Date Night
A great joy is coming.
-Author Unknown
Elizabeth Burke waited until she heard her husband's breathing slow down followed by his snoring before she slipped from his arms and tip toed from their bed into their bathroom. She did this for two reasons. One, she felt like she was about to vomit again—which she did almost as soon as she had the door shut behind her. And two, she wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to use that, ahem, product she had picked up the other day after getting a bag together for Anna. She wasn't sure if the roads would be clear the next morning and didn't want to have to wait. She wanted an answer and she wanted it now. She had suspected it for about a week now and bought the box in her hands on a whim, and now was the time to confirm or deny. Was she pregnant, or not?
She followed the directions on the box to the letter. She wanted as little room for error as possible. Even though she was almost one hundred percent sure of what it would say. She was irregular, but she never had gone two months without her period before. She had been throwing up for weeks but she knew she wasn't sick. And Peter could definitely testify to the recent mood swings. And she had noticed a slight rounding between her hips in her lower belly, the beginnings of a baby bump. In her heart she knew she was pregnant, now all she needed was confirmation from the plastic test in her hand and her doctor tomorrow.
Glancing down at her watch she took a deep breath to ready herself, her five minutes were up. She gasped and almost dropped the test. She had already pretty much known this would happen, but that didn't do anything to stop the overwhelming joy she felt when she saw the word 'pregnant' spelled out on the small digital screen. A few happy tears squeezed their way out of her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. She allowed herself a small giggle and resisted the urge to run and wake up Peter. She would wait and tell him at dinner tomorrow night.
As she slipped back into bed and Peter's arms to sleep, she found her hand automatically move to rest on her invisible mini-bump. Sleep was difficult—she was too excited—but by twelve thirty she finally drifted off, not waking up again until eight when her alarm clock went off. She let out a sigh of relief when she looked out of her window and saw that the roads were finally cleared to drive.
Her shower went quickly, only taking her ten minutes before she hopped out and dried her hair. She pulled on her favorite old pair of jeans—she'd owned them longer than she had known Peter—and an old t-shirt. It was a lot different than what she normally wore, but she wanted to go shopping after her appointment and these clothes were a lot more comfortable to go running around in.
When she got downstairs Peter was standing in the kitchen pouring himself a cup of coffee and there were already bowels and the box of cereal sitting on the dining room table. "Morning, honey," she smiled at him and kissed him before grabbing a glass of water.
Their breakfast went as usual. She talked about the newest event she had to plan; he talked about work, namely the investigation into the jet explosion. And twenty minutes later they were all cleaned up and pulling their coats on before walking out to their respective cars after one more kiss goodbye. As always when she was excited to get somewhere, traffic seemed to be pitted against her. The clock on her dash moved faster, but the other drivers moved slower and she managed to hit every red light between her home and her doctor's office.
Thankfully she didn't have to sit in the waiting room long after she signed in. She was only sitting for maybe two minutes when her doctor called her back.
"So, we think we're pregnant?" her doctor asked her with a wide grin. Dr. Casey Mitchell had been her gynecologist since she started going when she was eighteen and had been saying since Elle married Peter that it was only a matter of time before she finally got to act as her obstetrician.
"Yes we do. I took a home test last night and it said I was. And I already was almost one hundred percent positive when I made the appointment," Elle informed her, unable to keep a smile from her face.
"Well, let's take a look. Just lay back and pull your shirt up some. This is going to be really cold, okay," she warned as she prepared to apply the gel once Elizabeth had done what she was told. She gasped slightly as the gel hit her skin. She knew the gel was necessary to get a good picture, but why was it so damned cold?
"Looks like you and your test were right. There's a profile of your baby," Dr. Mitchell told her and pointed to the picture on the screen. Elizabeth's eyes immediately welled up at the sight. That was her baby; her and Peter's baby living and growing inside of her. The doctor pressed a few buttons to print out the picture. She also printed out a shot of the baby's tiny feet.
After finishing up with the sonogram she let Elizabeth clean the gel off her abdomen and then took her into her office to talk. "So when was your last menstrual cycle?" she asked once they were seated comfortably across from each other.
Elle paused to think for a moment. "Sometime in early to mid January, I believe."
Casey quickly did the math in her head, including what she knew of Peter and Elle's schedules as factors. "So that would mean you conceived January seventeenth or somewhere close to that date. That would put you at the ten week mark . . ." she did one more quick calculation. "Which makes your estimated due date October tenth."
"Everything is okay, right?"
"Elizabeth, your baby is as healthy as can be. If I saw anything wrong, I would have told you as soon as I saw it. He or she is a little over an inch long right now, which is exactly the size it's supposed to be at ten weeks. Does Peter know you're pregnant?"
"Not yet. We are meeting for dinner tonight, I'm going to tell him then," she answered, grinning in anticipation. They had never really talked much about when they would have kids, but she was almost positive he would be just as excited as she was.
"Tell him he'd better be at your next appointment," Dr. Mitchell teased and winked at Elizabeth.
"He will be," Elle laughed and hugged Casey as they both stood.
"You can make your next appointment up front. I'd like to see you sometime around every four weeks or so."
"Alright, I'll see you next time." Elle was smiling widely as she left the office and went back to the front desk. She had just made an appointment for April eighteenth when her phone started buzzing in her purse, making the whole bag vibrate.
"Annabelle, hey," she answered after glancing at the caller ID and hitting send to pick up. "Oh, no, what happened?" she asked after hearing a small sob on the other end.
"C-can you come over?" her sister-in-law asked instead.
"Of course I can, Anna. Where are you sweetie?"
"I'm at the subway station now. I'm going home." She got her reply out just in time before another sob, this one louder than the last, broke out.
"Alright, honey, calm down. I'm getting in the car now. We'll probably get there around the same time. Just try to breathe, Anna." Annabelle said a shaky thank you before hanging up and Elle tossed her phone on top of her purse in the passenger seat and turned out of the parking garage and towards Queens.
She was right in her prediction; just as she pulled into a parking spot Anna was approaching the front door of the building. Annabelle still had a continuous stream of tears rolling in rivers down her face. Elle grabbed her phone and purse and hopped out of the car.
"Come on, let's get inside out of the cold and you can tell me what happened," she sighed and wrapped an arm around her shoulders as they walked in. Once in Annabelle's apartment they sat on the couch and Anna broke down into full hysteria and hid her face in Elizabeth's shoulder.
Elle let her cry for a while and rubbed her back comfortingly before asking her again what was wrong after forcing Anna to look her in the face.
"I had sex with Neal," she wailed and hid her face in her hands before falling apart again. Elizabeth was in shock, her mouth hung open slightly and she had to remind herself to close it. Anna and Neal? She knew they liked each other, but she hadn't expected this. And what had happened after to reduce Anna to this?
Elle resumed rubbing her arm and back gently as she looked up to speak again. "I feel like such a . . . slut! How could I let something like that happen? His girlfriend was just murdered and I slept with him!" Leave it to Annabelle Burke to find a way to blame this all on herself.
"What did he say? Did he say he wished it didn't happen?" she asked. If Neal regretted it, then she couldn't blame her for being so upset. Elle had been there before and knew it hurt.
Through hiccups, Annabelle replied, "He said he was partly glad it happened, but he also kind of wished we had waited. He said he needed more time before anything else happened between us."
Definitely reason to be hurt, but not as bad as she had anticipated. "Then honey, give him time," Elle told her and smoothed back Anna's still slightly damp hair. "There's no need to get this upset until he has had some more time to heal. If after that he says no, that is when to get upset. I know you're hurt, but you never know, he may decide after a while he wants to give you two a real shot."
"Has anyone ever told you that you will be an amazing mom some day?" she sniffed and flashed a watery grin.
"Try seven months," Elle winked at her.
"What? You're kidding!" Anna finally smiled and hugged her tightly. Mission accomplished, Elle thought to herself as she hugged back. "When did you find out?"
"Last night, I took a home test. I came here from my doctor's. She had just confirmed it for me when you called."
"Does Peter know?"
"No, I am meeting him for dinner tonight and will tell him after dinner, probably on our way home."
"Okay, becoming an aunt is definitely making me feel much better," she admitted and laughed slightly.
"Good because I think you need retail therapy, and I have to get a hot dress to wear tonight," Elle giggled uncharacteristically.
If there was any substantial amount of money in their respective bank accounts, they both had changed that by the time Elle declared she had to go home. Annabelle had gotten about half of a wardrobe, Elle found a dress for her date with Peter, and neither of them could resist poking around in the baby stores. All baby stores in the Manhattan area were wiped of any and all unisex outfits that day.
"Are you sure you don't want to come over for a little while before I start getting ready?" Elle asked Anna again as she stopped in front of the nearest subway station as Anna had requested. Anna declined and leaned across the center console to hug Elle and give her a kiss goodbye before getting out of the car.
Elle breathed a sigh of relief when she parked in front of their house. She figured Peter wouldn't be home yet, but just in case he was she didn't want to have to explain why a majority of her bags were from baby stores. It took her two trips with her hands over flowing with shopping bags to get all her things upstairs where she sat them on the landing. She looked through the bags to find the two with items for her; one contained new shoes, the other her new dress. She deposited both of these on her bed before returning to the remaining bags.
Being the experienced event planner she is, she began planning for this baby as soon as she began to suspect. She transported the remaining bags into the guest bedroom, which she had decided would become the nursery, and hid them in the closet. She temporarily went back to her room, only to return to the soon to be nursery with a black spiral notebook and a pencil in hand. Before opening the notebook she set an alarm on her phone for four o'clock. They were leaving at five, so that gave her an hour for hair, make up, and changing.
She sketched a basic outline of the room, carefully scrutinizing the space around her as she tried to keep proportions in order. By the time the alarm went off she had sketched out two different ideas on how she would design her baby's room, the only thing she hadn't though of was colors. No one could ever call Elizabeth Burke unprepared.
By four thirty she had just finished her make up and was organizing her hair into loose curls when Peter came home. "I'm upstairs, honey," she hollered back when she heard him call out her name.
"You look amazing," he told her when she finished her hair and exited the bathroom and returned to the bedroom where he was waiting.
"You're looking pretty good yourself," she smiled widely and hugged him, planting a passionate kiss on his lips. Peter definitely was not expecting that kind of response, but enjoyed it none the less, returning the kiss just as enthusiastically. He was beginning to doubt whether or not they would make it to dinner when she finally pulled away.
"I missed you too," he chuckled slightly and rested his hands on her hips, kissing her again lightly before letting her go. A faint blush came to her cheeks and she busied herself changing into her new dress. After helping her zip up the dress he told her he would wait in the living room—there was no doubt in her mind he just wanted to catch as much of the game as possible before they left.
As she deposited her jeans and t-shirt in the laundry basket in their closet, she made a split second decision; she couldn't wait to tell Peter. She slipped on the black heels—they looked almost exactly like the ones she wore on their first date, which she had gotten rid of after they began to fall apart from being worn so much, they were two inch patent leather peep toes—and examined herself in the mirror. The black dress had a scoop neck just low enough to be sexy but high enough to avoid being deemed slutty and it clung to her body tightly until it stopped just above her knees. She adjusted the straps of her bra so they were hidden beneath the inch thick straps of the dress. If she looked close enough she could just make out the slight swell of her abdomen. It was barely there but since she knew about it and what it protected that is immediately where her eyes chose to focus. Waiting until after dinner just wasn't going to happen.
She took a deep breath and grabbed her purse, extracting the sonogram printouts from where they had been securely tucked in her wallet for safekeeping, and slung it over her shoulder before heading downstairs. As she had suspected he was sitting on the couch watching the game with Satchmo lying at his feet. "Honey," she started and sat next to him, resting her hand on his leg when he went to get up. Once he got the hint to stay sitting she grabbed the remote and turned off the T.V.
"What is it?" he asked, noting the slightly nervous expression his wife wore.
"I need to talk to you about something." She took another deep breath and grabbed his hand with her free one, her other was holding the sonograms, picture side down, on her lap. "I . . . I went to Dr. Mitchell today."
He tightened his grip on her hand. "Are you okay?" He knew there was cancer in her family and that knowledge combined with her anxiety made alarms go off in his head.
"Yes, honey, I'm fine. I'm better than fine," she reassured him quickly. "Both of us are perfectly healthy," she added and held the print outs towards him.
He furrowed his brow, not quite making the connection as the worry of cancer held on. He grabbed the pieces of paper from her hand and turned them around so he could see them. He gasped slightly as the pictures combined with what she said and he caught on to what she was saying. That was definitely not a tumor.
As she watched Peter make the connection, she shifted a bit closer to him and held his hand tightly. "Honey, I'm pregnant."
"I'm going to be a father," he said in disbelief.
She nodded and leaned on his shoulder, looking at the sonograms with him. "That's our baby."
Peter carefully sat the print outs on the coffee table where they wouldn't get damaged and then turned to face his wife, taking her face in his hands and kissing her gently. "I love you, Elle."
"I love you too, honey," she replied and kissed him again, taking one of his hands and bringing it down to rest on the nearly invisible bump.
They did miss their dinner reservations, but neither of them really minded. The Burke's were more than happy to spend their night together at home.
Finally, I have it posted! Sorry I made y'all wait so long, but I really wanted this to be as good as I could make it. I hope you guys enjoyed reading this and I will try to post chapter eight of Stolen Sweets ASAP. For anyone that is interested, I have a poll regarding the story on my profile right now. It will determine the name and gender of Baby Burke. I would really appreciate it if you guys went and took a look at it, and vote of course.
~TheRatPack