Arnold opened the door to the boarding house and tossed his keys onto the side table. "Helga?" He shrugged off his jacket, hanging it up.
There was no response…that was weird. Normally he heard 'hey there football head' or even 'hey baby' if she was in a really good mood.
"Helga? Baby?" He called down the hall again. Still no answer, what on earth was she doing?
He checked the kitchen, no sign of her.
He headed up the stairs and checked in their room, still no sign of Helga. Where on earth was she? Maybe she was in her old bedroom? He opened that door, nope.
He was about to call her when he heard sniffling coming from her bathroom. He hustled quickly to the door and jerked it open, looking around and seeing no Helga, until he heard a sob. He looked down, his eyes resting on Helga, who was a mess crying on the floor, throw up in the toilet.
"Jeez, Helga!" He knelt down quickly, taking her face in his hands. "What's wrong? Do you have the stomach flu?" He put his hand on her head. "You're running a fever!" He sounded almost frantic, why didn't she call him from work if she was this sick?
She sniffed. "It's not the stomach flu Arnold…" She wiped her nose with her forearm before looking at Arnold, hesitating.
"I'm…I'm pregnant."
Time seemed to slow down for Arnold. Pregnant? Helga? Those words rang in his head.
"…Oh…" Was all that Arnold could manage to get out.
"…Oh?!" Helga choked. "I just tell you the craziest shit ever and all you can say is OH?!" She practically yelled.
Arnold held up his hands. "Helga calm down, it just…surprised me."
"Surprised you?! How do you think I feel?!" Helga put both of her hands on her stomach. "I'm not ready for this, I'm not!" She began to panic. "I'm not even fit to be a mother!"
Arnold stopped her by covering her mouth with his hand gently. "Helga, you stop right now. Don't you dare talk like that." He warned. "I'm not ready for this either, but you'd make a great mother."
Helga went to speak again, but he held his hand up again to hush her. "We have to accept this, and I have faith we'll do fine." He put his hand over hers on her stomach. "We have a home and we have proper finances, we'll do just fine Helga." He soothed, kissing her on the forehead.
Helga sighed, she guessed Arnold was right. "But Arnold…we have no idea how to properly raise a child. You didn't even grow up with your parents, and I'm not exactly from a perfect home…"
"So that just means we know what not to do." He smoothed her hair back and looked at her.
"We can do this, we'll get through it." He gave her a reassuring smile.
Helga searched his eyes for a moment before taking a deep breath. "Okay."
Arnold gave her a quick peck before standing and helping her up off of the tile floor.
"There's an obstetrician at the hospital, we can make an appointment with them soon. I'll go call them right now." He said, giving Helga's hand a comforting squeeze before leaving the bathroom and heading upstairs. Helga stood in the restroom for a moment, in thought. Maybe she should call Phoebe and tell her the news.
Arnold headed upstairs and set the appointment with the doctor. He ended the call and plopped down on the bed, sighing. He was nervous about this, but didn't want Helga to see it, lest she'd worry more and stress out.
He knew they wouldn't have to worry about finances or enough room, but Helga had a point. Both of them had come from homes that didn't have the greatest parental environment. Sure, he had his grandmother and grandfather, but his actual parents weren't in the picture.
And clearly Helga's idea of parents was awful.
But he knew deep down they'd be okay. This was just a new chapter in both of their lives. They may not have been ready for it, but they'd be alright.
Helga got an earful from Phoebe on the phone, but before the call ended it turned into a rather positive one, Phoebe helping to reassure her that they'd be okay, and that she wouldn't make the same mistakes her parents made. Helga hung up the phone, smiling now.
Sure, she was still a little scared, but she knew that with Arnold they could be good parents.
Arnold had called Gerald also, hearing a lot of 'oh mans' and 'you're a bold guy' of course. But eventually he warmed up to Arnold having a kid, and they ended on a good note over the phone.
Arnold headed downstairs to find where Helga went. She was sitting in the kitchen, still in thought.
"We've got an appointment with Dr. Flint in two weeks." He sat down next to her, gauging her mood.
Helga just nodded.
Arnold knew that she wished it was sooner, as if reading her thoughts. "It's the earliest she could do."
Helga didn't really respond, but she shut her eyes for a second, her head reeling a bit from the morning sickness. "Maybe I should lie down for a little while and try to get this nausea to go the hell away." She grunted, resting her hand on her forehead.
"That's not a bad idea. Why don't you just go to bed for the night?" He looked at his phone's clock. "It's already 7:30 anyways."
Helga shrugged. "I guess." She pushed her chair out and stood up.
Arnold followed her up the stairs to say goodnight to her. He sat down on his computer to check his e-mail while she changed into pajamas.
He eyed her out of the corner of his eye while she changed. Helga had started going to the gym with him so was significantly in better shape that she was a month or two ago. Not to mention she had gotten some meat on her bones.
He pictured her stomach round with a baby in it rather fondly for a moment. Maybe this wasn't going to be so crazy after all.
Helga groggily crawled into bed, yanking the covers up to her neck before looking at Arnold and patting the empty space next to her in the bed. "I know you're tired too Football Head."
Arnold was tired now that she had mentioned it. He yawned, she was right. He should really go to bed too.
He changed and slid into bed next to her, hoisting her up onto his chest and gently rubbing her head so she'd fall asleep. Helga dozed off and was soon nuzzling his neck while she quietly snored.
Arnold laughed to himself; hopefully the baby wouldn't have her sleeping habits.
The appointment for the baby came and went, everything checking out alright and Helga was definitely pregnant. They went to the check-ups every time they came up, and were beginning to paint the nursery.
Helga had warmed up to the thought of becoming a mother just as she was rolling into her second month of her pregnancy.
Arnold was of course calm and collected throughout.
He had even suggested them painting the nursery in the first place.
Helga had the day off from the café and was finishing up some of the painting in the nursery while she was listening to some music. She strolled around singing the words while she poured some more paint. Arnold was at the hospital working in the emergency room today with Dr. Witz, and Helga knew he wouldn't be home anytime soon, so she figured she may as well get the painting done on her day off.
Helga took a break to make some lunch for herself. She had been getting some pretty bad cramps in her stomach throughout the morning, but didn't think much of it. She had felt a little weaker too, but she had just shrugged it off. 'Just a bad day to be pregnant' she grumbled.
Suddenly she felt a sharp pain, worse than her cramps. She dropped what was in her hands and propped her arms against the counter as she groaned in pain, feeling it rack through her abdominal area.
She had never felt a pain like this before, this wasn't right.
She felt her legs start to shake when she started to feel weak again.
She continued to brace herself on the counter, waiting for the pain to pass so she could go about her day and finish the nursery.
Ow…the pain wasn't letting up one bit. If anything, it was getting worse.
"Ah!" She yelled as her legs gave out and she slumped down to the floor.
Suddenly, she felt something wet between her legs.
"What…the fuck…?" She groaned. She pulled herself up and painfully dragged herself to the bathroom. Maybe she just really had to go.
She leaned against the sink again, bracing for the pain.
She noticed her pink shorts were spotting with blood between her legs.
What the….
She touched the blood and brought it up to her eyes to see if it wasn't just a hallucination.
No…that was real blood, and it was really on her fingers.
Her hands began shaking when the realization of what was happening sank in.
Oh no…
She had to call Arnold. She pulled her phone out of her shirt and dialed his number.
He answered after two short rings. "Hey baby, how are you-"
"Arnold, I need you to come get me. NOW!"
There was silence over the phone before he said something to Dr. Witz. "I'll be there in ten minutes." Before he hung up.
Helga shakily tossed her phone to the floor before finally crying from the pain that was slowly becoming more potent.
She stared up at the ceiling, trying to focus on something else while Arnold was on his way.
She hoped what she was thinking was happening to her wasn't, but what she was feeling right now was none too comforting or disagreeing.
She brought her shaky hands to her stomach while she felt tears slowly inch down her face.
She prayed Arnold would know what this was and just tell her it was normal, but she knew that this wasn't the case.
She may have never been pregnant before, but she knew what was happening to her right now, to the baby.
She was having a miscarriage.
*I know I know it's a shorter chapter. I'm sorry, busy busy week right now. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Man...it's getting rough in their relationship, huh? As soon as things start to look up there's another bump in the road. How will our lovely couple beat the odds this time? How is Helga going to handle this? What do you guys think? And I'm still on the fence with how much longer I can keep this story up, just because I don't want it to become unrealistically dramatic. But like I said, I'm definitely doing the alternate universe story, which I'm pretty excited about posting for you guys! I'm not starting that until this story comes to a close though, that way my thoughts won't get jumbled and everything. As always, leave questions, comments, and reviews. Love you guys!*