Hey sorry this chapter took so long to put up. I had to work and then I got stumped but it's finished now so all is well.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed last time, and if anyone has any questions or suggestions or things they really want me to out in, I'd be elated to hear them.
Enjoy this chapter, and remmeber to review!


Complications

Chapter 4

Motherly Advice

"So when's the ultrasound?" Jim asked as they walked away from the doctor's office. The weather had calmed a little over night but a foot of snow had accumulated on the ground.

"Next Thursday at two," Pam informed as Jim opened the passenger's door for her. He sucked on his bottom lip as she got in as he often did when he was contemplating something.

After taking the driver's seat of Pam's car, he divulged, "I've got a sales meeting that day." His face scrunched up into one of thought as he placed the keys into the ignition and started the car.

"I'm going to have to come down with a horrific disease or have my great uncle die again," Jim explained as the car inched out of the snowy parking lot to the clean streets. "How does cholera sound?"

"You don't have to be there, Jim," she stated softly. When he looked over to her she shrugged her shoulders to bring her coat up to cover her chin.

"I want to be," he said with a curt laugh as he turned down the street approaching her house.

"But you're not going to be able to be there for everything," she told him sincerely. "I mean we live two and a half hours from each other, and I'm supposed to have a doctor's appointment every month. You're going to make it back for each one?"

"Yeah," he said with a nod of his head, "The baby is more important than selling paper, Pam. By a long shot."

"But your job is important to Jim," she enlightened as she shifted slightly closer to him, "You make more than double what I do, and babies aren't cheap," she added honestly.

"Pam, what's important right now is the health of you and our baby. Anything else we can worry about later," Jim replied as he pulled into the driveway.

"We can't make sure that the baby is healthy if we have no money to pay for the ultrasound, or the appointments, or for the delivery, or for any of the things it's going to need after it's born," she declared harshly, her voice starting to rise.

"Is something wrong?" he questioned at her sudden change in attitude. In the doctor's office she had been elated and now she just seemed to want to fight.

"I just want to be by myself for a bit," she told him honestly turning to face him. The edge gone from her voice but he could tell she was serious.

"Yeah, sure," Jim agreed as she got out of the car, "I'll come back in a few hours," he told her as she slammed the door.

More confused than ever, Jim sighed as he watched her make it into the house safely, then hesitantly reversed out of the driveway and headed downtown.

He opened the door to the store without hesitation, the action setting off a bell to notify of a customer. His eyes scanned the store; he had never seen such a wide array of pastel colors. Baby clothes, baby toys, baby strollers, changing tables, playpens, car seats, highchairs, basically everything anyone with a baby would ever need.

His heart began to thump faster as he realized what Pam was saying did have some truth behind it. They literally knew nothing about babies, or caring for them; Jim was the youngest in his family and Pam was an only child.

An elderly woman look up to him from over the rim of her thick glasses as she leaned against the counter, "You look lost," she spoke honestly.

"I wasn't until I came in here, I don't even know where to start," he divulged a little embarrassed and his eyes still examining the room.

"Well first you should find a nice girl to settle down with," the woman replied. Jim laughed and moved towards her. "Who are you shopping for?"

"My girlfriend," Jim answered then thought for a second, "And me, we're, uh, expecting," he finished still not used to saying it aloud.

"Congratulations," she said with a smile, "How far along is she?"

"I don't know," Jim stated with a nervous laugh.

"Okay, well do you know the gender of the baby?" the woman asked as she placed down the paperwork she'd been filling out and moved around the counter to stand beside Jim. "It'll be easier to pick out clothing if you know the gender."

"I don't," Jim replied. He was beginning to feel extremely worried, "There's a lot I don't know. My girlfriend and I have never really dealt with babies before and there's a lot we don't know," he informed as he scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably, "She's been feeling a little overwhelmed and I just wanted to buy something in here that would make her smile," the woman smiled at his gesture, "But then I came in here and it all sort of fell downhill from there."

The woman laughed, "Don't worry about it dear," she comforted as she patted his arm, "Almost all first time parents don't know what to do, and the truth is you usually wing it. I mean there are books to get suggestions and a run through from, but really nothing prepares you for parenthood except parenthood."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Jim agreed as they began to walk down an aisle containing parenting books.

"Honey, as a mother of eight and a grandmother of twenty, I know I'm right."

"We had a fight," Pam explained to her mother for the third time. She'd called her a short while after she returned home, but had made a decision not to tell her of the baby until her and Jim could together.

"I understand that," her mother replied, "Every couple has fights. What I don't understand is why this one has gotten you so worked up?" her mother clarified.

"It's kinda private mom," Pam stated knowing immediately that she said the wrong thing.

"I'm your mother Pam," her mother scolded over the phone. Pam held it away from her ear while her mother continued to berate her, "…And if you can't tell me then who can you tell?"

Pam sighed, "It's nothing big," she enforced biting her lip as she lied through her teeth, "It's just that he drove me home and everything today and he's taking a bus back to Stamford tonight. I feel really bad that I sort of exploded and made him leave."

"Jim's a good person honey," her mom enlightened, "If you tell him what you just told me, I'm sure that he'd understand and forgive you without a second thought."

"Yeah, you're probably right," Pam agreed a little doubtful.

"Of course I am. You love him and he loves you and that's all that matters," her mother responded, "Besides mothers are always right. You'll learn that soon enough." Pam took a nervous breath in as her mother continued, "So what's this private thing you can't talk to me about?"

While her brain was scrambling to come up with a complicated lie to cover the reason, she heard the front door open and the rustling of shopping bags. "I've got to go now mom," Pam said quickly, "Jim's back."

With that she hung up the phone in the kitchen and made her way to the front door to greet him. He smiled reservedly when he saw her and placed the bags on the top of the radiator.

"Jim, look I'm really sorry about…"

"It's okay," he reassured softly. Her lips pursed together and she knew that he was still hurt. "I went out shopping and realized that you were right. There's a lot we don't know about babies and it is more than intimidating."

"Well I talked to my mom and I realized that the most important thing for us is to be together," she informed her eyes sparkling with unshed tears. "I want you to be there for everything Jim. From the baby's first kick to the birth."

He smiled, "We'll work something out," he told her as he wrapped his arms around her, "I promise I'm going to be there for everything." She nodded against him and he could feel her cheek wet with tears. "Hey, hey," he told her as he pulled her away and wiped the tears off her cheek, "Everything is going to be fine."

She nodded once again and kissed him softly, smiling lightly as she felt his fingers splay across her stomach.

"So what did you buy me?" she questioned when they parted. Her eyes were shining now and her smile bright.

"Well I went to a baby store," he told her honestly as they walked to the living room.

"You did not," she exclaimed with a laugh, "Did you just want to be in over your head or was this some sort of penance?"

"Yeah laugh it up Beesly, they almost had to send in a search party to rescue me," he joked as he they took a seat on the couch next to each other.

"So?" she questioned eyeing the bags carefully.

"I bought three books. Two different ones on the difficulties and unknowns of parenting and parenthood. I thought I'd read one and you could read the other, then on the weekends we could get together and have book talks," he explained as he brought the two books out of the bag and handed them to Pam.

"I want this one," she explained holding the shorter one.

Jim rolled his eyes and brought out the next book, "And of course the baby names book, so we don't end up calling it something like Dwight."

Pam scrunched up her face, "Parish the thought."

"Thanks to the baby book," Jim added as he set the book on the table. Then paused with a small smile on his face.

"What?" Pam questioned as she brought her legs up on the couch and laid them across his.

"I bought one other thing," he told her handing her the plastic bag.

Her eyebrow arched as she grasped the bag and looked inside of it cautiously. "Oh my gosh," she exclaimed excitedly as her hand flew over her mouth. She looked up to Jim who just grinned and shrugged. "How did you get these?"

"I was just walking down the shoe aisle and they were right at the end and I couldn't resist," he divulged sincerely.

She reached into the bag and pulled out a pair of vibrant white Keds and grinned happily. "Michael's going to have to make a mini-Dundee."