Christmas with the Calvins

Chapter Forty-Four

Jess had been on bed rest for three days. Every morning it was the same thing. Bernard would wake up his wife with a homemade breakfast, she would crawl out of the bedroom only to be racing to the bathroom after a moment. Jess hadn't eating in three whole days and her body was getting tired of being malnourished. Luckily she'd been able to down a few sports drinks each day, but physically she was exhausted.

"Darling, I think it's time you go to a doctor." Bernard insisted after breakfast the third morning.

"I don't think I could get out of bed, even if I wanted to." Jess groaned. She pulled the blankets up closer around her neck.

"I'll talk with the doctor and have him come here." Her husband promised. "Also, your father might stop by, he's been asking about you. He and Carol are suppose to be coming home from Illinois today."

"Ok. What have you been working on this week anyway?"

"The usual workshop stuff, why?" He asked sitting on the bed next to her.

"You've been running off every morning." Jess yawned. "How much damage did Curtis do when he was in charge on Christmas Day?"

"It's not from Curtis. He actually did a fine job Christmas Day. No, We're still working on cleaning up things up from Toy Santa. Some of the departments suffered minor damage, others are almost unrecognizable. We've been working on getting things back up and running."

"My department?"

"Is unfortunately one of the most severely harmed." Bernard confessed. "I was hoping to get everything fixed before you got back to work, but it's going to take weeks. And I don't want you to worry about that right now. You need to focus on getting better. So let's make that our number one priority."

"Stay home with me today." Jess asked. "That will make me feel better." Bernard thought about that for a few moments. Curtis had proved that he was more than capable of running the place, plus Santa would be back later that day; he could keep an eye on things.

"Sure." Bernard smiled. "Let me make a few arrangements and send for the doctor, but we can spend the whole day together."

Jess nestled herself back in bed while Bernard left to make the arrangements he needed. An hour later he returned with Dr. Hismus, the North Pole's star physician. Dr. Hismus was a sharp dressed elf. He wore well tailored dress pants, a dress shirt, a tie and a lab coat. He arrived at Bernard and Jessie's home carrying a legal notepad and an old fashion doctor's bag.

"Good Morning, Jessica." The Doctor greeted her cheerily. "You're husband tells me that you've fallen ill?"

"Yeah." Jess told him weakly. She sat up in the bed and managed a small smile.

"Could you describe your symptoms for me?"

"Nausea, vomiting, aching muscles, tired and weariness." Jess listed off all the horrible things she'd been feeling the past three days.

"I see." Hismus scribbled the symptoms down as she talked. "And you've been getting plenty of rest?" She nodded. "I have a couple of ideas, and I like to do a few simple blood tests to confirm. Would that be alright with you?"

"Anything to help me get better." Jess agreed. The doctor worked quickly to collect his blood samples. He left after promising to return once his data was collected and the test results were in. In the meantime Jess and Bernard snuggled up in bed and had a Christmas movie marathon. Of course Jess fell asleep after only an hour or two. Three hours after that, Bernard was about to doze off himself when there was a knock at the front door. It was Dr. Hismus, returning with his test results.

"Miss Jessica, I have great news." The doctor announced as Bernard led him into the room. "You're not sick."

"Tell that to my stomach." Jess complained.

"Well I didn't say you weren't experiencing symptoms." Hismus said.

"What does that mean?" Bernard asked. He wrapped a protective arm around his wife.

"Well sir, you wife's symptoms the nausea, vomiting, weariness are all signs of a temporary condition referred to by most as pregnancy."

"Pregnan...is that even possible?" Bernard looked at his wife.

"It's possible." Jess nodded. "It's very possible. Thank you Doctor. Please tell me you have a cure for morning sickness?"

"Not a cure, I'm afraid." Hismus frowned. "But a treatment, sure." He reached into his doctor bag and produced a bottle of medications. "Take these for the morning sickness." He pulled out a second bottle. "and you'll need to take these vitamins once a day too. Get plenty of sleep, no heavy lifting, doctors orders. And I'll expect you in my office next week for a check-up."

"We'll be there, for sure. Thank you so much." Jess smiled.

"I'll see myself out." The doctor left the two bottles in Bernard's lap and exited the elf house promptly.

"Bernard," Jess laughed, "We're going to have a baby."

"I-uh-I can't believe it." The Head Elf huffed. "I honestly never imagined we would...I mean we never talked about..."

"Are you...all right with this? I mean you're not thinking..."

"Don't even suggest it." Bernard interrupted. "We'll have to think of names...your family has to be told...the elves...I have get back to my office...There's so much planning to be done." He jumped to his feet mumbling about maternity leave and putting an addition on the house.

"Slow down there tiger!" Jess climbed out of bed. A surge of dizziness hit her, and she reached for her medication. "We have plenty of time to plan everything!" Bernard wheeled around to tell her that they, in fact, did not have plenty of time to plan everything, but he panicked when he saw her out of bed.

"What are you doing?" He questioned with bulging eyes. "You shouldn't be out of bed."

"Bernard, I'm allowed to get out of bed. For the first few months at least. Besides, I'm so hungry and all I want is cookies."

"I'll bring you some cookies! No need to go out in the cold!"

"I'm going to go stir crazy if you try and keep me in the house for the next eight months."

"Eight months?" Bernard looked at her in concern. "Jessie, elfish pregnancies last for twelve months."

"A year?" she repeated back. "Twelve months. That's fine. It's what, three months more than usual? I can handle that. It will give us more time to plan. Everything is going to work out fine Bernard, you'll see."