The hospital waiting room seemed impossibly cold this morning but Dan said he felt fine. Then again he is wearing all black and a sweater. I was wearing mid-thigh shorts and a graphic tee of my Hogwarts house, Gryffindor. Even though I wasn't wearing flip flops my toes were freezing, which I didn't get because I was wearing Converse.
"Don't you think it should be warmer in here since it's a hospital and not a freezer?" I shivered again and rubbed my arms. I was starting to get anxious, all I wanted was to know my baby's gender.
"Maybe the doctors spilled organs all over the place and need to keep them cold while they pick them up." Dan kept scrolling through his phone and I gave him my best "what the f*ck" face. That boy came up with the weirdest things to say.
"Charlotte Dunham?" A nurse called me up and we both stood up. Today is the day that Dan and I will find out the gender of our baby. My hands turned clammy as I followed the nurse down the white-walled hall. Finally she opened a door and told us that the doctor would be with us in a moment.
I sat down next to Dan in the cushioned chairs beside the ultrasound machines. He grabbed my hand and held it while we waited. My phone buzzed with a new text message.
Did you find out yet? - Phil Lester
I smiled and sent him back a quick text to tell him not yet and he's a dork. I put my phone away right as someone knocked on the heavy wooden door. She came in and smiled at us, happy to see us both again instead of just me. Dan's only gone to one other appointment with me before and that was so he could fill out paperwork. This time it's all about the gender.
"Hello again Charlotte and- I'm sorry I forgot your name sir." The doctor flipped over the papers on her purple plastic clipboard and looked back up at him with a businesslike expression.
"Dan Howell, ma'am." Dan answered her with a a nod of his head and a polite smile. There was silence as my doctor filled out a paper on her clipboard and the only audible sounds were the pen scratching on the paper and murmurs in the otherwise quiet hall. Doors closed loudly and a phone rang. Not much happened around this part of the hospital since it was the OBGYN.
"Ok guys, are you ready to learn your baby's gender?" She finished up and walked over to the machines, turning them on and grabbing the gel off of a tray. I stood from my seat next to Dan and sat on the bed, motioning for him to stand next to me.
"Ok, lay back. This will be cold, as you know, but we gave to tell you anyway." She gave me a friendly smile and I pulled my shirt up to the top of my belly. The doctor spread the freezing gel across my skin and I glued my eyes to the screen, looking for a sign of my baby. A shape was showing up next to my baby but I payed little attention to that, I was too excited. A shape of a head just barely showed up in the black and white static and I smiled widely. I turned to Dan and he was already grinning from ear to ear, showing off his teeth and single dimple disturbing the smooth surface of his cheek. I looked back at the doctor and was startled when she looked a bit confused. Her eyebrows were knit together and had a wrinkle forming in between them.
"What's wrong?" I asked, suddenly mortified that something was wrong with my baby, that I had a miscarriage. My mind jumped to the worst possible conclusion and a wake of fear crashed over me. I think the doctor noticed my worry and looked over at me before studying the ultrasound image again, moving around the senser.
"It looks like... you got more than you bargained for. See right there," She pointed to the white spot next to the head and and moved the scanner closer to it, "There is one twin, and there is the other."
