Hey hope you like this one. A bit of suspense returning! As always thanks to everyone who reviewed and read this, you're so amazing and such sweeties! x x x
Joe gave Lauren's hand a reassuring squeeze but the rigid, fear stricken look on her face remained. The gynaecologist, a young fresh faced woman, sat down quietly and gave them a reassuring smile. Joe rubbed the palm of his hand on his jeans before wiping away the gleam of sweat that dampened his forehead,
"Ok Lauren, if you could just roll up your sleeve."
"Are you not going to take a sonogram?" Joe asked nervously, looking over at the screen.
"Oh no, it's too early on yet. You wouldn't get an image until about 6 – 8 weeks in," the gynaecologist informed, dabbing Lauren's arm with a cotton swab and picking up a small needle.
He wasn't sure why, but this information calmed him a little. It was still so early on. The only thing they had to go by was a store bought pregnancy test, which were renowned for being inaccurate.
Lauren's grip on his hand tightened as the needle went in,
"Don't like needles?" the doctor asked softly
"Not particularly," Lauren admitted, averting her eyes from the steady stream of blood that was being extracted.
"There. All done."
The needle was removed carefully and the doctor placed a small plaster on her arm,
"When… When will I know the results?"
"They should be back by the end of the day but if not tomorrow morning at the latest. I'll get my receptionist to give you a call as soon as they're in."
Lauren nodded and stood up shakily, grabbing her coat.
Joey and Julia greeted them in the waiting room, both wearing expressions of intense worry and curiosity,
"I won't know until later today at the earliest," Lauren informed them quietly before they had time to ask.
They nodded and Joey pulled her in for sideways hug, kissing the top of her head,
"It'll be ok Lo," he whispered.
"Don't tell the others yet," Lauren insisted, "becasue first of all, it's not definate that I am pregnant and secondly, I'm not sure what I'll do if I am."
Julia looked over at Joe, shocked,
"You would keep the baby Lo, wouldn't you?"
Lauren looked down, "I don't know yet Juls... Can we not talk about it now?"
Julia opened her mouth to protest but Joe shot her a warming glance that told her to drop it.
The car journey back to the apartment was mostly silent and when they got back Lauren went straight to the couch where she plonked herself down with the phone held tightly in her hands.
"What about this one Mere," Brian asked, pointing at a luscious triple tier chocolate cake. It was covered in white icing with delicate little flowers trailing the sides,
"Mere?" Brian repeated, "Are you even listening to me?"
"Yeah, it's pretty I guess," she mumbled, clearly unenthused.
"What's up? You should be excited, this is our wedding! Lauren's back home and in just a few weeks you'll be Mrs Meredith Holden," Brian smiled, wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her closer.
"I know… but I just keep thinking we should postpone it for a little while. You've seen Lauren Bri, she wouldn't be able to handle it. We have almost 150 people attending and she's nervous even when it's just us. I want her to be part of it," Meredith explained frantically.
"I know but we've everything organised…" Brian started before Meredith cut him off,
"Only a few weeks ago, if I thought of Lauren, I was thinking about a ghost. Please... can we just wait?"
Brian looked at Meredith for a moment before giving in,
"I love you," he whispered, "and if it means that much to you, then of course we'll wait."
She smiled relieved, "How about we ditch this cake scouting and treat ourselves to lunch?"
"Or we could get a take-out lunch and eat it while watching Lord of the Rings at home," Brian suggested, raising his eyebrows suggestingly.
Meredith smiled and leaned in, pecking his lips, "and this is why I'm so lucky you're my fiancée."
She took his hand and together they left the bakery. The last remnants of winter still clung to the city and a strong wind pushed against them as they made their way uptown. Meredith's hair swirled around her face and getting caught in her mouth. As they passed a notice board, she pulled Brian to a stop and pointed out a faded poster, half hidden behind an advertisement for some new café opening up down the street,
"It's us," she smiled
Brian reached up and removed it, his smile fading as he saw that there were words written on it in bright red capitals. Meredith appeared not to have noticed and was now engrossed in some Billy Joel karaoke night promotion. He tucked it into his jacket pocket and fixed a smile on his face,
"Oh my God we have to go to this," she squealed excitedly.
Brian rolled his eyes at her fan-girling but said nothing. They finally reached their favourite pizzeria, embracing the warmth as the door swung shut behind them,
"Hey will you order? I need to pee," Meredith asked, running off to the bathroom.
Brian pulled out his phone and typed up a quick message to Joe, his fingers shaking,
I need to talk to you. It's urgent! You free tonight?
He pressed send and shoved his phone back into his jeans pocket, just as Meredith emerged,
"Did you order?" she asked chirpily
"Ah no, I forgot sorry," Brian responded absentmindedly, earning him a questioning look from Meredith,
"You ok?" she asked, "you seem a little tense."
"Yeah I'm fine, just tired," he improvised, his thoughts fixated on the poster in his pocket that seemed to bear the weight of a boulder.
Joe pulled his phone out and stared at the message from Brian. What could be so important? If it was another best man thing he swore he'd tear his hair out. He quickly replied,
I'm staying with Lauren tonight, can it wait?
Hardly a minute later his phone went off again,
No, this is serious. I can meet you outside the girls apartment block?
Joe gave in, being sufficiently curious at this point,
Fine, text me when you're outside.
He had a feeling it wasn't going to be wedding related and for some reason he felt a deep unease settling it the pit of his stomach.
The sound of the phone ringing brought him crashing back to reality. Lauren stared at it panic-stricken before finally pressing the answer button,
"Hello."
Julia had come running in from the kitchen and they now all waited silently as Lauren listened,
"Thank," she said weakly, before hanging up. She placed the phone down and looked up,
"The test came back negative," she croaked, "I'm not pregnant."
Joe breathed out a huge sigh of relief and kissed Lauren tenderly. Both Julia and Joey too, looked utterly relieved. Lauren however let out a gut-wrenching sob and Joe held her as she started to cry,
"Lo, this is good news," he hushed, cradling her.
She sat up after a few minutes and wiped her eyes dry,
"I know, sorry," she smiled wryly, "I guess I'm just relieved. I don't know what I would have done."
Joe's phone went off but he chose to ignore it. Right now he just wanted to be with Lauren. However a moment later it began to ring. He sighed exasperatedly,
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing," he assured, giving Lauren a smile, "it's just Brian, he can wait."
"Joe, you don't need to ignore you calls just because you're with me. You don't need to babysit me."
"I know," he sighed, "I'll call him back later."
However, just as he finished speaking a thunderous knocking came at the front door, causing Lauren to jump. Joey hopped up to answer it. Seconds later the sound of Brian's voice carried through from the hall,
"Hey Joey, I need to talk to Joe… wedding stuff."
Joe groaned and got up begrudgingly, "I'll be right back," he promised.
He stopped however when he saw Lauren was smiling. It was almost like the old Lauren was sitting in front of him and the sight sent a warm sensation flooding through him,
"What's so funny?" he asked.
"You're his bitch," she smirked
"Am not," he replied indignantly
She shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly and crossed her knees, "I bet he wants you to go steam his tux or something."
Joe rolled his eyes but was so happy to see her somewhat happy, that he couldn't even try to be annoyed. He strolled out to the hall to find Brian waiting for him,
"What the fuck man? Why didn't you answer your fucking phone?" Brian whispered harshly.
"I was busy," Joe defended, slightly confused by his friends overreaction, "why are you so pissed off? And why are we whispering?"
Brian pulled a sheet of folded up paper from his pocket and handed it to Joe silently. Joe opened it up slowly. It was a poster from the Apocalyptour but someone had added their own artwork to it,
"IT'S NOT OVER YET"
Joe reread the message again before looking up at Brian,
"So? It could just be a fan. It's the name of one of our songs," he said, handing it back over to Brian.
"Lauren's face is crossed out," Brian said lowly, holding up the poster, "there is a big black X right across it Joe… somehow I don't think whoever did this is a fan."
Joe stared at the X over Lauren's smiling face,
"What do we do," he asked, now aware of his steadily increasing heartbeat.
"What can we do?" Brian responded.
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