Tale as Old as Time

Chapter 1

"There they are. That's your little jelly bean. Can you see it's little heart beat?"

Chris and I had been back in Boston all of three days. Our honeymoon in Australia had ended. We were husband and wife. Expecting our first child even. And here we were. Staying with Chris' mum because we didn't have any furniture in our new place yet. Still completely jet lagged. Both of us between jobs. Having the very first ultrasound to see our baby.

It had been a pretty interesting ride to get to this very point. Chris and I had first met just over three years ago. We were in a book shop and he bought me a book. He had also lied to me about who he was.

Well, not exactly. He had said he was an actor and he'd told me his name. I had just not recognised him and thought by actor he'd meant barista who did community theatre. Also porn. For some reason I really thought that he might be porn.

He was not. Unless you call running around in a blue unitard porn. I kind of do. That shit is hot. Chris was an honest to god actor, who starred in movies. After we'd started going out he got offered the role of Captain America in the new Disney/Marvel film franchise. We have been navigating our relationship in the public eye ever since.

It hasn't always been easy. I'm not a celebrity. I'm a scientist from Australia that studies predators. I don't really get celebrity culture at all, except that I quite like nerdy things and I fangirl hard when I meet someone from the world of my nerdy interests.

Chris squeezed my hand. His legs bounced restlessly as he looked at the monitor at the weird little shape that moved on the screen. "That's our baby, Emily." He said, the nervous energy coming out in word form. "We made that."

The ultrasound technician did some measurements while Chris leaned over and kissed my forehead.

"It looks like you're about 10 weeks. You should have come in for your first appointment a couple of weeks ago." She said.

I groaned. "I know. I'm an idiot that doesn't know their own body well enough."

"Not to worry. Jelly bean looks healthy enough." She pushed a button on the machine and this squish squish noise filled the room. "That's their heartbeat."

Chris squealed his hand squeezing mine.

The technician laughed. "I'm guessing daddy is going to want a photo of this." She hit another button and there was a whirring sound from the machine.

"I think daddy might want to take the ultrasound machine home with him." I laughed.

The technician tore of the little strip of photos and handed them to Chris. He stared at them with a smile on his face. I nudged him. "Hey nerd, live streaming from my uterus right now."

He looked up and poked his tongue out at me.

The technician did some more measurements moving the wand around to different sides to get all the possible angles. I started to squirm uncomfortably.

"Okay. I think we're all done. You can go pee now if you need to." She said.

"Oh thank Christ." I yelped scrambling to my feet. I think she may have had more to say, but I didn't stop to listen. I just dashed to the bathroom desperate to empty my extremely full bladder that had just been pushed down on by the ultrasound wand for far too long.

When I came back Chris was alone. He burst out laughing.

"She gave me these so you can clean up and said she'd send the results to the OBGyn." He said, handing me a wad of tissue.