As they sat in the waiting room Nick held her hand, he noticed her hands were somewhat sweaty.
"Nervous?" He asked.
"A little." She admitted.
He smiled at her and gave her hand a gentle squeeze.
After getting over the initial shock of finding out she was pregnant he too had grown very excited about the surprise baby.
"Jackie." A nurse called so she and Nick got up and was led to a small back exam room.
A few minutes later Jackie's doctor came in.
"Hi, you two are back here a little sooner than I expected." Her doctor told her with a wry smile.
"Yeah, it's a little sooner then we expected too." Jackie admitted sheepishly.
The doctor laughed.
The doctor took Jackie's vitals, everything looked good then it was time for the fun part.
Jackie laid down on the exam table as the doctor started the ultrasound. She looked at the screen intently.
"Jackie, you're not pregnant." She declared.
Jackie looked at Nick with a sad and worried expression on her face. He tightened the grip on her hand.
"I'm not? You mean I…I…lost the baby?" Jackie stammered with her voice cracking.
"No you didn't have a miscarriage, I mean I see nothing to indicate you were ever pregnant, since Karlie's birth that is. I simply think the test you took was wrong, they are nowhere near one hundred percent accurate."
"But I took two." Jackie protested.
"I'm sorry." Her doctor said.
"I had none of the early symptoms of pregnancy, I was so stunned when the first one came back positive that I took another one, when that one came back positive I finally believed that I was indeed pregnant. I let myself get so excited."
"I'm sorry but that happens more than you think, and the good news is that everything looks great, I see no reason to believe that you'll have any problems getting pregnant once you guys start trying again." Her doctor said with a smile.
"That's good news." Nick told Jackie with a smile, he knew she wanted to cry and he was trying to help her feel better.
"How are those little ones of yours doing?" Her doctor asked, she too was trying to cheer Jackie up.
"They are doing great, they are all little balls of energy." Jackie told her with a smile.
"I'm sure they are. Do you have any pictures of the little rascals?"
"Of course." Jackie said with a laugh as she dug out her phone from her purse.
"I just took this picture the day before yesterday." Jackie told her as she showed her a picture of all four of the kids together.
"They are adorable, and they are all getting so big."
"Yes, they grow so fast." Jackie told her.
"Yes they do." Her doctor agreed.
Jackie showed her a couple more pictures of the kids and then the doctor asked the couple if they had any questions. They said no so she wished them well and instructed them to call her if any questions arose.
As soon as the doctor left the room Jackie turned to Nick.
"I'm sorry I got your hopes up like that." She told him.
"Hey you don't have anything to be sorry for, I'm just worried about you. Are you alright?" He asked her.
"Yeah, I'm ok." She told him.
The couple then left the office but as they were driving home Jackie didn't say a word to him, she just stared blankly out the window.
"Are you sure you're alright?" He asked as he grabbed her hand.
"Yeah I'm fine, I'm just disappointed, I know we hadn't planned on getting pregnant right now but once I thought I was, I got so excited."
"I know, and I'm sorry." He told her as he gave her hand a squeeze.
After a few moments had passed he looked at her and said "You know Jacks, if you want to change our plans a bit and start trying to get pregnant again now, I'd be fine with that. Even if we got pregnant right away Karlie would be a year and a half before the new little one got here, I think that's a big enough gap."
He hated seeing her so upset, and now that he thought about it a new baby wouldn't be that much of a shock, it's not as if it would be like having twins or anything.
"Thank you honey, but I think I want to stick to our plan and start trying when Karlie turns a year old. We'll let her be the baby a bit longer. If I happen to get pregnant before then, then that's wonderful, but I don't want to start actively trying until Karlie turns one. Is that ok?" She asked.
"Yes, that sounds good to me." He told her.
She smiled at him.
"Thank you for being so supportive." She told him.
He smiled at her.
Nick drove to his in-laws house to get the kids.
The rest of the day was spent playing with the kids.
As he crawled into bed that night he smiled, even though there would not be a new addition to the family any time soon it had still been a great birthday because he had gotten to spend it with the people he loves the most which is all that matters.
The End!