"Mrs. Griffin?" the receptionist called out. Tayla looked up. "Dr. Hamilton will see you now."
They all stood up and headed into Dr. Hamilton's office. Boone hated going to the doctor's. Ever since he was a little kid he hated it. There was always a certain smell about a doctor's office. It was sterile but that wasn't quite the right word. Sterile was something that Boone approved of, he liked cleanliness. Cleanliness is next to godliness after all. Not that Boone was particularly godly but that hardly seemed the point. But doctor's offices were different. In a doctor's office everything seemed too sterile, too clean. There was an air of secrets about it, like something horrible had just happened and housekeeping had been called to clean it up.
"So, we're here for the blood test results, I see," Dr. Hamilton noted, paying more attention to the chart in front of him than the three people sat at his desk.
Yeah, real perceptive, Boone thought. He was vaguely aware he was being rather testy and on edge, even if it was just in his head. Actually he was more than vaguely aware of it but he was sufficiently in denial enough to not care.
He looked down at his lap and noticed a small patch of something on his trousers, possibly butter. Well that was embarrassing. All that talk of cleanliness and he couldn't even eat his breakfast like an adult. Except that no one had talked about cleanliness. Only him. In his head. To himself. He started to rub the stain, hoping it would somehow disappear.
"Right, let's take a look then," Dr. Hamilton continued, flicking through the chart.
Christ, how hard is it to find the stupid results, surely he's seen a chart before! He should hand it over to Jack, Jack would find it in a heartbeat. And he'd be a damn sight more direct about things. No beating around the bush with Jack when it came to diagnoses. Boone knew that all too well when Jack proclaimed he had a punctured lung and stabbed him in the chest with a knitting needle. He rubbed the stain a little harder.
"Ah, here we are," Dr. Hamilton declared.
About friggin' time, Boone thought. He didn't look up, he kept concentrating on the stain on his pants. What if someone saw it? Would they let him look after a baby if he couldn't even manage to feed himself successfully?
Jack reached over and took hold of Boone's hand. Boone looked up at him and Jack gave him a calm little smile, giving his hand a squeeze. Boone wasn't sure if it was to make him feel better or stop him from fidgeting but he was thankful either way.
"And we are pregnant," Dr. Hamilton affirmed.
Boone sighed. "Oh, thank God," he said quietly.
"What?" Jack asked him.
Indeed 'what'? Boone wasn't entirely sure what it meant himself. He guessed it meant he didn't have to go through this again. Which would be very nice indeed.
"You're relieved," Jack stated.
"Yeah, cos we're having a baby," Boone stated.
Jack seemed to be about to say something but instead turned his attention back to the doctor. "Thank you, Dr. Hamilton."
"My pleasure," Dr. Hamilton nodded.
Thank you, Dr. Hamilton? What the hell did he do? Except show a complete ineptitude for reading a chart. It's not like he was the one that knocked Tayla up. Jack did that himself. Well, no, actually, Dr. Hamilton did help. It's not like Jack and Tayla did it on their own. Now there's something Boone didn't want to think about.
"Well, congratulations guys," Tayla said with a smile. "First time and everything."
Yeah, first time and with Jack's sperm, that should make everyone happy. Tayla got her money, Jack got his baby and Boone got a mini Jack. And Dr. Hamilton, well, they had the pleasure of his company for the next nine months. How fantastic, Boone thought. A man who couldn't read a chart was going to deliver their baby, that wasn't a thought he relished. Jack could read a chart and deliver a baby. Not that he'd seen any evidence that Jack could deliver a baby due to a small incident involving a plane falling on him but, hey, if Kate could do it, Jack sure as hell could. And yet he still had his doubts about Dr. Hamilton.
They waved Tayla off in the parking lot and heading towards their own car.
"I'm not going to argue about it," Jack stated simply.
Well, that was all well and good, but Boone wouldn't mind being let in on what exactly they weren't arguing about. He looked at Jack for a clue but Jack just unlocked the car and got into the drivers seat. Boone climbed into the car and looked at him again but it was like he never said anything. He started up the engine. Okay, Boone was fairly sure he didn't imagine it.
"Erm, Jack?" Boone asked, a little unsure.
"Yeah?" Jack replied, pulling out of the parking lot.
"What aren't you going to argue about?"
Jack took a deep breath. He looked like he was counting to five in his head, which wasn't really a good sign. Boone waited.
"You're relieved that you don't have to father this baby. That the system took it out of your hands. That you never even had to try," Jack explained.
"I never said that," Boone replied. "Where do you even get that from? I'm happy that it worked."
"I'm not going to argue about it," Jack repeated.
"Then why did you bring it up?" Boone asked.
"I didn't, you did," Jack replied.
Boone threw him a look. "You said you weren't going to argue about it," he pointed out.
"Yeah, and now we're arguing about it," Jack observed.
"We are not arguing," Boone responded, but he had to note that he kind of yelled this last bit.
God, they were just the most useless people ever. How did they manage to turn a happy moment like this into some stupid childish argument? Boone tried to remember if it was his fault. No, it was definitely Jack's fault. He was the one who made stupid snide comments about how he wasn't going to start an argument which could be roughly translated as 'Hey, I'm gonna start an argument now'.
What were they arguing about anyway? Boone was happy. He was glad Tayla was pregnant. And he was also glad that he was glad that Tayla was pregnant. There was a little part of him that was worried that he wouldn't be. But he was. He was happy. He was going to be a dad and that was actually pretty amazing. And he was only now realising that he hadn't actually thought of that fact until just now. He'd thought about it plenty before sure, all that time that he was deciding, both before and after they met Tayla, but not in the last ten minutes, not since it had all come true.
Daddy. Daddy Boone. Daddy Jack and Daddy Boone. And they'd probably have to use stupid names like that being that they were both Daddy and anything else would just get too confusing. But Boone didn't mind, it sounded kinda cute.
"Do you think it'll be a boy or a girl?" Boone asked.
"I hadn't really thought about it all that much," Jack admitted. "I hope it's healthy."
"Well, yeah, me too," Boone stated. "I was just wondering."
"Sarah was having a girl," Jack said, a little wistfully. "I don't know if I ever told you that."
"No, you didn't."
"Kimberley Jane Shepherd," Jack continued. "We buried her. In the cemetery by the old house. I used to go there every week. Now I don't remember the last time I went out there." He stopped and sighed a little. "She was so tiny. She was absolutely perfect but she was so, so tiny. She was too tiny."
Boone reached over and put his hand on Jack's thigh. "Sorry," he said, though he knew how pointless the word was right now. Jack smiled a little but Boone could see tears in his eyes. "You wanna pull over?"
Jack shook his head. "I'm good."
"You know that it's okay if you're not, right?" Boone pointed out.
"I should go visit her," Jack said.
Boone nodded. He wasn't quite sure what to say anymore. When he'd gotten back from the island Sabrina had told him that no parent should ever have to outlive their child. Not that she had, but for two and a half years she thought she had, and that was bad enough. And Boone actually needed to call her. But Jack never even got to see his baby alive, not in the flesh. Jack didn't just outlive his baby, he never really had one to outlive. All that promise for a load of blood and a broken marriage.
And Boone was suddenly worrying about how careful Tayla was planning to be over the next nine months. Which he knew was totally selfish considering Jack was reliving his own actual hellish experience next to him but he knew what split up Jack and his former life partner. Lack of baby. Or more specifically, promise of baby that never was. And Boone didn't want to lose Jack. So he hoped Tayla was being careful. Because all it took was a pump left out of place. And Boone was suddenly thinking about the toys all over Tayla's house.
"I don't care if it's a boy or a girl," Jack said.
"Me neither," Boone replied. He was just praying for one that Jack could actually hold this time.