Glimpse of Us | Jenlisa [COMPLETED]

Chapter 8

Trigger warning: brief depictions of invasive medical procedures and mentions of miscarriage.

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The walls are overly cheerful.

Jennie works at a hospital, she's supposed to be used to it. The endless, brightly colored posters, the detached atmosphere, that ever present smell of disinfectant, but now, on the other side, she can't help but find grievances every where she looks.

The walls are too bright. She's too scared.

"Mrs. Kim-Manoban?"

"Yes?"

"Come with me, please."

She doesn't register her last name until they're halfway down the hallway. She guesses she should have felt shock at being called by her married last name, but for some reason it's a comfort to Jennie. Things used to be different back then, good.

She still corrects the nurse.

"It's Miss. Kim now, by the way. Just Kim."

"Oh, I see. We'll have to update your records, then." The nurse gives her a practiced, pleasant smile. "Please change, the doctor will be in shortly."

***

(January 28th, 2018)

"Are we going to find out, for real?"

"We said we were going to find out," Jennie says, squeezing Lisa's hand. Her wife is antsy, like she always is before an appointment, almost like she' the one who's pregnant and not Jennie, who has started to show already.

"When we walk out we'll know if we're having a son or a daughter," Lisa says, and Jennie grins.

"Not if you have a heart attack before that," she teases, but still presses a gentle kiss to Lisa's lips.

"Mrs. Kim-Manoban?"

She pulls away, gives Lisa a shaky smile, and they get up.

Jennie goes through the motions of getting ready, lifts her shirt and holds Lisa's hand, but her ears are buzzing. She's pregnant, noticeably so these days, and she knows it, she went through morning sickness and her period is gone, but now she gets to know a little bit more the person inside of her, gets to see it as a person instead of a blob of cells.

The technician frowns, trying to locate the baby's genitals, and Jennie begs and pleads with her buddy on board to turn around.

"There we go," the man says. "Well, congratulations." Both of Lisa's hand squeeze one of her own. "You are about to become mothers to a lovely little girl."

"A girl," Jennie hears Lisa say, in awe, and tears sting her own eyes.

They're having a baby girl.

Lisa hugs her, tight, leaning halfway over the examination table, and Jennie laughs.

A girl.

***

Jennie doesn't look at the doctor's face.

She stares at the posters on the walls, while the cold, slimy feel of the ultrasound machine rolls over her breast.

She tries not to flinch at the pain.