A new Power of three Part 12:
Doctor's appointment

2004, yesterday, Friday

When Prue finally had calmed, Julia suggested she'd not take those lame pregnancy tests, but go see a doc for real. If she really had been pregnant she'd need to go see a doctor anyway. Prue, though she hated doctors and everything that came along, agreed and so Julia made an appointment at her gynecologist.

Prue in the meantime had taken a shower and Julia had given her some clothes of her own to wear afterwards. She now stood in Julia's master bathroom and looked into the mirror. There wasn't only a mirror over the sink but also a full body one behind the door. She had found that one after closing the door to get undressed. She looked at herself. Yes she had been pale. Her eyes still were kinda red and puffy from all the emotional breakdown she had experienced while talking to Julia.

She still wondered how talking about it all made her not get as angry as she had gotten when she had talked to Andy. Julia didn't rush her into things. She asked the right questions at the right time, but she never told her what to do or how to feel. She kinda helped her through this emotional chaos inside of her. She even felt for the first time like she actually could live with being pregnant. She felt good again. Calm.

Julia had always been a mother to her. Even though grams was a great parent, she never could talk to her the way she talked to Julia. Or the way she probably would have spoken to Patty. Penny Halliwell was always the one in charge. The boss. She barely had witnessed her grandma in emotional distress. She was always that straight headed kinda 'cold' woman. To strangers it must have been scary, how little her grandmother let on about her feelings. But she always admired that in her grandmother. Though she as a kid and even teenager always had wished for a more gentle and loving guidance.

She always had promised herself in some kind of way, she would be more loving, caring and understanding than her grandmother had been with her and her sisters. To Penny Halliwell there often existed only right and wrong. Black and white. And she was the one to decide if it was black or white. Right or wrong. She loved talking to Julia. She always let her make her own decisions. Of course she sometimes gently pushed her in a direction, but she would never tell or make her feel like she had done the right thing in her opinion.

Even today she had the feeling that if she had told Julia she wanted an abortion, Julia would have accepted her choice and wouldn't have judged her for this.

The only thing that made Julia a less attractive partner in talking was the fact that she was Andy's mom. Sometimes she was just scared – even though that would never happen – she stood on Andy's side in fights more. Would defend him whatever he did or said. Would tell him about her secrets in some kind of way, just so Prue and Andy could deal their life together better. But that just wasn't Julia. Julia had grown to be some kind of replacement after Patty had died. Also to Piper and Phoebe. And she even had noticed while talking to Paige or Julia, that even those two had some kind of connection and even talked to each other on a regular base. Paige had one time even told her, she had the feeling, that Julia somehow was the missing link. Like she could give her a piece of Patty.

Her thoughts left Julia and she looked at herself in the mirror again. She let the towel, she had wrapped around her body fall and scanned every inch. She didn't know if it was just her or if her boobs and stomach had really already grown. She let a hand fall on her stomach. She starred at it resting there for a few seconds and then a contempt smile fell onto her face. She was going to be a mom again. Suddenly a fascination washed over her. She suddenly could feel Andy's excitement. At least a tiny little bit. She tore her view off of the mirror and got dressed into the dress Julia had lent her. She slipped inside and pulled it into it's place. It was a wonderful dark purple simple dress with spaghetti straps, which ended at her knees.

She blow dried her hair and left it open. She checked herself again in the mirror. It was ridiculous anyone could see. Nothing had grown yet and yet she felt like as soon as someone would look at her, they'd know. She started to go back to Julia, who smiled at her warmly once she approached her.

"ready? Cause they said you should be there as fast as possible and they'd try to make space for you. You probably will have to wait a while though." Prue just took a big breath

"yeah. Of course." she said and grabbed for her purse and checked again if her keys and wallet were still inside "umm, Julia, would you mind coming along?"

"if that's what you want... sure I'll come." Prue just nodded slightly. They got into Prue's car and Julia directed her to the doctor's office. Once there she needed to leave a sample of her urine. Then they sat in the waiting room for almost three hours. Prue's stomach again started to make sounds as she was getting hungry, as finally a nurse came up to them. Prue looked at Julia in a pleading manner and she right away understood and went along to the examining room. Prue changed into the paper gown and sat down on the famous chair. She fumbled nervously with her hands. Julia just took them to hold them still to calm her down and smiled warmly at her

"it's weird to be here without Andy." Prue whispered

"well, you can still go again and do it at home"

"no. I want to know the truth now." she told her lowly as the doctor entered they both shook his hand

"sooo misses Trudeau, we made a pregnancy test with your urine sample and you're indeed pregnant. Congratulations" he told her now looking up from the file in his hands and to her

"thanks" Prue told him, smiling just slightly, as she tried to keep breathing not to freak or cry again. She still didn't know if she started crying if it were tears of joy or sadness though

"so what I'd now still would like to do with you, is taking some basic data down for your mother's pass, then I'd like to do a little vaginal ultra sound and last but not least my nurses will get a little blood sample, take your blood pressure and weight" Prue nodded slightly

"alright"

"you want me to leave after all?" Julia asked, looking at her. She didn't want Prue to feel more uncomfortable than she already was, with being there during her vaginal examination

"no. it's okay. Please stay." Julia nodded and took a hold of her hand

"so when was the last day of your last period?" the doc asked after retrieving some kind of sheet formula

"it was the 7th august. The baby was most likely conceived on the 17th." she told him straight headed

"morning sickness?"

"since the first day, yes"

"very bad?" he asked sympathetically

"yes" she answered sighing a little "i barely am able to even smell food in the morning"

"I'll see what I can prescribe you to loosen the sickness a little" he told her and then looked back down "previous pregnancies?"

"yes, two"

"normal births or cesareans?"

"natural births" Prue lied. How could she say she miscarried and still had the child?

"alright. So let's take a peek. If it's already your third pregnancy you know the procedure already. Don't be disappointed though, if your dates are correct the baby will be only two weeks old. Nothing much to see there yet. I just want to make sure, everything's in place and looks alright." he told her as Prue put her feet into the stirrups and leaned back. The doc put some condom over his stick alike ultrasound machine and then added some jelly to it

Prue just looked at Julia, shrugging a little together as the doc entered. Julia smiled and brushed a strand of hair out of her face. This all had been new to her. When she had been pregnant with Andy you like had one ultra sound appointment and had to be lucky to see anything at all. Of course her little rascal had decided to show them their butt that day. She smiled a little at the memory. At least they had known what sex the baby had been, as it was an image like baby Andy had been sat on a copier. She had been so proud, but anyway envied Patty when she showed her one of Prue in all her grace. Head to toe. You could even see the little fingers there. The doctor rummaged a little inside of Prue and pressed some buttons on his computer like screen every now and then. Then suddenly they saw in the middle of the grayish surrounding one black spot and in the middle of said black spot sat a perfect gray raspberry shaped something.

"there you go. Your son or daughter to be" the doc said smiling again. A few tears left Prue's eyes again. It was really overwhelming. Of course there was only that gray raspberry, but this was going to be her baby

"i barely saw a baby in this early stadium" the doc admitted as well "but there it is. Seems like it's gonna be implanted soon. So I'd say that you were pretty much right about your day of conception" he told Prue and pulled out again "from what I can say so far everything looks to be perfect. Though it's too early to say anything. Unfortunately we're right now only talking about a clot of cells and not a baby. Anything can happen still. But just take it a little easier till about the 12th week and everything should be fine" he told Prue and made some more notes. Prue got dressed again in the meantime, then received a picture of the session and they shook hands again. When Julia had noticed how shaky Prue seemed to be after the rest of the tests, especially after taking blood, she told her she was going to drive. At Julia's favorite Italian she stopped and they got in to eat something

"soooo, how are you feeling now?"

"i... i still don't know what to say... right now I just want to drive home and then just lay in Andy's arms again" she told her. Julia smiled and nodded

"well I'd say go ahead, but are you sure you can take the long ride?" Julia asked concerned and took another bite of her cannelloni

"well I can't leave my car here" Prue argued

"promise me to take it easy. Make breaks. You will not drive all the way without stopping, okay?"

"yeah I planned on it anyway" Prue said smiling back "what about you, grandma?"

"well... I don't think I need to take breaks..." Julia joked what caused both to laugh "no seriously. I think I'm happy. Another one to pamper! And I'm glad I could help you. I'm just a little overwhelmed. I mean... it were a hell of 24 hours. And I haven't seen such an ultra sound ever!" Prue laughed "don't laugh... I have to send you a copy of my ultra sound back then, then you can laugh"

"that bad?"

"well... while your mom had a perfect head to toe image, where you even could count each and every finger on your hands... I got one of Andy's butt. A little penis and all inclusive. But that's it. He just didn't want to be photographed that day" Prue again laughed, what caused Julia to laugh again as well

"well... I guess that's what stayed. He still doesn't like to be photographed."

"well I thought there was a time one special photographer hit a weak spot in his heart... I think that's the time I've got most photos of my son" Prue smiled a little

"i promise I'll make some soon" she told her

"well, I hope so! Wanna see that belly grow" Julia told her and then they both went back to eat.

"i really should get going now. It'll be way after midnight before I'm home" Prue said sighting as Julia had paid and they had gotten themselves some take along ice cream and walked back to the car. Julia nodded

"yes. And you call first thing tomorrow. Wanna be sure you two got home in one piece" Julia told her seriously

"of course. I'll send you a message as soon as I step into the house"

"thanks."

"no, thank you. For everything." Prue told her and pulled her into a tight hug

"there's absolutely nothing to thank for. That's what I'm here for. now go. I'll take a cab back home. Andy'll probably be freaking by now from being worried." Prue nodded and placed a small kiss on her cheek

"see you, mama" she told her and got into her car, then drove off to San Francisco again.