Chapter 22 - So Is

"What about this?" Tess asked and pulled out a black dress. "No!" Claire said and gave her sister a 'are you kidding me'-look. "But what are you gonna wear at the Gungellan show tomorrow?" Tess asked to Claire's back, who was already on her way away from the dresses. "Not that" Claire said with a frown. She couldn't believe Tess would even consider having her wear a dress.
"So you just gonna wear a shirt and jeans then?" she asked and followed Claire in and out of the clothes racks. "That's what I always wear?" Claire said and looked back at Tess with a weird look on her face. "Yeah but, you are pregnant now and maybe it would be nice to dress up a bit"
"Tess" Claire said with a firm voice and turned around. "I need clothes I can work in, not a dress to show off. Now come on, I need to meet Alex at the nurses office in 30 minutes, so let's go" She said and took off across the store. Her eyes had spotted just what she needed. Jeans and shirts. Tess followed huffy behind her. What was wrong with her sister? She was the least womanly woman she had ever meant in her whole life - and that said a lot. "This is perfect" Claire said with a satisfied smile and pulled out a simple white t-shirt from the rack. "I'll just need a couple of these and then I'm good to go" she said with a huge smiles. Tess sighed heavily as Claire walked off with her hands full of shirts. Did she really need two in each color?
"Maybe you could just .. try it out" Tess said referring to the dress earlier. "Cut it out Tess" Claire said firmly but she soon saw the disappointed look on her face - She already cursed herself for what she was about to say but Tess really had a way of making her feel bad about the stupidest things. "Okay - Get the damn dress then will ya?" Claire said rolling her eyes. Tess's face lit up and she had to restrain herself from clapping her hands together. "But I'm not trying it on!" Claire yelled to her back and placed the handful of clothes at the check-out.

"What you got there?" Alex asked with his arms open as Claire and Tess crossed the road to their parked utes. "Just some shirts and jeans" Claire answered with a smile. "And a dress!" Tess said with a cheeky smile on her face. Alex looked surprised at Claire - He couldn't remember if he had ever seen her in a dress.
"A dress? When am I going to see that on" he asked flirtatiously placing his hand on the small of her back. "Never?" Claire said and threw the bag of clothes on the back seat of Alex's car as it was nothing.
"Come on, we're late" She said and closed the door. She didn't feel like digging around in the dress topic anymore. It was bad enough Tess actually made her buy it. Alex and Tess shared the same look of hopelessness, both shaking their heads at her with a smile.
"I'm just gonna take the ute back to Drovers then" Tess said. "Sounds good" Claire said and looked at Alex ready to get going.
"Just wait to you see that dress" Tess whispered to Alex but it was still loud for Claire to hear. She turned around and gave her sister a firm look, telling her to cut it out. "See you later Tess" Claire said firmly and took Alex hand, dragging him along the parking lot. "I better go where grumpy goes" Alex joked making Tess laugh.
"So, that dress"
"Alex" Claire said strongly, letting him know she wasn't talking about this but he was of a different mind. "Come on Claire, I wanna see it" he said.
"No" Claire said and stopped walking. "Why not?" Alex asked asked. Why couldn't she wear a dress? She was woman after all, nothing weird about that.
"It's a dress" Claire said as it was the most obvious reason why it was such a big deal. "And?"
"I don't wear dresses" Claire said with the same annoyed voice. "Now, we are gonna be late, so come on" she continued and put up her walk again pulling Alex hand. He couldn't help but laugh for himself. He would like to think he knew exactly what she was thinking, most of the times he did but there was times, like now, with the dress, where he simply couldn't grab his head around what was going on in her mind.

"This sure is a difference from last time we looked in here huh?" Bella said happy and looked at at both of them with a smile before studying the numbers on the screen. "Yeah" Claire answered with a big smile - It certainly was. Last time it merely looked like a baby but now everything was clear. The toes, the fingers - everything was on that monitor.
"You starting to feel any light kicks?" Bella asked moving the probe around on her belly. "I've been feeling some bubbly kinda kicks, I guess you could say"
"Oh, that's fantastic isn't it? and what about dad, is he feeling anything yet?"
"I felt a little bit of movement last night actually" Alex answered and looked at Claire, prouder than she had seen him before. "When do you reckon the real kicks set in?" Alex asked, eager to feel even more of his baby that was moving around inside of Claire. "In a couple of weeks. It shouldn't be too long now" Bella said and moved her focus to them again. "Now, it was still too early to determine anything last time you were here but you are 20 weeks pregnant now and the gender shows at 15. So the big question is, do you want to know?"
Claire and Alex looked surprised at each other. They hadn't even thought about that before she brought it up. "Do you wanna know?" Claire asked. "Only if you wanna know" Alex said with a smile. He didn't really care about the gender as long as it was healthy and doing fine. "Well, I don't think that I do" Claire said, trying to figure out if Alex really wanted to know the gender or if he was onboard. "We don't want to know then" Alex said and smiled at Bella. "We'll keep it as a surprise" she said and turned off the monitor.
"You know the drill" she said and gave Claire a couple of napkins to dry her stomach with. "This is so crazy" Alex said and kissed her hand. "Last time we was here your belly was hardly there and now - I mean, look at it" he said and looked at her and then back at the bump. "Yeah, tell me about it" Claire said with a half smile and placed herself on the edge of the examination couch. Alex smiled at her, knowing what a huge transformation her body was going through, also knowing that it wasn't the easiest thing in the whole world. He admired her a lot for blessing him with this.
"You are the greatest woman I've ever known" He said and got up from the chair and kissed her on the forehead. She smiled and pulled down her top before she put her arms around him. "You are pretty great yourself" Claire said and smiled for herself. They didn't have an easy start to any of this and still he sticked around, he didn't give up - even when everyone else would, he didn't.
"Here's your souvenir to keep" Bella said and walked through the door with a couple of ultrasounds pictures in her hand. "Strong and healthy baby" she said with a smile.
"Oh look, it got your chin" Alex said and pointed at the picture. Claire frowned and took it in her hand, carefully studying it. "Hmm, I don't know Alex" Claire said and gave him the picture back. She really couldn't see all that much of facial features yet.
"Before you go" Bella said and stopped Claire from putting on her shirt again. "Jim mentioned he was by you the other day" Claire rolled her eyes at her - She really didn't need one more to check up on her. "Relax, I just want to know how you are feeling" Bella said seeing the obvious annoyment on Claire's face. "I'm fine. Everything's fine" Claire said and put on her shirt. "Good! Just remember to take it easy still" Bella said and smiled, letting her know she wasn't judging her or anything. "I will and thank you" Claire said, gave her a quick smile and made her way out of the door. People had to stop asking and pampering so much, it made her feel vulnerable and nothing like herself.
"She was only asking" Alex said putting up his pace behind her. "Yeah well, I'm tired of people asking" Claire said and waited impatiently for him to open the ute. "What?" he asked and walked to her side. "Nothing. Could you open the door?" Claire said annoyed.
"Hey, what's going on?" her sudden change of mood came from nowhere, or so it seemed. "Alex, the door" Claire said with a much more firm voice.
"Not before you tell me what's going on" he said and moved closer to her. "Nothing's going on. Can we just get home?" she said and sighed. He gave her the look telling her he wasn't going to drop it, even if that meant they had to stay there the rest of the day. Claire breathed out, hating the fact he saw straight through her - maybe it wasn't as hidden as she thought but others would at least let it go when asked to.
"I just hate people constantly ask me how I'm doing, how I'm feeling, If I need anything - It's all I've heard the last 3 days!" Claire bursted out. "They only ask because they care" Alex said and gave her a comforting smile. "Yeah well, they could care a little less" Claire said and looked to the ground. "You don't mean that"
"Yeah I do .. A little bit" Claire said and looked back up with a huffy look on her face. "I knew things would change, obviously they had to" she said and looked at her belly. "I just didn't thought people would look at me differently - It's like I'm some prized possession they have to look after" she continued and started to cry a little.
"You are a prized possession. My prized possession" Alex said and took the last steps that kept them from each other. He pulled her close and forced her to look at him, even though she tried not to - She hated showing weakness, and crying was a weakness.
"All that matters is that you and our little child in there" he said and placed his hand on her belly "is doing as good as possible. Aigh?" he said and smiled gently at her. She sighed and returned his smile. He was right, again. She was nurturing another life, she couldn't blame people for taken an interest.
"Now, about that dress" he said after a while, mostly to lighten the mood a little. "No, forget it" Claire said and reached for his keys in his back pocket and locked herself into the car with a half smile and a shook on her head. He had to let it go - why did she ever let Tess talk her into buying it? It was just gonna sit in the back of her closet anyway, waste of money - money she could have used on more shirts and jeans.
"I'm holding you to it" Alex said with a teasing laugh and jumped in the ute next to her. "Holding me to what? There's nothing to hold me to" Claire said and confused and buckled her seatbelt.
"You can't buy a dress and expect me not to see it, ever" Alex said and started the car. "If you wanna see it that bad, take a look in the bag" Claire said cheeky. "You aren't getting off that easy - I wanna see it. On you"
"Not gonna happen" Claire stated. "It so is" Alex laughed and drove out of the parking lot.
"So not"
"So is"
"Not"
"Is"
"Just drive the damn car, will ya?!" Claire said with a smile and turned on the radio. No more dress talking, ever.