Butterfly Effect

15: Screams for help and heartbeats

Carina's Pov

It was 10:15 and Maya was late to our appointment and that was awfully strange. Maya was never late. Never... So her being late was starting to make me worried sick.
"Do you want to start?" Jo asked, looking at the clock on the wall behind me . Maya was late...
"Just a couple of minutes... Maya is usually never late. Just two more minutes" I answered, but I was actually talking to myself, trying to calm myself down.
Maya was okay... She had to be... She couldn't leave me... She couldn't...
"Sorry I'm late!" Maya exclaimed, entering from the door "I was on a call and I asked the team to leave me here while they drove back to the station".
She was still in her turnouts, with messy helmet hair and soot and ash all over her face. She was fine, that was the most important thing for me...
"It's okay. You can't decide when the alarm will start" Jo reassured my wife as Maya walked toward me with a sweet smile.
"So... Carina you know the drill, but I will explain everything for your wife" Jo said as I sat down and raised the top of my pink scrub, showing my abdomen that was basically still flat. It was absurd to believe that there was a growing baby.
"How are you feeling Carina? Any symptoms?" my friend asked me as she started to prepare the machine for my ultrasound.
"I have morning sickness, basically every hour of the day. I'm moody and I cry a lot more... Oh, and my back and my boobs hurt too" I answered and Maya blushed at the mention of my body.
"Well, that's perfectly normal, considering that you are ten weeks and four days" Jo said,explaining it for Maya, but I was really enjoying the idea of being just a patient like everyone else... The idea of being just a mother, not a doctor.
"So, what are we going to see in the ultrasound? I know that's too early to know the sex of the baby" Maya asked, and I smiled at her.
"Today we are gonna see if your baby has any physical defects or if they are too small, and then we're gonna listen to their little heartbeat" Jo answered calmly to Maya as she looked a bit anxious.
"Wow that's... That's a lot of things to check" she whispered and I grabbed her hand to give her some sort of comfort.
"I know it's a lot Bella, but I'm here. We will be fine" I reassured her, being used to this process more than her. My wife looked at Jo and then back at me, nodding a little.
Jo put that freaking cold gel on my abdomen, looking at the monitor in front of her as I squeezed Maya's hand tightly.
"Everything looks perfect with your baby... Now let's listen to the heartbeat".
After a couple of seconds, the sound of our child's beating heart filled the room, bringing tears to the corner of our eyes. Maya looked at the monitor, mesmerized by that wonderful sound that now was one of my favorite in the whole world.
"It's... It's so fast..." Maya's comment made me giggle as I brought one of my hands to my cheeks to erase the tears.
"It's perfectly normal for a baby. Baby Deluca-Bishop has a very strong heart" Jo reassured her with a smile, being used to saying that to a lot of first time parents.
"He's gonna be a person who'll love with all of his heart" I said and my wife turned her head in my direction with a grin on her face.
"He? What makes you think that our kid will be a boy?" she asked, making all of us laugh, even Jo.
"Mother's intuition" I answered "It's a feeling that he's going to be a wonderful little man".
"Well, I bet it's a girl. Beautiful just like you..." Maya fluttering words made me smile and blush at the same time. She was always like that smooth talker when it was just the two of us...
"I'm really happy for you guys. I'll give you some privacy" Jo said, handing us the pictures of the ultrasound and then walking out of the room.
"I'm so happy that I just want to kiss you right now, but I'm sweaty, covered in ash and I smell like smoke... And I know how much you hate all of those things. Well, maybe not me being sweaty when it's you that caused it...But..." Maya started to rumble and I sat in front of her, holding her face in my palms.
her icy blue eyes locked into mine, full of admiration and love, and I smiled sweetly at her, putting my forehead against hers and breathing the same air.
"I'm so happy that I don't care about all of that right now" I responded in a whisper, pressing my lips against hers, savoring the familiar taste of her lips mixed with the taste of ash and soot.
It was just a kiss, but it was built on love, support, passion and the feeling that everything we had was exactly what we needed.

Hailee's Pov

It was lunch break and I was sitting with Manon at one of the tables of the cafeteria, laughing about a stupid video that she found on instagram, when Jasper sat next to me.
"Hi Manon, I have a question for you" he started "What are you doing with her? She's not enough for a pretty girl like you".
I looked at my feet, ashamed and insecure, knowing god damn well that he was right. Manon was on another level from me. I was just a worthless foster girl that had friends and family made out of pity.
"She's more than enough Jay... At least she's not a complete piece of shit with people that didn't do anything to her" my friend was livid and Jasper decided to stand up and leave, but firsthe lowered his head near my ear.
"Don't think that I don't know your secret here... You have to remember that you are nothing more than a useless girl that no one wants. Your parents did the right thing leaving you, because you would have ruined their life. How long will it take her or your foster parents to realize it too?" he whispered coldly in my ear, sending shivers down my back.
How long? My moms said that they wanted to keep me, but was that the truth? And Manon? Will she leave too?
I ran away from the table and I started to sprint down the hallway, trying to run away from my problems, to run away from myself...
"Hailee! Hailee!" Manon yelled "Wait Hailee!".
I couldn't stop running though, and after a while I opened a restroom stall, locking myself in it.
I was crying and sobbing in a corner, when the door of the restroom opened.
"Hailee?" Manon called me "Can you open the door of the stall for me? Please, I want to be here for you".
"No one does" I said with a broken tone. Suddenly my head was being filled with all kinds of negative thoughts, so I started to scratch my wrist.
"Hailee please... Open this goddamn door" she raised her voice and i did exactly what she told me to do: I opened the door.
I walked out of the stall with bloodshot eyes and red scratch marks all over my arm. Manon looked at me and a soft gasp escaped from her lips.
"What... What can I do for you?" my friend asked and I thought about it, not knowing what to say.
I've never had someone who asked me that... I was speechless, still stuck in my head and out of it, but then I remembered what Maya told me. I could call her. But she was at work and maybe she didn't want to leave for me... I was no one for her...
"Hailee? What do you need?" Manon asked, getting closer to me.
"Mom... My mom... Can-c-c-can you call Maya?" I asked and she nodded, grabbing my phone and calling her right away.
I stared at my reflection in the mirror, noticing how my blue eye looked lifeless behind the tears. It looked like a piece of glass made from the part of me that was broken.
"Hi Captain Bishop, it's Manon..." I heard my friend say "She's not feeling well and she asked me to call you... Yes, okay. See you in a few minutes".
"Look Hailee, your mom is calling the school and telling them that she's picking you up... She said to wait for her, okay?" she informed me and I nodded lightly, my movement was barely visible.
She grabbed my hand and she guided me in the hallways of our school toward the entrance. When we arrived there was the secretary waiting for us, for me...
"Who's Hailee Donovan?" she asked and I raised my eyes from the floor.
"It's her" Manon said, pointing at me.
"Okay, I'll stay with her. You can go back to class now" she said and Manon shook her head.
"No, I'll wait with her" my friend said and she gave the secretary a look that could have put anyone to their place. A look that could have sent shivers down her back.
So, after that, we waited together on a wooden bench. My hand was still between hers...
Ten minutes later Maya stumbled through the door and I immediately stood up, leaving Manon on the bench, and I threw myself into my mom's arms.
She held me for a while, whispering sweet comforting words in my ear, letting me cry for a while in her embrace.
"Let's go to the station Lia..." she said "And thank you Manon, for calling me and for being with her".
My friend just smiled sadly at us as we walked out of those doors together, going toward the station. Going home...

A.N. Boy or girl? I really hope you liked it.