AN: Here we are, another chapter here.
I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!
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"What exactly seems to be the problem, Mama?" The doctor asked as she pushed the door closed to the room that she called her exam room.
Daryl was already helping Carol onto the table to simply sit there and await instruction. Alice went directly to the little attached bathroom and washed her hands.
"I can still hear you," she called, when Carol didn't immediately answer her presented question.
"I don't know if there's anything wrong," Carol said.
She didn't look quite well and Daryl suddenly got worried that she was overwhelmed by simply being there. She'd been very hesitant to come—like disturbing the doctor with a medical question or two might get them drummed out of the community or something equally as drastic. Now she was sitting rigidly on the table with her hands so tightly clamped in her lamp that her knuckles were white, and she looked like she might be sick.
"Baby's movin' a whole lot lately," Daryl said, deciding he could at least help her by being the annoying party himself. "Like since we got here. Weren't movin' like that before."
Alice smiled to herself even as she dried her hands on a rag that she tossed into a basket and gathered a few things from her supplies to put in a basket she could easily carry around.
"Babies move more the bigger they get," Alice said. "Actually—that's a lie but…not really."
"You gonna explain that?" Daryl asked when she fell quiet for a moment. Alice laughed to herself.
"They move from the moment they pretty much come into existence. But the bigger they get, the easier it is for everyone to feel them moving. And then when they get really big, and things start to get pretty cramped, they'll kind of slow down a little bit, sometimes, but they'll still move."
"She's moving a lot," Carol said. "Like—all the time."
"And we're worryin' that might mean she's like—not likin' it or somethin's wrong," Daryl offered.
"You're concerned she's in some kind of distress," Alice supplied. She looked directly at Daryl, so he nodded. "Put this under your tongue for me, Mama?"
Carol accepted the thermometer that Alice offered her. She held out her arm, too, for the blood pressure cuff that the doctor produced from her basket of supplies. Daryl stood, arms crossed, and watched. He felt a little useless in the moment, but he was going to stay in case Carol needed or wanted him there.
"Blood pressure's a little high," Alice said as the air hissed out of the cuff. "Nervous?"
"She didn't want to come," Daryl offered. "In case it was nothin' and you got pissed."
Alice laughed to herself and looked at Daryl before she turned her attention back to Carol.
"Are you scared of me or something?" Alice asked.
"No, it's nothing like that," Carol breathed out as soon as Alice had removed the thermometer from her mouth.
"Temperature's normal for a gestating mother," Alice offered. Can you unbutton a couple of those buttons? Maybe—just come out of your shirt? If that's alright?"
Carol nodded and unbuttoned her shirt. She shimmied it off to rest on the table behind her. Daryl tried to divert his eyes away, but it didn't work for long. He looked at her breasts resting in the bra that she'd found. He looked at her swollen belly practically resting on her legs. If Alice had checked his blood pressure and pulse at the moment, he was sure she'd tell him it was all higher than it needed to be.
"I just don't want to bother you over—something silly," Carol said.
Alice warmed up the stethoscope she was using before she pressed it to Carol's chest and listened. She listened to her back, to, and Carol followed every instruction that the doctor gave her. When she was done, Alice traded out her stethoscope for a different one.
"I don't want to scan her again right now if there's no reason," Alice said. "We'll let her have a little privacy. And you, too. But I can hear her heartbeat." She smiled to herself when she had clearly found it, searching it out on Carol's belly. "If you want to hear it, Mama, take the pieces out of my ears. You can have a little listen."
Carol's hands were visibly shaking when she did what Alice instructed her to do. The doctor held as still as she could and Carol placed the pieces in her ears. She smiled.
"You can hear it?" Alice asked. Carol nodded. "Perfectly normal," Alice offered.
Carol took the ear pieces out and Alice accepted the return of the instrument. Then she instructed Carol to unbutton her pants and simply to lie back. There was no need, she promised her, to undress any further. Carol did lie back and, when she was comfortable, Alice set about pressing and prodding her body gently.
"Oooh," Carol breathed out.
"Hurts?" Alice asked.
"Uncomfortable," Carol said.
"But sharp pain or?" Alice asked, leaving her question hanging.
"No, it doesn't really hurt," Carol said. "Not—not like that. I can feel her—it feels like she's…kicking me in my…you know…vagina."
Alice laughed. She continued prodding. Then, finally, she stopped.
"She is moving like crazy in there, Mama," Alice said. "I'll give you that. I can feel her. She's all over the place. But…"
"But?" Daryl asked, stepping a little closer when Alice let her words trail off.
"You can sit up now, Mama. You can put your shirt on. Button up. What I was going to say is that—she's moving like crazy, but it's not because she's in any kind of distress. At least, not that I can tell. She was healthy when I scanned her. She looked good. A little undersized, but good. I can already tell you've put on a little weight, though."
"Is that bad?" Carol asked. Daryl noticed her fingers were trembling quite dramatically. She'd lost the ability to button her shirt. Rather than say anything about it and risk embarrassing her, he stepped forward and worked the buttons for her.
"It's wonderful," Alice said. "You're looking better than you did when you got here. You've got color in your cheeks. Your breasts are filling out—getting ready to feed her when it's time. And if you're growing, she's growing."
"My daughter, Sophia—she didn't move much when I was pregnant with her," Carol said.
"Maybe she didn't move as much," Alice said. "Babies are different. Maybe—you had other things going on and you didn't notice. Maybe you just hadn't noticed how much this one was moving before and now you are."
"I didn't pay enough attention…" Carol said.
"Is she always this sensitive, Daddy?" Alice asked.
Daryl jumped at the title being used for him. He glanced at Carol to see if she noticed or looked uncomfortable. She was looking a little green around the gills, but he didn't feel like it had to do with the doctor's use of the title.
"No," he said. "She ain't sensitive. She's just—a mother. Worried. She's done lost one kid so—cut her some slack."
Alice held her hands up in mock surrender.
"I get it," she said. "I was joking. It's what I do. Call it a character flaw. But I get it. I understand. I hear you both loud and clear. Look—I wasn't your doctor back then and I don't have any way of knowing what your other pregnancy was like. I don't know how your health was or your baby's health. I don't know what you were going through and what your stats were. I can't speak on it at all. I can't even speak on anything related to that pregnancy. The only thing I can tell you about that pregnancy was that you gave birth vaginally and you tore. I know that because you've got visible scar tissue and it wasn't a clean scar."
"I didn't have great prenatal care," Carol offered.
"And I'm going to do my best to remedy that," Alice said. "With this one. You can come to me any time you want. Just like this. Even if—she's just got the hiccups and you want me to check you over really quick and make sure that's all it is. You don't bother me. The biggest thing I want you to do is keep doing what you've been doing and calm down. Don't get so worked up over coming to see me."
She looked directly at Carol's shaking hands and Daryl realized that neither of them had managed to hide her anxiety.
"I'm sorry," Carol said quietly, hiding her hands behind her back like a child might.
"Don't be," Alice said softly. She glanced at Daryl. She looked back at Carol. She looked back and forth between them a moment before she settled her eyes back on Carol. "I don't know—anything about you except what you tell me. But you can tell me anything you want. Daddy—you, too. Anything I need to know."
"Told you her husband was an asshole," Daryl said. "And I don't know it all, but I know enough to think—maybe it's got somethin' to do with this?"
Carol looked like she might be sick, but she nodded her head. She didn't volunteer to say anything else, but nothing else was really necessary. Daryl decided he might ask her about it, but he'd wait until they were safely within the walls of their house and Carol was feeling a bit more relaxed and open about things.
Alice reached and caught Carol's arms. She pulled them around and slid her hands down until she was holding Carol's hands.
"Take a couple deep breaths for me, OK? Ready? I'll go with you. In…keep coming in until I say don't, OK? In…now out. All the way. In…in…in…now out."
After a moment, Carol visibly calmed a little. Alice held one of her hands, but she rested the other on her belly.
"She's looking good, Mama," Alice said with a sincere smile. "My non-medical opinion of things is that she's getting some stuff she wasn't getting before. She's getting some rest because—maybe—before you had to be on edge a lot more and now, you're letting her relax some. She's getting lots of good food because you're filling up several times a day now like I asked you to. Maybe—Daddy's even got a little extra time to give you some good attention and some good loving? All of that, Mama? It's going to affect you, but it's going to affect her, too. There's a lot that goes into growing a baby and it's psychological as much as it is physical sometimes. She is a busy, busy bee. I can feel that. But—and I want you to listen to me, OK? Daddy—are you listening? Because I want you to listen too."
"I'm listening," Daryl offered. "We both are."
"If she stopped moving, suddenly, I would absolutely want to know about it," Alice said. "If you felt like—she wasn't moving as much as you thought was normal or right? I'd want to know immediately. But this baby? She can't move around too much, OK? She might just be wiggly. Maybe she's got a lot of energy. Maybe she's got a lot to be happy about and she just can't be stopped from dancing. Whatever it is? She can't move too much. There's nothing wrong with her wanting to move around. And there's nothing wrong with her sleeping, either, once she gets all that wiggling around out for a while. She's OK in there. She's living it up, that's all. And all this movement? Mama—this isn't a failure on your part or something, OK? This is like—it's a success on your part. She's doing great. But that doesn't mean, either that you did something wrong last time, OK? All babies are different."
Carol nodded.
"OK," she breathed out. She rubbed her hand over her belly a few times in circles. "OK."
"You feel better?" Alice asked.
"You're sure she's OK?" Carol asked.
"As positive as I can be," Alice said.
"She's just—dancing or something?" Carol asked.
"Stretching, rolling, kicking, dancing," Alice said. "Whatever feels good to her. She's taking full advantage of her space and her energy."
Carol smiled to herself, then.
"So, she's—happy?" Carol asked.
"As far as I can tell," Alice offered. Carol's smile broadened a little as she rubbed her hand a bit more over her belly. "It might drive you crazy, though," Alice said with a laugh.
"No," Carol said. "No, I want her to—do what she likes. I like it. I just—you know—I…"
"Wanted to know she weren't like sendin' out an SOS," Daryl offered.
Alice laughed.
"No SOS signals here," Alice said. "Mama looks good. Baby looks good. Daddy looks a little overwhelmed, but he'll catch up."
Daryl laughed quietly at the doctor's silly attempt to put them all at ease.
"Thanks," Daryl offered, seeing a very obvious wave of relief wash over Carol. She looked like she was headed back in the direction of feeling every bit as light as she had earlier in the morning, before she'd even begun to think there might be anything wrong in her whole life.
"Never a problem," Alice said. "Let me know if you've got anything else for me. In the meantime, keep doing what you're doing. In a couple of months, you'll get to meet your busy little girl for real."
Daryl's heart thundered wildly at the thought.
"Can't wait," he offered, realizing that he really meant it—though Carol might think he was only performing for the doctor. "You—you ready to go? Or you got somethin' else?"
Carol looked at him, offered him a smile and shook her head.
"What's on the agenda for this evening?" Alice asked. "Or am I allowed to ask?"
Daryl smiled to himself.
"Just a quiet evening at home," he said, liking the way it sounded. Carol smiled, too, when he said the words.
"Relaxing," she said. "Together."
Her cheeks blushed a little pink.
"Excellent," Alice said. "Sounds just like what the doctor ordered."