CHAPTER 34 - Sound
Elizabeth stood across from Jack in the hallway and gave him a look of incredulity. They had left their bags in the crew quarters and politely excused themselves. Leaving their two new roommates to get properly clothed.
"What are we going to do?" a shocked Elizabeth asked.
"There's nothing to do. We need a room and this is where they placed us."
"There must be somewhere else. We should get our own private room! We're a married couple," Elizabeth declared. "Let's march up to the billeting office and ask."
"There is no other place. If there was another place, the billeting office would have put us there," Jack argued.
"Did you see them?! Our new roommates?!"
"Yep. I did", Jack admitted as he struggled to keep from smiling.
"Naked!"
"I saw."
"She was naked in front of us!"
"I noticed that. I am in law enforcement. We're trained to notice details," Jack said with a deadpanned face but Elizabeth was sure that his eyes were twinkling in laughter.
"And she didn't even care!"
"That I'm in law enforcement or that I'm trained to notice details?"
Elizabeth glared at Jack causing him to immediately cease teasing; although he had to admit that he liked it when his wife was all riled up. It reminded him of when they had first met. In fact, if he had to choose, it was a no-brainer. His wife all riled up and irrationally jealous of other women was sexier than anything else.
But Jack also knew there was fine line between him enjoying her jealousy and her having her feelings hurt. He hoped no one would walk down the hallway at that moment and see his wife on the verge of hysteria. There had been enough stares already during the short time they had been aboard the transporter.
"Elizabeth, nudity isn't that big a deal. I've shared locker rooms with males and females. It's just a body. And most people's bodies aren't even that appealing," Jack offered as he tried to get Elizabeth to calm down, and ignore his own assessment that both Candy and Becca actually had very appealing bodies.
"She was naked and didn't even care!"
"So what? Lots of people just aren't self-conscious about their bodies. You remember how Seth and Carl changed in front of you the first day we all met."
"Would you be okay with it?!"
"With Carl and Seth being naked? Sure. What do I care? I saw naked guys all the time in gym locker rooms and my dorms in school." Jack shrugged.
"Not GUYS naked! Them naked!" Elizabeth shouted out and waved her hand towards the door in exasperation.
"Okay. Calm down. I know it's not ideal but I'm sure you've seen naked women before. You have two sisters. You –"
"Not me seeing them, you moron," Elizabeth interrupted. "I don't want YOU seeing naked women," she hissed.
Jack cringed and decided to overlook the fact that she had called him a moron which he attributed to her newly emerging pregnancy hormones.
"Look, I didn't expect to have to share a cabin. I thought we were just getting another private one for us. You're right, since we're a family group it should just be the two of us. But there's nothing we can do about it. We need an interior room and those are the six-person crew rooms. We can't have one just for the two of us. No matter how much I want privacy with you."
"Why can't we? For goodness sakes, this is one of my father's ships," a suddenly hopeful Elizabeth said. "I'm Elizabeth Thatcher-"
"Thornton." Jack clarified.
"Elizabeth Thatcher Thornton," Elizabeth remarked. "We should be able to get our own private living quarters. Even in the crew section. I'll just order the captain to make people rearrange so we have a private room for us."
"Do you really want to do that? Pull strings? Use your family name to get something. And then what? We end up making six people share a room with only four berths? Come on, Elizabeth. That's not right."
Elizabeth paused for a moment and then got excited again. "We'll have the night and day shift people share a room. While the day-shift is working, the night-shift is sleeping in the berths. And then they switch. You can easily put six people in a room like that. Heck, you could put eight people in a four-berth room."
"But that means that you have eight people sharing four lockers, sleeping on shared sheets, and unable to use their rooms during breaks. While we would have a six-berth room to ourselves. It's beyond selfish."
"We'll have the Captain give us his cabin!" she offered as an alternative.
Jack gave her a condescending look. "That wouldn't exactly make us his favorite passengers. You have always said that you are not defined by your family's money. Now is not the time to start, is it?"
"But Jack," she whined.
"And I don't want to be known as the security officer who uses his wife's name and money to get better accommodations at the expense of hard working people."
Elizabeth knew Jack was right. As much as she hated to admit it.
Jack put his arm on Elizabeth and calmly spoke. "We shared a room on our voyage over. We can do it again. It's just a few months. I'll go in there and explain that we would appreciate it they didn't walk around unclothed. It makes us a little uncomfortable."
"I'LL go in and explain it", Elizabeth responded as she thought about the two women. "You stay here. I am not about to let you alone around those nymphs."
Jack smiled. "I don't think they're nymphs. I'm not sure about Becca, but Candy works in the water purification room."
"How do you know that?" Elizabeth asked as a twinge of jealously went through her when she wondered how her husband knew about the dancing woman.
"She told me when we met in the gym", Jack replied. "And you can stop being jealous," he added with another smile.
"Who says I'm jealous?" she retorted with narrowed eyes.
"No one. No one at all. It's just that I know you, and you know that women seem to find me well . . . charming," he replied with a self-satisfied smile. "After all, you fell in love with me on our first flight. I can understand how you might be worried about other women throwing themselves at me. But you have nothing to worry about."
"The only thing that a woman is going to be throwing at you is this lead apron," Elizabeth warned. "And maybe these shoes."
She moved away from Jack and walked over to the door. Just before she buzzed her bracelet across the scanner, she looked at Jack.
"I love you," he called out and gave her a playful wink. "Now go in there and handle those women."
"I can't believe we're doing this. Sharing a room for the next four months with them," she said as she shook her head in bewilderment.
"It's for the baby, Elizabeth," Jack said encouragingly. "Just remember, it's for the baby."
Elizabeth wished she could sleep like a baby. Day fifteen of the voyage started out the same way that every day for past week in their new quarters had started out. With Elizabeth awakening to the sounds of Candy and Becca getting ready for their shifts.
So far, there had been no major problems with the living arrangement. On their first day together, Elizabeth had politely but firmly laid down the law.
It really was just like the first day of school every year, she realized. Ground rules were essential.
The major difference was that instead of a roomful of children a foot shorter than her, she was dealing with two very attractive women with bra sizes a cup larger than hers.
Elizabeth had quickly let them know that they could all be friendly as long as the women remained properly clothed, kept the shower door closed when it was occupied, and respected that Jack was a happily married man.
As an added protection, Elizabeth had given Jack's guitar to Colette and Seth to keep for a while. When Elizabeth had shown up at their door and asked the couple to hide the guitar from Jack, a perplexed Colette had stared at the make-shift instrument and looked to Elizabeth for an explanation.
"Why don't you want Jack to have his guitar?"
"Because he looks really sexy when he plays it, and we're sharing a room with Becca and Candy."
"Say no more," an understanding and sympathetic Colette had replied as she took the guitar and shoved it into a locker.
Although the two female crew members tried to be quiet every morning, it was impossible not to disturb the Thorntons, who as passengers, didn't have rigid twelve-hour work days.
Although passengers were expected to use the four-month return voyage wisely by continuing with their experiments, preparing reports on their time in Coal Valley, and performing duties on the transporter as necessary, their schedules were must less rigid. Jack's days were predominately dictated by how well-behaved the passengers and crew had been, and Elizabeth – as teacher for just a handful of students – could easily change her three-hour-a-day lessons.
Today was going to be one of those days. Now that she had passed the one-month milestone of pregnancy, Elizabeth had finally felt her first symptom. Fatigue.
This morning, she had been in and out of slumber while the other women showered and dressed. She hadn't even noticed as the metal door slid open and they finally left. And she was in another sleepy fog when Jack had showered and dressed.
Elizabeth had already decided what she was going to do this morning. She was going to postpone today's lessons by at least an hour. Or two.
"I'm going to the security office to read the morning updates," Jack said quietly as he pulled open the curtain surrounding Elizabeth's berth.
"Mmm. Why? It's still earlier," she mumbled without opening her eyes.
"I'm awake already. I might as well."
"What time is it?"
"Six o'clock. You go back to sleep. I'll catch up with you later."
"Okay," she agreed as she snuggled into her pillow and felt Jack's lips touch her cheek.
Elizabeth had just fallen back asleep when her messenger bracelet began buzzing. She ignored the sound and shoved her arm under her pillow as she tried to stay asleep longer.
When there was a knock on her door fifteen minutes later, she sighed in exasperation, hung her head over the edge of the berth, and yelled in the direction of the door.
"What?"
There was another knock.
Reaching her arm upwards, Elizabeth hit the button above her head.
The door slid open, revealing a young man in a standard crew uniform. Elizabeth recognized him from the fitness center.
"Mrs. Thornton?"
"Yes. What is it?" Elizabeth pushed her hair out of her face as she looked past the curtain which still surrounded most of her berth.
"I'm crewmember Lapointe. I'm here about your training."
"My training?"
"Yes, ma'am. I messaged you, but when you didn't show up, I thought I'd check in on you."
"My training?" she repeated in confusion.
What training?
The man stood outside her doorway and looked at the computer screen in his handheld device. "The ship's doctor ordered you to begin a fitness training program."
"But I already work out every day!" Elizabeth argued as she sat up in her berth and accidently bumped her head.
"Damn it!" she exclaimed. She rubbed her sore head and crawled down from her berth. "This morning? I'm supposed to have training this morning?"
"Every morning. I have an exercise regime set up for you. I know you work out regularly but the doctor thinks you should do more."
"I don't give a hoot what the doctor thinks," she grumbled but the man standing in her doorway politely ignored the comment as well as her messy appearance.
"How about you meet me in the fitness center in ten minutes? We'll start then."
Five hours later, Elizabeth was exhausted. She had jogged on the treadmill for thirty minutes, lifted weights for an hour, and swam in the ship's jet-current pool. The slender rectangular pool was only twelve feet in length and four feet dep but by the time Elizabeth climbed out, she felt like she had swum across the Atlantic Ocean.
With her damp hair pulled back into a ponytail, she had quickly eaten a bowlful of mush, which was the only way to adequately describe the mixture of buckwheat flax, berries, and spinach, and had then proceeded to her small classroom where she had spent the next three hours instructing her students in the difference between condescension and condensation, why dangling participles were bad, how to diagram a sentence, and the works of John Keats.
I'm exhausted and it's not even lunch time yet, she thought in despair as she passed two passengers walking outside of the communication center on her way to see Jack.
She was five feet away when Elizabeth was pretty sure she heard the whispered words 'cancer', 'rheumatoid arthritis', and 'diabetes".
She scowled and almost turned back to confront the man and woman, but didn't have the energy. Besides, it wasn't their fault. It hadn't escaped the attention of a single person aboard the transporter that Elizabeth was having a health issue of some kind. And since no one else in Coal Valley or on the transporter was sick, it was impossible for her to have a communicable disease. She had also been inoculated against the most virulent of diseases. That left the ship's occupants to float around a number of possible dire health conditions which she might have.
No one but her young students seemed to believe the explanation that Elizabeth and Jack had given people -that she had volunteered as a subject for a research project of the ship's doctor.
"Jack, we have to tell them," Elizabeth announced when she walked into the security office.
Jack looked up from his computer and leaned back in his chair. "Tell who what?"
"Everyone. About the pregnancy."
"I thought we decided to wait a bit longer. You even mentioned trying to keep it a secret until we landed."
"I can't keep having everyone whisper and worry about me. The whole ship is talking about me," Elizabeth said as she tried to clumsily hoist herself up onto the edge of Jack's desk. She could have easily hopped up if not for the shoes and apron she was wearing.
"Are you sure?" Jack asked dismissively.
He got up from his chair and motioned for her to take it. "I'm thinking that people have more important things to think about than what's going on with us. I thought they stopped asking questions days ago."
"That was before today."
"What happened today?"
"Today I was started on my new exercise regime courtesy of the ship's doctor."
"Uh oh."
"Exactly."
"Didn't you say that you wanted the doctor to do another ultrasound sometime? Before we tell anyone?" he reminded her. "After lunch, I've got some meetings with the Captain and support personnel. Why don't you take a nap and then go to the infirmary? We'll tell people after that if everything looks good and you still want to."
"My god, what happened?" Jack asked when Elizabeth, tears welling in her eyes, walked into the security office later that afternoon.
He immediately put down his computer and enveloped her in his arms. Ignoring the concerned looks of two men in the small office, he motioned for them to leave.
"Tell me what happened," he quietly told Elizabeth as he hugged her.
Instead of talking, she burrowed her head into his chest.
"Shh," he said soothingly. "What's wrong?"
Elizabeth wiped away a tear and but kept her head bent down. "It's nothing. I had the ultrasound. And the doctor showed me a . . . blob."
"What?" Jack asked in confusion.
Elizabeth raised her head to look at him. "I wanted to see our baby, and the doctor was doing the ultrasound and he was very quick and just pointed to a spot on the screen and said 'that blob proves you're still pregnant'."
"But that's good!" Jack said encouragingly. "We want to still be pregnant."
Elizabeth hiccuped before answering. "I want to give you a baby. I don't want to give you a blob," she said tearfully.
Jack realized that the nice thing about being on a transporter is that it is small enough that if a person wants to get somewhere it takes no more than a few minutes. No rush hour traffic jams. No red lights. No one way streets. No long-distance highways. Which were all important factors when a husband had an emotional pregnant wife.
He calmly took Elizabeth's hand in his and strode purposefully with her to the infirmary.
Once inside the room with the examination tables, medical equipment, and empty berths meant for patients, he firmly instructed the doctor to perform another ultrasound with proper descriptions. Now.
The doctor took one look at Jack's stony look, and instructed Elizabeth to remove her lead vest, lay on the table, and lift her shirt.
Elizabeth wiped away more silent tears as the doctor, under the watchful eyes of Jack, rubbed gel on her skin and then placed the sonogram wand onto her flat belly.
"See that blob in the corner, that is proof of gestation," he said matter-of-factly as all three of them looked at the wavy image on the computer screen.
Jack cleared his throat.
When the doctor looked up and saw Jack's stern look, he tried again.
"Ahem. That shape in the corner is the embryo which is a rudimentary stage after fertilization."
He looked to Jack for confirmation that he had said the right thing. When Jack glared at him and cleared his throat again, the doctor knew he hadn't.
"The fetus?" the doctor said hesitantly which earned him a low growl from Jack.
"That shape in the corner is your baby," the doctor quickly corrected himself. "I have no idea if it's a boy or a girl, but it's a baby. A fine little baby. Yes, a fine baby."
"How do you know?" Elizabeth asked with a sad sniffle. "You said you're not good with ultrasounds."
"Well, no I'm not. This machine is for me to look at livers and kidneys and other organs for possible problems. I'm not trained in OBGYN. But it's definitely a baby."
"Maybe you're wrong," she noted as a tear slid out of the corner of her eye and dripped onto the table, making a wet spot on the sheet of white paper. "You said it was a blob," she reminded him.
"It doesn't have much definition at this stage. It's just over a month. There's not much to see. Just a . . . . shape," he said as he grasped for a word other than 'blob' which clearly hadn't been the correct thing to say or the ship's security officer wouldn't have been looking at him like he was planning to lock him up.
The doctor's eyes pleaded to Jack for help as to what to do or say. He had never had a pregnant patient before. Not since medical school when he was voted doctor with the worst bed-side manner.
"Doc, please explain to my wife how you know that she has a healthy baby inside of her," Jack ordered. Jack had no idea how the doctor was going to do that, but even if the doctor had to lie or exaggerate somewhat, Jack was determined that his wife was going to leave the room happier than when she had entered.
"Yes, yes. Of course," the man said as he came up with an idea. One that actually was scientifically accurate. "One moment. One moment," he said as he hurried across the room, opened a metal case in one of his drawers, and pulled out a metal rod. The rod was half-an-inch in diameter with a small disc-shaped resonator on one end and two tubes connected to earpieces.
"This is a powerful auscultator – a stethoscope of sorts, but it will serve the purpose here", he explained as he put the earpieces into his ears.
Using a paper towel, he wiped the gel from Elizabeth's belly, and the placed the resonator on her skin. Moving it around until he found what he was listening for. "Listen. What do you hear?" he asked.
"Nothing," a confused Elizabeth said as she looked to Jack for confirmation that there was no sound.
"Oh, right, sorry. I forgot the external volume."
The man flipped a switch and the room was immediately filled with a loud pulsating noise.
Jacks' eyes got wide as the noise echoed forcefully around them. A fast pounding that seemed to take over the entire room. Enveloping them all in its sound.
"It sounds like a washing machine," Elizabeth said in surprise. "It's so fast. What is it?"
"That washing machine sound is your baby's heartbeat. And the beat – or swoosh you hear - is fast because that's exactly how it's supposed to be." The doctor said with a smile as he remembered his medical training. "90 to 110 beats per minute is the optimum level. You can count if you want."
When Elizabeth looked hopefully to Jack, he adjusted his wrist bracelet and nodded. "Begin," he instructed.
"I just wanted to be sure," Elizabeth retorted four minutes later when the doctor finally asked the couple if they would leave. It made little sense for him to keep counting. The baby had the perfect number of heartbeats the first minute, the second minute, the third minute, and the fourth minute.
As they walked arm-in-arm down the hallway, Elizabeth leaned her head against Jack's arm. "Remember what you said about our trip on the first day?"
"No. What?" a puzzled Jack asked.
"You said this trip was going to be out of this world," she reminded him with a smile. "I think you were right."
Up next: Chapter 35.