AN: I'm sorry it took so long for an update. I'm trying my best to update as often as I can.
Stef POV
August 17th
The vacation was over. Yesterday was my last day off. It was the same for Amy. I was going to take few more days off to send the twins and Brandon back to universities, but that won't be till the end of August.
I was in the locker room at work, changing into my gym clothes. Amy was by the locker room mirror, braiding her pony tail.
It wasn't often when Amy and I went to the gym. Mostly because we were tiered enough after work, our families waited for us at home, we had other stuff we had to take care of, like grocery shopping or picking up our kids. Basically it was quite rare that we hit the gym. Sure, there have been few times, when going to gym and doing some sparing would be the only thing that would get the steam off after a crazy day at work or something that happened at home, like it had been with Amy, when she and Callie were fighting. That time Amy took all her anger out on the punching bag. Sometimes gym was a nice place to be at.
But today, just like the last two months except the few days that we were away at our vacation, we have been in the gym regularly - every Tuesday and Thursday. After our shift ended we both hit the gym, but we weren't alone. We had Mariana and Callie joining us.
It all started back at the start of the summer, when Amy and I were on a patrol. The day had started like any other day. Nothing out of the ordinary had happened. The only thing that was unlike any other day was that Amy was more quiet than usually. Quite often she looked to be deep in her thoughts.
"Okay...spill it!" I said to Amy after we had driven in silence for 15 minutes. Every time I had tried to start a conversation, Amy had quickly ended it by a hum back, shoulder shrug or her nodding her head back while agreed to all the absolute crap I had asked her about. She was staring out the side window and didn't even do the honor and look at me, when I had spoken to her.
"Huh?" She asked, without taking her eyes off the street
"Whatever it is, that is bothering you," I told her, when I drove out to the street that goes next to the coast side "I'm listening!"
The thoughtful look never left her face. She stared out the side window for couple of more seconds till she finally asked me "Have you ever thought about self-defense classes?"
I frowned up my forehead at that questions "For me?"
"For Mariana," Amy finally turned to me. I shifted a little in my seat and rested my left elbow on door side, my left hand fingers still lightly touched the steering wheel. My other hand was gripping tightly the wheel as we drove down the straight road.
"The thought has crossed my mind few times, but we ended up giving Mariana a pepper spray, when she left for university the first time," I replied and then glanced to her. After glancing to Amy briefly, I figured her out "You want to sign Callie up for self-defense classes?"
"Not really classes, but I was thinking, that maybe I should teach her a thing or two. Just so she would know how to protect herself," Amy explained as she gestured with her hands
"...because of her job?" it took me a moment, but I did realize, why she was talking about it
"It was some two weeks back, when she came home from her internship with driving along the EMT," Amy held her left arm out and gripped her wrist with her right hand "And she had this bruise on her wrist...like someone had gripped her hand," her hands fell down to her lap "When I asked her about it, she said that some druggie didn't want for them to inject medication in his friends body, who was having an a seizure from an overdose. He had gripped her hand and hadn't let go,"
"Whoa," I mumbled quietly
"She's going to be meeting and interacting with a lot of people. And you know how different the people are!" Amy glanced to me "Even the ones, who need help can be aggressive. While some can be calm and polite, and kind...others-" Amy trailed off and only gave me a look
"Yeah, others not so much," I finished for her as I slowed down, because I saw a red light up front at the intersection we were approaching
"And it's not just her job," Amy continued "It's everyday life as well. Walking down the street, going to party or club..." she trailed off
"Yeah...that's the reason why we got Mariana the pepper spray. She's walking around the campus, going to and from her dorm, going to parties," I said back "You can never know what is going to happen. Especially, when it's getting dark and there are less people on street,"
"Anyway," Amy glanced to me "I was thinking maybe I...or we could teach her some self-defense. Mariana too!"
"I actually like that idea. It would help me sleep more peacefully, when Mariana is going to be away at university,"
"So you agree?" Amy asked, her look filled with hope
"Yeah. I agree! Let's teach our girls some self-defense!" I concluded with a big grin
"Now the only thing left is get them to agree," Amy said more quietly
It was then, when we had noticed a car swaying on the road, going right and left, almost crossing the white line to ongoing lane. Amy reached for the radio to call it in, while I hit the sirens on and hit the gas pedal to catch up the car up front.
So here we are now. We have been teaching self-defense for the last few weeks. Thankfully, after time they both started to actually enjoy it.
"Ready?" I asked Amy, when I was done tying my shoes
Amy tied the band around the end of her braid and turned to me "Yes, let's go,"
When we walked in the gym, I saw that Callie and Mariana were already there, dressed up and warming up already. They were both by the far wall, using jumping rope to warm up.
"Hey, you two!" She smiled widely at the two young woman "Glad to see you are already warmed up," Amy said as we walked up to them
Both girls stopped jumping and greeted us. Mariana walked to the bench and grabbed her water bottle, while Callie gripped the jumping rope in her hand.
"Can we take it a bit easier today?" Callie asked her mom, but glanced to me as well
Amy instantly went to worry mode " You feeling okay?"
"Yeah, it's just..." she blushed a little "Cramps. Not feeling so good," Callie replied shyly and looked down to the ground to avoid our looks
"I have ibuprofen in my locker," Amy pointed over her shoulder
"It's okay. Already took some 5 minutes before," Callie replied, when Mariana walked up, holding her water bottle in one hand, but jumping rope in other
"So, what are we doing today?" Mariana asked looking at me, then at Amy
At first Mariana had been totally against the idea of learning self-deference. She was reluctant to come, to participate, slow to do anything, didn't put any effort in it. Callie wasn't that bad. But like Mariana, at first, she didn't seem to like the idea. She thought it was waste of time. Now on the other hand, both of the girls seemed to love these self-defense classes. Maybe it was just me, but they both seemed a little bit more confident. Not to mention they were both in better shape than before.
"We hit the mattresses and..." I said as I walked towards one of the lockers that stood by the side wall
"And?" Mariana had followed me up to it. She peaked a look inside the locker, when I opened it.
"Knifes," I handed one of the knives to Mariana and grabbed another one
"Is this real?" she asked putting her finger to the tip of it. The knifes did look real, but they weren't. No one would get hurt by these.
"No, but it looks real," I replied slamming the locker closed and turning back to Amy and Callie
I handed the other to Callie, who by now had gotten rid of the jumping rope. She examined the knife as well, while I took Mariana's rope and water bottle away from her and carried it over to the bench. Both of the girls were now playing with the knives, stabbing their own hands with it to test how it felt.
"We will look at two scenarios today," Amy spoke up and asked for Callie to give her the knife. She took a step backwards and raised the knife up "If someone comes at you with this stabbing motion," she showed the girls as she spoke raising her hand and the knife her head height "Or if someone tries to slash a knife at you!" Amy extended her arm out and slashed the knife in front of Callie, who had leaned back a bit, when the knife almost touched her
"That looks kind of scary," Mariana observed
"It is scary," I pointed out placing my hand on her shoulder "Lets start with stabbing motion, shall we?" I asked Amy as the four of us walked to the blue mattresses to begin
Callie POV
"Are you sure you are okay, Callie? You have been awfully quiet today," Mom asked, when we were on our way back home after our self-defense class
"I'm good. Like I told you, just having some bad cramps," I replied in as casual tone as I could muster
"Still?" she asked now looking even more worried than before "You took the pain meds two hours ago!"
"I..I didn't mean I still have them," I answered trying to fix my previously made mistake "You know what's it like, mom. Just having a rough day, that's it. Feeling tiered. Just because I'm having a bad day, doesn't mean there something wrong with me,"
"I know, I'm sorry. I just got worried, that if you are having cramps so bad for so long, then something else might be wrong and..." Mom started to ramble fast
"I'm good, mom!" I assured her, placing my hand over hers on the clutch "I promise," I smiled at her, trying to sell it
I hated lying to my mom. But knowing my options, lying seemed like the best option right now. Somehow I just can't bring myself to tell mom. I still couldn't fully wrap my mind around what I had learned myself earlier today.
I was sitting in the waiting room rather impatiently. The black gym bag stood on the ground by my legs. In 2 hours I needed to meet Mariana and head to our moms job, for the self-defense class Amy and Stef have organized for us.
My leg never stopped bouncing up and down and I couldn't stop biting my thumb nail. I kept looking around the room, to the other people. They all seemed so calm, so well put together, except for the young girl, who couldn't be older by 16. She looked just as scared and nervous as I was.
My gaze traveled back to the doors at the other end of the hall. Any minute now I will be called in. Gosh, I hated this place. I hated it so much. Yet at the same time, I knew this was the only place that would give me the answer I need.
When they opened, Dr. Reed walked out with another woman. They went to the front desk and chatted there for a brief moment. Dr. Reed was given a chart. She opened it, read it and then looked around the room till her eyes met mine.
"Callie, come on in," She smiled at me kindly
I grabbed my gym bag from the ground, tossed it over my shoulder and followed the doctor in the room. The nervousness seemed to calm down a little bit, once I was actually in the room, sat down and started to talk to the doctor.
"How have you been, Callie?" She asked as we both sat down. I dropped by bag once again on the ground, while the Dr. Reed took my chart and read over the last entry from last appointment I had.
"Good," I replied placing my hands in my lap and keeping my eyes on the chart she was reading
"I see that the last time you were here, was back in January, for your annual check up. Everything seemed to be perfectly good," she said and looked up from the chart to me "So," she smiled kindly at me "Can you tell me, what brings you here today? Are you having any complaints? Any concerns?"
"I think I might be pregnant," I told my doctor and then started to ramble fast "I missed my period two weeks ago. At first, I thought it was because of the stress from the trip we were planning. But my boobs feel weird, I'm tired very often, there are certain food smells that never bothered me before, but are bothering me now..." I reached down, unzipped the pocket at the side of my gym bag and pulled out a positive pregnancy test I took this morning "This shows positive,"
Dr. Reed reached out and placed her hand gently on my knee "Okay. Everything's going to be okay, Callie," She assured me calmly "We will check it out. You can put the test away,"
As I was putting it back in my gym bag, Dr. Reed asked me "You are how many days late now? When was the last period you had?"
"Um...well, it should have started on the 2nd of August, but it didn't. The last time I had my period was um...around July 6th,"
"So that puts us," Dr. Reed put her pen to the calendar and counted the day "15 days late," she said as she wrote it down
"When was the last time you had intercourse with your boyfriend?" she asked without looking up to me as she was still writing notes in my card
"Ex-boyfriend. We broke up," I quickly explain
Dr. Reed looked up to me and said sincerely "Sorry to hear that,"
"That's fine. It was mutual," I recalled as I was picking my finger nails "Last time we had...uh...sex was July 13th..if I recall correctly. We broke up some 2 weeks after that,"
"That puts you roughly around 5 weeks pregnant," She turned to me and smiled "Let's have a look then. Lay down on the table, please, and roll your shirt up," I complied, nodding my head back. In few seconds I will now the truth. I was beyond nervous.
I laid down on the table and held my shirt up with both of my hands. While I was getting comfy on the table, she calibrated the ultrasound machine to match my data.
"This will be a little cold," she warned before she squirted some of the gel to my stomach. It really was cold. I flinched a little, when it hit my bare skin.
"Okay, let's see," Dr. Reed said as she put the ultrasound to my stomach and scanned to find the right angle and location to see. I looked to the screen as I waited for the verdict.
"Oh, and here it is! Congratulations," Dr. Reed said as she pointed to the screen. My eyes grew bigger and my mouth dropped parted in shock. It actually was happening. I was pregnant. The thought that scared me the most was that I didn't know how I was feeling about it. I wasn't exactly happy, like normal people would be. Most importantly, I had no idea what I will do next.
Dr. Reed did some measurements of the scanned image and confirmed "Seems about 5 weeks old. I will print this out for you,"
She took the ultrasound off my stomach and handed me some paper towels to wipe the gel off. When I had cleaned off myself and was sitting on the exam table, she handed me the scan.
Holding the image in my hand and looking down to it, I admitted quietly "I don't know what to do. We used protection all the time. I wasn't planning on getting pregnant," A lone tear fell down "I don't know what to do!"
Dr. Reed reached out and touched my arm gently to give me some support.
"Callie!" I felt my mom touch my arm gently "Did you hear me?"
"What?" I turned to her, not sure what she had asked me "Sorry. No. What were you saying?"
"I asked if you want anything in the store. We will be up to the last store in a minute. I can buy you your favorite chocolate if you want," Mom smiled at me
"Chocolate sounds good," I returned the smile and continued to think about the choice I had to make, presumably in the next few days
When we got back home, I went straight to my room. As I was passing the living room, I glanced towards it and greeted Cooper, who was lounged at the couch watching a game "Hey! Who's winning?" I needed to act as I would if everything was okay, so mom or Cooper wouldn't get anymore ideas about me
"Hey, kiddo! Red Sox!" Cooper called back "How was your self-defense class!"
"Mariana stabbed me in my boob with a fake knife!" I answered walking to the stairs, I heard him laugh at that
I had just reached the stairs, when mom called after me "Your chocolate baby!"
I turned around and saw Amy holding it up. In a quick pace, I hurried back to mom, grabbed the chocolate and kissed her cheek "Thanks, mom! Love you!"
"Mhmm. Love you too!" Mom replied right before I turned around and hurried upstairs
Before going to my room, I stopped at the bathroom and I cleaned out my gym bag, putting all the gym clothes in the laundry basket. When I got to my room, I closed the bedroom doors behind me. I opened the chocolate box and put it on the nightstand. After that, I sat on my bed and opened the small department inside the gym bag and took out the ultrasound picture of my baby. Grabbing the chocolate box, I sat on the bed so that my back would be against the wall.
I tossed one of the chocolate in my mouth and looked down to the ultrasound. This all still seemed surreal to me. I felt numb, I was still in shock, I still couldn't fully wrap my head around the fact that there was a baby growing in me.
I had a big and hard decision to make - keep the baby, give birth to it, but hand him or her over to adoption, or make an abortion. There was no easy way out of it. They were all hard choices.
I just hope I can make the right one and not regret it later on.