The appointment for their ultrasound is made almost immediately. Even if it's still early on in the pregnancy, because of her complicated history with pregnancy, it was important to get it checked off and out of the way as soon as possible. Make sure that everything looked like it was attached correctly. It'd still be a few weeks before they could have the conversation about the possibility of getting a CVS test, but they would come to that discussion on their own terms. The immediate focus was making sure that it was a healthy, viable fetus.

It's a few tense, quiet moments before the quick beating of a fetal heartbeat can be heard on the monitor and they both feel like they can breathe again.

"That's our baby," April whispered, wonder and amazement sparkling in her eyes.

"Yeah, it is," Jackson said with a broad smile stretched across his face, bending down to brush his lips against the top of her head. "That's our beautiful little boy, huh?" He teased, having already made up his mind about how he was going to refer to their baby.

"It could be a girl. Too early to tell." She glanced away from the image of the sonogram on the screen for a moment so that she could stick out her tongue playfully at him. But she grabbed his hand only a moment layer, placing it on her flat stomach above where the gel was. There was no discernible bump, practically no more bloated than what she had been on her period or when they had tried the IVF drugs, and no movement to feel. Yet it's meaningful all the same, sentiment resting in their hearts even if it wasn't tangible yet.

"You're right, it's too early to tell," the OB/GYN, Dr. Montgomery, interrupted. "But if you choose to do the chorionic villus sampling in a few weeks, then we'll be able to tell you then if you want. I assume that you two want a print off on the sonogram?" She asked for confirmation.

"Two, please," April answered quickly with an eager nod of her head. One just for the two of them, of course, but she wanted one to be able to send to her mother. Even if they had to wait a few weeks. She knew that rationally it was too soon to get excited, that everything in their history told her not to. She was fighting the joy in her heart, the endearing love that had already filled her for the little life growing rapidly inside of her uterus. Love meant the possibility for more agony if she lost this baby, too. Shutting herself down could offer some protection from the worst of it, some layer of protection. But it's hard to do that when she can see the rejuvenation of life inside of her husband's eyes, the tiny little cluster of cells on the screen that doesn't look like much more than two blurry dots. It was too real for her to be able to shut out, no matter how that broken piece of her heart told herself to.

Jackson grabbed the little towel for her and rubbed the gel off of her stomach gently, unaware that he was treating herself a bit more gently than what was necessary. But he wanted this just as fiercely as she did, he wanted that family. Their family. He would do whatever he could to make this easier for her, physically or emotionally.

After the two printouts were made, each one of them takes one to cherish. "Now, April, I know that you're passionate about your work. But you need to do your best to try and take it easy. Hydrate and listen your body. I don't want to hear about you passing out in the O.R., and I'm sure that you don't want to be doing that either." She lectured her gently. "You're measuring six weeks and four days. I'm going to schedule you to come back in three weeks, that way if you've decided you want to do the CVS, I'll be able to take a sample then and there. Given your history, I recommend it, but the decision is yours. Have a good rest of your evening." She offered the both of them a smile before leaving them be.

"Do you have anything that you need to get done before we go home?" Jackson asked his wife, looping his arm around her shoulders as they began walking down the hospital hallway. "Or are you ready to go?"

"Yep, I'm ready to go," April answered with a bob of her head.

"I was thinking that maybe we could go to the grocery store, pick up a few things. Make sure we're well stocked with groceries, snacks, anything that you might need." Jackson's not much of a cook, he was able to get by but couldn't pull off grand meals quite as well as his wife could.

Of course, the words are easy to take as that of a thoughtful husband thinking ahead for the inevitable cravings that she was going to have at some point or another. But mostly, he was thinking about her electrolyte balance and blood sugar, medical expertise sliding in with the husband role. Gatorade, vitamin water, bananas, tomato soup. Bread and sliced cheese, garlic powder because she refused to eat just a plain grilled cheese. That was her favorite thing for Jackson to make for her, some grilled cheese and tomato soup, always dunking the sandwich into the soup and draining whatever was left after like milk from a cereal bowl. He'd teased her for it the first few times that he'd watched her do it, but honestly, it was one of her most adorable habits.

The last thing that Jackson wanted to see was her fainting again and he knew that getting her to take time off of work was going to be a challenge. So he would just do everything that he could to make sure that she was well fueled throughout the work day. Even if it resulted in a grocery cart that was too full and a nagging wife.

"You don't think that you're being a little ridiculous?" A question that April would ask him multiple times over the next few weeks, pretty much every time that he went to the grocery store, or popped his head down into the emergency room to hand her a banana or granola bar or whatever he had deemed necessary for that particular day.

"I think that I'm being a perfectly concerned husband looking out for his wife." Jackson gave a variation of the retort every single time, sending her that charming smile that had made her knees weak from the very first time that she had seen it. Some things just never got old.

Their pantry and cabinets stayed stuffed full of anything that she could have needed, but nausea became all-consuming for her after a week or two. If it wasn't gatorade or soup and crackers, it didn't stay down. A lot of time is spent in the bathroom for the both of them. April tried to push him out so that she could throw up in peace, but he insisted on being there with her whenever he caught it, holding back her hair and rubbing her back.

But the talk about what tests they should and shouldn't do hadn't been able to settle. Both of them wanted to know that this was a healthy pregnancy, that they weren't going to have to worry about genetic defects or faults. Beliefs differed on a life worth living and they avoided getting too deep into that conversation for the sake of keeping either's feelings from being hurt. It was a big and a small if all the same, the odds fortunately against something like that happening, and better left hinging.

"The risks for a CVS are slightly higher than that of an amnio," Jackson reminded her gently, the night before. His hand rested on her bare stomach, a tiny bump just barely beginning to protrude from her abdomen, but still small enough that his hand could cover the entirety of it.

"If we decide that we want to know, I'm… not sure that I want to wait another three months." April chewed on her lower lip. "I rather know sooner rather than later. If–if there's something wrong. I want to have all the time to prepare." Especially if it was a condition that would prove to be fatal, whether it was immediately after the birth or years to come.

"I think that we should know." He reminded her. "I'm not trying to talk you out of it."

"I know. You want me to see both sides."

That was something that had never been an issue for April, though. Her problem was usually that she saw more than just two sides, more than the black of white. She saw the grays, the silvers, everything that existed in between. Everything that posed doubt and insecurity throughout her mind, that made it difficult to come to the point of deciding one option was definitively better than the other.

"I guess if we were going to do it, then Dr. Montgomery is the right person to do it with," April commented as she rolled onto her side so that she could face her husband directly, dislodging his hand from her pale stomach slightly. "The risk of miscarriage lasts a little longer, too. So… maybe I do the CVS test. Then I take the rest of the week off of work after that. Owen will be fine with it. He can manage on his own for a few days and if anything too big occurs, then I can come in. Try to put the odds in our favor a little more." She rationalized as if the already tiny odds were much bigger than what they actually were.

"I think that sounds very smart," Jackson agreed with a nod of his head, shifting forward so that he could place a gentle kiss on her lips. "You want to get a head start on that rest now?"

"Mmhm." April hummed, rolling over once more so that her back was up against his chest. Her exhaustion with the pregnancy had already become huge and she knew that it was just a burden of the first trimester, among other things. None of this had been easy for her on a physical spectrum. Morning sickness was every morning and beyond, sports bras were just about the only thing that could get her through her day without complaining excessively, and she was nearly always stiff and sore no matter what she did to try and combat it.

And of course, sex was pretty much off the table. Even if it's a shallow explanation of her lack of interest in anything of the kind, it's more than that. Jackson hadn't even tried to so much as initiate since they had found out. It's stupid and entirely unfounded to think that sex was going to have an effect on the fetus, but… He felt that way, a slim paranoia.

As much as Jackson wanted to be there and hold her hand throughout the actual procedure, his pager goes off before he gets the chance. April insisted that it wasn't a big deal and it'd be another week or so before they even got the results, that the procedure itself didn't matter all that much. It'd be no more than half an hour. She didn't have to lie much, either. It's a little uncomfortable and she looks away while it occurred. But she'd spend the afternoon laying in an on-call room till they could go home together. It's a basic procedure. The results were the thing to be nervous about.

April was exactly one week shy of hitting the magical twelve-week mark when Dr. Montgomery notified them that their results were back and scheduled a quick, immediate appointment so that they could get them and see for themselves. Maybe other patients wouldn't see anything examining the karyotypes, but most of her patients weren't other doctors in the hospital who understood biology with the same ease that they did English.

"Hi, you guys," Dr. Montgomery greeted them as she entered the room, pulling the door shut behind him. "You ready?" She prompted.

"Yes, please," Jackson answered quickly.

"Your amnio results are perfectly normal. There's not any indicator of any kind of genetic abnormality. Nothing to be worried about there. Like you know, it doesn't assess neural tube defects like an amnio might, but we'll be able to keep an eye on that throughout your pregnancy with measuring through ultrasounds. And your Rh factor looks good, April, no problems there either. Right now, it's safe to say that you're going to have a very healthy, happy baby." She announced with a smile on her face.

A relieved sob is the first thing that could come out of April's mouth, a hand coming up quickly to cover. She'd been terrified of the idea of miscarrying and she knew that a giant cause of that was believed to be genetic defects spontaneously aborting themselves.

"Thank you, thank you," she breathed out. It's half to her doctor, half to the God above who she was sure was looking out for the three of them.

"You have no reason to thank me," Dr. Montgomery brushed off with a slight wave of her hand. "Do you guys want to know the sex of the baby?" She asked.

Jackson and April both look at each other for a moment, reading their eyes. They hadn't discussed the subject much mostly because they had been too focused on the testing for genetic abnormalities. The sex didn't matter much as long as they had a good little baby coming out in the end. But it's easy to see, they're both great at reading each other. They want to know. The more information, the better.

"Yeah, tell me I've got a boy coming," Jackson answered as he glanced over at the OB/GYN.

Addison laughed. "Well, I think that April is going to like my answer a little more than you do. Two X chromosomes. You're having a girl."

"Hah!" April lets out the syllable with a playful elbow jabbing at her husband. "I told you!"

"So a mini-April, huh? I guess I can't complain too much about that." His nose gave a little twitch as he leaned in to steal a quick kiss from her mid-excitement, unable to help that his own large smile was encompassing her features entirely.

"You two are too cute," Dr. Montgomery commented with a shake of her head as she stood up and pushed her stool away. "Let me know if you have anything questions or concerns that come up. The both of you. My door's always open so don't feel obligated to make an appointment."

April's legs swing off the table with more energy than she's managed to muster up in the past few weeks, beaming as she stood up and wrapped her arms around her husband's waist. His arms wrapped around hers in return, cozily pulling her further into his chest. "We're having a girl," he murmured against her forehead, a little sing-song voice coming out.

"We're having a girl," she echoed without missing a beat in the same song voice, giving a little swing side to side. "I love being right," April added, grin turning cocky for a brief moment.

A happy hum escaped from Jackson, tightening his arms around her frame for a moment and turning the casual embrace into a much deeper hug. His nose buried on top of her head and he inhaled the scent of her shampoo, something new, a little more perfume-like than the usual floral scents that she went from. He pressed her into his front, taking a deep breath and breathing her in fully. This was the happiest he had been in a long time – maybe since their wedding. They were having a baby of their own, a healthy little girl. Hopefully, one that would look just like her mother, and have the same smile and beautiful laughter. He couldn't think of anything more perfect.

"I love you being right too," he finally chuckled out as he pulled away though his hands remained on her, resting on her shoulders for a moment. "You're going to be such an amazing mom, April, you know that? Amazing. I couldn't imagine someone more wonderful to raise a child with." He could have fed her all the comments in the world about it, but for now, left it simple.

"As long as I have you by my side," April replied with a sweet smile as she looked up at him.

"Always."

Thank you for all sticking with me despite my occasionally and usually inconsistent updating! Please remember to review if you're reading. This chapter ended up being a bit shorter than what I originally planned but, I wanted something sweet and happy. After the past two weeks, I think we deserve that much.