Chapter 10

The next morning, Tru sat on a stool at the kitchen island. Her gaze staring into her cup of decaf coffee, but her mind was racing. She had barely been able to sleep, wondering if Abby was okay and what Carson was doing with her. She didn't want to make everything about her and her own problems, but it was too big of a coincidence. He had to be trying to get to her through Abby. Or trying to torment her mentally. And poor Abby, she didn't need this. She had been through enough.

She remembered the first time she met Abby. She was so defeated; angry at the world for letting such a terrible thing happen to her. Angry at herself for 'letting' it happen. She had watched her grow and heal and now she was being used as pawn in Carson's sick game.

Sonny entered the room, tightening his tie as he walked into the kitchen, breaking through her thoughts.

"Good morning," She said, "I made coffee."

He glanced over at her as he walked to the coffee pot, taking in her full face of makeup and her clothes and hair, she was already ready for the day.

"You must have been up early. How'd you sleep?" He asked as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

"Not great," she said. His eyes feel to her coffee cup, "Don't worry, it's decaf."

She could have sworn she caught a slight grin as he brought his cup to his lips to take a sip, but it only lasted a second.

"Do you have a busy day today?" Tru asked.

"You know how it goes, ya just never know." Sonny replied, "How come?"

Tru took a sip of her coffee—damn it was nasty. She needed caffeine! "I made a doctors appointment…It's at 3 today, I thought maybe you could come?"

He locked eyes with her, surprised. "Y—yeah, yeah of course." Sonny said. "I'm surprised you were able to get in so soon."

Tru cleared her throat, "Well with our history they fit us in…"

"Right," Sonny looked down.

Tru stood up and gathered her purse and coat, "I have to get going."

Sonny looked down at his apple watch, "Already? You still have plenty of time."

Tru slid on her black leather moto jacket, "I need to check on a patient before I go to work."

"Really? Why, what's wrong?"

"Hopefully nothing," Tru said as she pulled her hair free from her coat. "But I'll see you later?"

Sonny nodded, "I'll be there."

Tru headed for the door, stopping right before she got to it, she turned around, "Sonny," she said softly.

"Yeah?" He asked.

"Try to not get your hopes up."

Tru headed up the sidewalk that led to Tru's dorm room at Hudson U—a.k.a Rape University. She looked down at her phone that was open to the notepad to remind herself what Abby's room number was. She found Abby's room on the second floor, all the way at the end. She brought her hand to the door to knock on it and noticed it was shaking.

She knocked twice, but no one answered. She could hear someone moving around inside so she knocked again.

"I'm coming," came a sleepy voice from inside.

Before long the door opened, and a young girl with fiery red hair stood behind it, still half asleep.

"Dude it's seven-thirty in the morning," the young co-ed said.

"I'm sorry to bother you so early," Tru replied, "I'm looking for Abby."

"I don't think she came home last night," the girl said through a big yawn, she turned towards the living room and yelled, "Abby!"

Nothing. The girl turned back toward Tru and shrugged.

"Ok, do you know where she would have gone?" She asked, but she already knew the answer.

"She's been spending a lot of time with that new boyfriend of hers," the girl said.

"Right," Tru nodded. "If you see her just tell her to call Tru, okay?"

The girl nodded and shut the door. Tru headed back down the hallway as she dialed Abby's number, it rang a few times and went to voicemail.

"Hi, it's Abby, just text me." Abby's voice came through the speaker.

"Hey, Abby, it's Tru. I really need you to call me please." Tru said. When she hung up she sent a text summarizing the same message, just in case she got the text before she could hear her voicemail.

Tru looked at her watch, it was time for her to go to work. There was nothing else she could do for now. She sighed in frustration and headed off to work.

Abby awoke the next morning in Carson's bed. She sleepily opened her eyes and looked around, unsure of where she was at first and then she remembered. Carson had his arm draped across her in a spoon position, and she felt safe for the first time in a long time. She rolled over to face him and was surprised to find him already awake and looking at her.

"Good morning, beautiful," Carson smiled at her.

Abby smiled back, "That's the best nights sleep I've had in weeks."

Carson pulled her in close and kissed the top of her head. "I'm glad you slept good," he whispered, "you deserve it."

Abby bit her bottom lip, her insecurities about not being able to make love just yet coming to the surface. "Are you sure it's okay that we didn't—"

He brought a finger to her lip, "Shh," he whispered, "Don't even worry about that. We can wait until you're ready."

She smiled and leaned in and kissed him on the cheek.

"I should go, I have class in like 45 minutes." Abby sat up to climb out of bed, but Carson pulled her back down onto the bed and squeezed her into a hug. Holding her tightly in place.

"No, let's just stay in bed all day." He said.

"We can't do that," she giggled, she tried to sit up again but he wouldn't let her. "Come on Carson, cut it out."

"Let's go get breakfast," Carson offered as he released his grip on her. "You can miss one day."

She thought about it for a second, weighing her options, and then smiled at him, "Okay, I'm gonna go get cleaned up."

Abby climbed out of bed and headed toward the bathroom. Her phone began to ring, "Hey can you get that?" She called from the bathroom.

Carson picked up Abby's phone, and saw Tru's name on the caller ID. He quickly hit the deny button. A text came in almost right away, call me asap. He deleted the message, and then went into her contacts and blocked Tru's number.

"Who was it?' Abby asked, coming out of the bathroom.

"Must have been spam," Carson said handing her the cellphone. "Where do you want to go?"

Sonny glanced around the room of the doctor's office. Anatomy pictures and notices about birth control decorated the wall. He shifted in his seat uncomfortably, and leaned forward, resting his long arms across his knees, he clasped his hands in front of him and staired down at his shoes. Why did they have to make chairs so small? Just once he would like to actually fit in one. He found his mind wandering to so many things; he wondered how this appointment would go and if everything would be okay. He wondered who killed that girl that washed up on the bay of the Hudson. He wondered what Captain Benson would have to say if she found out what he had been up at night, taking matters into his own hands. But most of all; he wondered what Tru was wondering.

He cleared his throat, he had to break this silence; it was deafening. "Are you nervous?" He asked finally, as he looked at Tru.

She was laid back on a slightly inclined exam table, her gaze fixed on the ceiling above them.

"I don't know if that's the right word…" her voice came out in a monotone, completely unable to read. No inflections at all, no way of deciphering what she might be thinking.

That was one thing about Tru that bugged him. He loved her with all his heart, but she kept things bottled up. Most of the time he could tell what was going on inside her pretty head, but lately it was all a mystery. Sonny was completely different; If he was hurt, he told you, if he was mad, he told let it be known. He wore his heart on his sleeve and always had. Tru had hers buried behind a brick wall.

"Listen, Tru," he began, her gaze left the ceiling and fell on him. "I've been thinking—"

Suddenly there was a double knock before the door to the room opened, pulling their attention away from each other as Dr. Thompson walked in. "Sorry to keep you guys waiting!" She said with a bright warm smile., oblivious to the fact that she was interrupting something. "How are you feeling today?"

"Fine, could be better, could be worse." Tru said.

Dr. Thompson was pulling gloves out of a disposable box on the wall and slid them onto her hands.

"Morning sickness?"

"Some," Tru replied.

"Trouble sleeping?"

"Yeah, but that's not unusual."

"And Dad?" Dr. Thompson turned to attention to Sonny.

He felt his heart skip a beat, dad, he was so focused on trying to contain the Carson situation and make sure Tru was taking care of herself, he didn't even think about what this pregnancy meant for him. He was going to be a dad.

He couldn't help but smile, "I'm fine ma'am, just…" he put his hand on Tru's belly and felt her jump ever so slightly underneath his touch. It sent a pang of guilt through him, was she still that on edge? He forced the thought from him mind, "Worried about this little one."

"Well let's take a look, shall we?" Dr. Thompson slid her stool over to the ultrasound machine next to Tru. She pushed a button on the machine and it sprang to life while Tru pulled her shirt up to reveal to stomach. "I know you've had a bit of a scary history…"

Tru looked at Sonny and then back to the doctor. She shifted in her seat uncomfortably. She never talked about the baby they lost. The mere mention of him made Tru's eyes glaze over. Tru cleared her throat, "You could say that."

Sonny stood to his feet and stood beside Tru. He watched as the doctor squeezed jelly onto Tru's stomach, and then moved the probe along her belly. It took a few minutes but before long they were able to see the tiny bean shape of a little human forming. Tru reached over and clutched Sonny's hand, gripping it tight, he clasped his other hand over their joined hands.

Dr. Thompson pointed to the screen, "There's the little head," she said. "Let's find the heartbeat."

Tru held her breath, Sonny could see the worry across her face. She was preparing herself for a letdown. She was terrified, scared to death that what happened before would happen again. How could he blame her? He was scared too.

"Sometimes it takes a minute to find," Dr. Thompson said, she must have felt the vibe in the air.

That's when they heard it, it was soft and muffled. Like a dozen tiny horses galloping.

"There it is," Dr. Thompson said, "Wow it sounds nice and strong."

Tru let out a huge sigh of relief and Sonny noticed a tear fall down her cheek. He leaned down and kissed her on the forehead, unable to hide his relief, he felt tears welling up inside him as well.

"Let me just take some measurements here," the doctor mumbled. They didn't care what she was doing, they were just glad to be seeing their little bean on the monitor. Sonny looked down at Tru as she watched the screen, her eyes locked on the little baby, a smile on her face. He saw that spark in her eyes. The one that he was afraid was missing. She was happy.

The doctor pulled the probe off her belly and cleaned the jelly off with a paper towel.

"Okay, well first things first, it looks like you're about 9 weeks along," Dr. Thompson said. "I'm going to prescribe you some prenatal vitamins, and I will give you a list of do's and don'ts that apply to run of the mill pregnancies…however—"

"This isn't run of the mill." Tru finished for her.

The doctor nodded. "A second pregnancy after a pregnancy loss is at a higher risk. Before 20 weeks we call it a miscarriage, after 20 weeks it's considered a neo-natal death—or stillbirth. You were at 25 weeks, so it was considered a still birth—I'm sure I don't have to remind you of that. Pregnancy following a still birth is automatically considered high risk. It's very common to have a heightened level of anxiety or depression during subsequent pregnancies and even postpartum depression with your new child. The important thing to do right now is to take care of yourself and keep as stress free as possible."

Tru looked to Sonny, and he could read her mind. How was she supposed to be stress free with Carson roaming around and trying to infiltrate her life? She sat up, still clutching onto his hand for dear life.

"We will see you more frequently—probably about every three weeks," the doctor continued. "You will receive extra scans and bloodwork. We're going to do everything we can to make sure you have a healthy pregnancy and baby."

"I thought you guys said I wouldn't be able to get pregnant again—something about scarring?" Tru asked.

"Well, it was a possibility, but you were able to conceive again naturally so that is a really good sign." Dr. Thompson said after a moment. "The placental abruption that caused your previous loss is still a possibility as well, so that's why it is important to take care of yourself. That includes your body and your mind as well, okay?"

"Dad, your job is to make her life as easy as possible," the doctor said turning her attention to Sonny. "The nurse will be in to do some bloodwork in just a little bit, and we will schedule your next appointment before you leave."

With that being said the doctor saw her way out.

Sonny looked at Tru, she was biting her bottom lip, staring at the empty ultrasound monitor.

"Hey," he said softly, standing in front her, he wrapped his arms around her, "it's gonna be ok."

"Did you hear the same thing I did?" She asked.

"Yeah…It's risky, but that does automatically mean that will end badly."

"You heard her, stress free, take care of my mental health…" Tru trailed off.

"You just let me worry about all that," he cupped her face, he looked her in the eyes, unable to hide his enormous, happy grin. "Let yourself be happy, we're having a baby."

He could see it in her eyes, she couldn't hide it anymore. She began to smile and then she wrapped her arms around him and let herself feel all the happiness she had been burying.