The Rule of Three

Chapter 3

Anna walks down the aisle of the grocery store. She likes to do her weekly grocery shopping on one day, so she doesn't have to plan meals later in the week. Once she had gotten all of the groceries, she went to the hygiene aisle to pick up some tooth paste and shaving cream. She is trying to wrap up her shopping trip so she can get back home to her family; she left Daniel alone with Murphy while she ran some errands. She is certain that she will return to a hyper three year old and her husband who was the one who let her have at least two cookies.

Anna is pushing her buggy through the aisles looking for the tooth paste when she passes the boxes of feminine products. She stops immediately in the middle of the aisle and begins counting in her head. It has been roughly four weeks since her procedure. Anna has been so busy with Murphy she had forgotten to pay attention to when her period was supposed to come. After reeling her brain, she remembers that her period was supposed to come two weeks ago.

Anna feels the knot in her stomach grow. She learned the first time they went through in vitro not to get excited too quickly. It took three rounds to finally get pregnant with Murphy. She takes a deep breath and closes her eyes. After collecting her thoughts, she opens her eyes and looks for pregnancy tests. She can feel her heart pounding in her chest as she thinks of the possibility that she got pregnant on the first try.

She finally finds the pregnancy tests. She can't decide which brand to buy, so she gets several different ones. She knows she wants to take multiple tests anyway. She heads to cashier to check out.

As Anna is placing the pregnancy tests on the counter, she notices that her  hands are shaking. The cashier, who appears to be about in her late twenties, notices as well. "I was really nervous too," she says and smiles politely.

Anna looks up from her purse and smiles. She chuckles softly, "Yeah, I can hardly breathe." She hands the cashier her debit card and begins to put her bags in back into the buggy.

"Good luck," the cashier smiles as she hands the card back to a still frazzled Anna.

"Thanks," Anna grabs the last of her bags and rushes home.

Once she pulls into the drive way, she sits in the car staring at the house. She is still in shock that this could actually be happening. She finally summons up the courage to go inside, but before she does, she hides the pregnancy tests in her purse. She didn't want to tell Daniel until she was sure.

The second Anna walks through the door, she is bombarded by Murphy, who runs and jumps into her arms. "Hello baby!" Anna hugs her and kisses the top of her head. She sets Murphy back on the ground so she can go back to playing whatever she was playing before Anna got home. "Hi honey," Anna says to Daniel who grabs the grocery bags out of her hands.  He kisses Anna's cheek before he takes the bags into the kitchen. "Hey I'm going to go upstairs for a second," Anna says heading for the stairs.

"Ok I'll just put these up," he says setting the groceries on the counter.

"Yeah, I'll be back down in a second and we can start dinner," she smiles. "I love you," she calls as she begins climbing the stairs.

"I love you too," Daniel calls through the house.

"I love you too! " Murphy yells. Daniel looks into the living room at his little girl who is laughing and playing with her dolls. Anna laughs to herself as she scales the stairs.

Anna runs into her room and tears open her purse. She grabs the pregnancy tests and makes her way to the bathroom. She opens the pregnancy tests one by one and takes all of them. When she is finished, she walks into the bedroom and takes a huge breath. She can feel her heart pounding and the knots in her stomach growing. She is pacing back and forth in the bedroom; she feels like she is about to explode.

After about five minutes of pacing, she walks back into the bathroom to check the tests. When she first walked into the room, she couldn't pull herself to look at the tests, so she just stared at the ceiling and held her breath. She once again gathered all the strength in her being and looked down at the four tests sitting in a line one the counter. She feels like she has been hit by a truck.

Four positives.

She closes her eyes as tightly as possible and prays that this is real. She opens her eyes again, the results are still the same. She lets out a breathy laugh; she hadn't realized she had been holding her breath. "Daniel!" she yells.

"Are you ok?" she hears his muffled voice say from down stairs.

"Daniel, get up here!" she yells. She realizes that she is probably freaking him out but she can't contain her joy. She can hear him running up the stairs.

Daniel bursts into the bedroom; he is confused when he sees Anna standing in the bathroom doorway smiling. "Are you ok? You scared me," he says in disbelief. Anna just stares at him with a huge smile on her face.

"We're pregnant," she beams.

"What?" he asks. Daniel can't believe what he just heard.

"We're pregnant," she laughs again.

Daniel rushes to her and wraps his arms around her. He twirls her around and kisses her passionately on the lips. He sets her back down and smiles. "Oh my God, Anna that's amazing," he smiles and hugs her tightly. "Wait, on the first try? Are you sure?" he asks.

She smiles up to him, "I mean we need to go to the doctor to be positive, but I took four pregnancy tests and they're all positive!" She laughs with the most infectious joy ever. She leads Daniel into the bathroom and shows him the tests. Daniel looks closely at each test, then looks up to Anna again. He wraps his arm around her again and kisses her again. They both hug each other as tight as humanly possible, and they can't believe how incredibly perfect their lives are in this moment.

"What is going on?" they hear Murphy ask from the bedroom. They both laugh and quickly kiss each other one more time. They walk into the bedroom, and Anna kneels down in front of her.

She grins ear to ear as she says, "Mommy and Daddy are just really happy." She picks up Murphy, and the three of them head down stairs together.