"So," Dr. Lu Delgado said, setting up the room so that the two teenagers soon-to-be-parents could see the baby and hear its heartbeat for the last time before they actually got the baby. "Are you excited to become a daddy, Christian?"
The sixteen-year-old boy nodded. "I love Brittany and I'm going to love little Katy or little Rick, just as much," he said, rubbing his hand on sixteen-year-old Brittany's swelling belly.
"Rick?" Lu asked.
Christian shrugged. "It was my dad's name."
Lu nodded and turned to the monitor where Katy (or Rick) was sucking on its fingers. "Look, Brit," Christian said, rubbing her face.
Brittany looked up at the monitor uneasily and then she smiled. "I wish that they would come soon," she said. "I want to hold them."
"So do I," Christian said, kissing her head.
He reached out and touched the monitor. "It looks like me," he said.
"Honey, the umbilical cord," Brittany joked.
Lu burst out laughing and then covered her mouth. "Sorry, Chris," she said to the boy who was blushing.
"She's a little moody," Christian said, pinching her cheeks.
"Why?" Lu asked.
"A little boy came up to me yesterday at the mall and said, 'Mommy look at the fat girl'," Brittany said. "Then his mother looked at me and then she crossed herself."
"You'd think that people would be use to the idea of teen parents," Christian said. "There are, like, what twelve girls in our math class alone who are pregnant. And there's up to seven of the eight graders over at the middle school who are going to be parents."
Lu shook her head. "That's just wrong," she said. "How are twelve year olds going to take care of a baby?"
Brittany shrugged. "Exactly," she said. "Now, hook up that heart thing so that I can listen to this baby's heartbeat."
Lu nodded and did as Brittany requested. It took a while but soon the heartbeat came over the little speaker and Christian smiled. Lu remembered hearing Marc's heartbeat for the first time; she was as excited as Brittany and Christian were.