The day of Hanna's first doctor appointment arrived. The couple, along with Madelyn, walked through the automatic doors that led to a bright, colorful area. It was painted sky blue, and everyone was just as cheery as the paint. The nurse at the check-in desk was oddly happy, and had a very upbeat tone to her voice.
"Take a seat over there," she said with a big grin, gesturing to the waiting room in which there were about half a dozen pregnant women. Hanna grinned and grabbed Caleb's hand, dragging him behind her. She took a seat on an uncomfortable chair and Maddie started badgering her mom to let her sit on Hanna's lap. Hanna reluctantly agreed, but the second Maddie jumped on, Hanna's name was called out.
"Hanna Rivers?"
The blond stood up and grabbed her daughter's hand in one, and Caleb's hand in the other. The three followed a nurse into an equally cheery doctor's office. Hanna was told to take a seat on the bed, and memories of when she was pregnant with Maddie started flooding back: the time when they saw their first sonogram, the time when Hanna and Caleb found out they were having a daughter, the time when Hanna was told she would more than likely go over due. Hanna felt bubbly with excitement to think she was getting to experience it all again.
"Hanna!" a familiar, loud voice called as the door opened. Walking in was Josie, the doctor Hanna had for her first pregnancy. "It's so good to see you again! And you, Caleb."
Caleb shook Josie's hand, but used his other to keep a hold on a very wriggly Maddie. Josie looked down at the toddler on his lap and gasped.
"Is this Madelyn?" she asked, seemingly surprised. The last time Josie had seen Madelyn—or Hanna and Caleb—was when she was 3 months old. Hanna had brought her in when she came in to thank Josie for all she did during Hanna's pregnancy. "You've grown so much!"
Maddie giggled and fidgeted on Caleb's lap. Josie took another look at the toddler before moving onto Hanna on the bed. She asked Hanna to roll her shirt up while she grabbed the equipment for the ultrasound.
"Let's get started then."
It didn't take long for Josie to find the baby, and it's heartbeat. Hanna and Caleb both inhaled sharply as they saw the picture come up on the screen. That was their baby, their child, their son or daughter.
"It seems here, Hanna, that you're 8 weeks and 2 days. That's quite far along for someone who just found out."
Hanna brushed the comment off. She'd found out late with Madelyn. In fact, Hanna hadn't found out she was pregnant with Madelyn until nearly 10 weeks, which Hanna was told was pretty rare.
"Well, both heartbeats seem strong. Would you like me to print out a picture?"
Hanna and Caleb didn't even have to think. At the same time, they both blurted out, "Yes."
"I'll get right on that," Josie said, laughing. She left the blond and brunette alone as Hanna tried her stomach and rolled her shirt back down.
"I can't believe we're going to have another baby," Caleb announced. He was holding loosely onto Maddie's hand as she tried to escape, but was too busy thinking about the ultrasound they'd just had. Maddie pulled hard enough and suddenly, she was free. The toddler began running around the office, creating havoc.
Hanna immediately jumped from the bed and stood in front of her daughter, blocking her way. "Stop, Madelyn," the blond said in a deep, firm voice. Madelyn pouted and backed up, all the way to Caleb. The brunette was now standing by the door, and happened to be in the way of Josie, who was returning with the printout. Hanna looked at her husband and nodded behind him. "Caleb…"
"Excuse me," Josie said politely. Caleb jumped out of the way, blushing. He didn't know how long he'd been stopping her getting through for, which was slightly embarrassing. The doctor handed the sonogram picture to Hanna and cupped Hanna's hands in her own. "Congratulations on the baby."
"Thank you so much," Hanna replied, grinning. It seemed like since she arrived for the appointment, she'd had a permanent grin plastered to her face.
"I'll see you in a couple of months!" Josie called out as the couple walked out of the door. Caleb turned back and waved, before following Hanna down the hallway, back into the main area. There, Hanna booked herself another checkup, where they would hopefully be able to determine the gender.
"Mommy's so excited, baby," Hanna said to Maddie as she scooped her up in her arms. The toddler happily sat on her mom's hip, bobbing up and down as Hanna walked. As they walked back to the car, Madelyn stared at everyone passing by, and somehow managed to get a few laughs from strangers. Neither Hanna or Caleb knew what she was doing, but apparently it was funny. After Caleb had opened the car door, Hanna strapped the blond into her seat and tickled her belly before hopping into the passenger seat.
"This is so crazy," she muttered. Caleb had just turned on the engine and was about to reverse out of the parking lot, but stopped to face his wife.
"What is?"
"This," Hanna replied. "The baby, moving to New York. Everything's happening so fast. Like, I didn't expect to be over two months pregnant already!"
"Han, calm down. We still have seven months to go—which is plenty of time to get prepared. And as for New York, we haven't even sold our own house yet. There's no rush."
"Caleb, there is a rush! It's called our unborn child and it's going to be here soon. Remember how fast my pregnancy with Maddie went?"
"I doubt this pregnancy will be the same as the one with Maddie, babe," Caleb said. He turned on the ignition and began reversing the car. He pulled up to the stop sign, checked for any other cars passing by, and when he felt it was safe, pulled out onto the road. The doctor's office was in Brookhaven, a small town adjacent to Rosewood. It wasn't a long journey back, but it was long enough for Hanna to start panicking about rushes. She was now worried that the move to New York was going to be rushed because of Caleb's job—which he tried to explain to her that he didn't actually know if he had gotten it yet. Hanna wasn't interested in what her husband had to say anymore. She was just interested in all the worries running around inside her head.
"But Caleb," Hanna groaned as she chased the brunette through the front door. Madelyn was in front, with Caleb following behind, and Hanna even further back. "There'll be no time for anything."
"What are you going on about?" Caleb asked, opening up the freezer door. He was scanning through all the foods that were stacked up high as Hanna started rambling on again.
"There'll be no time for us to decorate the nursery. There'll be no time for us to decorate any of the apartment. There won't even be time for us to have a baby shower!"
As he pulled out a ready-made salad, Caleb replied, "Why won't we have time for a baby shower?"
"We'll be too busy moving!" Hanna exclaimed. The volume of her voice nearly made Caleb jump out of his skin as he walked over to the island in the centre of the kitchen. Hanna huffed when she saw Caleb act like he didn't care, and sighed heavily. "We haven't even decided how to tell the girls I'm pregnant," the blond muttered to herself, although Caleb heard.
"Well let's decide now."
"What?" Hanna asked, taken by surprise. She hadn't realised Caleb had heard her.
"Let's decide how to tell everyone you're pregnant," the brunette explained. "We could…put it on a cake. We could sent out notes. We could—"
Hanna looked horrified. Or confused. Caleb couldn't really tell. "Send out notes?"
"Yeah. You know, put something like Hanna and Caleb would like to announce the pregnancy of their second child. Do you not know what I'm on about?"
Hanna shook her head. "I thought people only did that when their child is actually born." She padded over to the table and picked up the Elle, Vogue and Flaunt magazines that had been lying messily, moving them to where all her other mags were kept. Hanna hated things being out of place.
"Maybe they do, I don't know." Caleb shrugged and forgot about that idea. "What about having some sort of a party?"
Hanna was now filling up a glass of water from the tap, and took a sip as she contemplated the suggestion. "I like it," she said as she placed the glass on the table top. "But how can we have a party without saying what it's for?"
"Make something up."
"Like what?"
Caleb puckered his lips and squinted his eyes as he thought. "We could say we were having an early birthday party for Maddie."
The blond looked at her husband as if he were stupid. "Caleb, Maddie's birthday is in 8 months."
"It could be a surprise. No one would be expecting it." He put on a big, jokey grin, but Hanna wasn't in the mood for joking around. She rolled her eyes and started circling her index finger around the rim of her glass as she bent over the island. Caleb grabbed a bag of chips from the cupboard and pulled them open before offering one to Hanna.
Hanna declined and drumming her long nails on the counter top. "I suppose we could just have a get together or something," she suggested. "Maybe here in the backyard."
Caleb raised his eyebrows, indicating that was a good idea. "We could have a cookout."
Later that afternoon, Hanna sat on her bed, giving herself a manicure. She was FaceTiming Emily, who was currently in Paris on vacation.
"The Eiffel Tower is ah-mazing," Emily said excitedly. She moved her phone to show the blond the view from her hotel, in which you could see the tip of the Tower in the background. Hanna was definitely envious. The last vacation she'd gone on was when she was five months pregnant with Madelyn, and she and Caleb had traveled to Thailand for two weeks.
"How's everything with Paige?" Hanna asked.
"They're great!" the raven haired squealed. "In fact…" she fiddled with her phone and dropped it on the bed, so Hanna was stuck looking at the white ceiling. After a moment of kerfuffle, Emily picked the phone back up and had her hand right by the screen. "We're engaged!"
"Oh my God! Paige proposed? In Paris? Was it by the Eiffel Tower? Ooh, did you have a romantic meal?" Questions started spewing out of Hanna, but Emily had been expecting it. She was there when Aria announced her engagement to Ezra, and Hanna had done exactly the same thing then.
"Yes Paige proposed. Yes it was in Paris. Yes it was by the Eiffel Tower and yes we had a romantic meal," Emily replied simply. Hanna squealed as she saw a glimpse of the diamond ring on the camera. "Han, you seem to be more excited than me."
"This is just such an amazing moment! You and Paige are last ones to get married; we've all been waiting for this."
Caleb, hearing Hanna's squealing, poked his head around the bedroom door. "Babe, what's going on? You're going to wake Maddie with all that screaming." Madelyn had been unusually tired, so was down for a nap, and Caleb didn't really want her waking her up grumpy.
"Em's engaged!"
"What? Wow, that's awesome!" Caleb padded across the carpet and sat on the bed next to the blond. He saw Emily on Hanna's phone and grinned. "Congrats, Em!" Emily thanked him before being called by Paige. Apparently, the couple were heading over to Le Louvre for the evening.
As Hanna was about to say goodbye, she remembered her earlier conversation with Caleb. "ooh, Em! There's one more thing I need to ask you."
"Shoot," Emily replied. Paige joined her new fiancee and waved.
"Hey Paige. Caleb and I were wandering whether you two are available on the 23rd?"
"23rd?" Emily repeated. Hanna watched as Paige grabbed her own phone and do what Hanna guessed was checking her calendar. She mumbled something to Emily, who turned back to the phone. "We're free. What's going on on the 23rd?"
Hanna looked to Caleb, with an uncertain look in her eye. She didn't have a cover story, and she wasn't going to ruin the surprise right now. "Oh, it's just a…get together. I'm going to see if the other girls can come."
The raven haired looked at her friend through the phone suspiciously. "Han, what's going on? We haven't had a 'get together' in years."
"Well maybe we should start doing them more often." The blond picked at her fingernail and hoped Emily didn't catch on to anything. Thankfully, Paige reminded Emily that they really had to go, and Emily hung up.
"I think she knows," Hanna breathed as she threw her phone down to the end of the bed. "She definitely knows."
"Babe, she doesn't know. And if she does, she won't tell anyone. Em wouldn't do that to you," Caleb replied in a soft, calming voice. Hanna fell back against her pillows and stared up at the ceiling.
She rested her hands on her chest and said, "I just want it to be a surprise. For everyone. Including Em."
"Have you asked everyone else if they can come?"
Hanna sighed. "No. Em was the first person I called."
"Shouldn't you called everyone else? It won't be much fun if it's only Emily and Paige there."
Hanna sighed again and sat up. "I suppose so," she groaned. "Can you call some of them though?"
"Sure," Caleb answered. "How about I call my mom, my dad, Toby and Ezra, and you call Alison, your mom and your dad?"
The blond happily agreed; at least she wouldn't have to do all the calling. Caleb began heading out of the bedroom, and pulled his phone out from his back pocket as he reached the doorway. Hanna got right to the job, starting with Alison. Alison still lived in Rosewood, and even in the same house, but now lived with her husband, Elliot. Hanna was the first to admit they were a very cute couple.
"Hanna, hey!" Ali's cheery voice said as she picked up.
"Hey, Ali. I was just calling to see if you were available on the 23rd?"
"Of this month?" Alison asked. "Yeah, I think I can do that. What's happening?"
"Caleb and I just wanted to see everyone again. All our parents will be here, as well as the other girls, if they can all come," Hanna explained. She carried on and told Alison where it would be—which was their backyard—what time she should arrive, and also told her to bring Elliot.
"Okay, so I've got to run, but I'll see you then?" Alison said as she attempted to wrap up the phone call.
Hanna nodded and replied with, "Yeah. Bye! Wait, Ali. We should really get coffee some time. I haven't seen you in ages."
Alison agreed, and repeated that she had to get going. The two girls exchanged in goodbyes before Hanna hung up. The next person on the list was her mom, which would be fun. Ashley could always—always—tell when Hanna was hiding something, so Hanna knew she'd have to be extremely careful with this call.
Thankfully, Hanna handled it well enough, and Ashley didn't seem to suspect a thing. The blond couldn't help but smile to herself as she thought about this surprise. She could just picture everyone's faces when she and Caleb announced the news.
"Dad?" Hanna asked as her final call picked up. No-one answered, but Hanna could hear something on the end of the line. "Hello?"
"Hanny!" Tom exclaimed. Hanna hated it when he called her that. It was like she was still a child. "Sorry, I was just finishing some work. What's going on?"
Hanna forced a smile—although she needn't. She was on the phone, her dad couldn't see her. "Caleb and I are having a small get together on the 23rd. Can you come?"
There was some crinkling of paper down the phone, and a few moments of silence, before Tom replied. "Oh, sorry Hanny. I'm busy on the 23rd. It's Elizabeth's birthday. Are you not coming to that?"
Elizabeth was Hanna's stupid, ugly, attention-seeking stepsister's daughter. Much to her surprise—and also horror—Hanna and Caleb had been invited to the first birthday party, but had politely declined, claiming they were busy. The invitation had come almost a year ago—way, way, way before Hanna and Caleb knew they would actually be busy on that day. When Caleb had asked Hanna if she wanted to attend, Hanna had downright refused.
"Once again Kate comes before me," the blond muttered to herself.
"Hanna, Kate invited everyone months ago. I can't drop everything because you asked me to do something two weeks prior to whatever it is. Anyway, it's only a small get together. It's not even that important."
Hanna wanted to be mad at Tom, but it's not like he knew she was pregnant. Although, that didn't stop the feeling of neglect bubbling inside of Hanna. Her father was never there important events. He wasn't there for her high school graduation because of work, he wasn't at her college graduation because he claimed his flight got delayed—Hanna knew that was a lie and a coverup because he'd forgotten—and he wasn't their for the birth of his first grandchild. "You're right. It's not important. Bye Dad."
"I love you, Hanna."
Hanna ignored her dad's last comment. She'd heard it all too many times, but had never seen Tom actually act like he meant it. He did for Kate, but never for her.
A/N - you guys still don't review :((
i hope you all liked this chapter. please, please, please review!