"Argh! What is with the light?" Reba groaned as she turned over, on her big plushy couch, in an attempt to shield herself from the blinding light that was suddenly now seeping in from the living room window.
"You lied to me." Chassidy announced, the agitation very evident in her voice.
"About what?" Reba groggily questioned, slowly sitting up, her arm still sheltering her eyes as they tried to adjust to the morning light.
"About meeting me at the café."
"And apparently about being better too." She added, growing even more annoyed with her step-mother.
"That was today?" Reba questioned guiltily as she removed her arm, squinting up at her daughter, who was standing stiffly in front of her.
"Reba please don't shut us out." Chassidy pleaded discouragingly, her stiff stance relaxing a bit.
"Honey that's not at all what's going on." Reba sincerely assured her, quickly rising from the couch. Wishing she hadn't as a wave of dizziness came over her.
"Then what is it?"
"It's been a week since you said you were better and I have to hear from Brandon that you called into the office sick the last three days?!" She asked growing a little frustrated. She already had to deal with the fact that she was moving to Texas just after her parents' divorce, the last thing she needed was Reba pulling away when she wasn't around to help her.
"I've just been tired and the last thing I wanted to do was worry you." Reba promised as she reached out and grabbed Chassidy's right hand, intertwining it with her own.
"Good! Then you'll have no problem by reassuring me at the doctor's office." Chassidy challenged, as she felt Reba's hand suddenly slip limply from hers and drop to her side.
"Chass." Reba began to protest in a whiny tone.
"I don't even have an appointment and I hate the doctors." She continued to groan in an insolent manner, as she pouted at her amused daughter.
"Then how convenient is it that you have a super caring daughter that set up an appointment for you in just thirty minutes?" Chassidy mused in a mocking tone, smiling widely back at Reba.
"Thirty minutes?" Reba questioned through her gritted teeth; she needed to shower, change, eat, and function all in thirty minutes?!
"Well I was going to tell you at the Café, but someone stood me up." Chassidy continued to taunt as she batted her eyelashes innocently.
"Point taken." Reba muttered as she pulled down her raggedy USA sweatshirt and rubbed her tired face once more.
"Shelby has a race at Nashville Speedway today." Reba stated suddenly, trying desperately to get out of this surprise doctors appointment.
"Shelby has hundreds of fans cheering him on today, he'll make do." Chassidy continued, still hell bent on not letting her step-mother wiggle her way out of this one.
"Fine." She mumbled reluctantly.
"If I go to the doctor will you leave me alone once and for all?" Reba compromised. If she had to go to the doctors, then she at least wanted to get her kids to stop worrying about her.
"Scouts honor." Chassidy said raising her right hand.
"Only boys are allowed in the Scouts." Reba mumbled while raising her right eyebrow skeptically.
"Red, who do you think sells all those Girl SCOUT cookie's?" Chassidy questioned back, slightly dumbfounded. Laughing a bit, Reba's face began to turn as red as her hair as she tried to wrack her brain around a quick response.
"Girl or boy, you were still never in the Scouts..."
"I just need to know that you're okay... Professionally." Chassidy added, her face softening once more, as she tried to get Reba to focus back on the appointment.
"Now come on, twenty-five minutes left and we're still burning daylight." She reported as she took Reba's hand again and guided her towards the kitchen. Throwing her head back and groaning, Reba followed her daughter, hoping to finally get some peace after today.
"Come again?" Reba demanded as she stared back at the tall blonde male doctor, who's clipboard was rested firmly on his crisscrossed legs.
"Believe it or not Mrs. Blackstock..."
"McEntire." She bitterly cut him off, causing him to momentarily pause and catch his train of thought.
"Excuse me?" He asked softly, clearing his throat as he quickly glanced back down at her chart. Nope, he was right; it read "Reba Blackstock."
"It's McEntire, Mr. Blackstock and I divorced." She continued, staring at the doctor as if he were impaired.
"My condolences?" He partially questioned uncomfortably as her petulant disposition made him quite anxious.
"Right, Ms. McEntire." He presumed when she said nothing in response.
"Woman nearly ten years older than you comfortably have healthy children."
"In this day and age, the miracle of motherhood doesn't stop around the age of thirty anymore." He informed her with a small smile.
"Right that's dandy and all but I still don't understand how it's possible that I'm pregnant." She retorted back to him, resting a hand on her chest, as her tone raised in uncertainty.
"Your chart here says you stopped taking your birth control pills over a year ago." The doctor kindly reminded, trying to ease her evident confusion.
"Dr. Weston told me I was in the early stages of menopause when I stopped taking those, that they were unnecessary. " She continued to protest. Surly the results were wrong and there was another explanation for her body's sudden changes.
"Maybe that's why the test came back positive?" She inquired helplessly aloud. Scratching his elbow in avoidance of eye contact, he just shook his head no in response.
"Sometimes even doctors are wrong, but our tests aren't."
"You're definitely seven weeks pregnant." He concluded.
"So I'm having a baby at forty-nine years old?" She muttered, letting out a pained breath.
"Technically you'll be fifty when this little one is born, but yes." The doctor corrected, trying to hide his soft smirk, as he placed a hand on her knee, trying terribly to make light of the situation; if he only knew.
"You have absolutely nothing to worry about, your baby is in perfect health, and so are you."
"Just maintain it, take your vitamins, and don't overdue anything." He said as his tone went serious once again.
"That means no tour dates this year, and keep your time in the studio very limited." He finished, handing her the prescription for her prenatal care.
"What about my December Vegas dates?" She asked, still quite numb from all of the information she was taking in.
"Finish those off and then you're done until the birth of this baby." He said looking at her very sternly before extending his hand out once more for a goodbye handshake.
"Understood." She said with a small nod of her head. Once the doctor had exited the room, giving her a moment of privacy, Reba took a second, taking in the small examination room. This wasn't a planned pregnancy, that was obvious, her life was in chaos, that was also obvious, and the father of her unborn child had just divorced her, and yet suddenly none of that mattered. This little baby growing inside of her, was a gift, a gift that for some reason God thought she needed right now, and she would do everything in her power to make sure they were taken care of and loved. After all, everything in life happens for a reason.
"So what was it?" Chassidy asked anxiously as she rose from the uncomfortable waiting chair in the hospital's waiting room.
"Just a touch of the stomach flu." Reba replied quickly, clenching her fists as the flip flops in her stomach reminded her of the terrible idea lying was.
"Why don't we head out for a breakfast lunch?" She quickly asked cutting Chassidy off with her abrupt change in subject.
"I already got my antibiotics, I'm feeling a million times better, and I owe you one from earlier." She lied again, plastering on another fake smile as Chassidy was momentarily rendered speechless.
"If you're really feeling better I guess I can always eat." Chassidy shrugged in relief, not really sure of what else to say, as she led Reba outside of the hospital and towards her red Nissan Juke. Just as Reba was comfortably seated in the passenger seat of Chassidy's car, her cellphone's ringtone began to echo loudly from her jean pocket.
"Hello?" She answered skeptically, as she watched Chassidy start the car in the corner of her eye.
"I need you to meet me at the hospital!
"It's Shelby!" She heard Brandon's distraught voice call out from the other end, immediately, for the first time that day, causing her stomach to knot painfully for an entirely different reason.