May 1998
Stevie was waiting by the door for Lindsey to pick her up. Today they were finally going to find out the sex of their baby. She was so excited to know. She had a million names picked out and she wanted to know what color to paint the nursery.
Stevie pretty much runs out the door as soon as Lindsey pulls up in the driveway. She jumps into the car and grins, "hey!"
Lindsey looks at her surprised and he laughs a little, "you seem excited."
"I am! We're going to find out the sex of our baby today! We can stop calling it chunky monkey and give it a real name!"
Lindsey sighs, "aw, I like chunky monkey."
"Come on, Linds. Don't you want our baby to have a real name?" She asks, still grinning from ear to ear.
He couldn't help but smile back. This was the happiest he'd seen her since they broke up, "yeah, I am pretty excited to name baby Buckingham."
"I think you mean baby Nicks."
He looks at her when they stop at a red light, "what? No. I meant Buckingham."
She turns in her seat to look at him, "if we aren't telling people you're the father, the baby can't have your last name. Someone at the hospital could leak it to the press."
Lindsey steps on the gas again when the light turns green and shakes his head, "then I guess we're telling people the truth."
"You already know we can't do that, Lindsey. I'm sorry," she says and she genuinely means it. She always expected her baby's last name to be Buckingham if she were to ever have one.
"This is awful. I hate it. I hate that we have to lie," he sighs as he pulls into the parking garage at the hospital.
Stevie rests her hand on his arm, "I know. Can we just not think about it for a little while and go find out if it's a boy or a girl?"
Lindsey nods and smiles a little, "yes, let's go find out what's in there, mama."
Lindsey goes around to help her out and they head inside, wearing sunglasses and keeping their heads down until they get to their floor. Lindsey takes a seat in the waiting room while Stevie signs in and she comes to sit next to him.
"How's Kristen?" Stevie asks, trying to make small talk to pass the time.
"She's fine," Lindsey replies. It's easy to sense that he doesn't really want to talk about her right now. Thankfully the nurse is calling Stevie back.
She hops up on the exam table and Lindsey takes a seat in the chair, bouncing his knee anxiously while the nurse takes Stevie's vitals.
"Are you nervous?" Stevie asks, when the nurse leaves.
"A little bit," he admits.
"Why?"
"I don't know. What if something is wrong?"
Stevie laughs a little, "there's nothing wrong with our baby. It was perfectly healthy at our last appointment and I can feel it moving around all the time."
The doctor walks in and Lindsey immediately moves to Stevie's side.
"Hey, doctor Wilson," Stevie says with a smile.
"Hello Miss Nicks and Mister Buckingham. How are you feeling?"
Stevie rests her hands on her stomach, "like I'm getting bigger every second, but other than that I feel great."
Doctor Wilson nods, "are you ready to find out the sex of your baby?"
"Yes!" Stevie and Lindsey both say, in unison. They glance at each other and laugh as Stevie lays back on the table and lifts her shirt over her stomach. Lindsey leans down and kisses it while the doctor is setting up for the ultrasound. Stevie shivers a little at the contact, but doesn't recoil from it like she normally would.
