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Chapter 12

Anna fiddled anxiously with her fingers in her lap. John's hand came over hers and he gave her a supportive squeeze. Today was her twelve week appointment. Over the past week, her sickness had worn off and she was worried that it was a bad sign about her pregnancy progressing. Her sickness had been the one sign that she was pregnant.

Her belly had begun to grow slightly, but it was only a little bit. She had this bad feeling that something was wrong.

"Nothing is wrong," John whispered into her ear, reading her mind. The past few weeks had only brought them closer. Starting tomorrow, John's firm would be completely merged with their firm.

"I know," Anna said, though she wasn't really convinced. She swung her legs against the side of the chair and bit down on the side of her lip.

John kissed the side of her cheek and rubbed his thumb over her knuckles. Anna knew he was anxious, as well, but in a very different way. This would be his first time at one of her appointments.

Just as he had promised, he had been there every step of the way that he could for her pregnancy. Every morning, he made sure she had ginger biscuits and in the evenings he would hold her hair back as she vomited. Now that the need for those were waning, he would just ask her daily how she was feeling and send her a daily update from the app he had downloaded onto the phone talking about the size of the baby and what the baby was developing that week.

"Anna, John," Sybil said, as she walked into the room. "Good to see you this time, John," she added with a wink. She set the file on the table and then asked Anna to go and lie down on the small examination table. "How have you been feeling?"

"Better, less sickness. Is that a bad thing?"

"It usually wanes for most people around this mark," Sybil told her. "So it's a good thing. Have you been tired?"

"Yes," Anna responded. "I can sleep ten straight hours at night and still pray I have time for a nap."

"That's because the baby is zapping your energy to grow," Sybil said. "You'll find you'll start getting your energy back soon."

"Good." Anna motioned for John to come and stand next to her. He took her hand within his own and kissed the top of her head.

"Alright, this is going to be a very quick visit. We're just going to listen to the baby's heartbeat and go over any questions you may have. Then we'll see you back in 6 weeks."

Anna laid back like she was asked and exposed her belly so that Sybil could pull out the Doppler. It only took a second for the sound of their baby's heartbeat to fill the air. Anna felt tears fill her eyes and could feel John's hand tighten around her hand.

"And that's a good sound?" Anna questioned Sybil.

"Very strong," she assured her.

"Oh thank god," Anna murmured. She turned to John and gave him a smile. "That's our baby, John."

She could see that his own eyes were swimming with tears. Anna sat up and placed her hand on his cheek.

"It's pretty amazing, isn't it?"

"It is absolutely amazing."

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

When Anna walked into Mary's office, she found Mary typing furiously on her phone. Seeing Anna, she sighed and threw her phone into her purse, shaking her head.

"Is everything alright?" Mary inhaled.

"Yes, it's just…Matthew is being ridiculous," Mary told her. Anna twisted her lips to hold in a laugh. She had never known Matthew to be the ridiculous one.

"How so?"

"He wants to throw a party to share the sex of our baby with everyone," Mary went on to explain. "But won't they all find out when he's born?"

"He?" Anna asked. Mary frowned.

"Oh, yes, surprise, Matthew and I are having a boy," Mary answered, not sounding amused. Anna stepped closer toward her friend and grabbed her hands.

"Are you not excited? Gender disappointment is a very normal thing many women and men go through, you don't have to be ashamed or…"

"I'm not disappointed. I'm thrilled, really. I wanted a boy. I'm having a boy," Mary flippantly said.

"Then what's wrong?"

"I don't know," Mary stated, placing her hands on her round belly. "I have everything I could have ever wanted and I don't feel happy."

Anna sat on the edge of Mary's desk and her frown deepened.

"Maybe you should speak to someone. It could be the hormones in your body, making your emotions all over the place. Are you stressed about the merger? Could that be it? I know that today is the first day…"

"It's not the merger. I'm actually grateful that worked out. We both are about to have overlapping maternity leaves. It'll be good to have more lawyers in here to cover while we're home. I think you might be right about the hormones."

"You should call your doctor, tell them how you're feeling."

"Thanks, Anna," Mary sincerely stated. "I will."

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

"Hey," John's voice said, poking into Anna's office. Anna glanced up and smiled. Today was his first official day in the building and the two of them had told each other hello about a hundred times.

"Hi," Anna said back. John strode into her office and leaned against her desk.

"I was thinking…"

"That can be dangerous, Mr. Bates," Anna teased.

"Now that you're feeling better, what if we tried our date night out again?"

At this suggestion, Anna's smile grew. It was true. They still hadn't gone out for a real date, yet. The two of them had met a time or two for lunch, but nothing major.

"That sounds nice."

"We'll do it up. I'll bring flowers. The whole shebang."

"When?"

"Tonight?"

"Alright," Anna replied, sliding her hand across the table to touch John's fingers. Right then, Mary walked past her office door and stated,

"No sex in the office!"

Anna and John met eyes and began to giggle.

"We'll have to find some sort of loophole to that," John playfully stated. Anna's cheeks just blushed.

"I'm sure we will."

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

As promised, John showed up to Anna's flat with flowers and chocolates. Anna answered the door dressed in one of her favorite dresses. It hugged to her stomach and so it made the little pooch of her stomach stick out. John immediately noticed it and made a pleased sound.

"You're starting to show," he happily stated.

"I am. Some of my clothes are getting a little tight. I may have to look into some maternity pants. Sexy, I know," Anna sighed.

"Oh, don't sell yourself short. It is very sexy and I can't wait for the dessert portion of the evening."

"Dessert portion, eh?" Anna asked, stepping closer toward him and bringing her arms up and around his neck, standing on her toes to kiss his lips. "We could just begin with dessert."

John made a low sound but shook his head.

"As much as I would love that, Anna, I have made reservations and we don't want to be late."

"No," Anna agreed. "We don't. Extra dessert later then?"

"Absolutely."

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

Dinner had been wonderful. John and Anna talked about their first official day working together. Anna finally had her appetite back and was able to eat her entire meal. John had been happy to see her feeling better. They laughed and joked and just had an all-around good time. John felt this was a good sign for their future. Sure, they hadn't done all of this in the traditional sense, but it didn't make it any less exciting.

They decided to walk down the street to get ice cream. Right as they turned the corner, John felt Anna tense beside him. Turning his head to look at her, he saw that her eyes were locked on someone across the street and that her face was covered in fear.

"Anna? Are you alright?"

"It…it's him."

"Who?"

"Alex Green, the guy who tried to rape me."

To be continued...

Uh huh...stupid Green. More soon! Thank you so much for reading!