A few days later I was walking out of the camp towards the beach, hand in hand with Richard. It would be an overnight trip so he carried a backpack with our stuff.
We headed a little further up the coast than usual, and eventually came to a new stretch of beach that I hadn't been to before. I looked out to sea, and there, clear as day was Hydra Island. I'd only seen it from a fair distance before. It looked exactly the same as our island, but smaller. There were a couple of paddle boats on the shore, and Richard pulled one down to the water.
"Your carriage awaits." He announced, as he gestured for me to get in. I took his hand and climbed inside, settling myself down on one of the benches. He took a paddle and we began to move. I was prepared to help with the paddling but he wouldn't hear of it (in my condition).
Eventually we hit the shore of Hydra Island and Richard helped me up. He pulled the boat up the beach, and we started to hike into the jungle along one of the paths. Richard clearly knew exactly where to go. After walking a couple of miles it looked like we were hear. It was a strange place. We approached what looked like huge cages made out of bamboo. Lord knows what (or who) they were built for. Past the cages, the external entrance to a bunker came into view. Richard swung the heavy metal door open and ushered me in.
"Welcome to the Hydra Station." He said.
We began walking down a large corridor, which had many doors and smaller corridors leading off of it. A familiar face came into view.
"Hey guys, glad you could make it." Laughed Juliette.
She lead us to their living area, which seemed more homely than the main part of the building, which was very clinical. We sat down and drank coffee in the communal kitchen. Juliette talked about life at the Hydra Station and how they lived day to day. It put me at ease a little - I had been rather tense all day.
After a while, Juliette put her cup down and turned to us.
"Are you guys ready then? I'll do the scan with just the three of us in the room, but Ethan will want to see the results too afterwards."
We followed her back down the corridor and into a side room containing a consultation bed and various equipment and monitors. She ushered me onto the bed and started to turn on various switches and buttons. My nerves began to run wild. This was the moment we would see whether me and baby looked normal. I hadn't got sick yet, or shown any outward signs of being so, but now we would see what was going on inside, and whether there was anything to worry about yet.
Juliette picked up the ultra sound camera and squirted some gel onto it.
"You need to lift up your top so I have access to your entire belly." She told me.
She placed the camera onto my belly, and the screen immediately began to display blurry images.
And there...there it was, or rather there he/she was. Our little baby, looking perfectly formed, was as clear as anything on the screen. You could see it's little arms and legs moving around. Juliette smiled.
"Does it look ok?" Richard asked anxiously, as he held my hand sightly.
"So far so good." said Juliette. "See it's little heartbeat there? It looks nice and strong. I'm just going to take some measurements."
Me and Richard stared in awe at our baby. We had known it was there for some time now but this made it feel real.
"From the measurements, I make it 10 weeks old." Juliette beamed. "I need to have a closer look at everything, and also check other parts of your body, but so far theres nothing to indicate that you or the baby have any problems."
We waited patiently while Juliette finished all of her checks. She eventually put down the camera and turned to us.
"It's all good at the moment." She confirmed. "I'll want to do this on a regular basis, to make sure things stay this way - perhaps every two weeks for now. But right now there is absolutely no need for concern."
Juliette showed us to the room she had made up for us, and I lay down to have a little rest, while Richard chatted with her and Ethan. So it looked like so far I had been right and they had been wrong. Thank god I never listened to them. I smiled to myself happily.
Richard appeared a while later and laid down beside me. He kissed my belly and stroked his hand over it.
"I'm sorry for the way i've been Soph." He said. "I've just been so worried about you."
"Are you happy now?" I asked him.
"I'm better, but I won't be completely happy until this little thing is in our arms, and you are safe and well. And then...then, I shall be overjoyed. I'm still scared though. I'm too scared to be happy in case it jinxes things."
I stroked his cheek, soothing him. I understood what he was saying, and I felt the same too. I wanted all this to be ok more than i'd ever wanted anything in the world. I wanted this baby...our baby. I wanted the three of us us to be a family.
Juliette cooked us a meal in the evening and we relaxed in the living area, chatting until late. It felt very normal to be socialising with friends - as if they had merely invited us round for a dinner party. I got to know Ethan a bit better too. He was a good guy and I felt safe knowing that he was a doctor. He had been born on the island, but they'd sent him to the outside world to go to medical school, after which he'd returned. He'd known Richard since he was a young boy.
Eventually we retired to bed, and slept soundly until the next day when Richard took me back home. I was quite looking forward to doing that trip every couple of weeks, especially if things continued to be ok for me and the baby.