AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay sooooo I received a very overwhelming response to continue this story. Seriously I received more reviews on that author's note than any other chapter. I think it was a close to 50 reviews in like two days or something similar to that number? Sooo by popular demand I will contuine this story (and hopefully the sequel)
And thanks to all who sent their condolences for my MacBook.
RIP Riley's MacBook, You Will Be Forever In Our Hearts.
On a side note, I've decided that I'm just no longer happy with the story lines and creative direction of the show. I havent been since early during the fourth season, and I just don't think I'll be watching anymore. I will continue this story regardless though.
PS: I want to thank sooo many wonderful reviewers and fans, and people who've written in to me! LOVE YOU!
Especially Sarah my BETA! And I would really like to encourage everyone to read all the AW stories by author 'UnwittySidekick' I really enjoy them and if you like my stories you might enjoy her's too! :)
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Thump. Thump. Thump.
The sound of a beating heart. Thundering through his ribcage. Jeremy Sherwood sighed, wondering if anyone else thought his heartbeat was too loud.
This out of control beating ricocheting from his chest wasn't the only sign of the soldier's shaky nerves. His hands were sweating more now than they had in his whole life. His mind was reeling with possible scenarios soaring through his head in the time span of one second.
In the waiting room chair to his left, Emmalin Holden wasn't fairing much better. The eighteen year old kept looking at him like he could fix everything. And as much as Jeremy wished he did, he just didn't have the answers this time…in fact some would probably go as far as to say it was all his fault.
Funny how in the middle of a war zone, he knew just what to do. With a rifle in his hands under the hard steel rain known as mortar he didn't flinch once. A humvee blew up, ohh no big deal, just another day. Shot again, ohh well it happens. But send him to a gyno's office and he felt like he was about to be sick.
"Are you scared?" Emmalin asked, reaching for his hand. Her amber eyes were roaming the waiting room floor nervously.
If it was this hard on him, he couldn't imagine what she must be thinking.
Jeremy sucked in a deep breath…there could be a tiny little person inside Emmalin right now. Mind shattering.
"…yeah. You?" Specialist Sherwood answered finally, after a moment of shaking silence. He gave her small hand a gentle squeeze, bringing the finger tips to his lips for a soft kiss.
"Of course. We might be parents….we might be parents." Emmalin said frightened. She leaned her head against her boyfriend's shoulder.
"Yeah." He couldn't be a Dad. Dad's sat through ballet recitals, and beat up boyfriends, taught you how to shave and…and told bad jokes, and other stuff that he clearly didn't do.
"Jeremy…I can't even remember to do my laundry, how am I supposed to take care of a baby. And what do I tell my parents?" Emmalin whispered, fear evident in her voice. When you found out someone else was/might be pregnant it was scary…but when you were the one who might be creating a little life force in your stomach it was horrifying. Not that Emmalin didn't love and adore babies, because she did! They had that new baby smell and you got to watch them crawl and take their first step, and learn their first words, and show them a new interesting world that they were just being introduced to.
Babies, came and then everything changed, good changes and bad changes. Bad like giving up your free time for diaper changing and your peaceful nights for sleep deprivation. But you got to watch them grow, and learn and look at all the wonderful things that made that baby a mix of you and the other parent.
A few years down the road would Emmalin get to watch Jeremy teach a new little boy how to play catch? Would she put bows in a little girls hair?
Would the baby have Jeremy's eyes and her smile? Maybe Jeremy's smile and her eyes? Would the baby be a little mini Jeremy with chubby cheeks and a sense of humor just like his? Or would the baby love hockey and sleep with a teddy bear until it was fourteen like she did? The possibilities intrigued the Army Brat.
"Well after your dad kills me, I assume you'll have to get used to being a single mom." Jeremy teased as he leaned over and pecked Emmalin's forehead soothingly.
"Ha Ha Ha, very funny." She smiled, stroking his cheek with the pad of her thumb.
As scary as all this was, Emmalin Holden's heart glowed at the image of Jeremy holding a new born baby with chubby cheeks and her eyes. She smiled at the sight of him teaching a two year old how to play catch. And she laughed thinking about how he'd try to teach their baby how to feed itself with a fork and probably end up in an all out food fight, covered in food instead. She could see him teaching their little boy or girl how to ride their bike all by themselves.
'I want that.' Emmalin Holden thought silently, looking at Jeremy while picturing them raising a baby.
"I'm not kidding." Jeremy sighed, picturing the vain on his dad's neck throb right before he reached out to strangle his only son. Telling your 'John Wayne'-esqe father that you got your girlfriend, his boss/best friend's daughter, pregnant could prove to be potentially fatal.
"What are we supposed to do?" Emmalin asked, much more calm and cheerful now. The fear was there still, but now there was a much bigger joy accompanying it.
"Get married. Move in together. Raise a baby for eighteen years. Isn't that how this kinda thing goes?" the Soldier suggested. Fiddling his thumbs nervously.
"You think? Someone told me once that all babies need is love right?" Emmalin smiled. This was going to be okay. If she had a baby now, it would be hard. Terribly hard, but it wouldn't be the end of the world and she knew with absolute certainty that she would love that baby.
"No. Babies need food, and clothes, and stuff. Love does not support babies, Emmalin." Jeremy's eyes widened. Was she off her God damn rocker? Babie need a place to live and money, and food, and lots of other things besides just love. Like health insurance and strollers, and cribs, and bedding, and clothes. And other things that he really didn't know if he could provide at the moment. And what about Emmalin's schooling, how would college fit in with a baby?
"But we can do it right…I mean IF I'm pregnant, we could do it right?" Emmalin asked. She knew they could, without a doubt in her mind. But Jeremy had to believe it too.
"Well I'm not willing to quit until we find out." Jeremy replied. He didn't want a baby. Not now anyway. Maybe a few years down the road, after getting married, and finding a nice house, maybe after college even.
"Miss Holden." a Doctor called, wearing camouflage scrubs and a holding a clipboard.
"Here." Emmalin called, standing from her chair and pulling her boyfriend with her.
"You know…I've never been to the gyno before." Jeremy whispered in her ear, a bundle of nerves.
"It's not fun. Trust me." Emmalin giggled, recalling her last gyno experience with an overly peppy doctor fresh out of med school.
"I love you, you know. Even if you get really fat, and can't fit into your clothes anymore. I still love you." Jeremy nodded reassuringly. Smiling and leaning down to peck her cheek.
"Touching Jeremy." the hockey player rolled her eyes before answering, "Love you too."
They followed the middle aged Doctor down a hall as he led them to an examining room. A light green painted room, with a small exam table covered in paper and a set of chairs.
"It says here, you're here for a pregnancy test? Did you take an at-home test yet?" Dr. Shaw asked curiously. He was an older man with graying hair, and a bald spot on the top of his head. He pulled out glasses and slung them on the bridge of his nose before studying his clipboard thoroughly.
"Yes. More than one, we kept getting mixed answers." Emmalin explained, waiting for the barrage of uncomfortable questions to come barreling out of the Army Doctor's mouth.
"Is this your first pregnancy scare, Miss Holden?" Dr. Shaw asked, his eyes never leaving his clipboard as he scribbled every word down.
"Yes. I've been on the pill." Emmalin gulped.
"Did you miss a dose?" Raising an eyebrow.
"No…I was on anti-biotics." Emmalin replied. Jeremy's hand smoothing hair out of her eyes, reassuringly.
"Is this the possible Daddy?" the Man questioned, gesturing with a finger towards Jeremy.
What was that supposed to mean? Possible Daddy? You mean he couldn't tell?
"Well good. Let's get started. Roll up your sleeve for some blood work. And then I'll have you take a urine test." Dr Shaw instructed. All business. Something military doctors were famous for.
"Great now we'll just have to be patient for the lab work. The results should be back in thirty minutes or so." After collecting the samples, and taking his leave.
The room was suddenly more tension filled. In thirty minutes Emmalin Holden and Jeremy Sherwood would find out if they were expecting or not. If they'd have a new little Sherwood in nine months, or not.
Jeremy was panicking and Emmalin took this moment to consider possible baby names, teasing him with particularly bad options.
When finally after an agonizing forty minutes had passed, waiting is often the worst part of anything you see, Dr Shaw peeked his head back into their little exam area. His hand filled with his previous clipboard but now also containing a folder of results that determined the rest of their lives.
"Here they are. We have determined that you're not pregnant. However the reason your period's been late and that the pregnancy tests were wrong is because of a hormone imbalance. You're bodies producing too much estrogene thanks to the anti-botics and the birth control being taken at the same time. You'll need to take a shot to regulate your hormone levels and use a condom until you can resume the pill." Dr Shaw explained, slipping his glasses off his face and sliding them into a pouch in the front of his Army scrubs.
He paused for a few more brief seconds to let the news sink in.
The look of delight on Jeremy's face must have let him know that the news had sunk in.
"Thanks." Emmalin cringed when Jeremy told the Dr thank you. Didn't even a small part of him want a baby the way she did. A mixture of the two of them…did he want that at all?
"You dodged a bullet there….we have condoms provided, and we have pamplets instructing you how to use them if nessacary." Dr Shaw lectured.
"Trust me, it's not." Jeremy tried to assure Dr. Shaw
"I insist. I don't want to see you both in here again." Dr. Shaw came back swinging, trying to force a grocery sized bag of rubbers in the Specialists arms.
"I've got it covered…" Jeremy said, trying to be nice when returning what must have been at least a hundred and five condoms to the Dr.
"That's the right attitude. Cover your stump before you hump! Or wrap your whacker before you attack her!" Dr Shaw laughed, shoving the bag back into the twenty year old's arms. Laughing as he took his leave once again.
"I think he's determined for you to leave here with those honey." Emmalin laughed, pointing towards Jeremy's collection of condoms. But her heart was heavy as she thought of the baby she wouldn't be having.
She didn't know what would've been worse.
Finding out she was pregnant…or finding out she wasn't pregnant and wanted to be…