CHAPTER 17
A/N: Thanks for the reviews everyone! You guys are awesome!
Just a quick question: Would any of you be interested in seeing a prequel to this story? Not something as long as this is going to be, but maybe just a shorter background piece? Let me know what you think in your reviews. :o)
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Jen bent down to Abby's level and helped the toddler out of her coat. "Remember what I told you?"
"Uh huh."
"Then what did I say?"
"No running and jumping on Rog, and no hurting his shoulder."
"Good." Abby reached out for Jen's hand and tugged her into the hospital room.
Roger was sitting up in the bed with his jacket placed over his shoulders loosely. He was flipping through a magazine carelessly and attempting to watch the television on the wall just as Abby and Jen walked in. He looked over and grinned at them.
"Hey."
Jen looked over her shoulder and noticed that Abby was trying to hide herself behind her legs. "Abby cut that out." When Abby didn't come out, she sighed and turned her head. "Abby."
"What?"
"Why are you hiding?"
"Cause Roger's sick."
Roger looked and Jen and tried to hide a smile. "I'm all better though. Your grandpa fixed me up."
Abby peeked around Jen's leg and looked at the sling Roger's arm was in. "Does it hurt?"
"A little. But I have medication for it."
Abby inched in front of Jen a little bit and glanced around nervously at all the machines in the room. "What do they do?"
"Make you better," Jen responded. "How about we get Roger out of here so we can all go home and open the presents that you didn't want to open yesterday?"
"What's this I hear about you not wanting to open presents?" Roger asked Abby as Jen helped him out of the bed. She wrapped her arm around his waist and rested her head on his shoulder before allowing Abby to lead them both out the door.
"But you weren't there. Uncle Mark said you go hurt real bad," she said, looking up at him sadly.
Roger sighed and linked his free hand through Abby's smaller one. "We've got to work on Uncle Mark's people skills," he laughed. "But I only got hurt a little bit. Plus I'll be good as new in a few weeks."
"Promise?" she asked him.
"Promise. Then I'll take you out somewhere, just you and me."
Ten minutes later they were buckled into Jen's car, heading back to the loft. Jen looked in the rearview mirror before looking at Roger. "I have to talk to you later."
"Ooh about what?" Abby giggled.
"About something not for your ears," Jen smiled at her. "But yeah, like I said, I have to talk to you about something."
"Everything okay?" he asked her, concerned. "Are you okay?"
"Yes and no." She dropped her voice a little bit. "I got into a fight with my dad in his office that day you went in for surgery, but that's not what I want to talk about. It's about Maureen."
"Yeah? What'd she do now? Or who?" he laughed.
Jen sighed and turned onto Avenue B. "Roger, stop."
"Why?" he laughed. "God she's such a—"
"Shh!" Jen motioned to Abby. She was intently trying to listen to their conversation from the backseat. "Drop it."
"Fine," he said moodily.
Jen parked the car and slid her key out of the ignition. "Are you going to pout because I told you that you can't make fun of Maureen?"
"No." He opened the car door and got out before opening up Abby's. "I'm just trying to point out that me and her can't get along. Not since what she did to Mark." He watched Abby skip ahead of him and looked over at Jen. "I'm telling you, she's a real bitch."
"Well you're gonna have to get used to seeing her more around the loft."
He pulled out his pack of cigarettes from his pocket. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"That's what I want to talk to you about!" She pulled her hair out of its holder and shook it out. Her hair reached just past her shoulders before she twisted it up again.
"What the fuck are you shouting at me for?"
"I'm not shouting at you. You just don't listen sometimes!"
"Mommy can I have juice?"
Jen pushed the door open and nodded. "Go sit in your room for a few minutes, okay?"
"Am I in trouble?"
"No. I just need to tell Roger something."
"Okay." Abby walked away happily, clutching her stuffed pink panther.
Roger sat down on the couch and propped his arm up on a pillow. "So what do you have to tell me?"
"Mark's not here is he?" Jen checked the bedroom and bathroom. "Nope. Okay."
"Okay?" Roger laughed. "I'm guessing that Mark's not supposed to be here when you tell me this?"
"You know that party you had a few weeks back?"
Roger nodded and lit the cigarette. "Yeah, when a bunch of my friends from the band come over. When Joey and Kyle were here. Yeah, I remember. What about it?"
"You know how Maureen showed up that night?"
He blew out the smoke into the room and shrugged. "Sort of. I was kind of wasted by that time."
"Kind of?" Jen laughed. "Well Maureen showed up to talk to Mark. Joanne moved to Seattle that day and none of us have really heard from her since. She got a job as district attorney or something like that."
"And?"
"Can you at least try to be compassionate for Maureen's sake?" Jen hissed at him. She crossed her arms over her chest and sat down on the coffee table. "Well that night, Mark and Maureen both got drunk. I mean drunk, Roger. The next morning Mark tells me they slept together by accident. Except he didn't regret it."
Roger just stared at her and crushed the almost new cigarette out in the ashtray. "So he couldn't come to me and tell me this?"
"He knows you hate Maureen."
"Yeah so? He knew I didn't like her when they were going out the first time either and he still talked to me about her."
"That's not the point. I'm not done," she argued back at him.
"Then tell me. Marky is still a sucker for Maureen. I knew this. Everyone knows this. It's not a big surprise. He'd do anything for her," Roger answered.
"Just shut up and let me finish."
"Okay."
"Maureen came to me a few weeks after that and tells me she thinks she's pregnant."
"Holy shit!" Roger shouted. "What?"
Jen rolled her eyes. "Shh. So I went with her to get a test and she is."
"She is?"
"She is."
Roger scratched his head. "She is?"
"Yes, she is," Jen answered him.
"She is?"
"Roger! Yes!" She laughed at him. "She's going to the doctor today."
"Oh." Roger looked down at the seam of the couch. "So Mark's okay with this?"
"I don't know. I haven't really seen a lot of Mark the past few days. I think he's trying to avoid anyone whose name doesn't start with an "M". He figures that if he's not around, we can't ask him questions. He's Marky. You can read him like a book," she yawned.
"Yeah right. Stop yawning, you're making me tired," Roger complained. "Hey did Wes call?"
Jen nodded. "Yeah. He and some of the other guys are planning on stopping by sometime this week. They told me they'd call you."
"Oh okay. Hopefully I'll be okay by the end of January. We have a string of gigs lined up one after the other. It'll really get our name out there."
"That's great babe," she smiled at him. "Take those, and take two of these after that." She handed him his AZT bottle and the painkillers for his shoulder.
"Can you be my nurse?"
"Sorry, you're not a doctor," she teased. "But I will anyway because I'm supposed to be in love with you."
"Supposed to?" he laughed. "Hey did Abby fall asleep? It's quiet."
"I don't know." Jen opened the door to the bedroom and smiled. Abby was stretched out on the floor, clutching a stuffed animal. She was fast asleep. "That would be a yes."
"Really? That kid sleeps better than I do."
"Oh shut up! I let you sleep until you damn well feel like getting up," she retorted.
"True." Roger yawned and patted the couch. "You and me have a date on this baby."
"Oh yeah?" She sat down and leaned against his shoulder. "Better make it a quick nap because I still have to take a shower."
"We have a date in there too." He winked at her and tried to kiss her nose. "I'll get you really clean."
"Hey!"
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Mark glanced his watch just as he exited the subway station with Maureen. "So how do you know this doctor again?"
"Through my sister. She went to her when she was pregnant with all of her kids, so I figured that if she liked her, then I might." Maureen zipped up her jacket a little bit more as the bitter wind hit her right in the face.
"Oh. Okay." Mark shoved his hands in his pockets as he walked down the sidewalk. "Do you feel okay?"
"Yeah. I feel okay. Just tired again," she answered him. She stopped outside a well-kept office building and pulled open the door. "This is it."
"Okay." Mark followed her inside and shifted nervously on his feet. Maureen made her way up to the receptionist to sign in and sign the papers, leaving Mark to just survey the waiting room. It wasn't very crowded, but there were a few women who looked pretty close to their due dates, and that just made him even more nervous. A part of him wished that he had just stayed home like Maureen had told him to, but he really was trying to be supportive of her right now, and this wasn't such of a bad place to start.
Maureen walked back over to him with the papers and started filling out all the important insurance information. She signed a few things and then paused in the middle of one form. "They want the name of the father," she noted to him.
"Oh." He glanced down at the paper. "That's fine."
"What's your middle name?" she asked quietly.
"Elijah."
"Okay." She scanned the bottom quickly. "You have to sign right there."
He took the pen from her and scrawled his name on the bottom. "Yeah."
She bit her lip and got up to take the papers back to the receptionist quickly before sitting again. "Mark I'm sorry. I feel like such an idiot for dragging you here and then I don't even know your middle name! We were together for almost a year and, I don't know," she finished sadly.
"Hey it's okay. It's not a big deal. I didn't know yours was Elizabeth either," he tried to joke.
This at least produced a smile from her. "Yeah. It's my grandmother's name."
They were both silent for the rest of the wait, and then a nurse walked into the room.
"Miss Johnson? Doctor Warner can see you now."
Maureen stood up and Mark stayed behind. "Um. Do you mind coming with me?"
"Oh no. I just thought that you might want me to stay here."
She shrugged and he stood up, adjusting his scarf around his neck. "I just really hate being in these places alone."
"It's fine."
Maureen and Mark followed the nurse down the hall and into a small exam room. "Just change into that and she'll be right in to see you."
Mark sat down in a chair in the corner and tried to avoid glancing at Maureen as she changed into the gown. She was still beautiful to him—even after all their history together. "So."
"So." She sat down on the edge of the table. "It's always so damn cold in these places."
"Yeah," he laughed. "Do you want my coat? It's warmer."
"Thanks." She took it from him and slipped it on. "That's better."
The door to the exam room creaked open again and a middle aged woman walked in with a clipboard. "Hi Maureen, I'm Doctor Warner."
"Hi."
"So what brings you to my office today?"
"I'm pretty sure I'm pregnant." Maureen tried to avoid looking at Mark as she said this.
"Okay. Well I'll run a few tests and check a few things out. The blood work probably won't come back for about two days, but I can do my best to tell by the exam."
Maureen spent the next hour getting examined by the doctor and having the proper tests done. Mark waited patiently in the chair, even getting up to hold her hand when she had to have blood drawn.
They were completely finished by noon. Mark waited by the door with Maureen's coat as she signed a few more papers and set up her next appointment.
"That wasn't so bad," he smiled at her as she slipped her coat on.
"Yeah right. I thought I was going to pass out when they were taking the blood from me," she shuddered.
"You? How about me?" He pushed open the office door and the headed back down the sidewalk.
"I wish they used the butterfly needles instead. You know, the ones they use on the babies?"
Mark shook his head and passed through the turn style. "Okay Maureen."
"What?" she smiled. They boarded the train and took two seats near the middle of the train. They passed a few stops before she managed to say anything. "So."
"So."
"I'm really pregnant."
"Yeah. You really are. Unless the blood tests say anything different two days from now."
"Yeah." She leaned back against the seat. "So we're gonna be parents."
"We are." He looked out the window into the black tunnel. "Nervous?"
"It hasn't really hit me yet. You?" she asked him.
"Shitting bricks," he joked.
Maureen laughed and shoved him playfully. "That sounds like something Roger would say."
"That's probably where I got it from."
"I guess I'm going to have to cut back on my shifts at the Life." She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
"Well I guess if you want to. You're not even really five weeks yet."
"I know. But I have to tell my boss sooner or later. Are you sure we'll make it with just you working? Because I really don't have to quit," she told him.
"We'll make it," Mark said. "I just don't think it's all that safe for you to be waiting tables and carrying dishes and everything."
"Okay. Then I'll let my boss know."
The rest of the ride was completed in silence until Maureen piped up again.
"Mark?"
"Yeah?" He glanced over.
"Thanks for being supportive and coming with me. I didn't think you would."
"I'm sort of glad I did."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
She smiled and rested her head against his shoulder. "Thanks Marky."
"No problem."
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