The magazines that Hunley had placed on her lap had been quickly flipped through and Julia was bored out of her wits. She was feeling fine, and it wasn't in the end a huge thing to faint. It happened to people all the time without there being anything wrong.
Irving laughed as he watched her from afar. She kept looking at the clock on the wall. She knew full well how long a full blood panel would take to run and get results. And if Devon thought she'd give him extra minutes before coming with them he was wrong.
Devon walked up next to him. "At least she listened and stayed put."
Irving nodded. "Maybe but she's a ticking time bomb. She's been eyeing that clock for the past 15 minutes."
Devon started to type on the keyboard. "Well, we should have all the results now."
Irving watched as Devon's eyes scanned the data on the screen as he scrolled through the different protocol pages. He saw Devon's brow lift slightly.
"Everything OK?"
"Yep. All's good. I'll go tell Julia and release her."
Irving frowned, he was sure he had picked up on something but even though he oversaw the ER, he didn't let his curiosity win over and look at Julia's file. In the end, she wasn't his patient and if Devon said she was fine, there was no need to go prying.
"So," said Julia seeing Devon walk over to her. "This is where you tell me I have a clean bill of health and can go back to my patients."
Devon nodded. "Yes, there is nothing out of the ordinary that is concerning. However, we need to talk, in private."
Julia frowned and furrowed her brow. "I don't get it. You just said everything was fine."
"Yes, but I still have information to give you and this ER has ears."
"If it's in my medical record, anyone from the ER can consult it. Why all the mystery?"
"Because I'm not sure this is the kind of information you want others to have right now."
"Fine," she said as she removed the cardiac captors and stood from the bed.
She very casually waved at Hunley and Irving and walked out of the ER followed by Devon.
He took the first empty office and closed the door once they were both inside.
She gave him a look that said, 'alright, spit it out already'.
"Your blood test shows elevated signs of hCG."
She narrowed her eyes. "I'm sorry, what was that?"
"Your levels are over 4000 IU/L which would indicate that you are 6 to 8 weeks pregnant."
She started to laugh.
"What's funny?" asked Devon not sure how to react to her own reaction.
"You are. It's actually a pretty good prank and I almost fell for it."
"Julia, I'm not pranking you. You can access your test results yourself."
Seeing he wasn't changing his attitude, she suddenly changed hers and stopped laughing.
"You're dead serious."
"Yes. And seeing your reaction, I take it you didn't know, and it wasn't planned."
"I can't be pregnant. I take the pill every evening before I go to bed. We're extremely careful with Conrad."
"Look, I don't know what to tell you, but something happened. Did you skip a day or were sick one day and it didn't take affect?"
"No. I have my routine; I take it every day at the same time, and I haven't been sick. Besides, I know those rules. If I had been sick, I would have doubled up the next day and I haven't needed to."
Devon nodded in understanding.
She sat down. "Conrad and I haven't even really had that talk yet. We're both focused on our careers for the moment and before you say anything, I'm not the kind of girl who gets pregnant behind a guy's back."
"I wasn't implying that."
She leaned back in her chair.
"Now what?"
He gazed at her. "That is not for me to tell you. Whatever you decide is up to you and Conrad. Whether or not you've had this conversation, this is something you are going to have to talk about. The only thing I would suggest is getting an appointment with the OB/GYN. Talk with Conrad and then make up your mind."
His pager went off and he grabbed it from his pocket. "I need to go. Are you going to be, OK?"
She nodded. She was an adult; she didn't need for him to hold her hand. And he was right. This was something she would need to discuss with Conrad. She hadn't tricked him by getting pregnant and she sure wasn't going to keep it from him either.
He walked out and she remained sitting there for a few minutes, staring down at her stomach. 6-8 weeks? She had always been irregular, hence why she had started taking the pill to start with when she was younger. Taking the pill had never been because she had started being sexually active. As the years had gone by, she had on occasion needed to change the pill she was taking, and the past year had gone months without having her period. That could have explained why she hadn't realized she was pregnant. A missed period was usually the first indication of a pregnancy, and she would have found out on her own.
She returned to her office and looked up her blood test results. It wasn't that she didn't believe Devon, it was that she had to see it for herself and sure enough, there was no way of misreading the hCG levels.
She tapped into the OB/GYN appointment calendar and saw that she had an opening that evening. She called the nurse and scheduled the appointment.
As she waited in the waiting room for her turn, Conrad called her.
"How are things going with your dad?"
"Great. I should be back in Atlanta tomorrow night, unless there is a problem with the air control radars."
She knew he was joking, but considering what was happening, she wasn't really in the mood for jokes.
"I'm only kidding," he said noticing that she hadn't laughed.
"Are you working tomorrow night?"
"No, I'm on call tonight."
"Good, we'll be able to spend some quality time together. I've missed you."
She saw Dr. McAllister's door open.
"I've missed you too. I've got a patient and I need to go. I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Absolutely. Bye."
"Bye."
"Julia?"
Julia stood from her chair and walked over.
"Steph, thanks for taking me in on such short notice."
"No worry. I know how hard it can be to get an appointment with our schedules. Come on in."
Stephanie let Julia enter the office before shutting the door and settling down behind her desk across from her.
"It's a bit early for your yearly check-up," said Stephanie as she took Julia's file and saw that they had seen each other 7 months earlier.
"I'm pregnant," blurted out Julia.
Stephanie smiled. "Congratulations. I didn't know you and Conrad were trying."
"We weren't and we aren't."
Stephanie leaned back in her chair and joined her hands together, understanding that this pregnancy wasn't planned.
"And before you ask, I haven't skipped a single day of my pill."
"Women get pregnant while using birth control Julia. You know that. They are not 100% effective. And trust me I've delivered my share of birth control babies."
She was about to ask Stephanie why women even bothered to take the pill if it still meant you could get pregnant, but she knew that it was to minimize the risks of getting pregnant. Nothing was ever a 100% fail-proof. She knew the statistics and now she was one of them.
"When was your last period?"
"I don't know. You know I can go months without one and since I'm not trying to conceive, I don't feel the need to keep track."
"Alright, how about an estimated guess?"
"I don't know… A little over two months ago, but I'm reaching, I can't give you that as a certainty."
"Fair enough. With your hormone levels you could be anywhere between 6 to 9 weeks pregnant. Why don't I do an ultrasound and I'll better be able to know how far along you are?"
"That's why I'm here."
"OK, come on."
Stephanie stood and headed over to the exam area and prepared the ultrasound machine. Julia, stood, walked over, settled down and raised her scrub shirt.
"It might still be early for an abdominal ultrasound, if it is then I'll do a trans-vaginal one."
She placed the gel on Julia's lower abdomen, then took the probe and set it down. She moved it around a bit, spreading the gel and then as if she had a treasure map to follow, instantaneously found the right spot.
Julia slowly turned her head toward the monitor, not sure she wanted to see. It wasn't that she didn't want kids. She did, she had always wanted to be a mother and raise a family. But if that baby was there and visible, it was reality and it was going to be something that they would need to talk about.
Her eyes locked on the screen, and she saw it, the baby shrimp, and in the middle the flickering of its heart beating.
Stephanie worked on her machine and made some calculations.
She printed off a few pictures then turned the machine off and wiped Julia's belly. She returned to her desk and waited for Julia to join her.
"Baby is doing well. Heartbeat is strong." She placed one of the photos in front of Julia. "If my calculations are right, you are 8 weeks pregnant, which would place conception most probably on or around May 9th give or take a day."
Instinctively, Julia took out her cell phone and pushed on the calendar/agenda icon.
She scrolled back to the date Steph was telling her. Maybe there was something in there that would jolt her memory and she would have the aha moment to explain how this had happened.
"Are you sure about the date?"
Steph raised her brow indicating that it shouldn't be questioned.
"I wasn't even in Atlanta on the 9th."
"I said give or take a day or two. You must have been sexually active around that date. This is not an immaculate conception Julia."
"I was in Washington DC on the 9th and only got back on the 10th. And to answer your question, Conrad, and I…"
Her eyes suddenly shot wide open, and she thanked herself for not finishing her sentence. She and Conrad had indeed had sex before DC and they were careful when it came to kind of stuff, but he hadn't been the only one she had had sex within that apparent window of conception!
Stephanie smiled. "I see it has come back to you. It usually does. Our lives are just so busy, we seem to forget when we have time to be intimate, but we do."
Julia remained silent in her seat as everything she had hidden deep in the abyss resurfaced.
"If you decide to keep this baby, the due date should be end of January."
Stephanie seeing that Julia was not very responsive put her hand out over hers.
"Julia, I know that you've probably kept information about your condition to Conrad because you're not there yet in your relationship."
Julia's eyes looked up at Steph.
"The simple fact that you have managed to get pregnant is a good thing, if not short of a miracle."
"What are you saying exactly?"
"All I'm saying is that this may be your one and only chance at having a child without too much difficulty. The proximal tubal occlusion after your miscarriage a couple of years ago rendered conceiving naturally quite impossible."
Steph tilted her head to the side.
"It's your choice and I won't ever influence that, but you need to have all the elements in order to make that decision."
Julia nodded.
"You have a couple of weeks to make up your mind. Let me know what you decide."
Julia nodded and stood. "Thanks Steph."
"Your next appointment should be scheduled a month from now, if you decide to go through with this pregnancy."
"I'll let you know."
Stephanie nodded and watched as Julia walked out of the examining room.