"Oh wow." Sadie breathed, watching her baby jump around on the black and white screen.
"It's pretty great isn't it?" Dr. Simon smiled at her. "Baby is about six or seven weeks old, does that sound right?"
"Yeah, seven weeks is about right." Sadie nodded with a blush.
"No need to be embarrassed hon." The doctor assured her. "Let's see, everything looks great, baby is developing well."
"So tiny." Barb commented from her spot by Sadie's head.
"About the size of a grape." The doctor nodded. "But he or she already has a teeny tiny little face and fingers."
"That's so cute!" Sadie grinned.
"Isn't it though?" Dr. Simon smiled brightly "Want to hear the heartbeat?"
"Yes, please!" Sadie nodded eagerly. The doctor turned up the volume on the machine and a thunderous noise suddenly filled the room.
"Woah." Sadie said, watching the tiny little baby as she listened.
"Beautiful." Barb said, wiping tears from her eyes. "Just as beautiful as I remember it." She planted a kiss on top of her daughter's head.
"Babies are fantastic." Dr. Simon said. Sadie winced as she adjusted the ultrasound wand inside her. "Sorry sweetie. Just have to find the placenta." She murmured, her eyes trained on the screen.
"Here." Barb offered a hand, which Sadie gratefully squeezed as the doctor continued to move the wand.
"Aha! Here we go." The doctor remarked triumphantly. "A marvelous thing, the placenta, this is what "feeds" the baby, more or less and yours is developing perfectly." She smiled. Sadie let out a shaky breath as the ultrasound wand was slowly removed.
"Alright then, we're done for today." The doctor informed her. "So I'll let you get dressed and then just stop in to the front desk and make a second appointment."
"Okay, thank you so much!" Sadie said, still excited over hearing the baby's heart beating.
"Time for ice cream then." Barb laughed.
"I don't know why you're laughing, we're totally getting ice cream." Sadie said as she pulled her jeans back on under the ridiculously large gown.
"Whatever you want sweetheart."
"Oh come on man!" Lars protested, punching Sour Cream in the arm. "You can't kill your allies!"
"You can when they're in your way!" Sour Cream laughed, his gaze focused on the screen. They were in Sour Cream's living room letting their frustrations out on a ridiculously violent video game. Lars wasn't even sure what it was called, but it felt pretty good to blow shit up.
"I'm home!" Vidalia's voice reached them from the entryway.
"Hey mom!" Sour Cream called back. A minute later his mother appeared in the doorway to the living room.
"Hey Lars, wasn't expecting you to be here." She commented.
"I'm being 'out of my father's sight'," Lars said angrily, shooting a civilian in the head for emphasis.
"Can he crash here tonight?" Her son asked.
"Sure." Vidalia agreed.
"Thanks!." He said, eyes focused on the game. Vidalia left the two boys with a wave and they continued on with their virtual slaughter for a few minutes, before being interrupted by Lars's cell phone ringing.
"It's Sadie." He jumped up from the couch. "I have to take it….uh, in case it's, you know, about work or something."
"Cool." Sour Cream replied as Lars rushed from the room.
"Hey Sadie!" He answered nervously, walking into the kitchen.
"Hi Lars." She chirped back, sounding more like her usual self than he'd heard in a while.
"H-how did it go?" He stammered, not sure what to say.
"It went really well!" She told him. "I got to see the baby and hear the heartbeat." She said excitedly.
"Oh, wow, that's pretty cool." He smiled.
"Anyway, I'm about seven weeks pregnant and the doctor says everything looks fine." She reported.
"Seven weeks." He let out a snort. "Christmas break."
"Yeah." On the other end of the phone Sadie was blushing dark red. "Probably New Year's."
"Ahh, New Years." Lars grinned wickedly, he could hear Sadie's embarrassment in the tone of her voice.
"Shut up! I'm with my mom." She whispered.
"Okay, okay." He relented.
"Hey, I'll call you later okay? We're stopping to eat."
"Oh, okay sure." He nodded, not that she could see. "I'll talk to you later."
"Talk to you later."
"So…." A voice made Lars jump. He turned to find Vidalia leaning against the wall, arms crossed and smirking.
"Oh…uh, that was Sadie." Lars rubbed the back of his neck, trying to come up with something plausible to say. "Work stuff."
"Right." Vidalia said sarcastically. "So, what happened with your dad?"
"We….had a disagreement about college stuff." He shrugged.
"What kind of college stuff?" Vidalia pressed.
"He wants me to go to Delmarva State, that's where he went, but I want to go to the ECU branch."
"You're going to stay here?" She clarified. He nodded.
"I just…don't want to leave right now." He told her.
"I'm glad to hear that." She smiled at him. "Barb…told me about Sadie."
"Oh….I,uh." Lars blushed, staring at his feet.
"It's okay." Vidalia stepped forward. She put a hand on his chin, forcing him to meet her eyes. "it's probably really scary but it's going to be okay."
"Thanks." Lars gave her a faint smile. "Wait! Sour Cream doesn't know, does he?"
"No! No, that's for you and Sadie to do." Vidalia shook her head. "Barb confided in me, and in Steven's dad, Greg. But neither of us is going to tell anybody."
"That's…really cool of you." Lars told her, surprised.
"Don' mention it…and just so you know, you can stay here as long as you need." Vidalia offered. Before Lars could reply he suddenly found himself swept up into a tight hug. Any other day he would've felt awkward, standing in his friend's kitchen getting bear hugged by his mother. Today though, he just hugged her back, feeling a couple stray tears leak out down his cheeks.