Music was blaring in every part of the house with us kids at home for the holidays. Nan and Di were listening to their upstairs in their room while Mom had the radio on in the Kitchen. Shirley was playing his own to try and cancel my own music as Olivia and I made up dances to songs from Marianas Trench that blasted from my phone.

We were laughing hysterically as we sang out the lyrics, making up cheesy dances with a mix of ballet and what was typical teen dancing.
Snapchat's were sent, Instagram posts were made as we had our fun. Singing to each other,

'What you want, what you need has been killing me.

Trying to be everything that you want me to be.

I'll say yes, I'll undress, I'll do more for less.

Now I'll change everything till it's perfect again.'

"I hope no-one is undressing or doing more for less," Dad says from the bottom of the stairs, laundry basket in his hands. We look at my dad, before looking back at each other and burst out laughing as we fall onto the old bean bag chairs. I more gracefully than Olivia for obvious reasons. He shakes his head as he heads for the laundry room.

"Okay, I needth to stop," I said gasping. "Otherwise I may pee my pants if I haven't already."

I force myself to take a deep breath to stop laughing. I stretch out my back on the bean bag, I can feel the baby flutter about, which makes me smile to myself.

"It's nice to see you actually smile," Olivia says taking a drink from her water bottle.

"I smile," I said frowning.

"You fake smile at a school. Your true smile, your whole face lights up," Olivia explained shaking her head. I make a face at her which she laughs at.

"I meant what I said," Dad said coming back from the laundry room. "Nothing good is achieved by getting naked to fix your day's problems. You'll either end up in embarrassing situations, awkward doctor appoints about things burning while you urinate." He grins at us before looking toward the wall of family photos. "Or you know with seven kids. It's all fun and games until you realize you've been outnumbered three times over."

"Dath!" I groan, my most grown out lisping slipping through the cracks not once but twice.

"Just some advice," He grinned. "Dinner is almost ready, you're welcome to stay if you wish Olivia," he says to my friend.

Olivia shook her head. "Thank you, but my mom should be here soon enough," she tells my dad who nods and goes back upstairs.

"Let uth head upstairs," I tell her frowning. "Let us, you would think years of speech therapy I wouldn't have to worry about it" I correct myself muttering.

"You had speech therapy?" Olivia asked.

"From kindergarten up until grade six," I say with a nod of my head we went up the stairs. "I was the one who had numerous learning issues, for a while they thought I was dyslexic. Probably why I loved to dance, it was something that came naturally and easily for me. I didn't need to talk, and I could easily pick up steps by just watching the teacher."

"Did they ever figure out what it was?" Olivia asked curiously to which I shrugged at.

"Nothing official, I suppose I was just the dunce of the family. I had assessments, I had appointments for glasses. My sight is fine and assessments came up inconclusive on the reading end of things. I can read, they just figured I didn't like too?" I explain as I heave myself up, and run a hand over my bump.

I walk Olivia to the door and waved goodbye as she runs to her mother's car. Shutting the door I sigh as I wander the kitchen where the leaves of the table were out and it was partially set. Most of the time, the table was set to four people, but with Walter and the Twins' home, we needed more space.

"What's for dinner?" I ask looking around.

"Lasagna, there is a small meatless one for you," Mom answers as she checks on the garlic bread that was in the oven. "You can finish setting the table."

I nod my head and gather the cutlery from the drawer. I turn my heel and suddenly my head swims. The feeling of dizziness overcomes me. Dad who must have been coming into the kitchen swiftly steadies me.

"It's okay, let's just sit you down for a moment," he says helping me over to a chair.

"I'm okay, just got suddenly dizzy," I tell him. "I must have turned too fast," I tell him.

"When the last time you ate," he said looking at the clock as he gets me a glass of almond milk.

"Lunchtime?" I respond. "I'm fine really, I am."

Dad frowns and presses a hand to my forehead either way. Mom is watching me with a curious look.

"When did you eat lunch?" She asks me.

"When Di and Nan were making Caprese salad?" I tell her. "It was before Olivia came over," I tell her. "You saw me walking by with it when Ken called."

"He's on his way back?" Mom asked as she cut up the garlic bread with her large knife.

I nod my head. "With Persis and her boyfriend, who wanted to come to see the island," I tell her,

Mom merely nods her head. "Of course Leslie was saying," mom hums as dad still checks me over at this point he was checking my pulse.
"How did they truly take the news," I ask her which prompts her to turn and look at me. "I mean I get Ken's side of things but I feel like he leaves stuff out to make me feel better?" I explain.

"As one might expect," Mom settles with. "Disappointed, confused and angry. Owen was furious at Ken, of course, Leslie was confused and didn't want to believe it. I think Owen was skeptical truthfully, we had to remind him that if it had been anyone else you would have not kept it a secret. Clearly, the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree, with the Ford men," Mom says almost bitterly. I couldn't help but wonder what she thought when her best friend was suddenly dating a man eleven years older than her. "Both of you seem to agree that whatever happened between you that night resulted in this happening and we all just have to go along with it."

"It could only be him," I say quietly. "There was no one else, and before that, I was at summer intensive and Fred and I broke up back in June." I try to explain as I try to stand up, but Dad holds me down.

"Everything all right?" Walter says from the kitchen entryway, looking at Dad who was still holding me down.

"I'm fine, I just had a dizzy spell and dad is overreacting," I tell him, my hands resting over my ever-growing bump. When I weighed myself this morning I almost choked when I had gained three pounds over Christmas, from Christmas alone. I almost wondered if Ken would be able to tell or see the difference that I felt.

"If it happens again tell me, maybe you slow down a bit. I heard you this morning working through your pointe technique." Dad tells me. I give him a look like he was asking me to cut off one of my legs. "Just don't overdo it, this isn't going to get easier, just harder on your body." He sighs moving away from me as the twins and Shirley come into the kitchen.

They take their places around the table as they all bring up different conversations. I eat silently, picking apart the lasagna my mother had made for me. It was good, mom was a good cook after all. Nan was talking about her new courses, while Di was going about going fabric shopping, while my mind kept going back to what Mom said about the Fords. They seemed so relaxed about the situation when they had visited. Yet Ken was dealing with the same things I had.

I help with the dishes and shake my head when the siblings break out the tub of ice cream and toppings for sundaes. I leave them to their ice cream as I go up to my room meaning to take an early shower. I strip down to my bra and panties, looking at myself in the mirror. It was like my body didn't even belong to me anymore, and really it wasn't.

I take my shower and settle down in my bed, grabbing one of the books mom had picked up for me. I open it, flipping to a page that seems close to where I would be. It takes a minute click in my head. It tells me things I would have never thought about, it also tells me things I wish I could now scrub out of my mind. I toss the book aside when I came to the chapter about preparing for childbirth. I gigantic no thank you right now for me to even think about.

I grab my phone as I hear it buzz.

Made it to Edmundston for the night, should be hitting the road early so I can unpack and get some groceries. Also really Mariana's Trench?I knew instantly had seen the video of Olivia had taken of me that was on my Instagram.

What's wrong with Trench! —I reply back.

They were signed by Nickelback's record label company? =P— He replies back instantly

I saw them live when they toured for Astoria's album, it was amazing. Plus our daughter likes it when I listen to them, she moves around when she hears it.— I tell him, even if it felt weird saying our daughter.

Or trying to run away from it, =P— He writes back teasing me.

Oh and pray tell what music is good to you? Drake, the weekend?

More a July Talk, the Arkell's, The Glorious Sons type of a guy for Canadian Music.

I sigh and smile, they were all bands I had on my playlist.

I'm heading to bed now— I tell him as I yawn.

Sleep well =)

You too

I wake up disorientated and needing to use the washroom. I stumble along with the dark hall yawning, something I had gotten used to overtime. Getting up to go to the bathroom was a regular occurrence these days.

I rub my eyes as they finally go into focus and not hurt from the light of the bathroom. I look down as I wait and as I open my eyes once more.

I see it. I hurriedly wipe, examining the tissue filled with fear.

I wasn't supposed to be bleeding?

I yank up my pyjamas and wash my hands. My mind running in circles as I panic, I make my way downstairs and knocking on my parent's door. Dad was home tonight, he would know what to do right?

It was dad who answers the door in his boxers and white shirt. "What is it?" He asked before he realizes that I have tears running down my face.

"I'm bleeding, I shouldn't be bleeding should I?" I asked him hurriedly.

"Anne!" Gilbert calls out to my mother who was already sitting up in bed, rubbing her own eyes.

"What colour was it? Was it a lot?" He asks as I just stand there, he was already pulling on his nearest clean clothing. "Bright red? More Brown or pinky? Rilla you need to tell me?"

"Red," I tell him. "I don't know how much, I just woke up."

"Beginning of a period light spotting? Cramping?" Mom asks for him, thinking it might be easy for me to answer her.

"Near the end, like when you think it stops but it comes back one last hour? She's still fluttering around in there, I can feel it" I explain to her. "No cramping, but I was asleep I don't know."

"Emily, this is Doctor Blythe,' Dad says into his phone. "Can you transfer me over to obstetrics, thank you. Dr. Perry this is Doctor Blythe, my daughter who is a patient under Dr. Burnley, Rilla Blythe, July 17th, 2001. Yes, yes, that is here, she woke up just now to light to moderate bleeding. She isn't cramping but described it to her mother as when you think you finished your period but it comes back out of nowhere." He relays the information. "Okay thank you, she didn't mention anything from her last appointment and ultrasound. The fetus is being active," he adds on. "Of course we will be there within an hour," He says before hanging up and turned to me.

"Do we have any pads in this house?" He turns to my mother. He knows well enough from the Costco pack of tampons he ends up buying for the women of the house, that none of us liked pads.

"I have some stored away somewhere," Mom nods her head, heading towards their bathroom.

He turns to me. "Don't panic, it's most likely nothing. You can feel her move which is a good sign," he tried to reassure me.

I nodded my head as mom hands me a few pads. "It happens, it happened a few times with the lot of you," Mom says rather sympathetically.

I nod my head and head back upstairs to change my underwear and stick on one of the pads mom had given me.

I thought about texting Ken. He texted me when he got to New Brunswick, at the hotel he got so he could rest for the night. He driving back today and still hours away and if there was no reason to panic. Yet all I wanted was to hear his voice. It was Di who finds me coming out of the bathroom for the second time. "Everything all right?" She yawns.

I don't want to tell her, I don't want to worry her or Nan. Still, my lip quivers as I wrap my arms around my belly. She most likely thought that I was just having a panic attack, or hormones were raging.

"Shh," Di said rubbing my back. I could feel her shake her head to Nan about something. I could hear Dad come to look for me, as I was still in front of the twin's bedroom.

"What's going on," Di asks seeing Dad.

"We're taking Rilla to the hospital, we'll text you when we know more." That was all he told them as he holds out my jacket. I still don't even have socks on. I stay quiet on the way to the hospital, we're all quiet as dad drives.

"Did you call Ken?" Mom asks from the passenger seat.

I only shake my head, I still clutch my phone in my hand.

"Call him," Mom tells me.

"It's 3:30 am, it will just go to voicemail. Maybe we should wait until we know more. I don't want him to panic." I say.

I can see mom wanting to correct me but decides whatever might come from it isn't worth it.

"I'll make the call when I get checked in," I compromise with her. The birth centre nurse was already waiting for us when we came through the door. She leads me into a small private room and helps me put on a gown. They do an exam, quietly charting whatever they write down in charts.

"Let's just see what's happening?" The technician told me kindly, though the screen was turned away from me as she did her work.

"Can I?" I motion to my phone, and she nods her head. I hit Ken's number, it goes to voicemail like I thought it would it is in the middle of the night after all.

"Call me please," I say in a weak voice before hanging up I look towards my mom and sitting beside me at this point. "I'm at the hospital."

His voice was laced with sleep when he calls me back a few minutes later. "What wrong? Is Everything all right? Is everything all right with the baby? You?" He says completely panicked.

"We don't know," I say looking at the technician. "I woke up bleeding in the middle of the night, Dad brought me in," I tell him quietly. Silently the technician looks at me and flicks a switch. Suddenly the sound of her heartbeat fills the room.

"Is that?" he asks.

"Uh-huh," I tell him.

"You're not alone are you?" He asks quickly.

"Dad is talking some doctor and mom is with me," I tell him honestly. I look to my mom, she grasps by freehand squeezing it.

"So far there's a steady heartbeat," she tells me as it rapidly thumps. "I'm going to send this to your doctor, and we'll get you into a room." She tells me. I nod my head as she gives me a cloth to wipe down my stomach.

"I'm really scared," I say quietly to him, to the semi-dark room. I couldn't imagine, I've known for close to eighteen of the twenty-two weeks that I am. Ken has known for less than three weeks. I was nowhere near ready for this, but to think about losing it at this stage.

It terrified me.

"I'm going to wake up Persis and tell her, I'll call you as soon as we hit the road," Ken tells me before bidding goodbye.

Ken was true to his word calls as soon as they hit the road, talking about whatever he could to keep my mind from whatever was going on. The steady whooshing sound in the background calms us. The only time I had asked to let him go, or at least put him on mute was when they did another pelvic exam. He stayed on the line until I was yawning from being up half of the night.

I was sleeping when I woke up to some fixing the blanket new my feet.

"Sleeping beauty is awake," I hear Faith Meredith's voice before I see her face. "How are you doing?" She asked.

"Fine," I say pushing myself upwards. "Thirsty and hungry," I add on.

"Well, I can help you with both." Faith tells me handing me a glass of what with a smile as she checks over the machine that watched the baby. "She moving around a lot?"

"Yeah," I nod my head, my hand resting over my bump. "That's good right?"

"It is," Faith nods her head. "I'll find you some breakfast and I think the doctor will be in soon."

Faith about to leave the room as mom and dad come back in with coffee in hand. Along with some fruit salad and a container of oatmeal on a tray. "For Rilla?" She asks.

"We thought she might be hungry," Mom tells her.

"She is," Faith says with a smile. "I texted Jem on my break, should I tell him anything?" she asks quietly.

"Whatever you think is appropriate," Mom tells her quietly. Faith nods looking back at me with a smile before leaving the room.

Mom comes to sit next to me, setting up a tray with the breakfast they got for me. She watches me eat as she drinks her coffee. Ken wouldn't reach the island until 10 am given how long Dad said it would take for him.

Faith spent what time she could with me during her rounds. Mom silently held my hand whenever the doctor came into the room to check something. Another ultrasound, an hour or so of a nap as I was falling asleep as I spoke at one point. More poking and prodding, blood was drawn was more my morning

When Ken came rushing into my room he looked like had sped the entire way rushed into the room.

He looks at my parents as he caught his breath and then towards me. In the end, he made his way over to my bed. "Do we know anything?" He asks me.

"The doctor should be here soon," Dad said for me with a shake of his head.

"Isn't that good? If they aren't that worried?" Ken looks to my dad.

"It's hard for me to say," My dad tells him honestly. "Obstetrics isn't my specialty."

Ken nods and sits down in the vacant chair.

I push him the container of fruit when I hear his stomach rumbled. "I'm full and I need to pee," I tell him, which wasn't a lie. I was full and the container was huge. I slide out of bed still in my pyjamas and make my way over to the bathroom.

"Do you want Faith?" Mom asks and I shake my head.

The doctor is in the room when I come back out. She waits for me to settle on the bed and mom fusses with the blankets.

"All right Rilla," She starts and she waits for me to nod to her before continuing. Letting her know I was ready for whatever was coming my way. Ken stood anxiously beside me, while mom still held tight to my hand. "When you can in we are worried that your placenta has shifted down towards your cervix, but it seems to be well enough away. It is possible you had sub-chronic hematoma under, on or near the placenta. Depending on the size it could have been missed in previous scans depending on where it was located. All we can do is monitor the area where we think it came from and hope that it has fixed itself. Given you are well into your second trimester, we'll need to monitor you more closely to ensure that whatever caused the bleeding has stopped completely. That also means being on restricted activity for at least two weeks to start with." She tells me sternly

"You mean bed rest?" I ask her, every fear eating into my mind about losing all my muscle strength.

"Yes and no, Light exercise such as walking around the neighbourhood or maybe the supermarket is fine and encouraged. Dance and strenuous workouts are a definite no," she explains to me before looking at Ken. "I almost want to snort that Ken wouldn't touch me with a ten-foot pole in such a way.

"What about school?" My mother asks.

"Given the number of stairs I know are in Glen Valley High school. I would ask her to stay at home and study, for the two weeks." She tells me mother before turning to look at me. "I know this will be hard on you. If everything appears to be all right in two weeks. You don't have anymore bleeding we can re-evaluate the plan. We want you to leave the hospital with a healthy baby in seventeen weeks. Your next appointment will fall in the middle of the two weeks. I will book an ultrasound for you at that time and we can do the glucose test as well."

I nod my head.

"I'll monitor you for a few more hours if everything is looking better and the bleeding hasn't resumed. You can go home and rest there and celebrate the new year." She tells me.

The doctor leaves the room, Dad follows her wanting to ask more questions most likely, while mom sits in a chair typing out some sort of message.

"Where's your sister?" I ask Ken.

"She dropped me off and went to go get some breakfast with Yosuke," Ken tells me as he picks at the fruit.

"Thank you for the book," I tell him not sure what to say. I watch him look up and swallow the strawberry he ate before speaking.

"I found it browsing a used book store, I was looking for Anna Pavlova, but she seemed more interesting," Ken told me. "Had some interesting photos in it as well," he adds one with a crooked smile. "The little shoes I found at your work, I thought they were fitting."

"Except now I can't even dance," I say to him with a sigh.

"It's only for a little while," Ken tries to comfort me. "Who knows maybe I can turn you into a history nerd like your brother and me during this time," he flashes me a smile.

"I doubt that," I shoot him a look.

"Worth a shot," he says to me with a grin.

"I would have gotten you something if I knew that you got me something," I tell him.

"It's fine Rilla, it's not like we talked about it. I just saw the book and decided to get it," he says with a shrug as we both look at the door as a knock sounded out. My mother comes into the room looking at us.

"Do you need anything? Juice, food?" She looks at me and I shake my head. "Kenneth?" She asks him next.

"I'm fine thank you," Ken shakes his head to my mom. It brings me back to yesterday at dinner, mom saying that the Fords took it harder than Ken had let on.

"Your father and I are going to call your siblings down in his office, tell them not to worry," Mom tells me.

I nod my head and she comes to the bed and kisses my hair before hurrying away.

"Things are better?" Ken asks he watches my mom leave the room. I want to ask him the same thing but decide against it for now.

"For now, I'm sure I'll do or say something that will ruin it at some point," I say with a shrug as I rub over my bump. "I'm sorry if I frightened you," I tell him quietly.

"Don't be," Ken says shaking his head.

"So what are you going to do now that you're back?" I ask him.

"Work on getting job interviews. I reached out to my old professor about if he knew anyone out here, he said he might and will look into it for me." Ken says perking up. "For now, my cousin who does photography around the Island is letting me help out for some extra cash as I figure things out, do enjoy taking photos so it's not a bad gig."

"Well, it makes sense if you're only social media is Instagram," I tease him as I grimace and adjust myself. "I'm okay," I tell him before he can jump into action or ask me if I was all right."

"How do you know?" He asks in reply.

"Because she kicked because she didn't like how I was laying and if I was bleeding I would be able to feel it," I tell him blushing.

"Fair enough," he says so simply that I look at him. "What? I have a sister, who isn't exactly shy," Ken tells me.

"What lies are you telling her about me?" I looked up to see a short but pretty blonde in the doorway who wearing skinny jeans and a save the dolphin's t-shirt.

"Persis," I greet her.

"I hope it's okay I stopped by," Persis says.

"It's fine, I'm stuck here until four," I wave her in.

"Where is Yosuke?" Ken asks looking around.

"He's down in the gift shop, he refuses to visit someone in the hospital without a gift," Persis explained. "It's a Japanese thing, they take it seriously, they take a lot of things seriously," Persis explains to me. The closer she got the more I could see the similarities between Ken and Persis, the same nose and mouth. While one was blonde, the other was dark. Their eyes were similar though, while Kens were grey, hers had an icy blue tinge to them.

"He doesn't," I say trying to object.

"I tried to tell him but it's ingrained into him. He'll most likely get you some flowers, the more colourful the better," Persis said, her eyes flickering between me and her brother. "It's been a while since I saw you," she said trying to think of the last time we saw each other. She had already been in Japan when Joy had gotten married. I only nod my head, I was about ten the last time she had been here. Six years ago, and not something I want to bring up, to make everything awkward.

"You gave my brother quite a fright. I had to ban him from driving because he would have driven us off the road," she laughed lightly.

"Persis," Ken hisses at his sister.

"It's fine, I made everyone panic," I say quietly. "I should be apologizing for having Ken wake you up as he did."

"It's fine, as long as you and my little niece are good, it all worth it," Persis waves me off. "This one wouldn't shut up about it since he returned. It thought some alien took him and transplanted his head for a while," Persis teased Ken.

I watch Ken glare at his sister while turning red. I stifle a laugh as there was another knock on the door.

"Peko-chan?"

"In here," Persis spoke turning to smile at who I could only guess was her boyfriend Yosuke.

"Ohayo," he bows to me. "Good Morning," he says carefully looked at Persis who nodded her head.

"Rilla is this Yosuke, Yosuke this is Rilla, my brother's girlfriend," She said simply.

"We're not!" I start with a shake of my head

"You're a girl and a friend," Persis said with a smile, "Just go with it?" Persis said, before speaking rapidly in Japanese. Ken wasn't wrong when he said Persis had embraced it all. Yosuke was nodding along. Looking back and forth between Ken and me.

"Single parents are rare in Japan, our situation is rarer," Ken explained quietly. "Persis is just trying to explain the situation in the easiest way for him to understand. He's fairly progressive in his way of thinking, but Japan is very different society-wise from Canada."

"For you," he said with a heavy accent holding out a colourful bouquet towards me. "You and the baby, get better," he says before turning to Persis and spoke some Japanese.

"Yosuke also says he will hang a plaque for you and the child when he goes to the temple when we are home. It is a good look to have the gods looking down on the mother and child." Persis translates.

"Arigato," I bow my head and say to him as I smell the bouquet before laying it down on my lap. When I look up there is a surprised look on his face. "Studio Ghibli," I say simply. Yosuke smiles at me and looks back at Persis.

"We'll let you rest," Persis spoke while nodding her head to Yosuke. "Ken if you call your landlord, I will drop off your things for you if you can get them to open the door."

I look to Ken. "If you have things to do," I find myself saying to him. "I'll be fine for an hour, mom and dad are around."

"I don't want to leave you here alone," he shakes his head. "I'll call and tell them there was an emergency and that my sister will come to collect the keys."

I sigh and nod my head, too exhausted to argue with him.

Hope everyone had a good week! I had a good first week back to work, though I totally fell down some stairs and twisted my ankle!

I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter, with a few more small insights into the Fords and the appearance of Persis.

The song is from Marianas Trench called Perfect.

Tina