"I can see it!" Cheryl exclaimed.
"Where?" Toni flipped her head up from where it rested on the exam table, straining to view something on the still black screen.
"I haven't even placed the transducer on you yet. Relax." The ultrasound technician instructed Toni. She then turned to shoot a blushing Cheryl a look as Toni leaned back again.
Penelope had taken it upon herself to schedule Toni's first ultrasound. Clara accompanied Cheryl and Toni to the clinic, however, since Penelope was working that afternoon. She too flipped her head around from where she had been facing Toni to look at the screen behind her, upon Cheryl's words. Finding nothing, she turned to shoot Cheryl a look sicherr to the one the technician had just given her.
"No, I meant I can see a bump." Cheryl corrected herself with flushed cheeks, "You're showing a little."
"Of course she is. She's pregnant." Clara rolled her eyes with an exasperated smile, then reached over to pinch Cheryl's cheek, "It's a good thing she's cute, Cheryl."
"Well, you're about to see more proof than a bump. Toni, are you ready?" The technician hovered the wand over Toni's stomach, where she'd already applied a generous amount of clear gel.
"Yeah." Toni replied, one hand gripping the hem of her shirt, gathered up around her chest, and the other intertwined with Cheryl's.
"Okay." The woman moved the probe across her stomach, looking back towards the screen for the image, "And here we are."
"Aww." Clara sounded, as the black and white wave lengths formed a picture on the screen, "And what part is the baby?"
The technician pointed a laser to the image, moving it in a circular motion. Toni leaned up to view it as well.
"Right here." The woman continued to move the laser until Clara slowly nodded.
"It looks like a little peanut." She commented.
"Can you tell it's gender yet?" Cheryl asked, still staring at the fetus, squinting for a better outline.
"Not this early." The woman shook her head, "If you want to know the baby's gender before its birth, you'll probably be able to tell sometime in the third month of the pregnancy. Right now, she's about seven weeks along."
"Seven?" Toni shrieked, "I thought I was four weeks, five at the most."
The technician shook her head, then placed the probe on the table behind her.
"I'll leave you three alone for a moment, if you'd like." The woman stood, and walked out of the examination room, leaving the group alone with the image.
In all honesty, Toni really wanted to have the entire appointment over with, and go home already. But considering this was the first time she was seeing her child, so to speak, and with the knowledge that this was a moment most potential parents usually cherished, she nodded, and tried to look at the ultrasound with more sentimentality. Had the picture resembled an actual baby more, it might have stirred more emotions within her, but Clara was right, the baby truly did resemble a peanut.
"What do you think?" Cheryl asked her.
"Mmm hmm." She replied. It was a cop out answer, her not wanting to reveal her shameful indifference, but Cheryl didn't push.
"I think it's a boy." Cheryl stated proudly, eyeing the peanut again.
"I disagree." Clara interjected, "The women in my family very rarely produce boys."
"What about Fangs." Toni pointed out.
"He happened by chance, there's a reason I have two girls," Clara smiled.
