I'm really trying not to let you down. This is a bit tricky for me to keep writing. This wasn't supposed to be that short, but I'm so slow at writing that I thought you at least deserved a little update. I hope you'll keep enjoying.
Audrey had been wriggling nervously on that uncomfortable chair for at least a good twenty minutes. The appointment itself wasn't really the reason of her anxiousness, but it was mostly the person who agreed on going with her. She looked at her watch and sighed. He said he would be there fifteen minutes ago, and there was still no sight of him. She was thinking of ways to make him pay if he'd ever dare showing up late when the front door of the practice opened abruptly. He stopped quickly in his tracks as he spotted the familiar face in the waiting room. Audrey let out a relieving sigh, not without throwing him a murderous glare.
"Thank God it hasn't started yet." He said out of breath after the race he just made from the parking lot.
"Where the hell were you? I started thinking you were gonna stand me up!" She hissed at him, trying to keep this conversation private as the other woman in the room was obviously looking up at them from her magazine.
"The traffic was awful. You okay?" He asked, as he sat down on the chair next to her.
"I'm better now." She raised an eyebrow at him.
"You really thought I was gonna miss this?" Neil frowned a bit. They locked eyes and he waited for an answer. Audrey's face softened and she sighed, realizing she might have been a little bit too harsh with him.
"Of course, not. I'm sorry, it's just the situation making me nervous."
"I know, me too." He took a deep breath and gave her a slightly tense but comforting smile.
Dr. Garcia came out of her office, sharing some last words with a patient before turning to the two surgeons. She had a moment of astonishment and froze for a few seconds when she recognized Neil's face. Dr. Garcia wasn't really into the gossips around the hospital and never minded about them, she had literally no idea of their history and was surprised to find out who was the lucky one.
"Well, Dr. Lim, Dr. Melendez. Please come in." She greeted them, not able to suppress the smirk growing at the corner of her mouth as Neil walked past her.
They all settled in and Garcia immediately offered Audrey to lay down for the ultrasound. Neil stood in the middle of the room, not quite sure what to do. He suddenly felt uncomfortable. The whole situation was quite new and weird at the same time as the two of them weren't there as a couple. Therefore he didn't know where to position himself in the picture without oppressing Audrey or doing too much.
"Maybe daddy would like to take a closer look?" Dr. Garcia snapped him out of his thoughts, and he felt two pairs of eyes on him. The two women were obviously waiting for him.
"Sure." He slightly smiled and walked closer to Audrey's side. He put a hand on the table next to her shoulder and the other one next to hers.
She turned her head towards him, and he did the same when he felt her gaze on him. They looked at each other for a moment and she tried to reassure him with a smile. She had felt his uneasiness from the moment they walked in the office but didn't question it. She was just happy that he was here with her.
He hadn't realized how fast his heart was beating until the screen started showing his unborn child.
"Here it is."
His gaze lit up when he spotted the small blob, he was suddenly overwhelmed by a feeling he couldn't have described. It was something he never thought he would ever feel, a happiness so intense that his chest could have burst right there.
He couldn't help but grin like a fool, his eyes still glued to the screen. He was so mesmerized by the scene in front of him that he almost didn't feel the sudden soft touch. Neither of them could have tell who closed the gap first, but their fingers brushed gently against each other. The contact brought him back to reality, and he looked down at Audrey, who was still looking at the ultrasound. He was surprised to see that she didn't take her hand away as his fingers tightened around hers. He took that as a small victory on the path of their relationship, which had been fraught with many pitfalls.
He observed her face, she looked so content and radiant despite the rough weeks she'd been through. That was cliché to think so and she probably would kill him if she knew it, but he found the pregnancy suiting her so well and he couldn't wait for the months to come, observing her change and their baby grow.
Finally, she turned her head and locked her gaze with his. They stayed quiet, but the looks they gave to each other meant more than a thousand words.
"Are you still experiencing the nausea?" Dr. Garcia asked Audrey, who found it hard to take her eyes off him. As she finally did so, Neil removed his hand from her and cleared his throat, feeling the awkwardness back between them again.
"Well," She sighed. "It's a little less frequent than at the beginning, but it's still tricky."
"You still take the pills I prescribed, right?"
"I do. But, um… Someone introduced me to a rather efficient remedy in the last few days." She glanced at Neil with a smirk. "Which is helping me more than the actual medicine."
"Really? What it is?"
"Ginger iced tea."
"Well, this is well known to be a good natural component to ease the sickness. I'd rather have my patients take natural products, so this is really great news." She said, giving some papers to Audrey for cleaning the gel away from her belly.
The rest of the appointment went by quickly, they settled another date for the next check-up and Dr. Garcia gave her a few more suggestions on how to handle the tricky sides of pregnancy.
Soon they both found themselves leaving the practice quietly, side by side. The walk to the car was tensed. From the moment they let go of each other hand, Neil hadn't said a word and she had felt him shutting down. She could tell something was bugging him by the way his face was closed with expressions she couldn't quite read and she suddenly worried it was all about the situation. If there was one thing she wanted to change between them, it was the lack of communication they had at the beginning of their separation that almost led them to tear each other apart. She didn't want that to happen again, so she'd rather hear the painful truth right now than living in lies.
She stopped walking in the middle of the parking lot, which made Neil stop at his turn. He looked at her, confused.
"You don't have to pretend you want to be here, you know." She paused, "you could just tell me."
Neil frowned, and took a step closer. "What are you talking about?"
"You didn't say a word the whole appointment. You seem off. There's something you're not telling me, I can see it on your face."
Neil closed his eyes, letting out a sigh. She was right, as always. He just thought he'd be able to hide it better, but he was just a fool. Instead, he gave her the wrong impression.
"I'm not pretending, Audrey. There's nowhere else I'd rather be right now." He softly told her.
"Then what's wrong?"
"I just- I just didn't expect to be that moved by the ultrasound. That was…" Neil searched for something to say but he couldn't even find the right words to describe the feeling. "Looking at that tiny little human being made me realize something important."
He looked so deep in her eyes that she felt her throat went dry.
"What?" She said in a fragile and hoarse voice.
"You and me, this baby, it all makes sense." He walked even closer to her, so close that she could feel the heat radiating from his body. His so charming smile appeared on her face. "All I've always wanted is right in front of me."
"Neil…" She whispered, almost inaudibly.
"I know, you don't want to rush anything and neither do I. I'm just thankful you let me be part of the journey."
Audrey bit her lower lip, trying to suppress the overwhelming emotions she was feeling. Damn it, what did she do?
"I never wanted to put us in this situation. If I could-" He cut her off.
"Hey, don't say that." He slid his hands in her jacket and put them both on her waist, tilting his head to catch her shifty eyes. "We've both been at fault, okay? But it doesn't matter anymore." She nodded, swallowing the lump in her throat. His heart clenched a bit at the sight of her being so torn, he had never seen her as vulnerable as she had been in the recent weeks. He was gonna make sure that smile of hers appear again.
"How about I make you diner? I bet the little peanut is starving right now." He teased her, smirking.
Audrey chuckled and wiped a tear away with the back of her hand. She sniffed quietly, smiling at him.
"My place?" She asked.
"Deal." He let go of her and caught her hand instead, pulling her with him. "Let's go, it's getting dark."