Chapter 9
Both turned to face the door as an Asian looking doctor walked in the door followed by Epiphany pulling the ultrasound machine behind her. "Hello, Ms. Banks, I'm Dr. Kelly Lee." The doctor moves to the bed and shakes Natalie's hand before moving out of the way so Epiphany could set up the ultrasound machine. "I'm here to make sure your baby is ok."
"Baby? What baby?" A stunned John asks.
Natalie ignored John as she concentrated on the doctor. "Its nice to meet you, Dr. Lee. Thank you for doing this."
"Oh, its no problem. I'm just doing my job and that is to make sure you and this little one are both ok. Can you tell me when your last checkup was?" Dr. Lee asks.
"Check up for what? What baby are you talking about?" John asks again, confused.
"Almost two weeks ago. I had Dr. Vivian Wright of Llanview Hospital check me out before I made my plans to leave town. She was the ob I used for my first pregnancy." Natalie continues to ignore John.
"This is your second child?" She asks and Natalie nods yes. "How long ago was your first child born and were they and complications?"
"My son Liam is 22 months old. He was a breech birth but the doctor said I healed well from the delivery."
"I'm going to need you to sign a release so we can get your records from your previous pregnancy and this one."
"Natalie what's going on? You're not pregnant." John once again tries to get answers.
"Actually I am." Natalie tells him pulling her hospital gown tight across her stomach so he can see her slight baby bump before turning back to Dr. Lee. "I'll sign the release for the records of my pregnancy with Liam but I only saw Vivian twice with this baby. She checked me out at the hospital after I had my accident the day I found out I was pregnant and then right before I left Llanview. The rest of the time I was cared for by a Dr. Smith but it will probably be difficult to get my records from him. He works for my dad and I doubt that dad will let him give you my records."
"Why did you change doctors with this pregnancy? Did you have issues with your old ob during your first pregnancy?" Dr. Lee asked.
"No, its not that. I like and trust Dr. Wright more then any other doctor I've seen. And if I had a choice she would have been my ob this time, but my dad made my decisions for me after my car accident. He decided that it would be better to have just one doctor treat me for everything that was going on with me even though Dr. Smith wasn't an ob."
"Well I will want to give you a thorough examination to make sure everything is ok after I do the ultrasound. Do you have anything in particular you are concerned about?"
"I don't know if Dr. Drake told you or not, but I was in a coma for about two months. Dr. Drake couldn't say for sure, but he thought it might have been a drug induced coma due to a head injury I suffered. I'm afraid the drugs might have hurt the baby."
"We will be sure to check that out. We will be doing some blood work on you and, if you stay under my care until the baby is born, there will be other test I would like you to have. But we will discuss that after we take a look at this little one." Dr. Lee moved to help Epiphany with the machine.
John moved closer to the head of Natalie's bed barely able to contain the anger surging through him. "You're pregnant? You're really pregnant? You come here pregnant by another man and you say you haven't moved on! What do you call sleeping with someone else if it isn't moving on? Or was it just another one night stand like it was with Brody?"
"How dare you throw Brody in my face! You know none of that would have happened if you would have just been man enough to fight for what you wanted to begin with instead of hiding first behind Marty and then Kelly! Of course your mistakes don't matter like usual, just mine do! But I'm sorry to disappoint you this time John. I'm not the one who was sleeping around. And I didn't have a one night stand either."
"Yet you are the one who is pregnant. So who is the father? If it wasn't a one night stand, then what did you do? Did you sleep with one of your exes? There's only two that I know of that are still alive. So which one is the lucky daddy to be, Chris or Brody?"
"Neither, John. I haven't seen either of them in almost a year. I've only been with one man this year and that's you. This is your baby John. Congratulations you are going to be a daddy again."
"My baby?" A shocked John asks. "That's not possible. We haven't been together in four months."
"Well that works out well then cause I'm four months along."
"No, no you are wrong. None of this is true. It can't be." John said in disbelief. "If you were having my child you would have told me. You may be mad at me right now, may even hate me a little, but there is no way you would keep me from knowing about us having another child, especially after what happened with Liam. You wouldn't have waited four months to tell me you were pregnant. You would have told me the moment you found out."
"What part of I WAS IN A COMA FOR TWO MONTHS don't you understand? I couldn't tell you! The day I found out was the day I had the accident and then I was in a coma. I came here to tell you that and everything else as soon as I was able."
"Will you stop with this coma stuff? I would have known if you were hurt that bad. Someone would have told me. You need to stop making up lies to convince me that I am the father of the child you are having with the man you wrote me about in the letter. I don't know what happened between the two of you, but you can't keep his child from him just like you can't keep Liam from me."
"There is no other man and I never wrote you any letter! Don't be laying your cheating ways on me! There is only one cheater in our relationship and that's you!"
Before their argument could escalate further, Dr. Lee interrupted. "The both of you need to calm down. Its not good for the baby and quite frankly you are giving me a headache. Now if you want to stay for the ultrasound, Mr. Mcbain, then I suggest the two of you table this argument until later."
"Dr. Drake has already told him twice to not upset her, so it might be best if he leaves anyway, Dr. Lee." Epiphany says.
"I think you might be right, Epiphany. Mr. Mcbain can you please wait outside?"
"I'm not leaving!" John states empathically. "If there's even the slightest chance this is my baby then I intend to be here every step of the way."
"Don't make me call security," Dr. Lee tells him.
"No, let him stay." Natalie breaks in before things can get ugly. "I want him here. If one day soon he decides to finally accept that this is his baby, then he will never forgive me if he misses out on seeing his child for the first time."
"Ok, he can stay." Dr. Lee relents after a moment of hesitation. "But I will have no more accusations or outbursts from either of you or I will make him leave and have him banned from your room for the duration of your stay here. Is that clear to both of you?" She stares between them until they both nod. "Ok then, let's get started." John moved to the head of the bed and close to Natalie so he could see the screen while Dr. Lee started to moved Natalie's hospital gown up to expose her belly. Natalie shudders as Dr. Lee puts the cold gel on her stomach. "Sorry, I always forget to warm it. Before we take a look at the baby, lets check its heartbeat first." When she turned on the machine and placed the wand on her stomach, the sound of the heartbeat filled the room to the amazement of both of the parents. "Nice strong and fast heartbeat, just like we want it. Now let's see what this little one looks like." She flips a switch on the machine and a shadowy image appears.
"Is it ok? Its so fuzzy I can't make anything out about it." Natalie said.
"This should help." Dr. Lee adjusted a few knobs and the picture cleared up as she started to point out images on the screen. "Alright, there's the head. And the spine is right there. If you look right here you can see the little hands and down here are its feet. Development looks good, just right for how far along you are. By the looks of this, I would say you are about seventeen weeks along."
"Seventeen weeks, huh? That would put conception as the last week of July, right? Probably around the 25th, right?" Natalie asks Dr. Lee as she cuts her eyes over at John.
"I can't tell you the exact date, but from what I see here I would say the last week of July is about right for the date of conception. And from the look of things everything is on track for you to have a healthy baby sometime around the first of May. We will figure out the exact due date at your first appointment and I want to do some additional test, but for right now everything looks ok. I do want to examine you a little further, so Mr. McBain I will need you to step outside."
"I'm not leaving! If this is my baby I'm not going to miss out on anything." John practically yells.
"She's going to do an internal exam, John. So get out!"
Epiphany came around the bed to grab John and start to push him toward the door. "You can wait in the hall. It will only take a few minutes and I'll come get you as soon as we are done." She pushes him out and shuts the door.
John backs up against the wall, unable to fully comprehend everything that had happened since he walked into the hospital. He had finally got to see Natalie and Liam for the first time in months, only to find out that he was going to have another baby he didn't know anything about. And then to be hit with all of this stuff about Natalie being in a coma, which still didn't make any sense to him. How could the woman he was madly in love with be in a coma for two months and he not know anything about it? How had he became so cut off from his life in Llanview that he wouldn't know when Natalie was in trouble? And why wouldn't Bo or any of his other so called friends from home tell him what was going on? How could everything in his life go so wrong so fast and how was he going to fix it?
John was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't even realize the door to Natalie's room had opened until Epiphany spoke. "You can come back in now, Mr. McBain."
Moving away from the wall, John walked back into the room and to Natalie's bedside. "Is everything ok?"
"Everything looks just fine." Dr. Lee said. "I want to run some more test as soon as you are feeling better. But for now I think everything is ok."
"Is one of the other test you want to do an amino?" Natalie asks.
"Yes it is, but its going to have to wait a couple of months until you are a little bit stronger." Dr. Lee tells her.
"Good, then we can do a paternity test at the same time." Natalie tells her before John has a chance to ask for one.
"We can discuss that later. But for now you need to try your best to remain calm and relax. I understand Dr. Drake is going to keep you for a couple of days. I want to see you no later then a week after you are released. I am going to treat this like a high risk pregnancy until I can rule out any after effects of any drugs you may be given while in the coma. Just make an appointment with my nurse before you leave the hospital. We are going to leave you so you can rest, but feel free to call us if you need anything." Dr. Lee and Epiphany go out the door leaving John and Natalie alone.
Natalie looks over at John. "Did you hear what she said? Conception date is around the 25th of July. Do you remember what we were doing on the 25th and the few days before and after? I do. I had just got back from London, you had got back from here, and we spent a few days in bed except for the times we had to get up to care for Liam. And then on the 25th Mom took Liam and we stayed in bed the whole day. That was when this baby was conceived. Unless of course you still think I was cheating on you just like you did on me."
John sighs, running a hand through his hair. "I don't know what to think any more. No I don't believe that you were cheating on me before Todd sent you that stupid picture and I left town. But I didn't believe you could move on so fast either until I got your letter in the mail. A letter you are denying even writing. Now I hear all this stuff about you being in a coma. There's a new baby that is apparently mine cause the dates fit. My head is spinning so bad right now with this overload of information that I can't concentrate on anything. I think I'm more confused right now then I have ever been in my life."
"I didn't write you a letter, John. But I'm just to tired to try to convince you now. In this moment, all I want to do is relax, be thankful that this baby is ok, and to see Liam. I have to know if he's alright. Can you go get him for me?"
John nods yes, but before he can move to leave a knock sounds at the door as it opens and Starr pokes her head in the room. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but there is a little guy here who wants to see his mommy." Starr pushes the door open wider and moves into the room to be followed by Lulu carrying Liam.
Natalie's face lights up at the sight of her little boy. "There's my baby. Come to mommy sweety." Natalie holds out her hands, motioning for Liam to come to her. Lulu walks to the bed with a squirming Liam and hands him to his mother. "How are you, huh? Did those bad men hurt you? Mommy's sorry she dropped you. What did the doctor say? Is he ok?" She asks looking up at Starr.
"Yeah, he's just fine. The doctor said he just has a few bruises. She said he was just shaken up a bit but should be just fine in a few days."
"Thank God," Natalie sighs. "I was so afraid when I felt him leave my arms and fall to the ground. But who knew you could bounce like your mama." Natalie says as she tickles a giggling Liam before looking up at Starr again. "Thank you so much for taking care of him for me. You were the only person I could think of when I needed to call someone to watch him. Hope I didn't mess up your life"
"Don't worry about it. Its ok. I was glad to do it. But I wasn't the one who took the most care of him. That would be Lulu here. The two of them have really bonded." Starr explained.
"Lulu," Natalie mutters as she turns to face the woman she had not yet officially met but had helped her so much today. "You are the one who helped me and Liam on the pier. It was you and some man."
"My husband Dante. We were just glad we got there in time before something worse could happen. But what about you? Are you going to be alright?"
"Yeah, I should be. They are going to keep me for a few days just to make sure, but they expect everything to be just fine. Thank you so much for all your help. You stayed with Liam and took care of him when you didn't have to. I'll never be able to repay you." Natalie said tearing up.
"Don't worry about it. I was glad to help. Besides I have enjoyed spending time with Liam. He is so much fun and has charmed everyone he has met." Lulu says.
John had been standing quietly in the corner while the women talked with everything that had happened running through his head and he knew he needed o get out of the room for awhile. "Uh I'm going to talk to Dante for a minute while you are talking to Lulu and Starr. I'll be back in a bit." He tells Natalie as he moves to the door and walks into the hall.
After John leaves, Natalie reaches out and takes her cousin's hand. "Starr I need you to help me with something and I need it done before John gets back."
Emergency Room
John walks into the waiting room looking for Dante. Spotting him talking to an officer outside a cubicle he walks over to him. "How's everything going with the case Dante?"
Dante turns to face John. "I didn't hear you walk up. How is Natalie doing?"
"She's going to be ok I think. There's a bunch of stuff going on and its going to take some time for both of us to sort it out. But I really don't want to think about that right now. I need to get my mind off of it for a little while. So answer my question and give me something else to think about."
"I don't know anything new as of yet. The suspects have been cleared medically and the officers are just about to transport them to the station." Dante told him as the curtain opened and the officers led the suspects out in handcuffs.
John looked up as the two people that attacked his girlfriend and child walked out of the room and surprise filled his eyes. "Well, well ,well. If it isn't Mr. Bluestein and Mr. Swartz. You two are certainly a long way from Llanview. Would either of you like to tell me why Clint Buchanan sent you to beat up my pregnant girlfriend."
Ok there's the next chapter. Hope you enjoy it. Sorry it took so long. Let me know what you think
