Birth, Marriage and Death

Feels Like a First Date

Ricky

Poppy pulled away and smiled at me a little shyly; reminding me somewhat of the very first time I kissed her in the bar at that hotel when we'd been filming the My Life video. That seemed like centuries ago now, when it was actually less than eighteen months. Who could believe so much had happened since then? We'd packed more drama into that short period of time than many couples experienced in a lifetime together.

"Thank you," she said quietly.

"For what?" I settled my arm around her shoulders in an attempt to keep her warm; I could see her beginning to shiver.

"For lots of things; for not hating me, for wanting me back."

"I told you I'd never hate you Poppy. I couldn't." A little reluctantly I stood up and held my hand out to her. "You're shivering, I think we should get you somewhere warm. It can't be good for you or the baby to be out here in these temperatures."

Shaking her head and smiling Poppy got to her feet and as I put my arm around her again, she rested her head on my shoulder and asked, "Are you going to be like this for the next twenty two weeks?"

"Like what?" I pretended not to know what she was insinuating.

"Overprotective. I'm not the first woman in the world to get pregnant Rick."

"No, but you're the first woman I've got pregnant." I grinned proudly; God what a wonderful thought. It had been a huge shock but it was slowly sinking in.

Poppy was having my baby.

MY BABY!

How bloody wonderful was that? And not only that, but she was coming back to me as well. Out of all the wonderful days I'd ever had today was turning out to be the most wonderful of all. "I'm going to be as overprotective as I like."

Hand in hand we walked a short distance along the canal towpath, getting off at Camden Lock where we found seats in a relatively quiet coffee shop. I went to the counter to order and when I got back to the table with our drinks Poppy had taken her coat off and hung it over the back of her chair and there was a small white envelope on the table in front of her.

I took a long look at her as I sat down in the seat adjacent, I'd wondered what she looked like under that big black coat, whether you'd be able to tell she was pregnant. You could tell, well I could anyway. She was wearing dark skinny jeans and a grey jumper with paler grey stars all over it that clung to a small but definite baby bump.

"You might like to see this." Poppy pushed the envelope across the wooden table top towards me.

"What is it?" I put my hand over the envelope but didn't take my eyes off her, I just wanted to gaze at her forever. I couldn't actually believe that we were sitting here now and had a weird feeling that if I stopped looking at her she might disappear, or this might turn out not to be real.

"Open it and have a look," she smiled, taking a sip of the marshmallow topped hot chocolate I'd put down in front of her and smiling even wider. "Mmm, that's good."

As Poppy watched me over the rim of her mug I opened the envelope and pulled out a folded card, plain white on one side. Opening it up I realised what it was.

"This is our baby?" I asked quietly. It looked like a bean or a peanut lying on its back.

"Yeah, that's my thirteen week scan. It was about three inches long then."

"How big is it now?" I couldn't stop staring at the picture in front of me, although for some reason it had gone a bit blurry. The cold outside must have made my eyes water... that or the fact that I was seeing my child for the first time. On balance, it was probably the latter.