IV- Due Date

The day after we arrived, I found myself sitting in the waiting room of the hospital with Gary sitting to my right. He was fidgeting and I couldn't say I blamed him considering where he had just gotten out of. I would have been fidgety too. The hospital we were waiting in was part of the Kazoku U.S. 9 Estate. The Estate consisted of the small, but well equipped, hospital, a small counseling/school building, and the apartments and housing. It was like a small community all its own. I found it homey. I knew I would be safe here.

"How long is this going to take?" Gary asked, giving me an irritated stare.

I sighed. He'd been rather irritated with being on the Estate since we had arrived.

"I don't know. Just please be patient." I said, resting my chin in my hand.

Gary sighed and slouched down in his chair, glaring at the far wall.

The reason for our lovely visit to the hospital today? My first check-up. Oh, joy.

I didn't really know what to expect. I was kind of nervous as well. Gary wasn't helping that. Dr. Abernathy had told me that it was going to be the longest of my doctors appointments, but that there wasn't anything I should worry about. Ha. Right. Why should I be worried? Oh, I'm only sixteen and a BOY. No, nothing at all to be worried about.

Beside me, Gary sighed again and shifted his position for what was probably the millionth time. I glanced at him, catching his eye.

"What?" he asked, frowning.

"Nothing…" I said, looking away.

I could feel his eyes boring into the back of my head. It caused a shiver to run up my spine. I heard him chuckle and felt my face warm up as a blush overtook my face. Great. He had seen me shiver. Lord only knows what he's thinking now.

"So… I've been meaning to ask you…" he murmured, trailing off.

I turned to look at him. He was smirking as he reached over and grabbed one of the random parenting magazines off an end table.

"What?" I asked, prompting him even though I knew I would probably regret it.

He opened the magazine and held it open with one hand in front of his face. He leaned in towards me and waved me closer to him. I leaned over so that my face was hidden by the magazine as well.

"What?" I asked again.

"Was it good for you?" he asked, grinning.

"What kind of question is that, to be asking it now?" I asked, feeling my face burn.

His grin widened.

"Can I just get an answer?"

I turned away from him, trying to control my blush.

"Petey…"

I felt him tug on my shirt.

"You can answer me you know. It's just us in here."

"Why would I want to answer? That night…"

His grin faded as I looked down at the floor.

That night. It felt like a lifetime ago… Try as I might, I could no longer recall all the details. Everything was a blur. Life had changed so drastically, so fast. Had I enjoyed losing my virginity?

I jumped as I felt a hand gently touch my left cheek and guide me so I was looking at him again. His thumb was gently caressing my bottom lip. I looked up into his eyes. And my breath hitched in my throat. That glazed over look was there. My eyes widened as he looked into my eyes.

"I'm sorry." He murmured.

And before I could ask 'For what?', he pressed his lips to mine. I almost didn't have time to react as I lost my train of thought and felt my heart start going twenty miles a minute.

My eyes rolled and shut as I returned the kiss. He had my face cupped in his hands, and I gripped the front of his shirt.

I had totally lost myself in that one simple showing of affection, and when he broke the kiss I felt myself swooning as everything in my head continued spinning.

The kiss had cleared his head it seemed, because he pulled back and seemed to quickly assess what he had just done as an odd occurrence of impulse on his part. I stared at him as he turned away and slumped down in his chair again.

"What was that for?" I asked.

"What do you mean?"

"You know exactly what the hell I mean."

He glanced at me.

"It was nothing. Okay? Just… a stupid impulse."

"Like that night?" I asked, starting to become angry.

"Exactly." He answered, staring at the wall.

I swallowed as my throat began to swell.

I turned away from him as tears threatened to overtake me. God damn him. He had to be so bluntly hurtful. I got a grip on my emotions and settled down into my chair again, intent upon ignoring him for as long as I felt necessary. Why did he have to be like that? Sure, it might have meant nothing to him. For him, it had been just an impulse. But for me… God, what had it been for me? I lost my virginity… My first time. And it had been amazing, hadn't it? I could vaguely remember that much at least. For me… I guess it had been… special. Not with someone special of course. But special none the less… Maybe I was just being a girl thinking of it that way. For him, it had just been sex. Why couldn't it be that way for me?

Oh yeah. Cause I got pregnant. 'Just sex' kinda becomes obsolete when you find out you got knocked up.

Gary nudged me, bringing me out of my thoughts.

"Hm?"

"The nurse is waiting, Femme-boy." He said, pointing to a woman with a clipboard who was giving us an anxious look.

"Oh, sorry." I said, standing up.

"It's fine." She answered, smiling. "If you'll just follow me."

I turned to Gary.

"Um… do you want to come with me?" I asked.

"I might as well." He answered, standing.

We followed the nurse back to an examination room.

"So, I'm going to take your weight, height, blood pressure, and a few other measurements. I'm also going to need to take some blood samples. And then the Dr. Abernathy will be in to see you. Does that sound fine?"

"Yes." I answered.

"Great. Can you remove your clothes for me?"

"Um… Sure." I answered, feeling my face heating up.

I heard Gary chuckle and felt my eye twitch. Bastard.

I took off everything except my underwear.

"Okay. Now, can you step on the scale here?" she asked, pleasantly.

I did as she asked and waited patiently as she fiddled with the weights on the tilty bar. She wrote on the clipboard and instructed me over to the wall so she could measure my height, which she also wrote on the clipboard.

"Okay. You can sit on the examination table."

I sat patiently while she took my blood pressure. She smiled at me after she wrote that down.

"Okay. I'll be right back."

I had not dared look at Gary up until now, and as soon as she shut the door he took the opportunity to speak.

"You're face turns such a lovely shade of red when you're embarrassed. Did you know that?"

"Shut up." I said, scowling.

"Are you afraid of needles?" Gary asked.

"No. Are you?" I responded, staring at the wall.

"Of course not. How about blood? Does it make you sick?"

"No. Why do you ask?"

"I was just curious. Does everything I do have to be part of alternate intentions?"

Uh, duh. That's how you work. Don't act like you're straightforward with your intentions.

"I don't know. You tell me."

"That's hurtful Petey." He said, feigning hurt as he had done on that long ago day when he had called me 'cutting'.

"Well so are you."

"And what's that suppose to mean?" he asked, glaring at me now.

"You know what I mean. Stop playing dumb. You know exactly what I'm talking about."

"If I'm so 'hurtful' why on Earth did you get the good Doctor to get me out of Happy Volts?" he asked, his voice slightly raised in anger.

I had yet to look at him the whole conversation, but I did so now.

"Would you rather I let you stay there?"

"Well if you were just going to be a little bitch about everything…"

I turned away.

"Whatever. Forget it. Sorry I helped you out."

"Shut your little faggot mouth. I wouldn't have needed your help!" He shot back.

"Then why did you ask for it? Why did you ask for it while you were falling asleep on my shoulder?"

To this, he had no reply.

"And don't call me a faggot either." I finished, glaring at the floor.

And I flinched away as he shot out of his chair and crossed to me in about .3 seconds. He grabbed my arm, and the pressure made me yelp. He leaned in close to my ear.

"I'll call you whatever the hell I want. Now, listen to me, Peter Kowalski… If you want this kid to have a 'Daddy', you'd better fucking start understanding exactly who is in control here. I'm trying to be nice to you. But your bitch attitude is making it pretty fucking hard."

He said all this in a calm but stern voice. It made him sound older. It gave his voice a huskier sound. Had I not been scared out of my mind that he was going to hurt me, I would have found it sexy.

Tears welled up in my eyes as his grip on my arm hardened. I whimpered.

"Do we have an understanding here?" he asked, loosening his grip considerably.

"Yes…" I whispered, my voice wavering.

I couldn't look him in the eye. I was too afraid of what I would see. I wasn't afraid of seeing anger. I was afraid of seeing a calm there that matched his tone of voice. Because that would mean I had basically handed power of myself over to him. That I had dug my own grave.

-Later-

I was sitting curled up on the couch in our apartment, mulling over everything that had happened today.

Like finding out my due date… February 27th. I was apparently around 8 weeks out of 40. Today's date is July 18th…. February seemed so far away at the time. And I found myself thinking about what the kid would look like. Brown hair… hazel eyes… or blue eyes, like my moms? Maybe blonde hair. Because apparently Gary's had been blonde until he was two. Maybe red, like my grandmothers… I found myself fascinated by the possibilities. And would it be a boy or a girl? How tall would the kid be when it grew up?

So many things to wonder about. Gary walked into the living room and set a glass of sweet tea down on the coffee table in front of me.

"Here." He said.

"Thank you." I answered, glancing up at him.

"What?" he asked.

I shook my head. "Nothing. Sorry."

"What did I tell you about apologizing?"

"Not to do it… cause you find it annoying." I answered, picking up the glass and taking a sip.

"I also find it annoying when you do that."

"Do what?"

"Repeat things word for word." He said, sitting down beside me on the couch.

"Oh. Well… I'll try to fix that." I murmured, knowing I couldn't apologize.

A silence fell between us, until he leaned into me.

"Look. I… I'm unstable. And… My meds don't make me 100% balanced. You know?"

I looked up at him. He was looking at the far wall.

"I'm… sorry about what happened at the doctors. Okay?"

Where the hell was this coming from? Was he just doing it so I'd let my guard down? Or was he really sorry? What was I supposed to say to that?

"Um… I know it's not… easy for you Gary. It's not easy for me either. If you get frustrated, it's okay. We… we have a lot to work through… There's a lot of… bad gunky between us." I said, taking his hand.

He looked down at his hand and then back up at me.

"Yeah. I guess you're right. So when do we start treading through it all?" he asked.

"Well…" I trailed off, feeling awkward.

I had yet to tell him that we would be seeing a therapist. Every patient did. Group therapy, couple therapy, and one on one therapy sessions were what everyone being taken care of on The Estate did. Dr. Abernathy had explained that to me during my visit. I had purposefully not told Gary this. Our first session was tomorrow at three in the afternoon.

"What?" he asked, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"We… we'll be seeing a therapist… starting tomorrow."

There was a silence that settled over us, and every second he didn't say something I felt my anxiety building.

"Since when?" he asked finally, dropping my hand.

"Well… since I came here to take a look at the place. Dr. Abernathy told me that you and I would be taking therapy, just like everyone else."

"But I don't want to." He growled.

"I'm sorry Gary. But this is the way it has to be. I mean… you asked about when we'd start 'treading through it all'. Well, tomorrow is when we start. If you were serious about trying to 'get along' with me, then you'll take therapy with me. She'll help us work out… our… differences." I trailed off as he got off the sofa and walked down the hallway.

I flinched as he slammed our bedroom door closed behind him, then sighed. It was going to be a long, long day tomorrow.

It was angry. Angry enough to not want to say anything to me as he walked away. I put my hand on my stomach.

'What have I gotten us into?' I thought, looking down at my stomach.

-End Chapter 4-

… *whine*. So, chapter 4! Yeah! (Author is a failure.) Anyway! Uh… review! And I'm sorry for the very long wait. Things are complicated. So, um, I'll start working on chapter 5 right now! Therapy sessions! Boo! Oh, and… I almost broke my brain trying to figure out the time line for Peter's pregnancy. Almost.