"Susan?"
"Sharon?"
"Serena?" Chassidy questioned listing off a few S names as she carefully watched the road ahead of her, Reba sitting comfortably in the passenger seat next to her.
"No." Reba denied nonchalantly as she shook her head, leaning back against the seat. Blowing a raspberry at Reba's reply Chassidy gave out a soft humorous laugh.
"I think we'll just have to call her Mitten forever," Chassidy said referring to the pet name Brandon had given their little sister, a few months prior. Now, whenever he was around Reba or mentioning the baby he would call her Mitten.
"Hey it is a pretty cute nickname," Reba mentioned laughingly at her daughter's remark, earning a glare in the process.
"If you don't pick a name I will," Chassidy warned as she eased the car to a smooth stop, the red light in front of them quickly turning green again.
"I feel like we've hit every red light in this town," Reba muttered ignoring Chassidy's comment and looking out at the buildings they were passing by.
"How are Scott and the kids?" Reba asked a moment later, suddenly realizing that she hadn't asked about her son-in-law or grandkids since her daughter had arrived at her house earlier that morning.
"All good."
"Scott's been spending a lot of time with his twin," Chassidy reported back with a soft smile referring to Scott's closest friend and co-worker Scott. Ever since they had begun working together almost eleven years ago, their families and friends had dubbed them as each other's twin.
"Have you spent any time with Sarah then?" Reba questioned further. Scott and his wife Sarah had become one of the Standefer's closest friends, they'd even been to a few Blackstock celebrations in the past.
"I actually had lunch with her the other day."
"Mason and Boyd are both thinking of trying out for football this next year," Chassidy added. Boyd was the same age as Mason and with their parents being such close friends; he was also consequently one of Mason's best friends.
"Awe, you'll have to let me know how that goes." Reba mused happily in response. She smiled softly as she thought about the last junior football practice of Mason's that she had attended a few years ago, remembering how quite good her grandson was at the sport.
"Sadie?" Chassidy abruptly questioned, interrupting their conversation for a moment as she stared to her left at the little cowgirl store named 'Sadie'.
"Kind of popular now because of Sadie Robertson don't ya think?" Reba questioned in response, scrunching her nose a bit as she thought about the sweet but very famous young star.
"Point taken."
"I know!" Chassidy called out suddenly, causing Reba's head to whip back in her direction.
"Hmm?"
"Savannah." She mused as she tried to hold back a laugh, taking a second to glance goofily in her step-mother's direction. Squinting back at her daughter, Reba shook her head back unamused.
"You're lucky you're driving." She said in a low and almost menacing tone. If there was one thing her kids were good for, it was never letting her live anything down.
"Why do you think I suggested it now?" Chassidy said breaking out into a small laugh. She couldn't help but tease Reba about earlier this morning. If she was considering one of the grandchildren's name's, then it was only fair, right? After all, it was an S name.
"You know Simba might be cool for a girl." Chassidy shrugged a moment later, the hospital now swimming into view on their right.
"Chass I know we get confused sometimes but your father isn't actually part lion," Reba said, patting her arm a bit, as they eased into the parking space in front of the main building.
"People name their children Apple."
"Besides you're famous, you could actually get away with that one." She added trying to defend her argument. The name might have meant lion but it was still cute, right?
"Not only no honey, but heck no," She replied as she tried to ease herself out of her SUV, her sore back adding to the difficulty.
"Hey there Lil Misses, the doctor said to take it easy." Chassidy quickly remarked as she exited the driver's side and ran over to meet her step-mother, helping her the rest of the way, out of the SUV.
"Hello I'm Erin; I'll be taking care of you today." A young nurse welcomed warmly as she entered the hospital room Chassidy and Reba had been escorted to.
"My apologies but Dr. Saura is-"
"Running late." Ezra breathlessly interrupted as he also quickly entered the hospital room, startling the young nurse.
"Not supposed to be here." She continued to mutter, looking down at the clipboard in her hand.
"Erin I think you have me confused with Erik again." Ezra jokingly chuckled.
"She does that all the time." He continued, holding up his hand as if he were telling them some sort of secret.
"I'm sure-"
"That you have a colonoscopy to attend to." He quickly finished for her, resting his hand on the small of her back and guiding her closer to the door.
"Yes we wouldn't want to keep you much longer, thank you, Erin." Ezra finished as he stared deeply into her confused eyes willing her to obey.
"Ah yes." She mumbled while nodding her head, suddenly taking the hint, not noticing the skeptical glance Reba and Chassidy shared between one another.
"It was a pleasure, bye Mrs. Blackstock." The young nurse said, obliging to Ezra's silent instructions before bowing out of the room quickly, missing Reba's raised hand at her mistaken name.
"You know the name Ezra is nothing like the name Erik," Chassidy mumbled aloud, bringing both Reba and Ezra out of their thoughts as they still stood there watching the door.
"Close enough," Ezra replied, waving off Chassidy's remark as he took a look down at his own clipboard.
"I'm glad that you could make it this morning and I'm also delighted to see you in better spirits." He continued as he motioned in Reba's direction.
"Anything for little Saxon here." Chassidy smiled as she rubbed Reba's baby bump encouragingly.
"No," Reba mumbled in reference to the name that her daughter had just subtly suggested.
"I'm Chassi-" Chassidy said, turning away from Reba, and extending her arm out for Dr. Saura to shake.
"The youngest daughter, yes I know, we've met before," Ezra replied confidentially, while still accepting Chassidy's brief handshake.
"I know I just like introducing myself."
"Makes me feel important." She shrugged, moving back a bit to Reba's right-hand side.
"As you should." Ezra chuckled softly giving her a small wink before turning around to grab the spinning stool behind him.
"I really like this guy." Chassidy mused in a soft whisper so that only Reba could hear, as she went to sit in the chair next to the patient's bed.
"So shall we get started?" He questioned as he motioned for Reba to take her place on the patient bed so that they could examine her and the baby's heartbeat. Scooting back on the bed Reba let out a small nervous sigh as she glanced swiftly over to Chassidy, who had moved her chair right next to the bed. Grinning at her step-mother she encouraged for her to lay back and quickly took a hold of her free hand.
"Alright." Ezra smiled as he gently pushed Reba's green sweater up to reveal her growing bump and apply a thick layer of the cool gel. Shivering a bit from the cold contact, Reba closed her eyes for a moment and tried to remain at ease, steadying her heartbeat. Once the gel was quickly applied Ezra slowly placed the transducer on the side of Reba's stomach, giving some light pressure before the room suddenly flooded with the sound of her baby girl's heartbeat. Immediately tears sprung to her eyes and an equally misty-eyed Chassidy, laughed a bit while she leaned up and whipped her step-mother's damp cheeks with the sleeve of her shirt.
"I'm pleased to inform that her heartbeat has already increased." Ezra smiled while looking back over to the screen, which displayed the 3D images of the baby inside of Reba and continued to move the transducer around Reba's tummy, avoiding her eye contact in fear of tearing up at the heartfelt moment himself. Reba quickly propped herself up by resting her free hand behind her head as she intently listened to Ezra while gazing, utterly mesmerized at the screen displaying her little girl. He informed her about a few things regarding her healing from the abruption, the size of her baby, and the strength of her heartbeat, all seemingly at a good and steady rate.
"So the biggest thing that we need to watch from here on out is your stress level and you're dieting," Ezra informed a while later after he had shut down the sonogram and Chassidy had helped clean the rest of the gel off of Reba's stomach.
"Stay away from fish, beef, and this one might be a bit of a challenge but, ice-cream," Ezra warned with a small chuckle as he watched Reba nod carefully still sitting on the edge of the bed.
"Start every morning with-" He began to continue before Chassidy's phone began to blare 'I was Made for Loving you' by Kiss, signifying that she had a phone call.
"My apologies." She mumbled as she quickly fumbled through her large black leather purse, grabbing ahold of her iPhone and quickly answering the call as she got up to exit the room.
"Hey, Dan what's up." She mumbled before opening and closing the room door, giving Reba a small and apologetic wave in the process.
"As I was saying," Ezra mumbled with a small laugh, as he ran his hand over his graying beard.
"Smoothies."
"You should really start your day with an all-natural smoothie." He finished, meeting Reba's eyes in, another sweet smile.
"I already do, so I will most certainly not change my routine." She said laughing a bit herself as she slowly scooted off of the edge of the bed, coming to a stance in front of Ezra.
"Right, well you know..." Ezra mumbled softly, clearly caught off guard by her response.
"If you'd ever like to try something new and buy your morning smoothie, I know from personal experience that the Juice Bar in Green Hills does excellent Strawberry smoothies." He noted with a subtle nervous grin. Beginning to understand what he was implying, Reba shook her head in amusement.
"Good thing my 'try something new day' is on Saturday's at noon." She laughed noting how ridiculously obvious they were being.
"Fancy you say that." He quickly laughed shaking his pointer finger in her direction.
"My 'buy a smoothie from Green Hills day' is on Saturday's at noon too." He gushed overly enthused as she just continued to shake her head softly.
"Well then maybe I'll just happen to bump into you when I decide to try this new place." She said shrugging a bit, trying to be completely casual.
"Sorry that was just Dan; he wanted to know what time Mom would be done with her hair appointment."
"I mean it's not as if the woman doesn't have a phone," Chassidy explained in agitation as she burst back through the hospital room interrupting their conversation.
"Right well, I'll send you two to Stephanie out front and she'll go ahead and write your prescription for you," Ezra said, quickly growing serious again, clearing his throat, and pretending as if the conversation he had just had with Reba never happened.
"Now I know your morning sickness has already been worse than normal but this medication has a tendency to mess with your hormone level and will most likely make you ill." He added sympathetically as they began to turn back towards the hospital room door.
"So try and stick to light foods and soup for the next few days." He added softly, while rubbing Reba's shoulder in a small goodbye, before accepting Chassidy's hand once more, and then turning around to proceed on down the hallway.
"Okay so I know you're stuck on this whole S thing but what about Waverly?" Chassidy questioned as she played with the straw in her water at the café her and Reba sat in later that day.
"Maybe for a substation but not a baby." Reba vetoed quickly with the shake of her head.
"Okay, one, you watch way too much Disney Channel, and why not?" Chassidy whined. She hadn't fully expressed to Reba why helping pick the name of her sister was so important, but being old enough to be this baby's mother she wanted to make sure that they had a strong sisterly bond.
"Hey it's not my fault Wizards of Waverly Place came on after Seth and I watched Tangled." Reba tried to justify softly, earning an eyebrow raise from Chassidy in the process.
"Look I don't know I just got a strong feeling from that dream-"
"You mean nightmare?" Chassidy questioned in correction, remembering when she had to urgently awake Reba that morning.
"Her name will start with an S as a reminder." Reba continued as she messed with the bowl of half eaten chicken soup that sat in front of her.
"To what exactly?" Chassidy probed further, leaning in a bit, as Reba's sudden change of tone caused her to grow increasingly intrigued.
"That I will never allow that dream to become my future."
"My daughter is exactly that, Mine." She stated confidently, holding back the tears that were suddenly beginning to brim her eyes. Damn hormones.
"That and I think it's quite charming that savior starts with an S."
"Because she certainly has been quite the savior through all of this." Reba choked softly as she forced a sweet smile, Chassidy leaning in to grasp her hand once more.
"And here I was thinking it was because Shelby and Shawna's names started with an S and you were playing favoritism." She mumbled a moment later causing them to both to laugh through their misty eyes.
"Never." She mused, giving her daughter a small and sincere wink.