with surprise, scaring everyone around me.
"I-is it supposed to be moving?" I stuttered as I looked at the little body.
"It's just swinging its little arms around... seems it's up and running! You've got an active one!" Dr Fraser smiled at the screen and chuckled. He'd been my doctor since I was a kid, to think that he was now my kid's doctor was a strange thought.
I stared in amazement. I never thought babies moved this much, especially not this early. It was so incredibly small, yet it moved its little limbs as if it was trying to work out. It flung its small legs around, wiggled its little arms and squirmed.
"Ready to hear the heartbeat?" Dr Fraser said and smiled at me. I nodded. A fast beating filled the room. It was fast and odd-sounding.
"Is it supposed to beat that fast? Is everything okay with it?" Jayden asked. Curiously, I glanced at him, finding him with an expression of both worry and joy. He squeezed my hand tightly. With a light chuckle, Dr Fraser gave us a reassuring nod and smiled at us.
"They all beat this fast," he said before turning to me, pausing for a moment. "I honestly always thought you'd be infertile like many other intersexual people... you're lucky!" He smiled at me. "At least one of the organs work..."
I looked away, blushing. One of them. I wasn't lucky. If anything, I was the least lucky person in the room. I might've started to have feelings for the little wiggler inside me now that I had accepted it as my own but I sure as hell didn't want it when I first found out about it. That was a fact I felt bad about but it wasn't something I could change. I glanced at my chest, I was sore, but not much had changed. My nipples seemed to have decided to start showing through fabric though which was extremely annoying and quite embarrassing. Whatever...
⚥ ⚥ ⚥
The car ride was silent. Not just because we weren't talking but also because Jayden's car was electric and it was really quiet when it sped down the road. Woods flashed by outside the window, we drove through charming small towns and passed a few semi-trucks. I was honestly worried about the car battery but Jayden had charged it when we were at the hospital, still, I was anxious about it. Having to stop here would be awful.
The ultrasound pictures were resting in my inner pocket, the doctor had to print several copies since Jayden, my parents and I all wanted our own. He had laughed.
"I didn't know you were showing..." Jayden mumbled with a faint smile. I looked over at him, surprised. We had been quiet since we got in the car and now, nearly thirty minutes later, he decided to speak. I glanced down at my stomach.
"It's practically nothing!" I chuckled. It really wasn't much. If I hadn't been so lean before no one would've ever even noticed. But my abs were curving outward ever so slightly, something so insignificant yet so precious. Jayden had probably been observing my stomach for the past few weeks, it wasn't strange that he noticed considering all the times he had seen me shirtless.
His fingers were twitching a little as he clenched the steering wheel. I hadn't let him touch my stomach yet, not even once. He hadn't asked but I knew that he desperately wanted to.
Hesitant, I glanced at him. "Wanna touch it..?" I asked carefully.
"Can I..? Are you sure?" He mumbled as his face darkened. Noticing his blushing on the dark skin was, perhaps, as difficult as noticing the small curve on my stomach, but I saw it, I noticed when he blushed.
"It's your baby too..." I murmured.
Before I knew it I had a warm hand on my stomach. Jayden had lifted my shirt and his hand was gently rubbing my ever so slightly perky stomach. "Can you feel it moving yet?" He whispered. Why he was whispering was out of my understanding but it made me smile.
"Nope, not yet..." I whispered back.
"What did you mean 'practically nothing'? There's like definitely a little bump!" He squealed.
I arched my brow. There was not a bump, it just looked like I ate too much. I looked bloated, not pregnant. "Whatever you say..." I mumbled.
⚥ ⚥ ⚥
I woke up to a soft embrace as I was carefully pulled out of Jayden's car. The cold air brushed up against my cold nose and I groaned in discomfort. I wasn't being held very comfortably but I was too tired to care in the slightest. The scent coming off of the body I had my head against definitely belonged to Jayden and I opened my eyes. It was dark outside.
"I can walk by myself..." I groaned.
"But you looked so sleepy..." he chuckled. "Wouldn't want you to fall..."
"I would never!" I whined, not even trying to get loose from his hold. "I'm fully capable of doing anything and everything by myself without messing it up!"
"And what if I wanted to carry you?"
"I'm heavy..." I whined at him.
"Good thing I'm strong!" I snickered.
"Did you just agree that I'm heavy?" I growled. A wave of annoyance washed over me.
"Nope!" He chuckled. "You're adorable and amazing and even if you were heavy, which you're not, I would never say it!"
I glared at him. "You get away this time..." I grumbled.
"Thank you..." He snickered.
He didn't put me down until we were outside the door to my apartment. Jayden smiled at me before he left and I was honestly relieved that he didn't try to hug or kiss me.
Brian was slicing bread in the kitchen as he stirred around in a pot. Just like always, he swung his hips from side to side, dancing to the cheerful piano music that played in the background. The song had just started playing and Brian hummed along.
"Soup?" I asked as I entered the kitchen and stood next to him. It smelled amazing.
"Soup," He replied. "How'd the ultrasound go?"
"The baby is fine, oddly active if you ask me. It keeps wiggling its little arms and shit..."
I looked up at Brian to see him lipsyncing and making faces with the song. His favourite part was coming up and he gave me a pleading look.
"Is she with the..." He sang and looked at me with puppy eyes. I snickered.
"Doctor..."
"Or the plumber?"
"Or the dentist..."
"Or the handyman?"
I ran up to the speaker and turned the volume down before Brian started singing the next part and he frowned at me. I pinched his nose and he waved my hand away. "You've bettered but the music is still too loud..." I chuckled.
"No one has complained..." Brian muttered and stirred around the soup.
I set the kitchen table before walking out to the living room. A sudden urge to nap snuck up on me and I couldn't help the loud yawn I let out. The joints in my body popped in some places as I stretched myself out. As my shirt lifted slightly my hands curiously wandered up to my hips and I turned to see my silhouette reflecting in the window. The dark sky outside made a perfect makeshift mirror and I turned, looking at the small bump that was starting to grow. It was honestly a bit embarrassing. What if someone asked about it or pointed it out? What would Kennedy say when he saw it?
"Dinner!" Brian called, snapping me out of the trance I had been in.
When I walked back into the kitchen Brian was already sitting down, pouring soup into our bowls. I sat down and leaned back in the chair.
"How's it going with your boyfriend?" He suddenly asked.
"Jayden?"
"Yeah!"
"He's not my boyfriend... We just sleep together..."
Brian handed me a slice of bread and I dipped it in the hot soup. "But he's the father to your baby, isn't he?" I shyly nodded. "Wouldn't you want something more stable? Like an actual relationship or something?"
"I don't like him like that..." I sighed.
"But you're gonna co-parent?"
"We haven't actually talked about that yet but I think so..."
"You've been spending a lot of time together lately... You seem to get along, I think you guys can do it..."
I looked down at the soup. I hadn't been thinking about the future at all, had I? All I thought of was how to make money for the kid. Where would we live? Would I live with Jayden? Would he actually stay with us? Would I stay? Could I even do this? How would I even give birth? I shivered and pulled my legs up to my chest where I sat on the chair. The small bump pressed against my legs. What if I couldn't do it and walked out on Jayden and the baby? What if he walked out? What if we both walked out? What if there was something wrong with the baby? What if it didn't survive after I had prepared myself to have it?
"Micah... Take deep breaths..." Brian placed his hand on my knee and rubbed it soothingly.
"Brian I don't know if I can do this..."
"Well, I know you can... You're the most capable guy I know... If there was someone who could do anything, it'd be you."
"Brian I can't even drive a car..."
"I said could, not can!" He chuckled and pulled his hand back. "Now, you never showed me the pictures of my little nephew!"
A small smile spread over my face as I skipped out to get the pictures in my jacket. When I came back Brian was bouncing his legs with excitement.
"Here you go!" I giggled and handed him the black paper.
"That's my little guy!" He squealed. "Look at those little arms!"
"What makes you so sure that it's a boy?"
"I dunno..." He grumbled and gave me a shy smile. "I guess it's just a feeling I got..." He mumbled as he placed a hand on my stomach. His eyes were wandering over the pictures and he smiled brightly. "You're such a lucky kid..." He mumbled and looked down at my small bump. "You've got the best dad anyone could ask for..."