Here's chapter 3! There's a bit of a time jump in this chapter and there will be short time jumps in chapters to come, so I hope that's not too confusing. Enjoy :)
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Today was the day. It was a cold Autumn morning, the brown, orange and red leaves crunching on the ground as Rachel and Finn walked hand in hand to find out the gender of their baby.
"What do you think it is?" Finn asked excitedly, unable to relax at the excitement of finding out if he was going to have a little boy or a little girl.
He was slightly worried about Rachel. She had been unusually quiet over the last few days. He assumed it was nerves about finding out the gender, but today he was particularly worried. She had hardly said a word to him since they woke up.
"I think it's a boy." Rachel mumbled, continuing to stare straight ahead.
Finn stopped walking, and the sound of the leaves crunching beneath his feet stopped.
Rachel turned around to see what was stopping him.
"Why have you stopped? Come on, we don't want to be late."
Finn took a deep breath and reacts out the Rachel's hand again.
"What's the matter, Rach? You've been kind of quiet over the past few days. You've hardly spoken to me this morning."
All of a sudden, Rachel began crying. Her body began shaking as she sobbed, and Finn pulled her close to his chest.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been so forward. I know your tired, it's been a long few months with the sickness an all so-"
"It's not that." Rachel interrupted. Finn looked down at her confused as she attempted to wipe some of her tears away. She placed her hand on her slightly swollen stomach, her big brown eyes looking up into Finn's.
"Something feels wrong." She whispered. Finn gave her another questioning look as she continued.
"It's not just the sickness and the headaches and the swollen feet and stuff. Something inside me feels off. Like something isn't normal. The past few days, something inside me just doesn't feel right. I know that's not how things work, it's just I know in my head something is wrong."
This set off alarm bells in Finn's mind, but
he warned himself not to jump to conclusions. It was probably all in her head, just nerves. He tried to remain as calm as possible for Rachel's sake.
"Well, we're on our way to the doctor, so if it helps, we can ask them to run a couple of extra scans on you. Just to double check everything."
Rachel nodded and laced her fingers back through his, resting her head against his shoulder as they continued their journey to the doctor. Finn tried to hide his concern for the rest of the journey, but on the inside, he was beginning to panic.
The two walked silently to the doctor, both scared to say the wrong thing, but they each knew what the other was thinking.
Rachel was mad at herself for not telling Finn sooner, that she had been feeling this way for the past five days. But of course, Finn said the right thing, he always said the right thing.
His grip became tighter on her hand as they entered the wide glass doors of the doctors office.
There was another pregnant woman sitting in the waiting area, gripping her husbands hand so tight both their knuckles had gone white. She gave them a friendly smile as the approached the reception desk.
"Good morning, can I take your names please?" the receptionist asked from behind her thick glasses.
"Finn and Rachel Hudson, here for the 16 week scan." Finn replied as she pulled up their files.
"Take a seat in the waiting area and I'll call you when your up."
The two sat down on the hard plastic chairs. Rachel chewed her lip nervously and Finn leaned in close to her ear.
"How long have you felt...?" He trailed off, unsure of what to say.
Rachel took a shaky breath and quickly blinked back the tears that began forming on the corners of her eyes.
"S-sorry, I probably should have been more clear when we were talking outside. Um, about maybe four or five days ago, my back started hurting. Not like a normal back pain, it was an excruciating pain. It was so bad I called in sick to work and just cried all day. I was too scared to say anything to you. I thought it was, you know, the weight gain and pregnancy symptoms, so I thought nothing of it. But um, later that day it kept getting worse, so I took a shower, to see if the heat would help with the pain."
She stopped talking and began silently crying. Finn ran his fingers through her long, straight hair and rubbed small circles on her back. It took everything in him not to burst into tears, but he needed to be strong for Rachel, even if he was terrified of what she would say next.
Rachel sat up straight from where her head had been resting on Finn's shoulder. She sniffed and whipped her tears away before her big brown eyes met Finn's.
"I found a lump." She whispered.
He felt like someone had put o ton of bricks on his chest. He couldn't breath. When she started talking about the pain, he could tell something bad was coming. But hearing her say that something wasn't right out loud was frightening. He would have never imagined himself or Rachel in this position.
He took a deep breath and gently touched Rachel's slightly round stomach.
"I don't want us to jump to conclusions, Rach. This might be nothing. Hopefully it's nothing. However, if it does turn out to be something, I'm here. We'll get through it together. You and I, okay?"
Rachel gave a small nod, and Finn hoped that it came across more confident than the way he actually felt.
10 minutes later, they were called into the doctors office.
"Would you like to know the gender of baby Hudson?" The nurse asked. The couple nodded and she grinned widely.
"It's a girl."
Rachel smiled. She smiled for the first time in days. For one brief moment, every one of her worries vanished. I'm going to have a baby girl. She thought to herself. She could see her dreams coming true in the not too distant future. She would have a daughter to dress up in dainty dresses and to play with. She could teach her to sing and share her love of broadway with her. It's everything she's ever wanted, a baby girl with the man of her dreams. She looked up at Finn, who was smiling at the sonogram of his unborn daughter, looking prouder than she had ever seen him before.
That moment of bliss didn't last for long. Moments later all the couples fears and worries began creeping back in.
They told the nurse. The panicked look that spread across her face was an image Rachel would never be able to remove from her head.
"One moment." The nurse mumbled before rushing out, moving at an unsettlingly fast speed. She didn't return for a long time.
The minutes felt like days, the seconds like hours. Time was moving slower than it ever had before. Finn and Rachel, left alone in the small room by themselves, had cried more tears in the last few minutes then they had in their entire lives. They both had a feeling about what was coming.
Finn held Rachel in his strong arms. Her hair wet from his tears, his shirt wet from hers.
They feared what would come next. The uncertainty of the future leaving a sickening feeling in the pit of their stomachs.
After three long days of waiting in fear, along with a rushed hospital visit for endless amounts of scans and tests, after three days of trying to act normal around everyone, not wanting to say anything in case this was just a silly pregnancy symptom, it was confirmed.
The one word that would change both their lives forever. The word that they knew was coming, yet still hit them in the face like a ton of bricks. The word they couldn't even imagine in their worst nightmares. Cancer.
There were fears of losing the baby, fears of losing Rachel and the worst fear, losing each other. Emotions were running high the night they found out. Sadness, anxiousness, dread, worry, shame, shock, and most of all, the endless fear of the outcome of this situation.
I know not all of the medical information is 100% correct, but I'm trying my best. Thanks for reading :)