Thursday, September 5th. Weeks of pregnancy—22
"Do you want twins?"
"I don't know."
"How does she not know?" A certain monk whispered incredulously to John, who just gave a nervous shrug and a sheepish smile.
"Then do you want a girl?"
"It doesn't matter to me." Mai tried to answer patiently, but let's face it, her patience was walking on a very thin line right now since they all had been going at this for the last fifteen minutes.
"How about a boy then?"
"It. Doesn't. Matter." She glared at everyone, her gaze shifting to every person, slow and hard. All of her 'family' were surrounded around her desk as she tried to work, minus Lin. Thankfully he was in his office, like always. "As long as my child, or children if I have twins, is healthy then it honestly doesn't matter to me!"
"But Maaaaai, that's not what we're saying here!" Yasu chided slightly, wagging his finger, while Masako gave an annoyed look at Mai. "We're asking what you want to have, what you want your first child to be... And today you can find out if your wishes will come true!"
"It doesn't," Mai began coldly, turning her glare to Yasu. "matter."
"Alright, alright, that's enough." Madoka announced, pushing everyone away from Mai's desk a bit. "We don't need to make her angry and get her blood pressure up right before she has to go to her doctor appointment."
"Thank you, Madoka..." The brunette whispered under her breath, more so to herself. But then Madoka quickly leaned over the desk to whisper something in her ear.
"But just between us, you want a girl right?"
Snap!
Everyone in the room froze at the sound of Mai's pencil breaking in two. The pregnant woman slowly stood up with her palms flat on her desk and continued to give everyone a cold look. She was completely peeved off at their constant nagging.
"If everyone doesn't shut up and stop bothering me about the gender for my baby, I will personally tell Lin to throw everyone out of the building." Mai shifted her gaze to the pinkette. "Including you, Madoka!"
"Lin wouldn't do that to me..."
"I will if Mai can't take any of you anymore." A voice said, making some of the others cringe. They all turned and saw Lin standing in the doorway of his office. "I can hear you all loud and clear from my office." He glared.
"Well, you should be out here too and socialize!" His girlfriend chided. Ignoring her, Lin looked at Mai.
"Shall I, Mai?"
The brunette broke out into a smile, knowing he was still referring to kicking them all out. It seemed she wasn't the only one who wanted them gone. At least she could still count on him while Naru was away. She was about to answer but then she saw the puppy dog faces Monk and Yasu were giving her. She rolled her eyes.
"Thanks, but I think I'll give them one more chance to be quiet...if not then I'll call for you." She replied. The Chinese man gave a curt nod before going back into his office. Monk and Yasu relaxed their bodies while Ayako and Masako just rolled their eyes. John gave a chuckle, and Madoka pursed her lips, her eyes narrowing on Lin's closed door.
"They're grown men, they should act like it..." Ayako murmured, referring to the two idiots. Masako silently agreed. Luckily for Mai, the room stayed quiet and she was able to continue typing up the report of the case Lin took last week. Sadly, though, the quietness only last several minutes.
"Soooo... Just clarifying..." Monk began innocently. "Are you or are you not going to find out the gender of the baby today? Because I think you should..."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
Pausing in her movements, Mai's eye twitched.
"LIN!"
Letting out a deep breath to relax herself, Mai leaned back into her desk chair, finally done with her work. She glanced at the clock. And just five minutes until she needed to leave for her doctor appointment too.
As her eyes flittered across the room, she couldn't help but grin a little. Yep, having Lin on her side and protecting her while Naru was gone was the best. After she called for him when Monk finally broke her patience, he came out and quickly ushered everyone out, completely ignoring their protests and also Madoka and Ayako trying to fight their way to stay in the office. Lin had informed them to just go down to the café at the bottom level of the building and give her some space for a while. Mai had only laughed quietly the whole time. It was amusing to see the look on their faces, plus it served them right. She had told them to stop bothering her and they didn't listen.
Thinking about it again made a spark of annoyance flare back up inside her. Why was everyone so persistent about trying to get her to agree to find out the gender of the baby today? She swore they were more excited about this baby than anyone. What, did they have some kind of bet going on about the baby's gender? Mai laughed at the thought. Then her smile dropped. She shouldn't put that passed them... Then again everyone was such a rowdy bunch—minus John and Masako, but usually everyone else drags them into their shenanigans anyway—so maybe they were just truly anxious to know what the baby was going to be.
But even if she did find out the gender today—which she isn't because she already knows—what makes everyone think she would tell them anyways? Bet they didn't think of that, now did they?
Mai looked up when she heard the squeak of a door opening in the silent room. Lin was stepping out of his office. And now walking to her.
"Mai, it's time for you to leave now." He told her. The woman nodded knowingly.
"Yeah, I know." She stood up, grabbing her things before walking towards the door. But of course the Chinese man stopped her after she got only a few steps away from her desk.
"Mai." He warned, making Mai's shoulders slump in defeat. Somehow he already saw through her. She knew what he was going to say. Why couldn't he just let her escape Madoka and the others and let her go off by herself just this once? Oh, that's right, because her husband has an unhealthy obsession of always trying to keep her safe. "You do know you have to take Madoka with you, right?"
Mai could just barely remain from rolling her eyes as she turned to look at him. "Yes, yes, yes. I know. Madoka has to follow me everywhere."
Lin ignored her moodiness. "Naru told me to accompany you both if I was available, but I have too much work to do this time to go with you. So Miss Matsuzaki will go with you both."
"Wait, what?" Mai furrowed her brows. "Why does Madoka have to go if Ayako is coming?"
Lin sighed. She wasn't making his job any easier. "Naru thought it would be best if two people went with you." He stated.
"But that doesn't make sense! If Ayako's going then Madoka shouldn't hav—"
"Mai," Lin interrupted. "I think it would be better for all of us if we didn't try to stop her from going. It would save a lot of time...and headaches."
The brunette gritted her teeth, knowing he was right. It took forever for Madoka to let things go, and she really didn't want to deal with that right now. Madoka would just keep pestering them until they agreed to let her go as well anyway.
"Fine. Let's go." She grumbled as she walked to the door, Lin right behind her. She didn't even have to question why he was following her. He would go with her to meet everyone else and make sure Ayako was told she had to go with the other two women before he would step a foot back into his office.
Mai leaned her head against the wall as she sat in one of the chairs of the waiting room, exhaling deeply. Ayako was sitting to her left, doing whatever it was that she was doing on her cellphone, while Madoka—who was reading one of those pregnancy magazines again—was sitting to her right, making Mai in the middle of them. They had been there for only five minutes, though her scheduled appointment wasn't for another ten, and Mai was already completely bored out of her mind.
"Ooh, look at this!" Madoka exclaimed, startling Mai and Ayako a bit. She nudged Mai with her elbow to gain her attention, as if she hadn't already gotten it. "It's 'Fun and Random Facts About Pregnancies'!" She read the title of the article.
"Interesting." Mai deadpanned, but Madoka ignored her tone. Ayako gave Mai a sideways, amused glance though. Truth be told, the brunette was a little tired of Madoka reading those magazine. And she was surprised the woman kept finding more that she hadn't already read yet. Plus it seemed Madoka always criticized her somehow whenever she read those things.
"It says the average age for a first time mom is 25-29..." Madoka shifted her gaze to Mai. "Someone's a little young..."
Mai bit the inside of her cheek, hard, and an annoyed expression suddenly appeared on her face. See? Criticizing!
"Baby boys outnumber baby girls..." Madoka read before frowning. She and Lin had betted on a girl... Mai and Noll's baby had better be a girl! Outnumber the boys, outnumber the boys! She thought. Meanwhile Ayako secretly gave a small smirk of victory. Hopefully she and the two idiots would win the bet. She was brought of her thoughts though when she heard Madoka continue reading. "Babies do not feel a thing when the umbilical cord is cut after birth... Well, that's nice to know. At least you won't have to worry about that, Mai!"
"I never even thought about that..." The pregnant woman confessed, a bit defensively. She actually hadn't thought all the much about going into labor, except dreading how painful it will be.
"Ah! You should watch this, Mai!" Madoka exclaimed, pointing to a website link on the page. "It says it shows a video of a woman giving birth..." Mai scrunched up her nose in mild disgust while Madoka told Ayako to put in the link on her phone. The red head gave an impatient sigh but it did nonetheless. As the video began to load, she handed her phone over to Mai since she was in the middle and everyone would be able to see it better.
It started with a woman crying out in intense pain, which Mai was not expecting and became a bit startled, and her clutching the hands of the two people on both sides of her and the doctor in front of her. After a few minutes it actually showed a front view of the baby coming out of its mother through the birth canal, far to graphic in Mai's opinion. Once she saw the crown of the baby's head, she quickly adverted her eyes away from the phone and looked off to the side. Gross, gross, gross... Don't look! She said to herself, squirming slightly in discomfort. But then after a while, thinking the gross parts might be over, she glanced on the phone again. This time the baby was almost out and she could see all of the clear gooey stuff all over it with a little bit of white mixed into the goo, and she could also see part of the umbilical cord.
Eyes widening slightly, Mai snapped her gaze away again. Without looking at the phone, she paused the video and handed the phone back to Ayako while keeping her eyes on the wall across the room. Beside her, she heard Ayako let out a chuckle of disbelief.
"What is wrong with you two?" She asked them. Mai glanced at Madoka to find that she, too, looked uncomfortable from watching the video—although she didn't say anything. Good. It was her fault they ended up watching it in the first place.
"That was so...gross." Mai muttered, seeing Madoka nodded along with her words out of her peripheral vision. Ayako rolled her eyes.
"Mai, you're going to be giving birth in several months—take it all in now."
"Yeah, I'll be giving birth, not watching myself do it!" Mai cried out a little too loudly, causing some of the other women in the waiting room to stare at her. Her cheeks turned a bit red from embarrassment before she looked back at Ayako and lowered her voice this time. "The doctors and nurses will the ones to see all of that...that...gross-ish-ness!" She struggled for a word to use to describe it. "Not me! So I'm sorry if I think it's extremely gross."
Just how many times has she used that word already? She could already imagine the teasing she would've gotten from Naru if he was here right now. Although if he was here, she probably wouldn't have had to watch the video in the first place. She frowned deeply, especially upon remembering her husband still hadn't mentioned exactly when he'd be coming back. It had already been a couple of weeks since he said he would probably come home...in a couple of weeks. So shouldn't that be soon then?
"Mai Shibuya."
Ayako suddenly nudged Mai with her elbow to get the girl's attention. Snapping out of her reverie, she looked at the older woman in question.
"Mai Shibuya."
The brunette shifted her eyes to the door that lead into the back and saw one of the nurses calling her. With a deep breath, she stood up with Madoka and Ayako behind her and followed the nurse to the examination room.
Time to get that ultrasound.
With or without Naru.
In the tranquility of her bedroom, Mai laid on her back, staring at the ultrasound of her child which was held in front of her face. She lost track of how long she had been in there—all she knew was she couldn't seem to stop staring at the picture. There, on this small piece of paper, was the baby that was inside of her at this very moment. Her baby. Granted, most people would say that the "baby" was only a large mass since that's what it probably looked like to anyone else. But she could only see a baby in the picture instead of a "large mass". The doctor told her where the head, shoulders, hands, and feet were. Even the baby's nose. She knew the whole outline of her baby. I can't wait to meet you.
"You're still staring at it?" Mai heard suddenly Madoka's voice. She flicked her gaze towards Madoka to see her leaning against the doorframe of the bedroom, staring at her. Soon her eyes went back to ultrasound. "You've been in here since we got home."
"Yeah... I can't seem to stop."
The pinkette let out a chuckle and smiled. "It is pretty amazing, isn't it? The last time I saw one of those," she nodded towards the ultrasound. "was when my brother and his wife had a kid. That was nine years ago though."
Mai sat up on the bed at this new information. "You have a brother?"
"Yeah, but I don't get to see him much anymore. Especially since I live in England and he and his family live in Okinawa."
"Oh..."
Madoka stood straight and motioned for Mai to follow her before she could say any more. "Come on, dinner's ready and you need to eat."
"Coming, Mother." Mai stuck her tongue out at her as she stood up and then laughed at the warning look Madoka was giving her. She wasn't that old yet, not to have a twenty-one year old who was also pregnant.
They both went into the kitchen and sat down, seeing as Madoka had already fixed their plates and had everything on the table. Throughout the meal, it was oddly silent between the two. Madoka sensed the brunette wasn't really in the mood to have a conversation right now, so she decided to respect that and stay quiet for once. Mai had a lot on her mind at the moment and she deserved some space and privacy—Madoka will admit to that.
Just as Mai was about to the finish the last few bites of her food, they heard her cell phone's ringtone throughout the apartment. Smiling a bit, she practically jumped up from her seat, which earned a quick scolding from Madoka, to get her phone in the living room. She ignored Madoka though, she knew it was Naru calling to check to see how the doctor appointment had went, and she couldn't wait to tell him she got an ultrasound of the baby today.
"Naru, hey!"
Madoka smiled at the cheerfulness in her voice. Leave it up to Naru to make the girl smile again, even if it is only a phone call. Knowing the girl would probably be a while, she went back to eating, occasionally hearing a few words here and there that Mai spoke as she talked on the phone.
"I'm assuming your appointment went fine?" Naru asked. After hearing how happy she was, he already knew the answer. She wouldn't be sounding this way if had gone wrong. Even if something did go wrong, she wouldn't be able to pull off such a convincing voice. Funny how she was still an open book to him and he didn't even have to see her. She may convince a lot of people with her fake, happy smiles when something troubles her but he's always known better.
"Of course; it went great. I got the ultrasound today..." Mai let out a small chuckle. "I can't seem to stop looking at it..."
"That's great, Mai. I'll see it when I get home." Naru's voice seemed to soften a bit, Mai noted. "Are you still eating and resting properly?"
"In fact I am, yes! Madoka's taking excellent care of me." Sarcasm dripped from every word on that last sentence. She even smiled with sarcastic sweetness despite the fact that he couldn't see her.
"I should hope so. That's what she's there for." Naru continued, though, purposefully ignoring her tone. Mai rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, right. More like the other way around." She mumbled her under breath, half hoping Naru wouldn't hear it.
"What?"
"Nothing!" Mai said quickly. "Just...agreeing..." She finished lamely.
"Even if she does get you into a lot of trouble, Mai, at least she's there if you need her. That's the whole purpose of me asking her to come stay with her."
"Yeah, if I need her which I haven't yet. She just does everything for me without me asking her to!"
"You'll just have to manage until I come back." Naru told her dryly. He knew how Madoka was, overbearing and doesn't seem to know the word "personal space", but there was nothing he could do right now but try to finish his work in England to come home. Only then would Mai would free from the woman.
Mai pouted before biting her lip a few moments afterwards. She needed to ask him.
"Naru... You said a couple of weeks ago that you might could come home in a couple of weeks...which would be now... Can't you?" She inquired quietly. She had a bad feeling about asking this, but her voice was still hopeful. It was quiet on the other end for a while; she could only hear his breaths coming out sometimes.
"...No, I can't. I'll try within the next few weeks, Mai."
The brunette nodded absently as a few tears automatically began to swim around her eyes. She knew it. She saw it coming.
"Right..." She whispered, her voice monotonous. Silence appeared, again, because either knew what to say to the other.
"I have to meet Martin in a few minutes—I had just wanted to see how you were." Her husband finally spoke. Whether he was oblivious to the fact she was upset or just chose to ignore it, she didn't know. And truth be told she wasn't really sure she wanted to know. Either answer would probably hurt her.
"Okay...uh, thanks. I'll, um... I'll talk to you later." Mai hung up quickly and stared down at her phone with a mix between distress and loneliness. The call had lasted seven minutes and forty-nine seconds, she noted. And we really didn't even talk that much...
Suddenly she saw movement in the corner of her eye. She turned her head to see Madoka standing there in the doorway, staring at her with a certain look. Pity.
Mai looked away.
"How long have you been there?"
"Just a few seconds... But I...know what that looks means." Madoka answered, implying she didn't have to hear what they were talking about to know what it was about. She hesitated. "Mai... You know he wants to come home, he's just bu—"
"Busy. I know, Madoka." Mai looked at her, her eyes pleading to understand she didn't want to have this conversation. She knew the situation Naru was in but that also didn't mean she didn't want him to come back now. "He's busy with everything! Everything except..." She trailed off at a loss for words. No, she wasn't going to say it. She shook her head and stood up. "I'm done with dinner, thank you for making it."
"Mai—" Madoka tried, but the girl walked passed her and went back into the bedroom, closing and locking the door behind her.
Once she locked the door, the brunette laid on her bed. She wasn't going to cry, she decided, she couldn't, so she opted to gently picking up the ultrasound and in the quietness continued staring at her baby.
Kinda turned a bit bitter and sad at the end, huh? Hmmm...
But holy crap, three months since the last update... ^_^; Ehe sorry! I swear I planned on getting this out sooner, I really, really did! In fact I had more than half of this written for a while and then things kept happening one after another. I was gonna finish writing this chapter a few weeks ago, but then stupid me ended up in the hospital for five days. But all better now! Promise! Had some mysterious internal bleeding going on and they couldn't ever find where it was bleeding at and ended up having to have a blood transfusion, but luckily the bleeding stopped itself...somehow. Like I said, all very mysterious. Even the doctors said so!
But as I said I feel completely better now. My body doesn't even feel like any of it happened. ^_^ Please review~!
(By the way, the facts that Madoka was reading in this chapter are true as well! Some of yall might be wondering why I randomly let them watch a video of a woman giving birth... Last year in Psychology I had to watch one—not sure why though when they had been talking about the development of the brain—so I decided to tortu— *cough* to let Mai share my disgust. XD)