What's Next?

Dog Days

When Rory woke from an awful night of tossing and turning, she stumbled to the bathroom bathroom and washed her face. The last week she hadn't been feeling too well and was under a lot of stress.

"Rory, you okay?" Jess got up to check on her after noticing she'd been in the bathroom for a little while. "Babe?" He saw her sitting on the top of the toilet seat with her knees to her chest.

"I don't feel well." She whispered.

Jess sat on the side of the bathtub and grabbed Rory's shaking hand. "What hurts?"

"My stomach, and my head. I don't feel good, Jess." Rory placed her unoccupied hand on her stomach.

"Do you think you have the flu?" Jess asked. There was a twinge at the very back of his mind that maybe there was a different reason for her sickness.

"I don't have a fever." She said, looking down. "What if I'm..." She stopped her sentence. "Jess what if..."

"You're pregnant?" Jess finished. "If you're pregnant. Well, Rory I would be the happiest man alive." Jess said with completely sincerity.

"But it's not the time at all. We have twin infants and a two year old." Rory laughed out of spite of the situation. "It can't be that, I'm on the pill and we use protection."

Jess saw her deeply concerned eyes and stood up. "We'd make it work." He kissed her forehead lightly. "We always do."

*****

"Ms. Mariano?" The young receptionist at the desk called.

Rory went up and dropped off the clipboard. She followed a nurse into the waiting room where they took all of her vitals.

"What's the reason you came in today?" The doctor asked.

"I've been feeling kind of lousy lately. My stomach has been hurting and I've been really nauseous."

The doctor asked the first, obvious question. "Are you using any protection?"

Rory felt her hands start to get warm and her body tensed. "Um, yes. I'm on the pill."

"Okay, have you taken a test?"

"Not yet actually, I haven't gotten around to it I guess."

"Okay well, we're going to take some tests to finalize it." The doctor administered the test and now they just waited for the results.

*****

On the drive home, Rory was apprehensive. She got the news from the doctor and all there was left was to tell Jess. She parked the car and got out. Upon entering the house, Haeven ran up to her.

"Mommy!" Haeven's hair was up in curls that Rory had fixed and they bounced as she ran.

"Hey there, baby." Rory picked up the perky toddler.

"How was it?" Jess asked. Rory could tell that he was growing anxious.

"It was fine. I'm...I'm not pregnant." As she said it, she realized how badly she actually had wanted it. Sure, she'd just said that it would be so much responsibility and the timing wasn't perfect but at this point it didn't matter. As her eyes started welling up, Jess took Haeven and got her distracted with some toys.