*Thank-you for the reviews on the last chapter they were greatly appreciated. Thank-you all so much!*
I walk into my house early Sunday evening after being on a delayed flight, dealing with morning sickness but at least Roman's first class seats kept me somewhat comfortable. I am still processing the fact that I am pregnant, at first I was pissed to be pregnant because right now in my career I am not ready to be pregnant, take time off to have the baby but slowly I am starting to accept the idea and slowly becoming happier about it. If I was truly trying to prevent a pregnancy I would have taken birth control pills or gotten the Mirena again. "I'm home!" I call out in the foyer as I lay my suitcase down.
"HAYDEN!" yells Kylynn as she comes running to me and bumps into me as she hugs me as I see Roman walking behind Nova.
I hug Ky back and say, "careful, Ky not so rough okay?"
"Okay, why?" she asks looking up at me with her beautiful blue grey eyes.
"I just have a stomach ache," I say, "I just need you to be careful okay?"
"Okay," she says with a smile.
"Hey, Nova," I say as I give her a hug. "How was your weekend with Dean and your mom?"
"Good," she says, "how was Ohio?"
"It was okay," I say as I smile at Roman but he doesn't smile back at me. I know he is pissed. I can see it on his face, maybe not as pissed as I was when I saw that positive pregnancy test all 10 of them to make sure I was really pregnant. "Hey, Baby," I say as I greet him with a soft quick kiss. "I'm home."
"Mack Ryan huh?" he asks.
"Please don't be upset. You know I couldn't tell you about it. If I could have told you I would have but you know that everything I do is confidential. I'm sorry."
"I just wish I knew," he says as we walk to the living room. "I don't like the idea that you're involved with this Mack nonsense again it nearly destroyed you the first time you had to deal with it and what if this brings back memories of what happened to you and you fall again like I said it nearly destroyed you before."
"I was also in my early 20's and lost and confused. Roman, everything will be all right. It's not going to make me regress what I want to happen is for him to finally be punished for his crimes. I want to make sure the victim gets the justice she deserves. And I really don't want to talk about this anymore. I had a really long weekend and I am not feeling well so I would really like to rest tonight so I can be in some type of decent shape for work tomorrow morning."
"I'll respect that but I just want to make sure you're okay. You're going to need to face Mack at some point again in your life and I want to make sure you're all right with that happening," he says with concern in his eyes. "You haven't seen him since college."
"Roman, I will be okay if I see Mack again. I have forgiven him and moved on with my life. So how was your night out with Dean?" I ask as we sit down on the couch. I place my legs up on his lap allowing him to massage my feet after he removes my shoes.
"Much needed night out. It was good. I had fun," he says. "I just wish you would have been here."
"Me too," I say letting out a breath. I'm not hiding my pregnancy from him it's just I am not ready to tell him the news. I have been thinking of ways to tell him the news and I want to make it special for him but mainly for us.
"So you're not feeling well?" he asks. "Is it that thing you get every month?"
"My period," I laugh wishing it was, "no," I begin to say.
"Her tummy hurts," says Ky. "She tell me to be careful."
"Stomach bug?" he asks.
"Something like that," I say, "it's like I swallowed a parasite," I say. "I can barely keep anything down."
"A parasite?" he asks, "do you need to go to the hospital, should I take you to the hospital?" I can hear the worry in his voice and see the concern in his eyes.
"No, I'm going to be okay," I say.
"All right, but I am going to take care of you and if you're not feeling any better tomorrow you are not going to work."
"I am going to work tomorrow," I say, "I am not missing a day because of stomach problems."
"We'll see," he says. "I'm so glad you're home."
"I'm glad to be home," I smile. "I missed you."
"I missed you too," he says leaning down and kissing my lips softly. "So Mack's NFL career could be over pretty soon, he should have never gotten one in the first place he's a disgusting human being."
"I don't disagree with that but at least he didn't end up playing for the Saints," I say.
"I would NEVER allow that it's bad enough we have Jordan playing for us but I have to say he's not a bad player and without Mack's influence he's a pretty decent human being. He has a wife and a beautiful daughter so I am glad he grew up but I still don't like the guy."
"I know you don't," I say. "Look, I'm feeling really tired and I don't feel my best so I think I am going to call it a night. I'm going to bed."
"This early?" he asks, "I thought maybe we could do some taxes if you know what I mean," he says, "that's if you're good to go."
"Not tonight," I say. "I just want to rest up. I'm sorry."
"It's okay," he smiles. "Get some rest. I'll unpack for you and put everything in the laundry room and then I will take care of the laundry tomorrow while you're at work and the girls are at school."
"Sounds like a plan for me," I say with a smile. "I love you, good night."
"Good night, I love you too," he says with a smile before we share a soft kiss before I get up from the couch. I kiss the girls goodnight and make my way upstairs to the bedroom to try to get to sleep. The baby makes me sick in the middle of the night and early morning so I know it won't be long until I am in the bathroom but I at least want to try to get some sleep in.
*THE NEXT MORNING:
I walk into work the next morning to be greeted by Chad holding a cup of hot tea for me since I have to limit my caffeine intake. "Good morning, Mrs. Reigns, rough night, you look like shit today," he says honestly with a smile of amusement on his face. I really didn't put a lot of effort into my clothes this morning just throwing on a simple black wrap dress and a pair of black heeled sandals while throwing my hair into a bun the best that I could.
I take my tea from him and say, "shut up, Chad it's not funny because I don't know what I am going to do now. I was not expecting to get pregnant now."
"I guess you're going to be a mom," he says, "I mean I know you didn't expect the pullout method to be successful."
"We've done it for years and I never got pregnant until now," I say, "so it was successful for some time."
"Well, that time was up and now you're pregnant, was he double dipping?" he asks.
"What the hell is double dipping?" I ask taking a sip of my tea.
"You know cumming and then going back in because that was your mistake right there. Sperm are still in the urethra after ejaculation so unless he urinates in between those little guys are still there ready to be released but then there's also a chance of that sperm being in precum, Hayden. You should have used birth control."
"I am aware of that now," I say, "and now I am pregnant."
"What did Roman say was he excited I know he's been on you about having a baby."
"He doesn't know yet," I say, "I haven't told him he just thinks I have a stomach bug. I plan to tell him in the next couple days. I'm just not sure how to tell him. I do want to make it special."
"I see," he says, "I did get you into see your gynecologist which was easier than trying to get you in to see your doctor. He couldn't see you until next week. Your gynecologist had one opening."
"Thanks, Chad," I say taking another sip of tea. "I didn't want to believe it."
"I'm sure you didn't how many tests?"
"10," I say, "I just thought that the result would change but that line kept getting darker each time and sooner each time. It is what it is and I am going to be a mom."
"You'll be a good one," he says. "I know you will."
"Thanks," I say.
"So that dirty scoundrel ass Mack was arrested for rape again, guess he never learns his lesson."
"You can't learn a lesson when you get off and face no real consequences when daddy pays to get you off for something you did. It won't happen again the victim will get the justice she deserves."
"I hope so but Mack seems like a repeat offender so you know there are more victims out there and things like this usually causes a ripple effect more women might come out that he raped them."
"That is what I am hoping for but they have to prove that he actually did rape them because one flaw could get this case thrown out the window."
"I know," he says. "by the way congratulations on the baby."
"Thanks," I smile, "it's going to be an adventure for sure." I place my hand on my stomach and smile it can't be too bad to have a baby. I have been helping Roman raise Nova and Ky for the last few years so it can't be too bad for me to have a baby. I think I can be a mother it's just with my work schedule and Roman's work schedule it's going to be tough to manage a baby in the middle of it. It's already kicking my ass making me so sick and keeping me up almost all night but I guess that's practice for when it cries all night long.
I manage to get some work done reaching out to some victims of crime I am working with and securing Shea to keep the kids tonight so that Roman and I can go out on a date for me to tell him I am pregnant or for me to cook his favorite meal and then tell him I am pregnant before I leave to go to my doctor's appointment. I already know what they are going to tell me when I get there. They are going to tell me I am pregnant. I walk into my doctor's office and check in with reception. They give me some paperwork to fill out while I wait to be called back to see the doctor and to be examined. I read over the paperwork filling out family history for both Roman and myself, describing my symptoms before I hear, "Hayden Reigns."
I stand up and make my way to the nurse handing her the paperwork I just finished filling out. "Just step up on the scale here," she says. I step up on the scale. "175," she says marking it down. "I just need you to pee in this cup for me," she says handing me a plastic cup with a blue lid on it along with a wet nap. I walk into the bathroom and pee in the cup for her. I wash my hands before I walk out of the bathroom handing her the cup. "Thank-you," she says before taking me to a room where she checks my blood pressure giving off a reading of 112/77. "Very good so what brings you in today?"
"Well, I took a few home pregnancy tests and they all came back positive, I missed my period and I have been very sick throwing up."
"And when was the date of your last period?" she asks.
"April 20," I say.
"Okay and are you on birth control?" she asks.
"No," I say.
"And how often are you feeling sick?" she asks.
"Every night from 11 until 8 in the morning," I say, "and then it eases up."
"All right, Dr. Cortez will be in shortly."
"Thank-you," I say before she walks out of the room with my urine.
A few minutes later there was a knock on the door before Dr. Cortez walked into the room dressed in black dress pants and a grey blouse under her white coat. "Hello, Hayden," she says with a smile as she sanitizes her hands with a smile. "Congratulations on your marriage."
"Thank-you," I say with a smile.
"So I hear you had some positive pregnancy tests," she smiles.
"Just 10," I say like it's no big deal.
"Well, testing your urine it came back positive so you are indeed pregnant. We will do a blood test too just to confirm the urine analysis. Your blood pressure is amazing considering you are pregnant and going by the date of your last period I would say you are about 5 ½ weeks nearly 6 weeks pregnant but once you get your internal ultrasound in a couple weeks we can give you a more accurate result. I have to ask you some questions and then I would like to do an ultrasound to make sure everything is okay and then do the blood test."
"Okay," I nod.
"Do you drink or smoke?"
"I drink but I won't be for now and no I don't smoke."
"Good, do you drink coffee or tea?"
"I am obsessed with coffee," I say.
"You may want to cut back on your caffeine intake for the pregnancy. I am going to say limit it to a cup of caffeine a day."
"Okay," I reply before she goes on to ask me more questions about my history. She already knows about my aborting a couple years ago. She goes through telling me not to eat deli meat, uncooked meat which I would never do except for sushi which I also can't eat. She tells me to drink about 8 8oz glasses of water a day or 4 16 oz. bottles of water a day.
"All right, Hayden, I am going to do an ultrasound right now just to confirm the pregnancy and to make sure everything looks good with the baby," she says.
"All right," I say.
"I just need you to lay up here on the bed and unbutton your dress for me," she says. I undo my dress before I get up on the table while she prepares the ultrasound machine. I lay down exposing my stomach looking up at the ceiling. "This is probably going to be cold at first but it will get warmer." I nod as she puts a cold gel on my abdomen before she takes the Doppler over the gel moving it around. "And there it is," she says pointing to a little speck on the screen. "There's your baby."
"It doesn't even look like a baby," I say. "It's so tiny it's like a little bean," I say with tears in my eyes seeing our little creation on the screen.
"Of course it will get bigger over time but you are about 6 weeks pregnant," she says with a smile. "In fact I want you to set up an appointment two weeks from now to get a more accurate ultrasound to determine how far along you are and an accurate due date. At this time I would say you are due late January early February most likely February 1st," she says.
"Um as in a couple days before the superbowl?" I ask.
"I guess, I'm not up into the knowledge of football and the superbowl," she says.
"Yeah, the superbowl is February 3rd," I say we couldn't have possibly made a baby at a worse time than when we did. Roman is trying to get the Saints to the big game this season how is that going to work if I am due two days before the big game.
"That's just an estimation you will have a more accurate date in a couple weeks," she says, "so I wouldn't panic right now."
"Oh, I'm going to panic, my husband is going to panic he's a football coach and he's trying to get his team to the big game."
"And you could go early or you could go late," she says, "you never know I wouldn't worry about it. There is a baby coming when it wants to come. Maybe it will come before the big game, maybe it will come after but maybe if he or she decides it wants to be here on the day of the big game it's going to happen when it wants to come," she says.
"I know," I say letting out a breath. "Hopefully it's a boy that's all I can say."
She laughs and says, "that's already been determined you can have a test at 9 weeks to find out the sex or you can wait to your anatomy scan at 17-20 weeks or you could be surprised."
"I kind of want to be surprised," I say. "As for Roman I don't know."
"You have time to figure it out," she says. "Would you like me to print off some pictures for you?"
"Please," I say.
LATER THAT NIGHT:
"It smells good in here," says Roman as he walks into the kitchen wearing a pair of basketball shorts and a neon green tank top. I can tell he's been working out in the gym trying to stay in shape. "What's the special occasion?" he asks coming up behind me as I am putting the finishing touches on dinner and wraps his arms around my waist.
"It is just a special night," I smile as I feel his lips on my neck.
"Mmm," he says, "what's so special about it that you sent the girls to Shea's for the night?"
"You'll find out," I smile as he nudges at my neck. "Roman," I say as I feel his teeth against my neck.
"We could skip dinner and just go to the bedroom if that's what you want," he says against my neck.
"Maybe we should eat first and I have a present for you too," I smile as the oven tells me that the garlic ciabatta bread is finished.
"Ooh, a present I can't wait, Baby," he says letting me go so I can get the bread out of the oven. "Do you want me to get the wine?" he asks.
"I'm not going to drink wine tonight not feeling up to it but you can have some wine."
"No, I will drink water too," he says as I pull the bread out. "It must be special you made me lasagna is this your Nonna's special recipe?"
"Sure is," I say as he gets the plates out of the cabinet for me to set the table for two. "Are your boobs getting bigger?" he asks me.
"I mean, I don't know, my boobs seem fine to me," I say nervously.
"Oh, they just look bigger," he says with a shrug.
"I don't know," I say as I put the bread into a basket before he carries it to the table while I carry the lasagna to the table. I cut us each out a piece and put it on our plates while he gets us each a glass of water before he takes a seat. "So how was your day today, what all did you do?"
"I did the laundry like I said I would do, I was working on some defensive plays and I went to work out at the gym," he says, "how was work today?"
"It was good. I had a couple meetings, had to send out some letters, I left a little bit early though because I needed to run some errands," I say.
"You left work to run errands? I am surprised."
"They had to be done," I say.
"All right are you okay, you have seemed a little distant and a little off since you came back from Ohio, is it being faced with the Mack stuff again? Are you thinking back to college?"
"No, it's not that. It's just I haven't been feeling that great. I am feeling off and I am dragging. I'm sorry, Baby," I reach for his hand across the table and take it into mine. "I don't want to be distant or mean to be distant. I know we only have a few weeks before you're back to football and all that craziness starts."
"I'm just worried about you. You went to Ohio as one person and you came back a different person almost like when you were dealing with the rape a few years ago. I just want to make sure that you are not feeling some type of way about Mack."
"Trust me, Mack is the least of my worries right now," I say, "so what do you think of the lasagna?"
"Amazing as always," he smiles. "Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yes, Roman, I'm great," I say.
"Okay," but he doesn't sound too convinced that I am okay. "Hay, I'm just worried about you that's all," he says.
"You know what?"
"What?" he asks. "You know you can tell me anything."
"I was going to wait till after dinner to give you your present but I think I want to give it to you now," I say. I have to the poor man is driving himself crazy thinking something is wrong with me just the shock of being pregnant with our child that's the only thing that's wrong with me.
"Hay, I don't need a present, I want to talk to you to make sure you're okay," he says.
"Ro, trust me it has all your answers." I say before I get up from the table to get the gift I put together for him. I walk back into the kitchen with a box wrapped in blue wrapping paper. "Here you go," I say with a smile as I hand it to him.
"Hay, what is this?" he asks.
"A birthday present," I say, "Isn't your birthday coming up?" I smile.
"I guess so," he says, "you didn't need to get me a present though."
"Just open it," I say with a smile as I stand beside him.
I watch him tear the blue paper away and open the Nike shoe box. He picks up the Saints onesie and then the black and gold football. "Daddy, I can't wait to play with you," he reads. "Um," he says. I smile as he picks up the ultrasound picture from the doctor's office. "Holy shit! You're pregnant?" he asks with the biggest smile on his face.
"We're pregnant," I say with a smile. "I found out in Ohio and went to the doctor today and she confirmed it."
"Holy shit, we're having a baby! I can't believe it! Oh my God, I can't believe you're pregnant! I can't believe we're having a baby," he says as he stands up. "Come here," he says pulling me into his arms and picking me up. The joy on his face makes me tear up because I didn't have the same reaction when I found out, I was pissed but he is nothing but happy. "I love you, I love you so much," he says.
I smile, wrapping my arms around him, "I love you too, even though your pullout game is weak."
"Shut up," he says with a smile, "Finally a baby!" He kisses me softly and passionately with so much joy and love. "When are we due?"
"Um, about that," I say, "how committed are you to making it to the Super Bowl this year?" I ask.
"Pretty committed why?" he asks.
"Then you better tell our baby to come end of January or the week after the Super Bowl," I say, "because I am due February 1st, that's just an estimation but most likely around there."
"Oh shit," he says. "I wasn't expecting that."
"Almost like I wasn't expecting that second line on that test, we'll deal with it but at least we are having a baby that should make you happy."
"A boy I hope because I need a son," he says.
"That's your decision," I smile. "I love you, Baby." I kiss his lips softly and we forget about dinner as he carries me up to our bedroom where we spend the evening celebrating the news of the life we created together. I can't even be upset anymore creating life with the man I love the most in my life is everything it happened because it was supposed to happen when it did and I can't be happier especially when I see the joy on my husband's face.
*A/N: What did you think of Roman's reaction to Hayden working with Mack stuff again? Did you expect that from him? What did you think of Hayden's reaction to her pregnancy changing? Did you expect her to accept it so well? What about Roman's reaction to having a baby? And the baby being due around the Big Game could that cause problems if he can get his team to the game? Please review and thank-you for reading.