Oh my Gosh, you guys are amazing! Thank You for the reviews. I've been completely humbled reading all of your comments, and some even made me tear up. It means so much to know that there are even die-hard Steph fans like my story.
If anyone wants to 'see' Ranger's big new house or what the Manoso wedding is going to be like, I have some Pinterest boards going. Send me a message.
Chapter 13
"Do you need to rest some more?" Ranger pulled away from Amy and his eyes instantly went to her still flat tummy.
"I really should get back down to my office. Before you say it," Amy put a hand up to stop what was sure to be a reminder that he was her boss. "I am not the first woman who has been pregnant while working a full time job. I think I can handle sitting at my desk." She gave him a quick peck on the cheek before standing. "But I will meet you back up here for lunch."
Ranger stood just in time to catch Amy as she passed out. "Amy!" He lowered her back on to the couch and pulled his cell out of his pocket. "Bobby, my apartment, now. Amy just passed out." She looked a little pale but she was breathing, not that he wasn't still freaking out. Less than two minutes later Bobby was walking in the door.
"Boss," He rushed over and knelt down next to the couch. "What happened?"
"We were just talking, she stood up and a few seconds later she passed out."
"I'm betting it's low blood sugar, do you know if she had breakfast or what she had if she did?"
Ranger just shook his head. "I didn't stay at her house last night. She usually eats breakfast but I know she overslept her alarm and was in a rush to get out the door." He stopped to think, "Oh, Tank ran into her leaving the lounge earlier and she was eating a pickle spear and had a doughnut in her hand."
"That's not really that great of a breakfast." Bobby stopped as Amy groaned and opened her eyes. "Hey Amy, you get to see me twice today. Do you remember what happened?"
"Ranger and I were talking, I know I was getting ready to go back down to my office so I stood up and I don't really remember anything after that." She was watching Ranger who looked terrified sitting on the coffee table. "What?"
"You passed out. I caught you thankfully, but what if I hadn't been here?" He rubbed both his hands over his face.
"Hey, don't do that." Amy sat up slowly with help from Bobby and put a hand on Ranger's knee, "It's not that serious." She looked to Bobby for confirmation, who just watched her carefully as he had a finger on the inside of her wrist taking her pulse.
"Well, it's probably just your blood sugar, or it could be low iron. It's not uncommon for pregnant women to feel light-headed or dizzy. Did you have any problems with anemia in your last pregnancy?" Bobby had his iPad sitting next to her on the couch and he was touching the screen and typing every two seconds it seemed.
"I was borderline anemic with Lexi, I took some iron supplements during her pregnancy but I never passed out."
"Do you have an OB already?" Bobby pulled his blood pressure cuff and a stethoscope out of his bag to get her blood pressure.
"Yeah, well my Gyno is in an OB/GYN office."
"I would call and try to get in as soon as possible just so they can check you out. I didn't have the lab check your iron, I just did the pregnancy test. But your numbers are pretty high for only being 4.5 or 5 weeks pregnant, actually that's why I put a note on the lab results telling you guys to come see me." He put the cuff on her arm and took her blood pressure. "Well your pressure is great."
Ranger and Amy both looked confused. "Is it possible to have her numbers be too high?" Ranger asked.
"Well no," Bobby paused for a minute. "Higher than normal numbers usually means multiples."
Amy looked really pale again and Ranger still looked confused.
"Multiples?" He tilted his head.
Bobby laughed, "Like twins, or maybe even more."
Ranger's jaw actually dropped.
"I don't know that for a fact, it is possible to have high numbers and it not be multiples. But you definitely should go get an ultrasound and repeat blood work done in a couple days." Bobby put all of his equipment back in his bag and stood up. "Amy, a doughnut is not a very good breakfast. You need some protein, have some yogurt with some granola and fruit. Or see if Ella will make you a protein smoothie."
Amy made a face, "No smoothies for me. But the yogurt I can do, that's a normal breakfast for me anyways."
"Did you eat before you came to work? Ranger wasn't sure." Bobby asked.
Amy looked down at her hand that was still on Ranger's knee. "No." she said quietly. "But I didn't realize it would make me pass out, I didn't know I was pregnant. I mean I should have, but I didn't."
"That's alright. Just make sure you don't skip any more meals. I would actually recommend you add a couple of snacks throughout the day. Have you been feeling okay or have you been nauseous?"
"I've been feeling a little queasy now and then at different times of the day."
"Try eating every couple hours, that should help with the morning sickness. Stick with healthy snacks-a handful of nuts and a cheese stick, some fruit, veggies, a small bowl of cottage cheese, things like that. Otherwise, like I said earlier, just get in to see your OB as soon as you can. I'm going to be studying up on pregnancy. I've delivered a few babies but I've never known much about maternity care. I get the feeling it might come in handy for me to know a little more about pregnancy. And let me know if my suspicion is right about it being multiples."
Amy blew a big breath out her nose, "I'm hoping your wrong, but we'll let you know."
Ranger finally stood, "Thank You Bobby," he shook his hand and pulled him into a one-armed hug. "I definitely appreciate you doing some research on pregnancy. Amy's done this before but I really haven't so I'll feel better knowing you know something about pregnancy. I'll probably have to go out and get some books to read."
Amy laughed, "Your going to read 'What To Expect When Your Expecting?' That's something I've got to see."
"You shut it." He pointed at Amy but couldn't stop the smile that he automatically got when Amy laughed.
"I think we're good now Bobby. I'll talk to Amy's OB myself if I have to, to make sure we can get in today."
"Sounds good boss. And again, Congrats."
"Thanks Bobby."
"Yeah," Amy smiled and waved at Bobby as he walked toward the door. "Thank You so much. I'll try not to be so high maintenance from now on."
"Sounds good."
Ranger closed the door behind Bobby then grabbed the house phone by the front door and called Ella. After ordering enough food to feed half a dozen people he returned to the living room with some orange juice for Amy and a water for himself.
"Ranger, you have yogurt in your fridge, I don't need a whole breakfast buffet just for me."
He sat down next to her and ignored her statement completely, "Do you think Bobby is right about it being twins? Or more?"
"I suppose anything is possible."
"But I don't have twins in my family at all."
"Technically, it runs on the woman's side. Guys don't have any effect on that. And my maternal Grandma had one set of twins out of ten kids. One of my Aunts also had a set of twins. Past that I'm not sure because I'm not that close to my moms family."
"Okay. Well, call your OB. Make sure they get you in today."
Amy gave him a stern look, "They might not have any openings today."
"Bullshit, they always leave some room in the schedule for possible emergent circumstances."
Amy called and was surprised when the appointment desk immediately connected her with her OB's nurse, and after a quick two-minute conversation she had Amy scheduled for an ultrasound and an appointment with her OB at eleven-thirty.
"That's perfect." Ranger said, "You can eat and then we'll head over to your doctor's office."
"You're eating too right?" Amy stood up and not surprisingly Ranger stood with her and grabbed her elbow. "Are you going to watch me pee?"
"The last time you stood up you passed out thirty seconds later. Humor me if I want to walk you to the bathroom."
Amy sighed but let him walk with her, she knew it was making him feel better.
Ella was filling the dining room table with plates of food when Amy walked out of the bedroom ten minutes later.
"I'm never going to eat all of that." Amy said as Ranger pulled out a chair for her.
He gave her a look as he sat down across from her, then looked over at Ella. "Thank You so much for the breakfast, well brunch. Amy missed breakfast and we had some work stuff to go over."
Ella nodded but her eyes hadn't left Amy since she'd sat down. Amy blushed and Ella finally looked to Ranger. Then she pointed a finger at him. "Boy," she shook her head. "What kind of fool do you think I am?"
Ranger feigned confusion really well but Amy knew that if she could tell he was lying then Ella definitely could. "What do you mean?"
"You guys haven't even been dating a month. You shouldn't be doing that yet!" She actually tsked at him. Then she looked at Amy, "Amaya dear, I have some ginger tea that can help with morning sickness. If tea isn't your thing they make ginger chews now too. My sister gets them because ginger helps with heartburn as well. You just let me know and I can get those for you to try."
Amy just smiled as she shook her head, surprised that Ella figured it out that fast. "How did you know? We barely know, in fact we only found out for sure less than an hour ago."
"I may be old, but I've been around the block a time or two. You've been off for nearly a week now." She pointed her finger at Ranger again, who had just started filling their plates with food. "And you."
"What now?" He put a hand out, palm up in the universal 'what' gesture.
"Your not that sneaky. I know you guys have been up here nearly every day for lunch."
"Oh c'mon Ella, it's not like we're errant teenagers."
"No, your not. So you should practice a little more self restraint than doing that on your lunch break, which is exactly what errant teenagers would do by the way."
"But she has a daughter at home, would it be better if Lexi walked in?" Ranger was now acting like a teenager. Amy was actually a little embarrassed by the direction of the conversation.
"Okay, can we not go there? Please?" Amy asked. "Ella, I promise you we're not errant teenagers. And we really weren't trying to be irresponsible. Which is why we're already engaged."
Ella's gaze instantly dropped to Amy's still bare ring finger then she looked admonishingly at Ranger. "I know you can afford a nice ring young man."
"I can. And I will get her a very nice ring. We just haven't made that announcement official yet. Evidently Amy has decided to let you in on all of our secrets in one day. I promise you will know when the engagement is official." He shot a quick look to Amy then smiled at Ella. "Now we need to eat our brunch so we can make it to an eleven-thirty appointment."
Ella nodded, but didn't move. She just kept watching Ranger. Then a tear fell down her cheek. Ranger stood and walked to her and hugged her. "I'm so happy for you boy. I wasn't sure I'd ever see the day."
"I know," he whispered. He held her a few more moments before she pulled back.
Ella wasn't done yet though, she put her hands on his cheeks and got serious again, "That woman is carrying your child. You need to worship the ground she walks on. I don't care if it's the middle of the night and she says she wants a fresh lobster roll and there's a blizzard. You get her whatever she wants. Understand?"
Ranger smiled but nodded, "I got it. Trust me, she's going to be sick of me by the time that baby comes."
Ella patted one cheek then released him. She bent over Amy and gave her a hug as well. "That boy loves you," she whispered in Amy's ear. "I knew when you started working here that you were someone special, I just had no idea how important you would be." Ella straightened, "But don't let him boss you around, he may be your boss at work but that doesn't mean he's in charge at home too." She winked at Amy then turned and left.
"You know, your mom basically said the same thing at dinner the other night." Amy took a bite of her omelet then snagged a slice of bacon, Ranger usually ate turkey bacon but Ella knew Amy only liked real bacon so she put both on the platter. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say the other women in your life are trying to warn me about you."
He gave a barely noticeable shrug of one shoulder and stayed quiet as he ate.
"They evidently don't realize that I've worked with you for almost five years now, I learned how to handle you a long time ago." She winked at him.
Ranger watched her dig in to her food and noticed that her color got better the more she ate. "You look better, the food must be helping."
Amy nodded, "I swear I won't skip breakfast again. It didn't seem like a big deal this morning, I just figured I'd overslept. I swear if I'd have known I was pregnant I wouldn't have done that."
"Amy," Ranger gabbed her hand and gave it a quick squeeze before releasing it so she could keep eating. "I know you wouldn't have. And you won't get a chance to skip any more meals because I'm moving in with you and Lexi." He held up a hand when she about spit her food in his face in surprise. "I want to be there for you. I know that you don't need my help, but I need to help you in any way I can. So if it means making sure that you eat breakfast, cooking dinner because your exhausted or the smell of cooking makes you sick, or helping you with laundry then that's what I'll do.
"I should have known you would use this to get moved in to my house sooner." Amy tried to look mad but she couldn't quite pull it off.
"I'll use any advantage I can." He admitted.
"Can we wait until the weekend for you to 'officially' move in so we can just use this week to get Lexi used to you being at the house?"
"All I need is clothes. I will be staying with you every night. No buts." He gave her his stern and serious face.
Amy groaned but admitted her defeat. "Fine."
"Good." Ranger took his plate to the sink then started clearing off the rest of the table. Ella really had made too much food for just two people. "Do you want any more food?"
Amy shook her head since her mouth was full. After taking a sip of orange juice she stood as well. "I can't eat everything I've got as it is." She picked up her plate and carried it to the kitchen. Ranger looked at her plate, gave her a somewhat disapproving look, then took the plate out of her hands.
As her scraped off the food and rinsed the plate to put in the dishwasher Amy went to the bathroom for what seemed like the tenth time that morning and was met by Ranger as she walked into his bedroom. "Hey there sweetie, you ready to go?"
"Yes." She smiled as Ranger put his hands on her waist and pulled her against his chest. "I just hope I can make it all the way to the doctor's office before I need to pee again."
Ranger kissed her forehead then took her hand in his as they walked through the apartment and out to the elevator. "From what I do know about pregnancy I don't think that's going to get any better."
"I know. It won't. I might have to request an office closer to a bathroom." She teased.
"You can have Tank's, his is right next to a bathroom." Ranger pulled her in the elevator and pushed the button for the garage.
"I'm not taking Tank's office." The elevator stopped on level three, Tank and Lester got on.
Tank and Ranger looked at each other, each slightly tipping their heads at each other in some sort of silent communication.
"Where are you two love birds off to?" Lester wasn't the quiet type.
"A lunch meeting with a potential client." Ranger answered without hesitation.
Amy was glad Ranger had answered because she hadn't even thought about what they would tell people.
"I should be back to the office by 1:30 or so," Ranger said to Tank. "But if I'm not can you take my two o'clock meeting?"
Tank was watching Ranger and Amy closely and only hesitated a second before answering but it was long enough for Ranger to know and Amy to suspect that Tank knew there was something else going on. "Sure thing boss." He smiled at Amy as they all walked off of the elevator at the same time.
The drive across town to Amy's OB was less than fun as it was eleven o'clock, so everyone was trying to get somewhere all at once.
"If you don't mind, I would kind of like to wait to tell anyone that we're pregnant. At least until after the wedding." Amy squeezed Ranger's hand. "I don't want people to be saying it's a shotgun wedding."
Ranger brought her hand up to his mouth and kissed the back of it lightly, "I would hope that no one would have the balls to say that to me or even around me. But if that's what you'd like, that's fine with me." He stopped at a red light and looked over at Amy who was absently rubbing her still flat belly with her free hand. "When are the wedding invites going out?"
"Well, I wanted to talk to you about that." She looked over at Ranger who gave her a quick concerned look before going back to the road just as the light turned green. "Oh it's nothing bad. I was just wondering how you would feel about the wedding being a surprise? We'll send out invites for a formal Thanksgiving dinner to show off the new house. They'll all show up to a nicely decorated house for drinks and appetizers. I'll wear a nice dress and you'll leave the tie and jacket to your suit in the office. We'll have the door to the garage locked so no one can go out there because that's where we'll hide all of the wedding decorations-like the sign for the guest book table, the guest book table, the grooms cake, and whatnot. Once everyone has arrived I'll sneak off to our room with Lexi to change into my wedding dress and you can put on your suit jacket and tie. If you can get everyone to the formal living room and have them face the front door I can make my grand entrance behind them and we can shock them all."
"You've really put some thought into this, haven't you?" Ranger didn't think it was a half bad idea.
"Yes." Amy nodded. "We can do a surprise wedding on Thanksgiving weekend then we'll send out Christmas cards that will be our pregnancy announcement and Thank You cards all in one."
"So basically in the span of a couple of weeks we'll surprise everyone with us getting married and having a baby."
"Or babies." She reminded him.
"Or babies." He corrected. "You know, a surprise wedding sounds kind of perfect. We already have the details taken care of. I don't think people would be all that suspicious of us having a big formal dinner Thanksgiving weekend. Plus, seeing the look of shock on everyone's faces when they realize they're actually at our house for a wedding will be great. I'm in, let's do it." He smiled at her.
Amy was thinking about how much more fun Thanksgiving was going to be this year as they pulled into the parking lot of the doctor's office. After checking-in, they sat down while Amy filled out some paperwork. Less than fifteen minutes later a nurse called Amy's name and they were escorted back to an exam room. The nurse took her blood pressure, asked her some questions-most of which she'd just answered on the paperwork she'd filled out.
"So, you wrote on the paperwork that you had labs done already today?"
"Yes." Amy grabbed the lab results-the ones that Bobby hadn't written on-out of her purse and handed them over. "We have an in-house medic and a contract with this lab. I am more than okay with doing another blood test though if you guys want me to."
"I'll double check with Dr. Sayre, but I know we've contracted with this lab before so I don't think she'll want you to do another blood draw today." The nurse-Abby-stood and went to the door. "She'll be in in just a few minutes."
Less than a minute later there was a light knock at the door before it opened. "Hi Amy," she shut the door behind her and put a hand out to shake Amy's hand, then Ranger's. "And you must be dad."
He nodded, "Carlos Manoso."
"Nice to meet you Carlos. Well, Abby gave me your lab results and I must say, for not quite five weeks your numbers are impressive. Do twins run on your mom's side of the family Amy?"
"Yeah, kind of. I don't know if they're identical or fraternal but there's a couple sets."
Dr. Sayre nodded, "I'm going to have you guys move down the hall to the ultrasound room. I highly doubt we'll see anything today because it is extremely early to see a baby, or babies. But we can check on some other things. So go ahead and follow me."
They all filed out the door and down the hallway. Amy expected the doctor to leave but she actually stayed for the ultrasound. Ranger's eyes got a little wide as the doctor explained that it was too early for an abdominal ultrasound to see much so they would be doing a transvaginal ultrasound. He looked away when the nurse put the wand under the sheet covering Amy's legs.
After a minute the doctor told them to look at the screen. She pointed out the uterus and ovaries, and noted that the lining of Amy's uterus was really thick, which was a good sign. Just when she was about to give up on finding anything she had the tech stop and she took over the ultrasound. "There. Look right there guys." She pushed some buttons and zoomed in a little on what looked like a bubble. After changing a few settings they could just barely see something in the bubble. "That, believe it or not, is your baby. It is so tiny right now, but that tiny little blob is the baby and the bubble around it is the amniotic sac."
"So there's just one?" Ranger asked.
"Well, that I'm still not entirely sure of." The doctor moved the wand around slowly and carefully, trying to look around at as much of Amy's uterus as she could. "I wouldn't normally be looking for a twin at this point but the numbers definitely seem to be pointing in that direction. There's another questionable spot here." She pointed to the screen. "But it's a little smaller than the other so I can't really tell if there's anything in that or not." She removed the wand and put a hand on Amy's arm, "You are definitely pregnant, and there's one baby for sure. I want to do repeat labs in two days, so come back in on Thursday. I just want to see what your numbers are doing. If they still seem to indicate that there's more than one baby, we'll do an ultrasound on October seventh."
"Why not before then?" Ranger asked.
"If we wait until six weeks, it's a lot more likely that we'll be able to actually see if there's babies and hear heartbeats." Doctor Sayre pushed the machine away and helped Amy sit up.
"So you think there's more than one?" Amy asked.
"In my experience, HCG numbers as high as yours are at 4.5 weeks means there's definitely more than one baby."
Amy nodded.
"Any special instructions or restrictions?" Of course Ranger would ask that.
Dr. Sayre chuckled, "No, everything seems to be going great. You already know why you passed out and what to do to avoid that happening again."
"Thank You so much, Dr. Sayre, for getting us in today on such short notice."
"Not a problem! Fainting isn't usually a huge concern but when your pregnant we don't take that sort of thing lightly. If you continue to have any problems, call the office right away. We'll check your iron levels when you come back on Thursday. After that I might have you start taking an iron supplement. Are you taking a prenatal?"
"Not yet, I take a daily multivitamin but I'm pretty sure we'll be stopping on the way home for a prenatal vitamin." She slightly tilted her head towards Ranger but didn't look at him.
Dr. Sayre chuckled and patted her knee. "You're in good hands with that one Amy." She stood and went to the door. "I'll see you in a couple days." And she was gone.
They stopped at the front desk and made her appointment for Thursday for labs and then another appointment for the seventh for another ultrasound. Once they were back in the car Amy and Ranger just sat there.
"Your mom is going to freak out when we tell her." Amy said to Ranger.
He nodded, "We have to tell her in person, before we send out the cards."
"Okay," she looked over at him. "Any particular reason?"
Ranger smiled as he watched Amy absently rubbing her belly, again. "I don't think my mom really expected me to settle down. This is something I want to tell her in person and watch her reaction. I kind of think that if she finds out from a Christmas card she would be mad at me."
"You're probably right." Amy admitted. "So we'll tell her in person, but not until after the wedding. People wait until after twelve weeks usually, and I'll be about eleven weeks at the wedding."
"If it's twins you'll probably be showing by then." Ranger teased.
Amy groaned, "I hope not. But they do say that you start showing sooner with subsequent pregnancies, so you might be right."
Ranger started the car and headed back out onto the road. "Are you ready for lunch?"
Amy laughed. "After the huge breakfast buffet you made Ella prepare for us, I'm really not hungry yet. We can do a late lunch back at the office."
"Nope." Ranger turned onto another road but never looked over to see Amy's confused expression. "You're going home. I'm giving you the rest of the day off. And because I know you'd fight me on it and try to drive yourself back to work, I'm dropping you off and I'll have one of the guys drive your car back when I'm done working tonight."
"I'll remind you again, I'm not the first working mother to get pregnant. I can't take the day off of work just because I'm tired." Amy was trying really hard not to get mad and yell at Ranger, he was basically a first timer when it came to pregnancy and he is so excited. "I sit at a desk most of the day, and I left behind a lot of mundane paperwork to do. That's not going to be too taxing or strenuous."
"I know it's not. But you didn't sleep well last night, you passed out this morning, and I would feel a little better knowing that you're home resting."
Amy rolled her eyes and silently prayed for patience. "I'm a single mom, WAS a single mom" she quickly corrected when Ranger threw her a glare and was clearly ready to reprimand her about her relationship status. "I WAS a single mom, past-tense, don't get your panties in a wad. Anyways, what I'm trying to say is that rest isn't something that I'm all that good at. I know that it's different now, because I have you. Trust me when I say that it feels amazing now to know that I have you in our lives. But if you drop me off at home alone with no vehicle I'm just going to end up doing laundry, cleaning, dusting, basically anything to keep myself busy."
This time the glare Ranger gave her was actually kind of scary, "You need the rest." He looked back to the road. "So if you can't be left alone to rest, I'll just have to take the afternoon off with you."
Amy tried to be mad, but an entire afternoon and evening to spend with Carlos sounded too good to pass up or be mad about. She crossed her arms and sat back in her seat, "Fine." She let out a quick huff and looked out her window. "You'll get bored."
He smirked, "I think I can manage." He made a quick call to Tank to let him know he'd be out of the office the rest of the afternoon and was finishing up the call just as he turned onto Amy's street. "So what are we going to do with ourselves for the next few hours before Lexi will get home from school?"
"I don't know about you, but I have some laundry to do." Amy teased.
"Nap time it is." He quipped as they pulled into the driveway.
Amy rolled her eyes and he just smiled.
