There were no words, only tears that were making Julia's big, blue and green eyes shimmer. She stood there with her hands on her face and Darren's arms around her. His big, fluffy hair cushioning the side of her head.
Darren pulled back took her hands in his and asked, "Are you sure you're pregnant?"
"I've skipped a period by a week and a half. I'm 80 percent I'm pregnant."
Darren looked at her with his forehead scrunched up but also with a smile, "Julia, this is—"
"Is everything alright out here," Joe came out of Meredith's room with a concern look on his face.
"Everything is fine, Joe. We're going to go home and rest." Darren said with reassurance.
Joe went back into the room and closed the door.
"You were saying," Julia said to Darren, egging him to carry on;
"I was saying that I think this is fantastic news! I am so overwhelmed that I feel like an idiot for not noticing this sooner!"
"Darren", Julia started, "I don't know if I'm 100% sure if I have a bun-in-the-oven yet, remember? Just because I'm late doesn't make it definite. I don't want to wake up tomorrow morning and see gross placenta blood all over our sheets just because I thought I was pregnant."
They both stood in silence, grossed out by what Julia had just said and a little buzzed out. That really put a damper on their mood.
A moment after, Darren asked, "Why don't we just ask for a pregnancy test here? We're in the hospital, and what better way to be sure than a doctor telling you?"
"Yeah, sure."
They both walked down to reception.
Everyone was on the verge of sleeping when there was a sudden increase of speed of the beeps that was monitoring how fast Meredith's heart-beat was going. They all jolted up to see if she was okay and she started to shake. Joey, like a bolt, pushed the emergency button, knelt down by her side and began to cry again. The doctor came in, pushed a few buttons and everything was back to normal again.
"It was just her drip malfunctioning. She's perfectly fine now." The doctor reassured them all. Everyone but Joey.
"Yeah, that's what you said last time, Doc. She clearly wasn't 'fine' just then. Are there going to be other 'malfunctions', huh?! ARE YOU GOING TO MAKE US PANIC AGAIN, DOC?! BECAUSE I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE, I JUS—"
"Joey, calm down, alright? If anything happens again, we all know where the button is. Please don't feel like this…" David was now standing next to Joey, with his hand on his shoulder. Joey looked up, al watery-eyed and put if fore-head back on the bed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean any of that."
"We know, buddy," Dylan piped up.
Soon enough they were all drifting back to sleep.
Darren and Julia were now in the waiting are, anticipating the results of the test. It had only been 30 seconds but they were both shaking with anticipation, awaiting those important results.
1 minute, 1 minutes 30 seconds… 5 minutes had gone and the doctor came back. Seeing as Julia had done a test at the hospital, the results took longer to receive. Feeling really hot and clammy, Julia decided to take a step outside.
Darren was waiting alone in his shock whilst shaking his leg in nervousness. Did he even want the baby? Well, of course he did! The real question is; is he ready? A tear streamed down his face and his eyes became partly bloodshot from crying. Fiddling with his hands was the only way he could settle his emotions.
Both Julia and the Doctor came back.
"Yeah, she's just got food poisoning. She's probably late on her menstrual cycle and that's why she thought she was pregnant."
Darren stood up and shook his hand," Thank you."
The Doctor walked away, with a clipboard in his hand and a skip in his step. Just another piece of work done for him.
"How do you feel about this?" Julia asked Darren, looking up to his tear-ridden face.
"Relieved, I guess. I mean, were we even ready for something like this?" Darren put his hands back in his face, took a deep breath in and sighed. Taking his hands away, he leant into Julia and kissed her gently on her perfectly plump lips. They stung a little bit after crying but other than that, Darren made her feel warm inside, cosy. She just wanted to go home and cuddle with him.
"C'mon, let's go."
Meredith started to regain consciousness the next morning. She turned over on her side and saw Joey sleeping and winced and the pain while doing it. It wasn't a surprise to see Joey lying in an almost plank position with his arms crossed, and mouth open, snoring.
She didn't want to wake him up, not after the stress he's been through.
As if he was reading her mind, he jolted up, almost choking on the snore he had yet to finish.
"Mere!" Joey exclaimed quietly, after all, it was 6.a.m. and they had both just woken up.
Meredith smiled weakly and blinked. Joey got up and stretched for a second and then brought the chair over to her bedside and asked how she was feeling.
"Weird. I feel weird. And slightly lost. That anaesthetic really worked, I guess. But in 'wound' terms, not all that great. It hurts like a bitch and I feel like if I even breathe too hard my chest is going to implode."
Joey took her hand and kissed it. He had dry lips. He hadn't drank anything in at least a day. The scratchy-ness of his beard made Meredith smile. She was glad to be back. Not to normal just yet. But she was working on it.
"As soon as you get out of here, I'm going to take you to a nice hotel and stay there for a weekend. We can go and do whatever you want. I just want some time with you other than in a dusty hospital room," Joey stated, as he let go of her hand and made his way to the door so he could get some water.
"Wow, Joey Richter. You know how to impress a girl with dreams on her first real date. Where are you going? Don't leave!" Meredith started to panic. The beeps of the monitor were progressively getting faster.
"Woah, slow down there, Mere! I'm just going to get a drink. Do you want anything?"
Her heart rate slowed down as she came down from her panic attack. "Uh, yeah, a coke please."
Joey left her and came back in a matter of seconds. She wasn't expecting anyone to come in anytime soon so she made her way to the toilet. Meredith looked at herself in the mirror and evaluated herself. She looked so tired, so weak.
She came back with a surprise in her room. Not only was it a surprise, it was a surprise that she wanted to see. But by the look on the surprises face, the surprise wasn't here to give hugs.
Any guesses?
"What do you want, Bonnie?"
