A/N: I am on summerbreak and have time to write again! A massive thank you to everyone who has favorited, followed and reviewed the story. You guys are the best! I hope you'll enjoy this chapter as well. TryingtobeaMum thank you for correcting me, I really value your kind way of pointing out my mistakes. They have now been corrected.
Chapter 18
"The doctors want to keep him overnight." Shouta ran a hand through his already messy hair and plonked down on the seat beside his mother.
"Shouta…" His mother had her hands tightly clasped together, and worry lines were etched into her face. Over time she had increasingly worried about her husband's health, and even though she could sometimes force him to see a doctor, he always insisted on waiting his illness out.
"They're suspecting some sort of virus, but you know how tough he is. He'll be fine Mom." Shouta put his hand over both of hers, trying to consolidate her. She looked up at him with something resembling relief.
"Shouta, what's going on?" Sawako called as she rounded the corner, clearly out of breath.
"They think it might be a virus." He rose and beckoned his pregnant wife over, who immediately tended to her mother-in-law.
"When can we see him?" The noirette asked, her eyes flickering back and forth between all the doors in the hallway.
"I don't know."
It was a few hours before they were let into Kazehaya Mamoru's ward. He had been lucky that there was no other occupant in the room at the moment, so he basically had it all to himself, which made it a lot easier to have the amount of guests that had gathered.
Chizu had called Ryu, who had hurried over to the hospital, bringing along food to everyone who hadn't eaten, which were mainly Shouta and his mother.
"Why are you kids all here?" Mamoru asked when he regained consciousness. It wasn't the first time he had fainted this past year, but never had he been out for this long. He felt drained and couldn't even keep his usually stern expression in place. Instead he was constantly on the verge of falling asleep again.
"Because you made us worry, old man." Shouta sighed wearily. He had asked Sawako to take his mother home a few times, offering to stay at the hospital until his dad woke up, but they were both as stubborn as he was, and had stayed right beside him. Even the girls had opted for staying, and declined his offer to borrow his car.
"Worry? Oh, right. I passed out." He stated, scratching his chin. Sweeping his gaze across his sea of visitors, he asked for his younger son.
"He's at home. I just called him and besides being worried about you, he was fine. He and his girlfriend are waiting for us to come back." Shouta explained. He and his mother had both called his brother a few times already, updating him on the situation whenever they could.
"So what's the verdict? Have they found out why I'm sick all the damn time?" Mamoru sat up in his bed, pushing the blanket down to his legs.
"They want to keep you here for a while." His wife explained as she grabbed his hand from her chair at his bedside.
"You don't have a tumor, and so far they're thinking it's a virus or some genetic disease. They are looking into our family history right now, but want to run more tests tomorrow." The younger Kazehaya added from his seat near the window.
"I hate hospitals." Mamoru muttered under his breath, before his gaze landed on Sawako, who was struggling to stay awake. It was well into the evening, and being pregnant she was prone to tiring out faster than the others.
"Shouta, why don't you take your mother and Sawako home? You can come back tomorrow if you want." The Kazehaya patriarch suggested, feeling a little bad for worrying his family and their friends.
"Sure." Shouta was starting to feel tired himself and left to speak to the doctors before they went home, bringing Sawako with him. Ryu and Chizu bid them goodnight as they both had work the following day, and Ayane offered to stay with Shouta's parents until they came back.
They found the doctor whom Mamoru had been assigned to and spoke to him for a few minutes. He had assured them that there were no signs of anything life-threatening and that they would begin diagnosing the next morning. He wished them a good night and left to tend to other patients.
Observing the doctor, Sawako was glad that she merely taught a specific group of people on a regular basis. Although she was good at tending to ill people, she would have a hard time dealing with the constantly changing dynamics of an environment like a hospital. She preferred having structure and schedules to follow, and deeply admired the people who dedicated their lives to help others.
Once they returned to Mamoru's ward, they picked up their belongings and wished him a good night's sleep. Shouta had been ready to come back at the crack of dawn, but his mother persuaded him to let herself and Touta come by in the morning, so he and Sawako could rest. His wife was pregnant, she had to remind him, and he couldn't argue with that.
"Did you have fun with the girls?" Shouta asked as they got ready for the night. Sawako was wearing a somewhat tight-fitting shirt and her baby bump was sticking out from under it. He placed his hand on the surface of her skin and lightly caressed it as he smiled softly. Sawako was too busy with staring lovingly at him to answer, and he had to nudge her to get an answer.
"Yes, it was lovely. We bought quite a lot of maternity clothes for me, so I should be all set for the next few months." The three women had even snatched up a lot of summer clothes that were on clearance, so when the time came for delivery, Sawako wouldn't have to worry about being uncomfortable in her clothes.
"I can't wait for our baby to be born." Shouta whispered as he pressed a soft kiss to the growing bump.
"Neither can I. Our baby will be the biggest blessing we could ever ask for." Sawako smiled as she put her own hands over her husband's.
"When is your next ultrasound?" He asked. He could barely wait for the first scan to find out their baby's gender. Technically, it was the second scan, but because Sawako had only been five weeks along the first time, it was too early in the trimester to determine anything, and it had been for a different purpose, so it didn't count.
"On Tuesday. I've been thinking about names for the past few days, and I actually have a few I like. So far I've picked out at least two for each gender and a handful that are unisex." Sawako started as she pulled out a sheet of paper from her bedside table and presented it to her husband. Scanning the piece of paper with Sawako's neat handwriting, Shouta picked out a few he liked and came up with a couple of his own, and just like that the couple discussed names far into the night.
The next day the Kazehayas made their way to the hospital where Mamoru was admitted. They had gotten a good night's rest and hoped that Mamoru had too. He seemed fresher than he had the last couple of days and was rather talkative as well. Sawako stayed with him while Shouta drove his mother and Touta back home. It had been a while since the noirette had spent time with her father-in-law, and used the opportunity to catch up with him.
"I have a feeling you're having a girl." He told her suddenly. He was amused by Sawako's puzzled expression and smiled a little.
"How do you know?" The noirette asked in return, equal parts surprised and confused.
"Just a hunch. I'm looking forward to holding her in my arms." The older Kazehaya sighed.
"There's still six months left, you'll have to be patient."
"I am already a patient!" Mamoru guffawed, smacking a hand against his thighs and making the noirette giggle as well.
"That was terrible." Sawako shook with laughter, wiping away tears of mirth from the corners of her eyes.
Sawako ran a hand down her belly. If she really was carrying a girl, she would be very happy. She had always dreamt of dressing a girl up in cute clothes, do her hair and teach her all the secret Kuronuma recipes. On the other hand, she would also love to have a boy. She could just imagine Shouta teaching him how to play soccer, and herself teaching their son math. No matter what the gender of their baby was, she and Shouta loved it with all their hearts and would teach it everything.
It was a while before Shouta came back, but he had stopped to buy them lunch and brought a wide assortment of delicacies. There was some sushi that both Sawako and Mamoru loved as well as sandwiches and small salads of different kinds. Sawako indulged herself in various salads and enjoyed the amount of vegetables she was having.
The past two weeks she had been eating lots of pasta and rice, but rarely vegetables. Her cravings weren't as bad as before, and Sawako wanted to have a balanced diet so their baby got all the nutrition it needed, but sometimes she had to give in to the cravings and eat a whole bag of potato chips.
Shouta and his dad were talking about Pin's wedding. With less than three weeks to go, Pin and Mai were very pressed on time. They were also planning a honeymoon to Thailand and had about thousand things to do before their big day. Pin had gotten a lot better over the past month with his new pain killers and he was always in a terrific mood.
Shouta had called him earlier, explaining the situation and his former teacher promised he would come by and visit his dad before long. Of course he would bring his fiancée, who still hadn't been introduced to the Kazehaya patriarch, but first they had a few meetings with the vendors to attend.
"It's going to be such a beautiful wedding." Sawako sighed dreamily. She and her friends were in charge of overseeing the decoration and organizing of the venue. Sawako, specifically, was in charge of flowers with Ayane's new friend, Ibusaki-san. Mai-chan had wanted lots of arrangements of flowers as well as festoons along the middle of the chapel.
"Remember to try your dress soon. We have to see if it needs to be fitted." Shouta reminded him as they started clearing away their lunch. Sawako had still to try her bridesmaid dress. They had only gotten them in the previous week, because of Sawako needing a slightly bigger size now that she was pregnant, and she still had to try it on.
"I will. Ayane-chan already reminded me yesterday." Sawako answered with a smile. It wasn't like she was huge, she was only three months along, it was just a funny feeling of having to buy clothes that were larger than she was used to so she still hadn't gotten around to trying it on.
She had never been one for dieting and maintaining a great figure, and she had been satisfied with how she looked for as long as she could remember. Whenever she looked in the mirror, she felt elated that her baby bump was showing, but lately Sawako had been feeling a little beside herself, forgetting things she needed to get done during the day, which was why the dress was still hanging in her closet.
A knock on the door caught their attention, and they saw one of the nurses that had been tending to Mamoru since the day before. She was holding a clipboard and smiled kindly as she entered.
"Mr. Kazehaya, we're done running the tests now and found nothing. You most likely have the remains of a stubborn cold, so we would like you to come back in a few weeks for some analyses and further testing." The nurse informed them and handed them some forms to fill out. In about an hour they were all ready to head home.
They were all surprised that Mamoru was discharged after one day, but his blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar and sodium levels were all in the clear, so there was no need to keep him hospitalized, unless something happened again. The doctors had come to the conclusion that he had fainted from fatigue, because he had been having trouble sleeping and had been losing his appetite. Hooking him to an IV, he had been fed the bland, but nutritious hospital food through a tube and had been prescribed some pills to help him sleep.
Shouta and Sawako joined the Kazehaya family for dinner and had a lovely time with them all. They couldn't stay for long since they both had to work the following day, and therefore left rather early. On the way home, they bought a tub of ice cream that they shared before bed. Ayane had gone back home, so it was just the two of them and their unborn baby.
When Tuesday came around, they were both so excited for the doctor's appointment. Sawako's nausea was a little better than before, and her appetite was huge. Shouta had been giving her massages every other night, so her back and feet didn't hurt in the slightest. When it was finally their time to be called in by the sonographer, they could barely wait any longer.
Once Sawako was prepped and her stomach coated in the cooling gel, the technician, a bubbly young woman, turned on the machine, and the two Kazehayas locked their eyes on the monitor. At first they only saw light grey mass and a few cavities, then they saw the outline of the body. It was amazing, the baby wasn't just some lump that couldn't be told apart from the rest of the mass, it was a tiny human being that had grown in just three short months.
The sonographer moved around the transducer across Sawako's stomach, and searched for a heartbeat. Once she had found it, she turned to the monitor and pointed to the right side of the screen.
"This here is your baby's heart, and here you see its head and body." She moved her finger across the screen, explaining as she went.
"The heartbeat is normal and you can see the limbs, they're looking fine too. As you can see, your baby is fully developed and it has begun swallowing and will start kicking very soon." Sawako and Shouta were amazed at seeing the tiny heart beating. It left them speechless for a few moments, before Shouta gripped Sawako's hand tightly.
"That's our baby." He whispered, eyes never leaving the screen. Sawako made some sort of agreeing noise with a huge smile spread across her face.
"Would like you to know the sex of your baby?" The sonographer asked, smiling at the soon-to-be-parents.
"Yes, please." They both answered in unison.
"You're having a girl."
The young woman was kind enough to print an image of their daughter free of charge. The couple was still dumbfounded when they reached home. They had seen their baby move, her heart beat, but it was so unreal that such a miracle only had taken a few months to create! They couldn't grasp the idea that inside Sawako, their daughter was growing, and she would soon be born into this world. Like the cherry on top, Sawako suddenly felt a surge of movement in her abdomen, while she was sitting on the couch, picture still in her hand.
"Shouta, she moved!" Sawako gushed excitedly, placing her hand where she had felt a kick. It had been more like a fluttering sensation, and the noirette realized that she had felt this occasionally this past month.
"Let me feel." Shouta's hand replaced Sawako's and he waited patiently for his daughter to make her presence known, and sure enough, after a minute or two, he also felt her kicking.
"I just realized that she has been doing this for a few weeks already, I just didn't know it was her." Sawako spoke softly, her fingers tracing the baby's silhouette both on her belly and the ultrasound picture. Suddenly Shouta got off the couch and crouched on the floor, once more putting his hands on his wife's stomach.
"Hi baby, I'm your daddy and I can't wait for you to be born. Your mommy and I love you so much already, hurry up and get here so we can love you even more." Shouta spoke gently to Sawako's stomach. His wife looked at him with adoration all over her face, it was so obvious that Shouta would become an excellent father, and all the while he spoke, their daughter responded to his voice and moved.
She wanted her daughter to be born, to hold her, to kiss her and to love her with all her might. She wanted to see Shouta holding their first child in his arms and making her laugh every day. Sawako wanted to see her own parents holding their only grandchild, and she wanted Shouta's parents to play with their first granddaughter. She wanted Touta to call himself Uncle Touta as he held his niece, and she wanted her friends to shower her daughter in love and kisses. She couldn't wait for the next six months to be over.
They are having a girl! Reviews and critique is always welcome, and I'll see you in a couple of weeks. (=w=)/