Frightened and a little bit shaky, she made it to her car, praying that she would be all right to drive the short distance home. A few minutes later, she was parking the car and walking into her apartment.

"Are you all right, Mom?" asked Jamie, who'd gotten home from school about an hour earlier.

"I'm fine," Jo replied. "Why do you ask?"

Jamie shrugged. "You just look kind of pale. That's all."

Jo was preparing dinner when the aroma of the frying meat made her feel so nauseous that she had dry heaves over the sink. After she'd served the meal, she found that she wasn't able to eat the meat at all. She ate the vegetables and put her uneaten meat into the refrigerator for in case she got hungry later.

"Are you sure you're all right?" Jamie asked her.

"I'm fine, hon," Jo said weakly.

The next morning, the alarm clock cut through the thick haze of sleep she was in. Oh, is it morning already? she groaned to herself. Struggling to rise, she realized that she had a pounding headache. Somehow she made it to the kitchen, only to find that the only thing she felt able to eat was dry toast with iced tea to drink. She realized that the last time she'd felt this way had been...

Oh, no, she told herself. It couldn't be that. There's no way...

She found herself yawning frequently all morning long. Strange, she thought. I'm sure I got enough sleep last night.

On her lunch break, she stopped by the drug store and bought a pregnancy test, just to be sure. Then she got busy at work and forgot all about it, until she suddenly remembered as she was entering her apartment after work.

As soon as she was able, she fetched it from her purse and took it into the restroom. Once she had the result, she just stared at it for a long time, not saying a word.

She managed to act normally enough that Jamie didn't suspect anything for the rest of the evening, but that night she lay wide awake in bed with her mind spinning in crazy circles.

My God! How could I have ever been so stupid? she chastised herself. I really thought it would be all right. It took me a couple of months to get pregnant with Jamie, and I was way younger then. I never dreamed it would happen from just one time, especially at my age.

At my age. God, I'm too old for this. What if it's badly deformed? What if something happens to me? I'll just have to get an abortion, that's all.

No, I can't do that! At least not until I talk to Doug about it.

Doug. What on earth would he say? Would he be angry? One thing she knew for sure was that he would definitely be freaked out about it. That, and the fact that she was scared to death of telling him.

Yet she knew she'd have to, and soon.

Somehow she made it through the following morning, and at lunchtime, she received what, under any other circumstances, would have been a pleasant surprise when Doug showed up at the office.

"Hey, sweetie!" he greeted her. "I thought it would be great if we...hey, what's wrong?"

"I have to talk to you, Doug. It's important." She took his arm and led him into an empty examination room.

"Jo?" He was really puzzled now.

"I'm pregnant, Doug." She couldn't meet his eyes. For a long time, neither of them said a word.

"Are you sure?" he finally asked.

She nodded. "I took the test yesterday. It was positive."

"Have you told the doctor yet?"

"I haven't told anyone but you, Doug."

"You'd better tell her as soon as possible!" he exclaimed. "Jo, at your age...I'm not saying you're old, but...you need to be under a doctor's care as soon as possible!"

"So you think I should keep it, then?"

He was shocked. "You weren't thinking of getting an abortion, were you?"

"I didn't know what you'd want. I knew you wouldn't be happy about it."

"Now how could you have known that?" She noticed that a small smile was playing about his lips. "I think it's great!"

"Really?" She was shocked, but at the same time, she felt the knot of anxiety inside her belly rapidly dissolving.

"Sure! Why wouldn't it be?" He was grinning now.

"Well...we are kind of old for this, and besides, we haven't even known each other for six months yet!"

"That's long enough for me to know that I love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you." Suddenly he was kneeling before her. "Will you marry me, Jo?"