AN: Hey! Thanks for the reviews of the previous chapter. Much appreciated. :) I'll be prefectly honest, I don't particularly like this chapter, but it needs to be there to get things moving along.

.... OH!! And before I disappear. You must must MUST go read My Fresh Start by TheSameFatalFlaw. Do it, do it now! Well, y'know, after you've read this. :P

My Dance Meeting

It's been four weeks since Elliot and I found out we were going to be parents. As scary as the thought still is, we're slowly but surely getting used to the idea. Elliot, however, is finding it a bit more difficult to adjust to being pregnant…

---

Four weeks ago…

I'm on break and hurrying down to Coffee Bucks to meet Elliot. When I get into the building, I see Elliot almost immediately. I kiss her cheek quickly before sitting down next to her. "Sorry, I'm late."

"No worries. I only just got here," Elliot smiles. "I got you a cappuccino, is that okay?"

"Of course."

Just as Elliot lifts her cup to take a sip of her drink, I glance into her cup.

"What did you get for yourself?" I ask, trying not to sound too suspicious.

"Cappuccino," she answers quickly. Then it seems to click in her head. "Damn." Be right back." She stands up and walks back over to the counter.

---

Three weeks ago…

The sound of a flushing toilet emanates from the bathroom (strangely enough). A second or two later Elliot walks out of the bathroom and back into living room. She's chalk white and looks exhausted. Flopping down, she exhales with frustration. "How much longer do I have to deal with throwing up a gazillion times a day?"

I pick up a book that's sitting on the coffee table. The cover says 'What To Expect When You're Expecting'. After looking through the index, I turn to page four. "According to this book, could be up to the 16th week or intermittent episodes throughout pregnancy."

Elliot frowns, lowers her head, and whimpers.

---

Last week…

Elliot and I are having a look around the mall. We decided to have a look around the shops at baby stuff. Just 'cause. And since it's only four weeks until Christmas, we thought we'd get a head start on things. But unfortunately, Elliot has to pee. Again. And she's not happy about it.

"I've only had one cup of juice since I got here. What the hell? And where the hell are the damn bathrooms?"

"I don't know," I answer calmly. "They should be signposted better."

"The amount of times I have to pee theses days, you'd think I'd be able to find a fricking bathroom!"

Okay, she really is pissed off. "Come on, we'll ask the information guy there."

Reluctantly, Elliot nods and walks with me towards the information desk.

"Excuse me," I say to the guy. "Could you please tell us where the bathrooms are?"


"Yes," the guy smiles. "They're down towards the entrance and towards the left."

Elliot lowers her eyebrows angrily. "Back down towards the entrance!" she snaps. The poor info guy looks terrified. "For the love of God. You'd think you'd have some fricking signposts or something," she irately says as she walks away.

After Elliot's storm off, the info guy looks at me, speechless.

"She's, uh, she's having a bad day," I say quietly. "It's nothing personal."

"Okay," Info Guy replies shakily.


I should probably find Elliot before she scares the living daylights out of another poor mall worker.

---

So, like I said, Elliot's finding it harder to adjust to being pregnant, but we're both more relaxed about actually having a baby. I guess Carla was right. We do feel differently now that the initial shock has worn off. We're almost excited about having the baby, even though we are still terrified out of our minds. But we're focusing on the positives, and today is the first sonogram, and we couldn't be more excited about it.

"Okay, remember to meet me up at obstetrics at 12.30?" Elliot asks, as I drive us to work. "And don't be late, or I'll have to kick your butt."

"Relax," I say jokingly. "There's no way in hell I'd be late for this. It's seeing the baby for the first time!"

Elliot laughs but rolls her eyes. "Please don't say it like that."

"Why not?"

"It scares me, that's all. It's just makes it all sound so scary and real."

"But aren't you excited?"

"Yeah, of course I am," Elliot smiles. "But I'm nervous too."

"Why?"

"I just… am. I'll be fine though."

"You sure?" I ask, as I pull into a parking spot.

"Yeah."

Elliot and I don't speak as we got out of the car and walk towards the hospital entrance.

"I wish it was 12.30 already," I say quietly.

"Yeah, me too," Elliot smiles.

I have to be honest and say it is really annoying being a senior at St Catherine's High School. The school expect us to do so much, it's ridiculous. We're either helping out at parents' nights for the younger grades or helping in younger classes or helping out with elementary school Mass or showing visitors round on the open night. Last week I didn't get home at all until after ten! I had to cancel my driving lesson too and I'm so close to my fifty hours! And now I have to organise the disco in a week, and I'm getting really pissed off. I'm the only one of my friends on the Dance Committee along side seven other bitches who I can't stand and who can't stand me. The thing is, these other girls, they're like this really insane clique. They're the 'it' crowd and I'm still the new girl, even though I've been here for nearly four months. It's ridiculous. Oh, and the chairperson of the committee, Rebecca, is the biggest bitch of the lot. I don't mean to be pessimistic, but I can see this ending badly for me,

Rebecca stands up and flashes her false and bitchy smirk. "We need somebody to pin up posters during their next study period. Would anybody like to do that?" She looks around the room, but I keep my head down. If I don't look maybe she won't notice me. "Alyssa, why don't you do that?"

Damn. "Uh… I'd rather not waste my study periods putting up the posters. I have a Chemistry exam in a few weeks and I really need to study for it."

Rebecca lowers her eyebrows and looks at me disapprovingly. "I'm sorry, are you saying that you don't want to help the committee.

A couple of the committee members scoff.

"No," I say calmly, even though I'm pretty angry. "That's not what I said at all. I said I would rather not give up my free periods because I have to study."

"We all have to study, Alyssa."

Roll eyes. "Yes, I know, but does everybody have a Chemistry exam in two weeks?" I know for a fact that I'm the only one in here that has a Chemistry exam. "Surely someone else could do that and I do something less time consuming."

Shaking her head, Rebecca says, "If you weren't willing to commit the time to the community, then you shouldn't have joined."

Oh jeez. "You know what!" I snap. "I will just place those poster. Maybe it will get you to shut the hell up!"

My god. Everybody else in the committee is looking at me like I just skinned their puppy. And Rebecca's glaring at me. She lifts up an envelope and chucks it across the table at me. The envelope has the word 'Posters' written on it.

"There," Rebecca says scathingly. "Now, moving on…"

I told you this would go well.

The hospital is relatively calm today. There have been no sudden emergencies or codes. It's an easy day, work wise. Now, I'm taking Turk to see one of my patients, who requires a surgical consult.

"So, Ms Henry, this is Dr Turk. He's this best surgeon in this hospital, and he'll be the one operating on you."

"Nice to meet you, Ms Henry," Turk politely says.

"Please, call me Caitlyn."

"Okay, Caitlyn. The operation I'll perform is very simple…"

While Turk goes into detail about the surgery, I drift off. I'm not great at listening at surgical stuff. Even though it's calm, today is going so slowly. It's only 9.30, and it feels like I've been here for twenty hours. I think it's because I'm just so excited. I can't wait for the ultrasound later on. I want it to be 12.30 already.

But, while I couldn't be more thrilled about the ultrasound, Elliot seems more subdued. I know she's excited, don't get me wrong, I know she is. She seems nervous though. I suppose it is quite a nerve-racking thing. Hopefully, everything will be fine, but there's always the little possibility that it won't be. There are a million things that could be wrong.

You know what, I can't think about that. Because if you were to think about that you'd never relax. Ever. Optimism is always the best policy. Optimism.

I think Turk is rounding up his surgical explanation.

"So, Caitlyn, do you have any questions?"

"Yeah. Why does that guy keep staring at his watch?"

"What?" I ask kinda incredulously.

"Every few seconds you glance at your watch," Caitlyn explains. "What's that about?"

"Just seeing what time it is," I answer sheepishly, looking down at my feet.

Turk shakes his head. "Dude, you realise 12.30 isn't going to come any earlier because you keep looking at your watch? If anything it's going to seem like longer because of that."

I hate him sometimes. "I know."

"Oh, what's happening at 12.30? Sounds exciting!"

"My girlfriend is having her first ultrasound today," I say excitedly.

"Aww how cute! How far along is she?"

"About eight weeks roughly, we think," I smile.

"Aww."

"Yup," Turk mutters. "Today JD and Elliot are going to find out just how screwed up their kid's gonna be."

What?

"Okay, Caitlyn, we'll be back tomorrow for your surgery," Turk concludes, before we leave the room. "So you're really psyched for Elliot's ultrasound today, huh?"

"Yeah, I am."

"You never forget the first one," Turk says, almost reminiscently. "Be prepared for the tears."

Then it goes silent.

"Say Turk, when you said Elliot and I would find out how screwed up the baby is, what exactly did you mean by that?"

"I meant that with the combined insanity of you and Elliot, that kid has no chance of being normal," he answers, as if it was oh so obvious. "Why? What did you think I meant?"

"I don't know," I reply. "I've just been thinking. What if there's something wrong with the baby? What if there's no heartbeat?"

Turk sighs. "I'm not gonna lie. It might happen."

"Thanks. That's really helpful in calming my fears, thanks."

"I'm sorry. But it could happen," Turk repeats. Like he needs to say it more than once. "But equally, it probably won't. And if you always think about the worst, you would never relax. Ever."

"I guess you're right. You know, I was completely fine about it all until today. Today… I just feel so nervous, like something's going to be wrong."

"Yeah, I felt like that too when Carla was pregnant with Izzy. But after the first, I felt so much calmer. Trust me, you'll be the same."

"You think?" I ask quietly.

"Yeah," Turk answers. His pager beeps, and he looks down at it. "Listen dude, I gotta go. Call me later and let me know how it goes, okay?"

"Sure. Thanks Turk."

"No probs." Turk begins to walk away, but he turns around again. "Another thing. Do not, under any circumstances, let Elliot know you're nervous. It would not end well for anybody. At all."

"I won't."

"Good man." Turk walks away.

I sigh. It's going to be a really long day.

As much as I really detest doing this, I am pinning these posters to the walls of the building. This is ridiculous. I should be spending my time studying Chemistry, and instead I'm doing this.

One good this from this though, is that it is making me work on my anger management skills. You see, I want to do nothing more than rip all of these posters to shreds, but I'm rising above my anger and attempting to stay calm and just tack the posters up anyway. Trust me, it's not easy. At least I've got my iPod to distract me somewhat.

I want to live where soul meets body… Seriously, Death Cab For Cutie are just awesome. Perfect calm down song, that. But I hope I wasn't singing out loud. I'm kinda prone to doing that, and it's not fun for anybody.

Somebody taps me on the shoulder. Which probably means I was singing. Damn. I turn around to look at whoever tapped me on the shoulder.

"You're listening to Soul Meets Body by Death Cab, aren't you?" Michael asks me.

I think I can feel my cheeks go red. "I was singing, wasn't I?"

"No, but your iPod is so loud I can hear it half way down the corridor," Michael quips. "What are you doing anyway? I thought you wanted to do Chemistry revision today."

"I did, but instead I am thinking happy thoughts so I don't go psycho and shove forty disco posters up Rebecca Mackenzie's bitchy ass."

"Ah, yes, the Dance meeting," Michael dryly says. "How did that go?" He asks in a similar tone.

"Well, all the other girls there looked at me like I was green and had antennae, and then I got the most pain-in-the-ass job of the day while all the others got cushy jobs that literally require no work at all and I yelled at Rebecca," I answer. "So not great. That bitch just infuriates me."

"Yeah, she does that to most people who aren't in her gaggle," Michael sympathetically answers, and we walk along the corridor. "After twelve years of school with her, you eventually train yourself to block her out."

"You were at elementary with her?"

"I was, indeed," Michael wincingly says. "It's a memory I try to block out. That bitch used to steal my lunch money from me."

As I blu-tac another poster to the wall, I say, "That's horrible!"

"Yeah, it only stopped when she decided to start picking on the second graders."

"Evil."

"I always wish I'd stood up for myself though, you know. Got a chance to call her on her crap. It's one thing I want to do before I graduate if I get the chance."

"Well, you better do it soon," I answer. "Otherwise I'll have already killed her and it will be too late." After ensuring the poster I just placed is straight, I ask Michael, "You wanna help me tack these upstairs?"

"Yeah."

"Carla," Elliot says as she walks towards me. "What time is it?"

I roll my eyes. "It's 12.15," I crossly say. "Roughly five minutes since you last asked me."

Elliot smiles contritely. "Sorry. I don't have a watch, and I'm afraid I'll be late for my appointment."

"And did you really think twenty minutes had passed in the time it took you to go to the supply closet and back?"

Elliot just glares at me. "Shut up. My time judging skills are all over the place. I'm really nervous."

"About the ultrasound?"

"Yeah," she answers melancholically.

"Why?"

"I just keep thinking something's going to be wrong, you know? I keep thinking there's no going to be a heartbeat or they're going to tell us that there's something really wrong with the baby," Elliot says quietly.

I can completely understand what Elliot is feeling. "Have you told JD how you're feeling?" I ask.

"No," she frowns. "He's so excited about the baby and the ultrasound. I don't think he's even thought about what could be wrong and I don't want to bring him down, too." Elliot keeps looking down at the ground as we walk along the corridor. "I want to be as excited as JD is, I really do. It's just… there's something in the back of my mind always telling me there's might be a problem."

"I have to be honest with you," I begin, "that feeling never really goes away. You'll always think that something might be wrong."

"Yeah. I think I'll feel better after today, and I've seen the ultrasound and I know that everything's okay with the baby. Maybe I'll be able to relax and get more excited then."

"You know what, you probably will. I was exactly the same with Izzy," I explain. "I was absolutely terrified and I sort of obsessed over every little thing that could have been wrong. But after the first ultrasound, I felt better. You'll be the same."

"I hope so," Elliot smiles. "You know, I was fine until a couple of weeks ago. Then I had this nightmare that I was out somewhere – the mall, I think – and I started bleeding and I got to the hospital and they told me the baby was dead. They let me see it. It had two heads, no eyes and ducks' feet though, so that one was probably for the best," Elliot concludes, laughing just slightly. "But after that, it's just been in my head that things could be wrong."

"Your baby had ducks' feet?" I incredulously ask.

"Yeah, and wings!" Elliot replies, in a similar tone. "Clearly I ate too much cheese that night. I should never let JD convince me to cheese pizza and cheese nachos while watching Red Dawn."

Elliot and I speak at the same time. "Wolverines!"

"Anyway," I say, moving away from movie puns, "from what I heard, you were the one that convinced JD to make you cheese pizza and nachos."

"Okay, whose side are you on?" Elliot protests jokingly. "Hey, what time is it now?"

I glance down at my watch. "Oh, it's 12.25."

Elliot sighs nervously. "I guess I should go up to gyno then."

"You want me to walk up with you?"

"Thanks Carla."

"What are friends for, huh?"

It took Michael and I the rest of the hour to put all the posters up about the school. It probably shouldn't have taken that long, but we were kinda messing around and – I'm not ashamed in the slightest to admit this – we were seriously making fun of Rebecca Mackenzie. It was so great, almost cathartic. I feel much better after that.

But, unfortunately, the bitch is in my French class, which is where I'm walking into now. Hopefully she won't even speak to me.

"Alyssa."

No such luck then. I turn around and look at Rebecca, who's glaring at me. And the little faction is looking at me like I'm diseased. Joy. "Yes?"

"Did you put up the posters?"

"I did."

"Good," she replies scathingly. She looks at me like I'm something she'd scrape off the bottom of her shoe and her little bitches sneer at me before turning around again.

Happy thoughts, Alyssa. Happy thoughts.

It's 12.30. I've just booked Elliot in. The receptionist gave me a weird look so I had to explain to her that I was booking my girlfriend in and she'd be here in a few minutes. She still looked at me weird, and then told me that appointments were running a few minutes behind. Typical. It's lucky though, because Elliot isn't here yet. So I sat down in the waiting room and claimed a seat for Elliot too.

It hasn't been the greatest morning. I've been nervous all morning. But, I think, hopefully, once we get past this milestone, things will be easier and I won't worry so much. Maybe Elliot will seem more excited too.

Speaking of Elliot, she's walking in just now with Carla. She seems relaxed, happy actually. Much better than she was this morning. Carla just seems to be standing in the doorway.

"So, call me later about Saturday," Carla says.

Elliot nods enthusiastically. "Yeah, totally. And thanks for earlier."

"No worries," Carla answers. "And, uh, good luck. I'm sure everything will be fine."

"Thanks."

Once Carla leaves, Elliot turns around and notices me. She smiles, and walks towards me. "Hey," she says, sitting down beside me.

I give her a quick kiss before repeating. "Hey. What's Saturday?"

"Carla was saying we could maybe go round to theirs for dinner on Saturday night. What do you think?"

"Yeah, why not?" I answer. "It'll be fun."

"We haven't been for dinner there in ages," Elliot says thoughtfully.

"Probably not since Izzy was born."

"Huh." Elliot smiles at me. "So, how's your day been?"

"It's been okay. Just glad to be here now." Yeah, I'm not telling her about my worries all day. I don't want to worry her to.

"Me too."

A minute later, a nurse steps out from one of the rooms, holding a clipboard and glancing down at it. "Elliot Reid?"

Elliot and I stand up at the same time. "That's me," she says nervously.

"Yep. You ready?" I ask.

"Yep. You?"

"I think so."

"Okay then," Elliot smiles, taking my hand in hers. "Let's go in then."

It's lunchtime, thank God. Hopefully I can catch a break without You Know Who bugging me. If I could just get away for an hour, maybe I wouldn't want to knock her head off her shoulders. I really don't like this violence I have going today. It's really not fun.

I have barely sat my ass on the seat when It comes to speak to me. I should brace myself.

"Alyssa Reid, why are you sitting there?"

Did she just surname me? "What the hell?" I angrily ask. "I have no idea what you're talking about!"

"You're supposed to be selling dance tickets right now!"

"No, I'm not! Madyson is!"

"Mady had somewhere else to be. She told you to sell the tickets instead."

Oh my god. "She never did. I haven't seen her since the meeting this morning."

Rebecca shakes her head censoriously. "Whatever. Just get down there and sell the tickets!" She walks away.

Happy thoughts, Alyssa. Happy thoughts. Happy thoughts.

Oh to hell with the happy thoughts! I am mad. Actually raging. I'm going to go sell the tickets, only because it might create less trouble for me, but I'm sure as hell not happy about it. Trust me, it difficult for me to not turn around right now and go knock the stuffing out of her.

My goodness, I could scream the place down I'm that mad. Who the hell does she think she is? Talking to me like that! Argh!

I'm still storming down the corridor. I'm just at the selling table when I'm stopped abruptly by someone shouting on me from behind.

"Alyssa! Hey!" It's Michael and he walks towards me. "Are you okay? You're storming down the corridor like a pissed off elephant."

"I'm going to kill her! I'm actually going to murder her."

Michael frowns and guides me to the seat behind the table. "What did she do this time?"

"Now apparently I have to sell tickets!" I shriek. "Madyson Clarke decided she can't sell the tickets today. I haven't had a break at all today."

"That sucks, I'm sorry."

"And you know, that's not even what I'm so mad about!" I continue. "It's the way she speaks to me like I'm a piece of dirt or she so much better than me! It's so infuriating. Her head's so far up her ass." Then I rest my elbows on the table, put my head in my hands and exhale loudly.

"Hey," Michael softly says. "I know, she's a bitch. She deserves to die painfully. But I really hate seeing you so pissed off and she ain't worth it."

"I hate that bitch, though."

"I know. I do too. Why don't you just refuse to do what she tell you?"

"Yeah, okay." I say almost mockingly. "You try doing that in front of her gaggle."

"I suppose. How about you just grin and bear it, I help you do the stuff and after this disco you do nothing for the Dance Committee after that?"

"Yeah, that sounds like a plan," I answer calmly. "But please don't be surprised if I kill her before hand."

"I won't be," Michael laughs. "You want a hug?" He asks, holding his arms out.

I hug him back. "Thanks," I add. "How long is it until the disco?"

"A week."

"It's so long," I melodramatically whine.

At that moment, a girl (I think she's in eight grade) walks over to the table. "Excuse me, are you two selling disco tickets?"

"Yes," Michael smiles politely. "How many would you like?"

"Two please."

"That'll be five dollars, please."

The girl hands a five-dollar bill to Michael, who then hands it to me, and smiles at me.

I have to say, I feel calmer now.

"Are you still looking at the picture?" I ask Elliot as I walk into the kitchen.

Elliot laughs. "Trust me, I'm going to be looking at this for a long, long time yet."

We had absolutely nothing to worry about. Nothing at all. The baby is one hundred percent healthy. It has a really strong heartbeat and is growing well. Although, it does somewhat resemble a weird potato. Hey, those were Elliot's words not mine. But then she did say it was the best weird potato-looking thing she'd ever seen, so I guess that's something.

It was so strange hearing the heartbeat for the first time today. It was a feeling I can't quite explain. But it was a good feeling.

"Hey," Elliot shouts through. "Where are we on the food? Potato and I are getting hungry."

"Potato?" I repeat incredulously.

Elliot seems to mull. "Well, right now it looks like a potato. And we don't know if the baby's a boy or a girl so we can't give it a real name. And pet names for unborn babies are always cute, and Potato was the first thing that came to my head. So, yeah, Potato." She laughs a little and her own ridiculous reasoning.

I laugh with her, as I sit down beside her and hand her the apple she asked for. "Fair enough. I just wanted to know the logic."

Elliot bites in to her apple. "I have to tell you something. I was so nervous going in to the ultrasound today."

"Me too," I say honestly. "I had managed to convince myself that something was going to be wrong."

Elliot sights with relief. "Oh god, so had I. That's why I haven't seemed so excited about everything. I haven't been letting myself get too, I don't know, excited or attached because I was expecting to be devastated today," she says quietly. "But, you know, now that I've seen that everything's okay, and I've seen the baby I'm so happy and excited."

"It all feels real now, doesn't it?" I ask, looking down at the ultrasound picture.

"Yeah," Elliot smiles. "Yeah, it does."

After a few seconds of a happy hush, the calm is disturbed by the sound of the apartment door opening. Alyssa walks in, kicking her shoes off at the door. "Hey," she says tiredly. "Worst. Day. Ever," she mumbles, walking into the living room area.

"We want to hear about your crappy day, we really do," Elliot says. "But first, so as I don't like explode or something –" Elliot doesn't finish her sentence, instead holding the ultrasound picture up towards Alyssa so she can see.

"Awww," Alyssa says. Can you say 'says' if what they say isn't a recognisable word? Huh. "How cute!" Then she tilts her head to the side slightly. "Although… it… kinda looks like a potato. No offence," she contritely says.

I shrug. "None taken."

"So anyway. The bad day," Elliot states.

"So, I go to the committee meeting this morning, with the bitch from hell who decided that I have to do all the work for the disco next week, while they all sit on their bitchy asses all day and do nothing." I don't think she even took a breath there while speaking. "I have never been so angry for such a long time. I swear I would have killed someone, or myself, if Michael hadn't calmed me down, somehow."

Elliot frowns at her niece sympathetically. "Honey, I'm sorry. That must have sucked."

"Yeah it did," Alyssa mumbled unhappily.

"But look on the bright side," I optimistically add, "your can only get better."

"Hopefully." Alyssa glances to the side and then lowers her eyebrows. "Is that answering machine message button light flashing?" She walks to the machine and presses the green play button.

We all listen intently.

"Elliot, it's your father. I was calling to invite you, Alyssa and… JD to Connecticut for Christmas. I've booked you all flights for the 20th December. Call me back for the final arrangements. Bye."

The silence that follows is not a happy one, but more of trepidation.

"You were saying," Alyssa snarls.

Oh dear.