A week later, Alexis still felt like shit. No worse than that, because it was ebbing and flowing so rapidly she had no idea if she was going to be able to keep down her lunch one moment and the next she wanted to eat everything in sight. As a result she could barely handle more than ginger-ale and soup, and it was driving her crazy.
She pressed a gloved hand to her mouth as she walked the short distance from the subway to the door of her building. God, was this what morning sickness was like, she wondered, because if it was she prayed to God it wouldn't last too long. Then again, she knew she was probably just a week or two late from stress. It had happened before and she wasn't surprised it was happening around the time she'd taken the biggest test of her medical career.
When she opened the door to home, Alexis dropped her bag into the armchair in the living room, stepped out of her winter boots. She'd walked half-way to the refrigerator to find a little snack before she felt her stomach pitch again. 'God damn, I do not have time for this!'
She stripped off her clothes as quickly as she could and made it into the bathroom, bending over the toilet as her stomach voided its contents into the porcelain bowl. She stayed there until she was certain she wasn't going to lose any organs out her mouth, then flushed, sighed. Why was she so crappy feeling still?
Looking around for some toilet paper, she opened the under-sink cabinet and froze when she saw the blue box of Tampax beside the mouthwash. Frantically, she began to calculate and felt her stomach do another flip-flop, this time of excitement.
Standing up, she turned sideways to examine her body in the mirror. No, there were no visible signs of it, she thought. But there were a few others, now that she began to get flashes of the last two weeks.
'Hey, honey, you just get in?'
Alexis heard her husband, ran her thumb over the underside of her wedding rings. 'In here, heaving my guts out.'
'Aw, sweetheart.' Shane gave her a sympathetic look; he'd followed the trail of clothes to the bathroom. 'Still have the flu?'
Alexis turned to look at him, eyes shining brightly. 'I think it might be morning sickness.'
'Lex, you think...seriously?' Shane blinked, looked at her slim and lovely body and its possibilities.
'Yeah. I've been sick for like two weeks, my boobs hurt, I'm cranky and horny and hungry like all the time, and most tellingly, I haven't gotten my period since before Christmas.' Alexis let out a snorting laugh, clapped her hands to her mouth. 'I think we made a baby, Shane.'
'A baby. Holy fuck, a baby.' Shane laughed, pulled her to her feet and into his arms for a kiss; the storm of emotions churned through him like a summer storm, so much so he had no idea what to do with himself. He rubbed his hands over her shoulders, looked around. 'We should go now, to the hospital to get you tested. I don't trust those drugstore things.'
Alexis laughed at his enthusiasm. 'Shane?'
'Yeah.'
'I need some clothes first.'
'Oh, right.'
Shane waited impatiently while she dressed; he still had no idea what to do with himself as he waited for her, and wondered how the hell his father had waited in the hospital waiting room in Amsterdam while his mother had brought him into the world. He would be there, there was no force of heaven or earth that would keep him from Alexis' side, if indeed their instincts were right and they'd a baby already.
'Okay.'
He glanced over, smiled as he saw Alexis had returned from the bedroom in jeans and a warm sweater, reached for her purse. 'Let's go see if we've got a little bumpy on the way.'
Forty-five minutes later Alexis and Shane were in the fast-track of Saint Vincent's, where luck would have it Honey-Milk was at the desk talking to another nurse. She excused herself when she saw her friends, gave them a friendly but concerned look.
'What brings you in here, guys?'
'I, ah...I need some tests done, Jenn,' Alexis said tentatively.
'What kind? What's up?'
'You know...' She trailed off, patted her belly below the navel. 'Tests?'
Honey-Milk's eyes went round as saucers and she let out a little giggle. 'Oh, tests! Of course, I'll get you set up as possible.'
They still had to wait their turn, but it always helped to know a friendl, and Honey-Milk was very good about this kind of thing. She even did Alexis' intake information though she was off-duty already, and sat with them until Harvey walked into the exam room; he greeted them with a friendly smile, Even at nearly sixty he was still as weather-worn and charmingly steady as ever.
'Well, well, Lady-Doctor Weaver, let's see if we have a little Weaver on the way.'
He set up the sonogram equipment, and went through the time honoured routine of squeezing the cold gel onto Alexis' belly and moving the instrument over it. Harvey looked at the screen and pursed his lips, nodded.
'Have a look.'
He turned the screen so that both Shane and Alexis could see what Harvey saw - in the centre was a shape curled up like a little mouse, along with a little flicker of a heartbeat.
'There's the heartbeat, and that's the head and if you look closely, you can see the arms are already starting to form. From this it looks about seven weeks old, give or take a few days.'
'Oh my god.' Alexis breathed deeply, looked at the screen as she held Shane's hand tightly. 'Oh my god.'
'We made a baby, Lex,' Shane said, trying to fight off tears and losing; he buried his face against Alexis' cheek. 'We're going to be parents.'
'Can we hear the heartbeat?'
'Sure.'
Harvey flipped the audio switch on and Alexis closed her eyes as she heard the wob-wob-wob. The sheer overwhelming beauty of it had happy tears leaking out of her eyes, and she felt Shane's lips on her forehead, his shaky breath on her skin.
'I love you so much, Lex.'
'Congrats you guys!' Honey-Milk clapped and jumped up and down on the spot. 'Oh, please, please tell me you're going to let me be there when you tell Rick and Kate and RJ!'
'Oh my god.' Alexis looked at Shane and snickered. 'How are we going to tell our parents?'
