Chapter 4

Willow

Willow's entire body froze. Oh, my god, she thought. Both of them. The doctor had just said both of them. Did that mean….. No it couldn't. They had used protection every time. It simply wasn't possible. They hadn't even been trying for a baby, for pity's sake!

Unless… perhaps the condom had broken, or had been faulty or something. Well, Willow thought to herself, I was not expecting this.

Willows thoughts where going around in circles in her head. We hadn't even talked about having a baby! Heck, they weren't even married. Willow felt herself blush slightly, feeling silly at the thought, though it had occurred to her in the past few weeks. Plus, she didn't even know if that was what Alex wanted. They had never really talked about it, although they had both said that they want to be together forever.

Suddenly, Willow had a horrible thought. What if Alex didn't want the baby? No, she told herself. She couldn't think like that. He wouldn't leave them, or ask her to get rid of it. It just wasn't like him, and even though they hadn't ever spoken but something this big, they would just have to make it work.

Somehow.

Willow was still trying to wrap her head around it all when she risked a glance down at Alex, who was still staring at the doctor in shock. For a horrible second, Willow thought he was thinking about running, until slowly, he turned his head to look up at her from his seat beside the hospital bed.

Alex's eyes still held the shock of the news, but underneath that, there was a deep happiness shining through. Slowly, as if he was trying to touch a startled animal, he gently rested his free hand on Willow's lower belly, right above where their baby was apparently growing. Willow placed her hand on top of his, squeezing it tightly, tears of happiness shining in her eyes.

Without taking his eyes off of hers, he asked Dr Johnson: "Are you sure? I mean is there any way you could be wrong?" Willow could tell that he didn't want to ask the question, that he wanted to believe in this beautiful dream that they were both sharing, despite the fact that the shock still hadn't worn off.

Dr Johnson smiled again, this time more gently, seeing the love in this wonderful moment Alex and Willow were in, with their hands still pressed to her belly… and to their child. "The failure rate for a blood test is almost non-existent. I think we can be fairly sure that Willow here is pregnant."

Suddenly, Willow couldn't stop smiling, happy tears oozing out of her eyes, and through the blur of her tears, she saw that even Alex was struggling to hold back tears of joy as he grinned too.

Alex jumped up from his seat and wrapped his arms around her. Willow clung to him, and he kept whispering in her ear: "Oh god, oh god. We're going to have a baby. We are actually having a baby!" he half cried, half laughed as we held each other.

Suddenly, Alex seemed to remember something. He let Willow go back down on the bed and kissed her quickly, but passionately, pouring all the feeling he could into it. He had this look of excitement in his eyes, even more so than a minute ago. He said: "I'll be back in a second. Don't go anywhere," he laughed, "Of course you can't. I Love you so, so much." He kissed her again before running out of the hospital room and down the corridor.

Willow watched him go, still smiling slightly and wondering dazedly what he was doing. She looked down at her hospital gown and pressed her hand back to her belly. Willow just couldn't believe it. They were having a baby! This had been the best day of her life, despite its mildly catastrophic start.

Willow glanced up at Dr Johnson, who was watching her with a dopey smile on his weathered face. For the first time, Willow smiled back. "How… How long has it been?" she asked, "Since I got pregnant, I mean?"

He smiled at Willow again. "From the look for your blood test, not long. Maybe three to four weeks? It puts you dew date at about January next year. We will be able to get a more exact date further on, during the second trimester. In the meantime, I think we should get you booked in for an appointment at your local clinic. Your boy there said that you don't actually live here, that you were just on holiday up in the Sierra Nevada's .It. Seems like kind of an extreme place to holiday to be honest. Do either of you climb or something?" Willow shook her head, still dazed and pressing her hand to her belly. "No. we have an old cabin up there. We go to stay sometimes. It's beautiful up there." Willow smiled. "And we live in Pawntucket, near Denver."

Willow remembered when they had first bought their flat. It wasn't far from the town square that they had helped rebuild two years before. Willow liked looking out on it from their bedroom window.

The flat itself wasn't big, two bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen and living room. But it is nice and they have a top floor flat so that they could go up onto the roof and watch the sun go down over the mountains that provide a backdrop for the little town. Another little perk was that they were only two blocks from where Nina and Jonah were living. Willow smiled again as she remembered getting back to knowing Nina the way they had when they were in high school, and it was nice to get to know Jonah for the first time.