The Draw

21

She had put it down to tiredness and nerves. But two days later, she was still being sick. Pretty much constantly. So she then put it down to a bug or something she'd eaten. Another two days later and she had never felt so poorly. She couldn't even keep water down. If it wasn't for Dan fetching her anti sickness tablets and biscuits, she felt she might have withered away to nothing. He kept her busy and occupied and that seemed to help. He showed her some new songs he'd written and bought her some DVDs to watch while he ran some house errands and went out with some of his old friends. If she hadn't of been ill and if he hadn't of shouted at her that night, his week home would've been spent a bit better.

'You should go see a doctor, mate.' Dan said, stroking her back just before another retch took over, her head inside the toilet. She 'hmm'ed as a yes. A few seconds passed. 'You're not...y'know...pregnant?' She couldn't say she hadn't thought it. But she'd done a test on the first day of sickness that said negative and she'd had her period. It was just a random bug. 'Are you?' She shook her head. But she could hear the fear in his voice. He wasn't concerned for her being ill. Only for himself getting into a shit load of trouble for getting his housemate slash ex, pregnant.

She decided that if by tomorrow she hadn't stopped being sick, she'd take herself down to the emergency doctors. Dan was going out that night, and rightly so, he shouldn't have to spend his one week off tending to her. And she didn't exactly want him there, watching her wasting away and sobbing with exhaustion. It would be nice to reclaim the house again! Even with the cleaner doing a fantastic job, she'd forgotten how messy he was. Toast crumbs. Tea bags. Food packaging. Just stuff everywhere.

She had a nice long bath, only having to get out to hurl once, and had a nice early night. She was praying for sleep. Just a couple of hours. Was it too much to ask?

Clearly it was too much to ask. At two am she was awoken with nausea again. How could there be anything left to bring up? And where was her body finding the energy to keep being sick? She caught herself in the mirror. She looked half dead. She wasn't even sure she could make it out the house, never mind make it to the doctors.

'Dan?' She called out. She hadn't heard him come in, but it was worth a shot. When she got no reply, she made the decision to crawl down stairs and get to her car. She was sure this was against the law, to drive while utterly exhausted with the potential to crash as she vomited.

She didn't remember much of the journey. She did remember making it all the way to the car park before giving in to the nausea. It hurt more than anything now. Like her stomach was being torn apart. Her head pounded. She felt dizzy. If it wasn't for a passing nurse helping her walk into the centre, she might've just laid down on the concrete and never gotten up again.

The doctor took one look at her and ordered a blood pregnancy test. She lay on the examination bed and didn't protest. He injected her with a super strong anti sickness, put her on a drip and a heart monitor.

'Why you didn't come in days ago is beyond me.' He told her. She would have. But she'd just assumed she'd get better. Within an hour she felt a tiny bit more human, just enough to be able to drive home (though she'd lied and said someone was picking her up) with prescription sleeping tablets.

She crawled back up to bed just as the sun was rising. And then she slept a whole twelve hours straight. If it hadn't of been for the doctors ringing her with her test results, she could've slept even longer.

'Miss Jones. I have some news for you. You're roughly 13 weeks pregnant.'

Her world stopped turning.

Fuck.

But how? She'd done a test. She hadn't missed any periods. Now could she not know she was pregnant? And what was with the sickness coming on so late and so fierce? When he friends had been pregnant, the 13 week mark was the end of sickness. Surely there had been a mix up and they'd tested the wrong blood. She couldn't be. She simply could not be pregnant right then, now he career was back on track and everything with Dan was getting better. Dan. How could she tell him? Was it even Dans? 13 weeks. She did a quick check on the calendar on her phone. That was the week they split. The week she slept with Kyle. Oh Jesus. No. It had to be Dans. It had to be.