Chapter 5

The rest of the school day went by in a blur and then when the final bell rang, I made my quickly to my truck. As much as I was not looking forward to going to the doctor, I was also ready to get it over with. The entire drive there, I kept having this feeling that I someone was following me. Just like a few weeks earlier when I made the doctor's appointment.

I put the truck into park and checked my book bag from my papers that I was asked to fill out. Most of the questions were pretty standard, but some were difficult to answer, mostly because of not knowing exactly who the father was. All I knew was it could be one of three boys.

The same woman was sitting at the receptionist desk. She lifted her head and smiled slightly, putting her finger in the air to let me know that I would need to wait. I walked over to the chairs and sat down, pulling up a magazine to flip through.

"Miss Swan," the woman asked after a couple of minutes.

I stood up and walked over to her, my papers in hand. "Here you go."

The woman looked down at my pile of papers and nodded. "You can actually hang onto those and take the elevators up to the second floor. Dr. Smith's office will be in Suite 201."

I turned and followed the hall toward the elevator, pressing the up button. With the building being old, I was also expecting the elevator to move slowly, but not as slow as a snail. I exhaled loudly wishing I would have taken the stairs, even though I would more than likely manage to trip going up them. After what felt like an eternity, the doors opened and right in front of me was Suite 201.

I opened the door slowly and saw the waiting room to be very cheerful it was almost nauseating. I walked toward the open pane sliding window.

"My name is Isabella Swan; I'm here to see Dr. Smith," I spoke quietly, as to not disturb the other woman that was waiting.

The woman with thick tortoise shell glass pulled out her calendar mumbling a few words, "Ah yes, and a prenatal appointment."

I grimaced at the word and the fact that spoke it so loudly, or at least it sounded loud. I just nodded my head and gave her all of my information along with my insurance card. She looked over the papers quickly and then put them into a folder.

"Very good, I will need for you to leave a specimen. There are cups in the restroom, be sure to write your name on the outside with the Sharpie. There is a small cubbie in the wall above the toilet that you will leave it. Then come back out and have a seat and the doctor will call you in just a moment."

I nodded and pulled my back pack higher up onto my shoulder and walked to the restrooms. I knew that the pee in the cup thing was routine, just to confirm that I was indeed pregnant. I put the cup intot 

he open cubbie and then walked back to the waiting room to sit. All the magazines that they had laid out were about pregnancies, which in truth was the last thing I really wanted to read. Even though I have made the decision that I was going to keep the baby. I was not sure yet as to what was going to happen afterwards.

Just as I was about to pull out my Trig book I heard my name being called. I stood up quickly and grabbed my bag. There was a young woman who appeared to be in her late twenties or early thirties, blond hair and pulled back into a tight bun. She looked like she might have been right out of Medical school. She held the door open for me and then followed her to a vacant examination room.

"I'm Megan Smith," Dr. Smith said with a warm smile. "Why don't you have a seat in the chair for right now so we can talk and then I will do an exam?"

I sat down in the only chair that was next to even more magazines of how to be fit during your pregnancy. I had to catch myself from not rolling my eyes.

"Isabella," Dr. Smith started. "I see from your…"

"Bella," I interrupted.

Dr. Smith looked up in confusion. "I'm sorry."

"I go by Bella," I said.

Dr. Smith nodded. "Then why don't you call me Megan?"

"Okay."

"Good, now that we have that out of the way. Like I was saying, I see from your initial paperwork that you believe you are pregnant," she looked up at me and I nodded. "The date you gave is October 31st. for conception, correct?"

"Yes," I said weekly. "It's been about twelve weeks ago."

I closed my eyes as I knew where the conversation might be headed.

"I know how a young woman can always remember the first time."

I looked up suddenly, "First time?"

Megan nodded her head. "Yes, since you remember the date, it must have been your first time."

I felt angry then, for the first time since that night I began to feel angry. "You do not know anything about what happened that night. It was not the first time for anything. I was raped and now I am pregnant. I ran away from my home in Phoenix because my mother wanted me to have an abortion. I'm sorry, but you don't know anything about me or my first time."

Megan sat back in her chair and studied me for a moment. Then she stood up and began to get some equipment together. Pulling out a paper gown and cover, she placed it on the table.

"Go ahead and change so I can do a full examination," She said before leaving the room. "And Bella, I will need your complete honesty. With rape victims there are sometimes more things to worry about than just being pregnant."

I watched the door close and then picked up the paper gown, getting undressed slowly trying to figure out what she could mean. What in the world could be worse than being pregnant?

There was a soft knock on the door just as I climbed up onto the cold plastic table. I arranged the paper drape over my legs.

"Come in," I said barely a whisper.

Megan opened, behind her was another woman pushing a cart. "This is Nina, she is the ultrasound technician."

The two of them moved quickly around the small room plugging in the machine and setting everything up.

"First I am going to have Nina take a few pictures to see that the baby is developing alright. We will be able to hear the heartbeat as well. Typically at about ten to twelve weeks is when the heart beat is audible."

Nina took out a small wand and squirted some blue gel onto it. Then she moved the paper thin blanket down to my pelvis. I moved slightly at the coldness of the gel.

"I'm sorry dear," Nina said. "I should have warned you that it was going to be cold. Okay, now you might feel a little pressure. Early in the pregnancy the fetus is very low."

I turned my attention to the small black and white monitor and watched as a small form began to take shape. Every few minutes Nina would click on a button and freeze it.

"Right now I am taking measurements," she pointed to the far left hand side. "That small round shape is the head and the body. As you can see it is still too early for the limbs to begin."

She moved the wand a little bit more and then hit a button. I began to hear a sound, a whoosh, whoosh noise. "And that is your baby's heartbeat."

"It's so fast," I mused as I focused on the sound.

Nina nodded and Megan came to stand to look at the monitor.

"A baby's heartbeat is much fast than that of an adult or even a child. It has to work very hard right now.

Nina picked up the wand. "I will have the pictures ready to be put in Bella's chart." She looked at me. "Would you like a copy for yourself?"

My eyes were still fixed at the small pea sized human that was growing inside of me, right now. I nodded my head, for some reason I already was beginning to love him or her.

The rest of the exam moved quickly and before I knew it I was getting dressed. Megan came back into the room. This time with a tray full of empty vales.

"I need to draw some blood before you leave," she said washing her hands putting on a pair of gloves. "I will do a blood typing along with STD testing. Since you have been raped we need to realy keep an eye on your health as well as that of the baby."

I nodded as my stomach turned over. Megan wrapped a rubber band tight above my elbow and bega to look for a vein. I watched as the needle began to prick just slightly on my skin.

"I don't like blood," I blurted out.

Megan stopped for a second and looked up at me. "Breath through your mouth that will help and you can go ahead and lay back on t the table, just in case."

I lay back down and closed my eyes focusing on breathing through my mouth. Megan moved quickly to gain the number of vales that she wanted and the put a band-aid on the sore spot of my elbow.

"Your weight was a little on the low side," Megan said pulling the gloves off and throwing them in the garbage. "I know that it is hard to eat at right now, but try to eat small amounts several times a day. I will send your tests off to the lab later this afternoon and we should have the results back in about ten days. I will call you regardless of the results."

Megan followed me out to the waiting area. "And here is my cell phone number, if for any reason you ever need to talk or have any problems feel free to call me."

I took her business card and slid it into my back pocket of my jeans along with my first picture of my child.

"Are you still attending high school?"

"Yes, will that be a problem?"

Megan shook her head. "No, it shouldn't be. But you will begin to show. And at first you will be able to cover it up with all the layers, but eventually people will begin to talk. You might want to consider trying to graduate early or have a good solid story. It won't hurt to find a friend or two that will support you in any decisions that you make."

"Okay," I said and headed toward the door this time taking the stairs to go down to the lobby and out to my truck.

My mind felt like it was going a mile a minute. Once inside the safety of my truck, I turned it on and cranked the heater up to full blast. I lowered my head to my steering wheel and took some deep breaths. And then I cried.

Friends to have as allies? Yeah, right? Who would ever want to be friends with a seventeen year old, victim of rape and pregnant?

A/N: Thank you all for the wonderful reviews and alerts, you are awesome!! My personal spinoff of this story to make it my own novel is going really well. Check out my webpage and bio for more in depth details! Also please check out my bio, I jsut posted a poll!!